teignman

Sorry, but I like to focus on the pen Drogs made in Europe, more than the one he missed in Africa. :blue scalf:

I agree with your reasoning. TBH, I didn't even read the article. I just saw the romanticism bit and took it as an opportunity to deride the dippers.

If only Benitez was as good as he thinks he is.....

If Pep loves "romanticism" of a club's past, he should have gone to the Scousers. They wallow in that shit.

Quite. Shaw is also blessed with a lot more raw pace than Bertie, which helps immensely.

I hear ya, but you also have to look at Cahill for that goal too. Granted, Lambert gave him an almighty shove before the cross came in, but Cahill just stood there rooted when the ball came into the box. As happens so many times, a series of errors lead to a goal.

This would be a great piece of business if his buyout is only £3.5m. We need depth in midfield and could flog him off for a tidy profit eventually, if we so desired.

I highly doubt he starts. He just played 45 mins with the U21s Thursday, and he did not look match fit at all.

Agree. Roman is a business man, and an extremely shrewd and skilful one at that (add ruthless to that list). If one of his employees is seriously under performing, he would let them go. Heaven knows he does it with our managers. So why not with blondie? I know he is on ridiculously high wages, but the time has come for us to see if we can find a way to get rid of him. Even if that means letting him go on a free, and paying a significant portion of his wages.

I don't have a problem with this signing, provided it does not take away from our ability to add someone to solve our glaring deficiencies and lack of depth in midfield. If it does, then I have a massive problem with it.

Because we're hoping, maybe, just maybe, it won't happen this time.

He's also been playing right back for the entire season. That looks to be his better/best position.

Amen brother. These two are at the top of my list for transfer targets. Hopefully the club is thinking along the same lines we are.

Ah, the simple pleasures of having a striker that knows how to position himself, what runs to make, and doesn't lose the ball like a bodily function. Excellent debut.

I was alerted to this via an article by Stephen Schmidt on WAGNH:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2256820/Luis-Suarez-switch-positions-Daniel-Sturridge-transfer.html#ixzz2GxoWemKz Sounds to me like 'ol Danny boy is going to get his wish of playing through the middle. I think the risks far outweigh the benefits. Suarez has been a top CF this season.

I'm hearing about 70-80k per week.

Even if it's the former, the financial risk is not that great, judging by the terms I've seen bandied about.

So with Ba apparently on his way, is the FSC actually going to prefer him to Torres? Magic 8-ball says, "outlook not so good."

That would've made for an awkward car ride home.

We were consistently losing to London clubs under AVB as well.

I beg to differ. Apart from the chance he created for Moses, he was quite poor, which was par for the course for our group of sad sacks today.

Probably the most humiliating loss in some time. Even when we got thumped at the Bridge by Sunderland a couple of seasons ago, the Mackems played well.

They're probably using this as a tactic to get better wages from us. I wouldn't start worrying just yet.

Yeah, Rafa will probably stick with Torres as his main man unfortunately, but I am heartened by the willingness he's shown to rotate. As far as Ba's goal drought: one of the major factors in that was that he was often made to play a wide position by Pardew, and he has no business playing there. Even if he does go into a pronounced slump, we're paying a low fee for him and his wages shouldn't be too bad. My main concern is how his knees will hold up. If you're failing medicals on a regular basis, there's obviously something amiss. Overall though, Ba is a risk worth taking.

So glad we got him instead of Debuchy or Maicon. He's still got some rough edges, but he's young and talented.