KennyPowers

The problem is we relied on long diagonal balls to Benteke all season long especially from the full-backs. Our best form at the end of the season was playing 4-3-3 with Benteke very isolated and the role required him to fight off 2 defenders and hold the ball up which he was pretty awesome at (although I think there were several games where he was openly frustrated with the role). So we're either going to have to sign a like-for-like replacement or alter how we play significantly.

This thread is becoming an absolute car crash. To these idiot Spurs fans, maybe you should respect the views of the Villa fans that have watched Benteke THE WHOLE DAMN SEASON rather than inventing your own valuations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2EKaLO82sc

From the interviews I've seen with Shah re. the Jaguars he seems like a very solid, patient businessman. I wouldn't expect a lot of fireworks straight away and don't expect him to come in pissing money against the wall. To be fair, he did blow up the Jaguars but then again they deserved it. In his interviews he has always struck me as patient and sensible though.

There's a saying in american football that "the backup quarterback is the most popular guy in town." It's usually used in reference to losing teams. What it means is fans like unknown quantities, it gives them hope. Once a player is a known quantity it takes away a lot of the hope even if they're a solid player, even if they're an above-average player. Just look at the Darren Bent thread on this forum if you don't believe this sentiment.

That sums it up pretty well. Fans like unknown players, they can dream about how good they are and they like young players, they can dream about how good they could become. Unless our scouts do tremendously well these players will have a high failure rate. It's unfortunate but that's how it is. I'm not having a go at the new signings, we just have to be patient and wait and see how they turn out. Fans like young players, because that suggests future improvement. Not just foreign - there was a pretty positive reaction several years ago when we were signing lots of UK-born players, or when it seemed that lots of the Academy would come through. They also like signing established players. What people don't like is signing players who seem to get worse not better, who appear to prevent other signings because they are highly paid, and who don't therefore seem good value for money. If they then seem hard to move on either because we've chosen to pay them wages no-one else will match or just won't move, or are reported to cause problems with team morale, then they attract criticism. As several people have said, both young and established players may or may not work out. I suppose it's understandable that more experienced players should cop more criticism in that event, even if it's not only their fault. Fans like winning. Nothing more, nothing less. Fans aren't fickle, if a team is winning they will get more support, if they aren't winning they will get less. All I would say is read Moneyball and absorb the message about why scouts like(d) and wanted to draft younger players over older players. It's very illuminating and can be applied pretty well to any sport.

I find it bizarre that players are so keen to leave clubs at 13/14/15. Why exactly? They're not paid are they? What are they given exactly?

It's hard to imagine Spurs going too high, they just missed the Champions league, haven't sold anyone this summer and have already broken their transfer record at £17m. I'm sure they want him but it's probably going to depend on flogging players they don't want, most obvious being Adebayor. I wonder if interest from Chelsea or Arsenal is solid or I suspect Christian will be coming back with his tail between his legs (or going on strike of course).

I haven't seen a lot of him but I watched the U21 tournament and he looked pretty terrible. Redmond looked twice the player Ince did.

That sums it up pretty well. Fans like unknown players, they can dream about how good they are and they like young players, they can dream about how good they could become. Unless our scouts do tremendously well these players will have a high failure rate. It's unfortunate but that's how it is. I'm not having a go at the new signings, we just have to be patient and wait and see how they turn out.

Crazy reading this thread. 68 Premier league appearances in the last 2 seasons, 31 goals. But no, he's too proven for us, we should only concentrate on unproven players. Don't get me wrong, I can't see it happening because he's only been at Chelsea for half a season but would he be a quality replacement for Benteke, absolutely he would and we'd be lucky to have him.

I just don't buy this idea that Benteke submitting a tranfer request has weakened our hand. If it's the result of being tapped up which looks likely then it's actually more likely to strengthen our resolve not least to avoid setting a precedent that we can be pushed around. He was always for sale at the right price anyway. That statement shouldn't have come as a shock to anyone.

I'm still a bit disturbed we won't consider signing anyone born before the fall of the Berlin wall. I saw Giorgos Karagounis just signed a new one year deal with Fulham. I would love a player like that in the squad for some experience and leadership.

