Summer transfer rumours, speculation and out-and-out b*ll*cks.

[Concrete John]

Beye doesn't need to play and is a write off as far as I'm concerned.

Our defensive squad as things stand is Young, Warnock, Dunne, Collins, Cuellar, Clark, Lichaj and Baker.

Again, 3 duffers, 2 kids, young and cueller who looks to be off. Fills me full of optimism i must say. Hopefully the ones you're pinning so much faith are in are inpervious to injury as well

Well, if you ignore the fact that the '3 duffers' were 3/4s of one of the PL's best defences season before last, that you mention 2 kids to conveniently leave out the highly rated Clark and presume Cuellar will go and not be replaced then you're 100% right.  Again. 

and you're totally ignoring last season's abject performances  by the 3 duffers, probably on the basis it was all GH's fault in your warped brain.  I actually missed out baker not clark because i didn't think were being serious

I was personally very discouraged by the abject performances of Dunne and Collins during our Jan onwards top 6 form.

[Toronto Villa]

Beye doesn't need to play and is a write off as far as I'm concerned.

Our defensive squad as things stand is Young, Warnock, Dunne, Collins, Cuellar, Clark, Lichaj and Baker.

Again, 3 duffers, 2 kids, young and cueller who looks to be off. Fills me full of optimism i must say. Hopefully the ones you're pinning so much faith are in are inpervious to injury as well

Well, if you ignore the fact that the '3 duffers' were 3/4s of one of the PL's best defences season before last, that you mention 2 kids to conveniently leave out the highly rated Clark and presume Cuellar will go and not be replaced then you're 100% right.  Again. 

and you're totally ignoring last season's abject performances  by the 3 duffers, probably on the basis it was all GH's fault in your warped brain.  I actually missed out baker not clark because i didn't think were being serious

I was personally very discouraged by the abject performances of Dunne and Collins during our Jan onwards top 6 form.

seemingly playing for a manager neither had any respect for they contributed immensely to us turning it around. Imagine if they could be better motivated and organised, and by a new manager with lots to prove, and former excellent CB, no less.

[brontebilly]

Beye doesn't need to play and is a write off as far as I'm concerned.

Our defensive squad as things stand is Young, Warnock, Dunne, Collins, Cuellar, Clark, Lichaj and Baker.

Again, 3 duffers, 2 kids, young and cueller who looks to be off. Fills me full of optimism i must say. Hopefully the ones you're pinning so much faith are in are inpervious to injury as well

dunne showed the best form from a villa central defender since mcgrath in 09/10 and the partnership of collins and himself in 09/10 was our best in 10 years from a goals conceded point of view. I think many on this site have forgotten how good they were not so long ago.

if you believe they can get back to that form then we dont need to worry about central defenders.

However if last season and the 59 goals conceded is not merely a blip then we are in big trouble.

[Stu]

So we've gone from delight at Given's arrival to despair within 24 hours; fickle anyone?

Oh here we fucking go.

Who exactly was delighted by the Given signing? Many are a bit worried that getting in two players to replace the loss of 4-5 first teamers is daft and asking for trouble.

[Concrete John]

Beye doesn't need to play and is a write off as far as I'm concerned.

Our defensive squad as things stand is Young, Warnock, Dunne, Collins, Cuellar, Clark, Lichaj and Baker.

Again, 3 duffers, 2 kids, young and cueller who looks to be off. Fills me full of optimism i must say. Hopefully the ones you're pinning so much faith are in are inpervious to injury as well

Well, if you ignore the fact that the '3 duffers' were 3/4s of one of the PL's best defences season before last, that you mention 2 kids to conveniently leave out the highly rated Clark and presume Cuellar will go and not be replaced then you're 100% right.  Again. 

and you're totally ignoring last season's abject performances  by the 3 duffers, probably on the basis it was all GH's fault in your warped brain.  I actually missed out baker not clark because i didn't think were being serious

I was personally very discouraged by the abject performances of Dunne and Collins during our Jan onwards top 6 form.

seemingly playing for a manager neither had any respect for they contributed immensely to us turning it around. Imagine if they could be better motivated and organised, and by a new manager with lots to prove, and former excellent CB, no less.

*facepalm* Can we please have less of this logical and positive thinking?

[Greg N'Ash]

Sorry John but i don't get what you're saying really. Were the likes of Dunne and Warnock putting on their inability to defend or tackle because they disliked the manager or coach so much? Or are you saying GH got the best out of them after January and you're very sorry he left? Either they're shit or the manager was.

[Malandro]

We were 9 points away from the bottom three at the end of the season. If the negativity at the club continues (and I do not mean at fan level) there is every chance we could go down.

