goodrobotusses

Glad Messi scored. Didn't have a great game by his standards, though the poor guy must have been pretty sore after getting booted all over the park in the 1st half. But given the treatment he received, that goal will have been all the sweeter.

Fair play to the lad. Very good attitude.

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Well, following on from his time at Spurs, at least Ramos isn't walking into a club with the same kind of haphazard transfer policy and fundamentally unbalanced squad...

Already the best in the world - just hope injuries don't become too much of a problem throughout his career.

Every Arsenal fan I've ever met hates Eboue as much as opposition fans do. Partly because he's crap, but mostly because he's an a******. I personally can't stand him - he has that wonderful combination of s***house, dangerous tackles on opponants, coupled with the ridiculous ability to fling himself around in mock-pain whenever someone so much as breathes on him. He's like an Ivorian Robbie Savage on crack. And while the Arsenal fans' behaviour was pretty sub-standard from a 'supporter' point of view (though, are you surprised?), it couldn't have happened to a more deserving player - bloody brilliant watching that c*** cry as he trudged off. I think my favourite part of his performance was when Toure was bombing out of defence and yelling at him to make a run down the wing, only for Eboue to run toward him, tackle him, then pass the ball straight to a Wigan player.

This. Lad had a decent, unspectacular game, and looked more assured than Dossena has done thus far, but it wasn't exactly Roberto Carlos at his peak by any means.

Aye, get Michael Owen to solve our creativity problems. Well known for his guile and creativity, is Owen.

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Him getting pelted in the face with the ball was at least some form of justice.

Right then. At a wild guess, I reckon... Diego - £10million Karim Benzema - £20million+ (knowing Lyon's ability to drive a hard bargain) Hatem Ben-Arfa - £6-7million (just went for more this summer, but I think his value will go down, not up) Kader Keita - I only just realised this is the Lyon guy, not Barca, so no idea Rafinha - £5million Luis Fabiano - £8-10million Naldo - no idea Bastian Schweinsteiger - £8-10million (if he ever leaves Bayern it will be through their choosing, not his) You can't really make sound judgements on these though. I mean, I'm valuing Schweinsteiger at essentially the same level as Diego there, despite Diego being a far more talented player. But the fact is Bayern are richer and more prestigious than Bremen, meaning they can fend off other clubs a lot better.

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Retrospectively though, that could just be seen as toeing the party line. Shame though - it would be nice not to have this split between Rafa's 'Melwood Academy' and the Academy-Academy. Must be horrible for the young lads, and it might well set us back a good 5-10 years in terms of developing another decent youth crop, as well as the failure to bring through/develop any decent lads from the current crop.

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Are we talking about my personal valuations, or what I think they'd go for? Are we talking a PL side buying or a European side? I can at least order the players as I rank them (best to worst): Benzema, Diego... Fabiano (on a good day), Schweinsteiger (on a good day), Keita, Ben Arfa (on a good day), Rafinha... and I don't recall having seen Naldo play, sorry.

Torres to stay fit, Aurelio to stay fit, Keane to either play less (so we can play 4-2-3-1 most games) or simply remember how to play.

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Recovery exercises in Skrtel's case are things like wrestling bears. True story.

Haha!

You're right - Degen's performance was awful. Absolutely horrible. He's also an international full-back who's played for one of Germany's biggest clubs (albeit one that's fallen by the wayside), and at a World Cup. He's also barely kicked a ball in 2 years, and has limped out of his 2 appearances for us this season. Yes, he was awful, but I'm attempting to cling to the idea that Rafa saw him play a bit better than that in the past (like, for instance, when he was match-fit) before signing him. Darby is captain of the reserves.

Aye. Carling Cup is one of those things you go "oh, nice" if you win in, and "oh well" if you lose. Losing to them in the league still makes me angry now - they're s****.

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed. Not that the lad deserves to be picked out in the grand scheme of tonight's s**** performance. Just what with people suggesting he should be immediate 2nd choice right-back, it might be an idea to actually get an idea of whether he's any good himself before we compare him favourably to the alternatives.

True that. There seemed to be a real lack of communication within the team. And given are 1st team's play has been almost telepathic at times, in terms of movement and shape in attack and defence, a hotch-potch team like that was always likely to have issues. Terrible performance, though. El Zhar looked alright behind the striker, even if he was totally anonymous on the right. Degen's performance was horrible and gutless (the latter being the most annoying thing) - hopefully it's only a fitness thing. Dossena was terrible positionally. Insua was okay when he came on. Lucas was decent enough, Babel the usual mixed bag o'frustration. On the plus side, Xabi was good when he came on - looked like he gave a s***.

Not justifying Degen or Dossena's performances or anything, but Darby looked like he needed 5 minutes to decide what to do every time he got the ball, then he invariably knocked it down the line or 5 yards sideways. Plus he looked horribly slow. Only a cameo from him, of course, but he didn't look an improvement on anyone out there.