EPT2008-2009 football(soccer) thread - Page 93
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Telemako
Spain1636 Posts
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zulu_nation8
China26351 Posts
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kidd
United States2848 Posts
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Monkeyboi2k3
United States175 Posts
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kidd
United States2848 Posts
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Telemako
Spain1636 Posts
On July 31 2009 02:20 zulu_nation8 wrote: I really can't comprehend how much appeal Real has For Alonso is coming back to his country, living close to his family again, that means a lot. And the roster quite warrants a title imo. | ||
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zulu_nation8
China26351 Posts
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Ra.Xor.2
United States1784 Posts
Arsenal are looking much the same, Wenger seems to have gone completely mad. I still believe hes a good coach, but his transfer policy is looking more and more ridiculous. However, Vela looks like he's gonna be world class and Matudi will probably join soon. Even with their losses, I don't think a Mark Hughes coached Man City team, however good their players are individually, could overtake Arsenal for 4th. | ||
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LaiShin
Australia978 Posts
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ilj.psa
Peru3081 Posts
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UbRi
Italy603 Posts
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kidd
United States2848 Posts
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Daigomi
South Africa4316 Posts
And what do you guys think of Man City this season? They made some mega transfers, getting Santa Cruz, Tevez (although he never impressed me too much at Man U, will see how he does at City), Adebayor (I wasn't following Arsenal politics, but it seems surprising that they'd trade Adebayor for I think 25m GBP) and Toure. I'm still not convinced by their squad, but any team that can spend more than 100m GBP in one transfer window is bound to have some strong players. | ||
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Klive5ive
United Kingdom6056 Posts
On August 01 2009 07:30 Daigomi wrote: Can anyone whose knowledgeable on the topic give me a quick summary of Man U's acquisitions this season, and how they are looking? I always miss the transfer window... And what do you guys think of Man City this season? They made some mega transfers, getting Santa Cruz, Tevez (although he never impressed me too much at Man U, will see how he does at City), Adebayor (I wasn't following Arsenal politics, but it seems surprising that they'd trade Adebayor for I think 25m GBP) and Toure. I'm still not convinced by their squad, but any team that can spend more than 100m GBP in one transfer window is bound to have some strong players. In: Valencia, Owen, Gabriel Obertan, Mame Biram Diouf (loaned out until January2010) Out: Ronaldo, Lee Martin, Fraizer Campbell, Richard Eckersley,Manucho What this means for the first team? They lost Ronaldo but bought a bunch of forwards and Valencia a winger. You can never really tell, but it doesn't look great. Man City will fight for 4th in the Premiership. That's the reality. Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and United are all much better. Assuming Liverpool don't lose any players to Real they have a strong squad for next season. Glen Johnson is a great buy for them and if Gerrard/Torres don't get injured they could go far. Arsenal have got Senderos back and have bough a decent defender from Ajax so that should help solidify their defence and they will score goals for sure. Chelsea have lost no-one important and bought Zhirkov for 18 million..... many say it's just because he's Russian and Abramovich wanted him at Chelsea. He seems alright, we'll see. | ||
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Daigomi
South Africa4316 Posts
On August 01 2009 07:54 Klive5ive wrote: In: Valencia, Owen, Gabriel Obertan, Mame Biram Diouf (loaned out until January2010) Out: Ronaldo, Lee Martin, Fraizer Campbell, Richard Eckersley,Manucho What this means for the first team? They lost Ronaldo but bought a bunch of forwards and Valencia a winger. You can never really tell, but it doesn't look great. Man City will fight for 4th in the Premiership. That's the reality. Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and United are all much better. Assuming Liverpool don't lose any players to Real they have a strong squad for next season. Glen Johnson is a great buy for them and if Gerrard/Torres don't get injured they could go far. Arsenal have got Senderos back and have bough a decent defender from Ajax so that should help solidify their defence and they will score goals for sure. Chelsea have lost no-one important and bought Zhirkov for 18 million..... many say it's just because he's Russian and Abramovich wanted him at Chelsea. He seems alright, we'll see. You think Arsenal is OK losing both Adebayor and Toure? I mean, they started well, but near the end of the season they seemed to be surviving on their earlier succes. Adebayor was the only striker that seemed consistent for Arsenal to me (when he played, and even then he wasn't that consistent, the others just seemed even less consistent). I'm really not convinced by their current squad. I'm also not convinced by Man U getting Owen. I mean, I heard the story somewhere on the news, and it sounds cute to me that Owen wanted to go to Man, but I really dislike Fergusson's strategy of buying old stars. Hargreaves has been less than useless in my opinion, and there was someone else that he bought fairly recently that I really disliked... I did like Larsson though. | ||
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Klive5ive
United Kingdom6056 Posts
Well Owen was free.. it's a no-brainer. He didn't "buy" him at all. Hargreaves is quality he's just been injured. The fact is Ferguson has struggled with his midfield ever since Roy Keane left and Scholes lost his sight. They've struggled by with average midfielders for years imo. Initially they thought Veron could be the answer but he wasn't. Recently they've bought loads like Carrick, Hargreaves, Anderson, Park; they know the midfield is the weakness. If Kacar had been bought in this window that might have been good, but it never happened. | ||
