Rob182

Me too ponky! My thoughts exactly. We've also been dubbed as the 'happy clapping brigade'. :winkold: Either way.. being positive is.. positive!

I agree PieFacE. Last year he was decent at times. His lack of tracking back was shown up more because the whole team played poorly. But his vision and general attacking play was still pretty good. I remember him having a few chances against... Cheslea?... and if one of his chances had gone in, then people would have been raving about him.

I actually thought Hogg was decent last season. He also played well for Pompey in the championship. I could see him being a decent backup for Petrov/ whoever our number one holding midfielder is. Lowry and Herd, I agree with though.

None for Me thanks, I've had enough douche from reading the N'Zogbia thread..

I thought he looked decent. Like Clark he appeared to be confident on the ball and not a bad passer. For a central defender, this is a good asset to have. I'd really like it if both Clark and Baker progressed to, at least, be squad players. That'd be good work by the academy, both can play in the centre and on the left, with Clark also being not-too-bad at at the holding role, if desperate.

I was just looking over the OS and noticed a few things. The 24-man squad that we took to Hong Kong included the following youngsters: Albrighton, Bannan, Clark, Delfouneso, Delph, Gardner, Herd, Hogg, Lichaj & Lowry. I've got a feeling that these chaps are all going to be in and around the first team when the season starts. Burke/ Johnson/ Cameron were left home, and playing Chasetown tonight. So as highly rated as Johnson & Burke might be, I still feel they have a way to go to get into the plans like Gardner/ Delph etc are. We've already seen Clark, Albrighton, Bannan, and to a lesser extent Delfouneso, make an impression on the squad. I'd like to see Delph and Gardner really push for a place in the team this year. Also, did anyone else see Bannan's quotes on the OS about wanting to try and make his name one of the first on the team sheet by the end of the season? I saw similar quotes from Delfouneso when he had his interview about his new contract. We really do have a LOT of decent youngsters trying to force their way into the team!

I still don't think we need to invest too heavily to reach, or beat, the heights of last seasons finish. Last season was poor due to injuries and also because of us trying to take on Houllier's style. In appointing McLeish, we should do better with the squad available as this will be more suited to McLeish.

Pennant would cost more because he's English. If we were to go for someone else to cover the wing, I'd rather we looked abroad. Add a few million on top and we could get Shaqiri or some other up-and-coming foreigner!

I'm not a fan wiggy. He has a decent cross but I never see much more than that from him. Also, he's a little shithead!

I contribute a lot to this forum actually. Take a look at my golden lion. I just don't appreciate you, and a few others constantly labelling and insulting others who have an opposing opinion to yours. It took me lass than 10 pages to find all those quotes. I'm fairly sure mods have stepped in previously for less. OnlyOne, I may have cherrypicked those posts from 3 people with different views to mine. However, I believe I also picked the 3 most frequent offenders.

Lesson One: To get your point across, add an insult. This will give you an undeserved air of authority. Lesson Two: Occasionally, name your opponent in a made up group. Using speech marks will make the aforementioned group seem more realistic.

Makoun had a huge grin on him whenever he walked back into position after we scored each goal. It looked like he was laughing ang joking with Dunne/ Collins about something. I'm glad he appears to have settled in.

Modric has about 4 years left on his contract, Young had 1 and Downing 2. Can you not see the difference?

Someone should tell the Brigada lads that McLeish was appointed as our manager. They got a lot of chants going but they failed at getting more than 10 people to join in with their 'Gordan Cowans' Claret & Blue Army' chant and, towards the end of the match, something that sounded pathetically like 'We Don't Have a Manager's Claret & Blue Army'. I may have slightly misheard the latter one, but I was stood on the row behind them and neither of those chants were belted by more than 10/15, thank f*ck. We don't want a repeat of last season. ALEX MCLEISH'S CLARET & BLUE ARMY! A V F C! ALEX MCLEISH'S CLARET & BLUE ARMY! A V F C! ALEX, GIVE US A WAVE, ALEX, ALEX, GIVE US A WAVE! WE LOVE YOU BIG 'ECK, WE DO, WE LOVE YOU BIG 'ECK, WE DO, WE LOVE YOU BIG 'ECK, WE DO, OHHHHHH BIG 'ECK WE LOVE YOU!!! Let's get these going once the real games start, ay lads?

