Magic8Ball

care to elaborate on that?

the bbc are taking the down-posit as the actual price - also we we're only to pay 19m for keane ( as the bonus was written off by agreement) the 3m shortfall maybe recouped if spurs win something in the next 4 years. So the loss may not be a loss. What's clear is the payment terms for the last 3m significantly benefit Spurs.

we MIGHT get better press if they were

That's written by a 'boro fan? - It's clearly written by someone who's well educated and knowledgeable about football. Not only am I stunned at it's accuracy but I'm led to wonder, why aren't posts on this forum up to that level ?

you mean we have wingers in the youth team Actually I thought the cup winning youth team was pretty good, so if this is better, I'm well chuffed

what's wrong with Darby?

as no one saw the goal, did they REALLY score ??? FIX !

There's a thread here http://www.ynwa.tv/forum/index.php?s=&...t&p=2312011 does seem promising though, hope we sign him up now and complete the formalities in the summer

would make sense to sell him, but with Aurelio we need 3 LB's. Maybe there's someone else in the reserves/academy to be 3rd choice LB ... is there?

has useful attributes. pace and a good cross - has negative attributes cant defend and has a poor touch I would be inclined to keep him, if he can dribble a little bit ie can play at LM

absolutely, can we "fake" an injury for Torres too ?

could do with Barry now, are you listening Parry?

life it seems is not without a sense of humor, in this case a wry ironical one. I agree with the selling of Keane, but it's ironic that he'd be of use right now as that's his true position. The good news is that its 2 weeks at most and he'll be fit for the CL, the good news is Torres is still ok, ( I suspect he's nursing something). It's pompey boys, surely Babel and Ngog etc can score against them?

with the Keane money and the normal 25-30m that could be 45-50m without sales if we start a Cull it could be more -

nice idea - any idea of the goal ratio's of those 3 ?

so long as we win silverware too

Hope we don't wait till the summer ! we can sign him now, we just can't play him, so get him to sign a pre-contract and we're done. Also as we're going to be primarily a 4231 team we will need 3 new players. 2 wingers/attackers that actually score goals ! and 1 young dynamic attacking midfielder. this allows us to move from 4231 to 4132 -both cases gerrard and torres up front. The wingers/wide attackers are a must, and they must have a good strike rate and be better than we currently have - finding them will be hard, but they're going to be relatively unknown as we can't afford established talent in those positions

we need the "wide" players to be goals scorer and goal creators - don't care if they cut in. It's a must they're capable of 15 goals a season each

good catch, thanks for that. He left early before his development was complete, hence not being able to handle not being the star. Some can argue ( convincingly) that he left because he lacked the bottle. The point is these players need to learn team ethic before they become the focal point of lesser teams and their ego stunts their emotional development.

It has emerged that Rafa Benitez missed out on a replacement for Robbie Keane on deadline day as he targeted the young Brazilian striker Keirrison de Souza Carneiro or just plain Keirrison for short. The 20-year-old star has a prolific record in Brazil’s Serie A with his club side Coritiba but recently joined Palmeiras on loan. His recent record speaks for itself so it’s of no surprise that a number of European clubs have been alerted to his talent. Liverpool join a list of interested clubs which includes Olympiakos, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia in the striker. Unfortunately a move to Anfield could not be completed due to his complicated contractual situation. The player’s contract is owned by Coritiba (20%) and Traffic Sports Marketing (80%) thus a deal would involve a number of parties. Despite Keirrison’s tender age he has already shown just how prolific he can be in his homeland. Last season alone he has scored an impressive 20 goals in just 31 League appearances (30 starts). This is a remarkable feat since this was only his 2nd League season after scoring 12 goals in 32 League appearances (18 starts) in his first campaign. Few youngsters in world football can boast such an impressive strike tally as 32 goals in 63 League appearances (48 starts), so it’s no surprise he is attracting such attention. Keirrison broke into the Coritiba first team in 2007 helping the club to promotion from Serie B but it was his impressive arrival in the top division that has underlined his incredible potential. The 5 ft 11 forward is renowned for his pace and finishing ability and his 20 League goals left him 1 strike behind the League’s top scorer. Hs goals helped Coritiba to a comfortable 9th place in the 20-team Serie A after an excellent return to the top flight. Whether he joins Liverpool in the summer or not, you will hear plenty more of Keirrison in the near future. Are you disappointed Robbie Keane left without a replacement coming in? Is Keirrison the promising young talent that Rafa should be looking to bring to Anfield? Let’s hear your views. http://community.footballpools.com/blog/20...-replace-keane/ video available on site

Interesting

"Tommy" ????

