tajjuk

Good review but just a few 'MLG' type points:- Everton have Meireles to play wide, who if he stays injury free I think will be a major player for them. Also Jagielka is only just 30. Would love to see West Ham struggle but can't see it happening, they will bully enough teams to stay up. Hopefully we will finish above them. Also Man City have pretty much just signed Negredo, who seem to fit into the same category as Navas and Fernandinho, not that young and all 3 have a whiff of Europa League about them.

Arsenal - no movement either way, with the current squad top 4 challenge, IF they pick up some of their targets then maybe they'll challenge better. Villa - Should do better I think, their team is young and will learn from last year plus they've added a few decent signings but crucial that they get a decent replacement for Benteke as he basically kept them up last year. Cardiff - Unknown, they have shown intent in the transfer market but only Cornelius signed so far they will be battling relegation. Chelsea - The Mourinho factor is huge I think, add in no Fergie to rival him, if they get Rooney I think the title could be going their way. Palace - Going to struggle I think. Everton - I think they will do worse this season, probably 8th or 9th, if they loose Baines and Fellaini then they might be in more trouble. Their signings aren't that inspiring, basically half of a very poor Wigan team. The change of style may impact them as well. Fulham - Potential strugglers I think, aging squad, lost a quality keeper. Form and fitness of Berbatov could be key. Hull - Will be interesting to see if Bruce sticks with the wing backs in the Prem, I reckon they will struggle. Liverpool - Suarez factor, how much they get for him and who they get to replace will determine their season. They have made some decent signings but not sure they are massively better than what they have. Their early season form last year let them down, decently replace Suarez and they might push that top 4. Man City - A new manager, not sure about their signings, a lot of money spent but Fernandinho, Navas and Negredo whilst good players seem a level below what you would expect from a title challenging team and don't seem much better than what they have. They seem to have lost out in the big spender battles to new boys Monaco and PSG as well. Pellegrini is a better manager than Mancini though and I think they will have a better team spirit than they did last year. I also think they will miss Tevez as he was the kind of player that got them results when they played poorly. Man Utd - Again new manager, end of an era, I think Rooney is more important to them than they think, if he leaves with Moyes under pressure in his first year they could dip. Maybe 3rd for them. Newcastle - No new signings, club in a bit of turmoil. The French revolution didn't do as well as expected and their best striker refusing to play at the moment. Probably too good to go down but I think they will struggle again. Norwich - Good signings to build on a good solid team, expect them to be comfortably mid table. Saints - Get the top striker and Banega, I think we will push into that top 8 spot. Current squad is good enough for staying well clear of relegation. Stoke - Interesting one, a few new defensive signings but not much else. They struggled for goals last year and surely Hughes won't play as direct as Pulis but do they have the players to change style? I think they need a couple of decent Midfield additions to stay clear of relegation. Sunderland - Who knows? There is a potential for a QPR, lots of signings, some decent some unknown, an unpredictable manager with a controversial style who could end upsetting half his squad with his boot camp methods. Swansea - Some good signings, Bony gives them something different going forward, some more decent La Liga recruits who will probably slot into the squad easily. Europa league though will take it's toll, so I think not quite the heights of last year. Spurs - Paulinho is a very good signing but they still need a striker, if they get Benteke, keep Bale then they could challenge for the title I think. WBA - Without Lukaku I think they will struggle to reach the same heights of last year. West Ham - Would love to write them off and would love to see them relegated buit they'll find ways of winning games and will probably stay clear of relegation in safe mid table. The teams I think we could potentially overtake this year:- West Ham West Brom Swansea Fulham Stoke maybe Everton at a long shot Liverpool have a very poor season struggling to replace Suarez. I also don't think we will see the closeness in the league like we did last year where at one point like 9th to 17th was less than 6 points. I think the title race is more open than it was, the top 4 is probably from 6 teams with Liverpool being the outside bet for it. I think the newly promoted teams this year will be poor and they are probably favourites for the drop, with Newcastle, Fulham , Sunderland and Stoke being the other potential relegation candidates. We'll be battling to finish top of the midtable bunch I reckon.

Boruc might have been a panic buy but I don't think Yoshi was, just don't think he was our primary target and probably took a bit more time because he was playing in the Olympics.

^ Don't think so, not sure we are looking for another centre-back but he would be a good signing and relatively cheap considering he only has a year on his contract so I hope I'm wrong!

Not many players seem that keen on going to the Russian Leagues, plus if he goes there he will be in the middle of his season during the World Cup which isn't ideal.

