We Should Have Signed Joey Barton

Some steel, grit and determination. He will go great guns at Newcastle mark my words.

Looks like they'll be signing Viduka too, not a bad start to the window for Big Sam. Not sure I'd want Barton anywhere near WHL though, a serious and serial troublemaker.

With GDG on this one, no way should he be anywhere near WHL. Don't forget we still have Danny Murphy!!!

and it would cost the club a fortune in increased insurance premiums to safe guard everyone's hub caps.

As for Big Sam and even Bigger Viduka, I reckon they'll both be gone by end of next season. The Geordie boys are doomed to failure once again.

How can anyone doubt the grit of a man that can stub out a cigar in a mans eye? Couldn't see Jenas doing that the big girl..

Great teams are defined by their midfield. This is where is matters the most. 05'06 - Davids early on and the ever so consistent Carrick were vital.

We missed that holding midfielder in 06'07. I'd have liked to have signed Scott Parker. Assuming we don't invest in a new central midfielder, 07'08 will come down to whether Jenas and Zokora step up to fulfill their potentials. Both show glimpses of becoming a 'big gun' but they've got to do it consistently.

Assuming we don't lose anyone of our choosing - Bale's arrived, a new central half is expected, Bent will probably come, Defoe/Mido out. New left midfielder expected.

Is that enough to secure a top four place ?

Again, the answer depends on Zokora and Jenas.

Not trying to be pedantic here but I remember The Crab aka Carrick being pretty poor at the start of his first season at Spurs.

Jenas for me is an enigma. If you see him in the flesh he does do a lot pf work but most of the time there is no end product. I have him down as 1 game in 4 player. I think I'd prefer constancy (and a good free kick taker) rather than a brilliant 1 in 4 timer. I think the areas we need to concentrate on are the defence and the forwards.

Top four? I think so. There was about 8 points between us and the scum which is us throwing points away at Watford, Sheffield and Wigan etc. If we can stop shooting ourselves in the foot I think we can catch an Henry and Wengerless scum team. I'm more worried about the chasing pack such as Villa,Blackburn and Newcastle

And Fabregas was quoted on Sky this morning as saying he'd leave Arsenal if Wenger left.

good things come in 3's

Difficult to predict until transfer window closes.

However, the middle pack have the resources to get stronger - West Ham, Villa, Newcastle, Sunderland, possibly Man City all have large funds. I can see the middle order picking up points against the top four, particularly Arsenal and Liverpool and thus closing the gap between top four and chasing pack.

We can not afford to drop clumsy points next season.

05'06 our defence looked stronger because a). King featured most of season, b) Carrick / Davids carried out a lot of defensive duties. The only midfielder who offers any protection to our back four is Tainio.

Both Jenas and Zokora have a good engine but your right, the consistency and final product is lacking.

We need a decent central defender to provide adequate cover for King/Dawson. ( possibly allow King to place a holding midfield role for certain fixtures ? )

Are we going to gamble on Jenas and Zokora coming good ? Hell of a risk cos if they don't deliver forget finishing top four.

Robinson is returning to form - Lennon needs to do likewise.

Berbatov / Keane partnership looks adequate though Darren Bent will be a superb signing. Defoe ? Natural goalscorer who will bang 20 odd goals for which ever club he joins but he is so lazy which annoys me.

Must find a left sided midfielder. Who ? I'm not sure - prefer a younger player. These older squad players surplus to requirement in the top four often don't cut it - Butt at Newcastle - Duff at Newcastle.

Reckon Barton would have been too big a risk. We do need someone like him, though. Also glad we didn't go for that mercenary git Parker. He's supposed to be a Yid but he's turned us down twice - once when leaving Charlton and again when moving to the Barcodes. So the task for Commoli and Jol is to find that elusive midfield battler - someone in the mould of Graham Roberts, Steve Perryman, Dave Mackay. Without a pitbull in there, I fear our midfield will always be overrun and we'll struggle to make the top four.

Yeah, I'm glad we didn't go for that animal Barton.

Anyone think there may be credence in the idea of Ledley taking DM again, if we get in Kaboul to play with Dawson? Not sure its the best idea, but we do need some solidity there.

Personally I think Zokora is going to have an immense season and that'll make the difference for the midfield.

What happened to Kaboul anyway? I thought that was supposed to be a done-deal?

I hope your right on Zokora. Just needs to work on his shooting.

Some ITK on COYS forum said Kaboul will be announced on 1 July.

That would be Dragon1, he sounds very confident with his predictions.

Is he normally right?