robsblubot

No, he couldn't and he wouldn't and that was exactly my point before: this is just PR

Yeah my original point wasn't even so much about greed, but merely how lack of ambition is not healthy in the extremely competitive business of professional football and at the highest level at that. Concerning my aggressiveness, perhaps I've been able to "keep some of that aggression in my late life" - ironic.

you see you are linking being greedy with being bad or unprofessional and I think it could be exactly the other way around. He may be a good person, help others (I also think he does), and in order to do that (having that in the back of his mind) he chooses money over playing time. (not going into the technical aspects as we've been there before a few thousand times :))

fair enough no the other top teams are not exclusively comprised of demanding superstars, neither do they have any player as passive and comfortable as mikel. That's where we mostly disagree: I think mikel is very greedy. I think he only cares about money and that's the only reason he's stayed. Now if you believe player love clubs, I'm not going to stop you. I do not base my judgment on what they say whatsoever. Most of it is very well thought out, often with the blessing of the club and most certainly input from their agent. What is he supposed to say? I wish I could play more, but no other club will give me 75K a week, so I rather sit on the bench or not even that, than play in a smaller club for far lower wages - have you seriously ever heard a player say anything like this?

yeah I got that and disagree. So, even if you say that being nice, say Kante seems nice, and professional does not equate to aggression and competitiveness, can you imagine Kante displaying the same willingness to stay at the club - were he in the same situation as Mikel is or has been? Or JT a few years ago when he was still a top player. These top player are VERY competitive - they will not settle for anything less than an important role. BTW, I'm fairly certain Mikel has been told to leave and I am not sure he will (before his contract runs out).

well it's a matter of opinion, but you said "his attitude has always been top notch" and then at the same time you say that he is nice and mellow, but wish he weren't (had retained some of the lost aggression). Well, for me, the way for him to be better player would be to change his attitude. So, all this praising his attitude for not being competitive and collecting his fat paycheck at the end of the month is just crazy talk. (btw I do not think the attitude is the sole problem here - just don't agree with praising a non competitive attitude in a very competitive profession)

'yes we will take Luiz back for about the same absurd money if ,and only if, you will listen to our offer for verrati in Jan....' one can hope

never did, but like his attitude and the fact he *has been* proving me wrong makes this all the sweeter.

interesting... IMO you contradicted yourself in the post above. I have a hard time imagining any (like you call) 'major player' having mikel's attitude towards playing time and role: being a nice mellow guy who's not competitive (even within the squad) automatically makes him not good enough for a top club. Football is nothing but competition: you compete to get playing time; for better agent and contract; you compete for possession; you compete for yards (with and without possession), and once your are big enough you compete for media attention too. In terms of attitude alone, and keeping within Nigeria NT, I respect Moses' attitude a lot more than Mikel's. Moses does his thing quiet and keeps on improving. Has obviously been hitting the gym and bulking up. He's now back as a starter at the right time in his career and I sure respect that. Note that not respecting the player has nothing to do with respecting the human being. I've actually found that most of the absolute top players are rarely nice guys or even respectful human beings - they are just that good at kicking a fucking ball and that's pretty much all there is to it.

heh I realized that on the train, but sarcasm rarely comes through in this media. Still, then I would just:s/Disagree/Agree (for vi nerds only)

Disagree a good defense closing in quickly, blocking shots or angles, and keeping attackers off balance will always improve the 'luck' of the gk. did not have a prob with his perfs before and think he's been playing at a good level all along. The team overall is improving which improves individual perfs too. he's a great young gk and we are lucky to have him.

big fellas like him need to be fit otherwise they will lose mobility. Looks a hell lot fitter this season, as does other players as well. Makes me wonder what the fuck did they do last season, or rather not do.

there is a huge DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack against Dyn (DNS provider) taking place right now. It is affecting several companies and services. http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/10/dos-attack-on-major-dns-provider-brings-internet-to-morning-crawl/

make it later then. With that first touch - if you can call it that - I'm sure he will get a spot in any top team until he can no longer walk. Just drop deeper for more space... Fernandinho... D.Luiz got all the "praise" in the heavy loss to Germany, but Luis Gustavo and especially Fernandinho were the ones (in midfield) getting run past with ease.

heh if we do get thiago silva, you will find out how similar they are. same number of brainfarts - just different ones.

overrated player. Thiago and David Luiz form one of the worst partnerships in defense I've ever seen. Failed for both Brazil and PSG. They are the same player: very technical ball playing defenders which do not and ever will work together.

second that. Also, the team isn't almost ready, in which case a world class playing in a specific position, would take us to the next level. The team is being rebuilt, so the money has to be used wisely. My personal opinion has been that this club has always lacked in strength in depth; even at times when we have good performing starting XI, we don't have a starting XV: we don't have cover of the same caliber and that shows esp in the PL.

right but how can they write stuff like that with a straight face? sounds like a Juventus supported twitted his dream deal and someone a the paper took it.

good money is given for good players. According to the majority here, he's just another mikel... He should be going for 3-5m then.

Aside from very few moments including the nice finish for the goal I though he was pretty poor. hes just too weak and too slow (and not skillful enough) for a cm role imho he can track back ok but it's another thing doing that during 90.

This guy has been a starter for so long and been playing at a high level for a long time. He's been poor lately, but let's not forget how good he has been for us in the past. On his current form, I wonder whether he could've done more to keep playing at a high level. As players age they lose mobility, so they have to work harder and sometimes also drop weight to keep the fat ratio lower than usual - seen players do that which kept them playing for a very long time.

Either our defenders are as lacking as we claim they are, in which case it doesn't take much to vastly improve on them, or they are still good players and so we really need to go for 50m defenders. I think the truth lies somewhere in between: we don't really have to go that high to improve on them and they are not terrible players either - Ivanovic's round form aside.

Henderson is about the same as what we already have. He just plays in a team that is clicking so he looks better than our good/decent players. Ironically, I think Matic (or Kante) would indeed improve liverpool by a lot as they simply don't have a good DM (said good not great), Lucas used to be good, but not after the injuries.

Difficult to compare gk pat completely different stages at their careers... tibo is a lot younger than cech at the position where they peak in their thirties. our squad has several deficiencies and goalkeeping is not one of them.

Good game against hull! had one great player that did not go in, but that's OK. I don't need him to beat 5 player every game, but I want him to participate, look for the ball, link up and harass opponents: he did all that today.