Pie can you write to Liverpool and ask them to give Craig Bellamy the surgery he's needed for many years now, the poor man clearly has no neck.
Pie can you write to Liverpool and ask them to give Craig Bellamy the surgery he's needed for many years now, the poor man clearly has no neck.
Arsenal are also looking at Kuyt. So are Liverpool. Everyone's looking at Kuyt and I wouldn't be surprised if Chelsea bought him just to spite us all! >:O
Arsenal're looking at Saviola and I think that's great ^_^ I really like him. Someone also said something about selling Ashley Cole to Chelskanrjy for 20 mil' and getting...Michael...Carrick?! But wasn't he offered to us a while ago for 3 mil'?! O_O I am not sure about this. Not sure at all.
Hargreaves is Canadian. Everyone wants him.
Don't scare me, the team's mucked up enough. The only problems are strikers and defence. £6M for Bellamy is a massive bargain.Originally Posted by Loony BoB
LET THE HAMMER FALL
What? I'd love to have Beckham in Milan. Although I doubt he'd come now that they're in Serie B.
Owen's only out til new year, the injury was bad but not as bad as first thought, he's having surgery in Colorado.
LET THE HAMMER FALL
UNF! UNF! UNF!
"What is that noise?" I hear you ask? That is my reaction to Liverpool's summer transfers so far.
Craig Bellamy - Proven Premiership goalscorer with pace. 17 goals last season, and imagine how well he'll do with Gerrard and Alonso feeding him.
Gabriel Paletta - Can't say much about him because I've never seen him play, but he's apparently one for the future.
Fabio Aurellio - (We got him on a free, nice) I've seen a couple of games where he's played for Valencia, and he was class.
Mark Gonzalez - Finally got a work permit. This is the transfer I am most excited about. Chile's star player, and when we loaned him out to Sociedad last season he managed 5 goals in 12 games (remember he's a winger and had just come back from a serious injury) including a 35 yard screamer and one against Real Madrid, and Sociedad fans hail him as the reason they stayed up. Yes, yes and yes.
There are only one or two transfers left for Rafa to make. Personally, I think itwill either be Daniel Alves, or Jermaine Pennant and Dirk Kuyt.
Arsenal don't need Kuyt, as Saviola is pretty much theirs, and I can't see why on earth Kuyt would take Newcastle over Liverpool, unless he's got brain damage (Unless they do something fantastically stupid like bid £17m again)
Pennant...hmm...slightly iffy, but he did make more crosses in the Premiership last season than any other player, while playing for Birmingham of all teams, so we'll see.
Ashley Cole leaving Arsenal wouldn't be so bad for our resident army of Gooners, as I for one would like to see whether Clichy has what it takes to become a good player. The same goes for RVN's departure from Man United - surely they have to give Rossi a first team run sooner or later, or else there's no point in having him, unless Sir Alex is determined to win the reserves league.
I dunno about Ashley Cole leaving Arsenal but Sol Campbell just did. o_o All the best to him. Almost 200 appearances for us.Another one I forgot to mention was Yaya Toure. I think that would be subliminally awesome; so far as I saw in the WC, he's a pretty good player. ^_^ Both the Toure brothers -- ours?
That's good news for Arsenal fans, and hopefully this means Phillipe Senderos will grow as a player as a part of Arsenal's first choice centre-back pairing, with Djourou as backup.
I've said it before, but as I haven't said it yet in this thread I'll say it again: If Arsenal don't get a tough midfield player, they can look forward to coming fourth at the best. It's very well playing nice passing football against the likes of Aston Villa and Charlton, but when they come up against teams like Bolton and Blackburn, they'll be absolutely slaughtered if they make Fabregas and Rosicky their central pairing. Oh where are the Vieiras and the Petits of yesteryear?
Unless we think Abou "As good as Sissoko" (I'm never letting him forget that one) Diaby is going to start ahead of those two, Gilberto Silva and Hleb.
I rather liked Sol and whilst I am sad to see him leave I have to admit that his chances would have been better elsewhere.
I think saying Arsenal finishing in a second consecutive fourth place is a bit too harsh. Our players have demonstrated good defensive skills, strength and resilience in order to show what it takes to reaching major finals. The World Cup has no doubt provided valuable experience to many of our young players and will spark more hunger for trophies in some of our key players. There are some household names joining or likely to be joining our squad which will be good for the overall confidence of the team. Thierry Henry's contract renewal was absolutely key to us and will surely make the rest of the team willing to show him that he made the right decision in staying. There is only one pre-season worry which is the possible effects of the rounds of qualifying for CL might have on our earlier games. We could do with a positive start
...Geddit?
Sol campbell is leaving?. Yes it´s good news, remember West Ham United (2-3) home last season. And a bit too old now.
