Another shrew signing by Sven, Valeri Bojinov this time. The other really good buys City have got are Elano, and Petrov especially.

Biggie Little Jr wrote:
> I don't see Heinze going, Man Utd consider him their first choice
> left-back and I don't see why he'd want to go to Liverpool. Tevez
> to United was the big story all over the papers, although his
> departure was always somehwat of an inevitability.

Evra was a revelation last season, there's no chance he'll be playing second fiddle to Heinze in the new campaign.

I think it'd be a good move, I don't see why he wouldn't want to come to us. Just down the road, wouldn't have to uproot his life. Fellow Argentine presence in the dressing room (Mascherano, Paletta, Padelli), and following two years of injury and bench-warming, he might see it as the ideal way to kickstart his career again.

Crouch is a legend, can't believe that there are still people out there who haven't cottoned on to the fact that he's a quality player.

Pennant came good around two months before the end of the season, which isn't too bad given that that was his first real run in the side (following Garcia's injury).

I think our problem last year was too many new faces at once, and as a result the team struggled to gel. Kuyt, Bellamy, Gonzalez, Pennant, Mascherano, Aurelio, Paletta and Arbeloa were all brought in, it was a bit hectic.

The problem isn't to do with the players. We have the strongest central midfield in the division and the second best defence. With just Torres and Babel in this year, and possibly another left-back, I think we're set to do a lot better.

Biggie Little Jr. wrote:

> Liverpool have been suprisingly quiet, and representitives have
> come out and said there not going to be throwing away money,
> i.e. making a lot of expensive signings, can';t see Benitez
> being happy with that. They won't be title contenders with
> players like Crouch and Pennant in the team and until they get a
> regular top class goal scorer.

Hey!  Take Crouch out of that equation.  The biggest problem Liverpool has with scorers of any kind is making them actually score while wearing a Liverpool shirt.  They buy 'goal scorers' who forget how to score until we sell them and then they do wonders for their new teams :(

Da Silve scored 34 in 32 last season and even though this may drop a little as he will be playing at a higher level i still recon he is worth 25 - 30 a season. Not bad for £8M. In contrast Torres was what 14 for about 32 last season and for £27M....... I think i know who has the better deal!!!!!

This Tevez deal to Man U just has dodgey all over it! A two year loan deal of which can't be benefiting West Ham and just proves he still isn't totally a West Ham player. I hope Sheffield United follow this deal closely.

West Ham are now the most hatted Premiership club overtaking Chelsea and Man U.

Anyone seen the Arsenal away kit, its white but looks great. Walcott to replace Henry with Da Silva a 20 goal a season player.

I don't see Heinze going, Man Utd consider him their first choice left-back and I don't see why he'd want to go to Liverpool. Tevez to United was the big story all over the papers, although his departure was always somehwat of an inevitability.

So Tevez is off to Man U, for £20 Million. That doesnt sound too bad a piece of business, especially compared to Bent going for £16 Mill!

Well, bye bye Garcia, and all the best. When he was bad he was very very bad, but when he was good he was genius.

Now we want Heinze apparently. Would be a damn good signing if under £10M, we don't really have an adequate left-back.

To be fair he was £4.5 but still...... not enough

It looks like Garcia's going to sign for Atletico for around £3.5M.

Nice that we'd sell a player to them for a fair price, yet have to pay a good £10M over the odds when the tables are turned.

Ok so now Arsene has spent all £16million of the Henry money, plus £250,000 on a Croatian national from Brazil called Eduardo da Silva.

He does sound good. 34 goals in 32 games last season and has been Croatian top goal scorer for the last 2 seasons by a mile...... could this be the answer to the questions. "where can we find a reliable goal scorer" and "who can replace Henry" I bloody hope so.

How about this one then - Torres or Bent + £11M?

It's clear who's done the better business, regardless of who's the better player.

I have to disagree, i'd take Torres over Bent anyday. Leeds are getting rid of Kevin Nicholls to Preston, thank God for that, and Ian Moore, another useless acquistion of Blackwell, is off to Chester.

Nah, he's not that good.

He scored 14 goals last season, and about the same the season before. There seems to be some belief that he's world class. He's not. He could be moulded into world class, but for me that shouldn't cost anywhere near £27M.

Darren Bent is as good, I assure you. They're both quick strikers with a good first touch and an impressive leap. The difference is, for the two seasons Bent has played in the Prem, his stats have been better.

