Football 2011-2012

[The Nal]

Barton's a decent player. Wouldn't personally want him at United and would be surprised at Arsenal. Yes, he has a bit of bite, but if Wengers looking to bring in an experienced player for the dressing room, I can think of better options. I don't think he's the kind of influence they need.

[ralph250]

Yes. Huge focus on Arsenals defending in pre season and they aren't cutting the mustard.

[sifi]

f**king moaning Arsenal fans. Get some perspective please. You play wonderful football, which surely is the most important thing of all, you have world class footballers, you have a solid financial footing which means when the bubble bursts - and one day it will - you'll be best positioned to handle it, you have one of the most loyal and respected managers in the game, and you've had European football for as long as I can remember. I'm sure that nearly every fan in the country with one or two exceptions would swap places with you.

[ralph250]

For free though? Could be exactly what they need. Teams aren't afraid of Arsenal at the moment.

Edited August 2, 2011 by ralph250

[pink_triangle]

For free though? Could be exactly what they need. Teams aren't afraid of Arsenal at the moment.

[pink_triangle]

To be fair to him, he appears to have matured a fair bit, but I'm just unsure he'd be the right influence for what's forever a young group coming through at Arsenal.

[Rockin The Main Stage Bro]

I reckon he would settle right in at Arsenal. He's tough and meniacal and thats what that team needs, they're a quiet bunch with no fight in them. Even if he's wild at least he'll get them riled up a little bit which is what they're desperate for. :angry:

[ralph250]

Barcelona's final offer for Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas (24) is €37M (incl €5M from player's pay-cut) plus €5M variables. [radio marca]

Edited August 2, 2011 by ralph250

[ralph250]

Rumours of Barthez playing in the United XI against Marseille tonight! Ginola, Trezeguet and Giuly too.

Charity match held in Monaco. we've only taken Evra, Jones, Smalling, Park, Pobga, Cleverley & Welbeck. Fair few of the others are at VDS's testimonial against Ajax tomorrow and got Scholes' testimonial on Friday, so makes sense that got a few guests coming in.

[The Nal]

Rumours of Barthez playing in the United XI against Marseille tonight! Ginola, Trezeguet and Giuly too.

Charity match held in Monaco. we've only taken Evra, Jones, Smalling, Park, Pobga, Cleverley & Welbeck. Fair few of the others are at VDS's testimonial against Ajax tomorrow and got Scholes' testimonial on Friday, so makes sense that got a few guests coming in.

Edited August 2, 2011 by The Nal

[ralph250]

Is Cantona going to play on Friday?

Edited August 2, 2011 by ralph250

[The Nal]

Nah. Just manage I guess.

Cosmos team for the game:

Full team: Nicky Butt, Chad Calderone*, Sol Campbell, Fabio Cannavaro, Ibrahim Diaby*, Stefan Dimitrov*, David Diosa*, Brad Friedel, Marvin Iraheta*, Robbie Keane, Brian McBride, Dane Murphy*, Gary Neville, Yanik Reyering*, Michel Salgado, Moriken Sangary*, Patrick Vieira

*- New York Cosmos U-23 player

Think Yorke is in the Man Utd squad for the game, not sure who else.

-----------

VDS dream team against Ajax:

Dream Team squad: Van der Sar; van Bronckhorst, Neville, Ooijer, Ferdinand, Vidic, Cocu; Carrick, Giggs, van der Vaart (TBC), Zenden, Kuyt; Bergkamp, Del Piero (TBC), Rooney, Saha.

Heard Scholes is in it too.

With VDS's, it's an all day thing...

Ajax U13 v Man Utd U13

Ajax ’95 v Holland ’98 (so Davids, Overmars, Stam, Hasselbaink are appearing supposedly)

Ajax v Edwin’s Dream Team

[ralph250]

Van der Vaart (TBC), Zenden, Kuyt; Bergkamp?

Kuyt? In a Utd shirt?

Edited August 2, 2011 by ralph250

[The Nal]

Roger Johnson is Wolves new captain. Strange.

[Langdale Wolf]

Roger Johnson is Wolves new captain. Strange.

[pink_triangle]

Roger Johnson is Wolves new captain. Strange.

[The Nal]

Far from it - it makes perfect sense. We've not had a vocal defender for too long now - RJ is a born leader, has been captain at both Birmingham and Cardiff and McCarthy is keen on a centre half being in charge on the pitch as they can see what's happening better from that position.

He's also a little bit older than most of the squad at 28.

Although Karl has done a great job as skipper, I think it's a good move. Delighted we have Johnson and he'll make a top captain.

[chappiepunk]

So Joey Barton could be off to Spurs, I think the last thing we need is another central midfielder, we should really sell some players before getting more!

[chappiepunk]

Joe Cole off to QPR apparently. They've silly money now don't they? They'll throw a shitload of cash at him to do f**k all.

[chappiepunk]

I very much doubt he'd move back to merseyside

Plus, Ii's an area we don't really need to strengthen, I can't see Moyes wasting the little funds he may have on him, when there are higher priorities

[The Nal]

Bit of a pointless signing if it does go through, they need to be looking at better players than him now if they want to survive.

[ralph250]

It's alright, they've got Kieron Dyer...

---------

Nowt wrong with Johnson being captain btw. Can understand that they might not have gained the respect of their team-mates yet, but if a new signing is better captain material than whats already existing at the club then might as well utilise them.

O'Shea has replaced Cattermole at Sunderland too.

---------

Murmerings of Berbatov to PSG for £18-19m. Made a big contribution to us last year, but if true can't really see us turning down those kind of numbers for a guy 31 in January.

edit: Still surprised Pastore's gone PSG aswell. Obviously they've got the money now, but I would've thought the league's profile would hold against them. England, Spain, Italy and Germany probably all ahead of France really.

Building quite a nice little team though; Matuidi, Gameiro, Pastore, rumours of Ganso (though would be interesting how he fit with Pastore), Menez, Sakho already there etc.

Serie A isn't as strong as it used to be, but getting back there. As such, Italy to France seems a bit of a sideways step, and at the price he's gone for could prove prohibitive to other clubs in the future.

Edited August 3, 2011 by ralph250

[Badlands]

Marveaux's not the only incoming. They bought Cabaye (who was one of the main players for Lille who won ligue 1 last year). They brought in Demba Ba aswell.

Lost big amounts of experience in Barton and Nolan, but Barton was on something like £80k reportedly and Nolan probably £50-70k ish. It's not that surprising that at 29, they were unwilling to commit to the 5 year contract that Nolan reportedly wanted.

Seems to me, they're having a change in policy and looking to bring in talented players under 26 (Tiote, Cabaye, Ba, Ben Arfa (though unfortunate with injury) etc), commit those players to longer contracts instead, presumably on a lower wage structure, and basically have them use Newcastle as a shopwindow. Those players get to prove themselves in the prem and then Newcastle flog them off for profit.

edit: There's an awful lot of deadwood in that list of players linked away aswell. Xisco I think is meant to be on £50k a week!

edit 2: Enrique likely to be off though, which is a loss, especially if the fee of £6m to Liverpool is true.

[eFestivals]

How do the Toon Army feel ....

Whats the f**k is going on up there?

surely it's just Pardew trying to say he's the boss? It wouldn't be the first time he's lost good players to benefit his ego.

Anyone who carries any sort of power there is being shifted out. Not only will it cause Pardew's failure it'll also take Newc full circle to disaster yet again.

[ralph250]

<snip - Newcatle- snip>