Obafemi Martins

[Dave]

If we hadn't got him, people would be complaining like fook

 

I disagree. People were pleasantly surprised by his arrival, especially for £5m, but I think many people can still see the gaping holes that have existed in our backline for years; if we'd spent £5m addressing that I think most would be much more satisfied right about now.

 

If Martins is a success, then he and Duff will do for me. The main thing is getting your signings right. Building a team takes time, it also therefore means we can address the defence next time.

 

 

 

Heard that for years now, most specifically when Shepherd said we'd be pleased with the replacement for Woodgate...

[NE5]

Did we need Damian Duff?

 

In my opinion, yes.

 

Why do you think we don't ? We needed forward players, seriously badly. The deal was too good to turn down. If we hadn't signed him, in my opinion the same people who do nowt other than whinge on and criticise the club whatever they do, would be whinging on that we didn't.

 

..... and I didn't see many people at the time criticising it .... very odd don't you think. U-turn syndrome ? Or unable to stay true to your convictions ?

 

 

 

A shit-load of people questioned it when we already had N'Zogbia, including me. It turned out to be a third of our budget on a player we didn't need, and yet again nothing at all went on our woeful defence. He's a great player, but that's irrelevent - it would be like spending £5m on Buffon. Great deal, but pretty pointless when other areas need more work.

 

I don't agree, Solano is hurt so he played on the right and will do again. Duff, Zoggy and Solano playing for 2 wide positions looks sound to me, with Duff being versatile.

 

If we hadn't got him, people would be complaining like fook, and I am glad we have him rather than Malbrangue for instance, and plenty of people wanted him so what is the difference ?

 

 

 

Milner?

 

I'm not sure he's good enough mate. I would give him more time, but I was hoping the club could have got rid of Luque, then spent that money on a defender to be honest, that is what I would be looking to do.

 

 

[Dave]

I was hoping the club could have got rid of Luque, then spent that money on a defender to be honest, that is what I would be looking to do.

 

Certainly agree there. For whatever reason it's not worked out - we should have got the best we could and moved on.

[NE5]

If we hadn't got him, people would be complaining like fook

 

I disagree. People were pleasantly surprised by his arrival, especially for £5m, but I think many people can still see the gaping holes that have existed in our backline for years; if we'd spent £5m addressing that I think most would be much more satisfied right about now.

 

If Martins is a success, then he and Duff will do for me. The main thing is getting your signings right. Building a team takes time, it also therefore means we can address the defence next time.

 

 

 

Heard that for years now, most specifically when Shepherd said we'd be pleased with the replacement for Woodgate...

 

eeerrrr......Souness chose Boumsong, not Shepherd. He said he was a top player. And many, many people on this board thought so too .....

 

You should try to grasp the concept that the manager chooses his players .....

[johnnypd]

i don't think we got duff at the expense of signing defenders. i think we were more than capable of signing duff as well as going out and buying a couple of defensive players. we put deadline day bids in for Huth (in excess of £6m), Viduka (£5m) and Neill (£2m?). that's a minimum £13m outlay and we only hoped to sell milner for £4m, so we probably have 8 or 9 million left over. the failure is not so much spending our last reserves of money on Duff, but on leaving it to the last minute to target defenders ,and then failing to secure any of them.

 

on the other hand, if hypothetically the £5m spent on Duff turned out to be the last money we had, could anyone honestly say it was well spent strengthening the LW position rather than spending it on the plenty of good value defenders available?

[Dave]

Duff was a luxury we didn't necessarily need. We've desperately needed competent defenders for a good while.

[Baggio]

If Bernard is the player he was then that is a good addition, agreed ?

 

Agreed, although he's done nothing since he's left to suggest he'll ever become that player again.

 

You have to accept money is limited, and the simple fact is Roeder chose to address the forwards, which was desperately short.

 

I accept money is limited, but money was available as we made moves for Viduka, Neill and Huth, If we were serious about signing any of these players then we should have been in for them weeks before the deadline closed.

 

As for Duff, he was a player we needed as apart from Zoggy we had nobody to play down the left.

 

[johnnypd]

Did we need Damian Duff?

 

In my opinion, yes.

