There we have it then, the window is firmly shut.
Looking in through the window of summer 2014 I can see a nice collection of players have been acquired for our future entertainment.
We have some genuine competition for the goalkeeping position in David Ospina. He may or may not be better than Fabianski but I feel he is a bigger threat to Wojciech simply because he has no baggage; he has never been dubbed with a disrespectful nickname like “Flappianski”.
The French No.1 RB Debuchy has replaced the French No. 2 LB Sagna, and he looks to have a better delivery and be equal to Bac in other departments. He is of course younger.
Chambers can play at CB, LB and we are assured CDM. That is good news for us going forward and he looks a real gem.
We wanted a world class striker, well that is exactly what Alexis Sanchez is. It’s no good saying he is not a striker – Arsene says that is what he has bought him as. Therefore that is what he is.
Joel Campbell has come in and Arsene has been good to his word and kept him at the club. Had we bought him, people would be very excited about his acquisition.
That’s 5 very good players who have come into the squad before yesterday’s madness.
People (very stupid people) say most, if not all, of these players are replacements and not additions. Completely ignoring the fact that with a fixed limit of 25 squad players, ALL incoming players can only be replacements. All that it is possible to do is replace squad players with better squad players. As far as that goes I feel we have done just that.
In addition to these, yesterday we signed Danny Welbeck from MUFC. With Giroud being long term injured we needed a player who can play at CF and link-up play. It seems he is ideal for that.
Back in June I was arguing on twitter with someone who suggested we should sell Giroud and replace him with Welbeck. This was my tweeted reply
“If we replaced Giroud with Welbeck, I’d join the BSM, AST, start reading Le Grove and be a WOB overnight.”
I stand by that.
Giroud is, in my opinion, a better player than Welbeck, and I would have been furious if we had sold Giroud and Welbeck was his replacement. However as an understudy and cover for injury, he will more than suffice. He is also of an age that a big leap forward could easily be achieved.
Now, looking out of the window I can see some players walking by that we could have bought.
A CB seemed to me a must. Goodness only know why we didn’t get one, and when I next see Goodness,I’ll ask him why!
Perhaps I would also have looked for a DM that could learn from Mikel and cover for him when he needs a rest. But we do have Flamini and perhaps Jack too. I think if jack wants a starting place, the holding role looks his best bet. We’ll see.
All in all I think its been a good window. I also think if the right players had been available then we would have gotten them and it would have been even better.
I feel that had Giroud not been injured it would have appeared a lot more impressive a window than it is currently perceived.
However, whether we are completely happy or not, we march on with the troops we have, at least until January when the madness will begin again.
By pedantic george aka @Blackburngeorge
who am i slagging fins? can you read?
if im slagging anything/anyone its those who will use stats when it suits them…not stats themselves.
lol…please read again…you are misunderstanding things.
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Never trust a statistician
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fucking chill out fins..youre getting the wrong picture and its making you look like a knob buddy, not me.
my irony goes to people using stats when it suits them. not wenger nor any of our players.
ive said three times already …please read again.
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finsbury
September 4, 2014 at 5:58 pm
incomprehensible……
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IMO Rooney was like our very own Jack,he was going to be the savior of English football, but missed the boat ,went backwards even. Lets hope Jack doesn’t follow suit.
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Suarez nor Falcao have ever played in a team that has obligations in a major European league and the Champions League simultaneously. Wayne Rooney has been a starter in one of the continent’s most successful teams for more than eight years. Beyond that, Rooney is both a clinical finisher and an assists machine. You go ahead and call me when either of these two street urchins can match what he has produced on a football pitch. Thank you.
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Rooney was injured for most Euros or World cups. That’s why he never lived up to all the hype for England. Hopefully the media jackals don’t hound Jack like they hounded him.
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The thing about judging Rooney vs Arsenal is that the referees are really quite lenient. We can all recall several recent games where Arsenal were getting kicked to pieces and as the time passes all that quote unquote cheating is just brushed aside and the result is all that stands. Rooney does not play as well outside of the EPL because the referees cannot protect him and his thuggish behaviour.
