Mikey

I think Bent or Bellamy as a replacement for Morientes would improve us considerably, and they are both better than Cisse from what we've seen so I'd personally be very happy with that outcome. We'd have two electric quick, hard-working strikers who have proven they can score goals over the last few years. Only complaint I'd have would be over paying £12M for Bent unless at least 50% of it was tied into performance related payments linked to us winning the PL etc.

Anyone want to go into next season with the same 4 strikers as finished this one? No - well then someone has to go then don't they and I'd rather it was Moro than Cisse(just), but preferably both. As for him wanting to finish his career here, bargaining chip towards his pay-off me thinks.

So you'll be happy going into next season with the same strikeforce as now then? The one that has no-one scoring 10 league goals, and this will be good enough to push Chelsea and United closer next season? Cisse ain't good enough, and if we don't sell him its because no-one else is daft enough to pay any decent amount of money for him.

SWP is faster, more direct and scores more goals, Pennant takes better dead balls, crosses better and is bigger and stronger. I think SWP is a better dribbler but Pennant ain't bad. Is SWP worth 3 times as much as Pennant? If we are loaded then he is, if we are 'careful' with our budget then no he isn't - but if we really are only buying 1 striker then we can afford either.

Missed this, expand mate?

Bellamy is as good as anyone in the PL bar Henry and Rooney and has been for a couple of years now, how many has Shearer scored without Bellamy doing his running for him? If the rumoured £6M is true then he easily represents the best value available and is exactly the type of player we will be looking for, I'd be delighted if we sign him and I couldn't give a Rat's @rse if he's a horrible ****. As for signing him and Pennant being a risk, to get them both for under £10M would be outstanding business and would leave a BIG chunk of our kitty(which will be well over £20M) to spend on a 2nd striker if we need one.

Steve Finnan is as good as there is at RB, if he had an extra yard of pace he would be the best in the world in his position, he is pure quality and he is ours. To say that certain players from different leagues are slightly better at certain aspects of the game is ridiculous, how would Salgado, Cafu or Zanetti cope with Kevin Davies elbowing them in the head 5 times a game in February? Gallas is possibly the best all round defender in the world right now, he can play anywhere across the back 4 incredibly well and frequently does so. If I was vain I'd dig up the posts where just a couple of us were saying this 3 seasons ago!

Heskey at Anfield against United, Brown and Silvestre CB's for them, he was awesome. I almost felt sorry for them afterwards as he destroyed them both. And I'm no Heskey fan.

Henry, Shevchenko and Eto'o are the best strikers in the world, Henry has more influence on a game 'on his own' so for me he's the best. Ronaldhino and Gerrard are the two best midfielders in the world, but play completely different games. Ronny just shades it at the moment but his all round game isn't a patch on Stevie's. Players like Rooney, Terry, Ronaldo etc form a definite 2nd tier a level below. We are lucky to have one of the world's best 2 or 3 footballers as our captain, lets not forget that.

I'm not being funny but back-up to who exactly? Whoever we sign at RM will share the duties with SG when he's not playing behind the striker, you can't believe we are going to sign 2 players to do that? As for Pennant, he's a good player in a bad side and you've got to expect him to do better in front of Finnan and benefitting from Xabi and Stevie's passing and movement, and the price will be under £5M making him possibly the best option unless we really do have the fabled £35M+ to spend. FWIW Joaquin is a good player in a bad side as well, would you want him?

Rafa is going to get £15-20M from the board plus whatever he can bring in and save on salaries on players going. Dudek and Kirkland will bring in upwards of £3M (which is scandalous when you think what we paid for them), and free up some wages as they won't be replaced. Cheyrou is finally off the books, Diao will go on loan or get a free transfer to get rid of him, Cisse will go and will fetch £5-7M plus free up BIG wages, add in Traore and a few other 'extra's' and its not unreasonable to suggest we will have in the region of £25-30M to spend and will have saved towards £200K per week on salaries. If we can't significantly improve the squad and 1st team with that I'll eat my hat. Aurelio - £0M & £25K p.w. RB - bosman & £25K p.w. Pennant - £4M & 30K p.w. Barton - £5M & 30K p.w. Bellamy/Bent/Kuyt - £6-10M & 40K p.w. Loads of money left to 'upgrade' possible players from Pennant to SWP, or Bent to Torres or Owen and a net saving on wages. I really expect at least 1 surprise sale this Summer, Garcia/HK/Crouch even.(Crouch if he has a great WC and we get silly money ofered for him - same with Garcia or mori)

ES says Kromkamp is off for £3M and thats good enough for me as we got him in a swap for josemi. Gk we are overloaded, and selling dude and kirkland will raise some money. RB - cover needed for a season or so until Barragan comes through, certainly not Alves or someone like that though. CB - sorted big style. LB - Aurelio in, Traore out unless he stays as CB cover. LM - sorted with HK, MG, BZ etc. CM - felt for a while that Didi will be off, agree with a previous poster about a more 'high-octene' replacement. Barton? RM - ????? Striker - as it seems that mori is staying and Djib is off then we need someone with SERIOUS pace and strength. Bellamy, Bent or Kuyt I'd imagine. Some RB on a bosman, Barton for £5M, Pennant for £4M and Bellamy for £6M or Bent for £6-8M and we're pretty well sorted. With money to spare as well!!!!!

