Turkish Delight

This is definitely the hold-up on the Benteke deal and why they need him to go to Liverpool before they announce it.

I decided to have a quick Google to see if I could find some statistics on through-balls. According to WhoScored we attempted 3 through balls per match last season. That's just attempts so when you consider how high risk they are the actual completion rate will be even lower. Given that I'm not too concerned over how many Benteke has scored from that situation as that isn't how we score most of our goals. The figures on the site round to the nearest percentage point and Villa's rounded down to zero which means they attempt less than one every 2 games so it's little wonder he hasn't been scoring from them.

My parents are a perfect example. My dad is getting on now and would love to sit and watch the cricket but it just isn't an option.

Considering the money in the game now I don't think they invest any more of their own money than Moores did at all. The spending in the main is funded by commercial deals and transfer fees in. Moores could have continued to own the club with similar levels of investment if him and Parry weren't so clueless.

The fact that there were nazi smypathisers in her family was well known so it can't really be any surprise that she was exposed to people in her family who were teaching her this sort of thing as a child. At 7 years old she wouldn't have known better so I can't get into hammering her on that. She later married a bigoted racist though so it also wouldn't surprise me if she still held some views of that sort. The sad thing is that if she came out with racist comments or actions now the vast majority of the media and a large percentage of the public would defend her and say she's entitled to do what she wants just as they do frequently with her husband. While they would rightly demand the resignation of any other junior or senior public figures who did the same. I was always brought up to consider myself the equal of everyone else regardless of their wealth or position. Unfortunately it seems too many are brought up to consider themselves to be peasants and inferior to someone who's only in a position because her ancestors murdered, bullied and robbed people into submission. Gawd bless 'em.

So what you're saying is that for many people their opinions of players are based purely on whatever hype (positive or negative) they are buying into at the time? Last season we'd nearly won the league so everyone was excited even when we signed shite players but this time we've just come off the back of getting beat 6-1 by Stoke so it's just not the same? I think we've signed a decent player for money that's way over the top but also that he's much better than most are giving him credit for. Maybe I'm being too objective in saying that.

There's no chance we'll be playing hoofball. We bought Lambert supposedly with the idea of doing that late in games last season and then still passed short even when he was brought on.

I know the fees are different but I think the contrast between the excitement that was generated by signing Mario last season and the trepidation of signing Benteke this time is strange to say the least considering how much better a player Benteke is. He's not the player I would have signed but he is a big improvement on what we have and I think he's well capable of 20 goals a season in a team that attacks.

I think he has a tendency to disappear when things are going badly and I'd prefer he wasn't captain. It speaks volumes about the recruitment policy over the last 5 years that we have a team so lacking in leaders.

I've recently joined too for the same reason of trying to make a difference. I followed her on Twitter while I was learning what she was about as I'd never heard of her when she announced she was running for leader. Within a couple of weeks I'd unfollowed her as she'd retweeted an interview she had with the S*n on to my timeline. The tweet also made it clear she was Murdoch's candidate so that told me all I need to know. An absolute cunt.

I'm convinced that Osbourne telling the BBC to scale back their website is a tactic at keeping right wing media barons influential in the new digital age. If people stop reading newspapers in future and read an independent(ish) form of news online instead then they can't be brainwashed into voting Tory against their interests and turning on the vulnerable in society quite as easily as they can now.

It'll be interesting to see how City handle it next time he feels tired mid-season or finds himself in court.

I think their hand will be at it's weakest in the next few weeks. If they want time to spend the money they're better taking 25 million now and being able to re-invest it than risk us triggering the clause on deadline day or late in the window when they've missed out on targets and have little time to close out deals. The only way that wouldn't be the case is if they just wanted to bank most of the money or if the clause has an expiry date which hasn't been reported yet.

I don't want Benteke but he'd be a far better signing than Jovetic. A crock who only averages a goal every 4 games is absolutely not what we need to sort of our goalscoring problems. He'd fit our scout's criteria of having had a good game against us though.

I still think we have a team that will concede lots of goals and I'm unconvinced we will score the huge number needed to make up for that. We desperately need a top DM and a top striker and until we get them the jury is out for me. I also have big concerns over the number of players we have bought so far. I understand the need to replace a lot of the shite in the squad but that sort of player turnover is normally followed by a 'transition' season.

