switters

maybe plan is Lowton, Cresswell, Lichaj and Herd competing for 2 full back spots? There'd be a lack of experience, but it sounds more promising that just being stuck with Hutton and Warnock week-in week-out, who are very experienced at being crap. These youngsters are players who should be driven to put in performances, retain their place in the team & prove themselves, and there are certainly precedents in the premier league that these players can look to follow - e.g. Kyle Walker, Leighton Baines. You'd worry if we were in a relegation battle & those were the options at full-back, but hopefully we will stay out of that kind of trouble this season and this kind of strategy seems sensible - even if only 1 of those players became established long-term, it'd be a successful strategy.

Not to get in a heated argument or to baost one academy is indeed bigger than the other but allow me this question: how many Feyenoord academy graduates are currently playing in arguably one of the best leagues in the world? Barry, Cahill, Sturridge, Agbonlahor, Clark, Albrighton, Weimann, Bannan, Herd, Craig and Gary Gardner to name just a few. Here is a small list from players in the top leagues in the world (I may have forgotten a few). If you would ask me to make a new list in 5 years...it would be so much longer. Robin van Persie (Arsenal) Salomon Kalou (Just joined Lille from Chelsea) Royston Drenthe (On loan at Everton last season from Real Madrid) Luc Castaignos (Inter Milan) Jeffrey Bruma (On loan to HSV from Chelsea) Glenn Loovens (Real Zaragoza) Jonathan de Guzman (Just moved on loan to Swansea from Villarreal) Gerson Magrao (Santos) Karim Rekik (Manchester City) Nathan Ake (Chelsea) Dominic Adiyiah (AC Milan) Kyle Ebecilio (Arsenal) Moestafa el Kabir (Cagliari) Ronnie Stam (Wigan) Michel Bastos (Olympique Lyon) Gianni Zuiverloon (Real Mallorca) Before you were complaining about clubs poaching talents aged 16, now you want to claim people like Kalou and Bastos as Feyenoord products when you signed them from their home countries at 18? Feyenoord does have a great academy & seems to be producing a lot the last few years, but really we have to wait and see how youth players progress. People like Drenthe & De Guzman had a lot of hype but have not lived up to it yet. Of your list only Van Persie, Kalou & Bastos are really proven top level players and the latter two are not really Feyenoord products. the rest are either too early in their career to judge (Castaignos, Ebecilio, Rekik, Ake, Adiyiah, Bruma) or pretty average players on about the same level as Villa products like Craig Gardner or Liam Ridgewell (Zuiverloon, Loovens, Stam).

For defence, think we should try & sell Warnock, Collins, Hutton, but keep Dunne. Might be better to have some continuity, he's played plenty with Given and we might as well play out his contract, rather than take a loss now as he's less likely to attract buyers at his age. Bring in a new signing for Collins as first choice, and hopefully phase out Dunne over the season for Clark/Baker. Lowton can probably cover CB too, so that would probably be enough for that position - rather spend bigger on one good first choice CB than spread out money over 2 middling ones. Then we would need a good LB to replace Warnock. New LB/Lichaj/Stevens New CB/Dunne/Clark/Baker/Lowton/Williams Lowton/Lichaj/Herd

I like Holt (somewhat follow Shrewsbury as local team & he was great for them) but I don't think he'd be a good signing. He's agitating for a move because after a career in the lower league he's finally got a chance for a few years of Premier League wages and his stock will never be higher. Norwich will want far more than he's worth and Holt will be after longer contract than we should consider giving player of his age. I think we'd be able to get much better value replacement for Heskey elsewhere and it's not first priority position. In fact, Weimann could easily be better than Holt given the time on the pitch, it'd be a shame if we held back his development to eke out a couple of years from (with all due respect) a lower-league journeyman.

That would've made sense last year, or if we'd sacked McLeish mid-season. But now is surely not the time to be making another potentially short-term appointment. Most of the worst contracts have run down now. 1 more year of Warnock, Collins, Dunne is all that's really left of the overpaid MON squad.

It's barely even a decision - the choice is offer them a new contract or don't offer them a new contract. As we don't have a manager we're hardly going to restrict their options with the squad by offering new terms to players he might not want. Plus the players themselves won't want to sign new contract if they don't know who the manager is and whether he wants them (unless they don't care about playing and just want the money, in which case all the more reason not to offer them a contract!) If new manager really wants any of these players, he can try to re-sign them, as it's unlikely any of them will get a new club instantly.

Not sure why everyone so cold on Martinez. Honestly, would Solskjaer be doing much differently with Wigan? It's a bit silly to consider him someone who is happy to lose when he is at a club that is in the bottom 3 in the league in terms of resources. Even if you start out super-positive there, you are going to end up realistic, they are a club forever punching above their weight in this league. I could see Poyet being considered. He fits the bill too, in terms of age/potential. Di Matteo I'm not so convinced by. Also he scored goal against us in the FA Cup final, the fiend (Poyet played that day too, but at least had the decency not to score )

Well, I don't have a clue how reliable Agent_ITK is, but I do know they have telephones in America..

My only guess for last letter of name is that he's implying it's a vowel - i.e. suggesting Italian/Spanish/S.American name. With the 'busy' clue, was trying to thing if there's anyone managing at the Euros who's remotely likely, but can't really see anyone who fits all the clues.

Solskjaer worked for Manchester United as player and reserve team coach between 1996 and 2011. I suspect he knows the league pretty well! He not managed a club in premi league ,that what I should have said. Neither had Benetiz, TheSpecialOne, Wenger, Fergie before they joined Teams over here. Nor indeed had Lambert or Rodgers this time last year. Managing your club a few times against Fulham and Everton doesn't endow you with special managerial powers. It's a matter of picking tactics and motivating a team, which is similar wherever you manage. Knowing about the opposition is important too and I'd be worried if we were getting some young manager who's completely new to English football, but Solskjaer will have played against, alongside and even managed a number of players who we'll come up against in the league. He will have seen firsthand how to manage a side successfully in this league. Of course same can be said for many managers who've failed, but I'm just arguing that the lack of managerial experience in the Premier League shouldn't be seen as a lack of knowledge of the league.

