Jacko

I like the badge they used too.....

Alves Bale Villa/Huntelaar That'll do - as we can't afford to buy too many players and end up spending a whole season bedding them in. Bale spends the 1st half of the season rotating with Riise before making the place his own and adding pace to the back. Alves gives us cover for Finnan and a 1st choice RM, Villa/Huntelaar are obviously the goalscorers - I like Klose but he doesn't have pace and I'd only get him if we've already bought another striker. If we really wanted to we could then look at VDV to give us more creativity in the centre.

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Then that wouldn't represent any benefit as that's our normal spending level ie £25-30m per season? Unless you mean in addition to our normal spending.... FWIW I think his budget will be flexible and could easily be upwards of £65m depending on the availability of players. I'd buy Huntelaar £18m VDV £11m Alves/Richards £14m Bale £10m With the balance going on youth. Also bear in mind that we'll raise £15m+ fro the sales of Cisse, FSP and maybe the likes of Riise or Garcia.

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I'm a fan of Riise but I think if we could get £6m for him I'd go for Bale who has the potential to be a first class left back although he could go the same way as that Leeds fella whose name escapes me. I'd also go for Richards whilst we're at it.

Nah - Xabi was just as bad as the rest of the team earlier in the season and now Gerrard is playing at a higher level than Xabi therefore he's been better than him. Voila. On a seperate note after Gerrard scored a wonder goal against my Spurs supporting mate on Pro Evo this morning he went on to tell me that he really didn't like Gerrard and that was overated only turning it on every 5 games or so. I thought he was on the wind up but he believed it saying he was only an average World class player I told him I thought he was the best in the world in his position and he couldn't argue with me. He claims lot's of people feel the same. Anyone else heard this? I knida thought that along with Henry he was one of the most widely respected players in the Premiership?

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He was very good - but in terms of constructive critisism I'd like to see him put more whip on crosses so that forwards can run on to them.

I rate Viduka but he's very injury prone so I don't think it would be worth it.

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I can only guess at why they do it but it's a very common practice with loans these days - my guess is that the selling club do this when they are unable to get their required price up front - so they loan them out and agree (a lower) fee for precisely the reason that they are not in command due to lack of interest at the price they want.

I think he'll go for Alves in a big way, potentially with Richards for back up as I think he'll cost more for the simple fact he's English. As far as LB goes, if we need one that I'd look at the Soton lad who plays for Wales and whose name escapes me. I don't think we'd get Lahm regardless of money. On the right maybe Simao? Cover in the centre I'd definately go with someone like Nolan but it'd be tough keeping the 4 of em happy. Upfront my 2 picks are Huntelaar or Villa with Torres as back up. and finally maybe VDV as a fairly versatile attacking mid, especially if we didn't go for Simao. So Alves £13.5m (Richards possibly £14m although much of that would be performance based whereas Alves fee would be set) Soton kid £7m Simao £12m or VDV £10m Nolan £7m Huntelaar £18m (Villa £21m, Torres £26m) = £57.5m which I reckon we don't have a hope in hell of spending unless we sell as well- maybe £40-45m tops as this would be an additional £20m+ on our normal annual transfer budget. Possible high profile sales Riise £7m, Garcia £8m, Alonso £18m (I don't want to think about selling him though so don't get me wrong) All speculation by me of course.

Actually I think Gonzales has done ok and needs to see more of the ball. Sami isn't on his game but a front 2 of Rooney and Saha running at him doesn't play to his strengths.... Need to see more running beyond Kuyt as he is tieing up the 2 CH's. Alonso looks decent but possibly Sissoko could be taken off as he's a bit off the pace especially since the yellow. I'd take him off for Crouch at some point and move Garcia to the right.

The 2nd half reminded me of how we were starting games at the end of last season when we went on that run. I know it's a cliche but for this team it's all about playing at a high tempo. When we play as we can we are starting to look like that Arsenal side of a couple of years ago and I say that as the highest compliment because that was the best football I've ever seen. The obvious question is can we maintain that tempo firstly for 90 mins then for more than one game at a time and then over the course of a season.

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chrochie crouch

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The league has to be our priority even with a squad as big as ours. I'd be looking to play the strongest possible team at Everton and then make 2-3 changes for PSV and then back to the strongest team for Chelsea.

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yeah he is to be fair and is undisputed 1st choice there as well.

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