paul jewell signed valencia. Bruce signed hendry thomas and maynor figueroa.

Tactical Genius wrote:
Where will he play for Spurs, I can see him getting a berth in central midfield covering for Modric, but it remains to be seen if he is as tough as the little Croatian but going forward, i can see him being played on the left of midfield with Bale moving to left-back. If this happens it will unbalace the team as Bale is a really bad defender.
Seriously. How can Spurs possibly need Van Der Vaart rather than say, a proper 20 goals a season striker? Is this part of Redknapp's ongoing ploy to have a bench of the exact same quality as his first 11 with no intention of ever rotating his squad? Or is he just slowly turning into Wenger and will eventually field a complete team of lightweight creative midfielders?

I thought Bruce put together a thoroughly respectable little side at Wigan which is why I quite rated him. It's what he has done at Sunderland I question.

Sunderland were pretty decent last season. finishing in the lower reaches of midtable. They finished 13th, and were 14 points above relegation. That's three positions and 12 points better than the season before. he started to put a bit of shape on the rather chaotic squad that he inherited. He also hasn't spent that much money either

Yes he has splashed out on gyan, but £13 Million is pretty much what they received for kenwynne jones, martyn waghorn and daryl murphy. Jones was a decent player for them, but apparently basically went on strike for the second half of last season. His job is to eventually establish sunderland in that 10th-6th zone on a par with the likes of aston villa.

Fussbudget wrote:

Seriously. How can Spurs possibly need Van Der Vaart rather than say, a proper 20 goals a season striker? Is this part of Redknapp's ongoing ploy to have a bench of the exact same quality as his first 11 with no intention of ever rotating his squad? Or is he just slowly turning into Wenger and will eventually field a complete team of lightweight creative midfielders?

There aren't many 20-a-season strikers for 8 million. Harry was clearly on a budget from the club and gave a list of 18m players plus a bunch who played for Manchester City so he could moan about not being able to buy them.

VdVaart's price drop meant that Levy could shut him up from moaning he wasn't supported in the market by giving him a player he wanted, within budget.

Fucking hell, i've just seen that that gignac oaf moved to marseilles for €18 million. I watched him play at croke park in the playoff, and if ever a player had guivarc'h written all over him it's him.

Yes, I think born toulouse has been organising a street party in celebration.

Tactical Genius wrote:
...and being that Ghana as the second most high profile african team in Europe (after Ivory Coast)...
Are you talking in terms of 'highest number of national squad players playing in Europe' or something? Only I would have said that Nigeria, Cameroon and Senegal all have a 'higher profile' than either Ghana or Ivory Coast - at least, in terms of awareness amongst our population. Maybe France is leant more towards Ivory Coast. I wouldn't like to speak for the rest of Europe.

EvilC.
I think that currently Ivory Coast players are more recognisable to the average brit than Nigerians and Camerouns.

This is why people in this country always assume that the Ivory Coast would win every ACN and be the best African team at the world cup and are surprised that they do not fare so well.

There are not as many high profile Nigerians or Camerounians currently plying their trade in the UK.

Gyan was Bruce's back up option if Bent hadnt signed last summer.
He was also one of the two options to replace Kenwyn Jones if Redknapp, Rafa or O'Neill had followed up enquiries made before last xmas. The other being the Paraguayan bloke who was shot in the head in Mexico.

Bruce wasnt the only person to have heard of him in the NE prior to the WC either. Admittedly most only being aware of him because of the aforementioned SAFC interest in him last summer.
Hopefully he'll score enough to merit his price tag but as long as he contributes more effort than Kenwyn "Lazy Cunt" Jones everyone at the SOLE will be happy.

Bruce has had to ship out a lot of Championship quality players in his time at Sunderland. Even now Nyron Nosworthy & David Healey still lurk around the pay roll.

Ninth to eleventh with a decent cup run will do for most of us this season including Quinn and the owner. This should be achievable as long as Gyan doesnt get in Bent's way and of course Bent stays fit.

I had hopes for Waghorn but better judges than I think hes a 2nd tier player who's lack of pace will prevent him being a PL regular at anything but a relegation fighting team. I hope he proves Bruce wrong.

Im happy with Bruce so far but then I was delirous with Reid at one point.

Tactical Genius wrote:
Bryaniesta wrote:
Hold on, this morning Van der Vaart was going to Bayern for 18 million and now he's going to Spurs for 8 million. What the fuck kind of a Del Boy deal has Harry pulled off now?

