alias75

Wisdom?? Ayala?? we're pretty well stocked in young CBs with lots of potential but its a tough position to play inexperienced players so you have to be careful. Wisdom is obviously highly regarded which is why he travelled with the 1st team a few times at the end of the season.

I think Kelly has just as much potential as Jones if not more, physically hes more suited to being a CB being 6ft 3. Blackburn played Jones as a holding midfielder a fair bit although he seems good in the air for his size in the PL particularly you need those big dominant CBs. We shouldn't underestimate how good Kelly could become, hes captained England through the age groups and its only injuries that have held him back a bit, we all saw how good he was at fullback this season in a team low on confidence, his position is CB so hopefully he gets a few chances there.

thats why id rather we signed someone aged 24-25 and slowly blood Kelly. Even if we got Jones im not sure he's ready to come straight into our first team.

the key will be when both Ferdinand and Vidic are no longer playing, its one thing to look good playing alongside a great player another thing when they're not there. Someone like Smalling i think still looks pretty raw especially at the very top level, its all good looking comfortable in an easy home game alongside Vidic or Ferdinand but completely different doing it every week, away from home or in the CL when that experience isn't alongside you.

Don't worry he hasn't done anything yet and its a huge step up playing for Blackburn (mainly as a holding midfielder) to being a CB at Man Utd, obviously he has a lot of potential but so does Martin Kelly and so does Wisdom, so in terms of young central defenders we're pretty well stocked and id prefer getting someone in a bit more experienced that can come straight into the first team and let Kelly learn the position and eventually take over the position. Onto the next target!!

Kelly is every bit as talented as Jones (maybe more) so lets not be too dissapointed if we miss him. We already have potentially a top young CB at the club and hes a local lad too!!

Neither of these players have shown much yet to suggest they could be 1st team players at the highest level for the next 10 years, its still potential with both these players. Lets see how they cope when they don't have Ferdinand or Vidic next to them.

the sky article is pretty vague its very difficult to distinguish between solid information and chinese whispers because of twitter. Like others have said though if he chooses Utd then we just move onto the next target, hes far from the finished article so its not as if he was going to come in and all of a sudden dominate at the back for us, lets also not forget we have a young kid here in Kelly that could be every bit as good (if not better) than Jones at CB so lets not get too disapointed. CB is such a key position id probably prefer it if we signed someone around 24-25 who can come straight in a be solid. Kelly could be a long term solution.

looks like he'll be a good player but there are lots of good players out there, and its still potential your paying for rather than the finished article. just have to move onto the next player, if he's happy being a bit part player at Utd for the next 2-3 years then thats his choice.

Sky Sports sources understand Phil Jones is not heading for Anfield but is in fact having a medical ahead of signing a five-year deal with Manchester United. We'll bring you more details as we get them. thought he was with the U21's??

Sunderland can value Ngog at whatever they want to try and save face, certainly makes the deal look a lot better for us especially if we can bring in Wickham to replace Ngog.

@bensmith_Times: #LFC have offered £11m plus N'gog for Henderson. #SAFC want a tad more. A deal will be done.

bensmith_Times Ben Smith David N'gog now an integral part of Jordan Henderson's move to #LFC.

he could play the meireles position too which is right hand side but tucked in a little, as long as your fullbacks get forward it can work well and give you numbers in midfield.

Think Jones should be a priority he looks to have huge potential, hopefully staying in the north west and having a better chance of 1st team football will give us the edge over any London team interested. Think him and Wickham would be fantastic signings.

Not sure where that comes from, surely the main reason for getting these deals done quickly is so Kenny and Clarke have them in for pre-season from the beginning. How often have we left it last minute to sign players and then it takes ages for them to settle into the team or it means they've missed a huge chunk of our pre-season preparation. I think Clarke is going to do a lot of work with them in pre-season getting us fit and ready to hit the ground running, for that to happen we need all our new signings in place as early as possible.

Ok but hes definitely more effective through the middle than out wide and we don't need another central player, we already have, Gerrard and Meireles that can do that. I don't think hes as effective as a winger which is where we'd need to play him.

Once again Young does all his best work centrally, he hasn't played as a winger all season and for England he's primarily been used as a central player and thats where he's looked the most effective. We really don't need another central player. I think hes very inconsistent as an out and out winger, and you have to wonder why Villa moved him from out wide.

was that Wisdom that just flattened the Spanish CB??

He did say the initial fee was £10 million could be lots of add ons taking it to around £15 million

Maybe we've included a player or 2 in the deal?? (joe cole maybe)

Think missing out on the Europa will be a blessing, with European football the temptation might have been there to sign 5 or 6 players to strengthen the squad, the result of which would probably have been a reduction in the quality of player we signed. Now we can sign 3 maybe 4 players that are genuine first team players, with no European football we don't need as big a squad and the season after next hopefully back in the CL we can do something similar adding another few for the first team. By doing it that way the squad will have been strengthened which we need to do to cope with European and PL football but it won't have been strengthened at the expense of the quality of player we sign because it will be done over 2 seasons instead of 1. As for Adam id also been going off the idea the last few months but yesterday he was excellent, 2 footed great passer and one of the best dead ball takers in european football at the moment, whenever he stood over a free kick you just knew he'd create something or force the keeper to save it. With Carroll in the team someone that good over a dead ball could be priceless, i do think it would work especially in home games with Lucas and then Adam and Gerrard, away from home i think he'd play less as we probably need 2 holding type midfielders.

Typical end of season game with nothing on it. I know its easier to say now but i do think not being in the Europa will be a blessing in disguise. The Thursday / Sunday games take their toll and we just don't have the squad to cope, PL has to be our total focus and it can be now. I also think it helps in terms of recruitment in the summer because the need to beef up the squad as well as the starting 11 isn't really there with no European football, so hopefully we can add the 3 maybe 4 players that can come straight into the first team squad and then next season add another 2 or 3 of top quality instead of having to get 6 or 7 now just so we have the numbers to cope with Europe which would have an effect on the quality of player we would sign. I think with 3 players of the quality of Suarez we can make big progress next season, the squad needs improving but even with todays team we were missing 4 players that would probably be in our strongest 11 plus Maxi so almost half a team missing. Obviously the attacking positions have to be a priority, hopefully we can bring in 2 top quality attacking players that can come straight into the first team. Its been a poor season but its finished with everyone optimistic again, we've got rid of the owners and have Kenny back in charge, 2 or 3 young players have come in and showed they can do a job when needed and we have owners that will be committed to spending what we need to get back into top 4.

Suso and Coady won't be getting games in the PL maybe in the Caring Cup but it wouldn't surprise me if they went out on loan, personally id loan Shelvey too and let him have a full season in the PL but its pretty obvious Kenny likes him so he'll probably be here next season, but hes more of an offensive midfielder. I guess without european football its less important next year but we have to look beyond that and if theres a player we want that is available in the summer should we not get him because we won't be playing as many games next season. If everything goes to plan we'll be back in the CL and then we'll need the squad of players to cope with that. Spearing will be 4th choice...

It allows us to rotate a little bit too and gives the manager more options. We might pick up an injury in that position, or it allows us to rest someone if we want to. Gerrard could also play in one of the forward positions so if we want to go that way we have a quality player coming in. Taking nothing away from Spearing cos hes done well but we do need to strengthen that area.