They all reached that magical age of 30!
We had Keown, Winterburn, Dixon, Adams, Bergkamp, and Ian Wright, all played well into their 30′s and I have to say playing their best football, look at Maldini and Zidane.
The only reason Wenger wants youngsters is so they can dominate for ten years, then they’d be what? 30!
Trouble is they get to 24 and sod off, so the experiment is shite, it doesn’t work, look at those that have left, Anelka, Flamini, Hleb, Overmars, Reyes and now Ade.
And those that don”t even get to 24 Aliadiere, Sidwell, Muamba, Larsson, Stokes, I’m not saying they were great, but they all ate away at the wage structure and all came with high hopes.
Change the script Arsene, it’s not working.
Yes you get them cheap, but you pay them top wages to come, so with all the kids we have our wage bill is huge, so are they really cheap? I think not, then after years of watching them fumble their way around a pitch, they bugger off (Flamini) or go to the Olympics (Song) the last time a player did that by the way (Brazil game) was Edu, then he rarely played again until he went on a free, because you had the hump with him.
Then when players near the magical age they get thrown out, we need the experience, but we throw them out, unless of course they are French (Gallas) the point here is when they get to 27, they see their last chance for a payday because they know they only have 3 years left before Arsenal dump them.
Look at those we lost, Pires, Henry, Viera, Campbell, Ralph and now Gilberto, when you’re chasing trophies, it helps to have an experienced head, what have we left now? A sulky bastard that when the going gets tough, sits on the pitch and throws wobblies.
I wish I had an answer for why you are obsessed with youth, we know it’s not money because when they get good you have to pay them and those you buy young aren’t that cheap, Theo was £12mil (revised because the Saints got into trouble so don’t claim that one) and Ramsey was £5 mil, plus all the hundreds of £3 mil kids knocking around, it all adds up.
Finally how many of these kids make it? How many FA Youth cups do we win? Are these kids that good?
On that note a big thank you to Gilberto, one of my favourites and a great example of my experience bitch. You’ll be missed!
I don’t mean to sound negative but I can remember when the team was a little older and we probably had a much lower wage bill, so give it some thought, at least we won the odd trophy!
Barry is now back at the Villa skulking around no doubt and feeling a little humble, so the stage could be set to bring him to Arsenal, maybe add Santa Cruz or Huntelaar and get rid of the Togo twat, either that or bung him in the stiffs and sell him in the January transfer window.
He made it clear he’s only bothered about himself, so we should return the compliment, send a message to the rest of the team too, oh and junk Hleb the same way.
Radical? I know, but it’s time to make a stand Arsene, time to stand up to the pay packet bullies!
Way over 550 comments Grovers, what happens when we start playing football eh?
Le Grove is now smart phone compatible!
Pedro
Geoff
1st?
1
1st?
8th !
4th!
(2nd) 1st !!
oh fark, missed it just
Joint first……… that does me !!!!
Sorry chaps… McDonalds WiFi let me down…
Arrggh, damn you 53rd 1st then
Now let me read it
With you there Bud
This is quite sad really……….. has anyone caught on, we get up to 240 odd posts jostling for first spot before we start the days debating or even read the blog !!!!!!
Now read the post… it’s a good’un!
1st
A ha first is first 2nd is nowhere!
Reading on SSN were in for alonso now? Lol
I recall saying this when someone mentioned making an example of a player and Iwas trying to think of a manager who’d done that recently.
I’d like it to be Wenger but you know what he’ll say when another of our prodigies has his customary 1 good season after 2 crap seasons…” he wants to further his career and if he wants to leave you have to respect that”
the youth does not cost us that much. We also get a lot for the players we sell on.
We got money for Muamba, twice now, Pennant, Bentley, Sidwell etc.
There is talk that James Harper’s move to Boro is being delayed as we are due half of the fee, plus this will be the same for Bentley’s 17 mill move to Spurs or Villa.
The bigggest problem is when players leave on a free like Campbell, Wiltord, Edu and now Flamini.
Transfer fees may be a thing of the past soon, with all of the money going to the “slave” player and not the club.
Shiver me timbers, and Rodger the cabin boy!
The reason why we don’t win any FA Yoof cups is because all the youth players are playing in the first fucking team, welcome to el cheapo productions aka Arsenal FC.
Exactamundo Geoff!! AW’s experiment is fucked, and he should stop dragging us on it. He can go manage the reserves if he’s all into youngsters.
We make make the odd few million when we sell them, but don’t forget we buy them in the first place and pay them huge wages, when you multiply that against 20 odd kids, that’s a lot of money.
Mark C – Don’t you believe it fella, there’s so many of them that the percentage figure of our total wage bill allotted to youth and junior players si astronomical. Mainly because we’ve got so many of the fuckers, but also because we pay more than any other club at that stage of their careers, fucking insane!
Nice post pedro….perfect there.
i still dont get the reason of selling gilberto… you will be missed berto
‘Lost In Transition’ is what i would call.
I doubt if we will ever come out of this transition, wenger buy kids, kids perform well, we miss out on torphies, clubs come calling to buy are players (once a kid), we sell them and buy new kids……… and it goes on
and the next season is gonna be ours…
Hell, defending our shit performance with – ‘we got a young team’ was fashionable two seasons ago, now its a pathetic excuse. And this is a football club, not a property company.
Mark C……….
just 1 question?
what is Arsenal Fc?
a football club or a business entity?
God I hate it when Wenger says “We lacked maturity” – well you (and your over 30′s policy) flogged off all the players who had any, WTF do you expect ?!
Geoff what you say makes sense and the more mature players know their shelf life is shorter -maybe had a few knocks mentally as well as physically and know the world doesnt owe them a living or a guaranteed position in a team .This isnt just about money though its experience and maturity Its like the old joke about the old and young bull standing at the top of the hill and the young bull says lets run down the hill and fuck one of those cows at the bottom of the hill .The old bull says why dont we just stroll down the hill and fuck the lot of them .
Good post for a pre season debate Geoff
Exactly Slimshady – why on earth is a football club pretending to be an estate agency – or the yanks call it “Realtor” or something. If you loose your focus then you sow the seeds of your own demise.
Hey everyone, it’s Mike! welcome back Mike, tell me more about the cows!!!
The youth policy got us Fab4, RvP and TW14 admitedly. But its gonna land Dkembe Dkembe, pay him 10k p/w, then we’ll be in some shit.
And the argument about Ade being as good as RvP based on stats- crap. Anyone who’s seen Robin play will tell you he’s actually more class than Torres. Or at least I’ve seen so.
Welcome back Mike…!
Morning everyone!
Good post Geoff… I understand your concerns.
Gilberto may not have had the edge last year, but it is hard when you’ve been dethroned and you only get the odd ten minutes at the end of a game.
He may not have been able to run as far as eboue, but at least he knew how to close off a game… how to win a trophy type of thing.
There are no leaders in the team anymore… we really do need to make a purchase now.
geoff Bullocks !
I’d have Alonso if we don’t get Barry, but we need one now, we lost Diarra, Flamini and Gilberto with none in.
Slim… spot on. RvP is an amazing player and if he can string together 10 games, he’ll show his worth.
I wouldn’t say the youth system was responsible for RvP and Theo though… they were purchases past 16.
We have feyenoord and Southamption to thank for those two gems!
you can change the practice if we get a diamond merchant pumping 100 millions every year…. i don’t want any diamond merchant anywhere near this club.
Hey slimshady you mutha fucka, i’m worth every penny, in fact i’ll only be on your cheap arse payroll for 2 or 3 years before i piss off for more lovely lolly to buy more goats……….
A HEARTY THANKS TO GILBERTO.
heard he snubbed a move to everton to avoid having to face the club he loves. A true gunner. Wish the other lads had the same loyalty as Bert. Wish him all the best.
I agree with the post to a certain extent but slimshady what shit performance are you talking about? And Miraj it’s a business they all stopped being football clubs years ago. BUt imo a business is better than some crook’s toy. We do need some older players but on the other hand some of our younger players are already quite experienced
Mike – Tell me more about these cows!!
slimshady.. its not about looking the part… its walking the walk and rvp is never fit enough….
there is a big “if” on him…
Michael Diamond dealers are hardly whiter than white!
I understand your point though…
O.k Pedro. Thank God for feyenoord and southampton.
Our wages are based on a bonus scheme, which is as good as any, there is no more than three players earning top wages, that’s why the players are leaving. The policy which you say does not work has only been going on 4 years now.
We won the title then Chelsea became billionaires we had to do something. The next year we finished second with enough points to have won the league in most years. Hats off to Chelsea they won the highest point score ever. The following year we fell off the ball, with utd and Chelsea in the strong positions they were in and our change of squad this was bound to happen, the following year we changed stadium no one does well the first year in a new stadium. This year we were 4 points behind, had we won at trafford like we were good enough to do then you would not dream of questioning the club policy in fact i bet you would be praising it.
Lets see what happens this year, think what has been spent in the years since we last won the title, we simply could not compete with that.
I don’t know fizman’s background but he doesn’t run the club like it’s his plaything like chavski or man shitty or heaven forbid hearts what afucking mess that is!
Couple of questions:
1. do any of you work for the club?
2. Do any of you know any of the players that we have recently signed?
I am guessin that the answer to that is probably no right.
In that case how do you know that they are on “Big” wages?
There is another blog called young guns that reports on the youngsters that we bring in and most of them actually come for very little money because of the ruling inn many European countries that they cannot sign their youth players to Pro contacts until they are 17 or 18, thus meaning that we can offer them professional or scolarship deals when they are 16. This means that we only have to pay nominal compensation and not actually big transfer fees. Just cos they get a pro contract when they are young does not mean that they will be on a lot of money. I would guess that many would actually on be on reserve team wages until they break into the first team.
This seams to me to be a speculative article, unless you can post links to the place where it says that the likes of Randall or Gibbs are on big money i will fail to believe it!
Good post. I think Benitez had a jibe at Arsene a fortnight ago on a similar vein. Don’t agree entirely with what you’ve said:
Agree with the point we possibly pay too much for them on the wage front when we have the current magnet of coaching in AW.
If we don’t get them in early we can’t ensure they have all the skills necessary by the age at which their ability to grasp those talents falls off; they also learn to play the Arsenal way so introduction to the team is relatively seemless.
Who’s Ralph?
Did Benitez have a jibe at Arsenal? I missed that. Fucking wanker.
Im talking about our 06/07 season Michael.
Mandingo, i’m not a hater, matter of fact, i also like goats. I just dont like AFC players who like goats.
M A D D funny youve picked up on cows -this cow thing is a problem I went to the Docs
I said -Doctor, doctor, I feel like a cow
Doctor: Hmm, tell me more
I responded :Well, I’ve been mooing a lot, and I can’t stop eating grass
Doctor: Any udder symptoms
Clacko, we pay the third highest wages in the premiership, yet all our senior players complain we don’t pay enough, so where does it go? do the math.
Also Clacko I’m a shareholder so I get the accounts, I’m guessing you don’t – right?
hey mike , good to see you
kudos Gilberto.I like the way u handled your transfer to Pana.That was class.
Patrick7 – Ralp might mean Lauren – our long lost right back.
I thought this article would flush out the AKB’s it hasn’t, I’ve had 4, 3 were from the same person and one was from the pervert that has the hookers site in Thailand or somewhere, they must all be at school today.
Ouch! Mike fore shame on you!
Patrick, Ralph is Lauren, sorry mate, it’s his nick-name!
Are the quoted Top 4 wages for the whole club or player’s only? Bit of a difference.
It’s a shame Sol Campbell left for Portsmouth, he would have been a great help at the Arsenal, he has given them two very good seasons but all experienced players know that their careers could be cuts short to make way for the new generation. Pires left for Villareal because he said he knew they wanted him,
Pires stated: “I was very disappointed. When I saw my number on the fourth official’s board to be substituted, I couldn’t believe it. It was my last game after six years at the Club, a Champions League Final in front of all my family in Paris where I became World Cup champion and it lasted just 12 minutes. That was very hard to take.”
Arsenal.com
At the end of that season Pires left North London and headed to Spain. The mercurial Frenchman did not deserve his departure 12 minutes into the Champions League Final, his final game, following Jens Lehmann’s red card. It wasn’t right, but needs must.
Pires and Campbell are great examples of players who, if they can pass a demanding fitness test, are two of the best players in their positions. Everyday we get a little wiser with age, do you remember this time last year, all the experiences you’ve had and how much more you know now. These players are multiple trophy winners, they have footballing intelligence acquired at the highest level and are proven achievers, it is wasteful to shrug your shoulders and watch them go.
There is a youth argument to counter this opinion but it still doesn’t over-ride the fact that these players needn’t have had to be concerned about limited playing opportunities due to their age.
A very good post Pedro, a point that needs to be made and considered, we’re always fed the line that Arsenal always choose players on merit above all other factors, but once players have earnt their stripes they’re not always given the opportunities to enjoy them despite being perfectly capable of playing at the level required.
what does akb s?tand for
Thanks Charybdis (where does that name come from) – Have never heard Lauren’s first name, even in the AFC player listing he was just Lauren if I remember rightly!
By all our senior players you mean Van persie, Adebayor and possibly Gallas!
Van @Persie has been injured for some time so why he should be complaining i have no idea. Adebayor has had one good season so he should just shut the fuk up or fuk off cos he is seriously doin my head in lol! And i heard a rumor that Gallas was on £80,000 a week so what he has to complain about i don’t know.
Fabregas doesn’t complain, Clichy has been given a new deal, as has Sagna but a lot of our first team don’t actually complain so i would guess that they are on pretty tidy sums. Has anyone forgot that we paid Henry in the region of £120,000 a week for the last year that he was here.
In all honestly we have no idea what players are being paid so for all we know Fab could be on £100,000 a week.
Aw sayin he won’t break our structure may just mean that we have a budget that we are close to so can’t offer current players big contracts cos there wouldn’t be enough left for bringing in new players (well IF we bring in new players).
I do agree that the youths probably do take up a proportion of the wage as we have so many but i doubt that any of them alone are on big money.
