It's not a foregone conclusion. Ancelotti will be gone soon and their reason for trying to rush it through is also gone.
The Shopping List—aka We've got flipping great wadges of cash
Hmmm, maybe. He just strikes me, a little, as a kid that is after the money. Not really based on all that much, just a vague recollection of some of his comments from last year.
Personally, I'd take Lukaku anyway, but I certainly wouldn't moan if we did go for Neymar.
Everyone's after money and he stayed where he is for reportedly less than Chelsea were willing to offer. Not that we will be signing him anyway.
kamikaze wrote:yea eto'o, villa and rooney are the guys that come to mind re: a guy who can play across the forward line.
I can't think of a better way of putting this, but I feel like we are beneath Eto'o. He's just one of those players I'd be truly surprised to see at the Emirates, even if Gazidis forced Wenger to spend. I think we could afford him if we wanted. It wouldn't be a case of not having the money (eg Ronaldo, Messi etc)
Has anyone actually seen much of either Neymar or Lukaku? I hear such great things about them, but I don't think I've ever heard the opinion of anyone who really knows their strengths and weaknesses, and just how good they are.
Capi, how easy do you reckon it will be to get tickets for the Brazil game you mentioned a while back at the Emirates?
I think you've all got to forget about Bastos at left back, it's not going to happen, he simply doesn't play there. There's probably only one club in the world that he could do a passable job, and that's Barcelona.
Seen more of Lukaku than Neymar. Both look good though, but Lukaku looks like a beast. Just the sort of combination of size, pace and directness that I like in a striker.
I saw 15 minutes of Lukaku the other week, away at Ajax in the Europa League, and he does look a little clumsy and awkward on the ball at times - you don't reckon that would be exposed alot more if we introduced him into Premier League football come August?
It's the copa libertadores at the moment, you can get that easily online as well as alot of south american football; just look on myp2p but the games are at ridiculous times. Premier sports also shows them.
It should be easy to get tickets to that Brazil game, just go through arse.com.
Ricky1985 wrote:I saw 15 minutes of Lukaku the other week, away at Ajax in the Europa League, and he does look a little clumsy and awkward on the ball at times - you don't reckon that would be exposed alot more if we introduced him into Premier League football come August?
Remember that Asa believes Carroll is a 35m striker. 
Captain wrote:It's the copa libertadores at the moment, you can get that easily online as well as alot of south american football; just look on myp2p but the games are at ridiculous times. Premier sports also shows them.
It should be easy to get tickets to that Brazil game, just go through arse.com.
I'm currently in insomniac mode for some reason, so I might check that out.
Captain wrote:Ricky1985 wrote:I saw 15 minutes of Lukaku the other week, away at Ajax in the Europa League, and he does look a little clumsy and awkward on the ball at times - you don't reckon that would be exposed alot more if we introduced him into Premier League football come August?
Remember that Asa believes Carroll is a 35m striker.
Well, he was for the first half of this season.
Ricky1985 wrote:Captain wrote:It's the copa libertadores at the moment, you can get that easily online as well as alot of south american football; just look on myp2p but the games are at ridiculous times. Premier sports also shows them.
It should be easy to get tickets to that Brazil game, just go through arse.com.
I'm currently in insomniac mode for some reason, so I might check that out.
Thursday 12:50AM (tonight). Colo Colo vs Santos. Nice one Capi!
asajoseph wrote:Well, he was for the first half of this season.
Maybe he is mate, just having a laugh.
Thursday 12:50AM (tonight). Colo Colo vs Santos. Nice one Capi!
May give that a go myself.
Humble Rex wrote:Both Hazard and Sanchez will go for 20m+ when they go. Therefore it is highly unlikely either will end up here IMO.
Being the idiot i am, i just have a feeling Wenger might be tempted to blow a shit load of cash on Hazard this summer. Rosicky Denilson Almunia and probably one of Arshavin or Bendtner could all leave and that 4 could raise 20 million with Hazard being the only replacement needed.
I think most of us secretly think/hope that too mate.
Captain wrote:Thursday 12:50AM (tonight). Colo Colo vs Santos. Nice one Capi!
May give that a go myself.
Looks like there are some good streams about for it too. Veetle have a good one, hope it works.
And i thought i loved my football! Let us know what you make of Neymar.
Perfect stream. http://www.magictv.co/
Elano Just scored a 40+ yard free kick!
I'm honestly in shock at the technical quality on show in this game. It's absurd. 4 goals have been scored, 3 of them absolute crackers.
Neymar has hardly kicked the ball.
Full time. 3-2 Colo Colo. I'd sign Neymar tomorrow.
What did he do to make you say you'd sign him? From not having a kick of the ball at the time there were already four goal to saying you'll sign him tomorrow at which point only one more goal was scored (don't even know if it was his team) is a bit weird mate.
Neymar scored the 5th goal of the game, mate, but even without him doing barely anything in the first half, you could still see quality written all over him.
He did have a much better second half, predominantly because he got the ball, the first half he was starved of it. He's still a little raw in some of the things he does, tries to beat one too many players or plays the wrong pass etc. But he has top class ability.
He's incredibly quick, and such a fluid mover, so quick on the turn and effortless acceleration, great balance. His dribbling is fantastic too, great close control and trickery, even when running fast. He also has insane touch when balls are fired into him, nearly every time perfect weight on his lay offs and first time passes. Hard to judge his movement on today's showing because there was space everywhere, but he knew where the space was and had great timing. He took his goal brilliantly too, dummying the keeper and then walking around him to slide it into an empty net. Composure personified.