I think with players like Quaresma "big clubs" have to get them soon before they become the focal point for a smaller club and subsequently get ruined. That way you can remove this "ego" problem before it takes root. Like Keane, Quaresma needs to get lots of the ball and and do what ever he wants without repercussion. Developmentally this shows poor regulation and Sports wise poor team ethic. Sometimes however, players can catch up developmentally both in the mental sense and the physical sense. For example, take Reira, he's growing and developing his game, in a physical sense, at the age of 27. That's rare, but it can happen. For Quaresma to develop he needs to swallow his pride, accept the evidence he's not the best in the world, improve his work rate and tackle back. Watching Quaresma at Chelsea will be interesting, especially to see if he's a late developer or a no developer. Will he languish, or will he flourish?

Almost certainly true, however during his time at Chelsea we'll have the opportunity to put to bed (or otherwise) the Quaresma myth

Wonder if Chelsea have a long with an option to buy, if not we can see how he does and work out if he'd be suited to the premier league. However, the article does say he's work shy, so that's a BIG downside. Signing Ricardo Quaresma could be masterstroke for Chelsea While Robbie Keane and Andrei Arshavin dominated the transfer headlines on Tuesday, perhaps the real deal of deadline day was one treated as barely a footnote. By Rory Smith Last Updated: 9:03PM GMT 03 Feb 2009 Unrealised potential: new Chelsea signing Ricardo Quaresma (left) has supreme ability but failed to live up to expectations at Inter Photo: AFP On Monday morning, Inter Milan left Ricardo Quaresma, the Portugal winger, out of their Champions League squad. A mooted swap with Tottenham for Jermaine Jenas never materialised and, instead, with just 30 minutes until the deadline, Chelsea acquired him on loan. Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Chelsea manager, had insisted less than 24 hours previously that he saw no reason to add to his squad. So what tempted him to change his mind? Quaresma's track record since his £14 million move from Porto to Inter, requisitioned by Jose Mourinho, hardly justifies his arrival. Voted the worst signing of the season by fans and chronically short of confidence, he can now add Inter to Barcelona in his list of abortive attempts to succeed at big clubs. Mourinho admitted on Monday that his countryman had found it difficult to cope with all the criticism and was at a loss to explain his poor displays at the San Siro. To many, with his slicked-back hair and tendency to over-elaboration, Quaresma is Cristiano Ronaldo without the end product. Scolari, who worked with him for six years as Portugal manager, knows better. He may have struggled at Barcelona, but he shone at Porto, where his coach Jesualdo Ferreira treated him with kid gloves. He is a bag of tricks, famed for his trivela – crossing with the outside of his boot – and rabona – hitting the ball by wrapping his right foot around his left. On his day, he is magical, unpredictable and every bit as talented as Ronaldo. Sadly, there is a down side, the reason Mourinho farmed him out and Rafael Benitez twice spurned the chance to take him to Liverpool. Quaresma does not work. Both the former Chelsea manager and the current Liverpool manager demand that their wingers never shirk defensive duties. This is where Ronaldo and Quaresma, two years his senior, differ. Sir Alex Ferguson harnessed Ronaldo's energy. Quaresma remains true to his first nickname, 'Mustang'. He runs free. But another workhorse is what Chelsea do not need, and that is why the loan move has all the hallmarks of a masterstroke. On a good day, Quaresma could transform those games at Stamford Bridge where Chelsea are frustrated by a massed defence into routs. If Scolari can elicit the best out of his former protege, Chelsea could yet return to the title race. If not, he returns to Inter at the end of the season. It is a win-win situation. Sadly absent from such issues are the team who were supposed to sweep all before them in January, Manchester City. For all their oil billions, they failed to hijack the Arshavin deal or lodge a bid for Keane. They still have not signed a central defender. Money, it turns out, is a double-edged sword. They paid over the odds for Nigel de Jong (£18 million) and Craig Bellamy (£14 million), and even signing Wayne Bridge, a reserve full-back from Chelsea, set them back £12 million. They refused to be held over a barrel for Roque Santa Cruz. They were humiliated by Kaka. Mark Hughes, the City manager, and his chief executive, Garry Cook, have both been at pains to point out their successes in this window, but the reality is much less optimistic. Their reinforcements will be enough to ensure there is no relegation battle at the world's richest club and may even take them into Europe. But what of the future? The club insist no signing will be made who does not fit into their long-term vision. But those players they did land give the lie to that claim. What do Bellamy and Bridge have in common? They have both been proven not good enough for the highest level. De Jong and Shay Given? Fine players, no doubt, but both overlooked by Arsene Wenger when he had the chance to sign them. How do you break into the top four with a squad of their cast-offs, has-beens and never-will-bes, as no less an authority than City devotee Liam Gallagher once put it? The simple answer? You don't. Cigano finds new home... A part-Romany heritage has earned Ricardo Quaresma, 25, the nickname 'Cigano’ – Portuguese for gypsy. He graduated from Sporting Lisbon’s academy and after helping win a league and cup double, joined Barcelona in 2003. Fell out with coach Frank Rijkaard, and joined Porto in 2004, where his style was compared to Cristiano Ronaldo. Signed for Inter Milan in Sept 2008 but confidence evaporated when he lost support of the fans. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/...or-Chelsea.html