Only thing that annoys me is that we pay them for say 3 years whilst they are 16-19 then Aw or whoever decides they are not goo enough so we look to sell them.
why does it take 3 years to deide some one is shit, if they can spot talent early on why can’t they tell after 1 year that they are shit and won’t make it and get rid of them at that point!
Lauren Etame Mayer is his name, i had to check as i couldnt remember, still doesnt look familiar,
Goonerman it’s all their wages. Michael – Arsene knows brigade!
You’ve got to laugh – only at AFC do you have a situation like this: You;re expected DM is late returning for the beginnig of the season so an underachiever fills his place, the latter over performs, keeps the former out of the team and then leaves on a free, by which time the first choice DM is flogged off ‘cos he’s too old.
Great planning/thinking there guys ! Heads should have rolled for that debacle !
7.2 million for lauren looking back that was a lot of money in 2000
Yeah geoff. where does it all go? Guys need to get that your post isnt talking about Randall getting 50k a week, its 30 Dkembe’s getting 10k. And the sad thing is they’ll run off once they hit 1 good season, seeing as we don’t pay good wages, and they’ve got no loyalty. I hope Vela proves us otherwise this season.
I may need some counselling. I think generally he does know but obviously not everything otherwise he’d have Eboue assassinated. Problem is that he definitely has a plan to win the league by bringing young players through. Unfortunately there’s a fairly good chance (although not odds on) that it will fail and we are the ones who have to suffer.
No matter how many articles you write like this criticising they way he does things, it will not change a thing. Arsene has his physiology and he will stick to it cos that’s what he believes in. Im sure being an arsenal fan you would realised this by now?….or maybe not it seems. Its not way he does things, Im 90% sure we wont be buying players like Barry & Villa.
As much as like to have some experience in the squad i love the way those young fellas display talant with so much vigour.its amazing isnt it? example the way theo sprinted in Lpool and in milan past so called experienced players.the way we outplayed the chavs in the CC final smtyime back.WHo would honestly say they were not impressed.However we should combine the two.Get an experienced midfielder like Barry and a good CB.A world class GK and The ajax klas in striking.
TA6 isnumber 3 in all time AFC greats. So that will mean number 2 is DB10 and number 1 will be TH14.
Not my choice for the top 2
chary66 – You’re also forgetting the debacle that was signing then selling of Diarra, And, i know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but anyone could see that Flamini was keeping his options open rather than signing a new deal. So, why didn’t someone with managerial balls, say righto while you’re fucking us about may i introduce you to the substitutes bench, and Diarra you’re on son, fucking easy isn’t it.
ikon .. the diamond merchant is Fiszman ..
Usmanov deals in commodities, steel, etc ..
btw, heard from people who went to the Euros that they saw Wenger hanging out all the time with David Dein ..
Charybdis – not completely correct. Bert came back several weeks into the season. Flam was exceeding expectations match after match giving us what we had lacked the year before. He isn’t leaving on a free: it’s £2-3M and I don’t think its because he’s too old, he’s too slow (as great as the fella was for us)!
TA6 retired at what 35? there’s my point and DB10 at 36.
Stevie if I didn’t write articles like this, we would not be debating it, I may as well just have a headline like this…Arsene is great, and we signed Ramsey.
Be a bit boring wouldn’t it, what would I write tomorrow…Arsene is great, and Tony Adams came 3 in our poll.
Go on DB10, numero uno baby!
Just relax. Enjoy the football. Arsene has done wonderful things at our club. By being sensible financially the board are making sure we can support our beloved club for years to come in the top league in the world. Trophies are great and we have won more than our fair share over the last few years and missed out on many more by a fracton, so we usually get a run for our money. To top it all off we get to watch one of the most amazing football teams ever play in our colours or indeed England. After watching so many barren years since the 60′s I appreciate what Arsene has done. He has revolutionised football, recognised how the game should really be played and adapted many players to his style of thinking. He did all this without a bad word in anger and although he has fired a few retalitory broadsides, he has remained a gentleman throughout. He is a genius and we are lucky to have him. So let’s not hastily dismiss his efforts and like true supporters get right behind his every descision and soak up the glory of having the fortune for what ever reason to be a gooner and to be witness to what we have seen in the last ten years. Because if you had been around 20 odd years ago you would have never thought it possible. I love it!
Dennis it wasn’t hindsight we were saying this all December and before the transfer window, don’t sell Diarra!
We even suggested loaning him out or making Flamini sign or play Diarra instead if he didn’t.
He should have done the same in the CL final, made Cole sign a new 5 year deal or play Flamini instead, he didn’t and we lost them both as a result.
Madness!
AKB’s alert? spot em yourselves people, im out. HAVE A GOOD ONE!
83rd (1st)
Willo 20 years ago we were about to win the league on Mersyside. What exactly do you mean.
DB 10 for no 1.TH14 should be no 3 after TA 6
Patrick7, Berto arrived late into the season because of Brazil duties and I didn’t say he was going on a free I said he was “flogged” (i.e sold for cash) although admittedly he was too slow for DM, so why not try him at centre half before we tell a world cup winner and 2 times premier league chgampion to go forth and multiply ?
Hi Chris -I have been dipping in and out but not contributing as I am re-engineering my garden which is .75 acres .Bit hungover this morning so am using any excuse not to start work -nearly 3 bottles of Montana Marlborough sauvignon Blanc Reserve -very gluggable for sure .Will participate more when nights satr drawing in and season starts
Clacko -well said mate very good points
TH14 scored most goals but DB10 was probably the greatest player and big Tone was probably the most loyal, but you can’t give it to someone who’s been in prison for drink driving, I’m no angel but when he flipped his car smashed out of his brains, he could have hit someone’s kid, the problem with alcoholics is they always think they’re the victims.
Sorry Tone I loved you, but for that reason you couldn’t be first.
i think we should start a count down for “arsenals not so greats”
1.Eboue
2.cygan
3.?????
Kenya, I agree that the price of developing young players is sacrificing points and experienced players, i’m just as impressed as you are with what Arsene has achieved with players such as Fabregas and Clichy, we need the dynamism and hunger of youth but we also need trophy winners to set an example to Arsenal youth, not Portsmouth or Villareal youth, we know how difficult life is at the top of the Premier League, if you’re successful the pressure on your shoulders is cranked up to the max, so a little of help from our experienced players wouldn’t go amiss, Campbell and Pires are battle hardened, most of your young players have yet to acquire this trait, and while they’re in the process of doing so they will falter more often than they need to because of a lack of experienced guidance on the pitch.
Kenyangooner – well said; don’t agree on Huntelaar and as Geoff said Manuel will do for Seaman, so he’ll do for me! I’m not going to question his judgement either. Having said that I still want him to claim those crosses better and improve his distribution.
DDM – I thought Diarra was a good buy at the time but apart from one performance didn’t think he excelled for us so when he wanted out having slagged off AW in the media and probably upsetting the squad as a result of his spouting why not get rid. Ade’s doing the same and everybody wants him gone; perhaps we’re doing the hindsight thing again and only fancying Dolphinhead/slagging off AW cos he performed for Portsmouth and we now need more DMFs now. He’s still too erratic for a 24 year old!
Easy on Eboue, he was good at RB, sucked at right wing….should not have been made to play there. Im happy to have him in the squad if Sagna gets injured.
HI Its been a bit of time since iv been on Been working hard keeping the Airport safe Not long now counting the days off on the calendar yes i know im SAD
On RvP He is a great player but i wish he would trap the ball when he receives it. It seems to bounce off his legs all the time the he spends the next few seconds trying to controle it lets hope he stays fit for the season he could make the differance
Most Diamonds have flaws: We’v seen the chaves leader launder his dodgey mafia money through the club We dont need Diamond money Lets get the players to Sparkle instead
And BIG THANK YOU to the ledgend who is GILBERTO
loyalty is what makes me give DB10 no 1.plus the skill.TH14 u fucked us over.
I reckon Bert has asked Wenger “how many games do you think I am going to get this year?” and Wenger has said “not many” So Bertie has asked to leave..
Arsenal have kept his transfer fee down to a million so he can get better wages.
Respect from both sides…
Diarra refused to go on loan!!
Gotta say DB10 in the top 3 is right by my reckoning.
Would love him to be number 1!
Also would love him to come back as a technical coach, get all of our players doing the same skill he did to score that amazing goal against Newcastle!
DB10 = Legend forever!!!
Geoff, i was being sarcastic towards our management mate, i totally agree with you. Myself, my bruv and all the gooner si know were saying exactly the same thing around Nov/Dec time……….
Tony Adams spent his entire career at Arsenal…I’ll have no argument if DB is no.1, but for me it has to be Big Tone. He was Arsenal through and through.
big mac coke and fries for dinner, you beauty!
no signings today i gather, only outs?
On setanta:
Barcelona have confirmed that Arsenal star Alexander Hleb will arrive in Catalunya on Wednesday to undergo a medical, with the La Liga giants expecting to wrap up the signing within 24 hours.
Good riddance.
DB10 should be number 1, we will never have a player like him again.
Charybdis -You’re right about the ‘free’; I’ve just re-read it. Don’t think Bert favours the CB position but still I’d say he was too slow and too short and maybe too light. He had difficulty in MF at times not being shrugged off the ball. If he’s to go to CB are you seriously going to drop our other most experienced players or do you fancy Toure in MF?
When Bergkamp arrived it wasn’t just the player it was his stature that attracted top players to Arsenal..
It may have influenced Arsene coming to Arsenal, would you like to manage a team with DB10 in it who could resist?..
“I can remember when the squad was much older and we probably had a lower wage bill”
Football has changed quite a bit since then! Bigger squads and higher wages now. No point comparing now to ten years ago. Better off comparing our wage bill to that of an older squad like Chelsea or AC Milan… Obviously ours will be smaller
Chipo I was talking about 2004!
Just think that under Wenger Arsenal would never have seen Ian Wright or Dennis Bergkamp. We’d also never have seen such an awesome defence as Dixon, Winterburn, Adams, Bould, O’leary & then Keown!!
Yeah he gets the team playing great football at times, but if he bought some better quality players we’d play even better football & could actually be dominant!! It won’t happen though!!
DB10 for me also – pure class and got the extra years for it: loyalty both ways to the end and you never know he may be back as a coach.
DB10 for me, I think he was the making of Henry.
So now that it looks almost certain that Gilberto & Hleb will be confirmed as having left Arsenal by tomorrow at latest does anyone expect to see a new arrival this week??
evening all….so henry will probably be no.1 then?
Morning All –
Only got five minutes – be back later
Hleb having medical as I write ………… Hoorah, soon to be sorted SAGA
If the wage bill is for the entire company, we now have a bigger stadium, employ more people and the wages in London must be nearly double those of Manchester or Scouser land..
Does it include the staff who run the corperate suites that are used in the week, Arsenal are a 365 day club I don’t think others are to such an extent..
pierre.at some point i thot Van persie was going to fill DB10 shoes.Hope he will next season!!
Patience GMR. RVP, Cesc, Nasri, Sagna, Clichy, Eduardo…….have only started developing their skills.
Sorry GMR – just seen you have updated re the medical, SSN’s confirm also
Exactly. About to! The Graham era was about to kick in and we started to become consistantly challenging for trophies. Was a great period and Arsene has continued it on at a higher level.
(Thanks going to Rioch for Dennis).
Some drab years have been had with some of those years really bad. There were not many fairweather fans then. But times have changed.
Is it the internet or is a fact of life now fans slag their own? In my day and indeed now, you just don’t rubbish your team. If I hear someone in the pub slagging their own team, it ain’t really their team, they don’t know.
How most of you lot can slag our club now is laughable, harden up.
In this particular post, I think the criticism of Arsene Wenger is seemingly on the high side. I want to believe that there are certain decision he took that are limited to what he has power to do. Methinks he is too conspicuous in the “bashing” anytime this blog discuss Arsenal policy. Does that mean he is the only one taking all the decisions alone? As regards all you have opined above, does it mean he can have his say on all the above policy? Isn’t there other people who also partake in some of this policy? And by the way, does anyone disagreeing with this blog’s position on Wenger’s policy an AKB? I dont think so. I am not saying ARSENE KNOWS in this case, all am saying is Arsene alone cannot be taking the ‘bashing’ everytime.
Rico, its on the Barcelona website, hleb should be arriving at 1pm for a medical.
Patrick7, what are you on about patience??
Mates i think we should sign another striker i have this gut feeling that ade is going to be sh*t next season.
GMR – Bloody SSN’s –
Would it not be funny if he failed his medical!! ?
David,
did you see this bit of info on line, not sure if its true but intertesting
“Things started well with the summer signings of David Platt and Dennis Bergkamp, although Dein signed the latter without Rioch’s knowledge on the recommendation of… Arsene Wenger”
if Hleb has to give a urine sample it will end up on the floor, great dribbler, not so good at hitting the target!!
People that think their team or manager is beyond criticism obviously don’t care enough about the club to actually worry about the going’s on!!
quite frankly, i dont agree wt d writer of d article, first, Anelka, Flamini, Hleb, Overmars, Reyes and now Ade all have diff reasons 4 leavin n at diff ages too. i’ll like to ponit out that d so called young n inexperienced took us to the champions league final, wenger has a plan dt requires patience and i think we’ll see it hatch this season
Got to dash
Patrick7, while it’s obvious Berto has lost his pace he’s not too short to be a CB as both of our current first choice CB’s are smaller than him anyway(Toure/Gallas).
I also wasn’t thinking of him as dispalcing aforesaid short CB’s – more as back up as I don’t think Djorou is quite good enough and enough people have noted Senderos’s mistakes, although personally I think Swiss Tony has all the qualtities to excel even though his chances are running out.
Not really Rico, it would mean we’re stuck with a player who doesn’t want to play for Arsenal anymore.
I’m saying those players have the skills and providing we hang on to them they will develop into a CLASS unit such as the undefeated; we only lost 3 games last year.
