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[Hooker]

Reports out of Holland indicating that Drenthe will move to Real Madrid for 13m.

Let's hope it's true and they can finally close out the deal with him and Robben.

I can't find any of those reports here...



Only Real Madrid related news is that Calderon ran his mouth again and wants to buy Kaka for €80 million

 

[Karakand]

I come back from a 3 day drinking binge to find Juve have given permission to Manchester City to talk to Chiellini about a move. HELLS ****ING YEAH. I should go on 3 day benders more often! (F-U liver you quiter!)

But it'd be harder to live with spending 200 bucks or more to see two of the five worst teams in the league. :lol

Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu-but LOLchua!

 

[Karakand]

Oh yeah, congrats to Iraq. I'm not Iraqi but I speak Arabic like I'm from Baghdad so it's alright for me to wish well to them in sport success!

 

[phfresno]

The ref's being a bit card happy for a friendly. 3 yellow cards for Inter players, all for fouls on Eboue. I say fouls...I mean...it is Eboue. Each time he rolled around like his foot had actually been knocked clean off his leg. At least two of them were fouls, and one would certainly be a yellow in a competitive game, but it's just a friendly!

I think this formation would do very well for Arsenal next season:

-------------------Lehman-------------------

Sagna------Toure-------Gallas-------Clichy

Eboue----Fabregas----Gilberto----Eduardo

---------------------Hleb---------------------

------------------Van Persie-----------------

I acctually have a theory on how Arsenal should do their formation next year... its much like how Barcelona does their formation.


-------------------Lehman-------------------

Sagna------Toure-------Gallas-------Clichy

Walcott-----------Fabregas----------Rosicky

--------Van Persie---------Eduardo---------

-------------------Adebayor-----------------

very attacking minded... but thats the way arsenal need to play if they are going to be a trophy winning team next season.

 

[velvet_nitemare]

I acctually have a theory on how Arsenal should do their formation next year... its much like how Barcelona does their formation.


-------------------Lehman-------------------

Sagna------Toure-------Gallas-------Clichy

Walcott-----------Fabregas----------Rosicky

--------Van Persie---------Eduardo---------

-------------------Adebayor-----------------

very attacking minded... but thats the way arsenal need to play if they are going to be a trophy winning team next season.

I see no Gilberto here so it fails...at least a ball winner/destroyer in the middle would be nice.I think this role is very unappreciated,and when Silva is on point,u don't notice him much.

 

[Shinobi]

Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu-but LOLchua!

:lol

I'm a little surprised at how many options Wenger has for a starting eleven. It could afford him the chance to rotate one or two players a game, to help keep the team fresh. And it doesn't seem to matter who's in the lineup, as their style of play remains more or less intact. Of course that flexibility gets tested once you get mutiple injuries.

 

[Shinobi]

Forgot to mention that I finally saw Arsenal's new road jersey up close at a sporting goods store yesterday. And only when you see it up close can you see how ****ing cool it is. It's covered with two bands of silver writing, a repeated short piece on Herbert Champan and the impact he had on the club (it's also written on the tag). It's one of the slickest, classiest looking jersys I've ever seen, and I'd have walked out wearing it if I'd had enough spare cash. As it is I'm gonna buy it along with the gold training jersey in a couple of weeks.

 

[MrPing1000]

Sooooo then who are we going to nominate for new thread duties, considering mama doesn't want to do it.

I'd do it but you'd have to wait until 3rd August, rather busy this week.

 

[Mama Smurf]

Well, if it's the last three minutes and someone is genuinely injured -- sub him off! The time penalty shouldn't apply if you make a substitution to take out an injured player.

Most teams have used their subs with 3 minutes to go.

-------------------Lehman-------------------

Sagna------Toure-------Gallas-------Clichy

Walcott-----------Fabregas----------Rosicky

--------Van Persie---------Eduardo---------

-------------------Adebayor-----------------

That is waaaaaaaay too attacking. You'll have players like Fabregas and Rosicky forced to defend all game. And I really don't see the benefit of Adebayor to that team, take him out and put Gilberto in the midfield and you might have something.

