Great penalty !!! I wonder if we will see that in the premiership...?  Who has the skill and balls to try it.....

Number of players in Citeh's squad at present = 39

Maximum number of players permitted in Citeh's squad at start of season = 25. (U21's excepted).

I can almost smell the fire sale coming up. Problem is much of it will be dead wood such as Bridge, Weiss and SWP..

Isn't that how teams progress, by buying in better players and selling on those who are to be replaced?

Thing is, I can see Citeh getting themselves in a flap if a club they perceive to be one of their rivals starts sniffing. Citeh have already got all paranoid when it was reported that Liverpool were thinking of going for Bridge, with Citeh snarling a "hands off" warning.

Well I'll start by asking if Boateng is any better than Bridge? Both are good players, if nothing exceptional.

The thing about Citeh is that due to the club's determination to buy the 'next best thing' i.e. a player who by talent or sheer fluke had a good World Cup and not, at the same time, offloading the 'damaged goods' already on the club's books means it now has a top heavy squad. As the amount of time to do business progressively narrows the shoe will end up being on the foot of would-be purchasers of said damaged goods.

Take the case of Bellamy. Word is he could be available for 'as little' as GBP4m. Yet why buy him when you could probably halve your costs by negotiating a loan deal. I hope 'Arry takes that line, rather than shelling out for a 31-year old who has seen better days.

Knowing the way 'Arry operates I'm sure he can run rings around the Arabs, who probably don't care how much money they lose anyway.

superb penalty, though it could make a few look very foolish

Interesting times ahead for Shiteh they will have to trim their squad and a few good players / prospects will have to leave. However i still dont see any real leaders in their squad and with a big foreign contingent i dont see them really challenging come May 2011. Maybe a cup will be their best opportunity.. As far as Bellamy goes he is a bit of a nut job and hard work for a manager but the lad can play.. he be a good acquisition for the likes of Spurs, Villa, Everton etc he would be a steal for 4M.

I cant see past a Man U / Chelsea struggle once again with Spurs, Gunners, Liverpool and Shiteh fighting for the other champs league positions. I do hope Man U can get a couple of top players in especially a creative goal scoring midfileder but i am pepped up with Vidic agreeing a new deal thats a big plus. Like Chelsea we have a settled squad and thats worthy a few points... Shiteh maybe a force in a 2 or 3 years but they need some leadersip and i dont see any in their team.

Arsenal also lack leadership.. talented team play great football but lack a player who will grab a game by the balls and push their team on.. its been their downfall since the great side that included Adams, Keown, Viera and Petit.

Spurs.. typical Redknapp team great going forward but woefull at times in defence

Liverpool.. During Benitez reign v reliant on Torres and Gerrard as Benitez was clueless about the English game. Roy has taken over.. and hey i like this guy he can manage. I expect a more competitive Liverpool this season and he will get the best out of his squad no doubt Liverpool will be there or there abouts

Top four

Man U

Chelsea

Liverpool

Spurs/Arsenal/shitty

I cant really split Man U and Chelski i went for Chelski last season and they won... this year i am going for Man U as hopefully the back 4 and goalie will be more settled and injury free and that some youngsters will come thru and suprise. I am also holding out on SAF pulling off one major signing.. lots of ifs n buts i know !!

LOL. Apparently, Fabregas has agreed a 5-year, GBP5.9m p.a. deal with Barca. Uh, slight problem though - Arsenal and Barca have yet to agree a fee (if they ever will). If true, this makes tapping up almost seem like an innocent pastime.

Of course UEFA will do absolutely nothing about this, despite the fact Fabregas wouldn't have been given permission by Arsenal to even talk to Barca.

Can you imagine what the odious French twunt (Platini) would have done had a PL team pulled a similar stroke on a La Liga side?

