midds

http://www.gunnersonhigh.com/squad/arsenal_transfers_in.html Wenger's buys since 1999.

I'll be perfectly honest Parky, I'm not particularly familiar with what the current regulations actually are regarding young players! Smaller clubs do deserve more compensation however. Perhaps a standard % of any future transfer fees of 'their' player? There is no easy answer but it's inevitable that the larger clubs will always be seen as a more attractive option for any young player. If the lad gets the chance to sign for Arsenal at 15, who can stop, or indeed blame, him? Regarding the Arsenal policy, I think the onus should be on the other clubs to emulate Wenger and compete rather than just stop them from signing players under a certain age.

But is it good for the game? It's good for his employers! Nothing to stop any other manager from finding these young players and signing them before Wenger gets there first. You're missing the point. Oh I get the point! It's not good for the game in general for a clutch of young talent to be at a few clubs. My point is that Arsenal are benefitting from appointing an excellent manager who has established a fantasyic scouting network. They're reaping the benefits of having a good manager. The talent is out there, Wenger is finding it. We know what Arsenal are doing. What is your opinion regarding the point in question? I thought the point of the article was to criticise Arsenal's youth policy?

But is it good for the game? It's good for his employers! Nothing to stop any other manager from finding these young players and signing them before Wenger gets there first. You're missing the point. Oh I get the point! It's not good for the game in general for a clutch of young talent to be at a few clubs. My point is that Arsenal are benefitting from appointing an excellent manager who has established a fantasyic scouting network. They're reaping the benefits of having a good manager. The talent is out there, Wenger is finding it.

But is it good for the game? It's good for his employers! Nothing to stop any other manager from finding these young players and signing them before Wenger gets there first.

I think most people now accept this tbh. He made his debut 7 years ago now... I feel sorry for Shola, we cannot fault his dedication to the club, when we were in stook with injuries he played through the pain for us and risked his own career by doing so, putting off an operation on his hip, could you see many from the rest of our squad doing that? Oh I wasn't having a go at him - I was just surprised that it was that long ago tbh. He seems like a canny bloke and I think he genuinely loves the club. That said, he can love the club and be as loyal as he wants but it won't make him a better player. He's had 166 chances to impress in the last 7 years. It's time for him to move on and he'll need to be replaced.

I think most people now accept this tbh. He made his debut 7 years ago now...

Hear what you're saying but I think you're a little naive if you think you're the only one who's being told this stuff. Also, it's a forum that anyone, journalists included, COULD join. Not saying they do btw.

i'd say Gallas is not strong enough in the air to be the best single defender in the league. his partnership alongside terry was pretty damn good though, as both complemented the other perfectly, rightly leaving Carvalho who is probably a better individual, out of the side. He got bonus points for his ability to switch to left-back or play as part of a 3 at the back.

Can't split Gallas and Ferdinand. Toure runs them both close though.

Rooney. Quite simply the most naturally talented English player since Gascoigne. Doesn't always show it but he'll develop the consistency under Ferguson. Drogba is superb but won't get any better - Rooney will.

Only met the bloke once. In a pub in the harbour and 5 Bellies was supping pints of wine!

That explains it! Thought I was going mad.

Still advertised on their site. Cool.

Thought this half price offer thing expired on the 19th of this month?

Ridiculous logic. If we do shite, its down to him, if they do well its despite him. Howay man. What I mean is I don't think he's the man to get them organised and turn them round. They will however, manage to scrape a few results and pick up a few points. I've not explained that very well! Jpd - I thought he still had a sub to make.

My abiding memory of his time here was during the defeat to City at home last season. Mpenza had scored and our heads had dropped. The camera then panned to Roeder and stayed on him for about 6 or 7 seconds. He was stood there, arms folded giving his players nothing. No encouragement, no change in tactics, no subs warming up - nothing. He looked totally and utterly clueless. He simply didn't know what to do to change it round and he'd just run out of ideas. Just a rank shite manager. It doesn't augur well for Norwich and I can't think of a more uninspiring and inappropriate choice to drag them up the league. They might still turn it round but if they do, it'll be despite him - not because of him.

Fabregas is in a decent run of form right now but... 1. Gerrard 2. Essien 3. Fabregas.

Pray tell us more. We're starting to see the effects of the disastrous summer transfer window. The bizarre allegiance to Knight, the pointless signing of Harewood, the lack of a RB with Mellberg forced to play there, and teams realising that is our weak point and attacking it, like Bolton did today. He's not lost me, but I'd be lying if i said I wasn't a little concerned at some things. It looks like you're missing Hughes. Do you know what, about ten minutes ago, i said to my Mrs, "I never thought I'd say this, ever, but I wish we'd held on to Aaron Hughes, he'd be better at RB than Mellberg". She looked at me disdainfully, said "stop talking about football, I don't care" and went back to Friday's episode of Ugly Betty. Women. Mental. My significant other like that too. However, she also likes her football. Which is nice.

He plays better when we DON'T have the ball tbh. That's his job.

He was superb on the 22nd but dogshit on the 27th? I don't get it. He obviously turned into a bad player in 6 days. He'll never be good again...

Spot on. The fact of the matter is that your average football fan these days is stupid, at least when it comes to football anyway. Andy may be right but that post was in response to jack j who i think went to his first game in the early 60's. You're thinking of jackyboy! jack j is the one who always bites to Crumpy's wind ups.

How on earth is the price irrelevant? You've paid out an extra £15.5M for a pair of strikers than McCarthy cost Blackburn and those strikers only managed 5 more goals than him. And I'll rate a pair of strikers on how many goals they get between them. If that's more than another pair of strikers then the first pair is the better strike force. You can cry on about "judging the movement, passing and how well they work together" all you want, but if that doesn't produce as many goals as a strike pairing that doesn't play as fluently together then it's all irrelevant in the end. Are you really that slow?. The price is irrelevant because we are discusiing who the BEST strikeforce is NOT 'Who's the cheapest strikeforce' or 'which strikeforce would you prefer for the price they cost?' . No, I took everything into account when I choose my best strike partnership. Price, previous clubs, age, previous goal records etc. McCarthy and Santa Cruz came out on top. I didn't see any restrictions as to what to consider when I asked you originally tbh. And nice of you to ignore the last bit, you don't agree that the goal record outcome is more important than having two players who are fluent together? I'd much happier see Owen and Martins get 30 goals between them this season whilst falling over each other than see them play beautiful together and scrape 15. So you judged the strike PARTNERSHIP of Cruz and Mccarthy on what they've done at previous clubs and there previous goal records despite the fact that they've never played together until this season . Very clever indeed. Scy im afraid to tell you that youre actually judging what each player has done individually and then just combining the 2. Oh and Berbatov and Keane are a younger partnership so i fail to see why youve mentioned age. You've been as quiet as a fucking lamb all week. Amazing what a sacking can do...

You can't really make a comparison as all teams have changed since then. Exactly Mick. blueyes.gif The results of last season bear no relevance whatsoever on the performances and results of this season. It's a futile exercise imo.