alias75

reckon about 2 million

1-2 Arsenal ok its officially off

Im saying nothing..

To be fair i did say Is it On? thats a question not a statement. no doubt ill get the blame if it doesnt go well tomorrow.

Not saying yes or no just asking the question.

.................Reina.................... Finnan Carra Agger Arbeloa Gerrard Alonso Masch Kewell ..........Kuyt,,,,,,,,Torres....... Thats what i think he'll go with assuming Aggers right and Alonso's recovered. May be too much to ask Alonso to play 2 games in a short time in which case id go for Benayoun on the right and Stevie in the middle. I like Stevie wide right for this one because Petrov is probably their main threat and having Stevie out there would nullify that more than Benayoun.

IF Momo is sold for that sort of fee (and we know how reliable Elisha usually is) then it'll probably go a long way to paying for Mascherano. Superb business if true, i just dont think his style of play suits a top team that sees lots of the ball. You have to be able to keep the ball and he gives it away far too often. Its a shame because if he could do that he'd be a great player, he has all the physical attributes you need but if its 50-50 when your playing 10 yard passes thats not good enough. Also in this league hes a walking yellow card every game. Swapping Sissoko for Mascherano plus approx 5-7 million is great business.

why would Crouch go to Bolton?

"In the summer we brought in some good players and spent more money than has ever been spent at this club. Is that true or is this the old net spend debate again. Certainly in terms of net spend we spent about the same as we usually do. And if the article in the Echo a few days ago is to be believed the fees for some players were paid with bank loans anyway?

The type of striker we need aren't easy to find, someone that scores a decent amount of goals but can drop off and link the midfield and attack. Rooney or Tevez are the type of player that would work great with Torres. Im not a great fan of Berbatov but hes probably the best in that position in the PL that we could realistically sign. Maybe even Robbie Keane could be a possible hes a clever player, can link the play but scores a lot of goals too. Its probably worth trying Benayoun or Kewell there than persevering with Kuyt and Veronin.

Well this current group of Arsenal players hasnt won much (if anything) so that may prove the point. Maybe they need a few 20 million players to win the league?

Completely agree with that, id like to see how many players Ferguson turned over in his first 3 or 4 years in charge, you cant compare the transfer activity of Ferguson and Rafa because Ferguson's been in that job long enough to have complete control over the squad he also inherited one of the best batch of young players we've seen which saved him millions and allowed him to spend big on the positions that needed it most. You only have to look at the number of 15 million plus players Utd have bought in the past 10 years to see they're able to add 1 or 2 world class players to their squad because Ferguson's had the time to get the squad he wants, id say Rafa is in that position now. Everyone knows when he got here Rafa inherited a squad full of low quality players on big wages that GH wasnt able to shift, hes had to do a lot of wheeling and dealing to get rid of the dross and build a squad that hes happy with id say we're at that point now, the next step is adding that top quality to it.

I dont think he'll reduce the size of the squad but what he might do is use the reserves to bring in maybe 2 or 3 players to take up those 4th/5th choice positions in the squad. The quality in the reserves / U18s is as good as i can remember, its clearly a plan to bring more players from within the club into the first team squad, that would save millions on those fringe players and allow Rafa to use whatever money he has on players that will make a real difference in the first team. You can talk about Arsenal but they havent won anything for 3 seasons, the team they have now is full of world class attacking players, ok they didnt have to pay 20 million to get them but they've been given the time to develop and there are a few in that team that would be worth those amounts now. But if you look at the teams that have been winning the league lately, i.e Man Utd and Chelsea they are full of expensive world class players or the very top end of the youth market. Utd won the league and then bought, Hargreaves, Anderson, Nani and Tevez on top of what they already had that says it all. Im convinced if Ronaldo played for us and not Man Utd we'd win the league, thats the difference truly world class attacking players can make.

Maybe Arsenal weren't the best example but you have to accept that Wenger is the best there is at spotting talent and most of his attacking players cost around 10 million and they've pretty much all come good. When your spending around the 5-10 million mark your taking a gamble that the player will step up, Wenger has got it right more times than most.

