₦airaland Forum

debosky:
^^ The rumour is true, but it doesn't mean y'all are signing him.

Gill meeting the owner of Udine is no guarantee of a signing - if Citeh offer more cash they are likely to get him.

and who told you sanchez is enticed with citeh's cash? he's reiterated time and time again united will be his #1 choice. if david gill meets his personal terms then sanchez will be at old trafford in the coming weeks. marca is reporting the rumour now and it seems united are in for him.

dayokanu:
Well Statistics is different from reality.

Clichy in relaity is one of the worst LB in Europe

he wasn't even the best in that statistics printed, the author just picked him. everyone loves arsenal.

4llerbuntu:
as for this gervinho issue, after seeing the much vaunted chamakh in action, dont hope for much from the french league. the standards there are clearly piss poor these days

evra, drogba, malouda, essien musta dropped from the league in planet pluto then.

ritchboy:
^^ Considering the fact Kalou is the next most skilful Ivorian, that isn't much of a compliment

Truth be told, i prefer Hazard but Gervinho is a good player in his own right.

Meanwhile, is it true Nasri is demanding 160,000GBP p/w? The boy must have lost his mind.

arouna dindane

gervinho will be a massive hit in the premier league - almost in the mould of odemwingie. he is a very brilliant player. if united don't have chicharito, he's the kind of player that would compliment berbatov and rooney. he was a class act in south africa last summer and during the olympics in 2008.

proudly9ja:
I wouldn't say I am excited about Gervinho's imminent signing for Arsenal. I'm worried that we will have two African forwards who will be absent during the ANC. What's worse is that we will have the ACN competition in 2012 and 2013 as the CAF now want to host ACN competitions in odd number years.

I have also seen Gervinho play once or twice and Ild say I'm not too impressed.

you must have seen a fake gervinho play. he is the most skilful ivorien forward.

montelik:
I suspect so too, but left to me its a risk I would rather not take. Owen might keep fit longer than you expect and we saw SAF intentionally giving Owen playing time to qualify him for a PL medal, so there is no reason to believe he won't give him playing time that Welbeck needs. Better to send him out on loan and know that he is progressing than risk him staying and stagnating.

owen is on pay by play. david gill wouldn't let him play more than 20 games. . . . . .

if torres gets a proper pre-season with his new teammates in chelsea, he will outscore any chelsea striker next season. form is temporary, class is permanent. there's still life in the old dog.

[quote author=Mr_TA link=topic=567773.msg8512388#msg8512388 date=1307990631]I agree with this 100%Welbeck wont get the game time his development needs at this stage, its best he goest out on loan to a team that'll give him alot of game time. At the end of next season, one of either Berbatov/Owen will make space for him.[/quote]welbeck will get the game time his development needs if he comes back to man utd. michael owen might have signed a contract extension and fergie might have promised heaven & hell that owen would get more games next season. . . . but isn't that subjected to michael owen's fitness? the michael i know won't play 15 league games next season so welbeck's chance is there - if he wants to take it.

dayokanu:
The measure of a good side is how well you do in a knockout competition, Beating several European opposition doesnt justify that they are good enough.

contradiction. arsenal have beaten big european giants in europe. . . .inter milan, ac milan, sevilla, juventus, porto, real madrid, etc.

I remember West Ham in one season beat almost all the top teams yet barely escaped relegation. West ham beating man Utd home and away that season doesnt mean they can win the league.

any team can fluke it to the cup final and win. a team has to be good to win the league. the measure of a good side is how well they do in a 38-match league system. a system where everyone in it faces the same competition.

Rubin Kazan beating Barcelona doesnt mean they can win the CL or they are the best.
For a team that has played the competition for that many years you would have such wins here and there.

these wins aren't just against minnows. arsenal have punished big teams in europe - a fact you are aware of.

Arsenal as long as Arsene is their coach cant win any of the top European league and cant win any European title

they could win it next season.

dayokanu:
If the bold was true then they should be performing better in European compatition. Wengers Arsenal have never won a continental title

That means his game does not suit England does not suit Europe maybe "monkey post" or 5 a side

european competition is a knock out format. . . .which means a careless loss = elimination. the league is different! one can lose 5-6 games and still win the league. arsenal have beaten several european teams in the past to justify my claim that they are good enough to win top european leagues with their style of play.

debosky:
No I wouldn't. I would do 5 simple things.
1. Ask him to identify two top class CBs that he wants and promise to secure at least one of them

2 top class cbs will cost arsenal a region of £40 million in today's transfer market - can the board afford that?

