The Guardian reckon that Bobby has been given 20 million - 10 of which is being used to sign Brett Emmerton. They claim the deal is nearly done.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

Answers

All of this Emerton talk is doing me napper in. Is he any good?

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

Billy - the School Lollipop Man - at wor local reckons he's canny.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

I refer the honourable gentleman to my previous replies.

ie better going forward than defending, prefers right-midfield to LB role he currently plays, quick, decent engine, good mentality, longs to play in EPL, BUT 10 mill a bit steep imho.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

If it 10 million pounds that is ridiculous, dollars/euros and it's still questionable.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

According to an Emerton message board plantetfootball rated him at 5 million. His fans, however, rate him loads higher.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

The thing is - He is a right Midfielder/Wingback. I would pick Nobby any day over Emmerton. I would guess he would be there as cover in that position. Why spend £10 mil on that?

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

If it 10 million pounds that is ridiculous, dollars/euros and it's still questionable.

Careful Mac - you may be Bellamied by this comment next Summer.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

yes Jonno there is method in my madness :0)

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

LB = RB in earlier post.

Product of Australian institute for sport, idolises Ryan Giggs, hit with the ladies, sometimes away on international duty, blah, blah, blah etc

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

If Bobby decides to buy him (which we dont know yet) then I'll think hes a good signing until he proves me otherwise.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

have watched him on tv a couple if times in the last few weeks against PSV & Ajax. he was playing @ rb, in which case i believe YBR is seeking a replacement for aaron hughes whose lack of pace is there for all to see (see pires display). emerton is quick has a couple of nify tricks up his sleeve however 10m?? i'm not so sure i'd tihnk 7-8 tops.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

If he is to be brought in as RB, Im still yet to be convinced that this is the position for him. The games Ive seen him play in Oz, he has always been in the RM position.

6 mil tops

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

Spoke about him here loads of times. Know his dad through a mate in Sydney. If YBR is pitching to him about playing RB he will go to Liverpool or wherever.

I wood play him in the middle of a 5 man midfield if we are keeping Nobby, if not play him wide. The 5 man midfield would be in front of 4 defenders. In the current team something like

Robert, Dyer, Emerton, Jenas, Nobby. With Bellamy up front.

He has 1 thing Nobby has never shown, No Gav I am talking about consistency. 10 mill is too much 7 or 8 max.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

I hope he's not a bloody replacement for Nobby! I love Nobby and would be gutted if we got rid of him!

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

As was said on here before why pay 10 mil for a backup?

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

1. Cover/alternatives on the right are essential with the current set up. Andy Griffin - good defender that he can be is NEVER fit

2. As you get better - the more expensive alternatives to enhance the squad tend to be

So this is the dilema YBR faces.There may be a time when we spend a few bob on a player who we may see as not getting a starting place every week!

IMHO, assuming we sign Distin at a cut price 3.5 mil, additions needed are -

quality left back

quality centre half

and Emmerton or someone else on the right

I know this has been discussed on another thread, but I cannot see YBR adding to our strikers. Shearer/Cort/Ameobi/Bellamy/Luax2 and then young Chopra seem the likely lads - unless of course Bobby decides to get rid of one. And that seems unlikely.

As for Emmerton. Not seen him enough - but is certainly NOT a Nobby replacement, would add to our squad, would I'm sure make a valuable contribution over a season, and begs the question that, IF he is valued at 10 million, then in Nobby Solano,we have someonwe worth a mint for his precious talent.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

Forgot to add that with Andy O'B signing on a long term deal and assuming the adition of Distin, then the aquisition of another TOP stopper may be pie in the sky..unless Dabizas has no long term future at SJP

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

I have it on good authority that he is coming - he's coming because he just loves black pudding!

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

Of course Nobby will be off to the Copa America qualifiers for the next 2 years so we wouldn't want to have any backup for him, would we?

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2002

Copa America qualifiers??

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2002

I fancy that Emerton will come here. I also feel BR will try to secure a LB, although I think he will target a youngster with potential - like this lad at Luton. However, if Distin signs on I have doubts that we'll go for another experienced CB, unless we can pick one up on a Bosman. In this regard Helder is available, as is the Russian blerk that BR had at PSV, Nikiforev.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2002

Paul, it's the South American equivalent of the Euro championships, and I think will also be used towards qualification for the next World Cup.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2002

Do they have Copa America qualifiers? Seems a bit of a waste when theres only a dozen or so countries.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

I know what the Copa America is, I just didn't realise they had qualifiers for it with so few teams involved.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

Emerton will be in the Oz squad for the Oceania tournament in July. This will most likely see him miss most of the pre season games and maybe he might fit in a couple of training sessions before the season starts.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

Brett Emerton is NOT a defender - so signing him wouldn't give us any cover for Aaron (who himself is only covering at RB, am I correct ??).

Maybe Emerton could be considered a right wing back - whatever the hell one of those actually is in the English game - but really you're looking at a right midfielder who could also be employed centre midfield.

In truth I think YBR's going for total football next season with a heap of mobile ball players who can all float around the pitch at will. Has anyone else noticed Robert popping up on the right with increasing regularity ?

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

Still waiting for him to popup on the left.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2002

LT,

I have. I saw the Fulham match on TV and he played in Solano's position at least half a dozen times. Nol held the centre and YKD played wide left. Good stuff when it works.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2002

Nobby and Robert swapped sides for 5 minutes on Saturday and I was delighted because I saw it as realisation that Al wasn't going to be heading so they each needed to be cutting in on their shooting side. Sadly, after turning Charlton inside out like an octopus at Dabz's favourite restaurant, they swapped back over again.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2002

i think it was just a trick the team used to try and get robert to track back, but he was on to it

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2002

I was surprised last week at Pride Park when we started with Nobby onthe left of LR on the right. From memory, it continued this way for about 15 mins. Probably all done to confuse Warren Barton ;-)

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2002