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2010/07/25/2041646/cesc-fabregas-signs-five-year-contract-with-barcelona-as-arsenal-

Saw these figures about total amount spent on transfers since the inception of the Premier League in '92:

Chelsea     £563.2m

Man Citeh  £486.1m

Man Utd    £419.4m

Liverpool   £419.1m

Totenham  £383.6m

Arsenal      £269.9m

Aston Villa  £253.2m

These are gross amounts. The net spend is as follows:

Chelsea     £366m

Man Citeh  £300m

Liverpool   £200m

Totenham  £176m

Aston Villa  £142m

Man Utd    £139m

Arsenal      £32m

Obviously, the Man U net figure is skewed by the anomalous £80m they got for the cheating Portuguese winker. But still, given the unparallelled success they have had, it's a remarkable return on investment. To me it illustrates just how valuable their 'Golden Generation' was to them. Imagine at today's prices if they'd have to buy Giggs, Beckham, Scholes, the Nevilles, Butt (and others).

That Chelsea top the list is no surprise, but at least they've won a few League Titles. The Citeh figure is a surprise, considering they've spent as much time out of the PL as they have in it. Shows how expensive it is to crash the 'top table', though.

Liverpool should have done better than they have, for sure. The bulk (more than half) of that £200m net spend was spent in Houllier's reign, when transfer values were well below (half?) what they are now. The list of high-price flops he signed brings tears to one's eyes (sorrow for Liverpool fans, laughter for all others)

And yet, look at the Spurs spending. It's not far behind Liverpool's - less than £1.5m a season difference. Even though Liverpool's PL tenure is rightly judged a flop, they have at least won the Champions League, UEFA Cup, 3 FA Cups and 3 League Cups during this time.

Spurs have just 2 League Cups to show. Which club has had the better return on investment?

However, the biggest story to me is that of Arsenal. Wenger is a transfer market genius. With a total net spend of just £32m, he's won 3 Premiership titles, 5 FA Cups and a League Cup. Playing the most attractive football, too.

Saint...Wenger has one jack tulipsince 2005. Yes he won a fair few trophies in what was a golden era for the club but the club hasnt won anything for long enough and that is reflected by his net spend. The golden era for the Gunners contained players that were born winners and established stars... recent squads had lacked leadership and experience, sure a few players pop up season to season in the Gunners shirt looking like quality players then somehow  seem to disappear. Ask any Gunners fan are they happy with their trophies... I am sure you will get a negative response. For me what is quite incredible is the net spend Man U have done  and the success they have had !! Skewed or not by Ronaldos fee it has showed what a shrewd and great manager SAF is.

More's the point, Arsenal's figures have been distorted (positively) by Anelka, while Spurs' figures have been distorted by Rebrov and Postega. What do the figures above mean? Absolutely nowt.

Oh and let us not forget the GBP8.5m shelled out on the forgettable Dean Richards.

Arsene is the best there has been when dealing in the transfer market, probably had no choice with the cost of the new stadium around his neck. I for one think that he was very very lucky, he walked into an Arsenal team that had the most ruthless defence English football had seen for years, along with Dennis Bergkamp he had a pretty strong squad.

We haven't won anything for 5 years and I think on a couple of occasions if we had had a couple more of experienced players we would have been right in there with a shout.  A W's squads of recent years always seem slightly light.

Didn't Arsenal get £21/23m for Anelka? Strip that out and they've still net-spent far less than any of their rivals. But I don't actually think any of the examples you've given really distort the figures. They're just the normal sort of transfer activity. Paying £15m for a player only ultimately worth a fraction of that is a reflection on the manager of the time and the club for sanctioning it.

Signing a player for a pretty average £12m and then selling them a couple of years later for £80m (way more than twice the previous English record) to a club embarking on one of their periodical splurges is a freak event.

I think the figures say a lot about the respective managers at the time. I can't help thinking that your arsey response means I hit a nerve, though.

FiO - yes, the points you make are right. Arsenal haven't won much in recent years and with a little more investment could have done better. And I did give Man U praise - do you realise how much that hurt? But, just for you, I'll say that old Baconface is the best manager of his generation.

From August 20th 2000.

''Spurs boss George Graham believes he has a football gem in £11m Ukrainian striker Sergei Rebrov.

Graham was delighted about his team's performance in the 3-1 win against Ipswich Town - but was left enthusing about the brilliant Rebrov.

He said "Sergei was excellent - and he's a team player, anybody can see that

"All great teams have outstanding, world-class individual players and Sergei is certainly that but, most important, he plays for the team - the team-ethic always comes first.''

