So, that was fun?
Got up early, trekked my way down to the S&B, drunk copious amounts of Peroni… built up the Dutch courage for the afternoon… took my seat and then realised I’d got myself all worked up for the wrong competition.
We’d arrived for the Carling Cup Preliminaries!
Hoyte, Traore, Gilberto, Walcott and Bendtner where all in the starting line up!
Oh shit, its not the Carling Cup!
Our squad is now to thin for the Premiership!
What a fucking joke.
The first half was one of the worst I’d ever witnessed. I don’t understand the mind set of some of the youngsters. If I was on the fringes of Arsenal and I’d got my chance against Liverpool I’d be busting a nut to show everyone how good I was. Yesterday, it looked like some of them were visibly pissed at the thought of working on a Saturday.
Traore was very sloppy, giving the ball away time and time again. Hoyte was just Hoyte. How can you judge Nikki B? The guy never gets the service does he?
The whole team looked uninterested which really hacked everyone in the Stadium off. Peter crouch banged one in near the end and everyone left for half time drinks… can you blame them? The team didn’t turn up, so why should the fans risk not getting a drink at half time… inebriation was the only way to get through the second half.
The second half kicked off with a bang. Toure went going agonisingly close early on with a header. Then Cesc whipped in a cross and up jumped Nikki B to head in. Fantastic, at least there might be a game in the second half.
The rest of the half continued in last seasons fashion, loads of possession but no one to convert it into goals. All the big boys were brought on, Ade really looked good when he came on… Theo was terrific down the wing… Clichy looked good… Hleb was ok…. until the ball was slinked through to him in the last minute and he chose not to shoot.
Just a quick mention for Gilberto. I thought he was great yesterday and he deserves a lot of credit for his performance. Bravo, I didn’t think it was possible to be over the hill at 30.
So groudhog day continues, same score, same gripes.
Eboue is by far the worst player in the Arsenal side, he’s simply not good enough. Its widely accepted that Rosicky will never be injury free… so here is an idea Arsene, go and sign a world class player in that position. Someone who can score a few goals and become a big game player from that position.
In fact, scrap that last comment.
Sign some world class players in general, ditch your ideology towards a home grown team and start turning Arsenal into a big club because currently its not working is it?
We have waited 3 years for a trophy and its looking pretty unlikely you’ll deliver one this year. You may win the Champions league, but that wont mask your teams deficiencies.I worry that if you do win that trophy it will just justify that you’re right and we’ll have to put up with another year of being the cheap skates of Europe.
Arsene, you’re a great manager, but you should have realised that we were struggling at Christmas. If you don’t rectify this issue in the summer, I think you will find your support base dwindling. I think even the most ardent ‘Arsene Knows’ brigade member will be wondering what the fuck you’ve been up to of late
So, our squad wasn’t big enough for the Carling Cup, the F.A Cup, and now the league… this is a mess.
Lets hope the boys put in a big performance on Tuesday because I am getting a bit sick of this season.
Porto star set for cut-price Arsenal move?
16:58 April, 6, 2008
Ricardo Quaresma is being linked with a £5m summer switch to North London
The much-coveted Portugal international winger could be available for a knockdown fee if a match-fixing probe into FC Porto relegates the club.
Liverpool, Atletico Madrid and Lazio are also keen on the 25-year-old.
Just in. what do you think guys. In my opinion he’s just a showboater. Bastian Schweinsteiger is much better winger.
With repetitive injuries you can find the underlying cause of the injuries and put it right, or offload the players if it’s something that cannot be put right, and I’m certain this is what Wenger will do this summer. Van Persie is selfish at times, and will certainly never be Thierry Henry, but will be a very very good player. We will start next season with Van Persie and Rosicky fit, or they will have been offloaded.
I’m talking about potential, but our back up players are good enough players now. As i said before I much prefere the situation that we’re in with back up players who are good players in their own right, but have the potential to become great players, and displace the current first team, than a situation in which we have players like park, fletcher and pizzaro, who will never be anything more than an average back up
As much as I feel AW should have strengthened the team during January, I can’t understand people who are going on and on and on about Diarra. He may have set alight Fratton park in end January and early February, but as far as I can see, he’s gone AWOL these days. We don’t certainly need a diva in the team, especially one who thinks he is a world-beater, when in fact just a tad bit better than average with biggest head. Or another le sulk.
uk bubbler….
Ok, it is a bit much to call him world class having never completed a full season, i accept that now…
But you cannot deny his ability… he is defiatly our best striker(despite adebayor’s goals this seaosn)
Who knows the heights rvp will reach if he can stay fit for a season… before he got injured he had 7 goals in 11 games in all competitions… that is not bad at all… he is certainly good and would definatly make it into the starting line-ups of most prem clubs…
do you(UK bubbler) consider Ronaldo, torres etc to be world class?? If you do, keep in mind this is the only season where ronaldo has scored plenty goals, Torres has only been around for 1 season so far… Who else in the prem consider to be ‘world class’ then?
and do you not consider it dramatic when people are calling for AW to sell half our squad?? what’s dramatic in you book then mate??
