sam100

it is to an extent but how much do you have to offer? we aren't going to be offering players a 80 - 100k a week and i can't see someone like queresma or anderson sacrifising there careers to play some mid table football alongside a majority of players who aren't half as good, with the main short term goal to play in a european competition which is a minor one to the one they are already playing in - the champions league if a player like queresma became available we would be in the queue behind a team from france, 3 teams from germany, 4 from italy, 4 or 5 from england and about 4 from spain and probably a dutch team, and even if we were the only team who wanted him im sure he'd prefer to play for porto than us.

theres a risk he could yes, but theres a risk with every player, if we signed barton he could just go abit off the boil and might never produce england quality performances. but when theres no price attached the risk is worth it, hes the sort of player that MON is after young, hardworking and ambitious so IMO i think he will strive further on. i would rather barton than sidwell but we might not be able to get him for various reasons, i wouldn't say parker is gettable either. I highly doubt newcastle would accept anything below 10 million and we would be getting ripped off for paying anything more than 10 million. Especially with emre looking to be on his way out in the summer and butt getting on, parker will become more and more valuble to them. i don't know how many goals you need to be a goal scoring midfielder but he is capable of scoring goals, hes scored 30 in a 160 games which is good for someone who is 24 with his best years ahead of him, where theres a possibility he will bring more goals to his game. Yes alot of them were in the championship but it proves he knows where the goal is. we need 4 quality centre midfielders IMO, we have 2 and perhaps only 1 who is capable of being a quality player for a team chasing europe, so surely sidwell would be a good signing? as with my 'dream summer' post i did a few pages back i had him on the bench if we improved rapidly and he was only a bench player then he would still be an important part of the sqaud, if one of our centre midfielders gets injured he is more than capable of coming in an doing a good job rather than craig gardner who has shown he isn't ready for premiership football or davis who doesn't have much of an impact in games.

the reason some people want sidwell and some don't is expectations some people think we will be signing near world class, other believe we will simply buy better than what we already have and have slow progression i don't see why people are making the comparison to reo coker about him being a one season wonder, sidwell was showing in the championshiop that he was ready for the step up like nugent, ashton, lescott etc and now hes came into the premiership hes took his form with him. i don't know if any of you followed his progress in the championship but he's not like a stephen hunt or glen little who have looked average in the championship and are now suddenly performing excellently in the premiership. He's always showed that hes a quality player who should be in the premiership hence him always being linked with premiership clubs when he was in the championship. Just because he plays in reo-cokers position doesn't mean he will suddenly became a poor player, at this moment in time hes a lot better than reo-coker and has a better attitude which will help him strive on to be a better player. sidwell has the ambition to play for england and in europe, where reo-coker and ferdinand have shown this season that they think they've made it and are in for a cushy life where they don't need to put 100% in every week. the signings i expect us to make in pre season are not world beaters, but players who are better than what we currently have and will help us challenge for europe rather than mid table, and sidwell fits that bill. the sort of centre midfielder we need at this moment in time is one who has bags of energy and is willing to run his self into the ground for the team, one who can provide a good link between defence and attack so we don't resort to route 1 one who has the necessary quality to be able to score goals and get back and help defend one who is better than what we currently have one who is young with ambition and a professional attitude sidwell has all of that and at 0 cost, if he doesn't progress as it seems he will then we don't lose out on any money as he hasn't cost anything. plus we have got a lot of positions that need improving on, and we only have 2 centre midfielders who look capable of helping us progress, when really we need 4, so we are bolstering our squad and improving on the first team all in one.

