Ah Napoleonic era, that was the time...
Ah Napoleonic era, that was the time...
Utd agree (in principle) a deal for Toni Kroos.
Stephan El Shaarawy on the radar of Chelsea and Arsenal - Players says he wants to stay, agent claims lack of starting could force him to leave. I smell an gaent loooking for a new deal..
Fiorentina - plotting double raid for Arteta and Vermealen.
Liverpool told to up bid for Juan Manuel Iturbe to £24m
Looks like the Immobile deal will happen. The player wants to join Dortmund, both Juve and AC have agreed, AC wants 25 m € though. Too much imo.
Sagna to City all but signed. Sad to see him go, he's been our most consistent player for a long time. Just wish he'd gone abroad.
Hope this doesn't see the start of an exodus of players who would otherwise fill out the squad. Fabianski is almost certain to go. Diaby is another who might feel he's surplus with Vermaelen, Podolski, and Flamini three more who may well be tempted with a chance of regular first team football else ware.
Big (non) story this morning is Cesc to return to Le Arse. I can only speculate that someone at the Grove has hinted Arsene is considering opting the buy back clause in Fabregas' contract. Buying him back for £35m (£5m more than we sold him for).. In two minds about this one. Would love to get Cesc back, but where would he fit in that team? Ramsey/Wilshire/Ozil all play that same bit of the park and none of them can really shift to a completely different role.
Cazorla/Fabregas/Ramsey/Walcott
....................Ozil......................
..................Giroud....................
is that a bit light in the middle? How is Wilshire going to feel if he spends half the season on the bench?
In other news.
Fellani on the market for £15m
Liverpool look at Pedro as a cheaper alternative to Lallana.
Hernandez the latest Utd player to hint he wants out.
Sissoko wants out of Newcastle after just 18 months at the club.
Few stories around this morning claiming LVG is not interested in any of the targets the media have been assuming he would go for, inc Toni Kroos. LVG apparently has his sights set on an completely different list of his own inc; PSV Eindhoven’s Kevin Strootman, Sporting Lisbon’s William Carvalho and Feyenoord’s Jordi Clasie.
Well he does that anyway with injuries, if this is true, then he's get to spend the other half on the bench when is he isn't injured. Would be a bit worrying as I've always thought that Wilshere under guidance of someone like Scholes would fit in well at Utd and if he was bench warming, he'd probably get ideas too. Let's hope they remember to buy him a big birthday card and cake!
Probably cheaper if they aren't on anyone else's radar, although I see Carvalho is £36M, and Strootman is still injured.
Arsenal looking at Serge Aurier as a replacement for Sagna? Shame as well that Sagna will go on a free, so lose an excellent and consistent player for nothing. Ouch.
Last edited by Ybbon; May 23, 2014 at 03:36 AM.
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Wilshire and Ramsey could both be unsettled if Fab came back. Though I doubt Wilshire would jump just yet I think Ramsey could be tempted away by the right club. I know he's not fancied in the same class as some of Europe's top midfielders, but another season like the one he's had and they'll be queuing up..
The Aurier link has been around awhile now, which is worrying. If he is a target why not just go and get him, half of Europe is snapping players up on pre-contracts and agreements. Wenger dragging his heels again..
Arsenal doesn't have a buyback clause, but "first option" clause. If say Van Gaal decides he will pay more, Arsenal would have to match the offer, of course pending on approval by Barcelona and Fabregas.
Despite the hordes of spoiled Barcelona fanboys howling for his head, Fabregas has had a major season - 17 goals, 16 assists, two times man of the match. As a matter of fact he has scored more goals than Xavi and Iniesta put together and has equal assists as the two of them put together. And if you look at his defensive stats, he's better on average than either Xavi or Iniesta.
What I'm getting at is that Barcelona/Luis Enrique would have to take a temporary leave of sanity to dispense with his services, and second, if he's to be sold the 35m GBP is ridiculously low, given that Wenger paid up to 50m Euro for Ozil(taking into account variables) and especially given that there are lots of other clubs ready to pay premium for him. On the other hand one reason why Arsenal stumbled in the second part of the season was the fact that Wilshere, Ozil and Ramsay all were sidelined with injuries. If Arsenal had had more redundancy(or better fitness levels) it could've had a slightly different outcome. Anyway, to me it seems that Wenger needs to look for better players for his defense and the point of attack than buy yet another midfielder.
Last silly season the English press was swearing that Francesc Fabregas was going to United. How did that pan out?
Last silly season the English press was swearing that Thiago Alcantara were going to United. How did that pan out?