Willo – Well said. You’re versing points I’ve made over the last weeks. They’ve never had it so good and they don’t recognise it in front of their eyes – Eboue & possibly Senderos & Cygan apart. AND we DO need our defence sorted!
Chris, I hadn’t read that..
If true:
Isn’t that similar to Abramavich signing players behind Maureens back?
ARTICLE OF THE FUCKING YEAR !
WELL DONE !
Any plonker who has a problem with me … READ IT understand it !!!
because i couldnt say it any better myself ….
if it was written by the author im sure its REALITY not fantasy !
if he see’s it as well as i do ! YOUR THE FUCKING PROBLEM NOT ME !!!
FUCK YA !….
Didee – Well said & that was a fine snippet Chris AW responsible for DB10!
Just been on the arsenal site to buy tickets for amsterdam
It takes ages then tells me I’ve been on the site too long it’s been cancelled
go back on
this time it’s quicker
tells me you can’t buy tickets because you’ve bought too many
Ethangunner – i’m totally with you on that one mate !!
That really wasn’t aimed at anyone specific , but i know there are watchers out there !
I will also add it human nature to change jobs nowadays , adding more fuel to why these young players will alway be destined to leave … they fall into 2 baskets
1 . they are so good they cannot and will not say there whole career at arsenal and want to taste spain – italy etc ..
or
2. they are so crap they end up moving to lesser teams in the EPL ..
the system is fatally flawed and ive said it since the beginning !
PS: yes everyone hates ade now .. my job is done .. get over it !!
Patrick, I’d rather have lost more games & won more than losing only a few by playing for draws rather than going for victories. The team doesn’t look anything like developing into a class unit like the so called invincibles!!
I think its so pathetic that anyone questioning the club is classed a fairweather fan!! The trouble is too many people accept mediocrity, then go along with their 9-5 job because its been drummed into them, they never aim any higher because they lack ambition & translates to the rest of their lives. Maybe if those people got some ambition then they’d understand what others of us want to see!!
cheers mark !
did you like it ?!
SKY SPORTS says alonso linked with Arsenal.
according to his agent its upto liverpool now to sell him.
what do you guys think about this rumor?
i beleive alonso would be a better signing then barry, if we are really after either of these playas.
GMR I agree but I think it is developing into a class unit just not the same class as the invincibles. But definitely not mediocrity. That’s what the spuds do!!
Charybdis – His pace would get found out but that would also put him on the bench most of the time. Nordveldt has apparently come on bundles and may be a better option in the less forceful games but like you I’d rather buy a real quality CB and give WG and Toure some real competition. They’re not getting younger and they didn’t perform for me in the second half of the season maybe cos the cover in front of them wasn’t good enough!
Thanks Ethan, we’ve had a few borderline AKB’s on here today, but I’m keeping my eye on them!
I would have either of them niraj they both have a wicked shot and can tackle well.
i did mate !! i don’t comment much but read everyday, it makes my blood boil when people can say i’m not a true fan, because i don’t agree whole heartedly with how the clubs run , and the policies that we’ve adopted.
Personally if the kids are as good as Arsene makes out, bang them all in the squad, finish 15th in the league, learn our lesson, get rid of them all, and start buying players of true quality , that are proven on the world stage
Geoff, can i make a suggestion that from now on all comments with 1st etc are wiped & that whoever posts first has to actually make a comment about the days article. You & Pedro have the decency to put the work in & at first it was a laugh but its got boring now with comment after comment saying 1st, 2nd & 3rd etc!!
how old is alonzo?
Alonso yes, him and fabregas would be the best midfield pairing in the prem!
If we did get Alonso that would free up liverpools money to buy Barry and A Villa get Hoyte.. Three way deal..
GMR
good call. you described half the population ..
‘the scraping by’ attitude ..
they look at the club they way they do there mortgage ..
one day ill own my own home .. ill be patient until that day ..
Owning your own home and running a business is 2 totally different kettles of fish !
In business you take risks you try to be the best, tooundercut the opposition to be number one !
and by being the market leader you then become successful, a global brand..
fan bases rise , shirt sales rise .. it all snowballs ..
being safe in the business world is like paying off your mortgage slowly ..
you always have income you live safely , but you never reach any accolades !
And if PHW or these other fools continue to run AFC they need to start thinking out of the box , or we will never beat the manU’s and chevskis of this world !
chevski are rumored to get robinho for 40 mil !
can you see arsenal taking that risk ???
NEVER !
Patrick7, most CB’s don’t have bags of pace and it’s their job t oread the oppo’s attacks through the middle and cut out the aeriel threat, both things I believe Berto could have done in a back up capacity if he was found seriously wanting as a DM; when he got a run of games towards the tail end of the season he looked better- in any case he’s gone I just feel we could have made better use of his experience as we’re loosing experience and a winning mentality hand over fist.
As an aside I don’t want to belittle Wenger’s achievements but I do feel this coming season will define him – he’ll either fail by repeating his mistakes of last year or he’ll bring us on another notch.
Sorry for this, but in no particular order is my Top Ten Gooner Numpty’s, that should bring a shiver to all Gooner spines, and for all the wrong reasons;
Eboue
Cygan
Stepanovs
Senderos
Helder
Diawara
Chapman
Ceasar
Hillier
Adebyor – coz he’s just a cunt
GMR I’ll pass that on to Pedro, he does all the hard stuff, I’m just a journo! Ethan, what’s a mortgage?
we won’t think about bringing anybody else in till Hleb’s gone later this week, I think we might get some news on friday like last week, then we got nasri, this week we get rid of hleb. then its alonso/barry in, then TTer out and Santa Cruz + Arshavin in. Still need a centreback tho….
You want to get rid of Hleb and Ade but are sick of Arsenal letting go of players over the age of 24? I’m afraid you can’t have it both ways.
Of the players you list that we lost, Pires, Campbell, Henry, Vieira, Campbell, Ralph and now Gilberto, how many do you think we should of hold onto? Campbell had lost his mind, while Henry, Vieira, Ralph and Gilberto were alll past their peak. Only Super Rob I would have kept, and he missed almost his entire first season at Villareal anyway.
Of the ones over the age of 24 you list, we sold Anelka but replaced him with a new training ground and a certain Mr Henry, we sold Overmars for silly money and he went on to flop at Barcelona, Reyes and Hleb couldn’t hack it, while Flamini and Ade just wanted more money. All had to go.
As for the young players that left us,we got £4 mill for Muamba (plus an extra £300,000 from his sale to Bolton), £2 mill for Stokes, an initial £2 mill for Aliadiere, £1 mill for Larsson, Sidwell for an undisclosed fee believed to be an initial £75,000. Thats £9.375 mill in total. Obviously you take a risk with youth players, but I don’t think thats a bad figure to recoup for the players that failed to make it.
GMR,
the “first thing” on some sites is banned , but as this is a fun site and there is twenty people buzzing from it first thing when they come to work, i say leave it even though i dont participate,
GMR – Absolutely. I said that on here a few days ago: Manure won the EPL cos they gambled for wins. We didn’t do that in the latter part maybe again cos we were nacked from too short a squad due to the injury situation.
I definitely don’t fall into your 2nd para. I share many of your opinions but have always looked at a ‘target’ and put things in place to move towards that or do my darnedest to get there: in my case a World Championship. I just failed but got a bronze and a Euro with many other medals and international weekend wins and also got close in another sport.
I try always though to keep spirits up and look for the positives and constructive criticism rather than knocking for the sake of it. I appreciate very much your contribution and obvious expertise in AFC on this site.
What about Zapata for centerback?
Dennis what about that Argie forward we had yonks ago under Wenger, went to Scotland afterwards shit! and Mendes and Wrey!
So why are we skint arsenist?
Can I add that I don’t understand why you put the quote from Little Dutch as your AKB comment of the week. It doesn’t seem to reference Wenger in any way. It’s actually just a criticism of your site, which if it is true, is I think an incredibly valid one. Is any one who makes a legitimate criticism of le-grove an AKB now? Or do you just want to try and embarrass people who don’t agree with you?
Yes i agree GMR
the 1st 2nd thing makes pedro- geoffs site look like a bunch of school kids are the regulars !
ive got to say i think if for some reason you can ban me , (FOR NOTHING! )
you should put a stop to that .. i love a joke but now its just lame !
We want to get rid of Ade and Hleb because they’re disloyal cunts, is there a problem with that? or do we have to like disloyal ungrateful wantaway cunts?
If we sign 26 27 year olds on a 4 or 5 year deals, we have more chance of winning things because they are proven players and they should be more loyal because they have tried other clubs and they might get to like winning trophies..
But a mixture of youth learning from those players is good too..
Arsenist – Ade and Hleb have sounded out that they want to leave the club, therefor if a player doesn’t want to be there – Cash in. If they hadn’t stated their desire to leave then they’d be staying.
I think we should of held onto all the players listed, how many trophies have we won since they started to leave ???????
Arsenist, yes.
Sorry guys he”s a Trojan horse AKB and he’s now gone.
Geoff – i like the look of Chiellini as CB – he was quality against Spain in Euro 2008, cloased both Torres and Villa out .
Charybdis – Amen to all of that!
Who does he play for Mark?
Arsenal regret the Pires situation as stated in his tribute, the Sol Campbell situation was also brought about by rumours that Sol wanted to seek a challenge abroad, but it all boils down to this….certain players once they’ve reached an age where they’re expected to provide the club with approximately two years of peak service are replaced by players that are good but don’t compare. Where do you draw the line? Loyalty works both ways, if a player has proved their ability on a consistent basis and is still capable of playing, what sort of reqard is it to be told that your playing opportunities will be limited for someone elses benefit? How is the club to instill a mentality of unquestionable loyalty to senior players when it is not reciprocated, chances are not always given to those who deserve them most. Is keeping a player in a constant state of anxiety regarding their place in the team once they’ve unquestionably proven that they’re fit and ready to do the job they’re contracted to do appropriate?
I don’t slag the club off in any way shape or form, I feel i need to make this statement because allegations of people doing so coud be attributed to anyone who posts here, i respect Wenger’s philosophy and as I’ve stated many a time, we need to trust a man to do his job, we need to give credit where it’s due and we need to acknowledge that each of us would make decisions slightly differently (perhaps completely) however feedback is necessary and this particular issue is a sticking point with many fans, that a player is sometimes pushed aside not because he’s not good enough, but because they’re nearing retirement age.
In hindsight Arsene has stated that we need one or two experienced players to add to the team, therefore I look forward to them joining Arsenal in this transfer window and that players such as Pires who have earnt their stripes will not be discarded again. Pires frequently reminisces the good times he had at Arsenal, lets try to find a better solution should such a situation occur again, Pires had to pay the price and ultimately so did the club because it’s 6th best ever player was lost and it could have been avoided.
Roll on the 08/09 season, as I’ve stated before we’re capable of winning trophies this season, lets take the next step and do a little better than last season and go back and win.
Gunner 4 life.
He’s Italian, plays for Juve – he’s only 23 , Very good prospect
A bit of a rant this one!!! Although i agree with the majority of the post, some of us remember the houston/rioch era and the george graham bung scandal et al.. Thing’s weren’t too rosey then… Fact is we’ve been spoilt by Wenger a bit and now the going get’s tough and the expectations are sky high, some Arsenal FANS (lol) have started to have a go..
Wenger will get a centre midfielder in now after Gilberto leaves.. Nothing but admiration for Bert as he’s been a excellent professional and great servent to the club..
We do have a lot of youngsters in the squad, but it is something Wenger has always done.. Remember Wreh, Boa Morte, Diawara, Hughes etc when Vieira, Henry & Pires we’re at the club.. Some just DO NOT make it… Simple… But they do go on to play for decent teams after getting an Arsenal education.. I’d rather only the best got to play for my club…
It’s only this season where Wenger seems to be going for less experience in terms of age BUT the fact is the so called youngsters Walcott, Cesc, Clichy, Diaby, Eboue, Senderos etc already have years playing at the club at the highest level (the champions league) So tell me then, what is the point of buying a 28 year old with no experience at the highest level (who regardless of whether or not having played in England) will need time to adapt?
I’ll stick with Wenger and support WHOEVER is wearing an Arsenal shirt representing the club on the pitch. Yes that includes Senderos and Eboue.. What is the point of slagging them off all the time? It doesn’t help matters… There are teams alot worse off and sing when their players aren’t having a good day and are getting thrahed 4-0 every week… Too many arsenal fans these days are corperate middle class i-want -it-now muppets!!! And No i am not aiming it at Geoff… It’s just the sense of doom eminating from various boards and forums… They aren’t my kind of Arsenal fans, just plastic whingers… Those who voted Anelka and Ashley Cole in arsenal’s top 50 poll are another example…. Kids with no idea whatsoever….
This is the best arsenal forum on the web, just calm down a bit things will be alright… Although, the prices we pay is starting to get ridiculous… At least spend some of the ticket money on decent signings boss!!!
On a lighter note… Hleb is in Barca for a medical.. Good riddance!!!
Adebayor will go to barca with the Ronaldinho cash (Please God!).. I don’t want mercenaries anywhere near us… They’ll be No swap deals and it’ll be about 18-24m just so we can wash our hands of it.. Anyone expecting 30m is delusional.. I know berbatov (coff *shite*) is being mooted at 30m, but if Man U want to let the spuds fleese them, fine….
I still think Huntelaar and Veluso will be the ones.. Then it’ll be spending over… Many cry out for a centre back, but that’ll be in January if at anytime….
Keep up the good work guys!
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/44180/Villa-tell-Barry-Get-fit-so-we-can-flog-you/
MarkB – unfortunately they’d probably be additions to our sick list upping our wage bill still further. We just missed out last season and nearly had the CL the year before. This season’s the one (we ALL hope)!
I can understand wanting to get rid of Ade and Hleb, they’ve pissed me off too, but Ade wants to leave because, at 24 and as one of the best strikers in the Premiership, he feels £45,000 is not an acceptable wage. And it is way below his wage value on the market. Older players demand bigger contracts than unproven teenagers, if you don’t want to pay them by their market value, you have to stick to unproven youngsters. It’s a sad state of affairs but thats the reality of football today. Hleb’s a different case, it seems he’s in a similar situation to Reyes, who had to leave too.
