Phoenix From the Flames.

[thebish]

Veloso.

Come on bish, getting slow in yer owd age.

keep up LK - Bodde is the new Veloso!

[thebish]

Agree with everything the man from the Pru has to say. I also think we should try for Bendtner, Big fish in a small pond may work miracles for him and you never know Owen may try for him even for a cheeky loan

in the Birmingham "small pond" he scored 11 in 42 games...

[Tombwfc]

Aged 18/19....

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Bendtner won't happen. He's almost certainly on wages too high. If they do offload him, he'll get better (more lucrative) offers elsewhere.

As stated I'm all for getting the promising young players who can't quite break into the team at an overstaffed top-six club, but I don't think Bendtner is that. Wilshere was a shining talent who needed game time. Sturridge is confident in his abilities to impress given game time. Bendtner has had game time but for someone who has underachieved he's preposterously over-confident in his own abilities – as a sports psychologist found to his evident shock - and such an attitude frequently rubs team-mates up the wrong way.

[thebish]

Bendtner won't happen. He's almost certainly on wages too high. If they do offload him, he'll get better (more lucrative) offers elsewhere.

As stated I'm all for getting the promising young players who can't quite break into the team at an overstaffed top-six club, but I don't think Bendtner is that. Wilshere was a shining talent who needed game time. Sturridge is confident in his abilities to impress given game time. Bendtner has had game time but for someone who has underachieved he's preposterously over-confident in his own abilities – as a sports psychologist found to his evident shock - and such an attitude frequently rubs team-mates up the wrong way.

spot on!

so - who are these promising young players who can't get a game at the over-staffed top-6 clubs? ("promising" and "young" rules out michael owen I hope!)

[Lord Kangana]

People were mentioning Ramsey not long ago.I still think a 4th quality midfielder is the priority. Then replacements for Cahil (if he goes) and Elmander (if he goes).

Squad places like JOB and Gardner can hopefully be picked up by some of the youngsters.

We can add others after that, but they have to remain the priorities.

[Gary the Enfield]

Bendtner won't happen. He's almost certainly on wages too high. If they do offload him, he'll get better (more lucrative) offers elsewhere.

As stated I'm all for getting the promising young players who can't quite break into the team at an overstaffed top-six club, but I don't think Bendtner is that. Wilshere was a shining talent who needed game time. Sturridge is confident in his abilities to impress given game time. Bendtner has had game time but for someone who has underachieved he's preposterously over-confident in his own abilities – as a sports psychologist found to his evident shock - and such an attitude frequently rubs team-mates up the wrong way.

I bet his speaker do this.

[BWFC_Insane]

I think we need as priorities assuming Elmander goes and Cahill (who will)...

2 central midfield players.
2 strikers, one must have pace and both must have some goals in them
A wide left player
A centre back
A right back (could be combined centre half/right back cover and depends on when Ricketts will be back and fit)

Get those and we'll not be too bad. Possibly a couple of other utility players as well. And maybe cover on the right for LCY.

[ohjimmyjimmy]

Agreed.

[thebish]

I think we need as priorities assuming Elmander goes and Cahill (who will)...

2 central midfield players.
2 strikers, one must have pace and both must have some goals in them
A wide left player
A centre back
A right back (could be combined centre half/right back cover and depends on when Ricketts will be back and fit)

Get those and we'll not be too bad. Possibly a couple of other utility players as well. And maybe cover on the right for LCY.

....and do they have names?

[Tombwfc]

I think we need as priorities assuming Elmander goes and Cahill (who will)...

2 central midfield players.
2 strikers, one must have pace and both must have some goals in them
A wide left player
A centre back
A right back (could be combined centre half/right back cover and depends on when Ricketts will be back and fit)

Get those and we'll not be too bad. Possibly a couple of other utility players as well. And maybe cover on the right for LCY.

I presume this is also assuming we don't keep Sturridge, let Steinsson/Gardner/Cohen go and sell Petrov and Muamba?

Even then, signing 10 players seems an expensive ask.

[BWFC_Insane]

I think we need as priorities assuming Elmander goes and Cahill (who will)...

2 central midfield players.
2 strikers, one must have pace and both must have some goals in them
A wide left player
A centre back
A right back (could be combined centre half/right back cover and depends on when Ricketts will be back and fit)

Get those and we'll not be too bad. Possibly a couple of other utility players as well. And maybe cover on the right for LCY.

