** Official ** January 2010 Transfer Thread- Rumours & Speculation in here
- Thread starter Loki
- Start date
Caporegime
- Joined
- 1 Mar 2008
- Posts
- 26,303
? Mowbray is much better than what they had, much, much better.
The way you said it was as if he'll improve Celtic just because you like him.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 12 Mar 2009
- Posts
- 26,776
I'd go with Tummy and say that none of the Scottish first team would get into the English side. The same as no Welsh or Northern Irish players would get in either. Scotland are not a great footballing nation and the followers of the old firm teams seem to think otherwise. If they are so good then why do they constantly underperform in the Champions League? Barring the 2003 Final Celtic are woeful.
The way you said it was as if he'll improve Celtic just because you like him.
¬_¬
He would. He's infinitely superior to Gareth Barry IMO.
As for other Scottish players, I'd argue that a couple of their keeper are better than our options.
As for Welsh players, Bellemy would get into the England starting XI at the moment.
As for Northern Irish, well Jonny Evans is much better than Upson.
There is talent out there.
As for the Scottish league being ****, it is, but that's only because financially and historically, outside the Old Firm, other teams can't do anything so it appears stale. Is it really any different to any other league though? You usually only get 2 or 3 teams competing for titles (Man Utd/Chelsea/Arsenal, Barcelona/Real Madrid, Inter Milan/Juventus/AC Milan).
The whole issue is that the FA set precedent by allowing both Cardiff and Swansea into the English league, so why not let Glasgow in too? I hear a lot of people saying it's not viably possible, but it is, simply promote an additional 2 Championship sides to the Premier League and insert the two Glasgow teams into the Championship (or give the two additional places to Rangers and Celtic in the EPL, but that seems a little unfair.) You can't put them in the bottom league because financially they'd need to survive and their FIFA ratings are much higher than other teams out there.
Rangers reached the UEFA Cup final only a couple of seasons ago and Celtic are seldom completely dominated in Europe (although they always use the Man Utd game as an example when they cheated for the Free Kick) and whilst they wouldn't be top 4, on their day they can certainly compete with the likes of Villa, Tottenham, Everton and co. especially if they became established and managed to get a few more players in (the TV rights in the EPL would allow for this.)
The only real issue with it is just how important the Glasgow clubs are to the rest of the Scottish leagues. Although financially the clubs aren't the best paid, nor do they compete with the average Premiership clubs, the simple fact is that a lot of revenue is built on the derby games which are some of the biggest in Europe.
Writing off other British leagues and players though is, quite frankly, ridiculous.
As a United fan there is no way in hell I'd have Hargreaves over what Fletcher now brings to the side. I would be very happy to have both though.
Yeah, hard to deny what Fletcher does to be honest. It's such an easy job that anybody who is fit and determined could do, yet there's hardly any players who are good at it. He reminds me of M@d d0gg Flamini in 07/08, sprinting everywhere and being generally very annoying to the opposition.
I know I was always calling for his head a few years ago, he could never maintain form, but he's improved massively, bulked up and worked on his cardio, now he runs for 90 minutes none-stop, does the neat work, no longer takes 5-touches to shift the ball and, for his position, has turned into the complete box-to-box midfielder and the way he's been the last 12 months, I genuinely wouldn't swap him for anyone else in that position in the World at the moment.
He is very similar in style to Flamini, I agree. It's easy for people to ignore what they do when they're on the pitch, it's when they're not playing that you really understand just how good they are. They're professional pests.
One thing I wouldn't say though is that it's an 'easy' job. I'd say it's one of the hardest in the team. He doesn't just stay forward like a striker, or at the back like a defender. He doesn't play just inside the attacking half like a Lampard or Gerrard, nor sit holding ahead of the defence like a De Jong. He has to get about and try to do all of that and bring some elements of them all together and whilst he's obviously not as attackingly gifted as Lampard or Gerrard he does do a lot more, usually the unsung hero stuff.
Last edited:
I'd give shouts to a few players that would get in the squad, but I don't feel any players from Scotland / Wales / Ireland would improve the current England 11.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 12 Mar 2009
- Posts
- 26,776
I'd probably have Bellamy and McGeady on the bench. That's about it. I think England already have a strong squad apart from the GK and I don't think that any Scottish or Welsh keepers are way, way better than anything England already have.
Actually think Giggs could still do a job now for England (maybe not every match, but used a couple of times during the group games and two or three times from then on IF England got that far) he is still better than most if not all options we currently have
The only down side is team consistancy - but personally think any positives vastly outweigh this negative
The only down side is team consistancy - but personally think any positives vastly outweigh this negative
