The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - 7 August 2010

[Rackybear]

wow children. Clearly it looks like some people have PERSONAL vendetta's against other members due to the voicing of OPINIONS.

Im a mutual here, and whilst I can see why some people may be disturbed, agitated and wound up by some of Dan's post - singling someone out for abuse & generally having less of a temperament with them in comparison to other members is just harsh and uncalled for.

Drop it. Its pathetic.

If you are going to voice your opinion against another member, let it be done without the need to use uneccesary words like "desperate dan" (clearly your advocating a reaction from someone by using lines like that) and brasil spur a little bit of an overeaction with the "bullshit" and emoticons I think mate.

Women let there emotions get to them over silly things like this, are you men or women?

 

[BringBack_leGin]

I'm not overly keen on seeing Crouch leave, he gives us something no other striker can provide, but at the same time if the money received is put towards a better forward than I can't argue with improvement. Ultimately, regardless of who the player is, if opportunity arrives to improve on them then it should be taken.

As for Ryan Babel coming in, I'm not as depressed about that prospect as some of you guys. He's still young, and in flashes he has shown a lot of promise. He is capable of scoring goals from outwide, he's fast and powerful, tall too, and he has a fair bit of technique. Unfortunately, he doesn't show it anywhere near often enough but that's where Harry's famed man management comes in I suppose. If Crouch really is going to push for a move to save his relationship, then we could do far worse than receive both money and an inside forward type wideman, as that's something we've clearly been chasing all summer (J.Cole, Bellamy, Turan, A.Young). Dare I say that I think this could be a far shrewder way of filling that area of our squad than shelling out 20m for Young, for a player 18 months younger with a comparable premier league goal record in the past 3 seasons despite not being a starter.

I might be alone, but I think trading a 30 year old Keane who has hit double figures in every full Premiership season since first joining us (and 6 in a half season last season) for a 31 year old Bellamy who has never acheived this feat just makes no sense whatsoever, especially not when Keane actually seems to have regained some form and confidence. Keane may not have any pace, but he's a far more intelligent and able footballer and at his best he'll link up well with good players and make the most of situations.

Of Cardozo and Huntelaar I defintiely prefer the latter, I think he's very harshly spoken of on this site and he would improve our front line, especially when I think back to games like Stoke and Hull at home last season.

Given that 2 of the 3 players linked to being sold are currently injured for a while yet, I'm not convinved about that part of the info.

Unlike others, I'm not heartbroken at failing to sign a Gala player who is yet to impress at any worthwhile level. Once again, I'm sure I'm alone there.

This Pletikosa thing has run on for a crazy amount of time when it seems that all parties want it to happen.

I'd rather Parker and Richards didn't drag on too much. If we're about to sell a bunch of players then we'll need reinforcements.

Loads of ITK the last few days, I cannot help but feel that there'll be an unveiling in the next few days.

 

[mill]

I'm not overly keen on seeing Crouch leave, he gives us something no other striker can provide, but at the same time if the money received is put towards a better forward than I can't argue with improvement. Ultimately, regardless of who the player is, if opportunity arrives to improve on them then it should be taken.

As for Ryan Babel coming in, I'm not as depressed about that prospect as some of you guys. He's still young, and in flashes he has shown a lot of promise. He is capable of scoring goals from outwide, he's fast and powerful, tall too, and he has a fair bit of technique. Unfortunately, he doesn't show it anywhere near often enough but that's where Harry's famed man management comes in I suppose. If Crouch really is going to push for a move to save his relationship, then we could do far worse than receive both money and an inside forward type wideman, as that's something we've clearly been chasing all summer (J.Cole, Bellamy, Turan, A.Young). Dare I say that I think this could be a far shrewder way of filling that area of our squad than shelling out 20m for Young, for a player 18 months younger with a comparable premier league goal record in the past 3 seasons despite not being a starter.

I might be alone, but I think trading a 30 year old Keane who has hit double figures in every full Premiership season since first joining us (and 6 in a half season last season) for a 31 year old Bellamy who has never acheived this feat just makes no sense whatsoever, especially not when Keane actually seems to have regained some form and confidence. Keane may not have any pace, but he's a far more intelligent and able footballer and at his best he'll link up well with good players and make the most of situations.

Of Cardozo and Huntelaar I defintiely prefer the latter, I think he's very harshly spoken of on this site and he would improve our front line, especially when I think back to games like Stoke and Hull at home last season.

Given that 2 of the 3 players linked to being sold are currently injured for a while yet, I'm not convinved about that part of the info.

Unlike others, I'm not heartbroken at failing to sign a Gala player who is yet to impress at any worthwhile level. Once again, I'm sure I'm alone there.

This Pletikosa thing has run on for a crazy amount of time when it seems that all parties want it to happen.

I'd rather Parker and Richards didn't drag on too much. If we're about to sell a bunch of players then we'll need reinforcements.

Loads of ITK the last few days, I cannot help but feel that there'll be an unveiling in the next few days.[/quo

bollox play townsend

 

[pistolP]

How ironic is it that now we're in the CL we cannot sign
anyone half decent (so far, anyway!), whereas in the years
without CL we were signing the likes of Modric, Berbatov, Woodgate,
Krancjar, Gomes, Carrick, Davids, etc.

Weird, eh?

Answer is DOF.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

BBLG you are not alone in your opinion of Babel. I think I've said this before this window even before we were linked. Babel is a quick technically good footballer who has basically spent 3/4 years being played out of position (if lucky) or sat on a bench at Liverpool.

Even as far back as when we signed Bent I said then that I wished we'd took a punt on him (for 10-12m) than wasted 16m on Bent.

