new midfielder

[Me-ate-Live, innit??]

Whoever it is,he will not be match fit and will not be used to our players.   

[Mr Fulham]

Whoever it is,he will not be match fit and will not be used to our players.   

Tavares trained with Hamburgs reserves for most of the time and will have had private training. It's a modern fairytale that players are necessarily 'unfit' when they are without a club for a few months.


And Jol and Petric know him.

[A Humble Man]

 

diarra will be back in 4 weeks anyway

But will he go off to play for Mali in January?

Senegal

you mean he just unretired and came back into the national team of Mali so he can play for Senegal?  :Haynes The Maestro:

Tavares plays for Senegal.  The subject keeps changing.

[BestOfBrede]

Shame we didn't keep Gecov who could have filled a hole. We have got Kasami and would it be such a bad idea to give Minkwintz (?) a game depending on the opposition?

[elgreenio]

Alex has left Fenerbahce. I can dream right?

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[Mr Fulham]

Alex has left Fenerbahce. I can dream right?

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he was utter class for them, but he's around 80 years old surely?

[cmg]

Alex has left Fenerbahce. I can dream right?

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he was utter class for them, but he's around 80 years old surely?

Almost...35 apparently, so should fit in with our current youth policy.

Still doing it for Fenerbahce last season.

Any idea why the sudden termination of contract? (Other than his Zimmer frame was taking up too much dressing-room space.)

[gerrys]

 

diarra will be back in 4 weeks anyway

But will he go off to play for Mali in January?

Senegal

Strange that he got injured playing for Mali, then................

[MasterHaynes]

With the news of all the players returning from the treatment table not sure we need another player unless they are something special and can hit the ground running who can seriuosly compete with Diarra, Baird, Sidwell and Karagounis for a place in the centre of midfield. we certainly do not need another squad player.

[A Humble Man]

Is this just fantasy are we caught in a landslide, no escape from reality.

[Mr Fulham]

With the news of all the players returning from the treatment table not sure we need another player unless they are something special and can hit the ground running who can seriuosly compete with Diarra, Baird, Sidwell and Karagounis for a place in the centre of midfield. we certainly do not need another squad player.

We certainly DO need another CM squad player.

[Lighthouse]

However good or not so good the central midfielders are that we already have. They all play in a similar way. We really need a different style of central midfielder to add to the changes should we need them.

[MrFFC]

If Diarra is back in 4 weeks I'm not sure we need someone in there as 1 week we have off for international break, with Diarra Baird Sidwell and Karagounis we have enough to see us through till January where we can invest properly, Richardson and Kasami can also play in there

[farfouille]

If Diarra is back in 4 weeks I'm not sure we need someone in there as 1 week we have off for international break, with Diarra Baird Sidwell and Karagounis we have enough to see us through till January where we can invest properly, Richardson and Kasami can also play in there

Have you seen the debuts of Karagounis and Richardson? And Kasami is a winger, I believe. We desperately need a CM...

[MasterHaynes]

If Diarra is back in 4 weeks I'm not sure we need someone in there as 1 week we have off for international break, with Diarra Baird Sidwell and Karagounis we have enough to see us through till January where we can invest properly, Richardson and Kasami can also play in there

Have you seen the debuts of Karagounis and Richardson? And Kasami is a winger, I believe. We desperately need a CM...

Very harsh, 10 minutes at the end of a game when we were under the cosh and a debut 48 hours after arriving when the team in general performed poorly is no time to make a judgement on players. Richardson was rated by the sunderland fans that saw him week in week out and karagounis did not look at at all shabby playing for greece in the summer

[Holders]

We've been talking on this board for years about needing a "Murph replacement" even when we had Murph because it was evident that he was getting towards the end of his playing days at this level.

Now we've lost Murph, Etuhu, Dembele, Gecov released, and Dempsey the need is even more acute. Ok, we've got Diarra in and winger Richardson but that still leaves us short. Karagounis is a stop-gap, Sidwell isn't a Murph in my book, Baird is our utility player and has much to offer but he's no Murph either.

I assume that Dembele leaving at the last minute caught us cold but, with the likelihood of Dempsey's departure always pretty strong, I would have hoped that we'd have had the "right player" lined up rather than being thrown back onto free agents or waiting for January when prices are always higher, especially with our need so obvious.

Berbatov's arrival was great, thank you, but he had other choices and wasn't guaranteed. What then?

It seems to me that there wasn't really a Plan A let alone a Plan B. Unless Mr Jol knows different, in which case it would be nice to be reassured even if he can't give details.

[TonyGilroy]

I don't see what Dempsey's departure has to do with our midfield problems.

The failure to bring in a Dembele replacement seemed to be down to last minute negotiation and/or fitness issues which would have been outside Jol's remit.

[TonyGilroy]

Berbatov's arrival was great, thank you, but he had other choices and wasn't guaranteed. What then?


So if we get our man it's luck and if we don't it's bad management?

[AlFayedsChequebook]

We've been talking on this board for years about needing a "Murph replacement" even when we had Murph because it was evident that he was getting towards the end of his playing days at this level.

Now we've lost Murph, Etuhu, Dembele, Gecov released, and Dempsey the need is even more acute. Ok, we've got Diarra in and winger Richardson but that still leaves us short. Karagounis is a stop-gap, Sidwell isn't a Murph in my book, Baird is our utility player and has much to offer but he's no Murph either.

I assume that Dembele leaving at the last minute caught us cold but, with the likelihood of Dempsey's departure always pretty strong, I would have hoped that we'd have had the "right player" lined up rather than being thrown back onto free agents or waiting for January when prices are always higher, especially with our need so obvious.

Berbatov's arrival was great, thank you, but he had other choices and wasn't guaranteed. What then?

It seems to me that there wasn't really a Plan A let alone a Plan B. Unless Mr Jol knows different, in which case it would be nice to be reassured even if he can't give details.

Plan A was a Diarra and Dembele midfield which would have been a big upgrade on the Etuhu-Murphy combination we started last season with.

Jol obviously thought we could keep Dembele till Jan at least then send him to Madrid but alas Dembele wanted to move straight away and the £15m was a relatively good deal for the club.

After that we had 2 days to find a replacement. Remember, we cannot afford to have real quality sitting on the bench, so I would assume that the lack of 'quality' midfield cover was down to that. The fact we couldn't get anyone in is disappointing and I am sure that Jol and Alistair Mac are as upset as we are that things did not come off.

In the mean time we will muddle through till Jan and probably be fine. If we still had Dembele (and a fit Diarra) though, we would be one hell of a team

[spikey norman]

what ever happened to our interest in vadis odjidja - ofoe? he is still at brugge and rumour has it that everton will be in for him in Jan - should we go in for him?