Since we last won the league, bar the marvellous Leicester City, it has only been won by the massively rich clubs with their deep squads. Even the giant Liverpool has been looking through the window for nearly two decades, although they might finally win it this time. Until Arsenal can spend like City, United and Chelsea, a top four place is our realistic high point. When our previous manager said as much, it was considered sacrilege, but truth is he was speaking what virtually all non-Arsenal fans knew was the truth. If you don't have the right manager or squad of players even the Europa place is not guaranteed.

https://arseblog.news/2019/05/ornstein- ... b6WE3VDMf8

Ramsey has played his last game.
Ah well.

I suppose Sanchez too, he was 32 million.

He scored 1 in 2 games and we had his best years. Aside from those 3 players there’s not many you could suggest we’re an unquestionable hit

Understand the debate about head injuries but bloody hell that guy shouldn’t have been allowed back on the pitch. He looked like he’d been hit by a train.

Gross incompetence by spurs you wouldn’t have caught Gary Lewin doing that.

Yeah - Sanchez was a match winner and at his peak form with us would have walked in to whoever won the title in those seasons. His value at his peak and with years left on his contract was definitely £80m+, madness that we turned down £60m from City when he only had 12 months left.

If the new regime is serious about making decisions, new contract/sell, on players when they reach their last 2 years we are going to have a few interesting decisions coming up. Mustafi for example has 2 years left on his deal, what if no-one wants to buy him, do you offer him a new deal to avoid losing him for nothing!? This is what Man U have been doing with players clearly not good enough such as Young and Phil Jones

Liverpool's rebuild has been massively helped by some hugely over inflated sales which has been basically like handing free money to Klopp. The squad above generated £208m in fees alone. Big Klopp sales are:
Coutinho £140m, Sakho £25m, Benteke £30m, Ibe £15m Joe Allen £13m and Ings and Solanke have gone for £19m a piece each. Danny Ward the gk sold for £12m. They even got £5m loan fee for sending Origi out on loan!
If we could sell 8-9 players we don't want for £200m we'd be laughing as well

How did they get such bloody huge fees ?

They sold well where we literally chucked millions down the drain selling players like Gnabry, chesney and Wilshere for absolute peanuts.

If we had only just managed to get fees for Ramsey, Wilshere and Sanchez. Would have made such a massive difference. That would have given us 100 odd million and we could have had another 3 proven players in our side right now. I hope Gazidis chokes on his Gnocchi in Milan

It seems like gross financial negligence.

Wilshere? Ah c'mon lads. We had no chance of getting a big fee for him. He's been crocked for years.

The Coutinho fee was a monster one for Liverpool. They have spent an awful lot though. Allison, Fabinho, Keita and VVD. Worth mentioning too that Klopp hadn't much interest in Salah at all. He didn't particularly rate him. He got very lucky there.

That was shameful. The Tottenham medics should be questioned about that. Looks like medical negligence. Football really needs to grow up when it comes to concussion.

If my memory is correct, Klopp did make his mark on Liverpool playing style pretty much immediately. Can we say the same about Emery?

I'm all for giving him the benefit of the doubt for another season or two. But I think the comparison with Klopp is a bit wishful.

You could have got a fee of 5 to 10 million for him, point wasn’t about him specifically but the host of players walking out the door with no fees

Don’t you remember his first 2 seasons? He finished 8th in his first season

Their defence was all over the place like we are and they were doing the whole “outscoring thing” with their opponents as we do.

It took them a couple of years to get back on track

That isn't the point.

I read somewhere that, statistically, Emery and Sari are right near the top in terms of first seasons in the prem (certainly better than the likes of Ferguson and Klopp, and similar to Maurinho and Pep). However, the point is that with Klopp and Fergusson there was a real buzz about their appointments.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news ... ol-manager

Not sure that was the original point but yes I mean he’s a far better media character and story than Emery.

Speaks great English, is quite funny, his touchline antics are entertaining. He’s a far easier character to get behind. I think Liverpool fans bought into his project because of his character and the way he communicated.

I’m not sure that is the case with Emery who unfortunately isnt fluent in the lingo but critically can’t impart what his objectives are on the fans. A harder character to get behind undoubtably

Barca 1-0 Liverpool. Great goal from Suarez.
And so called world best CB Van Dijk could see suarez’s run right in front of him and didn’t follow him and allowed him the shot at goal.

Obviously VvD is a fantastic defender but if that is mustafi all you would hear is how mustafi has not tracked his runner again. I suppose when you’ve put enough good stuff in the bank you don’t get criticised for those mistakes

Messi's looking electric tonight.

Liverpool look like they carry a threat too good chance missed by Mané. You'd think they need an away goal tonight.

I dunno you just look at the pass from alba. Superb.

One of those inviting passes ahead of the player begging to be smashed in.

It’s not quite the same as Mustafi walking on the pitch with his flies undone from the start then getting his a****** podgered by Zaha with no lube

Barcelona looking more interested in keeping a clean sheet than pressing for the second, Liverpool pressing hard but without troubling Ter Stegen too much, so far at least. Huge last 20 minutes coming up which could determine the outcome of the tie.

And there's the second, Liverpool hit with the sucker punch.

Messi, bloody hell. Absolute peach.

Liverpool picked off 3-0. Given a lesson by Barca. Barca should have put the tie to bed they had 2 3v1’s in added time and couldn’t score the 4th.
Can’t see anyone but Barca winning the champions league this season and for that I am very very glad

This one is done and dusted. No matter what miracles Tottenham perform in the 2nd leg, I can be fairly confident they won't win the ECL.

In a one-off game, as the final will be, anything can happen. Anyway, he hopefully won't if Tottenham do get through but who's to say Messi won't pull his hamstring and miss it? It may be unlikely, but it's certainly not impossible.

