Oh? That's quite an assumption. Especially considering that would be the most intelligent midfield triumverate in the league. Why are you comparing such different players as if they are peas in a pod?
Whatever that means. Not to mention the fact that intelligent people and players will not always get along. Because you can only have so many players on the pitch at once. I'm not even certain how well Ballack would have fit into our 4-3-3. But into your 4-4-2? One of Scholes or Keane would have to go. And in a 4-3-3 you'd have a lot of pieces out of place.
Given that the club has recently been bought, I'm not sure that assumption is valid. Beyond which, its not true. Veron and RvN, your biggest buys in years, save for Rooney, were hardly last minute August deals, as I recall.
Not so much that as that Ballack, Keane, and Scholes might not play together effectively (as you said before). But when the time comes to replace Roy Keane, one of the greatest midfielders in the history of the English league, how is it done? Do we dive in headfirst with a replacement after he goes, or do we slowly wade in, allowing his successor to learn the game from him?
Ballack is 29, as I recall. The team that buys him buys him to play now, as much as possible. Besides which, he's never been as good defensively as Keane was.
And there's no reason he couldn't play as much as possible right now. Ballack came up as a defensive mid too.
Yes, but he's not that good playing there for a big team. As he demonstrated at Bayern. You'd be buying a replacement for Scholes, who I don't think would get along with Keane too well, not a replacement for Keane. Just my take on it, of course, there's no doubt he's a fabulous player.
That's true enough. More often then not they will though otherwise great sides would never be formed. We won't be playing a 4-4-2 next season if we are going with a Keane-Scholes starting unit. It is not beyond reason to think that 1 of two things could happen. A) Scholes's role is taken over by Ballack. B) They pair up perfectly welland all this is a none issue. Ballack is lazily brilliant. If he bothers himself, he is perfectly functional in a 4-3-3. It would actually be a 4-5-1 using the flanks extensively. Ronaldo's movement would free up a lot of space on the inside for Ballack to function imo.
Well I'm not going to invest any more time in debating the merits of a highly hypothetical move, just suffice it to say that its a possibility given our lack of creativity from the middle of the field last season, as well as Gayslur's possible moves to temporarily appease the critics.
Ruud was out for a year. It was common knowledge we were going in for him the next Summer so that doesn't count. Besides which, I never said last minute. It is not even 3weeks in to July.. August is a long way off in the transfer world.
http://skysports.planetfootball.com/list.asp?hlid=291374&CPID=8&clid=&channel=premiership Essien sure looks the business according to these OPTA stats, better than Lampard's! Sure we can't hijack this deal and bring him to OT if he loves the place so much. Cantona is his hero I heard.