Roughly 3,800 United fans will be making the trip to Lisbon and will be right behind the boys as they try to take a positive result back to St James’ Park for the second leg.
However it’s going to be a tough ask. Benfica are currently leading the Portuguese Primeira Liga and are unbeaten in their 24 league fixtures to date. If you add in the final four games of last season that run extends to 28 matches and whilst we were floundering against Manchester City, Benfica were beating Rio Ave 6-1 in Lisbon. Remember, this is a team that dropped into the Europa League from the Champions League so it will be a tough test for sure.
Newcastle:
Cheik Tiote and Massadio Haidara are both still out injured while Hatem Ben Arfa and Fabricio Coloccini have remained on Tyneside. Mathieu Debuchy is also sidelined but would have been unavailable anyway as he is cup tied. The latter part also applies to Yoan Gouffran after his participation in the Europa League with Bordeaux earlier on in the season.
Ryan Taylor continues to recover from injury but is still some way from featuring for the first team whilst Haris Vuckic remains a long-term absentee but in better news, Davide Santon and Tim Krul are available again and have made the squad which leaves us with a confirmed squad of 19 looking a bit like this:
Tim Krul, Rob Elliot, Davide Santon, Danny Simpson, James Perch, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Steven Taylor, Mike Williamson, Vurnon Anita, Moussa Sissoko, Yohan Cabaye, Dan Gosling, Sylvain Marveaux, Gabriel Obertan, Jonas Gutierrez, Gael Bigirimana, Papiss Cisse, Shola Ameobi, Adam Campbell
Previously…
We’ve never played Benfica in a competitive game before so it’s another first for us. We have played them twice in friendly matches before though (won one and lost one on penalties) but instead I’m going to look at how we’ve fared against Portuguese opposition as a whole.
You can split our record in two pretty much. We’ve never won on Portuguese soil and we’ve never lost to Portuguese opposition on home soil. At St James’ Park we’ve played six games against Portuguese opposition, winning four and drawing two. We’ve played in Portugal five times as things stand winning one, losing one and drawing three.
Stats and facts:
Mike Williamson is still waiting to make his 100th appearance for United whilst an appearance for Shola Ameobi will signal his half-century of appearances for Newcastle in European competition.
If we manage to keep a clean sheet we will set a new record for games without conceding a goal. Currently we’ve not conceded in four games, and by extending that to five we’ll set a new Europa League record.
To expand on that, United have kept 8 clean sheets in their 12 (including qualifying) Europa League games to date.
Final thought…
It’s going to be a tough one but in a way I’m looking forward to it. The most important thing for us to do is to make sure we leave ourselves in a position to go through when the two sides meet at St James’ Park. If the game is out of sight by the end of tomorrow night then it makes the second leg pointless so we need to keep things tight and try to sneak an away goal if we can.
We’ll need to be measured, we can’t just do what some fans would like to see and go out and attack as we’ll just leave ourselves wide open in defence. Keep calm, keep things tight for the opening 20 minutes and feel our way into the game. Conceding an early goal would be a bad thing so it’s important to wake up right from the first whistle and maintain focus throughout.
Howay the lads!
Date: Thursday, 4th April, 2013
Time: 8:05pm – Live on ITV4
Venue: Estádio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal
Tough game indeed.. can’t see us coming out of this one on top. I just hope we show up and give a good account. 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
I agree with AMF.
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Draw 1-1
Win 0-1
Toonale(Quote)
Excited for this one, a proper European night against a real giant in Europe
.
Andymag(Quote)
At this stage your not going to face a bad team. Im glad we got Benfica over another Russian side. That’s not to take away from Benfica as they are going to be a tough test. We.need to keep tie alive and we have a chance.
Johno Toon(Quote)
difficulty-wise, going to Benfica is equivalent to facing ManC away… let’s hope we don’t put in an equivalent performance
if anyone interested, here’s highlights from Benfica’s most recent fixture –
http://www.goalsarena.org/video/portugal-liga-sagres/30-03-2013-benfica-6-1-rio-ave_en.html
M(Quote)
Toonsy good preview mate cant see us getting much, but i would be happy as a pig in **** if we can get that no goal record
Big Dave(Quote)
Pardew for his faults in the league hasnt got much wrong in europe, The defensive display in russia was as good as ive seen from NUFC. If we’d had owt like a striker force that night we’d have probably nicked an away goal or two and gone through more comfortably than we did.