2. Ask him to identify two top/mid class strikers that he wants and promise to secure at least one of them

another £20m - £30m outlay, can the board deal with it?

3. Ask him to request one more player he feels he needs to win and promise to get the player.

and wenger will sign another french player from obscurity

4. Refuse to sell Nasri or Cesc at any price (this season)

good point.

5. Tell him to win a trophy or he's on his way out come 2012

do they even have the balls to sack wenger?

In my view, the board is too weak and is not able to either give Wenger instructions or help him secure the targets required. Wenger is left to do everything, and we all know that if you do everything you end up doing nothing very well.

surely, wenger has a backroom staff. wenger has scouts all over the globe. i don't think it's something to do with the board. wenger has all the faults.
he wants to assemble a team of players who play in a certain kind of way. the kind of way that is not really suited to the english league. i keep saying arsenal in another continental league will be winning the league easily - but not here. even the invincibles had some grit and some dirty players. these current players of nasri, cesc and arshavin are specialists. . . .they only know how to play football in one way and you need many ways to win the league in engand.

Wenger needs to focus on identifying transfers and leaving the management to secure the deals - this 'one budget' for both transfers and wage rises/new contracts is one of the biggest flaws at Arsenal.

i hope they get it right this time around but my instinct says they won't. . . .arsenal's biggest problem now is the rise and rise of tottenham and man city. more rivals mean the less likely to win the league. it's impossible for 5 quality rivals to play shyt throughout the course of the season and this is where arsenal's problem lie. back in the 90s, it only took united to self-destruct for arsenal to win unopposed. these days, you have to hope man utd, chelsea, man city and liverpool screw up before arsenal can win. it's a huge ask!


[quote][/quote]i personally didn't think arsenal had the best team last season even when the pundits kept hyping arsenal's quality. however, arsenal's team were good enough to win the title because chelsea and man utd had stinkers of a season. arsenal certainly closed the gap but in the end, they weren't good enough to win the league.

debosky:
Bebe is quality.

if the queen can grant bebe citizenship, england will win the next world cup.

StarBoard:
@coogar,
I thought smalling was excellent.Jury's still out on Jones for me. . .
The English players just survived.
The future looks bright for United. . .Welbeck needs to return from the loan. . .

fergie had 5 players on the pitch last night.

david de gea
phil jones
cleverley
welbeck
smalling

the future is bright already.

^^^

after your long epistle, would you sack arsene wenger this summer if you were the chairman of arsenal fc?

smalling and welbeck were england's best players on show.

crikey me, spain were magnificent. they even keep the ball better than barcelona. they mopped the floor with england. henderson and mancienne are the worst players that have represented england in any tournament. useless shytty players.

dayokanu:
But they not only won in Portugal, they won in Europe 2 times, And I bet his Porto budget is about 10% of the clubs in Europe in that time.

yes, they won uefa cup and the champions league but they had the most money in portugal. the uefa cup was basically against minnows in europe. the champions league was a fluke . okay, i am not trying to knock jose's achievements here - he did well winning those stuffs but that could be because they were by far the strongest club in portugal in that era. the competition in the league was non-existent and so they could focus on europe without worrying about winning their league.

I cant say that Jose in Inter spent more than everyone else in Europe. His purchase balace sheet in Inter wont look so bad given that he flipped Zlatan for a huge profit, got others for a bargain.

but jose had the most money in serie a. yes, he made some smart purchases with the zlatan fee and the rest was history. i wish english clubs can find the premier league as easy as their continental counterparts. jose blew everything on his path out of the water and once that was achieved, the focus on europe became unshaken.

Mourinho in Madrid has bought who? Di Maria, Ozil and Khedira, Sahin and Altintop are cheap buys f those 5 buys only Di maria cost a lot.

but he's using ronaldo(world's most expensive player) and the other world class players he had inherited. even with that, he could only come 2nd to pep's barcelona.

