tajjuk

They try to fit Forlan, Suarez and Cavani all into the same team who are all strikers essentially so their midfield 3 is usually quite defensive, so doesn't really suit Gaston. No shame being kept out of the team by those 3.

Mauricio in English is Maurice or Morris, and Maurice is sometimes shortened to 'Mo' and the Po obviously comes from Pochettino, either taking the first two letters or first and last. examples - Maurice Edward "Mo" Cheeks Maurice Alberto "Mo" Rocca Maurice John Giblin "Mo" Johnston Maurice "Mo" Williams

He also came on against France a few weeks ago didn't he and play well? It;s kind of good he;s not playing too much as it's better if he;s getting rest ready for pre-season.

Milan and Inter whilst both massively bigger than us are not the clubs they were, Milan will have to qualify for the champions league next year and Inter finished down in 9th. Both are struggling financially so I doubt they are going to able to come up with £12 million odd unless they sell. Man City don't really need him, they have Toure and just signed Fernandinho. It's Arsenal I would worry about, they have the cash, stature and gaping hole in their midfield for this sort of player. Looking at the videos and a few assessments of Wanyama he looks quality but he doesn't seem to be a Cork type player, seems more like Morgan, more box to box. He gives us pace and power in the midfield which we don;t have, more threat in the air and he seems to have a decent long shot on him as well. People are comparing him to Toure and Viera, if he gets close to them we could have one hell of player. a couple of seasons with us and we could be selling him for £30+ million.

I'd be happy with this hope there is some truth in this. It's obviously a mock up but maybe someone has done after seeing/hearing about the actual design. The following clubs have announced their new kits:- Chelsea Liverpool Man City Man Utd Newcastle (away) Aston Villa Cardiff Norwich Palace Stoke (away) Sunderland (away) Swansea West Ham Hull (away) Thing is we only got the deal sorted with adidas recently so it will take use a bit longer plus lets hope Cortese is busy with all these transfer negotiations!

LOL, love that they think Arsenal is a stepping stone. This lad must have a high opinion of his himself if Arsenal are a 'stepping stone.'. On that basis I think this might be quite unrealistic, we might have the cash but I doubt he's going to be interested.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/03/02/liverpool-eye-pre-contract-move-for-cska-contract-rebel-keisuke-honda-3523033/ Also we went through this Wanyama/Banega thing yesterday. My preference is for Banega, pretty much and all round midfielder and I rekcon he will suit our style better, plus he's decent at Set Pieces which is something we need.

You could look at it on the flip side that he is basically putting pressure on the team to get off to a good start and there are no excuses this year. What he says echoes what all of us have said, doesn't suddenly mean they aren't going to try to win games. They know after the results against City, Chelsea and Liverpool that they can match the big teams. In fact the article is right to highlight west brom a team that quite easily beat us twice last year. They need to be winning against the likes of West Brom to push up the table and I think they recognise that.

Yep Chelsea for example just seem to be stockpiling talent out on loan, imagine adding Lukaku, Courtois, De Bruyne, and Essien to our team. They have already added Schurrle to go with Hazard, Oscar, Marin, Moses, De Bruyne, Mata who can all play in the same position. Man City have Nasri, Sinclair, Silva, Toure, Fernandinho, Navas, Milner as attacking mid options.

Second that, quality player set for bigger clubs than us I reckon.

Will Hughes will be quality but he's better off where he is at the moment, not many premier league clubs are going to play a 17/18 year old in attacking midfield. Sinclair and Ince are definite possibilities but we seem to be looking at the foreign market more and maybe a higher level of player?

Nope, doubt they will be challenging for Champions League any time soon. They are Inter though, a massive massive club, that draw still seems to work for Liverpool despite being nowhere near champions league for a few seasons now. I suppose Inter don;t have Liverpools cash though.

