Tomo

Then why have Ake and Andreas nailed down first the places against tough competition from players owned by the club.

Double post, sorry if anyone's liked it.

Usually you can tell if a player has a chance of succeeding and if we can't the coaching staff can, like I alluded to in an earlier post if we are going down the route off we will only know if we play them then we might as well play Amelia for a few games, after all Courtois and Begovic have hardly been stocking up on clean sheets. If we brought Bamford now there would probably be ameltdown over our lack of ambition for signing a player whos only proves themself in the Championship, just like when Hector was signed.

Hopefully if/when an academy player comes through to be a full time first team player, all this pining for players clearly not good enough (Bamford, Kalas and before them PVA, Clifford etc) will ease up a bit.

Marcelo and Alaba moved from up the pitch, would you say it killed their career? Kenedy displays at left back have been very exciting and he has the potential to he a revelation there, where as at winger he lacks the close control and decisions making to be top bracket. In short I think he has the potential to be a world class fullback, but not more than a very good winger.

So If we sent a 21 year old Sturridge to Palace would he have been benched because Palace don't own him? Palace strikers scored one goal (from a penalty) between them all season and Bamford didn't get a look in, that speaks volumes. Eventually instead ofbashing the club we have to accept players aren't good for enough, before anyone quotes me saying how do you know if they won't get a chance? If that's how you think then how about we start Marco Amelia on Sunday against Arsenal?

Kane is the exception rather than the rule, using Kane as an example as to why we should give player chances is akin to using Fergie as evidence of why managers should be given time.

Although we won't be to the same extent Leti were, we will be relative underdogs if we keep being stingy in the market. City, United andpossibly Arsenal are going to spend big from now on.

Thing is with Bertrand is go to about page 30 on his thread when he was getting regular game time and it was dawning on many that he was quite ordinary, decent but that's it, it's only since he's been gone his reputation has gone up but that is often the case here, I'm convinced its not long until someone suggests Cuadrado will be the answer to all our prayers, after all, a couple of people were saying Torres would make this team better during the Leicester thread

It was even worse earlier in the season when we played them. Apart from the 2-0 last season at The Bridge, the form guide has favoured Arsenal almost every time we've played them in recentyears and we always get a result. They have such a raging inferiority complex against us, they had it even worse against United until LVG blew it.

Even Cuadrado wasworld class compared to Marin, that's how bad Marko was, I usually give players At least 6 month worth of games before writing them off but he was so so shit.

Its Amelia and Blackman I feel sorry for, were conceding loads of goals with Courtois and Begovic and neither are getting a chance, I mean who signs a world cup wimner and doesn't play them?

I really hope so Arsenal haven't got the minerals to beat us 3-0.

Fair enough, he's no Baines going forward you won't have any arguments from me there i just believe he's better than given credit for, sometimes in a defensive position, say just by the half way line, he has a tendency to pass back to Terry/Cahill/Zouma when a forward pass was better, but in the final 3rd I don't think he's too bad, as the games under Guus have shown. Ivan is a problem however, and I won't be against seeing Cesar back on the right for a dynamic left back to be signed and come in that side or maybe try Kenedy there (Baba isn't the answer in my opinion, at least not right now) but equally if it's a new RB we sign and ditch Ivan, I won't be too upset to see Azpi continue as left back either.

Off the top of my head since Guus has come in, Cesar has scored once, had two shots saved by Dea Gea and Hennesy respectively, assisted Rubens goal and created two chances yesterday (Cesc backheel saved by Howard and Diego miskick I think, might be wrong on which ones but I'm sure he set up two chances). In 5 games that a good record for a left back who's supposedly shit at attacking, if Baba came in for 5 games and did half of that his thread would explode about how great it is to finally have a left back who can attack. His lack of attacking was more down to instructions than any lack of ability on his behalf, I'm not saying he's Marcelo or Alaba but he's nowhere near as bad going forward as General opinion suggests.

I'm a massive believer in law of averages 6th-8th is my prediction, and I'll take that no questions asked to be honest.

Massive exaggeration, Pedro's been average but Marin was like a kid who won a competition to play for Chelsea for a season.

That's true, but the way I see it is their has to be a spell this season before May, where Courtois is unbeatable, Terry is a wall, Cesc is dictating games, Hazard is completely unplayable and Costa can't stop scoring, even if it's just a few games, that will help us climb up the table, especialy in this PL.

Liverpool and United are so shit, the fact were below them both shows just how horrible we've been, but in top form we are well ahead of both.

Not this season, but we will bounce back. What does worry me tho now Jose is gone is we might go back to not really caring about back ups, first time around Jose kept Carlo then brought Hilario (who was a lot better than given credit for) then when Carlo left and Hilario declined we had Turnbull as number two for years, then Jose returned and fixed that initially and brought in Schwarzer (although not brilliant better than Turnbull by a distance), then when Tibo came back he had Cech as back up and even Schwarzer as number 3, then when Cech wanted tl go for first team football in came Asmir. Jose always made sure his teams were well covered in goal with very good/decent back ups in Cudicini, Toldo, Cassilas, Schwarzer, Cech, Begovic and even decent expierenced number 3s like Hilario, Schwarzer after Tibo arrived and Amelia. I just hope our new manager values decent back ups in goal should Asmir leave for first team footy because we got lucky that Cech never had long lay offs when Turnbull was understudy, this season when Tibo went down we were conceding for fun even with Begovic in goal, imagine if we had Turnbull.

I agree with all off that apart from top 4 and relegation. The only way we are getting CL next season is if we win it this and the only way we are getting relegated is if we get done for match fixing. Top 6 is still a realistic aim however, few wins on the spin and we are their or their abouts.

It annoys me when people say Terry was the last youth player brought through to the first team. No, Bertrand was, yes he may have been sold eventually, but so was Nicky Butt and Cleverly at United but they are still classed as United youth products. He was member of the first team squad for 3 years making 56 appearances, that was brought through and integrated into the first team in my eyes.

Which game exactly did Remy show more encouragement?

So Costa starts scoring and Lukaku hits a mini dry spell, all off a sudden Lukakus thread goes a bit quiet Paq and zolayes were banned at the wrong time, wish they were still here now for their comments in this thread alone, safeto say Paq would be pretty smug right now and rightly so.

As you know I was one of the biggest backers of Jose on here but he completely lost the team and the performances, the Watford and today fightbacks wouldnt have happened under him (this season). You're right, I probably didexaggarare by saying a lot, but despite only two wins jn six we have made positive steps to recovery and I would have maintained that belief even if this ended 0-2.