Somehow I only seem him as back up. I wonder if this means we're not going for Maguire? (unless if we're letting go of the Belk and Nozza)
Decent signing. May not start every game but experience of the English leagues will be invaluable. A Casetti replacement. Nice to see were getting a lot of business done early.
We did need to sign one or two centre-backs. We now have Angella, Hoban, Tamas and Ekstrand (an absolute fairy that I wouldn't mind seeing go). Assuming that we are going to four at the back then you can't really call Doyley anything more than an emergency centre-back. Neill, Hall, Nosworthy, Cassetti and Belkalem will all go I would have thought.
Don't Arsenal only give one-year contracts to players once they reach 30, as you never know when their legs will go?
Nice little quote here: Paul ****ov said about Gabriel Tamas: “I have spoken to lots of people about him, including Steve Clarke and Roy Hodgson. The reports we have had back say if you can sign him, take him. He has not played for a while but he is super fit. He loves defending and is comfortable on the ball.”
I provided the link, here it is again in bold link. The message board css should probably be changed to highlight links better ;-)
As well as the night club incident "The defender has twice been banned for club and country for alcohol-related incidents and was hit with a three-match FA ban in 2011 while playing for WBA after elbowing James Vaughan in a game, resulting in the Norwich striker needing striker plastic surgery." Sounds to me like trouble waiting to happen. Nobody expects young(ish) footballers to be angels but his record is very disturbing.
Cheers mate, I was on my phone so couldn't even highlight the text to find some of it underlined. Much appreciated.
Inspired by a few UKIP comments relating to this: Don't tell Farage, Nigel Farage, I just don't think he'll understand, cos if you tell Farage, Nigel Farage, you're gonna have a riot on your hands
We need a little bit of nasty in the team - it's what we're lacking. John Eustace had it in him. Someone to play the villain, who the other players don't want to play against, who always puts a good minimum 6/10 shift in and will wind the other fans up. A Chris Morgan, Michael Brown, Kevin Muscat kind of player. On the face of it, it's a good signing.
It has always been my dream NOT to have a Michael Brown or Kevin Muscat in my team. I like to feel proud of identifying with our players, and there's a difference between hard-tackling enthusiasts like Robbo and Pudil and outright thugs.
We can take some comfort from that, but it doesn't address the key concerns which are causing major worry and panic amongst many supporters right now. These are troubling times indeed.
As others have said sounds like a bit of a nutter, so should fit in well at Watford, unsure about this one though :-\
Obligatory Youtube highlights video: [video=youtube;nhUl8N9Mb9I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhUl8N9Mb9I&feature=youtu.be[/video]
To play the villain role you need a Robbo, Mooney, Dyche, Eustace, Smart, Helguson mentality. Forestieri also plays this role well when he's on form. I'm not advocating thuggish behaviour - just a player with the mentality who needs to win and absolutely won't be out fought. I remember Robbo committing many overly hard (come on let's be bold and say sometimes reckless) tackles. You're kidding yourself if you choose to remember him as simply hard but fair. He went over the top on more than one occasion, however we loved him for the passion. Pudil is firmly in the "hard working and committed" category, just like DeMerit was. I wouldn't say Pudil is particularly hard-tackling, although that's not my point. We didn't really have anyone in the team last year who the other team feared in the least thuggish way, apart from obviously Deeney's goals. It looks like they're correcting this now.
Already had a falling out with Deeney. The resulting fight destroyed half of the regeneration project by the pond. FML.
Will be interesting to see how he fares if we switch to just 4 at the back. Will he start over Hoban & Angella? Probably not. Still, I think the fact he has experience at this level can only be a good thing. Overall, I'm pleased with this signing.
I don't think Hoban will be a first choice starter if we switch to a back two. It's nothing to do with his ability, just his age; he's still 20 and in an ideal world should be carefully managed to avoid hurting his development. Too much can cause as much damage as much as too little. That's not to say I don't expect him to get a lot of game time; far from it. I just think we need to keep in mind that he's only 20.