if we are aiming for europe then yes we want europe next season so we need 4 quality centre midfielders osbourne has shown promise but he seriously needs to be loaned out, as does gardner who has yet to show me anything to say actually he might be able to do it at this level davis hasn't shown enough to say he would be able to be part of a team who are going for europe at the moment our midfield is slow and lacks any energy, thats one of many things that sidwell brings, he would become a very good link between the defence and attack also and bring that extra quality. hes better than reo coker who we would probably have to pay 3 - 5 million for, and he wouldn't bring the attitude reocoker has either hes also stated he has the ambition to play for england and in europe, so he's hungry as well. if not sidwell i don't who we should be aiming for, we are not good enough to be going for world class players, sneijders more of a dream signing than anything really, as you've said yourself sidwell is definatly better than our first choice centre midfielder so surely he is a good enough signing

they may prove to be the case, but IMO he would be a good signing hes shown more than enough times in the championship that he was ready for the step up, and this season hes proved he can handle it in the premiership we have 5 centre midfielders and hes better than 4 of them atleast, and on current from better than all of them so considering he would be a free signing, then hes definatly worth it

it doesn't really matter does it? hes our best centre back so he starts, if he gets injured mellberg will come in then he will have to fight for his place back in the team imagine being at villa park watching that team 8) corradi? i dunno he must be better than angel and sutton and i couldn't afford anyone else

if we sign boruc it will be either 6 million (due to release clause) or 4 million plus sorensen i think its a definate that if we sign a new number 1 sorensen will leave, hes too good to be a mid table number 2 obviously i don't think this will happen for various reasons contrasting from MON not wanting them and the players moving to differing clubs. but a dream summer would be distin £0 sidwell £0 saviola £0 boruc 4 million glen johnson or luke young 4 million geremi 4 million manuel fernandes 12 million sneijder 10 million corradi 750k need a cheap target man back up and out hendrie and jlloyd on free's davis 2 million hughes 1 million *if delaney gets fit* gardner and osbourne loans ridgewell loan angel 1.5 million dj dj 500k sutton release unless hes happy to play just now and then same with berger ----------------------- boruc johnson ------laursen ----- distin ----- barry -----------------------fernandes ----------------petrov ------- sneijder young ------------------------------------ moore ------------------------ carew subs: taylor, mellberg, sidwell, geremi, saviola rest of squad delaney, cahill, bouma, mccann, maloney, gabby, corradi spent 34.75mill sold 5 mill then next season 1 attacking winger and 1 striker you can tell i'm bored but just a bit of fun eh? :winkold:

i think barrys future is left back, if we get to where we want to be which if samuel doesn't get replaced in the summer will probably be the case. i'd love us to sign sneijder, but its a tad unrealistic really isn't it?, he looked very impressive the other day where he scored a screamer against PSV i really hope we can sign distin, that would save us having to buy a left and centre back (if barry isn't seen as the future left back) maybe treble press conference on the first day of the transfer window? sidwell, saviola and distin combined price £0, we can dream.. :nod:

i wouldn't mind seeing us try to hijack evertons bid to keep manuel fernandes benfica seem to be keen to get the 12 million, and if everton refuse to pay it we could always jump in its obviously a lot of money, but in context with ashley young it would be more than worth it IMO everytime i've seen him hes looked a true class act i wouldn't really want to see us paying that much, but if we couldn't get anyone for a more reasonable price he could be worth a shout.

the difference is newcastles back line is crap, ours isn't we don't concede many but we don't score any so whats the point in bolstering a defence that doesn't concede to many goals, when the reason we aren't winning games is because we can't score any? no-one is saying that our defence should'nt be improved in the summer, because it should, but our priority should be to balance the team out so we are scoring as well as not conceding

i'd rather keane than saviola i'd rather saviola than defoe edit - due to saviola on a free, he wins but if they were all at the same price i'd take keane first then saviola then defoe

is 70 goals in 111 starts and 19 goals last season playing mostly on the wing not clinical then? its more than clinical enough for a mid table team, and we wouldn't have to break the bank for him either

i do mostly agree with you but yuo can't really argue with his record according to soccerbase he scored 70 in 111 starts for auxerre in which isn't the strongest league but its hardly an easy league like scotland for example and for someone who played alot of his football for liverpool on the right wing, 19 goals for liverpool last season is a good return

not good enough? bar carew he is miles better than what we have i think hes vastly underrated by people on here, on form hes a very good player and i would take him over bellamy he will probably be sold for quite cheap as well like diouf was, and look how hes turned out

i would say tevez is closer to success than flop, some of his performances have been excellent, no he hasn't scored goals but for a first season in a team full of low morale and constant struggles hes been a shining light. as with mascherano since hes gone to liverpool hes shown glimpses of why hes so highly rated, and i suspect next season he will further blossom i wouldn't shout about crespo being a success either, but at the same time he wasn't a flop, he came scored goals that was expected of him but just failed to settle well.

