Martin Lol

I can think of numerous reasons why Torres has been taken off. However, I cannot think of a single reason why Torres started. Fernando Torres does just as much in the box as David Blaine

http://www.sportingo.com/football/a20034_newcastle-united-eye-transfer-tottenham-striker I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that it is true!

Crouch might learn but I'm not convinced. Any hopes of a decent performance/result went out of the window with Lennon's very late withdrawal and Crouch's crass stupidity. That said, the first half defensive performance was decent enough even with 10 men. At the end, the players ran out of steam and the reason for that can be laid fairly and squarely at Crouch's door. The indiscipline of one player doesn't make the team's performance bad even though the end result wasn't good. As team performances, I've seen 4 or 5 worse in the league this season. Also, a word about the ref. Didn't book Ramos for a bodycheck and didn't give a pen against Dawson but otherwise excellent refereeing. Best I've seen this season either in league or in Europe.

:clap:

Can't comment on Arsenal's game tonight, I'm too distraught.

Being said £10m pa. 5 year contract. Levy's done well.

Definitely, how he managed to get a knighthood is beyond me. He's petulant and childish a lot of the time. For a man of his age and his experience it's bizarre, guess it's just a function of always believing he's right. Have a government that invited the public to nominate individuals for honours. Be the manager of the best supported club in the world. A knighthood was inevitable.

Inevitable that Barry Hearn will now put the wheels in motion for a judicial review. West Ham have already said that they will try to attract additional support by offering family tickets for 2 adults and 2 children for just £40. I would say it's impossible for West Ham to prove that their discounted ticket prices won't adversely affect Leyton Orient. I reckon that at the end of the day West Ham will move in to the OS and Orient will fold within 5 years.

Seems to be a straightforward mistake .................. according to bluemoon Probably barking up the wrong tree here but think about it for a second...we live in a footballing hotbed city where players and fans of both top clubs mingle in everyday life. Could it be that, say, a United-supporting chef at San Carlo put something in Kolo's food? Wouldn't put it past someone doing that, bet it's been done before. Deluded or what?

Was a pathetic thing to do though. his whining doesn't help his or arsenals image though, just brings confirms them across as spoilt brats

Was a pathetic thing to do though. No different to Keown doing the same to RVN when he missed a penalty some years ago. Still doesn't make it right though.

The FA should have the right to re-examine decisions made by the ref which could be considered as lenient in additon to incidents not seen by the ref. The FA is basically corrupt and nothing much will change until public opinion can force the FA to look again at decisions which even a blind man can see are wrong.

Gutted for Arsenal tbh

From Opta Joe on Twitter +1 - Leverkusen's win means Germany will have +1 CL place in 2012/13 after pulling ahead of Italy in the country ranking. It's been coming. The Bundesliga has been on the up for a while and Serie A is nowhere near what it was.

Apparently Wolves can buy him for £4m which could rise with add-ons to £6m. I can't imagine any club quibbling over that fee.

Surprised that Jamie is so keen on joining Wolves on a permanent basis. I can understand his desire to play regularly but I would have thought there were better teams than Wolves who want want to sign him. It's not as though Spurs are asking for a ridiculous fee, which is surprising in itself. Jamie's got decent skill levels and I'd personally prefer that he'd stay, there are always matches where you need the players to roll up their sleeves and scrap.

I've got no complaints currently Still plenty of time for the wheels to fall off though

Maybe, but it will get worse if they do progress further in the cup competitions and Wenger has already started moaning about the matches to be played. Wenger continued: "The most negative side of our result today is one more fixture and in fairness that is not what we needed. "We have had problems in the cups against teams from the lower divisions to finish them off, but also we have given a lot. "Sometimes, mentally, a breather would not be bad. "What people forget is that since the beginning of December, we have played every three days, so sometimes to have a week where we could give the players a little breather would not be bad." Arsenal wanted the NLD to be played after the last weekend of the Premier League, a request declined by the PL, and since then neither Spurs or the PL have had any reply to proposed alternative dates.

Without wishing to start detailing fixtures, Arsenal have matches arranged for................... Wednesday, 23 February 2011 Sunday, 27 February 2011 Wednesday, 2 March 2011 Saturday, 5 March 2011 Tuesday, 8 March 2011 Saturday, 12 March 2011 Saturday, 19 March 2011 Saturday, 2 April 2011 Saturday, 9 April 2011 Saturday, 16 April 2011 Saturday, 23 April 2011 Saturday, 30 April 2011 Saturday, 7 May 2011 Saturday, 14 May 2011 Sunday, 22 May 2011 That list assumes they will beat Orient in the replay but doesn't include any further progression in either the FA Cup or the CL nor does it include the North London Derby at WHL which Arsenal steadfastly refuse to rearrange until they can confirm they have a free date. I wouldn't be surprised if their season disappears in a backlog of matches. FWIW I think they will get past Barca which would add another 2 matches to the list.

