Kenny Dalglish Won't Be Delivering the Module: English Premiership 2011-12

No but Masch didn't have 'trophies' as his #1 priority so much as 'flee a sinking ship'

Exciting news that QPR have signed the left-back who walked off laughing after playing in an 8-2 defeat on Sunday. I look forward to seeing Barton and Warnock committing GBH on him if he does that at Loftus Road.

yeah well that's why arsenal need barton and warnock

I presume Traore was laughing cos he already knew he was trading up

walked off laughing after playing in an 8-2 defeat on Sunday.

http://footballdirecta.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/wenger-interview-wigan.jpg?w=497&h=278
That is a sign of mental toughness

I enjoyed him kicking Almunia in the face:

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/10_03/Traore_468x454.jpg

xpost
kind of mean that actually, better than
http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/gallas%20cry.jpg

Pinefox - please do elaborate why

Wenger's job safe, say Arsenal amid health fears

more classy journalism from the Guardian. "surely he must be under stress right now..."=HEALTH FEARS. some seriously unscrupulous pricks editing that football page.

That is pretty fucking scandalous considering that nowhere in the article does it even allude to any 'health concerns'.

oh i missed the bit about "people at the club". I take it back, a well sourced article.

yeah i mean...for something like that i'd want a line from a person, even someone anonymous, specifically saying there are actual medical concerns over his health. it's totally from the same hymn sheet as the completely awful hargreaves "anxiety attack" story from last year, which they seem to have changed since it was published.

Wenger has offered £22m to Rennes for the France holding midfielder Yann M'Vila but the French club have told him he must pay £30m, which looks to have scuppered any deal.

this sounds quite inflated indeed. i don't know rennes transfer history that well but have they ever sold any players for this much? is m'vila even that good?

i'd guess they are holding out for £25m or something, just skimming a lil extra from a desparate customer

probably yeah but still a lot of money for a club that sold briand, gourcuff and källström (lol i know) for about €15m combined.

poulsen has signed for a discarded evian bottle

fair price

shit i misspelt desperate

i blame the mainstreamer

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/reds-agree-poulsen-transfer

is mertesacker any cop?

I agree with the condemnation of speculation over AW's health fears.

If he does indeed have such problems, then this would be a good time for people to stand back and get some perspective rather than add to the pressure which could (if the story has any basis) have serious or fatal consequences.

I don't like the hyena-pack treatment of Wenger.

why I think Murray bizarre:

- I don't like his idea that we are all constantly mediated through our 'phones' anyway (also hate it when footballers talk that way)

- it is bizarre to think that if you support a team, your life is full of abuse from others mocking you whenever that team loses. Piece of evidence for my claim: look at ILX itself - a very 'robust' environment, but not full of 'giving people stick' in that sense.

If anything I am more used to commiseration, people saying 'ah well, better luck next week / you had a few players out' etc.

- If people's famous phones are that important to their interaction with the rest of the world, wouldn't they prioritize that need for general social interaction over the minor irritation of text messages (?) from people mocking their team?

(it has just occurred to me that Murray may actually have meant people ringing others up to mock them? even more bizarre)

- if CM is saying that people abuse others through eg email or social networking sites, then wouldn't they be equally exposed to this when using computers, at work and at home? in which case why not say: 'Arsenal fans aren't turning their computers on'

- even if CM's premises have any value, the whole thing shows a massive lack of perspective. All kinds of really important information might come to you at any time; some people might want to turn their phones off cos they fear news of a bereavement, or need to turn them on cos they have a relative in Tripoli. People ribbing you about a soccer match is just not that important.

But I come back to the fact that I don't know anyone that does do that.

I watched my team lose 1-5 on TV on Sunday - it was dire, one of the worst results I've ever seen. But no one has written to me or called me to mock me about it - if they did I would think this was bizarre and crass behaviour. And I know that though in footy terms it's bad, in other terms it's not the most important thing in a world where all kinds of bad and sad things are happening to us all.

If United lose badly I typically get at least four or five people texting / phoning to mock me, usually starting before the match has even finished.

knobless obligay imo

i liked pf's analysis of cm's routine, but i do think it was a fair enough throwaway hyperbole of most football fans' experience. You'll get a text or two, it won't make you throw your phone away, it's mutually-accepted boorishness that is fairly common i'd have thought

Have an ongoing joke with a friend 'x is a hard ground to go to and come away with 3 points' whenever one of the teams drops points. Obv funnier when it's a crappy ground/team.

it's harder to make a pun with 5-1. whereas 8-2 puns just come in hives

(e.g. 8-2 say i told you so)

Tottenham looking to sell Crouch, Palacios, Hutton today

policy seems to be to recoup costs and cut wages

good policy, but not sure it's a good deadline-day strategy for improved results.

also odd as Hutton had good spell last season, and Palacios surely could come good again, seemed a good player

don't mind losing Crouch as never wanted him in the first place

why does no one ever come in for Pavluychenko? and if they did, would he be sold?

if Crouch goes, our strikers will be: Adebayor, Defoe, Pav ...

that's it?

vdv i suppose, coulibaly in a pinch.