Completly agree with A…
A
I really don’t get how anyone could say buy back Diarra
More importantly i dont know how we lost him to begin with !
I said back when flamini started coming good that we should ensure he signs ASAP
or give diarra a run ! .. It would of created that competition that someone above was talking about , and made flamini sign or kept diarra happy ! Now we have the worst of both worlds ! Again another wenger pearler !
and edlass
yes WHOOOA !
Man Ure dropped 2 points and so did we..
it achieved approximately ..
Fuck all !
dont get me started
gooner pakistan.
as for transfer rumors don’t believe anything… until you read it on arsenal . com !
we would have a bigger squad than Barcelona if you believed everything you read !
and more importantly its just frustrating .. because of all the false hope ..
Quaresme won’t come to Arsenal. Chavs will sniff around, Wenger will get scared and keep his purse in his handbag!
Miaoww!!
A.. seriously I respect your positivity, keep the faith hey!
If it is true about Quaresma, i think we should just go for it… 5 mill is next to nothing for us
I certainly dont want him at Arsenal but we shouldnt pass us such an oppurtunity.
Edlass, I don’t think Diarra should have been sold. It didn’t suit the team, the move just suited him.
If he gets into the national team ahead of the Flamster, there is something seriously wrong with the French management setup!
I would never condone us buying him back… that would be a waste of time.
Quaresma would be perfect, 25, skilful and fast. He doesn’t score to many though… but Overmars didn’t either!
You know what would be nice? For us to sign a winger and play him as a winger… to sign a centre midfielder and play them there!
Diego would top my wish list, the guy has bags of skill and pace, a little short though!
If Diarra was so bad, why buy him? but we did, that’s the bit that made no sense, so if you’re going to sell him, replace him first, that to me is just common sense and that’s what I think is lacking at Arenal.
Plastic mac The news is Quaresma can come with a cut price cos’ of a match-fixing probe for only 5m. Not much eh???????
for me Sergio aguero and Bojan Krkic are certaicly the next big things. Bojan won’t come that’s for sure but we can try for Aguero.
Pedro diego is a bit lightweight for me. Bastian Schweinsteiger looks good to be signed as a winger.
Gooner from Pakistan;
Yes, I can read thanks fella???????
We won’t buy him, his wages will be too much, or something!
if alves comes good im sure he wont last long at boro …
why does every Brazilian player we buy suck ?
ok bert was ok …
but
and i think we really need to get some EPL experience !
so we don’t have to wait 8 months to a season to get a striker up and running ..
Im not saying we should buy him(alves) .. but i think arsene should monitor his next 5 or 6 games … he was a champ at his prior club … and he would be over his teething period and ready for next season … If we are after proven EPL experience there isnt many options available … Anelka would have been perfect in December .. and im sure those draws would of been turned into WINS !
chevski hardly play him and at around 10 mil he would of done us for several seasons .
Cant believe arsene didnt make a claim !
oh well looks like Cardiff are going thru ..
later lads
thanks Geoff for the name edit
The Pompey guys i work with rave about Diarra every week. He is a machine, he put Utd’s midfield to the sword in the cup, and his performance against Chelsea at Fratton was astounding. He was the best midfielder on the pitch, and considering he was up against Essien, Lamps, and Ballack AND he had Krancjar and Muntari on his team and he was head and shoulders above them all. The perfect foil for Cesc, and they never played a minute together… now thats stupid….
As for dissing Coker and Barry… so you’d rather have Denilson, Song, Bert and Diaby in reserve than those 2 boys? All right then… whatever… i think both of them have had fine seasons… Coker put Cesc in his place twice for Hammers last season… Barry has shown international class… it was Lamps, Gerrard, Joey Cole and Rooney who cost England qualification, not Barry. But then, I’d take all of Villa’s english boys… Gabby and Ashley Young are ace too….
Diego is a good shout…
The only problem in quaresma coming to Arsenal is big wages that he’ll be offered by the other clubs. But if Arsenal want to bring big name players they’ll have to afford their wages too. SIMPLE AS THAT. Do you understand ARSENE.
Ginster;
But Barry and Cker would NOT be happy to sit on the bench would they?
And let it go with Diarra. He’s gone fella!
Silvinho was a pretty decent player for us!
Plastic, i know… Diarra’s gone… you’re right… i should move on… stupid and bad from Arsene though…
But…!! Hargreaves, Scholes, Anderson and Carrick fight it out for 2 spots… why cant we have Cesc, Flam, Barry and Coker doing the same? If Wenger knew how to rotate a squad its not a problem… We used to have Vieira, Parlour, Edu and Bert doing the same… and Stephan Malz too!
Maybe things aren’t so bad….
Agreed, Silvi was great, magic feet…
Yeah good call, we got rid of him and kept Cashley, another outstanding business decision!
