Thursday's B*ll*x (updated)

[Chinners]

City chairman rules out huge spending spree this summer
Only two arrivals likely with transfer business dependent on resolving future of captain Tevez
The Manchester City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak said last night that the club would sign only two players this summer, underlining the impression that manager Roberto Mancini will not find his board willing to spend vast amounts as they prepare to compete in the Champions League.
"It won't be like last summer, or the summer before," said Mubarak. "What you will see this year is strengthening the squad in areas that we feel require more depth. We don't need quantity, as today we have quality. We just need a couple of players."
The chairman's words, part of an interview that will be screened on the City website today, reinforce City football administrator Brian Marwood's message on Sunday that there would be only "tinkering" this summer. Mancini has said that "this is the summer we can buy" and publicly voiced his fears after the FA Cup final triumph over Stoke City that City could end up being out of the Champions League places at the end of next season – like Tottenham this year – if they do not spend.
Mubarak indicated that buying players would be a collective process – and it does seem clear that Mancini will not dictate the process. "It's always been a team approach," the chairman said. "We have a great operation with everyone involved, headed by our CEO Garry Cook, who I must say has done a phenomenal job for us. I'm so proud of what he has accomplished."
City's activity may depend on the destiny of Carlos Tevez, who is no nearer to committing his future to the club, despite the optimistic note sounded by Mancini after City climbed to third place in the Premier League on Tuesday night.
Mancini said he had been told by Tevez that he wants to stay after the 3-0 win over Stoke but the player is actually no closer to resolving uncertainties over his future and there has been no contact from the club to seek a resolution to the impasse with the captain. Some within City do not share Mancini's optimism about the player's intentions, which the manager expressed 72 hours after the Argentine had said he would need to consult his family.
Why Mancini spoke so confidently is unclear. He may be attempting to force the issue, though City's Nigel de Jong has delivered the most impassioned case yet for the need to keep the striker after his two goals sank Stoke. "Where in Europe or in the world can you see a striker who has such a high-scoring rate, plus that work rate that Carlos has?" De Jong said. "He's compact and small but he wins every battle with every defender – where do you see that? Where can you find a striker similar to him? There are very few. There are maybe a couple but he is one of the greats at the moment. So it's important for us and the club that he stays here."
Mancini feels the same, though the struggle to win Tevez's heart to the City cause has gone on for more than a year and the manager's words were a source of some bemusement to the striker yesterday. De Jong said he did not know whether Tevez would stay. "It's hard to say at the moment," he said. "He's made it clear to the squad he still sees himself as a Manchester City player and we hope he will continue to be. For us the main target is this season and we'll see what happens in the summer. The speculation has already begun regarding who is coming and who is going out of City."
Finishing third in the league would mean avoiding a Champions League play-off. "It won't be easy in that round," De Jong said. "You have to try and get third if you can."
Mubarak said of the FA Cup success and Champions League qualification: "It is an incredible feeling. I'm absolutely delighted for everyone involved in the club. The team, the players, coaches and the fans of course. I feel strongly a winning mentality is coming into the team. We have an incredible squad with so many talented individuals and a lot of heart in that squad. We have an incredible foundation for incredible years ahead."