Any manager coming to Arsenal like I say has his work cut out and has a chance of winning, with Wenger the chances of winning the league or CL is non existent.

i agree wenger's chances of winning are non-existent and i also believe no manager can win the league or cl with the current bunch of players in arsenal. the whole squad must be revamped completely to achieve that. almunia, diaby, fabianski, koscielny, eboue, denilson, walcott, chamakh, bendtner, etc. what can one win with those? let's be serious here.

I bet the same thing can be said about SAF when he was leaving Aberdeen for man Utd.

that era was different. . . . .and again, fergie had to sack the players he inherited and he started from the scratch. the process gave him 5 years - the exact period i suggested arsenal would have to wait if they sign a new manager.

Let me re-phrase it

it's one thing for Ferguson to win in lowly Scotland, it's another thing for him to take Man Utd(a lowly club in terms of current position) into glory. . . . . . .

it took him 5 years. . . . .can arsenal wait that long? considering the nature of their finances. they have been barren for 6 years, another 5 years means more than a decade lurking in the shadow without a trophy. there's a possibility they wouldn't play in elite europe. to be frank, arsenal's finances would suffer - something the board wouldn't want.

At that time the English league was the best in Europe before the Heysel disaster. How did a manager from Scottish league one of the worst in Europe achieve all that he did?

time and space. he was given a load of time to steer the ship in the right direction. arsenal don't have that in this era of results/performance.

In his first 15 years at Man Utd despite the European ban, SAF had won 1 CL, 1 winners cup and 7 league titles (Only losers count FA cups which Portsmouth of these world can win from relegation)

Draw Parallels with Wenger who took over a top club in England and has gone 15yrs given a free hand to work

i know wenger has not covered himself in glory with his record and comparing him to fergie is like kicking wenger in the groin. however, i still think sacking le prof now will destroy the stability in arsenal. as it is now, they are very stable - although they might not win any trophy but they are guaranteed a champions league place every season which translates to £££££. the board is completely satisfied with the cash flow. any other thing at this stage is purely academic.

renewnaija:
@ coogar
I think you have to wake up & stop this defeatist attitude which is characteristic with many Arsenal fans.

not an arsenal fan. . . .just looking at things from a vantage point.

You mention the word 'guarantee' lots of times. Is it not better to try something new & fresh than not trying something @ all? You baffle me a lot.
I'm sure you support the same recycled politicians in Nigeria saying what good can the new blood do? No?

i hate politics. i don't give a hoot about old school or new breed politicians in nigeria. all of them are rogues.

You mention that ' the money spent to acquire the players played more role than jose's tactical acumen' Really? Is it the money that has made him a huge success in every club he goes to? What do want him to do to prove himself? Coach Rangers?

porto had the most cash in portugal in 2002-2004
chelsea were the richest in europe in 2004-2007
inter spent tonnes of cash in italy in 2008-2010
madrid spent the most cash in the planet in 2010 - 20XX

without the cash, jose is nothing.

I'm sorry if you don't see a solution in the horizon but I do & its a very clear solution to me. If you dont see it, then thats too bad. We are here to air out our progressive views and debate about our beloved club. That's how it starts. Little drops make an ocean. People like you give up without trying.

You should read the book 'Who moved my cheese.' You might learn a lot.

No guts, no glory.

easier said than done. roman abramovic is obsessed with winning the champions league. since 2003, he has used the following managers. . . .
ranieri, mourinho, grant, scolari, hiddink, ancelotti and none of them has been able to win the big ears. matter of fact, only one of them(a badgeless manager) reached the european final.

applying this scenario to arsenal, what is to say van gaal, boas villas, jose or pep will win the premier league with arsenal who have to compete with chelsea(££££) man city(more ££££££££), man utd(lord fergie) and liverpool(motivated to catch united's 19th league title). people forget the premier league is not other european leagues where there's a huge gulf between top 2 teams and the rest. . . . . .man city and tottenham have closed the gap now so any manager coming to arsenal will have his work cut-out.

it's one thing for villa-boas to win in portugal, it's another thing for him to take arsenal(a poor club in terms of cash) into glory. . . . . . .if the managers you listed are joining chelsea or man city, i will say the possibility is 90%. . . .but joining arsenal?? come on, mate. . . .be realistic. how do you expect guardiola to work with denilson or chamakh? put duracell batteries in their lungs?

deluxecad:
This is just my honest and unbiased view based on the much I have seen so far, don't harangue me for nothing if you don't have a reasonable thought to express.

