How's the summer transfers going for your club?

This is in the world football, not the eircom league section so could we please not have the usual 'MY team Blah Blah Rovers* have signed blah blah, you barstooler'. Instead this is directed at people who also support a non-Irish team.

Personally the summer transers have been shocking for Sheffield Wednesday to say the least. I really thought we could push on for the playoffs this year wuth some key signings. Instead it looks like we're going to be worse off squad wise than we finished last year. Richard Hunds I don't know much about to be fair, hopefully Francis Jeffers will finally start scoring again, but it's a gamble at £600,000 and I think Steve Watson is a good player to have in the squad, but considering we've lost decent squad players like Steve McLean and John Hills, are in the process of losing Chris Brunt today, and could lose Glenn Whelan and Frankie Simek by the end of August we could be in trouble, particulary with Brunt and Simek. Having missed out on Derek Riordan and Gregor Riask (sp?) I haven't seen any other names being linked with us so I don't know if there are any targets we are even close to signing :(



* That's not meant as a slight on Shamrock or Sligo Rovers

Yokohama FC just signed former Brazilian international Paulo Marcos on loan, and, despite the 8-1 loss last weekend, he was still by FAR the best player on the pitch, until he got knackered after about 70 minutes.

I'm looking forward to seeing him agai this weekend against league leaders Gamba Osaka this weekend.

(It is "World" football after all...............;))

arsenals transfers have been a little strange. i thik da silva could be dangerous, and if he adapts could get alot of goals. i'm quite impressed with sagna, i think he's going to be a good buy, esp as it lets eboue play on the wing, a much better position for him imo.

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Originally Posted by osarusan

Yokohama FC just signed former Brazilian international Paulo Marcos on loan, and, despite the 8-1 loss last weekend, he was still by FAR the best player on the pitch, until he got knackered after about 70 minutes.

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Jesus Osarusan we could use that sort of blinkered outlook back home in Limerick right now :p

I've been highly impressed with Malouda, Pizarro, Ben Haim and Sidwell already. So all's going well at Chelsea.

I haven't been able to see much of Marseille's season but 0-0 in both matches suggests that Gael Givet is doing his job. I don't know about Zenden. I did get to see something that really impressed me with Djibril Cissé though. The ball was crossed to him late on in the game against Starsbourg. He was offside but when the ball came to him he took the shot and put the ball in the back of the net. Good bit of target practice.

Uniteds going to class, tevez will be one of the players of the season, but people have to realise hes not a out and out scorer! nani looks handy, looking forward to seeing haregreaves get a few games under his belt, his energy could be reallly good for them.

nt 2 gr8. cardiff seem 2 nly wnt oldies. trevor sinclair, robbie fowler and hasselbaink. dey aint goin to replace chopra

Lots spent at Liverpool, the biggest buy being Torres. Personally I wouldnt have spent the money on him. His goal scoring record isnt good enough to warrant that kind of fee.

Verdict is out on the rest.

Alan O'Brien doing well for Hibs, too early to say about other new signings as they haven't played much



and Smicer doing great for Slavia Praha (although missed the great win in Ajax through suspension)

My club (Lille) have lost almost all its key players (Bodmer & Keita for Lyon, Tavlaridis @ Saint Etienne, Odemwingie=>Cska Moscow, Shmitz to Birmingham, etc).
Now our aim has always been to pick unknown players (sometimes from small leagues) with high potential and turn them, thanks to our great training system, to really good ones in a short term basis . And sometimes, it works very well (Kader Keita for example).
So this year Emra Tahirovic (a swedish striker, twin of Ibrahimovic:D) Marko Maric (Strong Croatian Midfielder who has already scored this season) and Yanes( International Colombian Striker, very good skills) Joined us.

Added to that, Beria, a Clone of Evra but right winger, very promising.
So far, after 4 games this season, we're in front of Lyon, Marseille and Paris =)

Despite all the money spent by Man Utd I don't think the transfers have gone well. Hargreaves will be a great signing, worth the money, but I don't think the other signings will do much this season. Anderson won't get too much action, although I think he is good signing for the future. Likewise with Nani, except he will get more game time- I'd expect him to get the same treatment Ronaldo got my Fergie in his first season, and it seemed to do him no harm.

I don't think Tevez has been a good signing to be honest. I think he is a terrific player but he is too similar to Rooney- I can't see them forming a good partnership. We need someone like van Nistelrooy to play with either Tevez/Rooney- we were lucky that Ronaldo scored so much from midfield last season. Saha is too injury prone and Ole will not be able to play as much, but is still a great option to have on the bench. Selling both Smith and Rossi was a bad move- we could do with one of them now. Hopefully the Anelka rumour is more than that.:)

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Originally Posted by DmanDmythDledge

Hopefully the Anelka rumour is more than that.:)

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I don't see how anyone could want Le Sulk at one of the top teams. Anyway, if the Heinze deal is anything to go by Fergie won't touch an ex-Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool player.

