*Official* English Football Season 2007-08

[Scaly piscine]

Not one to ever ever ever ever rub things in, but what was all that bollocks months earlier from certain CDMs fans in particular insisting chief poseur was loyal and loved the club?

As for chief whingeur - missed out on an extra £10 million minimum by selling him a year late.

 

[bugssy]

Not one to ever ever ever ever rub things in, but what was all that bollocks months earlier from certain CDMs fans in particular insisting chief poseur was loyal and loved the club?

As for chief whingeur - missed out on an extra £10 million minimum by selling him a year late.

yer got to agree with that.

giddy up liverpool!

 

[BoyBrumby]

Oh, and Arsenal are throwing a few hundred thousand at Bodø/Glimt competitors Haugesund to buy Håvard Nordtveit (16) (with option for £2 million).

He any good?

Was Scaly right in saying Arsenal should have sold him last summer? If they sell him this summer then yes IMO

Yeah he is.

Interesting who would replace him though. Adriano, it would be a big gamble, but if they can get him back to his former self then he would probably make them (other defences) his bitch.

Not one to ever ever ever ever rub things in, but what was all that bollocks months earlier from certain CDMs fans in particular insisting chief poseur was loyal and loved the club?

As for chief whingeur - missed out on an extra £10 million minimum by selling him a year late.

TBF he only had one year left on his contract at the end of last season; I very much doubt we'd have got anymore than we received now. He's a soon-to-be 30-year-old with a chronic back condition & the fact that we accepted less than yer Irons offered for Darren Bent () reflects that. I'm not going to lie & say I'm pleased to see him go, but something's very clearly rotten in the state of Denmark just now which has probably affected his decision. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Dein & Kroenke launching a hostile take over very soon. The fact our bored (sic) are making a big show about keeping Arsenal in English hands is laughable, hypocritical & not a little disrespectful to all the non-Englishmen who've done so much for us of late.

Replacements? I've heard Torres & Owen mooted, with the latter several dozen times more likely IMHO.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

He any good?

Well. Not made huge waves yet and tbh the first time I heard of him was that Arsenal's sought his interest. Centre-back though, so will need at least 60 pounds of extra flesh to be worth his salt.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Out of interest what is it about Cech you consider over-rated? It is because he plays for Chelsea who generally has a very good defence in front of him, and I'm willing to stand to be corrected, but how many high profile errors has he made, or is it something else?

You've said that for ages but IIRC never really gone into much detail why

Basically has his job made much much easier by his defence, which is possibly the best defence I've seen. Has made a number of mistakes that tend to go unnoticed due to his defence, and always seems rubbish to me when it comes to crosses.

One game that comes to mind in particular was Blackburn (FA Cup semi), where he consistently came out for crosses and got nowhere near (can remember two that Blackburn definitely should have scored from, may have been more). Then made one relatively ok save by his post (I think the post might have had an input into this save too, but don't quote me on this, I can't remember too well) and Tyler in particular was raving about how well he'd played.

I can't actually remember him making any saves/doing anything genuinely world class, and (somewhat understandably) he's IMO got a bit worse since the injury (though I didn't rate him particularly highly beforehand). One exception to this is he had a good game in the run-in, against someone who I can't remember. Might have been Portsmouth? Made a couple of good saves there, though was a bit of a one-off.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Gutted that Henry's gone but can't help thinking that at £16 million, Wenger has done another shrewd piece of business.

Not really, would have got a lot more if sold last summer and you wouldn't have missed much this season.

 

[Tom Halsey]

TBF he only had one year left on his contract at the end of last season; I very much doubt we'd have got anymore than we received now.

Debatable, the media obviously isn't *that* reliable but the figures being mentioned were considerably more than £16 million, and when it comes to prices they're usually pretty good.

 

[Pratters]

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!

 

[aussie]

All the talk is how Henry's departure is going to affect Arsenal & how a big loss he will be to the premiership, which is true since i've enjoyed him over the last 7 years his cool celebrations added to his brilliance will be missed. But really what will his arrival do to Barcelona how can (if its possible) for them to play Henry/Eto'o/Ronaldinho/Messi at once or will they sell Eto'o?. United look out..

 

[TT Boy]

All the talk is how Henry's departure is going to affect Arsenal & how a big loss he will be to the premiership, which is true since i've enjoyed him over the last 7 years his cool celebrations added to his brilliance will be missed. But really what will his arrival do to Barcelona how can (if its possible) for them to play Henry/Eto'o/Ronaldinho/Messi at once or will they sell Eto'o?. United look out..

For what? Eto has already rebuffed the thought of joining Untied (many a time).