Didnt see the article mentioned on here but this quote really please me from Rafa.. "The difference with United and Chelsea is top-class players — all of them," he said. "When you talk about spending £20m on Torres, how many £20m players do United have? Four or five. Why do you pay £20m? Because they are players who can change games. "If you have one or two and they have four or five, that could be the difference." I think most agree thats the crux of the issue, and the main difference between us and Utd or Chelsea or Arsenal especially when we play them its these top players that make the difference. Personally i think we have lots of world class players in our squad, but for me the key is the majority of ours are defensive players, Reina, Agger, Carragher, Alonso, Mascherano are all world class players but they're not going to score many goals or get many assists and thats the difference between us and Man Utd and Arsenal. We have Torres and Gerrard that are world class attacking players but thats it, its these type of players that make the difference when its tight and defenses are well organised. What im really happy about is that Rafa has identified this too and hopefully he'll be given the money to buy those 20 million attacking players. You may say its common sense that this is where the problem lies but you look at how other managers operate (and some of our past managers) and sometimes whats glaringly obvious to the fans isn't to the manager, at least Rafa acknowledges that with a strong squad in place the next step is adding those 2 or 3 real top class players.

Reina has been so consistent this calender year, every keeper makes mistakes but i cant remember too many from Pepe. Not only that but he sweeps up well and is a huge factor why we defend so well. Mascherano i think is another one thats performed to a consistently high level you only have to look at the MOM threads on here when he plays hes almost always in the top 3, very rarely has a poor game. Stevie and Torres are the obvious other 2 but i think Reina and Masch are the two players that have performed to a consistently high level almost every game.

Your question is whose the best pairing that doesn't mean Gerrard doesnt play if the best pairing is Alonso / Mascherano. For the record i think those 2 will be the best partnership anyway, but of course Gerrards going to be in your team somewhere.

why cant you use the argument of playing Gerrard elsewhere? Its all about getting the best possible 11 you can and Alonso, Mascherano and Gerrard would all be in the strongest 11 (imo) so id go for Alonso and Mascherano in the middle with Gerrard elsewhere but obviously still in the team.

Nope but he plays well there for Israel, i think if we had better options on the right we may have seen that already, with Alonso back id like to see him try it (with Stevie on the right and drifting.)

Alonso / Masch is my first choice pairing with Stevie starting on the right and having license to roam. Think its an excellent mix with those 2 in the middle and it frees Stevie to concentrate on scoring and creating further forward.

Just think you cant have too many players with his attitude in your team, hes a winner in the same mould as a Souness or a Keane, he plays the same when we're winning easily and thats exactly what this team needs someone that plays with the same intensity when we're coasting, thats how you put the weaker teams to bed and not give them a chance to get back into it. Of course he needs others to follow and there have been games that hes played where the team hasnt performed well, but from memory i cant remember too many poor games from him his level doesn't drop much. People have commented that the team lacks that will to win at all costs that teams like Utd have, we need leaders, we need winners in the team and Mascherano is a winner.

you can be hard working and still a very good player Rooney, Tevez, Adebayor, RVP, Drogba, all those work exremely hard for their teams, the difference between those players and someone like Kuyt isnt that Kuyt is playing too deep its simply hes not as good as them. Top players usually have a very good work ethic because their winners, what we need is better quality to partner Torres.

I just love his attitude he wants to win a tackle with the same intensity if we're winning 4-1 or its 0-0 he approaches every game with the same attitude and he's one of the few in the team where you can see that will to win every game. With him on the pitch he sets the tempo for the team by winning tackles and making interceptions, he may not score a great goal or play a killer pass but his influence is on the whole team, he leads they follow in terms of working hard and closing down, that often leads to mistakes by the opposition which can lead to goals (as we saw against Portsmouth) With him in the side im just completely confident that we'll have someone thats never complacent never gives up and plays at a consistently high level week after week.

Think we saw it today, the one thing thats impressed me most about Mascherano is that he approaches each game with the intensity of a CL final. His passing may not always be on, but his commitment levels are at a constantly high level and when he plays hes often the one setting the tone or setting up attacks with a tackle or interception. Yes we have more talented central midfielders at the club but i honestly cannot think of one game where Mascherano has looked off his game, or not interested, he hasn't always played well (although i think his level is more consistent than most in our team) but his commitment is always there. Against Portsmouth Gerrard looked out of sorts (probably still ill) in other years that may have been a problem but not with Mascherano who led by example set the tone and even created a few goals by winning tackles. think hes quickly become one of our top players and one you dont rest...

I think you'll find in the modern game at the top level there arent many strikers that do that, managers expect much more from players than waiting for the chances they have to contribute elsewhere. I cant think of many players in the PL play that way, look at Rooney, Tevez they work as hard as anyone, Adebayor's the same. What we need is someone with better quality, top players have that and a strong work ethic too, because they have a strong will to win.