"and can slot in at right-back if required" - close season transfer banter 2014

Wow, £2.5m - I didn't expect us to be getting anything for him tbh. Would've been more than happy with £1m plus Neuer and Shaqiri.

I imagine the £2.5m goes straight into Pepe's pocket, but still

Will consider it IK :)

there couldn't be two swap deals in the same window, could there?
http://static.squarespace.com/static/53c8ed1be4b0207d2956000a/t/53e271e6e4b06c02ea6b0dd9/1407349222832/image.jpg?format=300w

How reliable is the mirror anyway? I've read the same thing, like 10m and Chadli our way? Miserable deal for us ffs

It would mean a huge salary cut for Chadli too, no idea why he'd be interested

Spurs in the lead for signing Deandre Yedlin according to the usa soccersphere.

Defour possibly going to PSV too.

Depay deal is going to be really exciting until LvG suddenly decides he fancies it and the whole thing falls apart.

We've been trying to get Defour for bloody ages now, not a done deal by any means. His rights are owned partly by Porto, investment company Doyen (which is getting a tighter grip on football with every passing year) and yet some other investment company. Very difficult to get three parties to agree on one deal.

Van Gaal has openly given Depay the advice to stay at PSV for one more year. Seeing their obvious special relationship, and Depay being a relatively leveled guy, I could see him waiting it out. Otoh there's so many clubs tugging at his sleeve w/ big pay checks too, not sure what he'll do.

I do know Chadli will be of little use to us. And Spurs fans: would Depay be an instant starting XI player for you?

Yeah, we don't have a proper left winger other than Chadli, unless we're going to play Lamela there, or waste Eriksen in that position.

Eriksen on left wing would be foolish imo. But I didn't know you didn't have another left winger.

Chadli, when he played, wasn't THAT bad for youse though was he? I mean, not being called a cunt by Deems bad?

on average more anonymous than actively bad

ya. more effective as a goalscorer than he was at p much anything else, but not hugely so or anything. good hull player.

2013– 	Tottenham Hotspur 	24 	(1)

3 1 6 3 34 5

2010–11[91] 	Premier League 	35 	6 	6 	3 	3 	0 	— 	44 	9

yeah but fuck off, huth played in the centre

Former Manchester United player Ravel Morrison has been charged with threatening to throw acid in his ex-girlfriend’s face, blow up her house and ‘have her killed’, a court heard today.

The Premier League footballer, who now plays for West Ham United, appeared before a district judge at Manchester magistrates court today charged with two counts of common assault.

They relate to his ex-girlfriend Reah Mansoor, 19, and her mother, 39-year-old Parveen Mansoor.

An additional charge of harassment in relation to Reah Mansoor was added to the indictment during a brief court hearing this morning.

sounds more like things are starting to unravel for him

bit out of nowhere:

Taylor Twellman @TaylorTwellman · 21h
Hearing Spurs have jumped ahead of everyone else in Yedlin sweepstakes. He'd stay in Seattle for 2014 before joining Tottenham.

Would he not need to have played substantially more games for the US to get a work permit?

Kasey Keller's already popped up and gone "yeah don't do it, you won't get a game".

bennett, luna, richardson.... aly cissokho 4 year deal ✓

Celtic have been reinstated to the CL because Legia fielded an ineligible player

lol

them four minutes of playing time really shifted the balance of the tie

I believe it's covered by the the butterfly effect rule

from the BBC

Thomas Vermaelen: Arsenal agree £15m fee with Barcelona

Arsenal have agreed a fee of around £15m with Barcelona for the sale of captain Thomas Vermaelen.

The 28-year-old Belgium centre-back must now agree personal terms and pass a medical.

Vermaelen was a target for Manchester United but they ended their interest after refusing Arsenal's demand to receive a player as part of the deal.

The move to Barcelona is likely to be completed this weekend.

More to follow.

wtf are they doing at the back?