Really looking forward to tomorrow, A bonafide european match against a top club with genuine european pedigree. Also nice to know by friday morning wed have played more european matches at the stadium of light than sunderland… 😎
CC(Quote)
We will probably get a good hiding and ya’s all know it. 😉
DJG(Quote)
It might not be a good hiding but I doubt we’ll get anything.
georgio(Quote)
We will be doing really well to draw tomorrow night but can see a 2-0 defeat on the cards unfortunately. Just can’t see where our goals will come from at the minute. Still, sure the fans will have a brilliant time – stay safe boys and girls. Let’s hope we put in a performance and make it through at SJP.
Geordie Deb(Quote)
One thing the Portugese defenders have always struggled with is to defend against direct teams, that in that regard we have a chance.
Wouldn’t mind Carroll against them…
Its a cup tie which means anything can happen as far as I’m concerned. If the players can’t be up for this one, then I don’t know…
JJ(Quote)
We should just enjoy it because all roads have lead to this point, the unbeaten run at the start of last season, (until Man City) all the goals Demba Ba fired in, then the games where Cisse arrived and was scoring for fun as well as the brief period where we started playing well with 4-3-3 and Benny on form. Then the hard fought games with a fringe team at places like Atrimitos and Maritimo (I wonder if they will be watching). Through to beating two decent eastern European teams and the ball bouncing off the crossbar before we went down the other end and scored with the last kick. All of this has got us to the Estadio da Luz and we should be proud of that. Considering where we are in terms of the pecking order of English football at the moment I think it’s quite an achievement to be honest.
DJG(Quote)
A clean sheet would be remarkable although I can’t see us getting one this time around, still I’ll definitely be glad to have Timmy back even if Elliot has proven an able deputy. Try and stay solid and maybe nick an away goal, a 2-1 loss would be decent, then depending on how we do in our next league fixture we can work out how much preparation we can give the return leg…
Newkie(Quote)
My boy turned one year old today. Just seen he shares a birthday with Tim Krul.
JJ(Quote)
Just been reading in the Journal about Di Canio’s press conference where they were grilling him about calling himself a fascist. He’s more than slippery than me. 😛 He simply won’t answer the question.
It’s outrageous. I would have had time for him if he had clarified what he meant, and what he meant was acceptable, but I think his response yesterday to genuine concerns was a disgrace.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
Toonsy Good preview as always . Though I would like us to attack more in games I think that’s a home game luxury in truth. We will do well to get anything tommorow so I will be chuffed if we get the draw ,we have done well to get this far as DJG says ,but it has cost us in injuries and that’s a shame. Benfica will be a proper Europa test for us and if we can beat them over 2 legs a real feather in the cap ,that clean sheet record would be nice too 😉 .
JJ@15 Happy 1st birthday to the lad 😀 😀 😎
KIMTOON(Quote)
B+B-Not that slippery surely! 😆 And woohoo I have my emoticons back…as for Di Canio I’m not too sure what to make of it on the whole moral level. If he was an oturight racist then I can see the obvious problem, but while there are obvious parallels there are groups with fascist tendencies which claim not to be racist…EDL, BNP. Fact is there are fascists or at least those with fascist ideals in fairly mainstream politics and the media as well, they just wouldn’t dream of using the word for fear of drawing comparisons with the Nazis…We allow these people to run for governence and have media coverage-anything else would be censorship, so is Di Canio not allowed a job?
I definitely wouldn’t want him running my club but I can see why they’ve allowed him the job. That being said, if he does well then he should be sacked immediately for his political beliefs, and sunderland should be docked 30 points
Newkie(Quote)
Congratulations JJ, just make sure he doesn’t grow up to be a goalkeeper, 😉
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie – regarding Di Canio, the issue I have is how can you be an admitted fascist and not be a racist? You only have to look at the sucking up he did with the Lazio Ultras with his stupid salute on more than one occasion and the disgraceful way they treat non white players and even their own non white supporters! If he does not share their view on racism his actions are idiotic, the fact he is a follower of fascism, Mussolini is one of his heros, he was close friends with the fascist terrorist scumbug who killed over 80 people in the Bologna train bombing in the 80’s and attended his funeral three years ago where the straight arm salute was given by the mourners, should give us a pretty big clue about his views, even if he doesn’t want to talk about them.
