Well at least by the time they have all the experience they need they'll be only 21.

this is very true and fills me with great hope for the future - providing we dont blood these players and then sell them which i could see happening.

whatever happens, i am pysched for saturday afternoon!

Yes James... yes it will.


Man City 0-1 FC Midtjylland <<------ Looooool!

1. Man U
2. Liverpool
3. Chelsea
4. Arsenal

IMO

very pleased with that solid start to the season considering we were missing fabregas/rosicky/eduardo and toure/van persie on the bench. i thought denilson was outstanding in the middle and clichy we excellent as always. it wasnt the greatest performance overall but its always tough playing the promoted teams first up so to get a win and a clean sheet is very satisfactory.

, and you guys didn't exactly reinforce that leaky defense in the close season



I'D LOVE IT if we put another 4 or 6 up against you



what're the odds on hughes getting the axe or leaving before the end of september?




1. For me, it wasn't so much of a drain as itwas just a big pain in the ass, and we've really yet to make a move. I have no doubt that something will happen before the end of the window, but I'd sure as hell like another striker and maybe a bit more defensive cover

2. Thaksin is a complete idiot and Sven was lucky that he got fired for no reason. That club is one big mess on the verge of happening and it'll be extremely amusing watching it

3. I just wonder though how willing to spend all of these big moneyed guys that QPR are bringing in? There is still the problem that Loftus Road will need to get a lot bigger and that QPR just have never really been more then a medium sized club. The QPR fans can ask the Fulham fans what its like having an extremely deep pocketed owner for a mid sized clu

4. WTF ON HAVING ARSENAL AHEAD OF US. I can see and sadly agree with chelski being the favorites to win the league this season. There'll have to be a major injury to Terry or Cech again for them to slip up. They have a much superior manager then Grant and miles less drama then Mourinho existed under before he got the retard axe, and they played spectacular from January on. That said, aresenal still don't have the depth to compete on three major fronts and signing Nasri didn't address their thin defense

lol that sums it up nicely.


Did anyone follow Arshavin? did he ever go anywhere? i lost track

tottenham seems to be the only club still considering a serious offer. rumour has it he wants to be paid top 5 money for any premiership player, so i dont think he'll be on his way.

Yea I'm not happy as usual about our defense, we bought that guy Colocinni but asides from that nothing in the defense.

And Nicky Butt did great for us, but seriously he can't last much longer, and he never creates goals. Bartons a dirt bag, it pains me but Duff doesn't look like being consistent.


The one thing that I am happy with is noone stole or even really attemtped to buy our front 3 and Keegan seems to want to play 4-3-3. so we will go back to the worst defensive league in the premiership and our matches will be 3-2 and 4-3.
Better than it was anyhow

Newcastle have included new Argentine defender Fabricio Coloccini, but Joey Barton has not been considered.

Skipper Michael Owen, Mark Viduka and Andy Carroll are all injured and Shola Ameobi is talking to Ipswich,


0-0 one time?

wow Chelsea crushing portsmouth(Im feeding off live updates) deco and ballack both involved in the goals and apparently boswinga is doing really well too.

Portsmouth are a quality team, scary stuff for everyone else

yeah russia are looking good, they have rolled over portsmouth

that didn't last past the first half hour

I got to celebrate, it was great!

I'm obviously biased but was vidic not 8 feet away from the ball when he shouldered Guiterrez(sp) in the box in the peno claim. It probably wasnt a penalty but he seemed miles away from the ball.

I'm quite happy, Man U obviously dominating possesion but be look very sharp and are not walk overs. I like Jonas(easier to spell). Its been good so far

I'll take it. We actually looked solid defending. Not such a clean performance by Man United, cambell looked good.

Well I'm pretty confident we will finish in the top 10 anyway, its been a while.

Interested to see what will happen when Viduka and Owen come back, I like having duff jonas and martins on the pitch.


WE DIDNT CONCEDE 6 GOALS!!!

Will be very interesting to see what happens to City this season, their own is now an international fugitive. Maybe we've finally found someone that will fail the "fit and proper" test for owning a premier league club.

Come on Man U fans, just because you couldn't beat Newcastle and Chelsea look amazing doesn't mean the seasons over yet, you only sing post when you're winning?

Chelsea Arsenal should be a great match this season


Newcastle on 4 points, happy with that but Owens not fit and Martins and Duff both went off injured

Steven Gerrard FTMFW


IMO

so it will be the same liverpool. Gerrard fc, struggle against the rest of middle pack and Gerrard and torres will pull them through to finish 4th

lol.. I hope you saw today's match. Same old boring Chelsea.

Basically, the only difference from last season is Scolari and Deco (who I've always enjoyed watching play.. unfortunate, now he's at Chelsea). I do still think this will give them the edge needed to win the league this season, but Chelsea are far from amazing to watch.

Our (United's) hope to win, is that Chelsea's lack of firepower makes them come unstuck later in the season... and us signing an extra striker this week would help too.


