*Official* English Football Season 2009-2010

[Jarquis]

WAG
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...n-loves-London-but-is-baffled-by-customs.html

 

[aussie]

Complete and utter bull****.

Its still early days, but this Arsenal team clearly doesn't have the quality to last a entire season & win the league. Just sold their main goal-scorer (regardless of the other issues he had) & have not improved that soft mid-field.

 

[Jarquis]

Its still early days, but this Arsenal team clearly doesn't have the quality to last a entire season & win the league. Just sold their main goal-scorer (regardless of the other issues he had) & have not improved that soft mid-field.

How on Earth is that clear? How are you in a position to say that? Based on the evidence so far this season Arsenal have every chance. Nobody has really set the league on fire and we're playing pretty damn well ourselves. We have every chance.

People overplay the soft midfield for my money, Song has done terrifically well this year in the midfield and he certainly has a little more bite about him than the alternatives. In no way am I comparing him to Player A or Player B elsewhere but he compliments the rest of our team pretty well. As Sledger mention so long as we can keep key players fit we'll be in with a shout right until the final weekend.

Also last year we didn't have Arshavin for the first half of it. I can't remember the exact statistic but in games that he has featured we have done considerably better, so whilst they doesn't make our midfield any physically stronger it improves the quality no end.

Honest to God I don't think we'd have faired any better this season thus far had we kept Adebayor.

 

[BoyBrumby]

The depth is potentially an issue (Theo buggered for another month now ), no doubt, but hopefully a few of the yoofs are now maturing into the real deal. Mannone looks a talent (certainly more composed than Alumunia looked in his first few games for us), Song played one of his best games for us versus Brum & even Diaby is finally threatening to turn into the player he looked like becoming before he bust his ankle. Only three players who border on irreplaceable for us are Cesc, Vermaelen and Billy.

Still fancy the Chavs, but if they keep losing to teams like Wigan & Villa (and defend set-pieces like schoolgirls) who knows?

 

[Jarquis]

The depth is potentially an issue (Theo buggered for another month now ), no doubt, but hopefully a few of the yoofs are now maturing into the real deal. Mannone looks a talent (certainly more composed than Alumunia looked in his first few games for us), Song played one of his best games for us versus Brum & even Diaby is finally threatening to turn into the player he looked like becoming before he bust his ankle. Only three players who border on irreplaceable for us are Cesc, Vermaelen and Billy.

Still fancy the Chavs, but if they keep losing to teams like Wigan & Villa (and defend set-pieces like schoolgirls) who knows?

If I could pick one area of the team to pick up an injury, wide midfield would be it. Plenty of depth out there. Mannone looks talented yes, but by no means is he the finished article. Still very very shaky and I'm expecting Almunia back for tomorrow's game.

Diaby has more talent (natural ability) in his left hand than Song does in his entire body but Song has a much better attitude and work rate. Too many times before Diaby has gone AWOL or had a complete and utter brain fart (United game being a prime example) but the pair of them put in 2 rather quite good performances on the weekend and Song especially has impressed me this year.

 

[duffer]

People overplay the soft midfield for my money, Song has done terrifically well this year in the midfield and he certainly has a little more bite about him than the alternatives. In no way am I comparing him to Player A or Player B elsewhere but he compliments the rest of our team pretty well. As Sledger mention so long as we can keep key players fit we'll be in with a shout right until the final weekend.

Also last year we didn't have Arshavin for the first half of it. I can't remember the exact statistic but in games that he has featured we have done considerably better, so whilst they doesn't make our midfield any physically stronger it improves the quality no end.

The problem isn't Denilson or Diaby per se, it's the times when we have to play Denilson, Diaby and Eboue in the same midfield. For mine it will still end up happening too often to win a league but when we have Cesc, Rosicky and Arshavin in the same team it's a joy to watch.

As far as areas of improvement goes, obviously defensive midfield is a key point, as is the goalkeepers, Mannone has made two errors which cost us goals in our last two games and Almunia has been flakey this season, apart from Theo we have no real pace in attack and if van Persie goes down we're left with an injury prone Dudu and then a lot of young strikers are thrown into the deep end. Then we have the one injury away from Silvestre situation that we're living now.