[Stu]

The plan seems to be to utilise the squad better, not just throw good money after bad, and spend more intelligently. That for £10m you can find better than Curtis Davies, or for £8m we can find better than a Nigel Reo-Coker both of whom ended up just warming the bench. Randy isn't advocating an end to spending. The plan is to do it better. Have a proper scouting system. use more of the kids. Clearly MON made some good purchases, but there was a lot of spending on players that in their time at the club did next to nothing. That's not intelligent spending.

The money given by Randy to MON was given with the trust that he would deliver silverware or CL football. It's no different to what JW Henry is doing at Liverpool. If Dalglish/Commoli don't deliver on that faith Henry will change direction on the investment just as quickly because shrewd and successful business people don't just spend without getting/expecting something back.

I'd like to think that this is the case. Once we've got, say, Beye and Heskey off the wage bill then getting in replacements who are younger and on less wages makes sense. Make the money go further, spend it more intelligently. I hope.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

We'll concede less goals and tighten up in defence next season, even with fatty Dunne and space hopper Collins in there, but at what cost to our attacking flair?

Much has been made of Johnson and Dann at the Blues, but it will be interesting to see how they play for their new clubs who won't be indulging in McLeish's brand of 11 men behind the ball.

[Risso]

Dunne was poor under O'Neill for the last few months, and carried on that poor form for just about the entire period of Houllier's time in charge.  It's not the managers who are the problem, it's Dunne himself.  He's fat, likes a drink and is prone to making bad errors.  Collins is very injury prone as well, so I honestly can't see a valid reason for going into a new season relying on those two.  Add in Warnock's bad form/attitude, and we're hoping for an awfully big turnnaround from all three players.

[Concrete John]

Sorry John but i don't get what you're saying really. Were the likes of Dunne and Warnock putting on their inability to defend or tackle because they disliked the manager or coach so much? Or are you saying GH got the best out of them after January and you're very sorry he left? Either they're shit or the manager was.

The manager was, IMO.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

The plan seems to be to utilise the squad better, not just throw good money after bad, and spend more intelligently. That for £10m you can find better than Curtis Davies, or for £8m we can find better than a Nigel Reo-Coker both of whom ended up just warming the bench. Randy isn't advocating an end to spending. The plan is to do it better. Have a proper scouting system. use more of the kids. Clearly MON made some good purchases, but there was a lot of spending on players that in their time at the club did next to nothing. That's not intelligent spending.

The money given by Randy to MON was given with the trust that he would deliver silverware or CL football. It's no different to what JW Henry is doing at Liverpool. If Dalglish/Commoli don't deliver on that faith Henry will change direction on the investment just as quickly because shrewd and successful business people don't just spend without getting/expecting something back.

I'd like to think that this is the case. Once we've got, say, Beye and Heskey off the wage bill then getting in replacements who are younger and on less wages makes sense. Make the money go further, spend it more intelligently. I hope.

You'd hope.
Hippo with corns and I'm Habib a day off are on a combined £105,000pw, which could be used on 4 new up and coming players.

[Greg N'Ash]

Sorry John but i don't get what you're saying really. Were the likes of Dunne and Warnock putting on their inability to defend or tackle because they disliked the manager or coach so much? Or are you saying GH got the best out of them after January and you're very sorry he left? Either they're shit or the manager was.

The manager was, IMO.

right, so they wouldn't play for him, erm except they did after January. Which begs the obvious question of "WHY DO WE WANT THESE SORT OF CHARACTERS PLAYING FOR US NEXT SEASON?

[Toronto Villa]

We were 9 points away from the bottom three at the end of the season. If the negativity at the club continues (and I do not mean at fan level) there is every chance we could go down.

I know, shit wasn't it? We were 10 points off 6th also, and maybe if more of us concentrated this being a new season, with some renewed sense of hope, and on what we could achieve with some stability as opposed to just looking downwards, then we might do better than we did last year.

[LeeB]

Dunne was poor under O'Neill for the last few months, and carried on that poor form for just about the entire period of Houllier's time in charge.  It's not the managers who are the problem, it's Dunne himself.  He's fat, likes a drink and is prone to making bad errors.  Collins is very injury prone as well, so I honestly can't see a valid reason for going into a new season relying on those two.  Add in Warnock's bad form/attitude, and we're hoping for an awfully big turnnaround from all three players.

Collins is adequate, and committed.

However Dunne and Warnock are a pair of shit bastards I'd quite happily see the back of.
 
Dunne's performance at home against Wigan should be sent to McLeish, the fat fucking wanker was a disgrace that day, especially as our arses were still firmly on the line at that point