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+----- Thread: Former Players Who Would Improve Our Squad (/showthread.php?tid=488)
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Former Players Who Would Improve Our Squad - wba_1996 - 05-10-2014
With the international break this forum will be dead for the next two weeks, and I'm bored, so people need to come up with some interesting threads
Name any former Albion players who are still currently playing who you would take in this seasons squad on current form, why you would want them, and where they would play or if they would just be cover/squad players.
I don't want to take all of the possible suggestions in the first post so I will do two:
Borja Valero - the obvious choice, I've seen him play for Villareal and his current club Fiorentina and he just oozes class, its just a shame that we were so poor at the time we signed him and we didnt know how to use him, contrary to popular belief I think he could play English football if he was used in a similar role to Fabregas at Chelsea, alongside Mulumbu in the midfield with the likes of Varela and Berahino running on to his through balls he would be a quality addition to our starting XI.
Curtis Davies - don't particularly like him, was glad we sold him when we did and for such an outrageous price, however he has looked pretty good for Hull the past couple of seasons and with an ageing McAuley and an off-form Olsson I think he would provide great competition with Dawson for the right CB role alongside Lescott. At 29 he is also at the peak of his career for a CB too.
Come on then, lets have some good suggestions, hopefully some obscure ones that I wouldnt have thought of, and bring on the controversy when someone wants Odem back
RE: Former Players Who Would Improve Our Squad - Ska'dForLife-WBA - 05-10-2014
The most obvious would be Lukaku, although he was never "our" player! Valero would also be great; shame that never worked out, he's become the one that got away. Not really sure there's many more, as we've naturally outgrown a lot of our old faces in recent years.
RE: Former Players Who Would Improve Our Squad - Beefy 1965 - 05-10-2014
Luke Moore
RE: Former Players Who Would Improve Our Squad - wba_1996 - 06-10-2014
Shane Long? Not as good as Saido and I think Ideye will prove to be a better player than him as well, but with Vic constantly injured we are lacking a bit in the striker department atm.
Would anyone take Odem back at his age with his injury problems?
Ryan Donk has forged out a decent career for himself in Belgium and Turkey
RE: Former Players Who Would Improve Our Squad - Ska'dForLife-WBA - 06-10-2014
I don't see Long ever being anything more than a bench-warmer at Southampton, and it wouldn't surprise me if he continues his tour of England at some point in the next year or two; probably to a newly-promoted team with money to burn. I don't think he'd be an improvement for us these days; Roy obviously bought him with a view to forming a strike partnership in a 4-4-2, which is the kind of system that suits him, but he's surplus to requirements when we're playing one up top.
If Odemwingie hadn't become a toxic asset then I'd have been happy for him to play out his last couple of seasons with us as a super sub, injury problems or not, but he burnt that bridge.
I do increasingly wonder if retaining Marc-Antoine Fortune wouldn't have been the better option than signing Anichebe too. I'm sure that if Big Vic fulfilled his potential he'd be the better player, but his injury record and propensity for looking for free-kicks rather than bullying defences is getting really tiresome. In the fifteen months or so since he's signed, I can count on one hand the number of times he's really impressed me or looked worth the amount we paid, and that's not good going at all.
RE: Former Players Who Would Improve Our Squad - WBA-Josh - 06-10-2014
Ryan Donk is doing well in Turkey with Kasımpaşa and has been doing so for the past season and a bit. Shota Arveladze seems to have settled him down and reduced the error prone donkeyness that he had with us.
Anyway, I would love to see Borja Valero at the club again with our current squad of players. Blanco, Varela, Sessegnon, Berahino and Ideye would profit so much from his very intelligent football brain. It's a shame that we let him go after relegation in 2009 because a season in the Championship would have done him well and helped him adjust more to the pace of English football. He would really excel with Mulumbu and Yacob or Gardner behind him.
How about getting Odemwingie back as a target for shooting practice in training? Head shot is worth a start in the next match and a bollock shot is worth a gold statue built outside the ground.
Imagine Ryan Donk doing this for us - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2524518/Ryan-Donk-stops-Besiktas-attack-ball-Kasimpasa-fan-attacks-Manuel-Fernandes.html
RE: Former Players Who Would Improve Our Squad - Luke_East_Baggie - 06-10-2014
Carlos Vela maybe worth a shout? From the odd snippet I have heard he has done pretty well in Spain and improved a lot. He could definetly do a job in the role off the striker or on the wing?
RE: Former Players Who Would Improve Our Squad - DanTheSmethwickMan - 06-10-2014
Jay Simpson
Agree about Vela, he's come on leaps and bounds
RE: Former Players Who Would Improve Our Squad - silverbaggie - 06-10-2014
Paul Robinson anyone??
On a more serious note we have let quite a few strikers go in recent seasons, all of which seem to have been more Championship standard than good enough for the Prem.
Amalfitano scored recently for the Shammers. Did we give up to quickly on him?
RE: Former Players Who Would Improve Our Squad - Ska'dForLife-WBA - 06-10-2014
Ah, I'd forgotten about Vela. Imagine him and Lukaku as a strikeforce!
Amalfitano's an odd one. He just wasn't consistent enough for us last season, though I suspect we'd have been relegated without his contributions. Still, if West Ham get the best out of him, then it'll be an absolute steal for them.