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New England manager = Roy Hodgson

[SUP][/SUP]

Interesting - I could hardly agree less with you if I tried....

Full Backs. The first choice two are amongst the best pair in the league. The back up is non existant because Redknapp loaned them out but if Naughton and Corluka (and Smith) are back then along with Danny Rose as well we probably have better back up than most other teams in the league as well - 3 England under 21s and one full international.

Centre Halves. Kaboul is a very good centre half in the making. Is getting better with each season. Dawson would be better back up than pretty much any other team has in the Premiership. Gallas is also still a very good centre half (albeit injured too often). Caulker can come back and be excellent back up. Therefore probably 1 top class centre half is required.

Wide men.

Pienaar and Kranjcar would get first choice starting places for most other teams in the Premiership. The problem though is that neither are like for like. A pacy, tricky true winder is required as backup. Townsend probably should've been retained instead of loaned out to give us a true winger type player

Central midfield. The one area where I agree with you. Modric, Parker, Huddlestone, Sandro, Livermore. No problems there really.

Forwards. Personally I think we should do all we can to sign Ade but also make sure we have a better replacement for him than Saha if he cannot play. Without Ade our whole gameplan doesn't work as with VDV wandering around so much and often ending up alongside or even behind our deepest lying midfielder the centre forward is left isolated. Our centre forward has the hardest job on the pitch. He has to be able to play up top on his own, hold the ball up and run the channels but also be good enough to get involved in our intricate passing game around the penalty area (there aren't too many forwards like that out there - in fact Ade is one of the best in this respect).

Of course some fans overrate players but I think you are also a little guilty of underrating some of our squad.

The following are all excellent players who would get into most of the top teams in this league.
Walker
Kaboul
Ekotto
Lennon
Bale
Modric
Sandro
Parker
VDV
Adebayor

The following are all players that would get into the starting line ups of all but the top 6 or 7 teams and be considered great squad players at even the top level teams:

Corluka
Dawson
Gallas
Pienaar
Kranjcar
Huddlestone
Defoe

Don't let the fact that we have had some misfortune, a loss of confidence and perhaps some injury/burn out issues fool you into thinking that we don't have good players. The one thing that we lack compared to the other top four challengers is that real outstanding centre forward (Rooney, Aguero, Van Persie, Drogba). All of those players have won games for their club singlehandedly this season. We do not have that and the only way we are going to get it is to go out and spend massive money on a transfer fee and wages or to take a gamble and get lucky with an up and coming player.

You dont half over estimate our players Thomas, City,Utd and Chelsea in my opinion are better than us, four players at the most would get into their sides, if we want to be a consistant top four team I think we have to improve dramatically, on top of that King,Gallas,Friedel are coming to an end and kaboul seems to have a suspect knee, there needs to be big investment and with the stadium coming up its going to be difficult.
 
I do apportion a significant portion of the blame to Harry. For example choosing Walker over Corluka I believe is a massive fudge up. Letting Pienaar go was another, as was letting Crouch go but keeping Pav. Decisions I just didn't understand.

But I also think we are massively hampered in the transfer market by our Chairman.

We made a loss as a club last season.
 
thats not entirely true. Levy has backed managers, big time, gone out and paid big fees for the likes of Palacios, Pavlyuchenko, Modric, Gomes, Bent, Bentley, Bale....

even in Jan he would have gone in big for a Remy or a Hazard, younger players with potential and whose value has the chance to increase

These bids were confirmed by the clubs involved as well.

I'm seriously doubting the identity of some posters on here.

I am 100% positive the club PR team has proxy's on this board
 
What exactly are your expectations in the transfer market?
Under Levy our transfer system has brought us both Carrick and Berbatov that were excellent and brought big profits, and now Bale, Modric, Lennon, Walker, Sandro, Hudd, Kaboul and so on. You don't rate all of those I take it, but surely you must rate some of them and you must have seen the progress being made in our playings squad and as a result our league results under Levy.

