It was really Bolton's academy plus Nicky Hunt. He must have really annoyed somebody to get left behind when all the other senior players are in America.

Even Joey O'Brien and Riga are in America, and they'd be prime candidates to be left behind with him...

I read something yesterday claiming that we have first refusal on Wilshere if (the key word) Wenger decides to loan him out...

Afternoon all

Nice to see that the Baggies continued our unbeaten start to the friendlies season (!) by beating VVV Venlo 2 ~ 1, Ishmael Miller and Gabriel Tamas scoring our goals. So now the team are off to Gresty Road on Tuesday to play Crewe.  Really nice article from Di Mat on the club website praising both players and fans on yesterday's performance ~ it's nice when a manager can come out publically and say things like that ~ I remember seeing him at the Hawthorns at the start of last season and he seemed rather overwhelmed by the interest and support of our fans, nice to see him acknowledge us as a certain other manager who I hated with a passion used to put us fans down all the time, still TM always acknowledged us and look what happened to him!  I still wish him every success though and hope he finds a team to manage soon, Celtic were just a step too much for him at that stage of his managerial career I feel.

Martin Jol is being tipped to be the new Fulham manager, good manager and a nice man, bloody hard footballer though, I remember when he played for us! 

Di Mat interview here and as ever feel free to look at all the wonderful Baggieness that is on the website!!

http://www.wba.co.uk/page/News...0366~2095086,00.html

Love the old style horror I vant your bloooood *targets buxom babe*

Chelsea get Yoshi from Liverpool, Liverpool respond by signing Joe Cole.

The scousers have got the better deal there.

Afternoon/Evening
Wonder how you'll get on against Crewe Pinky. They have quite a strong academy, they gave our babies a really tough time in the Youth FA Cup last season.
I like Martin Jol, be good to see him back in England.


Joe Cole to the Scousers is an interesting one Disley. I'm not convinced by him tbh. He can be brilliant but is too injury prone, too inconsistent and too much up his own butt for my liking. I'm glad we didn't sign him, rumour is that he wanted too much money plus a guaranteed starting place. That being said, he'll probably score a hat trick against us on opening day

i'm quite sad to see coley go.........having said that he never seemed the same after that injury and didn't play that well.....the rumour mill says he wanted over a hundred grand a week to stay at chelsea.....and given his form etc they weren't prepared to go for it....so off he trotted......


ion...got a ticket for the first game of the season v west brom........

Looking forward to the new season, got no work at weekends and got my season ticket sorted now.

Spoonnnggeeyyyy

I love the opening home game - so much optimism
I'm waiting on getting a ticket for our opening game, we are finally renaming the zones at the Emirates into the old Highbury names, North Bank, Clock End and East and West Stand so I really want to be there.
I know what you mean about Joe Cole, Eduardo hasn't been the same since his leg was butchered and there is growing speculation that he is off to Shaktar. I hope Aaron Ramsay comes back ok after his horror injury.

I is jellus!!  I sooo want to go but will end up watching it on ESPN as Mr Pink can't afford any more time off yet ~ he lost three weeks of work last month getting a new car.

La Veggie, I think it will be a good friendly tomorrow, Crewe are a team I like very much, think Dario Grady has the right attitude about football and respect him a lot ~ he has brought through so many young players and had to sell them due to Crewe's financial situation over the years.  

ION, really pleased to see that Graham Dorrans has signed a 4 year contract, hope this now means that West Ham will stop trying to sign him and turn their attention to other players ~ they were told three times he was not for sale for goodness sake!  It remains to be seen though whether he can make the step up to being a PL player, I obviously hope so and from what I have seen he should.  There is a rumour that Martin O'Neill is trying to sign Robbie Keane from Spurs, he would be a good player for them.  4 weeks and counting to the start of the PL, really can't wait this season, I honestly think we just need a proven striker (please not Jason Roberts!!) and we could just maybe survive next season (optimistic as ever!!)

Joe Cole has signed for Liverpool, good career move?  It also looks as if Martin Jol will become Fulham manager.

Just in case no-one mentioned it we had a lerkal society wedding at the weekend. Sol Campbell married one of the Barrats. Guests included Ashley, Rio, and Ainsley Harriot. For some unknown reason the Geordie scratters booed Ashley. Strong rumours that Sol will play for the Barcodes or Deckchairs.

