I'm stopping in Tours for one night on the way to the Dordogne, in August
Ince has turned down Cardiff, maybe he wants a bigger club?
Ince has turned down Cardiff, maybe he wants a bigger club?
So which of our rivals are impressing with thier signings?
I can see the league splitting into 3 groups, City,Utd,Chelsea,Arsenal,Spurs and Liverpool (Rogers is building a really sexy team) at the top. Hull,Palace and a suprise like Brom or Stoke in the bottom 3 by some margin. I believe we will be left scrapping it out with Everton (basically the same team as last year) Swansea who have bought well as have Norwich. Sunderland are basically buying a new team and will have to wait to see if it gels. Teams treading water include Fulham and West Ham who have blown most of thier cash on Carrol and missed out on long term target Bony.

Don't remember Bony being a long term target of ours? Our long term target has been Stekelenburg, who we signed from Roma![]()
Don't remember Bony being a long term target of ours? Our long term target has been Stekelenburg, who we signed from Roma
With a spine of:
Stekelenburg
Hangeland
Amorebieta
Riether
Kacaniklic
Ruiz
Berbatov
I think that's good enough to avoid 'treading water'
Don't remember Bony being a long term target of ours? Our long term target has been Stekelenburg, who we signed from Roma
With a spine of:
Stekelenburg
Hangeland
Amorebieta
Riether
Kacaniklic
Ruiz
Berbatov
I think that's good enough to avoid 'treading water'
Is that a spine? You seem to have included a few wide players in there. Still, you definitely have a good enough team in my eyes.
Hmm...take a certain laid back Bulgarian out and I don't think they would be very threatening at all. I like Kacaniklic, but not much else. Bottom half material for me.
Hmm...take a certain laid back Bulgarian out and I don't think they would be very threatening at all. I like Kacaniklic, but not much else. Bottom half material for me.
Could have same the same about Lambert for yourselves last season...
If Berbatov wasn't there, then somebody else would have played in his place and still knocked the goals in, albeit perhaps not as many. This is the same for the vast majority of PL teams. Villa with Benteke, Sunderland with Fletcher, West Brom with Lukaku, Swansea with Michu etc. Take them all out of the team and the team struggles, we and yourselves are no different. Most FFC fans would tell you that Berbatov is both a blessing and a hindrance, yes he possesses fantastic skill but evidently slows down the play to suit his style, this makes counter attacking difficult.
Ruiz is a very frustrating player, much too similar to Berbatov, both play with a languid style but can turn the charm on and off, and not always when you want or expect them to. Dembele was hugely inconsistent in his first season here so here's hoping Ruiz can continue to develop under Jol. Although I do agree our strengths right now don't lie in the attacking part of the team, but a defence that includes the Dutch number one, Norwegian captain and one of the most talented La Liga defenders is a good start for improving the defence.
In regards to the youth team question, the likes of Dembele (the other one) Frei, Kacaniklic and Briggs are all decent prospects, but the PL is such a baptism of fire, showing signs of quality in the U18's doesn't exactly mean you're a PL star of the future.
Really like Southampton and always look out for your results, not sure about the Wanyama signing although Lovren looks quality.
Well behind Berbatov, you had two players who scored 5 each - Ruiz and Petric. We had Rodriguez and Puncheon both on 6, and Ramirez and Schneiderlin both on 5, so actually yeah based on those statistics we've got more goals coming from elsewhere than you do. You're more reliant on Berba than we are on Lambert.
My point was that the majority of teams rely on one stand out goalscorer and the fact that your second highest scorer scored 6 kind of proves my point really.
Well you were debating a comment that said you would struggle for goals without Berbatov, and the stats I just posted show that you would have suffered more without your best striker last season more than we would have without ours. Every team is worse off without their best goalscorer, but some more than others. As it turns out; you more than us.