James

What a great day player he was, significantly more talented than Ben Arfa

My mate seems sure it'll be Loftus-Cheek. Isn’t he more of an attacking central midfielder?

Lack of Wilshere could indicate a last minute change of heart after all who is there to pass a ball? Southgate really isn’t going to pick Livermore before Shelvey and Wilshere is he?

Car Crash age 37 RIP

Clearly blacklisted by the FA over the cous cous nonce incident

Rafa is my player of the season. He played through 11 vessels really. Although for me Perez was very underrated first half of the season, if you look at the stats you realise we played better with him in the team (same as Lascelles really) but in a he second half of the season he propelled us into the Top 10. Thought most players had good seasons though.

Given that it’s a Marriott I’m sure heads will roll of it was just cancelled due to the fixture

He has played 51 games so indeed seems to me they probably bankrolled a higher salary hoping he would get them promoted and then didn’t deliver

Transfer listed by Peterborough

Conversely when this elite group of English clubs got established, probably about the same time there were at least 6 clubs qualifying for Europe, we were in the elite group I mention. As posted elsewhere even if we had so called bad seasons, in our PL period pre-Ashley we were either top 6, at Wembley, qualifying for Europe or made it into the second half of European competition. I think there were only one or two exceptions. The real catastrophic relegation for us was when Keegan walked second time and it established that we had given up our own elite status within the league. Other relegations were inconsequential compared to that one.

Since the formation of the Premier League you just don’t get the same non linear pattern of promotions, relegations and titles. It is no longer another club’s turn to be successful unless there is a benevolent billionaire behind it all. Leicester winning the league was met with the assumption that the big clubs won’t allow for a repeat. So in days gone past I think narrowly avoiding relegation despite the negative season would have been a cause for optimism that your club is still on the top table and with a few small changes and a stroke of luck have a good campaign the following year. Nowadays that table has shrunk. 12-14 clubs are no longer on that top table any more. It just becomes another hard drag season after season. Seriously the best thing that could happen is that Man Utd get relegated!

Gerrard’s fixer has been murdered

While he has had a few neat cameos and done his small bit to seeing us over the line I am not sure that the investment we would need to make to sign him permanently would be very welcome and he would have some fans in his back from Day One. Also Ashley is known to get pissed if he’s been persuaded to part money and the player doesn’t deserve the business. Expect less transfer funds as a result.

And Gazza for 2.2M, and Waddle for 590K. I think we paid you the Sissoko fee out of guilt. That's really the only reason I can think of. Les Ferdinand was peanuts too especially after what happened to Shearer the next day.

We were still good though.we could beat almost any team but had major consistency problems but not ones which would put off many players from signing for us given that at the time we were one of the richest clubs in the world. Between 93/94 and 2006/07 (so our whole PL history pre-Ashley) other than two occasions we either finished in the top 6, got to Wembley, qualified for Europe or won a certificate. We were consistently a very good side just didn’t win anything. 25 metres? Have we all forgotten about when super captain Scott Parker held aloft the Intertoto Cup (Although really it’s a bit embarrassing that we went to UEFA and asked where the trophy was)

Iirc the team was weakened in pretty much every other position at the same time, Speed wasn't great straight away and at his best still wasn't better than the player he replaced. Him and Hamman would never have surpassed the levels we had in Lee/Batty or Lee/Beardsley as well either imo, but if you'd added the others to the existing team it would have easily improved it, Given in particular. Speed became a lot better than Batty but I think when we signed Speed he hadn’t quite nailed down the central midfield role. Only with Robson as boss and Dyer beside him did he come into his own.

We were still good though.we could beat almost any team but had major consistency problems but not ones which would put off many players from signing for us given that at the time we were one of the richest clubs in the world. Between 93/94 and 2006/07 (so our whole PL history pre-Ashley) other than two occasions we either finished in the top 6, got to Wembley, qualified for Europe or won a certificate. We were consistently a very good side just didn’t win anything.

I’m missing the Intertoto Cup today for some reason.

I’m not fat or a cunt I just talk utter shite

I am so angry! Nah this team has done well lately a bad game was due, let’s look forward to the next game.

You had to mention Ulrika man, i need to go somewhere private! There is an obvious solution to that - remind yourself that Sven was there!

I picked a best Wenger XI on BBC and all the players are now retired. It has been over 5 years since any of them even played for Arsenal. For all the money they earned from the CL they repeatedly sold players on for a profit without properly replacing them. Each iteration slightly worse than the last. Wenger wasn’t the problem. It is a board that have sucked up all the spare money. Don’t let a couple of record transfers paper over the cracks here. Arsenal will drop down the league because of the board. Wenger is their latest casualty, him leaving was not the solution to their woes

Gonna be the shortest summer ever. Transfer window closes August 8.

Doesn’t he after Lascelles have the best win / not lose % when he starts? He has really been indispensable this season, so unless there is an option of a significant upgrade he should be a guaranteed starter going into next year.

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