Shak

A few decades ago they might have had a chance, not a fucking prayer of pulling this off now. Good to see they're keeping up with the times as always.

You're expecting Wise, Vetere and Jimenez to have established a complex, deep and all round top class scouting system in the space of 6 months? We need a pretty solid outlay and some proven quality to give us the standard of players we need to compete in the top half of the table. Expecting some promising youngsters to come in an solve our problems is asking for trouble. I'll be disappointed if there isn't a pretty hefty investment in players this summer, I'd expect something in the 30-50m range, anything less than 30 and I'll be seriously questioning the new owners ambitions, quite frankly. Should allow us to bring in 4-6 good players with hopefully 1 or 2 of them being really top ones that can make the difference.

I respectfully disagree.

If we're sticking with this system and Owen in his current role, then a top playmaker to replace Geremi has to be something we're looking for. Butt and Barton would make a nice engine room, but we need someone with a bit of real class on the ball to run the show for us and Geremi isn't the answer. Neither is N'Zogbia btw, was just addressing TT's point about Geremi, agree that he's the odd man out.

Pattison really was dreadful. Remember in a pre-season game this year, he was running down the wing with the ball when he sort of started to stumble a bit. Tried to keep running but he kept gradually falling over until eventually he fell face first on the ground. Brilliant thing was that he was under no pressure from any defender, nobdoy within 10 yards of him and he was in a very nice position to get to the byline and put in a dangerous cross.

If Barton stays out of jail and Keegan keeps him at the club, I expect he'll be starting next season. Certainly ahead of Geremi in the pecking order, IMO.

If we we're gonna sign four players to go straight into the first team, that's what it should be. Address the midfield 3 times before getting another striker in? Take Viduka out of our team and we're absolutely bummed, nobody to lead the line. I agree with HTT's post on the previous page, a top class center forward has to be very high on the list of priorities, if not at the very top. Can't agree with that. We have three very capable forwards, and Carroll [who I rate higher than perhaps is warranted from the evidence thus far!]. We don't know whether Keegan will stick with the 4-3-3 or not once he has the opportunity to bring in his own players, but if we revert back to 4-4-2, I think we'll certainly be fine up front. Any more real quality we purchase up front would create an unhealthy level of competition - which we, as a non-CL side, couldn't handle/justify. Any forward we bring in should be very much as back-up [unless we sell Owen, Viduka or Martins]. By contrast, our midfield is malnourished. Problem with going back to 4-4-2 is that Viduka & Martins is the only pairing from our current group of strikers that has any real chance of being a good partnership. And, with Owen very much a key figure for us moving forward by the looks of things, I can't see that being the way to go. Viduka and Owen offers absolutely no pace, while Owen and Martins just won't work as far as I can see. You need one of your strikers to be adept at playing with his back to goal and offering some sort of size for high balls. Be very surprised if Keegan tries to switch Owen back to his old style of game, because I just don't see how it'll work with the amount of pace he has lost. Viduka has been good in recent weeks, but can you imagine what a really top center-forward, one who can offer a physical force and aeriel threat as well as the good link-up play and finishing that Viduka gives us could do in his role, and how much that would help the game of both Martins and Owen? We do need midfielders too, no doubt, but the single biggest impact on our team would come from a really top center forward, IMO.

You'd keep him based on one match three seasons ago? Are you sure you don't have some latent attraction to him? I can sort of see where he's coming from in that Emre is a player that I've always had high hopes for because there seems to be the talent there for him to be a very good footballer. Problem is that he just doesn't show up enough when he does play and games can pass him by all to easy. That, combined with his horrific injury proneness, means I won't be bothered if and when he does leave in the summer. But I'd like to see him playing under Keegan tbh, so I hope we keep him around for next season. If KK can get the best out of him, then I do belive ther's a very good player buried in there somewhere. Can't hurt having another option in the squad, at the very least. We'll not be going into next season depending on Emre to be a key player for us, you can be sure of that. So what harm having him about?

As long as he avoids serious injuries then he's the type of player that will still be absolutely top class well into his 30's, as he has so much to his game that makes him effective. If one area of his game isn't quite clicking, it really won't be noticeable as he'll be doing so much else to still contribute immensely to the team. Unthinkable as it may seem with the form he's in right now, you have to fancy there'll be times when Cristiano will hit a period where he's finding goals hard to come by. And when he does then odds are he'll be very frustrating for Man U as his all-round game isn't as well developed as Rooney's. Also think we can expect a lot more in terms of goals from Rooney in years to come as his game develops more and more, which I firmly believe it will.

He on fire... So hot on fire Nicky Butt-Butt-Butt Nicky Butt-Butt-Butt.

Red super-lights ftw.