I would how the scum’s black players are feeling about him coming in as manager? Some of their supporters and him deserve each other. It is the more moderate mackems who are outraged at his appointment I feel sorry for. It will certainly add even more spice to derby day. The man is going to get dog’s abuse. Let’s see how his short fuse responds on that day…
Geordie Deb(Quote)
Re Di Canio. He’s obviously a few sandwiches short of a picnic
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/apr/02/paolo-di-canio-sunderland-manager-appointment
Geordie Deb(Quote)
Gonna b hard as **** this game like, I’d be over the moon with a draw and wouldn’t even be to down with a defeat by one goal. I think getting an away goal could be vital though as I can’t see us keeping a clean sheet at St James’.
richietoon(Quote)
Agree Richie. How’s life in Spain? You all settled into your new place?
Geordie Deb(Quote)
http://www.portugoal.net/index.php/more-podcasts/40359-benfica-v-newcastle-video-preview
good stuff ……
Munich Mag(Quote)
Debs…Yep thanks, love it 😎
just need to try and get a hang of the bloody lingo now 😕
richietoon(Quote)
Good luck with that then Richie!
Geordie Deb(Quote)
Deb-Aye some good points there, I had no idea about the terrorist and their association. I just think football is a very morally grey area-as has been discussed on this blog before in regards to sweat shops, and then us having Wonga as sponsors etc etc. There would be very little outcry if he stated he was a communist, perhaps more so if he had a Stalin tattoo, but those two individuals are incomparable when it comes to barbarity.
All the bits of info we are are interesting..I do feel sorry for those fans/players angered by his appointment though. He got in trouble for calling a black player by his colour-but we know that goes on both at grassroots level and amongst our top internationals, if our own society still struggles with these issues its hardly surprising it exists in its form in Italy.
On a purely footballing level, I hope this siege mentality doesn’t work out for Sunderland as we need to batter them in the Derby 😀
Newkie(Quote)
Deb… I’ll need luck, I’m terrible with languages…mind Munich Mag learnt German and he’s thick as mince 😉 😆
richietoon(Quote)
we hear are interesting* that should have read. I just want to clarify I’m not defending racism, but certain bits of the media frenzy over his appointment are a bit ironic-especially the BBC when they gave him a column in their sports section last year….Are they not as bad for hiring him? Not sure if sky ever have, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s done punditry for other channels..
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie – Big Ron was sacked for his indiscretion never to be seen again. He claimed not to be a racist, and I wouldn’t like to brand him one if he wasn’t, although his choice of word was inexplicable especially as he obviously knew not to use it when broadcasting.
So DiC called a black player by his colour? What’s going on? I’ve just been told he has made a statement today. It had to happen. It was crazy to think he could deflect it. I’ll see if I can find what he’s said. I trust it doesn’t contradict any earlier statements or it will continue to dog him.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
Apparently some 5under1and supporters are concerned that Di Canio will have all their team playing on the right wing.
sidekick(Quote)
Strange goings on wearside, Miliband makes no stance re James McLean and his refusal to wear a Poppy on his shirt but is off like a shot when a self confessed Mussolini supporter is appointed and to hear mackem supporters trying to trivialize the whole issue is hilarious considering the stick they gave us re Barton etc.
One thing is for sure, it wont go away, its still raging on Talksport and the National media will not give up until they have their pound of flesh, just pleased the spotlight is on them for a change and it makes gory viewing.
