Whinger must have forgotten the 11 new players he signed when taking over at the Goons in 1996, hypocrite!
The bitterness that Whinger is betraying these past few days has brought home to me exactly what it is that I have always despised in that man. That said, if he's been moved to make those kinds of comments, it shows just how worried he is for his own job, because I really cannot see him surviving if AFC is knocked out of the CL, especially by us.
The player's arent going to click immediately and I wouldn't be surprised if we lost on Sunday. Would I care? Of course. But in the long run a lost to Arsenal tomorrow wouldn't be that important seeing as we are 3 points and 2 GD ahead of them anyway. The players we have signed have proven quality (bar Chichires maybe) and are still very very young. I actually think we will be very close with Arsenal again this year, maybe even miss out on 4th to them - but then by next season our squad will have clicked and we will mount a title challenge. I see that as worst case scenario. If our player's click immediately there is no reason we cant challenge for the title. Our squad is stronger than United's and Arsenal's, Chelsea don't seem to have a "plan" with their transfers / way they have played this season and City you can never rely on due to the mercenary factor. I'm not saying I think we'll win it, as Chelsea and City still have stronger squads, but we could run them close if everything falls into line with our new players.
To any sensible and intelligent football fan, that is a perfectly reasonable argument, TJ. To the gooner wums, of course, it will be a confirmation that all of our signings are rubbish and that Levy has wasted the club's money.
If we are worried about the team clicking we can still play - Lloris Walker - Daws - Verts - Rose Sandro - Dembele - Paulinho Townsend - Soldado - Chadli Only a few new players there, with Holtby, Defoe and A.N other to come on. Maybe Capoue if we are defending a lead, or Lamela/errikson if chasing the game?
You guys must be pinching yourselves with some of these players. AVB has the knowledge bring them together as well. Arsenal 2-5 Tottenham
Yes, we are! On another thread, I've suggested this system:- ------------------------Lloris------------------------ Walker/Naughton---Kaboul---Vertonghen---Fryers/Rose -------------Sandro/Capoue---------Paulinho--------- --------Townsend-------Lamela---------Eriksen--------- ------------------------Soldado----------------------- It enables Walker/Naughton and Fryers/Rose to bomb forward on counter-attacks, with Sandro/Capoue and Paulinho protecting our back 4. We are going to be awesome going forward!
Think it would be a bit unfair on holtby etc for Lamela to walk straight into the team (especially after all the fuss with Hugo) and would be good to have a team that knows each other starting with amazing sub options.
But he left, didn't he, so he's not our longest-serving player, Daws is. Re the team, I'll be surprised if any of the three new amigos start. Will be fascinated to see who our back 4 is. Even without Vlad, AVB has 5/6 good contenders there. However, I agree it would be great to get a new LB in. We need to be able to field two strong teams IMO, if we are to get top 4 and a trophy, which is surely our minimum target now. Last season, we played 'weakened but strong' teams in the EL and it hurt us. Not strong enough to make the semi-final let alone win it, but strong enough to impact on our lge form adversely, Fulham being the killer game there. I want AVB to be able to rest 9/10 top players for our group stage trips away this time, don't let them even travel. I still think we need a new back up keeper and striker as well. Assuming Bale has gone, we could get them in and our net spend would only be the new TV money or less. Admittedly there will be extra wages, but for once let's see ENIC splash some of their own cash, and it seems this window they are prepared to do that.
I really don't think we need any more signings unless AVB is set to ship 3 or 4 out. 7 new faces, all of whom with perhaps the exception of Chiriches are going to expect first team football, is a massive overhaul of a squad and if anything, although in improving the calibre of player, actually puts us into arguably one of the biggest transition periods we've had - albeit a very expensive one! In previous seasons it's usually been a case of lose 1 and bringing 1 or 2 starters in with 2 or 3 squad players and such small numbers like that have resulted in the team needing to gel after a certain period. As of right now, I think we have a "perfect" squad, there is plenty of competition for places, especially in midfield. Our back 5 have been brilliant and Soldado now has a lot more creativity behind him to help him find the net more so than he has been. We have at least 2 natural players for each position, some 3 with then others who can use their versatlity to slot, many of those "back ups" are international calibre players too. GK: Lloris, Friedel, Gomes, Archer RB: Walker, Naughton, Kaboul, Chiriches RCB: Kaboul, Dawson, Chiriches LCB: Vertonghen, Dawson Chiriches, Fryers LB: Rose, Ekotto, Vertonghen, Fryers, Naughton CDM: Sandro, Capoue, Paulinho, Dembele CM: Paulinho, Dembele, Capoue, Holtby, Carroll CAM: Eriksen, Holtby, Sigurdsson, Paulinho, Dembele, Carroll RW: Lamela, Lennon, Townsend, Sigurdsson LW: Chadli, Townsend, Lamela, Sigurdsson, Rose ST: Soldado, Defoe, Kane, Adebayor To me, unless we can actually get a player better than any current first choice I don't see the need to add any more players to what already is a huge and impressive squad, unless, like I said, we're going to be shipping a few out. But depending on who it is, we may not even need to replace them due to squad depth.
It's interesting to see that the Mata bid has hardly been reported. If Chelsea had bid for one of our players the journalists would be all over it, infact if any had they'd be picking up on it and saying he should leave.
[video=youtube;N9oxmRT2YWw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RD02RP4abiHdQpc&v=N9oxmRT2YWw&feature=player_detailpage#t=49[/video]
