Oh he abused me a few times especially when he felt I had gone too far in laughing at Kernow ( I would have liked to have chatted to him about my recent trip to the Scillies).

He also sent me a lovely book on Chile because he knew of my great interest in the country.

Says it all really - much missed as everybody says.

Syd Barrett was overrated discuss...

Haven't heard it but it's definitely a prog rock album title...

Rumours are we are negotiating with Chelsea over Ox. Why would we solve a huge problem for Chelsea? Would we re-invest the money?

Since we've gone to 3-4-3 Ox has been quite an important player in the system. It isn't as though Walcott is going to play RWB.

To be honest we have left ourselves in a total mess as far as the squad is concerned. This summer was a huge opportunity to really make a change and a statement. 2 weeks left of the window and only a £40m spend so far. I know money doesn't resolve every problem but we haven't got the answers within the squad, Wenger has been trying that old trick for years "let's improve what we have, signings are not the answer" well he has failed to improve what we have. Time for some fresh blood.

2 more signings required and decide before we deal with any of sanchez/Özil/ox potentially leaving. Once again we're are left having to trust the man who controls every aspect of the club and has proven year after year incapable of taking us any higher. The first game of the season proved we will just be served up the same as last year

Obviously I want us to do well but as a football fan and a fan of the EPL, its exciting that so many clubs are good and anything can happen.
I will say this though, Chelsea and the Manchester clubs feel they can raid us and Liverpool at will almost but sperz players generally are loyal and have bought into the spirit. Not sure I give much credence to the Delli Ali rumors.
I am hoping sperz derails this year, and I would 'looove it' if Mourinho had another bad season.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-RVJyNpfDk[/youtube]

If it sounds like a Goth and looks like a Goth....

Come on, buddy, Goth? Or not?

What accent is he trying to mimic with 'looove it'? Certainly not London or Cockney. Merseyside? If so, why? Would probably be more relevant to Klopp being he's at Liverpool.

Kevin Keegan. Don't you remember he fell in love with him a few years ago...................

I see, thanks. Keegan comes from Doncaster.

I'd have City as favourites, Utd second faves and between us and Chavs third faves. As it stands Chavs need to add a few players and hope Hazard hits the ground running. Spuds' squad remains pretty small and there's the Wembley issue which will hopefully see them slip back out of the top four (I accept this may just be wishful thinking!). Mourinho has had a lot of success making his teams defensively strong and very physical through the spine - a winning formula that we also once had. They've got a lot of talent there already like you said, just hope Mourinho fails to turn them into a cohesive unit because the potential is there for them to have a proper shot at the title. Our squad is close or just behind theirs at the moment, we really need to add at least one more player.

Klopp seems to disregard the physical side of the game in this country as well as neglecting his defence, a bit like Wenger (Mourinho is the opposite). It was highlighted perfectly against Watford who are bang average but dominated Liverpool physically and scored three goals out of it. For this reason I can't really see the scousers progressing much from last year. Hoping Coutinho goes too.

I'm yet to be convinced Klopp is quite as excellent as his reputation suggests. To be fair I'd say the same of Guardiola. That isn't me saying they're rubbish managers. Far from it. I'm simply unsure they're both quite as good as their respective reputations suggest.

Having said that I'd rather have either of them than Wenger at Arsenal.

Oh no it doesn't ... try dropping a dead shark / sting ray on the wharf ..... what goes off first is the liver / entrails .

Trump might well be a moron but he isn't the reason for the putridity ; it was there long before he arrived .

Their squad is on a similar level to ours and much deeper than both Spurs and Chelsea, though not necessarily with a better first eleven. I don't know how that can even be questioned. Their under-achievement in recent seasons has been as much due to managerial failures as personnel issues, and in their problem position of central midfield they've spend £120m+ on two players to resolve the problem.

Oh yes agree with that, but he did give the early Pink Floyd a distinctive guitar sound and he was the most handsome of front men. Gilmour is obviously the better player.

A good ole boy , always a pleasure to converse with ..... Joe Meek , old cars

I think with that age group .... Old Man , Guru , Long Time , myself .......there is a certain class , extra intellectual dimension not apparent in a lot of our younger posters .

There's a video of Henry analysing Lacazette's first 90 minute for Arsenal. He specifically picks out Xhaka and saying how Arsenal need to learn what Lacazette does, learn his movement. Showed a number of times Lacazette made a good run for the ball over the top, saying Xhaka is more than good enough to play the ball especially when he's quite deep with very little pressure on him, but often Xhaka sees the run too late or is just not used to having someone make that run so it isn't his instinct in this team to go longer.

