2008/09 Soccer Thread in Shock £50m Chelsea Switch! (And Other Ludicrousness)

Ray Parlour ? What's he got to do with anything ? I suppose it is a good move by Wenger to get this somewhat average and bitter ex-Gunner to open his yap on something about which he has no direct knowledge, so that if City turn round and decide that they would rather have Eto'o, then Adebayor can return to Arsenal without his own boss having had a pop.

Not sure that I recall Parlour having a public go before the potential transfer was raised though. Wonder why that is ?

davet010 wrote:

That's one in three in the French League ;)

Considering that you only see a goal every fortnight in Ligue 1, wouldn't that be equivalent to 1.5 goals every game anywhere else?

Is this some sort of logic puzzle ?

My answer - that would equate to 0,5 goals every week, and that's only if he scores every single goal in the league.

What's my prize ?

davet010 wrote:

Ray Parlour ? What's he got to do with anything ? I suppose it is a good move by Wenger to get this somewhat average and bitter ex-Gunner to open his yap on something about which he has no direct knowledge, so that if City turn round and decide that they would rather have Eto'o, then Adebayor can return to Arsenal without his own boss having had a pop.

Not sure that I recall Parlour having a public go before the potential transfer was raised though. Wonder why that is ?

Its just a the take of someone who watches the club day in day out. Ade has burned his bridges at the club with the fans and maybe his teammates and Wenger. Just making it clear that no one thinks we will skip a beat missing him. Last year the numpties that only catch Arsenal on highlights thought we would miss Hleb and we didn't the slightest.

davet010 wrote:

My answer - that would equate to 0,5 goals every week, and that's only if he scores every single goal in the league.

Well, considering that Adebayor got 10 in 27, I'd be more than happy with that.
(edit: I really don't know where did you read about Ade's "1 in 2" record, but someone got it really wrong.)

Watches the club day in and day out ? He left about 5 years ago, hasn't he got anything better to do with his time ?

To be honest, most City fans aren't that excited about Adebayor..I for one would much prefer Eto'o as I think he'd be a better fit with Santa Cruz. So I'm not that arsed if we don't sign him, in fact I think it would be amusing as it would obviously scupper most of Arsenal's other plans for this summer, and we could watch the furious back-pedalling of Arsenal fans and players alike.

Thinking about it again, we could always bring in Eto'o as well (at reduced price for a quick sale for Barca) and have Adebayor as an 'off-the bench' battering ram for the last 30 minutes.

Eee, decisions decisions.

I picked up The Beckham Experiment for some light toilet time reading. Whizzed through a few chapters last night. Mostly common knowledge and pre-Galaxy summary so far.

davet010 wrote:

Watches the club day in and day out ? He left about 5 years ago, hasn't he got anything better to do with his time ?

How's that supposed to be valid argument on... well, anything? First you're hitting out at him saying that he doesn't know anything about Arsenal's matters, now you're hitting out at him because you've just found out that he's been close to club all that time.

Anyone see John Terry in Chelsea's press conference this afternoon ? Anyone find the fact that Michael Ballack was doing all the talking slightly odd ?

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,195...

Emmanuel Adebayor's move to Manchester City looks to be edging ever closer with the news he has been granted a work permit.

Thanks for the memories but cya. When I wake up tomorrow he will be gone. He has those flashes of brilliance that makes you think he could be the next Drogba in the sense a striker who scores at will but over the last year hes only developed the sulking and show up when he feels like part of Drogba's game. Who knows though, now that hes setup to make silly money he won't have to think about his retirement like he famously said last summer. He can now concentrate only on football and fulfill his potential.

I wish him many goals in his derby games next year and 0 vs his old club

jowner wrote:

I wish him many goals in his derby games next year and 0 vs his old club :P

That's fair enough

Looks like some of the papers have been following my lead as to City's interest in David Bentley.....well, they do seem to cobble together stories from all manner of nonsense, so my posts are as good a place as any. Being a sports tabloid journalist must be the easiest job in the world - they probably draw a random player out of a database, then link to a random club for a laugh.

Here's a link to the Adebayor tale....I can see him getting the Eto'o treatment if he's not careful, and there's no chance in 10,000 years that United will either shell out £25m for him or offer him the wages that he is apparently asking for.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...

Don't go burning your Emanuel pillow-case yet, jowner....

davet010 wrote:
jowner wrote:

I wish him many goals in his derby games next year and 0 vs his old club :P

That's fair enough

Looks like some of the papers have been following my lead as to City's interest in David Bentley.....well, they do seem to cobble together stories from all manner of nonsense, so my posts are as good a place as any. Being a sports tabloid journalist must be the easiest job in the world - they probably draw a random player out of a database, then link to a random club for a laugh.

Here's a link to the Adebayor tale....I can see him getting the Eto'o treatment if he's not careful, and there's no chance in 10,000 years that United will either shell out £25m for him or offer him the wages that he is apparently asking for.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...