I seriously don't think you can afford to leave out Hleb on his recent performances though.

I come back from a 3 day drinking binge to find Juve have given permission to Manchester City to talk to Chiellini about a move.

Actually it seems that move might have stalled for some reason, so now you're being linked to Leighton Baines a lot.

In better news you've all but signed Elano, the Brazilian playmaker. He's a current international, played during the Copa America and was one of Brazil's better players, so a great signing. I don't know if there are any work permit issues, we'll have to wait and see.

Another central midfielder though. I don't know if Geovanni can play on the right wing, which would be useful, otherwise it's getting pretty packed in there. You already have Geovanni, Johnson and Ireland as attacking central midfielders, I'm surprised more money's being spent in that area.

If it wasn't for the fact that Sven is clearly chasing forwards too still, I'd wonder if he was going for 3 central midfielders behind a loan striker.

 

[Kinan]

Our 2 seemingly last signings this summer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pape_Diakhate

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hicham_Mahdoufi

Now we are pretty much set for glory in the next season.

Our rivals from Shakhtar Donetsk were much more active though, both on buying and selling players.

After selling Ciprian Marica (to VfB Stuttgart) and Matuzalem (to Real Zaragoza) it seems they are selling Elano Blumer to Manchester City for 7.5 Mpounds. Congratz to ManC, he is a decent player if you use him properly, he just lost motivation last season somehow and wasnt playing his best.

To fill the gap in the middle they are buying http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nery_Castillo for 16M€ from Olimpiacos and they finally managed to grab right back Ilsinho from Sao Paulo that they were targeting for some time already (11 M€). Add to this recent Lucarelly signing and you'll get the scope. I suspect they are not done yet, since DM position is their weak spot atm and they know it.
They kinda debunked rumors about Veron though, shame, he could make a

Spoiler

lousy

pair together with Crujff-jr at Metallurg Donetsk.

 

[Mama Smurf]

That's funny, 'cos Man City really wanted Castillo too.

Reading up on it, it seems Geovanni can play as a striker too, so that might be Erikson's thinking. Regardless, I still think another striker will be signed (Zigic, Yakubu, etc.), a right winger, a left back, and possibly a centre back and keeper.

I wonder if Newcastle fans are furious at Sven picking up all these good quality players as Allardyce seems to be sitting there, confused.

EDIT: And reading up further, it seems Elano plays predominantly on the right wing for Brazil. So maybe just a striker, left back, centre back and keeper.

 

[Mama Smurf]

Also the Diarra move to Arsenal from Chelsea is popping up more frequently, skysports are reporting it now. I still think it's a weird move, unless Wenger intends to sell one or two of his defensive midfielders.

 

[Kinan]

EDIT: And reading up further, it seems Elano plays predominantly on the right wing for Brazil.

He is not a clean winger though, he can play on any side as an attacking midfielder, but reducing his area only to a wing will not be the best decision. He likes to shift to the middle and use the space to control the flow of attack. Very technically skilled player, but rather small and almost useless in defense.

 

[Lakitu]

Liverpool have signed Daniel Parejo. A young Spaniard, according to AS. He scored in the U19 final against Greece.

 

[Mama Smurf]

Well that's alright, half the Premiership teams seem to play with right wingers who constantly come inside anyway. And Richards is an attacking fullback, so he'll take advantage of that room.

You're not allowed to be useless defensively in the Premiership. He might not be able to tackle, but he'll be expected to track back with players and at the least harry them and hold up play.

 

[Kinan]

You're not allowed to be useless defensively in the Premiership. He might not be able to tackle, but he'll be expected to track back with players and at the least harry them and hold up play.

Well, thats anywhere in modern football, really. Thats he can do, of course. I'm just saying he will not be able to put some serious fight against some of attacking wingbacks you have there. Tactically he is fine.

 

[hadareud]

the bad weather here is giving me some time to think about Arsenal.

Wenger's recent comments (if cryptic as ever) suggest that he is planning to bring in at least one or two more players. I don't believe the Diarra rumour at all, then again stranger things have happened. Maybe he doesn't see him as a defensive midfielder. I still think that one of our defensive midfielders has to go, preferably Song since Flamini can play nearly everywhere and is a very useful player. So to bring one in doesn't make sense whatsoever.