Henry talked about Petit and the passes he played for Anelka....and himself.

The formation suits Xhaka, more time on the ball and he has two dedicated wide wing backs, Lacazette going in behind and Özil coming between the lines. If he gets time and gets his range his passing could be great for us this season. I'd love to see us go a bit more direct at times

ZZZZ

I was thinking of pointing out to Rich that his post might meet with your displeasure.

Mee liked his poetry He might have enjoyed this one by Kim Addonizio?

'What Do Women Want?'

I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,
I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.
I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what’s underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty’s and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I’m the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what
I want. When I find it, I’ll pull that garment
from its hanger like I’m choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I’ll wear it like bones, like skin,
it’ll be the goddamned
dress they bury me in.

Very high possibility we will lose 2 players to key EPL opponents before the window closes. Let's hope we have at least 1 top class player coming in as well. 2 more weeks of media hype over nothing (something)?

I assume you are not talking about DeBuchy and Jenkinson/Theo/Wilshire.

Haha, any of those 4 going will not weaken us too much. Was thinking of Alexis and Ox, but I think you knew that anyhow

If the stories about the Ox to Chelsea for 25 million are true [ which I seriously doubt ] I'd bite their hand off and be on the next plane to Senegal , Cameroon ...... wander down to their local parks looking for a 6' 1" man mountain to bolster our midfield .
When you check out their national sides all their players are playing in Europe and I'd reckon there must be a ton of talent trying to come through .
Getting a work permit might be problematic .

Yes, but as long as he’s tall it’s worth a shot. As they say ‘talent wins games, defense wins championships, tallness just wins’.

Deeper as in more players? They’ve failed to reach top four three of the last four seasons, so maybe some of their players just aren’t as good as their reputation anymore. They’ve got a few class players, but overall it’s an unbalanced and overrated squad until they prove otherwise.

Man U have depth in terms of their second 11 being very close in quality to their first 11. Particularly when compared with the strength of spurs, Chelsea and liverpools 2nd 11 in comparison to their 1st 11.

Man U had Romero, Shaw, smalling, lindelof, Herrera, fellaini, martial, lingard, rojo, young, Carrick, darmian not in their starting 11 at the weekend

Teams like the 3 mentioned above are dipping in to the academy long before Man U. I think they will be right up there this season. But, I think the title will once again be won by the team who can get that consistent best 11 on the pitch for the most games. Last 3 years title winners have had no injuries

No arguing that. But when talking about squad depth, surely the quality of the starting eleven is a factor 8and arguably the most important one)? Doesn't matter how close your backups are to your starting players if your starting players aren't as good as your rivals.

But putting all of that to the side, what really bugs me about all this is how nobody will say Arsenal are title contenders. It’s all about needing 1-2 or even 3 top class signings, not doing enough in the transfer market, Wenger possibly being past it etc. We’ve been consistently better than Man United in every way ever since Ferguson retired – better football, better results, better league positions, more trophies. Yet now they’ve apparently jumped ahead of us. Why exactly?

To illustrate my point further: Here's an article from BBC Sport where 40 pundits make their top four predictions for the season. 13 of them has Man United in 1st place. Nobody picked Arsenal. Chelsea and Tottenham - who really were the two dominant sides last season - only got one pick each.

Maybe they've turned a corner. Time will tell. But the way they're now a consensus title candidate based only on the amount of money they've spent is just weird.

I understand your point but in Mourinho they've got one of the most successful managers in the history of the game (albeit he spends a shedload of money to achieve that success) and he tends to get things right eventually.

I don't know how things will pan out this season but you can see a big, strong, powerful side emerging sprinkled with a little gold dust and a dollop of real pace.

Yes, there are still weaknesses to be dealt with so it may not be this season that sees them win a title but if you had to bet your house on whether Mourinho or Wenger would be the next manager to win a title I'd be surprised if you picked Wenger, given the fact that he's systematically failed to produce anything close to a title winning side in years.

I guess the bookies and pundits see it that way too.

On the flipside, most of his achievments have come in circumstances where there aren’t much competition – his first titles with Chelsea were back when nobody could even come close to their spending (and to be fair, Ranieri built big parts of that team), his title wins with Inter was when Juventus and Milan were still struggling after calciopoli, and then there’s Real Madrid where you’re never really the underdog. The CL win with Porto and the title win with Chelsea in his second stint is really the exception to this. He’s never had more work to do to win something, and this time he can’t just outspend everyone.

Another thing, many of those achievments are from years ago. He only won the league once in three seasons with Real Madrid, and once in three seasons with Chelsea. It’s been a while since he managed to produce winning sides consistently.

