joey55

The things is that this happens at lots of clubs. The difference is when the managers at rich clubs do it, they get given more money, have more success and people go on about how great they are. When a manager like MON does it and gets told there is no more to spend, fans see it as him taking the club as far as he could. But look at how many players Cheslea bought and hardly used under Mourinho or City under Mancinni. SAF has blown big fees and not really used players plenty of times. Rafa Benitez has to be the best example of this, as he paid big money for shit lots of times. When the Liverpool board couldn't give him anymore, he simply couldn't live with the likes of MON or Redknapp. Yet Liverpool fans feel sorry for him and still rate him. Football is about money, managers are over rated.

i used to really rate him but his flopped at stoke, when your kept out of a stoke side by glenn whelan then you cant be up to it He didn't flop at Stoke, he just hasn't been fit. It was a surprise he passed the medical. Maybe seeing what happened with Ba after he failed a medical at Stoke, influenced their thinking and they decided to take a gamble. If he was fit he'd be a good signing for you, but as I understand it his knee is screwed and he'll struggle to get match fit. I'm surprised you haven't gone for someone like Benat from Betis.

Apparently so. Personally I still desperately want Dembele. Though I still think Villa could have got him in Jan. Apparenly we are also after M'Vila, who seems like a poor mans Lass Diarra to me, but still a good player. We've had a bid turned to for Willian also. Lyons president today said we are in contact over Lloris. So it should be an exciting week now we have the Modric money. We could spend around £60 million in the next week. Given the average starts made by Arsenal and Liverpool, if we bring in players of the quality being mentioned, then I'd suddenly feel a lot more optimistic about the season. Ideally I'd like to see Remy, Isco, Dembele and Lloris (though I'm not sure how great he really is.) We obviously aren't interested in Lass, whilst Moutinho is very expensive and M'Vila is similar to Sandro, so don't feel we need him. I'm not sure about Willian as he plays in the Ukraine, so it's hard to tell how good he is, whilst Isco has looked brilliant for Malaga over the last few games.

If that is the case why were so many Villa fans happy to pay so much for him? You are describing and incredibly basic player, which he is, but you paid the price of a top class forward. I was critical of you signing him and was accused of being biased as a Spurs fan. But I'd watched him for 2 years and knew how limited he was. £18-£24 million for Villa is a huge amount of money. It would be the record transfer fee for all but 4 Prem clubs. I just don't understand how the Villa fans could be pleased with investing so much of your transfer funds into such a basic player.

It wasn't Adebayor. Go through his news archive on Skysports, you find the interview. You are having a go at the guy, based on mistaken identity. It was probably someone else and for some reason you've got it confused with an Ade interview or even you misunderstood him as he's accent is difficult. But either way, you are being unfair on him, as he didn't say what you think. If he'd done an interview like that it would have been a big deal on Spurs forums and news sites. The only interview in which he mentioned wages, was the one in which he said he plays for money and that he pays for the community work he does in Africa with it, without the need for fundraising.

Did he?

We hope Caulker is the future but Gallas is currently probably way ahead of him. The idea is for Caulker to reach Gallas's level. Spurs fans would never see Gallas as a weak link, which given how hated he was and how unpopular a signing he was, says a lot. Our only weak link was Bassong and he's gone. Other than that our issue has always been injuries preventing us having a consistent pairing at CB. To be honest Caulker is rated by most spurs fans, despite them seeing very little of him. It's one of those typical message board things, when an entire fan base becomes convinced of something, without much to substantiate it. Most Spurs fans will claim to have seen enough of Caulker, but it's bullshit. I'd be very surprised if more than 1% of Spurs fans have seen him play more than 5 times and those would have been mainly at the Olympics, where whilst not doing anything wrong, he certainly didn't look like a superstar in the making either. When i caught the odd Swansea game, it was similar.

I don't think he was ever going to leave, it was more media speculation. When he joined he said his family really wanted to stay in London. That's unlikely to have changed and he still has a year left on his deal. I wouldn't be surprised to see him extend for another year at the end of the season. He's still fast so his age isn't a problem.

I think it's a decent deal for both sides. Dawson has been an great player for us, but he's 28 and we've now got Vertonghen and Caulker. At a club like QPR he'll top several of the defensive stats at the end of the season. He's in the top 10 for blocks, clearances and aerial challenges, whilst playing for us and we do a lot less defending than QPR. At the end of the day QPR look as if they are going to be playing with their backs to the wall for much of the season, so they couldn't realistically sign a better defender. It's not as if they are going to bossing games and defending on the half way line.

I feel so much better about our prospects now we've signed Ade. It's only one player, but he's so vital for us and I was feeling so pessimistic about the season, as we've been in a similar situation before and ended up bringing in Fraizer Campbell on loan.