I say he will bring in a topclass player and a young talent. And I think he will spend more than many think. And since we haven't been linked with Drenthe I say he's the young one.

And now I will go out and play bowls in freezing 17 degrees.

 

[Mama Smurf]

See I think maybe he sees Song as centre back cover. I've seen him play twice there for Arsenal in friendlies already this summer, and it is a bit of a dodgy area for Arsenal.

So if he's keeping Song for that reason, that's one defensive midfielder down. Diaby we could say he sees as more of an attacking midfielder, so let's take him off the list too. That leaves us with Gilberto, Denilson, Flamini and Randall. Now Randall's only 17 and still developing, we don't know how good a player he'll become yet, so I can't see him being sold, and he doesn't really count as first squad anyway. Gilberto's definitely not going, Denilson is 19 and also still developing...so it seems like Flamini, at 23, would be the one to make way if Diarra moves. Only Flamini had the chance to move this summer and said he wanted to stay and fight for his place. And to be fair to him, he did well against Inter yesterday...I just think if Diarra moves it's unfair of Wenger to give him any hope of playing. Because even if we do consider Diaby attacking, he's still more likely to partner Fabregas if Gilberto, Denilson and even Randall are out than Flamini is.

Also, it's a bit of a...well, it's a bit embarrassing to be taking Chelsea's 4th choice defensive midfielder. I mean, I think he's genuinally a good player, but I actually agree with Mourinho and put Essien, Makelele and Mikel ahead of him.

In fact, when I look at the top 4...Hargreaves, Carrick, Essien, Makelele, Mikel, Mascherano, Sissoko...if any one of them was an arsenal player they'd be my first choice defensive midfielder. And I don't see how Diarra's going to change that.

 

[Mama Smurf]

Also, Man City apparently want Silvestre and Smith off United. That's prefectly believable given the players City need, but do Man Utd sell to City? I'm trying to think if there have been any examples.

It might be a good idea to soften City up for a possible Richards bid, but I don't think that'd work anymore, City have no need to sell their best players anymore. He may not even want to leave, if Man City keep spending like this then they can easily become a top 6 club...but if he does want to, in 3 years time he'll be a free transfer at 22, so I doubt United would try and soften City up for a bid.

So my point is...ermm...Smith will probably go to Middlesbrough.

 

[Cornballer]

Ack, no US tv for the Arsenal-Lazio game this week.

 

[Mama Smurf]

I'm looking forward to that game. 3rd in Serie A last year, tore apart Southampton recently (I know it's just Southampton, but they did win 5-2, and those 2 were penalties), should be slightly further along in their preperations than Inter were and only have a few South Americans in their squad, unlike Inter, so they won't still be resting from the Copa America...should be a good test.

Apparently Joorabchian has offered West Ham the £100,000 agreed to in the contract to buy his registration back. Only the Premiership have told West Ham that they must sell Tevez for at least £5.5m, or face punishments. To me that suggests MSI are extremely confident that they can win in court. If they were worried about that, they'd just pay the £5.5m and still make a massive profit on selling Tevez, just not as big as if they won in court.

 

[BatiGOOOOOOL]

I can't find any of those reports here...



Only Real Madrid related news is that Calderon ran his mouth again and wants to buy Kaka for €80 million

Well, it's the spanish press reporting it, so they could as easily have pulled the news out of their ass.

 

[Cornballer]

Well, it's the spanish press reporting it, so they could as easily have pulled the news out of their ass.

The Spanish press! Talking out of their asses? Say it ain't so! :lol

 

[Mama Smurf]

Calderon, I think Wenger's first choice to take over as technical director, has had some more fun things to say recently. Apparently they'll be making a world record bid for Kaka, but also this year they'll sign Robben, next year Fabregas, and the year after that Kaka.

So that's that sorted then. In 2 years time I'm going to buy Blackburn with my millions and build a team around Messi.

 

[Cornballer]

A couple other Arsenal tidbits....

