Ronaldo was such a beast in the Premier League.
Bloody Ronaldo. Apparently, the first time we saw him was at a tournament in Toulon after which we signed Luis Boa Morte. :-)
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We should be cursing Man United's link-up with Sporting, he would have been our little winker had that never happened. Man United were completely ignorant of his talents until that friendly, whilst we were in advanced talks to sign him!
Messi would obviously be the best player in the premier league, but I'm not convinced he'd score as many goals as he does in La Liga. Doubt we'll ever actually find out though.
Honestly, I wonder how people can come to any other conclusion Tim. Compare him to the likes of Nani and Nasri, both of whom are supposedly in the running for POTY honours. Messi's streets ahead.
The premiership's attacking quality is sadly dwindling and it's a small mercy that we have players like Nani and Nasri putting themselves into the spotlight.
asajoseph wrote:Honestly, I wonder how people can come to any other conclusion Tim. Compare him to the likes of Nani and Nasri, both of whom are supposedly in the running for POTY honours. Messi's streets ahead.
Very true.
As Capi said, the Premier League is in a bit of a sad state when it comes to top class attackers.
It's accentuated this year, because for whatever reason most of the big name strikers in the PL - thinking specifically of Drogba, Torres and Rooney - are having rubbish seasons.
asajoseph wrote:Honestly, I wonder how people can come to any other conclusion Tim. Compare him to the likes of Nani and Nasri, both of whom are supposedly in the running for POTY honours. Messi's streets ahead.
He'd be the best player in the league no doubt, I'm questioning whether he'd be as good as Ronaldo was.
Doubt it myself. His game is less individual than Ronaldo's and he's rather diminutive for this league.
Would still be a brilliant player for any club in England, but 42 goals? Doubt it.
Look at the size of his thighs. He may be small, but he's a solid unit. He'd skin those English fools. My only fear is they would put some studs in his shins and ankles
Messi is five six and ten stone. 
Deep lying playmaker wrote:nope just an honest opinion
Roma are more fragile than us, they led Genoa 3-0 a few weeks ago but ended up losing.
But ye i'd love De Rossi here, brilliant all-round midfielder.
Villa fan told me earlier that Bent has a £7m relegation release clause, if they go down we should ship Bendtner out and get all over that. He'd easily score 20 league goals with us.
He'd score 20 League goals if we played in the team over most of the season. There's absolutely no way I want that happening, because, other than his finishing, he's a pretty terrible footballer.
Personally, I wouldn't want him here in any capacity, bench player, squad player, I wouldn't want him full stop. I think he's average, and not even close to being competent enough technically to play for us.
He'd do a good job for some good teams - Spurs, Liverpool, United, where they play 2 men up front, maybe even Chelsea, but not here, in our team and our system.
Bent isn't even that great when it comes to finishing, he's more of an Andy Cole than a van Nistlerooy.
If we switched to a 4-4-2 he might do ok, but in our current system he'd struggle for the same reasons Nick struggles.
He's better than chamakh and bendtner but nah not for us
darren bent is awful. i remember he was clean thru on goal against us when he was with spurs and hit a limp sidefooted "finish" 5 yards wide of the post.
messi is a better footballer than cronaldo, full stop. i dont care whether he'd score as many (maybe not since cronaldo was so direct and scored on freekicks as well), but he'd definitely create more goals for the team through his overall play. with cronaldo, you give him the ball and basically don't get it back. i don't even think this is debatable.
kamikaze wrote:darren bent is awful. i remember he was clean thru on goal against us when he was with spurs and hit a limp sidefooted "finish" 5 yards wide of the post.
Then again, he has scored against us in 4 of the last 6 seasons. Not horrible, for a player who's spent most of his career playing in mid-table clubs.
He's not awful at all. He's a quality premiership striker.
Chelsea and Manchester City both want Italy midfielder Andrea Pirlo, who is set to leave AC Milan on a free transfer after rejecting a new deal.
Full story: Daily Mirror
A soon to be 32 year old Pirlo on a free transfer?