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Originally Posted by superfrank

I don't see how anyone could want Le Sulk at one of the top teams. Anyway, if the Heinze deal is anything to go by Fergie won't touch an ex-Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool player.

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I think he's a quality player and is the type of player that Man Utd need- one of the most under-rated players in the world imo. He does have a bit of an attitude problem but so have many players at Man Utd and they got on well. Also don't think the Heinze deal is anything to go by- Fergie just doesn't want to strengthen his rivals.

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Originally Posted by DmanDmythDledge

I think he's a quality player and is the type of player that Man Utd need- one of the most under-rated players in the world imo. He does have a bit of an attitude problem but so have many players at Man Utd and they got on well.

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I agree that he is a quality player but I just always thought he didn't seem to have the right attitude to make it at bigger clubs (Arsenal, Real, PSG the second time). And then I remember when he was at Man City and doing comparatively well, he complained that he wasn't at a bigger club. It seems that Fergie is a no-nonsense manager and that Anelka wouldn't have much time to change.

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Originally Posted by DmanDmythDledge

Also don't think the Heinze deal is anything to go by- Fergie just doesn't want to strengthen his rivals.

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I don't understand the Heinze thing at all. My understanding was he wouldn't sell because it was Liverpool. If he's worrying about strengthening his rivals, I think that's a bit two-faced. He's not playing Heinze but he won't let him leave because he feels he's too good. :confused:

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Originally Posted by superfrank

He's not playing Heinze but he won't let him leave because he feels he's too good. :confused:

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He's only not palying him because Heinze didn't report back to training...

So why doesn't he get rid of him then?

That's what I can't grasp.

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Originally Posted by superfrank

So why doesn't he get rid of him then?

That's what I can't grasp.

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He's trying. I figure Fergie rates him, but Heinze's never really been the same player since that bad injury two years ago. He'd keep him in the squad only Heinze's not happy at not starting.

as predicted Torres has been flop of the season so far at my club :D

Heinze has signed for Real Madrid for €12m (according to Marca, who frequently get this sort of thing wrong)

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Originally Posted by Dodge

He's only not palying him because Heinze didn't report back to training...

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Heinze did report back to training. Fergies just rates Evra more than him.

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Originally Posted by Valencia Hoop

Heinze has signed for Real Madrid for €12m (according to Marca, who frequently get this sort of thing wrong)

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i.e. just make **** up.

Up on BBC now too.

My teams.
Zalayeta should bang in the goals for the partenopei.
Henry super-sub.
And Alan Thompson should be handy for the set-pieces.

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Originally Posted by superfrank

It seems that Fergie is a no-nonsense manager and that Anelka wouldn't have much time to change.

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I totally disagree.
Cantona and Keane were the leaders there and brought endless drama (not necessarily a bad thing for the club.

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Originally Posted by Risteard

I totally disagree.
Cantona and Keane were the leaders there and brought endless drama (not necessarily a bad thing for the club.

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True. But I think they're also more determined to prove themselves. I can't put my finger on it but I don't think Anelka has the right mentality to actually get his head down and play consistently well.

Loaned out lots of peripheral players, signed Tallest Man In Football Zigic from Racing for €17m or so which a is a bit over the odds and another strioker alleged facha Arizmendo from Depor. With Villa and Morientes we are certainly not short of options up front. Hleguera has come on a freebie from Madrid, a few years past his best but he was free and we need some cover with Ayala gone. German keeper Hildebrand is in but I'm sure Canizares will be no 1. Made some clumsy attempts so sign a midfield playmaker (Van der Vaart and others) but with three days to our first game that remains the gap in the plans. Have held onto our star players (ayala aside) but fans are not too optimistic. Even with Carboni gone there are manager/presi tensions.

Brought in a lot of players over the summer, pretty early to tell how good/bad most will be but Jason Scotland looks like he will score plenty of goals at our level so that's a plus. The Spanish players are nice to watch and good athletes but am not sure they're suited to this style of football. Might be good in the Championship.

I think the squad is at present a bit too much 'quantity over quality' and we could do with getting rid of a few players who maybe aren't good enough, but that will come in time. Hopefully we will be in a good position come January and 1 or 2 shrewd acquisitions will see us make a late push for promotion or at least the play offs.

to bring this thread back to the fore..........my clubs signings didn'tt help so much after all............

Yokohama FC

Let's not talk about summer transfers in light of what happened to Jeffers at the weekend :(

Cissé was a joke against Lens at the weekend. :mad:

Zenden got his first L'OM goal and only his 50th career goal.

I'd like to add I've been highly impressed with Steve Mandanda at Marseille, apart from Wednesday night's antics of course. Hopefully he'll be signed permanently at the end of the season.