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Gainsbourg69
September 4, 2014 at 6:33 pm
the day i start calling limited footballers as wayne better than goal machine/killers like suarez or falcao is the day i stop watching football and go watch tennis………
but i guess this kind of “intelligence” goes in line with the philosophy of shitting on champions league and europa league winners in order to favour 4th choice defenders huh ? 😉
wayne is not even a better striker than robin and both suarez and falcao are a level above robin……..
wayne had a ton of stars in his team/club……and the difference shows when he plays for england …who did suarez have at liverpool? sturridge? and sterling?
falcao at porto and atletico ruled europe as strikers go.
i dont see any big european club breaking any banks for rooney…..you sure see them breaking the bank for the other two though…..
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Wayne Rooney has been a starter in one of the continent’s most successful teams for more than eight years.
so was gary neville …. but the day when i start comparing neville to right backs like cafu and zambrotaa and lahm will never come ………
you are truly out of your element boss…..
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Rooney is both a clinical finisher
as for that …. and in case you ” missed ” it
wayne rooney (club) total games/total goals : 520 /234
(international ) 96/41
luis suarez 363/220 (club) ……. international 78/40
yes surely ……..suarez has more goals in less games but rooney is the better finisher…LMAO
“….ZZZHHsssxxxxZZZZ ..this is delta one nine we are under attack. request back up!! ”
hehe ….
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one had ronaldo nani carrick providing and a defence made of granite and suarez had skrtel and henderson and scores more than anyone even after 10 game ban…..
maybe you have a personal thing against suarez…just saying…..
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and yes as sav says…how about the protection from refs ? or his cheating ? ahhh blind eye to that i suppose…only the dirty racist scum diver biter cheated in england ….the rest are gentlemen…..
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how many penalties has rooney scored for united…i only remember gerrard taking them for liverpool…….just saying.
1,2,3,4,5, how many times do i have to prove you are wrong. how many?
ante malaka…asxete…
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Suarez earned his stripes in the Eredivisie and scored a shit load with a team that didn’t have any obligations other than the league. Falcao scored most of his goals in Argentina and Portugal. He had only one thirty plus goal season when he was with Atletico de Madrid. Wayne Rooney has been doing it at the top level far longer than either of these two. Again, call me when either of these one season wonders start producing at the highest level. Thanks.
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wind your neck in Hunter.
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Hunter, can you please admit that it’s harder to score in the Premier League than it is to score in the Eredivisie and the Portuguese Primeira Liga? Thanks in advance.
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I see the excuses starting to fall like rain. Wayne Rooney played with excellent teammates, Wayne Rooney was handed penalties by refs, blah, blah, blah. Admit it, these two hyped players you love so much haven’t won a quarter of what Wayne Rooney has and they’re all the same age. By the way, since when do you ignore European trophies? I thought David Luiz was god because he had won a CL as part time defensive mid for Chelsea.
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You seriously don’t want to compare Rooney with the diving vampire, do you? Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
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Wayne Rooney is limited in what way, Hunter? He’s a prolific striker who can play as a number ten when called upon and do a very good job. You know how many assists Falcao made in his time at Porto? Four in three years. And what about Dracula? Let’s see how he does this season in an offence which doesn’t center around him.
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you dont have to thank me for anything mate. just show me which titles wayne DIRECTLY contributed to…..without ronaldo vidic van de sar etc
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then you can show me who suarez or falcao had in their teams to help them out …
and yes i do want to compare the kid with freckles with the epl top scorer who missed 1/3 of a season and nearly won the title on his own …for wait…liverpool (???!!!??)
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pedantic george
September 4, 2014 at 7:51 pm
excuse me?
let him get out of it…. 🙂
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your arguement that wayne played for a top team and ateam that would be a protagonist is nulified by my counter with gary….
your arguement about finishing is neutralised by the games played/goals scored stats
your argument about being part of big trophy success gets neutralised by falcao scoring in finals, while rooney was carried by ronaldos gigs and van de sars
come on then …what have you got left?