Don't go burning your Emanuel pillow-case yet, jowner....

Its all his agent who is just batsh*t crazy and it rubs off on Ade. Last years interest from AC Milan and Barca were suspicious at best. He has journos on speed dial to conjure up fake rumors to try and leverage the maxium out of clubs. Last year it was a new contract with Arsenal at 80k a year which was fair enough considering the season he just had and what other players around the world get paid for similar level of play. I doubt his fake transfers to AC and Barca had much effect on Wenger giving the 80k.

This time around its plainly obvious hes not worth 170k and City know this. They might have money to splash around but do have some sense. This might drag on a couple days until Ade's side settles for the still hefty 130k. Or heres hoping they do as there really is no other suitor and 130k > his current 80k. This could still fall through if City get fed up like Arsenal fans have already with Ade and his agents antics.

170k? 8,6-8,7 million pounds for season? For player that doesn't even have guaranteed place in first XI? Is he out of his f*cking mind?

edit:
Downing to Villa
Villa to... well, nowhere. Barca got 42m bid rejected. It looks like they're really desperate not to sell, instead of trying to inflate his price.
Voronin wants a place at Liverpool. Hey, they're so desperate for another striker they might keep him for 2009/10.
Lucio to Inter and Inter's Maxwell to Barcelona.
Crouch is nearing 12m move to Sunderland.

Now being rumoured that Barcelona have acquired Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Inter for the following package..

Eto'o (permanent)
Hleb (loan)
plus 40m €

That must value Eto'o at about minus €15m.

If only David Villa would consider playing outside Spain...I'd pay for his air fare here myself.

davet010 wrote:

That must value Eto'o at about minus €15m.

Spot on
This morning Catalan press claimed that deal was already done, but apparently they're still in talks. I think that both clubs will benefit from it. Inter will get great value out of player who don't really want to play for them anymore and Pep Guardiola will finally get world-class striker who can play in middle.

World class striker who can play in the middle ? What's wrong with Henry ? I'd have him at City in a flash

According to SSN, Adebayor's at Arsenal's training ground saying his goodbyes (which shouldn't take too long, according to Gunners fans). Still quite 'meh' about this, unless he actually decides that he's going to start putting a full shift in.

Just need a defender or two now. then it's time to get them gelling.

Lovers of such trivia may also like to know that City's new squad list goes up to number 57, of which 39 would qualify as home grown under the UEFA 6+5 rules...not that this need detain us for the coming season, of course.

davet010 wrote:

World class striker who can play in the middle ? What's wrong with Henry ?

I think I've already mentioned that Henry is my favourite active player. I just think they want to keep him at that (sort of) left-wing position they've used to for whole past season. Logic behind this seems to be that there's no one really to replace him in that position (maaaaybe Ashley Young) while there are still some great central forwards on the market (Zlatan, Villa).

davet010 wrote:

Just need a defender or two now. then it's time to get them gelling.
Lovers of such trivia may also like to know that City's new squad list goes up to number 57

Don't you feel like it's a bit of overkill? You certainly have spent reasonable fees, not going over-the-top for anyone, but it looks like more players you sign, the bigger waste of money they might become because they won't play. Craig Bellamy being the best example.

UCRC wrote:

Don't you feel like it's a bit of overkill? You certainly have spent reasonable fees, not going over-the-top for anyone, but it looks like more players you sign, the bigger waste of money they might become because they won't play. Craig Bellamy being the best example.

The fact that it goes to 57 is because the academy is producing so many good prospects. As for Bellwhaft, I suspect that City will recoup what they paid for him.

This whole Ade transfer saga is doing my head in. The only solution is booze and lots of it. A Konig then a Becks then maybe a Lech then Caesars till i'm blind.
IMAGE(http://arsenalfcblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/adebayor-comic.jpg)

IMAGE(http://www.arsenal.com/assets/_files/images/jul_09/gun__1247817410_rosicky_training.jpg)
Tomas Rosicky is in 21-man squad (featuring mix of youth and senior players) for Arsenal's first pre-season friendly with Barnet. It's going to be his first game since January 2008.
All the best, Tomas.

edit: And it's done. Rosicky played his 45 minutes (just like everyone else).

Quote of the day:

Arsene Wenger wrote:

We're not on the verge of signing anybody but I'm able to spend the money if we find the right players. We're not in a hurry because we have a big squad. We'll see in pre-season if we need to make any additions. We also have Nicklas Bendtner, Andrey Arshavin, Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott who can play striker.

In that order.

jowner wrote:

This whole Ade transfer saga is doing my head in. The only solution is booze and lots of it. A Konig then a Becks then maybe a Lech then Caesars till i'm blind.
IMAGE(http://arsenalfcblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/adebayor-comic.jpg)

That cartoon is excellent, maybe they can do a tax-exile one for Arshavin. Dunno about the beers, the only one I've heard of is Becks.

