RedHarvest

He may be their best player but remains bad captain material on account of his penchent for decapitating players, screaming in refs faces and his general Biffa Bacon behaviour.

Rooneys Funeral, My Trial...Kicking Against The Pricks...No Pussy Blues etc... ...hope so.

Here's what I think we'll see: Pepe Johnson Carra Ayala/Skrtl Insua Kuyt Masch Lucas Benayoun Gerrard Torres We'll win this 2 - 0, Torres and Benayoun

good point, we're ridiculously weak in this area of our game, defensively and offensively. I miss the Hyypia inspired confidence I used to have against set pieces,, and you need to have a big CB ariel threat for corners ala Terry or Vidic, all this has gone from our game along with Sami.

I predict we'll get Turner or another CB for 6 or less plus a bargain basement striker.

He had eastern European hair

I agree, especially for tricky away fixtures, Gerrard can do a job anywhere on the pitch so could certainly use the ball more effectively than Lucas and Mascher from his supposed favourite position. I hope we see this happen before Aquilani comes in.

Admirable and correct attitude to yesterdays loss. We're still in pre season lethargy, haven't started yet.

Ryan Shawcross scores for Stoke

Not many on here with formation posts accounting for the inevitable non availability/injury of Masch for certain games...I think we'll see Gerrard back in the middle along with Lucas at some stage as well as Lucas/Aquilani.

Id tend to agree. Would like to see us go for Defour (sp?) I just get the feeling Rafa's finished spending in this position.

perhaps but my guess is with Aquilanis purchase Rafas pool of Masch/Lucas/Plessis/Spearing is gonna be our lot for CM and the remaining funds are going on a forward and cover for CB.

I'd be surprised if there was anything to this Poulsen rumour, since Juve got him in last as a cheaper alternative to Alonso and now they want rid after one season.

Someone mentioned earlier that many Italian fans rate him on a par with Pirlo...and with the Azzurri kind of in transition at the moment, most of the old guard getting on a bit, he could be the one being groomed as their playmaker. Rafa says there in that press release he'll figure a lot for Italy in the coming WC. Hope it works out for us, Italians not being known to travel well and all.

That's what I thought. Wonder if anyone's bothered to put together a nice comp of the lads skilful interlinking midfield play featuring ball winning, space making deft touches, short and mid range passes and raking crossfield balls??

Sad to see Xabi go, a brilliantly intelligent player. I'll always remember his smooth committed quality in our midfield...stepping up to take the pen in Istanbul, putting it away under massive pressure...the long range goals, the professionalism and the overall class of the man. Rafa and Purslow have played a blinder to prise Xabis worth from Real and I'm sure we'll sign quality for the position as opposed to a direct replacement. It'll be weird to see him playing with placcy et al...but good luck to him.

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That has been obvious since last summer and then reinforced by Rafas impassioned rebuttal of Barcelona and slapping 50mill price tag on Mascher. I'll be gutted when Alonso goes and your last sentence is certainly true, but it shouldn't be an opportunity for this revisionism of Alonso that many are coming out with now. I think in anyones terms he's been an outstanding success for us and in the Premiership in general - the very fact Madrid want him so badly and that he is so highly valued by Spain who have an embarrassment of riches in midfield positions is testament to that.

Nora Torres - brilliant name.

Michael Owen

proper order gone to Real according to Sky

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