World Football Thread XV - Life after the World Cup

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
Signing Marlon Harewood would hardly be the kind of thing to finally bring the glory days back to St James' Park. He's rubbish.

What glory days?

And Duke, I wouldn't select a new striker onthe basis of how he will play with Owen. Owens done.

[Locutus]

Well, Twente ended up signing Luke Wilkshire for 3 years (with an option for extension). I haven't seen him play myself yet but the people who have are impressed by him. He's apparently a very complete and technically skilled player. That would explain why he's not a huge success in England where especially in the lower leagues it's still all about kicking the ball high upfield and hoping for the best -- that works against players with actual skills...

We'll see how he does here. Since he can play on just about every position on the midfield and in the defence, he should at the very least make for a good back-up to replaced injured/suspended players throughout the season, our squad isn't too large (23 players now, including several that aren't nearly good enough for the first team).

[duke o' york]

Did you not see Wilkshire at the World Cup?

Marlon Harewood's got a tiny face!
I'm sure there are other things going for him too.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Ah, good to see live (European) soccer again . Even if it is the German Liga Pokal. Though a great goal scored by Bordon for Schalke! Both goals off free kicks so far.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
Signing Marlon Harewood would hardly be the kind of thing to finally bring the glory days back to St James' Park. He's rubbish.

Better than any striker currently active. We're probably not getting anyone who is big of name, so to speak. And Milner probably wants to move on after the signing of Duff. Best get someone who improves the team now and if we get a big name later, then we have a pretty decent second or backup striker.

Roeder is apparently doing the very un-Newcastle thing of trying to get value from our signings. Duff for 5mil pounds, bidding 1 mil pounds for Bridge. Harewood in a player swap.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by duke o' york
Did you not see Wilkshire at the World Cup?

Well, considering I saw all the matches, I did. But I didn't know he was a future FC Twente player then and there were over 250 other players at that particular event. His performance didn't stand out enough for me to be able to recall it now (which if he played in a defensive role is probably a good thing)...

[duke o' york]

Happy birthday to Footie Mad!



(Haven't seen you in a while so I've posted this here, because this is one of the threads you're guaranteed to read. )

[Footie Mad]

LOL, I never expected someone on apolyton to congratulate me. I mostly lurk, thanks!

Am I the only one not very excited about the new premiership season?

It seems so clear that Chelsea will win it again but I hope for a tight season of course. Can't see any team matching the depth of their squad though. I have no favourite team in England really, I watch many games on the telly and hope for the underdogs and for any team that can break into the top four.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Football brings people together .

HB, Footie!

[duke o' york]

Well I'm fascinated to see whether we can swing things around from a pretty much certain finish in mid-table mediocrity by buying some decent players in positions we need (new defence springs to mind, as well as a striker).
Oh, you meant the season itself...

Well anything can (and usually will) happen. Chelsea may have won last year relatively easily, but they still didn't manage to match Arsenal's unbeaten campaign so even the lower-placed teams know that they have a chance of winning. That's the joy of it.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Ledley King is out for 2 months with a knee problem:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=374651&cc=5901

Knee problems tend to bother players throughout the year. This could be something that makes him struggle throughout the season... especially if he rushes back.

[reds4ever]

Always annoying when it happens in pre-season training, a lot of the time its Xmas before they get truly back into it.

[reds4ever]

£18.6 M for Carrick??? I know Uniteds midfield is desperate need of re-enforcing (well, gutting and starting again really) but 18.6 Mil for a water carrier?

Stevie G must be cracking on for £60 Mil by that logic!!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Spurs must have been sitting there wondering if they misheard Sir Alex when he came up with that number!

Though any fleecing of ManU is always good

[C0ckney]

remember when it was announced that the new wembley stadium couldn't host the 2006 FA cup final. some wags joked that it wouldn't be ready in time for the 2007 final at this rate...

oh how we laughed