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I'm optimistic, but then again, I always am.

Barring Flamini, we've covered all of our losses this year, and strengthened with Vela coming in to play up front, or on the wing. Le Boss has also said that he will "certainly" make one more signing, and I genuinely think that it'll be one of Barry or Alonso. He hinted before the transfer market opened that he'd be looking to buy a player with Premier League experience. Neither Nasri nor Ramsey has that, so the next signing will probably be that player.

Hleb is not a worry - Theo, Vela, Ramsey, Nasri, whoever, will score more.

Flamini, for all of his work, is not an incredibly talented footballer. Replacing him with the likes of Barry or Alonso, who can pass a long ball very well, will allow us to utilise the speed of Theo, Adebayor (who I think will stay, unless Chelsea sign Kaka) and others (even Clichy and Sagna), and that could add maybe 10 goals a season. Both of those players are capable of knocking 5 or so in a season, from the holding midfield position.

The main reason I am optimistic, though, is looking at the other sides.

The loss of Ronaldo will bring United from the team they were last season back to the pack, so to speak. When you look at that side, you can't see enough players stepping up into the void to replace him. Minus Ronaldo, there's only really Ferdinand, Vidic and Rooney who are absolute guns. The rest, while being very good players, are not enough to cover 42 goals.

Chelsea will struggle to adapt to Scolari's system immediately (look at Essendon with Knights), so will take a little time to get their act together, like they did last season. Meanwhile, we have a dream draw, so we should be pulling away from them early.

Liverpool (sorry, Dustbin) I don't see filling enough gaps in their squad. Their full-backs are weak, their central defenders not world-beaters, and their wingers pretty poor as well. Beyond Torres, there's not much up front.

Combine that with our draw up until November, and the experience of the title race last year, and I think we can pinch it.:D
 
Ben the Gooner said:
August 31, 11.59pm.

I fully expect Barry at Colney on the last day:D Him or Xabi Alonso.
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Thanks BTG. :thumbsu:

I don't think Xabi will end up going anywhere. Has stated he is happy at L'pool and Rafa isn't shopping him around, which means Gareth may be a better choice to join Arsenal.

Noway can Barry play with AV this season, he copped an absolute caning from his own supporters in the practice match earlier in the week. Barry's relationship with O'Neil has soured considerably.

Ben the Gooner said:
Liverpool (sorry, Dustbin) I don't see filling enough gaps in their squad. Their full-backs are weak, their central defenders not world-beaters, and their wingers pretty poor as well. Beyond Torres, there's not much up front.
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I agree about our full backs, but our are central defenders are one our strongest areas. Carra, Skrtel and Agger will be competing for first team selection and Hyppia will provide experience, but a lack of pace as back up.

We know about Carra and Agger has finally recovered from injury. Skrtel is the one I really like, was super impressive last year. It may mean that Carra goes to RB and Agger will be paired up with Skrtel. Carra is great defensive, but will offer little going forward.

Our wingers have been a weakness of ours for a few years now. Pennant and Benayoun perform reasonably when they play, even kuyt who busts his balls, was used out wide, he was good but that's it. Babel played out on the left, Riise, Aurillo and Kewell also had a crack with little affect. The left side is more of a problem for sure.

Our forwards as you already mentioned are weak with the exception of Torres, geez he is good. We've sold Crouch, and Voronin, well enough said. I expect Babel and Gerrard to play in a more forward role to support Torres. Torres and Gerrard linked up really well together last season, and Babel is dynamite. Big wraps/hopes on him. Keane would handy pick up as well.

Like Arsenal we'll be there about's. I only hope rafa starts buying some quality. eg Barry and Keane.

Any news on Adebayor? Seems to change every week...
 

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Ben the Gooner said:
Flamini, for all of his work, is not an incredibly talented footballer. Replacing him with the likes of Barry or Alonso, who can pass a long ball very well, will allow us to utilise the speed of Theo, Adebayor (who I think will stay, unless Chelsea sign Kaka) and others (even Clichy and Sagna), and that could add maybe 10 goals a season. Both of those players are capable of knocking 5 or so in a season, from the holding midfield position.
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I'm going to have to disagree with you there.

