General Football/Soccer Talk

[Phil89]

[Phil89]

Looks like we are signing Mamadou Sakho soon. I wanted Papadopoulos from Schalke, but Sakho is a wonderful consolation prize.

He's still only 23 and has been one of the most highly rated young defenders in Europe for several years. He's a 6ft 2 beast.

He looks very excited as well

[Phil89]

Moses, Ilori and Sakho were all at the Man Utd game. All but confirmed to sign now it seems.

Very happy right now. 3 games, 3 wins, 3 clean sheets, top of the league, new signings to join and of course Suarez to return soon.

Also, Ilori looks like a Simpsons character.

[stereoxide]

Liverpool are looking good this season. I think they only need a solid backup for Mignolet in case something happens to him. Why did they loan Reina?

[Phil89]

Basically..

- Reina expected Barcelona to bid for him and told Liverpool this
- Liverpool then signed Mignolet to replace Reina
- Barcelona didn't make an offer for Reina because their keeper decided to stick around for another season
- Reina was on big wages and no other clubs apparently wanted to buy him, so they loaned him to Napoli

He was too good and too well paid to sit on our bench. Mignolet is the future for us though and has already shown his quality.

I think it's a good situation for everyone because Reina gets to work with Rafa Benitez again and play in the Champions League with Napoli.

[stereoxide]

Like the Courtois-Cech situation at Chelsea but the other way around. Except that Cech doesn't want to leave Chelsea.

[SoF'nAwesome]

Cool, I didn't know there was a thread over Football in NLSC. Though, I'm a little sad that the title includes the term "soccer". Anyway, any MU fans about?

Also, not a surprise that shadowgrin is inactive in this thread given his favorite team. Though, impressive win against the Hotspurs.

[J@3]

Ozil eh. Nice

[SoF'nAwesome]

They needed a striker.

[stereoxide]

Ozil>Bale. Real Madrid just screwed on that.

[Phil89]

Ozil>Bale. Real Madrid just screwed on that.

Maybe. Bale has only had like one great season and he definitely isn't worth the money they paid, but it's what Madrid do and given how easily they make money, it's no big deal at all for them to spend €100m on one player.

They've already made half the Bale money back from selling Ozil and will probably get the rest back through selling Bale shirts over the next few seasons. They needed a big name like Bale after Barcelona signed Neymar.

Bale's wages are pretty crazy though. Apparently £300,000 per week. Or about £95m over his 6 year contract. I guess getting rid of Kaka, Ozil and Higuain makes that easier though. Funny how they bought Kaka for €70m and then sold him back to Milan for free a few years later.

Ozil eh. Nice

They needed a striker.

Ozil is a great signing for Arsenal, but one they didn't really need. They have a few other positions that needed strengthening first.

Also funny how Suarez was only worth £40m (+£1) to Wenger, but they spent £44m on Ozil on the last day of the window. He's a great player, but was it not a bit of a panic buy with options running out? He had to sign someone and Ozil was the only big name available.



Liverpool have a pretty good run of fixtures coming up and could end up being 9-0-0 heading into the next big match against Arsenal.

Swansea (A), Southampton (H), Sunderland (A), Crystal Palace (H), Newcastle (A), West Brom (H)

Obviously none of those games are guaranteed wins in this league, but we are playing quite well and have Suarez, Sakho, Moses, Cissokho, Allen and Toure to come into the team. Fingers crossed for a good season after a depressing few years.

[SoF'nAwesome]

Phil, I was a Liverpool fan when Kewell used to play there. I still like Sterling & Sturridge there.

[Phil89]

Sturridge is awesome. Since he joined he's scored something like 16 goals in 20 games.

50m for Torres and only 12m for Sturridge. Thanks Chelsea!

[J@3]

I wish Cisse was still good so I could say "35 million for Carroll and only 9 million for Cisse. Thanks Liverpool! "

[Phil89]

Cisse never played for Liverpool though? Not Papiss anyway.. I was thanking Chelsea for paying 50m for a broken down Torres and then selling us a promising youngster in Sturridge for so cheap.

