*Official* English Football Season 2011-12

[Eds]

Vertonghen would suit Arsenal down to the ground, IMO. Can't say I watch him every week, but from what I've seen, would fit in quite well with the Arsenal model.

 

[sledger]

Yeah, I think on the whole it would be a great signing and I agree he'd fit the Arsenal mould nicely. Would probably be the end for Djourou though, which would be a shame as I've always quite liked him...then again, he counts as a home-grown player, so maybe not.

 

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Yeah, I think on the whole it would be a great signing and I agree he'd fit the Arsenal mould nicely. Would probably be the end for Djourou though, which would be a shame as I've always quite liked him...then again, he counts as a home-grown player, so maybe not.

Don't think he'd get rid of Squillaci before Djourou?

 

[sledger]

Andy Carroll scores and then kisses Lukas Fabianski… on FIFA 12 | Metro.co.uk

 

[sledger]

Don't think he'd get rid of Squillaci before Djourou?

Haha oh yeah, true. It's a dead cert that he's going though. Unless something disastrous happens I doubt he'll ever play for Arsenal again in an important match. Clearly not up to task.

 

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Haha oh yeah, true. It's a dead cert that he's going though. Unless something disastrous happens I doubt he'll ever play for Arsenal again in an important match. Clearly not up to task.

Yeah, I'd definitely keep Djourou if I were Wenger. Mainly because he absolutely dominated on my FM2011 Arsenal save, but that's not the point.

Difficult situation with Mertesacker just coming in though. He definitely hasn't been of the expected standard, so getting rid of him would mean a loss, and Koscielny won't get his true value from anyone AFAIC. Then you've got Vermaelen who's just a boss.

Can't see Wenger getting another centre-back, basically. And Cahill to Manure would fit in extremely well with their position atm.

 

[Uppercut]

Can see them going for Gary Cahill if I'm honest.

I should hope not, Cahill's hopeless. Have you seen Bolton defend lately?

We still have four centre backs in Jones, Smalling, Ferdinand and Evans so I think it might make more sense to go for a right-back and a midfielder and start playing Smalling and Jones in their usual position again.

 

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I should hope not, Cahill's hopeless. Have you seen Bolton defend lately?

Fair point.

Although, have you seen them defend without him?

 

[The Sean]

Can see them going for Gary Cahill if I'm honest.

Gah, I hope not - would rather stick with what we have.

Just want a class midfielder FFS. Or two.

 

[Uppercut]

Fair point.

Although, have you seen them defend without him?

I think he's played every game this season. Badly, too. It's not a Scott Parker situation where the one class player stands out in a sea of incompetence. In the handful of their games I've watched Cahill's managed to be one of their worst players.

I think he's probably the most overrated player in the league, can't really think of anyone else whose transfer rumours are so out of whack with the quality of their performances. He's this year's Fernando Torres.

 

[Jarquis]

Don't think he'd get rid of Squillaci before Djourou?

He wasn't in the 4 centre backs Sledger mentioned though. TV5, Mertesacker, Koscielny and Djourou.

 

[cpr]

How Utd failed to qualify from their group is an indication of their lack of quality within the squad, especially in the middle of the park.

Shhh, don't point out our obvious fault, or Fergie will get mad and storm out.....




Also, I'm kinda glad we've no Vidic to call on for the season - We need to stop putting Jones in every position going and get a settled defence of Jones/Smalling in front of De Gea. Call this season a write off, let them make mistakes, but spend the next 6 months learning each others game plan and get settled ready for next year.

De Gea's not going to come good if the defence is changing every 5 min infront of him - He needs to get settled in this foreign league and build a relationship with his defence.... Might aswell do that with the 2 who are going to be there for the next 10 years.


Jones may have the ability to play wherever, but how many players do you know who are the master of multiple positions? If we don't let him grow at centre back, and keep making him muck in elsewhere, were turning the next Ferdinand into the next O'Shea.

So Fergie seems to have this plan to build a new Utd around promising youngsters, and make this a force for us and England for the next decade..... Lets do ourselves a favour and prise Rodwell away from Everton now. Again 6 months to bed in, and him/Cleverly are our future midfield (and he's not cup-tied for the Europa either!)

