Alonso

We definitely need cover and long term replacemnet at RB so would go for Richards. If Hyypia leaves then we need another CB as Paletta is not ready to act as 3rd choice CB (presuming Carragher and Agger are 1 and 2). Therefore I'd go for Ayala. As for LB this is really open. Yes we have Insua but will be eased in gently IMO and from what I've read is also comfortable playing CB. Personally I'm still usnure about Aurelio, does he really have the ability to be our starting LB for the season and be able to stay injury free? Yes Riise has struggled for form this season but is the one that probably has the best understanding with the current back line and showed last year that he was more than capable at LB. On one hand I'd keep Aurelio but on the other I'd let him go and get in Bale to compete with Riise for LB. As people have mentioned we need a ball carrier, someone who can beat a player or add that bit of creativity, ideally I'd go for Kaka but that's just a peipe dream and looks Madrid bound in the summer anyway. I'm really not sure who to get for that role but it's also about being able to fit them into the side, especially if we get Mascherano. There'd be Pennant, Gerrard, Alonso, Sissoko, Mascherano (possibly), Garcia, Kewell, Gonzalez and Leto all trying to get into starting 11. As for the strikers then I can see Crouch staying but Fowler will be off IMO so would look to bring in a genuine world class striker to play alongside Kuyt and Villa seems to fit the bill and be a popular choice! Obviously this is in a FM type world!!

Gerrard Kaka Xavi Pirlo Essien

Lehman Eboue Terry Ferdinand G Neville Ronaldo Lampard Fabregas Robben Drogba Rooney

Generally, teams that play long balls have far less possession stats due to the nature of the hopeful hoof up field making it a 50/50 as to whether the team retains possession or not. We nearly always have more posession than our opposition. The long ball teams also generally bypass midfield as it goes long from defence to attack, similar to the later years of Houllier's side when Sami or Riise use to hoof it up to Heskey who'd try and flick it onto Owen.

His chest control is also exemplary.

That already happened earlier this week when West Ham offered near on £10m for Ahsley Young.

I think Blackburn will use any money they get from West Ham and just buy Warnock for cash instead of the exchange. £1.5m is what we're rumoured to be after for him. HERE

And we'll be replacing him with..... There aren't that many top left backs about and with Warnock on his way and Aurelio hardly much better at LB than Riise if at all and Insua who will probably still be adapting to life in England let alone the PL, who will we have as a first choice left back? Personally I'd prefer Aurelio to go before Riise.

Chelsea have failed in their bid to sign Ben Haim and West Ham have failed with a £4m bid for Upson.

Yep, he said something like "If you tell someone to do something they'll do it once, you teach someone to do something and they'll do it forever." I suppose they must be being taught loads of different variations of formations with different personnel. I just thought it would have been simpler for them to get one formation perfect but then what do I know!! Xabi says it's working well even tho they don't know what Rafa's gonna do so that must say something about him and his coaching team.

Maybe I should change my user name to Bone Alonso! Playing devil's advocat a bit here but surely that can't be good for cohesion and understanding.

Which surprises me why we haven't been linked with Bale, obviously we've got Insua but he's only on loan and would probably take longer to adapt than Bale.

Couple of weeks ago my mate got a yellow card and £5 fine as soon as he came on the pitch as sub in a 5-a-side league match for wearing a studded ear-ring!

Cheers! Dunno who I'd take outta those 2? I'd prefer us just to get Neill in!

I'd say that's pretty much right: Reina Carragher Agger Gerrard Alonso Sissoko Kuyt

Similar to being a scorer of great goals as opposed to being a great goal scorer!

Anyone have any ideas on who these would be? Can't remeber being linked to any other RBs apart from Alves and that clearly isn't gonna happen this transfer window.

No, cos we'd get one of them in exchange plus cash for our Crouchy!!

Heard Graham Beacroft this morning say on Talk Sport that the deal was completed and would be announced very soon. Alan Brazil then asked him to specify a date "Today, tomorrow, next week?" He said he didn't know but just that it was done.

Cos Cech is one of the best keepers in the world and far less prone to making errors. Also Chelsea's defence will be far better than ours was against Arsenal and give Cech much more protection.

For everyone I'd imagine as we have no-one else who can play there!!! Seriously tho he's been brilliant for us and one of those consistant 8 outta 10 players that Rafa likes.

Dunno anything about him but Barce had a £12.7m offer rejected for him recently. He's got 32 goals in 65 games for Boca Juniors. Here some more info from Wikipedia: Rodrigo Sebastián Palacio (born 1982-02-05 in Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires) is an Argentine football (soccer) Striker playing currently for Argentine first division club Boca Juniors. While a boy, Palacio started playing in local Bella Vista, and then moved to Huracán de Tres Arroyos in 2002. But he would debute professionally short after with Banfield (by that time in first division) in mid 2003. Two seasons later he transferred to Argentine giant Boca Juniors. In Boca he got the attention of Argentine national coach José Pekerman, and was called for the March 2005 friendly match against Mexico. Rodrigo Palacio won with Boca Juniors the 2006 and 2005 Recopa Sudamericana, the 2005 Copa Sudamericana, 2005 Apertura and 2006 Clausura Argentine league. On May 15, 2006 he was named as a definite squad member for the 2006 World Cup by coach José Pekerman and on June 10, 2006 he came on as a substitute in Argentina's 2-1 win against the Ivory Coast for his first ever appearance in a World Cup. Boca recently rejected a £12.7m offer from Barcelona. Boca's President Mauricio Macri said this "For Palacio we will have to receive the biggest offer in the world because for me he is the best forward in Argentina."

With all this talk of not conceding from corners watch Chelsea fire one in against us this weekend. Then again we could maybe score one on the counter too if we leave Bellamy up to even it out!

So that'd be £Xm on a player we sell 6 months later and would we get what we paid for him? If we keep him what do we with the other back up players such as Gonzalez, Pennant, Leto, Aurelio, Zenden and Kewell will be back too. We don't need Benayoun we bought in players like Pennant, Gonzalez and Aurelio to boost the squad and first team. We use them for these exact circumstances.

Any 3 from: Cech Buffon Casillas Reina Van de Saar Lehmann has also been very good over the last 18 months.