NAMING RIGHTS THREAD: Liverpool really won't win the Premiership 2010-2011

Anyone >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Andy Gray

Would smash him in the face.

well done sky in picking the one person that seems truly detestable to listen to. also good luck having him covering liverpool matches.

would it really be too much to find someone interesting and knowledgable and not hate filled?

yes

Yeah, the first Utd - Liverpool game of his tenure should be interesting.

At least he appears to have a brain

Assume this is stopgap until he becomes Fergie's eventual successor as most annoying arsehole in football managment?

i think he'd be alright, really, but he's not very reasonable nor balanced on certain subjects that are gonna be coming up on a daily basis

I agree, the only obvious alternative is Redknapp and he can only be better than him. But then I rarely see Sky so...

Yeah i basically never watch Sky now thanks to streaming

John Hartson's pretty good as ex-players punditing goes. But aye Gary Neville >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Jamie Redknapp.

Anyway, Gerrard ruled out for rest of season, Spurs 'streamlining' may see Bale exit. The second story strikes me as a lot more significant than the first.

I think Hartson's a bit short on insight but does seem fair and balanced, if that's what people want in a pundit.

second story struck me as a load of bollocks. typical guardian rubbish. put bale in the headline just for the hell of it.

rafa to spurs when arry goes, which could be sooner than he expects

Oh boy

Not concerned by the mention of Bale, it's more the word 'streamlining' - it's the opposite of Harry's modus operandi, and if it really does happen by shifting out the best players rather than the raft of alright ones it's a disaster for Spurs.

i dunno, if they get 40m for bale or something mental they should take it.

Liverpool doing that with Xabi Alonso has totally changed my view of how squads should be made up. You've got to have a decent core of top-quality players imo, if the alright ones become the majority you've got a totally different team. It's why Everton never crack the elite, for example.

i'm all for downsizing the squad, but ffs there's prob 35m of saleable talent that wouldnt even affect the first team in any meaningful way

Bale, modric, huddlestone should be untouchables

Dawson, lennon, pav, vdv, palacios, gomes, sandro, corluka, hell even ekotto i'd rather keep unless silly money comes in

That leaves a lot of, if not dead wood, certainly pretty ill-looking.

40m for bale is very turndownable imo.

nah i dunno...alonso was different. you can replace bale...it's harder to replace a passing midfielder like that. i do agree that there is a ton of dead wood there but spurs have done quite well in recent years out of selling off players for major profit, tho harry would be the one in charge of funds now i guess.

The Pienaar signing set bells ringing for me, it was so typical of how Harry gets teams into trouble.

pienaar and kranjcar were brilliant signings, the problem was not getting rid of bentley and jenas immediately as a result of them

1 Brazil GK Heurelho Gomes
2 Scotland DF Alan Hutton
3 Wales MF Gareth Bale
4 France DF Younes Kaboul
6 England MF Tom Huddlestone
7 England MF Aaron Lennon
8 England MF Jermaine Jenas
9 Russia FW Roman Pavlyuchenko
11 Netherlands MF Rafael van der Vaart
12 Honduras MF Wilson Palacios
13 France DF William Gallas
14 Croatia MF Luka Modrić
15 England FW Peter Crouch
18 England FW Jermain Defoe
19 Cameroon DF Sébastien Bassong
20 England DF Michael Dawson (vice captain)
21 Croatia MF Niko Kranjčar
22 Croatia DF Vedran Ćorluka
23 Italy GK Carlo Cudicini
25 England MF Danny Rose
26 England DF Ledley King (captain)
29 England MF Jake Livermore
30 Brazil MF Sandro
32 Cameroon DF Benoît Assou-Ekotto
36 South Africa DF Bongani Khumalo
37 Croatia GK Stipe Pletikosa (on loan from Spartak Moscow)
39 England DF Jonathan Woodgate
40 South Africa MF Steven Pienaar
5 England MF David Bentley (at Birmingham City until end of 2010–11 season)
10 Republic of Ireland FW Robbie Keane (at West Ham United until end of 2010-11 season)
16 England DF Kyle Naughton (at Leicester City until end of 2010–11 season)
17 Mexico FW Giovani dos Santos (at Racing Santander until end of 2010–11 season)
24 England MF Jamie O'Hara (at Wolves until end of 2010-11 season)
27 England GK Ben Alnwick (at Doncaster Rovers until 4 April 2011)
28 England DF Kyle Walker (at Aston Villa until end of 2010–11 season)

decent squad, would need to buy a new left back and striker.

and a new centre half. could easily get 30m from selling players for a 10m punt in each position.

