Squad 2010 -2011

[Concrete John]

I thought we should have been looking to replace O'Neill a year or so ago when the club was a more attractive proposition.

How were we a more attractive proposition a year ago?

The finances didn't appear to be such an issue then. We still had the air of a club that was serious about challenging for fourth. Rightly or wrongly, I think the perception now is that we've either slipped back a bit or been overtaken by other clubs.

Maybe.  But we maintained our league position of 6th and had more points than previously and closed the gap to 4th.  On paper 09/10 was at least as good as 08/09.  The only thing is the money for further building, which reamins to be seen.....

[Rudy Can't Fail]

We'll be ok with a decent manager and coach. The squad are not half as bad as they pretend to be. The one thing we're missing from the team more than anything is a leader.

[john e]

Bollox,
 Downing made it in

[LeeS]

That's because I never made that criticism whilst he was here. It was only a week before he left that I found out how much money Heskey is supposedly on. That coupled with the fact that I was  blinded by some sort of mis-guided loyalty. I've now changed my mind, I suppose I could have just entrenched myself like some do on here.

Are you amazed that we haven't hired Mourinho yet? Considering how easy you thought it would be to get a very good replacement in?

I'm surprised it's taking so long, accepting that the timing has made it more difficult. I'm also surprised by some of the names we're being linked with. I think we can do better than the likes of MacDonald, Bradley and Koeman, and even Eriksson, Hughes and Moyes. Mind you, in saying that I thought we should have been looking to replace O'Neill a year or so ago when the club was a more attractive proposition.

We can do better than all those in the list? Who?

[hilts_coolerking]

We can do better than all those in the list? Who?

Pellegrini, Hitzfeld, Hiddink, maybe even Magath.  I would put them above any of the names I mentioned. I don't see that there is any fundamental reason why we should assume they wouldn't be interested under any circumstances, so I would hope they have at least been considered. Pellegrini's unemployed currently.

[TheSandman]

In our squad of 22 players we have in Guzan, Lichaj, Hogg and Salifou 4 players who are yet to make there Premier League debut. These are reserve team players, as is Osbourne. The 5 under 21s considered our best prospects have started 10 PL games between them. We have a paltry 17 experienced players to see us through.

Having made great strides in the last four seasons and reached a level where we are genuine competitors for a CL league spot, it's galling that the board has decided that the important thing right now is to focus on is getting to grips with wages and selling players. 

17 senior players? We only used about 13 last season even closely to regularly!

We're up on last season.

[Villa'Zawg]

I'm surprised at that. I think with Warnock and Luke we're really strong at left back.

[Shrek]

What baffles me, is how can our wage bill be so high, when our squad is so small??

WTF our wage bill is less than spurs(well it was) and just look at their squad.

[Dave]

Only one of whom is a left back.

And the other of whom iplays pretty damn well at left-back. Sorted.

[Dave]

Only one of whom is a left back.

And the other of whom iplays pretty damn well at left-back. Sorted.

He can do a job, but why should we have to move him from his best position to shoehorn him in to another, and then probably shoehorn a centre back in to the position he's vacated.  If both senior full backs were injured at the same time, we'd be right up slack alley.

Yup.

As opposed to the teams around us who wouldn't have a problem with their two first choice full-backs being injured? Left-back we're understaffed and I'd rather we'd kept Bouma on the books. But the fact that we don't have dozens of international full-backs to fill doesn't make us unique.

[unclefabio]

delete please

[Somniloquism]

Arsenal have named a squad of 25 that does not contain one British person. As mentioned in the fanzine last year when this rule was announced. If it does not affect them then what good is it?

[jonzy85]

Only one of whom is a left back.

And the other of whom iplays pretty damn well at left-back. Sorted.

He can do a job, but why should we have to move him from his best position to shoehorn him in to another, and then probably shoehorn a centre back in to the position he's vacated.  If both senior full backs were injured at the same time, we'd be right up slack alley.

We're talking about professional footballers....they should be well able to play in different positions.

Besides it's not as if we're converting a full back into a playmaker-in-the-hole-behind-the-strikers. We're just getting to play on the other side if we need to.

[Small Rodent]

Arsenal have named a squad of 25 that does not contain one British person. As mentioned in the fanzine last year when this rule was announced. If it does not affect them then what good is it?

Theo Walcott?

[SoccerHQ]

In fairness the only area we're really week number wise is central midfield. Up to Xmas we'll be picking from NRC, Ireland and Petrov for two spots or even three if we continue with 4-2-3-1 so an injury or two and we're in Sidwell and Osbourne terrority which dosen't bare thinkng about.

Most areas we have some decent depth and quality reserves.