So it’s official, captain Francesc Fabregas has officially asked manager, mentor and father figure Arsene Wenger to sign his mate Xabi Alonso, all the Juve rumours seem to have gone and the Alonso one has returned.
Will the boss listen? I hope so, if Cesc wants it, we should do it. I would have him Cana or Barry to be honest, but at 27 years old, he has to be favourite, by asking for him he has admitted that Denilson, Song and Diaby are not YET good enough, and you know what? I agree, Cesc says the others can learn from him, it really does show that Cesc reads Le Grove!
Thomas Vermaelen is another strong rumour and to be honest I don’t really know much about him, but he is a centre back, not a midfielder that we can convert, but a real live working and some say proven centre back, I don’t think Hangeland, Lescott or Chelleini are going to happen so why not?
Right now we have Rosicky, Diaby, Song, Cesc, Denilson, Ramsey, Nasri, Eboue, Merida, Barazite and Wilshere all competing for the central midfield roles, we have Arshavin, Bendtner, Ade, Theo, Vela, Simpson, Eduardo and Robin Van Persie competing for the forward two roles and only one if we play 4-5-1.
We have an awful lot of players in the same role, so maybe we should have a little clear out. I think we need 2 world class talents for each position, but we have little in the way of proper wingers, defensive midfielders or centre backs, so I’m sure selling a few spares will help fund what we do need.
Wenger says all his midfielders always want to play in the middle, well that’s because all the midfielders are central midfielders! Who can blame them?
Chav big mouth John Terry is asking rich Roman to buy Villa and Ribery, we won’t, so expect that to be on the cards, even more reason to get Xabi in quick, don’t hold out for a bargain, get him in now and get him used to the team, it has the added bonus of keeping Cesc and I’m sure that Cesc will improve as a result, he’ll have his back covered and have someone that can do what he can, he’s a tough tackler and Cesc can vouch for that.
I was watching the Arsenal season on Arsenal TV this weekend and realised that Ade can really play, but for me he’s given up on Arsenal and the fans have given up on him, so maybe he should disappear into the sunset, and maybe we could use that money to bring in David Villa from under the snouts of the dirty chavs.
The problem is, if we sold Ade for some decent money we would probably spend it on another training facility like we did with the Anelka cash, don’t know why though, all that the training complex has done for us is to somehow double our injuries!
I was calling on here last summer for the boss to buy Anelka, Anelka was too, what an impact he would have had eh??? Anyway we didn’t, so we need to look forward, we saw what an impact signing Arshavin had on the team and the fans, so we shouldn’t under estimate the valus of spending money on quality players has, I would also take a look at Robert Green, I like Almunia, but he still makes me nervous, anyway we won’t buy Green so I’ll leave that there as well.
I look forward to a summer of signing players that play in there natural positions, like get a centre back that is a centre back and a defensive midfielder that is …wait for it… a defensive midfielder! That way we may have the makings of a championship winning side.
I would like the third player to be a proper winger, like a Silva or a Young, but Young would cost too much, Silva on the other hand is Spanish, so that would be good news for Cesc and maybe Xabi.
Whatever we do, I hope we do it soon, I don’t think I could go through another summer and winter of discontent.
Have a great day grovers, the sun is shining and the window has finally opened!
shit, i just got home from uni, and theres still no transfer news!!!!
lol
This is going to be a long summer
all the hunnys r out today mannnn
ha ha incesc, the transfer window has been open about 18 hours ha ha
Gunner, if not Hanglenand then who would you bring in.
Haha 18 hours of hell Irish.
I reckon Gazidis should start writing in our players contracts that they are not allowed to leave us for Barcelona.
Llol incesc, the players value should differ depending on who wants them. Barca come knocking and cesc is 100m. They come for Ade and he’s theirs for 15m. Nice!
Gazidis better earn his pay packet, its his job to do the contracts now and get in the new players.