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Distinctly unfriendly studs up challenge on Debuchy from Cesc
It’s a friendly you tit !
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hehe … seems like youre going blind deaf and stupid……. sagna has won less than a quarter than what gary neville has won….sagna pisses all over gary ..just like suarez pisses all over wayne and thats not an opinion…just common sense
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Sakho tries to even the score on Diego Costa
Allez
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Friendly ?
Getting a bit hairy out there
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Gains, place either Falcao or Suarez in the Man Utd of the past 10 years and there is absolutely no doubt they’d excel. This does not denigrate Rooney in the least bit, just shows he’s had it way better than both Radamel & Biteman.
He’s been the great english hope playing for the greatest english team in the best-but-overhyped english premier league protected by the cream of english refereeing.
All he’s ever needed was to show up, stay professional and work hard. All of which he’s done well under the “tutelage” of Don AlexFerguson. Van Nistelrooy excelled @ Utd as well but….thats another conversation.
Against Barcelona in that CL final, the catalans made all of Man U look ordinary. Wayne became a disciple of Andreas Iniesta and Fergie knew his days were numbered if this was the new football. The quality of movement and football intelligence is what separates the best from the next best and without any shadow of a doubt Radamel Falcao & Luis Suarez are better overall footballers than Wayne Rooney.
If Gary Medel was 6ft+ he would be rated next level as well.
His football IQ is top notch.
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Suarez earned his stripes in the Eredivisie and scored a shit load with a team that didn’t have any obligations other than the league
ehhhmmm that team was a certain Ajax ……not just any club……
if we have reached the point where we dismiss the Ajax set up and reputation in european football …ok then…… lol…..
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sounds a bit like the samuel logic…epl richest league therefore the best……. the other leagues are all circuses i suppose and they dont play football…they just hang out at the beach ….
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Rooney, like Suarez and all of the greats had the ability to turn a match around. They had/have this knack of dominating their opposition, such is the force of their character, backed up of course by great skill. I have seen enough great batsmen at close quarters do this to bowlers to know it happens. An over at Hove springs to mind: Le Roux to Viv Richards. Dot ball, a bouncer that mometarily flustered the great man, and then 4 fours in a row in an arc from square cover to wide mid-on. Mini contest over in the blink of an eye.
But the problem for Manchester now is that they have him on silly money and although his perfomance levels may have dropped, his sense of importance hasn’t. It will be very interesting to see how it pans out.
It also occured to me yesterday that some people genuinely think that Liverpool have better value for their money with Balotelli than we do with Welbeck. He reminds me of that story by Graham Greene, The Destructors, where a house is eaten away from the inside. Poor old Brenda.
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foreverheady,
my feeling is that Welbeck will be a 20+ goalscorer with the Arse, barring injuries.
Elsewhere…I for some reason hope the best for Tom Cleverly.
Like Mata @ Gazprom, the young man’s confidence has taken quite a battering post-Fergie. His eyes express so much pain.
So unnecessary for such budding talent.
The expectations of the press & the instant gratifiers is set up to destroy potential without fail. I hope Roy Keane & Paul Lambert can revamp his career.
He is not that bad a player.
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sorry who calls rooney…a great? and why?
this reminds me the desperate attempts of uk media to not feel left out and classifying rooney as an equal to ronaldo and mesi …or even worse….. when a decade ago the same media were trying to equate beckham with zidannes and figos…” hey…we also have world class players, its not only the french and spanish and italians….look …we have david!!”
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“They had/have this knack of dominating their opposition, such is the force of their character, backed up of course by great skill. ”
this force of character only comes from confidence/psychology….and when you know you can elbow and kick and play rugby and then dive and win the penalty cause youre in your own country with your countrymen as referees playing for the country’s flagship club and representing the “answer” to foreign world class status, then yes it makes it a lot easier to dominate the opposition……… no?
