The Swansea Way
That is open for interpretation. IMO, Man City, Newcastle and Spurs have all been better to watch. I also find Real Madrid better to watch than Barca (this season), and enjoy watching Germany more than Spain.
All better to watch than Arsenal that's for sure.
Maybe. Yet we're above one of them and about to go above another. It's not all about how you look.
buffon didnt even deride the swansea team itself at all, he just argued against your points (and mine for that matter)
Bad choice of club to pick on. We operate within our financial means and play a good style of football, and we're 13 points ahead of you, so suck it.
get rodgers into our boardroom for a chat in the process :)paulm2012-03-21 22:59:55
True, but Wenger signed Vieira early in his career on the cheap. Koscielny is coming along well too.
http://www.football365.com/f365-features/7614777/F365-Focus
Sums it all up pretty nicely
i normally detest F365...
Has Arsenal's scouting system recovered from its crisis? I don't feel qualified to speak on world football, but Newcastle has England's best scouting system at the moment.
Ba, Tiote, Cabaye, Collocini, Enrique (pity he left for a worse side) and Krul have been such good value
Arsenal have sustained good buying for a number of seasons now, if newcastle follow suit they might close the gap
(that's a trademark stripes wink right there)
Little f*cker.
Ba, Tiote, Cabaye, Collocini, Enrique (pity he left for a worse side) and Krul have been such good value
Arsenal have sustained good buying for a number of seasons now, if newcastle follow suit they might close the gap
(that's a trademark stripes wink right there)
Really? Let's compare:
'09 Season
Arsenal
Ramsey (4.8 million)
Nasri (12 million)
Silvestre (750k)
Arshavin (15 million)
Newcastle
Jonas (2 million)
Guthrie (2.5 million)
Bassong (1.8 million)
Coloccini (10 million)
Xisco (5.7 million)
Lovenkrands (Free)
Nolan (4 million)
R. Taylor (6 million less than what N'Zogbia is worth)
Arshavin isn't quite a flop, but he hasn't really been value for money. Nasri was an excellent, if not inspired, acquisition. Ramsey was a good buy. Newcastle spent rather less and acquired less quality, though the investment in Coloccini has come good.
The Gunners' reputation allowed them to make bigger signings, but in terms of scouting, this one goes to the Toon. Where was Arsenal's inspired buy to weigh against the effective trade of N'Zogbia for Jonas, R. Taylor, Guthrie and Bassong?
'10 season
Arsenal
Vermaelen (10.1 million)
Sol Campbell (free)
Newcastle
Pancrate (free)
D. Simpson (750k)
Routledge (1 million)
Williamson (1 million)
Leon Best (unknown)
For obvious reasons, I will not pan the purchase of Sol Campbell. Vermaelen was a great buy, but stopping off to buy Ajax's best players is an old trick. Williamson and Simpson were superb bargain signings.
Shouldn't Arsenal have won hands-down on scouting during Newcastle's relegation season? They didn't. Once again, this is just the ability of a big club to attract known quantities.
'11 season
Arsenal
Chamakh (free)
Koscielny (8.5 million)
Squillaci (3.5 million)
Lehman (free)
Newcastle
Perch (1.5 million)
Gosling (free)
Sol Campbell (free)
Tiote (3.5 million)
Ben Arfa (7 million)
Kuqi (free)
Same money spent, both clubs acquire a promising youngster and an old warhorse on a free. But you'd be daft if you think the results were the same.
'12 season
Arsenal
Jenkinson (1 million)
Gervinho (10.5 million)
Oxlade-Chamberlain (12 million)
J Campbell (900k)
Park Chu-Young (1.8 million)
Santos (6.2 million)
Mertesacker (8 million)
Arteta (10 million)
Newcastle
Abeid (free)
Cabaye (4.3 million)
Ba (free)
Marveaux (free)
Obertan (3.25 million)
Santon (5 million)
Elliot (300k)
Cisse (10 million)
Arsenal's "crisis season". But actually, it's only the scale of spending that differs from past years.
Ba, Tiote, Cabaye, Collocini, Enrique (pity he left for a worse side) and Krul have been such good value
Arsenal have sustained good buying for a number of seasons now, if newcastle follow suit they might close the gap
(that's a trademark stripes wink right there)
Really? Let's compare:
'09 Season
Arsenal
Ramsey (4.8 million)
Nasri (12 million)
Silvestre (750k)
Arshavin (15 million)
Newcastle
Jonas (2 million)
Guthrie (2.5 million)
Bassong (1.8 million)
Coloccini (10 million)
Xisco (5.7 million)
Lovenkrands (Free)
Nolan (4 million)
R. Taylor (6 million less than what N'Zogbia is worth)
Arshavin isn't quite a flop, but he hasn't really been value for money. Nasri was an excellent, if not inspired, acquisition. Ramsey was a good buy. Newcastle spent rather less and acquired less quality, though the investment in Coloccini has come good.
