Essential The Official Football (Soccer) Thread - We are SO back, the Premier League returns!
AlphaOne
OFT XI E Squad
The real Iniesta.
Better than that number 8 fraud.
Better than that number 8 fraud.
My nikka!! ya'll play Fantasy premier league on here? Where can I join?You're not in the league.
osvaldo at soton , ayo @
Cabaye bid was before the Villa game. The lad's had a shocker.From tomorrow's Times from Matt dikkinson
GOAT Wum
entire article here
As statements from fans’ groups go, it is hard to recall one more sensible or restrained than the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust spelling out in measured language yesterday that it would be “inappropriate” for the club to discuss a new contract with Arsène Wenger.
This was “Spend some f****** money” and “You don’t know what you’re doing” — if not quite “Wenger out” — delivered with calm, common sense and a heavy heart.
Give Wenger a new contract? You do not have to be one of the hysterical ranters at the Emirates Stadium, or Piers Morgan, to regard any suggestion of a new deal for the Frenchman as baffling given that the club’s direction is anywhere but forward. But then Arsenal have done a strong line in baffling for a while.
And here we go again. A summer of dithering. Calls from agents to the club: “That player you are interested in. We need to get something done, there are other clubs sniffing around.” “Hmmm, Arsène isn’t quite sure just yet. We’ll get back to you.”
And the call never comes, or it comes too late. If we are ranking Arsenal’s problems, this prevarication has consistently been far more damaging than the rashness of Wojciech Szczesny or Olivier Giroud’s obvious flaws at No 9.
We used to love that Wenger scouted players so meticulously, like watching José Antonio Reyes 40 times, including videos of training sessions. We would marvel at his thoroughness.
Now, as we wish him a graceful ending to his Arsenal career while increasingly fearing it will prove elusive, we despair as contract extensions are delayed and bungled, targets missed through indecision and a club stalled by such naivety in the transfer market that it has long become embarrassing.
Turn away now, Arsenal fans. Only last week Wenger was telling the senior executive of another Barclays Premier League club that he did not share the agitation of those urging him to spend money at Arsenal. He said that he was at ease with his squad. New additions would be nice, he said, but not necessary to compete for honours including the title.
That was then. It appears to have taken just one home defeat by Aston Villa to strip away the delusion. But this was a loss that, according to at least one witness in the boardroom, saw twitchy Arsenal directors turn ashen.
So now the infamous trolley dash of 2011 is about to be repeated. You will remember the last one necessitated by the humiliation of an 8-2 defeat away to Manchester United. André Santos, Per Mertesacker, Mikel Arteta and Park Chu Young arrived along with Yossi Benayoun on loan in a unseemly 11.59pm frenzy so at odds with Wenger’s usual caution.
And didn’t it work out well. We can score it 1½ of five.
Perhaps this one will turn out better. Maybe Arsenal can save themselves after a summer which so far has involved trying and failing to take players from Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Liverpool — in the latter case, having failed to discover that the “exit clause” in Luis Suárez’s contract was so meaningless that his agent cannot have read it before signing.
Yesterday, rattled by that defeat by Villa, Arsenal made a bid for Yohan Cabaye, of Newcastle United, whom Wenger has considered for some time but dithered about while dabbling for Luis Gustavo and wondering if, actually, he might be too similar to Arteta. Cabaye is a high-quality passer, an Arsenal type, with some snap in his tackle.
If Arsenal can also land the potent Michu then the mood may turn, although it will involve tough negotiations with Swansea City who have never felt less pressure to sell given the guaranteed windfall from the new Premier League broadcast deal, stability under Michael Laudrup and a prospective campaign in Europe.
It seems strange to be bidding for Ashley Williams at 28 when Arsenal could have bought the future in Phil Jones and Chris Smalling but for, yes, more prevarication. But he could bring some improvement at centre half.
We shall see. Two weeks to spend money. Two weeks to soothe the nerves that are so frayed ahead of the Champions League qualifiers against Fenerbahçe.
Beat the second-best team in Turkey, conjure a few good signings and the supporters can pause for breath but it has taken only one defeat to highlight the tension and brittleness. Wenger knows it. “I believe that our season will depend on how we respond to this defeat,” he said on Saturday.
It is a remark that says everything about a club which, having salvaged fourth place last season on the back of a run of eight wins in ten games, said that they would learn from their mistakes, buy well (perhaps even lavishly) this summer and return considerably strengthened — and is already fractious and divided.
In such testing circumstances, the AST did well to be so measured. To give Wenger a new contract would not only be “inappropriate” but a whole lot stranger than that.
Arsenal have a bad reputation for letting contracts run down but in the case of the manager, there is no sensible alternative. Wenger must earn a new one. And Arsenal must start planning a future without him in case he cannot.
I know that, I did GCSE French, but I aint goin to google the alt accent keys just so I can give the a a hat just to please you.
But for the rest of your post
Lyon's youthBenzia
I flopped the oral exam so badly.
Teacher asked me all kinds of shat and I just sat there nodding my head waiting for it to end.
Easily the most excruciating 15 minutes of my school life.
I know it's kinda hypish to call everythin fase-ish but I couldn't say it otherwise.False left winger eh?
What I meant was that unlike a Ribéry or a Navas who are true wingers with pace, ability to go 1 on 1 against the full backs and playing along the lines (baseline or sideline), Gourcuff like Pastore or Isco drops deep and plays more in the middle of the pitch (for the full backs to occupy the wings), relying on its vista more than his pace and playing more as a second offset 10 than a true winger. Hence, the "false".
Lyon plays tonight so if Gourcuff is in the same position, maybe you'll understand what I mean.
From Kunty's signature :My nikka!! ya'll play Fantasy premier league on here? Where can I join?
Dude is loyal to his club, can we blame him ?
But considering his stats with Lyon (goals/assists) :
If sold, he should at least be to a "good" club and not to any given club that has the money.
He is, he's one of the few who scored 4 goals in a CL match alongside Van Basten, Messi, Lewandowski, Sheva or Inzaghi. He's up there, yeah. Men lie, women lie, numbers don't
Stop wanking Monsieur Scorch.I told you guys about Kevin De Bruyne. Breh is an absolute must-have in fantasy. 7m for an assist machine is a no-brainer.
This ball doe
Let's see if he's consistent and let's see how he performs 3 months from now before drawing any conclusion.
I told you guys about Kevin De Bruyne. Breh is an absolute must-have in fantasy. 7m for an assist machine is a no-brainer.
This ball doe
7m player but hes a risk as mata, oscar and hazard should be ahead of him in the pecking order
Mon ami, you should take my fantasy advice. Lloris captain ffs
But yeah, not getting too excited tbh. Very promising debut doe, albeit against a weaker team.
Lol, I put him as Vice-captain and put Touré as captain.Mon ami, you should take my fantasy advice. Lloris captain ffs
But yeah, not getting too excited tbh. Very promising debut doe, albeit against a weaker team.
I really don't think there is a pecking order and I doubt Mourinho is going to be as dependent on Mata as the previous managers were.
De Bruyne can play virtually anywhere in midfield so that should mean more games for him.
