Joe Allen thread

[ThewaytoRome]

Well over 20 games. Absolutely nothing stood out about him. The only Swansea player I'd have took would have been Vorm.

 

well over 20 games!!!!!!!!!!!!! you utter fucking troll

[Captain]

Spending £15M for Allen who will be an absolutely vital cog in the Rodgers machine will be infinitely better value than City paying £15M for Rodwell who'll be lucky to be involved in 15-20 games in the season.

 

If only our budgets were similar.

[Byrnie]

Well over 20 games. Absolutely nothing stood out about him. The only Swansea player I'd have took would have been Vorm.

 

Over 20 games of the full 90 minutes of Swansea matches?

[Faustus]

BringbackBiscan belongs in the 'guys who like to tell porkies' thread on the GF.

[BringbackBiscan]

Over 20 games of the full 90 minutes of Swansea matches?

 

Yip. Went back and downloaded them after Rodgers was appointed. Admittedly I wasn't trying to watch Allen closely in those games but all I seen was a neat and tidy midfielder that rarely gave the ball away. Not something that we were crying out for last season at all.

 

Signing Allen for that amount of money will only be ok if two or three forward plqyers gets signed.

[Sandford]

BringbackBiscan belongs in the 'guys who like to tell porkies' thread on the GF.

 

This.

[Byrnie]

Yip. Went back and downloaded them after Rodgers was appointed. Admittedly I wasn't trying to watch Allen closely in those games but all I seen was a neat and tidy midfielder that rarely gave the ball away. Not something that we were crying out for last season at all.

 

Signing Allen for that amount of money will only be ok if two or three forward plqyers gets signed.

 

You may well be telling the truth, but I find it hard to believe you downloaded two thirds of Swansea's games from last season and watched all 90 minutes of them all.

 

I think we've overpaid for him too, considering what we got Alonso for, but we won't know if his fee proves to be value for money until we see how important he is to how we play.

[Gym Beglin]

Cunts trick from Swansea today.

Get over it, he's gone.

[MLB]

It's definitely more than I would have liked to have seen us pay, but I think we will get our money's worth.

[Wembley74]

It's amazing how before the move to us on a load of message boards Manc, Plastics were all over him £15 million a bargin. Now he is a LFC player we get the "overrated not worth it " remarks.

[Ne Moe Imya]

Cunts trick from Swansea today.

Get over it, he's gone.

 

Usually agree with you but not here.

 

If he'd broken his ankle and we pulled the paperwork they'd have no recourse at all. I can understand why they said no.

[WhiskeyJar]

Well over 20 games. Absolutely nothing stood out about him. The only Swansea player I'd have took would have been Vorm.

 

Your opinion and research has been weighed, measured, and has been found wanting.

 

He looks exactly like the kind of player that can play along side Lucas.

 

Here are the bits you must have missed:

 

[YOUTUBE]6nVGBk_lnt0[/YOUTUBE]

[Red Phoenix]

It's actually gotten to the point where I no longer have expectations about our new signings. I just shrug my shoulders and hope they do well.

 

No excitement, no expectations, nothing.

 

Kind of the same. Have got a really good feeling about Borini though, just hoping he stays free of injury as much as possible.

[lifetime fan]

Tony Barrett

 

 

In one of the last conversations Gary Speed enjoyed with Robbie Savage, the then Wales manager singled out a player to his former international team-mate whom he believed was the future of Welsh football.

 

“Joe Allen is the one you need to watch,” Speed told his great friend and within a year of that prophecy, Allen has become the most expensive Welsh footballer in history by joining Liverpool from Swansea City in a deal worth £15 million.

 

The tragedy, of course is that Speed is no longer around to see his protégé make the move that could allow Allen to fulfil the potential that his mentor had identified when he made such a bold prediction.

 

That, though, does not mean Speed’s positive influence on the 22-year-old halted abruptly after his untimely death almost nine months ago; the reality is that as he looks ahead to his Liverpool debut, Allen is still being inspired by his former manager and remains grateful for the faith he showed in him.

 

“Yeah. It’s always fantastic to hear those things, especially from great people like that,” Allen said. “There aren’t many people with his experience at this level of football.

 

“To hear those things spoken by a man like that, it really encourages you, definitely. If there are times when there are any doubts, you remember back to things like that to help pick yourself up and realise that you’re not too bad.

 

“He was very influential. He was a great man who is sadly missed by everyone, a great football man. In the year before his tragic death he was massive for me.

 

“At international level he really gave me the platform and chance to get a number of caps. I’ve been really lucky with the coaches and managers I’ve had at all sorts of levels.”

