Punk77

He's good enough, but City opted to go with a much younger keeper who had a brilliant spell at Bham. And that's sensible imo. And remember that Cech and Reina were more protected by heir defense than what Given was in NUFC. Having Terry and Essien to protect your goal is a bit better than O'Brien and Bramble.

Saves me typing time, Castle, Burn, Bham etc.. Are you like Dave annoyed by those abbreviations? It saves you three f***ing letters ffs Remember there was a moron at a Norwegian NUFC-forum that used to call us Castle. Anoying as hell tbh I'm afraid he's followed you to here... :celb: I'll stop pissing you off, and write NUFC instead. Didn't know you felt so hard about it. But please forgive me if I slip up sometimes. Old habits are hard to break. Anyways, Sturridge is exactly the kind of player we should try to snap up from the "larger" clubs...

You nailed me there, big time. Kaizero: I would still save time, regardless. But I could train more on punching NUFC instead, two letters less and more time saved...

3.333 seconds, meaning it is not worth it. I meant thousandS, got to save some serious time..

Didn't know that you felt so strong about it.. I've always used Castle when typing, for convenience sake.. What happens when we play Castleford at Tynecastle? Then I'm fucked! Saves me typing time, Castle, Burn, Bham etc.. Are you like Dave annoyed by those abbreviations? It saves you three f***ing letters ffs Three letters is three letters...Multiply it with thousand, and you can imagine all the time I save...

Didn't know that you felt so strong about it.. I've always used Castle when typing, for convenience sake..

Saves me typing time, Castle, Burn, Bham etc.. Are you like Dave annoyed by those abbreviations?

That could happen. If you disregard Chelsea, Liverpool has met only weak opponents, which may explain their resurrection. They got a really tough finish to the season.

Totally disagree with this. Those players are living on heavy salaries. It is also likely that they see Castle as a step down in their career. Thus they're probably not motivated enough. However, I would like us to buy some of their talents like Van Aanholt. They will se castle as a step up.And they're not used anyways because that will increase those club's probability of loosing valuable points in the race for a CL-spot

We need to attackers yes. Against the weaker but physical teams like Burn and Stoke we should play 4-4-2 with one fast and one big attacker that stretch their defense. Against stronger teams we should go with 4-5-1 with HBA behind a strong, fast and a possession able attacker

In other words, he's fine as long now, but he hasn't kicked ball yet. If his return is delayed, then we all know what happened. And he will KO for the rest of the season.

I really hope he gets another assist against Bolton. That will give him the boost he needs to continue his improvement. Then he will be an invaluable player for us: defensively outstanding, works hard, gets plenty of free kicks in good positions, is seldom injured(important!!), never booked and delivers good crossers. Now if that's not an outstanding lm, then what is?

Spot on! The sale hurts more since he's local. But that does not mean that he cannot be replaced. As long as Pardew picks up some hot prospects this summer, I think the mood in the group will be stronger than ever. Then we have depth in the squad, and is able to push for Europe.

Wrong, maybe nobody has worked with him on that part of the game. He may still learn how to cross. And if he does, he will be outstanding. It's the major factor he lacks. A wideman must be able to cross.

It's not sure that we need to upgrade LM. Pardew said they've worked with extra with Jonas to improve his crossing. That paid off against Bham. If he fixes that problem, we suddenly have a mental lm. He's in good crossing positions all the time, but that doesn't help since he ruins almost every opportunity.

I agree that you need a spine. And that's probably one of City's main problems. They become more obsessed with money than football. That spine does not need to be local however. A player can care about a club, regardless where you come from. Although one might say that when the player is local, the probability of his values being aligned with club values increases. Giggs and Scholes were good players, and they contributed to silverware. But who knows what would have happened if success failed to appear. It's likely that they would have left the club. As I said, it's easy to be loyal when you win one trophy each year. And everybody knows that Gerrard was on his way out of Liverpool, but that suddenly changed after CL-final victory in 2006. In other words, being local doesn't have to mean squat. It's only when the shit hits the fan that it's possible to find out who's loyal and who cares. What the club can do however, is to secure that most players that sign have good values and are interested in playing for the club. When you literally hurl money after players, it's likely that they will sign not because they want to play for the club, but because of the money involved. And this predicament is City experiencing now, and it was a problem for us earlier (Owen, Luque amongst others). Then it's much better to offer modest contracts now. Those who have ambitions will sign regardless, and if they blossom we can later renegotiate the contract. Tiote saw this as his big opportunity, and HBA maybe sees us as a stepping stone to reignite his career, which is also fine by me. Point is that both want to be here!

