triggs

I honestly do not know what manner of f***ing rubbish you are talking now. The guy has toiled for his cause under a litany of different managers and made 30+ appearances in all but one season (including the previous one). He has never been a bit-part player, and at worst was someone who was used situationally and served his purpose extremely well. Nigerians have some festishistic vision of him being this world beating #10 because of one tournament they watched in 2005, but in reality he is a lumbering giant who has leveraged his physical strength, remarkable composure, and intelligent understanding of the game into a brilliant career at the highest level. In addition to winning everything there is possible to win as a Premiership footballer, he has served his country manfully over the course of twelve years, despite still being in his twenties. When Nigeria has asked him to play #10, he did it. When Naija have asked to sit back he has done this too. When NFF stranded his team in Atlanta, he paid bills and stood up for his teammates. But people are never satisfied. For Mikel the man, I have no problem with this move. He is happy with a full trophy case, a sexually attractive Russian wife, and two young children. As someone that supports Nigerian football, it would be a shame to see our best player, the leader of a young national team (someone that the likes of Iheanacho and Iwobi look up to and admire), and a brilliant ambassador for our football willfully marginalise himself. On that front, I can only hope these are false reports. http://i.imgur.com/b7pOX75.jpg

He clearly wants to move up, not down

So Dembele, Hogan and Defoe then

Jose Fonte wants to leave Southampton apparently

Comfortably more organised than Hull who we failed to beat in the league cup? Aye, Hull were organised like. We controlled the game but, like Blackburn, they limited our chances well. we were literally 1 Sels mistake away from winning that match, ffs. So Hull weren't organised and didn't limit our chances? They defended well the whole game, we were probably the better side and the conditions helped them I thought, but I don't think we looked comfortably more organised than them. I would say we matched them for organisation, except after we scored. Naivety cost us, but we did ourselves proud. As a championship team going out in the quarter finals to a Prem club, we shouldn't be disappointed in that performance. The key thing is Rafa didn't do a dance on the touchline when we scored. He knows. We should be beating Hull IMO. They finished 4th in the Championship last season, didn't improve their team and sold one of their best players to us

You don't really change centre half partnerships if they're playing well and winning games. You also don't drop strikers that score more often than not in games. Colback only plays because our options at centre mid are dire They built a decent partnership at the end of last season before any new CBs came in. Started together this season,then Mbemba got exiled. Yes, because Mbemba had a few bad games and Clark came in and has hardly put a foot wrong

You don't really change centre half partnerships if they're playing well and winning games. You also don't drop strikers that score more often than not in games. Colback only plays because our options at centre mid are dire

His first game for us was at right back off the bench IIRC

Like a lot of Irish players Brady does seem to play better for us than at club level though

Thought Mbemba would have better options than going back to Anderlecht

Love Robbie Brady. Would probably play him left back if we bought him because as Shak said he isn't that quick. Could also do a job in centre mid

Comfortably more organised than Hull who we failed to beat in the league cup?

You heard his name a lot but no one really went for him for a while. At the time Spurs bought him it was only us that was mentioned as competition too. Liverpool wanted him badly as well

Just as Alonso is way better than Shelvey

If we were to go two up top for this I'd have Perez with Mitrovic up there

That pace up top

Nope, they had the 4th best team in the Championship last year and bought nobody decent while selling one of their best players to us. They've been unlucky lately as well

I never thought Gosling was that bad, it was just the fact he was in the team ahead of HBA that was annoying

Think that's a bit unfair. They have a championship team and have been unlucky in lots of games recently from what I've seen

What's the point in this like? Its clear what he means, and it makes sense

Riviere was well suited to the league in terms of physicality, unfortunately he was an absolutely awful footballer

He was pretty shit last season in the PL as well

Don't know where they'd fit in to Rafa's system tbh

Never heard of him