Mowen

Wouldn't be surprised if I discovered you had that post permanently saved to paste

True. That's why I said could. I really am looking forward to seeing how they play next season. I can pretty much guarantee it won't be dull.

Wasn't his last season at Chelsea the one where Ronaldinho declared him the best midfielder in Europe? Might be wrong, just working from vague memories.

Maybe Villa or Torres? Personally I think Torres is overrated but Villa is quality and could suit Arsenal's play. They would both cost significantly more than they've sold Henry for. Not that Arse couldn't afford it, but I don't think that's Wenger's style. Fascinated to see where they turn.

p.s. Messi Ronaldinho Etoo and Henry could create the most exciting attacking force ever seen. Will be interesting to see how it works.

Who will Arsenal sign to replace him then? There's no way they'll make do with Adebayor and VP, they'll have to sign someone top class.

King. I'd be jizzing it if Taylor does get better, as I can't see him being as injury prone as Ledders.

The way things are going we'll be lucky to make a £9m loss on him.

Barton took long enough over £300k...

I agree. He's a bit of a Mr. Mediocre as far as I can tell, and can't really see where he'd fit into our team, given that he'll want to be first choice.

Lescott is far ahead of Taylor, in terms of ability, as things stand.He's also got versitility - played a lot at LB for Everton last yera.

The reason everyone doesn't rate Dawson is because he's always absolutely wank against us, most notably when Shearer repeatedly embarassed him for pace of all things when we beat you 3-1 at SJP a couple of seasons ago. EDIT: and, obviously there are a lot of people (myself included) who don't see a great deal of him apart from those two games a year.

Last sentance is spot on there Gemmill. I'd rather he tried and got nothing than we sent him out on loan for an extra half season. He'll probably be shit, but if he can do something, anything then it'll benefit us on the field and we'll probably be able to recup some money, rather than losing him on the inevitable free.

We'll be linked with him without doubt, but I get the impression from what he's said that Allardyce is happy with Taylor as a youngster to develop and wants some experience around him for the time being.

Where did Shearer say that, then? he didn't you tit. i just forgot to press the return key. you might want to take your bell end out of shearers arse though. mackems.gif

Seems logical. 1878 said some time ago they were in for him and he was likely to join as he's a toffee.

How many games do you think Woodgate played that season? Would keeping him on have helped us much?

Didn't someone post a newspapers transfer accuracy recently? I've got a feeling the Mirror had come up with more than double the number of links than any other paper. It's a fairly scattergun approach to reporting transfers!

Quite pleasing to come back to this thread and see I not only voted, but also argued for no. 8)

Isn't his release clause only available to CL teams?

Seems a weird signing, and I wouldn't want him replacing either Owen or Martins, both of whom are goalscorers, instinctive players up top. If Shola were to leave, however, he would be a decent signing in that he could cover a few positions. Not one that inspires me, however.

I voted Given - seems the logical choice to me. A captain is mainly symbolic imo, a real leader will lead whether or not they have the armband (see Gary Speed when Shearer was captain for evidence of this) - but we don't want to risk making a player difficult to drop as we did with Parker. What if we made Butt captain and he had a shit season next year? You either have to persevere with him or admit that you didn't assess the squad properly - Roeder did the former and it did anything but help us last year. The bottom line is that Shay is going to play every game when fit, and has been here for a long time - no-one will begrudge him the captaincy. If a real leader on the pitch emerges maybe they can have it next season or the year after. For me, Given is the common-sense choice for the time being.

Cheers, big man.

Anyone know what the 'Zamora' award they mention in Palop's paragraph is?