It's because he' not been fit for two years due to an ankle injury and was out for the whole of last season. He was meant to go on loan to the MLS during the summer, but their regulations didn't allow it, so we are looking to loan him out in this country, so he can get fit.

I think you are forgetting that they announced it on the Fenway Sports website. This isn't a perfectly normal and legitimate thing to do. So the Liverpool part isn't marginal at all. Jol has every right to be upset with Liverpool. The said website is completely independent of LFC. It is called NESN for "New England Sports Network" which covers the sports teams of the area of New England. The company tht owns the wensite is owned by FSG but thats the only link. They have no say what gets put on there or control and it is runs completely independently from LFC and FSG. They have started covering LFC in bits since FSG, the Red Sox owners bought us because of our links now to Boston and New England. The reporters and writers on there are people who are not experienced or professional journalists with training etc. They previously had a LFC contributor on that website who was just a fan who managed to get chatty with Tom Werner but it turned out he was a racist with links to the BNP/EDL. When this came out they got rid of him obviously but it shows how unprofessionally the NESN (not FSG) website is ran that this could happen. One contributor on there who isn't even paid genuinely thought we'd signed him because of tweets he'd read on Twitter and in his naivety believed them so included one line in presention on the US Tour at the very end that said something like "and new signing Clint Dempsey", nothing massive, the article and video wasn't even about Dempsey, that was tagged on at the end. It was a genuine mistake from a rookie writer with no real or professional journalism training on a site which the LFC content is a new section and shoddily managed. FSG or LFC don't deserve to be tarred and feathered for that it was completely out of their control. It should also be pointed out that Arsenal have 'made an enquiry' a few times foir Dempsey and West ham actually made a bid, but no, it was all Liverpools fault alone. The poster above is right in that Jol is using the Dempsey/LFC thing to deflect away from himself and the club. Dempsey has already intimated Jol is lying and only giving one side of the story and said the 'truth' will come out so I'll wait to hear that first. Football clubs always make an enquiry first before bidding. That is normal procedure to find out if a) the player is even for sale, the ball park value of said player to see if it is affordable to the prospective club. Liverpool didn't end up putting a bid in because Dempsey was 3/4th priority signing and after we bought the more important players, we have no money left to buy Dempsey. If we can sell Adam/Spearing/Carroll/Cole which we are trying to do, then this may change. Deflect what away from him and the club? Also Jol has said it would be unfair to say Dempsey refused to play, so what is he lying about? Rodgers said in an interview that Liverpool had inquired about Dempsey and that he's a very talented player. He then laughably said he didn't want to talk about other teams players, have just admitted his clubs interest. Of course that is going to turn the head of the player. Clubs can ask about a player availability, but don't need to make it public that they've done so. It's up to the club who own the player to decide if they wish to tell him about the inquiry. So along with the FSG website announcement, as I previously said, Jol has every reason to be pissed off with the whole situation. His best player has had his head turned by another club, who let their interest be known to him through the media and on a website owned by their owners. If Rodgers and FAG could just have kept their mouths shut, all Dempsey would need to know is that there have been no offers for him.

I think you are forgetting that they announced it on the Fenway Sports website. This isn't a perfectly normal and legitimate thing to do. So the Liverpool part isn't marginal at all. Jol has every right to be upset with Liverpool. Ah Joey how do you feel about the lack of striking transfers at Spurs so far this summer? Must say I'm really surprised it's dragged into the start of the season...very MON esque. If Adebayor wants 2m a week, **** him off and go after someone else. I really don't see Spurs in the mix for top 4 at all this season. Top 8 but not challenging the top 4. I see Venables had them down for 3rd, he must still be on a payroll at WHL. :| I wrote my general feelings here: http://www.villatalk.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=73166&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30 I've got us down for about 8th. I haven't felt this pessimistic about a season since Juande Ramos was in charge. I can't believe what Levy has done. My biggest frustration is that the players I want are very realistic signings. I'll be really pissed off if we keep chasing the likes of Sahin, Moutinho and Leandro, and as a result miss out on other players that I'm sure we could sign right now.

I think you are forgetting that they announced it on the Fenway Sports website. This isn't a perfectly normal and legitimate thing to do. So the Liverpool part isn't marginal at all. Jol has every right to be upset with Liverpool.

Liverpool top 4? Step away from the alcohol. We finished 9th in Harry's first season and then 4th the next season. Everton finished in the bottom half and then 4th the next season. Liverpool have got plenty of good players.