MarkB – Henry, Vieira and Campbell all wanted to leave, so Arsene let them go. Bobby wanted a long-term contract which Arsenal wouldn’t give him, so he had to go. Sol is the only one we haven’t managed to replace, due to Arsene’s endless faith in Big Phil. I think he and Bobbi are the only ones we’ve really missed. Lauren and Gilberto were past it so I think we got rid of them at just the right time.
There is a bit more to the Sol going abroad, then signing for Portmouth and the walking out at half time than we are supposed to know..
Every club has a youth system.
Every club spends money on youth.
Every club wants a player to come through like Micah Richard, who cost next to nothing, broke into the first team, and is now worth a mint.
We had this years back when Adams, Rocky, Thomas, Davis, Merson all came through at the same time.
The youth players dont get paid fortunes. Only once they start playing in the first team will they get proper money. We easily brake even in the youth set up. Brady has stated that many times, and this season we are getting financial bonuses from players moving on, who started at AFC youth.
For every 20 youth players, getting 1 through into the first team is a result, and i believe it makes financial sense.
Any player under 16 cant be bought (FIFA rules) so any player you read that we have signed under 16 we have not directly paid for.
There is no point talking about the young players until they play in the first team. It is good to know we have players that COULD make it, but if you want to watch the first team only worry about players playing in the first team.
Players like Fabregas and Clichy were signed at 16, played for the youth and reserves and then made it into the first team.
Wenger needs to go out and buy players for the current team. We have lost Lehman, Flamini, Diarra and it looks as if three other players may go.
If the three other players go, we need to sign at least 3 players, maybe 4 or 5. Players who can start a Prem game in Aug 08, not in a couple of years time, as the players who left were in the team.
I have just read we are in for Alonso at 14 mill. Why I ask, if Barry is 18 mill pay the extra and get the player our rival wants, not the one they dont want.
Patrick7,
My 2nd paragraph that you referred to wasn’t aimed at you at all, which I hope you realised. Just like you I come from a sporting/professional background & I was extremely driven to succeed, thats also followed me in my new line of work.
You have your opinions & I always read your point of view even if we don’t agree a lot of the time, my issue is with people that come on here calling people fairweather fans for daring to have an opposite opinion. As far as I can remember you have never done that. I would never make a remark about you or any other regular on here (unless I felt under attack) just offering an opinion, we are all entitled to our views.
GMR, so..are you going to share your achievments in the sporting world?
since your revelation last week i am dying to know!
Patrick – i agree and disagree at the same time, yeah they we’re getting injury prone, thats not in doubt, but i think if we’d of had the like of Viera(Champions with Inter) Campbell(FA Cup champ) Pires(Villareal – highest ever finish for them)we’d of turned those nearlys into success. I’m with you though – this season hopefully !!
Now, now let’s not fight…. If you’re going to act like children it’ll be the naughty step for the pair o yous
GMR – I just thought i’d defend my position as one who appears to some as an AKB but has genuine concerns like many on here about his judgement in certain areas. As Willi said earlier though I know the FOOTBALL I’ve seen under AW is the best we’ve ever seen and long may it continue…………..now, we want the trophies again to go with it, something he obviously wants also.
ReVELAtion – i’m liking the name – lets hope he will be ! i cant wait to see Vela in action after all the hype and snippits i’ve seen of him
pat7 ?
nearly had the C.L the year before ?
i dont think so ! ajax knocked us out .. ??
(we were out early last season!)
we didnt even get into the final 8 !
and we didnt narrowly miss out ! we coughed up the lead in January and in all honesty never looked like getting it back again ! 9 games without a win ! FUCK ! Other teams got stronger in the 1/2 half of the season .. thats what experience does for a team ! they dig deep !
we lost our head of steam , it happened the season before this ! and before that …
the youngsters didnt dig deep enough in either years !
and with the exodus of players leaving AGAIN !- flamini-jen-hleb-diarra-bert .. and ade !
its just foolish to still be CONFIDENT ! ! the scenario looks all too familiar !
argue if you will, its your right , im only saying step back and look at the carnage !!!
.. Im not going to say vela,ramsay – nasri will fail .. what im saying is the boss isnt buying players with the necessary experience to make up for the ones that left !!!
(its not what was promised!!!)
he would rather come out with statements like ive got the money but i really dont want to stunt the young players coming thru !
its a self admission that he is going to start youngsters again and not take the year seriously ..
As for ReVELAtion , wenger has about 2 years left on his contract , when he goes i s’pose you’ll be off too ?
SUPPORT AFC not WENGER FC!
Is anyone a bit excited about the prospect of signing Xabi Alonso?! they reckon that it all depends on what Gareth Barry does as to whether we get Alonso….Alonso’s agent has said we have been in touch!!
Fuck Ade
Ethangunner – LOL – No prisoners mate – you state that point !!
D Whiff, the price will be like 16 million if that was what juve were offered, going on the red tops, that seems to high for AW
mark , you either get in the game or sit on the bench !
The thing is being an Arsenal fan is like being a bridesmaid, we somehow knew we weren’t going to win the Champions league, we knew we wouldn’t beat Liverpool last year, we knew we were going to get hammered in the FA Cup and we knew we wouldn’t win the league.
But if you were a Manc or a chav you always feel you’re going to win, regardless of if they do.
It’s alway knowing our team is not quite good enough, but with one or two signings it could be.
If that’s moaning, fine I’m a moaner.
I wish people would stop telling me they remember the old days, so do I, but we didn’t have the biggest ground with the best manager and a shed load of money in those days did we???
We should and could do better.
Dr Whiff the last time you came on I asked you if you smelled some, you never came back, well do you?
[:)]
Fuck – that was meant to be a smiley face, what went wrong ?? How do you them Ethan??
MARK
I never have a go directly at a person (well not unless they fire 1st)
if im brassy , well im just fed up to the fuckin eye balls with excuses !
one year we weren’t in a transitional period
the next year our youth are still a little raw ..
the year after, too many injuries !
now too many good players wanting too leave!
but isnt this a direct result of not winning anything ???!
(and culling off our experienced players year after year )
then you get people on here who re-manufacture the same reasons
into the blog-o-sphere , ALL i hear are fucking excuses
then they have a go at me !!
{ SPACE
SPACE}
Question to the floor – What would you prefer to win next season – EPL(Be the best of a very tough domestic league) or CL( And be truely recognised as a major power of Europe)
YES WIN SOMETHING !
so i can stop complaining
Have we won the league yet? no? oh bollocks.
What about now? no? oh bollocks
I’m going to support a team that can then…
OK one last chance then…
Did we win a cup at least?
Ethan before you get upset, it was a retort to an earlier poster!
Ethan last year was a good example.
We were doing great. Probably too great if that is possible.
Flamini had been great all season, but lost focus at the end.
Hleb had an ice cream in Milan and his form dipped
Adebayor was on fire around Winter and his form and goals dried up when there was talk of him leaving, or earning more money.
They are experienced players. Their form dropped.
It has nothing to do with youth, we bought players who were not 100% committed to the club. They might be great players but they only care for themselves.
What we need is great players, young or old, who will care about the club and team. Players in for the long haul.
Perhaps that means having players from the youth team, who have been with the club over 10 years before they make their first team appearance. Perhaps these players IF good enough will stay at Arsenal, and back to the point of the article today, stay past the age of 30.
EPL for me .. Europe is just a lottery ..
2 games over 2 legs any time with class can get lucky and string 2 together
even if they are playing crap .. but win the EPL means we played good football for a sustained period !
a test that so far with the youth we have failed !!
geoff thats a moan.i totaly was expecting us to win the champs legue after thrashing Ac milan.I felt it would have been like in 2005
Mark Flamini and Ade were kids when they joined!
ethan there’s no need for petty remarks like that is there? No I won’t be off when Wenger is off if you read the previous post it states the era before and i’ll be around to see a few in after that.. Your negative comments are also frustrating…
YES, we do deserve better and we’re promised better.. BUT what is better? I guess being a football manager you’d know this…. In terms of experience we lack it in age terms yes.. Alot of the squad are under 25.. They might get bullied by so called “men”, but they can play football alot better… A case of go again 1 better.. It isn’t all doom and gloom like you’ve quite clearly stated it is… There is more then enough time to get the right personel in…
Geoff at least you make valid points without breaking into a senseless rant… I agree we could and should do better, but only 1 team can win a trophy… We were very unlucky last season and yes, like the rest i’m tiring of defending our football artistry in accordance with our empty trophy cabinet… It’ll come in the next couple of years in my opinion.. I just can’t guarentee it, but i’ll remain hopefull as always…
MarkB i’ve seen alot of the kid.. He’s still very raw and was used on the wings when at ossusuna.. Had a blinder against madrid, but you could see he need’s work especially in his decision making, but he has definantly got talent.. When i’ve seen him up top for mexico, he’s looked a bit special.. That’s why Wenger see’s him as an Eduardo type, contrary to statement’s he’ll be bled on the wings… Striker for me, but it’ll take a year to find his feet, so he’ll flitter in between reserves and 1st team next season….
Right we need a time out, the pressure-o-meter is on max today, heres something to take your mind of transfers for a few mins.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VAXG4hb_E44
Personally – i want the European glory – i don’t want the Chavs to get there first , which they are very close to doing in my opinion. If we won that we’d attract the elite of players from around the world, thats why Real, Bayern, Milan etc get so many players wanting to go there.
CL for me, just tu get it in the record books.
Hleb, Ade, Flamini and Cesc were all knackered that’s why there form dipped, the bench was weak..
Revelation you had a go at middleclass people wanting everything instantly, I’d say that was a rant and a petty remark wouldn’t you?
Or do you think working class people are more patient.
We have no class barriers on this site, nor colour or religious ones.
We do hate spuds, chavs, Mancs and scousers though but that’s allowed.
mark c
They are experienced players. Their form dropped.
It has nothing to do with youth, we bought players who were not 100% committed to the club. They might be great players but they only care for themselves.
it sort of does ..because if there form drops’ they need a rest ‘or to be benched and rested ..
and people like anelka – scholes -giggs -nani come in and give you a 2nd wind ..
not hoyte-gibbs -song-eboue-senderos-bendnter (sorry niky youll come good this season thou if TT goes !! )
if we still had PV4 TH14 -even freddie or bobby ,sol .. anyone it would have been a lot better than sink like the titanic !…
we dont have a team that goes past our 1st 11 mark !!
thats the problem ..
A Choice of the league or champions league?
Premiership title all day long! A CL trophy would be nice just to shut the 5 x scousers up and the mancs, but it wouldn’t end there… It’ll be your 1 to our blah blah blah
Revelation- Yeah i saw the Madrid game, and thats what got me all excited, id prefer to see how well he does for us in front of goal rather than on a wing though. I saw him play for Mexico aswell, and he looked the dogs !!
I’ve got a good feeling about him.
i want the double.Av been patient for too long!
The other problem with Arsenal is the lack of directness(?)
We score more goals in the last 10 mins than any other team, because we are always chasing the game.
If like the old days (4 years ago) we would be 2-0 up in the first 20 mins then the players could back off because the game was already won..
what the hell was that finest!!!!!
Geoff, there’s a misunderstanding in my earlier post.. The middle class comment was directed at the prices for season tickets vying away from availability to passionate fans/people from lower sources of income, who can’t go to the games… In certain cases from WHAT I’VE SEEN they’ve been replaced by businessmen who sit crossed armed waiting for something to happen slagging off eboue to the other miserable looking fellow next to them… Just a case in point… I work and go to some games on red membership so I can’t say this is the case all the time, but it has been the times i’ve been.. The pubs around the ground always have good atmospheres on match day…
Apologies if the lack of depth on the original point seemed like a bitter class rant
Can someone please explain what is an AKB??
Interesting comments in general, but I couldnt get the thought of Villa coming to the Arsenal after what BUD was saying yesterday. hope hope hope
quadruple for me…
carling cup for the kids
fa cup for the mix team
cl and premiership for the first team..
Ethan, so my point is last season we lost it, because key experienced players had a drop in form.
Wenger could and show have dropped them. He didn’t. It has nothing to do with the youth that we did not win the EPL last season.
Geoff we did sign Flamini as an in experienced player, the same could be said of PV4 or Fabregas. The fact is, he was experienced this season, and for 2/3rds of the season he was great.
Adebayor came to us with more experience. I would not deem him to be a youth player. He was captain of Togo when he joined, and had played in the UEFA cup.
He took time to break into the first team at Arsenal, but he did well last season until his head was turned.
I would like us to win the EPL this season, and sign some great players but coming back to youth players being in the first team is a poor argument for our lack of silverware over the last few seasons.
For those who want Freddie and PV4 back, how many games did they play last season for their clubs? How many would they have played for us? Very few, but they would have been taking home their 75k a week anyway.
the board say that money is not easily available… then they raise the ticket prices…
how the hell is the availability of money easier for the fans then??!!!
MH it’s Arsene knows brigade
fair point choy,
A bit of Bailando, some cheesy house with some bird with Pink hair., something light….erm I’ll put something else on for those in an introspective mood.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=x8u7MNG-ug8
Apologies not needed Revelation!
Fucking hell finest, they weren’t funny.
choy, my point exactly.. But i’ve exuded enough negative energy already… I don’t want to go on about the whole prices of tickets in accordance with loan repayments in accordance with trasfer budgets and wages structures… Loooong!!!
Oh, i think i need to do some tai-chi or just ly down lol
ReVELAtion
my rants are senseless ? yes ok what ever , i would class senseless as stating we HAVE TIME !
and if by meaning as time goes by our players are getting better then your defeating your own argument, because that means players who are older are experienced and play better , then why doesn’t your beloved wenger buy those sorts of players NOW !
Then its NOT a case of go in again one better !
its a case of competing with the jone’s !
In terms of experience we lack it in age terms yes.. Alot of the squad are under 25.. They might get bullied by so called “men”, but they can play football alot better… A case of go again 1 better.
