Rather worried

Neither had played in a European League before, which made them even more of a risk.

 

I don't think City would let him go due to the English quota rules.

 

That's a good point to be fair...I personally have a great feeling about Cabaye, he was massively influential last season and from little I watched of him, he will be perfect sitting along side Tiote...Between the two of them we must surely have two of last season's best passers/ball retainers!

 

Chelsea want stupid money for him

 

On the derby note too much emotion can be a bad thing. On the one hand the new frenchies could keep a level head and let their natural talent win the occasion, or the mackems could be really up for it win every 50/50 tackle and win that way. Having less English players could be a good or bad thing.

 

I see where you're coming from but aren't quite as scared as you. For a start I refuse to believe that 'foreigners' as a whole 'don't get' English football, either the way its played or how our fans get involved. Look at players like Ginola, Solano and even Olivier Bernard, all constantly talk of their love of the area and return frequently, more than I can say for 'gritty' English players like Jenas or Dyer. Looking at the team now I've no doubt some of the team spirit we're constantly told about comes from the non English contingent of Colo, Jose, Jonas, Tiote et al, and all do more running than most of the English players in our team (apart from Colo, but he's too clever to have to run...). Theres nothing to say all three new boys will fire on all cylinders straight away, but for the cost its easier to gamble on these than on a silly priced English player.

Secondly the matter of cost is stupid, we got Cabaye for £3-5m while Liverpool got Henderson for £20m. We can't throw wages at players like that and blowing such a huge amount on a player who didn't even set Sunderland alight for most of the season is madness. What English midfielder could we get for £3m? Alan Smith? We've already got him!

Final point, and probably closing argument, who's 'grittier'?

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or

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Case closed?

 

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I thought you might like this to sit on.

 

I think they have enough, with Milner, Lescott, SWP etc. Their youth academy is odd though, virtually no English players.

 

We won the derby days because we played the ocassion and not just the game. Emotion matters on derby days. We've lost Nolan but the importance on the derby days is still highly noticed around the camp.

 

How do we stand in the English quota rules?

 

Not sure, I think we're alright as we still have Smith, Guthrie, Gosling, Perch, Simpson, Ranger, Saylor, Naylor, Raylor and others as well as academy players (Richardson etc.) who will also count towards it.

 

Is it English or UK, I can't remember

Harper, Taylor, Gosling, Guthrie, Barton, Ameobi, Smith, Simmo, Perch, Raylor. Those are the first teamers I can think of.

Then we have the kids. So I would say we are doing fine

Those in bold are home grown.

Italics mean they are likely to be gone.

 

Its neither, its home grown which has something to do with the players football development. Odds are Krul, Best, and the young lads like Vuckic and Fergie qualify, so we'll be fine.

Oh, and you missed Williamson and Forster if he's around next year.

 

That's even better then.

 

Shola doesn't count as English any more, having been selected for Nigeria.

 

I know where you are coming from Leazes and I too prefer the base of our team to be British.

Sturridge and Johnson have been mentioned, but even had we managed to convince them to join us (I don't think they would) we would have probably had to spend our entire transfer budget to get them. Whereas the three we have signed have cost just £4.3m and they are each arguably just as good as those two.

I don't think we can financially afford to go any other route if we want to harbour hopes of catching up with the top clubs. Maybe if we do ever get back into europe, with the money that brings, we can invest in some quality british, but until then I think we will have to develop our own or buy promising talent from the championship and hope they flourish.

As French seems to be vogue at the moment I will sum our situation up as a fait accompli!

 

He is still home grown though

 

I'm getting images in my head of Pardew planting little Shola's in his allotment patch, and lovingly watering and feeding them them until they become strikers... AAAARGH!!!

 

Looks fine to me, might be some slight inaccuracies since I did it myself.

 

I'm pretty sure Krul counts but i might be wrong

Edit: is this just not a good day for me, i try to make a joke or impart some usefull information and then find that someone else just posted it every time