Solskjaer worked for Manchester United as player and reserve team coach between 1996 and 2011. I suspect he knows the league pretty well!

2 things: - he ain't gonna get the Man Utd job unless he does a damn good job at Villa. This would be a Good Thing for us. - Ferguson is immortal. I suspect he drinks the blood of youth players who can't cut it at Man Utd. He could still be there for another 5 years or more, particularly if he wants to go out on a high - he won't want to leave while the club is in City's shadow.

Could be the perfect manager to build a team to suit Bent - strikes me he was quite a Bent-like striker in his day, so should know how to set up the attack to benefit him.

Don't know enough about him as manager to know if this is a good choice, but if it's true, I'm delighted Lerner has at least spread his net wider and got away from the obsession with PL experience as the be-all and end-all for a manager. I'd be hopeful that Solskjaer is someone who can inspire our academy players - surely he will have a far more modern approach than a dinosaur like McLeish.

Good manager, but I'd be extremely surprised if he went from that to a high-pressure PL job less than a year later. And after Houllier problems, there's no chance board would take a risk on manager who left previous job for health reasons.

They surely wouldn't do it twice would they? Hasn't McCarthy been relegated 3 times from the premier league? I'd usually ignore rubbish like this to be honest but with Faulkner heading the hunt you never know. He's the dozy **** who thought McLeish was a good idea so putting nothing past him. Read carefully. It doesn't say we contacted McCarthy. It says McCarthy "had a telephone conversation with Faulkner" - even if true, that could just be Mick phoning up to put his name forward, as I'm sure dozens of managers looking for a PL job have done over the last couple of days.

Do people not remember last summer? There was a new bookies favourite every day. Hughes, McClaren, Benitez, Martinez, etc, all had a go. McCarthy rumour is just a sign that we are into silly season. Just because the most ridiculous rumour last summer turned out to be the real one, doesn't mean it will be the same this time.

I think a rolling contract means he always has 1 year contract, hence we'd probably have to pay compensation for that year. But yes it would be cheaper than getting someone who has long-term contract (e.g. Brendan Rodgers, who signed 3.5 yr contract in Feb 2012). Martinez seemingly signed 3 yr contract last year, so would have 2 years left.

True. And I'm not convinced Hughton is good enough to take that kind of risk for anyway. Yes he's a promising coach, but frankly a relegated side should be getting in the playoffs. Blackpool have done better, yet there's little mention of Holloway.. And Hughton did get sacked by Newcastle, perhaps harshly, but perhaps there's a reason that a big club didn't have faith in him to rebuild their team?

Develop scouting networks in countries like France, Holland, Portugal, Germany, Belgium. Remove all scouts from Scotland Take a leaf from Newcastle in targeting equivalents to Tiote, Cabaye, Ben Arfa. Also look at the Championship & see if we can find some cheap, hungry talents there. The key is finding players who have talent & drive to succeed in PL. Not just resign ourselves to players who are already established and looking for a nice, comfortable 4-year contract in midtable obscurity. Ideally sell whoever we can find takers for from Hutton, Warnock, Collins & Dunne. 3 of them only have a year left, so sell them dirt cheap if necessary - it will free up wages. Make sensible decisions on how much the homegrown players will play, one or two of the younger ones might benefit from season-long loan (e.g. Gary Gardner, Nathan Baker, Samir Carruthers) while the team is being rebuilt. While plenty of them got some playing time last season, it wasn't necessarily that beneficial to their development when the team & club was so demoralised & poor. Next season is going to be tough again & it's hard to integrate youngsters into an undeveloped team. Big decision might be Darren Bent. This comes down to how much funding we have for transfers to improve key areas (central midfield, defence). If we don't have much funds to make signings, and someone came in with £20m for Bent I think it would be hard to refuse. His value will only go down & as he showed in the first half of last season, if we haven't got good enough supply-line, he is limited. Obviously it is preferable to keep him and build a team that can supply him, but this might be a financial decision.

No chance. The club statement yesterday showed they have learned from McLeish. 5 minutes research would show them that Bruce would be just as disastrous as McLeish.

Even if this is the case, it will be infinitely better than being a laughing stock for keeping McLeish and watching him sign Karl Henry and co.

Regarding the point about 'transitional season' - if McLeish stays he is, by his own account, planning big changes. So it's going to be another transition whoever is in charge. It's not like we've shown any sign this season that McLeish has made any progress with the squad which we can build on.

Lampard, Gerrard, Terry, Ferdinand & Johnson should not be anywhere near an England set up. All have been to major tournaments and failed to deliver. Not once, most have been to four or five tournaments! We need to take the German approach and start afresh. The old guard and the egos need to be shipped out. I would never have faith in Gerrard and Lampard to play together in a winning midfield when they have failed so many times in the past. A midfield that failed to even qualify for Euro 2008 is not going to win Euro 2012. Germany's starting afresh was much more long term. They built from the youth teams and continued the same system into the senior setup. England hasn't done that - we're perhaps just starting now with the new central setup in Burton. The long-term problem with England is lack of a coherent team plan. Just throwing out the old players and bringing in younger versions wouldn't really be changing anything in the philosophy of the team.

Absolutely shameless. Is he really trying to pretend he's actually over-achieved with the squad this season?! Sacking cannot come soon enough. Hopefully announced soon after meeting with Faulkner on Monday.