I made the mistake of turning on the radio when, arguably, the two biggest idiots in sports (Andy Gray and Richard 'Smash It' Keys - if they're not the most idiotic they're certainly the most odious)) were in the midst of declaring that Everton will probably finish in the top 4! Talk about knee-jerk. Pretty much sums up that particular station though, I guess.

Andy Gray's always been a muppet. Everton looked well against United, but I don't think a top-4 finish is on the cards.

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This is actually the hypocrisy of the move, I can't mock Van Persie cause he isn't "match fit" while it's alright for people to mock Olivier Giroud, who had virtually the same amount of preseason action, for missing really the only shot he got against Sunderland. I wasn't taking anything away from Everton, they were obviously the better team yesterday.

Everton's got about a snowball's chance in hell to finish Top 4, qualifying for the Europa League is probably their finish at the most this year.

Who mocked Giroud? all reports I read said he looked pretty good.

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Probably the Arsenal 'fans' who were all over twitter saying that they hoped van Persie contracted AIDS after signing with United.

What reports have you been reading? And Hawkspur, get your head out of your ass, Arsenal fans just want RvP injured in some form, they haven't criticized Giroud.

Busy day at the Lane today. Levy seems to have cashed in on two 5-0 thrashings on the weekend by offloading our surplus centre backs to Norwich (Bassong) and QPR (Dawson) respectively. It'll be sad to see Dawson go but I couldn't see his style of play suiting AVB's high-line, ball-playing defensive style. Apparently the fee agreed for Dawson is £9 million too, which would be nothing short of mind-boggling.

Adebayor is back as well. Reports about the fee vary but £5 mil seems to be what City have received. The BBC are reporting that City will continue to pay the majority of his wages for the next 2 years too, which, if true, would be incredible business for Spurs, and quite frankly serves City right for driving up wages by paying ridiculous amounts, seemingly to anyone who asks for them.

If all these fees are true (and the Dawson fee goes through) we'll be in profit for this window with the Modric deal still to come. I have my fingers firmly crossed for some exciting signings in the next 10 days.

Striker, playmaking midfielder and winger please!

Daily Mail is reporting that the Nuri Sahin deal has been completed, with a clause that will allow Arsenal to make the move permanent for £14 million at the end of the season. Sky Sports, on the other hand, is reporting that the deal is almost complete. If this true, We should expect the deal to be confirmed by the end of this week

AC Milan is reportedly after Nicklas Bendtner and are prepared to offer Philippe Mexes as part of their bid for the Danish striker.

Fernando Llorente's agent has stated that there are two EPL clubs that have made their interest in the Spanish striker, one in Manchester and one in London. We all know who the Manchester club is but the London club may be either Arsenal or Spurs, not so sure about Spurs after Adebaywhore's completed move.

$14 million for Sahin? seems, well..... thats a very un-Arsenal like offer. I've been reading that Wenger is not sold on the deal... if that's the deal I can see why. They just did solid business in off-loading a 29 year old, oft-injured striker and would now be willing to throw 14 million and an even more oft-injured mid fielder?Something's off there. I see Sahin going (and doing above average) but not at that deal....

Its taken me some time to step in here after the debacle on Saturday. Christ on a bike, just find the freaking net and we're sitting at three points.. instead its Liverpool-as-usual and already the fingers are out of the ears and resting firmly on the panic button.

Its only game 1, but obviously some concerns are apparent for a few teams, including Liverpool, United (Everton looked good to net 3-4), Spurs depth and Arsenal's wastefulness near goal. Interesting reading Gate, I'm not sure we watched the same game. All true it was the first game, but the defending will get better as well. Carzola looked the part. Podolski looked average. Giraud.... well this isnt Ligue 1. He will need to step up (with Posolski). Is the Song deal complete? seems a massive loss... is it?

Liverpool needs another striker-winger to add... and quickly. It cant wait until January. The Dempsey deal may come around again, but seeing that Carroll has no place in the squad they will need to more than just Dempsey (or Adam Johnson, Walcott, etal).

