Xabi Alonso To Real Madrid for €34m. I think this hurts Liverpools chances to dethrone United.
Is that worth it, for Gareth Barry? Even more so now that he's moved on to Man City? Essentially, Benitez got what he asked for - Alonso's departure. Just a sad thing that Barry went elsewhere. The lesson is, never treat a player like dirt, especially one as talented as Alonso.
Last edited by Guo Xiang; 08-06-09 at 11:25 PM.
Honestly I couldn't understand why Benitez wanted Barry to start with. Looking at the departures/arrivals so far how do you think this season is shaping up?
United lost the most talent but have the deepest squad in Europe and the manager who is probably the best in the world at using all the players in their squad. (Although I think he made a mistake not starting Tevez in the CL final against Barca.) I think midfield could be a big problem.
Liverpool has lost Alonso. I don't know that Alberto Aquilani is a player of the same quality as Alonso.
Chelsea has added Zhirkov and not lost anyone that I can remember. But some of their key players are another year older and who knows whether Zhirkov will do well or be another one of those players who look great but can't cut it in the Premier league.
Arsenal lost Toure and Adebayor. I think people have greatly overestimated the impact the loss of Adebayor will have on Arsenal. Arsenal will have Arshavin for the entire season and Eduardo is supposed to be fit. However, they still need a holding midfielder. If they can pick one up, I think they will surprise people.
Manchester City added a lot of offense but needed defense. I think Mark Hughes is living on borrowed time and they are not ready to challenge for the top spot.
Based on bookmaker's odds the betting public has made Chelsea the favorites, but I think that the trophy will stay at Old Trafford. If City break into the top four - and I don't think they will - I think it will be at the expese of Chelsea. (That maybe just wishful thinking because I detest Chelsea.)
Or perhaps at the expense of Liverpool, especially since Alonso is now gone.Based on bookmaker's odds the betting public has made Chelsea the favorites, but I think that the trophy will stay at Old Trafford. If City break into the top four - and I don't think they will - I think it will be at the expese of Chelsea. (That maybe just wishful thinking because I detest Chelsea.
Liverpool always seems like the weakest link among the Big Four. It seems like Liverpool needs to go Wenger's way, or do it the good old way - developing good domestic players which isn't easy either. Otherwise, the club's lack of transfer funds might just kill it sooner or later.
I doubt Chelsea has much to worry about as they will always be among the top three, or even top two. They may not be as lethal as a couple of seasons ago, but they are still a very powerful team.
Man Utd... I'm not sure. I guess we can only judge the impact of Ronaldo and Tevez's departures and the influence of the replacements at least a few games into the season.
Though Man Utd seems to be extremely poor at penalties in Community Shield. Lost 4-1 to Chelsea.
Man City is interesting, but as you said they needed to boost their defence, and so far I don't think Mark Hughs has done much transfers on that. What about midfield anyway? Midfield is the heart of football but Hughs haven't made any midfield moves too, and he booted Elano away, which is incredulous.
Let's see what other buys Hughs will make.
And speaking of transfer funds... English football clubs seem to be spending in an unsustainable way. The expenses just keep going up. The bubble might just burst one day.
Last edited by Guo Xiang; 08-09-09 at 11:35 PM.
I think Liverpool's biggest problem is a lack of depth. If can avoid injuries I think they will be ok. I don't think they can win the title but they should remain top four.
More people seem to agree with you than me regarding Chelsea. I see a team that is another year older that hasn't done much to improve themselves for this season.
I think Rooney will pick up some some of the slack caused by Ronaldo's departure.
I agree, the current situation is unsustainable. The amount of debt some of the teams have is shocking. But as long as you have very rich men who have nothing better to do than throw money at football teams than I don't think there will be much change in the near future.
What do you think about Arsenal? A lot of peole are down on the team but I think they have the potential to be pretty good. Like Liverpool they need to avoid injuries which they weren't able to do last year.
Arsenal has a problem with consistency, which obviously is very important if they want to win anything at all. They cannot use the young excuse for much longer now, because even though the players did start young, it also meant they've been playing consistently for the past few years! Now doesn't that point to experience, especially in the case for Fabregas?
Arsenal is a really good team, but consistency is an issue. Had they not lost it one or two seasons ago (my memory's not working well now), I am sure they would have really given Man Utd a hard time. In fact, they looked set to become the champions of the year until they lost their consistency.
Perhaps their fortunes will improve this year, especially with Arshavin. He looked really good last season, but it remains to be seen if he still has that form and if he can maintain it.
Last edited by Guo Xiang; 08-11-09 at 10:41 AM.
Arsenal have a fairly reasonable holding midfielder in Alex Song, whom some have pegged as the key player for Arsenal, in that if he plays and plays well, then Arsenal will play well. They still lean a bit too much towards ideology rather than pragmatism, typified by Wenger shouting at one of his defenders for hoofing the ball upfield.
It'll be interesting to see how Man Utd and Liverpool change, as they've lost the main points of their play.
I am not convinced that Song is the answer. In my opinion he is a perfect example of the inconsistency on the individual level that Guo Xiang pointed out as being a problem for arsenal as a team. They need to replace Kolo Toure as well. But, if they stay healthy I think they can improve on last season's finish. I hope so, Arsenal is one of my favorite teams.
One of the Guardian journos noted Arsenal's growing consistency in the second half of last season when they had settled on Song as the holding midfielder, versus results when Song wasn't playing. With the personnel they have, they have enough creativity to cope even without Fabregas. But without Song, there's a big hole where their midfield should be, and their defence doesn't get any protection, and their attack is bullied off when they try to go through the middle. Juve use Momo Sissoko for this purpose, to claim the middle of the pitch for their use, and deny it to the opposition.
He has good positional sense, and is decent enough on the ball for Arsenal tastes. Xabi Alonso is probably the best of that mould, with good positional sense, excellent ball skills, and enough of a nasty bastard in the tackle to stop any attack that he intercepts. Sissoko might be better for Arsenal, as he is the extreme example of physicality - the Madrid-Juve matches last season saw him utterly dominate the Madrid midfield by himself, and when the rest of the team has quality on the ball, his own lack of such isn't important when set against his ability to intimidate the opposition. Juve aren't likely to let him go any time soon though.
The Vidic to Barca rumors are going to be starting again.
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news...cle121437.html