Carlos Tévez will discuss his Manchester City future with family before deciding whether to stay at Eastlands
Carlos Tevez will return home to Argentina after the end of the season to discuss his future with his family before deciding whether he should stay at Manchester City.
The City captain has no problem at all with manager Roberto Mancini and the comments he made after the 3-0 victory against Stoke City on Tuesday night.
Then, Mancini suggested that Tevez had told him he would stay at the club but, after seeking clarification because he did not want to mislead supporters, the striker accepts that the manager did not mean to sound as definitive as he appeared to in his remarks.
Tevez has been clear for the past few months that he wants to make a decision, based on his personal circumstances, over his future and that view was reiterated on Wednesday by team-mate Nigel de Jong.
The midfielder insisted that Tevez’s family situation will be the decisive factor, rather than a desire to leave City who he has led to an FA Cup Final victory and Champions League qualification.
"Everybody hopes that he (Tevez) will stay.” De Jong said. “It's not a case of him wanting to go somewhere else. It's a family thing for him. “He's made it clear to the squad he still sees himself as a Manchester City player and we hope he will continue to be. "If the gaffer has said that (he wants to stay) it's a great pleasure to hear, but we'll just have to hope and see what happens. It's hard to say at the moment.”
Tevez, who goes into Sunday’s final league game of the season tied with Manchester United’s Dimitar Berbatov on 20 goals in the race to win the Premier League Golden Boot, moved City into pole position ahead of Arsenal in the battle to secure automatic qualification for the Champions League group stages by scoring twice in Tuesday’s 3-0 victory against Stoke City.
And despite Tevez appearing to wave goodbye to the club’s supporters when substituted in the closing stages, Mancini said after the and small, but he wins every battle with every defender - where do you see that? Where can you find a striker similar to him? "There are very few. There are maybe a couple, but he is one of the greats at the moment. So it's important for us and the club that he stays here. "Everyone is confident we won't need to fill his shoes, though.
"He's still a player in our squad and we don't think that will change next season."
City will clinch third place and consign Arsenal to a Champions League qualifier in August if they win at Bolton on Sunday and De Jong admits the players are determined to achieve that target.
He said: “Third place is in our own hands now and we've got the last game this weekend. We have to go to Bolton and secure third place. It would make it a fantastic season.” ends

Bellamy set for cut-price Man City exit
Craig Bellamy is set to be granted his wish of a way out of Manchester City this summer.
Welsh firebrand Bellamy has expressed his desire to stay at Cardiff, where he has spent the season on loan, but it was believed his transfer fee and wages would be a huge stumbling block.
However, Bellamy will be allowed to leave Eastlands on the cheap - as long as a club takes over his big-money contract.
Man City have been subsidising his £90,000-per-week wages to the tune of £70,000 at Cardiff during his loan spell - and had been demanding a big transfer fee.
But they will not stand in Bellamy’s way as he heads for the exit, even though they are preparing to get tough with their other big-money outcasts.
Emmanuel Adebayor, Jo and Wayne Bridge are on their way out, but City will want nearly all their money back on transfer fees and won’t help pay loan-spell wages or give them a kiss-off.
That is likely to shatter Adebayor’s hopes of a move to Tottenham as his £180,000-a-week wages are nearly THREE TIMES above Spurs' pay ceiling.

WAG OF THE DAY


OTHER BOLLOX
Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp has his eye on 33-year-old Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, who may be surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge in the summer. Daily Express

Spurs are also considering cashing in on unsettled striker Jermain Defoe to raise money for an £8m move for Birmingham goalkeeper Ben Foster. Daily Mail

Manchester United are set to make Lens defender Raphael Varane, 18, their first signing of the summer. the Guardian

Arsenal will seek to reinforce the centre of their defence with the £12m signing of Blackburn's Christopher Samba. Daily Mail

Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas, who has been regularly linked with a return to boyhood club Barcelona, is at the top of AC Milan's list of summer transfer targets. talkSPORT

Brazilian forward Neymar, who previously rejected a move to Chelsea, says he hopes the Blues make a bid for him again and that he would welcome a move to England. Daily Telegraph

Liverpool, Tottenham, Aston Villa, Sunderland, Juventus and former club Newcastle are all interested in Wigan winger Charles N'Zogbia. Daily Mirror

QPR are weighing up an approach to Benfica for Argentina striker Javier Saviola, who could be available for £2m or on a season-long loan deal. Daily Mirror

Former Chelsea and Barcelona striker Eidur Gudjohnsen, who is currently at Fulham, is also a target for QPR. the Sun

QPR manager Neil Warnock has denied that he is set to swap playmaker Adel Taarabt for Liverpool's Joe Cole, saying that his club could not afford Cole's wages.Metro