Other early season opinion - I know there's always a few shock results in the first couple of games, but I think slowly but surely the 'smaller' clubs are getting stronger season by season... which is great for the league in general. I don't think any of the big 4 will finish lower, but teams like Sunderland, Fulham, Blackburn, Portsmouth (tough start) continue to grow. Hull and Stoke have started well too, and this all bodes well for a competitive full season.

As for Newcastle, looking solid so far, and that's exactly what you need. There's been too much upheaval at St. James' over the last few seasons (not only on the pitch, but managerial and board level) to give you a base to build on. If Keegan can steady the ship and have things go his way for at least the next 2 season, then you'll be in Europe without question. Which is where you should be anyway, imo.

FYP

Yeaaaa, my boys haven't looked great and they're lucky to be 2-0.

Shhhhhhhh. Confident facade FTW.

Unless Arsenal bring in someone that can kick lumps in the middle of the park they aren't going to get very far this season imo. Eboue is even worse in the middle of midfield than he is on the right of it.

we're getting relegated this year LDO. Chelsea didn't look all that great today and wigan were able to find holes via their passing through the chelsea defense. Its impossible of course to infer too much though off of the early season






i definitely agree. I think if we can finally get berbatov or maybe snap up dean ashton that will help us greatly. I also would like to see some more defensive cover. I also would like to see Frazier Campbell get used a lot more this season. There's a spark in him and I think that as him and Rooney learn each other more, they will become a scary strike force


I don't know about Fulham, they're still relegation fodder to me. They just don't seem to have the players to stay in the middle of the pack. I do like how Keane has sunderland playing football and blackburn will be interesting with Ince as coach. I'm undecided on pompey


With newcastle, I say give it time before their defense unravels. Its like how spurs fans keep on saying that this is the season that they break into the top 4

Thats a pretty honest and accurate sum up. I was just having a go at Man U because you guys hadn't posted, someone needed to get the thread alive. I'm looking forward to the battle of the top teams.
Its great how much better the "weaker" teams are. I didn't actually see the chelsea match. work, but most of the analysts were predicting 1-0. I agree with Newcastle, the main reason I was happy with Keegan was it gave us a much better chance of having a stable manager for maybe two years(until he walks out on us obv)



Well they still have Fabregas and Rosicky, its a different team with the two of them in there. lol at Fabregas going to be the experienced leader.



I love Roy Keane obv. He took over Sunderland when they had lost their first 5 games in division 1, next season in the premier league, next season still in the premiership, great stuff and he is buying much better players.

I will be happy with a top 10 finish for Newcastle. slowly but surely. I don't see how its like spurs fans as no newcastle fan is really building them up, having our squad live up to its potential ie not being in a relegation battle like last season will be enough.

So, off the mark with a win yesterday. Very good result for us, considering our horrible record against Portsmouth and our injury/suspension list.


More importantly though, it's time to remember the name... Rodrigo Possebon! Anyone rate him as highly as I do? He's a midfielder, but after watching him yesterday he looked like a roaming centre-half, Beckenbauer-esque player. He looked very assured straight away and without wanting to jump the gun, looks like a really great long term prospect for United. Only cost around £2.5m too..

No, with those two playing it's still a team that can't win the ball back in midfield and provides no protection to the back four.

fwiw Arsenal have convincingly won their two matches since Fabregas has been back

What's that I hear?


Chelsea can't beat Tottenham?... at home?


Oh. Right.

Love transfer deadline day!

Just heard that Man City have had a £30m bid for Berbatov accepted.... umm, isn't that the wrong Manchester, Dimitar? (I had heard that Real Madrid made a £36m bid, so I don't know what's going on really).

Loads of rumours flying around, wonder if Chelsea will get Robinho?

Newcastle got someone on loan, I don't know him but hey, Im happy.


Man City stealing Berbatov, one time! Just for the pure ridiculousness of it all. Anyway Berbatov wouldnt leave for city but this is fun stuff.

BBC are doing a good job of the coverage


EDIT: HOLY SHIT THEY AGREED A FEE

Apparently we're in a 'tug of war' with City. Lol, this is so funny... where did they even come from in all this? It'd be quite funny imo if he ended up there, after all summer being linked with us... I don't really want him at United much. Deadline is at midnight, so we'll see.

You know, when you think about these transfers, it's easy to think it's all a very slick process (there being so much money on the line), with a huge legal team, consultants, managers etc etc.. the whole pyramid.

But I bet it's just 3 or 4 fat men on the phone.

Updates are funny on a few sites too, people just text in with the most random rumours ever.

Not a Premiership signing but Chievo Verona have signed Kerlon, the 20 year old Brazilian lad who does the "seal dribble". For those that don't know what that is he runs the length of the pitch with the ball balanced on his head. It's awesome. Youtube it.

And if Spurs sell Berbatov doesn't that leave them with only 2 recognised strikers? Pavlyuchenko and Bent. Shocking.

