thorin

Don't think the mood of any of the Castle players in the relegation season was too high either... makes sense, when things get rough and goes against you - it takes it's toll.

I wish Villa buys him, then we gotta look at better targets Verthongen, m'Biwa, Alderwereild?

We need to spark some more Belhanda rumours, in the end I'm sure we'll believe it ourselves...

His head is turned another direction, he sends that pass blind... awesome epicness

We might have if you prolonged the league for a couple of matches Let's just start out with beating Wigan and hopefully Pardew will continue the 433 trend, because I think that will cause them epic troubles with their 3-5 defenders line.

I'm still amazed people think of comparing Cabaye to Guthrie... they shouldn't really be mentioned in the same sentence. Cabaye "just" arrived, whereas Guthrie has played in England and knows the game all his life. One is an international, one is not. One has an eye for breakthrough passes, one might have, but fails to execute due to lack of passing skills 95% of the time. One has defensive capabilities, where as one doesn't. Do we need to continue? I actually can only think of one match where I didn't really MIND seeing Guthrie on the field, and that was when Cabaye was out suspended or something. Guthrie and Perch due to ACN, although it doesn't matter, Guthrie will go and we'll get Belhanda. Who wins?

The 2-3 against Baggies might be the worst actually, thinking how we controlled that game until they equalised. FOL. Anyway, 7 points from the last 3 might do it. We need to win at Wigan, no matter what, what goes in our favour I guess, is the fact that they've already accomplished the goal set for the next season which may relieve some pressure on their shoulders. We can just play ball and have fun, no matter what happens now - everyone is satisfied.... or are we?

Regarding Douglas (if someone knows)... Heard some unconfirmed rumours yesterday that Douglas was a Barton-type personality, and that he wouldn't fit in. Random twitter bangs, cracker nut tackles, just generally a crazy guy. Anyone verify? I don't really follow Eresdivision too much.

Well, they paid £15 mill for him.... and that's the price of Modric and compared I don't really think you would talk alot of Fellaini? What we need is a solid defensively fullback, better 1 on 1 than Simpson and things might look better really soon.

Impressive display of our numbero uno today, really impeccable. We haven't really seen this side of him, being the advanced playmaker of the midfield trio - it's pretty obvious he can pwn this position. That through pass on the second goal is just epic!

Kalou isn't the type of player we would want if Ba leaves, I'd much more prefer a winger that can put in those crosses as we already have a winger that goes inside.

Injury statistics doesn't go his way I think... also still has a lot of steps to take to become the FM beast we all know. 34 matches, 7 goals 7 assists this season until he got injured again.

Mertesacker is a bit dodgy and Djourou is s***. Perhaps shifting Vermaelen to left back? If this happens, Vermaelen will leave. He hates LB. Then we could buy him?

More than we would pay i would guess. Just watched some clips of Belhanda, strikes me as a similar kind of player as Ben Arfa, but his apparent temper makes me think of Taraabt. Would love him in the team if Ba were to go, but I can't see him playing CAM for the same reasons Ben Arfa hasn't been played there. Marvin Martin or Gylfi Sigurdsson would be perfect for the CAM role. Belhanda would also cost a bomb, if the Montpellier president's valuation of Giroud is anything to go by that is. Sigurdsson's stock has risen of late, and I can see some competition for his signature driving wages up. I reckon Martin would be the best shout what with Sochaux's recent form, hopefully it'll be an under the radar signing. I think this has the makings of a Gervinho saga. I really rate Vertonghen and love how he gets forward, but I can't help but think he'll turn out to be a dud. I hope I'm wrong though, two ball playing centre backs might not be conventional but I'd love to see it, would help Krul with distribution too. On the subject, when was the last time we signed someone we knew about in advance? You should watch some more of him I think, as CAM wasn't really his main "role" until this season. Belhanda covers basically any midfield position, it seems he has the vision to open defences (which I haven't seen TOO much off of Sig) and he can finish with decent composure. Sig is basically only CAM due to his lack of pace. When it comes to Verthongen, I believe whatever club he goes to, he'll be a star within a decent timeframe. Even though both Colo and Verthongen is "ball-playing" by definition, I don't really see them too similar as Colo doesn't really run at defences the way Verthongen might - if given the possibility.

Sigurdsson and Cabaye is too similar, if we need a can-opener we should look to Spain or something. What we need is a Iker Muniain type of player... I'm sure Carr hear our voices

There should be a site where we could compare pace stats... You're looking for a stopper, I want a complete defender. We have different views on what we need and who can pull it off, because I don't really see Colo and Verthongen as too similar even though both can play with the ball in the feet.

