Mikey

Beayoun is like a cheap version of Garcia, and Luis drove me to distraction with the way he gave possesion away at times. The way 'we' describe some of our players on here makes me wet myself, "No-one could have done that but Yossi"????? What is that about FFS, he's an average, lightweight squad player at best - the fact he started this match says as much as Zenden starting last years CL final for me. And can't remember who asked the usual cr@p question but YES Wes Brown would get into our team, he would've been starting RB all this season!

Both fullbacks - not Carra FFS he's more defensived than My f***ing Missus and will rotate the CB's with Agger and Skrtel. For 4-3-3 to work properly both fullbacks have got to be able to bomb forward, be comfortable on the ball, and be fast enough to get back when needed. With CB's who can actually play football we should be giving the ball away less often and therefore have to work our knackers off getting it back less often. Also one wide player, don't care which side as long as he's f***ing brilliant.

Of course it matters what position it's in, Kuyt is a solid grafter but as an attacker he's very limited. If he was CB or FB or DM he'd be great - but he aint.

Love thread titles like this, makes us look like right idiots. Chelsea don't have the history we do, but their present is more successful than ours isn't it? Small club indeed, PL champions twice, runners up once, 2nd on goal difference this year and 2 CL semi finals and 1 final - all in 4 years; not mentioning their Billionaire owner who actually spends his own money on the club not the fans.

I think the relevant point is that no other potential title winning side has these players in attacking positions, it's true every side needs a bit of graft and 'yard dog' in them but not in the attacking 3rd really. I've been won over a bit and unless we got a big offer - which we won't - I'd keep him, but use him correctly and not as 'first choice' in the big games.

To be honest nor is another injury prone fullback.

I was gonna mention that but then we don't look half as strong on paper!

Clemence/Reina - not bothered which Nicol Hansen Hughes Kennedy Mcdermott Souness Gerrard Barnes Dalglish Rush Subs Lawrenson Babbel Whelan R Kennedy Torres Owen Fowler

Unless DIC buy us and chuck £50M + all the money from player sales at Rafa then it aint gonna happen. Also RE: United and Chelsea, yes they are currently stronger in depth than us in CM - an area where we're actually quite well off compared to other positions like fullback, wide players - but I do think their position is slightly false at the moment. United have bought players already to replace Scholes and Giggs but they're still playing and playing well, 12 months down the line when they're finished/nearly finished they probably won't buy anyone to fill the gap already having Nani and Anderson. Chelsea signed Mikel for a ridiculous amount of money to replace Makelele, and they still roll little old Claude out for the big games, next season he could well be done and again they probably won't replace him either.

The only one who wouldn't get into our 4 is Gilberto and for the same reasons as some people see Xabi leaving as not the end of the world, pace, mobility, physicality. Carrick is an integral part of the United side thats 99% certain to win its 2nd title in a row, and last night qualified for the CL final. Hargreaves is like a rich mans Phil Neville, can play 3 or 4 positions to international class, never looks out of his depth. Arsenal WITH FLAMINI pissed all over us at Anfield in the CL, without Flamini we pissed all over them - coincidence? Masch & Hargreaves/Flamini/Carrick is phenomenaly strong. If Alonso leaves for £20M, we sign Barry for Carson, Riise + £2M, and spend the extra £18M on Silve/Villa/Young etc we are without doubt better off. Love Xabi, not sure the PL is the best place for him to ply his trade. As Mike said in an ideal world we have both but it aint gonna happen.

Is the first statement true Mike (the silva one) or have I missed a joke somewhere mate?

Right and don't take the p1ss. Suppose this ownership struggle goes on for 6 months until DIC force Hicks out/into a minority position yeah, Re the stadium build can we then not throw more money at it to speed up the build and get the timescale back on track? I've got mates who are house builders and they deo this quite often, I know the difference in scale is massive just \want to know if the principle is the same or not?

The issue with Degen isn't his ability, apparently he's very highly rated but he's another made of glass. Fullback positions the most important for me this Summer, get proper quality in for once.

To be fair as a confirmed Kuyt is s**** supporter I've actually been quite impressed with him in this new formation. His phenomenal workrate seems to be a real asset, but long term I see his deficencies catching him out - mainly lack of real pace. If we keep him as a 'starter' next season which I can see happening, then as mentioned we need a real flyer as new RB to get past him. As said in this thread he must be a real nightmare for opposing LB's purely because no matter how many times they stroll past him, he's right back in their faces within a couple of seconds. I've actually been trying to think of someone with better footballing attributes than Dirk - Young, Agbonlahor, etc - who could come in and replace him but keep up the workrate, haven't come up with anyone yet.

He would if Xabi's off.

I always think a 'top'side should at least average 2 points a game over a season, we're almost at that point now and any poor results due to CL etc shouldn't detract from it. Good starting point to next season but I feel this Summers transfer business is probably the most important since Rafa took over. We don't want another Diao, Diouf, Cheyrou fiasco.

Move our 2nd highest goalscorer deeper to accomodate another attacking player? Gerrard is absolutely wasted as a defensive midfielder. Barry will cost less than £10M, with Carson going the other way for over half of it. I'm not his biggest fan but it's as close to a no lose situation as you can get. Masch and Barry as defensive CM's allows you to go almost all out attack with the other 4 midfielders/strikers.

Centre mid is where the game against Chelsea will be won or lost, they're without Essien so relatively easier now. No-one who will feature in CM on Tuesday to even be on the bench rest Torres and Carra as well - at leaast. SSN just reported Gerrard doubtful for tomorrow!

All the fees and costs in the financing/refinancing must be well over £25M by now, that might explain why we had to borrow money to buy players!

If Chelsea beat Everton tonight play the same side as against Arsenal in the league. b******s to bolton etc, its not our fault they're down there.

Made me laugh anyway mate!

Hicks hasn't got the money to buy Gillett out, this 90 day period also looks to be coming to an end as reported on most of the latest reports so Gillett can sell to DIC. Hicks is; "Going to make George a very attractive offer" - why hasn't he? "Going to remove all the debt from the club apart from working capital" - how? "Improve our commercial performance in Asia so we can buy great players" - how? The fake football shirt capital! "Going to get the permanent stadium financing in place" - how? "Work start on the stadium within a month" - yeah right! That was an advertisment to me, advertising for minority investors to back his "25 successful years in sports development".

Lots of new members supporting Hicks - who would have thought it? He's an absolute gobs****, running all this through the press is disgraceful, anyone sticking up for him can f*** right off.

I'm supremely confident we'll get in close to £30M for players sold this Summer, plus save some big money on HK's sick pay! We could easily afford Lahm, and who wouldn't want to come here?

Both systems work well if the players due their duties properly. Senderos was woeful for the corner, if he'd been ours we'd have slated him on here - still a marvelous header though.