Most women, not all are better enjoyed as either wives or just girlfriends, not as colleagues in the workplace. A woman will always work you up so badly with her antics and whatever, that's not good for a place where profitability is paramount and demands camaraderie among the workforce. You don't know how to handle them because their moods swing as hell, one minute they have your nerves frayed, the other minute they are begging in such a way you'd feel so guilty if you don't let go.

They'd carry long faces all day after a slight argument. The worst is that the superiors find it hard to handle their idiosyncrasies.

Some have intolerable attitude. Sucks!

A little news would be peddled all round the block in just a jiffy, thanks to the blackberry. SMH.

During their monthly thing, you can hardly get them to do anything for you. WTF?

I  can go on. Give me a fellow dude to work with any time, any day.

100% true. . . . . .female bosses are demons!

ritchboy:
Arsenal/Valencia/the selling club are the ones doing the valuation that matters(the transfer fee/asking price), whether Barcelona value the player at 50kobo is irrelevant.

barcelona are the only common factor in the transfer saga of david villa and cesc fabregas. valencia and arsenal are not the same club so it really bores down to what barca feels about the transfer fees.

The top 5 center-forwards can be of lower quality than the top 5 midfielders and vice versa. Can you name 5 midfielders better than Cesc without looking like a foool?

why should they be of lower quality?
asking me this question makes you a foool already . . . . .5 midfielders better than cesc? i will name 10 but then you once claimed cesc is better than iniesta so i wouldn't go into any tedious tussle with you. at the end of the day, it will sink down to everyone's opinion.

renewnaija:
Again for the umpteenth time:
Pep (who will leave Barca soon)

pep won't come to arsenal - he is leaving barca for a rest not joining another ship.

Rijkaard
Guus Hiddink
Louis van Gaal

there's no guarantee all these names will steer arsenal back to glory. chelsea have employed jose, ancelotti, scolari, ranieri, hiddink, etc in the last 7 years and none of them was able to win in europe. had chelsea stuck to one of them in the last seven years, we would be saying. . . if only they had hired hiddink or hired van gaal. nothing is guaranteed.

All these people candidates believe in the youth & they didnt break their club's banks b4 winning trophies so the team cannot collapse. I'm sure people like you didnt believe Benitez or Mourinho would win a trophy in their first season preferring to say they will endure 5 yrs without glory.

if it's about winning a trophy(excluding premier league, champions league), then i have no doubt one of these managers would achieve that - but the current bunch of players in arsenal will not win in europe. . . .and they wont win the league title.

People should understand football. Its like project manangement. Assess what you have. Assess your short & long term objectives. Then become the bridge. A new coach will do this & work accordingly. Our trademark football is already there which makes it easy. The thing is the squad and their way of play is already established. Only thing remaining is belief & the will to win which i can guarantee all these above can deliver. Just a few tweaks and a driving force and they would be okay. There will be no total collapse or 5 yr transition period as you claim.

so you think a back five of almunia-sagna-koscielny-squillaci-clichy will win a league title under mourinho? it's not that bread and butter. getting a good manager is just 40% of the job, assembling new players is the only thing that will make the project complete. roman signing mourinho wasn't the only ingridient to chelsea's success - the money spent to acquire the players played more role than jose's tactical acumen and arsenal don't have that kind of money to splash - we are talking about over £400 million outlay.

Also these people I mentioned are winners, play beautiful and will attract the creme de la creme of football talent to the club. And this is just the foundation. And guess what? There are already established coaches. Alternatively why not gamble on some upcoming coach like Villa-Boas and dudes like him?

villa-boas is a rookie. there's no absolute guarantee he can thrive in the premier league where the media can be very hostile with a run of few bad results. scolari buckled under media pressure(a world cup winning manager), jose also lost his mojo in 2007 to the point of classifying his own players into class a and class d eggs.