Oh yeah Joe heard about that, not about the booing though.  Yes looks like Sol may finally be going to Newcastle, he was supposed to be going last season after briefly looking as if he was coming to us.... 

How do you see 'Boro doing next season?  I will still be really interested in the Championship ~ bit of light relief after the undoubted disappointments of being in the PL, not really, looking forward to it!  But I will still be interested in what is going on in the Championship.

Hi On the first coupon we were 9/1 joint favourites. Yesterday, when I found myself in the Turf Accountants for no apparent reason, we were 6/1 favourites.
To be signed up one needs to be Scottish and an ex-captain.
Wish I had the faith but I've been here before... several times.

We have a new excuse for England's failure at the World Cup. According to the ever hilarious Talksport, the reason why they failed is because 'clubs like Bolton have too many average foreigners in their team'...

Our last Premier League game saw 7 English players start, including Wilshere, so go figure...

This comes a day after Gary Neville singled out Kevin Davies as an example of why we can't develop good defenders. You see, when Gerard Pique was at Man Utd, Gary reckons that Davies was 'banging into him every couple of minutes' and so he couldn't play well (ignoring the fact that it was actually Anelka and Campo, two Champions League winners, that made a fool out of Pique at the time).

Now, I don't really get that. If we've established that that kind of style of play supposedly stops players like Pique from playing well, then why the hell don't England play like that all the time. They'd win the World Cup for sure then...

Talksport are always full of sh*te...



They will always take the bait, one guy sent an email in yesterday saying: AC Milan striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar has arrived at Manchester airport and is set for talks with either Manchester United or Manchester City.


Im thinking of sending this one in,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...ture=player_embedded

Another p*ss up with a goal not given... this time in the womens u20s.



FIFAs attitude will be. "It's womans football therefore it means f*ck all"

Now now we can't possibly let Bolton get the credit, everyone knows that Arsenal are the sole reason that England were carp!

Ahh Talkshite - the only radio station that can make 5live look balanced and impartial

Its Talksport that throw out the bait for the disgusted of Tunbridge wells to phone in and complain about.  If they didnt say something controversial then nobody would bother to phone in.  They have done it for years.

I see that even the FIFA website seem to be wanting to help Barcelona with their constant tapping up this time with what Xavi said though now they have taken it down

Great news about Dorrans PB. I definetly think Albion have more reason to feel confident this campaign and it seems that the defence have been working really hard, although I agree with the people that want a new centre forward.



Hope Jol takes over at Fulham.

I gave up on Talksport ages ago. They let that Jon Gaunt one come out with all manner of shieght day after day, week after week, and the first time he said something the man on the Clapham omnibus might agree with, they sacked  him.

Well what do we expect with the England haters in charge? Makes me seethe it really does.


Dudu has gone to Shaktar today.  I'm quite upset about it tbh, he never regained his form after that horror tackle at Birmingham. It's way past time for the authorities to get tough on this.
Good Luck Eduardo

Just seen on SSN, FA have no plans to ban Vuvuzuelas (sp) and will let them in to Wembley for next friendly

LOL I didn't see the fuss about the Vuvuzelas.

If they are allowing Uwe Seelers at the games I assume that my T-shirts mit "maffifa" and "FickFufa" will be Ok !

Liverpool to launch shock raid for Man City defender Wayne Bridge...

PMSL, they can have him for free

According to the West Brom fans status that I have just read on FB (not the most reliable of sources I grant you), there is a big announcement coming from the club tomorrow morning and there is a media blackout regarding the announcement, it is nothing to do with players or extending/renovating the ground.  The general views of most fans on the site is that we have got some financial backing from somewhere, or that we may be having a change of manager.  Hope it is not the latter, I really have been impressed with Di Mat during his year in charge, we still play attractive football, but with more defensive nous.

I'm definitely intrigued by this one... I would love to see some more financial backing for our club enabling us to buy the type of players that you need to stay in the PL, but another part of me doesn't want my team to get into the sort of debt that Portsmouth are in and the problems they have had.

Oh well all will be revealed in the morning. 