On the one hand this is good (good fee, we don't sell another captain to United, he gets a fresh start) but then it could also mean United might sign someone who's actually good/not positionally suspect.

vermaelen fine in a back line that suits him tho

ie not United.

poor Iker

https://vine.co/v/M9YVapLIYWL

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BuhbZ7BIEAATuqt.png

Can see why they didn't let Les do the handshakes before, tbh.

Poch is doing interviews without his interpreter now, too. It's all so strange...

it's fun thinking about the fact that spurs went to the trouble of contractually obliging poch to tawk pwopa

arsene personally deserves half that 15m for keeping a heroic poker face about the whole thing these last few weeks imho

Afellay to Olympiacos. Rip.

Coutinho :o

https://vine.co/v/MVxzDPipDWM

Leicester City boss Nigel Pearson has confirmed his interest in Argentina midfielder Esteban Cambiasso, but is furious the story has been leaked.

Pearson told BBC Radio Leicester: "I am not going to say no, because we have [been interested].

"But what's disappointing is that some clown somewhere down the line has leaked information that is sensitive.

"We like to try to do business in the right way and make sure all parties interests are looked after for the right reason.

"But for some reason, some balloon head has decided to leak it."

can we convene a balloon head symposium regarding what we're calling the epl thread this year btw

southampton won't win the premiership?

Arsenal: Szczesny, Debuchy, Koscielny, Chambers, Gibbs, Arteta, Wilshere, Ramsey, Alexis, Cazorla, Sanogo
City: Caballero, Clichy, Boyata, Nastasic, Kolarov, Navas, Fernando, Toure, Nasri, Jovetic, Dzeko

no finer way to raise the epl curtain than sanago v boyata in a hurricane

Legia Warsaw challenge Celtic to one-off Champions League rematch http://t.co/6HokYSnsvz

soton won't win EPL seconded imo

was there a charity shield thread? i was working. the giroud goal was fabulous. how did chambers fare at centre half? i guess he is vermaelans replacement and that seems bloody risky

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/the-kid-that-had-it-all-278965.html

very interesting interview with liam brady about youth development. he goes pretty hard on frimpong* (currently clubless) for caring more about being twitter famous than actually fighting for a place. also i'm very interested in this: "Luke Freeman? Gillingham needed a bit of money, Arsenal came in and said we’ll have a bit of a gamble on this lad and the press went ‘Arsenal sign young superstar from Gillingham’." - this seems a dodgy statement however you look at it.

*he doesn't say his name but its just after he was asked about him and other players and he gets the others out of the way and then talks about social media a lot.

I was at the game and Chambers was excellent - was between him and Ramsey for motm imo (not Giroud like it was hilariously given to, tho his goal was great). He's been playing there a lot in preseason and he looks very very assured, calm on the ball and he's much bigger than I realised in person as well, has a real presence which is pretty impressive for a 19 year old. Wenger says they should be getting at least one more player in though, but seems like Verms replacement might be more of a dm/cb/utility man combo box.

Anyway, that was a great game but then I would say that. Quality goals, Santi and Ramsey can't stop scoring at Wembley, winning is a good habit. And if Man City's team was weaker we still had Sanogo up front for 45, a 19 year old in defence and Monreal at CB for half the game too. So really if City are supposed to have such a good squad that shouldn't be a problem. Looks like Wilshere is the one who drops out of the best XI when Ozil comes back though... bench is suddenly looking quite packed, with Walcott to come back as well. Although I'm sure injuries will take care of that in due course.

Even since leaving the job though, the eye never switches off. Watching the first Brazil-Croatia game at the World Cup in the RTÉ studio, Brady’s fingers itched to text Wenger. He couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel room to get on the internet and check out Ivan Rakitic, Croatia’s holding midfielder. Another find. “I went straight onto Google, and there you are, he’s already promised to Barcelona... Anyway, I’ve had 18 years of that, and I want to get away from it all."