Strootman plays for Roma now. Not surprising that Van Gaal wants him, he has said Strootman was one of the three players that were certainly going to the WC, but then Strootman got injured. He might also stay at Roma though, his teammates and the fans have honoured him a lot while injured. But for the right amount of money everyone's for sale and Roma already have a replacement for him in Naingollan
David Luiz to Paris St Germain for an alleged £40 million. no reason to keep him as a holding midfielder with Matic around and Zuma as well, and he's too risky as a CB. although in a few games he looked like the only Chelsea player on the pitch who was awake, it's not too bad seeing him go and for a nice profit, way too expensive of a player to keep on the bench.
I am pretty upset to see him go, I really loved his aggression with the ball, even if it meant at the expense of his defensive duties. However £40m is an insane amount of money and with Kalas and Zouma coming into the defence, things are definitely looking good. Plus it's nice to see that Chelsea are actually serious about the FFP rules.
And, also, that PSG appear to be even more insane about throwing money around than Abramovich.
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Getting the starting CB pair of Brazil to play for you on any given Sunday doesn't seem insane to me. Anyway, PSG paid 35m for Marquinhos, so 15m more for Brazil's vice-captain(who can play as DM if needed) is no more insane. On the other hand, paying 27m GBP for Fellaini, now that is a whole league of its own.
Dammit I wasn't really paying attention at your posts. FFS they sold the best wig in the World to French.
How much did they pay for him?
http://www.espnfc.com/news/story/_/i...ermain?cc=5739
Last edited by Petrucci; May 25, 2014 at 08:12 AM.
The tentacled horror from beyond my stars spoke, and von Neumann help me, in my madness, I understood its words.
СИНДИКАТ!
Dè a tha Montrose Mór ag ràdh?
Heavy Metal will never die. - Sir Christopher Frank Carrandini Lee.
Hmm. £50m if that is a real figure is way over the top for Luiz. Brazilian or not he's had a very mixed spell at Chelsea.
Not much else going round the media over the last few days.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen done deal to Barca. Once again the FFP is shown to be a toothless threat.
Harry Reknapp threatens to break the habit of a life time and not sign every journyman player that rocks up to QPR. Well see.
Sagna claims there is no deal with City, yet.
LVG apparently not interested in Fabregas.
Liverpool looking at Nathaniel Clyne (Southampton-right back) as Glenn Johnson contract talks hit trouble.
Loic Remy available for £8m.
Wenger drops Benzema hint - "could play his last game for Real Madrid today, I am sure [Benzema] will play in the Premier League one day."
Any opinions on Benzema here?
I've seen him play a few times over last season and not been massivly impressed. He's a bit quicker than Oli (wouldn't be difficult) but to me seems a very similar player but without that experience of the PL. I get that he must be a dangerous striker but he seems to be most effective at drawing defenders away from the midfileders, hence Ronaldo/Di Maria ect get a lot more space. Reports recently suggest Oli and Benzema don't get on. If Wenger were to grab Remy and Benzema (with Oli too) that could be a pretty heavy (and flexible) front line. But would Benzema leave the Euro champions?..
Javi Martinez is a player being linked heavily for a move to the Emerites. Can't say I've seen much of him, he doesn't get many games at Bayern but he is highly rated in Spain. He's definately the type of player we need, tough takling holding midfield. Personally I think I'd go for Schneiderlin (Southampton), he's already proven in the PL and seems a more viable target.
Last edited by Halie Satanus; May 26, 2014 at 08:16 AM.
Look at Higuain ,he was crappy in Real, lack of space, too strong competition and now he is shining in Napoli. Same might happen to Benzema.
Higuian's record at Real was pretty good, better than (at least as good as) Benzema's. He just didn't get picked for the big games which unsettled him.
Perhaps I'm being harsh on him, Ronaldo's goal scopring record is phenominal and Benzema's is pretty decent. I can't help wondering though if he'd actually improve the Arsenal attack or just be another Giroud, or rather would he offer anything Giroud doesn't.
Ofc he would. He is top class player one of the best attackers in the world. Real tactic is heavily relaying on superb middlefielders so attackers don't get too much attention. He is very strong in duel and can easily position himself at the opponent goal, with good support of unselfish not too starry team mates he could do wonders. I also have feeling he is more physical then Giroud.
Hmm, I don't know. Oli is strong as an OX and pretty fearless, just not very quick.. be interesting if he teamed up with Ozil again. But tbh I can't see any deal being made, unless Real have someone (eg; Suarez) in their sights.