If Keane was Bulgarian, and Berbatov was Irish, everyone else would agree.

Barry is playing his first game of the season tonight, in a friendly with most of our reserves. Chants of "Gareth Barry, you're a w*nker" ring around the stadium. Ouch.

Gosh. That's a lot more polite than I'd have perhaps expected, Kurt.

10 minutes after HT he was subbed off, he left the field to applauding Villa fans, and he applauded the fans back. Quite.. surprising really.

What does this have to do with anything? I think you care about it too much, when I talked at them I did not even think about it...


So what's it going to be with him?

No, I think it does. Not for all people, but some. If you are born in the UK, you're automatically branded over-rated and that you have no technique, it's the way it is for most. While if you play on the continent, you're a World class passer, etc. I hear it all too often. Anyways, Keane > Berbatov, my opinion.

He'll be leaving in my opinion, eventually - Most likely after Villa play Liverpool on the 31st of August, while the window is still open.

I think the people that boo him are.. wrong to do so. Of course they have that right, but I don't think booing somebody who has worked for you for 10 years should be treated like that. But we're known to have possibly the most fickle fans in the league..

At least this year you've got Acorns instead of Cows on the front of your jersey, Kurt.

Indeed. That was the worst sponsor ever.

I never saw it that way. And in this case, I don't think Bulgarians are so highly rated these days anyway...

On the other hand, he should not have treated Villa the way he's had too.

Blackburn have agreed a fee with Villa for keeper Brad Friedel - £2m. He's very old now, but still probably top 3 in the EPL, would be a great signing for us.

A one-season fix? Have you got someone else in mind for the future?

Sorry to jump in but i think its just the brand of football thats played in the UK its got alot of contact and less skill

I think we're hoping Friedel will last about 2 seasons. We've apparently signed Brad Guzan, who won MLS keeper of the year last season (From what I've been told) and he's just awaiting a work permit, which he should get by the start of the season. So we'll have 2 American keepers, both called Brad. Wonderful.


I'm not sure I agree. I think the style of football played in this country makes things LOOK differently. In Spain or wherever, you have alot of time to make a great pass. Here, you're closed down, you don't have the time to make your passes look great or anything. But each league has their own style and their own positives/negatives. It's a debate that you can't finish really.

^^^

Well you have to look at a team, that is not typically English...like Arsenal and then argue. They do play a more passing oriented game. So do Manchester. The thing is except for the top 4-5 'European sides', the rest mostly play a contact sport. Especially the lower teams. And with the hype around the dribbler, pretty player types nowadays...like Ronnie, CR, Messi etc, it's no wonder that football is looked down upon when played as a contact sport.

true but in Brazil they do hack people down alot and in Argentina

Well, I'm off for Villa's first competitive home game of the season in an hour.. thank God for the football season!

It seems Man City have come in with a late offer for Friedel, which is bad news as his old manager Mark Hughes is there, but it's suggested that Fridel would prefer a move to Villa as he's guarenteed first team football and we have offered him a 'life package', whatever that may be.

And we have made a late bid for Spurs Younes Kaboul, he was meant to have a medical at Sunderland, but wants to re-think the move due to our offer. I'm not a fan of him, he was poor at Spurs. Not bad for a 3rd/4th CB I suppose.

A cookie to Kurt! Congrats to Villa on their aggregate win and their progression into the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup. They won today 1-0 with a goal by Ashley Young.

too, however. Villa's Wilfred Bouma dislocated his ankle (OW!) early in the game and will probably be out for a good long time.

A good win, but Bouma..

That looked really horrific, his foot was bending the wrong way and everything. Thankfully it was only a dislocation, still, not sure how long that'll mean he's out for.

Barry took his place at LB, and there were a few boo's, but they were pretty much drowned out by the applause, and he justified them by playing really well. So I don't see him leaving now, he's the only player that can play at LB now Bouma's out.

Get well soon, Freddie!

Moutinho - Sporting young midfielder - suprisingly said he wants out.

Sporting fans are shocked since he IS their captain and wants to leave only for money (not for a top club, we're talking about Everton).

Moutinho is 21 and one of the best players in the Portuguese League.

He'd let me down if he left for anything less than a top team...

Aiee. Moutinho deserves better than Everton!

Well, none of the big 4 in England need an AM, so if he was to come here, Everton would be the most sensible choice.

He's no AM. He's a CM who can defend, attack... everything.

I still don't see him fitting in at the big 4. Maybe Arsenal? But the other 3 have too many CMs as it is.

He'd probably do well at Arsenal.

It's a HUGE loss for Sporting.

If he was french Wenger would consider him.

It is. Sporting's best player by some miles.

Villa finally signed Friedel, the news was broke to the fans during yesterdays game, then he was paraded in front of his new fans at HT.