Torres is a class act. I think he is worth about what Liverpool paid for him, nd he is far better than someone like Darren Bent. Liverpool needed a striker and for me they've bought a very, very good one.

That was his buyout clause price, was it not? I think the move is more to show Liverpool's intent. They want to make a big move and show they are challengers. They also didn't want to wait for Torres' contract to run out and get in a bidding war with a lot of other clubs.

Torres to Liverpool now confirmed, £27M.

He's a decent enough player but £27M is far too much, I'd value him more around the £15M mark. He had a couple of good seasons but that was over two years ago now and his recent performances for Atletico have been fairly average.

I can't imagine what we'd pay if Darren Bent was Spanish who, by the way, signed for Spurs yesterday for £16.5M.

Birmingham have just made one of the shrewdest signings so far in my opinion, Oliver Kapo from Juventus. This guy can be a class act and is a great player for a team like Birmingham. Expect big things of him.

Looks like we m9ght end up with Tevez. He is good but he is not Henry.....and what an ugly sh!t.

Barcelona will probably play Messi on the right, Ronaldinho in the middle, and Henry on the left of attacking midfield, with Eto'o upfront, with Henry coming inside, Ronaldinho going to the left and Iniesta coming down the middle.

Biggie Little Jr. wrote:
> Or maybe Le Sulk? He's been linked to Arsenal in a £10
> million bid.
>
> ^{Hahahahahaha Anelka! Hahahahaha}


NOOOOOOOO HE IS A MUPPET. I agree with the 17yr old Mali kid but to be fair we will sell him long before he gets any good.. You make my point. West ham are willing to pay 16M for Bent that doesn't meamn he is as good as Henry, just that he makes 16M worth of difference to the team. Bear in mind that Henry is joining a side with Messi, Ronaldinho and Eto'o as attacvking players and to that line up Henry will not make 16M worth of difference. West ham are will ing to pay 16M because at the moment it looks like Tevez will go and they have bu**er all else.

Or maybe Le Sulk? He's been linked to Arsenal in a £10 million bid.

^{Hahahahahaha Anelka! Hahahahaha}

You may need Kaka but you won't be getting him, knowing Wenger you'll get some 17 year old kid from Mali who might be somewhat decent in about 5 years :-)

Not everyone is worth what people are prepared to pay for them, Henry is going for £16 milllion, West Ham were willing to pay more than that for Darren Bent.

Garin wrote:
> I dont think anybody believed Shevchenko was worth 30 million,
> and that includes Chelsea and AC Milan. :)

In the end people are worth what people will pay for them. The way I see it is yes he is 30 and even if he is worth 16m for his football he is worth the rest in club sponsorship and shirt sales etc. If a team like Barca, who already have the other 2 best strikers in the world in the form of Eto'o and Ronaldinho, come knocking for your best player you make them pay for him through the nose. To be honest I want to see him sit on the bench with an injury or just because he is too old to compete for a place this season and put some thought into what he has done. "Gunner for life" my arse...................NOW WE NEED KAKA

I dont think anybody believed Shevchenko was worth 30 million, and that includes Chelsea and AC Milan. :)

For the last 3 years, obviously excluding this season,Theirry Henry has been the best player in the world. He is the best player the Premiership has ever seen, and still has 5 years left in him. I'd say he's worth more than £30 million, especially if Shevchenko is.

Half of what hes worth?  Hes 30 in just under 2 months and has spent most of the season injured.  I think its a bit of a stretch to suggest hes worth 30+ million at this stage of his career.

I concur, there was that whole argument about whether Arsenal fans would rather keep Henry and not win the Champions League, or lose Henry and win it, as most thought he would leave if you did win it.. turns out he only stays for one season, barely plays, and then leaves for well under half of what he's worth. Arsenal fans must be fuming....

ohhh I hate it when I am right. Still 16M is not enough for henry.

How about £20,000,000 for Arsenal and a deal worth almost £3,000,000 a year for him. Good enough reason?????
I would walk to barca for that money

I can't see Henry going to Barca a team he said he thought cheated so why would he. I think arsenal are going to with the premiership this season honestly. The young players will gel and it will all come together.

I'd still be very suprised if Thierry Henry went to Barcelona, what would be the point? He signed a new contract at the beginning of last season and was injured for most of the season, so what would be the point of leaving now and not leaving to the team that had just won the Champions League?

