Have a little faith?

[Daniel 7]

Litmanen and Babbel were big European names, but they took a while to come.

We never really seemed to be linked to the superstars during the Houllier reign, but Benitez changed that, maybe with Morientes (although granted that was a bit catastrophic).

I'm thinking that we're not in for Aguero, Mata and Hazard and we're missing out. Thing is for the price of Henderson and Carroll, we could possibly have signed Aguero and Mata. I just don't get the strategy just now.

[Charly]

Hamann was PL established and cost £8m which wasnt small change back then.

Not a superstar by any means. I remember many of us were underwhlemed by him coming in particular, as we expected him in a more offensive capacity at the time. No one seemed to rate Henchoz who got relegated. Hyypia was unknown, and many were unhappy thinking he was going to be poor.

I think the trick is to judge them once they have played a few games.

Last year we expected Joe Cole to make an impact as a "superstar" player, and he ended up being behind Shelvey in the pecking order.

[Vermilion]

Well we never did sign a big player. We were lucky with Henchoz that he bonded with Hyypia, who was the real coup. Hamman was hardly big fry. But they all worked. And Camara had a very good season. Smicer was a disappoinment though. I think we signed Westerveld too, who was also reasonably decent.

IF we have the same success as those signings I think we will be happy.

We dont nned superstars, just the right players for the tactics Kenny wants. In fact the superstar we bought is the one player I believe may struggle in the system (Carroll).

That will get us nowhere near our rivals in todays league. imo.

However, for now..it's probably the best we can expect, as i think many people are underestimating how good our rivals will be, Chelsea will imo be superb if they sign some of the players they are in for, City will be very strong too, utd will be utd, those 3 sides i expect to be well ahead of the field, maybe only 2 as utd could for once struggle to keep up too.

But as this is an optimistic thread, i will say that anything is possible, if we click well...and are consistant yes we could even win the title, but an awful lot has to go right for us and wrong for all them.