That is a good idea incesc
stu aint to sure but i would not be delighted to hear we have signed hangeland probably some1 like alex a beast like him
I just read they are after Cesc and while i think its bollox it would be annoying if another top player left us to sit on the bench else where.
and look at the players they have nicked off us in the last 10 years.
henry
silvinho
pleb
petit
overmars
and i believe 1 of the main reasons adebayor aint scored 30 this season is cause of the midfield last season it was a midfield of hleb rosicky cesc flamini also he went all of last season without any injuries longest he was out last season was probably like 2 games on a row i think and this season he has had to play with denilson song diaby in the midfield and a lot of games this season all 3 of them were in the same midfield plus major injuries to walcott cesc rosicky was the reason he was not gettin service to him we have missed hleb n rosicky plus arshavin did not join till febuary and he was injured when he joined. next season i hope he stays and with a midfield of walcott cesc ???? arshavin he should score more
he’s also been lazy and not bothered gunner
i understand that but if we had 2007/08 midfield it would of been a diff story
So we made £73m this season not including merchandising and gate receipts
Skint my arse
we are broke, patthe
Completely broke
Have people found out precisely when the transfer window is and how it all works etc?
Patthe, Yet another Arsenal contradiction, during the season we were led to believe that if we did not qualify for CL football it would not affect the club’s finances, we have qualified, yet again, so why cant we spend the ‘extra’ money on strengthening the squad.
We had a different midfield but we also had a different Ade.
The midfield create about 95% of ades goals and the rest was him just doing the easy bit…once in a while.
Ethan will give you the stats..something like Ade scored 5 goals in the last 5 months of the season.
Ade stopped working for the team imo because he thought he made it after 1 great personal season but he won us fuck all and demanded about 100k. And even got 80k or 110k depending on who you believe.
He lost his apetite and we should get rid of him. We shouldnt have a forward tha depends on the midfield to do his work.
Unfortunately (or so it seems) not until the 1st of July!
Still some deals can be agreed in principle prior to this date
Hi guys! We must make our transfers very fast this summer.If Chelsea can sign Zhirkov, so can we. Arsene and Ivan-wake up guys and make it fast.
-Gordon
-Marchena
-Zapata,
-Cana
-Arda Turan and we are sorted.
maybe a new fresh season will make ade hungry again?
Stu,
I respect Your view but still do think that Ade is just NOT GOOD enough.I would like to let him go. Play Arshavin as a second striker and give Bendtner and Theo more chances in the centre.Buy a proper winger and enjoy our play.Just my humble opinion.
Window opens on 1 June in England.
ok guys how about this for a mouth watering pair arshavina and david villa !! how amazin would that be
ok guys how about this for a mouth watering pair arshavin and david villa !! how amazin would that be
Where you get that from mike?
villa would never happen gunner
Maciek what would happen with gordon?! as in craig gordon??! he lost his starting place at sunderland to Fulop!!
Gordon is good but shite for sunderland because they face so many shots. For scotland and hearts before he was an amazing keeper because he didnt have much to save. The opposite to the likes of Given who looks great because of all the saves he has to make.
Know what i mean! But i wouldnt take Gordon unless he cost about 3m.
Ade out would be great. And if the rest cant handle it by december then just get Pogrebnyak in on a free. Simples!
I wouldn’t say that stu – Gordon in scotland and for scotland was amazing, i thought he’d be a great signing for sunderland, and he was awesome at first, but seemingly couldn’t deal with the pressure and went to shit. Can happen with keepers after original promise, remember richard wright?!
The rest will handle it stu, but by december arshavin, vp, eduardo, bendy, vela, theo will all have been banging in the goals, so there’d be no point in bringing in a 7th choice striker, even on a free!
Just saying IF A. Not saying they wont be able to cope.
And Gordon, in fairness to him he had a shite defence in front of him. He doesnt do well under intense pressure of 15plus shots on him a game. He wasnt under that kind of fire for scotland or at hearts. I think a move to a better club than sunderland would fix him.
Yeah true stu, but it’s very very rare that a keeper is made to look worse than he is by having his goal peppered, it’s usually quite the opposite, keepers always look better than they really are when the defence in front of them is shite etc, because they can make loads of flashy saves every game. Such as the likes of Carson, Foster, Kuszczak, Richard Wright and Fulop playing in the same team looks much better.
It’s more a case that Gordon lost confidence like Robinson and Gomes, but he’s easily young enough to regain the belief and consistency, likewise like Gomes did. I don’t think moving club would make any difference, he just needs to get over his issues and re-focus, going to a bigger club imo would probably be bad for him, because he’d be under more pressure
Yeah…….