But here´s my new fave playerhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3L9T...omas%20rosicky
Why is that harsh? All the Premiership winning teams have had good defensive midfielders: United had Keane, Blackburn had Batty, Arsenal had Vieira (and Petit) and Chelsea have Makelele. If the only differences to the Arsenal squad are attacking ones - when there is absolutely nothing wrong with their attack to begin with - then I can't see how Arsenal can make up the 15 point gap on the top three.
I'm not saying they will definitely finish in fourth place. Arsenal can finish in the top three if they buy a good, solid defensive midfielder, because they need to grind out results in tough, battling games when teams won't let Arsenal play their usual passing game.Yeah, Arsenal's cup experience in recent years is an advantage over the Spurs and Newcastles of this world, but you could apply the same sentiments to the defences of Chelsea, Man United and Liverpool, and they're the ones you want to be challenging.Our players have demonstrated good defensive skills, strength and resilience in order to show what it takes to reaching major finals.And it will have most likely added fatigue to them. Remember how well Van Nistelrooy played in 02-03 after Holland didn't feature in the World Cup? Although that will affect other teams too, I do believe Arsenal had more players at this World Cup than anyone else.The World Cup has no doubt provided valuable experience to many of our young players and will spark more hunger for trophies in some of our key players.
And now, a note on the Lord of All Teams, Chelsea.
I get the feeling that in order to accomodate Shevchenko, Mourinho, that tactical genius (His genius involves sending on Robert Huth as a striker when Chelsea are losing. What a manager!) will play a 4-4-2 diamond formation, with the midfield consisting of Makelele, Ballack, Essien and Lampard. He played just that formation against Liverpool in the FA Cup, and what happened? Harry Kewell ripped them to shreds on the flank. That formation has absolutely no width, and they'll pay a heavy price for it. No doubt Jose will switch to his favoured 4-5-1/4-3-3 in September or October or so when he realises 4-4-2 diamond doesn't work, and hopefully by then Chelsea will have dropped enough points to allow another team to have forged ahead.
Also, Ballack and Lampard patnership in midfield? That reminds me of the Gerrard - Lampard England combination. Let's hope it produces the same results.
Oh, and Man United need some good widemen. Ronaldo can't cross, Giggs, a legend of the 90's is now past it, Kieran Richardson is good enough for West Brom but not good enough for potential title contenders, leaving Park Ji-Sung as the only decent one they have. If they buy Carrick, he and Alan Smith will provide a good central midfield - something they were lacking last season - and Scholes should just be used as a game-turning substitute or as cover, really. Other than the flanks, United have a very good team in all areas of the pitch. If I was Sir Redface, I'd move for the likes of Simao and Joaquin.
There were many problems with our defenders mid-season with the likes of Campbell going AWOL, both our left-backs injured and Lauren only making 11 apperances. We are not guaranteed to have that problem this year unless lightning strikes twice. We also have a few of our younger players maturing and going through a toughening-up process and we are sure to see more glimpses than what we saw last season of what good players they can become in the future. Don't forget we are still a young team and most of our players have not hit their peaks yet.
I really don't think the World Cup will have too long a lasting effect to do much damage to our early season campaign. I mean four weeks is almost an eternity to tennis players. If they can't handle being on the pitch after a month then they shouldn't be getting paid as much as they do. Also don't forget that only two members of our first team squad played a part in the last four games of the WC, three less than Chelsea, not to mention a lot of our players getting as little as only three games.
Based on last seasons final statistics we haven't had too bad a goal scoring record. We have scored way more goals then Liverpoool and conceded less than Manchester United. If we can convert more of the goals we score into matchwinners then we will be right on your tail
You're probably all already aware of this by now, but it's worth posting all the same. This is bad news for United, since while Ronaldo's game is slightly flawed at the moment, a few years under Sir Alex could have turned him into a world-beater. Psy's absolutely right to point out their lack of wide players (and I don't think much of Park Ji-Sung, either), and this can only add to their troubles.
In other news, it looks like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is off to Charlton, making him the first striker with personality ever to play for the Addicks. It's a good move from his point of view, since he's pretty much guarenteed some games there, which wasn't necessarily the case for 'Boro.
I'm sad to see Sol go, since he's been brilliant for us in the past, and I hope we'll go about finding a replacement in the summer. I like the idea of a Senderos/Toure central pairing, but beyond that our defensive options look dodgy. Djourou hasn't impressed me when I've seen him play, and Pascal Cygan is...well. Bring back Matthew Upson, I say.
You will when he proves me right.
"The most important and recognize player in the history of the country."
Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I were as great as Paulo Wanchope.
I would laugh pretty hard if both Real Madrid and Barcelona turned around and said "We don't want Ronaldo". :D
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