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Football: A Dream of Defenders


The Iceman of the North

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The BBC's live deadline day text updates can get pretty ridiculous. Someone tweeted them to say "Family friend who works at Madrid airport has just seen Torres. Possible loan to his former club?". Maybe he's in Madrid because he's meeting up with the Spain squad? :bang:

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They worked hard to get him ready for United, not City. If you put work into something, you hope to see a reward for your time spent. United have invested years in Hargreaves for nothing...could be City's gain. The last club they'd want it to pay off.

Surely the ire of the medical staff would be aimed at those who didn't offer Hargraves a new contract. Kudos to United to stick with Hargreaves and help him back to fitness, but once they let him go, some dude from Calgary should have no loyalty to a club he only been in for a few years. If there are any clubs he should be loyal to (as in avoid bitter rivals) it's Foothills (hardly relevant) and Bayern München. To demand that players should avoid the rivals of any odd club they have ever played for is ridiculous the way the world is today.

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Not familiar with Andre Santos.

From what I've read, it appears he scored in approx. 1 every 5 games for Fenerbahce, which is a stunning record for a defender. Interesting to see how he and Sagna work together.

Let's hope for them the korean Cho is not their only striker, 25 goals in 91 games in the French liga are not great numbers for an Arsenal level striker. I think Gervinho is a mediocre signing as well btw.

I believed Cho was a replacement for outbound Bendtner, and I still think he'll move before the day's done. Arsenal don't need another attacker, the 4-5-1 formation Wenger has used in recent years works. He just needs more midfielders to support Van Persie, who I hope will stay fit. Gervinho and Chamakh as backup to RVP should work fine for me. Basically, I'd rather see the money spent on midfield where it's needed, rather than on more backup players.

For what it's worth, Twitter is shooting down the Honda to Arsenal rumours, saying he's on a flight to Paris. Ideally I'd love to see he and Dempsey sign today, but I think that's doubtful. Can't believe Fulham signed Ruiz, he's the type of player Arsenal should be trying to sign.

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Can't believe Fulham signed Ruiz, he's the type of player Arsenal should be trying to sign.

Agreed. Though Honda is the same sort of player, so if they should get him I could see why they would pass on a gifted player like Ruiz.

Blackwolf

I'm of the opinion Arsenal does need more strikers, because I don't think van Persie is upto it as the sole striker. I'm sure he himself thinks so, but I think he would be be better if he had someone ( say a Zlatan type player) next to him to divert some attention. Not to say good midfielders are not necessary, but I would think more back-up in the first 11 would be useful.

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I'm of the opinion Arsenal does need more strikers, because I don't think van Persie is upto it as the sole striker.

He scored 19 goals in 25 games last season and 9 in 16 the season before, including sub appearances. And seven assists both times. He's plenty up to it when he's fit, but that's the issue, isn't it?

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Agreed. Though Honda is the same sort of player, so if they should get him I could see why they would pass on a gifted player like Ruiz.

Blackwolf

I'm of the opinion Arsenal does need more strikers, because I don't think van Persie is upto it as the sole striker. I'm sure he himself thinks so, but I think he would be be better if he had someone ( say a Zlatan type player) next to him to divert some attention. Not to say good midfielders are not necessary, but I would think more back-up in the first 11 would be useful.

Van Persie is top class, best scoring rate in the league over the past couple of years. It's just he doesn't stay fit long...but he's definitely good enough to play up front on his own, in fact he seems to thrive on it.

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Sunderland, Blackburn and Stoke have all knocked back the chance to sign Giorgios Samaras. A clever bit of business from all managers concerned. Lennon will have to pay someone to take him.

He supposedly turned down a move to St. Etienne yesterday and is determined to stay at our club. Bastard won't leave!

ETA: Oh, and Rennes made an enquiry but it was knocked back.

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I hope Lille are covering a large portion of Cole's wages. If we do complete deals for Poulsen and Ngog then we will have done a nice job of trimming some of the excess from the squad: Jovanovic, Insua, Kyrgiakos, Ayala, Konchesky, Aquilani (a pity, but if doesn't want to be here, then no point in hanging on), and various reserve team players.

Coates (pronounced cwua-AH-tes, I think) sounds like a very good player for us: a young, ball-playing center back who has played in a strong club team and who has the physical presence to be strong in the air. But we'll have to see how well he actually does.

If Ngog does go to Bolton, then I think we'll need a back-up striker, especially with Pacheco out on loan.

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Van Persie is top class, best scoring rate in the league over the past couple of years.

Really? I thought RvP scored a lot in the second half of last season, many goals in a small number of games. But the best rate for years in a row? Any figures to back that up? That would be a great surprise to me.

Anyway, I certainly don't agree that he thrives upon playing as sole striker. I think he's better with a good partner, going back to what I saw at Arsenal a few years ago. Agreed to disagree.

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Anyway, I certainly don't agree that he thrives upon playing as sole striker. I think he's better with a good partner

I agree with you. He's good as a lone striker but the way Arsenal have been playing isolates him thus meaning he has to drop back into midfield or drift out wide to get the ball which gives the useless situation of him crossing the ball into Arshavin who is marked by the entire back four. It certainly doesn't help when Arsenal's best header of the ball is taking set-pieces either.

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From what I've read, it appears he scored in approx. 1 every 5 games for Fenerbahce, which is a stunning record for a defender. Interesting to see how he and Sagna work together.

I never watched any of his games for Fenerbahce, but playing for Brazil he has been absolute crap. He always sucked defensively, but he used to be fairly good going forward (when he was playing in Brazil anyway). Thankfully, he was dropped from Brazil.

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Arsenal are in talks to sign Arteta, supposedly. I don't know...doesn't seem like the best move for the Gunners. He's almost 30 now.

Maybe I have misgivings because I signed him for Athletic Bilbao in FM and he was a big waste of money. :P

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Arsenal are in talks to sign Arteta, supposedly. I don't know...doesn't seem like the best move for the Gunners. He's almost 30 now.

It'll be great for Arsenal! He can take Fabregas's spot on the injury table, and it will be like nothing changed. ^_^

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Arsenal are in talks to sign Arteta, supposedly. I don't know...doesn't seem like the best move for the Gunners. He's almost 30 now.

Maybe I have misgivings because I signed him for Athletic Bilbao in FM and he was a big waste of money. :P

You're probably still bitter about that last minute penalty he scored against Dunfermline which deprived Celtic of the the league title.

I think Arteta will be a good player for Arsenal but it seems a bit like a round peg in a square hole. Maybe in January Wenger will make a move for someone else.

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Arteta is a perfect fit for Arsenal's style, it's just that when you're selling Fabregas and Nasri and buying him you're giving up. Except that the deal is now dead in the water and Arsenal are now turning their attentions to Benayoun, which, no offence to Yossi who I like as a player is a bit tragic. This time yesterday they were linked with Hazard ffs!

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