Bascombe hits the nail on the head

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

One small flaw in your plan, charlie.......there's no guarantee that Alves would have been the answer either. For all we know, he could have proven to be a flop, albeit a flop that cost nearly twice as much as pennant!

Of course.

But one thing is certain, he's a far better player than either Bellamy or Pennant.

There's always the risk a player doesn't adapt to the Premiership (Morientes?, Veron?). But signing 2 no-marks who we could all see didn't have what it took to play at a club of our stature instead, makes even less sense.

[carheex]

Of course.

But one thing is certain, he's a far better player than either Bellamy or Pennant.

There's always the risk a player doesn't adapt to the Premiership (Morientes?, Veron?). But signing 2 no-marks who we could all see didn't have what it took to play at a club of our stature instead, makes even less sense.

Can't argue with that.

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

That he doesn't control the purse strings. There's a ceiling on what the board will pay. The manager has to work within that. This isn't guess-work by the way.

Hold on.

The board wouldn't sanction a £15m pound bid for Alves, but they let Ged buy Cisse for £14m after he signed some outright disasters. Rafa's won the European Cup and the FA cup FFS.

Not good enough.

In the end Bellamy and Pennant cost almost as much as Alves would've done. So what's the difference?, we sign 2 ****e players for the same price as one quality one. Are we Everton?

[Morph]

Hold on.

The board wouldn't sanction a £15m pound bid for Alves, but they let Ged buy Cisse for £14m after he signed some outright disasters. Rafa's won the European Cup and the FA cup FFS.

Not good enough.

In the end Bellamy and Pennant cost almost as much as Alves would've done. So what's the difference?, we sign 2 ****e players for the same price as one quality one. Are we Everton?

It's still money thats the problem tho isn't it, Rafa wanted a right winger and a striker, lets not forget the Kuyt deal wasn't done until the start of the season, if that had fallen through, and we hadn't signed bellamy, we would have been absolutely ****ed with only Crouch and Fowler.

Rafa had to compromise by filling two spots with one players money, I think that's fairly obvious.

[Tom]

We were also expecting money from cisse don't forget.

[kurtangle01]

Bascombe article sums up how we're all feeling I think. Not good enough and yet again we are facig a long hard season with no chance of even competing for the title. We also face another summer of uncertainty on the transfer front because some of the dross that was brought in last summer will hae to be shipped out and we'll have to replace them. How many more Pennants, Dioufs, Diaos and Bellamys do we have to endure?

[kurtangle01]

It's still money thats the problem tho isn't it, Rafa wanted a right winger and a striker, lets not forget the Kuyt deal wasn't done until the start of the season, if that had fallen through, and we hadn't signed bellamy, we would have been absolutely ****ed with only Crouch and Fowler.

Rafa had to compromise by filling two spots with one players money, I think that's fairly obvious.

Why did he have to compromise? Surely quality is more important than quantity! We could have got by signing only Alves and Kuyt in the summer. No need for under achievers like Pennant and Bellamy.

[red g]

Why did he have to compromise? Surely quality is more important than quantity! We could have got by signing only Alves and Kuyt in the summer. No need for under achievers like Pennant and Bellamy.

i was happy with belllamy. in hindsight should have spent that money on Alves, ****ed pennant off and give FSP a chance

[kurtangle01]

i was happy with belllamy. in hindsight should have spent that money on Alves, ****ed pennant off and give FSP a chance

That would have been the sensible thing to do. Bellamy is not up to our standards. I've never rated him and at this rate never will.

[Shaggy]

That would have been the sensible thing to do. Bellamy is not up to our standards. I've never rated him and at this rate never will.

There was Geordie lad who knocked about with us for a while, a few years ago. He was off his head about 'the Toon'. Never shut up about them, thought they were the biggest club in the world, thought all their players were the best rah rah rah.

He used to rave about Bellamy, and I always shot him down saying "he misses so many chances, he's not good enough" blah blah blah. At the time, I never imagined he'd one day be playing for us.

I want him to explode into life, score a hatful of goals and be the menace he was for Blackburn last season....but I just can't see it.

[Sir Bob]

I usually agree with Bascombe but he's gone OTT on this game. sure we are were outplayed but he's gone well over the top on how good Arsenal are, both on & off the pitch.

He says we are 5 years behind them, no way. We won the CL 2 years ago, when have Arsenal last won it, never. How many London lads do they have in their team, er none. come to think of it they only have walcott who's English that gets the odd game. do I want that at LFC, no thanks.

Arsenal play some great stuff at times but the club lacks soul. Few, if any local lads get a sniff of the team. And whilst they have a beatiful stadium, its souless and has even less atmosphere than the Library had.

LFC or Arsenal, well I'm glad I live in north Liverpool & not north London.

[Red_Al_77]

I see nothing new in his article to be honest. Can't quite see why everyone is waxing lyrical about it. Common sense really.

[dww]

I usually agree with Bascombe but he's gone OTT on this game. sure we are were outplayed but he's gone well over the top on how good Arsenal are, both on & off the pitch.

He says we are 5 years behind them, no way. We won the CL 2 years ago, when have Arsenal last won it, never. How many London lads do they have in their team, er none. come to think of it they only have walcott who's English that gets the odd game. do I want that at LFC, no thanks.

Arsenal play some great stuff at times but the club lacks soul. Few, if any local lads get a sniff of the team. And whilst they have a beatiful stadium, its souless and has even less atmosphere than the Library had.

LFC or Arsenal, well I'm glad I live in north Liverpool & not north London.

I think Arsenals off pitch set up is several years ahead of ours. It stands to reason as Wenger has been there ages and has feeder clubs set up, has the youth teams playing the way he likes all the way up from the youngest players. This has taken him years to set up and Benitez has a very different style of play to Houllier so he has to change all of the systems that were there before him. Also Arsenal have a new stadium already.

I think they have a soul it's just different to ours, although i completely agree about how quiet their supporters can be. Not sure I care where players come from as long as they will do whatever it takes for the team.

[kurtangle01]

I think Arsenals off pitch set up is several years ahead of ours. It stands to reason as Wenger has been there ages and has feeder clubs set up, has the youth teams playing the way he likes all the way up from the youngest players. This has taken him years to set up and Benitez has a very different style of play to Houllier so he has to change all of the systems that were there before him. Also Arsenal have a new stadium already.

I think they have a soul it's just different to ours, although i completely agree about how quiet their supporters can be. Not sure I care where players come from as long as they will do whatever it takes for the team.

Rafa also has no control over the youth set up at LFC.

[dww]

I seem to remember when Rafa came there was talk that all the youth sides were made to switch to zonal marking. This would seem like control, also I'm sure he has some say in the coaches who are employed etc.

Is it really the case he has no say?