Barry would be a player who will never be good enough to be first choice, and is already playing as well as he can, which is not good enough for a top team, and we would never sign him in a million years. Reo-Coker maybe but his apparent attitude would probably put Arsene off as well as the fact he’s hardly been fantastic for Villa.
If a player wants to leave you sell him. Diarra was thick and a complete pratt for the way he acted, the only mistake Arsene made was not realising the sort of person he was in the first place when he signed him.
In terms of Brazillians we’ve had Gilberto, Edu, Silvinho all great servants to the club.
And Van Bronkhorst, who went on to have a fine career at Barca.
I like Geo, weird that AW did not see his potential as an FB
Ronaldo wanted to leave after the world cup… Fergie told him no. Get rid of a player if they want to go, but not at the detriment of the team.
He is history… so there is no point talking about it.
I really think Denilson will come good. He’ll be competing next year. I’m not sure about song though? He looks so lazy!
I’d like us to sign 3 quality player, 2 wingers and a Right back. Maybe a beast defender, but I do like Big Phil and I like Djourou.
Geoff and I would like to see a bit more of Barazite… at least he is big enough to compete. I’ll be interested to see how Vela and Merida are fitted in next year.
All these sites waxing over Vela are going a bit over board. I think he’ll be good, but look how poorly Giovanni has played this year… too much hype, too early.
Raddy, I heard Geo was sold as a peace offering for Cesc.
I’d say Barry was keeping Carrick out of the England team and Carrick can show our boys quite a few medals for his efforts in the last 2 years. There’s not much in it between the 2 of them, and one of them is good enough to play for a better team than us. Barry sets a great tempo, has good range of passing, takes great free kicks (better than Cesc’s little chippers), why is he not good enough for us? and he doesnt come across as yer normal paralysingly thick english footballer. I say again, he’s better than Denilson, Song, and Bert… and he’s got huge experience of premiership football. Im not saying he’s Socrates, but he’s no duffer…
We could do with some English meat in the team too. Even if it is just for the sake of it. Of all the criticisms that the fans of other teams sling at The Arse, thats the one that I tend to agree with the most. There’s something not right about no englishmen in an english premier league team.
This season is getting abit dragging now… what the fuck the past couple of seasons have now it always looks the same, we havent really dropped but we havent really moved up either which is beginning to piss me off. I love Arsene, i think he’ s quite a genius but how can he not realize its not working out? Hes either too har headed or there has got to be some master plan we wernt informed about :s Thing that scares me too is that with such few games left, the team should be rallying for one last push but it seems like ther doing abit of the opposite, like they’ re playing just to say they appeared which i think isnt very fair on the fans coz even tho we draw or lose its always nice to see ur team get in their n look like they giv a fuck
what a terrible season!
third in the league, not far off Chelsea and Manu and well ahead of Liverpool,
good run in Carling cup with some great young players,
still in the Champions League having won away in Milan,
we’ve seen the ermegence of some top players like Adebayor, Sagna, Clichy, Flamini and Fabregas.
True, we need to add to the squad and ditch a few of the underachievers.
But FFS get a grip and keep this in context.
Some of the attitude expressed above is looking rather like the whinging that comes from glory hunting manu fans of years gone bye.
Arsene is no fool. We’ve been f*cking unlucky with injuries this year. Having RVP and Eduardo out for so long is hardly something that could have been planned for or pre-empted.
Next year the young players will be a year older, wiser and more epxerienced. The team will grow together.
Carlos Vela will be like a new signing as well.
The talk about strengthening in Jan is bull, there are no decent players available then, we’d have just pissed a few million on an average player on big wages who would be no better than what we have already at the club.
The team would also do better if fans got behind the boys, whether they are 1-0 up or 10-0 down, get behind the team and support them at the Emirates. It’s fine to criticise but booing and jeering our own players is f*cking pathetic.
1979gooner, how long do we roll with the experiment?
Carlos Vela wont be like a new player, he’ll be like Theo.
I don’t buy the whole RvP thing either. It would have been nice for him to be around, but Ade Stepped up and there is an argument to say Eddy did for a bit.
I wouldn’t class Anelka as an average player, he could have helped out.
I agree on the fan front though, the atmosphere is dire at the moment. That is certainly something to look at next season.
We are in the same position as we were yesterday… so optimistically speaking we could still do something! But this would be about the 6th false dawn!
I think whatever you say, the season will be a disappointment if we don’t win anything.
Arsene set the bar high at the start of the season, maintained it for a majority of it… then we fell away… mainly due to a thin squad.
Hopefully Arsene is smart enough to address that issue this summer.
Is finishing third but not far behind Man Utd & Chelski going to win you the title?? No
Is beating Milan away going to win you the CL?? No, you have to win several games, not just one (isn’t that why we usually laugh at spuds fans, for having one decent result & then going on about it forever).
Chelski have been just as unlucky with injuries as us so why haven’t they fallen apart?? Maybe because they realised a squad was needed, not just a first team.
