Departures

[CT]

Personally, I want the "Famous Five" out first.

Their attitude was a root cause of last season's pathetic form and I don't want it rubbing off on any of the new lads or younger players who've been promoted up.

[Gregorys Boy]

According to Wiki, Clark has played 134 matches for us, and 19 full internationals.  Inexperienced he isn't.  For those 134 matches, he's had the misfortune of playing in what has probably been the worst collection of players ever to represent the club.  Couple that with incompetent coaches and managers it's an accident waiting to happen.  I never thought he was that good to start with and with the experience that he does have, has never seemed to learn from his mistakes.  If the offer is right, move him on.

Fair enough, and is 26 which is when a player should be hitting his peak.  For me thats even more reason to keep him around.

[not3bad]

Can anyone give me any information on the signing

Jose Crespo?

Was he real or did i dream it

In years to come, we'll be confusing him with Antonio Luna.

In years to come I will mainly remember him for having "Angel" in his name.

Crespo that is, not Tony Moon. Ironically the predictive text on my phone thinks "Crespo" should come out as "cheapo".

[peter w]

To add to Dave Shelley's post it can't help that since Oetrov the back 4, and centre halves in particular, have had next to no protection from the midfield in front of them.

[brian green]

Clark has been very unfortunate to have spent the most important years of his career where he has and with whom.

[Gregorys Boy]

I'm just looking forward to the wonderfully entertaining film version of "The Famous Five" Casting suggestions?

[peter w]

Okore's the dog.

[Villa in Denmark]

Okore's the dog.

You're going to be so pissed off when he's still in the starting 11 come September.

Get over it. Your mate Eric was full of shit in more ways than one apparently.

[Toronto Villa]

Start the cull Robbie.

Roberto Di Matteo has spoken of his delight at the transfer business so far – “strengthening the spine of the team.”

But the boss admits that now is the right time to work on reducing the size of the squad and working on letting some players leave.

He said: “From day one, I was looking to strengthen the spine of the team, make it as strong as possible.

“I am very pleased with the additions so far. We’ve been very quick to get the right signings in and I have been very pleased about that.

“Right now, we have a big squad. I have focused a lot of my time on training but also in signing the right players.

“Probably over the next two or three weeks I need to look at getting some players out as well.

“I want to trim the squad. I don’t want as big a squad as we have now. My focus will be on that.”

Di Matteo stresses the rest of the training camp and the remaining pre-season friendlies will offer him the chance to decide who stays and who goes.

He added: “I haven’t made my final decision on what the squad will be like. I know in numbers how many I would like but this time gives me the opportunity to look and assess all the players and make decisions.

“We have only had one friendly and not even two weeks of training so I’d like to have a bit more time to make final decisions on which players I would like to keep.

“There is a lot of work to do. I am going to make some changes.

“It will probably take some time to bed down the principles of our play and get the team to mould together but I am happy and confident so far.”

[Jimbo]

Swing that axe, and keep it sharp.

[supertom]

Personally I'd keep Clark and Westwood. They're good enough for the Championship and at least care. There's no problem with their attitudes.

We need to concentrate mainly on getting rid of the troglodytes like Gabby, Richards, Lescott, Bacuna and Sinclair.

That said, any decent offer for just about anyone we have should be considered. I think as an example, Westwood will be useful this season but if we get even close to this rumoured 6 million, we have to go for that. 110%. Anything over 5 for Clark and I'd snap the arm off the fucker dumb enough to offer it. But if he stays, he'll do a decent enough job for us as a squaddie.

[ExclDawg]

Can anyone give me any information on the signing

Jose Crespo?

Was he real or did i dream it

In years to come, we'll be confusing him with Antonio Luna.

To be fair, Tony Moon did enough to get a nickname.  I don't see anybody calling Crespo, "Joe Curly".