The Ongoing Serie A, La Liga, All English Football, Champions League Thread - - - - - - - Part 16

[Van Petrol]

Originally Posted by Hunter Rider

Thanks for the info man, I thought there must be some story to it. It does seem like a good choice of club for Pep and also like a club where he can hones his craft further before moving to the prem as he waits for the two old stagers to retire.

I have the feeling it's sort of a filler move until the opportunity comes for him to get the move he really wants. Bayern are already an excellent footballing team, and I reckon he'll only need 2-3 possible signings at most. It'll be interesting to see if he implements the 'tiki-taka' style there and how they take to it.

I could see it, I wonder if Pep and Mourinho are destined to be the next United and Arsenal managers and are biding their time.

I've resigned myself to the fact that we will not replace Wenger when the time comes with an elite manager, but rather with an unknown and/or unproven entity, or someone internally.

So he has signed for the rest of the season and next? That seems like merely putting off the inevitable, unless Walcott has found that there aren't has many hot to sign him as he thought.

Nah, he's signed a 3 and a half year deal. He's probably had a change of heart as his potential suitors seemingly had no intention of giving him the CF/ST role he so deeply craves. I'm just annoyed that we allowed, of all players, Flash Gump to bend us over and kneel to his and his entourage's demands, while allowing so many 'better' players to leave without a fight before him. It also annoys me that this dweeb is now the highest paid player at the club, when on current status if anyone should be, it's Wilshere.

I just hope we will still be looking for quality attacking additions rather than just making do with this guy now.

[Van Petrol]

Just for fun, who's on your wishlist for your respected club?...

Here's mine:

Mats Hummels
Mario Götze
Edinson Cavani

[RKO]

Falcao
Arturo Vidal

[B]

Originally Posted by Van Petrol

Just for fun, who's on your wishlist for your respected club?...

Here's mine:

Mats Hummels
Mario Götze
Edinson Cavani

Realistically:-

James Rodriguez or Douglas Costa
Kevin Strootman
Luka Modric

Unrealistically:-

Cristiano Ronaldo
Jack Wilshere
Manuel Neuer

Pretty much anyone that can help improve our midfield although to be fair, Anderson, Cleverley & Carrick have all looked good when they've played this season.. however I always can't help but think if we play any team with a strong passing midfield like Arsenal or Barcelona we can often find ourselves wanting in the middle of the park.

[bapi]

If I have to be realistic:

Koke
Deulofeu
Muriel

[Iceman]

Newcastle lose again! (at home to Reading)

[ttotheusher]

Originally Posted by Van Petrol

Just for fun, who's on your wishlist for your respected club?...

For United,

Wanyama/Strootman
A couple of wingers (preferably left)

[Hunter Rider]

Originally Posted by Van Petrol

I have the feeling it's sort of a filler move until the opportunity comes for him to get the move he really wants. Bayern are already an excellent footballing team, and I reckon he'll only need 2-3 possible signings at most. It'll be interesting to see if he implements the 'tiki-taka' style there and how they take to it.

Bayern are well structured and efficiently run, I think they are an ideal club for him to broaden his managerial career and will work as a bridge between La Liga and The Prem.

Originally Posted by Van Petrol

Just for fun, who's on your wishlist for your respected club?...

Here's mine:

Mats Hummels
Mario Götze
Edinson Cavani

Ronaldo
Gundogan
Vidal

[kit1982]

Originally Posted by Van Petrol

Just for fun, who's on your wishlist for your respected club?...

Here's mine:

Mats Hummels
Mario Götze
Edinson Cavani

Steve Morison
Graham Dorrans
Clint Hill
Darren Ferguson (Warnock out!)

[Hunter Rider]

That second half between Chelsea and Arsenal was entertaining, didn't see it coming given how completely Chelsea dominated the first half. Surely Ba starts the next game?

Not happy about Jones starting for us in midfield, he can be a headless chicken in there.

[Darthphere]

Originally Posted by Hunter Rider

That second half between Chelsea and Arsenal was entertaining, didn't see it coming given how completely Chelsea dominated the first half. Surely Ba starts the next game?

Not happy about Jones starting for us in midfield, he can be a headless chicken in there.

We don't have a single natural winger starting. It'll be 2-0 Spurs by the half.

[the_ultimate_evil]

****ing morons, united messed around far to much in the second half. spurs deserved the point.

it just annoys me when united just let teams control the pace

[Darthphere]

He doesn't deserve the blame for the draw but once again, De Gea can't defend crosses for ****. Spurs deserved the point for their second half performance but man, can someone get De Gea a sandwich?

[Hunter Rider]

Spurs deserved their point as they were well on top in the second half. We lacked any real cutting edge and pretty much sank too deep as the game went on, with only one player that can run with the ball and dubious delivery in the final 3rd we never even had a shot on goal in the 2nd half, we should have had a penalty but there are bigger concerns with the performance IMO.

De Gea will be in the spotlight again, he actually made some good saves but should have held on to that last one, I also worry about Valencia, as soon as he came on we lost even the small amount of fluidity we had.

[the_ultimate_evil]

united had a legit penalty claim on rooney but honestly after the one mid week against west ham i think it'll be a while before united get one

[Van Petrol]

Intersting picks guys.

@B: I wouldn't necessarily class Wilshere as a totally unrealistic target. If we carry on as we are and continue to regress, I wouldn't be surprised to see him auctioned off later on.


As for Arsenal today...oh gosh not that crap again..