He did have some bad parts to his game though. He went down like a sack of shit every time he was touched, rolling around for about an hour each time too. He's also fairly weak and easily pushed off the ball, and a little greedy at times - although he is very clearly the superstar of that team.
I'd kill to have him here, he's a superstar in the making. Oozed class and ability. Looks exactly the sort of player I'd expect to see on Barcelona or Real Madrid's left wing some time soon. Sadly. And that's if Chelsea or City don't get their grubby little hands on him first.
I fell asleep unfortunately but I knew that you would like what you see. The kid is phenomenal, but like you, I suspect he'll end up in Spain.
If I was in Wenger's position I'd be keeping my eyes open for a top class attacker who can play right across the front line-someone fairly direct and pacey who can beat his man-and a young-ish attacking full-back (left or right doesn't really matter). The bulk of my money would go on the attacker.
Then I'd move on Denilson, Rosicky and Almunia. Bendtner too, if we got a good offer for him. Lansbury and Bartley would come back in as squad options. I'd then assess JET, Vela, Frimpong and Coquelin in pre-season before deciding on them.
Should have signed Suarez and Luiz in january. That would have sewn the league up for us, pretty much.
Anyone with a lot of pace and and ability to beat a man would be great.
asajoseph wrote:Should have signed Suarez and Luiz in january. That would have sewn the league up for us, pretty much.
Yep. Both class.
That Welliton looks useful.
Can´t understand why someone would want to sell Nik and keep Chamakh. For my money Bendtner is clearly the better player.
Oh, and since Carroll went for 35m and Bent for 25m - then I think 15m for Nik is too low.
Armor wrote:Humble Rex wrote:Both Hazard and Sanchez will go for 20m+ when they go. Therefore it is highly unlikely either will end up here IMO.
Being the idiot i am, i just have a feeling Wenger might be tempted to blow a shit load of cash on Hazard this summer. Rosicky Denilson Almunia and probably one of Arshavin or Bendtner could all leave and that 4 could raise 20 million with Hazard being the only replacement needed.
At this point I think it is pretty clear that we need every member of our squad. If the players you mention are sold they need to be replaced. As exciting as our youngsters seem to be - it is a big ask to expect them to just step up and deliver right away. Vela, JET, Lansbury, Frimpong - I can see all of them struggle at first, even more so than the players you want gone are struggling now.
I am all for promoting kids, but they should get games on merit. No kicking established players out to make way for someone who is worse.
Oh, and I too think Wenger may well be prepared to break our transfer record for a top, top talent. Hazard fits that bill for sure. Still think there will be other clubs to outbid us for someone like him.
Humble Rex wrote:Can´t understand why someone would want to sell Nik and keep Chamakh. For my money Bendtner is clearly the better player.
Oh, and since Carroll went for 35m and Bent for 25m - then I think 15m for Nik is too low.
If Nik would kindly score 15 goals in half a season, we can ask someone to pay £35m for him.
That said, I think people want to sell Bendtner because he's just too tainted by Wenger's project. He's clearly a more talented player than Chamakh, and better in the here and now for my money too. In an ideal world, we'd sell both, but if it were up to me it would be Marian out the door first.
Watching that game last night has really reminded me just how technically poor the Premier League is. Some of the goals and attacks were absurdly good
Neymar's composure in the box is the main reason why I would like him here. Out of all those young(ish) wide forwards that we mention and would realistically be available, his goalscoring capacity is the highest by quite a distance.
And it's not that the premiership is technically poor, it's just different. Frank Lampard, for instance, is who I would rate as the best technician in world football today.
South american football is just pure joy on a pitch (not so much Argentina), they play with a certain rhythm, tempo and fearlessness that you don't find in many places.
It really is a joy to watch.
The Premier League is technically inferior on average, certainly. It's still a great League and the pace, power and stamina of all the players/teams is absolutely amazing.
On Neymar - he scored 36 goals in his debut season as a 17 year old. He will be a prolific scorer in whichever League he ends up.
When I talk about our front 3 in the other thread, Neymar is the sort of player I wish we had. Just an extraordinary talent - insane speed, insane close control, and ridiculous composure in front of goal. Nasri and Walcott are very good, and will go on to become even better, but if you want to be the very best, and match teams like Barcelona in the long run, you need a player like Neymar. Even Eden Hazard, who I love and am 100% sure will go on to become one of the very best players in the world, just isn't in the same class. I mean check out this stuff from last years U20 World Cup, where he scored 9 goals.
It's such a shame we're not even in a position where a fan can dream about us signing him.
Chelsea has signed the "new Kaka" today by the way. His name is Lucas Piazon, and Juventus are seething because they thought they had him. He will join in January 2012, when he turns 18. He's been picked for the latest Brazil squad for the game against Scotland at the Emirates.
The quote at the start of that video!
what do you take that to mean? (It seems completely different to how the creator of the video implies to me)
It is.
Neymar threw a wobbly when he wasn't allowed to take a penalty and that was the manager's reaction; I think he got sacked soon after. That was last winter.
That's how it sounded to me too. Didn't know about the penalty thing though.
Most Brazilian players are absolutely bonkers. You just have to get 3-4 good years out of them and then sell to Real Madrid for mega money.