Looks like Villas-Boas will be at Chelsea after all. Chelsea have paid Porto 13.5 million to release him from his contract. I kinda want him to fail miserably but he seems pretty brilliant so I doubt it will happen.

In other news, there is no other news. Pretty quiet on the transfer front this week after it all started with a bang. Modric is still see-sawing between Tottenham and Chelsea, latest is that Spurs are offering him big bucks to hang around, although maybe his position is a bit untenable there after coming out and saying he wanted out.

wouldn't exactly say untenable, he said he'd like to move to chelsea, but that he wouldn't go as far as handing in a transfer request. hasn't fabregas claimed he'd like to move to barca the past couple of seasons?

i think if Chelsea can refrain from making any further public statements about offers then theres a good chance we can keep Modric. Looks like Gervinho should be unveiled for Arsenal any day now as well. Same with Lukaku for Chelsea.

Falcao is the one I'm watching. would be a dream to see him at spurs but more likely Chelsea or somewhere in Italy.

Young to Manchester United is confirmed.

I guess that means Nani is for the chop.

Nasri coud be going to Manchester City. If we lose Fabregas and Nasri, surely Wenger must resign... what the fuck is happening to Arsenal? Desperately in need of a new manager right now.

Not buying Schwarzer last year might turn out to be a very expensive exercise for Arsenal if they lose their creative talent. They'd have arguably gone close to winning the PL with a decent keeper.

Arsenal make a signing, Gervinho confirmed. Charlie Adam has gone to Liverpool too. Corinthians have made a 35million pound bid for Tevez and John O'Shea has gone to Sunderland.

Oh, Jonathan Woodgate moved to Stoke to try out their medical facilities.

Wes Brown also signed for Sunderland..and sorry hughsie - arsenal will win fuck all again this season.

You're probably right but I'd like to at least wait until the usual March collapse to call curtains on it.

Anyone have two good knees they'd like to donate to Michael Essien? Sounds like he could do with them.

Modric does, but they're about 15 million pounds each.

£13.5 each apparently actually.. Looks like Spurs will reject it though.

Looks like Nasri's staying but word is that all of the Fabergas staying talk is just posturing from Wenger. I'd be glad to see him go to allow Nasri to play more centrally. Hopefully the extra funds will allow us to fund the holding midfielder and central defensive players we rather desperately need to protect our keeper. Wouldn't mind a left back either as Gibbs is shit.

Yeah need a left back I agree. Think Parker would be a good signing too.

Gibbs is just injured all the time. He's shown that he can perform well in the past, but just keeps breaking down. I'm a bit worried about going into a new season with him and possible Armande Traore as our only two left backs.. Unless they want to shift Vermaelen out to the left and play Djourou/Koscielny/Other CB in the middle, which seems a bit crazy. Rather move Vermaelen into the middle to throw his weight around.

I could absolutely deal with Fabregas leaving if the price was right; I think we need to face facts; the 4-2-3-1 formation that was built around him is too easily defended against by middle tier EPL sides who just flood back and try to hit us on the break or via a set piece and I dont think he operates well in a 4-4-2.

Modric has handed in a transfer request.

villa accept liverpool's £20m for downing

so that's downing and young gone for 36m. fark.

Anyone left at Villa? Fuck they've sold some decent midfielders over the last couple of years - Milner, Barry, Young, Downing..

well, there's two more transfer windows before it comes into force. meaning City and Chelsea will go absolutely batshit crazy in the next 12 months:

Gotze, Modric, Bale, Cavani, Schurlle, Kroos, Hazard, Vertoghen, Tiote, Cabaye, Dembele, Eriksen are all going to be hoovered up so those respective 1000 year Reichs can duke it out for the foreseeable future.

everyone else better invest in their youth systems and pray.

i'm not an arsenal supporter but i hope they get m'vila, pick up some decent backup fullbacks, keep RVP, to go along with the signing of podolski. as exciting as this past season was the league seemed to me to be a two horse race from the 4th round onwards, so a consistently competitive arsenal can only liven things up imo

They just need to have a decent, consistent backline that plays together constantly.