I refuse to accept that we continue in this mediocritic culture of excuses which Arsene & his disciples are following.

there seems to be no solution on the horizon. . . . .

renewnaija:
'Madness is doing the same thing over & over again and expecting different results.' Keeping Wenger because of 'his genius' is a silly gamble. For the umpteenth time, which world class coach goes 6yrs trophyless at an already established club which he understands the ins & outs? Not one continental trophy throughout his coaching career? I rest my case.

who would you replace wenger with? like you said. . . .he understands the ins and outs of the club so he's probably the best hands to steer the arsenal ship back to glory. i agree wenger is a failure but i don't quite see anyone else better at doing the arsenal job at the moment unless the whole youth policy mantra is shredded and that means arsenal having to endure another 3-5 yrs in the dark trying to rebuild a new squad from the scratch.
can arsenal fans endure another 5 years without glory?

apocalypse:
ok we want to give examples , I can count numerous examples of wives who have run off/eloped with lovers but what would that prove , I'm right and you are wrong ? Nah I'm not fighting to be the victor , I'm fighting that truth should prevail. A pastor can be be promiscuous while a hardened criminal be faithful to his partner , in the end we are all human. You and I know ladies like the thrill of being with a bad boy and for all we know the pastor might be a bad boy.

not in all cases. . . .that's the way of the world. this sick world does not follow a defined rule. "what you reap you sow", "one good turn deserves another" and all other cliches don't hold true in all cases. one doesn't need to be bad for bad things to befall one. bad things happen to everyone whether good or bad and not all secrets get exposed in the long run - otherwise 90% of the world's population will be behind bars.

there's no logic in any married woman confessing to her husband she has cheated. she should zip her mouth and die with her secrets(unless caught pants down). confessing her deeds will not make her husband forgive her - that's the biggest fallacy especially in a male-dominated society like nigeria. the husband will use it as whip for the rest of the marriage whenever quarrel ensues.

ritchboy:
Are Barcelona the ones that valued Villa at 40m or Valencia? OLODO!

same difference. valencia valued him at £40 million, barcelona matched the value and they paid to get david villa. whether chelsea paid £200 million to get torres is immaterial here cos it's not chelsea that are now valuing cesc to buy, it's barcelona. it's not entirely possible for arsenal fans to compare like for like.

besides that, torres is easily in the top 5 centre forwards in europe. same cannot be said about cesc fabregas in the midfield. torres gets into the spanish national team, fabregas does not. barcelona want fabregas, fabregas wants to return back to barcelona. . . .the odds favour barcelona to get their man - it's only a matter of time.

I can still say if Barcelona valued Ibrahimovic at(what was it, £60m?), Cesc is definitely worth £50m.

£50 million for cesc? your calculations are wrong - he's worth £150 million.

proudly9ja:
12 months ago, I said it clearly and I still maintain that Arsenal had the best team  in the premiership. We messed up not because we lacked quality but because we lacked mental strength. I have been arguing this all through the season and don't intend to do that again now. I expect the players coming in (Samba, Parker, and whoever) to add that steel to the team. Whether these signings will happen or not I don't know but if they happen, I am willing to give him another season. I have always maintained that this is our major weakness (lack of steel). If AW successfully solves this problem and we don't win something major next season, then I will give up.

arsenal lack mental strength because of the kind of players wenger buys. he loves specialists - which isn't entirely a bad thing to have in a team but there has to be a balance. fergie is not moronic having js park, fletcher, valencia, oshea, gibson, carrick, etc to complement the technically-gifted players in his squad. it's the english league. arsenal will probably win a league title in la liga where the football is all about techniques but in the tough premier league, his style and policy cannot last the entire season.

ritchboy:
Cesc just turned 24, Villa was about 29 or 30.

Using your brilliant logic i can also say if Torres(27?) was signed for £50m there's no way Cesc is worth less.

of course, you can say that because it was barcelona that valued torres at £50 million, right? arsenal fans can be fickle-minded.

4llerbuntu:
@ coogar, whilst i do not share your sense of morality in the disgusting aspect of getting a youth player barca didnt try hard to keep/ didnt really see a need to keep @ that point in time.

barca were powerless as at then. they could not sign cesc in 2003 cos cesc was under-aged. their hands were forced to make the deal. cesc was poached by wenger.

i firmly believe there is also absolutely no reason to be shortchanged. only a dunce would value fabregas the way barca keep doing, its insulting.
let anyone with a modicum of business sense and football do a valuation of fab and am pretty sure it would likely double barca's valuation.

