BOF

Who was that clever chap? I think whoever he was it was very sage advice. I just think on Boateng is it the facts that have changed or is it the opinion. Trent seems not to rate him and feels it is a world cup flash in the pan. For me , I'm not sure about him The quote was John Maynard Keynes. As for KPB. I'm not 100% sure about him either, but he would only cost £5m-£7m and I think I've seen enough of him to think he could be very good. He's certainly worth it at that price (Pompey have recently asked Lazio to double their £5m bid for a double deal of KPB & Belhadj). As for facts or opinion, I said it earlier and Trent has there too. The opinion has changed because the facts have changed i.e. the player's previous 2 years of performance. Even his position has changed in that time from def mid to att mid.

I'll need proof, as is the new "rule" ;-) I take it back. I read it on Sickipedia and thought i'd read it here. Very noble Benjamin and a victory for the rule

I imagine it had something to do with what most people had seen of him up to that point. If it was 2 years ago then to most people we were about to sign what we saw as an overly aggressive defensive midfielder who struggled to get a game in a struggling Spurs side. It's fairly safe to say people have seen more of him 2 years on and he has come on since those days as a player too. We now know he is a very capable attacking midfielder who can cut it week in week out in the Premier League. That wasn't the case 2 years ago. As someone clever once said - "When the facts change, so does my opinion. What do you do?".

i'm not sure any sensible person who wants us to be successful would be saying that trickie. I want Villa to spend within their financial capabilities As do i. I haven't said otherwise. I don't. I want them to spend within Randy's. There's a big difference (just ask Sepp). But I want them to spend within Randy's capabilities while putting in place a structure that increases Villa's own financial capabilities and puts us eventually (somewhere in the future) onto a much stronger and more powerful standing within the game. This is basically speculating to accumulate. At some point; especially while aggressively expanding; a club has to temporarily spend outside it's means in order to change what it's 'means' is. If all clubs were to spend within their means then I'm afraid we'd have introduced a cap - something the big clubs would absolutely love to see in place as it would make it massively more difficult for them to be caught by anyone - even more so than it already is. Spending outside your means doesn't mean 'doing a Leeds' either. There are ways of achieving it more sensibly than that and I believe this is exactly what we are currently doing. Yes it assumes good faith on Randy's behalf not to bugger off and leave us high & dry, but I have not seen or heard anything that leads me to think otherwise. So on that basis I think we're doing fine. Yes we are now behind Man Citeh, but we can hope that they will be a flash in the pan. A 'Leeds times ten' if whateverhisnameis buggers off and does something else. Even if Randy was to go, it would not be anything near the disaster that would happen up at Eastlands. That in itself is peace of mind. We're doing it the right way. The right way involves money. I'm sorry if that upsets some people but it just does. We are not being irresponsible with how we are doing things. Some people want it quicker; want it now. That is irresponsible even if it is understandable as a fan to want it. I'm just glad it's not those fans who are making those kind of decisions. BOF say : Oops soz Trent :oops:

I hadn't seen anything of him, but rather annoyingly I've been very impressed by him in the world cup. Very quick and strong. Potentially a top acquisition. The bastards

I still can't believe Soldado went to Valencia for £8.5m.

I'm now beginning to think that Ireland plus A.N.Other is the minimum requirement as a Milner replacement. We need to remember though that our financial woes are partly (or largely?) wage related, so increasing the net size of the squad does nothing for our situation even if we don't spend a large transfer budget.

Yes it will be very interesting to see what Barça do with that money. I think we'll soon find out one way or another just how interested they are in Fabregas. I would absolutely love if they bought him. Too funny.

Having seen Kevin-Prince Boateng let off the leash for Ghana compared to the role he played at Spurs and plays to a lesser extent at Pompey, I think he might be a decent shout to replace Milner and give us bite in the middle. We'd still be able to afford Ireland and have changed left over too; assuming the Milner money is £28m.

Joining his brother no less.

I think his goal against us put him on our radar. We then watched him more closely because he was potentially a quality player playing for a side that we could feasibly nick him from. I would hope that goal wasn't the deciding factor in someone's opinion of him but as I say, it brought him to our attention and the rest of the season will have made our mind up. And for me he didn't disappoint.

I agree that the price is a bit rich but that's not the discussion that's going on here. If we want to talk about price then we'll do that. But I'm trying to establish first that this is a player who would benefit us. On the price thing. We're buying a striker. They're the most expensive player on the pitch. We're buying someone they don't want to sell. Someone they don't need to sell. That also pushed the price up. We're buying someone whose stock is high. You'll do well to get any kind of player who will improve your side up front for less than £10m. So while I think £15m is a bit on the steep side I don't think it's unexpected for the selling side to demand that. Then you bargain down to whatever.

I'm bored of people using nothing but stats to decide on a player. It is a lazy and more importantly it is often an inaccurate way of assessing a player's worth or ability. If discussions have resorted to nothing but that then why not save everyone the trouble and just link to a soccerbase stat page. Hugo Rodallega is one of very few players who have managed to come to the Premier League from the Mexican league and almost instantly take to the style of play and pace of the game. It was a huge jump to make in practically every area footballing and non-footballing and yet he did it effortlessly. And by extension we have yet to see the best of him. Much in the same way as others will rightly defend Agbonlahor, Rodallega too has improved each time he has performed for Wigan. He is only going to get better and he is already good enough in my view to walk into this side. From a physical and football development point of view he has 4 years of improving before he reaches his peak as a footballer. From an experience and lifestyle point of view he is also only going to become even more familiar with the English game and become more settled and a better player. He was a stand-out player in a poor Wigan side that had lost most of it's other stars going into last season. He was one of few who came out of last season there with any credit IMO and in my view without him they would have gone down.

True. It's just one of those names you expect to be long gone by now then it pops up in a list.

Coventry doing some canny business. O'Donovan from Sunderland will be a good striker in that league. They've taken Gary McSheffrey from the noses. Again a good signing for down there and of course they recently landed our own O'Halloran.

Christ, ex-Cremonese striker John Aloisi is still playing football, albeit in Australia.

Happened months ago in reality.

Your news is more up-to-date than mine. Kaiser need to sort out their Engrish RSS feed

I actually thought the English version was scarier. The translation worked so well because the same guy did both films.

I see God is at it again. Planting 2 billion year old fossils to test our faith. Clever ****.

I knew about Moravek. Should be a good one. Didn't know about Hoffer though, cheers.

8 hours 52. This is getting ridiculous.

Sometimes only Dragonforce will do Cheesy speedmetal ftw

Milner hasn't made any noises about leaving though has he? Barry quite clearly made it well known that he wanted out. Until Milner does that then this isn't a Barry situation and Milner is quite happy where he is.

Agree with Zatman that Yaya is tailor-made for the Prem.