Football (Soccer)

[lfcrule1972]

Mmmm - well I know how I would feel if Stevie G was sold for a cut price and without any concern from the board....

I see that Wenger apparently wants Jenas from Newcastle to replace him but Souness has said only if Sol Campbell goes the other way as part of the deal..... He's a joker old Souness... Mind you the way the Arsenal board rid themselves of Vieira I suppose anything is possible.

Personally I am pleased that Gerrard got the hat trick on Wednesday - nice start for him and should ease the concerns about his commitment a little... I see the Figo deal may still be on, personally I doubt it but stranger things have happened - like Crouch to LFC for instance

Oh well have a good weekend - look fwd to seeing who the "prof" has lined up for your boys, I wonder if Pires will join Vieira at Juve ??

[Oriphus]

Hey guys, im back safe and sound (bar a lovely hurricane dennis to contend with lol). Been really busy, just started working full time in a corporate bank, so its keeping me on my toes.

Well, havent really had much time to read through any of the stuff. Any real big headlining news lately?

Cheers
Chris

[jmet]

"Any real big headlining news lately"

I just recently learned we successfully put a man on the moon.

[admin]

Gerrard stays. Vieira was sold. Baptista stalling like a real SOB. Arsenal in crisis (so what else is new?). Chelsea pay through the nose for Shaun Wright Phillips (£ 21m), so Lyon now wants £ 31m for Essien (good luck with that). Madrid lose 3-0 to some Japanese team (that conceded 26 goals in 4 games or something).

Oh, and some clever geezer did something wonderful with the Man United sign at Old Trafford

http://x1.putfile.com/7/20103370283.jpg

[Oriphus]

...On the moon...wow lol

Hey Admin, cant believe that Vieira actually went. Should be a nice signing for Milan, but probably he is not as good as he was two years ago. Gerrard staying is great news for Liverpool. Baptista im not surprised about, thought that would happen. However, arent i hearing rumours of him actually turning down Arsenal now.

Spurs have got Davids, thats a pretty good signing for them, and i think he will do well there. Chelsea have again knocked the fees for transfers up to high - it should be capped i think, though just not sure how that would work.

Madrid also won 3-2 against a team we comfortably won 3-0, though it should have been more like 6-0, but the many many subs may have runied the flow of the game.

lol @ the United. Im gerenally a bit skeptic of any photo that is that small, cuz it means its hard to tell if it has been photo-chopped.

Admin, any ideas how i can view this thread from a work website that prevents access to all "forum" addresses? Probably not i guess

[admin]

Vieira will probably do great at Juve, but his heart was just not in it for Arsenal anymore, ever since 2001 and the "I wouldn't mind going to Man United" statement.

As for the photo, it was real (used to be BBC, or football365.com before it was removed for obvious reasons). Apparently, some electrical contractor decided to have a bit of fun one night while doing maintenance on the sign.

As for work blocks, there is also the forums.digital-digest.com address, but it might be blocked as well. You can also access it this way:

http://svr02.digital-digest.com/site15/

Some of the links are hard encoded to use forum.digital-digest.com, so you'll have to manually change these links when you use them.

[Oriphus]

Yeah, it worked great using that link you provided.

The photo is pretty cool then being an original, bet the guy who did the sign got a bit of flack over it.

Wow...did you see Celtic lost 5-0......what happened there?

[admin]

Strachan should have stayed retired, perhaps. I wonder how young Aliadiere is doing there? Hope he didn't play in the 5-0 game.

[Oriphus]

he didnt play in the game, but yeah, its not a good start for Celtic alright. Draws are out, pretty happy with them. Hope Real Betis get through

[Oriphus]

Looks like Chelsea are still struggling to land Essien...

Wonder if United or Arsenal are likely to make any decent purchases this year. United could certainly do with a super strong midfielder, and possibly and winger to play in place of Giggs in case he has problems this year...

[admin]

I don't know if we might bring it someone, quality or otherwise, but we actually made a profit during this transfer period

We're sort of stuck between having a large squad of very promising youth players, and not having enough experienced players. Having more experienced "world class" players would be great, but it will hamper the development of the youth players. If we don't get any experienced players, we may struggle a bit for the short term, but it will be good for us in the long term.

We did win against Ajax, our first victory against them for some time now (both in the Amsterdam Tournament and in the CL). Hleb is starting to impress - very quick feet, excellent passing and vision, and likes to run at players. A bit like Robben, but doesn't look like a 30 year old, although he is much uglier.

And there is also the problem that there aren't that many world class players that are available. In terms of strikers, there's maybe only Owen, and whether he can fit into the Arsenal team (and whether he is willing to sit on the bench from time to time) is another question. Good central midfielders are even rarer - Essien is good (in the French League, but Cygan was one of the best defenders there), but at best worth 15 million. There is also Ballacks, but he is getting on a bit.

I think we need a goalkeeper, having loaned out/sold Stack/Taylor, and with Almunia's injury, that leaves only Lehmann and 2 youth keepers. Lehmann is suspended for the first 2 CL games, so this could mean we would have a 18 year old goalkeeper start the match and the 17 year old on the bench. The problem is that as long as Lehmann is here, no one wants to come here to sit on the bench, especially in a world cup year.

