alexthegreat

Nothing to do with having no experience of the Premier League? Give over, man. Nothing personal, you seem like a very decent chap but you just don't understand the difference between English football and whatever laid-back crap you've been brought up on. Have to say the lack of experience could well hurt us this season, with Debuchy being the most obvious example. Only Coloccini, Jonas, Shola, and Taylor have made more than 100 appearances in the Premier League and two of them are crap. Perch, RTaylor, Best, and Simpson were far from great players but they at least knew how to be effective (at times anyway). Of the Man United team that beat Swansea the outfield players with the least Premiership experience were Cleverley (33 games), Jones (81 games) and Welbeck (100), and they have all been brought up playing football in this country. All the rest have hundreds and hundreds of games under their belt. On paper they might not look like the best team in the league but they will all know what they are doing. Some of our players clearly don't.

Just a total liability, should have been another penalty he conceeded today. Don't think Simpson gave away a single penalty or got a single red card in nearly 100 Premiership games. Always loved Simpson like, cracking player.

Debuchy - pathetic defending for the 1st goal, very fortunate not to give away a penalty (yet another one), a bit of petulance for a yellow card, and at fault for Nasri's goal Taylor - pathetic defending for the 1st goal, a little fortunate not to give away a handball penalty (wouldn't be his first), total lack of discipline for the red card. You have absolutely no chance of avoiding a thrashing at City when half the back 4 is composed of a couple of tossers like this pair. On the left hand side I thought Mbiwa did well, Coloccini looks to have lost some pace, which is a little worrying. Cisse was absolutely feeble. It is difficult for a striker on his own against City (and with Gouffran's contribution he was on his own) but the way the ball bounced past him time and time again was pathetic, and the countless times he was brushed off the ball with ease just added up to a performance reminiscent of Shola at his worst. We definitely need to add a centre forward who is going to look capable of actually playing some football on a regular basis. Sissokho was such a disappointment. Last April I was actually looking forward to seeing what he could do against Toure and Toure just strolled over the top of him. He did absolutely nothing today again. Ben Arfa is on another planet to his team mates. Cabaye never made any difference in games like these anyway. Usual stuff from Jonas and Tiote - neither are very good footballers. Good stuff from our coaching staff - playing someone not fit then watching him limp off in the 1st half. How many times did someone go off injured in the first half last season? Set pieces were also the standard fare (although the wall for the free kick was a disgrace). Looks like we are going to continue where we left off.

The bookies have us at around 8/1 and seem to think we'll finish 8th-12th. Think thats a fair assessment although I'm optimistic we can finish higher.

Norwich: van Wolfswinkel Swansea: Bony Southampton: Osvaldo Newcastle: just too poor to compete with big clubs like these.

Agree, in the last 12 months Ba, Perch, Harper, Simpson, and Ranger have left, and Gouffran, Sissokho, Debuchy, Haidara, Mbiwa, and Remy have come in. With another signing we should definitely be stronger.

I didn't think we were too bad last season after the new signings came in. 6 wins, 2 draws, and 7 defeats is the sort of form that will normally see you finish around 8th or 9th, and we had 3 good ties in Europe as well. Although 2 of the defeats were as bad as any I've seen. Those new signings have been here 8 months now, and I'm expecting big improvements from Debuchy and Mbiwa. Also expecting someof our big players (Colo, Cisse, and Cabaye) to show far more form and fitness than last year. If that happens and we can add a striker to what we have then we will be absolutely nowhere near it imo.

Saw on Match of the Day last night that Ross Barkley, Daniel Sturridge, and Danny Welbeck were all singled out for glowing assessments from the pundits. Both Oxelaide Chamberlain and Henderson appeared to have good games as well, judging by the coverage, and I do rate Wilshire and Sterling. Is the above evidence of the media's tendency to show bias towards English players, or is the immediate future not as bleak as some people tend to make out?

Don't mind Jonas starting this one, it's one of about 3 games in the season where I'm happy to see him in the team. He's good at doing a disciplined job in front of his full back, and he can take pressure off the back 4 with his dribbling and winning free kicks. For that reason he should be mainly be used from the bench when we have something to hold onto, but I don't see anything wrong with him starting this one. He's actually scored at City as well. It's not as if Sinclair or Ince or anyone else would spend the 90 mins dancing into the City penalty area either. While Mbiwa and Jonas is about as solid as we can get down the left, I think the defensive minded Pardew will be panicking about City running rings round Ben Arfa and Debuchy on the other side (in the only pre season game I went to Debuchy gave away yet another penalty to go with the 2 he conceeded last season, and the sending off). I think that may have been on his mind when he moved HBA inside and put Sissokho out wide v Rangers. I don't know if he'd go ahead and do that at City but I think there might be a surprising selection in there somewhere

