Oh...we've got dream signings...just you wait....you want Milner you pay, the same as you'd want if you were selling Young.

You don't poke fun at Rafa over the Barry incident and do the same thing yourself.

So you need rolleyes to realize that Silvestre is a mediocre player that Arsenal do not need? (Rolleyes)

Come on captain easy with the rum!

He's one of my most favorite players. The lads got it all, technique, skill, height, physique, pace, meaning he's all round good in all departments (including looks). Pity we didn't sign him when he expressed a desire to play for Milan. Had we, I'm dead certain we'd have finished 4th. Or 3rd.

Hope you guys snatch him, though.


Brilliant stuff.

Hey well, if not Silvestre, there's Senderos for CB. And for Clichy, they got Eboue. I don't think it's so bad. Beside you're gonna need a baby sitter for the kids. How long can Gallas alone play mother hen.

Isn't Silvestre a LB?
Eboue plays at RB and Clichy on the left so I don't get what you mean by that.
Gallas is the baby-sitter? I can only imagine him beating up Wenger's pre-pubers...

He's a converted CB. He could run pretty well, and cross decently too. He was considered a great prospect in Europe till all those injuries.

I think in Arsenal, he'll be a CB. Since he can go forward as well. However won't be too surprised to see him in that holding mid-field role. Usually centrebacks who can play out wide, also seem to make decent holding mid-fielders.

In Arsenal he will be a mascot. They only got him cause he's Wenger's kids' favorite Looney Tune character!

"Hey Cesc look who's here!"

Man City are closing in on the signing of Belgian defender Vincent Kompany. GOod move by them.

What? How can they afford this? They took out a loan didn't they?

They are signing people that they can't really afford.

No...Thaksin's made funds available. They had a meeting, where Hughes was given assurances. 800 million frozen from a 2.6 billion fortune, still leaves some stuff intact. It's just that Thaksin wants to keep a low profile. It wouldn't do good for a wanted 'criminal' to be publicly seen spending huge amounts.

I wanted Kompany some time back, but I heard he's become something of a flop. Someone who showed a lot of promise, and then just never lived up to it. Perhaps the Bundesliga viewers would know more?

The transfer's done. 8mill, I hear. Pretty cheap. We should have gotten him. We need a defender more than they do

Kompany is so overrated and a total flop. I don't want Milan picking up players like that and try to fix them. I think that Thaksin is unreliable.

If Thaksin is convicted in his country, his time in the EPL may be over.

Possibly...which is why he handed everything to his sons/maids/drivers etc. So Thaksin would just resign and someone else would take over. Probably his son.

He's applied for political asylum in Britain, I think.

I hope we tell him where to shove it. He doesn't deserve to be here.

At least he has some class, whereas Senderos...

Trust me, I'll say the same, if not worse, about Senderos.

So true. His spell in Hamburg was nothing but an expansive disaster for the Hanseatics. He's injury prone, arrogant and not more than an average defender. Good move for Hamburg.

Bad news: Super Shaun Maloney has returned to Celtic, only 18 months after he left them to join Villa, for £1m - rising to £2.5m. Shame, I really liked him, obvious his heart was always at Celtic though, I think it took a move away for him to realise that too. Best of luck to him.

Good news: Mike Ashley has said James Milner is worth £9m, now Villa don't really have a recognised RM, we are apparently prepared to meet that valuation. Happy days!

Well, Arsene Wenger has done it again. This guys just annoys me so much because of the comments he makes. In recent years he's made a few comments, quite nasty ones, at clubs illegally trying to get his players - some who don't even do it ilegally, see:Flamini -and also insulting players just because they want to leave, see:Hleb. But he thinks it's perfectly fine to talk about Gareth Barry at his recent press conference, saying he's interested in him, without even making any contact with Villa. Mr. Wenger is either a hypocrit or just plain stupid. Does he not realise he's violated FA rules live on tv? You can't talk about an opposition player like that!

