Phil236849

and quasimodo beardsley was the one and only twinkle toes

harry's got a year left on his contract - i think 2m could be tempting for the club although personally i think if thats the only money on the table he should get another chance and hope this is his season

1. will roffa be tempted to sell harry if someone puts in a cheeky 2m bid (personally i hope not but it is a possibility? 2. what will happen to le tallec - will anyone buy him (is he actually back with us now?) 3. if we sign a defender, will riise or aurelio be shipped out? 4. presumably we shall soon see various youngsters being shipped out on loan to various clubs - which? 5. when do lucas and leto arrive? 6. when will we know about mascherano's long term future - and is it affected by this money-laundering charge reported in the times today? 7. will we have anyone else from the kids (not including insua) lined up for first team squad - a central defender, hobbs perhaps? 8. who is our 3rd choice keeper?

shame he is not in a premiership side... but a good club otherwise to go to and better than another year with the jocks roffa may monitor him for first team squad role next year... so we're pally with the swans and the saints...

of course he's given some a game here and there - with injuries and packed fixture lists he has had to. but wenger has got rid of first team players and replaced them with youngsters. slur also did that albeit with his golden generation. rafa doesnt seem to want to do that and seems more inclined to let a youngster mature on loan with an eye to relying on him as a squad player only once he has experience rather than playing him young as wenger and slur did. i'm just not sure with all this investment in youth whether it will be allowed to flourish. for instance is hamill far away from kieron richardson when he was given a chance as a man yoo squad player? why did we not find room for barragan? should sinama have been encouraged more? maybe they havent been good enough to date but it feels like it was only warnock that rafa thought "this guys worth giving a proper go" and he was 23

we're signing a load of em and rafa seems reluctant to play em. he's no wenger

fair dos...but apart from possibly insua i cant see any of the kids making a significant contribution to the first team next season at least

i know you need strength in depth, and you never know which youngsters will make it, and you need to establish a good young team in order to help the starlets develop, and its investment in the future, and you can always sell off the ones who are not quite good enough, and arsenal do it this way...but...does anyone wonder: 1. if there can be such a thing as having too many talented youngsters 2. if we are close to that stage now 3. if rafa's conservatism means he will be reluctant to rely on the youngsters and its difficult to see when they will get their chances await the flames!

semmy, oba, ian rush just need one other footballer who's been shot at and you have HIGNFY's next missing link pictures round

hammer in my office reckons one of the top "in the know" guys on a hammers site is saying - get this - we offered a straight swap whu rejected it and asked for 3m on top we said no talks are ongoing

Southampton-manager George Burley ivrer etter å hente Danny Guthrie til St Mary?s på permanent basis. Julio Scandinavo?

shows how little the spanish and even the local media know - mental note, worth remembering for rest of summer!

i'm livid

i agree - 10m would be a good price - and is by no means "paltry" as stated by bascombe today...

its amazing the level of uncertainty as to formation even at the end of the season: it reflects how much rafa, more than other coaches, tinkers with the personnel and formation to fit the match. i think there's probably only 6 players we can confidently say will play in that position: reina, finnan, carra, agger, mascher and i think xabi. there's 2 more we can, i think, confidently say will be playing somewhere - gerrard and riise the last 3 are up for grabs. personally I can imagine reina finnan carra agger arbeloa (riise if bolo fit) gerrard mascher alonso riise (or bolo) kuyt bellamy but its really difficult. What is a given i think is rafa will be planning not to concede a goal, to keep it very tight in midfield, and to nick a goal at some stage. if he wants to get 4-2-3-1 to neutralise milan (and doesnt think 4-4-1-1 works), then it just means the flank players step forward 10 metres. possibly one of the key decisions is whether to have stevie central or on the flanks. it will probably depend on whether rafa thinks we need more defensive support for the right back/someone to pick up kaka if he drifts left, or whether we try and pressurise pirlo. i suspect he'll go for the former and put kuyt on pirlo.

i think he said your bit next though

you mean "Hello, Hello, here we go"?! but i agree with your point

more subtle than glender's "pretend you're injured, limp a bit" approach to the media

if leto (seems nailed on) and simao (repeated rumours) join us, i could see both kewell and gonzalez going sometimes, to effect change, managers are ruthless

anyone notice that when one of the successful milan penalty takers takes his kick - and i think it was kaka - some sort of vehicle, and it looks like an ambulance - drives around the perimeter past the goal. surreal timing.... he scored anyway... another point is when penalties started, they were saying how many milan players wouldnt fancy it as they had a bad track record. some of those (eg stam) have moved on but they have a new generation with experience of major misses. ok gerrard missed in the world cup for us, but for them, serginho, pirlo, seedorf and i think gattuso, at least, have all had major misses before...

rafa has recently been quoted saying his usual refrain of its not big names it's quality. i think parry might have already been saying the same. maybe eto'o, raul, villa etc are the smokescreens for less experienced signings...

maybe, but he is, after all a gem

a few points: 1. arsenal have just signed some young keeper - polish i think from legia warsaw? - for £2m - so you can rule them out 2. given the money from the new deal, prices will go up this summer and there will be a fair amount of dosh sloshing around. 3. carson would be an outstanding but for the right team. young english players who have done well in the premiership and who are available for 3-4m get snapped up. 4. i can think of at least 9 potential teams who might want him. do any of the promoted teams have a keeper as good as carson? who is fulham's keeper? west ham have cash and green has been iffy. isnt jaaskeleinen leaving bolton? who is reading's keeper? are sorenson and schwarzer all that?

a lot of people think rafa will see harry as being fit to start in the champions league final with a max of what around 100mins playing time under his belt. i think rafa will look to keep it very solid at the start - no 3-0 down at half time - and that he will have kewell earmarked for sub role.