Tottenham face a battle with Atletico Madrid over Espanyol striker Pablo Osvaldo, who is expected to fetch £14m for his current employers.Daily Mirror

French side Rennes are steeling themselves for a fight to retain midfielder Yann M'Vila this summer. Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool have been linked with the 20-year-old. talkSPORT

The deadline Juventus set for turning Liverpool midfielder Alberto Aquilani's deal into a permanent switch may have passed but a deal between the two clubs could still be agreed. Daily Mail

Liverpool will face a battle to sign Fiorentina's Juan Vargas because his agent says the playmaker is being targeted by several clubs. Metro

West Ham do not have a manager but the club are interested in signing free agent Cardiff striker Jay Bothroyd. Daily Express

A Football Association staff survey aimed at achieving a spot high up in the Sunday Times newspaper's best 100 companies list backfired as it revealed question marks about the organisation's leadership. Daily Mirror

The Premier League's 20 clubs made losses of nearly £500bn in 2009/2010, while an average of 68% was spent on wages.Guardian
(got to be a typo otherwise that about £25bn each ....)

Norwich manager Paul Lambert has emerged as a shock target for West Ham as they search for a new manager but former Newcastle boss Chris Hughton remains the favourite. Daily Mirror

West Ham have made contact with their top targets and hope to appoint a new manager in the next 14 days. Daily Mirror

Arsenal will attempt to tie down forward Robin van Persie for the rest of his career with the offer of an improved five-year contract. Daily Mirror

England Under-21 boss Stuart Pearce is set to name Jack Wilshere in his squad for this summer's European Championship, against the wishes of the midfielder's club Arsenal. the Times

Striker Andy Carroll is likely to be left out by Pearce for the tournament in Denmark, with doubts over the Liverpool striker's fitness. (Daily Telegraph)

Arsenal striker Robin van Persie says the club's staff used the tracking systems players wear to monitor their performance to check on a computer whether a team-mate was telling the truth when he said he had to go home to pick up something. Van Persie added: "They could actually see he really did go home and came straight back, so he wasn't lying. And now we don't have a private life!" the Sun

[Ted Hughes]

Cheers Chinners.

No doubt Pearce will take Micah, get him totally shagged out or injured & make him useless to us for the 1st 3rd of the season.

[john@staustell]

I'm not sure the chaiman has ruled out huge spending, just a huge number of players.

Tranny £80M

Messi £120M

And a left back.

Job done.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

I fully agree with Khaldoon. We are sorted as far as quantity goes. We got quality players throughout the depth chart. Some cocky people go how likes of SWP aren't "good enough" but you can't get that sort of talent as back up anywhere. Video game people will obviously think that we should get Messi as starter and Tranaldo on the bench. But that's not how it works in real life.

Also, as much as I think Kolarov is not good enough, I doubt they will just give up on him. And if they do, I think either Zabba or Lescott will be the replacement.

I predict we'll sing one big name player and probably some promising youngster.

[Ted Hughes]

I fully agree with Khaldoon. We are sorted as far as quantity goes. We got quality players throughout the depth chart. Some cocky people go how likes of SWP aren't "good enough" but you can't get that sort of talent as back up anywhere. Video game people will obviously think that we should get Messi as starter and Tranaldo on the bench. But that's not how it works in real life.

Also, as much as I think Kolarov is not good enough, I doubt they will just give up on him. And if they do, I think either Zabba or Lescott will be the replacement.

I predict we'll sing one big name player and probably some promising youngster.

The problem we have is that the 'backup' players who came into the team when players were rotated this season were on the whole, shite & that includes SWP. That meant dumping Premier League points or drawing/losing cup games, thus giving us extra games to play & more pressure. In the end, he ran the same group into the ground & then complained they were too tired. Ironically, the best quality backup players we have were all loaned out, which made the problem much worse. Signing just 2 players won't solve that unless he keeps & plays, Ade, Bellamy & Onouaha. Bellamy will probably have been ruined by playing rugby with that bunch of thick headed troglodytes anyway, so that leaves Ade & Ned.

