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The Fish

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Everything posted by The Fish

  1. If we'll have to pay £12m for Tom Cairney from Fulham, any serious commitment to achieving safety rather than survival will cost a lot of money. I think this team plus 4-5 players should​ be enough to survive, but a real statement of intent will cost. Like you say, we will likely need a CB, a striker and a pivotal number 10. Three of the traditionally more expensive positions. I still think Mbemba, Mitrovic, Perez have sufficient potential to be in the squad, and players like Lascelles and Dummett, will be committed if limited squad members. 3 players (CB, #10, CF) at c£15-20m for a total of £45 3 squad players at c£5m for a total of £15m Couple of loan players (Loftus-Cheek/Abraham/Rashford and the like) Then another couple of signings should we need them in January? Safety job done imo
  2. Exactly. A better version of Diame/Perez and the style we play will reap greater results. Better versions of Gouffran and Dummett would give balance on the flanks so that both sides produce instead of just the right. If both of those areas are improved we'll see more pockets of space open up for a better version of Gayle to take advantage of. Hughton took us up with minimum fuss because he had a Premier League team in the 2nd tier, Benitez is taking us up because he's built a top class Championship side and will build a Premier League side if given the chance. £30m from past player sales, £30m from future sales (de Jong, Saivet, Riviere, Thauvin, Hanley, Murphy, Sels, Krul*) + £30m commitment... is that out of the realms of possibility? *not sure about who we actually still own
  3. One thing I've really only appreciated after he retired is just how well he shifted his weight and changed position to better strike the ball.
  4. I don't, but I don't think flair is as big a part of a defender's game. Certainly not as much as for a forward, and it takes a special kind of forward to be considered truly world class without that added flair. Charles is a good comparison though, as Charlton said; John Charles was a team unto himself. People often say to me, 'Who was the best player you ever saw?', and I answer that it was probably Eusébio, Di Stéfano, Cruyff, Pelé or our Bob (Bobby Charlton). But the most effective player I ever saw, the one that made the most difference to the performance of the whole team, was without question John Charles. ​ Certainly resonates with my opinion of Shearer. If you were to list "World Class" forwards/attackers, I wonder how many would be on the effective side of the scales?
  5. Noelie, I think you've been spoiled by Keegan and Robson eras and that you've got to be realistic. We're in the 2nd tier of English football for a reason, most of our team isn't very good. We've a few players who can, on their day, produce quality, but they can't do it consistently and they can't do it in the Premier League. If they could, that's where they'd be doing it and not for us. The best players in our team are average Premier League players, at best, and even then they're not necessarily going to be able to produce that form when they're playing 2 games a week against sides who're set up with 10 men behind the ball for 90 minutes. We'd all love to be watching exciting, expansive football, played by inventive, committed, likeable professionals, but that's just not the real world. Benitez won't often have us playing dazzling football, but he's the best hope we've had of a trophy since Sir Bobby Robson. We will grind out wins and we'll sometimes fail to get past stoic opposition, but we won't be relegated. We'll hopefully climb the league (if he's supported in the transfer window), and he'll aim to build a legacy. I'd have all of that over playing pretty football and failing to get promoted.
  6. Read somewhere that Rafa wanted him to learn English to a higher standard but he hasn't made enough progress, and also that in a particular game he was instructed to play diagonal balls but kept playing them straight and giving the ball away. After that Rafa doesn't trust him to carry out instructions.
  7. Aye, but it's properly riled up them down the road.
  8. I disagree, but I'm going to forgive you because you used "Horse shit" rather than Bull shit.
  9. Thing is, flair is​ an important attribute of an elite player because it's another facet to their game. Yes, Shearer was technically superb and an athlete but he hadn't the flair of Ronaldo, Zidane etc. Christiano Ronaldo is technically superb, an athlete and can do things with the football that would have occurred to Shearer to try during a game. That's why CR is World class and Shearer was probably the level just below that at his peak. Like Beckham or Gerrard or whomever.
  10. We also got a shit load of freekicks around the box when we had an absolute embarrassment of options; https://youtu.be/pNujRL_oVuc?t=93 https://youtu.be/mfyty0_9Iyo?t=15
  11. It's funny, on here you don't come across as a Juggalo...
  12. Seen reports that the Man City academy have almost a monopoly on young talent in their catchment area, even Manchester United players are sending their kids to the blue half of the city for training.
  13. Was that rumour in the papers? I must have missed it
  14. Beardsley's the better footballer, Shearer the greater player. Lead a team to a title, nearly did the same with us. Unbelievable scoring record in a team that was bang average more often than not. Did that after coming back from a career threatening injury that forced him to change his game. Beardsley is incredibly gifted and had the right mentality to go with his wonderful skill, but Shearer wins it for me.
  15. https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/chant-for-the-early-leavers.1341250/ Have at it Gentlemen.
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