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I was talking the other day with a good friend, huge Celtic fan who works in the football business in UK, was a scout for a thew years then went to a tv station in Aberdeen. Anyhow, we were talking about City and he asked me if Sven had the team that KK had in 2004-2005 he could had fought for the 4th place (we finished 8)?
The squad that KK had was this :

James, D
Sommeil
Thatcher
Distin
Reyna
Barton
Fowler, R
Sibierski
McManaman
Macken
Musampa
Onuoha
Sun Jihai
Mills, Danny
Bosvelt
Dunne
Negouai
Sinclair
Wright-Phillips
Ellegaard
Weaver
Anelka
Croft
Jordan
Wright-Phillips, B
Flood

Sven had this players :

Andreas Isaksson
Micah Richards
Michael Ball
Nedum Onuoha
Ousmane Dabo
Michael Johnson
Stephen Ireland
Geovanni
Émile Mpenza
Rolando Bianchi
Elano
Darius Vassell
Paul Dickov
Martin Petrov
Vedran Ćorluka
Sun Jihai
Kasper Schmeichel
Georgios Samaras
Dietmar Hamann
Richard Dunne
Javier Garrido
Joe Hart
Benjani
Gelson Fernandes
Valeri Bojinov
Nery Castillo
Ched Evans
Sam Williamson
Daniel Sturridge
Kelvin Etuhu
Shaleum Logan
Felipe Caicedo

As i said, KK finished 8th, while Sven finished 9th, I didn't know what to say to him, although imho if Sven had the team from 2004, he could finished in 6th, but not above.
What do you think? (To keep us active in the international break).

Honestly think Sven's side looks stronger as a whole, though KK's side may edge it with some better players like the Elk, Distin and a firing SWP. Perhaps the league was a little easier in '04, though even by them standards there's no way the former squad is a top 4 team.

I liked both managers and, contrary to what a lot of people tend to say, am proud that's they're part of our recent history.

8th was as high as Keegan could have got us with that team.

Sven had a far better team.

We only finished 8th that year due to the run that Pearce took us on at the end. And that was a false position given the squad.

I think Keegan took us to 9th in 2002/03. Sven's 9th-placed squad was better but so was the league.

I thought with KK we had a team that had experience, older but with a lot of european cup winners: Mac, Fowler, Bosvelt, Tarnat, Anelka, Seaman, etc and with Sven more a younger team, without the experience that those lads had, but more quicker and tehnical: Elano, Giovanni, Superman, etc.

PeterParker wrote:I thought with KK we had a team that had experience, older but with a lot of european cup winners: Mac, Fowler, Bosvelt, Tarnat, Anelka, Seaman, etc and with Sven more a younger team, without the experience that those lads had, but more quicker and tehnical: Elano, Giovanni, Superman, etc.

Seaman didn't last long, McManawoman was about as much use as a nun's tits, Tarnat was quite good, Bosvelt too, Anelka left half way through the season, Fowler unfit.

Does that help explain?

Alioune DVToure wrote:

PeterParker wrote:I thought with KK we had a team that had experience, older but with a lot of european cup winners: Mac, Fowler, Bosvelt, Tarnat, Anelka, Seaman, etc and with Sven more a younger team, without the experience that those lads had, but more quicker and tehnical: Elano, Giovanni, Superman, etc.

Seaman didn't last long, McManawoman was about as much use as a nun's tits, Tarnat was quite good, Bosvelt too, Anelka left half way through the season, Fowler unfit.

Does that help explain?

Yep, oldies but goldies (some of them). If i recall well, Anelka left in january and the replacement was Musampa, a striker for an offensive midfielder. Macken was the only legit striker in the squad.

I always thought Sven horribly underused Geovanni. Looked good when he played and always capable of something special.

Bridge'srightfoot wrote:I always thought Sven horribly underused Geovanni. Looked good when he played and always capable of something special.

And Phil Brown too?

Original Dub wrote:

Bridge'srightfoot wrote:I always thought Sven horribly underused Geovanni. Looked good when he played and always capable of something special.

And Phil Brown too?

He wasn't underused by Phil Brown. He was miles more talented than the likes of Vassell and Benjani. In his first couple of games for us he scored two very nice goals aswell.

PeterParker wrote:

Alioune DVToure wrote:

PeterParker wrote:I thought with KK we had a team that had experience, older but with a lot of european cup winners: Mac, Fowler, Bosvelt, Tarnat, Anelka, Seaman, etc and with Sven more a younger team, without the experience that those lads had, but more quicker and tehnical: Elano, Giovanni, Superman, etc.

Seaman didn't last long, McManawoman was about as much use as a nun's tits, Tarnat was quite good, Bosvelt too, Anelka left half way through the season, Fowler unfit.

Does that help explain?

Yep, oldies but goldies (some of them). If i recall well, Anelka left in january and the replacement was Musampa, a striker for an offensive midfielder. [highlight]Macken[/highlight] was the only legit striker in the squad.

Macken was an alleged striker, god how far we have come!!!

kiki musampa, what a hero

Terry Cookes nose wrote:kiki musampa, what a hero

There was a guy who sat behind me who could never pronounce the foreign players' names correctly (e.g. 'Anton Saborski').

He used to refer to Musampa as 'Kinky Mustafa'. Still makes me laugh to this day.

The guy in question died of cancer last year, sadly.

His nickname of 'Chris' was inspired