Wikipedia
oh ok mike, thought you had some reputable source!! It really is annoying that all the different sources seem to have different dates, though I’m not sure it actually matters as transfers can just be post-dated.
Do people think there’s any chance of Bartley being in the first team squad next season, or is it too early for him??
A, I think that it’s to early for him to be in first team squad. As for Gordon-he can still come good, and overcome his problems. He is class. If not, give Fabiański a chnce. I have watched him since his Legia Warsaw days and he looked like a cclass act.
Liverpool’s balance sheets at the end of a season where they came close to ending a 19-year drought of league titles make interesting reading, according to The Liverpool Echo.
Debts at Anfield have apparently risen from £44 million at this time last year, to a total of £86 million, despite the club also reporting increases in revenue across the board, and pre-tax profits of £10.2 million.
Turnover has risen from £133.9 million last year, to a £159.1 million, with the major cause of that increase being the continued lucrative television deals that the Premier League continues to maintain with broadcasters Sky and the BBC.
The recruitment of Javier Mascherano, Diego Cavalieri, Andrea Dossena, David Ngog and Robbie Keane meant that the club’s net spending on transfers also increased, rising from £22 million to £28 million.
The accounts are set to be posted with Companies Houses today, in accordance with United Kingdom law.
What that debt means for the club’s summer transfer spending is unclear as yet, but manager Rafa Benitez has clashed in the past with the team’s American ownership over transfer policy, and the size of that debt will concern many fans of the Merseyside outfit.
So basically they got taken over and are in dept but they arent given big money to spend…… Thats nice.
if anyone thinks Ancelloti is a defense minded manager needs to be checked in with Susan Boyle…watch some ac milan before chatting!!
I have been doing some research on the Ajax defender that has been linked recently. He could be the missing link in defence. Very strong in the tackle and very good in the air. Alas he may be earmarked to take Willy G’s place!!
Mike, i was thinking the same. Height isnt everything, its just winning the ball that counts.
I cited Cannavaro earlier on as an example of that.
So Stu Vermeleen or Marchena or Brede H.?
One more potentially good right winger who I hope is already on AW’s radar is.. Victor Moses of Crystal Palace who scored for the England U19′s against Scotland in a 2-1 win tonight… a bid of approx £2-4 mil might capture him although their Chairman Simon Jordan would most probably scream blue murder to the FA if we went for both Clyne & Moses.. so this would have to be very much a sweetened deal if we ever chose to negotiate for the services of either player!
All 3 Maciek.
Maciek is the guy from Fulham not a bit on the slow side? And is Marchena not a central Midfielder?
Man ac milan are a pretty boring team, and play pretty defensively though, don’t get your point?!
mike he can’t be that good in the air, he’s only 5ft 11!
Gallas and kolo have looked very good in the air at times in their career, but it’s when two people who are both good in the air come up against each other the taller one will win the ball.
Cannavaro is and has been a sensational centre back, but you get two cannavaros as a centre back partnership and they’d get humiliated in the air!
redbearer why would we want moses though? he really isn’t that good, couldn’t see him ever being good enough to play for us, he’s nothing special at all imo
LOL Stu. Yeah, that would have been great.
THE MONEY LEAGUE TABLE
Earnings, in millions of pounds, by Premier League clubs in 2008/09 season (not including gate receipts or merchandise income) calculated by the Press Association.
Club PL Europe Cups Total
Man Utd 52.3 33.7 4.0 £90.0m
Liverpool 51.1 20.4 0.8 £72.3m
Chelsea 48.4 27.7 5.1 £81.2m
Arsenal 47.2 23.4 2.8 £73.4m
Everton 45.4 0 4.1 £49.5m
Aston Villa 45.2 0.4 0.8 £46.4m
Fulham 40.6 0 1.0 £41.6m
Tottenham 43.2 0.4 0.8 £44.4m
for full table see
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester_united/s/1118268_united_top_money_league
Well Marchena usually plays defence for Valencia and played in defence for the whole euro 08 tournament so i doubt he is a midfielder. Just a defender who is great on the ball and can play in midfield.
