Lotta questions answered.by.pool.spurs game. Are spurs frauds who looked good cause qpr are dog ****? Are pool gonna ewing theory this yr and just ran bad vs city ? Atleast for spurs it will be hard to do worse than last year.

Regardless we are all just here for the lolutd leggo burnley.

Rvp in his last yr at arsenal and first year manu > than any 2 seasons of any of thise other guys.

If you'd told me in 2009 that Chelsea would have Eto'o and Torres as their main strikers and it would be their worst part of their team...

I believe he had 3 assists in 1 game. I'd have to run the numbers, but assuming that is more than Dembele and Lennon have had in their careers.
Why lower ceiling? He is a much better passer than any of our non-eriksen options, he is pretty two footed, has a good engine, can play the pressing game, doesn't have a bad shot, and very solid WIM. Yeah he makes some mistakes but I'm not talking about him supplanting Eriksen or Lamela, I'm just saying he is a more useful option than Fraudlinho or Dembele.

Rumours that we've had a 14m bid for Blind accepted.

that's lower than I would expect. If that ends up being the price, that's a very good piece of business.

Idk why anyone would pay more than that. That would just be dumb. DM/FB from the Eredivisie...you shouldn't be paying that much honestly.

yeah nbd just a difference of opinion. Take Dembele. I think Holtby has a lower ceiling mainly because Dembele is hilariously strong on the ball, he is, improbably, world class at holding possession and beating the first guy, not a small thing. But still Dembele has sucked hard for a few years now, he moves to the beat of his own sundial and it sucks. But I can't quite give up on him because what he does right is potentially VERY useful and can't really be learned. Paulinho last year? Useless, invisible 90% of the time, **** that guy. If we get $ for him (or Dembele, or pretty much anyone) then I'm not crying. But man, the 10% glimpses of Paulinho's ceiling are big time. Physical btb, big motor, but still calm in the final third and clever too. And I wouldn't really say that Holtby is a better "passer", I do think he sees through balls better and tries them a lot and that his success rate is only going to rise. But here's the part where you might roll your eyes, and that's fair enough, but to me Holtby is always running out of time on the ball. His field presence is flimsy, he runs around with his chin up and bluffs like he's strong on the ball but he isn't actually, the better defenders are never afraid to get aggressive with him. Compare to Eriksen who for a million different reasons moves through life putting people on their back foot.

I like Holtby but I don't see him as a consistent contributor to a top-four prem side. His big two strengths are "no big weaknesses" and "beep test," and in a super sick mini-league like the top third of the prem that to me isn't enough, we don't need that guy right now, our worst-case scenario is basically 7th so we have room to **** up and find out stuff, like whether Poch can coax something actually menacing out of Soldado and Townsend et al. It sucks bc we haven't seen Holtby get a great chance to prove himself, but then we also haven't seen a few hundred hours of training time and the managers have and it still always seems like Levy has a perma green light to move him. (Sorry for word bomb, I'm trying to not do that.)

You can't disagree that Holtby is out of his depth in the 7 club mini league at the top of the division, but that he can play an important squad role in every other game is reason enough to keep him imo, especially with his versatility and attitude.

Dembele... he played 45 mins at right AM against Sunderland at was excellent. Given his strength, ball skill and pace over short distances i'm surprised no one else has put him out there as it negates his worst skill as all he has to do it cross it. However, i felt there was a definite improvement in his speed of ball use in the EL this week and if he sorts that out we have a very big player.

Bottom line is that most of out midfield has shown significant upside, but in some way also have significant flaws. We have to bite the bullet and move 2-3 of them and if they end up goating elsewhere, blame Levy for hiring a succession of coaches who can't improve players.

No, I don't think that's harsh but I hate Liverpool.

Torres > RvP > Eto'o > Villa for me. Torres was unbelievable at Liverpool. He was the only player not named Messi to rip the duo of Rio and Vidic back then. In fact he took the piss! Only way to handle him was to foul him...

Looks like Roma won the bid for Rabiot for 15M€, decent amount but still tilted by this situation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28994387

Been confirmed by BBC but no fee.

Makes a lot more sense than the £25m that was being quoted.

Seen him a few times, not overly impressed.

And confirmed at £14m

Done much quicker than any other deal under Woodward.

Both him and Rojo I don't find to be particularly amazing but probably not watched them enough.

Doubt it's possible for Blind to be worse than Buttner/Cleverly.

Rojo still hasn't got international clearance, is this not a bit weird it taking so long?

reports that he has a pending assault charge in argentina. would be hilarious if the work-permit stuff doesnt get sorted out in time.

I agree, mostly going on what I've read about them I find them somewhat underwhelming signings, but like you I haven't seen too much of them.

Agger to Brondby's been confirmed. Not even 30 yet and he's gone to play in Denmark.

Remember he was linked to Barca at one stage.

He was actually good as well.

Madness

They offered him the most money, don't act so shocked people

i think after many months of searching and multiple false alarms we've finally found a footballer that isn't primarily motivated by money