Stevie P

We wouldn't sell any of our best players to Chelsea, and vice versa.

Would we sell any of our best players to Chelsea?

Hardly any top sides use two out and out strikers these days, which is what Torres and Villa are, even though the latter plays a bit deeper for Spain. Most, if not all, prefer a third attacking midfielder in the hole as they like to call it. The notion that we shouldn't have to rely on one of the best and most instinctive forward pairings of modern times is seriously laughable and why this thread is the greatest in the history of the universe.

Kevin Doyle to Wolves for 7 million.

Are you drunk? I despise Madrid. We shouldn't under any circumstances back down to their bullying antics and sell Xabi on the cheap, if at all.

Hunter is generally clueless and just regurgitates what's being said in the press. I agree with your stance though.

You think Ferguson has never fell out with a player who didn't toe the line? He's a flatrack bully. No man management approach is perfect and I can't think of many other than Alonso, if true, who have wanted to leave us because they couldn't work under Rafa. At least not any good players anyway. The lack of respect for the manager is hitting new heights. If it's not his man managment, it's his inability to win trophies in 90 minutes. I'm surprised he's won anything.

I'm not taking out a subscription. Hopefully they'll have a PPV channel just for the footie.

So nothing new really. I hope Rafa plays hardball and sets a date when they have to pay our valuation or he stays, simple as that. We can't have this dragging on any longer. Xabi will just have to respond on the pitch.

Do the games to get to the final not count in tactical terms? Really scraping the barrell now.

It's not as if they're going to go on strike if we refuse to sell them. They'd soon focus back on the task in hand when the games start coming thick and fast, especially Mascherano who owes Rafa a lot. I'd just reiterate our stance that neither are for sale and close the book on it. The players can get their moves next summer after they win us a title.

So Mascherano's wife is unsettled but he'll sign an improved contract if he's offered one? That's nice of him.

I think you could make a case either way. There's been plenty of top managers who prefered a strictly working approach. It depends on the player too. I always thought Gerrard resented Rafa for not constantly indulging him, but he responded and improved his game immeasurably.

Someone called Hamstrung negged me.

Since when was it a necessity for a manager to have a 'good relationship' with a player? As long as he performs for him on the pitch is all that matters, and you can't say Xabi hasn't done that. Some of the attempts to belittle the manager are getting more and more desperate. He's not the enemy.

It's impossible to give an informed judgement on Lavezzi when he's barely been on the radar until this summer. I thought it was just his agent trying to get him an improved deal anyway.

Why do they want to sell him anyway? They walked the league last season, and he was a big part of that.

You alright there? Not getting any? I didn't compare Ireland to Gerrard as a player, as there's no comparison, merely as someone who could fit that current role in our set up in the long term.

It's all a bit tedious now. Rafa was wrong last summer not to be more upfront with Xabi, but we've moved on and if he harboured a grudge he should have gone and knocked on Rafa's door and sorted it out, not engineer a move away through the media. Rafa has stated that he's not for sale, and if he really wants to go he should come out and say so and stop misleading the fans who worship him.

Is it Downing? How would he know that Xabi doesn't want to work with Rafa anymore? If he did it would have been at least 2nd or 3rd hand info.

I'd hate to be one of these clubs who change their manager like the wind. Thankfully that has never been our style and long may it continue.

:thumbsup:

Ireland would be good a long term replacement for Gerrard in that attacking mid free role. I don't see him as someone who would control and dicate our passing game for 90 minutes, ala Xabi.

:dunno:

Haha, had that one coming didn't I.