- Word is that Reyes will complete a deal to Atletico or Real (more likely the former) today for 9 million euros
- Eduardo has his work permit hearing scheduled for Thursday.

 

[Guileless]

Does anyone here regularly follow Serie A? I quit watching it last year in disgust and I need some fantasy sleepers, players who regularly earn high ratings in the Gazetta.

 

[BatiGOOOOOOL]

Calderon, I think Wenger's first choice to take over as technical director, has had some more fun things to say recently. Apparently they'll be making a world record bid for Kaka, but also this year they'll sign Robben, next year Fabregas, and the year after that Kaka.

So that's that sorted then. In 2 years time I'm going to buy Blackburn with my millions and build a team around Messi.

The only difference is that Madrid can actually throw all that money at MIlan for Kaka and recover it quickly, but you can only dream about buying Blackburn.

 

[FuturusX]

Liverpool claim the spending might not be over

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/6922169.stm


Please sir ... another creative attacking player....sir

*clings with his finger tips to hope*

 

[psycho_snake]

Does anyone here regularly follow Serie A? I quit watching it last year in disgust and I need some fantasy sleepers, players who regularly earn high ratings in the Gazetta.

i take it your a juve fan?

Can you give me a link to the serie A fantasy football? I wouldnt mind doing it. I think i know enough about serie A to put together a decent team and if I'm finding it difficult, I'll just get help from my dad because he follows it properly.

 

[h0pper]

Fabregas will not go anywhere as long as Wenger is at Arsenal. If he were to leave, it would be for Barca and I think that if that ever became a serious concern, Thierry might even talk him out of doing that move so soon.

 

[psycho_snake]

Liverpool claim the spending might not be over

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/6922169.stm


Please sir ... another creative attacking player....sir

*clings with his finger tips to hope*

Just watch him sign another defensive midfielder.

Apparently Joorabchian has offered West Ham the £100,000 agreed to in the contract to buy his registration back. Only the Premiership have told West Ham that they must sell Tevez for at least £5.5m, or face punishments. To me that suggests MSI are extremely confident that they can win in court. If they were worried about that, they'd just pay the £5.5m and still make a massive profit on selling Tevez, just not as big as if they won in court.

So wouldnt this mean that west ham didnt rip up that third party contract. If thats the case then tevez shouldnt have played for west ham.

 

[Guileless]

We actually just use a custom system based on match ratings. One of my friends studied in Italy for a year and he does all the calculations the old fashioned way. I don't know of any online sites that host Serie A fantasy games.

I'm not a Juventus fan, the whole way it was handled just really rubbed me the wrong way. I was born into support of little teams here in the US and when big clubs and colleges abuse the system and get their way it really bothers me. The rules are so clearly different for the big clubs in Italy that it makes it hard for me to enjoy.

 

[Mama Smurf]

Good news everybody! Woodgate is almost certain to miss the opening game of the season, against a certain Blackburn. I know you were all worried.

So wouldnt this mean that west ham didnt rip up that third party contract. If thats the case then tevez shouldnt have played for west ham.

I think it would just mean it wasn't legal for West Ham to tear up the contract, whether they did or not.

 

[Cornballer]

Good news everybody! Woodgate is almost certain to miss the opening game of the season, against a certain Blackburn. I know you were all worried.

And Kerrea Gilbert joins Southend United on loan for 6 months. It's an exciting day of news!

 

[Blablurn]

I'm going to see bayerns match against cologne tomorrow. unfortunately most of the stars will stay in munich. this sucks -.-

 

[Mama Smurf]

Speaking of Arsenal...which I assume we were as we always are...I still don't think they have the players to grind out results. Chelsea and Man Utd, they have the individual players who can win a match alone regardless of how crap the team might be that day. We saw it all the time last year, I remember United had a real crap run of performances, and I think won basically all of them by a single goal. And Chelsea often had poor games, but in the last minute would manage to conjur up a goal.