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If Man Utd PLC don’t make the top 4, LvG should be guillotined.
As a neutral, I disagree with the dismantling thats taken place.
As a gooner, I absolutely love it ……Fellaini & Anderson are still on the books!
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especially if the opposition is that team of foreigners managed by that clueless french dude…..
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Sorry Hunter I did. Not perhaps an all time world wide great but a great in his own time and place – and great enough to get the better of plenty of teams. And I don’t have stats, or endless examples, but instead offer plenty of little memories.
And nice to have you back, by the way.
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Santi lining up a shot on the edge of the French box
Clear trip and ends up in a heap
Referee not remotely interested
Who wooda think it?
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yes i know you did …lol…i was just being rhetoric…. i dont disagree he is good but to see it written in words that he is better (????!!!) than the other two is so ridiculous i dont even have to get angry ..hehe…
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He always seemed to be a great pain in the arse every time he played us
Does that help H?
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Hunter: ‘your arguement that wayne played for a top team and ateam that would be a protagonist is nulified by my counter with gary…”
Good to hear. This means we can forget about Mats Hummels and David Luiz winning stuff despite the fact they’re donkeys. Good call.
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sure A but that does not make him “better” than the other two……
i sense that you and george do not like it that im putting things right in this latest clanger dropped by illuminati69 …heh….
why is that ? i would like to know what the problem is please.
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“Good to hear. This means we can forget about Mats Hummels and David Luiz winning stuff despite the fact they’re donkeys. Good call”
heh you were the one who used united’s epl and cl titles to make a case that wayne was the bollocks while the other two are not that good
and it was you who dismissed the contribution of hummels and luiz in their teams winning major titles to make a case for a 4th choice defender
LOL…. …now sit down and think of something else to write back
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Aman: “Gains, place either Falcao or Suarez in the Man Utd of the past 10 years and there is absolutely no doubt they’d excel. This does not denigrate Rooney in the least bit, just shows he’s had it way better than both Radamel & Biteman.”
Falcao, Rooney and Suarez are in the same age group. Growing up, they played in the same tournaments and had the same chances to impress big clubs. Why then was Rooney at United while Falcao and Dracula were playing in Argentina and Holland?
When Rooney was eighteen he was already in Manure’s first team. Suarez only got to Holland when he was nineteen and he played in Groningen’s reserves. Then he went to Ajax, where, although playing in the CL, was largely anonymous across Europe. Then he went to Liverpool where he finished sixth, eighth and seventh before scoring thirty plus goals in a season where Liverpool only had the league to contest.
Falcao is another one who was largely anonymous until those couple of good seasons he had at Atletico. He has a lot of career goals, but he scored a lot of his goals playing against inferior opposition. On top of that, he’s only had one or two seasons of ever playing in the CL compared to Rooney.
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I don’t know why you sense that I don’t like it H
Why do you think I care ?!
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Why then was Rooney at United while Falcao and Dracula were playing in Argentina and Holland?
for the same reason luke shaw cost 32m …..
falcao? anonymous? …ok this is the point where i say goodnight as i do have sympathy for real life donkeys …….
even comedy has its limits….. 🙂
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You think Suarez is better than Rooney
Gains thinks Rooney is better than Suarez
Fine, no problem
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carmon Gains, Suarez & Falcao are south american.
Poorer economies, poorer football leagues, poorer backgrounds, less opportunities.
I just saw a vid of Roy Keane teaching 12 yr old Danny Welbeck some moves.
Such continuity is very hard to find in what are termed “third world countries”.
Also don’t forget how stringent the rules are for foreign players to get permits to play in England. If the rules were different Surez & Falcao would have been at the Arsenal @ age 7!
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Same applies to our Joel Campbell who I still feel is a better player than Jack & Rambo. How well he’ll adapt to wintery, windy, rainy England is unclear at the moment.
I just hope AW gives him the minutes.
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