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

^^this is what i don't get. compensation for what? if the player wants to leave does he have to hand in a transfer request in order to nullify his contract and if not can he say "i want to leave but you're still paying me"? in which case why doesn't every transfer come with a 'transfer request' attached #tiredandconfused

arteta is official btw

afaict, a player is entitled to a 'loyalty fee' (taken to be around 10% of fee i think) if they don't request a transfer in writing. They can do pretty much everything else they want cf fabregas yet still qualify for this payment.

rotten fuckers

Is this true?

@BrianDurand56 Apart from Xabi's goal in '08 (& that was given as OG by PL), every LFC scorer in last 8 lge games btwn LFC & CFC has been signed by Chelsea

fuckin hell, maybe

Be fair, they did let ye have j cole tho

is that just torres and meirelles tho? Benayoun too?

19/08/07 LFC 1-1 Chelsea - Torres
10/02/08 Chelsea 0-0 LFC
26/10/08 Chelsea 0-1 LFC - Alonso
01/02/09 LFC 2-0 Chelsea - Torres x2
04/10/09 Chelsea 2-0 LFC
02/05/10 LFC 0-2 Chelsea
07/11/10 LFC 2-0 Chelsea - Torres x2
06/02/11 Chelsea 0-1 LFC - Meireles

dmac on fb-
'going rate for spurs deadwood about £1m per stone'
Rejoinder-
'should have sold huddlestone then'

So two players, not as startling put that way. Still a hefty sum from Roman to Liverpool though, better investor than G&H

So do I want Suarez to score in the next one or not?

judging by the prices you've been gettin, yeah

BBC 5 live's Juliette Ferrington on Twitter: "Hearing that when Crouch arrived here tonight the first thing he had was a curry in the Stoke City canteen."

Joey7Barton Joseph Barton
@barciur what happened to Hazard? He's a player, an Arsenal player in the making I thought
11 minutes ago

lol

Joey7Barton Joseph Barton
@Penneyboy @piersmorgan Nasri and fabregas replaced with Benayoun and Arteta?? I wouldn't of done that on FM2010, that's all am saying
37 minutes ago

ice cold

So Bolton wanted Defoe as part of the Cahill deal but were offered Bassong or Bentley

good job Owen.

Am I misreading to think this from Paul Hayward in the Guardian as a nasty little swipe which he has no evidence for?

Against the trend of long-term planning City took a late gamble on Owen Hargreaves, whose return to full fitness seems to have coincided with his Manchester United contract not being renewed

?

What's not factual there?

factual but the implication is - and I think this is commonly understood - man city see it as a delicious prospect that hargreaves may get fit and run a sav in the prem, just after noisy neighbours man utd dropped him as useless

what's not factual?

I thought the implication was that he only bothered to get fit when his contract ran out, and had been shirking up until then. But I admit I may be misreading it.

It may be that I read most Guardian pieces in a sarcastic tone of voice.

aloud?

that's my reading tbh

What can we expect from Meireles, Liverpool fans? Not sure where he'll fit in, possibly replacement for Frank. Or deeper, as a non-tackling more attacking Mikel?

the latter, maybe? Or on right too?

Good player Pete, you've done well. I think it's the Lampard one myself - he started out deep but really started clicking through making runs arriving in support of the attack. If he's there to do a Modric job, though, that won't work, he can't dictate things on his own.

the hitler role

Yeah definitely closer to Lampard than Mikel. Will score goals (though not in Frank quantities) and create a fair few (think he and Mata/Torres could get a good understanding going). Isn't a liability defensively but more in the closing down, tracking back sense rather than anything so vulgar as tackling. Think you've got a good player. Having said all that not sure why you guys would prefer loan out Yossi rather than play him now and again.

Arteta "past it" according to the Nult on Radio 5 last night

Quite possibly. Of the "big" premiership names Arsenal were linked with, I'm least excited by the two that have arrived.

The Bendtner deal seems like a good one for all concerned though.

They let Nulty on the radio now!! Madness! Although now I'm intrigued, is his speech as *ahem* idiosyncratic as his copy?

Think it's a CL squad limit thing, we could only have one player and Meireles is a long-term option over Benayoun (and also a better player).

CFC squad looks pretty strong and well-balanced now, maybe even stronger man-for-man than MUFC, though think they have the better first team. Still think it'll take a while for us to click though and have concerns about the high defensive line.

Didn't notice him saying anything too Nultesque, he's up against with Robbie Savage (not literally, that would be horrible) et al remember. Slight Merseyside accent? Where is he from? (xp)

what does our resident villa fan think? you signed (scottish) cafu!

I'd rather have just not sold Luke Young. Having sold Luke Young I guess it's better than just not getting anyone in and excitably waiting for Carlos Cuellar's return to fitness. High praise.

I guess Jenas is another mercurial maybe-useful midfielder to add to the pile with Stephen and Fabian

JeanDeux Makoun's gone on loan to Olympiakos, heartbreakingly. The Guardian chalkboard for his Villa debut was this beautiful multipronged asterisk of completed passes in every direction imaginable, the likes of which Villa Park had never seen since I dunno Merse or some shit, but alas he was a bit off the pace and mental in the tackle

Yeah I think Arteta was fantastic for Everton for four or five years but the last year or so he's been below par. Injuries haven't helped. Everton have had a horrible transfer window, but losing Arteta is better than losing Tim Cahill IMO.

Chelsea's midfield still looks like it's lacking something even with Mereiles in there, although Mata could turn out to be brilliant. There's also the striker problem - dunno, I still think they'll struggle to compete against the two Manchester teams. As far as replacing Mourinho's team goes they're slowly getting there though. The squad still doesn't have as much strength in depth as United's (except upfront), could do with more decent defensive options. Chelsea players who aren't Essien never seem to get injured though.

Reckon Jenas will do pretty well at Villa.

Was trying to work out Dann's impact at Blackburn, he seems sort of an absurdly good signing for them - my friend suggested he might be enough to superhumanly propel them up a place in the final league standings, ie 19th

Did they keep hold of Samba after all that? If so, that's too good a defence to go down.

Birmingham had a good defence too

In fact, they had a good team all round

:D

Blues' defence was good on paper and had been good the season before, but then it like, stopped playing well and conceded lots of goals

So I blame McLeish, the current Aston Villa manager

having enough attacking aptitude to keep the ball away from your defence for a few minutes at a time is gonna make the defence look better; personally hoping that Villa hoofing the ball several hundred feet over Jermaine Jenas' head works better than Blues hoofing the ball several hundred feet over Aliaksandr Hleb's head

Where this leaves Blackburn not entirely sure, but they have seemed fairly superhumanly determined to not score goals

chelsea still lacking width in midfield but that's been true for years. Lampard, drogba, malouda et all battering through defences helps in that regard i guess.

Malouda has width. Mata too.

CFC squad looks pretty strong and well-balanced now, maybe even stronger man-for-man than MUFC, though think they have the better first team. Still think it'll take a while for us to click though and have concerns about the high defensive line.

― isn't house rubbish and Pete W mental (Pete W), Thursday, September 1, 2011 8:55 AM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yeah, Porto played suicidally high line at times and not sure at all that this will suit Chelsea. Fair enough the full backs are quick, but I just think it will lead to a couple too many easy chances presented per game against teams who otherwise wouldn't be good enough to break Chelsea down.

U KNOW FRNAK LAMPARD GOTS SOME WIDTH