Mails: Deadline day panic has already set in

Matt Stead

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

 

Wilshere exit the best for everyone
The fact that Wilshere can go out on loan speaks volumes. I’m certain though that it would have been Ramsay had he not been injured. What it says to me is that Wenger finally has alternatives in midfield and no longer needs to rely on unreliable players.

To play a defensive, counter attacking game (maybe against Man City/Liverpool) we can field Coquelin with Elneny or Xhaka. Against a team like United we can try and match possession with Santi and Xhaka. Against a team like Barca, we could field Xhaka, Coq and Elneny or Santi in a 3-man midfield. It’s actually really bloody exciting as I can’t remember the last time we were able to mix it up in midfield like this. This is Wenger’s clearest indication he’s prepared fully for alternate plans and has shown he can be ruthless by cutting out Wilshere. It was a shame we didn’t get our first choice striker, but in Lucas, you never know.

I love Jack (as a player, the person seems a bit of a d*ck) and I’ll be sad if he goes permanently, but I think it’s for the best all round.
JazGooner

 

Jack Wilshere leaving London to play in Spain seems such a perfect plan, I really hope it happens.

Firstly It would be interesting to see if his injuries cleared up in a warmer climate, (Barry Sheene). Furthermore, the style of football , much higher tecnique, fewer crunching tackles would suit Wilshere. Thirdly his London lifestyle and fame clearly gets in the way of his professional progress, take him to Valencia where he may have to start learning a second language and we may see a new, more mature English player. I really hope he has the right people around him to push him towards that decision. He could become a trailblazer and more young English players that reckon they have made it but aren´t there mentally will follow. The strategy of the parent (premier league) club making up the wage differences means not having to accept lower wages. Who was the last english Arsenal player who left at such a young age to play in one of the big european leagues ?
Peter. (big England fan). Andalucia.

 

Apparently Arsenal are weighing up loaning Wilshere out.

Can someone tell me why Arsenal are so scared of selling him?

He’s on around £90k I hear – a lot of money but insurmountable for most PL clubs. Surely there’s someone out there that wants to take a punt on Jack.

He hates Spurs and he’s a great shirt modeller too. He’s an England international – just don’t ask about his injury record.

I cannot wait for Wenger’s successor to clear out all of the crap cluttering up the club.

Yeah I called Wilshere crap – big whoop – wanna fight out about it?
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

 

Rooney = Sturridge
Reading the Man U fans conundrum with Rooney got me thinking that it is similar to Sturridge but the opposite is happening.

Whereby Muriniho sees the value in Rooney adding little throughout the game but being able to give that one game changing bit of quality when required. The fans are seeing the overall game and think he is not contributing enough.

Klopp sees that Sturridge does not contribute enough to the overall game so does not play him but the Liverpool fans want his game changing bit of quality that he produces occasionally.

Oh to be a football manager! Maybe that’s why they are paid the big bucks. What’s best 90 minutes of consistency or 5 minutes of quality that could be the difference?
Andrew LFC (Could not be bothered to check Murinho’s spelling don’t care)

 

In defence of that boy Barkley
You guys do a fantastic job of calling out the mainstream media when they are talking nonsense but I think your article on Ross Barkley (and the reactions to him not making the England squad) is wide of the mark.

I don’t know anybody who has watched Everton this season who hasn’t come away showering Ross Barkley with praise. His passing has been intelligent, his dribbling has been good, his vision seems to have improved even further and he has added more effort and determination to his game (presumably, with some encouragement from our new manager). If he has lost the ball quite a few times, it is because he is the focal point of our attack and the man most often tasked with trying to pull off a bit of magic to make something happen. Don’t forget, also, that Everton’s matches so far this season have been against Spurs, West Brom and Stoke – three teams known for denying opponents time on the ball and space to pick a pass.

Since the point of your article was to look at statistics rather than aesthetics, though, how about these from the 2015/2016 season:

Alli 10 goals, 12 assists
Barkley 8 goals, 9 assists
Rooney 8 goals, 7 assists
(clearly he’s not a midfielder but let’s humour the idea so the comparison covers all possible alternatives)
Antonio 8 goals, 7 assists
Sterling 6 goals, 3 assists
Milner 5 goals, 11 assists
Walcott 5 goals, 3 assists
Lallana 4 goals, 6 assists
Dier 3 goals, 2 assists
Henderson 2 goals, 3 assists

Or even these from the fledgling 2016/2017 season:

Sterling 2 goals, 2 assists
Antonio 2 goals, 0 assists
Rooney 1 goal, 2 assists
Barkley 1 goal, 1 assist
Lallana 1 goal, 1 assist
Walcott 1 goal, 1 assist
Milner 1 goal, 0 assists
Henderson 0 goals, 0 assists
Dier 0 goals, 0 assists
Alli 0 goals, 0 assists

So in terms of what actually matters, the stats point to him being one of our very best. Besides, weren’t England’s last 3 or 4 matches followed by much moaning (by press and fans alike) about “sterile domination” and our lack of a midfielder who could conjure something out of nothing? Yet here we are again, ignoring someone who does just that in favour of the likes of Jordan “yackety sax” Henderson.

Well, if you fancy adding 15% more long balls to the Wales and Iceland games and then re-running them for the next 4 years then statistical marvel, Sam Allardyce, is your man. Personally, I’d rather see us try something a bit different though.

Best
PhilT (meet the new boss; same as the old boss), Everton and England.  

 

A concerned Spur
I can’t be the only Spurs fan that is currently concerned about our transfer activity.  I know Levy likes to leave it late but if Mason and Son head for the door as well then we are going to exceptionally thin on the ground in terms of personnel.  I was hopeful that we were going to sign a Marquee player to some fanfare but deep down I know that’s not the way we operate really.