Spurs fans deluded fuckwits. We got £20m for Downing. Stewart frigging Downing. We got close to £20m for Young when he had a year left on his contract. Now have another guess at how much Benteke will cost.

Spurs have clearly tapped him up and are going to have to pay a premium now for being a bunch of tossers. Transfers involving part-exchange do admittedly have a terrible track record but if it is to be Spurs then Andros Townsend does interest me.

Been saying this for a long time (not frequently). The problem is that you can't in any way get any kind of parity when you have a promotion and relegation system. The NFL does a great job with parity; it makes it way more fun and entertaining, but that model, of course, cannot fit in a system where you can cease to be a member of it if you play poorly (i.e. don't have money). Yeah, NFL is a lot more competitive largely because of the hard salary cap. The key to parity is actually the centralised tv deal and the shared revenue though. The NFL is so insanely popular in the US it draws huge ratings regardless of who is playing. If you compare it to baseball, the key to big spending baseball teams is having a big local population (market) and hence a big local tv deal which they negotiate themselves. The thing that will eventually kill the premier league as a competition completely is when, like in Spain, the top clubs negotiate their own tv deals rather than having a centralised revenue sharing contract. It is bound to happen eventually, there are just too many muppets who want to watch Man U every week and don't care about the rest of the league.

This goes beyond the FA. The FA could impose arbitrary wage caps, a universal transfer fee limit, hell, even go really crazy and have a player draft like they do in the NFL. And all of the good players will piss off to Germany, Italy and Spain, and leave us watching Joe **** Bennett walking around thinking he's Ronaldo. They could quite easily impose a soft salary cap e.g. for every £ spent over £xm in salary a club has to pay a tax of x% that gets redistributed to poorer clubs. Say it was 25% over £50m a year. Then for every £1m extra spent on salary £250k is added to be redistributed. These are numbers I've plucked out of the air btw. I say it would be easy, of course it wouldn't, it would be illegal but if the clubs and the players union agreed not to mount a legal challenge and signed an agreement to that effect it could be achieved. Very easy solution to ensure some competitive balance whilst also allowing the top clubs clubs to carry on pissing away money if they really want to.

Chelsea have Lukaku, Hazard, De Bruyne and Courtois. Probably one of them. Chelsea would be my hunch. Yeah I forgot about Hazard. I always think in these situations who does he play with internationally who has tapped him up on behalf of the club but there are so many Belgians in the Premier league it doesn't really help in this case.

I agree leaving after 1 successful season is pretty scummy but I'd still much rather he handed in a transfer request rather than try to engineer a move through the press. Look at what Suarez has done, he's a far bigger scumbag.

It's a pretty big turnaround from earlier in the summer when he was reportedly quite happy. Wasn't there a tweet confirming this or was that just a spoof. To me it smacks of him getting tapped up. It could easily be through one of his international colleagues but given Arsenal have Vermaelen, Chelsea have Lukaku, Spurs have Dembele and Vertonghen, who knows who it could be. I suspect Spurs.

Who do you think we could sell to outside the premier league? I think there's quite literally only Real Madrid who are a possibility.

Disappointing he couldn't give us another season. Have to say I'm surprised, I really thought in a world cup year he wouldn't want to risk the starting spot he currently has with Belgium. It's not a disaster though. Let's face it if it wasn't this year it was going to be next year. Plus, there are so many clubs in need of a big physical striker. Have to think Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal, maybe even Man City are interested. We have a very good chance of starting a bidding war and getting the maximum possible price. I doubt it affects Bent's status so we will need a replacement, that's the biggest problem right now, Kone and Bony were possible replacements that have already moved. If we could get £25m plus Ba that looks a good deal to me.

I'll have a grand on Djokovic to win Wimbledon at 10/1 then please

Given we've sold out to a betting company again, interesting to note that Millwall turn down quickquid as sponsor http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/26/millwall-said-no-quickquid And have made Prostate Cancer UK their main sponsor for free next season. http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11735/8793450/Championship-Millwall-announce-charity-sponsorship-link-up-with-Prostate-Cancer-UK I do get the general impression that the tide is turning a bit and clubs are getting a bit more sensitive about the brands they associate themsleves with.

Great news. He sounds like a beast