That's the figure that went into his contract apparently. Being said that Spurs were trying to negotiate a reduced figure in return for loaning him back for a season in the same way we that we did with Huddlestone and Derby and Walker and Sheff Utd. Wickham now needs matches to continue his development and I'd think it is better for him to get regular games with Ipswich rather than occasional playing time with whatever club eventually signs him.

It's not Harry, it's Levy. Last minute deals have been the norm well before Redknapp joined.

......... and Llorente and Aguerro from Spain and Eto'o from Italy, embarrassing to have so many panic bids going. We knew Keane would be gone and Pav was earmarked to go back to Russia but he stayed when no one was sold. Losing Keane was no great loss without a replacement because he wasn't playing for Spurs anyway.

LFC's owner has already confirmed the deal was done 24 hours before Ashley 'accepted' Carrolls request and reluctantly accepted LFC's bid. LFC's owner knew the price Chelsea would need to pay for Torres would be £15m more than NUFC wanted for Carroll so they could balance the books with the £6m they made off the other centre forward they sold (who's name escapes me) Carroll and the bloke from Holland for torres. Link? http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/feb/04/john-w-henry-interview-liverpool if as he says there, Henry was 'surprised to receive a bid of £50m on the monday morning from chelsea' it must mean that Chelsea knew the Carroll price was £35m on the sunday night. As he says himself, Chelsea were aware the price Liverpool were willing to sell Torres at was the price of Carroll + £15m. Therefore, to have that surprising bid on monday morning of £50m means the price was known on sunday night and there was no 'raising' of the price later on monday by us. seems strange that they would say the price of carroll +15mill and not just name a figure in which case they could have got more. "The negotiation for us was simply the difference in prices paid by Chelsea and to Newcastle," Henry said. "Those prices could have been £35m [from Chelsea for Torres] and £20m [to Newcastle for Carroll], 40 and 25 or 50 and 35. It was ultimately up to Newcastle how much this was all going to cost. They [Newcastle] made a hell of a deal. We felt the same way." thats what seems strange, if we'd settled for 20million does that mean torres would have gone for 35mill ? i can't really buy that. What i find strange is that the interview was cited as evidence the club accepted a price on sunday then upped it on monday when the interview implies that as impossible. The alternative is that Chelsea made the bid of £50m independently on monday and Henry let a few people know this so that we could up our price to £35m. Which is ridiculous. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were strange goings on. The Spurs forum went into meltdown when Spurs bid £23m on deadline day, the majority were against signing him, we'd play too direct, younger version of Crouch etc etc. One ITK said something like relax guys, won't happen, Levy's helping hand to Ashley to kick start some some movement. A few people since have wondered why we weren't really linked with Carroll, we bid £23m out of the blue, got rejected, and then after that ......... nothing. Redknapp always does roundabout tapping up at press conferences of assorted players followed by a bid a few days later, that never happened with Carroll.

You wouldn't be the first. Stan Flashman was an Arsenal ST holder before he bought Barnet.

http://www.twtd.co.uk/news.php?storyid=17929 Wickham New Contract Has Offer Clause Thu 17th Feb 2011 13:39 Town striker Connor Wickham’s new contract at Portman Road is reported to include a clause which would see him leave Portman Road if the Blues receive a bid of a specified size. Tottenham are said to have first refusal on the 17-year-old with Town owner and chairman Marcus Evans reported to have held talks with his Spurs counterparts regarding a potential future move. Wickham, who is 18 at the end of March, signed a new deal last month which extended his Town contract until the summer of 2013. However, it is believed the new terms include a provision that if the Blues receive an offer at a set level – probably somewhere between £10 million and £15 million – the England U21 international can move on. The Blues frontman watched Arsenal’s 2-1 victory over Barcelona last night and the Gunners have also been chasing the Hereford-born player, along with Liverpool, Newcastle and a host of other Premier League clubs. But Tottenham have long been believed to be the frontrunners for Wickham's signature with former Town coach Bryan Klug and Jim Magilton's one-time management consultant Charlie Woods both now working at White Hart Lane. Speaking this morning, Town boss Paul Jewell reiterated that he would like to keep hold of Tuesday’s hat-trick scorer for as long as possible: “I get asked about Connor Wickham almost every day. Connor’s got huge potential and he’s got all the tools of the trade to be a top player, and hopefully that will be at Ipswich.”