Why do i feel depressed about the thought of him signing a new deal? Am i wrong here? I don't see any progression by keeping him here. What does he offer thats 'class' (as has been discussed)? Sorry but I think Gary Speed devalues our team, or at best holds it back. He's going to stay isn't he? bollocks

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2001

Answers

Average Player

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2001

If we are not going to replace him then we should hold on to him. As long as this 'mulling over' doesn't take all next season and he leaves on a free, when we could get upward of £4million for him now.

If we have a replacement lined up then sure get rid but the fact that we have offered him a new deal suggests Speed will be with us next season.

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2001

he is a grey player

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2001

i feel its an off grey, off the ball grey, an anonymous grey, not a sharply defined black and white, yes, just grey

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2001

brown?

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2001

I've seen 'speedy brown' as a shade on a tin of paint in B&Q

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2001

Surely that's only after a BBS curry night?

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2001

Speed is not the type of midfielder we need. Off you go son.....

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2001

speedily

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2001

Should never have ben bought. Daglish's idea of a Ginpla replacement

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2001

More talk on Teamtalk about Speed stalling on the two year contract offer instead of the three he wanted, with Fulham waiting to make a bid should he turn it down.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

pssst gary, 3 years, you want 3 years, hey, and gary, ask for double, go on...

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

Which would you prefer to keep Glass or Speed

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

Both but Speed rather than Glass....

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

Glass. We could probably get £5 million for Speed which is the key to this question. Getting rid of Glass will not cost us in the long term other than we'll be an unbalanced team again.

I don't mind what he does as long as he doesn't leave for nothing at the end of next season and we're scraping around trying to find £2 million for a new midfielder.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

Gav have you been out in the sun

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

I have indeed been out in the sun but I really do rate Speed, I did before he came and I still do....he's a hardworking midfielder who gets forward and scores goals....

He hasn't had a brilliant season this year but then again not many have in our team....

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

mate, he holds us back, hes pants

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

I'm with Gav on this one - he's not a world beater, but he is under- rated and over-criticised. He's highly committed, works his socks off, score goals, wins the ball consistently.
We could undoubtedly do better than GS if we had unlimited funds, but we haven't, and there are far worse and less committed players in our squad than him, and other higher priorities for the money we do have.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

I'm sure he'd do a good job if he knew what he was meant to do. His role is changed every bloody week due to the inadequacies of the rest of the team. One match he's our midfield anchor man, the next he's our only attacking hope.

I'm all for flexibility, (That's another story!!) but constant change is not an ideal working environment.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

noooooooo

when has role changed, for someone who had made so many chances for himself he scores far too few goals (you can argue with me on this one if you wish but I'll just say Andy Cole to you).

He offers nothing when he has the ball, has an instinct to turn in on himself and play the 'easy' ball to putsomeone else in trouble, he talks himself in to bookings, he is an average run of the mill Premiership midfield player. Just because we once paid £5m for him doesn't mean we should try and get our money's worth out of him. The expression chucking good money after bad springs to mind.

In Keegan's first year or so Alan Thompson got mightily pissed off because Keegan kept Kevin Sheedy in ahead of him. I don't see an Alan Thompson champing at the bit but I do see Speed being picked for all the wrong reasons.

If he was available for £2m or £3m would you be turned on by news that Robson was going to sign him ?

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

So who would you have played in central m/f over the last 6-8 games in preference to GS, Macbeth?

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

i reckon macs talking about the opportunity to ship him now we have the chance. sadly we had no alternative.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

There lies the dilemma. He is one of the few players we're likely to get decent money for, but we've got no one immediately ready to replace him and he can still do a job for us, but we need money to buy new players, but the good players cost more than we've got so we need to sell...

oooo, I'm getting dizzy.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

I don't have a replacement for him. But who's going to play when Shearer's injured. Who's going to be manager if Keegan/Dalglish/Gullit/Robson ever leave.

If Gary Speed had been suspended for the last three game sof the season would we have been unable to put a side out. If he'd shattered his knee and wouldn't play for a year, would you be happy if we went out and spent good money (2-3m) on an exact replacement ?

He has never dominated a game in three years. Even Barton has managed to do gain motm, Speed is just not up to it. His top 5 competition is probably Keane, Vieira, Batty, Hamman, De Mateo. Not in the same league. What finished me off was the Boro game when Speed and Lee together were outwitted, outfought, out everythinged by a single Paul Ince. Lets sign him instead. (joke, poor)

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

I'm not actually sure what we're arguing about Macbeth.
I'm qite prepared to accept GS isn't top-class, but neither in my opinion are Barton, Dabizas, Hughes (promise), O'Brien (promise), Caldwell (promise), Griffin (promise), Quinn, Solano, Lee (now), Bassedas, Acuna, Cort (promise), Luax2, or Shola (promise). That's why we flirted with escape relegation, yet again. How many of these players would get into Manure, Liverpool, Leeds or Arsenal's 1st team?
So why aren't you also criticising the rest of them with the same passion, with the exception of those who have genuine promise?

