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Adebayor sold - fair dos, good price and a lazy tw*t.

But Toure? WTF? Surely at 27 his best years are ahead of him as a centre half? The lad from Ajax doesn't look like a towering centre half.

The last of the invincbles has gone.

And £16m in this market?

Not taking the piss, but do you need the cash or something?

I agree although he seemed in and out of the team a lot last year,good buy at a good price for city,for once.

I can't see how arsenal have any realistic chance of winning the league this year,unless a good few of there youngsters step up big time

Apart from 2 years back it's not been realistic for a while. I was thinking more about worries for 4th place?

Yeah good signing for City.

Rats, ship, sinking.

Just get on Wenger being next Man City manager ... dead cert.

Man city are a bit unknown for me as you never know how a team will gel,but i'd expect if city do well they won't finish top 4.

thanks Nostradamus for that

You getting my pms Kev ?

LOL,no bother

Yes, but I am ignoring them until you change your mind about the blonde bash !

Haha,wish i had a choice mate

too late he is off the list.

and a big jessie.

LOL,sure am

 think the thread is 4 weeks to early, better judge then IMO, but,

What I do know is that Toure or Gallas had to go - the lack of relationship made real issues around the club last season.
Gallas has supposedly proved himself through the summer, and age aside a good Gallas is a better investment then Toure.

Arshavin and Van Persie have drawn big wages from the club.  Gibbs, Wilshire and Vela now earn a real wage in football terms.  Adebayor was seen as overpaid and lazy.

Personally sorry to see Toure go, as you say the last of the Invincibles except Wenger and Rice of course, be he is not the player of 4 years ago, I am told he had some viral disease a few years back that has effected his recovery time and speed, obv this has to be balanced against the lack of games last season and all the shit with Gallas - but still seen as a player with his best years in the past, and Wenger does not sell to many that go on to great things - as for price its a good profit, only his future performances will tell us who got the better deal - African Nations this year as well, lets be honest that had a huge effect on Arsenal last time round.

I hope Eboue goes as well, he just cant be trusted under pressure and the money being talked about I think like the Adebayor deal, its snap your hand off type stuff.
But I am not sure any of this is due to a lack of funds, I have to give the club some credit some belief after all they have not done me bad the last 20 years, we have a cracking ground, a much sought after manager, a team that can win and play wonderful football, but yes there is an empty shelf where pots should stand, they don't need me to tell them that.  

I guess I have to believe that if we start the season with the squad we have today that Wenger thinks its good enough but I like all fans this time of the year hope we will buy but it will never be a £30m+ player I know and respect that.

I know you have heard about the Arsenal youth every year for an age but I have been lucky enough to see Wilshire for a few years and he is different class, add into that Vela, Eduardo and Ramsey all who will play a part this season maybe the squad is not quite as slim as it might at first seem, maybe this year it won't just be potential, whatever its going to be fun.

I don't think the sales are too bad but it's the lack of replacements that is a worry. Go and get Huntelaar and Hangeland or Bassong and the squad looks a lot better.

Really? The more I see him the more I think Mourinho had it right. Gallas is not good enough to be a centre half. He can be lazy, lacks attention to detail and sometimes just swithces off. Yeah he plays football and scores goals but first and foremost I want my centre half to be able to defend. I've never seen a guy so badly owned by Crouch game after game. Spurs fans must be licking their lips.

Add to this mental issues when it comes to losing and just being a genrally moody clown and I cant put him in the same bracket as Toure.

I agree with the rest though. Arseshaving after a full pre season should be class. Eduardo is hitting his peak years now and should be right up there as well.

Huntelaar is a must, top class finisher.

Him and Arshavin could be awesome together.

If they had held on for just another 10 mins everything would be different for arsenal today ::)

Toure asked to leave in the January window, no?

I reckon Arsenal's time is up..Teams like ManU/Chelsea and even Liverpool are now miles ahead of them. Playing attractive footie and having talented kids is one thing, having a team that wins titles is another.

Claptrap

Arsenal will be fine.

Class team, expect them to be in the top 3 this season.

At who's expense?

Any prices to be in top three/four ?

Syndicated bets accepted ;)

not man u obv

Three of football's most tedious clichés: It's Liverpool's year; Arsenal will finish out of the top four; Tottenham will break into it.

this
and this

could be good together but i think arsenal need a bigger guy up front. when adebayor got introduced it added another dimension to their game and made them so much more difficult to defend against. that or play bendtner. lol.

You can have Crouch for 10.1 mill.

I thought crouch was only on loan from the circus

Not from anyone who actually opens their eyes when watching the game.

Top4 is pretty much set..Arsenal will be 4th though...unless Liverpool start selling everybody to Real.

Start...it's already well underway!

Paul Tompkins:

Florentino Pérez, the Real Madrid president, is not happy with Liverpool. "Some people obviously thought that, because we said we wanted more Spanish players, they could ask for fees which don't correspond to reality," he said. "A year ago certain players we've asked about would have cost less than half the price we're being quoted now.”




I would therefore ask him: if Xabi Alonso was such good value in 2008, why didn’t you stump up the money then?


Ah, but Pérez has a foolproof back-up plan. “If necessary, we'll find the Spanish players we would like for the squad in our youth side."


To which my suggestion would be: go on then. If you have the talent, use it.


Players don’t have values that are set in stone. They fluctuate with their form, and with the need of both the selling and buying club.  Before his excellent season in which he scored over 40 goals, Cristiano Ronaldo’s value was far lower than the incredible £80m he moved for; maybe closer to £20m.


