So your argument is, that he’s a good player, who just acted the shite last season?
I’d say Keane will be happy to get him. He’s a fine player imo who went off the rails for a season and needs a good influence, I fancy Keane to straighten him out.
8 million is serious money though, fucking hell.
Keane payed a few quid for him at the time from Arsenal…2.5M maybe.
I’d say they would be lucky to get someone take him off the wage bill now…Didn’t he miss the bus one day for an away match and that was it for him and Keane. (Chimbonda was late for the pre match walk around the hotel last Staurday and was dropped by Keane for it)
Moral of the story - Never buy a player off Arsene Wenger. (Good man Dunphy, you got one thing right)
didn’t anton ferdinand lie to west ham and told them that his granny was on her death bed and he couldn’t make training for the week over it buit he actually fucked off to america on the beer for the week on a stag party or something similar…
i also see that chimbonda and keane had a bust up already…chimbonda never showed up for a prematch walk around the hotel so he is to be disciplined and dropped according to keane…
Yea Anton pissed off to go to a birthday party somewhere in the States I believe.
Keane isnt afraid to discipline a player, nor spend the boys money.
[quote=“myboyblue”]Yea Anton pissed off to go to a birthday party somewhere in the States I believe.
Keane isnt afraid to discipline a player, nor spend the boys money.[/quote]
How much has he spent since taking over the reigns at Sunderland??
Although I think he buys this year a lot smarter than some of the money he spent last year.
He’s finding it easier attract players this year, last year was a mess, throwing money at a problem. He’ll mature. A high placed finish round mid table would do wonders this season.
That Everton signing strikes me as being a bit odd. They’re getting the lad on a Bosman but they’re only offering him a 1-year deal. It suggests they’re just getting him in more for the sake of adding to the numbers in the squad than for his ability. Am I right in saying that’s their first signing this summer? You’d think they would have had a few more by now if they want to threaten the top 4.
I get the impression Moyes is holding out with the cash to sign that big player. In the meantime all the decent alright players are passing him by. Seems to me like Everton are stony brokes.
Yep, they’re due to build a new stadium too, aren’t they? That might be restricting them in the market this summer but they were still sniffing around the likes of Joao Moutinho for a proposed fee of Stg12m. He said at the weekend he hoped to sign 6 or 7 players this week but surely it won’t be possible to finalise that many deals in such a short space of time.
Good for Stokes’ future that he’s gone away to get regular first-team football. He scored a good few in pre-season but he’s fallen further down the pecking order with the signings Keane has made since then.
Watched Liverpool and Sunderland last season (around this time) in a bar in London with Clarkey. I thought Stokes was the only outfield player that Sunderland had that looked up to the standard. Definitely ability in that guy…
Yea Everton seem broke alright, they have spent the summer expressing interest in players that they have no intention of signing, thinking that will keep the fans happy. I’m relieved that’s the case, as they were only a few signings away from really pushing on.
Still, they can console themselves in the fact that they should have won the European Championships, as Russia did reasonably well in it and Everton beat St Petersburg in the UEFA Cup in December, albeit during the Russian off season. So they’d have you believe anyway.
Liverpool have agreed an 8m fee for Riera according to the Liverpool Echo.
[quote=“myboyblue”]So your argument is, that he’s a good player, who just acted the shite last season?
I’d say Keane will be happy to get him. He’s a fine player imo who went off the rails for a season and needs a good influence, I fancy Keane to straighten him out.
8 million is serious money though, fucking hell.[/quote]
Naw, he’s a fake MBB but then again I don’t rate Rio too highly either. He’s a 6/10 player.
Your opinion is slightly tainted then to be fair locke. I’m gonna give Anton the benefit of the doubt, getting out of Lahndahn tahn will do him no harm.
Keano talks about Baby Rio amoungst other things
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7582224.stm
Anyone else notice that Keano’s hair is dark but beard is grey?
alright lads, just back from holidays. i see we have signed cuellar from the huns for 7m stg. i only saw him play a couple of times and im pretty nervous about him. he was playing in an ultra defensive side whereas villa are ultra attacking. we already have laursen, davies, knight and bouma who can play centre half. is cuellar so good that MON expects him to take laursen’s place? it obviously relegates zat knight to 4th choice centre half, a year after spending 4m on him. would be interested to hear what you guys reckon about cuellar? lets hope he isnt another boumsong
maloney has gone back also. no surprise there. i always thought he was a skilful player but very lightweight and little pace either really. best of luck to him tho.
sunderland have signed another load of shite this summer. granted anton ferdinand is better than higginbottom/mcshane but does anyone else reckon keane hasn’t got the first clue in the transfer market. andy reid kept them up last season and has been his best signing by far but apart from him would any player in the sunderland squad make the villa or everton team for example?
KIB
P.S. could barry stay after all. big game at villa park at wkend
But Sunderland arent Villa or Everton, not by a long shot. their aim will be to get there, but until they do they’ll be unable to sign players like Villa and Everton have. For example, would Ashley Young go from Sunderland to Villa? Yes. Would he go from Villa to Sunderland? Are you kidding me? Not yet. Keanes signings this year have been far better than last year. Cisse is a much maligned player but he’s dangerous and has started well. Diouf was MOTM against Spurs so credit there. And Malbranque has a touch of class to him.
Keane does need to move out some of the chaff though.
[quote=“myboyblue”]But Sunderland arent Villa or Everton, not by a long shot. their aim will be to get there, but until they do they’ll be unable to sign players like Villa and Everton have. For example, would Ashley Young go from Sunderland to Villa? Yes. Would he go from Villa to Sunderland? Are you kidding me? Not yet. Keanes signings this year have been far better than last year. Cisse is a much maligned player but he’s dangerous and has started well. Diouf was MOTM against Spurs so credit there. And Malbranque has a touch of class to him.