Robert(Quote)
B+B-That’s what I’ve heard mate, although it could well have been written up by the Sun/Daily Mail…fellow fascists *cough*… 😆
Sidekick- 😆
Newkie(Quote)
Robert @ 32 and don’t forget McLeans tweet saying up the Ra
Newkie I have a feeling it will make them gather round andthey may tighten up as a group which isn’t what we want
Big Dave(Quote)
I think if we stand any chance against Benfica we will have to play with far more energy than we showed against Man City. We’ve done well defensively in Europe so far stopping some good CFs from getting on the scoresheet. But we have hardly been prolific ourselves like, so if we can nick and away and either draw of loose by only 1 goal then it would give us a real chance back at SJP.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy I would love for us to score an away goal, and I would really like to see Campbell get a decent run out as he might give us something different as after all we know what we get from Strolla but that doesn’t get you goals, so why not give him a shot
Big Dave(Quote)
Dave – it really can’t hurt like can it coz I think we look pretty toothless at the moment.
Even if he tried Campbell’s pace and move on the right of the attacking 3 behind Cisse.
Campbell – Sissoko – Marveaux
—————- Cisse —————-
Got to be worth a try with Cabaye pinging balls through the channels for him to run on to.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Dave-yeah, that’s what I meant with the siege mentality. All this focus on them might band them together and make them try and prove a point 😕 Di Canio certainly doesn’t need any more motivation.
Newkie(Quote)
MM@24 –
excellent and informative link, thanks for posting
some interesting insights in the vid
– Benfica have dangerous wingers and their FBs get forward.
Regular followers on NUFC will know all too well that this is defensively where we are most dodgy
– The aforementioned FBs leave space to exploit on the break.
However, in general we carry little threat out wide
– due to overloading wide positions, Benfica has a tendency to find themselves outnumbered in centre mid.
This could be an area that we could exploit, controlling possession for large spells as in Kharkiv and Moscow
M(Quote)
richietoon@28 😆 😆 ya cheeky monkey 🙂
Munich Mag(Quote)
We have no chance against Benfica – they have Lord Jesus’s brother managing them. see for yourself 😆 😆
http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2013/04/04/61634-33113571/
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Well Pards has managed to set up the team talk for Benfica I see. He’s public enemy no.1 because of his latest press ramblings 🙄 . Apparently while acknowledging their CL status and how good they are he feels they would be around 8 or 10th place in the PL 🙄 😳 .That went down like a bucket of sick in Portugal with the Coach Jesus and local press and fans up in arms seeing it as a slight on the club .Too late now to backtrack and make amends ,though in truth I think he may of meant the fact we have mega rich clubs here but even so ,please Pards shut up and let us concentrate on talking on the pitch.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Ola from Lisbon!
The weather is *****, but the beer is flowing so that compensates.
I’m going for a 3-1 tonight, that still puts us in with a chance next week.
Stuart79(Quote)
Aussie @41 ,Benfica coaches last statement is interesting- “This manager (Pardew) has a more direct approach than most English teams we have faced “. I don’t suppose he’s refering to root one hoofball is he.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Stuart ,Enjoy the game and remember we are only playing the equivilent of a top 10 English team so there’s a good chance we will win 😉
KIMTOON(Quote)
Kim, more than likely…. I think we play long balls because none of our players can complete a short pass 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
I can’t wait to hear how **** Pardew is if we lose and how well the players did despite him, should we draw or win.. 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie ,To be fair he’s actually got it quite right in Europe even if some players havn’t always put in 100% ,it’s the league where he’s getting outwitted .It could just be he hasn’t enough time or resources to fully prepare but it doesn’t seem to hamper AVB or Rafa 🙄 .
KIMTOON(Quote)
Kim, I remember that Stoke had a shocker of a PL season when they were in Europe. I think that Pardew has not had previous experience like AVB and Raffa and has struggled with the work load somewhat.
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Kim @42, I wish someone could wire his gob shut. The man is a bloody menace with his incessant ramblings.
Geordie Deb(Quote)
Aussie ,Fair point ,Dippers didn’t last long did they ,but they are inconsistent under Buck . Yeah I remember Stoke suffering PL form loss too . I guess next season we’ll see how Pards does ,I do think he deserves that chance ,without Europa next season he’ll have little to complain about unless Jabba fails to strengthen again and we lose lot’s of players to injury.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Tbh I would rather Pardz say what he has, than making them out to be some mythical team that can’t be beaten. I think that everything is being taken a little to literally at the moment. Lots of managers across all sports talk **** before games. It’s part of the landscape now days..