Flamini while not having an abundance of talent, is certainly more talented than Barry (who is overrated like most English players), Flamini scored a scorcher of a goal against......I can't quite remember but it was outside the box and perhaps GOTY from an Arsenal POV. Wenger won't sign Barry because Villa will ask way too much, Wenger hates signing overpriced players as he has been burnt before - especially with English talent (Jeffers)

If we're hoping for Ronaldo to be shipped off then we're in trouble IMO, as he's not going to go anywhere - this season anyway.

The quality is there, thats for sure. Its keeping our star players (RVP, Adebayor, Fabregas) on the park for the majority of the season
 
Barca don't seem to want Ade any more. They're actively pursuing Berbatov, and, anyway, they've got the goalscoring machine that is Hleb.:rolleyes:

Milan have ruled out any more transfer activity. However, they'll buy Ade if Kaka leaves. So it looks like he's staying.

As for the Scousers, Carragher, although a great servant for many years, doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence. Last year, he showed a propensity towards giving away a lot of fouls when confronted with faster strikers (or Joleon Lescott). Although he didn't get pulled up on many of them, he gave away a lot of clear-cut penalties, especially against Everton. Another year older, and another year slower, and he could become a liability.

Agger could go either way. His injuries seem to have been a few impact injuries, so he's been unlucky, but having said that, you can't really rely on him, just as we can't really rely on Rosicky. Ideally, Liverpool would play him whenever he's fit, but not rely on him.

Skrtl and Duggan I don't know much about, except that they're the Vidic-type defenders which Arsenal really lack.

Perhaps I was a little harsh, but when compared to Vidic-Ferdinand, Terry-Carvalho, and even Toure-Gallas, I'm not so sure about Liverpool's defence.

I can't see you mounting a title challenge because your back four can't play the Mourinho-Chelsea style, as it isn't as strong as theirs was, and besides Torres and Gerrard, I can't see anyone chipping in 8 league goals. There'll be too many draws at the likes of Wigan, Sunderland etc. to really challenge for the title. A cup run wouldn't be out of the picture, though.

EDIT: Just saw Smythy's post.

Barry's a great passer, but not a ferocious tackler like Flamini. The Cesc-Barry partnership, should it eventuate, would require more offensive defence (i.e. coming forward to tackle more) from Gallas and Toure. I'm not sure how it would work, but as an attacking threat it would be very effective, and play to the strengths of Clichy, Sagna, Adebayor and Theo much more.

Of course we're hoping Ronaldo is shipped off. Every club is. However, we're not relying on it. I think it will happen, and therefore will affect Manchester United greatly.

Injuries (as always) will be the key to our season.
 
Well we had the third best defence last season 2 goals more then Chelsea and 6 more then Man U. Our central defence is strong, it's the full backs that are our weakness.

As for us drawing against the minnow teams, you are kidding aren't you. :eek:
We'll see in week 1 when we take on Sunderland...

Can't see Arsenal being much of a threat this season. Ok defence, one decent midfielder in Fabregas and a one hit wonder in Adebayor. :p

Just kidding Benny, love watching Arsenal play and they'll be there at the business end of the season. :thumbsu:

Can't wait for the season to start. Does everyone have a fantsay league team?
 
I see this year as the year Carragher really starts to go downhill. I hope not, as he's been a class act (a big call for a Scouser:p) all his career, and a true one-club player, but his lack of pace will start to hurt. Still, I'd rather have a 4-way title race, to be perfectly honest.

What I meant by the minnow teams is that I don't see enough goals coming from the rest of the team (not Torres and Gerrard), so when they have a downer, you'll drop a few points. It was what plagued Arsenal last year, with Hleb refusing to shoot, Eboue being shite and Rosicky, RvP being injured.

