** ALL NEW (WITH RULES) Summer Transfer Window 2012/2013 Season Rumours/Signings **

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Can't count spurs until they have a strikeforce. I wouldn't say arsenal carry a title threat either.

Chelsea are the only outside chance it won't remain in the north west.
 
Can't count Spurs as title contenders based on their squad, they really need a couple of strikers, will be interesting to see how they perform under AVB though. Think it will be Man City and Man Utd challenging again and possibly Chelsea if the team gels and Di Matteo does a better job than last year in regards to their league performance.
 
McBain said:
No disrespect to Arsenal, but they've desperately needed RVP to be fit week in, week out, as their backup .. was...well...not the best.
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In theory the backup should be better this season following the arrivals of Podolski and Giroud, plus Arshavin coming back from loan.

So essentially up front it will be 3 from 5:

Podolski
Giroud
Walcott
Gervinho
Arshavin

This should give them enough to cover injuries with Chamakh and Bendtner on domestic cup duty and occassional appearences on the bench. Whether or not people consider this 'good enough' for Champions League qualification is open to debate, but I'd suggest it compares favourably with Spurs and arguably more depth than Chelsea as well. In other words an injury to Defoe or Torres would have more impact than an injury to any Arsenal forward.
 
Number_25 said:
Why on earth are people already discounting Arsenal?

Anything can happen, Arsene Wenger knows what he's doing - expect a replacement to come in.

£24m for a player with 12 months on his contract, United have been done there.
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People are discounting Arsenal because we've had MUCH better sides than anything close to what we have now and flopped massively, Wenger isn't up to it. We had a team a million times better than Birmingham and still lost the only cup we could have won in years. It's NOT ABOUT THE PLAYERS< its NEVER BEEN about the players. Its Wenger, we have consistently for 8 years dropped top players to play Wenger's favourites, there is no sign of that changing with Wenger doing nothing but talking up Diaby as if he's first team for a great French side(he's both not, its not a great french side, and he won't be fit anyway).

Arsenal won't win anything because we've lost our best player, bought a few other players, but still have Wenger and all the mistakes he's made every single season without fail, without change.

Pay 24mil now, give him pay parity with the best at the club, no new problems, get a free transfer, save 24mil, give the play 5mil higher wage a year, spend the same over the length of the contract, have problems when player is asked to sign a new much lower contract and half the team gets weird about being paid so much less. Free transfers become bidding wars, just for wages/terms/package rather than for the transfer fee, they are rarely if ever cheaper.

Sol was on a ridiculous wage instead of a big transfer fee and ended up walking out on the club, lying and trying to get himself a new huge wage, Chamakh got 80k a week instead of us paying a 5mil transfer fee and paying him 40k a week, 2mil a year extra over 4 years, didn't save a penny, player got it all, doesn't even play. Free transfers are usually bad business... usually.
 
Number_25 said:
I'm still not sure about that defence, especially on the left.
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I could cope with high scoring games, as long as Arsenal are the higher scorers! :p

I'd prefer a new Left back, but it's pretty obvious it's not going to happen, though Gibbs did look well with Podolski the other day, so that's a little promising (even though Gibbs is gonna spend 6 months injured.)
 
Itpretty comical how many people think Chelsea are going to leap from 6th to 1st with the addition of some talented kids

They may well end up becoming very good, but rarely has any youngster arrived straight from another league and been consistantly on the pace immediately

Maybe next season or the season after they will be title challengers - I cant see it happening this season

Depending on what Newcastle / Spurs do Arsenal will be lucky to hold 4th place
 
We are always the team tipped to "fall further" every year, yet we always end up with Champions League qualification. Chelsea have a million players for the same position and seem to have ignored their defence and are going to be relying on Torres a lot which could be pretty disastrous.
 
Chelsea won't be jumping from 6th, a idiot manager took a team that was top 3, and decided he wanted to do everything backwards and caused them to be 6th.

IF Mancini left today, they put Fat Sam in charge, they came 6th, got rid of him, get a new manager, is he taking over a team only capable of 6th, or a team that should have been 1st and is fully capable of it?

Chelsea were a top 4 team that came 6th last year, nothing more or less. They've lost one top striker bought in one potentially top top midfield, another okay one. Fix the defence? People seem to forget that Cole is the best left back in the league, Terry has been consistently one of the best CB's in the league AND one of the least injured/played the most of any top defenders in the past 4 years, Ivanovic is top notch and can play CB or right back, is excellent in either position. Sideshow Bob, has some great games, has some dodgy ones, we've yet to see if he'll come good or not. Bertrand managed to look exactly as good at right back at left back, and started a champs league final without looking out of place.

They have one of the best defences in the league, without a huge amount of cover... but that has always been the case at fullback for them. Terry/Cole/Ivanovic have been solid for years and are probably the least injury prone players in their positions in the league.

I would expect the team from last year to be top 3 without AVB's interference, I expect the same this year.

Lampard is still BY FAR the most consistent attacking midfielder, and he's been absolutely outstanding defensively for them in the past season(he has always been but played deeper and had a more defensive role), Terry is still one of the best CB's, Cole IS the best left back, Torres is capable of being a top striker, Ivanovic is a top defender, Cech is a top top keeper, Hazard has the potential to be an exceptional player, Mata is already a top player.
 
FrankJH said:
Not convinced Newcastle are going to drop away - even despite ACoN again
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Will be interesting to see if their strikers can have another top year. A lot of players do great when they join a club but drop off, plenty of others improve.

They've bought in more players than people think, cheap, sure, look at their last free player though ;)

It could largely depend on cup success, who they play, how far they get, how many extra games they play. Big push for the Europa league and they could easily see league form disappear, huge push for the league and ignoring the cups and they could keep going very well.

Biggest thing was not losing any players... yet. A lot of big clubs get desparate, especially if they lose a couple early games, and well, so many teams would kill for half their players. Hell, I'd go straight after Cisse with the RVP money, and sell Song, add 10mil and get Tiote.... keeper too, and we should get back to old Arsenal with an actually decent frenchie in central midfield so we'll take him too :p

Good simple, attacking football with hard working quality players who importantly all link up well together.

Their biggest problem is teams seeing them as a threat, they'll take them more seriously, do more research on them, there wasn't an awful lot of tape of that team to watch to work out how best to play against them because its a new team. Newcastles biggest problem is that teams will play against them differently this season.
 
Robert1986 said:
Who will take the pens now? Rooney or RVP?

This isn't going to work.
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I suspect Rooney will pull rank on him. :D

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger insists he had no choice but to agree to sell Robin van Persie to Manchester United.

The Old Trafford giants confirmed on Wednesday evening that they had agreed terms with Arsenal - understood to be £24million - for the Dutchman.

Van Persie is now set to travel to the North West to undergo a medical and finalise personal terms with United.

And Wenger insists he had no option but to sell van Persie because he had just a year left on his current deal and he had already refused to sign a new deal.

"He is at Manchester United, unfortunately for us. The transfer was finalised in the afternoon," said Wenger whilst working for French TV station TF1 on Wednesday.

"It's never great to lose players of that quality but he only had a year contract so we do not have a choice."

Wenger then stated that he had already signed Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski to cover for van Persie's departure.

"We have already recruited since we Giroud and Podolski who originally were intended to offset the departure of van Persie," he concluded.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11670/7995288/Wenger-I-had-no-choice
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