The players who come in when others are rested should be the same standard as the ones going out imo. They should all play roughly the same number of games bar one or two 'untouchables' who play whenever they can within reason.

[bobby brows]

He is the guardian's rumour mill for today:

Tottenham want to pull off a stunning summer swoop for Chelsea's Didier Drogba, according to the Express, though the Ivorian's £130,000-a-week wages may well scare off the White Hart Lane outfit. Just in case they're also interested in a veritable busload of alternative attacking targets, with a £14m offer for Espanyol's former Atalanta, Lecce, Fiorentina and Bologna striker Pablo Osvaldo very much on the cards in an effort to trump Atlético Madrid's £11m rival bid, and tabs being pretty firmly kept on Hertha Berlin's Pierre-Michel Lasogga, dubbed the new Lukas Podolski. Harry Redknapp is also monitoring £8m-rated Birmingham player of the season Ben Foster, for whom White Hart Lane holds some unhappy memories.

Manchester City are to make Craig Bellamy available to anyone willing to pay his wages, after stumping up £70,000 of his £90,000-a-week pay packet all season for the pleasure of watching the mouthy hitman play for Cardiff City. Manchester United, meanwhile, are set for a "slightly busier than normal" summer, according to their chief executive David Gill, with the 6ft 3in 18-year-old Lens centre-back Raphael Varane apparently on the list. He's available for £9m. "I am looking at maybe three signings," says Sir Alex Ferguson. That's one more than Manchester City, whose chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak insists: "We don't need quantity, as today we have quality. We just need a couple of players."

Brazilian star Neymar hopes that his mooted move to Chelsea can be resurrected. "To play in Europe is my dream. I was very proud of Chelsea's interest and I hope to keep playing well so that this proposal can happen again," he pleaded. "I know about these teams; Chelsea, Manchester – to play for them are the dreams of all players. I know about players in England – Drogba, Lampard, Gerrard – these are very good players. I have spoken to Ramires and David Luiz and they say England is a very good country and London is a beautiful place to live."

Pirates of the Caribbean star Jonny Depp has been ordered to throw out his vast collection of hats.

Charles N'Zogbia is set to be the subject of a stunning six-way summer tug of love as a bevvy of top teams battle for his southpaw services. Kenny Dalglish would prefer to sign Stewart Downing to occupy Liverpool's left wing but will turn to N'Zogbia if he fails, while Aston Villa will turn to N'Zogbia if he succeeds. Also in the running are Tottenham, Sunderland, Juventus and Newcastle, whose transfer policy according to the Mirror can be summarised as "scouring the French league for bargains". Joining N'Zogbia on his way through the DW Stadium exit is Mohamed Diame, an £8m target for Sevilla.

The Star has won the competition to see which national newspaper could provide the least comprehensive coverage of the Europa League final, despite the strenuous efforts of their Fleet Street rivals, with six little sentences tucked onto the bottom corner of page 61.

Wayne Rooney's Twitter row with a Liverpool fan, which included him being called "a fat ugly lil nonse" [sic], and the England ace offering to "put u asleep within 10 seconds", has been branded "a bit of harmless banter" by a Manchester United source. Eidur Gudjohnsen's late-career tour of England looks set to continue with a stint at QPR, who also want former new-Diego-Maradona Javier Saviola, currently at Benfica. Wolves will spend £2.5m on Doncaster's Billy Sharp even if they get relegated, while West Ham want Cardiff's free-agent England ace Jay Bothroyd.

Arsenal, with their bumper transfer kitty soon to be boosted by Andrey Arshavin's exit, probably to Fenerbahce, have reignited their interest in the towering Blackburn defensive dominatrix Christopher Samba, currently topping a want-list that also includes Phil Jagielka, Gary Cahill and Paris St-Germain's Mamadou Sakho. Meanwhile Arsène Wenger is to offer Robin Van Persie a £20,000 pay rise if he'll sign a five-year contract that will keep him in north London until he's 32. He currently earns 22% less than Craig Bellamy, and that's got to hurt.

