The Shape of things to come

[martymarts]

Everyones on vacation and the inactivity is killing me! ManUre, The Pool and Newcastle all seem to have money to spend, while our board seems to be doing their best to piss AW off; by screwing him down over transfer cash and the wage bill. Pires seems to want away, Wiltord is begging for another chance, and like every other club, with exception of Newcastle, players are being got rid of with not too many replacements?

It's like your favorite soap character was shot in the last episode and now you have to wait till the fall to find out if he's dead or not? I can't bare it! Is the money we've spent on Ashburton Grove going to leave us becalmed in the sea of premiership mediocrity, while the money clubs rub their hands in glee and pick up Europes best players for half the cost of two years ago and little more wages, and then reap the silverware benefits? Aaaaahhhh! I don't know!!!

This is a quick state of the market, off the BBC website. Makes for interesting reading:-

Arsenal - In: None.
Out: Graham Barrett (Coventry, released), Oleg Luzhny (released), David Seaman (Man City).

Aston Villa - In: None.
Out: Ian Taylor and Alan Wright (released).

Birmingham - In: None.
Out: Andy Marriott, Tommy Mooney, Steve Vickers (all released).

Blackburn - In: None.
Out: Henning Berg, James Corbett, Keith Gillespie (all released).

Bolton - In: Stylianos Giannakopoulos (Olympiakos, free).
Out: Chris Armstrong (released), Gudni Bergsson, Paul Warhurst (retired), Colin Hendry (retired).

Charlton - In: None.
Out: Jesper Blomqvist, John Robinson, Tahar El Khalej, Robbie Mustoe (all released).

Chelsea - In: Marco Ambrosio (Chievo, free), Jurgen Macho (Sunderland, free - deal agreed).
Out: Jody Morris, Ed de Goey, Albert Ferrer, Robert Wolleaston (all released).

Everton - In: Joseph Yobo (Marseille, £3.5m + £1m)
Out: Juliano Rodrigo (released).

Fulham - In: None.
Out: John Collins, Bjarne Goldbaek (both released), Steve Finnan (Liverpool deal agreed)

Leeds - In: None.
Out: Jacob Burns (released), Teddy Lucic(loan end)

Leicester - In: Steve Howey (Man City).
Out: Darren Eadie, Stefan Oakes, Simon Royce, Nicky Summerbee (all released), Tim Flowers (ret).

Liverpool - In: Steve Finnan, Fulham (deal agreed)
Out: Pegguy Arphexad, Patrik Berger (Portsmouth), Bernard Diomede, Vegard Heggem (all released).

Manchester City - In: David Seaman (Arsenal), Michael Tarnat (Bayern Munich).
Out: Peter Schmeichel (retired).

Manchester United - In: None.
Out: Laurent Blanc, David May, Lee Roche (all released).

Middlesbrough - In: None.
Out: Alen Boksic, Ben Roberts, Tony Vidmar (all released).

Newcastle - In: Lee Bowyer (West Ham).
Out: None.

Portsmouth - In: Patrik Berger (Liverpool, free).
Out: Jason Crowe, Carl Tiler, Luke Nightingale, Lee Molyneaux, Tom White (all released).

Southampton - In: Darren Kenton (Norwich, free).
Out: Kevin Davies (released).

Tottenham - In: None.
Out: Teddy Sheringham, Steffen Freund (both released).

Wolves - In: None.
Out: Michael Branch, Mohammed Camara, Ludovic Pollet (all released).

[jegerpenge]

finnan is supposed to be signing for liverpool tomorrow. not that that is big news or anything, but at least it is some sort of activity. especially thankful it is activity not involving stipulation about beckham. i'm thinking that everyone else is waiting until after the confederations cup before they start spending. it makes sense to me, even if it is a boring month we have to wait

[jwaldman11]

This is your typical "cooling off" period after a season. If you remember, we didn't sign Cygan or Silva until July last year, so let's not start panicking just because we haven't signed anybody yet. If players want to come here (like several of them say they do), I'm sure they can wait another month, especially those of them playing in the pointless Confederations Cup (motto: It's like the Worthington Cup with international teams!).