Hands off Izzaguirre (pre-emptive strike)

Woodgate + Ledley King carrying on the grand Anderton tradition there

ha omg

Was i just informed that we need a cb, cf and lb?

Seriously?

has david james retired yet? he could be good.

Why he's not at Arsenal I have no idea

They brought in some German Muppet instead

I generally don't agree with others, on ilx, about Tottenham players, so will try to avoid argument, but will venture:

doubtful that we should lose Bassong, when other defenders so frail
Huddlestone fine but not sure why he's 'untouchable'
I think O'Hara is a big miss and we could do with him around
I don't like Crouch and would like to see him replaced
I like Pav in a way but he's not a reliable striker
sadly, nor is Defoe now, not sure why
cannot see the point of Pienaar
Krancjar a good player, his fate has been sad
I don't trust Gomes and would rather he was replaced
I fear that vdeV may no longer have that much petrol in the tank; it's rich that he complains about being taken off
I wonder if Danny Rose could come good, again?

for all the great things Bale has done, it seems possible that he's become overrated, or even that he's past his best, or at least that he'll never again be as good for Tottenham (but might be for someone else) - but this is so negative I am already sorry to be thinking it.

a basic oddity about Bale is that he's basically a flank player and it's (literally) hard to 'build your team around' someone in that position - whereas you might for Hoddle, Stevie G or even Rooney, someone playing through the centre.

this may be a way of saying he's not as indispensable as say a prime-era Stevie G was to his team

not that I want to lose Bale, whom I like a lot.

If Bale goes that could give the Scottish Cafu all the encouragement he needs to shine

we only really disagree about huddlestone, pf. In my opinion he and modric are very much the central players to be built around that bale cannot be.

Bale's quality in a position that we have struggled to fill for more years than i care to remember adds him to the 'cannot sell' list.

Pienaar i just like as a better jenas, in more positions. I agree that o'hara is a fine player, again in more than one position.

Bassong, selon moi, exhibits an air of the dreaded anthony gardner- his terror of error has swallowed his early potential and i have doubts as to his prospects for recovery.

Correction: Van der Vaart is on the official PFA POTY shortlist and Hernandez is on the young player list

Didn't realise Modric is only 25.

lennon huddlestone modric sandro all 25 or younger

Hmmm.

As are Rooney, Hernandez, Nani and Valencia (and Anderson lol)

true, but at the same time you've got a couple of octogenarians running everything.

King/woodgate needs closure

looking at chelsea and utd, i really hope levy holds his nerve for another year.

I'm about as pessimistic as even spurs fans get, but i cant see both of those squads getting through the next full season without a serious collapse

Prob chelsea, but utds first team creaks even at the best of times these days

Also got Cleverly, Welbeck, Rafael/Fabio, Smalling, and hear good things about Paul Pogba and Ravel Morrison (has had a few run ins with the law though)

hmmm. Spurs in same boat with the likes of kyles, rose and others, hard to bank on them though

Well Cleverly and Welbeck are already premier league first-teamers so we know they can cut it at this level to some extent. Morrison has already given the world this gif
http://www.theelastico.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/ravel-morrison.gif

yeah, i like the look of both of them tbf, but there are a lot of young pl players that aren't good enough to play top 2/4/6

Lol at neither of us bringing obertan/dos santos up, very civil stuff this

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
http://blog.ubecha.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Bebe-Manchester-United-1.jpg

I don't think Obertan will make it at Utd. Dos Santos needs to sort his head out. I've heard nothing but praise for Cleverly and I think if Welbeck works hard and sticks around, he could def. become the John O'Shea of forwards.

I just looked and Macheda has not scored once in 11 games for Sampdoria. Not a good sign.

I've heard rumours about Obertan not settling well/not having the mental fortitude for Utd in general.