A, i agree re having 2 small defenders but i’d still take a chance on Vermaelen, provided we get a tall defneder in too. Rotate them depending on the opposition. Would keep them fresh too.
Agreed A , we need a Tall and quick CD to compliment the smaller guy. Any ideas?
And dont say Lucio.
AW can bring these players on… I recall Lennon being nothing special when he was at Leeds but Spuds spotted that he had some potential.. also Lampard imo has become a better player after the Chavs signed him up!
Sometimes it’s worth gambling on young English talent..
Mike mate. Hamgeland is slow( he is 1.96 cm tall) but he has a very good positioning( I don’t know if that is the best word so forgive me if I write something wrong). Marchena can play as a cdm and he is very good at it but he can also play as a cd and can do a job as well.His team mate- Raul Albiol is also a great defender, sp I wouldn’t mind to see them both.
I dunno stu, i don’t like the idea of rotating centre backs, because defending is as much to do with the relationship and partnership between the players as the individuals themselves, and that requires consistency and playing tegether week in week out.
Kolo is our smaller and quick centre back, we’ll be getting someone tall and powerful to partner him, I still like the thought of Alex in exchange with a deal for Ade, especially with ancellotti gone to chelsea and a known Ade admirer, can’t believe it’ll happen though!
Ha stu i resisted re lucio as i knew you’d pick up on it! (though he’d be amazing)
who do you guys think Carlo will take / lure with him to Chelski? or do do u think he will get rid of?
Im gonna suggest McManus of Celtic, Hangeland, Marchena/Albiol……….thats all i got for now.
Mike- Hangeland, Zapata, Bruno Alves.
PSG’s Sakho could be a find.. and if he’s good enough, he’s young enough to step up into the Prem!
I see Stu that You rate MCManus. He is from Scottish League. Remember Cuellar?Heis doing an ok job for Villa but nothing more.
i asked this question sometime ago but here goes again: Has anyone ever see Zapata play?
I dont like the idea of Kolo needing a partner to bring out the best in him. He has been around long enough to be good regardless of who he plays with. He is still irratic at times and i just dont think he is good enough to be at the heart of the defence. I might be alone in thinking that tho.
Not me Coadsi. I would think only a handful on here have seen enough of him to have a solid opinion of what he would bring.
we need to start defending from the front.. that includes our strikers as well.. did you guys see barcelona?
every player was giving a 100%.. we need to see that desire.
stu it’s the same as any partnership, vidic needs ferdinand to bring out the best in him, even cannavaro needs someone with more physicality alongside him to bring out the best in him, gallas does, in fact most of the top defenders do!
The problem with kolo is that he needs to just concentrate on his own game and be left to focus on that. With gallas there are weaknesses physically just because of their lack of height and power. With jd kolo is the senior man, and has to try and organise the defence, which is something he isn’t capable of.
What we need is a commanding powerful organiser, so kolo can just concentrate on being the sidekick he was alongside sol, which is a role he’s exceptional at.
thanx for the response stu. i have watched him a few times and i am not impressed. he looks like sluggish / lazy player. based on what i saw i would not like him at the club, but thats just me again, based on what i saw
Ok, I’m off to bed. Night guys!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-mcVcXHSQ8 WATCH THIS HILARIOUS
So Pelligrinni to Madrid then. The crazy season is well under way. Lets see what all these new coaches bring to the table at Chelski, RM, Milan, and Bayern. I see a lot of buying and swapping going on now. Hopefully we can get a bid going for someone and cash in a pot of gold which MUST be put back in the market with some smart buying.
that official lazer?? re pelegrini??
yup. It’s official A.
interesting, really is gonna be a different look to alot of the top teams in europe next season, could certainly result in an interesting summer, alot of managers with alot of spending power wanting to get their own players in
Fabregas, the Arsenal captain, has also defended Arsene Wenger following recent criticism of the team from supporters and club shareholders. “He has been criticised for some things that are not even his fault,” he said.
“He puts all the responsibility on himself which is probably why he gets criticised undeservedly. He is such a nice person and he is so committed to the club that he will always stand up and take the blame himself, rather than putting it on other people who are probably the ones who deserve it.”
