GarethRDR

Hands off! :shock: Bradley's **** excellent though. All the sweeter that Mönchengladbach pinched him from under SHA's noses. And if he's gotta go somewhere, I suppose it'd be better here than anywhere else.

I look at Olympique Lyon and I don't think it's necessarily a massive loss to sell Milner. Within the lifetime of nearly every poster on this site, they were a shit club in Ligue 2 and not well-supported in a major city. Now they're one of the top dozen or so clubs in Europe. How have they gotten there? A major part of it is their willingness to tag a value on any one of their players and if they get an offer that exceeds that value (or if they get an offer that matches their value and the value is declining), then the player is gone. That tactic requires being a "selling club" a lot of the time, but it allows their capital to be continuously reallocated into more productive players. Of course, whether we can do that successfully depends to a certain extent on the extent to which the management staff (possibly a staff of one) can get positive value from signings... A wholly reasoned and very sensible post. Get that filth out of here!

Hummels is terrifyingly good. Bayern must (and quite frankly should) be kicking themselves. I'm quite chuffed about Lucas Barrios opting to represent Paraguay at the World Cup, they were one of the four teams I pulled in the work sweeps and Barrios should go some way to filling the Salvador Cabanas-shaped hole up front (and let's be fair, he's alright but he wasn't getting in the Argentina squad ahead of Messi et al). Been a few wheelings and dealings in the Bundesliga so far by the looks of things: Eintracht Frankfurt have gone Greek and brought in Theo Gekas and a young left-back from Panionios by the name of Georgios Tzavella. Hannover 96 apparently had a hankering for goalies and bought Markus Miller from Karlsruhe and Ron-Robert Zieler from Manure, along with Emanuel Pogatetz and a couple others. Werder Bremen have taken the plunge on Marko Arnautovic after his failure to break into the Inter Milan side (never really seemed likely, I think at best he would have been a replacement for Balotelli on the bench had Inter got rid of him, Arnautovic was certainly never going to dislodge Eto'o or Milito). He could do a job there. Bayer Leverkusen have brought in young Sidney Sam from Hamburg (BOF you should be familiar with the name, 11 goals in 51 games on loan at Kaiserslautern over the last few seasons), he could be one to watch in the future. Hanno Balitsch has also returned after a few years pottering around the leagues, and they've also brought in Croatian U21 regular Domagoj Vida. Schalke had a relatively high profile departure and arrival; Kevin Kuranyi's gone to Dynamo Moscow, but Christoph Metzelder's been brought in. As BOF mentioned earlier, Erik Jendrisek's also come in from Kaiserslautern (he could very well make a cameo at some point in the World Cup for Slovakia). VfB Stuttgart have lost midfielder Roberto Hilbert to Besiktas, but have bought Christian Gentner back on a free transfer from VfL Wolfsburg. VfL Wolfsburg will be boosted by the arrival of promising young Swiss striker Nassim Ben Khalifa from Grasshoppers, this particular deal having been completed back in February. Mönchengladbach have bolstered their defence with youngsters Bamba Anderson and Jens Wissing coming in from the lower leagues (technically Anderson has signed from Leverkusen, but he's spent the last two years at VfL Osnabrück and Fortuna Dusseldorf). We also have the second biggest transfer thus far (after Arnautovic), Igor de Camargo coming in from Standard Liege. A final word on Kaiserslautern, striker Rodnei has been brought in permanently from Hertha Berlin after spending last season on loan, the experienced Christian Tiffert (from MSV Duisburg) and Oliver Kirch (from Arminia Bielefeld) have beefed up the midfield. Occasional Algeria international Chadli Amri has also come in on a free transfer.

I spent the weekend writing an essay on that fookin' film. I'm guessing the Odessa Steps sequence and the birth of juxtaposition.

Then Igor Akinfeev can die of gonorrhea and rot in hell. The clearing in the woods's easily nutmegged anyway, and would have trouble threading Frey/Friedel's boots. :x

You're joking right? Hitzlsperger was a massive part of the VfB Stuttgart re-build and was one of their most influential players in their Bundesliga-winning season. Unfortunately for him he's on the decline now, and I don't expect him to be making any massive waves for West Ham though he'll definately be an improvement for them. Lower half of the Prem seems about his level now.