Darlo, good to see you and hope you enjoy your summer break. Yes a forward is on most fan's shopping list for the coming season, we need a proven goal scorer in the PL, it's ok having midfield that can score goals, we still need a forward that can get 10+ goals a season.

Ooh shall keep my eye open tomorrow about that one.



Good to see you too BB and thanks, definetly PB because although Bednar is decent he won't get 10+ goals a season and the likes of Cox, Miller etc have more work to do on their game.

Things a lot more positive this season than last at Norwich.  Lambert is still manager and confirmation that vuvuzelas have finally been banned at Carrow Road

Bolton beat Toronto 4-3 on penalties last night after the game had finished 1-1 to win the world famous Carlsberg Cup and deliver the clubs first piece of silverware for the season (haha).

We got our first (and only) bit of silverware in the Emirates Cup last season Disley. It didn't do us much good!
Looks like you won't be getting Super Jack back at the moment
http://www.arsenal.com/news/ne...gets-experience-here-

Oh jesus... just seen our away kit, the shirt isnt too bad. But the socks are crap. Look right clowns.

The new Bolton away kit is just weird... it gives the players a bizarre white outline!

Lol Disley, it comes with ready brek
Our keepers have been turning out in a lurid pink number, truly David James is one of the only men who can carry that look off

Blimey had to search a little for this thread!

Well we won again yesterday and sounds as if it was a good performance, sounds like there is more steel in the defence this season, but we will see.

The big news from West Brom was that we are banning  Vuvuzuelas (sp) at the Hawthorns next season, was pleased about that, but was expecting it to be much, much more.

Also the blatant tapping up of Cec Fabregas is now becoming just stupid, rumours that Barca players are phoning and texting him 

Watching the Premier League years from 2006/07 at the moment, as I have got footy withdrawal symptoms (and also enjoying seeing Jose Mourino!)  so am looking forward to watching the Emirates Cup next weekend, because I forgot to set the planner for the Man City matches on ESPN. 

Off topic but I just wanted to say RIP to Alex Higgins here.  Fond memories of the year he won the World Snooker Championship in 1982, my brother was a huge fan of him then and was glued to the final, I was revising for my CSE English Literature exam at the time (which thankfully I passed).  He had a great deal of problems in his personal life, but I'll always remember some of the great snooker that he played, so much more interesting than today's game.  Sad to think that according to reports the man died alone.

Afternoon


Pinkalicious  You will have to have a nosy for me at the Emirates Cup. I've got tickets in block 1 for both days behind the Arsenal bench so look for a fat woman stalking AW
I'm glad you're banned vuvuzelas, we have as well. If anyone blew one near me and damaged my hearing they'd be getting an emergency anal probe!

I watched the City v Sporting Lisbon match yesterday, a young side was out there along with a few experienced players. By the looks of it, the tactics seem very much the same as last season... I don't think I have ever seen us play so defensively, we had every player apart from Bellamy behind the ball and we still managed to go on and lose 2-0. With all the new players coming in, if we do go on to be a success... theres gonna be alot of shout outs across the league about us playing negative football. We also got a game later this evening at 8:00pm against NY Redbulls on ESPN. Spurs v Sporting Lisbon play before that.

Had to admire the way Sporting play, seemed very attractive free flowing football. Think their season starts next week so they seem ready.

Sporting Lisbon are my favourite Portugese team.


Hope that Manchester City hurry up and buy Milner so Villa can buy McGeady and Keane, plus ask for Stephen Ireland in exchange Meaty.

Don't need Milner, he wouldnt even make the starting 11.



And its unlikely we would get rid of Ireland.

Depends though because looking at that midfield there is lots of talent there, and he might not be happy in being rotated or stuck on the bench because he wants more first team action.


Do you think that the defence is sorted now or needs strengthening more?.

No chance, you won't see us sell players to a club which we are trying to compete with.


"Do you think that the defence is sorted now or needs strengthening more?"

Don't know yet... we will see at the start of season.


Boateng--Toure--Lescott--Kolarov

Possibly take Lescott out and play Kompany. If we can get a new RB at some point, Boateng can move to CB where he is at his best.

Kompany is way better in centre half than in midfield.


LOL Richards and Bridge won't be starting much games this season then.