Ideally we'd be looking at bringing in at least a Chamakh, midfielder, keeper and centre back. I think Ramsey, Frimpong et all are slated to be our new midfielders, but the other areas we really should be buying if we are serious about challenging for all the trophies.

 

[Uppercut]

Think it was shown a while ago that Liverpool's net spend over the past few years is fairly colossal.

Indeed.

He's signed:

Robbie Keane, £20.3m
Javier Mascherano, £18.6m
Jermaine Pennant, £6.7m
Ryan Babel, £11.5m
Craig Bellamy, £6m
Mark Gonzalez, £4.5m
Fernando Morientes, £6.5m
Dirk Kuyt, £7m
Peter Croouch, £7m
Andrea Dossena, £7m
Glen Johnson, £10m
Lucas Leiva, £6m
Yossi Benayoun, £5m
Mohammad Sissoko, £5.3m
Dan Agger, £5.8m
Luis Garcia, £6m
Martin Skrtel, £6.5m
Albert Riera, £8m-
Alvaro Arbeloa, £3.5m
Gabriel Paletta, £2m-
David Ngog, £1.5m-
Sebastian Leto, £1.85m

That's £158.55m in total, Torres not included.

Add Aquilani to that for £20m. And if Sledger is to be believed the figure for Glen Johnson is closer to £17m.

 

[sledger]

Indeed.



Add Aquilani to that for £20m. And if Sledger is to be believed the figure for Glen Johnson is closer to £17m.

As if you would ever doubt me.

 

[The Sean]

Add Aquilani to that for £20m. And if Sledger is to be believed the figure for Glen Johnson is closer to £17m.

Indeed, the only reason it every quoted as low as £10-11m for Johnson is because some Liverpool fans insist on taking what Portsmouth still owed them for Crouch off the fee. The transfer was £17m.

 

[marc71178]

You are aware that net spend means you have to take into account cash received from sales don't you?

 

[Uppercut]

Ha, missed the word net.

Feel free to subtract sales income if you like. You can find them all here.

 

[grecian]

**** RvP I had money on him scoring first, the unselfish ****

Makes me hate football, all the more, tbh.......

 

[The Sean]

You are aware that net spend means you have to take into account cash received from sales don't you?

The list was of Liverpool's signings and their fees, not their sales.

 

[The Sean]

Rangers now 4-1 down to Unirea Urziceni. At home.

 

[Jarquis]

Grrr, a point is a point. It isn't like we're in risk of not qualifying.

 

[The Sean]

Grrr, a point is a point. It isn't like we're in risk of not qualifying.

Yeah for sure, of the three average-to-poor results for British clubs tonight, yours was by some distance the least critical.

Really don't know how I feel about facing Liverpool at Anfield on the back of four straight defeats - United are a better side in better form, but Liverpool are due a major rebound sometime soon and what better time to do it than against their most hated rivals?

 

[Jarquis]

I'd be worrying about how long is left if I were him.

 

[The Sean]

And just for those who missed it:

Barcelona 1 - 2 Rubin Kazan. Crazy results tonight.

 

[Jarquis]

Yeah for sure, of the three average-to-poor results for British clubs tonight, yours was by some distance the least critical.

Really don't know how I feel about facing Liverpool at Anfield on the back of four straight defeats - United are a better side in better form, but Liverpool are due a major rebound sometime soon and what better time to do it than against their most hated rivals?

Yeah I don't know what to expect from that game. I can see you giving them a real pasting and that being that for Benitez but the amount of times you see teams pull out some remarkable results to bounce out of some bad form, you wouldn't put it past them. Very interesting.
Would a draw be good enough for Benitez?

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah for sure, of the three average-to-poor results for British clubs tonight, yours was by some distance the least critical.

Really don't know how I feel about facing Liverpool at Anfield on the back of four straight defeats - United are a better side in better form, but Liverpool are due a major rebound sometime soon and what better time to do it than against their most hated rivals?

If Gerrard and Torres are still out, I wouldn't fear a rebound, but there's never a good time to play Liverpool away really.