Leeds United and West Ham are both thought to have taken an interest in Alan Smith as Newcastle get set to send him out on loan. I have always loved Smithy, and given the option, its a no brainer, for him, and for us, if we can overcome the wage structure Smithy is reported on £60,000 a week, both us and West Ham are not in a financial position to be able to afford paying all of his salary.
No. The fans made their views clear at the Newcastle friendly and he'd be a waste of money, squad places and controversy. [nsfw]Alan Smith's a ****er He ****ed off to Man U But we don't give a **** Cos we've got Danny Pugh![/nsfw]
To be fair, i would have loved to sign him in the summer but now there is no point. Back in the summer we didnt realise how vital clayton would be, we also brought in Vayrynen and Brown
You'd really rather Smith than Howson? I'd say Howson is faster, better fitness, and has better technical ability than Smith.
Yes I would only on the basis that Clayton and Howson are very similar type of players I think that with a real defensive midfielder with either Howson or Clayton (my choice would be clayton) we could become solid to play against.
Smith can **** right off. We need a tall,commanding CB with leadership qualities who can organise the defence & play a simple pass to one of our deeper lying CM's instead of hoofing it upfield & bypassing the midfield. Grayson sort it out- it's not rocket science.
Agreed. I don't think it's the midfield's defending that is causing the defensive problems, more the lack of a leader and the lack of a height in the team. If a cross comes into the box, you wouldn't bet that O'Dea or Lees (or any of our other CBs) will win the header. Howson and Clayton are quick and agile. Both can cover ground and close people down, something that Smith wouldn't be able to do. Not many teams have a proper defensive midfielder these days, cause you can't put in crunching tackles anymore. It's about closing people down (that's what Doyle did very well for us) and then having the ability to play once you get the ball back.