Well, I want to see Mexico and France through as I've pulled them in the sweeps at work, but I'm almost certain Uruguay are a dead cert to make the next round. Luis Suarez sat just behind Forlan and Cavani? **** terrifying.

D'Agostino's been playing more of an attacking role at Udinese, whereas Montolivo tends break up the play and provide cover for the back four. Both are capable of switching roles though. We might even scrap looking for a Mutu replacement altogether and go 4-5-1 as I imagine we'll start to bring Mario Bolatti through properly next season, plus our new boss may favour using flying wing-backs as that was his job as a player.

First of all, shut up because I don't agree with that. Zig Zag? Have SHA bought copies of that cheap kid's educational show from the '80s? Going by the average IQ of a bluenose, they could probably do with them (but learning how to work a VCR could be problematic).

Utterly random link from a highly-questionable source... Sebastian Frey Can't see it happening in for any number of reasons (we don't need a GK, rumoured price-tag is far too cheap, he could easily play for a top European club), though guttingly Frey has come out and stated he's "unsure" where his future lies. Hopefully Mihajlović can convince him to stay, if he's got to go though it would be some consolation if it were here. One of the best keepers around.

F'king sweet! First big signing of the summer for La Viola... Gaetano D'Agostino (Udinese to Fiorentina) I had no idea this was even happening, reportedly for about £7.5m. Him and Montolivo in the centre could be an absolutely devastating pairing. All we need is someone to replace Mutu (which is sadly easier said then done) and we could be back nearer the right end of the table next season.

Van Basten for me, pretty much for everything that Rev just said. Take nothing away from Bergkamp though, brilliant player.

I value almost all the clubs team I follow over England.

Firstly, it's Feyenoord. Secondly, it's Hajduk Split. And last (but by no means least) he's all but signed for Rubin Kazan. Not that he couldn't do a job mind, after all Nikola Kalinić came through Hajduk's youth system. Anas Sharbini might be worth a look too.

Going out like this would be preferable.

Good move for the player. Absolutely crap move for the club. Unless he has come on in leaps and bounds since his Citeh days (which I admit is possible) then he is a complete liability at any decent level (i.e. not league 2). I've played football and built lego spaceships with Kasper Schmeichel. I was better than him at one of these things. 8) Unfortunately, I did also try and convince him that Neville Southall was a better keeper than his Dad before he told me who he/his Dad actually was. In hindsight... he was right.

Žigić is tripe. His scoring record at Santander was mainly due to the creativity of the players around him like Canales, Tchité and Munitis. He got found out at Valencia, and will be about as much use in the Premiership as Maierhofer was for Wolves.

Really? Can you direct them to the following sentence please: NO BUGS IN MANAGER MODE IN 2011 PLEASE!

Great tune. Pour moi...

Sky Sports can kiss my hairy arse, just saw this picture and threw up in my mouth a little... :x

What about the bully-boy tactics Citeh used on Spuds to warn them off Bellamy when both teams were in for him? They threatened to buy Palacios if Spurs didn't back off Bellamy. Not that I've any sympathy for Redknob or his ilk, but my distaste for that Manc shower of bastards knows no bounds.

If Žigić manages more than 5 goals in the Premiership I'd be amazed. At least he'll fit in with the rest of the Basketcase 2-esque freakshow at the Sty.

Michel Bastos would be expensive, he's had a solid first season with Lyon and I can't see him passing up Champion's League football to play for an English team outside of the top 4 (especially considering he would initially be back-up for Young and/or Warnock). Unproven outside of France as well (not that players can't make the transition from Ligue 1 to the Premiership, but for every Sagna there's an Elmander, Berson etc). Miguel Veloso (allegedly) has an ego that surpasses his ability, but he seems to be getting his career back on track after a poor spell for Lisbon so who knows? Henry's all but confirmed that he's off to NY Red Bulls. Bentley and Ireland (I think MON could probably straighten Ireland out and get him performing again) are good shouts but again the lure of CL football would probably mean we won't see Bentley anytime soon (considering he's turned us down once already anyway) and unless we're looking at bringing in Onuoha and switching him out to right-back to replace Luke Young we don't really need him.