DeepDish

Yeah, true regarding the player by player basis. And if MON splash big money I will trust his judgement and give both him and his signings time until next christmas. Then I probably feel its the right time to give a verdict. But until that I am sceptical to "over priced" and young domestic players (as I also am with my team here in Norway).

I am not assuming that. But lets say there is a certain percentage chance that it is the case, then I believe that percentage should be discounted to the price. Specially when we know there are so much talent available in the European transfer markets at affordable prices.

Problem is that England U21 does not mean he will have a bright future. He has had a half premiership season where he has been good, but we have seen this many times with many players before. I am not saying that he will be crap, but I just think its a gamble that is too big with the ridiculous prices that is quoted in the papers. Remember that Whittingham has 15 U21 caps, compared with Young's 4. History is full of U21 players that failed and never became more than Championship material. History is also full of young kids that impress in their Premier League debut season, but soon fade away into the Championship.

In my view, the transfer window starts in five days. I think its foolish to believe that there will be a lot of big signings and transfers until we get into the last third of the window. Only thing that I am not happy about is that we have not gone after John Carew. 4 mill ponds for such a proven Champions League striker is certainly worth a shot, specially when I think he is the strong, pacey type of player that I suspect suits MON's football.

The story is about a power battle at Chelsea and says that Mourinho might quit during the summer. I found the quoted sentence over interesting. Here is the article http://tinyurl.com/ynhfhb

Ogbuke will be massive in Premier League. Maybe the best player that ever has been in the Norwegian Tippeligaen (I think even better than John Carew was when he was here). I think Wigan have made som good signings this winter at low prices (though I would prefer better midfielders than Hæstad at Villa). And even though Daniel Braaten is very up and down, I would really hope that someone at Villa would take a look at him. He has under 1 year left at his Rosenborg contract and would probably come for max 2-3 million pounds.

It seems like Ogbuke is headed to one of the big clubs: http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/premiership/article2125346.ece "Premiership sides were put on alert yesterday following the collapse of the proposed £3m move to Lokomotiv Moscow for Lyn Oslo's Nigeria striker Edu. Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal had all been tracking Chinedu Ogbuke - nicknamed Edu after the former Gunners midfielder, and the 20-year-old was yesterday reported to be heading to England for a trial, although the collapse of a proposed move to Arsenal before Christmas due to work permit problems may discourage English interest."

Winger? Daniel Braaten from Rosenborg. Pace, strenght and good finishing. He is a winger in a team that plays 4-3-3 and will be a hit when he join a Premier League club. Some Braaten moments: There are a lot of quality players available. But the question is do we manage to find them. I would be disappointed if we sign Smith. I think Chinedu Ogbuke (best player that ever has played in the Norwegian league, better than Carew and Solskjær when they were here and WAY better than Mikel, who joined Chelsea) would be a quality signing up front. Marek Sapara from Rosenborg would also be a quality signing in the midfield.