Keane does need to move out some of the chaff though.[/quote]
And in fairness to Keane he had to throw money at the problem last year and it paid off. The money he spent, while comparatively large, didn’t equate to much more than the tv revenue differential between the Championship and the Premier League. Some clubs come up and try and survive with the bones of their existing squad because they see it as too much of a risk to invest in the squad in case they go back down. In fairness to Sunderland they’ve taken the opposite approach and it paid off.
Like everyone else I think Keane badly needs a chief scout and to build a network of contacts but he’s young and he’s new to management and those things take time. His transfer dealings have been dodgy enough but they’ve done really well to get where they are now and they’ve a long way more to go.
[quote=“KIB man”]alright lads, just back from holidays. i see we have signed cuellar from the huns for 7m stg. i only saw him play a couple of times and im pretty nervous about him. he was playing in an ultra defensive side whereas villa are ultra attacking. we already have laursen, davies, knight and bouma who can play centre half. is cuellar so good that MON expects him to take laursen’s place? it obviously relegates zat knight to 4th choice centre half, a year after spending 4m on him. would be interested to hear what you guys reckon about cuellar? lets hope he isnt another boumsong
maloney has gone back also. no surprise there. i always thought he was a skilful player but very lightweight and little pace either really. best of luck to him tho.
sunderland have signed another load of shite this summer. granted anton ferdinand is better than higginbottom/mcshane but does anyone else reckon keane hasn’t got the first clue in the transfer market. andy reid kept them up last season and has been his best signing by far but apart from him would any player in the sunderland squad make the villa or everton team for example?
KIB
P.S. could barry stay after all. big game at villa park at wkend[/quote]
Alright KIB.
Cuellar is an interesting one. The temptation for me is always to hate the huns and that does tend to cloud my judgement of them.
What I’d say is that of the hun defensive pairing last year (Weir and Cuellar) he was easily the better of the two - that’s not saying much but it’s a start. He was also far more comfortable in games where the huns weren’t defending for the 90 minutes, so he is more suited to Villa than Weir - again still not saying very much.
He’s good in the air and resolute with blocks and the like which was one of the reasons the huns’ strategy worked alright in Europe, he’s well able for the backs to the wall stuff. But added to that he was reasonably quick and relatively good on the ball so he looked like he’d be good in a decent side too.
Think it’s a hard one to call and you’d want to look at Osasuna to see his potential more. I only recall seeing him in the UEFA Cup when he was quite handy.
Re Maloney, wouldn’t have said his pace was a problem. He’s not blisteringly quick but that can be improved surprisingly (McGeady was at least 5% quicker last year than the year before) and his touch is very good. I remember seeing Scotland at home to Lithuania or someone last season and he came off the bench and changed the match with the speed of his play. He may not run very fast (trying really hard to avoid a Sheringham clich here) but his flicks and his passes are done at speed and he’s been very effective for Celtic in Europe and in the SPL before.
[quote=“KIB man”]alright lads, just back from holidays. i see we have signed cuellar from the huns for 7m stg. i only saw him play a couple of times and im pretty nervous about him. he was playing in an ultra defensive side whereas villa are ultra attacking. we already have laursen, davies, knight and bouma who can play centre half. is cuellar so good that MON expects him to take laursen’s place? it obviously relegates zat knight to 4th choice centre half, a year after spending 4m on him. would be interested to hear what you guys reckon about cuellar? lets hope he isnt another boumsong
maloney has gone back also. no surprise there. i always thought he was a skilful player but very lightweight and little pace either really. best of luck to him tho.
sunderland have signed another load of shite this summer. granted anton ferdinand is better than higginbottom/mcshane but does anyone else reckon keane hasn’t got the first clue in the transfer market. andy reid kept them up last season and has been his best signing by far but apart from him would any player in the sunderland squad make the villa or everton team for example?
KIB
P.S. could barry stay after all. big game at villa park at wkend[/quote]
I can understand your concerns at another SPL signing given how Petrov and Maloney have worked out and to be honest I can’t offer you too much assurance on Cuellar. He looks like a competent enough player but I don’t think he’s better than what you have and I certainly don’t think he’s morphed into a Stg8m player in one season at the huns after joining them for less than Stg2m a year ago.
You made the point yourself about him playing in an ultra-defensive side last season with 2 holding midfield players patrolling 10 yards in front of him and the whole team playing deep and putting the onus on the opposition to break them down. Initially, I got the impression that non-Celtic supporters on here thought it was sour grapes when we were bemoaning their anti-football last season but as their UEFA Cup run continued and their games in the latter stages began to be televised then people could see it for themselves.
For example, at home to Fiorentina in the semi-final 1st leg, they had 30% of the ball and 0 shots on goal. They basically camped out in their own half and did the same in the second leg and won on penalties. Of course, Cuellar would have won a few headers and put in a few blocks but, with such an inherent lack of ambition and the whole team camping out on the edge of their own box, it resulted in the qualities of Cuellar being overstated.
Like you say, he won’t be playing in a system that offers the centre backs an incredible amount of protection to the detriment of the attack. He’ll have to play higher up the park and so will be tested for pace much more. He’ll also have to contend with runners from deep and much more 1 vs 1 situations. As I say, he looks all right doing the nuts and bolts defensive stuff but it was mitigated by the team set-up and I’d pretty much say the jury’s out on him and it’ll be a case of wait and see. He’s definitely not the messiah the hun media portrayed him to be anyway.
Sendoros (spl.) to Milan. Strange one that…