It's an absolute steal if true. Great player.

On the face of it, its a steal, but i have a couple of concerns.

1. Why didn't Bayearn pay £18 million the day before, do they know something we don't?

2. Why did Madrid knock £10 Million off the asking price do they know something we don't?

3. Is he any good nowadays. He seemed a yard short of the pace in the world cup and didn't play too much last season for Real Madrid?

4. Where will he play for Spurs, I can see him getting a berth in central midfield covering for Modric, but it remains to be seen if he is as tough as the little Croatian but going forward, i can see him being played on the left of midfield with Bale moving to left-back. If this happens it will unbalace the team as Bale is a really bad defender.

Please asssure my Brayanista

1. & 2. are confusing me no end too. Seems an odd situation, to say the least.

3. Holland looked much better with him on the pitch and were able to keep the ball better. When Van der Vaart came on against Uruguay they were a much better team in the second half. I also thought he did well against Spain for the short time he was on the pitch. Sure, he didn't look good when Spain scored, but he was the only one bothering to defend, and it wasn't even his job.

He was actually quite good for Madrid, digging in and fighting for his place despite his "non-galactico" status. I've been impressed by his mental resilience.

4. His best position is the Ajax "shadow forward", or in the hole behind the strikers as it is known in the UK. Obviously he is going to be competing with Modric, but I think he's a better player. He plays with his head up, for starters.

One transfer that did jump out at me:

Craig Dawson (Rochdale - West Brom) Undisclosed
Craig Dawson (West Brom - Rochdale) Loan

I thought they weren't allowed to do that 'buy and immediately loan back to selling club' trick any more?

'ang on, T.G. gave me shit for years for my support of Rafael van der Vaart, - Rafael was 'salad' apparently.

Now suddenly he's looking for reassurance that Rafa's a good player.

There is the issue of his wife's treatment of course. v.d. Vaart has said that his next port of call would depend largely on the quality of the treatment she would receive.

Could this be a ringing endorsement of London's cancer treatment capabilities vis-a-vis that of Munchen?

That doesn't make sense to me. Munich's facilities are in the same class as London's, and her German is better than her English.

I'm wondering if the Bayern bid was a chimera. As far as I can tell, kicker never reported it, and they are usually very accurate when it comes to Bayern.

The Baker & Kelly Appreciation Society on here will doubtless be delighted to hear that Ruud Boffin has signed for West Ham United.

Gaziantepspor have signed two players on deadline day, Dany Nounkeu, a Cameroon centre back from Toulouse on a 3 year deal, and Ivelin Popov, an attacking midfielder from Bulgaria on a one year loan with a four year option. Popov was linked to many European clubs in England, Spain and the Netherlands and according to reports here signed for Blackburn only to be refused a work permit. Any more on either player is welcome, BornToulouse can hopefully let me know more about Nounkeu.

Van Der Vaart is a player at his peak whereas Modric is still on the up. The main difference being Modric still doesn't score enough. Spurs have struggled to find at AM who can put away 10+ and unlock the likes of Wolves, Stoke and Wigan when they park 9. Striker wise Fabiano was the target but Del Nido made it hard as did the people that own part of his registration.

Modric was injured when we lost at home to Stoke and Wolves last season and did not play in the loss to Wigan at the Weekend.

It is true that Modric does not score many goals but I really doubt VDV has the ability to handle the hurley burley of a premiership midfield in a 4-4-2 that Modric does.

Purple, at the time, I likened VDV to Joe Cole to which you took exception. I did at the time say i was more impressed with Snijder and Galasek in the Ajax midfield.

I still think that he is a similar player to Cole. As in he is the player Joe Cole thinks he is or is the player Joe Cole would be if he had a footballing brain or been born a dutchman.

I just worry that we would have to switch to a 4-2-3-1 to accommodate VDV which might not suit our other players. Especially since we do not have a forward to suit that formation.

ursus arctos wrote:
That doesn't make sense to me. Munich's facilities are in the same class as London's, and her German is better than her English.

I'm wondering if the Bayern bid was a chimera. As far as I can tell, kicker never reported it, and they are usually very accurate when it comes to Bayern.

This is what I thought, the only source for Bayern's supposed £18m bid is Redknapp, no?

I don't think that I've seen another source. There is very little in the Spanish press, either, and what was there was all sourced back to England.

'arry being 'arry, methinks.