Village Idiot

why ? does it say he's signed or we have merely lodged a bid ? Only says you're interested and have approached the player; and that the situation might "evolve" during the weekend.

Just lurked in some Montpeiller HSC forums, they only know about the le10sport info, nothing else to it.

We have a reputation for this on the continent ? Aye, you have a reputation for having awful defences. Coupled with the "better lose 5-4" cliché. I blame Keegan. I'd blame Boumsong, Bramble, Ramage, Caçapa, Marcelino, Moore before that though

We have a reputation for this on the continent ? Aye, you have a reputation for having awful defences. Coupled with the "better lose 5-4" cliché.

A Newcastle team with such a strong back 4 would be very unnewcastleish. Hope it's true.

The scouting isn't the problem. The recruitment part is however. Nope, I think we are just finding players we would be expected to find. We have gone from being very poor in this department to simply average. There is no evidence of a wide network. Carr has a good eye and likes players with a pleasing style of play but that is as far as it goes. I think the only problem with your scouting network is that it's the French version of Martin O'Neill. Otherwise, getting people like HBA, Cabaye, Tioté, Ba, etc... for the prices you did is great business.

"Mundo Deportivo" just linked you with Fulham's Kasami in their live transfer market stream. Can't find anything else so probably bollocks. Lazio, Sampdoria and Wolfsburg also interested.

Milan have been randomly signing LBs for years now.

This feels like in FM when you have had a player scouted for months and at the same moment you get an offer accepted 200000000000000000 AI teams bid for him.

I agree with that; it won't be such an impressive figure in the near future, and there's already a bunch of not-really-that-great players earning these amounts. Arsenal's wage bill is massive. Of course, so are all the other clubs in that echelon, but their net transfer spend doesn't tell all the story. They spent 143M on wages last year, which is probably more than a million a week more than us. No idea what yours was, but the year before you were at 54M. With all that, 100Kpw isn't really that much of a impressive figure for them already. Try four times that... (Suppose you mistook me for one of the resident NUFC fans) But yeah, that's huge for Arsenal given their current standing in world football.

Not a chance. That level of money suggests someone you'd build your team around, someone who will lead the way to success. Cazorla, Wilshere, maybe Vermaelen are players Arsenal should build their team around. Not Walcott. Not to say he can't be a very dangerous player, nor that he isn't going to score you goals, but I think he's the archetypal "will play well against poorer opposition" player. Just don't think he's cut out to make his mark regularly against top teams, which is what you'd expect of someone on that sort of wage. Dunno if that's a clichéd observation but that's what has always struck me about him. In that sense it's a big risk giving him that much money as it implies Wenger thinks he will develop into that player. I can't see it, but we'll see. Vermaelen is definitely not worth that amount of money. He's still error prone, liable to lapses in concentration and his on the pitch decision making isn't that great. He shouldn't even be starting for them tbh, Koscielny and Mertesacker are superior defenders. Arsenal fans love Vermaelen though, because of his forward surges and the fact he scores loads for a CB.

Heh, just made a bit of a search and Catalan media were reporting the "Poche to Southampton" talks two days ago.

I agree with that; it won't be such an impressive figure in the near future, and there's already a bunch of not-really-that-great players earning these amounts.

Sevilla are trying to get Guidetti on loan. But you don't do loans, do you?

He's young still, and his end product isn't that bad. He'll be a star in his mid-20s, imho. I agree that there's no way they'd sell him.

André Ayew

Except that he supported their equivalent of the mackems as a kid. Die-hard Madrid-based RM fans don't consider him their golden boy at all.

I'd expect him to bounce back.

"Uafa"

To be frank, I'd consider Cazorla or Wilshere more "star" players than Walcott.

One year ago Pochettino was linked with the Real Madrid job should Mou leave. His stock has fallen a lot since then but there was a point where he was seen as the next big thing. I agree it's a risky appointment in these circumstances, but otherwise he could get the job done.

Dean Windass, Premier League football manager. Yeah...

They have had tons of ownership issues in the past; with several area businessmen battling it out for control of the club. Currently it was owned by a trust that was supposed to float the shares after the club was stabilized.

The bank that was supposed to finance the stadium move was nationalized a few months ago, after it was found out it was nearly bankrupt. The deal pretty much collapsed, and now Valencia has been unable to face debt payments. It's the first time that I see the problems with our economy directly hitting a club; the real estate and banking business in Valencia has been one of the hardest hit.

Wonder if Poche will try to bring anybody from Espanyol before the window closes. Verdú only has 6 months left and is a brilliant playmaker; I think their relationship was rather cold before he was sacked, though.