predict your teams line up

With a fully fit squad without any more signings:

Home:

-------------------------Harper----------------------

S.Taylor------Campbell---------Coloccini------Enrique

Routeledge---Nolan--------Barton------Jonas

----------------Carroll-------Lovenkrands---------

Away from home I think Guthrie would come in for Lovenkrands with Nolan playing behind Carroll and Guthrie moving into the middle alongside Barton.

It does look like we're targeting more players though and we're favourites to sign Ben Arfa. Leon Best has done his ankle ligaments as well so if we replace him then that will be a blessing in disguise. He's fucking woeful. We're also supposedly wanting another defender in as well.

From my point of view our squad is not good enough at all. For once I actually think our first choice defence is our strongest position. Below the first four most of them aren't good enough but S.Taylor has always impressed me at right back, Enrique is brilliant and I'm hoping Coloccini can keep last seasons form and perform at the top level. He certainly didn't get bullied like he did in 08/09. He was outstanding last season. The biggest worry is the lack of pace in defence.

Midfield worries me a lot. I'm actually happy for us to start with Routeledge on the right. He's a player with a point to prove at the top level and he's going to be going into the season with a lot of confidence knowing he is first choice. Whether he performs or not is another thing, but he'll not get another opportunity like this to show once and for all that he can do it at this level. The middle is very worrying. We really need a couple of new central midfielders. I'm hoping Barton might come good if he can stay fit for the first tiem in his career here and I'm a fan of Guthrie but Smith and Nolan don't have the legs or quality to play in the middle.

The strikeforce is nowhere near good enough either. Carroll is the only one I have confidence in to do it at this level. He will have anyone in the air and he has no fear, but Ameobi, Best and Xisco are not good enough. Lovenkrands would be fine as a sub to come on late on in the game with his pace but he's not going to get you 15-20 goals. Ranger isn't ready either.

Overall I think with that team and without injuries we could probably just about stay up but I wouldn't bet on it. I'm not too worried yet though as it does look like we will be looking to bring in another 2/3 players. I don't see many players in the Premiership though who we could afford and would improve us enough. The loan market is the only way I can see us getting a bit of quality in. I'd do all I can to try and get Wileshere in on loan with the promise of first team football. I'd like to see us try and get Robbie Keane in as well but only on loan or for a fairly small fee. He would be a big improvement on what we've got and would give us more of a goal threat. Apart from them two (who are probably unrealistic anyway, and Arfa, im really struggling though)

Well done Coleman, usually say what I can't be arsed to type out. Gosling is a long way off but is if nothing else a runner but we might not see much from him at all this season, there was a link a while back for Mahamadou Diarra, someone like that's wages would be worth breaing the bank for as they could keep us up like Scott Parker did for West Ham. Keane looks to be creeping back ino favour at Spurs so I don't know if that would happen, Bellamy would probably be mega wages but is a nice idea, someone like Tuncay... I don't know why Stoke bought him but he'd be an awesome and very different option for us going forward. Legs in the middle is the priority for me though, you can stay up with a raft of shit strikers nicking goas here and there, but if you're getting overrun in the middle you've no chance. Worse squads than ours have survived and even gone quite far up the table in the past, so there are managers who can do it, let's hope Hughtons one of them.

havent got a clue at the mo....was thinking the other day in europa action we had a team out and im thinking decent team this and kuyt, aggr, reina, torres would all fancy being in the first xi. and then there was babel to come also......and then they brought maxi on as sub who id forgotten existed for some reason.

gerrard looks like he's gonna play midfield. were signing poulsen but then lucas is a managers favorite and roy was quoted as saying "masherano will play unless a a deal has been done"!..........then there's 18m man aquilani!

so yeah havent got a clue, but i'll guess:-

reina

johnson
aurelio
agger
carra

lucas
gerrard
jovanovic
kuyt

cole

torres