As for the booing, well maybe the fans wanted to see a bit more heart shown, especially from players that don’t often get a chance to impress. I would also ask how the fans are supposed to express their disappointment at the manager & the players if not by booing at the end of the game. I suppose they are all supposed to write a letter of complaint.
79Gooner; Love the optimism fella. There are loads of positives, true. But your bit about being unlucky with injuries, good Carling cup run and the kids being a year older etc couldve been written a year ago!
I have faith, but I also expect the manager to address the fact that the squad aint big enough, that certain players are just effin shite; Take a bow Weboue! And that we cannot keep expecting young players to come in and save us. We do need ready made ones occassionally.
true Pedro, I agree with that. Arsene is no fool and he will strengthen in the summer.
as GMR Chelsea have a huge squad, but they have a massive wage bill and are making a loss each season, not something everyone can afford to do.
next season we’ll be stronger, vela will be a great addition, he has almost two seasons of top div football under his belt, it may take him time to adapt, true, this is the same for any new signing though!
the young players will be older and wise thanks to this year, if Arsene gets it right with one or two nuggest in the transfer market, next year will be a good one
http://anotherarsenalblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-terrible-season.html
Question how many of you were expecting Arsenal to be in such a close title race at the begining of the season? Whith that being said im disapointed as you all but if we persay buy an established star how long will they take to adjust? Given that i beleive we already have the squad to compete and heres why. We have Vela who should be coming in at the start of the season Where he and Walcott can be deployed on the wings we could send Denilson on lone ontil January so he can get playing time and rotate him with Cess.
Vela has one year of top division football not two. Salamanca (however spelt) were in the 2nd division & Vela’s performances haven’t been that good (I’ve seen him on 9 occasions this season), he had a decent game against Real Madrid but he wasn’t that effective overall. He is just another youngster to add to the list & anyway it seems that he may well be staying at Osasuna for another year, which would probably be better for him than joining Arsenal where the fans are already making him a hero & will then put him under immense pressure when he doesn’t deliver.
You have a point about Chelski’s wage bill, but Man Utd have also had injuries maybe not the long term ones (although they did last season & Saha is still out) & their wage bill last season wasn’t as high as ours.
If Wenger signs 3 quality players I’ll be happy. Players that can change a game in an instant, unfortunately those players do tend to cost money but it’s money he needs to spend. If he gets those signings wrong then fair play at least he tried & yes I would be the first to say he would then deserve another chance the following year. However if he sticks with his current policy, then we will finish without a trophy again & sorry but then he should go. I’d have preferred to stay at Highbury & watched quality players than moved to the Emirates to watch a glorified youth team play. If Ferguson felt that Man Utd needed strengthening despite winning the league, getting to the FA cup final & going further in the CL than us, why is it that Wenger is allowed to try & con the fans by pretending we’re just as good as them?? Clearly we aren’t, but whereas Wenger is already saying his ambition this summer is to keep the squad together you can bet your life Ferguson already has new recruits lined up.
Can I just ask this…
Who cares what our wage bill is? Isn’t that why we make £200million a year? Its none of the fans business what the wage bill is? If chelsea are winning trophies… the wage bill is irrelevant. Last year, our wage bill was the second highest.
We should be more concerned about the season ticket prices.
GMR, spot on with Vela. My sentiments exactly, it seems like Theo x10… he has his own ‘Watch site’, check out the blog roll!
The fact is, if Wenger splashed the cash… you’d know he was purchasing quality. He wont pull a Franny again.
Its groundhog day!
If only we didnt have sooo many injuries, the kids will be better next year, all we need are a few new players, yadda yadda, Then in the summer there will be the usual rumours bullshit linking all our players with moves away and of course the fat Russian r*pist is lurking in the wings along with the Orange slimy one.
Pedro we turnover £200 million pounds a year it is not profit.
We are still making a loss, but a controlled loss.
David, I don’t know where you got that from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7009848.stm
£51 million quid this year, £35 million the year before… and thats without player dealings, which are normally positive.
Cash Surplus we were about £70 million. Geoff is a share holder, we get the annual reports.
Its a myth we are skint.
Bad luck Bill.
I have just read the link Pedroa and it states the pre tax profit is £5.6 million (Darren Bents wage bill)
When I said we make a loss I meant we are buying a stadium and we sort of pay the mortgage on it (a controlled loss). No way do we have £200 million pound profit to spend on players or there wages the profit until the Highbury project sells is one quality player’s wages.
Add to the turnover the profit from broadcasting, Sponsorship and prize money you’ll find we are actually the worlds richest club, that is without Abramovich’s cash injections.
We will be debt free by 2009 I believe, that’s when the properties will be sold.
The Mancs on the other hand owe some £850 million, their interest payments on that are £63 million so when you add the £68 mil they made last year that didn’t leave much, on top of that they bought a shed load of players, but it doesn’t seem to bother them.