Doing very good in PSG, scores regularly (1 in every 3 match, 32 games played/11 goals) afaik. So I guess he's started close to all PSG matches.

Well, as part of his response came to Verthongen being "slow" - the image of Williamson preferred was pictured. Hence the example. You're saying he's strong in air, yeah def. agree, but as we've seen with Mertesacker - PL isn't all about air balls. I'd actually jump out to say that I think Perch is a better defender - which in my eyes, actually is a kind of absurd statement, but makes the point. I don't really think Rio can be stated as a ball playing defender compared to Colo and Verthongen, as I can't really recall him making any runs. But who is to say that Verthongen couldn't be that "complete" defender? Or maybe even Colo, yeah well besides the speed, but again I really can't see him being SO much slower than Rio or Vidic, even though people have the opinion of him being so.

Yeah I know, was more thinking along the line of info and profile - if he would even fit in?

Nah, I didn't feel that. It was basically the notion of alot of players being so much quicker than Verthongen, which I don't really agree on. The discussion on ball playing and whatnot is OK, I can agree to a certain degree. However, without really knowing how it would play out I just can't seem to not want Verthongen while he's still available. Arsenal plays ball playing players all over the pitch basically, well besides Mertesacker and we all know how that worked out. Colo doesn't really run that much up the much compared to say Vermaelen, which I think would be what Verthongen might do. What annoyed me was really the fact that it sounded like Verthongen was the last guy on this pic: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/08/28/article-2031042-0D9B04AC00000578-230_634x296.jpg compared to m'Biwa, Douglas, Williamson (as it didn't seem that you thought we would upgrade buying Verthongen - might have misunderstood). Another comparison could well go to say Man Utd defence, playing Rio and Vidic. None of which are ball playing, none of which are quick. Worked well now, didn't it? But yeah, we would all appreciate someone with decent tactical positioning and some speed, although not that easy to come by. Kompany isn't really quick either, but it ofc. all depends on where you put your ruler.

Anyone got any info on Kevin Strootman? Just saw a couple of clips, he looks like a great box 2 box, overall had alot of nice qualities we might "miss" playing Guthrie.

He's not Micah Richards, but he's not Williamson, hence he'll easily keep the level of say Kompany. Being a central defender is not necessarily all about speed, just look at Vidic. It looks to me that you prefer Williamson over Verthongen, just because of the type of player? I mean, seriously, Williamson must be one of the slowest defenders in the league. How many times hasn't he been ran away from? It's not just pure black and white imo. But everyone should have their own opinions, but I think your POV is way off.

Makes no sense yes he made some rickets but he was adjusting everyone does besides he made Arsenal alot stronger defensively whether people want to accept it or not..... How many goals have Arsenal conceded from set pieces this season and goals in general for that matter compared to before he was signed? Also Arsenal wont get rid of Mertesacker in any case its all complete b*llocks, the Vertonghen to Arsenal story is like Giroud to us its just the media bringing up old stories for money. Also i dont want Vertonghen...... why? because there needs to be a balance in the defence we cant have two relatively slow defenders passing it out from the back and get raped in behind like we have been this season on occasion. We need a fast, strong, athletic defender who is a beast in the air. Give me Douglas any day over Vertonghen not because he's better but because he is better suited to being a Colo partner. Plus he will cheaper. What are you talking about? Verthongen is quicker than Douglas, and he's hella quicker than Colo, but you're correct that it might be passing defenders, however Verthongen has the possibility to play basically as a DMC/MC anchor too. If we can persuade him, he's the best one out there atm. Also another leader, which would do our back 4 good.

I def. see what you're getting at, however I think it's way smarter than what we used to do - which was basically just pay the first and best asking price. IF, and there's a bigass f#"%"%&"& IF, he comprehends the fact that if we can get a player like Belhanda for 20 mill EUROs, it actually WOULD be cheap/bargain. Although I do not believe he do the latter... Still, Belhanda and Verthongen must be my not so unrealistically dream moves in the summer for us, without anyone leaving obv.

Ok, so I see what alot of you guys were thinking when we were talking about "high-profile" names, and to a certain degree I can agree with you. But the fact that you seem to have forgotten that HBA (yes, even with having his personal issues - just like Balotelli, I think he was a bigger name than we expected to arrive), Cabaye, Cisse and might even add Santon to this list. They're names, known of, not unheard of compared to say Tiote when he first arrived. What I'm going for is not buying high-profiles just because of the names, much like we did pre-Fat Mike-era, but how epic wouldn't it be with Hazard on a wing if Ba leaves? Or be in the mix for Gaitan or other up and comers in the Portuguese league? Ah well, time will tell