Kel Varnsen wrote:

i want sahin as a replacement for wilshere, who might not be back to his old self for a long time.

Well we dont really know anything about what's going on with Wilshere at the moment do we? We've been told he'll be back and available to play around October, and with nothing else to go on that's good enough for me.

And it's not like Sahin is a good bet to hit the ground running. He's a kid, he may or may not speak English, he may or may not like London, he's never played in English football and he's barely played for a year. I'm also not convinced he really wants to leave Madrid.

timBO! wrote:

Song, Arteta, Wilshere, Chamberlain, Diaby, Cazorla, Rosicky, Coquelin and Ramsey. That's a lot of players for 3 positions.

I think there are question marks over the ability of the majority of that list to provide us with a season of the quality we would require. Rosicky and Diaby's inconsistency/ injury history, uncertainty over Wilshere's return and the relative inexperience and inconsistency of Ramsey, Ox and Coquelin as three genuine first team options leaves me slightly tentative about calling it a good mix. I've no doubt question about their respective talent, just that we would be asking a lot of that group and would need a lot of things to go in our favour.

Good cross section of talents and skills, decent in numbers but I don't think the balance of it is still quite right. Song going would be a disaster at this point I think.

sahin is brilliant and i don't think he'd have any problems adjusting to the premiership. especially in a team like ours.

you say we have a lot of options in central midfield, but i tend to disagree. song, who probably is off anyways, was never a favorite of mine. think his weaknesses outweigh his strengths. easily replaced. ramsey and coquelin aren't ready. diaby and rosicky are constantly injured. that leaves us with cazorla, arteta and chamberlain. the latter unproven to say the least.

He speaks english and has already lived in three different countries. Decent indicator of his adaptibility.

timBO! wrote:

Song, Arteta, Wilshere, Chamberlain, Diaby, Cazorla, Rosicky, Coquelin and Ramsey. That's a lot of players for 3 positions.

5 of those aren't good enough at the moment. Of the 4 that are, one is Wilshere, and if Cazorla is going to be used primarily as a CM then we're weak in the wide positions.

No doubt we'll lose someone to injury too and be left with Diaby/Rosicky/Ramsey spending much of the season in the first team.

To be fair, thought Diaby looked good in that last game.

If he really wants to make it at Real Madrid it makes more sense for him to go to Liverpool and be a guaranteed starter on a loan without an option to buy.

I reckon that being taken to america and playing left back for the whole pre-season was an indicator of where he stands with them. Still, who knows?

I would be happy enough if Diaby, Ramsey, Chamberlain or Rosicky played 20-25 games in central midfield this season. They're all good players.

they are good enough to give us 4th. they are not good enough if we want to challenge for the title.

Wouldn't fancy them in Arteta's position over 25 games.

as of right now, i can see us becoming extremely dependent on arteta and cazorla. an injury to either one of them would hurt us really bad.

This just gets worse lose rvp (the fucking cunt is worse than cashley Cole) then lose Sahin to Liverpool of all teams, then possibly lose song to the barca cunts. We better have some signings like llorente or jovetic lined up.

Him joining Liverpool hasn't been announced yet has it? A few weeks ago him signing for us was imminent so until there is something more official not sure I'd believe anything.

Captain wrote:

Wouldn't fancy them in Arteta's position over 25 games.

I watched Cazorla play there for a few games last season. He might be a short-term solution if Arteta gets injured. It is a big problem though. Would very much like us to sort it out this summer. It's almost as bad as the right-back situation. Yennaris, from very limited viewing, looks like someone who has the right skillset to cover for Arteta but he's probably two or three seasons away. And mainly used as a fullback at the moment anyway.

Bet Yennaris never starts a meaningful game for us in midfield. Got a chance at right back though, looks promising. That's his only way of making it here, for me.

I'll take that bet. He will definitely play for the first team as a midfielder at some point. Considering our usual luck with injuries he might get a couple of appearances this season, even.

We'd need a LOT of injuries for Yennaris to get a shot in centre mid. Think he could be a decent right fullback, though.