[B]

Thought we were very poor today, couldn't hold onto the ball for extended periods or time & as a result it drove us deeper & deeper into our own half. That game was a mirror opposite of the Old Trafford game. Spurs deserved at least a point & had they been more clinical they could have comfortably beat us by 2 or 3 goals.

On the plus side we did take a point from a game we played badly, De Gea had a solid game but his punch at the death was a very poor punch. Really my feeling is if a keeper is going to punch the ball he needs to really punch it & go through anyone in his way to send it out of danger. Defensively we were more resilient than a brick wall as Spurs did manage to still create some decent chances.. we should have been better at exploiting counter attacking opportunities.

Originally Posted by Van Petrol

Intersting picks guys.

@B: I wouldn't necessarily class Wilshere as a totally unrealistic target. If we carry on as we are and continue to regress, I wouldn't be surprised to see him auctioned off later on.

As for Arsenal today...oh gosh not that crap again..

Providing he is in the Arsenal team, remains injury free & carries on improving the future should be bright for Arsenal. Letting the likes of Adebayor, RVP, Toure, Clichy etc goto Premiership rivals is bad, however if Arsenal sold Wilshere to Manchester United, City or any other Premiership team it would trump the lot. Cazorla is a great midfielder, but given Wilshere's workrate, defensive capabilities & leadership qualities I think he's above even Cazorla who isn't exactly a regular Joe midfielder.

[wobbly]

Originally Posted by Hunter Rider

That second half between Chelsea and Arsenal was entertaining, didn't see it coming given how completely Chelsea dominated the first half. Surely Ba starts the next game?

You would think so, but I was utterly stunned that even Rafa gave him the nod again today. Maybe Roman liked his haircut so much he just had to see it in action. Well, see it at any rate. Wouldn't call much of what Torres did action at all (unless we count his falling down, giving the ball away, which led to Arsenal's goal...)

It's ridiculous...they have brought in a striker who has looked more effective in just a few games than Torres has for most of the season, but now that do they have that better option, Torres still gets the nod against one of our biggest rivals. Just as well we held on for the win, the fans would have gone ballistic if they threw it away again.

And I wasn't surprised that Arsenal dominated the 2nd half. That's par for the course with Rafa if we have the lead at half time.

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by Hunter Rider

Bayern are well structured and efficiently run, I think they are an ideal club for him to broaden his managerial career and will work as a bridge between La Liga and The Prem.

He's definitely young enough for plans like this to be a likely possibility. Wonder which Prem club he would choose. At Bayern we'll get a chance to see how good a manager he really is. Good luck to him anyhow.

[ttotheusher]

Pretty disheartening result yesterday, hopefully it doesn't affect the mentality of the squad much.

I'm going to the FA Cup match against Fulham at the weekend for my birthday, hopefully it's a better result/more entertaining match then!

[spidey-dude]

good to see sturridge hit the ground running for us, and he has a good chance to make it 4 in 4 on the weekend, he is getting in places to poach goals, something I would argue we havent had a player doing since owen, he can turn on a 6 pence, and the understandng he alreay seems to have with Suarez is great, loved the way he let the ball run through him for Luis's goal

I actually missed our game as I went to the Watford match, which was a great game, Zola has them playing some really nice football at times, their fourth goal especially was a great display in footballing technique, could definately see them getting to the play offs this year, and possibly actually promotion

[Van Petrol]

Originally Posted by B

Providing he is in the Arsenal team, remains injury free & carries on improving the future should be bright for Arsenal. Letting the likes of Adebayor, RVP, Toure, Clichy etc goto Premiership rivals is bad, however if Arsenal sold Wilshere to Manchester United, City or any other Premiership team it would trump the lot. Cazorla is a great midfielder, but given Wilshere's workrate, defensive capabilities & leadership qualities I think he's above even Cazorla who isn't exactly a regular Joe midfielder.

We'll see. I'm not too optimistic these days where Arsenal are concerned. You can see almost every time he is on the pitch, he's trying his hardest and his best to rally the other's together, but it is mostly to no avail.

[Dr. Evil]

Frank Lampard to replace David Beckham in Los Angeles:

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/69/tr...xy-a-done-deal

[Darthphere]

Juninho is coming back too. That midfield is going to be a force. Also, Donovan is coming back but not right away.

[Hunter Rider]

Originally Posted by wobbly

You would think so, but I was utterly stunned that even Rafa gave him the nod again today. Maybe Roman liked his haircut so much he just had to see it in action. Well, see it at any rate. Wouldn't call much of what Torres did action at all (unless we count his falling down, giving the ball away, which led to Arsenal's goal...)

It's ridiculous...they have brought in a striker who has looked more effective in just a few games than Torres has for most of the season, but now that do they have that better option, Torres still gets the nod against one of our biggest rivals. Just as well we held on for the win, the fans would have gone ballistic if they threw it away again.

And I wasn't surprised that Arsenal dominated the 2nd half. That's par for the course with Rafa if we have the lead at half time.

Do you think the fans have taken to Ba as strongly as the response indicated on Sunday, or do you think the response was amplified by the fact the fans have ran out of patience with Torres?

I think Benitez is struggling to balance playing the type of football Roman wants and the type he prefers.

Originally Posted by Iceman

He's definitely young enough for plans like this to be a likely possibility. Wonder which Prem club he would choose. At Bayern we'll get a chance to see how good a manager he really is. Good luck to him anyhow.

It's going to be interesting to see, I don't think he'll try to transplant the Barca style as that is bred into the bulk of their team as kids, instead he's going to have to bring what he knows and evolve.