So who is cunt enough without being borderline berserk that we can slot in front of Koscielny and Sasquatch? We really need to address this issue, particularly before it gets Messi for us.

  • okay, I'll grab my coat.

I'm of the opinion that the main problem is that for four years we have been trying to compensate with 'power' in these big games at the detriment to playing genuinely good footballers. We need pace, we need strength but at the end of the day we also need proper players otherwise we're going the route of these other mugs who were once upon a time looking for 'the new vieira' and we had a premiership littered with Bouba Diops.

Yep, that's my firm belief too. We've been making tactical concessions for 5 years now, since Vieira left. Ways in which we can protect the weaknesses of our less capable players - and it takes away from what we're good at. Thanks to a lack of quality in key areas it's all become very difficult, very complicated - and it's not.

If you get a chance, watch today's Manchester City vs Newcastle game. It was end-to-end stuff, Championship-flavor football. However, more than that, it was an exhibition of determination and hard work by Carlos Tevez. The man was everywhere, defending deep into his own half. He appeared across the entire front line, creating for himself and others, taking on players, sending through balls, the works. He was responsible for a clean goal, a deflected goal and an assist today. I take my hat off to the man. On the field, his commitment is unquestionable.

He's always been like that Zico - and he's added goals to his game since leaving Utd as well. Makes him a genuinely likeable player really, one of the few ex Utd players I'd say that about.

Irishgunnerz beat me to it. He genuinely is like that every game he plays. It's amazing really.

He's one of the best 3 players in the Premiership in my opinion.

I know he typically works hard, but in this game, he seemed particularly outstanding. We should the video of that game to Arshavin

Zico wrote:

How is Scott Parker a criminal and coal miner?

You now what, to call him a coal miner is an insult to honest, hard-working people so I take it right back. He's a leg-breaking, pig-eyed motherfucker (probably in a literal sense) with a haircut that makes him look like a proper cock. If there's ever been a more punchable face not belonging to Simon Charlton I haven't seen it. He's a poor, reckless player who constantly causes injury to others and often manages to injure himself in the process. It was he who pulled Walcott's shoulder out of its socket during a bloody training session with England which caused Theo to miss most of the -08 season, among other things. Not to mention the Bullard challenge. He's a complete waste as a footballer considering the fact that he actually started out with some genuine talent before he threw it all away.

Scott Parker's not important enough to worry about. He's a decent player who has found his level at West Ham, nowhere near good enough to start in a midfield every week for a team chasing the title. I think most Arsenal fans only want him here because he's an aggressive little fucker and they think that's what we miss.

Beg to differ. He offers decent passing range and have a good shot in him as well. He would thrive here, definitely.

For a start, he is miles better than Den effing son

Scott Parker is better than all of Song, Diaby, Denilson and Wilshere. How bringing in a player better than almost all of our entire midfield starting options would not improve the team is beyond me. Wilshere will probably grow to be the better player, but for now, if we want to win titles, we need better quality control in the centre of the park.

Oh, and part of the reason I like this guy is because I know that I am never going to wake up to find that Wenger has signeed Daniele de Rossi. Parker is rumored to be available, would not be expensive, and he's used to the Premier League. This is a very reasonable transfer target

Parker is worse than anything we've got. Not to mention he's on the wrong side of thirty and injury prone. I don't think there's a single team on the upper half of the Premier League table that he'd improve, let alone walk right into.

It's the sort of signing Tottenham would make, not Arsenal, not if we actually have aspirations of winning anything of any significance.

He's not better than any of our midfielders in my opinion, well I suppose he might be better than Denilson, but it's hard to judge because Parker is a big fish a very small pond. If he were at Arsenal, where much more would be expected of him on a consistent basis, alongside better players than him and who he is well aware are better players, I think he'd fade into mediocrity just like he did at Chelsea and even Newcastle.

Dale Johnson's a writer that I respect. On Xmas eve, he released his Premier League team of the year.

No sign of Song, Diaby, Denilson. Parker, however, does appear.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/855947?cc=5901

One question I ask of Parker's detractors? Do you watch him or assume that just because he is in a club at the wrong end of the table that he is crap?

Anybody watched the West Ham match just now? Shows how good Parker is. Really really brilliant, one wonders how he can run so much with so much energy and effort after playing 90 just 2 days ago and today another 90 mins of tenacity.

To be fair, he did look tired in the previous few weeks, but he was back to excellence yesterday.

Really surprised that someone like Ferguson would overlook an excellent Brit like Parker and be sniffing around the lunatic that is Lass Diarra. A man named Lass can only bring drama.

It's been in the rags for the last month. Maybe the papers are just putting 2 and 2 together - Lass is disaffected (as always) and Carrick is shit, so United need a new DM.

22 days later

We're into the 2nd half of the season. Some of the guys who started brightly have since faded badly (Parker) or been injured (Carroll).

To narrow things down, I like to think of the best player as the most important player on a team that's challenging for the title. That means we can ignore the contributions of the like of Carroll, Nolan and even Modric and co. It has to come down to:

Vidic
Tevez
Nasri

as the frontrunners for this year's best player at this point. I am sure Bale has a lot of the British vote, but I would limit any serious discussion after 22 rounds to the 3 above.