LDN Blue

Good, the more rest he is, the fresher he'll be for the season

He's right though. They will be a threat.. .. For Europa League places

Not by choice

City have no room for him & if it came down to choice of offers, I have no doubt he'd choose United.

Meh, I'm not too disappointed with this transfer window. It was better than last summer's, and it's clear Villas-Boas has been well informed of targets coming in and leaving. It's certainly been better than last summer's window. We've signed future prospects, not finished goods. Courtois, Romeu & Lukaku will be good additions when they're integrated into the squad. I have a feeling we're not done yet, but that remains to be seen. Ourselves, United & City will all be challenging for the title, this I don't doubt. We ridicule City, but they are a genuine threat. That being said, I don't see them going all the way with it.

Guess we'll be seeing him in a United shirt very soon then..

It's true, at the same time it won't stop Lampard from accepting playing in that role.. Knowing it's temporary with our lack of DMF's. His long ball delivery is still very good, so it would make up for his lack of aggression and with Ramires helping him out in that area, it wouldn't be the worst option to try. Usually I'd agree with the Josh calls, but against a physical, aggressive side like Stoke, he'd be crushed.

If Mikel is out, Lampard should be brought in to sit deep. Ramires is not a DMF in my eye, he's a box-to-box player. Lampard's shown in pre-season he can sit deep, not saying it's ideal for him to play there, but I'd rather Ramires was in his position than Lampard was. Agree about Anelka & Kalou too, but since there's no-one else to play there..

LOOL ahh

What dya mean?

Could work. But I think this game would be too soon. Perhaps vs WBA

In what role & system?

Before next weekend? Perhaps.

Considering we're playing Stoke, I'd play the line-up as: Cech Ivanovic - Alex - Terry - Cole Lampard Ramires - Benayoun Kalou -------------------------- Malouda Torres It's sad we still have to put Kalou & Malouda in our prospective line-ups but I guess we just have to trust our tactics will mean minimal touches from them.

Yeah, look at the time though, 10:27am. The deal was struck somewhere in the late afternoon/evening

Sigh -- As for the actual transfer: Nice to see an end to this. Another young signing bodes will for our change in policy, whether or not he'll be a "heskey" or "drogba" remains to be seen, but there must be a good reason why Europe's top (including José's Real Madrid) were chasing his signature. Jury's out in that regard. He's willing to wait for his chance which shows good character. It's convinced me Danny will play out wide, which I think we all predicted regardless of this transfer. Lastly, are we now calling Gourlay a hero?

Who cares if he dreams of going back? 1. They may not even want him 2. We make a profit regardless 3. He can change his mind by winning. The argument of by fans that we shouldn't have a player who doesn't want to play for us is bogus. He just said he does want to, just wants to go back one day. Isn't that something we expect from players of another club?

Thank heavens.

SeB, Terminator X, Dodojojo & Tortilla9 Each have provided good posts to discussions, kept threads alive and posted good, detailed, concise posts.

I wouldn't be so sure. If there's one thing they lack, especially at youth level, it's a DMF. They have Busquets now, sure, but behind him, there's not much talent left. That's why a few Barcelona fans are surprised.

Nice, looks very good.

Fair enough, but it's good for us he did

Yeah, click on where it shows what website it's from and it'll give you two options of either "highlight publication" or "hide publication". Very useful!

RIP

Hide it, on newsnow.. I love that option now, hid all of the CaughtOffside & Goal stories