Also no need to make personal attacks i just stated if you loved wenger so much you would be off then ? meaning think about what your saying ..
you call my rants senseless ! I never personally attacked you !
I basically said so dont bother TALKING UP wenger .. he currently isnt doing a good job ..
support and blind faith is totally different !
Afternoon!
Any updates… I’ve been gone 3 hours… surely a transfer or something?
I thought akb meant some form of wind up merchant… Arsene Knows Brigade is absolutely hilarious lol
Choy that’s my point, they’re greedy bastards, that was what I was saying on my kit blog a month ago, we’re expected to wait forever for silverware because Wenger says there’s no money, but you the fucking mug punter can pay more for it.
More than any other supporter in world football, take what you’re given, sit down and shut the fuck up. Arsene knows.
david
this season you can thank ade’s skill for that !
chasing a game ..
Hey Pedro..
Hleb is in Barca having a medical and that’s about it…..
Barry’s returned to training at Villa…..
Ronaldinho is signing for Milan(apparently) tomorrow on a 3 yr deal… Hopefully the cash from that transfer will see Barca hand over the 24m for Adebayor….
erm……
Maybe this one’s a little funnier Geoff:
http://blog.jimmyr.com/Meet_Mouth_Open_Girl_13_2008.php
Or maybe this:
http://www.offbeatearth.com/10-examples-of-how-to-ruin-a-picture/
mark C
Ethan, so my point is last season we lost it, because key experienced players had a drop in form.
Wenger could and show have dropped them. He didn’t. It has nothing to do with the youth that we did not win the EPL last season.
But you know everyone has a drop in form (other than ronaldo )
and needs a rest …
look at rooney – lumpard -terry-stevie G mid way thru .. toure.. etc
the problem then becomes do you have a big enough bench to get you through the final stages of the season ???
MAN U = YES
Chev’s = YES
Arsenal = does song count ???
we lack experience ..
our bench is full of young guys ..
o.k ethan fair enough…. I’m not one of these AKB’s (love that) with the Blinkers on… I understand your frustrations and agree with them… I didn’t mean for the comment “to be an attack”, just saying it could be a whole lot worse…. We all want the best for our club and have an opinion on it… I hold my hands up…
Finest that’s better! I particularly liked the black vibrator and the turd! very funny.
finest!!!!
that was some crazy stuff
Ethan.. I don’t totally agree with you on Ade, but I don’t like the style of play that we adopt when he is the lone striker. Too many straight long passes down the middle that he cannot control and he gets into offside positions because of his lack of awareness.
I watched that Falcao video yesterday you guys posted…. He looks like a young Marcelo Salas and at 8m looks a steal, but is too similar to Ed & Vela….. Youtube can make anyone look good
Geoff ive heard youre into black vibrators -Didnt you buy one for Mrs geoffs for Xmas and it knocked all her teeth out !
I think todays article is the best one ive read on here..
who was responsible ?
was it that cunt that banned me ??
ReVELAtion
i think we both agree arsene needs a top up in quality this season ..
my problem with that is he releases ridiculous statements like ..
ive got the money but i dont want too upset the youngsters ?
my answer to that is DO YOU WANT TO WIN ???
( so far the track record speaks volumes !)
it doesnt instill much belief that we will as fans get what we want this season either …
we pay the price for it however !.. we pay more to see a game than MAN U FANS DO !
i dont know about you , but theres a saying of ‘Not getting what you paid for’..
if it was in the dictionary, it would say refer to ‘ arsenal fan ‘
Mike – LOL hahahahahahaha………..quality !!
oh dear the dildo in the background hahaha!! The girl taking a pic of herself after laying some pipe is also worthy of a mention!
Cheers!
Here’s a tune about Pedro
http://youtube.com/watch?v=HTbGGzjuX_A
And something on a happy tip:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=31B6RJWqhqY
I blame Wenger. He did not/ does not trust the young ones
Yes key players had a dip and we have injuries but that cost us. Sticking with Adebayor, Hleb and Flamini.
When we drew 5 on the trot, why didnt Djourou replace Flamini, one of the youngsters replace Hleb???
Ethan, if Man U had Rooney and Tevez out Saha out as well. Ronaldo had a dip in form, who would SAF play up front? kids ???
Dont forget when Adebayor, Hleb and Flamini were thinking how to leave Arsenal, Eduardo, Rosicky, RVP were all out injured.
Out of our first XI, we had three forward players out injured and a further 3 had a drop in form all at the same time.
Could anyone cope with that?
david
all i can say is bring back the finesse of TH14 or someone like him !
THATS ALL IVE EVER ASKED and a team like this deserves a Villa – Eto’o-torres
ive had enough of this debate , the TT has dug his own grave ..
its my time too kakkle around a huge boiling pot naked, sticking pins into my ade miniature doll
I don’t think Thierry would be able to take the straight passes down the middle, he always drifted to the left so he could see across the line..
But he normally had a Mr Bergkamp in the middle and not a non scoring midfielder playing behind him..
mark c
i dont think hleb or ade wanted to leave then ..
but regardless rednose had anderson – nani who scored a ripper against us .
ronaldo .. scholes giggs .. man .. you cant be debating squad depths between
arsenal / chevs- man’u
the proofs in the pudding they climbed over us to take 1st and 2nd spot ..
wenger had to over play hleb – ade etc ..
we had no back ups ..
but your right it is wengers fault for not buying in the december window !
most of us said he should !!!
Ethan agreed… Huntelaar and Veluso would be my ideal additions… People talk about the void left by Flamini.. I think we need a reinforcement, but i wouldn’t feel too hard done by if Diaby was given a go.. There’s a Denilson Band wagon, but I can’t see it and the fact Diaby played in champs league semi and scored suggests he’s being groomed at a faster rate..
Huntelaar is a player that just scores goals… CLINICAL! We will have to obviously revise our approach play to bring him into the game, but he reminds me of a young Van Basten… bergkamp is his coach at Ajax also… drooool..
What do you mean smelled some Geoff?
Mike, I hope Geoff’s kids aren’t reading that… they’d be positively repulsed!
Geoff was this part of your training video on how to handle sports media sessions ?
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgq3uUWXjF4&feature=related
Wasn’t it Wenger that told the Arsenal board that Dennis was available? And basically encouraged the purchase as he already knew he was going to take over that summer?
Or is that an old wives tail?
Pedro Geoffs kids would have to have thicker skins than that !!!!!
so i read queen,
True Mike!
*tale*
Xabi Alonso’s agent has claimed the Liverpool midfielder is aware of interest from Arsenal.
The Spaniard has seen a possible move to Juventus hit the buffers after the Italian giants signed Christian Poulsen from Sevilla.
However, reports continue to suggest that Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez is prepared to sell Alonso to fund his own spending plans.
Alonso is rated in the £14million bracket and has now been linked with a move to the Reds’ Premier League rivals Arsenal.
Up to Liverpool
Gunners manager Arsene Wenger is in the market for a midfielder after losing Mathieu Flamini, while Gilberto Silva is set to join Panathinaikos.
Reports in Spain suggest contact has been made between the two clubs and the 26-year-old’s agent Inaki Ibanez says the player is waiting for Liverpool’s decision.
“The player knows about this subject and now the decision lies with Liverpool,” Ibanez told Spanish newspaper Publico.
Alonso’s sale would give Benitez the funds to sign Aston Villa captain Gareth Barry, who has also been linked with a move to Arsenal.
WHo has been saying this for ages?
I don’t think that story relating to Bergkamp is true… Rioch brought him and was the only thing he did (of note, apart from p*ssing of Wright) for us….
IF Alonso we’re to move to Arsenal we’d have to play a 4-5-1 on a more regular basis to accomodate him… Not having it…. He’s a deep lying playmaker, like Barry, like Carrick… Don’t need him/them…. The tenacity of a Veluso, Cana, Gattuso who can also play a bit are needed as we have enough adequete ball playing midfielders at the club already…
Excellent post Geoff. I couldn’t agree with you more! Got to get rid of the expensive, underachieving, physically lacking, talentless, short, ill-tempered, immature players.
PEACE
Mike he’s one of my star pupils!
I wondered whether you had some kind of personal problem, that’s all Dr Whiff, don’t know what made me think you do, just had to ask.
Geoff – Please, no more i beg you, i thought the mongs i listed were enough and now you want more!!!
Thanks Timmy, who would you have Barry, Alonso or Velosa?
barry!
Ethan Which club would hold on to pv or th an the wages that they are on to be impact subs. Italian and spanish clubs buy them because their leagues are slower.
Has anyone seen that we’ve signed Facundo Sava? The old Fulham player? Ha ha…don’t believe me? Go on Skysports.com and have a look at our squad list…..funny shit.
Who’s been having a giggle this afternoon then?
Veluso @ Geoff…. Alonso’s a player surplus to requirements it seems and Barry is 28 and has no experience at the highest club level, plus for a midfielder he only has 2 years left at his peak……
Barry? I thought he was 27 and Alonso was 26, Velosa would be £20 mil though wouldn’t he?
he is playing for Arsenal de Sarandí TH14 now
TH14′s arrogance i’ve just seen that aswell.. Free transfer from Racing??? erm……………… U WHAT!!!! lol
Barry is 27 rev.
Veluso would be about 16-18 with add ons.. Milan’s spending is over and the only competition we’d get is from Athletico or Chelsea, possibly inter… Might be worth a punt if you ask me as Wenger usually likes to use media speculation to draw attention away from his targets…
here is the sky link
http://www.skysports.com/football/player/0,19754,11670_211332,00.html
well spotted TH14!
27? o.k fair enough… Still, there’s better suited players for our play out there.. I won’t be too dissapointed if it did materialize
Just had a age thought Barry wasn’t born when we were standing at the clock…
Now he’s too old!
He’s not too old at all.. Just think at a quoted 16-18m there’s other options available, better suited to our football… Like i said, I wouldn’t be dissapointed if we did sign him…
Chris that has to be a spoof, I’ve never heard of him and he’s 34!
must be the other arsenal club.. in south america or something!!!
Rev you said he only has two years left at his peak = too old.
In 2008 he joined Arsenal de Sarandí.
i would go for alonso, have seen his partnership with febregas in few of the spains matches.
he is better then barry and veloso in the sense that he is playing at BIG (let me just say it to support my view) club, he wont need a time to settle in league, at 26 he would be perfect when we are looking to add the EXP in our team. has won champions league with the fools
and moreover he is not wanted by fools.
Benitez wants Barry because of his positional flexibility; he can cover various positions whereas Alonso only has the one spot. We don’t want to help Poos so grab Barry, see them Hoyte and that keeps us all happy. We also get an English player and captain material that we desperately need!
Alonso is utter shite as a player. Decent passing range but then which footballer hasn’t got a passing range sitting in deep-lying role under relatively little pressure ? Has nothing else to his game, no pace, intensity or off the ball running.
He’s a slightly better version of Denilson. No thanks.
Interesting stats from SSN about Hleb.
we won more games when he was not playing and scored more goals.
He had an assist rate of 1 in 7 games, and we all know how crap his goal scoring was.
He played pretty football, but nothing that added anything in terms of goals.
Most agree football is a result based industry, his results were poor so I am happy for him to go.
the guy is 34 years old.how could we have missed this?
That is interesting Mark…
I am shocked by that.
juve lookin at rvp, its about time!
more bullshit to follow
paulinho…
alonso is utter shite and a better version of denilson.. what does that make denilson?
a complete shite?
your resaoning does not suggest what you claim….
Kenyan.. Choy got that one spot on. 1.33
hahah!!!
Pedro, having watched a lot of matches I would have said it was higher.
The stats are for the Prem only, so perhaps he set up a lot of goals in the CL and FA Cup.
I think Clichy would have better assist stats than Hleb, and he did not score any goals.
Has this guy been brought in to cover the short term injury/s situation: Eduardo, Rosicky……………..or is it a spoof?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facundo_Sava
Barcelona said Belarussian midfielder Alexander Hleb is expected at the club for a medical Wednesday prior to his transfer from Arsenal. “If he passes the medical tests, Alexander Hleb could sign a contract tomorrow (Thursday) and be presented as our new player,” the club said on its website.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080716/wl_uk_afp/fblengblresparsenalbarcelonahleb_080716122221
If yahoo reported this, and the barcelona webie was quoted, then it true we are losing Hleb.
Whikepedia says
Arsenal Fútbol Club, usually called Arsenal de Sarandí or simply Arsenal, is a football club from the Sarandí neighbourhood in the city of Avellaneda, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. They currently play in the top tier of Argentine football, the Primera División Argentina. They play their home games at the Estadio Julio H. Grondona, named after one of the founders, which has a capacity of 16,000. It opened in 1964 but was not used in the First Division until 2004.[edit] History
The club was founded in January 1957 by brothers Héctor and Julio Humberto Grondona, inspired by the English club Arsenal. The teams shirt colour is light blue with a diagonal red band
Liverpool fan Dan’s opinion of Alonso:
He is a great ‘quarterback’ style player.
Over the past 3 seasons, less so in this one, he has made Liverpool tick. When he’s been injured, they have been fucked. Quite simply he doesn’t want to be second fiddle to Mascherano, who I am telling you is class. He is like Gattuso, but without the beard.
Wiki ped are saying hleb plays for Barca and Arsenal.
Pat7.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facundo_Sava
lol
In 2008 he joined Arsenal de Sarandí. That was what wikipedia reported. Was our own Arsenal the same with Arsenal de Sarandí?
nice one choy!got me on that one.the guy lloks like golan in lord of the rings
Who wants Barca Proof?
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/castellano/noticies/futbol/temporada08-09/07/n080716104941.html
Pictures and everything!
Dirty ice cream eating rat….
The player Alexander Hleb, who has militated the last three seasons at Arsenal, has come to Barcelona this afternoon to undergo the medical examination before joining FC Barcelona.
QM3D3443.JPGYa in Barcelona, Alexander Hleb has affirmed meet “a dream” with his possible signing by FC Barcelona. “I love this team. I love. I will give the best,” said in statements to Barca TV and fcbarcelona.cat.
