Where to start..Firstly, Arsenal have a lot, and I d mean a lot of English youth prospects who you will hear more from in the coming years, Walcott, Wilshere, Simpson, Ramsay(Welsh, but whatever), Gibbs, Lansbury, Gilbert and Randall all look very promising.
New players? I don't know. I think Wenger will bring in one more but I don't see us buying more than that.
DMF's? I think this Bischoff guy might play in that position, but I can't be sure. It is possible that that's the one Wenger is looking for now.
And yes, I think it's pretty certain Adebayor will stay with us for another season. But again, I can never be sure.

Would you guys consider it a good accomplishment for Spurs if they finished 4th?

I ask this because recently they have spent £10m on a keeper, £20m on a defense, £60m on midfield and £25m on strikers. That's £115m on their first 11 - somehwta similar to the number Ambromovic spent in his first year at Chelsea I believe. So they're spending as much as Chelsea, and more than Liverpool and Arsenal, so why would 4th be seen as a good finish? Do you think Roman would have accepted 4th in his first season at Chelsea? I highly doubt it.

So I think if Spurs don't finish in the top 4, it would be a huge failure on the return for the money they've spent.

Spurs are Spurs, they'll never get that 4th place even if they bought Kaka, Buffon, Messi, Nesta, Ramos and Drogba.
It's part of their culture to overspend and underperform season in and season out.

That would be unexpected in my opinion. They don't have so many good players.

1- arsenal and liverpool both had much better squads to begin with.
2- they've sold sold players so that counts against the spending (defoe counts in there)
3- we must consider these pending on young talents and not proven players. they probably wont reach their potential this season.
4- this sort of spending is not the same as chelsea's, we all know how transfer fees have inflated since and especially in the prem.

i'm sure their goal is to make 4th but if they dont make it i dont think it's the end of the world.

Chelsea were about where Spurs are now before Roman took over. A decent club who'd finish around 6th on average and have a few good cup runs. And Chelsea also sold players in that year. We all know prices have inflated, but we all know Chelsea over paid for players too, £24m for SWP? They could have got him for a little over half if they wanted, they just didn't want to go through weeks of negotiation and stuff.

It's an almost identical situation in my opinion. Except Chelsea spent wisely, Spurs are spending on unproven talents in positions they don't need.

Yeah... and don't you think that's the most important factor, Kurt? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I'm just saying...

It is, but alot of people are praising them signing Dos Santos, Bentley, Modric and Arshavin. Meaning they think they're great signings.. how are they? they maybe needed one of them, but all 4? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

Obviously I want Villa to do best, but if it were between Liverpool and Spurs for that 4th spot, it wouldb't be wonderful to finish 5th. As Special K would say, I WOULD LOVE IT!

Friedel making his first appearance for Villa in a friendly up at Reading, saves a penalty after 10 minutes. What a nice start! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

This post has been edited by kurtsimonw: Aug 2 2008, 03:22 PM

It sounds a little unpatriotic of me, but I'm continually surprised at how good the American keepers are turning out to be. There are quite a few of them that are really rather good!

They generally are pretty good. Keller used to be great, Howard and Friedel are two of the best in the league right now, even Hanhemann is probably the best keeper outside of the Premier League. Brad Guzans work permit application was accepted, so now we have 2 American keepers, both called Brad. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

You surely mean he's the best AMERICAN keeper outside the PL, not the best no matter the nationality...

I meant best keeper in England outside of the EPL actually, and we have some pretty good keepers lower down.

Anyways, first games of the Emirites Cup, or whatever it's called, were on today. Madrid beat Hamburg 2-1 in the opener, then the hosts Arsenal lost 1-0 to Juve. Vela looks good, but man, Arsenals midfield looks so weak, they hav no depth at all.

We played with mostly reserves though...and one complete hindrance called Eboue...

It was mostly reserves yes, but that's the problem, the midfield you played is the midfield that backs up the starters. These guys like terrible, so if Cesc, or any other midfield starter for that matter, gets injured, you're in trouble unless you sign someone.

The Gareth Barry situation is just on-going, and quite frankly it's getting boring now. Liverpool missed the agreed deadline for Barry, but now Barry's agent - thinking Liverpool would have come up with the money by that deadline - has said that the deadline means nothing and Liverpool can still by him, so he's just made himself look like an ***. Barry's ehad is all over the place at the moment, Liverpool and his agent are doing a really good job ******* this club about.

Naughty word removed.

This post has been edited by Tennie: Aug 2 2008, 08:37 PM