Tackles, balls and Seaman - The footie thread

[2NaFish]

CL 3rd Qualifying Round Draw

Hearts Vs AEK Athens
Liverpool Vs Maccabi Haifa
Arsenal Vs FC Ekrana/Dinamo Zagreb

Not a bad draw for hearts, as good as we could hope for and i think we're in with a shout. Dunno about travelling over to greece tho.

Still, if it's a choice between the Jambos going to greece and the scousers going to Isreal i know which one i'd choose. Make sure and warn Crouchy of any low flying missiles.....

[Jim]

Make sure and warn Crouchy of any low flying missiles.....

Well. For the good of the sport... you know, you could always... not warn him............

[Shoco]

17 million - well done Spurs...and as for Man Yoo - we'll i've been saying for years Fergie is senile - 28 mill for Veron, 33 mill for Ferdinand and 17 mill for Carrick - maybe someone should explain to him the idea of a transfer is to make your team better....

well in fairness veron was a good player till he came to us and was constantly played out of position

and according todays papers, its gonna cost 18m for carrick (madness when ruud cost 19m)

[MadmanDan]

Everyone is going to overprice a central midfielder when ManYoo wants to buy him, because everyone knows they desperately need one, so Fergie has no choice. 
 
  But you have to admire Manchester United and even Chelsea for the fact that, unlike Arsenal, they actually buy and use English players. If their transfer policy was the same as Arsenal's, the England national squad would be even worse that it already is. Besides, surely it's a better feeling for a fan to support a team with a lot of fellow countrymen, than a team with none (Arsenal's probable situation if Chelski buy Cole)

[Shoco]

Everyone is going to overprice a central midfielder when ManYoo wants to buy him, because everyone knows they desperately need one, so Fergie has no choice. 
 
  But you have to admire Manchester United and even Chelsea for the fact that, unlike Arsenal, they actually buy and use English players. If their transfer policy was the same as Arsenal's, the England national squad would be even worse that it already is. Besides, surely it's a better feeling for a fan to support a team with a lot of fellow countrymen, than a team with none (Arsenal's probable situation if Chelski buy Cole)

^^ and campbell going too, but dont worry theyv got walcott 

i dont think we did ourselves and favours by bidding so high in the first place for carrick, im sure if they had to go about it a lot better they could get him cheaper, or at least have given one or two of the dummies in our squad in part exchange

[2NaFish]

thing is spurs dont need to sell him so manyoo were aways gonna get shafted.

still, money is immaterial at the top end nowadays. all the big clubs can afford to blow money on players a few times a year, the key is actually getting quality players that work in your system. carrick, probably, will.

[Izzy]

D'oh - Liverpool off to Israel

I guess who ever gets picked to fly out will know he isn't in the managers long term plans.....

I wouldn't go anywhere near Israel right now - that fixture needs to be moved to another country

[Judge Dredd]

dont worry theyv got walcott 

There's Only One Theo Walcott!

[Shoco]

Red Devils agree fee for Carrick

Tottenham midfielder Michael Carrick looks set to complete his move to Manchester United after the two clubs agreed a fee.

Carrick has yet to agree personal terms with the Old Trafford outfit but should have a medical on Monday.

A club statement on Friday night said: "Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur can confirm that they have agreed terms for the transfer of the registration of Michael Carrick conditional upon the player agreeing personal terms with Manchester United.

"He shall also be required to pass a medical that will take place on Monday."

[Izzy]

Spurs must be laughing all the way to the bank - if they use this money carefully and bring in 1 or 2 really top class signings i can see 4th place beckoning...

[Danny Top Hat]

No way - Spurs are messing up at the moment.  If they'd kept Carrick and brought Duff they'd be flying high but now...well, they need to spend that money very wisely if they wanna challenge for 4th again next season.

It really bothers me that Arsenal won't have a single Englishman (barring Walcott) next season.  It really isn't on - there should be rules against this kind of thing already.  Wenger has had oppertunities to sign English players but he's so damn tight that he never gets around to it.  If we do sell Ash Cole, we should spend the money on someone like Ledley King.  That would be the perfect deal.

