Hughesy

See - potential!!!

Said it in the Ben Arfa thread - but I'm convinced there's potential in a song about Ben Arfa to the tune of Copacabana.

Unforgiveably camp though it would be... I'm sure there's potential for a song for Ben Arfa to the tune of Copacabana. I'll work on the lyrics... ;-)

Loving the assumptions you make.. 1) There would have been a fans' revolt if anyone else had been appointed; 2) Ashley put the club up for sale because he couldn't cope with another hypothetical fans' revolt (?!?!?!) That's just comical reasoning.

No. Just no.

Bar mentioning who exactly he spoke to, it's pretty clear...

Agreed - Speed was so underrated when he was playing for us, it was unbelievable. No way could his passing be regarded as atrocious.

Regardless my real point was to state that he clearly isn't crap now and was never regarded as being crap in Spain or Argentina. So to label him as such is ridiculous.

Well - I just told you where I read he was highly rated?! I am not really sure how me saying people in Spain thought he was highly rated can be classed as tosh yet Ronaldo giving a stereotypical OTT personal opinion about Jonas is ok??

Fair enough - that is completely contrary to everything I remember reading about him before there was any speculation about him coming here. Sources I remember commenting on him were Sid Lowe (Spanish correspondent for World Soccer) and Guillem Balague (admittedly his opinion can't really be trusted). I seem to remember Tim Vickery talking about him fairly favourably as well.

You want me to find example of people saying 'Jonas was highly rated'? It was pretty well known that Jonas, Arango and Guiza formed a pretty amazing trio for Mallorca. I'm not going to do a series of web trawls for an exact quote ffs.

Hmmm - despite the fact that he was very highly rated in Spain, you know better?

Although this may not come as much of surprise to anyone, I can confirm that having seen Nolan walk off the pitch on Saturday without a shirt on, he is indeed fat. There I was thinking that the bulges in his shirt were muscles...

If anyone thinks that Jonas is one of the weak links in this team, they need their head seeing to.

Was just about to say that - Jonas' main problem is his balance. He never have a stable base from which to make a pass and a cross. Which is obviously a technical flaw, yet his height and ungainly nature is what makes him so hard to be tackled.

Will buy it - would certainly believe the word of Cassidy over Shepherd. Having said that I'd believe the word of pretty much anyone over Shepherd.

Not true really - they've got some decent enough players to do better. not saying they should be qualifying for a major tournament, but they should be closer than they have been.

Shockingly bad management of the club to leave it this late to be honest. At the very latest they should have discussed Taylor's contract at the end of the season, made an offer and set Taylor a deadline of around mid July to either accept it or reject it. Not just before the transfer window shuts.

Really? He was good enough for England a few months ago. He's not good enough to play in a central role behind the strikers.

SWP would be awful behind the strikers.

Agreed - really don't get the criticism he gets on here sometimes.

Clearly. It was just a personal joke that I posted to amuse myself. Apologies to all if anyone took it seriously. Blame it on Pilko. Fucking hilarious gag that one.

Just to add - yes, Acuna was massively underrated. But not better than Speed.

Always thought Roberts had the attributes to be a good striker. Remember seeing him play at SJP a few years back and thought he looked good, but never seemed to ever do that well in the Premier League.

Was going to say - if he hadn't wasted so much money on average players, he'd have been able to keep Milner and Young. Well - maybe only Young, but the point stands that he spends huge sums on crap players.