That's why we have invested in players like Ryo and Chamberlain, and are going to sign Hazard on Thursday. The creative thrust comes from them. A midfield with the likes of Ramsey and Wilshere in it, when they're fully up and running, won't lack for creativity anyway - it won't lack for anything.

Ultimately Miyaichi and Chamberlain don't play, though. Rosicky and Arshavin does. Wenger won't use them when the chips are down. Now I love Miyaichi, and Chamberlain seems like a great talent as does Campbell, but we need a couple of players who are ready now. Hazard would go a long way to balance the scales this summer, but even for him it's probably a season or two too early to contribute consistently at top level. But that's the kind of player we should go out of our way to sign at the moment. Someone who can give a blunt squad a bit more edge.

Why Thursday, by the way? Any rumours I've missed?

He'll only sign for us if we qualify for CL Klaus.
We have to offer him more than he is already guaranteed at Lille.

I meant: why is Ricky (and seemingly you!) so sure that Hazard will sign? At all?

You haven't missed anything mate, just me messing about. Although he 100% will sign! 🙂

Ricky, the sunshine kid 😃

Hopefully him and a few more come in soon.

Klaus wrote:

I meant: why is Ricky (and seemingly you!) so sure that Hazard will sign? At all?

Ah right!
No, I'm opposing Ricky on this 🙂
I have little faith that we'll sign him though I'd be ecstatic if we did.
Think Lille hold all the aces on this one.
They're under zero pressure to sell him right now, they know we've got money and that we are fairly desperate.
Expect that they'll demand a ludicrous fee that will send us scurrying right back home.

Hazard on Canal+: "i'm staying with Lille, but in football you're never sure, so i'll wait until 31 August to see what happens."

Hmmm......

😆 "I'm definitely staying, but I might be leaving."

Ricky1985 wrote:

I haven't seen much of him myself, but there are too many people who talk highly of him for him not to be quality. I've seen him compared to Vieira a few times, would those of you who have seen him often say he's reminiscent of old Paddy?

At 6ft even he's about 4 inches shorter than Paddy for starters.

Pretty sure you'll find that those are old quotes. Could be wrong, but 95% sure I'm not. Paquet also said a week or two after he said the above that he wasn't ruling out the possibility of Hazard leaving if a big offer came in.

They're new according to french papers, but who knows really. They're obviously going to sell him all the same if we offer them £30 million or some similar figure. The problem is that we won't, or we would've done it by now.

Good point, Dules. A good hard pondering has never hurt anyone.

Something tells me we'll ponder for the next 7 days and then place a bid that's nowhere near Lille's asking price. It's almost like I've seen it happen before some place.

Arseblog says we're in for a prem defender. If it's Chris Samba I'm going on a Falling Down spree.

Cahill rumours have been doing the rounds on twitter today, or so I've been told. People apparently reckon that he's agreed terms with either us or Liverpool.

We've been in for a 'prem defender' every day for the last 3 months.