We on the other hand have £75 mil in the pot (Edelman says, not me) £5.5mil from the Diarra sale, then add to that the prize money from the Champions league and the Prem, you’ll find we have at least £120 mil for next season.
Seasons have gone up and we pay in advance, so why the fuck doesn’t he spend some, eh?
If he wants to be the shining knight that can do it without spending, fine, bring the cost of going down, we’re the people that don’t earn upwards of £40k a week like his players do and we are the ones that are not seeing it getting spent where we all want it, on players!
Of course we are not skint, the first 2 seasons gate recipets from the so called “cashburden grove” have ensured that.
Wenger tried, but by the smallest of small margins has maybe failed, simply because of injuries. The squad was always going to be thin and the long term injuries of 2 of our better players in RVP and tomas have cost us. Clearly, the whole diarra situation has some more to it than we will ever know.
Season is not over, i am convinced liverpool’s almighty champions league luck is going to turn on them tuesday night…. fabrgras loves the big stage, he really does pick his game up under intense stmospheres…. i really can see a night of immense tension and drama with us prevaling one way or another… more than likely on pens.
Chin up chaps, things could be a lot worse… we could be 11th in the league and celebrating winning a tin pot trophy like smaller n london clubs do.
Stay positive, let the spirit of anfield 89 guide the current team to a famous victory in 48 hours time. I really cannot wait, not nervous at all, i just know the luck is going to level out.
Thats the beauty of life, fuck religion, thats a scam… but the whole ” what goes round, comes round ” metaphor exists.
I feel for the scousers, heartbreak of the highest order awaits em !!
Stupid, I hope you’re right, but I thought that this weekend!
Still I think Robin will be back Tuesday and he owes us big time.
How can you add to the turnover, the turnover is the turnover , gate receipts, sponsership, selling players etc.
No one said we were skint we just don’t make £200 million pounds a year!
I really don’t know what it is, but on the run up to big games like this, i usually am very very nervous… must have visited the gents about a dozen times on the eurostar train on the way to paris back in 2006… but this time i have an almighty positive feeling about the impending result.
The luck always levels out in the end… and the scousers have had a monsterous amount in recent years.. going back to that incredible miss from shevchenko from 2 yards in extra time of that champs league final. Then that dodgy goal against the chavs 2 years ago and this year all that red card nonesense against inter. Not to mention the disgrace of the pen not given last wednesday….
It going to happen… for anfield 89 read anfield 08
for lucki dixon adams bould winterburn, richardson, merson, thomas, davis, smith, campbell read almunia, toure, gallas, senderos, clichy, eboue???, cesc, flamini, helb, rvp , adebayor.
prepare yourselves gooners, tuesday is party night !!
hope i got that 89 team right
I must admit that I am one of those “Arsene knows” fans but after seeing what starting team Wenger produced yesterday I couldn’t belive it! We would have won it with our first chioce “starting 11″ and with Man U drawing Middlesbrough we would have been just 4 points behind them…
But seeing that Liverpool also rested the likes of Gerrard and Torres we should have been able to beat them anyway…
Just to comment on one other thing Pedro:
1998/1999 – No Trophy!
1999/2000 – No Trophy!
2000/2001 – No Trophy!
Never been without a trophy for 3 seasons before, right….
Look at your own facts straight Pedro!
But that was sandwiched between 2 doubles right?
No one is adding to the turnover we are talking about profit, get a copy of the accounts and do the math.
won the charity shield in 99
Cheers Stupid!
And we were spending money on players when we were in a 38,000 stadium… good spot though ray.
I think we were in 2 finals inbetween? UEFA Cup and FA Cup, so we weren’t far off trophies.
I’m now going to bed, I’ve been blogging since 7.30 and watching TH14 not winning again has cheered me up.
And of course this season isn’t over yet Pedro, we can still win a title this season, right!?
It’s not over until the fat lady sings!
People are saying that we need to buy some big players for next season but in my mind i really think keeping what we got should be our main priority!
If we don’t get a trophy this season we might just lose some of our big names in the summer and avoiding that should be more important for Wenger.
People like Cesc & Flamini for example.
Of course we do need some new players, especially a winger but I have no doubt that Wenger will sign if he needs to.
But if he can manage to keep our main players then i really think we’ll be ok!
This team will grow and grow and will be a great team, MARK MY WORDS!
And to give you a name for a winger i give you Diego Capel of Sevilla!
If we get him then we’re safe!
wow! this blog still going must be a record, anyone know?
I really don’t count Charity Shield as a real trophy “Stupid”
I meen, to win a title with just one game…
1998/1999 – 2nd in League, semi final in FA Cup
1999/2000 – 2nd in League, final in Uefa Cup
2000/2001 – 2nd in League, final in FA Cup
Not to bad, but no trophies.
