Maverick

If your comparing the championship to the Slovakian/ Serbian leagues then you may be right, if your comparing it to the Ukranian/ Russian league then you must be out of your mind.

Its obvious that we're gonna have some sources carrying such news, I guess the best way is to sit back and wait for the inevitable.

Don't think we'd be interested in him given the fee, his wages and the age factor. Since Barcelona are looking to sell it may be worth enquiring about Seydou Keita, he should strengthen our midfield considerably.

I disagree. Appointing Emenalo as Carlo's assistant was by far the boldest move. :D

He needs to win one trophy to surpass him.

If the dream team is indeed true then I'd be over the moon. If its just AVB then we should remember that he is young and be prepared for some mistakes.

Dont think a single club can be at fault but looking at the way City going about splashing cash for some very average players I would like to think they are the biggest culprits in britain. Needless to say the likes of Madrid/ United have always flexed their muscles and therefore we are not the only ones that should be blamed for the transfer market situation.

Glad we play United as early as September.

I agree to the rest of your post but what you miss out on is that he has been missing a hell lot of games in the last few seasons and that is my biggest concern. 2008 - 09 39 starts 2009 - 10 21 starts 2010 - 11 16 starts Now that looks like a trend and an indication that his fitness levels are only going to get worse. Would it then make sense to pay his wages (am assuming they are huge) for the number of games he has played last season? I am not too sure and that's the reason I'd be tempted to accept an offer above 15 million if it came across. Also as I suggested earlier we could bring in a solid defender like Johnson/ Ridgewell to fill in for the Carling/ FA Cup initial rounds. We need to move away from the idea of having full fledged internationals as squad players, Fergie has two internationals in Vidic/ Rio so I don't see why we cant manage with 3 internationals + a good home grown backup.

It would be a gamble but Alex's fitness is a big enough gamble in itself, what I'd want to see is a good defender (Johnson/ Ridgewell) willing to play 4th choice as back up to JT, Luiz and Ivan. Cash in on Alex and used the sale proceeds to strengthen where we may need some strengthening and as Rahul mentioned we don't need 4 full fledged internationals as our CB options.

Terry and Ivanovic have been fit for the last couple of seasons and if Luiz stays fit I would like to think that these 3 CB's would be enough.

Not sure keeping Alex helps much in that case, just 13 starts last season and 12 starts in 09/10 isn't a very impressive stat. We had Alex last season too and had to play Ferreira in one of the games and that's because Alex fitness has been a big concern for some time rather. Rather sell him now when there is a bidder rather than turning him into dead wood after a couple of seasons.

Your fascination with Kalou is what I find amusing.

Dont think its gonna change this year since we have the ACON, unless we buy in the summer we should be prepared for "bad moments" as Carlo would put it.

Full marks for optimism, none for creativity !!

As much as I'd like to think that's true am not sure the basis of these statement. Alex has been good in patches last season and has missed too many games in my opinion for a defender. His fitness levels are likely to go down from here on and if we do get a right back from his sale I don't see whats the fuss about. We'll have 3 quality central defenders in Terry, Ivan and Luiz which should be good enough.

Why not call up Marcelo/ Kaka for that matter? The fact is the Brazilians clearly prefer moving to clubs in Spain/ Italy and that could be down to the success some of their greats have achieved with these clubs pretty regularly.

With the invent of twitter am not sure how much of the "inside" news we'd be able to provide but as far as banter is concerned you wont disappointed. Welcome to the Shed !!

We're talking about Neymar here not Giggs !!

That's barely 1% of the capacity and that alone speaks volumes about how the media jumps at every opportunity of putting us down.

Wigan or Wolves at home should be fine.

So you prefer to judge him on the basis of one/ a couple of U-21 game and ignore the 5 months at Bolton where he looked one of the most threatening strikers in the league?

Should fetch you around 15 GBP, putting it up on Ebay for sale should do the job.

Welcome to the forum. Have a good time interacting with fellow blues !!

For starters he is quicker than Kalou ever was or will be, thats something we have missed upfront for a while now. He's got a wicked Left foot when he strikes them, besides he doesn't miss chances from 4 yards !! Thats what he offers over Kalou in a nutshell.