Between 2006 and 2008, Xabi Alonso looked like a £15-20m player, with his value a bit down from the high at the end of his first season. By 2009 he looked every inch a £30m+ player, after a superb campaign.


Pérez had no problem paying just £10m for Michael Owen a year after he’d been worth £25m, before his contract ran down to just 12 months. Real Madrid had no problem taking Steve McManaman on a free 12 months after he’d been worth millions. They have no problem taking Alvaro Arbeloa on the cheap because he only has a short time left on his contract.


£30m+ is Alonso’s worth to Liverpool. Indeed, if you told anyone connected with Liverpool that Alonso was the key to winning the title, then he’d be worth £100m; basically, he’d be priceless. As the new season nears, his value should actually increase, as it’s harder to then find a replacement and bed him in.


If Alonso’s worth to Madrid is not as great, then to them he’s obviously not worth £30m. Fine. Walk away. Just don’t say that Liverpool are “not living in reality”. Also, don’t state to the world, in courting Alonso, that he’s a player with rare gifts (controlling games with pinpoint passing and dictating tempo), and then make out that he should instead be priced like Robbie Savage.


To Madrid, Alonso is brilliant, and unique, and worth unsettling and pursuing all summer long. But he’s not worth that much money. Okay....


Apparently Benítez is taking a hammering in the Spanish press for not bending over for Real Madrid.


Which is funny, as he has taught Madrid how to build a football team with foresight, planning and discipline; a lesson they should have picked up at Anfield last season, when a team took apart a collection of expensive individuals.


Instead, rather than learn the lessons, they’re just looking to pick up various parts of a team that picked them off at will in March.


Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, the saying goes. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. In Real Madrid’s case, they just want to buy up all the fish, fishermen and fishmongers. That way they don’t have to learn any lessons or use any intelligence, just try to buy the result.


I find it richer than a wealthy man called Rich dunking a rich tea biscuit for Madrid to lecture Liverpool on how to run a football club, when they’ve recently spent almost £200m on just four players –– especially when they’re only now trying to offload about 150 expensive extras who, funnily enough, are not holding their value very well. Who is living in the real world now?


"In some cases the players are resisting and in others there are no offers," the Real sporting director Miguel Pardeza said of the likes of Van Nistelrooy, Drenthe, Robben, Huntelaar and Sneijder. "The sale operation may seem simple but it's not. It's not easy convincing them to leave Real Madrid for what is generally a lesser team," he told the Spanish daily Público.


Well, tough shit. Stop buying so many players for big fees and high wages, and then buying another load 12 months later, then thinking “oh, what do we do with the old lot?”. Stop changing coaches every few months, as inevitably they’ll want to bring in their own players and alter the system. Get a master plan. And stop inflating the transfer market by smashing the world record twice in a month and then go around moaning about it.


I find Madrid so soulless, their team-building so lacking in imagination. I detest the presidential system whereby people get elected by promising to bring in players who belong to other clubs, who have yet to be approached in any official capacity.


Historically I’ve had no preference between Real Madrid and Barcelona, but I can’t help but admire the Catalans as I find myself increasingly loathing their rivals. Barca have spent big money in the past, but they have taken to appointing bright young managers (and giving them more than a few weeks in the job) and bringing through their own players.


I respect Xabi Alonso for not forcing the issue beyond what’s acceptable; all players manoeuvre with a strategy if they feel it’s time to move on, and it’d be hypocritical of Liverpool fans to get too uppity when numerous players have used the same tactic to engineer a move to Anfield. What I cannot abide is players going on strike, or going public with disruptive claims, or blackmailing the club.


I also don’t feel there’d be a problem if Alonso was forced to stay. Perhaps right now he’d prefer a move back to Spain, but I don’t get the sense that he’s anything short of a top professional. Life at Liverpool is good for him – he likes the city, the fans, the club, and he’s been playing some great football in a top team. His place in Spain’s plans has been strengthened in the last 12 months.


We’ll see what happens from now on, but I sincerely hope he stays. With Alonso, Liverpool can win the league. Without him a lot depends on who arrives, and the time it takes them to settle in. And that’s an uncertainty that I feel we can do without. It might end up working for the better, but crucially, it might not, and a trip into the unknown always involves risk.


Therefore I'd pass on a couple of words to Real Madrid and the unseemly Pérez – but I'll leave you to guess what those words are.

It still cracks me up that they want to get rid of Schneijder...Schneijder is top top class.

get Schneijder and V Nistelrooij back for Alonso...job done for Liverpool :)

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, the saying goes. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.

That`s wrong, the saying is; Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he sits in a boat drinking beer all day.


Good post btw!

Anyone seen odds for a trophyless season for Madrid as I think there's a strong chance that's what they will have had come the end of the season.

[ ] I will feel for them if I am correct

Agree - I also like VDV but don't know if he'd cut it in the EPL where as I know Sneijder would.

I'd rather Negredo than Van Nistlerooy though.

Is this The Arsenal thread or have i been misdirected here ?

Jack Wilshire looks a bit special  ;tightend;

I texted my Rangers supporting pal earlier to ask him how he was enjoying "the footie lesson".

I just received his reply, he said that "it was like men against boys but unfortunately the boys were better"

Wilshere looked great, I hope there aren't calls to ship him into the England side before he's even established himself in the Arsenal first team though like de meeja did with Theo Walcott.  He's only little.

From post match interview, "Did you know Fabio Capello was watching?"

it won't be that high odds i wouldn't think, they only have the League and The spanish Cup, their is no League cup in spain.

And of course the CL, but that will never happen for them next season