“I want to win everything”
Belarusian player has been very ambitious: “I’ve spoken to Guardiola and it is very important for me that he wants and give me the best thing for this team and I want to win everything with the club.”
Asked about his qualities, the midfielder has chosen not defined himself. “I can not speak for me. I give it my best on the pitch, but it is better that people and the coach talk about me,” he concluded.
Yes Niraj, Denilson is crap as well. Those defensive midfielders who are not actually any good defensively are the scurge of modern football. They spread the play and like to look intelligent with it. They do nothing long term for a team. Only look good when their team is winning and gaps open and their monotonous passing achieves some semblence of penetration.
AHHH.. I hate that cunt!!!
Pedro, there goes our own Hleb, who will never shoot in front of a goal. Good riddance for bad rubbish, We wish him suckcess in his future endeavour
pdero, the guy is a whore
thus endeth the career of alexander “mr whippy” hleb
Hleb will do well there. Barca will be very good to watch next season.
lol hate that cheeky smile on that fanny hleb
agreed @ Pedro..
Mark your findings are quite interesting… Hleb was very good at dribbling and sucking players out of posistion, but we lacked a more cut & thrust approach of 99-05… There’s a Vieira clip on youtube showing some of his arsenal goals.. The 1 against liverpool was a sublime move involving, Vieira, Bergkamp,Henry & Pires… Hence why we DO NOT need an adebayor replacement only a lethal finisher with a shadow striker, something I have no doubt Van Persie can do…
The Arshavin bid looks to me like a stickler if we do get in a forward as Ed & Hunetlaar will play up top with Van Persie/Nasri/Cesc (to an extent) all being able to play just behind.. Bentdner (no matter how much he say’s he doesn’t want to be a target man) is a good plan b and Walcott will DEFINANTLY be used predominantly as a winger with a flitter of Forward starts…
Nasri the new Pires?
hopefully henry will let him know what a cunt he is for pissing on the arsenal. fuck hleb
Squad below for the Barnet game. Who do the Grovers want me and Pedro to get to pose exclusively with teh famous “I love Le-Grove” sign, made so famous by our favourite sun Romford Ray Parlour?!
Manuel ALMUNIA (GK)
Nacer BARAZITE
Nicklas BENDTNER
Gael CLICHY
DENILSON
James DUNNE
Rui FONTE
Gavin HOYTE
Justin HOYTE
Henri LANSBURY
Vito MANNONE (GK)
Havard NORDTVEIT
Abu OGOGO
Aaron RAMSEY
Mark RANDALL
Paul RODGERS
Bacary SAGNA
Jay SIMPSON
Rene STEER
Wojciech SZCZESNY (GK)
Armand TRAORE
Carlos VELA
Theo WALCOTT
Jack WILSHERE
Inetresting no Ade eh ?!!!!!!!!
I hope he snaps both legs with his first tackle the little cunt! Can’t be fairer than that, if I said what I feel, I’d be arrested.
So that’s now Lehmann, Hleb, Flamini, Gilberto, Aliadiere and Diarra gone from our first team squad since last August and Nasri and Ramsey (a reserve) in.
Given we were short last season, that means we have to sign 4 players just to be short like last year, any AKB’s out there care to help?
Good to see Arsene has learned from Viera and Henry that you never sell until you have a replacement in place.
no Diaby @ Bud???
Regarding this 34 year old ex fluham striker:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facundo_Sava
Sky got it wrong
HAHA (I hate those bastards at sky, always stirring up shit n the Arsenal camp)
I meant Son !
Gibbs is on international duty isn’t he?
Rui Fonte, any good? we need some portuguese players in the team
Thanks David. I read him on the original as our new No9!!! Phew!
But why do we find out from Barca?
Arsenal you take the piss, it’s like seeing your wife snogging another bloke, the she phones you and tells you it’s over, an hour after all your mates have told you.
He’s still a couple of seasons away is Fonte… He’ll get a carling cup appearance this season, maybe loaned out the next.. Then it’s down to him!
how old is he reVELAtion?
bud theo for the i love le grove, make sure to bring teh snap of romford ray,
but photoshop the dodgy looking fellow out of it!
did you all know that romford ray asked Bud was le-grove a porn site!!!
No Diaby??? hmmm…. That’s an interesting ommission… £10 Vela get’s a hat-trick
Tony Adams @ No.3? I am suprised. I expected it to be Henry… shame that… Goes to show the Arsenal.com website currently is the primark of all things arsenal….
Bergkamp is no.1 or the whole world has gone crazy!!!
where is fabianski?
Gibbs and Merida away on U19 duty. Diaby has a sore throat !
ge got sold to south american arsenal choy
Any other Grovers going to Barnet on Saturday???
Fonte is 18… Got him at 16 and he’s progessed fairly well, just not well enough to make any sort of impact just yet…. But the coaching staff at arsenal will know better than I.. From the reserve matches and Portuguese u-17 & 19 matches i’ve seen him in, he’s a ways off still…
*he – ge
OGOGO, is it diaby’s nick name?
Good riddance to him, I dont have to watch the non-shooting prat going round in circles before passing it back to Eboue. He used to make me tear my hair out. Mind you keeping him would have meant stability, but now he is gone I hope we chokes on some Ice (Puyol cum) Cream.
Can someone please remind me of what happened to the careers of those who left Arsenal????
OK So no Diaby, Toure, Eboue, Gallas, Fabregas, Rosicky, RVP, Senderos, Djrouou, Song, Eduardo and Fabianski
That 24 man team is a weak , but I have named a further 12 players who should feature for us this season.
If we buy 3 more players, then we SHOULD have a good squad, i.e. 20 players who can play at the top level.
Working @ Bud
Will record the match with V box + and watch it at some obscene hour…. Setanta sports news hasn’t a ptach on sky’s… Other than the hilarious texts from supporters on who they should buy.. NOW that is funny TV!!!!
lol chris…. no eboue on that list too?
fox sports.
ha ha ha
Since Olof Mellberg’s departure, Villa are in need of a right-back, and Arsenal could be the club to fulfil their requirement by including Justin Hoyte or possibly even Emmanuel Eboue in their offer for Barry.
Don’t think it’s weak as it’s what we usually take down to Underhill @ Mark C
Will give us sightings on to who will go out on loan, who will play in the reserves, who will play with the 1st team squad and go to austria….
Cesc’s career is over… who will assist the assister now?
Hello there. and Good Post.
i remember what u said in ur post about us having more older players and the Media
used to Chew Arsene up for not bringing though the Youth Players.
does anyone else remember this??
now that his brining though the yough his getting chewd for not having no experience.
i guess we have had the 2 sides of both extremes.
but never had a Decent Balance between the 2
Geoff… doesnt look good does it mate!? as it is we’re looking pretty fucked when it comes to a title challenge in my opinion!!
Nicky B & Vela up top! Barazite & Walcott on the flanks Ogogo, Denilson, Lansbury, Randall & Wilshire will all play a part… Mannone and Szczehzy might grab a half… any 4 of Steer, Rodgers, Dunne, The Hoyte Bros, Traore & Nordviet will start in defence…
I Doubt Sagna or Clichy will play that much part if they start….
All the African players got an extra week as they played ACN qualifiers.
Im with Raif…. thats a strong squad for Barnet. Don’t forget also, we fly to Austria straight after the game and have another game over there 2 days later !
I am glad Hleb has gone, never rated him, but I thought we would get more cash for him! We seriously need to sign some moore players, pronto!
Surprised no Jay Thomas as well…….. all 11 foot 7″ and 22 stone of him !!!!!
Problem is Pierre… We’ll be in Austria and without Dein or Edelman who’ll be doing our transfer negotiations??? Nothing’s going to happen on the coming in front till we’re back for the Emirates Cup… Unless our hand is forced in way of targets and Wenger needs to leave the camp…
Squad for the Barnet game, the way things are going it will be near to the squad that starts the West Brom game -
I bleedin hope that Gilberto and Hleb going this afternoon makes our transfers coming in start to happen – we need what ever players that are bought to be in before the pre-season games
Gilbert O Silva, I will miss you, you have been a gentleman
Hellooooooo Grovers!!!
What’s good? We’ll I know we havent signed anyone so wont even bother asking about that!!
Top post Geoff/Pedro, and it’s been a busy day already I see!!
Vanilla Ice has gone to Barca, and Goofy to Meelan, does that mean we’re stuff with the TTosspot? I hope not!
sign up to fantasy footy odub , i am itiching to beat you!
**stuck with the TT, forgive me, it’s been a while!!
I am going to remain positive – Barca and Panny deals sorted today, VILLA announced in the morning –
chris what? where, where?
did we really sell Seb larssen for £1m? thats a fucking disgrace, think of the goals, assists, free kicks etc. he delivered last year! still, at leats we kept Eboue!
Odub i still think Barca will use the Ronaldinho cash to purchase Adebayor, but do’t be suprised if it’s for a palty 22-24m other than the 30-35m extortion….
Revelation… Milan paid £14mill for Ronnie…!
I hope they stick two fingers up at ade… that would be funny!
Noticed Thierry has kept it shut over this fiasco?
hey what do u think of this?
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11670_3825590,00.html
Seb wasn’t going to make it to be honest… He wasn’t mobile enough to play in his preferred positions at the top level… I agree Eboue isn’t a right sided midfielder, but he’s more then adequte cover at right back for Bak… Wasn’t he in the back 4 that conceded the least goals in the champions league EVER and the longest run with a clean sheet!!?? LOL
ReVELAtion (Cool name btw) I hope we get a bit more than the 14mill they’re getting for goofy? And arent they still looking to flog Eto’o?
You forget Etoo is off aswell Pedro and he’ll command at least 18m… Chelsea or Inter for me….
Bud,
Ade isn’t due back for pre season until monday. He was on international duty this summer.
we’ll get more then 14m, but not anywhere near 30.. I’m afraid Adebayor’s rants and Milan’s pulling out Ronaldinho has forced our hand a bit… He doesn’t want to stay and the fans don’t want him…. It could be embarrassing so it’s better we wash our hands of it… i’d take anything around the 20m mark and use that cash to get Huntelaar!
Raif – I see we’re top of the league already!
Ade is going nowhere. Barca cannot afford him unless they can offload Eto & they haven’t had one offer so far. Now that AC Milan are out the race we are stuck with him.
Personally though I don’t want to see him play for us again. I’m sure in the next few weeks we’ll get a statement from him saying how much he loves Arsenal & that he was continually misquoted & misunderstood.
sky sports have an akb leading the messagers!!
“We, the Arsenal fans are in full support of Wenger’s decisions when it comes to transfers and our squad, he knows what is best better than any of us! He provides us with a sense of acomplishment when our team wins beautifully. But…we desperatly crave a big name signing! Xabi Alonso, David Villa or anyone! As far as an ‘exodus’ goes, we (the fans) only want players at Arsenal who want to play for Arsenal, if not then there will alwasy be someone else, Arsenal F.C will live forever!
“
GMR you’re right there, BUT i don’t want him in an arsenal shirt again… If he signs the 60k a week extension that has been mooted, this will just happen again next season if he does well and the 1 after that..
It’s already become a farce….
i’d take 16m for him personally… Get rid!
Etoo has 2 choices either he stays and sulks or he lowers his wage demands and plays football… He won’t get that at Barca… I still think he’s going to Italy. I don’t like the idea of a swap deal with him coming in and ade going the other way…. Inter or Roma for me…. He might have to resort to Spurs or Man Citeh!!!
Off now guys…
It’s been a great day… I look forward to catching up with you later!
Happy blogging Grovers!
Ade will go – Like a car, it is all about the mileage….. if you have a good performing car with under 30K miles its worth getting, who would buy a sports car with over a 100K on the clock…….. even though he is just a ferarri shell with a skoda engine – the useless 1 season wonder !!!!!!!!
He’ll be back humiliated and say, I never said I wanted to leave, that was my agent and I tin tacked him, honest.
With Barry, Alonso , Velosa, Santa Cruz, Huntelaar or Zapata or any 3 from them, we’ll be unbeatable with the kids coming through.
It won’t take much, go on Arsene spend some fucking money, you’ll get it back in shirt sales.
Not quite Pierre! There was a BUT.
Do cars actually do 30k miles Bud? why?
Patrick7
yeah mate, its ashame were only there Bcos Arsenal starts with the Letter “A”
and good to see theres 20 teams in the LE-GROVE fantasy league.
COME ON YOU AKB’s
Pierre that’s a bit harsh about that statement being an AKB message… We all want a big name signing of some sort, But i like the sound of big talent better. AND yes I also only want players who want to play for arsenal at the club… Wenger will sign who he deems neccessary, but this is THE season where he will live or die by his transfer descisions IMO…
we have set up the fantasy league odub from yesterday see top bar
Maybe Alonso was the player with premier league experience that Wenger was talking about. Maybe he’s playing a game with Liverpool just incase they refuse to sell him to us, it could well be he lets it be known that we have enquired about Barry (he knew O’Neill would fall for that ploy as he hates Benitez), forcing Liverpool to think we might outbid them, instead we go after Alonso & agree to leave Barry if they sell Xavi to us.
A bit far fetched maybe, but I wouldn’t rule it out completely. On a personal note I’d prefer Barry to Alonso.
Right i’m off to work….
Keep it up geoff & Ped, great debate as always….
Keep it arsenal guys….
last note:
WENGER SPEND SOME ******* MONEY!!!
October 2007: Alex Hleb tells Arsenal.com: “I want to finish my career at Arsenal.”
July 2008: Alex Hleb has a medical at Barcelona ahead of a transfer from Arsenal.
I hope we dont sign any more from this category of footballer, AND ADE can PISS OFF too, misses sitters, allways offside, cant head, not exaclty the fastest around, the WORST fisrt touch ever (even big Phil is better), and to top it all up he thinks he should be classed as TH14.
I knew he was trouble after WC2006 when he demanded the bonus from the Togo FA for qualifying and convinced some team mates to go on strike, those who didnt hated him and did not speak to him, and he caused the manager to be sacked and reapointed all in the space of 2 days before their first game. I personally dont want his sort.