I presume this is also assuming we don't keep Sturridge, let Steinsson/Gardner/Cohen go and sell Petrov and Muamba?

Even then, signing 10 players seems an expensive ask.

Well assuming we don't keep Sturridge and Gardner/Cohen/Taylor go.

Everyone else stays though Petrov can go for me.

As it stands we have 2 fit midfield players. Holden won't be fit till well into the season and we have to guard against him not coming back or not being as good. We need to have 4 midfield players for the 2 positions so we have cover for the most crucial area.

The right back cover stands unless Ricketts will be back for pre-season.

But we'll need a centre half cover.

We'd also only have Ked D and Klasnic. Both of which are slow, and neither are exactly spring chickens. We need 4 strikers if we're playing 4-4-2.

Its a fair number of signings but we got Blake, Alonso, Rodrigo, Klasnic, Petrov last summer and that was with no folk leaving to help ease the wage bill and no sales to provide money.

With Cahill leaving for presumably big money and a reduction in the wage bill and possibly sales of Habsi, Taylor etc I don't see 7 as being ridiculous. In fact you could call it bare minimum depending upon what we're left with.

[Tombwfc]

Of those five players we brought in last summer, how many proved to be that good? Only really Petrov and Klasnic have contributed anything, and the former has half-arsed his way to being the new hate figure.

I think when you take into account signing on fees, wages, transfer fees, agent fees and the (well deserved) chunk Eddie Davies will take, £20mil might not stretch all that far. If we lost Elmander and couldn't get Sturridge back, it's not going to stretch far at all while we fork out for strikers (Peter Odemwingie is the only sub-£20mil striker to have scored more goals than (the apparently dogshit, right wing/central midfield carthorse) Elmander this season).

[BWFC_Wyles]

Of those five players we brought in last summer, how many proved to be that good? Only really Petrov and Klasnic have contributed anything, and the former has half-arsed his way to being the new hate figure.

I think when you take into account signing on fees, wages, transfer fees, agent fees and the (well deserved) chunk Eddie Davies will take, £20mil might not stretch all that far. If we lost Elmander and couldn't get Sturridge back, it's not going to stretch far at all while we fork out for strikers (Peter Odemwingie is the only sub-£20mil striker to have scored more goals than (the apparently dogshit, right wing/central midfield carthorse) Elmander this season).

Petrov's display on Sunday has made him exactly that for me. He's stolen £40-50k most weeks and Sunday's atrocious performance makes him the first on the transfer list for me in the Summer.

[BWFC_Insane]

Of those five players we brought in last summer, how many proved to be that good? Only really Petrov and Klasnic have contributed anything, and the former has half-arsed his way to being the new hate figure.

I think when you take into account signing on fees, wages, transfer fees, agent fees and the (well deserved) chunk Eddie Davies will take, £20mil might not stretch all that far. If we lost Elmander and couldn't get Sturridge back, it's not going to stretch far at all while we fork out for strikers (Peter Odemwingie is the only sub-£20mil striker to have scored more goals than (the apparently dogshit, right wing/central midfield carthorse) Elmander this season).

Tom if Elmander goes and Cahill and we lose JOB, Gardner, Cohen, Samuel, Sturridge, Rodrigo, possibly one or two of Taylor and Habsi we could be 9 or 10 down in numbers. I know they've not all figured this season but we're short on decent cover as it is.

Coyle always said it would be bigger numbers coming in this coming summer, and see no reason for that not to be the case. If we don't find those players we're going to struggle next season.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Coyle always said it would be bigger numbers coming in this coming summer, and see no reason for that not to be the case. If we don't find those players we're going to struggle next season.

Indeed - the squad's already thin, especially in some key areas, but there may be a further clearout, and probably before new men come in. It may well be one of those nervy summers where the squad picture looks like a five-a-side team...

[HMX]

Maybe five-a-side would be better after Sunday. Looked like we conceded goals from a five-a-side match.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Maybe five-a-side would be better after Sunday. Looked like we conceded goals from a five-a-side match.

Certainly Stoke were willing (it being their gameplan) and able (us having no pace up top) to compress the game into something little longer than the average five-a-side court.