I've got a premierleague.com one, for another football forum, but you can have as many leagues as you want, so if someone makes one, I'll definitely join. I prefer sportal.com.au's one, though. Has anyone made one yet, and does it have the multi-league option, like AFL dream team this year?
 
Here's the latest transfer gossip from UK wires...


Robinho and Didier Drogba are poised for a £40m swap between La Liga and the Premier League, with £25m-rated Brazilian forward Robinho moving to Chelsea and Blues striker Drogba on his way to Barcelona. (Daily Mirror)

England midfielder Frank Lampard has been offered a record-breaking £39m, five-year deal by Chelsea which will make him Britain's highest-paid footballer. (Various)

Manchester City boss Mark Hughes is set to make a shock bid to bring former Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse, now at Marseille, back to the Premier League. (Daily Mirror)

However, others say Hughes will make a £15m move for Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz. (Various)

West Ham, who are also interested in Cisse, have been warned by Marseille they have 10 days to sign the £8m-rated France striker. (Daily Star)

Fulham manager Roy Hodgson is set to shatter his signing record with a £10.75m bid for Everton striker Andrew Johnson. (Various)

Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan has offered £5m plus Charles N'Zogbia for Celtic winger Aiden McGeady. (The Sun)

Aston Villa have made a late bid to hijack Younes Kaboul's £5m move to Sunderland. (Daily Mirror)

Wigan boss Steve Bruce is to offer Fulham £3m to bring back old favourite Jimmy Bullard to the JJB Stadium. (Daily Mirror)

Paul Ince is poised to make Chile midfielder Carlos Villenueva his first signing as Blackburn boss. (The Sun)

Sunderland goalkeeper Marton Fulop is the subject of a £6m bid by Stoke City. (Daily Express)

Birmingham have told QPR to forget about signing Martin Taylor after assuring the defender he will play a key role in their bid for promotion. (Daily Mirror)

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp has told Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho that midfielder Sulley Muntari is not for sale. (The Sun)

Celtic are in advanced talks with Auxerre for the Romanian defender Gabriel Tamas, who is available for £3.5m. (The Guardian)

West Ham will on Wednesday complete their first major signing of the summer with the £5m acquisition of versatile Lazio midfielder Valon Behrami. (The Independent)

Peru winger Nolberto Solano is in talks to join Los Angeles Galaxy after being released by West Ham. (The Times)

Coventry boss Chris Coleman has launched a bid to raid Portsmouth for defender Martin Cranie. (Daily Star)

Cardiff are ready to hijack Leeds' £300,000 move for Wolves outcast Jay Bothroyd. (Daily Star)

Coventry striker Michael Mifsud has asked for a transfer, with Crystal Palace, Norwich and Bristol City all showing interest. (Daily Mail)

Celtic are poised to move for Le Mans's Serbian defender Marko Basa after his price dropped by £3m to £4.5m. (Various)

Rangers assistant boss Ally McCoist travelled to Portugal to watch Ibrox target Glenn Loovens in Cardiff City's 2-1 win over Vitoria Guimaraes in the Algarve Cup (Western Mail)

But Rangers have been told by Cardiff City they must up their bid for defender Loovens. (Various)

Auxerre defender Gabriel Tamas wants £20,000 per week from Celtic, while the Glasgow club have offered £14,000. (The Sun)

Dundee United are considering an increased bid of £600,000 from Reading for striker Noel Hunt. (Daily Record/Sun)

Hassan Wasswa's agent says the Uganda defender will be signing for Cape Town Ajax rather than Hearts. (Various)

Norwich City are poised to persuade Celtic's John Kennedy to head to Carrow Road on loan instead of Motherwell. (Various)

Back to top

OTHER GOSSIP

Celtic midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura could require surgery on a groin problem. (Daily Record)

Hearts say there have been no talks with Uganda coach Jackson Mayanja about becoming assistant to Csaba Laszlo. (The Scotsman)

Macedonia have switched the kick-off of their World Cup qualifier against Scotland to 3pm - when temperatures could reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit. (Daily Express)

