ajams

It's going to be a mess whatever happens. If going into administration is part of the solution I'm fine with that.

I can't see any downside to getting the likes of El Zhar, Plessis and Degen off the wage bill. Shame we couldn't get rid of Itandje too.

If putting Kop Holdings into administration is what it takes I'd happily accept a 9 point deduction right now to get rid of those c****. I can't get away from that "Monster at the end of the horror film" scenario though. Every time things are looking up we either end up with nothing happening or with things getting worse.

I don't think I'm damning him with faint praise. He's clearly a talented player and his movement, vision and passing are all very good, but his speed and strength are questionable, his fitness is unreliable and his mentality was questioned by the man who bought him. He simply looked to me like a classic case of a good player in the wrong league. Atletico Madrid is exactly the type of game you'd expect him to do well in. Similarly games like Fulham at home and Portsmouth at home in the spring months are at the easier end of the spectrum. I'm not a big fan of Lucas and all things being equal I'd rather have kept Aquilani I suppose, but frankly i don't think either of them are right for us. I'd expect both to be gone before too long barring a dramatic turn of events.

But why is that relevant? Since he became a regular he's played regularly and has been fit for the vast majority of games, domestic and international. Therefore his fitness record is surely not in question?

Apparently so. He'll probably do his knee in his first game for us now...

And given that the Portuguese league season is only 30 games long that means he's played 90% of Porto's league game for the last 3 seasons. Stats eh?

Meireles has played 180-odd games for Porto and Portugal since 2006. That's 45 games a season.

Well yeah, but I don't think it proves anything. Fact is Aquilani has had fitness troubles throughout his career. Towards the end of his time here he managed to stay fit enough for long enough that he looked like he might, possibly, be able to make a contribution. In the end he put in a couple of decent performances against fairly lightweight opposition, but I can't see where he was going to fit into the team as a regular starter, and that was the main reason given for why we let him go. At least with Lucas and Poulsen you've got cheaper players on lower wages who can do a job. Aquilani was an expensive signing who was costing us big wages and didn't look like commanding a regular place. Anyway, this argument's been done at length elsewhere, but as I said, we'll never know how things might have turned out under different circumstances.

Yeah, well I guess we'll never know. He was obviously talented, but I don't think his future was assured here even if Rafa had stayed. Either way you look at it selling Alonso and replacing him with Aquilani was not a good decision in the context of how last season panned out. Several people said at the time that he could be a make or break signing for Rafa, and I think that's pretty much how it turned out.

Collymore's so full of s*** it's unbelievable.

Both were huge disappointments, and I think its just as well for your argument that Rafa was sacked before he had the chance to get rid of Aquilani himself. His statements about the player's mentality, his unwillingness to play him even when "fit" and his (admirable) willingness to bite the bullet and get rid of failures suggest to me he might well have done just that.

Ah, just read Aurelio has an achilles problem and won't be available for Birmingham. Plus ca change...

I see GH's £14m elephant and raise you Rafa's £17.1m elephant. That said I do agree Rafa left the squad better than he found it. Incidentally the Guardian is saying Patrice Bergues is going to Villa too. Be interesting to see what happens - I'd back Houllier to improve them, O'Neill's team really looked like a disorganised mess towards the end.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

Is Aurelio injured? I assumed he wasn't picked for West Brom because Hodgson didn't want him playing 2 games in quick succession.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

I have no idea what relevance this has to my post. It's fairly rare you have anything of interest to say in any case, so I'm sure I won't miss too much with your refusal to reply.

Not sure how you got that out of it. It was clear from well before Rafa's departure that keeping the squad together was going to be the main objective this summer.

I read that the total valuation of the deal was 3.5m - the two youngsters accounting for 1.5m combined, plus 2m cash. Can't remember where I read it though...

Don't necessarily agree with this, but it's a moot point as he's likely to have a few months in the job before a decision needs to be made. Should be apparent by then which way things are going under him.