Apparently our paperwork re. Willian is with the FA. Could still happen - apparently the agent wanted more money for himself, we told him where to go so he started whoring Willian round the London clubs hence the Chelsea bid. The situation is quite complicated now.
I'm not disputing that a playmaker is wanted, I'm of the view though that that was demonstrated by today's game.
real are selling Bale shirts ain't they actually supposed to own the player first but rest assured ... UEFA will take action over this blatant tapping up measure
Rob, will you just shut up LOL the reason today demonstrated we needed a playmaker was because we need a playmaker It doesn't matter if we struggle against palace or destroy some team which sounds like a STD, our lack of creativity through the centre is there to see, so if we get joy from the wings, it doesn't mean we ignore our lack of play through the centre. We need to play expansive, dynamic football and currently we have pace, strength and power but missing a playmaker, someone who can link up through the centre and play through balls or neat one two's and push forward. Anyhow, you can see from ourrent targets we're trying to bring in more creative players so let's not argue over a point we essentially all agree with.
I would rather we miss out on Willian as long as we use the money to buy another player. I liked the Paulinho, Chadli and Soldado deals, and I'd like us to get Lamela and Hailovic (?), but Willian seems not worth 30 million. The major point in his favor to me is that AVB rates him. No doubt the biggest thing missing is a playmaker as good as our midfielders, wingers and striker. At this point I'll concede Gylfi doesn't look like he's good enough, but I still like the team with him in it. He works very hard, he's very hard nosed, and he helps the strong/combative side of the team. I'm hoping playing his old team will get him to play at another level. We shall see. Maybe.
Don't worry Rob - I can see what you're saying. You say that we need a playmaker but at the same time do not think that today's game is evidence of this need, since we scored five goals and dominated. All of that is 100% consistent and fair enough - I would even agree with you maybe. Scoring five goals is very rarely evidence that more creativity is needed. But this is very far from saying that such evidence does not exist. And you've gone out of his way to say that. The worst that can be said about your point is that it's true but irrelevant. Hardly worth the slating you've received!
rob knows I was kidding,.... but Rob if you thought i was rude, I was, but rude in a funny way, although I forgot to use smiley's.
Rob, no ones gonna fall out over this. This forum has seen far far worse... Trust me!! My point, was that I WASN'T judging last night game and saying... "We need a playmaker". - I'm basing my view on a year or two's worth of games. I still see a need for one, despite our excellent new signings.
I'm gonna put this out there. If an offer comes in for sigurdsson and it's a decent one, we should sell and upgrade. Either that, or start playing holtby there. Or giving Carroll more time. As things stand, Carroll deserves to replace him and be given a chance to show what he can offer. Sig does not deserve to start at the moment. For some reason he's AVB's golden boy. - either that, or we're cleverly putting him in the shop window. I just don't understand what AVB sees in him as a starter, when you look at the quality of the players we've brought in. - there's such a difference in quality!
He's spent his career in **** leagues earning a fortune and not giving a **** about his footballing career... That's why!
Fernandinho is even older with only a few caps, I don't think it means they can't be quality players. This Willian situation is sounding crazy though. Some reckon it even got to the stage where we'd sent the paperwork to the FA to be approved and aren't sure whether Willian can pull out this late. As much as I want us to sign him, if he and/or his agent are being dicks and Chelsea are throwing money around then we should just look elsewhere, I'm sure there's plenty more players that are available for £30mill
My own view is that whilst we are indeed missing a creative type player, perhaps in the Modric style, we just may be able to manage without such a player. We cannot judge on the first two games as they players are still learning to play as a team. We managed last year without such a creative player (and no Bale is not this type of player), and we even managed this without Bale playing at times. Whilst it would be nice to have Willian, good riddance to him if he's chasing the money.
We just won 0-5 by the way. There has to be a point where people are satisfied, this is unlikely if you are always thinking 'we could do better' or 'that was OK but don't forget the opposition was crap'. And if you are never satisfied then you are never really going to enjoy victory properly. It's not a level playing field and even CL revenue will not be enough to compete with teams who have no financial constraint, so at some point it is a good idea to just sit back and enjoy this astonishing batch of transfer dealings, the team being assembled, and perhaps cast your mind back to a time when we were nowhere near getting 4th/5th each season - it wasn't that long ago. And like Barney above, I am not so sure we do need this playmaker, so I would say we don't "all agree" about that Boss.
Last from me on this as we shouldn't be falling out after winning 5-0 as we are not the goons. The evidence from last nights game was that when the ball went to feet in the position a playmaker would usually take up (central/final 3rd) it more often than not was with siggy and more often than not he was rushed into making a poor decision, a poor pass or just dispossessed. It's not just a criticism of just Sig, dembele was _meant_ to be playing that role it seems and you could say that he is equally to blame as Sig had to come across because he was poorly positioned. Either way, IMO, the fact it repeatedly happened as it did against palace shows something. Lamela could be it, he may not have the brain speed of a vdv but that can be negated if you have quick feet and trickery which he has a lot of or explosive power and a demon of a shot like bale. That position (no10) is all about manufacturing that fraction of a second in a congested and pressurised area of the pitch and it takes a rare player (utd don't have one for example).
I agree Siggy is probably not up to the job but hey, very rarely do the best teams have 11 superb players in a team. There are always a few sub-standard players within a team. It's primarily about how well they work as a team and perform for one another. Spurs can manage with a couple of "weaker" players as they did yesterday, eg, Siggy and Rose.