
The9
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Everything posted by The9
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Hence my note that SIX of their starters were replaced between the two Jan transfer windows either side of their promotion.
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More useful is the stat that by Feb 2012 Norwich and Swansea had both replaced 6 of their Championship starters from Feb 2011. That was the stat that changed my argument from "let's evolve with 4 signings each window" to "let's evolve with at least 5 signings each window". Unless people believe our "hit-rate" is better than all other clubs and all of the players we sign will be successes, we're limiting our chances of success. Our team for Sunday currently looks like Davis* Clyne* Hooiveld* Fonte* Fox* Schneiderlin* Davis Guly*/Puncheon* Lallana* Rodriguez* Lambert* (Subs from : Gazzaniga*, Richardson*, Seaborne*, Stephens*, Shaw*, Guly*/Puncheon*, Sharp*, Lee*, Ward-Prowse*, De Ridder*, Chaplow*, Hammond*). The asterisks are for players who as yet haven't proven themselves as regulars in a mid-table side in the Premier League. It's everyone other than Steve Davis. Even if Matt Phillips signs... Just checked, Richardson played 4 Prem matches for Leeds nearly 10 years ago. Chaplow had 11 Prem appearances for West Brom in 2005 (and then signed for us on loan).
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SLIGHTLY? Unless it's pizza in the shape of the club badge you SHOULD BE BANNED.
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As who ? As Lambert and Rodriguez ? Rodriguez will become a much better player with a few games against top defenders when he works out what he can and can't do, and Sharp and Lee are already better than our other strikers at some things. It depends what skills we'll need. Sharp has already shown he can score goals as a lone striker against the odds at Doncaster, it might have been in the Championship but he was obviously a better, fitter, player in May than he was in January and he can create chances for himself. He, and Lee, and Rodriguez, and Lambert all give us different attacking options. Your oversimplification of pretty much everything is hilarious. Why have a flexible formation which suits the situation when you can (adopts Gumby voice) "PLAY FOUR FOUR TWO" ? Our 4-3-3 is also a 4-5-1 with the wide men sitting deeper, which when there are 2 DMs is a 4-2-3-1, which with the supporting "in the hole" midfielder replaced by a striker is a 4-4-1-1, which is basically a 4-4-2 anyway. Why not leave the tactics to the people who appreciate that in some matches having 5 midfielders who can win the ball, create and keep the ball but also defend and get behind the ball in numbers might be the way to go, rather than just deciding Lambert +1 standing up front is the only way we can do it ?
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You mean the summer before we broke loads of club records and finished in the top 2 ? Alright then ! "Very worrying" is a massive overstatement, we've bought potentially good players, we should be able to compete with the bottom 14 if we're able to control possession, and we only have to be better than 3 other teams. I have slight concerns that we have no depth at CB and the players we do have aren't necessarily up to it, but we're clearly up to somthing in that market judging by the Martin loan and Seaborne loan rumours. Other than that we have a load of players who might be good enough - who are all going to have to be good enough. When you look at Puncheon having had a run with Blackpool and been found wanting but also scoring the odd goal and assist, and consider he's not likely to be starting every week you can see how it's difficult to know where we're going to fit. We're not going to come second again though.
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Just pointing out that because we had 50 staff laid off last time doesn't mean there are 50 people whose livelihoods depend on us staying up this time, I don't think that's an unreasonable post. People just seem to have made a habit of posting preposterous, incorrect and misleading unsubstantiated cobblers recently.
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Just for the record (approx) 125m Prem attendees last season, 91m in the Championship (where there are many more matches), 35m L1 and about 17m in L2. So slightly more watching non-Prem than Prem, if you ignore the global worldwide tv audience, and the fact that there are more than 3 times as many matches and that your team wouldn't play in the same division as about 2/3 of those matches anyway.
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Why, have we just employed 50 more on going up?
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Add another one to the pile of people who don't know the difference between actually having money and only pretending to...
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I hadn't, but it's about as relevant as Aaron Martin's form will be to Saints Prem results this season, at the moment.
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That was in 1993. You could count the foreigners in the Prem on the hands of a short bus queue back then. The overall standard has gone up massively, not to mention that the example is 20 years old and Cole was previously at Arsenal and stuck behind long time Prem strikers Alan Smith and Kevin Campbell at the time and there were only 2 subs. He was tangibly far too good for Bristol City (and my City-supporting student housemate knew it).
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Yes, he got relegated. As did Fox, Cork, K Davis, Butterfield, arguably Rodriguez and possibly Richardson. EDIT : Oh and Puncheon, can't forget Puncheon... Now that doesn't make them bad players, but it does show that we have a squad full of players who no-one else in the Prem has taken that gamble on.
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I'm more than aware that we have now got half a team of players who have been relegated from the Premier League already. Rodriguez was so good last time that he was loaned to Barnsley rather than be allowed a league match for a relegated team.
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Can't argue with that but stockpiling them means that if they are good and we do sell them on they'll be worth proportionately more as well... Maybe Cortese's got the £15m for Oxlade-Chamberlain stuck in his head, and Adkins knows how to teach under 27s who are new to a division, he doesn't want too many who can impart their own advice. Risky strategy for someone who hasn't been there yet himself.
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More likely to get them, good potential upside and could prove to be excellent - but is that the ONLY kind of player we want and wouldn't a bit of knowledge be a useful thing to be able to teach all these promising players?
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I have many OTM and UIs from around that time (gathered retrospectively) so I might have a rummage at some point to see if I can find any complaints. It would have been rrrrrubbish though.
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Well done, and how did Derby do with it?
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I'm not convinced we haven't expressed some interest, no harm in having put feelers out in case we have to hit the panic button in January...
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Are they still talking about having a Premier League Div 2,cos we'd p155 that with the Championship players we're trying to get in...
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Hmmm, we definitely don't want a load of Swedish Internationals, what have they ever done for us, etc?
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Played alongside Chris Baird, now there's a player who can play centre back and defensive midfield, has plenty of Prem and some European experience, meets our academy-grown criteria and wouldn't cost the earth...
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Blimey, that's even earlier, Hummel kit from the season before the Shearer Admiral one. That was around for years, I only started watching in late '91 and there were a good couple of seasons of him floating around. Difficult to believe they were ever going to use it as an actual badge though...
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How the hell did they manage to sort themselves out with a new set of kit for yesterday's match anyway ? All blue with a white v-neck and shirt collar, no sponsor... (Jobsite will be pleased, after renewing the deal). http://www.pafc.co.uk/news/article/report-argyle-3-portsmouth-0-312383.aspx As I pointed out yesterday, they also cost themselves £10 in shirt printing costs by insisting on high squad numbers instead of 1-11.
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This is the only thing resembling him I can find at the moment (short of delving into the garage for some well-hidden programmes)... The 1992-4 programmes all had the phrase on the cover though. Pretty sure it pre-dates Lowe. Course, all Chairman make mistakes...
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That was the plan.