Wasn't Clarke originally brought in to the coaching set-up in a more junior position to Sammy Lee and then promoted to Assistant Manager after he left? If so it was obvious that Kenny wanted Clarke to have more influence on the training ground too. I like Sammy Lee so I'm certainly not looking to be disrespectful towards him but the point I was making was very much that unless you have been coached by someone or have watched them coach others it's very difficult to form an opinion on how good they are.

I'm playing devil's advocate here but Sammy Lee is also a failed manager who Kenny decided to sack unceremoniously as assistant manager a few years ago. He seems like a nice fella and may well be a top coach but I'm unsure as to how anybody who's not playing, managing or coaching at the top level would have much of an insight as to how he compares to other Premier League coaches.

That pretty much proves the point I was making in that most people would not be too worried on the assistant if they had faith in the manager. If Rodgers is to be kept I think bringing in someone who is senior and could potentially have eyes on his job could be counter-productive. I have doubts over Rodgers' ability to turn things round here too but if he is being given a chance I think it's right that he should choose his assistant. Also, for the record Chelsea had the same assistant when Di Matteo was in charge and they won the European Cup.

I put this on the MF earlier but here's a list of Assistant Managers by club at the start of last season... Arsenal - Steve Bould Aston Villa - Roy Keane Burnley - Ian Woan Chelsea - Steve Holland Crystal Palace - Keith Millen Everton - Graeme Jones Hull City - Steve Agnew Leicester City - Steve Walsh & Craig Shakespeare Liverpool - Colin Pascoe Manchester City - Brian Kidd & Ruben Cousillas Manchester United - Ryan Giggs Newcastle - John Carver QPR - Kevin Bond Southampton - Erwin Koeman Stoke - Mark Bowen Sunderland - Mauricio Taricco Swansea - Josep Clotet Spurs - Jesus Perez West Brom - none West Ham - Neil McDonald With a couple of exceptions that list is hardly full of people who are very well known or have achieved a lot in the game. A quick google shows that Chelsea's Assistant Manager had only the one managerial appointment at Crewe where he was sacked after a year and set them up for relegation. The issue people really have is that Rodgers is staying rather than who he has as assistant.

I went for Cole. I was one of the few who didn't want him in the first place but he was so unfit and disinterested that it was a massive disappointment every time I saw him on the teamsheet. It was obvious he was here just for the pay day too. I still could easily have picked Moses over him and only didn't because we were stuck with Cole for a longer period of time. If he'd scored that open goal at Palace we'd have still had some shot at the title because we'd have kept City under pressure to chase games rather than sit back and wait for a chance. I know that game was on a lot more than just him but it was still infuriating. Le Tallec has the get out of the unintended assist to Garcia against Juve and a 20 minute cameo at Blackburn when he first signed which I came home from thinking he going to be a superstar. I've largely forgotten Nunez if I'm honest. I can remember his consolation goal in the league cup final and that's about it. He was obviously shite but he just doesn't bring about the same level of negative feelings as the first two in particular.

His performances against Deportivo and Leverkusen on the way to winning the Champions League should be enough to keep him off the list on their own.

I didn't actually forget him. He's excellent on the ball but I wouldn't class him as a very good defensive player. He was shunted into defence last season and gave mixed performances in terms of his defending I thought overall. He always looked best carrying the ball out. I'm probably one of the few who is undecided on Can. I don't doubt his ability on the ball but I don't think he's mobile enough to play as a sole DM and I definitely don't see him as a defender. I'd like to see him play in one of the other CM roles more often next season to see how he does there.

The defensive side of Clyne's game is terrible. If we play him and Moreno we will leave ourselves outnumbered on the counter attack time and again especially without the decent DM we need. He'll probably provide a few nice goals or assists but not as many as he'll cost us. It'd be nice to sign a player with good defensive capabilities for once. I might be forgetting someone but the only very good defensive signing I can think of that we've made in about 7 or 8 years is Sakho.

I binned them off for Virgin last month and all this is true. I told them at the time that if they could match the Virgin price I'd stay but they refused. A month later and they're throwing deals at me for half that price but I'm tied into contract now.

Might be a controversial preference but I'd take Cissokho over Moreno. Both are terrible going forward but at least Aly was ok defensively. Agree on the other two though.