Our problems go way beyond Modric. When Harry was here Modric broke his leg and we still maintained CL form. I've tried to put a positive spin on things, but the reality is we've lost a brilliant manager (though many would try and deny it), our best CB has retired, our best CM has left and our best striker was never ours anyway and hasn't re-signed. As much as people hate Harry, the chances are AVB wont be as good. No one is as good as Modric (in my opinion that will be proven this year at Madrid). A lot of reasons were given for a our drop in form last season, but few mention it happened when Ledley got inured in training and could no longer perform. Vertonghen looks good, but he's no Ledley King. Without Adebayor I can't see how we can effectively play 1 up front. Also i can't think of a squad of players less suited to AVBs preferred system. It almost seems as if Levy has done everything he can to make sure we have a bad season. It's a long time ago, but I still can't get my head around sacking Harry. It's as if Levy was getting worried that we were actually becoming a decent team and thought it was high time he reminded us who we really are with another Juande Ramos type.

Man Utd Man City Arsenal Liverpool Chelsea Everton Newcastle Tottenham Sunderland QPR

double post

Well that can't be true. I'm talking about the time he spent at Spurs. I don't remember him missing any games due to injury, though he might have.

To be fair Saha did okay for us last season. I don't think he was ever injured, but didn't play much as he was only ever signed as a short term back up. He worked pretty hard and scored a few goals. As a free transfer, just for a year, I can't see much reason to criticize MON for this. It sounds like the are looking for another striker as well, so I'd imagine Saha has been signed just to give them a bit more cover.

Technically he is good, he is big, good in the air, good passing, holds the ball well and moves well. His main problems are he sometimes goes to sleep and he is too nice (doesn't stamp his authority/rarely one to put in a real crunching tackle/been known to hide a bit). They can be brought out of him through time and he can be a top player. Always thought he'd be our captain one day from the first time I saw him play, when he was 14. Guess it just wasn't to be. Hopefully Moyes sees the money, he wouldn't have agreed to it otherwise imo. I think it's hard to sustain this argument in comparison to other players though. You can say so many Prem players are technically good, but if you compare him to English players, let alone the foreign players you can't really claim he's good technically or at passing. Lampard, Gerrard, Barry, Carrick, Wilshire and Huddlestone are all superior in those departments. On the evidence of U21 football so is Henderson. So, though technically decent compared to many defenders, wide players and strikers, he's not particularly good for a CM, not even an English CM. He probably looks good to Everton fans (I know many of you don't rate him, aren't accusing Everton fans in general of bias), as generally you aren't a technical, passing team. But lets face it he's no Arteta.

I don't think Rodwell has much potential, I never have. I've never seen any great talent. I can't see him being one of the best 3 English CMs of his generation, so can't see him playing a big role for a top team. People talk about his injuries and that he's still young, but what about the fact he isn't technically that good? If he was a DM and there to simply break up the play then maybe he could develop and add some bite to his game. But he's not going to get anywhere as more general CM and attacking CM player. We've been linked to M'Vila and Leandro by Duncan Castle who supposedly close to AVB. Despite them both having big reputations, if I'm honest from what I've seen I'm not overly impressed. I'd rather Remy as a striker and either Lass, Dembele or Capoue as a CM. Dembele could cover a few positions for us, so I'd really like him.

So to clarify, because they won games that you didn't expect them to that means that they "weren't that good" Interesting logic. No, what I'm saying is that they had 3 very tough fixtures at the end of the season. The fact that upto that point they'd not played these 3 tougher fixtures that they'd be expected to lose, made their position see strong than it was. I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that they would have not been so close to the top 4 with 3 games to go if in April they played Man City, Chelsea and Everton away, rather than playing them in the last 3 games of the season. The logic is that though the points available are always the same, not all teams are of equal quality and therefore the fixture list can distort things. They played Chelsea after they'd qualified for the CL final and I find it tough to believe Chelsea would have put in such an inept performance at home, ahd that not been the case. Chelsea is the only game of the 3 I expected them to lose that they didn't.

Newcastle weren't that good last season and Liverpool weren't that bad. I hate Liverpool but they were very unlucky at times, whilst Newcaslte had the rub of the green so often and the fixture list was such that their final 3 games were one's they'd be heavily expected to lose. So it seemed like they were challenging for the top 4, but if you compare ours, Arsenals final 3 games with theirs, it does show how the fixture list made their challenge look more solid than it really was. I don't think under normal circumstances they'd had got anything out of the Cheslea game and they'd always be under dogs away at Everton and City.

£25million + diarra I'd love Diarra, but can't see it happening. It amazes me that people talk about paying £20 million plus for someone like M'Vila while Diarra is available and for probably under £10 million. Diarra has ahd a very strange career though, which as meant he's never really been recognised as being one of the best DMs in the world. Diarra, Dembele and Berbatov are the 3 gems of this transfer window, in that they have enormous quality, but aren't in vogue at the moment (well maybe Dembele is).