Liverpool have won the race to sign 15-year-old Alex O'Hanlon, regarded as Ireland's most promising teen and also coveted by Real Madrid, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. On their way out of the city are Paul Konchesky, the Leicester-bound full-back flop, and Everton's Joseph Yobo, Yakubu Aiyegbeni and James Vaughan, at least one of whom is also likely to join Konchesky and Sven-Göran Eriksson at the Foxes.

And finally, today's survey news: One in seven football fans – and fully 28% of Manchester United supporters – will not renew their season tickets because they're too expensive, according to a new poll. And in an entirely separate survey the Magic Roundabout in Hemel Hempstead has been voted the UK's favourite traffic island.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

I fully agree with Khaldoon. We are sorted as far as quantity goes. We got quality players throughout the depth chart. Some cocky people go how likes of SWP aren't "good enough" but you can't get that sort of talent as back up anywhere. Video game people will obviously think that we should get Messi as starter and Tranaldo on the bench. But that's not how it works in real life.

Also, as much as I think Kolarov is not good enough, I doubt they will just give up on him. And if they do, I think either Zabba or Lescott will be the replacement.

I predict we'll sing one big name player and probably some promising youngster.

The problem we have is that the 'backup' players who came into the team when players were rotated this season were on the whole, shite & that includes SWP. That meant dumping Premier League points or drawing/losing cup games, thus giving us extra games to play & more pressure. In the end, he ran the same group into the ground & then complained they were too tired. Ironically, the best quality backup players we have were all loaned out, which made the problem much worse. Signing just 2 players won't solve that unless he keeps & plays, Ade, Bellamy & Onouaha. Bellamy will probably have been ruined by playing rugby with that bunch of thick headed troglodytes anyway, so that leaves Ade & Ned.

The players who come in when others are rested should be the same standard as the ones going out imo. They should all play roughly the same number of games bar one or two 'untouchables' who play whenever they can within reason.

In a dream world maybe. There are no players quality of Silva, Tevez and Kompany who would join us as back ups.

And Mancini obviously thinks we need more players but I think we are done shopping tons of players. And in the end of the day, it's Khaldoon who makes the decisions.

Bellamy is just one of those players who people remember for his good performances. He was actually pretty bad in seconde half of 09/10 and wouldn't offer us much anything. It's just easy to say that we'd won the league with him since there's no way to prove that claim. He wasn't even best player in Championship this season though. I don't unbderstand what makes people say he would've led us higher than where we are now. Which is pretty high.

[Ted Hughes]

I fully agree with Khaldoon. We are sorted as far as quantity goes. We got quality players throughout the depth chart. Some cocky people go how likes of SWP aren't "good enough" but you can't get that sort of talent as back up anywhere. Video game people will obviously think that we should get Messi as starter and Tranaldo on the bench. But that's not how it works in real life.

Also, as much as I think Kolarov is not good enough, I doubt they will just give up on him. And if they do, I think either Zabba or Lescott will be the replacement.

I predict we'll sing one big name player and probably some promising youngster.

The problem we have is that the 'backup' players who came into the team when players were rotated this season were on the whole, shite & that includes SWP. That meant dumping Premier League points or drawing/losing cup games, thus giving us extra games to play & more pressure. In the end, he ran the same group into the ground & then complained they were too tired. Ironically, the best quality backup players we have were all loaned out, which made the problem much worse. Signing just 2 players won't solve that unless he keeps & plays, Ade, Bellamy & Onouaha. Bellamy will probably have been ruined by playing rugby with that bunch of thick headed troglodytes anyway, so that leaves Ade & Ned.

The players who come in when others are rested should be the same standard as the ones going out imo. They should all play roughly the same number of games bar one or two 'untouchables' who play whenever they can within reason.

In a dream world maybe. There are no players quality of Silva, Tevez and Kompany who would join us as back ups.

