Strike

3 playmakers "rejected"(for want of better term) in Spain are tearing up Premier League defences. Mata, Silva and Cazorla. Even Michu is in sublime form. Pablo Hernandez and Suso etc seem to be doing well. if you look back there were Xabi Alonso at Liverpool before.Ivan Campo at Bolton - 2002-2008. Fabregas at Arsenal. Arteta at Everton/Arsenal overlooked by Spain all these years. Ofcourse there have been exceptions like Albert Luque, Jordi Gomez and Albert Riera but it Really begs the question. English clubs are good for only hoofing long balls aren't they? Stoke and West Ham are thriving in the league this season. The exception to this is Swansea who play on the floor and they have 2 of the Spaniards mentioned. Also, there is Arsenal who play on the floor - marshalled by Cazorla. The only players England are capable of producing are pacy and tricky wingers. Bale(accepting British players now), Lennon, Walcott, SWP, Dyer, Routledge, McLeary, Moses, Chamberlain, Albrighton, Jarvis, ...i can go on but the point is England can't seem to produce quality playmakers. Jack Wilshere , Paul Scholes are the only English playmaker i can think of. Joe Allen ( borderline Welsh playmaker) but i can't think of anyone else. Lampard and Gerrard are also borderline 'playmakers'. Hardly Wilshere or Pirlo level in passing.

i don't think there is a good CM available on loan atm. only we were daft enough to loan Essien. don't think anyone else will loan their players unless he is having squad problems. Darren Bent comes to mind but he's a striker

http://en.toty.uefa.com/ Voted for Cech, Cole and Drogba, don't think Mata / Hazard (and Silva/Toure etc) deserve to be there

Analysing our options - to get a better idea so that people stop saying Hummels, Witsel and Falcao. We will have to overpay by a lot to get them ---Defenders--- Martin Skrtel, Mehdi Benatia, Mats Hummels, Angelo Ogbonna, Daniel Agger have all signed extensions to their contracts recently and have existing deals that run up 2016-17 2 viable options for us to try are Hummels' team-mate : Neven Subotic(expiring 2014) and Andrea Ranocchia (2015) --Mids-- Axel Witsel was mentioned a few days ago but he has a running contract upto 2017 and I don't see Zenit agreeing to a cut-price deal. Wesley Sneijder has apparently agreed to join PSG Yohan Cabaye, Sergio Busquets and Marouane Fellaini don't have long left in their contracts (expiring 2015) also, Joao Moutinho contract runs out in 2014 --Strikers-- Demba Ba - http://metro.co.uk/2...calate-3246776/ has a release clause of 7.5 mil and contract runs out in 2014 Klaas Jan Huntelaar - out of contract in the summer (expiring 2013) - will decide future in January although Arsenal seem to be ahead of us in the race for his signature Loic Remy - Contract up until 2015 Wilfried Bony - contract till 2015 and Vitesse are our feeder club. Should be no problem if we do want him Radamel Falcao - the man on everyone's lips - contract runs out in 2016. unsure whether we can afford him now with reports of a 48mil GBP release-clause -source:transfermarkt

and i didn't aim it as a lack of knowledge or appreciation of the sport. i don't like american sports (except Basketball and ice-hockey) and believe that football should referred to as football and not soccer. american/aussie football barely use foot as far as i know. just call it rugby or something

Welcome mate! Enjoy your stay

lol "Soccer"...it's FOOTBALL. You kick the ball with the FOOT.

Vitesse Arnhem? aren't we funding that club? i mean sending our youngsters on loan there. Is he a Drogba or a Obafemi Martins or a Heskey?

Higher than David Villa now?

down with a viral. reading the usual shyte at the pub all morning. Spike and Ryan, lol

hehe. that would be brilliant. Is there anyone available? to add a bit of depth to the attack? Huntelaar and Ba are the only ones i guess.

I am not jumping on his bandwagon just yet. Firstly, I haven't watched Falcao enough to make a fair assessment. Over here, La Liga means just Real and Barca (although it has improved after ESPN took over the rights) and the games are in the middle of the night. anyway, my point is, he costs around 48mil Pounds now. given that we won't get the financial boost of winning the Champions League and the fact that we turned over just 1-2 mil profit (inspite of the CL winning bounty), Falcao is unreachable atm. Financial Fairplay wise What we could try is a structured deal with 25mil + Torres and let them keep Courtois for another season. Maybe throw in Malouda as a Christmas present

what is he exactly? something like Lucas Piazon? also, will he be able to carry our attack? as in be our 3rd choice striker perhaps?

@Shon3x Unconfirmed reports of Lazar Markovic on his way to Chelsea. You know him well i suppose? what is he? and what does he offer to the team now or in the future?

I don't get you? maybe you can explain your post? the whole point is that there are No other vacancies so that we can get either of Pep or Jose.

inertia...wrong-footed

but a manc win will keep mancini in the job. they are direct contenders for pep/jose. plus, if manure win league this season, fergie may retire and that's another vacancy created for pep/jose. manc win will benefit us as well. not like we have a shot at the title anyway but good to keep hope and hunt down the two if possible. easy games coming up. ofcourse the ideal scenario would be for manc to win this and manu to win the title and miss out on CL, so that SAF stays

compare them in terms of quality to a PL team? what are we dealing with here? A West Brom? A West Ham? A QPR?

Major Noseblock. can't even breathe properly

saturday isn't it? again at 1030 UK and 4pm India

4pm here. aww man.. still better than UK - 1030 am lol

Fellaini seems to get a yellow card every other game. Rash

lol the Chelsea website showing Southampton as our next game in 6 days.... TC is run better

Steven Fletcher ruled OUUUUUT!

Sunderland have problems of their own