BristolToffee

How many times have we scored more than 1 goal in a league game this season? I can only think of the Fulham game. If we could keep clean sheets it would be like the good old champions league qualifying days! Ha ha

To be honest I'm fairly optimistic. Arteta, Beckford, Yakubu & Vaughan mean we've brought in £15-£20m, as well as clearing wages. From a financial perspective a fantastic transfer deadline day. From a playing point of view we have lost 1 first teamer and 3 squad players. We have brought in 1 first teamer & 1 squad player. In effect our first team is no weaker, but our squad is smaller. Doesn't everyone moan about not giving youth a chance? Well everyone is going to get their way now! Arteta isn't a massive loss. Baines will be able to take all the corners & free kicks now - may even mean we score more! We have a fast winger now, plus cover in the middle for Arteta. I remember everyone saying we would never be able to replace Gravesen & then along came an unproven Spaniard..... We got into Europe with Marcus Bent as our main striker & people are worried now???

Of course it's hard to stomach when you hear about other clubs making transfers & yes I would love us to have money to spend, but I am still not convinced about the majority of big take overs. I apologise if I get any of the wrong, but the way I see it: Real Madrid - 'Galacticos', spent big for years. Currently living in the shadows of some other club. Leeds - Gamble failed to pay off. Portsmouth - Do they still exist? West Ham - Icelandic owners went bust in the global recession. Birmingham - Discussed in another post. Liverpool - almost went into admin before being bought out by current owners. Now spending over the top on slightly above average players. Blackburn - sacked a manager who was doing well for them. Almost relegated. Man Utd - tonnes of debt. Only able to continue due to the massive commerciality of the club. Any other club would have been in trouble right now. Chelsea - Some success, gone through several managers, ageing squad. Need big investment in order to dominate English football. Investment written off as a loan, meaning when Ambramovich gets bored, they either go bust or someone has to pay of Ambroviches investment. Aston Villa - Not progressed any further than us. Seem to sell their best players (Young, Milner, Barry, etc). Man City - Starting to look dangerous, not won anything yet (apart from the FA Cup). Scared of Everton. UK Banking system - was great & had a system countries across the world wanted. Until 2008. Then everything changed. Had to be bailed out. There may have been other examples i've missed, but based upon the above I can't say i'm too unhappy with our position. Also, as with the UK banking system everything can look great, but then look how quickly things can change. The grass always looks greener....

Went to the game last night. Although they weren't playing against top opposition, Rodwell looked very calm and assured in the middle (as always!). This was his first game as captain & he commanded the guys well. Despite going off after an hour (it was a friendly) he still picked up man of the match. I have to admit I was quite disappointed with Victor Moses & Daniel Sturridge - based upon last night I wouldn't predict either would ever play for the full side. One who did look dangerous however was Danny Welbeck - lots of energy & ideas

Obviously 5th in the league.... plus 6th due to Chelsea being in the FA Cup final (Portsmouth not allowed to compete in Europa).... What about 7th because Man Utd won the Carling Cup (or has that place gone to Villa?, or does that even qualify for Europa?).... What about 8th if Liverpool win the Europa this year? In short how many spaces are available? I don't think we'll get 6th place, but we may be able to sneak 7th

Isn't he out of contract in the summer? Therefore would be available on a free....

Read on some site it was Defour

I'm happy to let Lescott go, especially for the rediculous fee in question. He's not even as good at Jags who cost nowhere near that much. Didn't Vidic cost way less too? What about the new Arsenal centre back? There are so many centre backs out there better than Lescott & for much less money. Man City may have the money. Unfortunately they don't have the brains to back it.

I've heard from a friend who is a spurs fan that there is talk of a £15m combined bid to be offered from Everton for Hutton and Bentley?

I completely agree. I'd happily take £20m for him. Yes he is very good, but he is not outstanding. In my opinion (& feel free to argue) he only looked truely international class when next to Jagielka, whereas when alongside Yobo he looked competent but not world class. The perfect example of this was the non existent marking of Drogba's goal in the FA Cup Final. I think we are best off taking an experienced centre back (such as Sol Campbell) for a year or so, get someone upcoming like a young Lescott (such Nedum or Mancienne) who I guess are valued at about £4-5m, then have £15m to play with. Remember that in a couple of years Rodwell may also be in the frame as a centre back. Potentially Manciennce & Rodwell could be the future England centre back pairing. Plus Baines on the left & Naughton (?) on the right. If we currently have £5-8m to spend on a right back plus £10-12m to spend on a midfielder, imagine what we could do with an extra £15m? There are young defenders around like Nedum or Maciennce who will surpass Lescott in a couple of years. Unfortunately for Mark Hughes, he has to get results this year or he will be out. We on the other hand are making progress every year.

As stated by others I would prefer a Randy Lerner model, and one where we buy a couple of £10-20m players a year, bringer solid youngsters through - effectively what we are doing now, but without all the debt! Whilst I appreciate a lot of these billionaires see football clubs as a play thing rather than an investment, there has to come a time when people like Ambramovich realise that spending huge amounts every year at very little return (assuming they are not winning anything) is no longer fun or sensible. Without thee backers, clubs like Chelsea will go bust. I love the fact that we are an English club, English owned, Predominantly English players (although thats slowly changing) & Scottish managed (closer to England than Spain!). At least we still have an identity. In comparison look at last seasons top 4 - completely the opposite to us. What was English about the champions league final? We are the peoples club & Man City were supposed to be the people's club of Manchester - lets watch that all change now. Good buy loyalty & welcome glory hunters!