and what is this valuation? david villa was purchased for £40 million. there's no way cesc holds more value in the transfer market than spain's highest goal scorer of all time. you need to do this valuation very well especially when cesc has won nothing at club level and has no starting place in the spanish national team.

either they stump up the value or they STFU!.  imagine someone persistently haragueing a player for cheap over the years. btw this same hometown sentiment is probably what will do the poor boy in eventually. i doubt if he even rationalises the thing beyond "im going home"

they want him cheap cos arsenal stole him from them in the first place. cesc is barcelona through and through. . . .nothing can change that fact and it's only a matter of time before the natural order gets restored. arsenal have no complaints at all - it's a dog eat dog issue. using the fact that arsenal stole him as a kid doesnt really make it right to try and get him at a cut price. neither does it make it right that arsenal can sign kids the age of 16 on pro contracts ignoring the club who developed them but it goes on and until it is made illegal will go on.

nateevs:
Of course I do. We chavs always needed a compass to find everything.
Guess what we found while we were loitering ? Trophies!!! Loads of them!


What did you find?

gnashing of teeth @ north london.

StarBoard:
@coogar,
Playing at United isn't a sure-fire guarantee that the level of your game will rise.
Djemba Djemba,Kleberson,Taibi,Forlan,Jordi Cruyff,Mark Bosnich,Juan Veron,Bebe,Obertan.
All did not raise their game when they joined United.The list is inexhaustive.These are the ones that come to mind easily,though I noticed that Anderson and Berbatov aren't in your list.

they all raised their game but it wasn't enough to match the united standard. bebe and obertan have improved but not to the level united is playing at.

i cannot even believe you think bebe was a bad signing.

bebe(£7.4m) -- 2 goals in 3 starts, 7 appearances(£3.7m per goal)
ramirez(£20m) 2 goals in 20 starts, 38 appearances(£10m per goal)
caroll(£35m)---2 goal in 5 starts, 8 appearances(£17.5m per goal)
torres(£50m)--1 goal in 11 starts, 18 appearances(£50m per goal

bebe is quality.

I also don't get what you mean when you say Ashley Young is proven.How?37 goals in 188 appearances is certainly not being proven,neither is 2 goals in 15 international appearances. over 5 years.That's why I look at the price tag and laugh in Swahili and wonder why we expect magic to happen each time we sign an average player.

ashley young is very proven. he's played in the english league. we don't have to worry about him fitting in or not. he's a quality player - i don't get the criticism. 37 goals in 188 appearances is a decent showing for a winger playing in aston villa. villa is a mid-table team so what do you expect from him? besides statistics matter not in this issue. what was antonio valencia's stats @ wigan?

While i share your views on foreign players,I must say that only the very best will do for a club like United.Hence if United are serious,that issue of 6+5 won't matter much.Wesley Sneijder can be convinced to sign.He might not be all that,but I think  Fergie has this mentality that ready-made players are to be avoided like a plague.

wesley sneijder won't fit into our system. he's another ozil type of player. he can only operate behind a lone-striker. sneijder cannot play in a 2-man midfield. . . .and since we have rooney doing the supporting cast for chicharito. . . .where exactly would you play sneijder? fergie has refused to alter united's 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 so sneijder won't help our cause unless we sell rooney.

Ask me why United have melted like wax before Barcelona two straight games and I'll tell you why:no midfielder in the mould of Owen Hargreaves who bloodied his nose and gut his teeth at Bayern and became a battle-hardened stalwart in Bayern's midfield.

we melted like wax before barcelona in 2 straight games because of ryan giggs. his inclusion in the midfield ruined united, nothing else.

He was there when we beat Barcelona over two legs without them scoring a single goal.Yet we are depending on the signing of half-baked
Ashley Young who has only been at the Europa League once in his career to lead us to the promised land.

don't look at ashley young in isolation. see him as an effective unit in a system. if we isolate one of rafael, oshea, gibson and fabio. . . .they shouldn't have massacred arsenal's midfield but they did. it's one thing to look at united players individually, it's another thing to look at them as a team. the current united team clinched the 19th title not because of any individual performance. . . . .it was a team performance. similar to the 98/99 season. . . . .andy cole, dwight yorke, ole solskjaer and ted sheringham were all duds compared to the strikers of the other big european clubs but the united strikers landed the treble.

mbulela:
you think it is any different with women forgiving men?