Adebayor has now put pen to paper at Eastlands. The current rating on the Giddy-o-meter is about 6/10, so I shall toast this with some Stella 4%, which was cheap and is all I have in the fridge at the moment.

Deal's done. BBC's blog has a best summary of this:

As far as the Adebayor deal is concerned, the main fear among Arsenal's following is not that the deal will be completed, but that it might collapse.
UCRC wrote:

Deal's done. BBC's blog has a best summary of this:

As far as the Adebayor deal is concerned, the main fear among Arsenal's following is not that the deal will be completed, but that it might collapse.

Still think it's odd that no one at Arsenal was saying this before a deal was mooted, but hey ho, revisionism is a wonderful thing. Wonder if someone is going through the Arsenal archives deleting any reference to him, a la 1984 ?

davet010 wrote:

Still think it's odd that no one at Arsenal was saying this before a deal was mooted, but hey ho, revisionism is a wonderful thing. Wonder if someone is going through the Arsenal archives deleting any reference to him, a la 1984 ?

Yeah, official website still doesn't mention anything about transfer.
As for such 'revisionism', it's an interesting topic because we all are always that way. But it's perfectly normal: you want to keep faith in players you have. When they leave it's time to take more realistic view.
Also, when you say 'no one at Arsenal', do you mean club staff or supporters?

UCRC wrote:
davet010 wrote:

Still think it's odd that no one at Arsenal was saying this before a deal was mooted, but hey ho, revisionism is a wonderful thing. Wonder if someone is going through the Arsenal archives deleting any reference to him, a la 1984 ?

Yeah, official website still doesn't mention anything about transfer.
As for such 'revisionism', it's an interesting topic because we all are always that way. But it's perfectly normal: you want to keep faith in players you have. When they leave it's time to take more realistic view.
Also, when you say 'no one at Arsenal', do you mean club staff or supporters?

The club or its staff - I don't know any Arsenal fans personally, or go on their boards, but have enough time logged in to the City boards to realise that every team has fans of wildly differing opinions...if we bought Messi next week, there'd still be people on saying we could have done better

davet010 wrote:
UCRC wrote:
davet010 wrote:

Still think it's odd that no one at Arsenal was saying this before a deal was mooted, but hey ho, revisionism is a wonderful thing. Wonder if someone is going through the Arsenal archives deleting any reference to him, a la 1984 ?

Yeah, official website still doesn't mention anything about transfer.
As for such 'revisionism', it's an interesting topic because we all are always that way. But it's perfectly normal: you want to keep faith in players you have. When they leave it's time to take more realistic view.
Also, when you say 'no one at Arsenal', do you mean club staff or supporters?

The club or its staff - I don't know any Arsenal fans personally, or go on their boards, but have enough time logged in to the City boards to realise that every team has fans of wildly differing opinions...if we bought Messi next week, there'd still be people on saying we could have done better ;)

I randomly ran into one guy I watched allot of last seasons game with yesterday and he wanted Ade to get one more year. Don't get me wrong I loved the guy after the 30 goal season..... then the summer started and we found out what kind of agent was handling him. After this year it became apparent he was expendable and especially at 25m with a chance to reinvest that money where the club needs it. If the fee was lower or if Arsenal don't use some of the money to get stronger then its all for nothing really.

Hes a good player who pegs City up but at the same time he strikes me as the type of player that could get Hughes fired. Not sure who targeted him as a singing (if anything it was his agent shopping him around) but I could see one City's money men watching a game come November and asking who the hell is the tall African bloke who has been offside 6 times before halftime and seems to be having a stroll out there. Can be brilliant and also extremely frustrating.

It may be as you suggest jowner, but I prefer to remember him at Arsenal v City at Eastlands the season before last just doing whatever he wanted, he was the best striker I'd seen there since Arsenal beat us 5-0 (and our keeper had a blinder) when we clapped Thierry Henry and co off the pitch.

There's plenty of City fans with their knives only just back into their sheaths for Hughes. The transfers are loudly applauded, people are waiting for a CH or two, but the interest is how much input Hughes had into the targeting and whether he can deal with the egos. But as much as I'd like to see City fans lose their 'pity me' and pessimistic air, I wouldn't want to see them move into the mode of every draw brings out the white handkerchiefs.

A result in a friendly is not news in and of itself, although the reappearance of Tomas Rosicky was a surprise. I thought he was dead. (Kidding. Slightly.)

And Mr. Terry may still be moving to City, Chamakh is pooh-poohing his Arsenal move, and Hull may be enlivened by the fashion-sense of one Andriy Voronin.

IMAGE(http://www.studs-up.com/comics/2009-07-20.jpg)

I laughed

the comics are pretty hit and miss.

http://www.studs-up.com/2009/06/yeee...

liked this one

Arshavin one but not exactly what you asking for Dave

http://www.studs-up.com/2009/06/gold...