Arsenal...and Liverpool though Gerrard is a bit like that, he just can't do it on his own...just don't seem to have that. I mean maybe they do, maybe that's the sort of player Eduardo will be, but I don't really see it in the rest of the squad...maybe Van Persie.

it's one of the things which just, at the moment, stop me seeing the Premiership as being anything other than a 2 team race again. This, defending crosses and corners, and the lack of a real hard man in midfield add up to still being a little bit short of another title for me. I've dropped the need for a goalscoring winger, because if Eduardo really is going to play there rather than up front, that should be sorted.

 

[Cornballer]

Speaking of Arsenal...which I assume we were as we always are...I still don't think they have the players to grind out results. Chelsea and Man Utd, they have the individual players who can win a match alone regardless of how crap the team might be that day. We saw it all the time last year, I remember United had a real crap run of performances, and I think won basically all of them by a single goal. And Chelsea often had poor games, but in the last minute would manage to conjur up a goal.

Arsenal...and Liverpool though Gerrard is a bit like that, he just can't do it on his own...just don't seem to have that. I mean maybe they do, maybe that's the sort of player Eduardo will be, but I don't really see it in the rest of the squad...maybe Van Persie.

Interesting stuff. I'm not sure if the 'grinding out results' comes down to a single player or if it's more the mentality of the whole squad. With Arsenal, it was a weird confidence thing last year where the quality of play would vary wildly. A lot of this was chalked up to inexperience, and it's a good question if any of that has been addressed in the offseason. The problematic part is that a few of the more experienced guys left (Henry, Freddie), so one wonders who can motivate the troops when push comes to shove. Gilberto has never been a fire and brimstone kind of captain, and sometimes I feel like Arsenal lacks the Tony Adams type that will get in someone's face and do some screaming.

 

[Ryck]

-------------------Lehman-------------------

Sagna------Toure-------Gallas-------Clichy

-------------------Gilberto--------------------

---------Fabregas-----------Rosicky-----------

------Hleb------------------------Eduardo-----

------------------Van Persie----------------


To me this would work best since Rosicky is really an attacking midfielder not a winger.

 

[Karakand]

Actually it seems that move might have stalled for some reason, so now you're being linked to Leighton Baines a lot.

Alright, back in the bottle. See ya in a week, everyone.

Does anyone here regularly follow Serie A? I quit watching it last year in disgust and I need some fantasy sleepers, players who regularly earn high ratings in the Gazetta.

I didn't follow last season because Juve had been relegated but I will this season.

 

[Mama Smurf]

Chelsea have applied for a work permit for Alex. Get him and sign Alves...or at least a top right back anyway...and their squad is finished.

I dunno if he'll be allowed to play though. He played 57% of the internationals he was available for in the past 2 years, rather than the required 75%, so it's definitely going to appeal...only I don't know what they can appeal. That Brazil's defence is so good that it's unreasonable to expect him to play more? Hardly. That he shone at one of the best teams and in one of the best leagues in Europe? No insult to PSV or the Dutch league, but no.

I dunno if anyone in Holland knows if he's been voted best defender in the country or anything, that might work. Otherwise I think it's just...PSV knocked out Arsenal with Alex, were destroyed by Liverpool without him. And I'm not sure that's the best case.

 

[Cornballer]

Mama - should I set up the GAF Predictions League thread sometime later this week? The Charity Shield is coming up on Sunday, eh? Any suggestions on the thread title?

GAF Football/Soccer Prediction League 2007-2008

 

[h0pper]

lol, we are always talking about Arsenal but that's because there are alot of Arsenal fans that hang around here.

Oh and also the fact that certain teams from La Liga have tried to single handedly dismantle our entire team this transfer period. That also adds to the attention to Arsenal here.

 

[Mama Smurf]

Mama - should I set up the GAF Predictions League thread sometime later this week? The Charity Shield is coming up on Sunday, eh? Any suggestions on the thread title?

GAF Football/Soccer Prediction League 2007-2008

Well by Wednesday anyway. Maybe put soccer in brackets or they might think it's a prediction league for football AND soccer.

I assume you're going to copy and paste those rules into the first post?

 

[Cornballer]

Well by Wednesday anyway. Maybe put soccer in brackets or they might think it's a prediction league for football AND soccer.

Good call. I'll format it like our current title here.

Official GAF Football Prediction League 2007-2008 (Soccer)

Not sure if I should put "English" in there, but that might scare off even more people.

