If Cooper is going out on a season long.....

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Ayala signing is bad news for Chester as, let's face it, he was dogga everywhere other than CB last season. His games in midfield were woeful and if Harper had made as many bad passes he wouldve been crucified.
 
Sorry, don't agree there.

I thought Ayala and Gerrard were on a par and formed a very good partnership, second only to the partnership formed by Gerrard and Chester.

Interesting stats from last season showing goals conceeded per partnership:

Gardner/Zayatte 04
Cooper/Zayatte 03
Gerrard/Ayala 200040112120
Gerrard/McShane 1
Gerrard/Zayatte 0200212
McShane/Zayatte 1
Gerrard/Chester 010210102010
Gerrard/Hobbs 111114113

Hang on, hang on... we've never had a clean sheet with Hobbs on the pitch?

The stats back up my thought that Gerrard and Chester were our best partnership last year, Ayala/Chester would be interesting, and if we do sign Ayala, I'll reiterate that I think spending £800k+ on Hobbs was a mistake.
 
I'll reiterate that I think spending £800k+ on Hobbs was a mistake.

Well it wasn't was it? Pearsons gone and bought a relatively young centre half who's about as good as our current best one. He's only going to get better and whoever doesn't start is going to be quality cover for this level. It makes no sense to buy players who are noticeably worse than our current bunch and Pearson isn't making this mistake.
 
Dont get me wrong i thought Ayala was a fine centre back and id have loved him playing for city again. But imo,we just dont need him.Ches and hobbs will be a great pairing. Ayala's too good for back up and so is Chester.
Also Ches is our player,Ayala a loan. The loot would be better spent on a wide man.
 
Dont get me wrong i thought Ayala was a fine centre back and id have loved him playing for city again. But imo,we just dont need him.Ches and hobbs will be a great pairing. Ayala's too good for back up and so is Chester.
Also Ches is our player,Ayala a loan. The loot would be better spent on a wide man.

You can never have enough good players! Ask Manchester City <whistle>
 
id be slightly miffed if chesters dropped, i think hes a brilliant centre half, allows the game to flow, good reading of the game and brilliant distribution for a centre back, but id also love to see ayala come here, if that happens then id be agreeing with percy, id rather have had chester/ayala than chester/hobbs.
 
I'd go with Chester/Ayala too though I also rate Hobbs very highly, if we get all three of these players then our season next year will be a good one!
 
I wish Percy would hurry up and post his inevitable comment about Anthony Gardner and Ibrahima Sonko being the way forward, on the sole basis that they were signed by Phil Brown.
 
id be slightly miffed if chesters dropped, i think hes a brilliant centre half, allows the game to flow, good reading of the game and brilliant distribution for a centre back, but id also love to see ayala come here, if that happens then id be agreeing with percy, id rather have had chester/ayala than chester/hobbs.

Me too,but weve signed Hobbs now. Thats my point,i should've put it better.We dont need Ayala now.
But hey if we do get him,hows about Ayala in front of the back four ?
 
Interesting stats from last season showing goals conceeded per partnership:

Gardner/Zayatte 04
Cooper/Zayatte 03
Gerrard/Ayala 200040112120
Gerrard/McShane 1
Gerrard/Zayatte 0200212
McShane/Zayatte 1
Gerrard/Chester 010210102010
Gerrard/Hobbs 111114113

Whatever happens we're going into the first friendly knowing that none of our CBs have played alongside each other before.

And if Cooper goes out on loan, with McShane going to Reading as well we'll need to bring in 2 more CBs.