Also aparenlty the baord are gonna ask Yankee Stan K to join them, so maybe we will buy in January if they make him feel welcomed.
oh & Geoff… Zapata has already gone to LAZIO
Yes but don’t forget Hleb and Ade wanted to play for us before they became superstars revelation.
WENGER and O’NEILL are working together to get the deail thy want
Wenger wants Alonso. without the BIG BIG fee. and O’neill wants a BIG BIG fee
chris, I’m on it!! So far I have James in goal, Sagna, and that’s it!!!!
ReVELAtion, you sure you’re not talking about Zarate?? Zapata is still at Udinese!!
God please not Alonso, whatever happens.
Replacing a slick, mobile, dribbling technician with a the most boring spanish player in world football is not an enticing thought. Okay, he’s not a direct replacement but still.
Eh guys sorry to sound simple…on this fantasy league do dah, where does it say join league?
odub, same as me so far, the money goes quick!
Paulinho -
i think Alonso is alright actully. a good step after Gilberto.
the hard question is what one to go for.
ALONSO or BARRY. make ur pick grovers
after you pick the team,
you will ahve to look at pedro’s many refeerences from yesterday for the pin
fill your fantasy team with spuds, cheap as chips and twice as greasy
Lets have a some guesses when Arsenal will actually let us know that Hleb & Gilberto have moved?? I reckon they’ll inform us on friday!!
who will be the DMF for gunners next year, Alonso or Barry? I’ll tell you, Diaby!
Odub –
click on Manage Leagues and then enter the number for le groves fantasy league in the box
friday will be news day on arsenal.com, fella who does it will get in, think “what should I do today? Arsenals best 50, oh no, that finished yesaterday. Fuck me i gotta fo something beforte i knock off for the weekend at 12……I know, we sold a couple of players this week, I’ll put that on there!”
the 24 man squad facing barnet is;
Manuel ALMUNIA (GK)
Nacer BARAZITE
Nicklas BENDTNER
Gael CLICHY
DENILSON
James DUNNE
Rui FONTE
Gavin HOYTE
Justin HOYTE
Henri LANSBURY
Vito MANNONE (GK)
Havard NORDTVEIT
Abu OGOGO
Aaron RAMSEY
Mark RANDALL
Paul RODGERS
Bacary SAGNA
Jay SIMPSON
Rene STEER
Wojciech SZCZESNY (GK)
Armand TRAORE
Carlos VELA
Theo WALCOTT
Jack WILSHERE
i’m going to be late….
Yes Geoff you’re right again… BUT i’d still like to think a smatering of Footballers somewhere still have a sense of loyalty in their beings… Some, unfortunatly just say what the fans want to hear untill it comes down to money… I call them mercenaries!!!
Hleb & Adebayor can both go in that category…. Flamini not so much… He was in his last year of his contract.. If we KNEW he’d have such a fab season we’d have signed him on earlier… The 50k a week was a case of too little too late…
50k, jesus it sounds like peanuts when you write it… In real life though that’s more money then a nurse will make in 2 years, and footballers get it A WEEK!!
Would giggs have stayed at man u as long as he did if they hadn’t won trophies? I think so….
Off the subject…..
Our british counterparts show more loyalty, however the fringe england players (bentley, SWP, Lennon etc) won’t go to other countries to learn a new culture… I believe the england team is unsuccessful on the basis of our players refuse to play in pastures alien to them, learn a new language, way of life etc…
every other countries prospects travel and play everywhere… How many english players can you name in a top flight division other than the premiership.. it isn’t the foreign invasion, it’s the arrogant happy on 50k a week bench attitude of the so-called Playstation generation…
Odub -
183316-43452
gunnerfever -
you forgot to add David Villa mate
Raif i pick Veluso.. so neither… I’d rather go with Diaby than Barry or Alonso.. AND yes i’m sane and serious….
Alonso is a carthorse. We need somone with a physical presence in their with Fab. If we have Alonso we will just be hoofing to Offsiderbayor(if he stays) even more that we usually do.
How is Wenger going to spin this now? He goes on about stability more than every manager in the league yet Arsenal are continously the most unstable club in the upper echelons. Going by his own rhetoric, Arsenal stand zero chance of doing anything this season.
sorry raif doesnt say so on arsenal.com
ReVELAtion
i wouldnt dare think u was insane or joking
gunnerfever -
http://www.arsenal.com/davidvilla
its all on here mate
well you know some might choose to question that with my Diaby statement
The top ten greediest people in football this summer
The pros who place wages above loyalty and professional conduct
At a time when the business around the world are universally tightening their belt buckles amid fears of an imminent recession, there remains a breed of character in the beautiful game who believe they are owed a living, and clubs should feel blessed to pay them top dollar for their services.
In no particular order, here’s some people in football who are more concerned about putting another Maserati on the driveway than advancing the prospects of their club…
Emanuel Adebayor
It’s possible that Adebayor feels unappreciated by Arsenal fans, who prefer to whine about his misses against Liverpool and Man United rather than his 30 goals. Yet the way he pledged to stay at Arsenal, only to U-turn hours later was bold behaviour for a player who has given his club to just one great season and no trophies.
Frank Lampard
Princess Frank is always eager to show his love for Chelsea by kissing his badge at every opportunity, but it seems there are limits to his affection. Despite turning 30 recently, Lampard believes that a four-year deal at £140,000-a-week is unreasonable; only a five-year £150,000-a-week deal will suffice. Otherwise, he will be kissing Inter Milan’s badge/ Jose’s lips in the very near future.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Despite signing a five-year deal for £120,000-a-week, making him United’s highest-paid player ever, just over a year ago, Ronaldo believes it would be akin to slave labour to keep him there any longer. Rumours he would be offered a stupendous £200,000-a-week and the chance to sit on Sepp Blatter’s knee have clearly influenced him.
Robinho
The poor Brazilian
etc etc.
nice try Raif
HAHAHAHAHA
it was wasnt it.
It’s murders on here today!! a mile a minute stuff!! Just got to find 2 midfielders for a combined fee of 8.5 and I’m done!!!! Wish me luck!
thats a tough ask, better flog that james fella and buy richard wright to free up some cash!
david james first game away at the chavs….good luck !
Just read hleb’s comments about being in love with Barca and I fancy this team. Good riddance cunt
I think there’s one thing we all agree on ( be it AKB’s CMB’s whatever we call ourselves these days) all gooners alike agree that Vanilla Ice cream Hleb is a cnut!!
I mean first he goes for a solero on the eve of a big CL game, then he comes out with the bollox about London being too busy!! What does he think Barca is a FUCKING VILLAGE?!! Cnut cnut cnut!!!
Odub – You’re starting to sound like AW fella!!
MH – Hleb did finish his career with Arsenal! He’ll get splinters at best there and follow the trend of ex’s……………..
He’s a boss-eyed cunt as well (sky picture)……… hope the lillywhite skined turd gets sunstroke and 3rd degree burns !!!!!!!!!
What really pisses me off, is now he has gone, he has at last had that fucking stupid hair cut!!
When asked about the qualities he will bring to the Barcelona team following three years at Arsenal, Hleb sidestepped the question.
He added: “I cannot speak for me. I will give my best on the pitch, but it is better that people and the coach talk about me.”
THATS BECAUSE YOU HAVENT GOT ANY YOU CORNETTO CRUNCHING CUNT!
10 GOALS IN 3 YEARS! GOOD RIDDANCE
Friedel, Melchiot,Distin,Laursen,Sagna,Arteta,Cesc,Gerrard,Ireland,Defoe,Santa Cruz
Bench – Kirland,Wheater,Ireland,Bendtner
22 teams so far!!
8.5 Mil for two midfielders? … the cheapest ones are 4.5 I think …. might need to do a Wenger and sign a 14 year old for free
This should really please TH – dont think they got on that well at AFC, probably because Mr Whippy could never get a pass to him…. Oh Happy Days ahead for Barca……. NOT!!
Sad to say I have Adebayor in my team, chances are he’ll stay, and whoever is our striker will score goals … hoping that i’ll replace him with David Villa before the Aug 16 deadline
I’m confident in my team and I feel that if we don’t win this year, we will gain valuable experience to win next year. Providing all the players stay which is not really going to happen. Anyway, its a transitional year.
I believe the team I have picked has the mantal strength to fulfil our ambitions this season. I beieve in this team a lot. The age is not at issue, if you are good enough you are old enough….
I just hope now the four musketeers is down to 2 Cesc doesn’t get to disheartened. Hoping AW has one his Spanish comrades lined up to keep the young lad happy because I dont think a new kit and tv show will be suffice.
Villa Villa Villa
DDM I must admit I’ve never heard AW use the word cnut, but I’m fairly sure he’s muttered the french quivalent under his breathe re Hleb!
If Arsene Wenger buys David Villa I will become teetotal!
so everyone in the fantasy league. when do u think its the best time to use ur
WILD ACE CARD
i like to save it for after Xmas
tg – best you either start drinking whats in your home or tipping it down the sink – he is ours……………………………….. just have this feeling
Odub – I was refering to you trying to buy a couple of midfielders for £8.5m old bean……
is MADD available on that fantasy football game?
Odub are we still in July? Do we still have to remain calm, positive, upbeat and no manic ranting??
what’s that then Raif?
Must admit this is my first season long fantasy league comp, only ever used to do the Euros or Word Cup.
Sorry Dennis mate, it’s so manic on here today that I’m seeing 10 new posts every time I F5!!!
MADD ???
that one is over my head
Listen i can’t get that git GMR to get me the hay for my goat let alone a deal at The Arse…………..
C’mon we need more managers in the league, so many chickens worried about getting into the relegation zone….
Rico, re: Villa…. female intuition?
MIchael Says:
July 16, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Ethan Which club would hold on to pv or th an the wages that they are on to be impact subs.
which clubs ?
Man U the ones that won the league last season !
giggs- scholes-keane til his hair went gray ! . and we’ve got gilberto .. we played DB10 til the end ..
A lot of clubs hold on to there talismans .. it breeds team unity .it keeps tradition and history at the club ..
Newcastle did with it with shearer .. the list is endless …
and its not like TH14 or PV 4 aren’t still good players .. they could help our youth mature quickly .. id still take them now , they would add a good balance still .
You will probably say they wanted out , well if we didn’t display a certain amount of disloyalty to begin with as a club im sure most players would still be around … over 30′s policies – selling assets to reduce wages ..
pires freddie would still be around , i think to a certain degree we’ve made hleb and ade the people they are with the clubs stance on players .. If anyones work place started doing this , sacking people due to age discrimination im sure not only would there be legal ramifications there would be a pretty bad feel to the working environment !
Who knows now if PV 04 could handle the pace of the epl,they were never given a chance ! my point is wenger sold them all, to cash in on them ! it is pretty retarded for PHW and wenger to play the loyalty card i think its a bit hypocritical !
MADD – Mandingo Aloisus Dkembe Dkembe…………
Which team is Geoff’s?
Lots of you haven’t joined or are doing so under names you don’t use on here, if you prefer to do that, no problem.
How soon you heartless Mutha Fuckers forget……….
well said ethan.. that is true.. if the club doesn’t give you a rat’s ass.. why should you ..
thats what the players are thinking!!!
Good Point re: R.Giggs and Scholes Ethan, no one’s chucking him into the wheelbarrow.
Odub -
you can basicly transfer one 1 player a week, if u tranfer more then 1 player every week you get deducted points.
so with that being said the WILD CARD. lets u do as many transfers as u want without getting points taken away. but u can ONLY use it once. so save it and dont use it to early
So who’s going to be DM next season? And please don’t mention Song, Diaby or Ramsey!!! I have a feeling he might try Kolo in there and play Swiss Phil from start next season…. Oh well, there’s always the 2009/10 season for our next trophy!
It’s not only a loyalty thing, it’s a continuity thing too. The constant turnover of playing staff just because they are or just about to be 30. Do players suddenly become any less important to a club because they are 30.
I hope your right Rico I really do but I can’t see it happening!
If you know something other than womens intuition please let me know?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jul/16/premierleague.tottenhamhotspur
berbatov is a chain smoker
Geoff / Pedro,
To date, what is the record number of comments on this Board that we should be tergetting to beat? Albeit, we must KIV the need for quality comments!!
Odub, I was convinced it was going to be Dkembe Dkembe , I’m not so sure now.
Yeah FC Dkembe did come to mind, but the little munchkin’s getting a bit too gobby for his own good!! Aint even in the team yet and he’s effing and blinding every 2 minutes! Send him back to Ougadougou I say!
Geoff, I’m torn between Alonso and Barry. One plays for Liverpool and the other wants to. Alonso has an excellent track record and champions league experience and would definitely compliment our free-flowing, fast-pace style of play and passing. Barry would also make an excellent addition as he is strong and knows how to hold and pass the ball in the ‘traditional’ midfield way. Barry also seems to find the back of the net more often than Alonso. Veloso, no thanks, could be a gamble that doesn’t pay off.
Who would look the best in the good old red and white? (and this year’s yellow)
Barry!!! Alonso would be ok but definitely not Veloso, he looks like a manc-cunt!
Player Stats:
Gareth Barry
Height 1.80m
Weight 80.6 kg
Age 27
Xabi Alonso
Height 1.83m
Weight 70.6 kg
Age 26
Miguel Veloso
Height 1.80m
Weight 79 kg
Age 22
thats right choy ..
even winterburn came out and said we are a selling club ..
pretty dis-heartening to hear that from a mature X player of ours..
He knows the in’s and out’s better than most ..
You know even if PV 04 didnt play much and stayed he would still be a valuable influence on the young players .. Like most of you wanted adams to be our defensive coach .. Arsene really needs to get his act together ! If we are to persist with these youths then get some good coaching names around these young players !