[Oriphus]

If we don't get any experienced players, we may struggle a bit for the short term, but it will be good for us in the long term

Wasnt that our plans as well. United were to develop a young team for the future, possibly meaning a few years of underperforming but in the long term getting a top team. We bought Ronaldo, Pique and Rossi for those reasons I believe. All of them look to be great players, especially Ronaldo who obviously has already made it into the team in a big way.

Ballack was talking about coming to United. That would have been a pretty decent signing for us if we had got him on a free transfer. I know he is getting on a bit, but some of these players can really give a good performance for a final few years. With the diet and balanced exercise most players get these days, it really shouldnt be much of a problem.

Yeah, your goalkeeping position is a difficult one. Im quite happy with the Van der Sar signing and i hope he comes good. I also continue to hope that Howard will progress to a level that is suiting to a Man United keeper. We have still yet to find anyone to replace our great Peter S, but maybe van der sar could do that lol.

[admin]

Well, we've won the Amsterdam Tournament, by winning all two games against Ajax and Porto, and ensuring we scored more goals than Boca. If I'm not mistaken, these two victories may be the first two in this pre-season tournament, it's certainly the first time we've won it. Watched it on the Internet using a good broadband live stream (in Cantonese, which I don't understand as I only speak Mandarin). Hleb looks great everytime I've seen him - his passing is simply amazing (can thread a pass sideways through 4 other players accurately), and he really likes to take on 4 or 5 players at a time (and doesn't lose the ball either - at least against semi-decent opposition in the form of Ajax and Porto).

As for the goalkeeping situation, rumours are that we're interested in the 22 year old Viera, the highly rated Uruguayan national side goalkeeper, currently at Nacional. No work permit problems because he has an Italian passport. This would explains why we got rid of our two younger goalkeepers - and with this as Lehmann's last season possibly (his will be 36 years old in October), and Almunia being the second choice keeper that he was bought for, we do need a younger goalkeeper.

I think maybe we wanted Viera all along, so we had to offload Vieira to avoid the confusion. At least people would be able to spell his name right this time round.

Viera oooo oh
Viera oooo oh
He comes from Uruguay
He's only got one I*

* Not my invention, unfortunately.

[Oriphus]

I think maybe we wanted Viera all along, so we had to offload Vieira to avoid the confusion. At least people would be able to spell his name right this time round.

Would make sense. I love this:

Viera oooo oh
Viera oooo oh
He comes from Uruguay
He's only got one I*

Very catching lol.

Yeah, just reading about the Arsenal victory. Ljungberg introduction in the second half seems to have breathed some life into a mediocre performance. I was expecting more from Benni McCarthey to me honest. Maybe it goes to show that it was his "fluke" goal and not a "top" goal that put us out two seasons ago. Although i hear he impressed enough lol....still bitter about that...

Mourinho believes that Gerrards made the mistake of his life signing a new contract with Liverpool. He says that it wont affect Chelsea much, because they have top players already, but he says that if you compare Liverpool trophies in 10 years time, and then Chelsea's trophies, there will be a big difference in favour of Chelsea.

After Celtics disasterous start to the CL, with a 5-0 defeat to Artmedia Bratislava, an under-dog to say the least, they have now drawn 4-4 in the opening game of the season against Motherwell or someone. Gordon Strachan maybe shouldve retired lol. That is not the kind of start to a season you want, especially after the success of Martin O'Neills era (my dad went to school with him for 5 years).

This seems to be in the papers a lot:

Sir Alex Ferguson has been given clearance by Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer to sign Michael Owen.

Not sure what i think about the possibility of signing the Scouser...I mean...he's a Liverpool fan through and through, whats he gonna do if we play Liverpool lol. Im kidding, its more that im not sure he is the right signing for us. I think it might be good to have another striker, since we really only have Rooney & Van Nistelrooy as strikers, with Louis Saha probably on his way out and Alan Smith being nurtured to take over a Roy Keane role...Owen might make a tasty edition when we're 2-0 down with no sign of a goal or two coming. I could see him coming on and popping a couple in. Also, remember that we should hopefully be getting Ole Gunner Solskjaer back sometime. I know he won't be the player he has been, but im still hopefully he'll play once again...

Here's one from the Daily Mirror:

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has confirmed he wants to buy Uruguay keeper Sebastian Viera. (Daily Mirror)

and

Ashley Cole says he is "100% committed to Arsenal" after his dramatic contract U-turn. (Daily Mirror)

Some interesting stuff happening coming up to the end of the transfer window. Looking forward to the start of the season....less than two weeks to go....

Chris

[Oriphus]

Andy Johnson stayed with Crystal Palace. Just signed a new 5 year deal. Bit surprised at that, especially after the season he had last time round. Thought he wouldve been snapped up by a Premiership team after Southampton got relegated.

According to our main news channels and the T'internet, Owen should be on his way back to England and Man United sometime in the next week....we wait with baited breath lol...

Chris