 

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Also, I'm kinda glad we've no Vidic to call on for the season - We need to stop putting Jones in every position going and get a settled defence of Jones/Smalling in front of De Gea. Call this season a write off, let them make mistakes, but spend the next 6 months learning each others game plan and get settled ready for next year.

De Gea's not going to come good if the defence is changing every 5 min infront of him - He needs to get settled in this foreign league and build a relationship with his defence.... Might aswell do that with the 2 who are going to be there for the next 10 years.


Jones may have the ability to play wherever, but how many players do you know who are the master of multiple positions? If we don't let him grow at centre back, and keep making him muck in elsewhere, were turning the next Ferdinand into the next O'Shea.

So Fergie seems to have this plan to build a new Utd around promising youngsters, and make this a force for us and England for the next decade..... Lets do ourselves a favour and prise Rodwell away from Everton now. Again 6 months to bed in, and him/Cleverly are our future midfield (and he's not cup-tied for the Europa either!)

Yeah, I agree.

I mean, it's obvious that Ferguson really is on the brink of actually retiring, and he's building a side that will stay roughly the same for many years, making the next manager's job really quite easy. The spine of the side is already sorted, it seems, and one or two more additions would just complete the XI.

He's already got the GK (De Gea), RB (Rafael), CB (Smalling), CB (Jones), LB (Fabio), RM (Nani), CM (Cleverly), LM (Young), ST (Rooney/Hernandez/Welbeck), ST (Rooney/Hernandez/Welbeck) all sorted. Add someone like Rodwell to that and you've got a really quite young team that could already compete for trophies. I'll give Fergie two seasons more, at most.

 

[Uppercut]

Rodwell can't even get into a pretty poor Everton side at the moment. I don't think there's anyone available in the Premiership who can do much to solve our midfield problems, although not going in for Scott Parker is looking like a big mistake at the moment. I suspect it'll need to be an import job.

 

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Rodwell can't even get into a pretty poor Everton side at the moment. I don't think there's anyone available in the Premiership who can do much to solve our midfield problems, although not going in for Scott Parker is looking like a big mistake at the moment. I suspect it'll need to be an import job.

I think that's more to do with Fellaini's ability than Rodwell's inability.

And to be fair to him, he was dropped quite unfairly - got MOTM in the last game he started for Everton.

 

[grecian]

I know it's fairly knee-jerk, but Shaiqiri looked like he was a different class in midfield, I know he's a winger by trade but much of is good work was done in the middle.

Surely Fergie has enough home-grown players in the squad by now, really not sure Britain has what he needs.

 

[Uppercut]

Fellaini and Cahill are both better CMs, Arteta was too. I really hope Fergie has a better plan than signing a fourth-choice central midfielder from a mid-table side on the grounds that the English press got a bit excited about him when he had a decent run of performances a year or so ago.

 

[Uppercut]

I know it's fairly knee-jerk, but Shaiqiri looked like he was a different class in midfield, I know he's a winger by trade but much of is good work was done in the middle.

Surely Fergie has enough home-grown players in the squad by now, really not sure Britain has what he needs.

Quite a lot of midfielders have looked different class against us in the last couple of seasons though. He'd probably be better than who we're playing in the middle at the moment but I'd be surprised if there isn't a better option floating around Europe somewhere.

 

[NasserFan207]

Seems to me that United really struggle due to lack of pace and width these days (as well as the lack of a great finisher upfront). I wouldn't be surprised if they make an attempt at Bale during the next window. **** knows how much that would cost them however. 50 mill? 60?

 

[sledger]

Seems to me that United really struggle due to lack of pace and width these days (as well as the lack of a great finisher upfront). I wouldn't be surprised if they make an attempt at Bale during the next window. **** knows how much that would cost them however. 50 mill? 60?

In the unlikely event that they were able to sign him, they would undoubtedly get ripped off massively. Whilst Bale is quite good, the hyperbole which is thrown around whenever he scores a goal or something is excessive. Samir Nasri would have been a far better signing in any case, but obviously that didn't come off either. If Utd had signed Nasri and Parker that would have made their team really formidable. Was surprised they didn't make a move to sign Ozil after the World Cup to be honest, whether they could have beat off the competition from Real Madrid is another matter though I suppose.