bobzy

Only if they're ready to play first team football - it's pointless chucking in a youngster with no experience otherwise. For all Tonev's faults, he's a Bulgarian international with over 100 games under his belt - no youth player has this and a poor season could see their confidence shot for a long time.

His value is whatever it is to us right now - not a transfer comparison of all deals that have previously happened. Would we be able to get as good a defender as Ron Vlaar for £5/6m?

Without wanting to derail the thread... what? That's absolute nonsense.

Agreed. Guzan has been terrible. ...and also most other teams in the Premier League. What's your point?

That's all Kozak does as well though From what I've seen of Kozak I agree which is why I'm not a fan. Certainly true of Darren Bent. I think it was Arsenal we beat 2-0 (2-1?) at the Emirates and Bent scored twice; one goal in particular down to the timing of his run and the quality of Ashley Young's pass. Without those creative sparks, he just doesn't work. Kozak, in my opinion, is slightly different because whilst he still seems to rely on good service, his stature means he CAN make something happen just by "being there" (see: Weimann's goal against Man City for example). Bent doesn't have that sort of influence on a game.

Look back at the past few years when we have been in the do-do he has pulled out all the stops to keep us up hasn't he?? It was terrible that season he didn't and we got relegated

So what - Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal - he has to go somewhere, will not matter to me where he goes as long as we get good money for him. We were always going to be a stepping stone for him, has to happen sometime. Players, managers, owners come and go, the Club remains, as do we. Not a stepping stone to Newcastle though! It's a bit different... If they were up there fine. Thankfully that's absolutely no chance of that happening. It probably is a stepping stone to go to Newcastle at the moment. They finished ahead of Chelsea 3 seasons ago. Ermm.....what? They're not interlinked. If you want to be that literal then Newcastle finished 10th last season. Obviously it's not as big a jump as going to Arsenal or Spuds (previously mentioned) but they're a better side than us.

Absolute garbage. How is painting the manager/club in a terrible light in the press anything other than a bad thing? Fans can make up their own minds about how things are at the club - there's no need for the media to be doing the same. All it would do is promote a crisis of confidence; "yay". Edit: It comes back to your opening line really "writing as the supporter he is" - a supporter gets behind the club no matter what. They don't just liberally bash away (no innuendo intended )

So what - Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal - he has to go somewhere, will not matter to me where he goes as long as we get good money for him. We were always going to be a stepping stone for him, has to happen sometime. Players, managers, owners come and go, the Club remains, as do we. Not a stepping stone to Newcastle though! It's a bit different... If they were up there fine. Thankfully that's absolutely no chance of that happening. It probably is a stepping stone to go to Newcastle at the moment. They finished ahead of Chelsea 3 seasons ago.

Lambert out!!

"Pointless question but I'm going to answer it and here's my valuation". Ok

Opinion?

He won't win in some people's eyes. - States he wants to bring in young and hungry players - Brings in said players and moulds a young squad, kicking out older players (generally; and high earners) - Fans cry out for experience as squad is too young and naive (results are poor) - Lambert starts to bring in experienced players to complement the youth - Lambert is a reactive manager and that sucks Great stuff.

Won a European Cup once, lowered expectations.

How authentic is the duel? Reckon they're using pistols?

Jack Grealish - no future. Ok.

I quite liked James Collins in our defence but Richard Dunne? Really? It's Vlaar every single day of the week - irrespective of whether or not he's ever had a particularly good season with us.

Interesting that Lambert has previously tried this 5-3-2-esque formation and Vlaar has completely revelled in it at the World Cup. Deliberate ploy from Lambert to suit Vlaar? Okore is a quick player as well so, in theory, he's looking for a quick back 3 with players that are comfortable on the ball. Okore/Vlaar/Clark?

I don't think our ambition is just to stay up. If you take into account the squad rebuilding that has happened and the reduction in wages for playing staff over the past 2 seasons, I'd say the ambition now is to build on what we've got and start climbing back up the league. Our ambition is more likely to finish mid table, away from a relegation battle. However, due to Lerner wanting out of the club, we're in an uncertain situation.

???? is this just wishful thinking? Oh I thought Kieran's nickname was Ki? He signed yesterday didn't he? So bad. SO bad.

theboyangel: Absolutely NO LEGS up top there. Imagine trying to counter with Joe Cole

Might as well just sell the squad... ...and Bodymoor Heath... ...and Villa Park... ...and just give up on football.

Out of interest, and not to derail too much, here's one guys' thought on the best 11/honourable mentions (Spurs fan for what it's worth): keylar navas phil lahm ron vlaar mat hummels can't decide between rojo/rodriguez/blind javier mascherano james rodriguez 2 from: arjen robben/alexis sanchez/neymar leo messi thomas mueller subs+honourable mentions to fill out the rest of the squad would be for me probably out of: gks - guillermo ochoa/tim howard/claudio bravo fbs - serge aurier/damarcus beasley cbs - rafa marquez/diego godin/gary medel mcs - jermaine jones/toni kroos wfs - mathieu valbuena/xherdan shaqiri/juan cuardado ams - miralem pjanic/sofiane feghouli (although both played wide cutting in too) sts - erm... rvp maybe? joel campbell? karim benzema? miroslav? for such an open world cup, no striker has really made a huge mark

No, otherwise I'd have listed him

Close for me. Have been discussing World Cup 11's on another forum and the consensus for "outstanding" CB's seems to be; Rafael Marquez Thiago Silva Mats Hummels Ron Vlaar Mario Yepes