the_eristic

On the Liverpool fire sale, Lucas is a lot better than people think. He's not Xabi Alonso, though, and why FSW bought a young Brazilian attacking midfielder, then used him to take the place of an experienced Spanish deep-lying playmaker/defensive mid, I'll never understand.

Not one of the Viola players we should be after, were we after any, imo.

If he comes here, I'll joyously dance nude in streets in the tradition of the Biblical King David.

I'd buy a load of gear if they'd make anything in tall sizes. :^(

Would be great here if we still have a ball player to partner him! Training ground injuries would probably go up 1000%, though. He likes his nasty challenges.

----------------Barry-------- ------------------------------- -------Milner----------------- -------------------------Downing ------------Ireland----------- Young------------------------ ------------------------------- -------------Gabby---------- Would be interesting and give us loads of flexibility, if we can break out of 4-4-2 syndrome. Lacks a nasty bastard ball winner, though perhaps if we kept the ball better, wouldn't as big an issue.

We were linked (rather unrealistically, we mostly concluded) with Van der Wiel last week.

EDIT: Damn, too slow! I can think of few more worth mentioning. Didi Hamann KP Boateng Markus Babbel Robert Huth Jens Lehmann Mortin Volz Christian Ziege Steffen Freund Uwe Rosler (speaking of which, weren't there a bunch of other Germans at City early-mid '90s?) Been several others that weren't regulars, too, like that Nsereko kid at West Ham and Stefan Wessels at Everton.

Hey, hey. He goes by Mandon now.

Needs Comic Sans...

I wonder what the ratio of English rock bands containing members named Ian is to those sans Ian.

That would be unbelievable, he's easily one of the top 10 in the world. Could really only see it if Friedel retires, as even if we could get him, it'd be madness for a club where we're at to have two keepers of that quality on the books. Would leave Guzan out in the cold, too, though I suppose it would let us loan him out.

Clark, Holden, Guzan, should be the only ones he's played against in MLS, possibly Edu and Altidore. Honestly, though, I was just being a bit facetious, as I really don't think Beckham is going to be anywhere near as useful in that regard as the media seems to think. The "big" USA players, like Dempsey, Donovan, Howard, everybody already knows VERY well. Most of the other guys have enough caps to be easily scoutable, and those that don't are likely to be little more than fringe players, and are mostly one-dimensional. It doesn't take any special David Beckham analysis to understand that Robbie Findley is fast but inconsistent in front of goal, or that Edson Buddle uses his size and strength to get into dangerous positions, or that Ricardo Clark is tenacious but has kinda poor technique and tends to tackle too aggressively (as does much of our side). It's probably just Gomez that Capello will want to know more about, mostly because the rest of us do, too!

All two of them? :!: (Protip: there are only four MLS-based players in the squad, two of which are his teammates.)

Oh, I enjoy watching international competitions, but my NT is just not as meaningful to me as Villa, as I put very little stock in so-called patriotism or national pride. Echoing what others have said, I'm American by coincidence, Villa because I am compelled to be. I would laugh like a madman if the USA won the WC, though, because it'd basically be like trolling the rest of the world, and, more seriously, it would help the growth of the sport here tremendously (imagine if this country were to take association football as seriously as gridiron, basketball, etc!).

Villa. Replace England with my national team, and it still holds true.

When Chelsea are letting someone go due to wage demands, I think we'd have to be put off. Papers are saying he wants 100k a week! 8^|

I follow the Bundesliga I & II and i'm pretty sure there's no team called Great Yellow Banana Wouldn't be terribly out of place in 3.Liga, though!

Maybe something to do with our sponsorship situation?

Altidore, in ~30 apps in his first season in England, picked up a goal and seven assists in a Hull team that couldn't score to save their lives. Would be an excellent Heskey replacement, as he's younger (only 20!), faster, holds the ball up nearly as well, but can actually do something with it. He'd score a LOT more in team that plays fast and puts good crosses in, too. Good shout, methinks.

You forgot "used to be" (with the exception of Pato and to a lesser extent, 'dinho). The rest have been injured, absolutely dire, or both for a good two seasons now.

Winning the league will be easy with Gundams on the field.

That is some terrible shooping, jebus.