Super_Ally

Who posted this? And is it King who stepped away?

I'll set them up, you knock them out!

And be outscoring the messiah by the end of the month. :spl:

I'd enjoy their reaction after the gloating over the Keane signing should that sequence of events come to pass. Ps. Congratulations on deciphering my previous post in barely legible English.

I wrote the OP in this thread in the summer but it has some points relevant now on incoming transfers not necessarily bringing success and how consistency of selection can prove beneficial. http://gersnetonline.co.uk/vb/showthread.php?t=12599 It is perhaps fitting that the Frenchman was speaking out about this just after I decided to pen this piece. The excellent spectacle that was this year's Emirates tournament was the ideal setting to prove Wenger's assertion. In Walter's first season he made us difficult to beat through defensive strength. Last year Smith turned us into title contenders. And the signs from the ties against PSG and Arsenal this weekend point to the experienced manager taking the next step in the squad's evolution without the addition of fresh faces. We again adopted the 4-5-1 formation favoured by Smith when competing against a higher calibre opponent, but the major difference this weekend was that we had the attacking wide players to break into a 4-3-3 in possession and play attractive, passing football. Last season (as for the last couple of seasons) we have had the highest quality squad in Scotland as evidenced by our League and Cup double. We have lost a few players who made little to no contribution last year and were most likely to have a similar contribution in the forthcoming campaign. We have hardly weakened our squad at all, whilst the likes of Kyle Lafferty, Pedro Mendes and John Fleck have all had a further full season in Scotland to help settle them into the game up here. I, like many fans, will be expecting a more consistent contribution from Mendes and Lafferty in particular. In addition to the greater experience of a number of the players within the squad, we have the returns of Thomson, Naismith and Stevie Smith to bolster the squad. We finally have some realistic competition at left back for the consistent Bosnian, Sasa Papac. We are very strong in central midfield especially when Maurice Edu, who had an impressive end to the season last year, returns from injury. The wealth of options up front, at least for the domestic game, is incredible. We have speed, height, power, work rate and goals from different forwards. You may struggle to find another club with the goalkeeping option of McGregor or Alexander. Sure, left midfield continues to prove problematic. We have half a dozen players who can fill that position, but not one who has made it their own. We can counter this with a change in formation to a midfield diamond. Or perhaps one of the players within the squad will step forward and command a starting berth on the left. And again, we start a season concerned over our centre backs. Can Davie Weir play another full season at the heart of the defence? After playing 60 games 2 seasons ago as we marched to the final day of every competition we entered it was the consensus opinion that he could not stand up to another full season of football. Weir powered his way to another 47 games (more than any other player in the squad) including all but 2 league games and shows no signs of letting up. That said, we would all prefer competition for the first choice pair of Weir and Bougherra. Arsene Wenger is obviously a strong believer that buying new players is not the only way to improve your squad year on year. And looking at Celtic’s disastrous opening to the season it is clear that having to begin a new era at a club by ripping up the previous squad to create a new team, even when backed by the money men at the club, is a gamble. Spending money is no guarantee of success. If we have to begin the upcoming season with essentially the same pool of players that won the double last year I will not be concerned. Walter Smith has previously demonstrated the veracity of Wenger’s assertion that you can improve your team with work on the training field and not just at the negotiating table. When Smith took over the national team from Berti Vogts the country was a laughing stock ranked in the 70s or 80s. Whilst Vogts handed out caps to over 40 different players Smith again demonstrated the effectiveness of consistency, finding his best squad and dragging the national team back up the rankings and heart-breakingly close to qualification for the World Cup. He followed that up by leading us to the top of our qualifying group for the European Championships including a victory over the World Cup runners-up France. I am not trying to suggest that a lack of transfer funds makes Smith’s job easier. Of course any manager can benefit from a transfer kitty if he spends it right. However consistency of selection also strengthens a squad’s assault on the silverware and the team that Smith has been building since he returned to the club has been growing as a unit season upon season and team unity will have never been higher. Regardless of what does or doesn’t happen in the transfer market this year I am eagerly anticipating another successful season under the guidance of the legendary Walter Smith. Might have to write a follow up for the present window.

Even with their transfer window activity the points still stand. Match their results til the Old Firm and hopefully win then (or at least avoid defeat) and they're going to be struggling (I hope).

Lol, Brilliant. Cheers Jim.

Didn't work with Bellamy did it!

Johnnyk gets the point.

Saw this elsewhere: Could prove important when the chips are down.

This January Celtic have let go; Caldwell, Killen, Flood, Robson, McManus, McDonald and Fox. That's 7 of their first team squad plus probably a few youths/reserves i've missed. They had to buy to replace that which they had lost. It's not like they've retained a strong squad and then added to it with a couple of multi million pound signings. Flogging all their players with SPL experience and experience of winning trophies has allowed them to bring in a few loans. We lost Mendes and Rothen (the latter no loss). But this has unfortunately not allowed us to bring anyone in. However the situations at the clubs are not wildly different. Had we flogged all our biggest and most experienced players we could and would have replaced them. With what. Who knows. But Keane aside it's doubtful whether Celtic have improved on what they sold and even then Keane is a loan. Sure the sheer amount of names coming in there might frustrate some of you, but you're not looking at how they financed this "spending spree" and the potential consequences of that.

I can see what you're saying, but they sold most their squad to do it. Would you be happy selling Boyd, Davis Boogie etc to gamble on a lot of untested players plus one "star" loan signing? It may work for them. It may backfire spectacularly.

No chance we need to win that many.

Aye, think we can get Barry back to make the difference like last time. :devil: No doubt he could be a huge player for them. Top quality. But that doesn't fix their defence midfield. And they can only play a couple of their dozens of strikers in any one game. Hopefully this signing will stop our squad becoming complacent as I think that is our biggest threat right now.

Cheers for the info.

On the pace issue is it possible he's just not comfortable defending and having to turn and go back the way. But he can utilise straighline speed going forward? i.e. more of an agility issue. Or maybe as has been said, he's Rothen mkII.

Good to see some realistic appraisals of McCarthur appear in the 3rd page of this thread.

Looks like one who wont make it so hopefully impresses enough to get us a reasonable fee in the summer.

Good point re: Bain. How will wabash spin this one?

Fuck me, I think it's the rest of you that have blown this out of proportion. I think it is a bit outlandish to say an untried kid at Hamilton would walk into our team when better players who have achieved more at our level (SPL) could not do it (e.g. Gow). Yes, he could contest as a squad player but the phrase "walk into" is usually reserved for someone of such star quality that is unthinkable they would not be guaranteed a start. I'm quite suprised so many seem to wish to defend what is a fairly ridiculous opinion. The rest of you need to go and check what some phrases mean or the context in which they are usually used. It's not Xavi we're talking about here. I imagine Arfield, Kis Chow mein (or whatever he's called) and Zheng Zhi would all walk into our team too! I'm out of this thread as it's a moot point anyway.

You don't have to say "I am accusing you of..." for that to be the case.

If that the case...... But it isn't. Accusing me of being touchy over choice of language and the pair of you are doing the very same.

Is this not precisely what you are doing and in fact all you ever do?

A lot of shit(tu) rumours doing the rounds. The Tonel/Stranzl rumours are about a year out of date, but Petrov is news to me. Would be an awesome if fanciful signing.

Na, good to have a shocker of an error like that pointed out. Getting my Saints mixed up, but we all know who the sinner are.