I'd like a new left back for Arsenal. They've never really replace Cole in their system. Clichy is a good defender, who suddenley was awesome at Man City, which says to me that something was up at Arsenal in the training methodology.

i really thought we'd see more out of Santos this season, Gibbs has improved but still a ways to go. was also good to see Koscielzny improve, I have had enough Djourou

Clichy is a good defender, who suddenley was awesome at Man City, which says to me that something was up at Arsenal in the training methodology.

Clichy is as inconsistent now as he ever was at Arsenal, so it's not Arsenal's training per se that was the problem (though I think Pat Rice's methods have grown stale - time to see how Steve Bould might change things). while his Arsenal career started well enough, he became more error-prone when he stopped having top-drawer centre halves covering him, meaning he had to balance out his impressive attacking skills with his more ropey defensive skills (even a good defender like Vermaalen was too cavalier to have beside Clichy). putting him alongside Kompany has made him look more solid, but sides found a fair amount of joy attacking down City's left flank, indeed, many managers were directing attacks down Clichy's side rather than the more solid and responsible Zabaleta's - counter attacking in behind the space Clichy bombs on away from and drawing Kompany out was a way of shaking them up.

Interesting update there holyrattlesnakes. I hadn't really looked in depth at Clichy at City, though I had only heard good things - I once even witnessed him deliver a good cross into the opposition box which seemed impossible for him at Arsenal.

mrmagoo - I just want someone reliable who isn't injured all the time!!

The only thing I would suggest is a problem with Arsenal's training is their high rate of injury since the last physio left to join the England set up. Funnily enough his cousin took over at Arsenal but the massive spike in injuries since then suggests something has changed (could also be the change from Highbury to Emirates, but everyone seems to think the playing surface is excellent).

Despite having Santos and Gibbs, I'd say Arsenal need a top class left back nearly as much as they need a much better back up for Sagna.

The only thing I would suggest is a problem with Arsenal's training is their high rate of injury since the last physio left to join the England set up.

you really do need to add defending set-pieces to that - Arsenal were absolutely shambolic at times this past season when dealing with dead balls. even when they weren't leading directly to goals, they weren't being dealt with sufficiently such that it invited more pressure onto them. part of why they always seem to struggle against the Stokes of the world is that they just haven't been as disciplined at defending set-pieces as you need to be.

Adams, Bould, Dixon and Winterburn would never have conceded from corners or free-kicks from wide positions in the way the current model Arsenal do.

True that. Wenger seemed to naively believe just by adding the height of Mertesacker the fragility defending set pieces would cease to exist.

Never mind AVB, Deschamps or any of them, Liverpool need a decent mid-table manager who can keep them in the top half. Allardyce maybe?

and they can pick up kevin davies on the cheap from bolton as well

Looks like Martinez is the front runner according to the BBC.

Kevin Davies looked a bit lost this year, in spite of the screamer he scored against Stoke just last year. Always underrated, he'd make a good captain choice for any team coming up from the championship.

davies is one of those guys i find endearing: a bastard fouling machine on the pitch but a nice guy off it. or at least that's the impression i always got.

RVP contract talks stalling, capello wants chelsea job, solskjaer emerging as a candidate for the villa job, liverpool shortlisting up to a dozen managers, and carragher is sad

Wenger to Liverpool. You heard it here first.

And last I'd expect!

I'm really not sold on Martinez. He's done great at Wigan, but Liverpool is such a different level

not very confident about keeping RVP, says he won't talk about it til after Euro. Can't compete with the money ManCity will offer

and fuck me, Wilshere having more surgery, on his knee this time, though they reckon it won't affect his pre-season. hope so!

Guardiola and Capella are also in the (wishlist) frame. That would be the biz...

Capello

and fuck me, Wilshere having more surgery, on his knee this time, though they reckon it > won't affect his pre-season. hope so!

Hope so for the sake of your new kit purchase? :)

he's doomed!

not very confident about keeping RVP, says he won't talk about it til after Euro. Can't compete with the money ManCity will offer

worst thing for arsenal is that it seems like the nasri situation all over again - it'll just drag on and on, leaving no time to buy any more players to fill the gaping hole he'll leave.

to see arsenal as a feeder club for citeh and bartha must be so depressing for supporters.