it is in nigeria - the society permits the man to have as many concubines as he so pleases. the news of mr lagbaja cheating is met by "what's the big deal, men have been doing this for ages, abeg lets move on". now replace mr lagbaja with mrs lagbaja and she's attacked with all manner of curses and so on and forth.

apocalypse:
@ coogar
You are the one who doesn't get my point , if it's a one time thing why shouldn't I forgive her but if after I have forgiven her she does it again then it is clear whatever love she had for me is no more there. Better we go our separate ways than to live in deceit. If I get your point right she should keep her mouth shut and keep cheating on her husband or you don't see confessing her ''sins'' is the first step in making sure she doesn't do it again.

confession isn't the first step in making sure she doesn't do it again. 1000 confessions wouldn't stop a woman that wants to cheat on her husband. this situation is hell or high water. if she keeps her mouth shut, the guilt will naturally eat up her conscience but the man is unaffected. . . . . .if she confesses, more woes for her and the husband(he will be heartbroken) so i ask, which is the better option?

mbulela:
that is a typo right?

not a typo. there's an emergence of central wingers now. messi, ronaldo, ashley young, kuyt, and theo walcott(sometimes) play in that role.

you don't seem to get it.my problem is if Ashley Young is the best we can do for a versatile midfielder, then i give up.by the way i am hearing quotes of 18million.

which other options have we got? the kind of players you want are over-valued and will come in with a lot of expectation/pressure from the media to perform and they eventually flop. andy caroll and torres are living examples. sneijder has made it clear he is not coming. alexi sanchez's agent wants £30 million.

As good as Barca are, they are strengthening with Rossi (btw we have 1st option on him) and Sanchez and we are hanging around distinctly average and over priced players like Young.

ashley young is proven. there's nothing to say sanchez will come in and hit it big. robinho with all his talents found it very tough in the premier league. besides, english players come at a premium and fifa's "6 + 5" rule is imminent. stocking foreign players now makes no sense and it's one of the reasons even young english players are commanding huge fees.

I don't have much problem with Jones as long as the finances spent will not affect rebuilding our midfield.
I am done with this transfer thing.
I will reevaluate a day before charity shield.

until the 31st of august when the window slams shut, i have no right to criticize fergie or david gill. they are doing well so far and fergie is not dumb to think a midfield that has lost scholes, hargreaves and probably giggs will not need to be revamped. with the rumour that gibson and oshea could be flogged to sunderland, it becomes even more certain united will bring in 3 players to beef the midfield.

mbulela:
one last thing.
there is this argument that i don't get.
the argument that Ashley young will suddenly raise his game to the required level.
i have watched him for the last 5 years and i don't see how that is possible.
it is not a button you just flick.
if it is not there,it is not there.
it is not like he is 19 or 20.he is 25yrs.
it is like saying that Bebe will suddenly become a player by training regularly with the 1st team.

the following players raised their game to the required level when they joined man utd:

vidic
evra
valencia
nani
smalling
carrick

i see no reason why ashley young won't improve when he gets quality service from his team-mates.

proudly9ja:
What we need IMO:
1. Keep squad together (apart from Denilson and Almunia)

arsenal have to sell. . . forget keeping the squad together. you didn't make enough prize-money to afford that luxury.

2. Bring in Samba

will blackburn sell their captain?

3. 1 striker (sell of Chamakh/Bendtner)

sell chamakh? arsene wenger had to wait for this lad to run up his contract so he can get him for free. i doubt chamakh will be sold.

4. 1 no-nonsence midfielder

cattermole? joey barton?

StarBoard:
What I'm saying is that Fergie after 25 years at United can do better than make impulse signings.
All these gambles all over the place hoping they turn out right won't help us.

there will always be impulse signings. apart from the quality you expect these purchases to bring into your team, you have also denied your direct rivals having such quality to disturb your title dreams. whenever you see arsene/fergie tussling over a player - you can be sure that player has quality. the latest example is chris "rio" smalling.

So let me get this straight:if you;re saying Barcelona is unbeatable,why then should we bother strengthening,especially since you're referencing their youth policy?

strengthening so we can close the gap a little bit so that if they happen to falter, we would be the closest to them to take the advantage. to beat barcelona, they have to perform so woefully and the victorious team must perform excellently. in a nutcase, barcelona must have had a terrible day on the pitch. if barcelona play to their best output, no single team put together with money can beat them - it's a fact!

