Tomo

That just isn't an option now, he can walk into Barcelona's team next year if he wants so that rules out the PL loan. If he was owned by Athletico their would be a potential goalkeeping record breaking auction for him this summer, imagine if we were competing with the top clubs in Europe for his signature and we told him we were going to loan him out to the PL to adapt? Next year is decision time, we have to play him or sell him.

I don't disagree with the sentiment's of the article but we can't keep using Van Der Sar and assuming every keeper can go on the same. Shay Given for example was a top keeper in his prime, but in his mid 30's went to Villa and started declining to the point now he is Villa's 3rd choice keeper behind some novice. Van Der Sar may have gone to 40, but it doesn't mean every keeper will.

They won 2 and one of them was as good as by default because Arsenal threw away a 10 point lead. How many title winning number 1 keepers are not in the top bracket as far as keepers are concerned? Part of the reason Arsenal's season's kept derailing is because they were picking between Almunia and Fabianski, Cech's long injury in 06/07 was one of the main reason's we lost the title. Finding keepers really isn't that easy, especially top one's, if we sold Courtois and his comments about Cech retiring early are true, then their is no guarentee at-all that we will find a top class keeper in the league of those two, i can't think of an available keeper that is.

I came on this thread hoping for talk and analysis of his goals. Should have known better.

I agree and hopefully work will be done on changing that under Jose. Despite the myth that he hates young players, he gave Huth 2 years to prove himself and gave him a fair amount of games despite having the 3 best CB's in the league. He even gave Scott Sinclair his debut in a title decider. Im aware we are not talking about a 'half decent' product, that comment was more tongue in cheek and not referring to Nathaniel but youth players in general If we were a midtable club, Chalobah and McEachran would probably be regular's by now, but the problem that would bring, is team's better than us would be sniffing about like a preying mantis.

Sorry for the complete late response i didn't get the notification that you quoted me and haven't been on this thread since. Before Pep took over the talent of those three are obvious, but they weren't the undebatable best in their position's Pep turned them into. Xavi was 28 when Pep took over and while he was a very talented player, he wasn't even in people thought's when it came to the best CM's in the planet. Also a fact that is conveniently ignored is Barca were the 3rd best team in Spain when he took over and in a mess, he took over a team full of talented individuals and turned them into one of the best teams of our generation. The one dimensional thing is a fair argument, but at the same time the myth that he was a lucky passenger on the Barca steam-train could not be further from the truth.

I don't think that's true, football these days is such a high pressured environment, even Ferguson who's job security was a high as mine on fifa career mode with easy board difficulty, hesitated when it came to playing young players in the last 10 years, with exception of Rafeal, who did he play regularly without a PL loan first? even Wenger (who is widely hailed for his youth integration) wouldn't make Wilshere a trusted first team member until he proved himself at Bolton. I personally think there has to be a balance between the two, club and supporters meeting in the middle so to speak, club's (not just our's) are ultra cautious while the supporters (in general) would happily chuck any half decent product in at the age of 18. We could probably be able to integrate youngsters if that means no title for a few years, but in the world of FFP, we can just not afford to end up outside the top 4.

Why? it's not like Rodgers is still there, they have a better manager now.

If that was so easy, i think Fergie would have took quicker than 6 years to find an adequate replacement for Schmeichel.

That's not my view, but other's have said in the last few months that he should be loaned out to the PL to "adapt" to the league, i have been saying for months that next summer is decision time. I wouldn't have regarded it as a 'fantasy' if it was my wish.

And Torres isn't?

Promise? we are talking about a 29 year old, not a teenager just out of the academy. Torres is just crap, the fact he is getting praised to the hilt for the WHL performance is the problem, if Torres was at his best, this would have been one of his quieter performances and he would have actually got criticized for missing a 1 on 1 not praised for getting in that position in the first place. Ba was an asset to us Sunday because he gave us another option to go route 1, his presence should have won a penalty straight away then assisted a goal, then caused Ruddy to panic which luckily the defender tracked behind him to cover. Eto'o even if not scoring is good for keeping play going if nothing else, the amount of turnovers from him in a game is very low, compared to Torres who's turnover count in games last season entered the early 30's. I atleast feel we actually have 11 men when Ba and Eto'o are playing, not the same feeling i get with Torres. None of them are a long term solution but personally Torres is my numero tres out of the forwards we have.