This! Since I'm a Norwegian, I'm probably a bit disqualified when it comes to to talking about the significance of a local hero. But here's my view anyway..Imo you can become a hero regardless of your belonging. What's really defines a hero in my opinion, is those good players who decide to be loyal to their club, even if the club hits rock bottom. Like Le God of Soton, and Shearer are such heroes. Of course, one might say that the reason why Shearer was loyal, was because he's from Newcastle. But that need not be true. One can be loyal regardless of affiliation. And for me that is the important thing. But what this club really needs, is not a local hero, but players who really want to play for the club, who are proud of wearing the black and white.Too often we bought players who couldn't care s*** about the club. Their goal was to complete the generous contract Fred had just given them. Also, we cannot undermine the importance of having good squad players too, like Smith and Kuqi. They're not good enough, but are 100% professional and will give everything if asked. That can be much more decisive in a difficult situation than having an Owen that doesn't give a damn. I was absolutely delighted to read about how proud Kuqi was when he signed for us. And for that reason alone I will be ecstatic if he scores. He gives 100% and cares!. Summing up: I admire those players who stay regardless, those players who care, those players like Smith and Nolan who -despite their limited capabilities on the pitch- do the extraordinary when the club is in trouble. Those are the players that I admire and I think it's very important that the club have. They can instill good values into the younger ones, and keep the hottest players firmly on the ground. In other words as long as we secure such a good mix, which we have now, we will be fine. And I embrace every player as long as they're proud to wear the shirt.

I think you're right! My apologies! But Reo is still a shit player

Exactly!

The man wasn't a bad player, he was actually quite good IIRC. I'd take him for cheap plus he's only 26. You got to be drinking! Each time I've seen him for VIlla or WH, he's been utter crap.

I still can't believe that we actually signed him. HBA in black and white is just as beautiful as Playboy's swimsuit calender.

The point is that the man won't come cheap. Too accept a wage that is in accordance to our wage structure, he will demand a sign on fee. Besides, the man is utter shit..Tiote with no arms and legs is a better player than Reo-Coker.

I care very much what we spend. The more you spend on one player, the less is the margins of error. We may think that we bought the right player, but still he may f*** up. He may be seriously injured etc. And that could leave the club in a s*** state. Spend less, and spend wisely and the error of margins increases. If we still make a mistake, the club will be able to take the hit. I want success too, but on on the expense of the club's long term health.

Agree. Quite simply we sold one of our best players and didn't get anyone, leaving us with an extremely average strike force. To the extent that our squad is significantly worse for the move we come off badly. I think it's very hard to make a plan for potential outcomes of a transfer deadline day. First of all: They didn't search for replacement, because they were not interested in selling Carroll. Second, neither MA or we could have predicted the amount of money we got for him. When they got this offer it changed all original plans. Due to our economical situation, it was unwise to say no. Third, just because we got no replacement, doesn't mean that the club didn't try! Carroll's sale proved how off the mark the january prices are. The big difference between now and before, is that the club is not willing to pay gold, only to receive s*** in return. MA and Pardew took a gamble, that could turn out to be hugely positive for this club. Also they probably thought that we have plenty of cm,am back soon, meaning we could switch to a 4-5-1 formation. And lastly, we still had to mange without Carroll regardless. He's probably weeks away from playing. Come summer, the prices will cool, meaning that we will get more for less, in contrary to the winter window. Then our money will come in real handy.

Fantastic news. But I seriously hope he's not used in that game. Henry could snap both his legs in half. That useless fuck!