Got back from the game 15 mins ago. Ireland was really good until he went off injured. I'd personally say that Makoun was pulling the strings in central midfield. Every goalkick went to him, Petrov was always looking for Makoun, Makoun was always moving into space and Makoun was playing a lot of clever balls forwards. Ireland did well at linking together the forward and the wings. He had some decent touches and came close to setting up a few goals. I hope it's not a serious injury. I'd really like McLeish to get the best out of him.

Those quotes from Whelan are ridiculous. I understand he's trying to get a better deal.. but he's just spouting and spouting and making himself look silly, imo. Telling the world that Sunderland and Newcastle HAVEN'T made offers. We have, but they didn't like it. We haven't come back with an improved offer YET (we might, still) and he's making out like we've committed a crime. If we had more options, I'd love us to wait until next year and try to get him on a free (I know other clubs could be interested, but we're still a good option for him). As a few others have said. Just whack £500k on top and see if Whelan accepts that.

Where you heard that it looks like its fallen through? Every indication seems like its still very much on the cards, bar newspaper stories about just needing to cough up an extra million yesterday morning, it sounds like they are very much still negotiating. http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11677_7050432,00.html After reading some of the 'quotes' it looks like they're getting cold feet to be honest. I'm pretty sure those quotes were just in response to journalists saying "So you only have 1 transfer target?" The logical answer, and plan of attack regarding transfers, is to have other options available just in case the deal falls through.

Other than a winger, I'd still like a Reo-Coker replacement, at minimum. Makoun did seem lightweight in the tackle and Petrov cannot be relied on. We will be weak in midfield if we don't get some muscle in there, imo.

You wouldn't believe the shit what can go on in "regular workplaces", and it does not surprise me at all that things like this goes unpunished because the 'football culture' is still "We're so macho lads in football!" I understand untoward things happen between squadmates (Hartson going psycho/Adebayor & Toure fight etc.) but I still think this is a load of bollocks. A manager of an international team asks an assaulted player to write him a poem about it? Pull the other one. The press would have been all over it. Stephen Ireland doesn't seem the collected type, I can't imagine him just saying 'Give it a rest guys, I'm going to report you to the relevant authorities if you continue with these actions'...

I went to the dentist a few months ago. I needed one filling because I had one sensitive tooth. The dentist told me that it cost the same to have one filling as it did to have ten, so he may aswell have a look around. He then told me that he could see 3 teeth that he could fill. He filled all 3 and now I have 3 sensitive teeth. I was asked to go back in 6 months but I'm not going to!

Same here, keep it up Julie!

I'm with you DVIN. It's not unheard of to see players stay at clubs that have previously shown faith/ taken a risk on them

I can't tell if people are being serious or not! I seriously think we'll be around 9th or 10th at best and Liverpool will be 6th. I have no faith any more that next season is going to be a good one. We're still selling players from the looks of things to balance out the wage book despite having gotten rid of ten players at the end of last season and Young, Downing and seemingly now Cuellar, and supposedly all we have to spend is the £20 mill from Downing which looks like it will be spent on 3 players at most! Are people really that optimistic about next season still? If you are I admire you, but I just can't see it myself. Well, no, I'm not being serious, I'm not an actual psychic :winkold: I am optimistic, as always, though. If McLeish can sort out the defence and can bring in a few decent signings, I don't see why we can't have a better season, and higher finish, than last year. I see us around the 9th/ 10th mark too, but we could also push for 7th and 8th. We never know how other teams around us will perform/ underperform. As good as Downing is, he's never seemed more than a consistent performer who keeps the team ticking. He doesn't wow the crowd, he rarely showed the confidence to take on a player, he is VERY one footed and, though not a wingers responsibility, his lack of 50/50 tackles did make us lose possession when a braver individual could have won it. He's a loss to the team but he's not irreplacable, neither is Ashley Young. They were both good for us but neither were outstanding last season, imo. N'Zogbia is an able replacement, Albrighton can hopefully step into the 2008-Ashley-Young's shoes, Given can give the defence confidence and prove his worth again and hopefully Parker will be brought in, as an improvement on NRC. Like I say, I'm optimistic!

take off your claret and blue specs I wonder how many points will separate Villa and liverpool next season? In my view, not many. We'll finish one place above them in the league and we'll get further than them in the League Cup, but not the FA Cup. I am psychic!! :idea: