El-Reacho

Would be worth every penny IMHO. Had a poor season last year but if he was given games he could absolutely thrive here. Is it just twitter nonsense though?

Can't imagine he'd be cheap. Is his contract nearly up?

Or Gary Cahill, or Craig Gardner, or Curtis Davies... I'm sure there are others. I don't buy this O'Neill the great man manager to be honest, your face either fitted or it didn't. If it did you played (every game) and if it didn't you sat on the bench. A great man manager gets the best out of all his players and handles them well, personally I don't think O'Neill does that. Motivator? Yes no question but man manager, not for me. Anyway back on topic, Ireland's performances are encouraging lets hope they continue into the season. I think the two things went hand in hand with O'Neill though. He had his eleven players and was able to get them to do anything for him, hence the big results against Utd/Arse/Chelsea. I don't think he would have been capable of motivating the players to the extent that he did by rotating the squad and dropping players. It was all about inflating their egos and making them think they were so much better than they actually were, so it wouldn't have worked if he then went and dropped them for being crap. It worked well until his chosen 11 inevitably ran out of steam every season around about 1st March.

There were murmurs of him being taken to the Euros at the start of the summer.

We definitely need a sharpshooter in the box. Original post duly corrected thanks :-)

Haven't all of our pre-season games been 442 with a narrow midfield diamond and two strikers? -----------Given------------ Lowton Clark Vlaar Lichaj ------------KEA------------- -----Ireland---Delph------- ---------Holman------------ -----Zog-------Bent--------

Gary Hooper could be an interesting option. Outscored Carroll at Championship level for a much inferior team, and has a similar record to Jelavic in Scotland. Celtic would want alot for him I'd imagine.

I think PL realises that an arm round the shoulders works better with Stephen Ireland than a kick up the arse. Not that he need a kick up the arse because he played well, but he realises that to get the best out of Stephen Ireland you need to tell him how good he is and what he is capable of to keep his confidence high. Good to see. That is, they say, Lambert's forte. It's the one part of O'Neills management I think to a man we all miss, man management. Unless you're a big Nigel Reo-Coker fan that is. Absolutely. I think this is why we were so good against the Sky 4 when O'Neill was here. Hopefully PL can similarly get us some results against the big guys.

Berson looked a good signing in the one or two games he played for us IIRC. Was a good short range passer and wouldn't hoof it. Was maybe better suited to La Liga.

Can't wait to see KEA in the PL. Optimism is high.

The one I have is HD but the commentary is Canadian, so there is no point in putting a link up. French?

MON would probably give Fletcher a six year deal at £75,000 a week which PL will thankfully not be doing.

L'Equipe said during the week there that both us and Sunderland were after Gouffran. They said that Bordeaux were keen to move him on this summer.

I think I'd prefer Lambert to be a bit more decisive than that. If he wants Cresswell then he should do whatever he thinks is necessary to get him here regardless of where George Friend wants to go.

It will be interesting to compare to Norwich last season. Only the top 6 scored more than them and only the relegated teams conceded more. I know they're only pre-season games but he seems to be trying for something a bit more solid than the 'score one more than we concede' mentality of Norwich last season. Might account for lack or attacking threat?

Am I right in saying Ipswich are owned by a wealthy American? Could they afford to dig their heals in?

I reckon Sunderland fans may be getting that slightly deflated feeling now with these links to O'Neill's former players. The feeling that we first got when Marlon signed.

Don't understand the clamour to get rid of some of the younger unproven players. Bannan, Delphounso, Delph, Albrighton etc aren't on big contracts and we wouldn't get very much money for them. It's not as though we have a squad of Man City proportions so they're not really taking up squad spaces. I'm sure if we sold Albrighton it would come back to haunt us.

We'll probably have to give them a lump sum to get rid of them in the same way Ireland, Dunne, and Given's deals were held up because they wanted compensated for City not seeing out their contracts. Only O'Neill is going to give them a contract anywhere close to what they're currently on (ironically). Money inevitably will be the deciding factor in them leaving so I'm sure Collins, Warnock, Dunne, or Hutton are thinking why should I go anywhere else and have to take a pay cut. I can't imagine Dunne, Collins, or Warnock would have long left on their contracts - I wonder would the club end up doing what they did with Beye?

Nibali cracked...

I thought he was the team doctor, not the personal doctor. Wow thats terrible. Duly corrected Paulo. He was Rabobank's team Doctor.

^^ Maybe Indurain? I know that he's held it longer than Armstrong ever did. It was definitely in the mould of an Indurain win - take jersey in the pre-mountain TT and defend.

Jens Voight thinks it is. Interviewed on ITV4 the other day, and he attributed Sky/Wiggins' dominance to exactly that. Getting (clean) 1% advantages here and there can make all the difference, and that is what he said Sky had done. and he's not one of them. Someone also said to me that this has been one of the 'slowest' tours of recent years - also adding weight to the 'Clean' nature of the leaders, possibly. Really enjoying this tour, and really enjoying seeing a hard working, clean British rider out in front, riding for a 'British' team. Shows what can be done, with the right application. On the other hand Sky's DS Servais Knaven, said the other night that it was purely down to Froome and Wiggins' talent and that the marginal gains theory was over blown by the media. I had no idea this guy was working for Sky too - Wasn't Knaven thrown out of the Tour along with his TVM teammates as they were being investigated for systematic doping? Once again the Wiggins of two years ago wouldn't have allowed this guy near the race or his team. I know that pretty much anyone who has raced in the last few years can be linked to a doping scandal however tenuously, and that realistically an top professional cycling team has to get guys with experience - but why are Sky recruiting these guys - Barry, the Dutch Doctor, and Knaven etc. who were at the very heart of these scandals? I thought Brailsford's explanation for hiring that Dutch Doctor was laughable to be honest - because they needed someone who could treat serious saddle sores and had experience of extreme hot weather? The only guy available just happens to have been Rabobank's Doctor? If those are genuine reasons why is he not here at the Tour? A saddle sore might be the only thing other than a stupid crash that could cost Brad the Tour?

and so how would you like Sky to 'prove' to you that they are clean? :? What about publishing their blood values? That's not giving any of the tricks of their trade away. Brad even said that he felt it should be done a couple of years ago. What about employing an independent expert to verify their blood values like Armstrong said he was going to do but then never bothered? What about not hiring riders and staff that have been tainted by dope scandals of the past, again as Brad himself suggested a couple of years ago. What about confronting the inevitable questions that are going to be asked of any TdF leader with regard to doping in stead of having a strop or having the team's PR director ban people from press conferences for asking them? David Millar brings up doping in every interview he does, why do Sky brush it under the carpet as though it's not an issue in this sport? I've said before that in my opinion, due to the current state of professional cycling the onus is on the riders to illustrate that they are clean and answer the questions demanded of them to prove it. Benefit of the doubt has all been used up.

I think we were linked with Bafetimbi Gomis at the beginning of the MON era, before the press realised that he didn't sign players from abroad. Lyon are chasing the scraps and outcasts from the PSG experiment, so perhaps we could do likewise with Lyon.