Peligrini is used to working on a budget though. I admire the way his teams play but can’t stand the sight of RM so am a bit torn at the moment. Would have been a lot better if a fat bastard like Rafa or cunt like Mourinho was RM manager, make it all the easier to hate them more.
obviously everyones going to fighting it out for the big players and we will end up with some unknown players yet again,BOLLOCKS
That’s well said by Cesc in support of his manager but in all honesty isn’t the manager ALWAYS the one that gets all the blame. That’s the nature of the job I suppose so Wenger shouldn’t really get any sympathy for it imo.
so???
who are these other people?
the bullshitting directors?
We don’t have to sign the biggest name available to be successful even though that is the easiest and surest path to glory I suppose.
faceman where’s that from? i really wanna see the full cesc interview, rather than have silly people getting conned by it into thinking that cesc was saying wenger should buy alonso etc (no offence geoff/pedro!)
I think he means the players Faceman.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/arsenal/5424671/Cesc-Fabregas-Arsenal-need-Xabi-Alonso.html
i don’t think he does, lazer
its pretty apparent he does not mean the players
I dunno face – i would’ve assumed he’s talking about the players, probably aimed at flamini and hleb leaving and wenger having absolutely nothing he could do about it, but still somehow having people having a go at him about it etc
I don’t recall a summer where so many of the big clubs had new men at the helm all at once. Wonder what that means in the transfer marker, add to that City and Portsmouth’s apparent ambitions with Lerner pouring money into Villa as well.
i think the money issue is big, its all coming to a head this summer.
if we have it, he will spend big
if we don’t, and he has been protecting the directors.. we will know about it.
I feel he is. You think he is referring to the tight fisted board fuckers?
yup
face i’d certainly read that as him meaning the players, maybe flamini and hleb leaving, maybe the players letting everyone down on the pitch, maybe both.
Considering other parts of that interview have talked about losing hleb and flamini, it would follow that he’s referring to that.
Incredibly frustrating that none of the newspapers say where the interview was from, so we can’t read the whole thing, as it’d make all their spin invalid!
If you’re right, which I hope you are Faceman then that would make it prettyyyy interesting in the direction our club will be going imo. Clearly the board will lose backing unless we spend big and Kronke will come in with a takeover bid with intentions to spend big or atleast big-ger.
blimey… milan appointed leonardo as new boss….. weird one.
Yeah face – Milan must have looked at Newcastle appointing a playing legend with no previous managerial experience, and thought what a good idea it was!
So what’s going to happen in the merry go round then?
If Ronaldo stays then I don’t see the Mancs spending too big although Giggs and Scholes are a year older and they might liquidate Nani.
That would mean Ribery most probably goes to RM or Barca. If he goes to Barca then Henry will probably be forced to assume a bench spot (maybe we can bring him back after he won a CL medal). If he goes to RM then Snjeider is probably on the move. I could see the Chavs taking him to replace Malouda even though he came on pretty well since Jan under Guus.
If the Chavs and RM are seriously after Kaka then I can see a whole host of changes elsewhere. If Kaka goes to Chavs then maybe Lamps moves to Inter. If he goes period then Milan will be in the market with some cash as well.
I could go on…my heads spinning..
hmm I wonder if the most recent “quotes” are from the same interview in which he said barca are awesome etc, in which case it was a radio interview so the papers can basically write whatever they want because there’ll be no transcript of it to prove them wrong!
i wouldn’t want Henry back now Lazer. Rumours are that Henry should ribery sign could be off to mls
lets hope they fucking crash and burn the dirty chelsea cunts who the fuck do they think they are,worse then fucking tottnumb in my eyes now
well said bbk, and so articulately put and to the point
all this talk of kaka going here and ribery going there,it really does bring you back down to earth with a bump thinking about our current team right now.What do we have to look forward to another season of denilsong and bendtner wow,great
yeah and what the fuck were we thinking signing players like henry, vieira and pires ten years ago, we never stood a chance when utd were signing big name players like veron
A-no point beating about the bush,might aswell say it how it is
True bbk, though only with your first post, the second was pretty ridiculous! The invincibles, the greatest team in premiership history, didn’t have a single big signing
Wenger has tried to replicate that since and has failed he wil not uneart another henry,vieira and pires he will have to go out and buy them
but it does leave you feeling we have got one hell of a long road ahead of us we can’t compete with teams spending 100 mill on players
Song could become vieira, though it’s a long shot! Cesc is a different type of player, but not far behind in terms of quality
Henry was the best in the world, theo and/or vela could become world class strikers, and bendtner will be one hell of a player.