In a period of 5 years Moyes has taken us from battling relegation every year to regular (ish) European football, all with limited funding. He is cautious with his spending as he only has limited funds & so cant afford to blow it on players unproven in the premiership. I fully support his views of using loans on unproven premiership players (i.e. arteta & peanuts), signing cheap upcoming chapionship players (e.g. Cahill, Lescott & Jagielka) and only spending big on proven premiership players (e.g. Yakubu). Look at the money Chelsea will lose on SWP & Schevchenko - we cant afford to do that! look at all Rafa's dodgy foreign signings too! Alternatively we could follow Leeds who went along the all or nothing view.......... I honestly cant believe people are knocking Moyes! If he goes chances are someone like Big Sam will replace him & we'll end up where we were 5 years ago.

Bristol City signed him this summer for £1.5m. After signing he then played a friendly for the team he was leaving in Egypt. When the Bristol City manager questioned him why he did it, he responded with peer pressure. On the basis that he was obviously easily influenced and showed no commitment to his new team, Bristol City tore up his contract.

I've heard that our transfer fund stands at £25m (£15m plus AJ money). Moyes has publicly stated we need 5/6 new players and hence explains the frustration and restrictions he has faced this summer. Whilst our summer has been depressing, I believe Moyes will have a strategy that looks something like: Player 1 - £15m (Moutino/Arshavin/Riera) Player 2 - £6m (M'Bia/Topal/Inler/Milito/Cana) Player 3 - £4m (Bullard/Bradley) Player 4 - loan (Tiago) Player 5 - loan (Zigic) Obviously the issue has been clubs pushing players up a bracket (i.e Topal/Milito towards player 1 price, Moutinho above £15m). If he went and agreed to pay £20m for Mountino that would only leave £5m, and not enough for M'Bia, Millito, etc.

From what i've seen the most likely replacement appears to be Nolan, however as people have rightly asked, is this the right move? Whether it be Yakubu, Vaughan, Anichebe or McFadden, Moyes seems to prefer a 4-4-2 system these days. Therefore we have 4 midfield positions to feel. In my opinion Arteta is put on the right with Cahill in the middle. This leaves us with a creative left winger position and also a holding midfielder. I believe Pip should play at right back. Can Jags play the holding midfield role? Should the holding midfielder just be able to shackle the opposition and provide cover or do we need someone who can also provide good distribution to our 'wingers'? If happy with Jags, we just need a left winger, in which case someone like Matty Taylor would be ideal. Obviously the other side to it is if DM wants to switch to 4-5-1. Ignoring the fact thatone of AJ/whoever would get dropped, who fills the extra midefield spot - McFadden? Pip (and put TH at RB)? Carsley? I think this is where Nolan fits in. If we had Taylor & Arteta on the wings, Jags holding, Nolan & Cahill supporting AJ, this would be a pretty strong line up. Effectively, what i'm saying is we need to sign Taylor (7m?) AND Nolan (5m?).

A while a go (may have been a long while!) someone posted a link about a site where it was free to view pretty much any game (not live) in the world. Often however the commentry would be in a foreign language. Does anyone know what the site is or have the link? I'm sure it was something like maxxed football? Any help would be much appreciated!

This is probably wishful thinking! ha ha, but I wonder if Moyes is delaying it all to get Fulham to up their offer for Davies. If Moyes tells Fulham the Davies deal is off (as we're no longer getting Barton), then it might prompt them to come back with more money? - assuming they really want Davies! Then once they come back with a bigger offer, he'll bid for Barton. I was just thinking about the whole Arteta transfer business where Moyes started making out he wasnt interested, then once Real Sociadad (?) dropped their asking price, he signed him. Also Moyes has been pretty clever recently in transfer prices. A lot of deals, such as AJ, Lescott, etc were done with so much up front & then the rest based on clauses. I read somewhere that we didnt make a loss on Kroldrup because we only paid £3m up front, the rest was based on appearances.

A few years ago (when Smith was still at Leeds), they interviewed Tony Adams and asked him which striker he hated playing against most. He actually said it was Smith! His reasons were that not only is he a good player, but he constantly gives defenders lip to wind them up and put them off their game. Adams said that Smith would constantly be saying things like 'you're too old to catch me', 'Ferdinand is much better than you', 'shouldn't you have retired by now?'.

i've got a feeling he didn't cut it at boro before he went to Bristol City

Absolute rubbish! He looked out of his depth playing for City!

Now we've signed AJ, i'm not entirely sure that Cahill will even start for us! I think we're going to be playing a 4-4-2 system, with Neville and Arteta taking 2 of the spots. Assuming he's fit, I think VDM will be on the left with Ossie/Davies (unfortunately) on the right!

I personally think the £8.5m has been well spent. I have watched him play for Palace several times and he is very fast and finds the net from even the tighest of angles. With regards to the penalties arguement, as people have rightly stated he won most of them! From what i've read on the BBC the deal is £5m upfront, with the rest perfromance related, so covers our backs a little. However I think a lot of people are fogetting about the effect it will have on Beattie. Beattie has had to change his style to playing upfront on his own, and imo done a good job. In the past however he has performed past when linking up with a fast forward. BT is good at winning and holding up the ball, whilst AJ is good at running and opening defences up. Together I feel they will create a lot of opportunities for each other. I might be wrong, but i think BT was at his best when partnered up with Kevin Phillips.

We will soon have the Everton JAB! Opposition defences be warned - A beating is on the way! On a seperate note I think Huth is the perfect partner for Yobo. From what I have seen of him, he is your typical, reliable, efficient, no nonsense German, which is perfect for covering Yobo's occasional erractic behaviour! These 2 signings would definitely sort our front & back lines. In midfield I think the centre pairing needs to be Arteta & Neville. In an ideal world the outside two would be VDM & Davies running down the wings & banging in crosses, however I can't see this happening. My other concern is how we cope when Arteta isn't playing - we struggled last year.