alias75

Rafa was asked about him last week and didnt dismiss it, i think hed be an excellent signing. Forget what you've seen in the handful of games hes had at west Ham, hes a quality midfielder and this couldnt be a better time to sign a real top player for a knock down price. The obvious problem is the MSI situation but im certain we're interested if that part can be sorted out to our satisfaction.

If Neil wants to play for us he will, if that means waiting until the summer so be it. Blackburn may accept a bigger fee in January but Neil doesnt have to sign for anyone he doesnt want to.

interesting as another reliable poster at another site says investment could be announced tommorow, even though any investment wont be sorted for a while maybe Rafa's had the green light to spend a little. Could be Mascherano or maybe Villa wasnt just enjoying the game a few days back!

AS Liverpool and Chelsea are both interested in Valencia defender Roberto Ayala, who is out of contract at the Mestalla in the summer. Star Southampton wonderkid Gareth Bale has rejected an offer to extend his contract at St Marys and is being chased by Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Newcastle, Arsenal and Real Madrid.

From SportingLife.com Javier Mascherano admits he's desperate to quit Upton Park and end his West Ham nightmare. The Argentine World Cup star moved to the Premiership along with Carlos Tevez in a shock move on transfer deadline day back in August. But since that grand entrance neither have had much opportunity to showcase their talents. Midfielder Mascherano (22) has played just 235 minutes in the Premiership, starting only three games and appearing as a substitute in two others. And now he's eager to get his faltering career back on track elsewhere. He told Argentine newspaper Equipo: "I must leave. I can't spend any more time without playing. "It's to be expected that if I'm not playing for West Ham I will have to continue my career with another club. I came to England to succeed but so far I've not had the opportunities to do so." Juventus pulled out of the race to sign Mascherano earlier this week, and he's also been linked with Liverpool and Spanish side Real Zaragoza.

Upson has to be a no no now especially at that price Agger is going to be around the first team for a while and as Sami showed yesterday he still has plenty to offer plus theres Paletta and even Hobbs and Antwi who could make the step up in the next couple of years, im sure i read that the Argentinian left back we signed also plays centrally.

I get the impression with Rafa that noone is un-sellable if he thinks its for the good of the team. Of course some players are more important to his plans than others but hes rational and pretty single minded so i dont think anyone in the team couldnt be sold if Rafa thought it was the right offer.

Ive been critical of him too so you have to give credit when its due, but of course 1 good game every now and again doesnt cut it and a club like ours. Lets hope its been a case of him settling in and getting confident in his new surroundings. Whenever you join a new club its always a case of proving to your team mates what you can do and once you've done that you can play with more confidence and less fear. This should be the level he aims for 4 games out of 5

re Mascherano this is a perfect chance to sign a real top quality central midfielder for vastly below what he would have cost only 6 months ago. If you go with the assumption that Gerrard could easily play centre mid, wide right, in the hole and even wide left you could argue that we only have 2 proper centre midfielders in Alonso and Sissoko so there is a need for another one and you wont find many better that are available. The fact he didnt rule it out when asked suggests we are interested of course the MSI situation is complicated but id love to see him here.

Fair enough that wasnt really aimed at you just a general point about signing players from rivals or that once played for rivals. I take your point about Beckham not wanting to play here, but dont agree with you, i think if we were an option he would consider it depending on the other alternatives, this is their livlihood afterall and Beckham has a big ego im sure hed love to prove Ferguson wrong.

We've signed (and cheered) for ex Everton players im not sure what the big difference is here? All hypothetical of course but personally i couldnt care less where a player has played before providing hes fully committed to our team when he plays. Would you say no to Ronaldo (the Utd version) at the moment? Maybe with someone like Gary Neville whos been very vocal in his dislike for us thats the exception but even though Beckham is obviously a huge Utd fan ive never heard him say anything negative about the club and in fact when he captained England at Anfield he was very complimentary about the place. As i said earlier football is changing players are no longer at the same club their entire careers (or very few players will do that), its something we as fans have to get used to. If a player thats once played for our rivals is available and the manager thinks he'd improve the team then we'd be stupid not to consider him.

Maybe but Rafa strikes me as being very pragmatic if he think Beckham has something left and that he can improve the team and hes available he will consider him. Ability wise hes certainly much better than Pennant, and while the circus that follows him is something that Rafa clearly doesnt like, the fact that Beckham clearly has something to prove to people may counter act that. Not saying id like it to happen or not i do think he'd improve that position and my interest above anything for the club is that we win games on the field. Football has changed and players move clubs more than ever some players that played for our worst enemies could sign for us thats the reality of the game now.

Im not so sure with Beckham even though i agree its a long shot. What may convince Rafa is a few factors... 1. He knows how to play right midfield a position we're clearly lacking in.. 2. He has something to prove to a lot of people 3. Whatever hes lost in his game his set piece delivery is still as good as ever His wages would be a problem and despite the circus that always follows him hes always struck me as someone thats totally dedicated to his football, the fact hes always the last at training demonstrates his commitment to his profession. Of course it wouldnt sit well but i do admit hes the type of player that probably would fill that problem position well if only for 18 months he certainly has something to prove on the pitch. Rafa likes hungry players and players with something to prove and Beckham fits that bill currently.

there arent many good defensive left backs that spring to mind, that position has evolved a lot over the last 10 years thanks to players like Cafu and Roberto Carlos, maybe the problem isnt entirely with Riise but also with the players hes had playing in front of him this season. Left back and left wing is very much a combination and left wing has been a problem position this season, who knows if we find a real top quality left winger it may help Riise out. Off the top of my head the 2 players i can think of are Baines and Barry im also a huge fan of Bale having seen him a few times in the flesh for Wales but none of these are really Finnan like defensively.

