FOOTBALL XLIV - Mansours, Khelaifis, and Rybolovlevs,... oh my!

[Alex.]

Henrik Larsson returns!! Also, Raheem Sterling excels himself and some terrific Alex Ferguson merchandise up for grabs, if anyone's bored at work of a Friday afternoon...

Poor Melody Rose Sterling :( Feel for the poor kid!

Edit: As it's Shaun Goater Day in Bermuda, this is

. In reality though, Benarbia is the star here

[Alex.]

I wanted douglas.

motherfucker.

A quick Google search and trip to YouTube would have taught crazy Joe about this kid.

I see him transferring out all the players whose names he cannot be bothered to learn to pronounce and fill the side with bramble, bent and other washed up English players.

Well there's all the chat about him getting rid of Ben Arfa this morning. If he does sell him then the men in white coats should be called to attend to Kinnear as fast as possible.

^^Apologies if that was mentioned earlier.

[polishgenius]

Well there's all the chat about him getting rid of Ben Arfa this morning.

That's just... what. WHAT.

[kairparavel]

Nono, you mean Ben Afri.

[Calibandar]

Anyone else feel that Cavani is overrated? I have this feeling that buying him for 60 million, whatever team that does it, is going to be a mishit of Torres-like proportions ( Torres looked pretty fast last night btw against those Tahiti defenders, I though his speed had gone down but clearly not.)

I get that Cavani has proven himself with Napels in the last two seasons. But whenever I see him play he looks very static and just not as good as for instance Suarez, or Lewandowski, or Falcao. With Falcao off the market, and Dortmund having proclaimed a resounding "NO" once again on any idea of a Lewandowski deal this summer, that does not leave teams like Chelsea, Madrid, City and PSG with much to choose from in terms of big name strikers. Personally I'd sooner for go for Gomez than Cavani, if of course Gomez can still leave Munich now. Between Falcao and Cavani, I think Falcao would have been the one to go for.

[baxus]

Looks like Alcantara has agreed terms with United. very jealous of that signing if it's true. He's a wonderful player and will improve United no end.

i haven't seen much of alcantara, but from what i have seen, that's a signing everyone should be jealous of.

Also, these Higuain to Arsenal stories seem to be everywhere now. I'll still be quite shocked if it actually happens. Haven't seen him play in ages though.

higuain is a beast!

the guy has been playing a second fiddle to ronaldo (at best) for years now and has still managed to score about 0.5 goals per match.

if he can adapt to premiership, he will be one hell of a signing and could be the one to make arsenal fans forget about van persie.

Well there's all the chat about him getting rid of Ben Arfa this morning. If he does sell him then the men in white coats should be called to attend to Kinnear as fast as possible.

it's sad to see how easily and quickly someone can turn all the hard work done in newcastle over the past couple of seasons to utter shit.

[polishgenius]

higuain is a beast!

the guy has been playing a second fiddle to ronaldo (at best) for years now and has still managed to score about 0.5 goals per match.

if he can adapt to premiership, he will be one hell of a signing and could be the one to make arsenal fans forget about van persie.

I've heard that he's got both the best shots-to-goals and the best goals-to-minutes ratio of anyone in La Liga over the last two-three seasons. I don't know if that's quite true but his stats are certainly impressive.

His problem is that he's a bit limited otherwise, but for Arsenal with all their creatives I can't see that being a problem.

I'm happy if we get Alcantara ahead of Fabregas, not coz he's a better player (he obviously isn't yet, though he might become so) but because he looks like an actual midfielder, unlike Fabregas who's pretty much a number 10 who's signing would only make sense if we do sell Rooney and even then might not be regarded as strictly necessary (Kagawa can do it, after all, or just play RvP and Hernandez up front).

Aston Villa are getting busy this summer. I don't know anything about most of those though I've heard of a couple, but

And Okore is supposed to have fallen asleep during his medical. Specifically, during the MRI scan. Which is impressive, coz those things are noisy.

[Hereward]

This must be some kind of performance art. The report also notes that they're renaming the Shearer Bar. I fully expect a shit-filled Keegan effigy to be savagely beaten with sticks by dwarves just before kick-off on the opening day of the season.

[Real Heir of Bear Island]

Anyone else feel that Cavani is overrated? I have this feeling that buying him for 60 million, whatever team that does it, is going to be a mishit of Torres-like proportions ( Torres looked pretty fast last night btw against those Tahiti defenders, I though his speed had gone down but clearly not.)

