LDN Blue

It's incredible really how broken English football is. Horrible if you're a young player trying to make it here, there's simply no environment for these kids to make the steps up from u19 to u21 to seniors. Anyway, the usual rhetoric and excuses will come out and nothing will progress. We're lucky the PL can still attract foreign stars, albeit at a declining rate.

Come on England ffs!

Ah I see. How old is Witsel now, you think he can back a come back at Milan?

That's why I doubted people when they said he's the best in his position in the world.. Particularly when he's applying his trade in Russia. Anyway, interesting to see what happens with MvG now.

It's a nice dream, isn't it? Chalobah, RLC, Izzy & Solanke..

Of course they are, it's Liverpool. Media's darlings -- Out of interest, is this guy good? £29m good?

No, no, you see that's when Terry was the sympathetic one to him!

The Zenit move I get is money, but Milan? Yeah it's not official, but there's a lot of talk that seems to validate it. If that transpires then you've got to ask, where's the giants chasing him?

A lot of people on here rate Witsel highly, but you look at his career.. Zenit and now AC Milan? He can't be as good as what people believe on here then.

They go hand in hand surely? The reason Salah and Moses didn't make an impact was because of their style of play, they're traditional wingers who didn't fit the bill. Oxlade won't have that problem because he can literally play anywhere in midfield.. He would definitely be important the older he gets.

You're not serious are you? If you are, I think you need to pay more attention to him, because he's a completely different player to Salah or Moses. AOC is one of the most versatile midfielders in the league right now and with the age he is, he'll only go on to get better. I think this would be a great signing if we pulled it off, but I doubt Arsenal is going to let him come to us so easily.

This is the key point. It's all good having squad players for depth, but we're not shy of that at the moment either. With guys like Ramires, RLC, Cuadrado & Willian in the fold we still have players to play these dead-rubber games and the league cup matches at stages that don't require our first XI. We've been down that path where we signed guys like Benayoun and Meireles, and despite the latter helping to get us to that CL final it's not enough. Signing Sterling keeps us as one of the major forces in England and hopefully Europe. You're also right about the London factor. Let's not forget, Liverpool picked him up from QPR so he's definitely got a sense of home in London.

To be honest, I'm not sure what Mikel has to offer anywhere else lmao. He has a ton of experience, which is the only reason I see clubs really taking a punt on him.

LOL. Reminds me of when Dalglish wanted shirt sponsors over points

I'm seeing people are upset over the reported fee of £10.9m, but come on guys were you expecting £20m? Yeah you can argue that 33 is relatively young for a GK, but no-one's paying over the odds for a player that age. The fee is irrelevant anyway, it's instantly downgraded when the player wants to leave. The club doesn't hold the bargaining power. I don't think we're getting anything out of this deal, from Arsenal's side. It's a fallacy to think Wenger is about to do something as stupid as give away Oxlade, as I've read, considering how vital these players are becoming. After the whole Lampard affair, I can't be bothered to care about Cech going to Arsenal to be honest. I probably won't be 'cheering' him every time as some fans will, I support the club.

I don't know if it's just me, but I think Sterling's ceiling of ability is sky high. I truly think, under the right mentor, he can become one of the world's best players. It's not out of a misplaced sense of loyalty because he's English either. I think being an English player is a double edged sword. Sometimes it makes you overhyped and sometimes, like in this case, it's a deterrent for people to rate them accurately. I think if Sterling wasn't English, he'd have a lot more admirers than current. One of the main reasons people aren't keen right now is because of how he's acting to leave Liverpool, but hey wouldn't you? That being said, I think Chelsea's stance is great. He hasn't shown enough to justify £50m, though I think one day he will. I hope Raheem chooses us over City, but the lure of City's money can be too much for these kids sometimes.

Ospina is no Cech. Let's not underestimate this signing, Terry hit the nail on the head with his TalkSport interview.. Arsenal have bought themselves a good 15 points with Cech in goal. Reliable, confident & experienced, he won't make the same rookie mistakes at Ospina & Szcz-..

I'll take Guzan if they want Begovic that badly. The American isn't bad at all, he's a great shot stopper from what I remember.

Oh mad, didn't know that. I hope they play at Wembley, just down the road (almost) from me!

What's this 50k loophole you speak of..?

God I hope not..

Yeah isn't it the case in Italian football that they don't really have club legends aside from the ones who actually end their careers with them?

Well let's not forget Butland's age, he was around 19/20 back then? Even now, he's only 22 so he's got time to live up to the potential he seems to show. But yeah, for us it would've been a case of loan & sell.

Ah yes, the infamous Ross Turnbull now I've definitely got shivers down my spine! You know thinking about it, we've been incredibly lucky with the calibre of goalkeepers we've been blessed with. Where United & Arsenal struggled with life post Schmeichel & Seaman respectively, we've had it relatively easy. Bonetti, Beasant, de Goey, Cudicini, Cech, Courtois. In between that there was Schwarzer too! We've not been shy go after others either. Iirc, this isn't our first approach for Begovic (I believe Carlo went for him?) and it wasn't too long ago we wanted Butland, before he settled on Stoke.

I know this might be obvious, but that opinion was...?