What happened to Cisse anyway? Seemed to score every other game and then went quiet after Ba left.

On Carroll though, Thanks to West Ham for taking him and Downing and Joe Cole off our hands for 20m. If Kenny Dalglish wasn't such a legend he would get so much more grief for those horrible transfers. At least Jordan Henderson is slowly improving.

[shadowgrin]

I just think this should be posted on every page of this thread from now on as a reminder.

[Phil89]

http://www.sincearsenallastwonatrophy.co.uk/

This as well.

[SoF'nAwesome]

It won't be the same for Liverpool this time. Suarez hasn't even started playing.

[Phil89]

One game at a time is the way I'm looking at it after all the disappointment of recent seasons.

Hopefully we are still up near the top in February as we usually finish the season strongly.

[kibaxx7]

Just saying, Phil.

[SoF'nAwesome]

that pic is epic. i like how it implies the opposite of Wenger personality.

[Phil89]

Just saying, Phil.

Just saying what? ..that Wenger only bought one player in three months, on the last day, for £42 million, because Madrid didn't need him anymore as they had Bale arriving? Transfer market wizard, isn't he?

That picture is misleading anyway. Those deals didn't happen in that order or have anything to do with each other really. Besides, I would of thought that it's normal for a team to buy a replacement when they sell someone.

Have to say though that Ozil looks like he's been worth the money so far. Maybe if Wenger opened his wallet and did more deals like that you would be challenging in the league and champions league regularly (instead of just being fourth/quarter finals every year).


-----

On another note, SUAREZ IS BACK! 2 goals against Sunderland and looking very dangerous alongside Sturridge. I can't wait to see those two and Coutinho on the pitch together.

Next few games for Liverpool and Arsenal look pretty good, so we could still be top 2 when we face each other on November 2nd.


Nice to see Man Utd sitting in 12th spot as well. Moyes is so awesome.

[SoF'nAwesome]

Place your bets. Moyes out in...?

[kibaxx7]

Just saying what? ..that Wenger only bought one player in three months, on the last day, for £42 million, because Madrid didn't need him anymore as they had Bale arriving? Transfer market wizard, isn't he?

That picture is misleading anyway. Those deals didn't happen in that order or have anything to do with each other really. Besides, I would of thought that it's normal for a team to buy a replacement when they sell someone.

Have to say though that Ozil looks like he's been worth the money so far. Maybe if Wenger opened his wallet and did more deals like that you would be challenging in the league and champions league regularly (instead of just being fourth/quarter finals every year)

Just saying that is a joke, relax! Of course it's misleading, those deals didn't happen like that. It's not that Madrid didn't need him anymore -- he didn't "fit" in Ancelotti's plans as they were completely in love with this Welsh guy, who was coming to take his spot in the field but is coming from the bench, with a young kid like Illarramendi playing over him (but even Morata is playing over Benzema, something's wrong) Everyone is questioning how they let him go.

And yes, he's been worth every single cent. When Mesut signed I was delighted. The dimension of the team is completely different. And that's with Wilshere not being at 100% and Cazorla, Podolski and Walcott, to name a few, injured. Gotta thank Giroud's goals in the first weeks, Ramsey's explosion and the excellent partnership of Kos and Per in the back. Plus Flamini's return in a free has been a blessing in disguise with some great performances lately. (Sanogo is another gamble, that hopefully will pay out in the future, just like Joel Campbell, Miquel, Coquelin, Afobe, Akpom, Gnabry, Eisfeld, and a big "etcetera").

I'd guess the reason why Arsene never opens the wallet is because he doesn't want to splash the cash for a player that could end up being a failure (Torres in his start at Chelsea, for example). That would just get him fired after all this trophyless years. The youngsters' Capital One Cup penalties win at WBA was a huge morale boost. Everything's in place -- I think we need one more central defender in January to challenge seriously, but this is the season to end that drought.

[shadowgrin]

In case you haven't known #thierry the majority of posts in this thread are currently like this...

Any moves made by Liverpool = OMG AWESUM
Any move made by any team not named Liverpool = WHY? DEY STILL SUX

So stick with the program and no jokes please #thierry.