Blackburn R. 1 - 1 Hull C.
Liverpool 2 - 1 Middlesbrough
Newcastle U. 1 - 0 Bolton W.
Stoke C. 3 - 2 Aston Villa
Tottenham H. 1 - 2 Sunderland
West Bromwich A. 1 - 2 Everton
Fulham 1 - 0 Arsenal

Just got back from the Stoke game. Losing to a 90th minute winner is always bad, makes you feel crappy. I thought we were okay, but to have to play Stoke in their first ever home game in the EPL, an their first home game in the top flight for over 20 years is never going to be easy, especially when they're fairly local. Didn't help when for the second succesive week we have the most ridiculous penalty given against us. Fair play to Stoke, they were probably better over the 90.

Arsenal lost lol. That's a bit of an early blow!

Stoke is looking good... sorry to hear about that Kurt... and your signature is now correct.

btw, anyone saw the Liverpool game? How lucky are those *****?

How many times can Gerrard save Liverpool.

Hmmm...So Newcastle won, and Villa lost... Hahaha...why am I not surprised. The King is here...

We were just unfortunate to play Stoke in the biggest game in their entire history. I'm sure it won't happen again. Oh, Jack, Newcastle have shot themself in the foot a bit. They told Villa Milner is worth £9m.. now he's asked for a contract that mirrors that fact, and since they already turned down Owen, I just don't see Milner getting a new one. If he don't get one, he's said to be "pushing for a move to the Midlands" Now which club in the midlands would that be do you think?

3 minutes gone..

Wigan 0-1 Chelsea.
-Deco free-kick. Great stuff. And he's past it..

Deco? Good lord, no. He still has it in him. Maybe not Europe's most electrifying midfielder, but he can still cut it at the top. Despite what the fans and media think of him. He's still a country mile or two ahead of someone like Maniche.

He's a class player, yep. Bit of an *******, though.

I included this in my post, but edited it out. He's very much of a *******. Still a utility player. Not sure I'd have him in Milan, but that's just because we've got the best midfield in Europe. Of all time.

He dives too much.

Class player though.

Doesn't everybody? There are only a handful of players in International football, who'd keep on running and try to score a goal instead of faking a dive. I can count them on my hands, and still there would be fingers to spare!

Never doubted his class, though. One has to be a good player to make place in the Portuguese NT midfield.

Deco is an amazing player!

In my opinion he was as influential as anybody in Barcelona's successes.

Yes, it makes me think what they'll do without him. And Ronaldinho. And Zamborghini. Messi wasn't God, last time I checked.

Deco was playing in a lightweight midfield. He wasn't able to do what he wanted with guys like Xavi and Iniesta there. Now he has Ballack, Lampard and Essien, 3 big guys with strength. It makes it easier for him. Riijkard just got it tactically wrong at Barca for me.

Don't worry, if Liverpool continue to play like that, they will be fighting for the 4th place (like every year) soon enough.

Just flicking through the Independent when i found this article and this paragraph (Article is about the absurdity of Lampards new contract)



Link if you want to read the whole article. Some of the writers other articles are quite good too

Edit: Whoops, my bad the article is from The Times not The Independent

In my honest opinion, Lampard is a scapegoat, nothing more. Gerrard can do nothing all game andhe's hailed as the lovable Stevie G. United players can get away with doing nothing because they're clearly superior and can never put a foot wrong, why else do they play for Man U? If you play for Chelsea, however, it's another story. JT and Lampard are the ones that get it the most, they are seen as 'the face of Chelsea', all about money. But when Roman took over, it didn't matter who they bought, these guys were still performing well enough to keep in the first team. People may complain they earn alot of money, but originally they were some of the lowest earners in the squad, they were still on 'small' contracts from the pre-Roman days. While all these new boys who came in and did nothing were earning 10 times more. They deserve the money they get.

