so are we actually interested in this ukarnian bloke, or is it just the press linking us to him because Liverpool are keen? his name is Yevhen Konoplyanka, a nice easy one to pronounce.
Remember we have three attacking players in Chadli, Lamela and Soldado. Combined cost of 65 million. Sherwood needs to start using Lamela and Soldado more, otherwise we really have pissed the Bale money up the wall.
Nothing will get me to understand why we spent £27m on a 28 yr old striker and then try to make him completely change his style of play. Nothing will get me to understand why we spent £30m on a 21 yr old and don't play him. Nothing will get me to understand why we spent more than £2.50 on Chadli.
Lamela's injured. Soldado will probably start more against weaker opponents and might even get picked up top with Chadli against Dnipro, if they're both fit. I'm assuming that Sherwood's going to go a bit Redknapp in the Europa, at least for the foreseeable future. He could still field a pretty strong team anyway, if we get players back in time.
Is Lamela really injured? Soldado was looking in good form before he had a couple of poor games but if by the end of the season all three are flops then Baldini 's role must be in question.
He picked up some dodgy sounding thigh injury a while ago and they're supposed to be bringing him back slowly to avoid making it into anything serious.
At least Helder Postiga sounds like he should be a Wagnerian tenor. That's more than our other non-scoring options can say. AVB, Sherwood and any other manager would have gotten a lot of criticism no matter who they played, thanks to all the signings. If Sherwood played Soldado Lamela Eiriksen Chadli Holtby Paulinho Rose Chiriches Jan Walker everyone would have wondered why he was giving the cold shoulder to everyone who's been with the team a while. As it is, he's doing a reasonable job of trying to give the newcomers a chance. It's not his fault that some have been taking advantage of their chance and some haven't. No doubt Soldado and Lamela are do another try or five. Right now it looks like Eiriksen, Paulinho, Chiriches and possibly Capoue (looks good, but hasn't played much) are the successes. All things considered, you might hope for one more, maybe even two, but three-four doing well halfway through the season is about what you might expect (given how much pressure there is for places). It's not like you have one or two signings with a starting spot carefully prepared for them. It's catch-as-catch-can chaos.
My dig about Lamela and soldado was aimed at AVB...their confidence seems shot to **** cos of his tactics and man management Sherwood is doing ok imo
I really don't think any of the new signings have looked that good , with maybe Eriksen looking a slight cut above in potential. Capoue besides a couple of average games at the beginning of the season has been ineffective when played. Lamela, Chadi?, and Soldado have been a complete waste of money so far and please could we have our money back. Paulinho shows a little more promise but once again has not delivered and Chrinches has been all right. Last seasons midfield buys IMHO as Dembele offer so little compared to the quality of a Modric, Mata, Hazard, and once again have been a step backwards. Siggy is I am sorry to say **** as was Dempsey. Hotlby has done nothing but his saving grace is that he cost peanuts. I want to see real talent in them but being honest they all look so average at best. I just can't understand why the club have failed to bring in quality to the club. We will not have such a windfall for maybe a decade as all of them are worth a fraction of their purchase price. What an amazing cock up , really it is unbelievable. Compare our buys to say City's . Jesus 16m, Neg 16m ? so much better than our motley bunch and they improve the team straight away. Spurs seem to be run from a nut house , is there ever going to be a stadium completed by the end of this decade ? They told me we had sold Elvis and bought the Beatles, more like the Monkeys .