The Gunners' reputation allowed them to make bigger signings, but in terms of scouting, this one goes to the Toon. Where was Arsenal's inspired buy to weigh against the effective trade of N'Zogbia for Jonas, R. Taylor, Guthrie and Bassong?
'10 season
Arsenal
Vermaelen (10.1 million)
Sol Campbell (free)
Newcastle
Pancrate (free)
D. Simpson (750k)
Routledge (1 million)
Williamson (1 million)
Leon Best (unknown)
For obvious reasons, I will not pan the purchase of Sol Campbell. Vermaelen was a great buy, but stopping off to buy Ajax's best players is an old trick. Williamson and Simpson were superb bargain signings.
Shouldn't Arsenal have won hands-down on scouting during Newcastle's relegation season? They didn't. Once again, this is just the ability of a big club to attract known quantities.
'11 season
Arsenal
Chamakh (free)
Koscielny (8.5 million)
Squillaci (3.5 million)
Lehman (free)
Newcastle
Perch (1.5 million)
Gosling (free)
Sol Campbell (free)
Tiote (3.5 million)
Ben Arfa (7 million)
Kuqi (free)
Same money spent, both clubs acquire a promising youngster and an old warhorse on a free. But you'd be daft if you think the results were the same.
'12 season
Arsenal
Jenkinson (1 million)
Gervinho (10.5 million)
Oxlade-Chamberlain (12 million)
J Campbell (900k)
Park Chu-Young (1.8 million)
Santos (6.2 million)
Mertesacker (8 million)
Arteta (10 million)
Newcastle
Abeid (free)
Cabaye (4.3 million)
Ba (free)
Marveaux (free)
Obertan (3.25 million)
Santon (5 million)
Elliot (300k)
Cisse (10 million)
Arsenal's "crisis season". But actually, it's only the scale of spending that differs from past years.
Surprised you have not been inundated with comments from Arsenal supporters?
The 'success' we've had in that period (quotation marks as I only consider it success when compared to newcastle) is due to our scouting over a longer period than that, and not necessarily down to reputation e.g. Song - free, Sagna - 6mil, Szczesny - 500k, van persie - 2.5 mil, (some current players bought prior to '09 that newcastle could have bought with ease, had their scouting system identified them).
Like i said, successful scouting, yes, but until you're in touching distance of us the argument is fairly weak.
Also, the 'effective' trade of n'zogbia for others in '09 gets smashed by our 'effective' trade that same season. Selling adebayor and toure funded all our acquisitions, plus a new contract/payrise for fabregas (which allowed for his sale to barca a couple of seasons later, rather than him leaving on a free), and we had cash to spare as well. Although commendable, your research didn't quite extend far enough there...
Now about that swansea... :)
paulm2012-03-27 23:17:32
[quote=paulm]Also, the 'effective' trade of n'zogbia for others in '09 gets smashed by our 'effective' trade that same season. Selling adebayor and toure funded all our acquisitions, plus a new contract/payrise for fabregas (which allowed for his sale to barca a couple of seasons later, rather than him leaving on a free), and we had cash to spare as well. Although commendable, your research didn't quite extend far enough there...
Pardew and Newcastle probably deserve more plaudits than this lot for what they've achieved this season.
Pardew and Newcastle probably deserve more plaudits than this lot for what they've achieved this season.
+ 1
love this:
Quote Of The Day
"He would maybe say that he played with me" - Michael Laudrup responds to being asked 'You played with Pep Guardiola at Barcelona...'
And the comments in this thread are pretty funny when you look at newcastle and swansea's performances this season.
Pardew a year ahead of schedule bahahahahaha Stripes came and went with his fortunes it seems...
Psychologically it's huge. A two goal win for Chelsea is well within reason, a 3 goal win is just way harder.
Great result for Swansea, but that ball boy incident took the gloss off it for me. That kinda stuff is just not cricket.
The 'boy' looked about 18 to be honest and was being a right little shit.
The kid will look back at that in 5 years and feel completely embarassed.
He's gone from 240 followers on twitter to 70,000 in one day. Crazy.
He's gone from 240 followers on twitter to 70,000 in one day. Crazy.
He's gone from 240 followers on twitter to 70,000 in one day. Crazy.
What has been the reaction from Swans fans to the ball boy?
Will they be making a statue of him (he sure earned his own Oscar), hiding him from the Russian Mafia, or what?
Possibly the best football laugh I've had in a decade...