Rob182

Albeit, only against Tranmere, but he was fantastic on Tuesday. I was at the game and he was constantly on the move, making interceptions, looking for the ball and building attacks. He probably had a hand, in some way, in all of our goals. He was chalked offside for his lob over the keeper too. If that hadnt been offside, that would have been an excellent goal. I have hope that we'll see the best out of Ireland, now that we have a manager that will let him flourish. I watched some of the AVTV interviews last night and he says that he doesn't want ever become a player who's scared of playing a dangerous pass. He doesn't want to play an easy pass when there is a chance that a more inventive pass could benefit the team. (words to that effect..)

Lambert can get the best out of him whilst also giving him an earful when he tries to act like billy big balls!

The one, the only.... Clint 'Mr Fantastic' Dempsey :winkold: If we signed him, wiggy is at risk of having a jism-attack to the point of being hospitalised!

I can only really see us bringing in a ST and a LB (Benteke and Bennett?) this window. I would like us, at some point, to bring in an experienced Premier League central midfielder to play next to KEA. I've had a look through the central midfielders in the league that would add experience, be within our price range and would have the slightest-possibility of leaving their respectives clubs in the next window or two and here's the list I've come up with: Nolan Diaby Carrick Mulumbu Anderson Palacios Adam Huddlestone Some are far-fetched, I know. Some are also pretty poor (Palacios/ Nolan)!

Same here, I actually think he was one of our best players Yesterday. Good in the tackle, decent passing, works hard and gets forward a lot. If Cresswell is similar/ better then I think that'll be £4m well spent.

Unlucky GG. I was really hoping you would get some gametime this year. I feel sorry for the lad

If this is true, and right now nobody knows, then I think PL has made an appalling error in signing Lowton for £3M. I can't see why he'd do that, i mean Hutton is not the best right back in the world, but he would have done for another season, why splash 40% of your transfer budget on a rookie for a position in which you already have a rookie and an international ? I think there is probably more like £15M, but the market has gone silly this summer. This is a very good point that I hadn't considered before. Hutton, as bad as he is, isn't the biggest problem area in the team. I'd say Warnock is worse than him. I've always thought there were funds available. I still trust Richards info, and that we'll make a few signings in the next week.

I would be happy with that. But realistically, I'm expecting a leftback and hopefully a striker. Any more will be a bonus for Me. With the narrow formation we've been playing so far, I think that the 'wide' positions are actually covered by Holman, Ireland, N'Zogbia and Albrighton. Any more signings in that position and we'd have an awful lot of players to rotate frequently (or we'd need to play 3 of them and only 1 striker, meaning that Gabby/ Wiemann/ 'new striker' would be left to be rotated aswell).

PL rules out Defoe and Jones.... Good!! I enjoy getting swept away by the speculation as much as the next guy, but nothing about the Carroll rumours even begin to add up. Maybe I'll be proved wrong but the deal seems to make no sense and conflicts with everything else that has happened in the window so far. I wouldn't rule Carroll out. One thing you can say about our transfers is that they haven't been excepted. We didn't see links/ rumours about Vlaar, El Ahmadi or Lowton until a day before they signed. Also, regarding funds, we've never been told that we haven't got funds to spend. Just because we brought in Vlaar, Lowton and El Ahmadi for roughly £3m-each, doesn't mean that we don't have more. Finally, Carroll is available to buy & Lambert has previously played with a target man, which we currently don't have. I think he could be on our radar.

I would be more than happy with that squad. Having Carroll, Bent or Gabby upfront, with balls put through to them from Holman, Delph, Ireland, Bannan or N'Zogbia should easily be enough. The defence is less convincing, but it has potential, and I'd much rather that defence than 'Hutton-Collins-Dunne-Warnock'.

It's worryingly quiet!!!! But I'm sure the silence will be broken soon, and it'll probably be for another player that most of us have never heard of and the papers had no clue about!

If Lambert is happy with his midfield 'options' (isn't a great deal to choose from), then I have little faith in him as a manager Luckily there are no quotes from Lambert, so we can all keep our faith in him.

Of course it would but thats not what we're discussing is it and it still doesnt mean he cant improve himself and become a better player does it? At 28 I doubt it. Why? Becoming a better player for us could have simply meant getting used to the league. He played less than 10 games. I don't think it'd be unreasonable to think a player could improve their game with us, after getting experience of the speed of the league.

I'd like us to go for Olsson. He's still fairly young so he can still improve defensively, he was good going forward in a poor Blackburn side & with the way we're playing, I'd hope that the central midfielders will provide defensive cover when he is attacking the wings. The only thing I'd be concerned about, would be when we're defending set pieces. He's a fairly small chap, IIRC..

Because he wasn't ITK before, but he is now...

I came into this thread to suggest this! But 'do's not 'ooh's... Do, do, dooo, Karim El Ahmadi

I still think we'll see movement in the next ten days. Lambert could be playing a waiting game, knowing he'll get a few cut-price deals if he leaves it late. The ITK's are suspiciously quiet! I imagine there are two or three deals being worked on in the background. We'll probably see a flurry of activity when the market picks up and a few Premier League teams start to show their hands.

No to Huddlestone! Yes to Olsson!

He sounds like a freelance tyre salesman..

Decent passing but no penetration upfront. Good signs but we either need a few new players or Lambert needs to give them some instructions. Vlaar was shaky at times, but he looked better towards the end. It's nice having two central defenders that can actually control the ball - now we just need them to tighten up their partnership! Gary Gardner was atrocious for the 10 minutes he was on. El Ahmadi was excellent. No need to panic. There's still time to bring in players, 4 of the starting eleven were new the the Premier League, Lambert just needs time to get the team up to speed. Remember when we lost 2-0 at home against Wigan, for Martinez's first game in charge? That season wasn't as bad as first feared, and I'm pretty sure that Match Thread was full of people over-reacting as well.

Who's Alan Ahmadi OBE?

Take out Agbonlahor and it is a perfectly plausible forward line for me I'm actually interested to see how Lambert makes us play when Gabby's in the team. I've always felt that Houllier, Mcleish and MON, to an extent, asked our plays to fit into the system/ tactic they wanted to play. Whereas I think Lambert & his backroom team will change the tactic to suit the players on the pitch. If Gabby is upfront I'm hoping Lambert will exploit his pace and find a way to drag the opposition defence forward. Houllier used him as a winger while McLeish and MON used him as a target man, asking him to bulk up too much in the process.

^^^^^^^^ Anyone know if this is possible?! If not, I doubt I'll buy a macron top because they're too big for my slight, yet muscly, frame... :winkold:

Hmmm, I'm not too happy that he hasn't ruled Defoe or Jones out. Defoe would be on high wages and is getting on & Jones seems like an ass. I trust Lambert, but I really hope we'd go for a younger player with potential. Qwpzxjor1, we've been playing with 2 strikers all pre-season, so I think we'll stick with that.

Stop quoting BJ10 & Eames' argument!!!!!! It's making my VT page stretch a mile, and I'm trying to hide this window as I'm at work!