West Ham just released Faubert, Faye, Dioup and Carew. And Newcastle have just signed Romain Amalfitano, who played with Ghilas at Reims last season.
Just noticed that and took a look at his stats, only 20, 6'3" and he scored 5 in 10 for Gillingham last season. He might be worth a look, anyone actually seen him play?
Can't say I have, a mate of mine is a Hammers fan and raves about him - not sure how he'll react to this - surely if he's that good he'd be worth a new 2 year contract and another couple of seasons out on loan to see how he gets on.
I wonder if it's to do with Abramovic's alleged obsession with bowing to the media pressure and getting rid of 'the old guard'.
I have been reading an article in todays telegraph written by Henry Winter. Drogba said he made up his mind in the dressing room after the final and told Roman and the club in a meeting on monday he was going. Chelsea wanted him to stay but DD said NO. IMO, he made the correct choice. Best to go out at the top which he has done. Now he can cash in on the last few years of his career. China looks favourite though for DD. West Ham slashing the wage bill as they release players. 5 so far and more to follow as they wheel n deal in the summer market. Big ? over Robert Green still who is out of contract. Malaga, DQPR, Arsenal all interested. Arsenal set to let at least 10 players leave from there massive squad list to make room for new signings. Almunia and Fabianski are part of the 10 so far named. Not sure if anyone else has mentioned it, but Hull City linked(Mirror rumours) with a Gary Roberts from Huddersfield who is out of contract soon. 6 league goals in 30 games this season so will keep an eye on him @ Wembley saturday if he plays.
I've not seen him play for a while, but I remember in one of the summer U20 or U21s tournaments everyone seemed to be raving about him while I was wondering if I was watching a different player. Just seemed like a tall McLean to me.
Porto striker Hult interesting Chelsea and 4 other PL teams. Hawkeye will be used for goal line decisions @ Wembley on June 2nd. England Belgium game.
I don't think it will actually be used for decisions during the game. They announced a month or so ago that a few games were going to be testing the technology, but the results were going to be kept between the testers and FIFA (on the basis that if it fails miserably it lets them go away and develop it further without a lack of confidence affecting their next test/reputation)
It looks like Swansea are splashing the cash, they've just agreed a fee of £7.2m with Hoffenheim to sign loan midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Hazard has tweeted that he's made his choice of club and Louis Saha has just tweeted that it's Chelsea.
That Nick Powell at Crewe looks like he's gonna be the next big thing. 16 goals this season and only 18. His goal in the League 2 playoff final was unreal, better than most of the recent great goals in the PL in my opinion. Best thing about him is he isn't just a speedy attacker with nothing else about him like a lot of 'promising' youngsters. He has genuine talent on the ball with both feet. He's linked with Man U so we could get him on loan if he went there. If we ever get a manager of course
Problem with that is, no matter how good the player, they're still probably using almost their full transfer budget (if not all of it)on a player that was already there last season. I suppose the best way I can explain what I'm trying to say is - they're spending big money on a player that doesn't improve their squad from last season. Granted he was quality, and you'd rather have him than not, but... well, you get the idea.
I get the idea, but on the flip side, if they didn't buy him they would be weaker than they were last season (if that makes sense)
Depends how you look at it really. As a club trying to establish themselves as a Premier League side, they may be better off signing 3-4 players of an equivalent value, as opposed to blowing it all on one. But then you could argue that if they go down, it's going to be a lot easier to shift one player than it is to shift 3-4. Plus the more players' signed, the more signing-on fees and agent fees you end up paying. Probably six and two threes really.