He can't but they will need a higher profile replacement than Damiao to appease the fans. So that might give us a chance, at least we have contacted them as it has been confirmed from both sides.. The Napoli thing may not be true at all.

Not sure either are close to being as strong as Wanyama, he looks about as wide as both of them put together! I also don't think either can bully people off the ball like he can, their approach to defensive play is more about persistence, work rate and speed. Wanyama looks more liekly to be able to just run through people, he;s also a powerful runner with the ball and difficult to knock of his stride. Hence the comparisons to Viera/Toure. His main weaknesses from what I've heard about him is that his technical skills are still a bit raw, both Cork and Morgan probably have the edge over him in possession play, first touch etc.

There is also no real links or rumours to any wide men since the Stoch/Bueno rumours. Many people also didn't think we would sign both Wanyam and Banega but we seem to be trying to do that. Could point to a different type of formation or Pochettino is happy having Lallana, Puncheon, Jay Rod as the wide options, with maybe Gaston cutting in from the right as well like he did against Liverpool? So more like a Mourinho at Chelsea 4-3-3: Boruc Clyne Lovren Yoshida Shaw Wanywama/Cork in the 'Makelele' role Banega/JWP as the 'Lampard' Schneiderlin/Davis as the 'Essien' Gaston/Puncheon as the 'Robben' Lallana/Jay Rod as the 'Joe Cole' Lambert/New Striker as the 'Drogba'

We have no role for a poacher like Hooper. If he had a lot of pace as well then maybe worth a gamble but to me he fits in the Sharp and Charlie Austin bracket of player.

Two of Jay Rod's biggest strengths atm are running at people and pace. Which are also probably two of Lampards weakest areas. The 'Lampard' Role, needs excellent passing, reading of the game, off the ball movement, good finishing and good long shooting. Not sure Jay Rodriguez has any of those abilities that well down yet. I think if anything we are going to keep developing him in the wide role he plays, running at people. If anyone can play the Lampard role it's probably Lambert, and Gaston should be capable of playing it if he finds some consistency as he certainly has the talent.

Also have to agree with this but doubt we'll go for a keeper. Also there seem to be literally no links with any wingers, nor have there been for a few weeks.

Correct. Same way Hazard isn't a winger. Didn't he have personal problems relating to a new child?

It's no secret that Chelsea are after a striker, first was Falcao, then Cavani, now it's looking like Suarez or Rooney. I've also seen nothing that indicates that Torres is leaving so either Mourinho has some faith that he can re-discover his form (unlikely he will ever get back to his best because he's lost his acceleration that made him so dangerous) or basically he's been told by Roman that they aren't going to abandon a £50 million striker as they would probably have to give him away for someone to take on his wages. As Mourinho is very likely to play one striker (they now have Hazard, Schurlle, Marin, Oscar, Mata, Moses etc. as attacking mids) That leaves Lukaku potentially third choice behind their next big buy and Torres. Now he may want to fight for his place and he's said doesn't want to go on loan, but in a world cup year he'll want football, with the right clauses so he can leave us in a couple of years if a bigger club comes knocking I'd could see us convincing him, especially if Rooney or Suarez walked in the door in the next couple of weeks. I can also see Chelsea selling, if they don't see him as first choice, with financial fair play us chucking them £20 million would soften the blow of the £40 million odd they need for Suarez. Still unlikely but there is some logic in this. Couldn't see anything happening unless Chelsea brought some other strikers in and Ba will go first.

Santon is right footed and plays pretty well left back. Also it gives him the option to come inside and overload the middle rather than more traditional fullback outside overlap, something he did against Villa when we won 4-1. It wouldn't be 100% but then neither would a new back up left back if they are worse than Shaw, unless the guy is old we are probably looking at more than £5 million to find an upgrade on Fox.

Clyne is perfectly comfortable playing left back, he did it several times for Palace. Cork is also pretty experienced at right back and with Wanyama we now have more option in the middle should we need to use him there. The priority is always going to be trying to improve the quality of the first eleven, we are fortunate to have two very good and improving young fullbacks. If they get injuries then the squad will have to deal with it like any team has to deal with losing it's better players to injuries. Yes if one of Shaw or Clyne gets a long term injury the team will be weaker, but the same could be said of Lovren, Boruc, Lambert etc. We just aren't in the position at the moment to have that much quality in reserve, that will take time. At the end of the day though I'd be annoyed if we say missed out on someone like Damiao because another £3-4 million was needed to seal the deal but we'd spent it on an average left back who will probably only play 5-6 games all year. If we had European football maybe there is more argument but we'll put kids out in the League Cup, and even if we got to the final of the FA cup that's only another 6 games. So a max of 44 games in season for the first team squad, they should be able to handle that.