2005/2006 – 4th in League, Semi Final in League Cup, Final in Champions League
2006/2007 – 4th in League, Final in League Cup
2007/2008 – 3rd in League (at the moment), Semi Final in League Cup, Quarter Final in Champions League (hopefully longer)
We were close to winning the Uefa Cup in 2000 and we were close to winning the FA Cup in 2001, yes…
But in my mind we were also close to winning the Champions League final in 2006 and we were close to winning the League Cup in 2007
Kinda’ equaly if you compare it!
Not that i’m happy about being without a title in 3 years but between 1999-2001 Wenger was building a great team that won us the Double in 2001/2002 season, won us the FA Cup in 2003 and won us the League (unbeaten) in 2003/2004 and won us the FA Cup in 2005!
Hopefully Wenger will produce the same with this team, but starting a season earlier with winning the Champions League for example!
Remember that Man United between 2003/2004-2005/2006 only won the FA Cup once!
And that was within buying players like Ronaldo, Ferdinand, Rooney…
That for me (with spending such amount of money) was a much more disappointing record!
Im one of those blind optimists who still cling on to the hope that we can win the league! We couldve done with a win yesterday mind! But then I also think we are gonna win on Tuesday. That will definitely make sense of the team selection yesterday.
it was a slightly tongue in cheek retort, to be fair.
anyway… enough of this… get the positve vibes transmitting for tueday!!
The back bone of the unbeaten team that Wenger produced was (if i can deside) Campbell, Cole, Touré, Vieira, Ljungberg, Pirès, Bergkamp & Henry.
If you look at it, these players didn’t cost that much when he bought them and only Campbell and Bergkamp were world class players when they came!
Our current team’s back bone are Touré (still), Sagna, Clichy, Fabregas, Flamini, Hleb, Adebayor & van Persie.
Also not costing too much and for me no one of them were world class players when they came here but now at least some are, right!?
And this team is a bit younger also so they will get better!
We will win! We will win!! We will win! We will win!! We will win! We will win!! We will win! We will win!! We will win! We will win!! We will win! We will win!! We will win! We will win!! We will win! We will win!!
WENGER DOES NOT KNOW WHAT HE’S DOING! FIRE THE MANAGER NOW!
Wenger is by far the greatest coach the world has ever seen. No doubt about that. Arsenal Scouts are also amazing. However, this summer, we have to sign somebody, a big player. Not necessarily an “old” player but one with experience.
Quaresma or Schweinsteiger look like good options…
In my opinion; Almunia – Clichy Gallas Touré Sagna – Fabregas Flamini – Hleb New Signing – Adebayor New Signing…
We have 9 players who have to stay at Arsenal. We need two signings … Huntelaar for the striker would be amazing.
That would leave Fabianski – Traoré Senderos Djourou Eboué (Hoyte has to leave) – Diaby New Signing (Gilberto must leave) – Walcott Merida – Van Persie Bendtner
We clearly have the worst squad overall out of the top 4 clubs. We have too many players that will do a job for the likes of Birmingham, Sunderlandetc but are clearlynot good enough for a team that aspires to be the best. I don’t need to name the individuals concerned as they have been well documented in this blog.
The other big disappointment at the moment is the poor form of Gallas who is talking a good fight in the press but his positional play of late is costing us goals time and time again.
I have every respect for Arsene as his achievements speak for themselves, but I do not believe that his dream of a home produced, budget team will compete for the trophies at stake. Does he think that Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool won’t spend and strengthen at the end of the season?
The fact that brings it all home is that our starting 11 against Chelsea and Liverpool cost less than Drogba or Torres and I have no doubt that the same will apply next week with one of the Man U team. It’s not good enough!!!
eboue was awful on sat but some of ur comments and the readers are way off-vela, by the sounds of it, is coming over next season and looks like he could be world class from the reports in spain.
i totally agree arsene has to buy in the summer and spend on world class players, but to buy not just one or two but at least three or four – striker, winger, defender, perhaps a keeper. dont all jump on the bandwagon and have a go………dont u remember that no one thought we would be in the top four this season let alone challenge for the league?!!
save your comments for now and judge the gaffer when august arrives. at this moment in time, all you ‘arsene knows’ haters, clear the f*** off and get behind ur team for tuesday night!!
CMON YOU GOONERS!
AW lovers just remember……….players and teams potential never win anything! If AW keeps his policy of bringing in and using the young players who have loads of “potential” and need the experience of playing in the EPL when will we ever have a side capable of winning the title again??
Also as has been pointed out on here and throughout the season, for some reason AW cannot see the failings in some players no matter how bad they play (eboue being the prime example!). We now have so many squad players who are simply not good enough that it will take a lot of spending to build…….
And as for the people who say “what would we have done without Arsene” well guys you never can tell we might have got someone who won us more trophies and made us into the top side in the world…… you can never tell……certainly I don’t think we would have achieved any less in the past 2 years if we had brought in a new manager and moved AW upwards….as he seems to be rated higher than god by our board who without Dein appear completely spineless and lacking any b*lls at all when it comes to pushing for silverware. The real world class clubs Barca,Real,Bayern would all have either replaced AW by now or be on the verge of doing so. ManU were on the verge of sacking Fergie when he managed to win the league for the first time …and they were hints about him being moved up and retiring when the had lost out to Chelski in the EPL and us in the cup in 05…… isn’t it about time a bit of pressure from above is seen to be put on AW to achieve results and well as making the club rich????????