Apparently Wenger criticised Van Dyke on TV for the way he lost his man. The person who presided over assembling the worst Arsenal defence that I have ever seen has pure hide to even mention defence critically.

I don't think either of the CL semi's is done and dusted yet. Barca are not always that good away from home as PSG once proved. And Ajax have often played better away in the big CL games. Would be very happy with a Barca Ajax final.

Unlike Bernard I do like Messi and this year some of his goals are just amazing. It is a pleasure to watch him in action. Loved the free kick.

I assume that there was a national w@nkfest as you all say, when Man Utd won the title in '92 after many years ('67 was it?, too bothered to look it up). I assume obviously because I wasn't into football at the time and being the biggest club in the country, I assume as much.

That said, I assume there will be a vomit inducing celebration going on if Liverpool wins it for the first time since '90 (that info I knew already ). Its going to be nauseating.

So, i'm at a quandary. I hate seeing Man City winning again because of their money but Liverpool winning it will be tough to take as well.

If City wins it and they win it over the next season or two, something I feared may happen and that is that the league may look like the SPL to some extent. If that happens and they win 3 or 4 of the trot, lose one then another few years winning it again, it will be one of the worst things for the league. Viewership might drop off somewhat. It might not, but a case can be made that it could hurt the league. If that happens, then its at that time I can see the governing body(bodies) take action limiting the impact of financial doping of clubs.

City simply have the money to last the marathon that a season is. Liverpool has been fortunate with injuries and that is one of the primary reasons they are still in it. City's bench could start for almost any side.

If City dominates the league, I would guess that the league cup will take on bigger importance. I contend that it does already when compared how seriously it was taken when I became a fan.

I’m not sure how anyone can see Messi other than the greatest player of all time.

Indeed. What is there to dislike in Messi? A thrilling player with the heart of a lion and magical skills. So often he is the difference between Barca and their opponents. We have been blessed to see him perform.

Because there have been some magnificent players before him. Pele didn't earn the accolade as greatest of all time for nothing. Maradona was incredible at his peak. There are plenty of football fans who believe that Ronaldo is better than Messi. For my part, I rate Messi as the best I have ever seen. Pele was before my time.

I understand the argument that a) you can't really judge players before your time and b) it is difficult to compare players across different generations.......but sometimes you have to nail your colours to the mast and for me Messi is the greatest ever. The rate at which he scores, the quality of the goals, the rate at which he assists, the unbelievable technical ability, the balance, the shear fear he strikes in opponents.......and one thing that stands him above Ronaldo for me is I don't think he needs his teammates as much.
Ronaldo has transformed himself in to a deadly striker as he's got older but he still needs that service. Messi has actually started to play deeper as he's got older and he dictates and controls entire games before stepping up and winning them.

Since 2011 only Aguero, Vardy and Hazard have scored more goals vs the premier league top 6 than Messi.
Every top 6 prem player has played 80 games vs top 6 teams in those 8 seasons. Messi has only been able to play top 6 teams if and when Barcelona draw them in Europe.

I think the argument about whether he could cut it on a cold wet tuesday night in Stoke can be put to bed. He regularly puts the premier leagues best teams to the sword - he would totally demolish cardiff and huddersfield

Thought Liverpool played as well as I've seen an away side play in Barcelona but I do think Klopp made a mistake putting Winajldum in a false 9 position. It shows how fortunate Liverpool have been to have Salah/Mané/Firminho pretty much 100% available for the past 2 seasons. They have nothing like their quality after them.
Similar in defence with VvD, Robertson, Trent, Matip - Liverpool have fewer first team defenders than us. They only really have 4 CB and one of those is their deputy RB, and they have Moreno at deputy left back.
It is testament to Liverpool and the players that they have remained fit and also not looking tired. Robertson has played non stop for about 18 months and still bombs up and down that left wing.

We have been blessed to see them all perform against Arsenal too. I’ve seen all the great players of our era in the flesh and that’s a real privilege as a football fan; Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo, Messi, Henry, Buffon, Xavi, Bergkamp, Iniesta, Cannavaro, Ljungberg etc. All masters of their craft.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Chelsea this summer.
Possibly a new manager
Still facing a transfer ban
Sell hazard now for big money without being able to replace him - or lose him for nothing next year
Being forced to promote their young players due to the transfer ban - they have some fantastic talent and have done for some years, Hudson-Odoi, Loftus-Cheek, Ampadu
Pulisic signing
They may have to recall some of their army of loan players to actually play in the first 11, you forget the players they've signed - not worked out and just been able to ship them off on loan and sign another £40m player - Bakayoko, Kennedy, Rahman, Batshuayi, Morata, Abraham, Moses, Zouma, Kalas, Eduardo. You could make a competent new Premiership squad from their loan players alone

You forgot to mention Wiltord if you're mentioning someone else on your list.

To be honest it's the continual hero worship and fawning over Messi that I find so revoltingly creepy. Can't wait till he retires. Good riddance will be my reaction. The Messi fanboys can then move onto someone else. Having said that, if Barcelona play Tottenham in the final I hope Messi has one of his good days.

But anyway, I'm with Glenn Hoddle on this issue. Maradona is the best I've seen.

David Seaman was on the Alan brazil radio show on talksport. He was with Pyet, Anderton and another spurs guy I think.
Brazil was poking fun saying he felt sorry for Seaman being surrounded by Spurs men, then poked fun at the Nayim goal etc. Seaman just laughed and sai "I'll bring my trophies out soon"
No more needs to be said

Great put down.

It didn't feel like a blessing at the time when Messi was cudgelling us... but I take your point. It was quite magnificent.