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has taunted new Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari by telling him he has no chance of matching Jose Mourinho's efforts at the Stamford Bridge helm. (Daily Mirror)
Ferguson doubts Chelsea challenge

Real Madrid defender Fabio Cannavaro has been trying to persuade Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo to join the Spanish club after the pair became friends while holidaying on the Italian island of Capri. (The Sun)

Midfielder Gareth Barry, who has been targeted by Liverpool, was relentlessly booed by Aston Villa fans as he pulled on their colours for what is likely to be the last time in a friendly win against League One side Walsall. (Various)
Villa fans jeer unsettled Barry

Arsenal defender Kolo Toure is a doubt for the start of the Premier League campaign after he contracted Malaria while at home in the Ivory Coast. (The Sun)

Gunners striker Eduardo has suffered a setback from the double leg break he sustained in February, ruling him out of the first two months of the season. (Daily Telegraph)

Goalkeeper Shay Given has reminded Newcastle United's board that Kevin Keegan's side requires significant strengthening. (The Guardian)

Can I just re-affirm, this is just gossip. Still makes for good reading.
 
Ben the Gooner said:
I see this year as the year Carragher really starts to go downhill. I hope not, as he's been a class act (a big call for a Scouser:p) all his career, and a true one-club player, but his lack of pace will start to hurt. Still, I'd rather have a 4-way title race, to be perfectly honest.

What I meant by the minnow teams is that I don't see enough goals coming from the rest of the team (not Torres and Gerrard), so when they have a downer, you'll drop a few points. It was what plagued Arsenal last year, with Hleb refusing to shoot, Eboue being shite and Rosicky, RvP being injured.

I've got a premierleague.com one, for another football forum, but you can have as many leagues as you want, so if someone makes one, I'll definitely join. I prefer sportal.com.au's one, though. Has anyone made one yet, and does it have the multi-league option, like AFL dream team this year?
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The thing about Barry is that he will be WAY overpriced - Wenger will not buy him, I would be surprised if he did.

RE: Eboue, he's not a midfielder's a-hole, he has a $hit first touch, isn't a good passer and lacks creativity. Hopefully Wenger doesn't ever again, try and put him as a midfielder.

I think his place is in real jeopardy as he really can only play as a full-back and Sagna has clearly over-taken him in that position (on the right)

Rosicky better pray that he doesn't get injured - one more unfruitful season and he's out IMO. Hopefully Walcott leaps ahead of him this year.
 
Eboue's antics are a disgrace to the red and white. Would Dennis Bergkamp or Patrick Vieira, or even back to Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton dived, cheated and moaned around through as many games as Eboue?

I'm happy for him to be second choice right back, because he has real talent, but nowhere near right midfield.

Le Boss has mentioned several times that he wants to sign a player with premiership experience. That means paying over the odds, so him buying a highly rated Englishman wouldn't surprise me. The sort of player who would give a toss about the FA Cup, for instance.

EDIT: The Sp*rs w***er is worth every penny of that.
 

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Guys, just so you know, a good site to get transfer rumours from is goal.com, alot more reliable than UK newspapers!!

Here is what i think of the big 4:

Arsenal: Quality signing in Nasri but they'll need a defensive mid or they'll struggle with both Flamini and Gilberto leaving!! Their 1st team looks good but with a few injuries to injury prone players like RVP and rosicky and I think they'll struggle unless some of their younger, less established players can stand up, particularly in midfield. Prediction - 3rd
 
Chelsea: A good new manager in Scolari and they seem to have signed players for their 2 weakest areas which were right back and a creative player in the midfield. However I've not seen alot of Bosingwa so I don't know how he'll go but Deco is a very good signing and should provide the creative spark they've missed, overall they look like they have a good squad with no real weaknesses but it'll be interesting to see how Cech goes after a couple of poor mistakes at the euros and also how they cope with the loss of either or both of Lampard or Drogba, that said they do look the most likely to challenge Man U. Prediction 2nd
 
