and bound to make Arsenal sick...so much for the English game being so awful, eh.

Off of Auntie's doofer

Emmanuel Petit has confirmed he will join Chelsea - and the French midfielder is expected to be unveiled by the London club at a press conference on Tuesday.

In a statement on his official website, Petit said he had agreed to sign a contract with the Blues after being impressed by their swift approach.

"Rumours have been swelling for a while now, and it's not worth hiding any more: I will sign a contract with the Blues in Chelsea this week," he said.

The way the club approached me was very clear and rapid... there was no beating around the bush

"I've had a lot of offers these past few months, from a lot of different places. But I did not want to go to Italy or to return to France, and London is a city that I adore."

Chelsea managing director Colin Hutchinson said on Monday that the club had signed a pre-contract agreement with both Barcelona and Petit several weeks ago.

But they kept details of the deal quiet to comply with the wishes of Barcelona, which did not want the transfer to affect its bid to qualify for next season's Champions League.

Petit's statement ends Manchester United's hopes of an 11th-hour deal for the player, who is valued at around £6m.

The midfielder will join French internationals Marcel Desailly and Franck Leboeuf at Stamford Bridge.

"Chelsea has been following me for a long time," he said.

"It was not the first club to show interest, but the way the club approached me was very clear and rapid. There was no beating around the bush and this attitude pleased me."

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Answers

Arsenal Player

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Another reason to really hate chewsea!! Just as they'd started in the right direction by getting rid of unwise...

So now they have Petit, Lepuff and masterbates.....god i'm SO GLAD I wasn't born to support them....

We really don't have it so bad at all do we :)))

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Totally agree. However, how many world cup winners have we on our books?

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Thankfully NONE since they're all miserable, whining, soap dodging, garlic sucking, self important arseholes....

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Eloquently put ;-)

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Aye i'm elegant alreet.... ;)

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Aren't Chewsea supposedly upto their toffee-noses in debt? Does Bates have some serious dirt on their main creditors? How the hell do they fund these transfers?

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

average of £600 a ticket, European games, cockney mugs...

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

So, you see Freddie, £6 million is the going rate for a world-class midfielder, current French international, and recent World Cup and Euro2000 medal winner?
Good, that's got that established: now Bobby, who else after Manu Petit could we spend our last £6 million on? Who?

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

As long as he's not a french or german mercenary i'll leave it to you clarky....

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Perhaps you'd like to make a suggestion Clarky, who indeed, do we have a realistic chance of signing.

More importantly will it appease the fans?

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Pretty boy Petit loves the city of London, what price to play in Newcastle? It is a vicious circle, we cannot attract top names because we aren't setting the prem alight etcetera etcetera and so forth etcetera...

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

It wasn't long ago he couldn't wait to get out of London....mark my words he'll start complaining from day 1 of the season....

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

DeB,
I responded to this question yesterday at your prompting - quoting Fabrice Fernandez and Seth Johnson as left-sided possibilities.
Perhaps you would also care to read my recent post on "The Darkest Day" thread, where I'm suggesting that we should not be chasing established, high-priced mercenaries AT ALL.
We should be pursuing a strategy of gradually building a squad based on talented young players, and only looking to buy that kind of player - the kind who will see SJP as a step-up in their career development, will want to play for us, and perhaps even give us a modicum of loyalty.

I believe the strategy of chasing established stars is pre-destined to fail - just as it has failed us for the last 4-5 years.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Clarky, What way do you think the board look at the transfer situation. Do they view it as:

a) The fans want big signings so they can see a return to the better days. Quality players will deliver bums on seats. The fans will flock to St James and enjoy themselves.

b) The fans want to see gradual development. Young players brought on and nurtured into a team, which may take a bit of time, but will ultimately deliver.

I reckon they, and upon the advice of Robson want to go down route a).

I am like you and I don't see the benefit of going for the pointless big signings. I'd rather see the gradual process. But is that the general way of thinking and can you (I know you probably will :0)) blame the Board for trying to sort out a couple of big names? At the end of the day, Robson has given them his list and the board are going after those players. The board realise their limitations and go on Robson's judgement, so ultimately the way we are going in terms of player dealings is based on Bobby Robson. I thought he would know better at his age!

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Nothing ventured, nothing gained with respect to signing big names. However, am I right in thinking, Clarky, that in your opinion they've been focusing on these doomed efforts to the detriment of the other strategy you put forward? I'm not convinced myself and don't see why they can't pursue both. If a top players wants to come to the Toon on the right terms - then excellent. At least we're promoting the Newcastle name in the right places. We might be rebuffed for now, but if agents (ugh) and players see some of the self-promotion being realised, then it's already sowed the seeds for the future. Jesus, I'm trying to be positive ;-)

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

it's a careful blend of a and b

our problem has been that we ignored b while we tried to use a. this was the Keegan way. Dalglish had a better idea which was buy and nurture. His problem and the one they've all suffered from subsequently is that thay haven't been able to buy more than one decent player each.

If the purchases over the last few years had been good, or had stayed, we'd not have a problem. If Hamann has stayed and prospered we'd not be worried about the holding role in midfield, or still looking for the new Robert Lee. If Gullit could have bought a decent centre half we'd be looking strong there. Similarly if Gullit had managed to buy a good young left back who wanted to stay we'd not be worrying about that position. Both Dalglish and Gullit did buy okay in Solano and Dyer but that's about it.

Robson seems to be trying to help b along by buying as good younger players as he can afford. This should kickstart b and be a bit of a

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001

Petit is £6million for a 31 year old. 3 seasons max at his best. Barce have done a great deal there. Mind you a Chelsea and his money easily parted.

As Mac says you have to blend b - youth with a - experience.

If Al gets fit(ter) and Bobby Lee hangs around we should be able to get the bairns through. I've said elsewhere that if 1/3 of the young players YBR has bought come off we're OK.

It hasn't been mentioned for a few weeks but Taggart took 3 years @ OT & never looked back. Bobby never siad it would be a quick fix but I reckon he's doing OK

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001