Also I'd take him at that price, still a bit raw but would offer us a good option on the flanks and has pace to burn. Yep totally would have any of those 3. De Bruyne especially would be quality, I thought Dortmund were after him to replace Gotze and also heard that Mourinho want to bring back a lot of Chelsea's loan players so De Bruyne, Lukaku and Courtois.

Agree in part but both Cork and Mulumbu do the same role for their teams they just go about it in different ways. Also Diame isn't a sitting player really, he gets forward a lot, Noble is the one that sits more like Cork, so that's more like the role Morgan does. Wanyama certainly gives us quality competition for both positions, but considering we play a very much short passing possession based game I'd prefer someone like Benega who will provide more craft and link the midfield and attack better than either Cork and Morgan do. Plus he's a good set piece taker something we struggled with last year. I'd could see Benega playing next to Cork or Morgan in home games with Gaston in the hole, but in away games against tougher opposition you could play all 3, with Banega the more advanced playing a similar role to what Davis did last year but actually offering a lot more going forward. I think Ramirez as well would benefit a lot from having a player like Banega around. EDIT: Yep Webby we could have both and that would be pretty amazing, I suppose if Banega is only around £8, £18 million for the pair is pretty good business, but I don't think Banega will go for that little more like £12 million. Does that give us enough funds for elsewhere? It's great to have 4 very good centre-mids that all give you different options but a bit pointless if we are still very weak elsewhere and relying on Lambert to play 38 games again. On the prices quoted, £8 million for Lovren, £8 million for Banega, £10 million for Wanyama, £8 million for Bueno, plus maybe £5-6 for a striker and a full back on a free. One hell of Window! (also sell a few fringe players to raise around £8 million) Think that would keep us around the £30 million 'war chest' that was quoted.

Yep tough Chelsea, Liverpool and City in the first 5, the natives might get restless. Happy with ours, only away to Utd and Pool are tough in the first 10, it's pretty much the opposite to what we had last year. No excuses for a slow start, this place will go into meltdown if we don't pick up some decent points from that lot.

We're basically using our financial position to punch above our weight. Get our bids in early, tempt these financially struggling clubs with up front cash that lots of other european clubs can't match and offer the player a decent contract and a chance to play in the premier league. As long as the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, City, PSG, Monaco etc don't come in and match us we hold quite a few advantages and seem to be competing with the 'next tier' of clubs around Europe like Inter, Lyon, Valencia etc. that aren't quite up there with the biggest clubs.

Banega > Wanyama IMO. Benega gives us something we don't have, he's a genuine playmaker who can also do the defensive stuff. Wanyama is closer to what Cork is, an out and out defensive mid. He'll bring a bit more pace and power to our midfield but Banega will bring a lot more class.

Same guy who wrote the article also has another article saying 'Sunderland boss Laudrup set for showdown talks'. LOL

Yep, Marco Negri is a prime example, 32 in 30 games for Rangers then nothing (although he had some injuries).

i'm presuming alpine has child like hands?

2 is hardly 'stacking'. I also doubt that some blustering by the Argentinian government over some sheep filled islands is going to upset a playboy footballer.

I'm actually struggling to think whether we could have signed a better player in this position considering our status and without spending like £25 million on a player who is clearly not worth that much? He's a regular at a top European club, played plenty of Champions league football, plays for for one of the best international teams around, was linked to a host of much bigger clubs than us and at 24 is still young for a centre-back. Add in he seems to have attributes that will suit this league well how could we have possibly done better for £8 million?

Like that quote. I reckon him and Boruc will get on well. He wears the number 10 for Valencia but he's not that player, more of Xabi Alonso type player.

He was interviewed just the other day whilst on national duty saying that he was happy and was looking forward to us potentially signing Bueno. From his comments he also seemed to recognise that he hadn't had the best of season and was being loyal to the club for sticking with him. He's not going to a week later hand in a transfer request.

From what I have been told he didn't have the best of seasons last year? Hopefully off-field issues maybe causing it.