Yep good read. People may question why we have strengthened our strongest area but we can't expect Cork/Morgan to play that sort of game at 100% all season.

Were there any with Shaw, I remember loads of people here stating there was now way he was ready, yet look at him now. You'll never know unless you give them a go. Our policy is to being through youngsters into the first team squad. There is no point going out and buying a back up right back without giving some of our younger players a chance. Our money needs to be spent on improving the squad wherever we can which means buying better than we have, we don't don;t have Man City millions to waste on players who barely get a game. Reserves and back up players are better of coming from the youth ranks. Chambers has shown he can play a variety of positions, and is getting international recognition so i think he'd be useful to have in the squad. If we start getting into Europe then maybe we would need a bigger squad with more depth but I'd prefer a better first eleven as the priority.

U-19s then. Still playing right back.

Chambers plays for England U21s right back doesn't he and for the development squad. I think he'll be the next academy player to step up.

Disagree, Van Persie is a quality striker and will score goals wherever he is, goals out of nothing though? not as much as Suarez or Bale. Also Arsenal added Corzola, who at £16 million was a quality buy and they saw Wilshere return last year who had been out the whole year previously. Yeh I suppose either Liverpool or Spurs could do that and find a bit of gem to cover the loss, both squads are decent enough not to slump but I think both would see their points total dropped. Shaw is better than BAE, one of the weakest areas of their team IMO.

Is it? Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City, Stoke and Everton will all have new managers. It's unlikely they all will be successful. Both Liverpool and Spurs, Everton to a lesser extent could loose their star performers. West Brom have already lost their star striker from last year. Newcastle seem to lurch from one disaster to another. Sunderland are signing a whole new squad, think they are up to 10 new players already, who will have to gel together quickly under a manager who is somewhat controversial. As we saw with QPR that is not a recepe for success. There are 3 teams coming up that could be weaker than those that went out. We in theory should also be stronger, we already are with Lovren, and we already were in the second half of the season. I think the answer to your Lambert question is all of them. Some games he will start, some he will be on the bench, some he may play in a deeper position, some he may play in a front two, some he or carlos kickaball may be injured. What we will have is better quality, more options and more squad depth. What we don't want is a tired and jaded Lambert playing through the pain like we had at the end of the season because we have no one else.

Shaw is a better left back than Vertonghen, he's a centre-back who happens to be left footed so will cover there. I'm hoping Forren is a little like Vertonghen, building form the back, initiating attacks etc. Shaw IMO is also already a better left back than BAE, and certainly will be in the future. Schneiderlin would play in Sandros position, he's close but at the moment I'd go with the Brazilian. The thing with Bale and Suarez is that both of them are head an shoulders above the rest of their squad. You could take Lambert out of our team and we would suffer from it but he's one of our better players, not hands down the best player in our squad by a country mile. They are also both players who can literally score goals from nothing, not from good team play or defensive mistakes, they can literally score a goal out of nothing that will change a game. Bale did it to us, he did it to West Ham as well. He was the difference that turned their defeats into draws and draws into wins. Suarez the same but in a different style. IIRC Bale scored 7 goals from outside the box last year, more than Messi. You can't really defend against what he did against some teams last year, yeh you can close him down a bit quicker, maybe show him onto his weaker foot. At the end of the day though when he pings one into the top corner form 35 yards to win a game you just have to applaud the talent. Take that away Spurs aren't the same team, again same with Suarez, that goal he scored against Newcastle I think only a handful of people in the history of the game could pull off. Neither team can replace them either, not without champions league football, so yes without them they would have a decent amount of cash they would have a few more very good players rather than one outstanding player. Both teams would suffer points wise, so Wes is correct we aren't that far away in squad terms from either Spurs or Liverpool if they loose Bale and Suarez. If we continue to correct a few of our weakest positions like we have done with Lovren we'll close that gap a bit more.

That says it's the same offer that they offered to Gomez, you'd think he'd be on more than that a year a Bayern probably no wonder he went to Fiorentina.

Seems odd to cancel the transfer over his Shoulder, not exactly a vital part of a footballer and it clearly hasn't hampered him that much as he played regularly over the last few seasons.

I'd have Lloris, Vertonghen, Dawson, Sandro, Dembele, Lennon, Bale, Holtby, and probably Sigurdsson. About the only areas we maybe compete with them is full backs and striker, although if Adebayor actually bothered playing to his potential I'd have him as well.