The Barry saga continues. It looks unlikely he'll be headed to Shamfield as Robbie Keane is going to have a medical there sometime soon, in preperation for his £20m transfer to Liverpool. They barely had any money as it is, but with this, there is almost no chance barry willl be going to Anfield. It has also been revealed that Villa are to offer Barry a new 4-year deal.

Also something on SSN about Fabregas. I was watching properly, but it said that 4 seasons without a title would be too much, and he'd have to consider a move away if they don't win the league/anything this season. Things at Arsenal are looking really bad at the moment, having that new stadium is killing them.

He's also too old for Arsene's taste...

I don't know how well he'd do at Arsenal but they certainly need a player like him!

Keane for 25M/euros... geez. And he's probably going to play as a winger in the team.

He should have spent that kind of many on Silva or any other top winger. Not another foward/center-mid.

Well, Torres, Drogba and Tevez all went for more than him, and he's a proven scorer over a long period of time - unlike these 3 - so I think that justifies his price. I still can't believe United are going to buy Tevez for £32m, I wouldn't want him for £3.2m!


Over £9m, what the f*ck..

Have you seen the kid play, Kurt? He's quite good (this from someone who rarely has good things to say about Real).

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/artic...oliverpool.html

It's official. 24M/euros.

I consider Keane a better player than Tevez. But I've heard that's not the real sum kurt. United are paying around 20M/euros for Tevez. Not 38-40M... that with his contract, etc.

I can't believe Liverpool have bought him to be honest, but a decent buy for them anyway. Spurs to sign David Villa then? Or will be be going to Madrid?

Ah, that makes more sense, I was going to say, £32m seemed quite a mad price for Tevez.

They could be better, yes...we HAVE brought in the guy hailed as the new Zidane though, that is a plus.
And both Vela and Ramsay look promising.
Oh and we beat some Austrian team 10-2 recently, that isn´t too bad...though it has to be said, Bendtner scored 4 goals so I doubt we´re talking about a very strong team here.

Keane? Really? And for 24m???
Instead of buying players like Villa and Silva to go to the next level they get that guy? I respect Rafa a lot when it comes to tactical stuff but someone else should decide on transfers... or maybe that's why they're having such a poor transfer period so far...

I like Tevez. He's not out of this world but 20m would be a good deal (considering it's an EPL transfer).


Yeah one of the dozen players that carry that tag...
I have not seen Ramsey play in a competitive match but I watched Vela last season against Madrid and he looked good!
None of these three guys will lead Arsenal to victory though. Wenger is so stubborn why doesn't he bring in a couple more experienced players to mix it with youth? And currently, Arsenal are the only team (big or small) in Europe with no DMF's. This is big. If they don't get at least one I expect them to do bad...
And they should start competing with the big teams on wages otherwise they're going to become more of a feeder club...

Tevez for more than 15M/euros is a steal IMO. Oh OK... EPL... nevermind.

Ramsay played brilliantly throughout Cardiff's FA Cup run, and was the best player in the final.
As for DMF's, I think Song is meant to be one...not as a starter off course.
As for bringing experienced players in, there's not that many around who don't a gigantic buy-out clause.
As for becoming a feeder club, I consider that unlikely. But just the possibilty that it might happen scares the crap out of me from time to time.

Arsenal are one of the safest clubs in the EPL in terms of their debt ratio. As they are not Pari-passu with teams like Chelsea or United in the debt structure, making Arsenal a healthy organization when drawn against it's counterparts in the top four.

Their stadium was financed on the most part by Emirates airlines.


Arsenal wont be a feeder club, because Arsene Wenger is a very conservative minded individual, a masters degree in economics. And as his track record shows, he has brought Arsenal to the top without the 'Chelsea approach' to success. So I don't think you should be worried, as long as Wenger is in charge, Arsenal will always play the same entertaining football, while maintaining a progressive balance in it's financing.

p.s. you really got to admire Wenger for what he has done to Arsenal, he did something no other coach could do !! Not only footballing wise, but as an organization, he made Arsenal what it is today.

Thanks mate, I really needed that.

That's what I missed for not watching the FA Cup.
Song... yeah... you do want Arsenal to win something don't you?
There are many good experienced players that Arsenal could get for little. But Wenger is only willing to spend more than 10m for youngsters...
Arsenal will not become a feeder club per se but if players keep leaving the club like this, Arsenal will not be considered a great club... I'm quite sure Fabregas will leave next season if you fail to win something.

I agree with most of what R7 said except Wenger does spend alot of money, it just goes fairly un-noticed. Chelsea only spent silly amounts because they had to, for example SWP cost them £24m, but I bet if somebody else went in for him, he'd only have cost around £15m But Chelsea are actually at a disadvantage because they have the money and people know it, so they are forced to pay much, much more.