Don't you think? i think it will make the world of difference. You only need to look at Man.Utd who won 4-2 against Levekusen despite playing dog shit to see where actual good forwards will get you not one's who "work hard for the team". When it comes to a forward - Goals > link up play, working hard and all that jazz, if we have a forward who scores almost every match, we would effectively be 1-0 up before we set foot on the pitch. That's why i would have took Mario Gomez with my eyes closed. The line i see used a lot is our system doesn't rely on a forward, well funnily enough since Jose left the last time we have only had one season off a striker being bang on his game and scoring week in, week out and by coincidence it's the only season we have won the league since.

Im guessing this well an truly kills the fantasy we can loan him to Fulham to adapt to the PL well and truly stone dead.

If im about to make a post that was factual, i double check if im unsure if what im about to say is correct and won't make me look like a tit. It baffles me why some of these don't do the same, it wouldn't get me so annoyed if they were on a wage like the rest of us. But Garth Crooks is probably picking up 5 figure sum's monthly, that alone shows what is wrong with this country. I use to work in a Garden Centre, if i told a customer that this plant was a certain type and it wasn't, i would have got the sack, so how did Garth keep his job (or even avoid a huge bollocking) when he made such a huge blunder with the Morrison thing?

I believe it's time for Jose to choose his number 1 and stick with him, while playing the other two for rotation sake only. Our 3 forward's aren't the best, but the fact they are swapping with eachother isn't helping, the question is who should be the main man until atleast January? Torres is a no no for me, he had his chance last season, yes he scored 20 goals but he nearly had 70 games, that is not a great ratio, at-all. So it's between Ba and Eto'o, tough one, i would say Eto'o because i believe he is the best overall out of the 3, even tho he isn't scoring he isn't losing the ball that much and the difference technically between him and the other two is night and day.

Also does any one else notice how many mistakes they make, well paid 'experts' not even doing their research. Lawrenson for example in the Spain vs Uruguay match at the confederation's cup, said "would be nice to be Isco for a bit, wouldn't it?" yes Lawro, the same Isco that's thousand's of miles away playing at the under 21 tournament @NishC300, They would get a lot more respect if they actually offered their own opinion (especially if he went against the general consensus) and explained why they believe that, i mean it wouldn't have taken that much research and analysis to disprove the Luiz myth, for example. Look at Gary Neville's superb analysis on the Classico at the end of 2011 (youtube it if you want) that brought a completely new perspective for me on the way Barcelona play, the pundits that enroll the same old myth's make me sick.

Hardly any of them have a unique opinion, it is just sheepishly following the same general shit, week in week out.

Exactly, im actually baffled by all this Mourinho bashing, fair enough if you don't agree with his decision, but all this shit that he is ruining players, Spanish conspiracy, hates Lukaku is quite frankly cringeworthy. Someone even suggested Mourinho should leave if he didn't start playing Mata

Couldn't they have sent him on a 2 year loan? and if he needed to get away for personal reason's, i can think of better places to send him than the East End of London and then on loan in Birmingham. Regarding Pogba, he should have played a lot more without a doubt, only 4 sub appearances outside the Carling Cup was criminal for arguably the best teenager in Europe, you can't say you wouldn't have been spitting feathers if we had him and gave him the same amount of games then let him go for free? To put it in perspective, we gave average players like Scott Sinclair and Fabio Borini more appearances than United gave Pogba. I could say Huth aswell considering who our CB's were back then, but that was a long time ago.

Fully agree with this, he may cause controversies with other manager and pick fights, but he has always appreciated the people like Van Gaal and Robson who nurtured him, compare that to AVB who is obsessed with Guardiola (who he has no connection to) and takes sly digs at Jose at every available opportunity.

It's hilarious. One of my CFC supporting friends has been spent the last 5/6 years moaning about players power and now this year has been saying we should play Mata all game every game out of respect. So after all this time he has his wish, player power has gone, and now he is as good as calling for it to return, you can't make it up

There is so much wrong with this comment i won't even entertain it with a counter answer.

Mourinho is only saying that to take the pressure of his players, he is probably at Cobham now telling them we are going to win the title at Anfield But seriously, i highly doubt Mourinho isn't looking at the other team's this season and smelling blood.

and in both games we took the lead inside 5 minutes for them to equalize midway through the second half Lets hope we don't finish 6th this time tho, although i wouldn't mind another CL win.