I honestly wouldn’t mind if people picked them for the title after ten games if they look impressive. But most of the hype came before they’d kicked a ball.

Do you see Tottenham with a good chance of winning the league, even though they're going to play all their home games at Wembley? I'm a little surprised they even got one pick, although maybe whoever chose them thought they would quickly adapt to Wembley, which isn't impossible. I'm also surprised Chelsea only got one pick, and I suspect it's because of the doubts over how many more players they can or will bring in this transfer window.

However, I'm much less surprised that nobody picked Arsenal. We have a chance of getting in the top four, but I reckon both Manchester clubs will finish above us and probably Chelsea too. I'd say it's harder to choose between Arsenal, Tottenham and indeed Liverpool when deciding their most likely order. But if Tottenham were still playing at White Hart Lane I would put them ahead of us.

I'm getting the impression part of your 'writing off' (if I can call it that) of Manchester United is based on their recent past, including last season. Do you genuinely think Arsenal have improved so much this summer to make up for our past shortfalls and win it?

Not really, but even with them playing their home games at Wembley I wouldn’t rate their chances much below Manchester United at this point.

Yes I did unfortunately. Be careful what you say. The forum has ears. Hoy will be on forcing some ZZZ's on you for being anti-Wenger.

A congo line of suck holes. Yes Maureen no Maureen three bags full.

Can we turn the discussion around, so instead of me explaining why I don’t think Man United will contend for the title, you can explain why you think they will? Seems more logical to me considering their recent history.

I can't pick who might win this year - not a clue - Chelsea had a bad start and then gathered up their loins and started running. I would say about Man U pundits seem to go on paper basically. And on paper you've got:
1. Maureen's second season (apparently that's a thing) although his second at Chelsea got him fired no??
2. The squad - the purchase of lukaku who pundits love and Matic gives them a better balanced squad with players that pundits and English fans know. And also a defender no-one's heard of but an extra body.
3. Second season for Pogba and Bailly the two promising signings from last year. Also development of Rashford
4. All the money. Pundits and fans love a good spend up - and there is some correlation between spending and success in football one has to say.
5. The positive feeling about the place, they won in Europe and qualified for the champions league so their 6th place gets forgotten and really upgraded to somewhere near 4th.
6. No other outstanding candidates. Chelsea no stronger Liverpool no stronger Spurs lost a player and playing at Wembley. Man C the possible exception but then they're the pundits other pick.

Which of these and other factors might come into play I don't know. The factor for me isn't Lukaku -Ibrahimovic was phenomenal last season and has ability Lukaku can't even imagine - but the way Matic and Pogba gel. That has all the hallmarks of being pretty potent and could solve the balance issues with Pogba's attacking instincts. They have quality in The aforementioned Matic and Pogba but also Rashford De Gea and good squad depth and potentially Lukaku if he rises to the occasion. And pace. They have pace.

So, I don't know, I can see why people might pick them, and if Chelsea continue to struggle only City are on the up really, apart from us and we're punching up from 5th in pundits minds.

That’s a good case – if any of the pundits had put it like that I’d be more inclined to accept their position! The arguments I’ve seen from the pundits are more of the kind that suggests they’ll be back in the title race because they’re Manchester United, or because they’ve spent a lot of money (on players we know aren’t really world class) or that there’s some kind of natural law that dictates Mourinho must get it right eventually (but it’s widely accepted that maybe Wenger just isn’t that good anymore).

I especially think the point about Matic and Pogba is valid – it certainly seems to work well against West Ham. Can’t understand why Chelsea sold Matic to a rival.

Final point about this - Rich got me thinking about our 'second eleven' and how it holds up. Had a look at the Manchester United squad, and if you use their starting eleven against West Ham as their de facto starting eleven this is what I came up with for second string:

Romero
Darmian - Smalling - Lindelöf - Shaw
Carrick - Herrera
Lingard - Fellaini - Young
Martial

Not used: Rojo, Pereira, Tuanzebe

For us, I'd say this is a likely starting eleven:

Čech
Mustafi - Mertesacker - Koscielny
Ox - Ramsey - Xhaka - Kolasinac
Özil - Lacazette - Sanchez

Which gives us a second string of

Ospina
Holding - Gabriel - Monreal
Bellerin - Coquelin - Elneny - Gibbs
Walcott - Giroud - Welbeck

Not used: Iwobi, Wilshere, Cazorla

You can argue about some players here and there, but overall I think that's pretty accurate. I have to say I prefer both our first and second eleven overall, and the fact that we have someone like Iwobi outside both of them is pretty impressive actually.

I'll do it for you, Hoy: ZZZZ