Theres 2 sides really. They've sold the following players to teams supposed to be their rivals: Van Persie to Man United Cole and Gallas to Chelsea Song, Fabregas, Hleb, and Henry to Barcelona Nasri, Abebayor, Clichy, and Toure to Man City If your team goes from finishing 1st and 2nd every year to giving away practically a title winning eleven to your rivals then you aren't going to be happy, . On the other hand top 4 every year is still pretty good, about as good as you can hope if your owner's not a billionaire, and I dont understand how any of them can conclude getting a new manager is the answer. He's not done well in the cups, not withstanding some bad luck at times, but how exactly is Wenger supposed to finish above these teams if he has to give them his best players? Top 4 for 17 consecutive seasons is phenomenal and I reckon he's probably the greatest manager currently managing. Makes them look like absolute brats wanting to get rid of him.

Just seen this thread for the first time and there's some cracking posts but this one makes me sad :'( Stopped feeling even a flicker of emotion when we got a corner at some time around December.

Might need to stick Sissokho out on the wing to provide some hard running and physical presence if Jonas is out. Good thinking from Pardew to give him a run there pre season.

Cant see this in the thread, but here's the crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground singing You'll never walk alone" 2 weeks ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brNec5cPhD4 Absolutely puke inducing imo. I've really grown to loath that song.

If it really is just agent fees holding things up then you would imagine that would be overcome eventually. You would have thought that as we get closer to September and theres still no transfer that the agents would s*** themselves that there wouldnt be any transfer anywhere and they will get no money at all. Even Ba going to Chelsea took a few extra days because of agent fees, and that was a transfer to a club that throws money around like almost no one else.

“It wasn’t really the pace I would have wanted with a week to go before the season, but that’s the pace Portuguese teams play at. “We got a really good workout and we had some bonuses out of the game. The only real disappointment was that Jonas Gutierrez got an injury that we’ll have to assess."

have to be weary reading too much into pre season friendlies, however I thought an improved 2nd half performance owed a lot to his removal from the field

Think it was the players on the pitch as much as anything. These are the players who started the most Premiership games for us last season: Cisse 35 Jonas 34 Santon 31 Cabaye 25 Krul 24 Taylor 24 Tiote 22 Coloccini 22 Williamson 19 Perch 19 (Ba 19) Simpson 18 I'd say half of those simply aren't very good footballers and that contributed to the crap football at least as much as the manager In the event that we did sign Remy and Gomis I would say that there's only really Jonas and Tiote in the whole squad who have a really poor touch, control and eye for a pass, and also have a chance of starting on a regular basis (possibly Williamson as well). I actually think that if we pulled these 2 deals off (Remy and Gomis)we could have a very good season and play some very good football.

think he was only ever a contingency plan for if Cisse left, or possibly the whole thing was just a message to Cisse that he isnt indispensible so should stop fucking us about. Wasn't ever a move I could really see happening.

An almost groundless rumour to pass on: My dad was talking to someone from one of the local papers in the pub last night (he didn't say who) and he reckoned Pardew is on his way out with Poyet lined up as replacement. He said that Pardew has not been prepared to make an official comment on anything for 4 weeks now, which is very unlike him (he has been a bit quiet recently). Possibly the actions of a man who knows his days are numbered.

From .COM Speculation over whether Shola Ameobi would remain at SJP to see out the remaining season of his current deal followed some late season comments from Alan Pardew, with a smoggies switch among unconfirmed rumours. The 31 year-old could however be tempted by a rather more exotic destination, with a club in the United Arab Emirates believed to have expressed interest. While United will look to receive a fee for Shola and avoid a repeat of the scenario where former colleagues Danny Simpson and Danny Guthrie ran their contracts down, they'll also be keen to remove him from the wage bill Surely this isn't possible?

.COM have this under a bit about Abeid and Amalfitano: Dan Gosling has also been deemed surplus to requirements but he still has a year left on his lucrative contract so a loan move seems most likely.

I think he'll get that eventually. A big part of the value of a club is the TV money. A lot of people think that the latest deal is overvalued, but the NFL have a tv deal at $3b billion a year. With the global popularity of the Premier League and the higher number of games, I think the value of the deal will probably continue to grow well past the current value, which I think is around £1.8 billion a year. I think a few American owners may have clocked this, which might be why a lot of them piled in after the last tv deal was signed around 2009. Now a club gets at least £60m just for finishing 20th. Eventually a Premier League club like ours at that price will look a good deal, it's really a question of how long he has to hang on.

Bizarre signing given his age and build. Had the look of a Nacho Gonzalez style favour for an agent to me, especially given that we sign so many players from France.

I remember Alba getting the 4th goal v Milan in the 91st minute. In the first half in this game Kilbane said "theres no way Alba can run like that for the full 90 mins". It's absolutely ludicrous for a full back. I reckon he's either the best athlete in the game or he's on drugs