I doubt we'd get more than £3mm for a 30 yr-old Gary Speed, whereas the central m/f players you are citing would each cost a minimum of £15mm, probably £20mm, and would not come here anyway ven if we could afford them.

I'm sorry but I don't understand your logic - if we can upgrade in central m/f, fantastic, but until we can what point is there in unfairly criticising a player who has limitations, but plays every game to the limit of his abilities? Just what do you expect him to do - other than bog off, of course?

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

I am totally in agreement with your assessment of players on their (promise) or not rating.

I always liked the Cloughie style. He believed there was a backbone to the side around which the rest could be built. When Forest were promoted he bought Shilton, Kenny Burns, John McGovern, Archie Gemmill and had Peter Withe (don't know whethe he bought or had Withe). That was enough the rest just had to be decent.

Our goalies are okay, although not absoultely top notch. We don't have a cpatain/centre half, we don't have a holding midfield player, we may have an offensive midifled player in Dyer, and we don't have a centre forward.

Really we can survive with Barton, in my opinion he's hopeless but it's not a spine player, we can get by, same at left back, a weakness but not the end of the world. We will not progress until we have a coomanding centre half, Dabs is better than nothing but he's not Helder, not Pallister, not Hendrie, not even Matt Elliot. Prioirity spend area 1.

Defensive midfield is Lee and/or Speed, just not acceptable if we are to improve. Lee was never quite Roy Keane but was just inches away from being spot on 5 years ago. Gary Speed is no better than Lee NOW. Priority spend area 2.

Dyer has the possibilities at 22 (still younger than Beardsley when he joined us in the 80s) to do the attacking midfield role. Must be kept.

Up front we need class. Shearer was that but we don't know anymore. Cort, as you say, has promise, but isn't special yet. Shola maybe, but it's still promise. Prioirty spend area 3.

The left wing area needs to be addressed but again its not key.

The priorities are therefore CH, DMidfield, CF. Robson has supposedly said he needs CF and left wing.

I woudl live with Glass on the left. He's not top class but he does a job. At CH Dabizas does a job but we know in our hearts we'll not win anything with him. Gary Speed also does a job, but for me just not well enough. If we could get 2-3m for him then I'd grab the money and run. His position is so key to the rhythm of the side that the person in that role needs to be of the very top class. If Alex Ferguson is truly ruthless, and he is, he will see that Michael Carrick is exactly ten years younger than Roy Keane and replace him while before he turns into Ince/Bryan Robson. We should beat him to it and replace Speed/Lee in one swoop.

If we don't remove players like Barton/Speed then their average playing will keep us average. At some point last season Barton and Speed must have played well, at least in their eyes. Can anyone tell me when it was ?

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

95% in agreement with that assessment Macbeth.

I would be very concerned about accepting £2-3mm for Speed and then not being able to replace him, because I don't feel Lee will/can play more than 20-25 games next season, and I have zero confidence in any of our other midfielders to do that job.

I'm not as sanguine as you are regarding the FB situation. Griffin, when fit, and Hughes do an adequate job. I believe Griffin has the potential to be top class but unless and until he plays a full season we will never know. I actually believe good FB's are essential to a successful team both defensively and offensively, and IMO we are lacking in this area.

I agree that Glass could do an adequate job on the LW. I do feel we need another striker - a fast mobile striker to compliment AS, CC, and Shola - if for no other reason than the doubts that must surround Shearers future.

My conclusion to this is that central m/f and CH are the real priorities, followed by FB and striker.

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001

Meanwhile we've probably got another month at least before the board make any significant strides in signing players. That is going to be a long long month.

Significant strides should be made to ensure that we can get all the players fit for next season and that they stay fit. That alone would probably give us a couple of wins more than this season.

We're not going to challenge for the title but we should aim to qualify for Europe. That is achieveable with the current squad before we make any additions, as long as they stay fit.

Whatever we do, any signing must be significantly better than the player he will oust in the team, otherwise we are doing nothing more than consolidating our mid table position, which might be good enough for our PLC chairman but it won't be accepted by me.

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001

To be fair to Shepherd DeB, as Chairman of a plc his first responsibility isto maintain PL status in order to sustain the revenue stream.
While I have roundly criticised his leadership ofthe Club, there is no doubt in my mind that he has ambitions well beyond that - the doubts I have always had is whether he has the leadership & management skills required to take us to that level.

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001