1979 gooner
go back to your freakshow @ ACLF !
the people on his blog ain’t muppets who think the world is rose tinted !
(although there has been a lot of scoooby dooby talk ! )
but saying shite like……..
”’Arsene is no fool. We’ve been f*cking unlucky with injuries this year. Having RVP and Eduardo out for so long is hardly something that could have been planned for or pre-empted. (YOUR KIDDING RIGHT ?? )
Next year the young players will be a year older ( SOUNDS FAMILAR? ), wiser and more epxerienced. The team will grow together””
YOU MIGHT AS WELL CUT AND PASTE IT FOR NEXT YEAR TOO !
Weve learned nothing it seems and falling short is routine for this squad !
we did it in the C/L final 2 years ago .. Last season and now this season !
There is a pattern here ! You just need to be smart enough to see it !
Finish teams off ! well that hasn’t happened either !
we still will have C.L football
we still will have to qualify for it
we still have won nothing ..
we still cant finish teams off …
we still play the odd crappy player because arsene wont spend ..
we still cant get 1st or 2nd spot in the EPL . (as 2 other teams are stronger and will remain so until we BUY !)
Nothing has changed !
Yes our team is older and has gelled better !
well guess what so has man U and chevski .. and spurs and manCs and villa … and …
We will never compete if we dont get with the program ..
we will have our moments in the sun ! everyone does ..
boro almost had one last night .. but it doesnt make them title contenders !
f### me !!
matt your dead right
arsene has made a fair few mistakes , or should i say surfacing errors since dein’s departure .. maybe they are linked .. If he continues on this path of youth ..
Someone needs to stop him !
He is arrogant .. they do say that about a certain nationality .. and usually you dont put arsene and arrogant in the same category . but lately i think it is surfacing !
Stubborn is more the term ! BUY arsene BUY ! before the fans loose faith in you !
get a world class striker or 2 and turn this team around ! ..
I think if we got 2 world class strikers i think the rest of the team would just settle in
, no need for more defenders (because we are banging in goals !)
no need for wingers because 2 WC strikers would yield more goals that we need !
Plus hleb cesc and flamini theo .. would score more if there was no pressure to supply
a striker like ade cemented in the 6 yard box !
Gorgeous George you idiot !
this is the EPL not the ballet ! Our refs dont give penalties away for fun !
you have to score goals ! 2 win !!!
and if you said we should of won the game ? is that the same game that they scored first in ?
moron ??
is that the same game where crouch had more on target in the 1st half than us ?? we dominated for 10 minutes .. the rest of the time liverpoo looked on top !
and not surprising with the class of players we had on the pitch !poor decisions
just like your list of reasons why .. i have a list also …
it says Gorgeous is a dickhead ..
the team arsene has been putting together for TOO LONG is crap ..
and needs 3 or 4 fresh faces before we will win anything !
your points mean nothing !
Go support a European club where they give you penalties for falling over !
Wenger put out a team knowing that Liverpool would rest half their team too, and the team put out could and should have still got a result. Hleb and Adebayor were exhausted and carrying knocks from Wednesday, had they started the game they would have been absolutely dead on Tuesday, and a fresh Liverpool would have walked all over us, which they may still do with how tired Flamini and Cesc looked at the end of Saturday’s match. If we had played a full team on saturday we would have had no chance of getting a result on tuesday. Arsene played a team that gave us a chance of winning on saturday, and gives us a chance of winning on Tuesday. Ethan we will not buy and do not need forwards, signing a forward would just stifle the development of Bendtner, Vela, and Walcott, three of the most highly rated young forwards in Europe, all of whom could contribute 15 goals each next season, on top of Van Persie and Adebayor’s goals. The main and only problem we have is we need goalscoring winger.
I really don’t understand how so many Arsenal fans are so stupid when we are still in the race for the title (just about), and still in the Champions League, despite having horrific luck with injuries that Utd would have not been able to cope with like we have.
If we hadn’t had the injuries we would have walked the title, which would have been an incredible achievement.
Both the recent challenges should have been penalties, but you can’t say we would be top if this or that decision had gone our way as every team has good and bad decisions against them.
The team has done far better this season than last season, and is steadily improving, and will continue to do so with the same players and one or two incoming signings or returns from injury of Van persie, Rosicky, and Eduardo. We have one of the best squads we’ve had in decades, with the potential to become better than the invincibles
Also, I personally would be very happy should van persie and rosicky be unable to get rid of injury problems and are offloaded in the summer if we started next season with a 4-5-1/4-3-3 of Vela left, Walcott right, Bendtner centre supported by Hleb. The pace and ability in that front four would be incredible especially with Cesc pulling the strings behind them.