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Daigomi
South Africa4316 Posts
On August 01 2009 08:51 Klive5ive wrote: Well Arsenal have replaced Toure with 2 decent defenders, that should be fine. They have so much talent up front they'll manage without Adebayor. Last season with Fabregas out they seemed to lack confidence. I can't remember exactly how long but they went ages without scoring a goal and kept drawing 0-0... it was madness and I expect them to be different this season. Well Owen was free.. it's a no-brainer. He didn't "buy" him at all. Hargreaves is quality he's just been injured. The fact is Ferguson has struggled with his midfield ever since Roy Keane left and Scholes lost his sight. They've struggled by with average midfielders for years imo. Initially they thought Veron could be the answer but he wasn't. Recently they've bought loads like Carrick, Hargreaves, Anderson, Park; they know the midfield is the weakness. If Kacar had been bought in this window that might have been good, but it never happened. I really like Fabregas about 2-3 seasons ago, when he was still a young'ish player playing for Arsenal. Recently... I don't know, maybe his ego just puts me off, but I haven't been impressed when I see him play. Hargreaves has been injured, but even when he played, he seemed really below par for me. His passing has been inaccurate, there was never a reason to make him take a free kick over Ronaldo, and he was just generally mediocre. This could be due to a lingering injury of course, but he hasn't impressed me much. That said, I quite like the Man U mid-field. Anderson and Nani both have potential there, and they have both grown tremendously (especially Anderson). Carrick has also grown on me. When he started playing for Man U., he seemed like just another average mid-fielder, but since then he's gone from average mid-fielder to solid mid-fielder. He doesn't have much flare, but he does his job. I don't mind him. The only thing that's bothered me a bit has been the midfield experience (Giggs or Scholes). Both seem ok'ish to me, but they always get the ball in front of the goal somehow, and they always botch the shots completely. They're not getting any younger either. The Man U defense has also looked a bit dodgy when they don't play the dream team (Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra). Whenever they have some makeshift central defenders, they seem to be hole-ridden (for example, in the recent finals against Bayern, or 2 or so seasons ago when they dropped out against Milan in the UEFA qf). They really need their young defenders to learn to play. Their attack is something of an unknown for me. I guess this season is the season we'll find out if Ronaldo was overrated or not. Berbatov will need to continue showing form as a striker, and Rooney will need to make something of a comeback. Also, it will be interesting to see if the midfielders play more of a role now. Either way, I think Ronaldo leaving is a big blow, and it will be interesting to see how this season goes. Lots of teams have made big changes, so it should be very interesting. | ||
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white_box921
United Kingdom967 Posts
Toure is a slightly more weird situation, but I guess he already bought Vermaelen and had releasing Toure in mind before the summer start. Considering he tried to submit a transfer request at Janurary, it maybe better to let him go. The African nation cup is also on this year, and some Arsenal fans is citing this as one big reason. Arsenal was actually playing much better at the end of the season and started like shit. I think MU has lost the most so far, Owen is not even in the same class as CR or Tevez, and the only upside is that he is free. Hargreaves is also like one of those most unlucky player who keeps getting injuried, and it really sucks becasue he is so damn good when fit. He is easily the best all round midfiend in the whole MU squad. And everyone knows the problem when they don't play their 1st team defence (as posted before me). Liverpool is just a really really badly run club, I would hate to be their fans and they are sort of like a more successful Newcastle at the moment. They have trouble building their new stadium and refinancing their debt, their owners sucks and Rafa don't know what is stop buying. Seriously, wake up?? Even SAF now knows he has to stop spending big, and we are talking about a guy who throw away serious money. MC is just too funny,going to be another club running into big debt unless the owners do a RA and take all the pain with interest free loan. Having Toure (1 fucking defender) is not going to solve the defensive problem. Richards may finally begin to play but the rest of their squard is just trash and can't get into any other top teams, Bridge maybe debatable, but we will see. And having the ability to field 10 forward does not equal win, just because you buy a striker that scored 20 goals, and then buy 10 of them, it doesn't exactly translate to 200 goals. I don't know who decide to buy these players, but they have a funny transfer policy. I would also like to add that Spurs have probably the worst off season so far, buying a Peter Crouch for 9m. I mean, seriously, do they realise that they don't have enough defender to even field 1 team during their training. They really expect King (who can't play more than 1 match and train more than 2 session a week), and Woodgate (never completed a full season) to come back really fit. | ||
Liquid`Drone
Norway28634 Posts
pretty much any other manager who did what he has done during this preseason (taking owen and mame biram diouf - a player who is not even the best player on the second best team in norway) while selling the worlds best player the past two seasons would get completely raped by his supporters. but he's just so great its impossible to attack him, at least before it actually goes wrong ;p i think he's hoping mame biram diouf is gonna turn into a new solskjær, super efficient and loyal sub. he was also bought from the same club as solskjær (molde)  he certainly has a lot of potential, but it was a pretty huge shocker in norway when it was revealed united had bought him. | ||
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white_box921
United Kingdom967 Posts
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