Not that im buying into this view or agreeing with it to ints entirtey, but SBR said that he was one of the most gifted players he'd ever had at that age and with the right training and motivation he could got to the top. Now i'm ofthe view that unlike Viana, we have seen glimpses on a fairly regular basis to suggest that SBR maybe right. Like i say, give him the right environment to thrive and think he would. The thing is is that some of the best football we've seen from him is from when he was 19, he hasnt had the right environment to thrvie since then. Zoggy's left-peg couldn't hold a candle to Viana's iyam. Well yeah, but they're hardly even comparable in terms of the style of player they are. Viana's left-foot was by far and away his best asset, whereas if N'Zogbia is gonna become a top player it'll be on the basis of his dribbling and direct style rather than his ability to pick out a pin-point cross or pass. That pass for Bernard against Chelsea was insane though, while we're on about Hugo. As was the finish.

I'm nowhere near as bothered as I used to be about him leaving tbh. Think he has the potential to be a very good player, and ideally he'd stay and we'd find out whether or not he's going to live up to that potential here, under Keegan. But if he does go I've got faith in Keegan to bring in the right guys and play the sort of football where we won't miss N'Zogbia at all, even if he does start producing at his new club. Just pissed me off immensely these last few years that we were such a toothless, boring team and we had an exciting young winger either sitting on the bench or stuck at left-back while our other duffers floundered around helplessly week after week. A perfect example of the horrible management we've seen at the club the last few years, but hopefully that's behind us now and I think we're moving in the right direction again, with or without N'Zogbia.

The new Dirk Kuyt tbh.

In terms of how they did in the time they were given... Allardyce, easily. I can't think of one single thing he did right, his entire time here.

Can understand what he's saying, but I think that Rooney now gives more to a team than anyone else in the entire league. While not the highlight reel that Cristiano is, he's still easily his equal in terms of how important he is to the team. Still think there's a lot more to come from him as well. If he starts adding more goals to his game, he'll be scary good.

"You are not special. You are not beautiful or unique snowflakes. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else..."

I think we wanted to use him at left-back from time to time, which he wasn't keen on. City promised he'd only be played at CB. Also think wages might have been an issue.

Speaks his mind and actually tries to put forward the odd alternating opinion or two, rather than just go with the obvious, make no waves approach that the overwhelming majority of pundits seem to employ.

I remember Tomasson playing in that pre-season tournament over here in Ireland and looking like an absolute class act playing just off the front man. What a waste.

Must be really tough for players playing at Stamford Bridge, being able to hear every single individual comment from anyone in the crowd quite clearly.

He's always been stubborn, arrogant and a terrible loser though, just now his team is nowhere near as good as it was in previous years.

He's a dreadful captain to have I reckon, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Wenger give it to someone else for next season. You want your captain to be a real leader, a guy with the bottle to drive his team forward through the good and the bad. Not some toy-chucking headcase. The week before the first leg of the Champions League match with Liverpool, they were talking about it on RTE and Souness (again being an annoyingly good pundit) said he felt Liverpool would go through because Arsenal lacked any real leaders, someone who would pull the team through if they hit a tough patch. As a capatain Gallas should be one of the primary players to do this, but you really don't get the impression he's that sort of player at all.

It'll be interesting to see how they fare if they're able to add more quality depth. In theory, the rotation policy should work a lot better once they have more quality players to choose from, obviously. More of a problem for them is Benitez's unwillingness to go out and really go at the weaker teams and attempt to simply overwhelm them with their superior players. Often they're simply too cautious against poorer teams and allow their opponents to get a foothold in the game that you feel they simply wouldn't have the chance to do if Liverpool went out and had a real go. No reason they shouldn't be able to do so with Mascherano and Alonso in central midfield either if you ask me. My priority for Liverpool would be a right winger who can really be effective going forward, a replacement for Kuyt in other words. Someone like Bentley, who also works back defensively, would make a lot of sense. I'll be interested to see Babel next year as well. Shows flashes of the ability to be a really, really devestating winger. After a season in the Premiership, maybe next year he can start to deliver consistently.

For me most of Arsenal's "problem" stems from the fact that they lack really world-class individual attacking players. Lots of good players, but not many who can do that something really special to make the difference on a day where things don't quite click, which is libel to happen playing the way Arsenal do. Fabregas is fantastic, though at his age he's going to struggle to be consistently brilliant every week. After that though? Hleb - Fabulous dribbler, shields the ball well ad a clever player. But not enough end product at all, he's still not hit double figures in terms of goals in 3 years at the club. And I rarely see him pick out a killer pass either. Adebayor - Getting there, but still not a complete forward by any means. Not a natural finisher, and his control of the ball can be horrific at times. Van Persie - Could have stepped up a level this year had a he stayed injury free, but as it stands he still hasn't established himself as a really top player. Rosicky - Similiar to Hleb really, very technically sound but not consistently effective enough in the final third. Walcott - Should be the business eventually, but isn't yet. Then you've got the likes of Eboue, who's nothing special at all, and Diaby (good holding midfielder in the making) playing and being expected to make stuff happen going forward. Again, they're good players. But compare them to Man U who have Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez, Scholes and others and it's not even a comparison quite frankly. They've overachieved this year in all honesty, and have been found out to some extent. But to be having a go at Wenger because his young team have narrowly lost out in the title race to teams blessed with vastly better players than he is ridiculous, in all honesty.