Also the plan last year was to play all four together so unless Eto wants rid or Barca want rid of Ronaldinho, Barca should line up with all four on the pitch next season. Should be a tantalising prospect.

 

[DCC_legend]

Looks like Eriksson is close to taking the Managers spot at Man City.

 

[TT Boy]

Basically has his job made much much easier by his defence, which is possibly the best defence I've seen. Has made a number of mistakes that tend to go unnoticed due to his defence, and always seems rubbish to me when it comes to crosses.

One game that comes to mind in particular was Blackburn (FA Cup semi), where he consistently came out for crosses and got nowhere near (can remember two that Blackburn definitely should have scored from, may have been more). Then made one relatively ok save by his post (I think the post might have had an input into this save too, but don't quote me on this, I can't remember too well) and Tyler in particular was raving about how well he'd played.

I can't actually remember him making any saves/doing anything genuinely world class, and (somewhat understandably) he's IMO got a bit worse since the injury (though I didn't rate him particularly highly beforehand). One exception to this is he had a good game in the run-in, against someone who I can't remember. Might have been Portsmouth? Made a couple of good saves there, though was a bit of a one-off.

Presumably when Cech beat all domestic records back home in the Czech Republic, was voted in the Euro 2004 'All Star' side and the French Ligue 1 side of the year, it was also down to the uncanny defensive ability Sparta Prague, Rennes and the Czech Republic possessed?

Or is the Ben Foster argument going to be used in this instance? **** defence = more saves to make...

 

[Tom Halsey]

Presumably when Cech beat all domestic records back home in the Czech Republic, was voted in the Euro 2004 'All Star' side and the French Ligue 1 side of the year, it was also down to the uncanny defensive ability Sparta Prague, Rennes and the Czech Republic possessed?

Nope, can't remember him in Euro 2004, and didn't watch the others. Might have played well, wouldn't know.

 

[TT Boy]

Tis a shame Chelsea’s defensive could not overate the abilities of Henrique Hilário and Carlo Cudicini…

 

[Tom Halsey]

Tis a shame Chelsea’s defensive could not overate the abilities of Henrique Hilário and Carlo Cudicini…

a) Cudicini did quite well
b) Hilario's mistakes were given way more criticism than Cech's. For example, Cech was awful against West Ham, nothing said (apart from at the time, after it was forgotten). Hilario makes a mistake against Arsenal (which was bad but not as bad as Cech's), gets murdered.

EDIT: Should also add that Hilario is simply not very good, so I don't see your point there.

 

[Spitfires_Fan]

Not really, would have got a lot more if sold last summer and you wouldn't have missed much this season.

I agree with what Boy Brumby said on this one:

TBF he only had one year left on his contract at the end of last season; I very much doubt we'd have got anymore than we received now. He's a soon-to-be 30-year-old with a chronic back condition & the fact that we accepted less than yer Irons offered for Darren Bent () reflects that.

I still think that 16 million is a good price for any 29 year old player, even one of Henry's calibre.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Somewhat late, but RIP Scarborough FC.

Writing has been on the wall for months if not years.

The next question is simply, "who's next?". A Woking fan mate is worried it's going to be them. Whoever it is, it'll probably mean either Altrincham or Forest Green escape relegation. Again.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Writing has been on the wall for months if not years.

The next question is simply, "who's next?". A Woking fan mate is worried it's going to be them. Whoever it is, it'll probably mean either Altrincham or Forest Green escape relegation. Again.

First ex-league team to go to the wall since, what, Maidstone? Feel for the fans, think it's only a matter of time before Cambridge City & Cambridge United merge. Two seasons at the outside.

 

[Scaly piscine]

I agree with what Boy Brumby said on this one:



I still think that 16 million is a good price for any 29 year old player, even one of Henry's calibre.

Why would he not go for a lot more? He was at optimum hype (particularly pre-World Cup) and he was perceivably at his peak or reaching his peak. The CDMs should have known better than anyone that he was about to go on the decline, but Barca and the like wouldn't. The CDMs missed their opportunity to pull a Shevchenko, they waited too long to sell Vieira and they've repeated the mistake with chief poseur.

 

[bugssy]

i think arsenal will miss him big time. and agree with what scaly said with viera....

liverpool have signed 2 young guns from

Liverpool

In: Krisztian Nemeth, Andras Simon (both MTK Hungaria, undisclosed)

Out: Danny Guthrie (Bolton Wanderers, season loan)

The Spaniard was thought to be growing frustrated at the situation, despite promises of money from American owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks, but he insists there are no problems.

So far, Liverpool’s most prominent activity has involved tying key players Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Xabi Alonso and Jose Reina to new contracts.