Leighton "Bolt" Baines

[toffeestillidie]

I may get a lot of heat for this, but I think he will prove out to be Moyes best signing in 1-3 years.

have we signed Moutinho yet? by any chance

i won't give you crap for it because i largely agree

because of jagielkas stellar season he was largely overshadowed, but going forward i thought he was one of our best players, which is difficult to do as a defender. he just seems to be one of our best ball handlers, which is difficult to find in a left back and i think it proved invaluable. its also nice knowing that (assuming we hold onto lescott), once the injuries clear up, we could always play hibbo/neville - yobo - jags - lescott in the back with baines as left midfield.

the price tag for me means he can't be moyes's best signing, but if we do become a team challenging for major silverware (like the league), he's one of the few players that i think could comfortably stay.

 

[Screech]

Price tag means nothing when it comes to judging the quality of a signing, it only really matters when they're a flop, because then you can say that a team paid £20m for a piece of crap etc.

£6m is an absolute steal for Baines

 

[toffeestillidie]

Price tag means nothing when it comes to judging the quality of a signing, it only really matters when they're a flop, because then you can say that a team paid £20m for a piece of crap etc.

£6m is an absolute steal for Baines

true it is a steal, and i think when judging the quality of a sky 4 team's signing, you shouldn't consider price tag. but for us every pound matter, if we spend to much on one player, that prevents us from possibly buying another player.

when moyes bought players like lescott, cahill, arteta, and yobo for penny's, i think surely one of them must be our best signing. lets not forget howard, after he did so well for us i'm not sure how we still pulled that off

 

[Screech]

I thought Lescott was rising to £5m on clauses?

 

[toffeestillidie]

I thought Lescott was rising to £5m on clauses?

is he? maybe i'm wrong, i thought it was just 4

 

[chriswho]

He's lucky really, if Yobo hadn't have picked up that injury against Chelsea Leighton Baines probably wouldn't be at the club, I honestly believe that.

I hate to admit it, but Toxeth got it right with this comment. He was class but he hadn't fit in until he got a good run in due to the injury. It was looking like he just wasn't going to fit in. Moyes kept saying he was going to be the LB, but back then, it was Lescott on the left and Yobo and Jags in the middle.

I'm never happy for an injury, but I feel like getting Baines some good time on the field helped him gain confidence and kept us from losing a great signing before he was able to shine.

Not only that, but I think his chemistry with Pienaar has been a VERY pleasant suprise. The two of them looked spectacular at times this year and I look forward to more of the same.

I don't think any two players have the same understanding and chemistry on field as those two - they seem to get "on the same page" far more than any other pairing for our blues.

 

[Blue Wiz]

Baines and Pienaar have really given us a good left side, if only we could find (and afford to buy) two right siders as good as they are to give us a strong right side as well.

 

[chriswho]

Baines and Pienaar have really given us a good left side, if only we could find (and afford to buy) two right siders as good as they are to give us a strong right side as well.

Agreed. I never noticed how lacking we were on that side until I began to see Baines and Pienaar control the left. I guess I had been willing to settle for "good guys trying hard" and not expecting excellence (I love Hibbo and Ossie - but they are overacheived this last season, and sometimes even that fell short).

I hope we continue to always field "good guys trying hard" but I hope we can find a pair of those good guys with the talent and chemistry to make us really dangerous on both sides.

The FA cup final made this abundantly clear - Cole and Malouda didn't respect our side so they kept pushing up since we weren't making them play any defense on that side.

Take a moment to think about how nice it would be if we got top flank play on both sides, crossing into Cahill, Felliani, and others in the center... we could spread out defenses and create some nice aerial mismatches.