ponsaelius

nobody questions the talent. it's the application and desire that have folk wondering. He hasn't even been that bad though. 12 goals and 5 assists in 24 starts last season. Not exactly horrific, plus he contributes more than just stats in terms of bringing other players into play. Definitely not been worth £30 million but he hasn't exactly been terrible.

If there's one Man U player I'd actually like to see do well it's Berbatov. Gets FAR too much stick for a player as talented as him.

Dave, I know blind optimism can be irritating. But you must surely be THE most pessimistic person on this entire board Haha, not really. Like you I'm just expecting nothing. I've been the same with NUFC since I can remember. Hope for the best, expect the worst. I always expect the worst deep down, yet whenever stories like this happen I always let the lingering hope creep in. Modric, Turan etc had me really excited Fuck this club.

Dave, I know blind optimism can be irritating. But you must surely be THE most pessimistic person on this entire board

God I fucking hate myself for getting my hopes up.

Not back to football until January 2011 says agent. Write off for the whole season then Sweeping conclusion. Why?

Pretty ambiguous.

I prefer the total mindfuck of Google translator It leaves a mystique of after reading it you're not only no further forward in understanding, you're actually more confused than beforehand.

What about the 12 million you spent on Yakuba, 6 million on Baines, 4 million on Jagielka and 6 million on Arteta? I know Moyes does a reasonable job budget wise but you have conveniently forgotten abpout some of your other major acquisitions here. I haven't forgotten any signings. As I said, his net spend works out at £4m per season over his entire reign. Oh, and Arteta was £3m iirc not £6m. Man, that's such a bargain.

That is really weird, I'm actually listening to that EXACT point in the podcast when I read your post.

I think a lot of what happened in 08-09 can be thrown out of the window tbh. That team was a shipwreck from the moment Keegan went, everything that happened after it was under pretty shitty circumstances - Jonas' innefectiveness was just a miniscule part of why we went down. Jonas has had 2 seasons to settle in English football now, I think if we're playing a team that are likely to dominate the game then Jonas' workrate and ability to carry the ball (even if it's blind running) will help to ease pressure rather than having 2 impact wide players playing. It was the original reason why he was included for Argentina, to do the running and dog work for the rest of the team. That and the fact Maradona is a basketcase. I think overall Jonas while being often a blunt weapon attacking wise is one of our most important players, we struggled to make up for his absence when he didn't play last season. I definitely wouldn't want to drop him.

Routledge has been our best player since we signed him. He's twice as effective as Jonas in english football. I think Jonas will be more useful against bigger teams, we could do with his workrate and stamina.

The Man U and Everton link is churned up from an old article about 2 months back.

Pretty much exactly what I guessed. The fact that that if we got him and some how managed to utilise his talent, we'd have a very good player on our hands. It's the kind of transfer that like you say is worth the risk, we don't have the cash to get a ready made star - so why not take a punt on resurrecting a players' career? If worst comes to worst he's young enough to be moved on with little loss. Loan with future fee agreed, would be the perfect scenario really.

He would improve us drastically though, right? You watch him regularly, I assume.

1/∞ Not bad.

It's nowt to do with where they're born man. They're both shite, just Best is proven to be even more shite. Xisco atleast has past 'achievements' going for him, while Best has absolutely nothing except being poor even in the Championship. If it was possible I'd happily see them both replaced tomorrow morning, but if push came to shove I'd have more faith in Xisco doing anything in the Premier League than Best will.

Best hasn't even looked like scoring man You know the season before we signed him he scored 2 goals in 32 games, in the Championship! It's an abomination that we've signed this mug and we're stuck with him for 3 years. It's depressing that we're arguing over the virtues of these two very poor players btw.

Nothing else to debate, so this bollocks will do for now.

I'm sorry but it's another thing that instantly puts him ahead of Best, a tap-in in the Premier League is better than no goals in the Championship.

From the ridiculous Broken English I read on that Marseille forum it seems he's being moved on this time not because of his attitude. From what I could gather Deschamps is a manager who prefers organised, disciplined teams and had no room for raw talent like Ben Arfa. They said he showed flashes of sheer brilliance but lacked consistency to be in a CL side, most seemed pretty gutted to be letting him go on the cheap though - and that they're worried he'll go elsewhere and explode. The way I see it (and again, the whole story is probably nonsense anyway, but in the offchance there is some truth) if there is anyway we can get a player like him for such a reasonable price, who would instantly improve our side, it's the kind of Ashley 'oppurtunity' signing where we could resurect his career.

I still think as soon as we start losing the team spirit will disappear completely, winning games is what kept it going last season. Getting in sufficient caliber of player is far more important, every club probably has some right c***s in amongst the squad. I'd hasten to bet that some of ours aren't exactly great to get along with behind closed doors. I think the fact that he's a trouble maker is blown out of proportion aswell, he's probably no worse than what we've got. you can say that about every team in the world tho Precisely my point.

From the very limited viewing of both players Xisco is better than Best. Best has never been rated, he's never even had a good season at Championship level. I was speaking to friend of the family who's worked as a scout on and off, he says he saw Best play when he was 17, when he was 20, and last season for us and that every time he's never looked like having an ounce of quality about him. We signed a poor player who'd had a decent purple patch tbh. Atleast with Xisco he has some kind of pedigree, U21 Spanish international, played and scored at a similar level to Best prolifically. Aswell as a some kind of goalscoring history in La Liga for Depor. Plus, atleast he's scored a frikin goal for us.