Greed? Yes, maybe. But aren't we all. If you were offered £100k a week would you say "Oh, no, I'm not greedy, I'll stuck with my £20k a week, thanks". No, you wouldn't. It's not greedy to accept what you're offered. I admire Frank for playing on the way he does. I remember a terrible game against Croatia, we were 2-0 down, looked like crashing out of the Euro's, and we won a penalty. Who took it, was it Beckham? No. Was it Gerrard? No. Nor Rooney, nor Crouch. It was Frank Lampard. Despite all of the criticism and booing, HE was the one that picked up the ball to take the penalty, one that if missed would have pretty much guarenteed England we out, but even with that pressure he scored a great penalty.

/end of rant.

Frank Lampard owns. I'm not a Chelsea fan, but I think he's one of the most unfairly criticised and picked on players I've ever seen in sport.

Lampard is I'm afraid one of those players, who receive either boquets or brickbats. Nothing in between.

He isn't that great a player, but one must also respect players who maximise their contribution with what talent they've got. Like our own Rino.

Steven Gerrard, I've always felt is someone who can truly improve because he has oodles of talent that Lampard doesn't, but just sticks to what he knows best. I would say Lampard has the better work ethic and application. In the last 10 years, if you questioned, who had improved more, Stevie or Lamps, it would be Lamps.


But that doesn't deny the fact, that he doesn't deserve to be in the NT on the basis of his past performances.

He's doing ok now, but so was Mutu in his first few games, says it all!

He has proved the doubters including myself wrong, just wonder if he can keep up at the level he's playing all season and no that doesn't mean he has to score 4 goals every 2 games!

+1. He's just about my favorite player in the English NT.

frankie is an amazing player. A great man lol. I remember i read somethign on him in his youth days. He would go to his local park everyday afterschool and run from the 18 yard box to another. So one day his coach was walking by and asked him what why he was running like that when there wasn't practise. He said isn't that what midfielders do, run from 18 to 18.

anyways i just wanted to share it thats all, no flames svp.

Too late bluey!!

I'll have to disagree that Lampard isn't that great a player. He doesn't have the same skill as Ronaldinho or anything, no, but he doesn't need that to get past players, he has strength and power to do so. Nobody on earth is a better goal scoring midfielder than him, 3rd successive seasons with 20 plus goals last season, when you consider he was out injured and missed over 15 EPL games, and that he then missed time when his mom died, it's incredible that he scored that amount.

I think that depends how you define 'deserving to be in your NT'. Does he deserve it on his Chelsea performances? Most definitly, he should possibly be one of the first names down on the team sheet. On his England performances? No, he doesn't, but neither do most of the players, we'd have about a 5 man squad.

In other news, Dimitar Berbatov has handed in a transfer request at Spurs and West Ham have accepted Sunderlands £8m bid for Anton Ferdinand. £8m for him!?

Anton for 8 million. Wow.. Keane has to finish in the top10 this season then.

Does anyone know how the money gets split in the EPL? Is it like in Formula 1 based on your table position? (I mean not counting the winners of course). Or is it an even steven deal?

At the end of the season, or the tv money before the season? The end of season money is based on your position in the table, I think each position is worth £1.5m more than the one below it. TV money is split fairly evenly, but the more you're shown throughout the season, the more you get. So both benefit the big 4 really.

So the last placed finisher in the EPL, earns less than the relegated club?? Coz if I'm not wrong the relegated club earns huge amounts in parachute payments right?

Yes they do. It's all very confusing. Clubs relegated from the EPL are given around £6m - which has now raised to £11m I think - in their first two seaons in the lower division. This is to help them cope with the less of the tv money and to help them try and cope with some big wages they may be still carrying from their time in the EPL.

Lampard is a very good player. Though overrated like all the others in the EPL.

I think it's a shame he never played for a top club.

Depends how you define top club I suppose. He has as many League titles here as Thierry Henry, Ruud van Nistelrooy & Cristiano Ronaldo. He's won more league title that Gerrard, Carragher, Torres, etc. will win at Liverpool, that's for sure.

Top club or big club is an entity with history, titles, huge fan-base, etc.

Chelsea isn't on the same side as Real Madrid, Milan, Juventus, Man Utd, Liverpool, Inter, Bayern, Barcelona, etc. They might be a top team (a squad with top players), but not a top club. Maybe in 20 years if they continue like this.