From what you are saying,they are going to be winning till something changes from within the club.
This same Barcelona didn't appear on the scene just like that.From perennial Euro flops,they have managed to get themselves a team of world-beaters.

from what i am saying, they are going to be winning until the spine of that team gets crocked or grow old or something similar. of course, this same barcelona didn't appear on the scene like that. when real madrid were spending £££ to win 3 champs league trophies in 4 years, barcelona were nurturing the players in their academy and hoping they would come to fruition. at last, their patience is starting to reap the benefits. now real madrid must spend and spend and spend to match the quality/team chemistry and the collective unity in barcelona to have a chance. it's a big ask.

4llerbuntu:
what is it with you pple posting illogical bullcrap once it comes to arsenal matters?

arsenal signed an unknown, very promising young player from barcelona years ago, that gives barcelona the right to simply snap their fingers and ask for the player back undervalued?

think now!!!    jordan henderson just got bought for 20 million pounds, torres got sold for 50, just keep on naming the sales in the last one year and compare prices.   so because fabregas was once a barca youth team product thats why they can simply have him for 25 mill pounds?

are u high?


when utd bought rooney from everton all those years ago, they paid a premium.

now supposing everton says they want rooney back now, that would be enough justification to sell him to everton for 30 mill pounds?

or simply because it is barcelona and your inbuilt beef cannot allow you see properly, you think barcelona can simply have him for cheap?



if they cannot stump up the valuation, they should wait till he is 27 and his contract expires (am quite sure wenger would kuku have dashed madrid for 15 before then).   what bullcrap.
they think everyone behaves like them and sells players for change?

rooney and henderson had contracts before they were signed. . . .cesc fabregas had none. that is the difference. the laws in the other european leagues meant barcelona couldn't sign fabregas if they wanted to as at then which gives any other foreign club the free access to poach him. it's legal but morally, it's disgusting.

debosky:
How do you define 'poaching'? If Barca did not want to sell, they didn't have to - they could have refused to do a deal. If we paid the amount demanded by Barca, then there is absolutely no ill-gotten gain here.

your ignorance is baffling. cesc fabregas was only 16 then. it was arsenal that offered him a professional contract. he couldn't have gotten one in spain because he was too young to have one. actually, all other european leagues don't have one until players hit 18. same with macheda, pogba, petrucci, etc. in that regard, arsenal "stole" fabregas who was basically free agent back then.

Secondly, Barca are not getting back what the 'lost' - they sold a 16 year old and are now dealing with a 23 year old Euro and WC winner who has blossomed into one of the best midfielders in the world.
What you are advocating is equal to selling someone a plot of land for £20, believing you had better plots. the new owner cultivated, fertilised and nurtured the land such that its value is now £300, you now return asking to get the land for a knockdown price. It won't happen anywhere.

this is hilarious. . . . .offering a 16 year old professional forms and turning his head in that way is morally reprehensible in itself given barcelona are restricted by the rules of their league and should not have their hand forced in that way, which would be to drop fabregas in their first team, or else. cesc's their product, ffs!  it's preposterous they should be put in that position. it's not going to be very hard to turn the head of a kid who is yet to know his arse from his elbow.

if the playing field at that time was fair and barcelona simply offered their player less than arsenal and it could be agreed to let him go there with both parties happy - then that is fair enough. but, that's a completely different scenario to what happened and why arsenal aren't in a position to complain about a damn thing. now the problem, which was always going to arise, has come home to roost.

There was no wrong here - Barca were fully within their rights to refuse to sell him or ask for greater compensation. We took him on and nurtured him to where he is now. If they want him, they will have to pay the advertised price or wait till his contract runs out in 2014.

barcelona are bigger and superior club to arsenal, it then stands to reason cesc would have to be better to get into their first team, which he very probably woulda done over time. i don't see how you can hold that against barcelona in this instance.

barca would obviously have had a time frame for each of their academy players to come into fruition for their 1st team squad, arsenal came in and completely screwed that process and even though it was legally ok, there was clear moral outrage from barcelona at the time for what they saw as a completely underhanded practice. now it's arsenal's turn to be on the end of what they see as completely immoral behaviour, and they don't like it.