épieur

He had no right to score that goal. No right.

Lerner has been a very good owner for them, proof that not all yanks are bad. Think it was really petulant of O'Neill to resign the second he couldn't have it his own way. Lerner had been throwing piles of money his way for years and he wasted it on above average British talent and never coming close to challenging the top 4.

Downing would improve the team, but not enough imo. He's the sort of player that'd be a good signing if we already had two quiality players on the wings and were looking for a top grade squad player to compete with them.

that's a really impressive interview for a 17-year-old. seems like a bright lad.

I am not having that. Two weeks ago, it was all Hodgson's fault and now that people are entertaining the thought that maybe Kenny won't be that much better, the players were s*** all along. We're a top half side easily. Easily for any manager who is bringing something to this team instead of destroying it from the inside like Roy. And Rafa had Mascherano, Aquilani, Insua where we now have Meireless Poulsen and PFK. Finishing 7th wasn't good enough that season. We're facing different prospects because we're a worse team on paper than were last season and a worse team due to our confidence as a top 4 team having been all but eradicated. If Kenny can get this team thinking like winners and shore up the defence we will still cruise to 6th this season. The competition for that position are poor enough to give us an easy go at that if we can play like a top 6 team.

Messi is unreal. Even without the goals he is basically a Deluxe version of Iniesta. And Iniesta is frigging awesome. He then adds 40+ goals a season to his overall terrific play.

I make it Finnan -> Never replaced (now, after a fair while with no backup rb, Kelly seems to be entering the picture) Sissoko -> Spearing Alonso -> Aquilani -> Meireless Mascherano -> Poulsen Arbeloa -> Johnson Crouch -> Keane -> N'gog Big Finn -> Big Greek Benayoun -> Cole Riera -> Jovanovic Riise -> Dossena -> Insua -> PFK And in the meantime players like Carragher, Skretl, Babel, Kuyt have all declined, Torres having a bugger of a season and Agger perpetually injured. There is not a single position we have effectively strengthened in. Johnson definitely ought to have and he could still do it, but that's it. In fairness to the greek, Sami leaving as our 4th choice centreback really shouldn't be a big deal and he can well be proud of the job he has done for us as 4th choice, but it looks like a loss due to the abject performances (or absence) of the three centrebacks ahead of him. The only positive developments we've seen in all that time has been Lucas' improvement (the fact that he has leapfrogged into our head and shoudlers best central midfielder says it all), the fact that pepe, stevie and nando haven't fecked off and Reina continuing to cement his position as the best keeper in the land. Maybe N'gog and Kelly taking their chances more are improvements too, but as improvements to the team go they are too periphery to dwell on really, without wanting to go all Hodgsonesque on everyone here.

I just checked into Ryan's twitter, I love the fact that it's simply left with him in TwitterJail. Brilliant stuff from a true internet hero.

Saying Skretl is to Vidic what Scharzenegger is to DeVito has to be one of the most damning assesments I've seen of a player.

no champions league, currently sitting in the bottom half of the table, only just coming out of an 18 comedy circus on and off the pitch. I can see why he'd be more keen to sign for someone else who are in the CL.

He was poor in Rafa's last season as well. He never recovered from that long injury spell he had a while back. Hasn't been the same player since. He can't get a two-year free pass and expect that he will now rediscover his form somehow. Think time has run out for him here. Maybe with a fresh start in another league he might start picking up again.

I really do hope that Commoli has given serious thought to central midfield and has some targets lined up that he feel could be potentially world class midfielders. If those targets, for whatever reason, aren't available, or he isn't yet satisfied that he has identified the proper one(s) yet, I'd be happy enough with Van Bommel on the cheap. Would improve our midfield for the rest of the season, and would strengthen the squad when we bring in someone better in the summer.

Apparently Pepe wants out at Real. If we're in the mood for blowing loads of cash, he'd be ideal. Terrific defender.

he been that a fair few times as well. I don't think he is a great concern with Carragher as 3rd choice to step in. But we desperately need a new 1st choice centreback.

Yup. One really good centreback one really good midfielder one really gode wide player a good striker. Are our main priorities right now that have to be addressed in this and the next window and will require big money and a sharp eye for the right players to fix. Then we can look at a leftback, another centreback and probably another midfielder and wide player as well once that's taken care of.

Exactly.

That's Leonardo's 4th win in the four games he has managed since taking over. Quite a startling turnaround from Rafa's results. Inter badly need someone to share the load from Eto'o. He has scored 23 this season. The next, Stankovic, only has 6.

Spearing is getting games for now, so by all means let's keep him. Let's look to bring in players that are actually better and when talk of how 'good local lads like Spearing can't get a game because of these foreign imports' has gone on long enough, we can then callously move him on to a lesser club.

Actually Pirlo, strangely enough, was the deeper lying player. Gattuso played more to the right of him, but was expected to clean up for Pirlo whenever he went forward. It was a really strange formation. Ancelotti has been playing some strange formations with Chelsea too, but credit to him he makes them work*. *Let's not dwell on the past 4 months though.

as we are bound to do. Alonso was the only one good enough to lift the team in his absence.

signing those two would be a terrific statement of intent. Hope it doesn't mean our needs in central midfield and defence will be glossed over though. These are more pressing.

That's because they already have a set of players good enough to take them to the top of the table. We don't. We really can't compare ourselves to these teams in many ways these days.

should never have been sold.

I'd kill for a Hamann in our current midfield. Edit: Maybe not kill. But I'd certainly slap someone really hard it that would help.

Mascherano is a midget and hard as nails. Besides, if we can play Spearing there, we can play anyone.