Parky

This move was too early for him and he wasn't ready to deal with all the psychological factors as you say.

Yeah good post TT.

That ball to Marveux for the first goal. Sweet.

One of the few players in the PL who can write his own script.

All going to plan man. This will be the 3rd manager I've seen off.

It's also to do with expectation. He wouldn't be the first player to suffer the adverse effect of a big fee. It was waaay too much for him at his level of development. It will be interesting to see where his game is in a year or two. He needs to be played right up top and people need to get early crosses into him... I was a bit unsure last year as Suarez got off to such a big start and there was the King Kenny honeymoon period etc..But I'm sure and the signs are beginning to appear that Dalglish is going to fuck up...Maybe only a fully firing Gerrard can save their season. Finish 7th

There's no way he should be on 4...I've been way too generous.

Ha ha...They always do that... Sun in the wrong place and so on...

Tempted to take 2.

Liv getting tramelled...Clueless.

Nice.

I'm having a goal is they lose today.

It's a tricky gambit by Liv this year with their massive spending. They need to start recouping the money and I guess CL is their baseline this season. Three sides will be fighting for that 4th spot.

Yep. Seems like one of the few manager who could build a truly world-class team without plunging a club miles into debt. Needs to regain some of his earlier pragmatism, though. He dosent need to plunge the club into massive debt to get them heading in the right direction again. He needed centre-backs who had played in England and knew the league - like Samba & Dann, both would have added steel and know-how. But his stubborness won out, well done Arsene. Spot on. He needed PL ready centre backs. After losing 2 first team, keep the ball midfielders and not replacing them they were always going to have to withstand more attacks this season, they were already struggling to defend anyway. Buying yet more new foreign CB when he could have splashed out on Samba or maybe even Bassong on the cheap would have been much better business than Mertesacker I agree. You need street smarts CD's in Eng, all the fancy stuff can thrive in the midfield and upfront...But in the PL you need rocks at the back. He has been too stubborn in this regard.

He's had money to spend though, but has been stubborn and refused to spend it...There were stories last year that he had 70m odd sitting around for new players. I agree with most of your post however, the advantages and insight he brought to the game have been erased by the naked spending and high wages of City, ManU, Chelsea and maybe now even Liverpool with access to fresh yank money. However I do believe that he has bought TOO MANY young players with potential and not the sprinkling of senior players he really needed. I like his philosophy, but he has let himself and Arsenal down by being too much the purist. Think Maetersacker will prove a good buy, but will need a few months to get the pace and aggression of the PL.

Good post. The 'confusion' has been building for a couple of seasons and now we can see how good Fabregas and Nasri really were. Think Gervinho is a good player, but might prove to be inconsistent. I agree that he needed to buy players (at least 2/3) that were genuine top tier - VP never lasts a full season either and he'll be out for for a few weeks here and there. Tricky time as missing the CL will cost then dear. Think he has lost his way...The purist side of him is totally dictating things right now and the pragmatism seems to have been lost.

I know some of the quality has jumped ship, but they really seem to be struggling with the basics....Like defending.

Fair play for having the balls to say it. Winning me over though. I kinda agree with him. More than good enough to be an important squad player, but not sure every week. And I'm one of those that didn't write him off when he was shite. Hope he keeps scoring obviously. His confidence has come on leaps and bounds. Think at his age he will develop at bit more and would be a good squad striker at most bottom half PL sides. But realistically that's about it.

Parky.

His strike rate can't be ignored. But he isn't by any stretch of the imagination good enough to lead the line at Newcastle.

He needs to start.

Fucking right. Villa are fucked.

First loss of the season coming up.

Indeed.

He had the inj initially in 2009 and was out for 2 months, it flared up again in 2010 and this will be his third knee surgery. His career is moving smoothly into permacrock territory.