 

Why do you think we don't ? We needed forward players, seriously badly. The deal was too good to turn down. If we hadn't signed him, in my opinion the same people who do nowt other than whinge on and criticise the club whatever they do, would be whinging on that we didn't.

 

..... and I didn't see many people at the time criticising it .... very odd don't you think. U-turn syndrome ? Or unable to stay true to your convictions ?

 

 

 

A shit-load of people questioned it when we already had N'Zogbia, including me. It turned out to be a third of our budget on a player we didn't need, and yet again nothing at all went on our woeful defence. He's a great player, but that's irrelevent - it would be like spending £5m on Buffon. Great deal, but pretty pointless when other areas need more work.

 

I don't agree, Solano is hurt so he played on the right and will do again. Duff, Zoggy and Solano playing for 2 wide positions looks sound to me, with Duff being versatile.

 

If we hadn't got him, people would be complaining like fook, and I am glad we have him rather than Malbrangue for instance, and plenty of people wanted him so what is the difference ?

 

 

 

Milner?

 

I'm not sure he's good enough mate. I would give him more time, but I was hoping the club could have got rid of Luque, then spent that money on a defender to be honest, that is what I would be looking to do.

 

 

 

i'm not sure either, but i think he would be good enough to cover the wings for this season, and wait until next year for Solano's replacement. he's good enough so that we didn't have to buy a winger this season. not that i am against the Duff signing, i was hoping we'd bring in competition for N'Zogbia personally.

[Dave]

I'm not against Duff's signing on the face of it, but considering that it was a third of what we ended up spending (on two players) his fee really should have gone on the defence IMO.

[Guest Andrew Flintoff]

If Duff had signed for anyone else for £5m, everyone would rightly be up in arms, even if we'd strengthened the defence.

[Baggio]

Did we need Damian Duff?

 

In my opinion, yes.

 

Why do you think we don't ? We needed forward players, seriously badly. The deal was too good to turn down. If we hadn't signed him, in my opinion the same people who do nowt other than whinge on and criticise the club whatever they do, would be whinging on that we didn't.

 

..... and I didn't see many people at the time criticising it .... very odd don't you think. U-turn syndrome ? Or unable to stay true to your convictions ?

 

 

 

A shit-load of people questioned it when we already had N'Zogbia, including me. It turned out to be a third of our budget on a player we didn't need, and yet again nothing at all went on our woeful defence. He's a great player, but that's irrelevent - it would be like spending £5m on Buffon. Great deal, but pretty pointless when other areas need more work.

 

I don't agree, Solano is hurt so he played on the right and will do again. Duff, Zoggy and Solano playing for 2 wide positions looks sound to me, with Duff being versatile.

 

If we hadn't got him, people would be complaining like fook, and I am glad we have him rather than Malbrangue for instance, and plenty of people wanted him so what is the difference ?

 

 

 

Milner?

 

I'm not sure he's good enough mate. I would give him more time, but I was hoping the club could have got rid of Luque, then spent that money on a defender to be honest, that is what I would be looking to do.

 

 

 

i'm not sure either, but i think he would be good enough to cover the wings for this season, and wait until next year for Solano's replacement. he's good enough so that we didn't have to buy a winger this season. not that i am against the Duff signing, i was hoping we'd bring in competition for N'Zogbia personally.

We also have to take into account that Dyer should be back soon, before anyone suggests we should write him off we can't just forget about someone who is on wages like his, I know he doesn't have many fans on here but if Dyer does get fit he'll walk back into the team down the right, making Milner 3rd choice.

 

I have no problem with Milner leaving if the money is used to strengthen our backline.

[johnnypd]

i agree baggio. surely milner is already 3rd choice on the right, behind duff and solano. dyer would push him back to 4th. either way, i think he is expendable considering how much we need to strengthen elsewhere.

[Keefaz]

I don't see why people are complaining about the Duff signing. He's a very good player at a very good price. And we didn't sign him at the expense of a defender, Roeder himself was convinced--I'm sure--that Huth or Woodgate, or both, was in the bag.

[James]

If Duff had signed for anyone else for £5m, everyone would rightly be up in arms, even if we'd strengthened the defence.