I get that Cavani has proven himself with Napels in the last two seasons. But whenever I see him play he looks very static and just not as good as for instance Suarez, or Lewandowski, or Falcao. With Falcao off the market, and Dortmund having proclaimed a resounding "NO" once again on any idea of a Lewandowski deal this summer, that does not leave teams like Chelsea, Madrid, City and PSG with much to choose from in terms of big name strikers. Personally I'd sooner for go for Gomez than Cavani, if of course Gomez can still leave Munich now. Between Falcao and Cavani, I think Falcao would have been the one to go for.

Cavani can score buckets of goal when in form. He is big, fast and is as good with his head as he is finishing clinically. He can hold up play with his size and can even dribble a bit. 60 Mil is outrageous for anybody, but he was the top scorer in Serie A, a defensive league and has been top three for a while.

With all that being said, Napoli, as much as I like them, is not a big club. They have some great talent, bit ultimaltley the whole team plays to get the ball to Cavani. He may end up flopping in a bigger team with superstars on it who all want to score goals.

[BigFatCoward]

If Graham Carr also leaves that could be the most significant transfer of the whole window in England. Because some team's going to snap him up in seconds and he's clearly very, very good at his job.

fucking right, he has been our most valuable asset for a very long time.

i don't get why mike ashley, who despite being a fat fuck has shown himself to be business savvy is allowing this to happen. how much has he personally lost so far with the decrease in value of his shares following this appointment. jesus, douglas on a free transfer is such a no brainer.

[Alex.]

The report also notes that they're renaming the Shearer Bar.

Is there some sort of online petition I can sign to get it renamed "Kinnear's"?

[MercenaryChef]

Keep hatem!!!

Please

[kairparavel]

That's what happens when you criticize Ashley. Even if you are the franchise star.

[Alex.]

Ladies and Gents, I give you the hero of our story - Mike Ashley:

http://www.nufcblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/mike-ashley-360.jpg

Drink it in. Swill it around for awhile. Savour it.

Sexy, sexy man.

[Alex.]

I hope that's Joe Kinnear's womanly hand rubbing his chest top left.

Hypnotic stuff.

[Horus Ex Machina]

Steven Lenhart's hair.

Not anymore.

[Inigima]

The man isn't bald, and I'm not choosy about what else on him gets burned.

[Top Notch Balanter]

Decent enough transfer business for Liverpool with the Luis Alberto deal done and Mignolet fee agreed albeit for a couple of million more than i hoped. With Aspas and Toure already on the way and the Henrikh Mkhitaryan transfer supposedly waiting on clearing things up with a third party group i'm pretty happy with Rodger's deals. I expect Suarez to leave but hopefully we can manage to take either Madrid or Bayern to the cleaners and get big money and a striker as part of the deal. We'll need another defender and if somehow pull off a deal for Christian Eriksen i will be very happy

[Calibandar]

Hard to say what these acquisitions are worth in my opinion. I've never seen Luis Alberto play, he might be another Borini/Aquilani. Never seen Mkhitaryan play. Toure is a decent buy, never heard of Aspas. Mignolet, I found the 13 million euro transfer price pretty hefty, I assume he is coming because Liverpool expects Reina to leave? Surely he's not coming to fill the bench for that price right?

I think it's critical for Liverpool's chances that they keep Suarez. Massively important. But if Suarez wants to go per se ( however horrible his reasons are) then you'd hope Liverpool manage to get at least two very good players in return for what must be a very, very sizable transfer price.

[polishgenius]

I think Liverpool would be better off getting a goalscoring right-sided player than a proper striker to replace Suarez. Their current setup seems more suited to a three-man midfield already, even without this Mkhitaryan fella who scored 25 goals in 28 games in the league last season from midfield and therefore seems more than suited to playing as the furtherst forward in that 3. Have Gerrard (though they will need to be thinking about replacements there) alongside Lucas with Mkhitaryan in front, Coutinho on the left- you just need someone who'll grab their fair share of goals from the right to cover yourself.

Obviously it's a gamble with bloody hell his name is hard to type, because there's a big difference between Ukraine and the Premiership and the fact that he scored none in Europe would be a concern. But getting another 'name' striker in risks either a misbalanced midfield or squad conflicts, and benching Sturridge would be very harsh.