Fraizer Campbell has been spoken about as a makeweight, which surprised me when I first read it. Ferguson's spoken so highly about him and he's young. Look how well he did on loan at Hull... so I don't understand the logic of going for an over-rated, over-paid, over-moody, overly high transfer fee, getting old (28), Berbatov... and consigning Campbell away as a bit-part in the transfer. I've heard bad things about Berbatov's effect on team moral, and we've already got Ronaldo doing that.

If it was me, I'd keep Campbell, keep potential problems away, and keep the money for another day.


But, it's not me, and it looks like we've signed him. Have to wait for the details to emerge, but I hope we kept Campbell.

Wat

Wow!

City have signed Robinho for £32.5m.


edit - wait, they've only just signed Shaun Wright-Phillips... beware of playing City this season - 'Attack of the midgets!!'

At the risk of repeating myself. Wat.

I know money talks but for crying out loud? Leaving Madrid for Man City????? Robinho obviously has no ambition, or got his Manchester teams mixed up. Imagine he turned up at training as was like "Oh, when is Cristiano getting here?"

loool.. do you think he's ever even been to Manchester? I am shocked, but he's not THAT good anyway, is he? I've only seen him play a few times, but he doesn't seem to live up to his initial hype.

This has to be the worst 1000th post in FCP history. My opinion on Robinho.

He is very good. Fast, skillful but just a little too slight to make a big impact on games. Probably doesn't score enough goals either.

I'm trying to think of a Brazilian who has been a huge success in English football, any thoughts?

Congrats on 1,000.

So, basically from your description, you could be talking about SWP... I don't know exactly what's going on at Man City, but the Thai owner has just sold to an Arab group, so this could be their way of showing their immediate intentions.. the Abramovich mantra of 'sign a big name player at any cost'. How much would Hughes have known about it? Probably very little.

If I was a City fan, I'd be over the moon! But, in reality, will he work together with SWP?.. will it just be a big waste of money? Haven't they got other areas they need to spend money on first, before they just go buying Robinho? Meh, I dunno.

------

Off the top of my head, obviously I can think of Anderson who's been a success.

There was Juninho who used to play for Middlesborough. Umm.. Arsenal have had a few, Gilberto was a success overall. There may be a couple of obvious ones I'm missing. But yeah, I'd imagine the Spanish League suits them more, in general, than the Premiership.

Bolded the obvious attempt to wind me up. I would like more than one season of fleeting substitute appearances to warrant a success. Juninho is a good shout though. Aves looks decent as well, wonder what allows Brazilians to settle in Middlesborough? Rio-esque slums?

And obviously you aren't a Chelsea fan but what was your opinion on Mourinho? I didn't mind him but can't say I didn't get a chuckle from this:

http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_ita...dfourteen1.html

Look how cocky and smug he looks, then after seeing his Inter Milan team be thoroughly outplayed by Sampdoria, and Cassano inparticular he goes to this:

http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_ita...dfourteen8.html

He puts himself out there to be shot at by his critics, quite deliberately... he loves the attention, but I think he's a great man manager and excellent tactician too.

Love him or hate him though (I personally find him very funny), every Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool fan will have been happy the day that Abramovich spat his dummy out and got rid off him. That says it all.

Apparently Real were selling Robinho to buy Ronaldo, he wasn't happy that he would be just sold when they want a bigger player and said to hell with them. Obviously he is hoping Man City will go major in January and buy a shitload which it seems quite likely.

Good luck to Mark Hughes the next time he loses a game

<--- Football witch.

Although I think he just quit, so I don't know if I get paid.

Nothings be said yet on any of my sites, hes just making a stand about the transfer system I think. I'll probably be wrong but I don't think hes going

Keegan's such a weirdo...

He seems so naive sometimes too, and it's like he belongs in the 1970's. I didn't like his support of Joey Barton (who should never play football again, but that's another story), and he's consistently come out with a load of crap throughout his career.

He seems to have had problems with the signings during this transfer window. They've made a couple, but come on Kevin, get real!! You can't just spit the dummy out because you haven't been given £X million, immediately, to sign whoever you want. If he walks out AGAIN, from a managerial position, I'm afraid he'll lose all credibility and he'll be remembered as purely a quitter.

It's a shame for Newcastle fans if he goes, because he could have got them up into the top 5/6 if he'd had his head screwed on.


*edit - it's been confirmed that he's left. gg Kev. Shearer next, to save the day?

Any Man City fans in this forum?

If I was, I'd be wetting myself with excitement over who's bought your club... Been reading quite a bit about these guys. Here's a good outline for anyone who wants the details: BBC Summary

Or, just google Abu Dhabi United Group or Sulaiman Al-Fahim.

Basically, City are going to have 10x the amount of money that Chelsea have at their immediate disposal! I look forward to see the rampage they go on in the January transfer window. They already have Robinho, so it may be easier for them to lure other star names now. Watch this space, imo.

Damn you Curbishley! Blatant collusion with Paddypower to avoid paying my Keegan money!

Bah.

I love Curbishley(but no thanks).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philmcnulty/200...t_in_chaos.html I liked it