Football (Soccer)

[SEGAbhoy]

Larsson gone to barca? no way stop all the lies-I got a poster of him in my bedroom in a celtic jersey-it says 100 goals and counting so he MUST still be scoring next year, in a celtic jersey that is, maybe I should face up to the truth- hey chris how do you think celtic will do without him? Anyway ya think he is going to be that good at barca? Remember he is pushing on the years okay sure he did well in Euro 2004 but it is only a matter of time.

[MPS]

yup, that's settled.

and today's interesting signings are:

Rivaldo -> Olimpiakos Pireus (like Giovanni, huh? who would think of that move a few years back? )

Kluivert -> Newcastle (RvN & Saha vs. Shearer & Kluivert - any bets? i predict something around 40 goals to 30 )

Klinsmann -> (possibly) German coach seat

Shevchenko -> Marriagehood FC

[admin]

Some confirmed and unconfirmed (but very likely to happen) Arsenal transfers so far this season:

Out:
Parlour - Middlesbrough or West Ham
Wiltord - Released
Kanu - Released
Keown - Released
Bentely - Loaned out
Stack - Loaned out

In:
Hatem Trabelsi (right back) - from Ajax
Mathieu Flamini (defensive midfielder) - from Marseille
Nicklas Bendtner (17 yo. Danish striker) - confirmed
Arturo Lupoli (17 yo. Italian striker) - from Parma, confirmed
Robin van Persie - from Feyenoord, confirmed (scored one and assisted twice in his debut 10-1 victory over Barnet - man of the match)
Manuel Almunia (goalkeeper) - from Celta Vigo, confirmed

The "media" says these people want to leave Arsenal :
Vieira
Campbell
Edu
Parlour
Ljungberg
A. Cole
Cygan
Wenger

[MPS]

aresenal bringing some talent finally

[Oriphus]

yeah, i heard about the amount of players looking to leave, particularily Vieira, Campbell and Cole.

United are not happy at all about Heinze and the Olympics, its annoying me to.

United won their game 4-0. When i say United, Roy Carrol was the only potential first teamer lol

[MPS]

what's the issue with Heinze & olympics ole-phus?

[admin]

Heinze has been selected for the Olympic squad, so he will miss out on the start of the season.

I think Patrick Vieira is the most likely to leave Arsenal most likely because of his dodgy knee. He prefers a less physical league like La Liga, where there is less of a chance that a tackle will end his playing career.

None of the other names mentioned by the media will leave. Arsenal revealed a few weeks ago that Sol Campbell is in negotiations for a new contract and has already agreed to settle for less salary (his previous high salary was part of his signing deal, considering he was signed on a free and didn't receive a signing on fee), so there is no sign that he wants to leave on a bossman. Ashley Cole is born and bred Arsenal (having been a fan before he played for Arsenal), and he is also first choice, so he is the most unlikely to leave. Edu has sat on the bench for 3 years, and has never complained, although if he doesn't get to play, he might want to leave. He is still young though (25), and Gilberto will probably only be first choice for another season. Arsene won't leave until we play a whole season at the new stadium, as he has said many times before - the stadium is almost completely his own project, so why would he leave now?

Some Arsenal fans want to cash in on Ljungberg anyway (now that Pennant is back), but he wants to stay and I hope he stays.

It's all media rubbish anyway _

[admin]

And C. Ronaldo is also going to the Olympics

[MPS]

i see. well... olympics is more important than a few game in yaps (yet another premiership season)

[Oriphus]

Olympics are rubbish in terms of football. Its useless, i wont be watching it. The level of football played is like 2nd division or something. Yeah, i knew Ronaldo was going, but he is young and its sort of expected to go atleast once.

[MPS]

i dont agree. of course the level is lower, but football is football...

[admin]

I don't think players respect the Olympics football that much - I think on the current Arsenal team, only Lauren has actually played in the Olympics. Anyway, Sir Alex is apparently furious that young Ronaldo and Heinze are going to the Olympics, and I think without Ronaldo, and assuming no more purchses for Man United, you'll struggle with creativity.

It is strange though that United have been very quiet in the transfer market this summer - is something big lined up (Rooney, from what I've heard), or is the United board not allowing Sir Alex to make too many transfers. Or maybe he is trying to copy what Wenger did last summer, by keeping the same team intact and only buying 1 or 2 players.

So far, Arsenal have bought a goalkeeper, a defender, a defensive midfielder and a striker, plus several players coming back from loans, and several youth players that are primed to make the first team. This is probably Arsenal's busiest transfer period in quite a while...

[Oriphus]

Don't rule out a few more bids from United on other players until the transfer window closes. We were turned down for Garcia from Madrid (17 year old) - he said he wanted to stay with Madrid as his heart is there. By the looks of things Sir Alex is still very much tryong to build a team for the future as well as maintaining a team for now.

Yeah, the Olympics are useless for football. Ronaldo says he wants to show the world his footballing skills? Does anyone actually watch Olympic football? Im more interested in football that matters, the players in the Olympics are not usually the world class ones. Im not sure how many United players have played in the Olympics, but i dont think its many.....

Looks like Chelsea are off to a good start. They beat Celtic 4-2 in their first pre-season friendly in America. Arsenal won their game 2-1 i think against some Austrian team called Grazer lol. United reserve reserves beat Radcliffe 2-1 as well. Played against Paul gasgoine and good old Lee Sharpe.

Really looking forward to seeing SMith play up front for United in an hour against Bayern Munich

[Oriphus]

Well, we lost on penalties, but what a performance from Alan Smith. Looks to be a very promising striker for us this season. His commitment alone was fantastic, let alone his ability. For a team with really only 2 or 3 premiership starters, we did fantastic to even get a 0-0 draw with Bayern munich.

Brazil are the Copa America champions, they won on penalties also. Argentina were the far better team and were unlucky not to win it.

[admin]

We've played 3 friendlies so far, 10-1 against Barnet, 3-2 against Maribor (Slovenian team) and 2-1 against Grazer (Austrian team). Out of the players that participated, only Reyes, Lauren and Gilberto are first teamers (and if Trabelsi comes , Lauren may not be first teamer for long). I think we had 3 or 4 16/18 year olds playing, including two Ivory Coast trialists from Beveren. The players that were at Euro 2004 has only just come back from an extended Holiday, so they should be able to play their first games in the Amsterdam Tourny.

So far, van Persie has scored and assisted goals in all three games, even though he was only subbed on late in one game. His passing and vision is amazing (Bergkamp would be proud - for one of Reyes' goals, he passed to him all the way from defense, and the ball landed right in front of Reyes and pass the defenders), his long range shooting is as good as Reyes, and we finally have someone that can score from headers. The Dutch football experts were right when they said he is a bigger talent than Robben. As long as he has a good attitude (no problems so far), he will be a star this season.

A pratically first team Chelsea (including Kezman) has already played a friendly, against conference side Oxford - they drew 1-1