Looking at the bench on Saturday we looked woefully under resourced, especially given the fact that we had no one after Janssen to come on that looked (on paper at least) that they were likely to change the game (As covered in the 16 conclusions).  It’s all well and good giving youth a chance but there has to be a healthy mix if you ask me.  We are still light of a creative midfielder and a forward and I don’t know if these are problems likely to be addressed before the deadline.

The big teams with sack fulls of cash have all gone out and spent big, something we currently cannot do and it worries me that our CL exploits might start to be on something akin to a world cup rotation.

I guess it’s the Spurs fan in me that makes me a pessimist.  I’ll continue to check the Sky Sports countdown to window closing as some sort of doomsday clock!
Wayne  (hoping the deals for Messi & Ronaldo are done by lunch time) Sprigg

 

Will Chelsea sign another Papy?
The hours are ticking down until Jim and his lovely yellow tie announce the window is closed and Chelsea fans again find themselves in a familiar place.

For the last two windows the need for a centre back and some full back cover has been glaringly obvious. Last seasons comedy special by the team showing the consequences of not addressing this need.

Once again this hasn’t been sorted.

Conte is off to a great start but the fact that this could be undermined by an incompetent board has left me nervous. Roman got where he is by being a shrewd business man, hopefully this time the board feels his wrath instead of the manager.
Steve, Limerick.

 

Daley mail
I saw someone this morning lauding Daley Blind’s contribution so far this season at centre-back and almost sounded surprised by him. Why? He played like this last season as well, in fact in my opinion he was in the top 5 centre backs last season. Everyone raved about Smalling but I thought Blind had the better season.

His form is not a surprise at all, I really do feel people in general have a big problem with adapting to players changing position. It’s almost like now he has had a season at centre back under his belt people can now accept he’s a centre back and now see he’s playing well. Last season everyone was fixated with him being a midfielder at centre back and couldn’t let themselves see him being brilliant.

Laurent Blanc started in midfield before trying centre back and then went on to become one of the greatest centre backs of the 90s. Blanc was slow and not a tough tackler at all. What made him superior to most was his unbelievable ability to read the game 5 steps ahead of the striker. I see the same in Blind and can really see him being one of the best centre backs in Europe in a couple of years time.

And finally to those that said he was too short, he’s the same height as Fabio Cannavaro. He was quite good.
Bradley Kirrage

 

(Slightly late) Toon thoughts
Sorry for being late, I have a small baby that needs to be entertained…my thoughts on Newcastle V Brighton…

Sels-He played well and made some good saves. I am still not impressed with his flapping and punching at some crosses.

Anita-Nice tidy display. He spent a lot of time pushed right up the wing. Magnificent use of his big arse at times.

Mbemba-He is an assured, ball playing centre half with the pace to recover. He’ll be bought by one of the big boys soon enough. He’s better than John Stones.

Lascelles-Another assured captain’s performance. Seems be improving and marshals his defence well.

Dummet-Brighton didn’t worry him defensively as they might have. He puts in a mean cross.

Hayden-I’m really starting to like his understated defensive displays with the odd attacking foray thrown in.

Shelvey-He looked a lot more interested today. Needs to work on being a bit less micey. Traction engine of a free kick! Oof!

Goufran-The Gouf, the Gouf, the Gouf is on fire! Played well and looks full of confidence. Which is nice, as I like him as player.

Ritchie-Remains full of running and tenacity. Great ball for the first goal.

Diame-Ah…so that’s why we bought him. He’s like Sissoko…without the being in  huff because Arsenal don’t fancy him.

Perez-Played like he had the kick up the arse that I requested after the last time I saw him play. Those 2 midweek goals probably helped too.

Subs:
Jesus is a Geordie! Jesus is a Geordie! La la la la!

Yedlin-Severe centre parting

Colback-Ran about

Overall it was a canny performance by us. I was nervous before the match as Brighton have been in stellar form for months now. However, they never got into it. The sending off was fair enough as in he deserved a second yellow, if not a straight red. He probably did not deserve the first yellow but as he was already on one and that killed the game. I was just getting used to the seemingly ‘robust’ nature of the championship and the leniency of the tackling that is allowed (not a negative comment, I’m just used to the ‘soft’ premier league), only for this ref to turn up and do the exact opposite. I thought he was very picky with some of his decisions. In the premier league, we would have defiantly been punished for some the excellent crosses Bright were putting in. We are up to forth now and hopefully building up a head of steam. Still, it is a very long season ahead.
Paul (Our transfer policy seems to based on a Championship Manager cheat code), Newcastle

 

The Checkatrade Trophy
This evening sees the opening round of fixtures of the newly sponsored “Checkatrade Trophy” – for those who don’t follow cup sponsorships closely, this is the former FA Trophy, former Johnstones Paint Trophy, which as a new feature this year, includes “B teams” from the 16 Premier League and Championship clubs with Tier 1 academies that were interested in the format.

I was going to send a long mail with my personal thoughts on this development – lucky for me, the supporter group Against League 3 has said it better than I could -http://www.againstleague3.co.uk/open-letter-supporters-ahead-bteamboycott/

Amongst all the assurances that this is a one year only trial, that it doesn’t signal any intent to introduce B teams to the lower leagues, and that it will improve the national team, we have seen no interest from the EFL and Shaun Harvey in listening to fan views, no interest in consulting with organised supporter group and supporters trusts, and no evidence to show that the proposed changes will actually achieve any of the stated targets.

I hope that you have space in the mailbox to publish this, if only to spread awareness of the strongly held view of lower league fans to these changes and the work that Against League 3 are doing in representing a majority of fans in opposing them.

Terry Hall, Switzerland