A
i also cant understand that people think we are the ones with chelsea ahead of us and all there fixtures are better setup than ours to win .. not to mention that there squads have more class than us ! and less injuries ..
sorry mate your living in fairy land !
as arsene said its still mathematically possible but highly improbable !!
we screwed the pooch back when ade wasnt providing goals to us !
if he had scored 3 or 4 more goals we might still have 4 -6 points more than we do now !
Lets get a reality check here while i’m looking forward to seeing Vela play reading what everyone on this blog is saying he better be as good as lionel messi , listen the boy is 19!!!!!!!!!!!!, I want ready made top international players Pinning our hopes on a boy of 19 is stupid. Lets look at cesc and see how knackered he looks at the moment, Flamini also, This squad past the first 12 is paper thin and all those who think that without major signings we will win trophies are Stupid.
ethan gunner,
I think you’re kidding!
Manu would not have coped with one of their top strikers out for virtually the whole season and another out for half of it.
Neither would Chelsea.
What so you suggest, six top strikers?
The if we have no injuries two will never even get on the bench, they’ll then start moaning and causing trouble.
For me the Eduardo injury turned our season, the lad was on fire and scoring every other game, linking well with midfield.
Combine his injury at a time when RVP was also out, and you have a rather unlucky combination.
Imagine Rooney and Tevez going down at the same time in similiar fashion, Manu would struggle.
http://arseblog.com/WP/2008/04/07/you-know-stuff-about-arsenal-and-stuff/
as arseblogger says today, keep it in perspective, we have come along this season and the Eduardo/RVP situation was not just something that could have been planned for.
A- you’re kidding yourself if you really believe Man Utd couldn’t cope with injuries. We have hardly any injuries at present (3 players) yet we still can’t win because the back-up for those players is pathetic. Just look back to the FA cup game at OT, that wasn’t anywhere near Man Utd’s first team & they thumped us. They have suffered injuries this season, however you don’t notice it because they don’t keep talking about them as they have a strong enough squad to cope. Neville & Saha have missed nearly the whole season & Saha is their only out & out striker.
I agree with whoever said we should sign Capel from sevilla, a young player that is proven & would improve under Wenger. The other player I’d love is Arshavin from Zenit St Petersburg, he was linked before the winter transfer market (only for Arsene to laugh it off) & he really is some player. At 27 he is the perfect age & Cesc could learn a lot from him, he’s been classed as a forward but in reality is more of a playmaker. He is extremely quick & his set up play is fantastic. Would make a great addition & probably wouldn’t cost that much.
This sucks man being a fan does,nt mean that you always expect your team to be thrashing other teams, we should be giving more credit to Arsene, if we compare The last season with this one the team has improved a lot under Arsene Wenger after all the high profile transfer’s out of Arsenal.This it had been a great run untill the Draw at Birmingham which cost us an inform striker and other top striker already injurred we were left with one Main striker and other reserve striker and the injury to Eduardo was really a drawback to the confidense of the team and also i think their was also the Gallas factor which caused another low in morale of the players ( dont need to explane that one) he should have been motivating the players but he did’nt.If for any reason we have performed this season it is due to Arsene Wenger. Someone at the top said we should be hiring Jose Mourinho to get us on winning ways, we by any imagination jose would have been the manager of arsenal in these two years,(with same financial problems) I dont think arsenal would have been finishing in Top four because that person which could,nt get anythink out of players like SHEVSHENKO AND BALLACK what will he do with players like Adebayor , Clichy , Abouya ,and you can count all of them leaving few star players Arsenal have in its Squad, So i will suggest keep Content with the situation, Tide will turn and Arsenal will be at the TOP again ( remember we have been rebuilding the team for last three years)
Winning is Everything. I am fed up with arsene’s buying policy it is beginning to weaken the club. We need 3 ready proven world class players or it will be the same story next season. This i think is really why Henry really moved on.
wenger needs to understand one fucking thing…
(1) all our injuries were picked up playing in england bcoz teams wanna hack our players down….and if he still is stubborn let alex ferguson explain it to him…
and since we are a english club, this problem doesnt seem like going away is it,u stupid morons who continously pin your hopes on a small squad.
keep this young team by all means…but sign 2-3 experienced players, preferably from theose already playing in England…John Arne Riise is on his way out of the Kop…any takers?
and why the fuck did wenger allow pires to leave…?
he is still GREAT at villareal this very moment..
wenger could have used him sparingly, as a supersub!….what quality would that be!!!
no wonder ferguson still has scholes….
Totally agree dude!
I think Arsene has been very adamant. The club owners do not seem to have much ambition either. They are happy with the way their bank balances are increasing.
I am happy the club is in a great financial position, but for GODs sake, please use some money and make our squad a great and effective one!
Totally agreed about signing two to three players And let for God sake Ebouye Go we dont need him now