*Official* English Football Season 2014-15

[King Pietersen]

Arsenal captain Thomas Vermaelen agrees deal to join Manchester United this summer - Telegraph

Vermaelen has agreed to join United then. Another big blow to Arsenal, who have lost 2 key defenders to Title challenge rivals. All the top sides seem to be making strides forward in the transfer windows, other than Arsenal, who have lost 2 massive players, and didn't take Barcelona up on their first option on Fabregas. Not going well for them thus far, and TBH, I can't see it getting a lot better. They'll be rumoured as being interested in a lot, as always, not buy any of them, end up with a couple of young squad players, before needing to go big on deadline day. Not looking good for Wenger.

 

[duffer]

So we strengthen Utd, City and Chelsea this summer and add no-one. Lots of work to do then.

 

[Furball]

Vermaelen leaving is not a blow, he's ****ing hopeless.

On there being no room for Cesc, I don't see how he's not an upgrade on Santi. Particularly as Cesc likes to make runs beyond the striker, which would suit Özil down to the ground.

 

[sledger]

I'm not fussed about losing Vermaelen per se, he's been dodgy at best for quite some time. But, there's no way that losing an international centre back with years of Premiership experience is prima facie a good thing. There's much work to be done, Arsene.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Yeah everyone in my Facebook feed blowing up about it, on both sides. They're all stuck in 2010 with Vermaelen. He's been awful for ages. There isn't a CB worse positionally in the top 6 clubs.

 

[King Pietersen]

Loss of yet another club captain too. That's Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie and Thomas Vermaelen all leaving to big European clubs in the last 3 years. If Arsenal are going to realistically challenge for the title consistently, and build a team capable of winning in Europe, they need to stop losing key players. Losing Vermaelen might not be a huge loss when you consider his form last season, but losing 300 club appearances in the form of Sagna and Vermaelen in 1 summer is definitely not good. It's a huge amount of defensive experience gone in a very short amount of time. Not looking good for Arsenal. Wenger needs to buy big now.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Can't see how it a loss to Arsenal as long as they replace him with a half decent player, probably strengthens United though if he does sign as they have some pretty ordinary centre backs.

 

[duffer]

Loss of yet another club captain too. That's Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie and Thomas Vermaelen all leaving to big European clubs in the last 3 years. If Arsenal are going to realistically challenge for the title consistently, and build a team capable of winning in Europe, they need to stop losing key players. Losing Vermaelen might not be a huge loss when you consider his form last season, but losing 300 club appearances in the form of Sagna and Vermaelen in 1 summer is definitely not good. It's a huge amount of defensive experience gone in a very short amount of time. Not looking good for Arsenal. Wenger needs to buy big now.

Trophy or no trophy, it's Groundhog Day again.

 

[Cabinet96]

Vermaelen loss is certainly a bad one as it means we have to go out and buy another back up centre back.

Don't know why we didn't try harder to sign Matthias Ginter tbh. Would have been good centre back back up and might've solved our DM problems in the future.

 

[Furball]

I'll state it in big **** off letters since King Pietersen seems to have missed it.

Losing Vermaelen does not matter one iota, club captain or not.

 

[Furball]

I'm not fussed about losing Vermaelen per se, he's been dodgy at best for quite some time. But, there's no way that losing an international centre back with years of Premiership experience is prima facie a good thing. There's much work to be done, Arsene.

Senderos is also an international centre back with years of Premiership experience.

 

[Cabinet96]

You seem to be missing the point. We now have to sign another player to make sure we ca actually field a full starting XI if we were to get injuries as we realistically have no back up CBs. This is bad news, because Arsenal don't usually make movements in the transfer market till once the season has started, and don't always strengthen in all the areas needed.

 

[Eds]

Loss of yet another club captain too. That's Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie and Thomas Vermaelen all leaving to big European clubs in the last 3 years. If Arsenal are going to realistically challenge for the title consistently, and build a team capable of winning in Europe, they need to stop losing key players. Losing Vermaelen might not be a huge loss when you consider his form last season, but losing 300 club appearances in the form of Sagna and Vermaelen in 1 summer is definitely not good. It's a huge amount of defensive experience gone in a very short amount of time. Not looking good for Arsenal. Wenger needs to buy big now.

Made only 8 starts last season. He's far from a key player.

I think it's much funnier that United will reportedly pay him 100k p/w.

 

[Cabinet96]

People also forget he and Sagna are versatile. We've lost our first choice right back, two back up CBs and third choice LB (which is actually relevant given how injury prone Gibbs and Monreal are) with the departure of two players.

It's annoying because we good at the back last season (bar a few games, but the problems there were throughout the whole team IMO) and this should've been a window where we strengthened the striker position and maybe bought a DM. Now we have to focus on the back and it limits are chances of signing a forward.

 

[King Pietersen]

People also forget he and Sagna are versatile. We've lost our first choice right back, two back up CBs and third choice LB (which is actually relevant given how injury prone Gibbs and Monreal are) with the departure of two players.

This is an excellent point, versatile quality is hard to come by, so they could end up needing to buy at least 3 defenders to replace Sagna and Vermaelen, money that would have been much better spent on a quality striker. If Arsenal don't buy, and bring in some genuine quality; a couple of injuries, and they'll be left with Nacho Monreal, Carl Jenkinson and Kieran Gibbs in defence. Good luck with that one.

 

[sledger]

Losing Vermaelen is unlikely to be as bad as is being made out here imo. Versatility is great and all, but it's only any good when it's a trait of a player who's actually good. In Vermaelen's case his versatility just equates to him being extremely suspect in two positions rather than one. There are plenty of centre backs out there who are of similar ability, or better, than Vermaelen who Arsenal could bring in.

The real harm here is that symbolically the move does not make for good reading (i.e. losing another captain to a rival team). As long as there's a competent replacement lined up, this is no big deal. However, if Wenger is sticking to his "I will sign maybe one or two players" commitment for this summer, then things are going to get pretty hairy. One would hope he is reconsidering his ideas.

 

[Ikki]

I'm surprised United are even buying him. Never know what LVG might do with him though.

 

[Uppercut]

The real harm here is that symbolically the move does not make for good reading (i.e. losing another captain to a rival team).

I don't think this matters at all.

I don't think it's a good signing, he's been very poor for some time now and getting worse. It's hard to question Van Gaal at the moment but even so I'm struggling to find a reason to be optimistic about this one. The best I can say is that he's better than Smalling (especially distribution) and fits the type of attacking game Van Gaal will be looking to play.

 

[GIMH]

Joe Thompson in complete remission

 

[sledger]

Joe Thompson in complete remission

Fantastic news.