What the hells going on with the Joey Barton transfer? There just had to be controversy with that transfer. Apparently there's a compensation clause if Barton gets arrested, very sensible of Allardyce.

Liverpool have been suprisingly quiet, and representitives have come out and said there not going to be throwing away money, i.e. making a lot of expensive signings, can';t see Benitez being happy with that. They won't be title contenders with players like Crouch and Pennant in the team and until they get a regular top class goal scorer.

hehehe oh dear, the one man team are losing their one man, mid table obscurity awaits :-D

Well you will be happy to know that senderos seems to be on his way to spain. I really dont understand what happened to him. There was a time when old sol was injured and he played brilliantly as cover.
The talk of Thierry Henry going to Barca is even more detailed now. Apparently he has signed a preliminary 3 yr deal worth 10M to him.
God i hope not.

For me what Arsenal need is a player who does all the 'ugly bits' of football, much in the mould of a Gattuso and a Hargreaves, a defensive midfielder usually. Funnily enough, I believe you have/had this player in your squad... Julio Baptista. The reason he was at Madrid is because he was a brilliant defensive midfielder for Sevilla, yet Real Madrid felt the urge to play him up front :S and so has Arsene Wenger. Looking at the Arsenal team (this may not be 100% accurate) I see:

1. Lehmann
2. Eboue
3. Gallas
4. Toure
5. Clichy
6. Hleb
7. Fabregas
8. Gilberto
9. Rosicky
10. Van Persie
11. Henry

Now, for a start, Lehmann is a good goalkeeper, but is getting on a bit, and is very blunder-prone. Fabainski may be promising, i've seen him play, but he's only 22 I think, and he's certainly not a top four calibre goalkeeper at this stage, I always thought of him as being a good backup goalkeeper.

Eboue, Gallas and Toure are fine in defence, you've got the attacking nature of the right-back Eboue, and two solid centre-backs in Gallas and Toure. Obvioulsy we didn't see much of a Gallas/Toure central-defensive partnership last season due to numerous injuries in the left-back position. Clichy however is a problem, he's a good enough left-back, but someone like Baines or Dede (Borussia Dortmund) would really complete a top quality Arsenal defense.

Midfield, they're all too similar players for me. I think Hleb is fine on the right, he's a good player but likewise with Rosicky on the left, he isn't really a winger, he hasn't got pace to burn like Ronaldo at Man Utd or Wright-Phillips at Chelsea. Sure, he's a good passer of the ball, but he's got no pace really. And pace is key. Now there's no porblem with having Hleb, but you need a fast left winger to accompany him, but in Rosicky you've got a more skilfull player but who is primarily in the same mould. I don't rte Gilberto, I think Arsenal need a better defensive midfielder if they're playing a 4-4-2, and Fabregas is more of a central midfielder than an attacking midfielder. However, in Van Persie and Henry when they're both fit you've certainly got a very good striking partnership with plenty of goals within them. While many people believe Arsenal need a defensive midfielder, they've got one in Diaby, but I believe Arsenal need a fast winger who can cross (Vicente at Valencia?) and an attacking midfielder in the middle (Someone like Messi, although these are obviously hard to come by, but Wenger has a tendency to pluck out these sort of players). However, the biggest problem has to be the squad depth, what depth you have in your squad is young and inexperienced, and in Senderos' case.. Rubbish!

And just as i was talking about getting experianced players in it seems that portsmouth , or "little gunners" as i like to call them, may make a bid for ljungberg...... wicked. To sum up. Possibly 5 of arsenals most experianced players may quit in the summer and all we have signed is a third string, 20 year old polish keeper. Its alright to buy people to nurture when you have the experiance, look at united this summer, but we have tons already and need a week in week out great player or even 3 to start to catch up. WE ARE DEAD when we head to old trafford next season

I am a bit surprised too. Ribery had said he wanted to go to spain or England. I heard that Arsenal had a £15million bid turned down and we wouldn't match the £17million paid by munich, despite Ribery saying he would rather come to us than Bayern.
Maybe Henry will stay this year but I really think we need to do something really special if we are to keep him past the end of this season. I am very worried that, despite being given a huge transfere kitty of reportedly close to £50million, wenger still seems to think he can conjour experiance out of the air. WE NEED SOME MORE EXPERIANCED PLAYERS.