"We've momentum and we can't afford to lose it tbh"- The '13-'14 summer transfer window thread for PL and beyond

the ghana/nigeria african cup of nations quarter final in accra in 2008 was the most riotous high level international fitba game i can remember

I still don't understand why those elite players' response to a card-happy ref was to ramp everything up to eleven, but in retrospect I'm glad they did.

because football players are from the lowest economic class and they lack the intelligence and cultivation to behave responsibly, have you not read a single geir post

tbh thats prob a direct dunphyism no?

just think what the future will be like when kinesthetic spectacle has reached the level achieved by the beatles within the sphere of music

Him & Boulahrouz chuckling ruefully over their red cards has become a fond memory

Wasn't it him and van Bronckhorst?

You know I think you're right *hangs head*

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/6475/znoi.jpg

rip you ledge, remember him this way, etc

oh man the whole game's up on youtube

90M Bale to be replaced by 30M Lamela, who's to be replaced by 12M Ljajic. Difference in talent massively dwarfed by difference in cost.

yeah

ljajic has a year left on his contract tho i think

yes, and maybe some clubs don't want him cause he seems to fall out with lots of people. will take over osvaldo's role in that respect for roma.

proving is important for dough and footballers

GET INVOLVED

Some thoughts on some players who need to move clubs in this transfer window to save their careers.

Oluwasola Oloruntobi: I'm a Nigerian and I can't watch a Chelsea match when Mikel is not playing. He needs to leave Chelsea to save his career.

stfu olawasola

Lol seriously why would Chelsea crash the Willian deal only to then let Spurs have Mata?

Lamela is potentially our most exciting signing of the summer but we look very over-reliant on Soldado staying fit and in form - assuming Adebayor continues last season's form and Defoe continues to be used as an impact sub.

am i permanently missing something wrt jd or was he not actually very good last season

he was until idk february or so, then didnt score forever

also for some reason, for jd to remain solitary and uninvolved upfront and remain first choice is an impossibility, so we had to go out and spend 26m on soldado to do just that

tho he does take better penalties tbf

when the whole team lost form post-sandro you mean xxp

i thought jd changed his game and involved himself quite impressively

idk he's v good at what he does and isn't even that limited a player compared to some... really doesn't deserve to get tarred with the "wahhh darren bent won't play false 9" brush imo

jd changed his game in order to get involved three years back, became a far less interesting and dangerous player imo. lost pace and began to make conscious decisions to engage with centre halves instead of beating them. curious.

Defoe was unstoppable for the first half of the season, until his injury pretty much. By the time he was fully fit and playing again you could see his desperation to score and he was just shooting speculatively from all sorts of stupid places. He played the lone striker role better than I'd ever expected him to and contrary to received wisdom does actually drop deep and pick the ball up, he's not exactly Darren Bent. Would still be surprised if we sell him in the next week.

In my idler moments I wonder whether Adebayor might be more effective in a deeper role behind Soldado - his approach play is usually good even when his finishing is atrocious.

xxxxp it is fair to say that he didn't seem to get a huge run of chances after that- do i recall an injury or something?

what is clear is that avb, as with other managers, was ideologically opposed to jd on his own up front and was only waiting for the opportunity to drop him in favour of adebayor, who at least looks like a 1

i think you're only thinking that matt cos he spent all his time as point man trying to play in cm, it wasn't suitability for a role so much as avoidance of one. if he were to be selected 'behind the striker' he'd probably do a reasonable impersonation of a left back

Liverpool supposed to be interested in unwanted Chelsea star ... Victor Moses

As are AC Milan if you believe the rumours.

Assaidi out, to Stoke

I think Mata'd be a good replacement tbh

No assaidi no downing howll ye cope

Pretty happy with this summer's business tbh. Another CB'd be nice but otherwise looking good imo.

You counting on suarez?

Not really. We'll be light if he does go, but not disastrously so - I'd venture that he should be replaced with top-drawer CB and DM. Obviously it'll be a big bonus if he stays, but we look like a pretty good team this year, it's hopefully not all about one guy.

Liverpool in for Moses? Jesus, what's got to happen before one of the top 5 or 6 teams decides that it'd be worth their while to purchase a defender or two?

I mean out of Chelsea, Utd, City, Spurs, Liverpool you've gotta be talking like 7 or 8 players per squad capable of playing in the "3" of a 4-2-3-1, yet all of them bar Utd are trying to run full domestic and European campaigns with only a handful of decent defenders. And Utd have barely got a midfield beyond Carrick. Bonkers

This might be Anderson's year.

But not kagawa's

Apparently Liverpool want to bring in a left winger. Rodgers said this at the weekend. There's money there for a big signing, unless you believe FSG were just pretending to try and sign Derek, Will.i.an etc, which I probably don't.

Agree another defender needed and possibly cover for Lucas. Toure looking good though.

The idea is that Toure's got the pace and positional sense to play high, unlike Skrtel, so play will be compressed vertically and everything gets squashed out to the wings, hence the sudden appetite for wingers & wing backs this summer.

Yeah that's all fair nuff, but when you've got £15 million of new wingers in the squad this season anyway, is Victor Moses really gonna be the gamechanger? Might also be a good idea to have another centre back with pace and positional sense in case Toure gets injured or fails a drugs test or whatever.

Not sure Aspas is any use, tho jury is out obviously.

spurs seem to be doing similar to liverpool defensively so I guess when they meet the ball will bounce around the center circle for 90 minutes

if we sold caulker for 8m what's townsend worth

The idea is that Toure's got the pace and positional sense to play high, unlike Skrtel, so play will be compressed vertically and everything gets squashed out to the wings, hence the sudden appetite for wingers & wing backs this summer.

― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 27 August 2013 14:22 (2 hours ago) Bookmark

enjoying yourself on rawk are u

tbh by the end of townsend's loan spell with us i was thinking he'd been kind of found out, attitude first rate but technique and versatility wanting, a richer man's jamie mackie

come out out the blocks this season like a man possessed by the fear of qpr/god though

still a joke england cap as is barkley's

thing is, a winger with pace and the willingness to run run run at epl defenders all game long is an asset still imo

and his technique isnt bad for an english lad like

On the limited evidence from this season he appears to have gone up another level. Giving him a cap is just weird seeing as I can't remember Hodgson having capped Lennon even once during the best period of his career.

i love azza but i can't remember him often having offered as much end product/threat as townsend has two games in a row.

welcome cover/challenger at any rate

Not even a case of cover at this stage, although I agree he deserves a run in the team. AVB will rotate positions further up the pitch in the same way he did with the defence last year, so both Lennon and Townsend will get plenty of play, even allowing for additional signings.

enjoying yourself on rawk are u

lol I pulled the rawk link from that post at the last moment. I spend all the rest of my day having to cite precedent, don't you start