Liverpool: Benitez is a good manager but I'd have to agree with everything that's been said so far, their fullbacks are not of the best quality and there will be question marks over Aurelio when he comes back after his bad injury last season, their wingers really are probably only good at best, babel has lots of potential but is still very raw and if I were them I would be going after one of Quaresma, Aaron Lennon, David Bentley or David Silva for the wings and I still think they lack a top quality striker to partner Torres, unless they do these things it's hard to see them improving on last seasons effort and again they will have to be very conscious not to drop points against lower teams as this was possibly their major achilles heel last season. Prediction - 4th
 
Man Utd: Once again, it's hard to go past them, they have every part of their squad covered well and they really are a top quality team, their 1 weakness if they have one is their lack of backup in the striker department however they seem to be aware of that with the pursuits of Berbatov and Huntelaar and the rumoured interest in Eto'o and Villa, of course the departure of Ronaldo would have a big impact however he's looking less likely to go now than he was say a month ago. They really do have no weaknesses in their squad and as I said it's hard to see them losing it and unless Chelsea can go 1 step better this season, I think they'll go back to back. Prediction - 1st:thumbsu:
 
Ben the Gooner said:
goal.com is bollocks.

BBC, Guardian, Times Online, Telegraph, Observer are all good sources, and sites like the Mirror and the Sun are good for a laugh. Goal fits in with the last two.
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No because Goal.com actually have realistic transfer rumours and I'm sure they've actually reported a number of transfers before they've actually happened, one for a good laugh is Tribalfootball.com;)
 
michael7 said:
No because Goal.com actually have realistic transfer rumours and I'm sure they've actually reported a number of transfers before they've actually happened, one for a good laugh is Tribalfootball.com;)
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Now that is rubbish.

I like reading the transfer rumours on the Guardian, pretty funny. They don't hold back.
 
michael7 said:
No because Goal.com actually have realistic transfer rumours and I'm sure they've actually reported a number of transfers before they've actually happened, one for a good laugh is Tribalfootball.com;)
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Agreed about tribalfootball.:D

goal will fluke one or two now and again. The ones I listed above deal with a lot more factual stuff than goal.
 
In regards to the comments about Liverpool's centre backs, I agree with Dustbin. We have Carragher, Agger and Skrtel who are all quality. Carra will stand up and play his usual role. He's not finished yet IMO. Agger and Skrtel are both very good players. Considering Skrtel being our most expensive defender IIRC you'd hope so.

No, the centre of defence isn't our problem. It's the wide areas. Finnan looks finished. Arbeloa doesn't add enough in attack. I'm not sure about Degen and Dossena. I do have high hopes that Aurelio can perform if he stays on the park. He's looked good when he actually gets a game.

Pennant, Benayoun and Kuyt all perform admirably without having that extra class that we need. Babel looks the goods but h may be played more as a backup striker this year. We definitely need at least one and preferably two or three quality wingers. Hopefully Rafa can satisfy.

In the centre of midfield we look good with Masch, Xabi and Stevie G running around. I like the look of Lucas though he needs to step up this year. That Torres kid goes alright up front too. We do need another striker or two though. Hopefully that Keane rumour is true as he'd be a good pickup.

We've got some impressive youth at Melwood aswell. I was really impressed by the holding midfielder Plessis when he debuted against Arsenal late last year. Was really composed and tackled well. A star of the future. Also, Emil Insua looks the goods at left back. Not many kids debut for Liverpool at 18. He looks really good and his greatest asset is his ability to attack from left-back. Striker Nemeth aso had a ripper year last year and looks a good prospect. One who is really impressing in the early pre-season friendlies this year is Pacheco. He's been voted MotM in at least two games already IIRC.

If Rafa buyst the right players that we are searching for I believe we can be there and abouts till at least February. I haven't got my hopes up on winning the league just yet though.
 
Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has completed the signing of French striker David Ngog from Paris St Germain.
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I admit I've seen nothing of him, but you can't expect a 19 yr old unproven Frenchman to provide back up to Torres just yet.

Rafa better seriously bolster the striking department, otherwise we are in deep poo poo. Come on down Robbie Keane. :D
 
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