The English Premier League Discussion Thread

I think Arsenal is pretty much done. Podolski and M'Vila are some pretty serious transfers, and for their sake, hopefully Wilshere will return, which is just like a transfer. Maybe they'll grab another defender.

Good article by Michael Cox of Zonal Marking naming his Team of the Season. He gives 2 alternates for each position, so it's more like a best XXXIII which is great for fans and people who might be drafting in August.

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/st...best-xi-2011-12-english-premier-league-season

But M'Vila isn't done, is it?

Hasn't been announced, that's why I said "pretty much". Wouldn't surprise me if they were just waiting for the French season to finish.

Yeah but you said Arsenal were pretty much done and then Podolski and M'Vila were serious transfers, I misunderstood. But yeah M'Vila would be pretty cool. Perhaps a left-back? Baines would be fantastic, I don't know if Gibbs is really a future star, and André Santos is just ok.

I don't really know how done M'Vila is. A couple of days ago there was all this noise of the transfer being 99% done, then it emerged that that was all premature and later it was even suggested that Arsenal's interest was not that serious or advanced.

Without suggesting names I think Arsenal need about 3 to 4 more players, competition for Song in the DM position, backup goalkeeper and a more solid option at left-back (my reasoning is the same as Fili's, I kind of like Santos but he's average). That's just to make the top 4 never mind a title challenge.

I agree that to challenge for the title we at the very least need 4 new signings who go straight to the starting eleven(central defender,left back,holding midfielder,offensive midfielder or left or right inside forward) and 3(back up gk, rb and a third striker) more to improve the overall squad.

I like Santos and Gibbs as players but I just get the feeling they are left wingers instead of full backs everytime I watch them. Santos specially is probably one of the more talented players going forward. As for Gibbs....he is found higher up the pitch even more often than RvP at times. The thing is without a defensively good left back our left side is too vulnerable as Vermalaen is positionaly poor,too attracted to the ball and too eager to tackle. I don't know who we should sign though...Fuchs from Schalke or J.Alba if Bale goes to Barca and they don't sign him.

Hopefully we will show that we intend to get it right during this window by signing at the very least three starters(I hope its cdm,left back and an attacking mid or a wide player) and a back up gk while moving out the useless ones.

Bdw, fingers crossed that RvP likes what Gazidis and Arsene has to say!

poet11;3235493 said:

J.Alba if Bale goes to Barca and they don't sign him.

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So you'd like Jordi Alba as left-back because Gibbs and Santos are too attacking minded?

Dytza;3235536 said:

So you'd like Jordi Alba as left-back because Gibbs and Santos are too attacking minded?

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No, I don't have a problem with being attacking minded and we need it but Gibbs and Santos aren't the best at recovering back to their positions a lot of times and also they aren't very good at defending. Gibbs specially is a headless chicken chasing players with ball leaving space and can't recover while Santos is just too fat to recover. You have to question the management however because some of the good players have the same exact mistakes in them consistently(Song and Vermaelen for example) but probably sometimes players are just like that. Koscienly for example has improved massively and seems an extremely talented defender who was easily the top performer with RvP and Arteta.

Gibbs is better in defense then Santos. Santos should play more as a winger but there are more quality players to cover that, yet I agree that we might look for better LB solution. Hopefully M'vila deal will be done. Kagawa should also be considered if United didn't pick him already.

Waldo1639;3235547 said:

Gibbs is better in defense then Santos. Santos should play more as a winger but there are more quality players to cover that, yet I agree that we might look for better LB solution. Hopefully M'vila deal will be done. Kagawa should also be considered if United didn't pick him already.

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re: Gibbs/Santos-You think so? well...

Completely agree that we should be in for Kagawa. Nothing is done and we can offer them a few players like Bendtner,Vela etc as Barrios is moving I think.

Yaya's officially come out and said he'll be listening to offers this summer, citing a need for 'new challenges'. I hope he goes to Arsenal

Real Madrid?

He wants Barca.

I wish he's coming back and Keita to Milan. But he's not DMF where Rijkaard and Pep played him! Best place for him would be Real Madrid, he's the Khedira improvement they are looking for. Alonso, Yaya, Özil is a pretty good midfield...

I'd say that could be better than Barca's.

Yaya's agent: Touré likes Mourinho and Mourinho likes Touré.

C'est l'amour

Where is all this coming from, wasn't he talking about how he wants to make lots of history with City like just last week? can't say, i didn't enjoy the diss though

I will have to follow @chesthairbaby

If you need the set of lycra photos, I can point you in the right direction

Let's hope it doesn't come down to that And I don't tweet very much, and when I do it's almost always sports related.