Arteta been gash since he got injured/signed a new contract. I would rather have lost him than Jags , Baines , Felliani, Rodwell(all our big money players).

When u say we lost 2 strikers u cant count Yakubu as he wasnt even there 2nd half of season. So we lost one(who we made a tidy profit on) and got another one in who could very easily do a job for us upfront.

On Osman, he showed arteta up last year thats why he played out wide because moyes knew osman was doing a better job in centre .

The 17 million we made on transfers will all go to bank but that a fair chunk to put of the debt , would u rather have spent that and stayed in the same place financial wise. Also look at wages now off the books thats afew million saved. If we want the club to remain competitive in future this was a must. We dont wanan end up like leeds , portsmouth and i could carry on ha

We might need to get used to the 1-0's again this season. There is life after one player, no doubt but we are a lot weaker for losing Beckford and Arteta. Defensively we were sound anyway, it's the other end of the pitch which concerns me.



Don't get me wrong I'm not leading the Arteta fan club, as I said on here last night it isn't so much the losing of Arteta that's the big concern it was the timing of the transfer, the fact Moyes won't see any of the money and we are considerably weaker for the transfer. You can't honestly look at that midfield and think there's enough quality/experience to challenge at the top of the table this season?

Osman was a better player granted but Arteta was injured and couldn't find his form, Osman is on the whole an average player who can play well at times but a lot of the time he doens't. As for the strikers, that was the point we hardly had any as it was, we needed additions upfront before we lost Beckford so in effect it is one in and one out. I think Moyes has made two astute signings and we needed someone to play down the left sine Pienaar went, hopefully Drenthe will link up with Baines like Pienaar did and he's on a free next season so we might even make it permanent.

If I was Moyes I'd have:

GK The Wall of Howard
DR Neville
DCR Jagielka
DCL Distin
DL Baines
MR Coleman
DMC Rodwell
DMC Felaini
ML Drenthe
AMC Cahill/Billy
SC Denis

I'd play Billy centre in the Cahill role. He scores plenty for Russia from there and he can pick a pass without having to worry about running and the other stuff he doesn't like, like tracking back.

Just been reading a few Tweets from Karlsentk on Twitter, who's generally spot on with his views on players. He doesn't rate Denis that well, thinks he looks like a centre back playing up front due to lack of mobility. Should be interesting to see how he gets on, all he needs to add is height for those 'long passes' Everton play.

Who is Karlsentk? He's scored quite a few cracking goals in the argentinian league system judging by his youtube videos. Decent finisher, strong, good from outside the box and good in the air. If he's not an improvement on Beckford or Anichebe I'll be surprised.

Was it really 10 years ago? news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14622187.stm Just a pity the so called 'Golden Generation' never lived up to all the hype, but it was great finally sticking it to the Germans after all the misery they have inflicted upon us. youtu.be/WJ0uIKjommQ

Was it really 10 years ago? news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14622187.stm Just a pity the so called 'Golden Generation' never lived up to all the hype, but it was great finally sticking it to the Germans after all the misery they have inflicted upon us. youtu.be/WJ0uIKjommQ

Quote Saddened!="Saddened!"Who is Karlsentk? He's scored quite a few cracking goals in the argentinian league system judging by his youtube videos. Decent finisher, strong, good from outside the box and good in the air. If he's not an improvement on Beckford or Anichebe I'll be surprised.'" news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 156815.stm There's an interview with him on the beeb. He's a former scout/chief scout/director of football, he knows his stuff. He mentioned he has qualities, just felt he didn't bring much to Everton.

Quote Saddened!="Saddened!"Who is Karlsentk? He's scored quite a few cracking goals in the argentinian league system judging by his youtube videos. Decent finisher, strong, good from outside the box and good in the air. If he's not an improvement on Beckford or Anichebe I'll be surprised.'" news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 156815.stm There's an interview with him on the beeb. He's a former scout/chief scout/director of football, he knows his stuff. He mentioned he has qualities, just felt he didn't bring much to Everton.

Aye, he's knowledgeable but he's by no means always right. He recently said that Nasri and Silva couldn't play together. I just cannot see him being right about that. I'd rather trust Mancini's judgement, thank you - not a DoF or scout but someone who was a top class footballer and won trophies with at least 4 clubs in two of the best leagues in world football.

I never said he's always right, but in terms of a general view of a player coming from the unknown, his opinion's a pretty good one to have.

Whether Nasri and Silva can play together will obviously be seen over the course of the season, me personally, I feel Mancini will eventually fall back to his 4-3-3 (basically that, call it a 4-2-3-1, 4-3-2-1, 4-3-1-2, whatever) as the season goes on. I think a lot will depend on Nasri's ability to play 'further back', as I do feel City lack a deeper ball player (don't say Barry), Nasri could be that player, but I doubt he'll be played there.

Still, football is all about opinions, and, whilst Mancini has achieved a lot through his career, he's also not perfect, and success as a player means nothing in terms of judgment as a manager, as the great Maradona showcased just over a year ago.

Wouldn’t disagree too much with that.



What makes you say we need a ball player ‘further back’?

If you can point out where I said Barry is a ‘ball player’, that would be great.



He is certainly not perfect and I agree that great players don’t make great managers, However, I would imagine that his background in football would make him a much better judge of players and tactics than someone like Karlssen. In fact, it would be ridiculous to think otherwise.

Spot on for me, exactly as I'd see it too. This is the side that I'd like to see play the only thing that probably will change for Villa is Saha starting instead of Denis.



Would you not lose something by playing Nasri further back, he looked brilliant in his first game for City and attacked really really well. His vision was good and his direct attack to Spurs goal was quality, similarly as he did at Arsenal, time and again we saw how good Nasri was going forward by City playing him further back it'd seem they'd lose something.



Spot on for me, exactly as I'd see it too. This is the side that I'd like to see play the only thing that probably will change for Villa is Saha starting instead of Denis.



Would you not lose something by playing Nasri further back, he looked brilliant in his first game for City and attacked really really well. His vision was good and his direct attack to Spurs goal was quality, similarly as he did at Arsenal, time and again we saw how good Nasri was going forward by City playing him further back it'd seem they'd lose something.



Is there an interview with him where he mentions Denis or is it just the tweet's that you've seen. I've read the Tweets and the things he mentions are exactly what concerned me when we signed him.