It depends on injuries realy doesn't it but I'd say we'd be better off swapping a couple of midfielders for a left back and a centre back to balance out our squad a bit better. I just don't really see us giving all those players enough games to keep them happy without a change in formation or a lot of injuries throughout the rest of the season.
Just read the article on it and for the life of me I can't see what AVB has done unless he followed "take your hat off" with some form of insult. It's a about as clear and easy follow instruction to get, no wonder he didn't want Ade on the pitch.
Yeah but we could be missing, say, 2 wingers and 3 midfielders for the rest of the season and still have a strong bench.
It does demonstrate something remiss in Adebayor's character, especially as it's not the first time that something so apparently trivial has pissed him off. He does sound like a very arrogant man, to me. Whatever he might think, the manager is there to instill discipline in the entire squad, yet certain players (Ade & Benny, in our squad) appear to take the Paul "Guv'nor" Ince stance, in the belief that the rules do not apply to them, and that the manager should do what they tell them to do. The attitude appears to be, "I'll go along with what you tell me until such time as you tell me something I don't like, at which point I will treat you and the club like dirt." Very poor.
A career as bog standard Premier League manager before becoming the assman with the Irish squad awaits!
Dawkins to Derby for £500k confirmed: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/derby-deal-for-dawkins-030114/ http://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/article/dawkins-seals-derby-switch-1272846.aspx
Chadli has proven himself valuable to Sherwood--he and Townsend both get us on the front foot on the left. Lamela doesn't seem to have much prospects of playing, but I think he'll stay and get playing time. Sherwood has generally tried to play the big money transfers, with Lamela being the exception, so far. Lennon is injured a lot. Another possibility is for him to join the striker rotation and make it a 4-4-1-1. Sigurdson and Holtby may the the odd men out, assuming there are any. I see Sigurdsson as expendable now that we have some way of scoring other than bombing away from a distance. Holtby would be a better choice than Lamela in the number 10 role, I think, and might also work well in Eiriksen's current spot on the left. I'd be a little surprised to see us bring in Carroll, considering the glut we've got in the center. Bentaleb's looked good in a similar role as well.
This was mentioned before, but Avb was too friendly with the players, Ekotto last season openly spoke about Avb as if they where mates and Adebayor was the same. That's what AVB done wrong as if you're a manager and then too friendly with your players, once you change to boss mode then people like Adebayor and Benny would take words to heart, hence the falling out over trivial reasons.
I was a little surprised to hear about Carroll possibly returning in January but I definitely expect him to be here next season. I think some underestimating how highly Sherwood rates Carroll as on paper it may look like a odd decision but in reality Sherwood will rate Carroll higher than some of the names being mentioned in our current squad.
Agreed. He has had several knock backs in his career, yet has persevered, kept believing in himself and has now got himself a decent contract working with a manager who clearly rates him.
I'd like to see us sell Lamela and either Sigurdsson or Holtby and use the money to get a decent left back and even possibly a right back as competition for Kyle Walker.
I think we're much likelier to sell someone we paid little for (and can make a profit on, albeit modest) like Holtby, or someone we can just about break even on, or take a small loss for, like Sigurdsson. If we sell Lamela at this point, we'd take a bath. Something tells me the club doesn't like selling players for less than they paid for them a year or two later. I agree with them, as long as the player is likely to justify the price tag, as Lamela is. Selling Sigurdsson and buying a left or center back would make sense to me. I can't get past the feeling that Holtby is going to develop like you'd expect the captain of the Germany U-21s would develop.
Agree with all this, RWAEB. We're all wondering when lamela is going to finally play regularly/ breakthrough, but we should just keep reminding ourselves of the bale situation a few years back. Imagine if we'd sold him?
Bbc gossip is saying that Sherwood is looking to add Jamie Redknapp to the backroom staff! Im hoping that in the "backroom" there's a cupboard. With him locked in it.
What a horrible thought to wake up to. He's a nice lad but a football short of a football game. Let's hope it's a typo and they meant Jamie Oliver.
What is fairly certain is that Tim will bring another person on board to join the coaching staff. It all depends on who Tim/the club decide to oversee the under 21 squad. Several names have been mentioned around the club, Jamie Redknapp and also an ex player who is rather good looking. In the past few weeks, Freund has been taking the under 21 squad, so maybe something could be read into that. Tim and Jamie do have history, as up until a couple of years ago they were business partners, and the club is open To the idea of former players returning in a coaching role. Indeed, a few months ago, we appointed our former goalkeeper Robert Burch to help Tony Parks. One of Burch's main attributes as a player, was his quickness off his line and it was felt he could be useful to the way we currently use our keepers. .
Cheers, spurcat. Interesting info, as ever. Got no problem with ex players returning to coach. Ledley can join anytime as far as I'm concerned! But Redknapp seems so bitter over what happened to his dad, that I'd be paranoid he was up to something behind the scenes! I used to like him as a pundit, but now I can't stand him. Sorry Spurcat, I'm not too familiar with your taste in men, so you'll have to help us out a bit more with this "ex player who is rather good looking" that you mention.