23M Euro's for a kid? If we'd got involved in that it really would be time to sack Parry! Can't believe anyone thought we would be at that price after we pulled out of Theo Walcott for less than 1/2 the amount!

Cisse played quite well last night, better then he has done for a while and scored two goals, one of them a keeper's mistake fair enough. If he played like that all the time he would get a lot more support from the fans. For me personally, it is totally unacceptable that a player pulls on our shirt and gives less than his best however poorly he plays, Cisse has done this on MANY occasions this season and simply should never be awarded the honour of pulling it on again once this season is over. I also don't care if he scores a sh1tload for whoever he signs for, he won't do for us and thats all that counts to me.

We will spend over £30m this Summer and that will include any money raised from sales. We will buy 1 top class RW, Pennant, SWP, joaquin quality. We will buy 1 top quality striker, Owen, Kuyt, Torres quality. We will buy 1 young striker, Bent, Defoe etc. We will 'swap' a few players round, Paletta and aurelio in - Traore, Warnock out that kind of thing. Purely my opinion of course.

GK - seriously overstocked 2 to go Kirkland and Dudek. Defence - sorted with Aurelio hopefully coming. Midfield - need 1 RW Strikers - Desparate, keep Robbie and Crouch and get 2 more in. Striker please - if only one then either Owen, Bent, Defoe or Kuyt.

I'll be surprised if we get 2 strikers this Summer unless both Moro and Djib leave, and then we'd have at least the cost of one of them back anyway as we would get around £12M for them both. Unless Chelsea and Real get involved there is no-one out there who can afford much above £10-12M for him and we are in that group. FWIW I don't think we will even be in for him judging by Rafa's comments previously, but seriously Pennant or SWP above Joaquin??? Utter internet madness.

I've been saying this for a while mate, I think Rafa will be looking to 'upgrade' a couple of players this Summer and Garcia is one of them. Sell Garcia for £5-7M and buy Aimar for £10-12M looks like good business to me. I expect to see a couple of 'favourites' leave this Summer, for me it will be Luis and Didi, but it could even be HK. whatever happens, with Gonzales arriving, Zenden getting fit and already having HK and Garcia to play the attacking/creative/wide left role someone is going to go thats for sure. Not forgetting Djimi, JAR, Warnock and Aurelio(sp?) if he arrives!!!!!!!

If you forget the costs then Morientes has been a bigger disappointment to me than Cisse, he came here as a proven goal scorer and has looked nothing short of pants ever since. How the occasional moment of above averageness can count as 'showing more' is beyond me! He's been slow, lethargic, weak on the ball, awful in the air and couldn't hit a cow's @rse in front of goal. If he stays I'll start reading Charlie Nicholas's columns more closely! Also the original post contradicts itself a bit, if Cisse is staying them why are we looking at 2 strikers?

Every football club in the world's best team would include Steven Gerrard, he'd get in every team in the world and pretty easily as well. And my lad's got the CL shirt with Gerrard on the back so no again!

Couldn't agree more mate, but he'll still p1ss it as the 'media' are now well and truly behind him. I'd actually like to see Fabregas, who is a good player, turn in a performance like he did against Juventus with Momo all over him.

Assuming we play 60 games next season thats 40 each in the centre for the three amigo's without any long term injuries. I also expect to see Stevie, who is possibly the 2nd best midfielder in the world behind Ronaldhino right now, play against the better teams as RM with Momo and Alonso in the middle. We are blessed to have the three of them and if we are going to be as successful as we all hope we are going to need them all. Christ I remember being distraught at the thought of him leaving and now we should maybe sell him?

Momo easily. And Fabregas is going to win the young player award by a country mile.

Its in todays Mirror, along with a last line quote about us being quoted £10M for Solari from Inter? FWIW I'm pretty sure we'll be signing only one RW and using Gerrard there for a fair few games as well, and unless its SWP, Joaquin or the like Gerrard could well start next season as 1st choice there with Momo and Xabi in the middle and HK/Speedy on the left. Bloody good midfield that by the way!

You're right, get them both!