i don't think you can include tevez and mascherano as flops just yet 1 because its there first season 2 they both joined a team in huge controversy with a lot of dressing room unrest and most west ham fans i've spoke to have said tevez has been one of there best players, he hasn't scored many but i think that will come next season if he stays in the premiership. mascherano wasn't really given a fair crack of the whip, and i suspect he was probably scapegoated by management for west hams bad form, but its proved not the case and the team overall has been poor, and since hes been at liverpool hes been pretty decent up to yet. and crespo scored 20 in 33 starts for chelsea, which isn't the worst record i've ever sin

i wouldn't be too bothered about corradi IF we sold angel and released sutton, and he was only ever back up to carew as the big man little man partnership hes got a lot of experience, hes never been a prolific player but he must have something to be able to play for italy and valencia and at 750k would be wort ha risk, and would enable us to spend more on a different position. Another player worth a mention - djibril cisse would be very good for us IMO and would probably cost less than an english player who is not as good.

where did i say foster wasn't good enough for us? they want him back, hes been quoted as saying he doesn't want to sit on the bench all season if fergie decides VDS is his number 1 next season, then foster is probably available on loan again i'm just saying to the pepple who don't want him on loan but want him on a permanent that, if we got him on loan for next season he could help propel us into a uefa cup position. So when foster goes back to man united we will be in a lot better position to attract a quality goalkeeper. this is all hypothetical anyway, as fergie might decide that foster is a better choice for number 1 next season than VDS. But if foster is available on loan again we've got more chance of signing him than boruc if hes available.

even if by the end of next season we are in the uefa cup and able to attract an even better keeper, which we wouldn't be able to attract at the end of this season.

theres a very good chance we could get foster the mail say that it would be a similar deal to the one he has at watford fosters stated that he doesn't want to be sitting on the bench, if ferguson thinks VDS is good enough to be number 1 for another season then chances are he will go back out on loan, where better than us? we have more chance of getting him than boruc, who i firmly believe was watching arsenal rather than us.

good to hear from you general how did randy hurt his back then? i think the vast majority know that Martin is the man whos going to break the top 4, some are just getting a wee bit impatient i guess but we will turn it round next season, im sure of it. I think next season when hes had a pre season with the lads and brought in a few higher quality players we will see a massive improvement from the team and from the likes of young and petrov who will have settled at villa and in birmingham.

thats to go to arsenal not us i haven't read the article but if he was watching arsenal vs villa then its pretty obvious which team he might join

link looks as though if hes available hes ours

allegedly by a tabloid if that was true then the whole squad wouldn't have made a deal that who ever scored first would have to do the golfswing celebration, if i recall correctly from the horses mouth, bellamy tried to get riise up on stage to sing kareoke, then riise confronted him and was pissed off, then when going to the rooms bellamy said someting on the lines of don't do that infront of the lads again. i believe that over something a tabloid spouted. as we're on the riise subject maybe we should campaign for carew to be sold, due to him being a troublemaker in the past when he knocked riise out on national team duty eh?.

whats the difference between bellamy and barton rocafella? you've contradicted yourself in the matter of a few posts i thought bellamy was a troublemaker, yet you are saying lets get barton who just earlier agressively threw his shirt at the fans to piss them off, and when they reacted pulled his shorts down to them to show his arse, and also blatently tried to stamp on emerton earlier just because they were losing. He also stubbed a cigarette in someones eye in the past o'neill wouldn't go for bellamy if he thought he would cause trouble, i guarentee o'neill knows more about bellamy than you, if he thinks he will cause trouble he won't sign him. If when he had him at celtic he thought he was controllable then he will try and sign him if thats who he wants. Thats why i will have faith in him if MON brings him here. for whats its worth i would welcome both, both have the passion we need to help us strive on