we_are_the_people

I agree although to be fair to Nani he has added better end product to his game, still don't rate him. Giggs is injured is he not?

Agree about Real but how could Barcelona not afford him? What valuation is he?

Without a doubt many clubs would be looking at him if he was available for a cut down price or a free, same happened with Afellay. I just don't see what position or player he would play ahead of at Barcelona, the only possibly one would be Pedro. Guardiola rates Pedro very highly, has a good relationship with Messi and as we both agreed Nasri is better in the middle of the park.

Would we be confident that a 5 including Bougherra would cope with those three?

That's actually a complete myth. Papac played at left back under PLG on occasions and we had a combination of Hemdani/Rodriquez/Svensson at CB. The real reason Papac played left back under Walter was due to the bad injury Stevie Smith occured before Walter signed and he was the only other player capable of playing that position and made it his own.

His best attributes are certainly more suited to a more central role. Van Der Vaart would have something to say about best on form player Which big club's do you think he would move to? I assume you would add Real and Barcelona, were would he fit in for either team?

I'm sure Ronaldo was quoted as saying he would have possibly signed for Rangers if Advocaat was the manager and we played in a better league.

Having a very good season, arguably about time for Arsenal as has been extremely inconsistent the last couple of seasons. Still think he has much to develop to his game. Talented boy but still needs to show more in the bigger matches, add more goals and assists to his game until he is a great player, imo.

Majority did not turn up but Carroll was still involved in the play, how many times did he win a free kick or hold the ball up, win header in the air? Gerrard was coming back getting the ball and you heard his name mentioned often. Gibbs was making decent runs down the left. Those players albeit not having great games were at least noticeable. Henderson, Barry and Walcott could have been in the stands for their contribution, I hardly seen all three.

Watched the lad very closely last night and for me he looked completely out of his depth. I would not have been too harsh on him because it was his first game but he hardly touched the ball all night. I just feel when you watch Wilshere or Ramsey even when playing in the harder games you see them on the ball often and trying to make things happen, don't see it with Henderson.

McCulloch dropping out the team completely would make us stronger.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11669_6514192,00.html Maybe this injury with force Roy to play Meireles in his natural position.

Hopefully it's not as bad as this but Bougherra did say he was struggling a couple of days ago We badly need Sasa fit now as he is the ideal player to replace Bougherra as Webster just get's constant injuries. I think Papac has looked fine when he has filled in the middle for us. Papac has been brilliant playing more in the central position during the Champions League and there is no way I would prefer to see Broadfoot or McCulloch in that position. Who remembers Broadfoot getting beat easily against McDonald that let those cunts beat us 1-0 at Ibrox. Against United a back five of this would be ok, imo. Foster Broadfoot Weir Papac Whittaker

I think during these type of debates you can sometimes take a post in the wrong way, for example I got the impression you thought he was this fantastic passer on the same level as those named above, whilst you thought I was saying he was a shit footballer. I also tend to find that it's how you define the word overrated. I could say Cristano Ronaldo is overrated because people say he is better than Messi, although I still think he is a fantastic player.

Well Keegan left after the transfer window closed in the summer of 2008 which was our last spending spree until this summer. So going by the original post we would have tried to sign him January 2009 which we all know was a no goer. After spending over £5 million on Miller and Lafferty at start of June 2008 I doubt we would have went and signed Andy Carroll.

Doubt it as that was the period we had zero transfer money.

Scotland always play well against the bigger teams though. France, Holland, Italy, England, Argentina, Brazil and Spain have all struggled against us in the last 12 years. Out of all those teams we played Spain were by far the best team.

I don't rate all three personally but my argument would be that certain players like Fletcher are lucky they have so many talented players beside them. Certain individuals achieve success in this world and it's not always based on talent, this has been achieved in business, sports, music, tv shows etc. I would say he has not delivered in the big tournaments for England. I could go into detail about him costing England against Argentina back in World Cup 98,flopping at Euro 2000 and so on, but is it worth it? IMO his passing game is nothing special. Beckham, Gerrard, Huddlestone are the type of players that I refer as hollywood type passers. They attempt this long diagonal pass that fails to come off frequently(Gerrard vs Stoke at weekend is perfect example) Beckham does not have a passing ability like a Paul Scholes/Xavi/Kaka who can play a defence splitting pass through the middle of the defence. Quick one two passing etc Not once in my life have I seen Beckham produce a pass similar to Kaka against Liverpool for Crespo in CL final a few years back. Zidane, Xavi, Scholes, Riquelme, Sneijder, Iniesta, Kaka are the type of playes who should be regarded as quality passers, Beckham is not near that standard. His crossing is a different matter though. I never said he was poor but he hardly stood out or made a big difference, I stand by he was brought back for money reasons. This was a view shared by players and representatives within AC Milan. Here is a stat for you, in his first spell at Milan they had a 50% win ratio with Beckham in the team, 10 wins in 20 games. In his second spell he only started 6 out of the 14 games for Milan, does that not tell you much? Managed only 1 assist and 0 goals in his second spell. At United he played his part in the team with work rate, scoring goals and having a good cross, I never disputed that in fact I stated he was a good player at Man United. He was dropped at times for Real and as stated above he was not a regular at AC Milan. I said his performances after United were average. David Beckham was a good player at best, imho. Worked hard for his team, had a good cross and was good dead ball specialist. However, I stand by he was a limited footballer and although played at the top level the fame behind him was a huge attraction to Real and AC Milan and he also came through at the most perfect time at United. Had Beckham came through the United ranks these days his success would not nothing compared to what it has been.

Seen the pictures from the Daily Record. Not buying into this like the rest of the breaking news garbage us Rangers fans have seen over the last five seasons that have come to nothing(even when Rangers and Murray announced plans)

I think a big factor is the youth Scotland teams usually get a better draw as the national team has a weak coefficient. Another factor is in those group ages the teams seem on a more level playing field and the gap is bigger when it comes to the main squads.

Might be better as then it won't be on the red button, which I find nothing short of pathetic. Put the shitty last word on the red button FFS!! Surprised they never put it on the Saturday night to avoid the elections, suppose it's a chance to see how a Monday night big game turns out.

Messi is still overrated

Fixed it for you mate

Well done for thinking it's acceptable to give abuse to an experimental team with how many newcomers? Is it fair on Gibbs, Carroll, Henderson, Bothroyd to get booed against a strong French outfit? Won't be long until the England fans are back to cleaning their shorts when Gerrard scores a goal. Losing your first home game since Croatia 2008 against a strong outfit is worth of acting pathetic indeed.

Was 0-0 for 39 minutes, thought they might have got a result.