Fraid so mate, he was on the lash with Jimmy Fivebellies at every opportunity, most players had a drink right up to the early/mid nineties. I might be wrong but wasn't Wenger one of the first with an alcohol ban and diet regimes. Gazza followed his beer with a kebab if you remember!
AVB is asked if Gareth Bale has already signed for Real Madrid: "I cannot say anything about that but it is not true." That might be saying something about it, Mr Villas-Boas!
Best signing of the year? Baldini. We are in real danger of pushing the usual suspects close this season.
Really don't know what our first 11 will be. Can we get Paulinho, Sandro and Capoue in the same side. If so, what about Dembele? If we go 2 in the middle, that's 2 top players on the bench/in the stand. If 3 in the middle, does Chadli get a look in if Lamela and Willian join, does Lennon? What about Siggy/Holtby. Townsend and Carroll are not going to progress much in this environment, just Carling Cup games, maybe Europa if we get past Tbilisi. Just to make it even more confusing, they are talking about still signing Eriksen, and Alderwerield/Vlad, so in defence Kaboul, Vertonghen and Dawson it's hard enough to see who to leave out. Bring Coentrao in and Rose joins Townsend and Carroll in the wilderness. Aagh, my head's going to explode. Maybe Arsenal's plan of 12/13 exhausted players sounds less confusing!
I don't think that is any worse than the situation at Chelsea tbh. If we can get to where they are (eg, in the CL and seriously challenging for honours) then it won't be a problem, in fact it will be excellent
Why is anyone talking about Erikson still? Confirmed he would only move to Champions League club. Apart from that we don't need him if Willian or Lamela arrive, both better players.
Might as well buy him, bench him whatever. Better than playing against him possibly. This is what City have been doing isn't it? I think i might have transfer window lust
As I said the other day, stop looking at 'first elevens' and start thinking squad. We will be able to compete in all competitions with full strength sides; injuries and suspensions will not be the nightmare they were last season and the seasons before. Fresher and better players in every game. It's going to make picking the goalscorers in the prediction league much harder, for a start.
Havn't you heart Jamspur, more is more these days. We don't need him, and his agent says he wont come....but we might buy him anyway!
Assuming these deals go through (Coentrao, Willian, Lamela, Cirinches in, Bale out, probably Assou-Ekotto and Adebayor, too), I'd say that our first XI would be: Lloris Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Coentrao Paulinho, Sandro, Dembele Lamela, Soldado, Willian2nd XI and rotation: Friedel Naughton, Kaboul, Cirinches, Rose Capoue, Holtby Lennon, Sigurdsson, Chadli Defoe