Gareth Bale

We totally should try and Sol Modders, whatever the price.

ya i think so, but this summer was good, chelsea will bid big and early and hopefully the other big boys took note too.

I don't think pienaar, vdv nor krancjar are up to scratch on the right tbh, not as first choice cover, certainly

I keep thinking I've accidentally clicked the same thread twice with this and the Bale thread.

walker surely xp

this will have been the bale thread surely

lolimo

bale to barca could work

guardiola is difficult to predict tho, last yr's third choice left back adriano was playing in some sort of roving attacking midfield role the other day

still uncertain why they havent made replacing puyol the #1 priority but whatever

I think Guardiola's position there is something like "it doesn't matter if we've got the ball."

they wanted to buy thiago silva but weren't prepared to pay what you have to pay to buy probably the best central defender in the world from silvio berlusconi

Is Thiago Silva really the best in the world right now? Doesn't seem right.

i'd think so

it's not a crowded field atm now the lúcio/nesta/ferdinand/samuel generation are on the way out

he hardly ever gets booked, so he's either really really good, or he just doesn't tackle anyone.

Mertesacker hardly ever gets booked ...

he is the third category of player who is too slow to get near enough to opponents to actually foul them

motherfuckers be bitchin bout bale talk in other threads just sayin

Pique/Silva would be a beast. Vidic a bit too old to invest in maybe. Pepe plays for the other guys. So... yeah, Thiago Silva I guess. Sahko? Hummels? One of these young upandcomers mayb be worth looking at. Either way, 'we have the ball a lot' and hoping puyol never retires is a tactic that will eventually get found out imo.

the latter part, sure

feel that bassong could rly do a job at barca tbrr

thiago silva is beautiful

I think Rami and Badstuber are better than Sakho and Hummels but it's probably too early to say.

One thing is certain, Gareth Bale is not among the world's elite central defenders.

Yeah but Barca are playing Mascherano there at the moment. They clearly don't care

I think he's been excellent at CB, was much better than Pique against Athletic Bilbao last weekend.

I didn't think he was that great tbh but i only had half an eye one the game. Also i hate him

id guess he needs to improve his instinct for finding space before playing as a goalscoring attacking mid/support striker 'on the reg' cuz it gets so much more congested playing there

but there aren't many players who have played that position in that way.....someone like julio baptista maybe...kaká had both the full-throttle athleticism and more classical #10 playmaking/dribbling skills

yaya touré can be played there quite effectively for 60-70mins before he stops being able to run

i thought ménez could be developed into that role but he seems to be more of a winger now

i hope it doesnt happen. but if it does, what happens to vdv? or are they going to play w/ 2 #10s?

Pretty sure the "fluidity" of the 3 in Tottenham's current 4-2-3-1 is Redknapp trying to circumvent a VDV hissy-fit about being played on the right.

idk but everything changes pretty quickly, just thinking in the longer term

the chances of him playing in a tottenham team managed by redknapp with rafael van der vaart in 2013 = ???

5%

vdv, bale, lennon and modders will all still be there tho imo

not even lennon tbh

sayin

that he's the best british player since scholes?

when you say 'since'

since, in time

cuz scholes died in july 2011

if you play "outstanding" backwards it says 'paul is dead i killed him'

was trying to think of an epl player that deserved european xi acknowledgement- and i'm not necessarily saying bale does- came up with vidic, imo, and van persie if it's a calendar year thing.

that it?

dont think id include any

vidic maybe

kompany? rvp?

oh wait you said van persie

silva/piqué, messi

pique not even as good as jonny evans iirc

that wasn't it at all

u were teamgerard in 2k7?

would take vidic over one of those guys in a rl centre back pairing, just to have the killer/player balance right

id try to disprove that old adage

It's like people think Barcelona graduate Pique would have been perfectly happy to have served as a backup to Ferdinand and Vidic back then

Fergie so stupid

ppl think that? even fitba fans?

lol cmon don't turn into of of 'them' you support a title winning club you don't ever reaally get to strop imo