Arshavin is on par with pires, rosicky if he returns isn’t far behind, and nasri is far better than pires was at the same age, and imo he had a better first season than pires did disregarding age.
A- i don’t really think you can call them the greatest team in premiership history,they never retained the thing only then you can call them great i exclude the chavs from that one tho they brought there league titles so there exempt
not me bbk, don’t feel like that at all, and i certainly don’t feel that we can’t compete with teams spending 100 mil on players.
it’s all if, if, if,i think you overrate this lot way to much a
Of course they were bbk, they were the only team in premiership history to ever complete a season unbeaten, therefore the best team in premiership history in my eyes.
It’s irrelevant about retaining it, because that’s a new year, so a new league, and a new team, even if most of the players remained the same.
The Arsenal team in 03/04 was the greatest in Prem history imo by some distance
the way wenger goes on about them there great this and that if they were that good we would of seen a trophy by now
It was all if, if, if when we first signed henry, vieira, pires too
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1190174/Well-win-lotti-Adebayor-Pirlo-Alonso-Carlos-transfer-wish-list.html?ITO=1490
Please let it be true!
don’t agree
the players we got now are no where near good enough to go toe to toe with man u liverpool and chelsea,especially with there transfer budget and personnel in there teams already..no way
I think Wenger will have his day, the boys will grow up mixed in with the youth coming out of the academy finally and some experience added as well and we will go another season undefeated while spending 1/10th of the money and playing the most beautiful football the world has seen. And then maybe I’ll wake up and make some coffee..
we are fighting a battle that we simply will not win ££££££ makes the world go round,if we can’t beat them join em
bbk i personally believe our first eleven would beat any of utd chelsea and liverpool, let alone be good enough to go toe to toe with them.
We only lost to one of them in the league all season, and that was in a game after getting knocked out of the champs league where our confidence was non existant, we can easily compete with them, if it wasn’t for injuries.
I expect us to be a level above them come the start of next season, let alone just be able to compete.
Agree with you there A.
counting the final 11 games of the season, ie since arshavin came in and was a tiny bit settled, we were only a couple of points behind liverpool and chelsea, and ahead of utd. That was despite not having a defence.
Currently since Arshavin arrived we’re on par with the rest.
With our defence back/new defensive recruits, rosicky, and eduardo, we’ll be a fair way ahead of the rest
cheers lazer, good to know.
People say the injuries are just an excuse, but no team has won the league since 03/04 with serious injuries to first team players. Probably before 03/04 too i’m sure, i just couldn’t be bothered to count the appearances up before then!
Yeah i did a comparison earlier about if Barca missed the same nnumber of players whether they would be competitive, which I think no could disagree with.
rosicky was bought with a history of injuries, that wa why he was cheap. we cannot complain about luck as far as he is concerned. the boss likes to gamble (imo) on players with injury histories, paying less and hoping they will pay off like kanu, Overmars.
Kanu wasnt the same player after his heart injury and i think he was highly frustrated coming off the bench…i never understood why Wenger kept playing him off the bench.
looks like liverpool are in fact still after barry. bollox.
http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/09/06/02/manual_065639.html&TEAMHD=soccer
I want an ANCHOVY PIZZA!
Totally agree with that Freduardo, add Bishcoff and Silvestre to that list, he even bought them when they were injured.
Morning Geoff!
at what time is the new post?
Bang on 9 Cartman, and good morning to you!
Its been about two months that i’ve been here and there has been a new post everyday without fail! So I just wanted to thank you and Pedro also!
Cheers mate!
morning all,
Looks like the spuds are after Lorik Cana for a reported £5mil……wtf !! that should be within our budget!! If Wenger is not going for him, he must have other plans…..or he’s letting Spuds set the price low so we can go in and sign him for around the same price…..you know Marseile will bump the price up if its arsenal going for him !!
spuds after cana and for only 5m! the worlds gone mad.
New post going up now!