van Persie

[red g]

maybe in europe yes, but they came ****ing close to winning the league last season and they've just added the leagues best player from last season. plus vidic is back which is massive for them and I'm not sure the keeper is as bad now as he was at the start. Clevely ain't a bad player and he has a good engine which gives them the legs in the middle. they should struggle but rarely do.

yes but if Tevez didn't have his paddy last season they would have won the league by 10 points imo.

And they lost twice to city last season thats what also cost them.....and with that midfield I would expect the same this year

[Chazza]

Who is there back up fullbacks as well now? the **** Rafeal has gone to qpr....do they have any other proper fullbacks?

Nope, the only players they have who can cover fullback are Evra, Smalling the slightly less **** Raphael and at a push Jones

Looked like they were in for Baines but that has all gone a bit quiet

[Fosterbloke]

Fletcher is on the way back too which is a big bonus for them. Man Utd are definitely contenders.

I mean, look at the way we battered Arsenal then RVP scored twice and won the game.

[Nicey]

Kagawa, Rooney and van persie is some forward line. As good as anything in Europe really. But we're not really competing with Utd this season. We are on the other hand, competing with arsenal, and this weakens them significantly. Utd have also spent a large sum on an ageing, injury prone player. This could well be berbatov mk 2 for them, and probably won't seem like such good business in a couple of years time!

Will be interesting to see what wenger does with the money

My thoughts exactly ... its got to be all about the teams ahead of us first and foremost.

Spurs - New Manager, most likely missing there two most influential mid field players, Parker out injured and pushing on and Modric wants away and fee is agreed, missing magic Arrys Magic arm around the shoulder and there City Striker .
Newcastle Lets see if they can do that again shall we, I seriously doubt they can
and Arsenal RVP is off, last year Arsneal was RVP FC

[Fosterbloke]

It's fun playing that game! City have the pressure of every team wanting to do well against the Champions. Chelsea have a **** defense and no Drogba.

[Fosterbloke]

Really surprised City didn't push harder for him, especially with United in the mix.

If United click next season they will hard to beat.. Their forward line makes me a bit envious when you consider how short we are.

Rooney
Van Persie
Hernandez
Welbeck
Valencia
Nani
Kagawa
Young

Consider our attacking options -

Suarez
Borini
Sterling
Suso
Carroll
Gerrard
Shelvey
Downing

Not quite as rounded in some areas but will be pretty decent in a couple of seasons assuming we keep them all.

We'll be in for a ****ing good right winger in 2013 I'm sure of it.

[Nicey]

Last year the only teams the really impressed me were

Spurs Early doors ... one of the best teams in Europe before they started to move players around and when inevitably the top 11 players became knackered from playing game in game out
Newcastle - All season long, I was laughed at to suggest they were the team we should be worried about and to there credit they held in there almost to the end, played some lovely flowing attacking football
Swansea, again laughed at to suggest they were playing the best football in the LG, United literally could not get the ball off them, so so composed and comfortable on the ball, played there way out of trouble at the back with neat triangles, lacked the little piece of worldclass magic up front at times but the machine was glorious to watch if you are a fan of football first Liverpool 2nd
City were genuinely impressive last year and very much deserved the title as for me did there fans .. proper football fans who have been to right up and down the lg with that team, from backwater football grounds that held 6000 to Europe, I was happy for them.


As for the rest, United, Chelsea, Arsenal, I think its as much to do with how weak the rest of the lg was and how lucky they were that they managed to achieve anything last year ... they were the weakest I can remember.

With United and I say this every year, but surely at some stage this mish mash circus has to come to a screetching halt ... Ryan Giggs, Paul ****ing Schooles, Daren Fletcher , Johny Evans, Rio Ferdinand

Anyways I am truly looking forward to this season, about as much as Rafa's 2nd season. I think there has been a genuine shift in expectation amongst the fans and I honestly think it needed to happen in order to facilitate medium and long term ambitions. For me anyways this season is not necessarily about were we finish but how we play consistently. If we can play in the style simular if not better than Swansea, young talented creative players will want to come here, if at the least for the obvious Barca spot light that will be shown on them if they are successful

[magicalbarnes]

This will wind up a few mancs
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-LhDCIm7h4"]Manchester Utd bound Robin Van Persie sings You'll Never Walk Alone... (extended version) - YouTube[/ame]

[tsb]

This will wind up a few mancs
Manchester Utd bound Robin Van Persie sings You'll Never Walk Alone... (extended version) - YouTube

:lol:

[kris90210]

My thoughts exactly ... its got to be all about the teams ahead of us first and foremost.

Spurs - New Manager, most likely missing there two most influential mid field players, Parker out injured and pushing on and Modric wants away and fee is agreed, missing magic Arrys Magic arm around the shoulder and there City Striker .
Newcastle Lets see if they can do that again shall we, I seriously doubt they can
and Arsenal RVP is off, last year Arsneal was RVP FC

the top 3 *should* take care of itself next season with Utd, Chelsea and city looking pretty nailed on. We're up against arsenal, Chelsea, spurs and Newcastle for that 4th spot. It's quite possibly the strongest premier league to date. Its going to be very tough but I think our team compares favourably to those 3. Spurs are losing modric and have a manager the press can't wait to get stuck into. Arsenal have lost their best player and are set to lose song. Can Newcastle continue their progress this season? I don't think they quite have the quality to make top 4. Provided we sign another forward and keep agger then I ones fly think we'll do it. And if we really hit the ground running, who knows. We could push the top 3 closer than a lot of people are expecting I think

[kingfunk]

Strange move by fergie this is, reckon he is trying to cement one last title before retiring.

[RedReet]

Kagawa, Rooney and van persie is some forward line. As good as anything in Europe really. But we're not really competing with Utd this season. We are on the other hand, competing with arsenal, and this weakens them significantly. Utd have also spent a large sum on an ageing, injury prone player. This could well be berbatov mk 2 for them, and probably won't seem like such good business in a couple of years time!

Will be interesting to see what wenger does with the money

One is unproven and likely to play deeper in midfield IMO, one is injury prone and Rooney will always go through quiet spells.

On paper RVP up top and Rooney dropping off him as he likes to do sounds lethal, but it's two big ego's to contend with.

A lot of 433 predictions, but I think we'll mostly see Rooney and RVP up top, Young, Valencia and Nani out wide and Kagawa in midfield. Had Kagawa pencilled into my FF team before RVP signed, but just can't see him playing off the striker as I'd originally thought.

[Gingawaria]

I'm interested in seeing what Arsenal will do with the money from RVP and possibly Song. They'll probably go for M'Vila, but will they bother replacing RVP as they've already brought in Giroud and Podolski?

[Tee]

Arsenal have really taken a massive risk by letting RVP go. Without him they do not have the player who can spark something out of nothing. They are going to have to be much more of a team next season to get into the top 4. If they start poorly their season could be a disaster IMO.

[-V-]

Arsenal are not a football team. They are just a business trying to make as much money as possible, getting its debts paid off and then profit from the revenue of its new stadium