alias75

Poulson and Ngog might be the 2 players...

hearing we might be in for Shawcross £11 million plus 2 players (don't know who) apparently Utd gave up their option on him after they bought Jones.

I think the most likely scenario is we've offered him a shorter contract and Newcastle offered him 5 years. Given his injury record its a big risk offering him 5 years.

i did say a few pages back it was probably a low risk signing as long as we didn't put him on a long term contract, if he wanted 5 years it means we could be stuck with an injury prone player on big wages for a long time. Given what Commolli said about the club trying to identify players that have had good fitness records this was always a surprise signing given his poor injury record, probably a bullet dodged.

Agree given we have no European football this year Carragher should be be able to handle another season, Kelly can get a chance in the league cup and maybe some PL games but we're not that desperate that we have so spend that sort of money for someone like Dann.

the fee being talked about for Dann is crazy £12-15 million would rather we put our faith in Kelly and then Wisdom than spend that sort of money for someone thats solid but nothing special.

My point is looking at our strongest 11 its pretty good you could argue we need a proper left back and maybe another attacking player maybe to replace Kuyt but if we picked that team id be happy against any team in the PL. The problem is what we have below that, now id much rather we targeted young promising players to take those positions than someone like Cole or Jovanovic or Poulson. So lets not get too worried, its still only June, we don't have European games this season so we should be able to keep our strongest 11 players fresh all year and if we're lucky with injuries we could get away with a core squad of 14-15 players. Its unlikely we're going to attract CL quality players but that doesn't mean we can't make good progress this year. looks like a low risk gamble, think he'll be used as an impact player more than someone that's going to start games, he has pace which we badly need and could be useful late in games, they've probably looked at him and thought they can improve on his weaknesses, if it doesn't work out its no harm done (as long as we don't sign him to a long contract) and he's still a young player we could sell for profit.

Ok but there's a big difference signing a "squad player" like Henderson or Wickham than Cole or Jovanovic. The latter are only ever going to be squad players the former can develop and become first team players.

Or we can target young players we think will grow into CL quality players and in the short term they help improve the squad depth and in the long term they improve the first team.

Our strongest 11 players is still pretty good, and it is good enough to compete with the other top teams in the league, even if we signed nobody we could field this team... ............................................................Reina............................................................... Kelly.......................Carragher......................................Agger.....................Johnson ...........................................................Lucas.......................................................... ...................................Meireles............................Gerrard..................................... ...........Kuyt..........................................Carroll......................................Suarez........... Thats a pretty good team without signing anyone, the problem is what we have after that. One strategy is to target highly talented young players who can improve our depth but also have lots of scope to grow and improve. It is going to be difficult to attract CL level players without CL football but we can target highly talented young players that will develop into CL quality players. We have the advantage this season of having no European football so its possible we could work with a pretty small squad if we're lucky with injuries (less games might help with that) and we can blood the talented young players we have in the Carling Cup. So i don't think we should get too disheartened, looking at that team i think we could sign a top quality left back and CB because we can't rely on Agger to stay fit and if we can get Wickham to cover for Carroll and sign 1 more attacking player i think we're looking pretty good.

3 of those are defenders, England played so much ball the midfield was being bypassed a lot, Henderson was further forward than the 1st game but none of the midfielders touched the ball much. This group of young England players were supposed to be the 1st lot that had the benefit of the academy system but they never looked to pass it short from the back and it really was quite depressing how bad they looked. Thats not a slight on any player but you do have to wonder how they're being coached to play because from what i saw the GK was hitting it long almost all the time.

City have been linked with a few wingers recently and he wasn't first choice there last season...

Kuyt will be like signing a new forward because i don't think he'll be played wide right anymore. you'd think Matt Holland would have some idea of whats happening at Ipswich though.

It took Xabi a long time to get to grips with less time on the ball when teams figured out he was the one that made us play, he did learn to cope with it eventually. At Blackpool Adam is the obvious one to stop but if he came here teams couldn't really afford to man mark him because we have many other better players who will get extra time or space.

think the Adam stuff is legit, also being reported that Shelvey will go to Blackpool on loan which i think is a good move. Think we'll see Henderson play more right side in the Meireles position with Kuyt being used primarily as a forward which is his proper position.

it was a tough game for Henderson because lots of time he had the ball there weren't many passing options, what i liked about him was his energy and willingness to get forward, especially away from home when you play more on the counter attack that kind of energy will be great.

Pretty sure the initial deal for Henderson closer to £15-16 million it might get close to £20million if numerous clauses are met. If we sell them Ngog too it becomes an even better deal. The media seem to be parroting the £20million fee because it makes a better story the more money he costs...

think he means Harrod's prices...

we've probably made Villa an offer their happy with otherwise as you say it would probably drag on. Im sure there's going to be lots of winging cos people will say we've overpaid again but as long as we're bringing in the players the manager wants thats the main thing. Think its going to be difficult to shift some of these high earning bench warmers, Cole does seem like the type of person that would take a wage cut to play but im not so sure its going to be as easy with Jovanovic or Poulson.

relax the #1 ITK has spoken!! so im guess the 2 from Asda are Adam and maybe Dann? the 1 from Aldi / Lidl is Marveaux?

With the home grown quota thing maybe the club have decided to get as many good quality young British players as possible now and when you combine that with the good quality young players we have coming through thats something we won't have to worry about again for a long time. Bringing in British player does have its benefits too in terms of the time it takes them to adjust, and no cultural / language problems. Of course they have to be of the required quality but if the scouts think they are it does make sense to target them.

Its a no lose situation for Blackburn cos they know there's another 2 or 3 teams that are seriously interested, so the worse thing that can happen is they sell him for £16million but they might be able to get closer to £20 million so why not try.

the biggest thing Guardiola did was turn Barcelona into a pressing team when they didn't have the ball, before that when they lost it they were happy to get men behind the ball now they press like demons and usually win it back very quickly. on another note we've signed a kid called Lloyd Jones from Plymouth, aged 15 he plays for Wales youth.

Good read that, but reading what he had to say about the importance of the players attitude and how it was very difficult for someone thats had a bad attitude in the past to change, it does make me wonder why on earth we would have been interested in Barton (if we were)

to be fair the stuff about Jones broke on Soccernet last night and they're usually pretty reliable, i guess those twitters are just repeating that story.