Fast forward one year and we have the following.

''Southampton have rejected a £4m bid from Tottenham for centre-back Dean Richards.

Saints chairman Rupert Lowe issued an angry statement snubbing the offer, which arrived after persistent media speculation that Richards was wanted by his former manager, Glenn Hoddle.

"Tottenham Hotspur today made an offer of £4m for the registration of the player, in either cash or by way of player exchange," said Lowe.

"We have rejected this offer unreservedly, both verbally and in writing."

Cheers Saint...couldnt have said it better myself !

You could argue all day about figs being distorted....OTT transfers being paid / received, duff players bought for large sums, brilliant players bought for nowt its part of the game. A lot of it is down to great management and some of it is down to luck. Money can buy success..Chelsea turned it round with heavy investment (and a lil help from jose) Man U success is due to a stable team / manager and the financial power to buy when needed. Arsenal will also point to the manager / players being responsible for their golden era. Money alone does not guarrantee success you need a strong manager, a team with a stable backbone and leaders on the pitch. Man City have the money.. but money alone is all they have at the moment.

Hmmm, well the Tottenham figures look set to be distorted further with Levy reportedly making GBP45m available to 'Arry. I'm assuming a sizeable chunk of that may go on a bid for Suarez - the rest on Richards and Bellamy, seemingly.

If Bellamy and Richards are available for 5m pound each then that is a good deal... both good quality players and make useful additions to most squads.. tho would they be automatic choices at Spurs ??

Suarez would be a genuinley risky 30M pound punt.... good WC and excellent in the Dutch league (like Ruud Van Nistlerooy was) but a risk as the dutch league is pants.

I am losing hope of Man U making any high profile signings...SAF needs that goal getting midfield playmaker !

To be fair there is and probably only will be M City who spend big. Last season for Scholes and Giggs at the top??

I can't disagree with most of your points above, although I think Citeh want GBP9m (or thereabouts) for Richards, GBP6m for Bellamy possibly, while Ajax will be looking for GBP30-35m.

Richards has a better chance of being slotted in now than before due to Woodgate and King being crocked. He can be played as a centre half. If not, he could play at right back, with Corluka playing more centrally.

Bellamy, I'm not entirely sure where he would fit in, unless 'Arry is looking to move Bale to LB, which to me would be utterly pointless.

Hodgson sounding very upbeat about the prospects of Torres staying. Either it's going to be good news, or Hodgson's going to look a right tool.

Mascherano sodding off, though - hardly unexpected. Depends now how much we can get for him and, of course, who we can bring in. I have a crazy notion that Lucas could be a very effective holding midfielder, given the right coaching.

Bit early to start a 'Woy Out' campaign isn't it?

Hmmm, well the Tottenham figures look set to be distorted further with Levy reportedly making GBP45m available to 'Arry. I'm assuming a sizeable chunk of that may go on a bid for Suarez - the rest on Richards and Bellamy, seemingly.

llamedos wrote:

 

I am losing hope of Man U making any high profile signings...SAF needs that goal getting midfield playmaker !

future_is_orange wrote:

Agree Jon...unless there's some last minute surprises in store, it's going to be another somewhere in the top three finish in the Premiership and an exit in the last 8/4 of the Champions League...........just not good enough  

SEMerc wrote:

Agree John that this will be Scholes / Giggs  / Nevilles last season..... but like last season i am sure they will play more games then they would expect too at their ages. Scholes / Giggs did get Man U out of several holes last season. I am hopeful Man U will regain the prem title this year but i really feel we do need a Sneijder / Ozil type player. There are also huge doubts over Hargreaves and Anderson being part of the premiership squad. Time for some of the new crop of Fergies fledglings to deliver. With regard to CL i feel Jose already has his name on it for Real Madrid this year...i

Thank fook for that.

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2010/07/28/2045251/west-ham-united-reject-bid-from-tottenham-hotspur-for-scott

When I first saw the headline I (wrongly) assumed it was about Pavluchenko.

http://www.spurs-web.com/2010/07/28/redknapp-vows-to-save-russian-donkey/