Pav is significantly better than crouch but i think we accepted a 14m bid for him from anzhi makhakla this summer without personal terms being agreed.

I almost agree on palacios, i think a lot of our problems last year were down to redknapp not dropping tired/off-form players and i'd rather wilson coming in than many of the players we'll be left with. That said, his loss of form was startlingly prolonged.

I think Harry had a row with Hutton after he got sent off last year and hasn't played him since.

I'd expect Spurs to sign at least one striker.

tbh, i don't care why harry's getting rid of hutton. Ideally it's because he's recognised his complete lack of ability at this level, but just as long as he's off the team i'm happy

who is this Coulibaly?

I suppose we do have HARRY KANE.

VdV is talented but I don't trust him. He's not fit enough to stay the course, and when he's taken off he storms away - and after a couple of months he runs out of fuel and form anyway. It's no good.

our squad looks weaker than a year ago. but I still have some time for Parker and it seems he will arrive.

i'm beginning to worry about vdv along those lines myself, i had last year down as rustiness but he's already looked out of shape this year.

Coulibaly was the star of the u-17 world cup! Exciting times.

Coulibaly's an enormously talented Ivorian but he's sixteen years old and about five-foot-seven. Might be a bit much to expect him to step right in to the team.

We don't need Hutton, if we want an attacking fullback who's a possibly bit dodgy in defence we have Walker, if we want someone more solid then Corluka is still the man. If we have a couple of injuries and we're desperate we can play Kaboul there.

I like Palacios but I can see why we're selling him - he's one of our few for-sale players that someone actually wants and is willing to pay for. Reckon he'd find opportunities limited with Parker and Sandro around as well.

So, football fans, who's up for an entire day's worth of refreshing BBC Sport to be informed of one Reading transfer and then a flurry of activity with five minutes to go?

In the modern era, I'm not sure we need four out-and-out strikers (presuming we sell Crouch). I'd rather have a player who can play either at CF or out wide in a 4-3-3 - none of our wide players nor our strikers can do that. Someone like Bellamy wouldn't be a disaster in that sense, assuming he hasn't lost his edge and doesn't attack anyone with a golf club.

"A few clubs want [Crouch] but we'll have to wait and see with that one," Redknapp said. "It's up to Crouchy. I've had Peter at a few clubs. Good player, great guy as well. But I suppose with Adebayor coming in it's an area that we're a little bit overloaded in and he's one that people want so, if we could do a deal with someone, then it's a possibility."

HR has this amazing way of talking about these things as though he's either a) a totally passive spectator or b) making it all up and he goes along.

the 'I suppose' says it all - if he was going to bring a player in, he *knew* how loaded or otherwise we would be in that area. You don't sign him then look at things and say 'hm, I suppose we're a little bit overloaded'.

He's hedging his bets because he thinks no one will blame him if things go wrong.

I actually think Adebayor and Defoe could make a great strike pairing, Adebayor is exactly the player to play to Defoe's strengths, but we're apparently never playing 4-4-2 ever again despite the mountain of evidence it actually works best for us.

ffs

09.39: Peter Crouch might not fancy Sunderland but one man who does is Roman Pavlyuchenko.

"My agent is in London. He met the (Tottenham) chairman Daniel Levy to try to find a way out, but so far there is no solution," he told the Daily Mail.

"We gave the option of going out on loan for six months but Levy opposed it. The team have five forwards, and someone will not even get into the squad, so I should leave.

"We can find options. I know that Sunderland have been actively interested in me. In England, miracles can happen on the last day of the transfer window. So there is hope, but it is very small."

The team have 5 forwards?

why, as I hope Brian Clough would say, do they never score any GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLS?

Crouch to QPR
Pav to Sunderland

we go on with a skeleton staff of Adebayor, Defoe, Kane

Someone commented about how players never develop to a plan under Redknapp, instead any changes are down to their own personal journeys of motivation, fitness or depression or whatever - I thought that was good. I see him a bit like a builder sticking bits on here and there according to present need, while simply forgetting about what he did yesterday or the structure underneath. Eventually you end up with a house made up entirely of extensions, and he loses interest in the people who have to live there and wanders off to tinker with a new house instead.

If Sunderland are in such financial trouble that they need to offload Gyan to appease their bankers then why would they be in for either Pavlyuchenko or Crouch? This doesn't make sense unless they're paying Gyan some insane heady post-World Cup wages.

Shame really as I thought Gyan and Sessegnon could turn into a dangerous strike partnership but probably not with Brucie in charge.

I see him a bit like a builder sticking bits on here and there according to present need, while simply forgetting about what he did yesterday or the structure underneath

I really like this analogy by the way.

unless they're paying Gyan some insane heady post-World Cup wages

I'd put money on it... but not as much as Gyan could

agree with Mr Klata's strong analysis.

BBC rumour mill is stoking Bellamy to QPR rumours, as if Warnock's great survival plan is to turn into Newcastle 2005. Next up at Loftus Road, Lee Bowyer.