colonel_muck wrote:sounds a bit daft but i think we need to replace paddy v one way or another. at times (especially towards the business end of the season) he was fantastic, was always good to have him on the bench. i would welcome an experienced midfielder.
I agree in some respects. I think there's a place in the squad for an old head in the centre of the park in terms of the experience that that adds but there's also the cost in terms of taking pace out of our own game. At the moment we have a reasonably good panel of experienced players in the mix for the middle of the park: Barry, de Jong, Yaya and Milner. It's just that 3 of them might be playing together often so options would be limited for fresh legs. There's some scope for giving Ibrahim more gametime and Zabaleta is an option in the centre too. If we sign Nasri or Aguero then Yaya will probably spend less time attacking and Milner won't end up wide as often either.
We don't have long term cover for de Jong, but maybe we're thinking on the basis of buying someone at Christmas if we need them. We're busy in the market at the moment so maybe it's better to put it on the long finger and see if we really do need someone or if Vieira's job has already been done.