In fact, I think Wenger is very bad in the transfer market. People hail him as a genius.. but £8m for Jeffers, £7m for Lauren and £13m for Wiltord, another £8.5m on Gio and £6m on backup GK Richard Wright. (Remember that this was at a time when £7m was considered alot, forget £13m!) and that's £42.5m on 5 players who in my opinion were very bad at Arsenal. That's £8.5m per player.. and with recent inflation on prices, we could be talking probably £12m/£15m per player when you talk in relation to todays money, and that's not good business, not even close.

He did get a few players like Viera who was fairly cheap, who turned out well, but he even paid out decent amounts of money for Pires, Henry and Overmars that you would expect them to perform. But we're talking about a time where the EPL didn't have much money, and it was the Spanish and Italian clubs paying the big prices. So while I'll praise Wenger for his succes back in the late 90s/early 2000s, he was only competing against Man U, and was simply pricng any other team out of the title, they just couldn't compete with the money he was spending. /end rant.

500 000 pounds for Kolo Toure. End of triumphant rant.

Sky sports reporting that David Bentley to have medical at Spurs tomorrow(30th July).

I'm sorry, but if you think one good signing like that means that it makes all the previous mentioned transfers irrelevant..

As for Spurs, Bentley is exactly what they don't need. Imagine a midfield of theirs with bentley, Modric and Dos Santos! They're all about 5'8 and 150 pounds, they'll just get bullied! They need a striker ASAP if Berbatov leaves, otherwise they're in trouble.

Fabregas. End of triumphant rant 2; Return of The killer triumphant rant.

Oh and Henry: 10.5 million for 226 goals and a huge chunk of assists. End of the Triumphant rant trilogy.

Fabregas was free.. As for Henry, yeah, good signing wasn't he? But he signed for a decent amount of money back then, so wouldn't you expect him to be good?

A good signing is like you said before, Toure for £500k or Vieira for £3m. And his transfers that rank as "shockingly bad" still outnumber his "good" transfers.

And talking of north London clubs, apparently Spurs have agreed fee's totalling £36m for Bentley & Arshavin. Obviously no good team wanted the latter and he was too up himself and has now made himself look ratehr foolish. After the Euro's, Arshavin stated he would not consider a move to a team not in the CL, even mentioning Spurs by name, now he's going there..

And so the Triumphant rant saga goes on...Sagna for 6.1 million, 250 000 for Clichy, Anelka bought for 500 000 and sold for 22.3 million, Kanu for 4.2 million...End of Triumphant rant v.2 "The rant is renewed".

@Kurt. Wenger is 12 years in Arsenal and of course not all his transfers were great (he's human after all), and you cannot expect him to hold a perfect record during so long time especially when dealing mostly with young players. But he more than proved himself, and if you compare his 'good' and 'bad' transfers, he did a good job.

thats exactly what i was thinking, theres also aaron lennon (5"5)

theres also jamie o'hara and Taarabt (i've tracked in football manager hehehe, my youth squad with milan is disgustingly sick)

and bale and gunter as fullbacks (whom i rate as highly promising players, especially bale) but both small.

i mean it isnt in the end of the world cuz bentley (who will probably pushed ou on the left ) and lennon play out wide.

you need balance in your midfield, meaning they have no choice but to play either zokora or huddlestone.

Sagna for £6m, aren't you meant to be defending Wengers' transfers.

And Kanu!? You paid that much for Kanu!? What a joke! I'd turn him down on a free if my team already had 3 or 4 strikers. Just a difference of opinion on Wenger, don't take it personal.


I'm still skeptical on whether he's good in the market, my opinion is that he isn't. That's why he has so many different players. His squads rarely last very long, who's Arsenal longest serving player at the moment?

Just a difference of opinion on how good he is in the market.


O'Hara and Taarabt's Spurs careers are over unless they're happy to be getting onto the bench every now and then and maybe playing 4 or 5 times a season.

Bale isn't an LB to me, before he got injured last season they put him at LM and he was very impressive. Not the best defender ever, just good running.

Bentley will play on the right, GDS on the left, Modric, Arshavin & either Jenas/Zokora/Huddlestone in the middle with Bent up front, so Lennon is gone in my opinion. Spurs have 2 choices in my view 1) They have no muscle, tackling or defensive priority in the middle of the park and play 2 or even all of Arshavin, Modric and Jenas - I suspect they'll get humiliated a few times like this, but also score a tonne on other teams, or 2) they play Huddlestone & Zokora in the middle of the field and risk pissing off Modric, Arshavin, GDS, Lennon, Bentley, Jenas - at least 2 of these. So having too many good players can be a curse. They could finish top 4, but they could also just implode and finish somewhere in midtable. I have to respect them for this though, especially after losing so many top players lately.

I don't think Wenger pays too much for the players he brings in.
But he does earn very little for the players he lets out... particularly Overmars, Vieira and Henry. Should I mention losing Flamini on a free?

Anyway... Bergkamp's Arsenal is one of the best teams I've ever seen. Amazing football and effective. But Wenger has lost it lately and his record is not great anymore... and it won't be as long as he only signs virgins.