 

I'm not so sure - we would be dissapointed at first, but if we had instead invested well in the defence by the close of the transfer window, we would have probably regarded Duff as a luxury we couldn't afford and wouldn't really need.

[Wullie]

We're going into Premiership game number 4 with Peter Ramage as one of our starting centre backs and God-only-knows at left back. Only 34 to go.

 

I don't know what planet you would have to be on to think signing Duff was a good decision based on the financial situation.

[Guest BooBoo]

Christ almighty,  Ramage v Tevez.

 

:wullie:

[Keefaz]

We're going into Premiership game number 4 with Peter Ramage as one of our starting centre backs and God-only-knows at left back. Only 34 to go.

 

I don't know what planet you would have to be on to think signing Duff was a good decision based on the financial situation.

 

But you're assuming the reason we're fucked in terms of personnel is BECAUSE we signed Duff, not because our chairman is a fuckwit.

[Delima]

We should have tried to sign Buffon for 5 million pounds.

 

He is quality and he will provide competition for both Shay Given and Steve Harper.

 

This will please NE5 no end, after all he is an Italian international and world cup winner. Signing him will prove the ambition of the club and the loving care of Freddie Shepherd.

 

More importantly, Buffon at 5 millions transfer fee and 5 millions signing on fee would be too tempting to turn down.

[Dave]

[Wullie]

We're going into Premiership game number 4 with Peter Ramage as one of our starting centre backs and God-only-knows at left back. Only 34 to go.

 

I don't know what planet you would have to be on to think signing Duff was a good decision based on the financial situation.

 

But you're assuming the reason we're fucked in terms of personnel is BECAUSE we signed Duff, not because our chairman is a fuckwit.

 

It goes as much towards the manager as the chairman. Roeder chose to spend £5m that could and should have been spent on defenders and would have made the squad vastly stronger.

 

We're already picking up injuries, and playing players that are not and will never be good enough. One more injury to a defender - likely given the number of games we'll play - and we are past even the bare bones. It's feasible we could be sifting through the Academy kids - in September or October ffs.

 

But at least we've got even more cover on the wings. I'm so pissed off with the pair of useless twats.

[Keefaz]

Yet again, you're assuming that because we spent on Duff we didn't have money for defenders. Sounds like bollocks, imo, whe you consider the reports that we'd put in a hefty bid for Huth.

[James]

If he comes good, stand by for numerous posts saying how we wasted our transfer kitty in the summer, because of course we should have bought defenders and played the season with Ameobi and Luque up front 

 

You have again missed the point - the fact that we could have four or five defenders (All of them, not one of them) for less than the £5m Aston Villa were prepared to pay for Milner.

 

1) eeerrrr......and please tell me how much quality you think we could get for 5m quid ?

 

2)Would you then complain about short term buys ?

 

3)Would you then complain about not addressing the lack of forwards ?

 

4) I have read many of your posts mate, you are also one of those who think the club can afford to buy half a team every summer, with a shit board of course ........ 

 

 

 

I have numbered your points in the quoted post, and here are my resultant responses:

 

1) £5m could have bought us all of Trabelsi, Woodgate, Campbell, Sorin, Scaloni, Ooijer, Quinton Fortune, Meite and Henchoz. Obviously, we wouldn't go for all of these players, but all would improve the squad and the first team considerably.

 

2) I have never complained about short term buys - there is nothing wrong with them if plans are underway to resolve positional issues in the long term.

 

3) I feel that due to our lack of funds and transfer activity, it was impossible for the board to provide funds for the other decent striker Roeder wanted. It is a consequence of Souness wasting money last summer. I have no gripes at the current regime failing to get this other striker.

 

4) I dont ever remember saying that we can afford half a team every season. Can you provide any evidence of this?

[Nobody]

So... Martins is starting to look like a quality player, no?

[James]

So... Martins is starting to look like a quality player, no?

 

He is, but he is not going to be what many fans are hoping for/expecting, and therefore many will be dissappointed.

[Nobody]

So... Martins is starting to look like a quality player, no?

 

He is, but he is not going to be what many fans are hoping for/expecting, and therefore many will be dissappointed.

I was just trying to get this thread back to topic His name hadn't been mentioned for one and a half pages...