I assume you're going to copy and paste those rules into the first post?

Yup. I already have it set up.

 

[Mama Smurf]

Maybe do it sooner than Wednesday, so the mods don't think we're spazzing the forum with new football topics on Wednesday.

 

[Cornballer]

Maybe do it sooner than Wednesday, so the mods don't think we're spazzing the forum with new football topics on Wednesday.

Ok, I'll get it out this afternoon or tomorrow.

 

[psycho_snake]

it's one of the things which just, at the moment, stop me seeing the Premiership as being anything other than a 2 team race again. This, defending crosses and corners, and the lack of a real hard man in midfield add up to still being a little bit short of another title for me. I've dropped the need for a goalscoring winger, because if Eduardo really is going to play there rather than up front, that should be sorted.

I do think that the title race will be between chelsea and United, but I think arsenal and Liverpool will only be a couple of points behind 2nd place. Its going to be a lot closer than it was last year. Infact, I wouldnt be surprised to see arsenal be title challengers. I dont know what it is about them, but my gut feeling tells me they're going to do a lot better than everyone expects them too.

 

[Mama Smurf]

Well they've strengthened of course (you could argue Arsenal haven't, overall, but a team getting older and injured players returning should lead to an improvement), but I look at the players Chelsea and Man Utd have bought compared to the other two...and there's no doubt in my mind that the top 2 have strangthened even further. Swap Liverpool's signings for Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson and Tevez (probably), or Malouda, Ben Haim, Sidwell and Pizarro, and I think they'd be stronger than they are in either case.

Arsenal are sort of a bit more of an unknown quantity, for the reasons I said above.

 

[Outdoor Miner]

God bless Toronto.

From yesterday's Toronto-Fire match.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb7C...cer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=573946&page=13

:lol

Blanco's just like **** it, and still manages a pretty decent corner given the circumstances.

 

[psycho_snake]

Gudjohnsen has said that he would be interested in a move to west ham.

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=479453&CPID=23&clid=178&lid=2&title=Eidur+open+to+Hammers+move

Eidur Gudjohnsen's father and agent, Arnor, says the Barcelona ace would be interested in a move to West Ham.

West Ham have been strongly linked with a move to bring the former Chelsea and Bolton man back to England.

Gudjohnsen's future at Barcelona looks uncertain following the summer arrival of Thierry Henry.

The Icelandic international struggled to hold down a place in Frank Rijkaard's star-studded side last season and the signing of Henry pushes Gudjohnsen further down the pecking order at Camp Nou.

Gudjohnsen is thought to be weighing up his future at Barca and West Ham are believed to be lining up a move for the skilful forward.

Gudjohnsen senior says his son would welcome a move to Upton Park and that the player is weighing up his future in Barcelona.

"I have heard about the interest from West Ham, but there have been no talks as yet," Gudjohnsen Snr told skysports.com.

"It would be something Eidur would consider as there are some Icelanders there with the owners and all.

"If they are interested in Eidur I am sure they will contact me."

Gudjohnsen is currently recovering from a knee injury and the player's father says the 28-year-old will consider all options available to him.

"He is currently injured and he is focused on getting fit again, but he will consider all options open to him," added Gudjohnsen.

"Barcelona have always told him it is up to him what he wants to do and they will not stand in his way if he wants to go and they will be happy for him if he wants to stay.

"Eidur will not rush a decision on his future and we will evaluate every option we have."

I cant see Gudjohnsen staying at Barca. Unless eto'o or henry get injured, he'll barely be able to play. He's been hinting at a move. Whenver he's been linked to a club he's always shown interest, so I think its only a matter of time. I'm not sure if west ham have a chance of getting him though. I'm sure he wants to move to a club thats playing CL football, but if there isnt a CL club interested in him, well maybe he'll be foreced to move so he can play regular football.

You know, he wouldnt be such a bad buy for arsenal. They need another striker because I dont believe bendtner is good enough. Your forward line would then be Eduardo, Van persie, Adebayor and Gudjohnsen. I didnt include walcott because he'll be a winger. I'd say thats a strong upfront.