-Absolutely, it's all heresay and boll*cks irrespective of the 'source' - however this story does seem to be gathering a momentum and following the pattern of the Hooper saga, missing out the initial couple of volumes though.
We are about the only PL team outside the top eight not to have been linked with Man City's Norwegian Under-21 midfielder Abdisalam Ibrahim, who is available on a free. Should we be thinking "it is strangely quiet" .....?
we're definitely in for quagliarella, all i'm saying is that the beeb know as much as anybody else. basically very little and we've not learnt anything new from them.
only seen him play once. he was absolutely terrible! however, i understand he is very highly rated so must have been a bad day at the office. i'm afraid i know very little about him so can't say one way or the other. under 21 though so wouldn't eat up a squad place which will please 1950 but he is of african descent so carrabuh won't want him
The links reported are probably just his agent doing some fishing. On which subject, there was a nice quote from the Saints manager Pochettino ysterday, commenting on a question about Gaston Ramirez wanting to go back to Italy: "We listen to the player, not the agent"!
I'm very keen on this Quagliarella fellow, we are certainly in need of some extravagance in front of goal and he is certainly different to what we have. I don't generally like signing 30 year olds particularly for the money suggested, but having those 3 up front has got to provide a variety in methods of scoring.
But who do you play? Especially if we do go with 1 up front on semi regular basis? Can see one of the three being marginalised like Becchio was last season. It's a lot of £ for that (whichever one misses out). I'll eat my words if there is a serious time-out injury next season and we need more depth up front but beyond that I'm not convinced we need to spend the cash on Quag.
Well, if he does go with 2 up top then its a worthy expenditure, quite possible any one of them will be injured at any one time or out of form.
i reckon your right, see that as more likely than Quag tbh. I think the clues are all there that we will shortly have a Toby jug to add to our collection
two bookies who had us out at 3/1 to sign him suspended bets today, only sky bet who have us as favourites are still taking bets.
Getting someone like Alderweireld would be awesome! Would mean some serious improvements made to every area of the pitch... I count keeping Ruddy in that too! Some genuine talent and depth of cover in CB.
Top 2 transfer moves this window were rebuffing Chelsea's offer for Ruddy and West Ham's offer for Snodgrass. Say what you want about the new boys, but we would have struggled to replace those two for under £10m and £8m respectively! It says more about the club's ambition that we see off all poachers IMO
I think Ruddy was almost as irreplaceable as anyone can be. We seem to play with so much extra confidence when we know he is there behind us. For all the potentially great signings of this window, I still think keeping Ruddy may be the key one.
Is anyone else concerned that there was no sign of Bassong or Turner? I really think we need another quality CB and if it doesnt come this window it must be a priority next summer. Both Bassong and Turner have struggled at times this season and the fact they havent played any friendlies or even been in the squad for any is worrying with the start of the season just over 2 weeks away. Yes we have certainly strengthened as an attacking force but starting the season with Bassong missing would leave us weaker at the heart of our defence in my eyes. Does anyone think a CB will be coming in? I know at some points we were linked with Kouyate following the Toby bid.
“We’re hoping that Michael will play some part on Friday (against Braga). He is closer than Seb,” said Hughton. “Seb is maybe a week or two behind him. It is going to be very, very tight whether he makes the start of the season or not. We’re disappointed that we haven’t had them for the bulk of pre-season. Seb and Michael both had small operations in the summer and they are a little bit behind the rest. Pilks has got a slight knee problem but he will be fine. He has missed this game and he will probably miss Friday as well.” http://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/...s_robert_snodgrass_brighton_absence_1_2308038 I agree their match fitness might be an issue
If just one of them is out for the Everton game I won't be massively concerned based on the fantastic performances Ryan Bennett put in towards the end of last season. Even if everyone is fit for the big kick-off I think it would be a very tough decision to leave him out based on the form he was in for the last half a dozen or so games.
And also, even though it's far from ideal, we know Russ Martin is a more than competent dep. at CB for a week or two until Bassong is deemed fit. He's rarely let us down when called upon to play centrally
Shows how much of an important player Russell Martin is. Quality and always there to help us out of the ****.