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Deb@50 .Irritating isn’t it ,he needs to lay low and just concentrate on getting us through the first leg and picking up points in the league .Once we are safe he can afford to spout a bit but even then there’s really no need. All he had to say when asked about Benfica was that they were a good team who we will respect .That’s it job done no more to say really imo.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Off out now ,laters.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Kim – I’m looking for that quote from Pardew about how he ranks Benfica vis a vis the EPL. I haven’t been able to find it but came across a couple of classics.
“We need to take some important lessons from Man City. For all the information we tried to put into the team, we got a negative reaction.” 😯
Is Pards referring to the lads using his 10 page dossiers on each of the City players as confetti, giving him an Eric Morecambe slap on his cheeks, and singing “ding dong the bells are going to chime”? 😛
Pards: “We can’t build this Benfica team up too much.
DON’T THEN.
Pards: “They’re 24 games unbeaten.” 😛
Get in. Me Razzes are back! 😛
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
Agreed Deb. ‘Gob shut’ would be the first ‘job done’ he’s achieved all season.
georgio(Quote)
B & B and the foreign players are supposed to understand him when we haven’t got a clue what he is talking about? 😆
Geordie Deb(Quote)
B&B, I see that is a family trait to recycle jokes that no one laughed at the first time 🙂 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Geordie Deb @ 57 (lol) Me little laugh man’s not playing.
Aussie @ 58 (lol) Okay, it wasn’t one of my better ones, but you have to give me credit for being right on the money with it yesterday. He comes out today talking about putting information into the team and getting a negative reaction. Too much *&^%ing information, Pards! CONCENTRATE ON YOUR OWN TEAM!
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
Yeah, a lot of our results last year came from the planning and attention to detail of the opponents and the way they play. That hasn’t worked this season, in part because of the time spent with europa, but people chime about how boring it is and how we should make teams worry about us like the KK philosophy. Frankly we’ve only really got one player that can cause fear and he is out injured, and say what you want about learning about the opposition, but it is effective. I would take the Mourinho route over the Keegan route every time as well….
Newkie(Quote)
Hmm Shola’s a dad now, explains why he’s been laboured these last few years 😆 😆 sorry 🙁
Andymag(Quote)
Newkie – that’s some comparison you’re making there. Mourinho, Keegan and . . . Pardew? Looking back at his time at the club what really sticks with me has been his insistence on playing Williamson for 2 years when every fan could see he is useless, buying the pathetic Obertan. I could go on but the truth is we haven’t played well all season. We’ve never dominated a game including a 3-0 against 10 man Wigan.
I have no hopes for tonight.
georgio(Quote)
Newkie @ 60 Bollox! (Razz man)
Toonsy, sort your emoticons out man. They’re all lined up tantalisingly, but refusing to move.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
Some ex-player news to distract from pre-match jitters/doom & gloom:
“Man starts a pub fight after being told he looks like Joey Barton” 😯
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/man-starts-pub-fight-being-told-looks-joey-180003270.html
I half-expected the man in question to actually be Joey Barton. However, the twitter-sensation is content to cause trouble in social media these days, with jibes like,
“Thiago Silva. That the same p**** thats been injured all season. Another over rated Brazilian. Sort your hamstrings out FatBoy…”
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/ligue-1-psg-threaten-barton-thiago-ladyboy-tweet-182447167.html
English football is a bit dull without the loonies. 🙁
Wellington(Quote)
Newkie – Other teams will only start worrying about us if we sort ourselves out, get cohesion and start to look like a team instead of a bunch of individuals. That will take hours on the training ground. Why do I get the impression that Pards spends most of his time weighing up the opposition and getting the players to combat them? How have he and his coaches got time for that when we clearly have plenty of work to do on the training ground?
“a lot of our results last year came from the planning and attention to detail of the opponents and the way they play.” Pards would like us to believe that, and no doubt believes that himself, but nobody can really say that with any certainty. I may be wrong but I don’t see Sir Alex or other top managers spending the inordinate amount of time that Pards does with his dossiers and briefings.
