question

who pays 4m for an almost 38 year old australian goalkeeper?

arsenal???

haha. did you choke when you heared the fee?!

Surely he's not young and he's not French. Hasn't he read Paul's "personality" rules?

4m is a healthy amount for a 38 year old.

not even that good a goalie, just a stop gap really like lehmann, sebastian frey or igor akinfeev is who i want at arsenal, or even joe hart would be good

even chris kirkland would be a better acqusition, atleast he's english! and arsenal need english players since the champions league homegrown ruling goes up from 6 to 8 this season and also squad size can only be 23 now and not 25. hmmm.....i think arsenal have more than 15 foreign players...and chelsea. it'll be interesting to see who they class as homegrown, fabregas does count aswell...

ok maybe theyre ok, arsenal's homegrown players:

jack wilshere
cesc fabregas
theo walcott
gael clichy
kieran gibbs
carlos vela
nicklas bentdner
vito mannone
johan djourou
armand traore

aaron ramsey will qualify in a years time, he doesnt at the moment cos he hasn't spent three years at the club. foreign players have to have spent 3 seasons at the club under the age of 21 to qualify...even if they're welsh. alex song missed out by 2 months in being classed as homegrown since his first period was on loan, it didn't count.

denilson and diaby are on that list aswell i think, plus he always includes the like of sanchez watt and kyle bartley, plus craig eastmond, so we got no worries on that front, anyway, goalies, the dutch goalie looked ok, steiklenberg i think thats how its spelt anyway, yea, get him in at arsenal, cant sign an english top class goalie, cos there isnt any, right, wenger nursed englands best full back in years to the top of the game, and look how much of a cunt he's turned out to be, cashley cole, its just the party lifestyle i can do what ever i like attitude of the english footballer these days, thats why wenger stays clear of them, i dont blame him tbh

yes, i was impressed with the dutch keeper, best keeper at the tournament for me, better than Casillas i think who had a few shady moments from what i remember. Still not sure why Van Persie passed the ball back from the corner after Casillas tipped the ball wide from that pass back!

back on homegrown players - Chelsea will struggle with their 8 this year, they struggled to make 6 last season and had to give a squad number to Hutchinson just to make the numbers up! There 8 this year would have to be Terry, Lampard, Cole, Sturridge, Turnball, Hutchinson as a definite 6 and then 2 from Sinclair, Borini, Rajkovic and Jack Cork - though its doubtful if any of the last four their are good enough at the top level, maybe except Rajkovic -though they've not even given squad numbers for Rajkovic and Cork yet which is a bit surprising really. Gael Kakuta will qualify for them the season after this one so i expect the likes of Sinclair will be sold on by then i'd have thought, he's nowhere near chelsea standard.

Stuart@Roma wrote:

who pays 4m for an almost 38 year old australian goalkeeper?

Right...obviously we all know Schwarzer's class. Wenger knows it, and we all trust Wenger.

oh..I've got Schwarzer by the way

in case that wasnt obvious.

(im back from Cape Verde by the way)

so, if he's worth 4m in real life, what's he worth in the game?

welcome back...how was it?

there's a very BIG if in that sentence Stu!

I'll start at the mytical line of ..."open to swaps"..

Phil?

I agree, Stekelenburg was probably the best keeper at the WC. But then again I would as he was my first Bohemians signing about a year and a half ago. I am attempting to get him reviewed this turn.

As for Schwarzer, £4M is over the top but that is what you have to pay for a decent established keeper with a wealth of experience in the Premiership. Sad but true.

Wenger would have been better off spending £2M in last summer's transfer window on Nigeria's Vincent Enyeama from Hapoel Tel Aviv. Wenger thought it was too much at the time! Following his good performances at the WC his price has now risen to the £7M - £8M mark.