I would actually like us to sign him, I think as a striker he has much more to offer than someone as one dimensional as Defoe and could also play in a 433 anywhere across the top.

I am pissed off about Crouch going - if we haven't got a very good upgrade lined up - as he is a very unique player, not just for us but in the EPL. He is brave as fuck, skilful, works his nuts off every game (not just at WHL), plays for the team, makes four times as many passes as Defoe minimum per game, is the only forward we have that can hold the ball up and has always scored goals (often important ones) as well.


If we ended up with a group of strikers like Crouch, Huntelar, Babel, Bellamy I think I'd be very, very happy.

 

[Rackybear]

Defoe, Keane, Crouch, Pav and Gio over Crouch, Huntelaar, Babel and Bellamy any day of the week for me.

We have proven parternships that work at the moment, with the latter, we have no idea how huntelaar would settle, how many games Bellamy would be fit to play, whether Babel would find any sort of consistency. Massive gamble, cant see any of them scoring shit loads either.

At least with Keane, Defoe, Crouch and Pav we know we have goalscorers & fairly well formed partnerships.

 

[bryanabutler]

Are some of these the so called upgrades, Bellend, Babel, HJH, Cardozo,
Young,Richards, Parker,as somebody said to me the other day Harry very good at W/Spam,B/Mouth,Pompey, when he had very little money to spend, but someone should tell him he is at Spurs now, this from a Preston fan

 

[Strikeb4ck]

Whenever I think of Babel, I think of this, so I wouldn't be to bothered with signing him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKb7zA-jPVw&feature=related

 

[DoublePivot]

I do think people are getting too hot and bothered about Babel. He was great in Holland. Many are and don't make it. But in his case, he labored under a very weird manager in Rafa Benitez. Crouch labored harshly under that and he's the same man people are complaining we shouldn't get rid of (I'm not arguing we should). And everyone seems to be turning a corner on Keane (myself included) who had his career raped by Benitez. Babel could be great and because he had to serve time under RB as some retribution to karmic forces, you'd never know it. And don't seem to want to give him a chance. But anybody that Benitez thinks is worthless, is probably a very good player. So remember the circumstances and let's judge him on what he can do without a charlatan manager.

 

[mill]

I do think people are getting too hot and bothered about Babel. He was great in Holland. Many are and don't make it. But in his case, he labored under a very weird manager in Rafa Benitez. Crouch labored harshly under that and he's the same man people are complaining we shouldn't get rid of (I'm not arguing we should). And everyone seems to be turning a corner on Keane (myself included) who had his career raped by Benitez. Babel could be great and because he had to serve time under RB as some retribution to karmic forces, you'd never know it. And don't seem to want to give him a chance. But anybody that Benitez thinks is worthless, is probably a very good player. So remember the circumstances and let's judge him on what he can do without a charlatan manager.

Sorry but Babel is shit all pace no real talent

 

[KalSpur]

I hope Hleb is one of the experienced players Harry is talking about. He's going cheap.

How cheap is "cheap"? and how do you know?

 

[jimmyh]

When we reached 4th place we all thought this was a great chance to add some quality players to the good squad we already have but in reality what seems to be happening is that we are not going to push on to the next level but sell the likes of keane and crouch and replace them with bargain basement loans or anybody we can get on the cheap.

Selling crouchy and keano would be massive mistakes. You dont get rid of proven quality when you are about to enter your biggest and most important season in recent history.

We should make crouchy stay no matter what is going on behind the scenes and not let him go to a team that will strenghten them in the fight with us to maintain a position in the top 4.

Come on harry and daniel please pull out all the stops and do not let this be another false dawn for us and our club. Add to the quality we already have not get rid of it.

If any of our strikers must go then let it be Pav all the rest have something more to offer in our quest for a shot at the premier league and getting into the group stages of the champions league.

 

[kcmei]

i think we just need 1 or 2 quality players. There is already sandro but i feel the attacking department need some freshing up

 

[KalSpur]

Back to the actual ITK, if this stuff about Crouch is true we will hugely regret it. A good player, but more importantly, why on earth would we strengthen a rival for our position like that for such little money?

If he "has" to go back north for personal reasons and his marriage depended on it then I wouldn't stand in his way - he's been a good team player and a good sort so wouldn't begrudge him it.

However you make a good point SB and I certainly wouldn't want to strengthen Liverpool and especially not on the cheap, so any chance we can sell him to some other team up there. (I believe Man City are looking for a striker).

 

[Archibald-CPH]

Don't see what he's got really. Not enough goals, poor hold up play and solid link up play. Ruins our play as well (not his fault, but we're worse for him being on the pitch)



Lets hope not as that would leave us with 4 poachers, 0 hold up forwards and 0 link up forwards.

Exactly - he's a good man to put on for the last 20 min, but when he starts we start playing long balls to him

 

[guy]

Sorry but Babel is shit all pace no real talent

I concur, he's rubbish.

He couldn't get in the Liverpool team when they had no real wingers / wide midfielders at the club - there's a reason for that

I seriously hope we dont waste cash on him, if Crouchy really has to go, take the cash and cash only

 

[Lilbaz]

:rofl: some of you remind me of that guy out of dads army. As soon as a rumour comes out that you don't like you run around like headless chickens shouting "we're doomed"!
Harry has got us to 4th. He wants to get us higher next season. He knows what transfers he wants to build a team capable of that. Let him get on with it. He knows what he is doing. Some of the players he wants may not be available, but unlike you lot he will not just go out and buy anyone to fill his transfer window fix. But will keep what he has.