leffe186

De Gea, Smalling, and Lingard for me. Not the most auspicious start.

Wenger had the final say for years, but the rumours were that he had less control over the last couple.

The problem is that the comparison is then with Dyche, whose team just stayed up in 16th place last season and then promptly lost two of their best players. Now they may be in Europe. They spent less on transfers in (35M versus your 36M), had a net transfer spend of -9M versus your +10M, and spend less on wages. I think Dyche just shades it over Rafa. I'd be tempted to vote for Klopp, but I agree that it's hard to vote for managers who have so many financial advantages. I still think that Klopp would deserve it if they win the CL (although their draw has a great deal to do with it too).

7th - 10th is dropping down, like. Aye but it will be a one off! Just like Man Utd under Moyes. Unless they change their transfer policy, as James said, it wouldn’t be a one off. Man Utd spent a fuckload of money to get out of that situation, will Arsenal? Chelsea finished 10th in 2015-16. They won the league in 2016-17. In between they spent 119M and recouped 68M for a balance of 51M - compared to Arsenal who in the same season spent 93M and recouped 7M for a balance of 86M. What else was different? They changed their manager. Arsenal spend a ton of money every year: Transfer spend (players in) - This season 111M, last season 93M, 15M, 96M, 43M, 52M. Total 410M, Net spend overall 197M. Compare Spurs - 88M, 69M, 54M, 28M, 104M, 62M. Total 405M, net spend overall, 0.7M Compare Everton - 168M, 77M, 36M, 38M, 24M, 17M - 362M - 124M Compare Burnley - 35M, 28M, 13M, 10M, 1M, 2M - 89M - 21M Last season wages - Man City 264M, Man U 264m, Chelsea 220M, Liverpool 208M, Arsenal 199M.........Spurs 127M, Leicester 113M etc. They paid enough wages to compete for the same players as the other top clubs (and for more players than we could - we'd not have been able to afford Ozil or Sanchez), and weren't exactly stingy in transfer fees. If they were selling better players and getting in worse ones then it's at least in part down to the manager. The interesting part is that we have talked about an Arsenal decline when on the face of it they have been doing fine. In Wenger's first season they were third, then they finished top two in the next eight seasons. At the end of that run, Abramovich bought Chelsea. Then Arsenal finished fourth or third for the next ten seasons. Towards the end of that run, Man City were given infinite money. Now Arsenal have finished fifth and, probably, sixth. Arguably, all Wenger has done is achieve consistent finishes in line with their resources. The question is - what is their target? They could keep things exactly as they are and probably continue to finish fifth or sixth with the occasional foray into the Champions League. I can't see them accepting that, club or fans. That's why Wenger needs to go. They don't need to change their transfer policy. They just need to get a new manager in. There are plenty of funds available for wages and transfers, and a new manager should freshen up the players already there with the ability to bring in new blood. There are suggestions that there are problems in the youth set-up, which again a new manager will be in the position to influence. There is the perennial problem that there are two clubs with silly money, one club with more money for now although the future is a bit cloudier (Chelsea), another club with comparable money that is improving all the time (Liverpool), and Spurs, the wild cards, with less money but a new stadium coming which might bring us closer to the big boys. It's not going to get any easier for them.

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exactly, you can't just not sell if it's an escape/release clause That's exactly what Liverpool did, according to their owner https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/mar/02/liverpool-john-henry-luis-suarez-clause ignoring the fact they publicly said one thing at the time and he's saying something completely different that is indeed interesting They also publicly said they'd ended their interest in Van Dijk.

Come on Stoke. I love that the West Ham fantasy is still alive.

And so they should. Have I missed something? Erm yeah? They are going to stay up whilst continuing to lose their last 3 games because neither Stoke nor Soton have the balls to win more than 2 games since January. If I'm a Huddersfield fan and I stay up, I'm going to go absolutely fucking mental. That's a terrific achievement.

And so they should. Have I missed something?

Go for Tadic instead? Think Lingaard will play 1 game I already have Tadic

I have all three. I seriously considered captaining Eriksen as well, but I'm going with Kane. You just never know what Man City will do, and as long as Kane is fit, he's playing. He'll get the penalties too, where there's no guarantee Jesus will after that last game.

Can't make my mind up between Lingard and Kenedy. Anyone got any thoughts?

And Gazza for 2.2M, and Waddle for 590K. I think we paid you the Sissoko fee out of guilt. That's really the only reason I can think of.

Happened to me in December. Happened playing soccer on Tuesday evening, and I went to work the next day. Not the most fun I've ever had.

Congrats on the win, and probably the title. Yup, won twelve in a row now. Hopefully they get their act together next year, as this still has real potential.

Dropped Salah for Eriksen here.

I think we're all just kinda done with this season now . Hopefully we wake up in time to stop Chelsea catching us.

I think the clue to that is in the first line of the description of the podcast, "Adam talks with British comedian Bob Mortimer." Presumably a lot of the audience is American.

Wild card at last!

Come on West Ham. Keep me entertaining hope for at least one more week.

There's a lesser-known guy called Harry Kane who I believe is on the fringes of the squad. You can also add Harry Winks, Jake Livermore, Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Andros Townsend on the fringe (depressingly). Welbeck. Tammy Abraham and Solanke have caps this year, as does Sturridge.

Seems strange that when Fabianski gets a touch Shhhhh.

Although presumably that means that Sterling doesn't get an assist. Balls.

Although apparently he gets an assist .

Oh FFFS. This week has been an utter disaster.