And Mancini obviously thinks we need more players but I think we are done shopping tons of players. And in the end of the day, it's Khaldoon who makes the decisions.

Bellamy is just one of those players who people remember for his good performances. He was actually pretty bad in seconde half of 09/10 and wouldn't offer us much anything. It's just easy to say that we'd won the league with him since there's no way to prove that claim. He wasn't even best player in Championship this season though. I don't unbderstand what makes people say he would've led us higher than where we are now. Which is pretty high.

Bellamy on a bad day, wasn't usually that bad, & was better than the most performances turned in by all the other strikers this season other than Tevez. In short, even when struggling, he offers something & can & does often create or score a goal whereas other than one or two games, on the whole most others have offered nothing between them. His goals at Chelsea were in the 2nd half of the season for instance. In the event he had actually performed well, even for half a season, the difference he could have made, his pace on the break with Silva & Yaya for example, is beyond any reasonable doubt & if we had the chance of signing such a player for half of next season, we would win the league.

I'm not talking about bringing in backup players (apart from the odd veteran or kid) I'm talking about bringing in top players to rotate evenly with the others. We have loads of games. There are enough games for most of the best players to play a full season & still be rested for 20 odd games. We will play more than 50 games. If all were the same standard, then, for instance 22 players could start at least 25 games each if nobody ever got injured or suffered a loss of form. Then we have substitute appearences + the League Cup.

We have Hart, Vinny, DeJong, Yaya, Silva & Tevez as our only confirmed proven, top quality 'A' team. We could add Micah & Lescott on recent performances. Barry & Zabba are proven to be reliable when needed then we have Kolo & AJ who are above average but a bit iffy. The rest are either totally unproven as City players or probably leaving & we want to challenge for 3 trophies? We need to add several real top notch players & some young talent in reserve imo.

[Ted Hughes]

As a footnote to this, Little Pee has started 25 games for the rags & Berbatov 31.

[Florida Blue]

I fully agree with Khaldoon. We are sorted as far as quantity goes. We got quality players throughout the depth chart. Some cocky people go how likes of SWP aren't "good enough" but you can't get that sort of talent as back up anywhere. Video game people will obviously think that we should get Messi as starter and Tranaldo on the bench. But that's not how it works in real life.

Also, as much as I think Kolarov is not good enough, I doubt they will just give up on him. And if they do, I think either Zabba or Lescott will be the replacement.

I predict we'll sing one big name player and probably some promising youngster.

The problem we have is that the 'backup' players who came into the team when players were rotated this season were on the whole, shite & that includes SWP. That meant dumping Premier League points or drawing/losing cup games, thus giving us extra games to play & more pressure. In the end, he ran the same group into the ground & then complained they were too tired. Ironically, the best quality backup players we have were all loaned out, which made the problem much worse. Signing just 2 players won't solve that unless he keeps & plays, Ade, Bellamy & Onouaha. Bellamy will probably have been ruined by playing rugby with that bunch of thick headed troglodytes anyway, so that leaves Ade & Ned.

The players who come in when others are rested should be the same standard as the ones going out imo. They should all play roughly the same number of games bar one or two 'untouchables' who play whenever they can within reason.

In a dream world maybe. There are no players quality of Silva, Tevez and Kompany who would join us as back ups.

And Mancini obviously thinks we need more players but I think we are done shopping tons of players. And in the end of the day, it's Khaldoon who makes the decisions.

Bellamy is just one of those players who people remember for his good performances. He was actually pretty bad in seconde half of 09/10 and wouldn't offer us much anything. It's just easy to say that we'd won the league with him since there's no way to prove that claim. He wasn't even best player in Championship this season though. I don't unbderstand what makes people say he would've led us higher than where we are now. Which is pretty high.