 

The lure of working under another leading figure in his development, Brendan Rodgers, encouraged Allen to take on a new challenge at Liverpool. Like Speed, Rodgers believed in Allen’s ability to play at the highest level, even going as far as claiming that the midfielder had the ability to shine at a big-four club when they were both at Swansea.

 

No big-four clubs came calling this summer but Liverpool, at Rodgers’s behest, did and the Northern Irishman was again quick to highlight the midfielder’s promise, describing Allen as a “frightening” and “unique” talent who would become the reference point for his new-look team.

 

“He has said some flattering things, which is good,” Allen said. “He is a manager who instils faith and confidence in you. That really makes a difference and helps when you go out on that football pitch.

 

“I’m sure the other players here will find out and I think they are all looking forward to it as much as me.”

 

Articulate, well-mannered and modest, Allen is a rebuttal to those who have claimed that football is incapable of producing individuals with the kind of human qualities displayed by the nation’s Olympians of late.

 

He was also one of the few positives to emerge from the wreckage of Team GB’s unsuccessful pursuit for gold, even managing to exhibit a diplomat’s knack for defusing tension by putting down being described as English in one of the official match programmes as “an honest mistake”.

 

It wasn’t such virtues that prompted Rodgers to splash out 75 per cent of his transfer budget on Allen, though. Rather, it was his un-British aptitude for keeping possession, a knack that allowed the Welshman to build up pass completion statistics last season that put him in a similar stratum to Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta, the Barcelona duo who have turned ball retention into an art form in recent years.

 

“You can read stats how you like,” Allen said. “It’s great from a personal point of view to hear those kind of things. To be associated with those players is a dream for me.

 

“Xavi and Iniesta are two players I admire massively. They really inspired me to play a similar sort of football.”

 

Such influences prompted Rodgers to describe Allen as a “Spanish type” of player but, as Speed foresaw, he is the future, not to mention the present, of Welsh football.

[Like it Is]

The price suprised me but i like what i,ve seen of him and Rodgers would be confident he can do the job for us.

[lifetime fan]

The price was high but I'm looking foward to see how he settles into the side.

[Mathewbet1]

He'll be brilliant for us, he's already a special player if he develops like I expect him too then I think a lot of people will be amazed how good he can be. Im talking top drawer. I've been watching him very closely for the last 2 years and he has always caught my eye in every game I've seen him play with one or two touches of absolute class skill or passing. He can tackle and has very good pace too and can beat a man with ease.

[kalasoma]

It's interesting to see whether Allen and Borini start against West Brom. Allen has not had any time to play with the squad, even though he's intimately aware of what Rodgers is expecting of him. Well, kick off is only 12 hours away. Hopefully it'll be a great performance from the team.

[Redder Lurtz]

Yip. Went back and downloaded them after Rodgers was appointed. Admittedly I wasn't trying to watch Allen closely in those games but all I seen was a neat and tidy midfielder that rarely gave the ball away. Not something that we were crying out for last season at all.

 

Signing Allen for that amount of money will only be ok if two or three forward plqyers gets signed.

 

You're so full of shit it's almost funny. Why do you even bother?

[lifetime fan]

It's interesting to see whether Allen and Borini start against West Brom. Allen has not had any time to play with the squad, even though he's intimately aware of what Rodgers is expecting of him. Well, kick off is only 12 hours away. Hopefully it'll be a great performance from the team.

 

 

Going by the coloured bibs in training they'll both be starting.

[fowler9]

well if its possible to completely win someone over with one performance then Joe has done it today, was a joy to watch

 

love hearing Brendan talk bout him as well, always sounds like a proud dad

[BringbackBiscan]

He's been quality in both league games so far. The point about the goalscorer being needed, as become even more evident over those games.

[TheDrowningMan]

It's silly to get carried away, I know, but other than Alonso, I'm not sure we've had a straight-up midfielder with Allen's natural ability over the last couple of decades. I really hopes he keeps it up...if he doesn't stagnate in the years to come, perhaps he'll prove better than Xabi.

 

If Sahin is as good as people say (and is tempted to stay), Shelvey progresses at a decent rate and Lucas stays fit & recaptures his pre-injury form, we are going to have an incredible midfield again. I didn't envision that happening anytime soon after last season and the passengers we had loafing about.

 

Of course, Gerrard has been a different beast, in a category of his own, rather than simply a 'midfielder'.

Edited August 26, 2012 by TheDrowningMan

[Guest ShoePiss]

First time I've watched a full game of his, I really like the look of him. Composed and mature beyond his years today.

[sir roger]

Was pleased with the signing, but he has shown better than I even expected so far.

 

Has surprised me with his fight & grittiness in the tackle, considering he looks about 5 stone wringing-wet.

 

Any 3 from Allen/Gerrard/Sahin & Lucas is a good combo, with Shelvey & Henderson as decent cover..