I could understand the Beckham bit we could do with someone wide right thats for sure, we could do a lot worse than Beckham for a short term solution. I wont bother commenting on the other stuff

Bellamy taken off as a precaution hopefully hes available for Bolton if needed.

I don't think Crouch will be sold in January it doesn't make sense, especially in CL hes proven a key player as teams from Italy and Spain don't face players like him in their leagues, but theres certainly a lot of smoke at the moment and if we can sell him and make a profit of 5 million at the end of the season its certainly decent business, he does offer the side something different but i cant help thinking for what we could sell him for plus a little more we can sign someone thats so much better. I cant help but feel if we want the team playing a better brand of football we need someone different, Crouch's assets almost force the team to play a certain way and that isnt always playing to the strengths of our midfield. Of course a lot depends on the investment and what money Rafa has available to him but if we do have money to spend we shouldnt be settling for someone like Crouch even though he has done much better than most thought when he was signed. I get the impression he isnt happy being 3rd choice at the moment and so a lot of this speculation could be coming from a desire for Crouch to get first team football.

Mascherano for anything under 7 million would be a bargain, forget about whats happened at West Ham this guy is a quality player performs a similar role to Alonso, there simply arent that many players of this type out there and midfield is a position we need to improve. We know Rafa likes to rotate and rest players so he'll get the games, watched him play in the youth world cup a few years ago and thought he was awesome and the world cup didnt change my opinion of him.

I dont think Rafa can be blamed on the poor form of 4 or 5 of our key players at the start of the year though. We started badly because our key players like Reina, Carra, Gerrard, Alonso were all underperforming at the same time, theres not a lot a manager can do about that. Yes you can question some of his signings but you have to remember that hes still in the process of having to strengthen the squad because he was left with too many duds, id say that job has been done well. The problem has been though hes had to sign 5 or 6 players when ideally you'd like 1 or 2 top class players to slot straight in. Of the new signings Pennant is the only one im not happy with but right midfield was a position we knew needed filling and there werent many options out there, others like Aurelio may not have convinced yet but he didnt cost anything so there is low risk and im sure we can get a fee for him if we want to move him on. I think for the money Bellamy will prove an excellent option and im more than happy with Kuyt.

anyone else heard the rumour of a swap with Crouch and Duff plus money?

Think thats a big factor, he isnt good enough to have no pressure on his position in the first team, im sure thats why Neil is being targeted plus the young Argentinian, i think it was telling that Rafa said he thought he'd be pushing for the first team by the end of the season. Riise would always be in my squad because he covers a number of positions and does have attributes that are valuable in the PL but he shouldn't be guaranteed his position in the first team. His form isnt good and at the moment theres noone that can replace him. I also think the uncertainty at left wing hasn't helped, he gets a lot of stick and some of it is justified but Kewell knows how to play that position well and he certainly balances our midfield when he plays. Gonzalez i think will end up being a good player for us but if Kewell is finished id like another top quality left sided attacking player to be brought in and i think that would help Riise too.

Thats because Fergusons been at Utd for all that time and has been able to get the squad and team he wants, hes at the stage where he needs to add just maybe 1 or 2 big players each year. Rafa as a new manager was always going to bring in lots of new players and move out lots of players, thats meant while he may have had the same amount of money to spend as Utd hes had to do much more surgery on the squad because GH left so many poor players. I think hes assembled a very good squad with depth and quality in most positions now we need to add one or two top notch players that can fit straight into the first 11 and take us to the next level.

Very poor thread, it always hurts when you lose but sometimes you just have to hold your hands up, some of it was our fault with poor finishing but their GK was also MOM by a long way. Its clear we need better quality throughout the team and hopefully the investment happens and allows us to maybe add players like Alves or Torres that would make a huge difference. I agree totally with the post that says compared to Man Utd we arent far off, except they have 2 top quality players in Ronaldo and Rooney in key attacking positions thats where we need to improve. So yes of course be disapointed that we lost but lets keep perspective here, we've just had a very good run of results and this is a loss which could easily have been a 2 or 3 goal win with better finishing.

3-5-2 anyone? Allows us to play the 3 of them in the middle, plus we have 3 very good CBs and Finnan and Riise are more than capable of being wingbacks. Tough choice for Rafa given the recent run and defensively it'd probably be foolish to change things now given the run of clean sheets, but i do think we're stronger with Sissoko in the middle and Gerrard wide right compared to Stevie in the middle and Pennant out there.

With the investment happening (fingers crossed) hes only ever going to be a 4th choice striker next season at best, probably replacing Robbie, if hes happy with that role then fair enough. Think he could be a useful substitute because of his pace.