Hans the German Butler wrote:To some extent I think it smacks of desperation from Utd. £22m plus add-ons for a 29-year old injury prone player is papering over the cracks when the players they really need to replace are Giggs, Scholes, Evra, Rafael, Fabio, Anderson and Fletcher. Unless he's planning to move Rooney back into the Scholes position, I don't see how you play him, RVP and Kagawa in the same team.
Moon-Crane wrote:Absolutely agree that it's a lot of money for a potentially risky crock. But he's a top striker when fit and able - and i just see the move as a symbolic crushing for Arsenal fans, to see their place starkly in the pecking order of Premiership clubs, more than anything else. Selling to your rivals is seen as more problematic in this country than others.
I think Man utd are simply looking to bolster the rotating attack options in the short term to try and match the Aguero/Tevez/Dzeko/Balotelli strike force options. I'm not sure Welbeck, Hernandez, Macheda, are really seen as strong enough backup for Rooney. I guess they've also got Berbatov but Fergie doesn't seem to be fussed with or trust him.
Moon-Crane wrote:Ugh. Van Persie to Man Utd. That's got to be a crushing blow to Arsenal fans. The final nail in the coffin of any beliefs that they're serious title challengers to Man Utd/Man City/Chelsea?
Moon-Crane wrote:Tricky Champions League group draw for Man City. Group D is definitely the 'group of death'.
Champions League groups:
Group A: Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Paris St Germain, Dinamo Zagreb
Group B: Arsenal, Schalke, Olympiakos, Montpellier
Group C: AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, Malaga
Group D: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund
Group E: Chelsea, Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, FC Nordsjaelland
Group F: Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lille, BATE Borisov
Group G: Barcelona, Benfica, Spartak Moscow, Celtic
Group H: Manchester United, Braga, Galatasaray, CFR Cluj
Hans the German Butler wrote:Moon-Crane wrote:Tricky Champions League group draw for Man City. Group D is definitely the 'group of death'.
Champions League groups:
Group A: Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Paris St Germain, Dinamo Zagreb
Group B: Arsenal, Schalke, Olympiakos, Montpellier
Group C: AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, Malaga
Group D: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund
Group E: Chelsea, Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, FC Nordsjaelland
Group F: Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lille, BATE Borisov
Group G: Barcelona, Benfica, Spartak Moscow, Celtic
Group H: Manchester United, Braga, Galatasaray, CFR Cluj
How easy a group did Man Utd draw?
Moon-Crane wrote:What did you make of the transfer window for Liverpool, Hans? You're looking light up front? Certainly don't need any injuries to Suarez and Borini. Was surprised to see Dempsey end up at Spurs after all the speculation - especially for £6m.
Hans the German Butler wrote:Moon-Crane wrote:What did you make of the transfer window for Liverpool, Hans? You're looking light up front? Certainly don't need any injuries to Suarez and Borini. Was surprised to see Dempsey end up at Spurs after all the speculation - especially for £6m.
A bit bemused to be honest. They did spend over £30m when you account for Allen (£15m), Borini (£11m), Assaidi (£3m), Yesil (£1m) and a loan fee for Nuri Sahin reported to be over £2.5m, making us relatively high net spenders because we only recouped money on Charlie Adam and loan fees on Spearing and Carroll; so I suppose that is not a reason to complain. Even so, I was disappointed we didn't bring in a recognised goal-getter. It is the one area we do look quite weak. Apparently we've also trimmed the wage bill by over £20m a year, which can't be a bad thing. It would be good to offload Joe Cole and add another £5m a year to that figure. I was quite surprised that they didn't stump up the extra cash for Dempsey, because, besides anything else FSG have been great at improving revenue streams and US shirt sales for an American player at a club owned by Americans could have represented a significant revenue stream and over the three years he has left would likely pay for him a few times over.
As to the players we've brought in; Allen has looked class so I'm pleased with that signing. Borini looks like he needs time in order to develop some more composure in the English game. I haven't seen Assaidi yet but I get a feeling he's more of a squad player at present, who is likely to play in League Cup and Europa games. Sahin should play later against Arsenal and I'm looking forward to seeing him. We will miss Lucas for the three months he's out though!
Things seemed a bit quiet with Newcastle. I was surprised they didn't come back in with a £15m offer for Carroll given that the two Dembas will be going to the African Cup of Nations in January.
Moon-Crane wrote:I'm just pleased to see Owen end up with Stoke for a year after the press were trying to equate his free agent status and Liverpool's lack of strikers as a match made in heaven. Could you imagine Mr Popular returning? I couldn't.
Moon-Crane wrote:Two crazy games in two nights. Everton v Newcastle had plenty of drama, and then Real Madrid v Man City took it on another step at the end.
Good win for your bunch, Woggle. Coming together nicely at the moment.
Moon-Crane wrote:Hehe, it was a tough day there. I personally did think it was a penalty for Man Utd - very soft but i thought it was a foul from behind. And i thought that Suarez dived in looking for the pen at the other end - but i can understand the frustration from the game. They were slight enough decisions where i tend to expect the home side to get the benefit of the doubt. I certainly thought Evans could have gone, along with Shelvey, for that incident.
Pointless fact of the day about Van Persie's penalty - mentioned by Richard Keys on TalkSport this morning. In the time it took between the foul being given and the penalty being taken, Robbie Fowler had scored that fastest Premier League hat-trick against Arsenal those years ago.
Did anyone see David Luiz go through the guy against Stoke and not get red? That was a strange one - far worse lunge than Shelvey's, i thought, yet he only received yellow and they didn't seem to make a single comment about it on MotD. Too interested in waffling on about John Terry.
We got away with a win against Norwich. We're playing ok in patches, but we need a bit of spark from more than Ben Arfa.
Hans the German Butler wrote:To be fair Demba Ba seems to knocking them in, in between firing his mouth off about how unfortunate he is. We play Norwich next up in the league. I just hope we post our first league win, give us a bit of momentum going into the game versus Stoke the following week.
Moon-Crane wrote:I think you'll be seeing a win there. I hope Hughton can do a job for them, but i think they're in for a long, hard season.
Moon-Crane wrote:Couple of League Cup shocks last night. Hopefully tonight will see the red Mancs dumped out alongside the blue side.
Hans the German Butler wrote:Moon-Crane wrote:Couple of League Cup shocks last night. Hopefully tonight will see the red Mancs dumped out alongside the blue side.
I was hoping for the same thing but unless the Toon do them in the next 3 minutes of stoppage time I'm afraid they'll have scraped through.
Moon-Crane wrote:Hans the German Butler wrote:Moon-Crane wrote:Couple of League Cup shocks last night. Hopefully tonight will see the red Mancs dumped out alongside the blue side.
I was hoping for the same thing but unless the Toon do them in the next 3 minutes of stoppage time I'm afraid they'll have scraped through.
Yep. Typical. At least your lot won!
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