by The Ace1983 » Tue Jul 19, 2005 2:04 pm
I've been reading the Mirror this morning and it says that we are unloading Baros and Dudek to fund a move for Crouch. That's got to be the most stupid plan i've ever heard. Now don't get me wrong, i'm not going to start slagging off Benitez, but I feel I'm entitled to question his actions, and question I shall. Baros has just one problem which has already been mentioned here, and that is that he doesn't lift his head up. I know that we all know this, but has anyone ACTUALLY told Milan? What if he goes to another club like Villa, for £5m and the coaches there say to him "why don't you look up, you might have a bit more success?" and on the back of this advice he nets them thirty goals in his first season. His value trebles, he attracts good players to villa who go on to nick 4th spot from us because we bought Peter Crouch for £8.5m who scored 10 goals and got concussion three times from running into the crossbar. Now this is of course purely hyperthetical, but it could happen. He's still a young player and he still possesses the ability to learn. I think it would be foolish to let go of a young talent like Baros who has so much skill on the ball, terrorises defences and can still learn, for the sake of Peter Crouch.
As for Dudek, if I'm being honest, I've wanted rid of him for the past two seasons. I know that after THAT night we were all telling Benitez to give £100, 000 a week, and telling Parry and Moores to re-name a stand for him, but his wobbly, disappointing past cannot be corrected by one night of glory. He can't command an area, he can't release quickly and his technique is, at best, questionable. His soft punches and weak blocks have cost us too much. I will never understand why Houllier got rid of Westavald (here's a little tip for keepers - the best ones can always kick the furthest; kahn, schmichel, seaman, buffon and Cech, just check. Westervald had one that could easily beat that lot and look what happened as soon as he left us.). Also, Reina and Carson seem very confident, which dear old Jerzy has never seemed. If we can get £3m for him, I'd take it and use it to help with the defensive search.
Therefore, in my most humble of opinions, I would hold on to Baros for one more season at least (especially if Nando is going to be a bit of a slow starter) but discard Dudek for whatever we can get. At least now we will always remember him for Istanbul and not his shaky, agonising league form. But Crouch? I'd rather see him at West Ham, although if we go by the same rational that I applied to Baros leaving, he may well go on and score 30 for them. So once again, I'll put my faith in Rafa, and luckily for me, he rarely dissapoints.
VIVA LOS RAFA-LUTION!!!