Bellamy on a bad day, wasn't usually that bad, & was better than the most performances turned in by all the other strikers this season other than Tevez. In short, even when struggling, he offers something & can & does often create or score a goal whereas other than one or two games, on the whole most others have offered nothing between them. His goals at Chelsea were in the 2nd half of the season for instance. In the event he had actually performed well, even for half a season, the difference he could have made, his pace on the break with Silva & Yaya for example, is beyond any reasonable doubt & if we had the chance of signing such a player for half of next season, we would win the league.

I'm not talking about bringing in backup players (apart from the odd veteran or kid) I'm talking about bringing in top players to rotate evenly with the others. We have loads of games. There are enough games for most of the best players to play a full season & still be rested for 20 odd games. We will play more than 50 games. If all were the same standard, then, for instance 22 players could start at least 25 games each if nobody ever got injured or suffered a loss of form. Then we have substitute appearences + the League Cup.

We have Hart, Vinny, DeJong, Yaya, Silva & Tevez as our only confirmed proven, top quality 'A' team. We could add Micah & Lescott on recent performances. Barry & Zabba are proven to be reliable when needed then we have Kolo & AJ who are above average but a bit iffy. The rest are either totally unproven as City players or probably leaving & we want to challenge for 3 trophies? We need to add several real top notch players & some young talent in reserve imo.

I too want Ade back.. there I said it. He amd Mancini need to make piece and it is like a whole new transfer (for free).

[john68]

personally, i don't care if Ade comes back or not. As long as if he does, he does so fully backing what we are doing at city and is happy to move forward in the same direction and add to the momentum.
If not...he can stay away.

[ashton287]

Fulham home. Remember that shit khaldoon???

If we dont get in a few players this season we will have the same fucked fatigued players dropping points, we won't win the league or put in a very good CL showing. Also i assume we wont be going out the carling cup as early this year so thats even more games to play.

Get rid of all the loanees to free up wages and get some decent cover in so we're not so vulnerable when we are playing 8 games a month.

[ant london]

Fulham home. Remember that shit khaldoon???

If we dont get in a few players this season we will have the same fucked fatigued players dropping points, we won't win the league or put in a very good CL showing. Also i assume we wont be going out the carling cup as early this year so thats even more games to play.

Get rid of all the loanees to free up wages and get some decent cover in so we're not so vulnerable when we are playing 8 games a month.

I'm pretty sure there is an element of smoke and mirrors to all this but we have to consider just how many new players we can physically accomodate (PL and UEFA squad limits considered).

Clearly unloading the loanees will be key but, as I posted last week......if all the players we expect to be sold/removed from the 25 man PL squad go (Logan, Bridge, M Johnson, Jo) then we only have four new senior squad players (over 21 years old) we could bring in.

this increases to five if we include replacing Shay

six if Adebayor goes

seven if Tevez goes

I'd say the max we will be recruiting is five

one GK, two defenders, two midfielders....maybe a Tevez replacement

The GK and defenders oughtn't cost the world in the circumstances

[Ted Hughes]

Unless Bob views SWP, Ade & Bellamy as viable, which he doesn't appear to, we are very light on attacking players. Hughes had, SWP, Robinho, Bellamy, Adebayor, RSC, Tevez, Petrov & Ireland as an attacking midfielder. (+Jo!). 3 mainly centre forwards & 5 general attackers .

If the expected players leave, Bob will have, Balotelli, Dzeko, (Tevez) AJ & Silva. 3 mainly centre forwards & two general attackers. Nowhere near enough. I will state now that if we don't improve on that, we're fucked & he's a gonner. We will pick up injuries & it will all go completely utterly to shit. It won't be his fault either, as I'm sure he would sign players for that job if he's allowed to.

[Arjan Van Schotte]

robbie savage on the radio other day talking about bobby made a very pertinent point - he said that what bob sez to the media and what he's actually saying/doing are two VERY different things.

[colonel_muck]

robbie savage on the radio other day talking about bobby made a very pertinent point - he said that what bob sez to the media and what he's actually saying/doing are two VERY different things.

just trying to shit stir mate. typical savage. cannot be trusted.