There seems to be some steam gathering on Kaka coming as well.... i have nothing to add to that (except if it was sstill 2009 we would have Alonso)...

and the holders this weekend.... getting late early

Yep. Christ on a bike.

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Okay, maybe it wasn't so much as Sunderland played great defense as it was Arsenal just didn't spread the play in the final 3rd. But still Arsenal found very little room for error when it got towards the goal, that can be chalked up to good defense by Sunderland.

About the Sahin situation, if this was last year, yeah it would be un-Arsenal like. This year Arsenal has spent 11 mil on Podolski, 13 mil on Giroud and 16.5 mil(still reportedly) on Cazorla. They've been cranking out the cash this past offseason, but haven't broken the bank to do so. My only surprise is that the 14 million pound buyout isn't more.

The Song move is a big loss. But it would be worse if Arsenal hadn't gotten Cazorla before hand. Song was a catalyst in a lot of Arsenal's goals last year, and in the Sunderland game last Saturday, Cazorla was a serious player, a ton of Arsenal's movements began with him, to the point that Martin O'Neal put a player specifically on him.

I guess this has really little to do with Sahin in specific (who by the way is now headed to Liverpool according to Madrid's major newspaper... have to love the media. Gate please dont tell me its wrong. i'm well aware of the ridiculousness of the saga).

Gate seems surprised that the buyout clause for Sahin is only 14 million. This for a player who was bought for 12 and hasnt yet played for Real due to major injury. And yet his value goes up? (this to me is the major catch in the Arsenal deal, and why it hasnt gone through. I still see him a Gunner in near time)

(preface: I'm a Liverpool fan still trying to cope with dumping 72 million on three players we rarely use)

The reason I find the Sahin saga so interesting is the sudden strength of position Real (and Barca) seem to have over the EPL teams.

In the end Sahin is a good player and I'd love him at Liverpool, but the speculation over one player sitting on RM's bench is astonishing

I think the disparity between the fees is even bigger, Si. I think Madrid signed Sahin for around £8mil. I blame the fact that the fee has gone up so much, despite the negative factors that you mention, on Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool for paying well over the odds for players. Other clubs must think British clubs are muppets. We have a problem at Spurs at the moment which is that Madrid know that Modric wants to join and as such Spurs are in a weak position. The fee that Madrid are supposedly willing to pay for Modric is roughly 75% of the cost of the (inferior) players that we've been pursuing. To use Moutinho as an example, Porto apparently won't let him go for less than £35mil, while Madrid are willing to up to £27m for Modric. We saw at the Euros that Modric is a better player. There have been other similar examples too. I don't blame Porto and these other clubs for naming a high price for their player, but when Modric signed an extension 15 months ago it was because Spurs wanted to be able to get market value for him.

In short, Madrid and Barca know that they don't need to convince players to join, and largely because of the extravagant spending of the 3 clubs mentioned above, foreign clubs now look at English buyers and add 50% to their asking price, kind of like if you accidentally mention that the catering or flowers are for a wedding.

I'm not gonna call you a liar cause I saw it in the Daily Mail website, which ironically said the deal was done 2 days ago. The funny thing is, other news sites are still claiming his move to Arsenal is almost complete or is done, while Sky Sports Germany had on it's ticker a line that stated, and this is the translation I got: Information exchanged Nuri Sahin on loan to Arsenal.

all depends on where you look

Just read an article linked on thisisanfield.com that says Liverpool officials met with Sahin's agent today. Read into that what you will. I honestly don't want him anymore. Or Dempsey. Give me Gaston ramirez. We've too many in CM right now as it is. We need someone who can play in behind Suarez/Borini and we need another winger, but I'd like to see Sterling step into that role.

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Liverpool needs someone who can score period.

According to the Daily Mail Rafael Van Der Vaart is on the verge of returning to his former club Hamburger SV. Not sure about how Spurs fans will feel if he does leave, but it's gotta be a massive loss, right up there with Modric.

We've scored as many as Arsenal and Man ure have this season...

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