What clubs would you compare us to that do better than us?

That we don't leave everything to the last minute and then miss out.
 
That we don't leave everything to the last minute and then miss out.

This strategy has served us quite well so far...

I agree that to push on from where we are we should start doing more business earlier however this will come at a cost, if we are in a position where we can accept that cost with our current stadium, training ground construction and stadium plans we can't really know.

Again, what clubs would you compare us to that do better than us in the transfer market?
 
He's responsible for replacing our centre halves

He's responsible for replacing our strikers

Harry tells him who he wants

If Levy don't pay, we don't replace in those positions

Harry is stuck between a rock and a hard place, no?

If Harry came to you and said "I want Tevez or Saha" what would you do?

BTW, the correct answer is to respond with:
"Hi Harry, meet your new DoF. He will be responsible for all transfer dealings and any statements to the press. You can continue to show your worth by coaching the squad."
 
thats not entirely true. Levy has backed managers, big time, gone out and paid big fees for the likes of Palacios, Pavlyuchenko, Modric, Gomes, Bent, Bentley, Bale....

even in Jan he would have gone in big for a Remy or a Hazard, younger players with potential and whose value has the chance to increase

I don't doubt that Levy that has backed a couple of his DoF's.

But ultimately the buck DOES stop at the top. If a Chairman hires a Manager he has no faith in, but then keeps that Manager around whilst refusing to sanction deals whilst that Manager is in charge thus decreasing the chance of the club being a success then the Chairman is to blame. End of.

It really is simple. If Levy has no confidence in Redknapp today then he has to sack him today. If he has no confidence and doesn't sack him? Then Levy becomes the man to blame. Basically Levy, show some fudging balls. But then we are talking about the man who sacked a legend over the phone, treated Anderton like dirt and leaked Jol's dismissal to the press so he wouldn't have to break the news himself....
 
He's responsible for replacing our centre halves

He's responsible for replacing our strikers

Harry tells him who he wants

If Levy don't pay, we don't replace in those positions

Harry is stuck between a rock and a hard place, no?

If Levy doesn't sign a player Harry wants, why do you think that is?

If Harry ends up without the replacements he wants working under Levy because the targets he identified weren't available at a cost Levy accepted then Harry needs to find more targets.
 
If Levy doesn't sign a player Harry wants, why do you think that is?

If Harry ends up without the replacements he wants working under Levy because the targets he identified weren't available at a cost Levy accepted then Harry needs to find more targets.

Don't we have a scouting network?

Youtube is cool, I know, but I'm sure the club have some more formalised process in place.

Harry is not responisble for everything.

I bet he isn't involved in month end.

Or the heaters on the grass.

He is a football manager, and works with highly paid professionals for everything else.
 
I just noticed by birthday card is signed by Harry

I assume he is also responsible for the design.

And stuffing the envelopes.

I don't like the design this year.

Harry's fault.

Will start a new jerky thread.
 
This strategy has served us quite well so far...
I agree that to push on from where we are we should start doing more business earlier however this will come at a cost, if we are in a position where we can accept that cost with our current stadium, training ground construction and stadium plans we can't really know.

Again, what clubs would you compare us to that do better than us in the transfer market?

Potentially costing us 4th last year and 4th this year? I don't agree it has served us well. Indeed with more direction in January 2002 we may well have developed into a title challenging side by now.

Regardless of who is to blame, we desperately need a good transfer window. We've only had two since the thing was introduced! Summer 2004, and January 2009.
 
It's like teh court case.

Harry can't read or write, send a text, knows nothing about players, doesn't identify talent, doesn't take training, isn't responsible for the performance of players, doesn't do strategy.

What the fudge does he do for ?ú4 million a year precisely?
 
It's like teh court case.

Harry can't read or write, send a text, knows nothing about players, doesn't identify talent, doesn't take training, isn't responsible for the performance of players, doesn't do strategy.

What the fudge does he do for ?ú4 million a year precisely?

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