Guz

I do hate this angelic nostalgia of Rafa's Valencia side. They were excellent, obviously being Spanish champions 2 years out of 3 but they were dirty, cynical and full of c****. We were beaten to a pulp in the 2nd half by Barca in that 3-1 defeat at home (the one with the Overmars goal after about 200 Barca touches) and I felt no resentment towards the Barca team and if I remember rightly they were clapped off by the Kop. Valencia left a very sour taste in my mouth. Obviously their ball control and retention were superb but I hope we don't end up with the other side of the game that the likes of Aimar had. I suppose looking at the players we have in the squad at the moment we probably won't and there's a case to be made that we need more cynical c**** in the side. Don't agree with the vilification of the Kewell signing either. We signed possibly the best right back in the league at the time (Finnan) and the two french "gems" turned up aswell iirc. And a slight change in transfer philosophy wasn't totally unexected given the down turn we made the previous season after spending so heavily on Diouf, Diao, Cheyrou whereas the previous season we progressed into 2nd place after making Riise and Dudek our only major signings. I dont think we play like we did under Houllier either though. Although I feel the football from 2000-2002 was under rated and sometimes unfairly criticised. We had a good bunch of lads in Sami, Riise, Carra, Murphy, Didi, Gerrard, Babbel (pre illness), Macca, Owen, Murphy and Heskey playing some decent stuff, scoring some excellent goals and getting some excellent results also. We were no where near as tactically flexible though which has been one of the hallmarks in our recent European success

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For me, Xabi's best season came 05/06 when he played with Momo (and Gerrard/Kewell on the wings). He may not have created as many youtube videos with hollywood balls like he did in his first season against Norwich and the like, but he looked sharper, stronger and much more at ease with the pace of the game.

They have no case about Rafa's comment, it was meaningless. If Levy is saying we spoke to keane and/or his agent to convince him to come to us then he's probably correct. Thats what tapping up is and we almost certainly did it in some capacity (whether enough to get a slap on the wrist for is another matter, probably not) and that helps us get the player without constantly getting knocked back by the selling club or paying a hugely inflated price. Probably happens all the time though

The statement says "we have not accepted any offer" not that we havent put an offer in or that it hasn't been verbally agreed. The move is obviously pretty close and almost certainly nailed on to happen but it would hardly be a surprise if details of the fee are still being negotiated and/or Spurs are waiting to sign a replacement, or atleast get close to one.

Tapping up is probably true....to an extent and I'm sure there's been communication between the club and Keane's agent and maybe the player himself. Probably happens up and down the country in a huge percentage of transfers. Big thing is that Levy has admitted Keane wants to sign for us so only a matter of time.

There's no way both clubs could control the whole of the national media like that though. Most of the papers this morning mentioned us ready to put in a proper bid, it's very strange for big high profile transfers like this to get to a stage of fee and personal terms agreed without the press knowing about it. There's always an air of inevitibility as clubs close in on big transfers. The papers have all been running virtually the same story about this for about 2 weeks. That's assuming we have actually done a good job at keeping it under wraps and not that we're finally ready to put in a bid, keane wants to come to us but spurs have yet to agree. I'd be made up if we signed keane though, very good player

How exactly would putting a transfer request in going to reduce Villa's asking price? They know he wants to leave anyway and have done so for over 2 months. Can talk about the loyalty bonus all day long but I dont see how much a transfer request is going to help except further brun bridges with a club he may eventually stay with (and has been with for 10 years) No one is gonna boo Barry (except maybe the brummies), why the f*** would the rest of the country care?

And forget about a player we've publically wanted for the last 2 months and are willing to sell on of our regular first teamers to buy? f***ing hell It's obvious Rafa is f***ing desperate for the player yet people want us to just walk away from the deal to piss off Villa and/or Barry. Just beggars belief the lack of faith in the manager

Had no idea they tought Scouse in German schools

Too many rigid formations here. We'll play some combination of 4231/433/442 as all top teams do. Off the ball it's compact and tight as all Rafa teams are but on the ball we need to be fluid and dynamic. The mancs last year played without a proper striker upfront for most of the game. But Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney, Scholes etc. are intelligent footballers and their movement and work rate makes their attacking football work while still being defensively solid. Keane, Barry, Gerrard and Torres are all clever and hard working players able (apart from Torres) to play in more than one position and who naturally like to roam in the attacking third. Add to that Babel who will hopefuly go up a gear from last year, Kuyt and maybe one more 'wide forward' and we'll have a group of very hard working but intelligent footballers up the field. Combine that with new found width from our full backs alongside Carragher/Agger/Skrtel and Mascherano ahead of them - it's fitting together nicely IMO. That said though - still ages to go before the start of the season, let's see who else we sign.

Cant wait to see this guy play. A quality full back can add a lot to a team's attacking play and there have been a fair few positive reports about Dossena.

I can't wait to see Dossena and Degen play. Don't think the latter will go straight into the team but an excellent full back is capable of adding so much to attacking play.

To be fair PTS gives you a 1 in 2 chance of getting 17 league home tickets before they go on sale to the general public. You get an advantage and a bigger chance of getting tickets. Can't blame people for not wanting to pay for a situation they're already in. Thats if that ever comes into place. At the moment this £29 a year gets you a place on the seasie waiting list (which a lot of people have anyway, for free, unless the list is just a sham and a load of s**** which it probably is), chance to get tickets for which seasies don't want (how well this will work is debatable considering most of the time it gets handed off to mates/family) and a load of crap like DVDs and pens. I'm guessing after christmas or so the club are going to announce a scrapping of all fancards from the next (09/10) season and that the £29 membership card is the new access to tickets like a few clubs do at the moment.

Neither player has really kicked up a fuss till now (Barry's comments the other day). We dont know if the Keane transfer request is genuine and I don't think either play would want to end their time with their clubs on a bad note either.