Blackley & Brownlie(Quote)
Georgio-I am not comparing records or abilities…I think it’s pretty easy to decipher the order of those. I am simply stating that paying attention to the opposition can pay dividends-Christ did it not work out for us last year? I refuse to believe it was all some fluke and that the players carried our manager, despite our current position. There must be something in it.
As for the insistence on williamson, perhaps you would have preferred Sol Campbell to stay? Or would you have thrown a youngster in at the deep end? Williamson is not the excuse when you get battered and put in one of your worst defensive performances of the season only last week, as well as losing to wigan and many others-without scoring a goal!!! Obertan is ***** and one of the few duds, but most fans thought he would be an upgrade on routledge at the time….go and check 😉
Newkie(Quote)
Kim@48 – it might be a structural problem. I think AP largely does his own opposition scouting (that’s the real reason he was watching Fulham play QPR). The club might need to find him a scout to do some of that work – the job AVB used to do for Mourinho.
Wellington(Quote)
Agree with Newkie… 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
B+B-I agree. They will also only start worrying about us when our players show some realism-i.e saying we are too good to go down and saying that city are a bunch of individuals. Statements like that must make them chuckle, and not only in hindsight because it makes us look like twats regardless.
As for your impression on pards, I am not sure why you get that. I am not privy to his training routines and neither are any of us…the one thing is clear is that it isn’t working this year-but it did last year, say what you will, but it did. If you’re going to say it didn’t then surely you have to credit pards for ultra motivation and the creation of a work ethic etc? You can’t have it both ways. As for why it isn’t working this year, I have no single solution, I’d just point the number of issues already discussed on here.
As for attention to detail, Mourinho essentially pioneered the modern use of those tactics…AVB is renowned for his attention to detail and used to write 20 page dossiers in his teens, perhaps he was a fan of yours? 😛
Newkie(Quote)
everyone is far to optimistic on here for this game, here’s 2 thoughts
1) not one first team player should be near the side tonight, send out the kids
2) all that matters is 6 points in our next 2 league games.
on Pardew, his players get him through in some games, as soon as the pressure is on, he gets them all to sit back, lets cisse have half the pitch to himself and brings the opposition on to us, camped in our half. and wonders why we lose. It will be a back nine again tonight with Shola (no hope) of trying to hold the ball up while others try to get up alongside him from our 18 yrd line. 3 or 4 nil to them tonight. but I dont care, as long as we get 2 wins on the next 2 sundays.
kev(Quote)
See everyone is doing a Pardew and getting thier excuses in now, dont worry, we can just post “didn’t expect that, fantastic result, shola is a god” lines tomorrow
Toon to win 3-1 if we start on the front foot, we’ll lose 3-0 if we start by trying to defend and hold out for first 20-30 mins, actually make that 4-0 if Simmo starts
stevep(Quote)
team for tonight, I would play Krul (for match practice and see hows his injury reacts, with a view to him playing on sunday).
……………………………….. krul…………………………….
Simpson………Williamson…….perch……….Jonas.
…………………………. Bigi……..Anita…………………..
……….Obertan…………Gosling……….. Marevaux.
………………………………..Shola…………………………..
could argue for Campbell over Obertan on the right, but would prefer him to come on for Shola, later on.
kev(Quote)
last chance saloon for obertan,gosling,marevaux,shola,simpson,williamson to show they can step up and take responsibility. for me these should be on the ‘for sale’ list at the end of the season, if not out of contract already.
kev(Quote)
Kev
If we can get a couple of million pounds for them then it’ll be an achievement, none have stepped up to show that they are consistent PL performers and only a couple deserve to have another look at. Marveaux is beginning to show why we bought him so deserves a bit more time to prove himself, Shola shouldn’t have his contract renewed but we should by no means boot him out, keep him as backup until his contract runs and then give him a coaching role.
Andymag(Quote)
agreed andy,
dont think we would get more than £5m for the whole lot and thats pushing it, might save on the wages, so if that tops up whats already put a side for a top striker, might mean a £15m man on £80,000 a week instead of £10m man on £50,000 a week.
then fill the squad with the next generation, with some more bigi type signings. I think the 5 signings in Jan are already these replacements, Ashley has just bought before he has sold this time.
kev(Quote)