[Jim]

Nah, Ledley would never jump ship. He has always been huge at the Lane, right back to when he was breaking through,

You can stick Sol Campbell up your ass,
Stick Sol Campbell up your ass.
You can stick Sol Campbell,
Stick Sol Campbell,
Stick Sol Campbell up your ass.

'Cause we're got Ledley in the back,
We've got Ledley in the back.
'Cause we've got Ledley,
We've got Ledley,
We've got Ledley in the back,

'n all. If he went over to your scum it would be a much bigger betrayal than Campbell. Ledley is captain supreme!, he's much more important to our team than Carrick was. Besides, we bought Zakora as Carrick's replacement ages ago. It was a big blow losing Carrick, but I don't think it is going to have that negative an effect on our team.

[Izzy]

It really bothers me that Arsenal won't have a single Englishman (barring Walcott) next season.? It really isn't on - there should be rules against this kind of thing already.? Wenger has had oppertunities to sign English players but he's so damn tight that he never gets around to it.? If we do sell Ash Cole, we should spend the money on someone like Ledley King.? That would be the perfect deal.

Indeed

Its about time they brought in rules whereby atleast 5 of the 11 players were from that country.

But will FIFA do anything - no!

It would have a massive effect on the national side, with teams hunting down english talent in a way they dont do now - it might lower the overal quality if the talent isn't there to be found but atleast diving would be reduced!

[Judge Dredd]

Cashley Cole's contract means he can join any club in the world bar one for ?16 million.

But if Chelsea want him they have to pay ?30 million.

I would not be surprised to see a ?20 million + SWP deal go through by the end of this week.

That should bolster our number of English players by 100%

[Izzy]

Cashley Cole's contract means he can join any club in the world bar one for ?16 million.

But if Chelsea want him they have to pay ?30 million.

I would not be surprised to see a ?20 million + SWP deal go through by the end of this week.

That should bolster our number of English players by 100%

Lol - 30 million - about 15 million more than even a Cole fan would say he's worth!

Chelsea must realise that paying such an amount would improve Arsenal more than it improves them

..all Chelsea are really doing is giving teams huge investment, its the recieving clubs that are benfiting - if only Chelsea would try and buy some of Liverpools players!

[Judge Dredd]

^ Ashley Cole, when fully fit, is arguably the best left back in world football.

Anything less than ?25 million is a bargain for the club that gets him.

He is 25 and can arguably only get better. Unless his arrogance grows out of even more proportion than it has already.

[SPUNKY]

sven is a t.w.a.t.,

he cocked up our best bunch of players for a long time!!

BUT the FA should tke most of the blame for not sacking him in the firs place, with all of his going on's!!


 

[Jim]

Indeed

Its about time they brought in rules whereby atleast 5 of the 11 players were from that country.

But will FIFA do anything - no!

It would have a massive effect on the national side, with teams hunting down english talent in a way they dont do now - it might lower the overal quality if the talent isn't there to be found but atleast diving would be reduced!

Actually, they are. Plans are already in effect, that will increase over the next four or something years, to improve the ammount of 'home grown' talent. It is something like 2 squad members that were born and bred and 2 squad members that rose from the youth accademy, with a view to it gradually increasing (4 and 4). I don't know when this is going to happen, but when I read about it a few months back it read like it was going to be implemented this season (even if it did, no team would have to change anything just yet, youth players like Fabregas sort that out for Arsenal). It was all over the papers a short while back.

[2NaFish]

its not all sven's fault. maybe the player's simply werent THAT good. you guys do love building yourselves up after all.

[Danny Top Hat]

...Nah, it was Sven's fault.


Apparently Reyes has declared, yet again, that he's homesick and wants to go to Real Madrid.  I say: let the fucker go.  Arsenal don't need wussey little Spaniards cramping our style.  Sell Reyes, sell Cole and bring in SWP and a centre back.  Did you get that, Arsene?