It seems arsene is trying to do it alone …
Cheers Raif! Will look forward to the wildcard jobbie.
why is everyone saying diaby will be DM ???
he is an attacking central midfield player .. he cannot defend his way out of a wet paper bag ..
just because he’s black and tall like PV 04 doesn’t make him a DM !!!
someone said that to me earlier in the blog ..
is it because arsene trys to convert everyone from flamini to eboue that you think he will be a DM next season ??
i personally think diaby will shine this season ..
either that or like flamini in his last season he will come good and we
wont re-sign him … a flamoney ground hog day ..
the Alonso /or Barry debate is a intresting one. and could rattle the brain on who they would rather sign.
but the it can only be a win win for who ever we sign if we do.
as they both have Premiership Experience
Mandingo, I have not forgotten you, less you have forgortten our pre-arranged interview and photoshoot on Saturday at Barnet……… don’t forget to bring your boots !!!
raif – confusing last sentence !!!
http://sport.setanta.com/en/Sport/News/Football/2008/07/16/Prem-Galliani-on-Adebayor/
How would we feel about loaning Adebayor out until Christmas (providing we signed a suitable replacement)?
Transfer prices go up in January since there is high demand due to injuries and we could get the price we believe he’s worth.
Take Diarra as an example, 2m in August, 4m in January.
Bud -
opps sorry. i mean
“it will be a Win either way who ever we sign.
as they both have premiership experience,
tg & finest – I wrote his name on a piece of paper before the end of last season, the same one that had Hleb to leave on it ( yes maybe the latter was on the cards anyway, but after his pathetic Murty slap, I was convinced)
The other names ere Alex and Yaya – then Ben Arfa – so the other three are looking like a no, so one of them has to be right – Villa
Ethan, it all started off with Patrick Viera making the suggestion and Stuart Robson backing him up.
http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=491738&lid=NewsHeadline&Title=Season+Review:+Robson+-+Diaby+can+fill+Flamini+void
SANTA CRUZ, says he wants to stay at Crap Burn.
so that rules him out.
Female intuition is a paranormal thing Rico, I can’t explain it but I know it happens. Maybe you’re right.
I hope you’re right Rico i’d be straight down the Armoury to put his name on my shirt! Lol
Listen, check the message page from yesterday and various other days……. David Villa will become an Arsenal player as soon as he returns from holidays…….. in Bud we trust !!!!
If Villa signed for Arsenal that would just complete the worst ending to an already crap summer!! Under no circumstances do I want him playing for Arsenal.
why is that gmr?
Why GMR?
Another one in on the Fantasy Football guys – The Bukkake Superstars are in.
My 1 gamble player i have gone for is Theo – come on AW, make sure you start him on a regular basis now!
Is Gilberto actually signing for Panathinaikos today?? I thought he was supposed to be there in Greece according to all the papers & websites. Its very quiet though & nothing on their website!!
Yes, why GMR……… is it because you haven’t got him in your Fantasy Football Team????
If only all Arsenal players operated under the same mind set. Perhaps this is why AW goes for kids:
Mexican teenager Carlos Vela has set his sights on being a ‘warrior’ for Arsenal in the new season.
In May, Vela was granted clearance to play for The Gunners in the 2008/09 campaign following three separate loan spells in Spain.
And the 19-year-old forward believes the time he spent abroad will ensure he hits the ground running when he finally begins his career at Emirates Stadium.
“My stay in Spain helped me to make the jump to the Premier League,” Vela told Mexican news agency Notimex. “Now, I am stronger on the field and more mature.
“I am not scared of the Premier League – I will train hard and fight for a chance in the Arsenal squad. I want to be a warrior for the team.
“I’m not thinking about failure. I’m happy to be here and I just want to help the team.”
Because in my opinion Villa is one of the most over-rated players around. He is slow, not very skillful & wouldn’t offer us anything we don’t already have. If Villa signs then we’ve spent upwards of 30 million on a player who’s no better than Eduardo.
Add to that that Villa & Eduardo couldn’t play in the same team because they are very similar players, we’d have lost the height of Ade so everything would have to be on the ground & neither of those two will out pace a defence!!
Every single deal that has involved AFC this summer has not been straight forward has it?!
Whether it be players leaving or vice versa. It’s all been drawn out, and the press have been all over it…yawn and double yawn!!
Bud, I haven’t done my fantasy football team yet & even if Villa did sign he wouldn’t be in it.
Yeah it becomes quite tedious when something is rumoured for weeks and then when they are announced at a conference your like finally there’s no element of surprise any more!
GMR.
theve been talking about Gilberto in greece on sky sports news every 15 mins. along with that little rat Helb.
you know how they love to repeat there headlines
Ethan… diaby signed an 2yr extension to his old deal this year think hes under contract for a while now
Just lost three of our midfielders. i know most ppl didn’t think they were all that but i kinda wannit a midfield, you know someone to provide the strikers. i don’t see Gallas or Big Phil providing RVP with that sweet through ball.
I’m not feeling this summer
GMR, which striker would you like Arsenal to sign if any?
gmr.. you just need to ask the russian and the swedish defence!!!!
If Ade goes I dont think he’ll get replaced because we’ll have 5 international strikers in Theo, Dudu,Bendts,RVP and Vela. plus Jay Simpson.
And that as far as AW is concerned is a mentally strong championship winning outfit
If you beat our side we will teach you a lesson and unsettle your players..
Sky Sports News claim AC Milan have confirmed they are no longer in the market following the capture of Ronaldinho. This spells the end of their pursuit for Arsenal wantaway striker Emmanuel Adebayor.
Finestcuts, if Arsenal were going to spend that sort of money then I’d go for Benzema every day of the week.
Choy, those defences are the equivalent of Derby & Fulham!!
lol!!!
wonder what the dutch boys would have to say about that!!!
david.. can’t wait to see the look on adebawhore’s face right now!!!!!!
Or the English !
Trouble is Choy i don’t fancy our chances next year with a pissed off Ade and those strikers that odub listed none are good enough for regular starts in the first team as striker except RVP who only starts 25% of games anyway..
We need a checked ot Eto’o for a couple of years, and don’t give ade that pay rise!
Goonerman I think 600, Timmy either would do but the Englishman edges it and we can get him, not sure we’d get Alonso, dangerous game waiting for them to sell if they buy Barry.
Hoyte plus 12 would do it. We have at least that from the Hleb deal and 10 left over from Nasri and Ramsey, less the Gilberto 1.
Gunner_fever and Dennis you were in moderation and fuck knows why, I’m going to see if I can watch Merida, I heard it’s on Eurosport, so a beer and a cigar for me! In my basement.
all that goes around at the emirates
http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=493946&lid=NewsHeadline&Title=Two+Years+On:+It+isn%27t+just+about+the+football
Raif, the Gilberto stuff on sky sports is just what the papers are saying. I haven’t seen any pictures of Gilberto in Greece or anything more about it. I just want all these deals over with so we can concentrate on the players we have & getting a couple more players in!!
Good enough; I mean not good enough!!!
we’re pretty fucked at the mo…
we still need the CB, 1 top class DM, a winger, and possibly a striker if ade fucks off.
3 players minimum to even think about winning the league
I just read that Wenger has unearthed another gem in Nasri, has he fuck, we all saw his potential 2 years ago, plus he plays for France, I wish he’d unearthed Benzema, I’d be impressed then.
I’m off for a while.
GMR
i agree. i want it all over and done with aswell. im becoming tired of it aswell to behonest.
but im sure sky sports are more reliable then the papers
OK I’m back the game doesn’t start until 5.45
Ethan I’m not saying they are bad players but they are past it and to pay 90 or 100 grand a week for a sub sounds stupid to me. If that’s what scholes and goggs are on then i’ll admit that I’m totally wrong. (they are obviously subs now)
Geoff, what game?
Spain and Merida are playing Hungary (I think) in the under 19′s 5.45 Eurosport.
skybet have changed the odds on us signing arshavin from 7/2 to 5/4… maybe they know somthing we dont!!
get ur Helb Barca SPEECH BUBBLES IN NOW
http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=helbzs7.jpg
AND HERES ANOTHER
http://img99.imageshack.us/my.php?image=helb2on8.jpg
Geoff, thats tomorrow isn’t it?? Its the womens football tonight!!
http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=14718&part=sports
the match is tommorrow
lol geoff!!!!
people…
Check this out!!!!
arsenal 5 year spending!!!
http://img378.imageshack.us/my.php?image=5yearspendingcomparisonan4.jpg
1.6m in 5 years. that must leave out bank ballance in a colour thats above black or somthing.
and yet we still dont spend. when we should that is !!
I have watched the 97/98, 2001/02 and 2003/04 season dvds in the last 3 days and I have come to the conclusion that we only have 5 or 6 players, in our current squad, that are good enough to challenge for a place in any of those seasons, and I say challenge, because its no way guaranteed.
With DB10 up front, along side TH14 or the legend that is Ian Wright, Wright, Wright! that counts out our current strikers!
With Pirres, Overmars , Vierra, Petit, Freddie, Edu we had some amazing midfielders but I think you’d agree that the Cesc would slot in there somehow.
At the back I have to say that Clichy and Sagna would get in any team in any era, and Kolo played his part in the untouchables season, but have we ever had anyone on a par with the great Tony Adams since then? I dont think so. In fact I would go as far as saying our captain last year was a disgrace at times, the big sulky baby!
In short, Geoff is right, come on Wenger, splash the cash for fuck sake, we want some class back!
AndyB -
you forgot about the goal keepers
micheal
i know what your saying but even DB10 took a pay cut ..
i think its a natural progression once you reach that age ..
but your right some players like jens obviously didnt want to do that .
but if we showed loyalty to most of the ones we ousted maybe the youth could have learned a thing or 2 !
what experienced leaders do we have if bert leaves ?
gallas ?!
Raif – sorry, Seamen is the best we’ve had in recent years.
Lehman was good, but the amount of times hes had me shouting,”what the fuck are you doing you fucking idiot”, is endless, take the Drogba incident for example, pair of twats!
Ethangunner, you are right to question the experience of Gallas. Who else can we turn to? Look at it this way . . . we have a number of teens, and early 20 somethings on the squad. They want to hear about “war” stories, and how the Gunners had to grind out a 2-0 come from behind win, down a man, in the rain, against Bolton, at the Wanderers stadium . . . that’s what they want, and the question is where does that experience come from?
V. Persie?
Toure?
Fabregas?
Crazy enough, because there are so few footballers over the age of 30 on any club’s roster, we have to look at the reality of the situation. Players like Cesc do have the experience. Toure and even Clichy have been around for a while, and have hoisted a trophy over their heads . . . not that long ago (at least it might seem that way).
I say lets fill in the gaps. Hleb is out, Ade . . . well, who knows what is going to happen with him . . . Gilberto off to Greece. I think that this is going to be a great season, and I have this gut feeling that we have some trophies to hoist this year.
Cheers.
AndyB,
Lehman was . . . well, hot and cold. He had moments of brilliance, and we won’t mention the first two games of last season.
Funny enough, other than his erratic playing against Liverpool in last seasons match at Anfield, Almunia played very well for us.
As a matter of fact, he had one of the best saves of the season against the Spuds, which allowed Nikki to score an amazing header to win the game.
He had a fantastic save against a lethal shot from Gerrard at home. He is not the “greatest” by any stretch, but I have come to love his vocal nature, and I think the players really respect him.
feck me andyb.. that was hilarious!!!
two twats going at it!!!!
ethan – after Gallas behaviour in the Birmingham game, I think we can count him out!
So simply we dont have any. I personaly think The Cesc and Kolo will grow into great leaders in time, and that is why we need to sign some experienced, world class players now, instead of some “potentialy great” kids, for the future.
And a good start would be Barry
So, if Ade does leave . . . that is a big “if,” who might we get (This is a very open ended question)?
I personally like Santa Cruz. He is realistic, and fits the age, type, and experience mold that Arsene would want.
GMR,
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/16/sports/EU-SOC-Panathinaikos-Gilberto.php
choy – I think embarrasing is the word you are looking for, and while we are on the subject of embarrasing twats, I am suprised Eboue didnt go and fall over the pair of them!
If Kolo cannot be a leader at 27 he’s never going to be.
Maryland – If Ade goes to Barca, I think we should get Eto in return. I know I said the other day that his ego might get in the way, but I think it is a chance worth taking because we need proven players
at least gilberto is set to be highest paid in the greek league!!
Fair point david, and given the chance I think he would, but when Gallas was given the captaincy last season I think it knocked some confidence out of him. If kolo was made captain next season, I think he would become a great leader of the team, but then I think it would have the same effect on Gallas and we’d be back to square 1!
If it was up to me, I’d out Gallas, bring in Anton Ferdinand and give Kolo the armband, but thats not going to happen is it?
I know we all wanted him to go, but now it has pretty much happened I am completely fucked off with the whole situation.
My first aim is to keep the team together…….Failed
I will make signings in the next 2-3 weeks………Failed
I will reassure the Fans………..Pending
Dont fuck up the last one Arsene,
I for one dont feel confident that we will replace those that have left, at least not with players that are ready to play premiership football
We have now lost our best Keeper, Best CM, Best L or RM player of last season and a very solid back up CM in Gilberto
Arsene what the fuck is going on, please please please start re-assuring me that you actually know what the fuck you are doing.
AKB will point to the fact that the transfer window is still open for a while, well bollocks you were telling me that last summer when I said that we did not have enough strength in depth to cope with injuries and sure as shit we didnt strengthen then so where do I get the belief he will do it this time!!!!!
Rant over
lets give gallas a second chance…
Hats off to Pat!
Choy – I think you will get your wish, but I dont agree
ps. Hleb has been unveiled on the Barca website, just incase anyone didnt know
If Toure was made captain, Gallas would chuck the toys out..
What a crap deal we got with Chelsea, sold Englands current left back for £5 mill and in return got the highest paid player at Arsenal for two years who will probably fook off for next to nothing, having won nothing!!
Still someone knows lol!
Why is Hleb only going for 11.9 Million? Surely if Yaya was part of the deal we would’ve heard something
“Aleksandr Hleb will bring technique, strength and awareness to Barça in the 2008-09 season after perfecting his craft during successful spells with VfB Stuttgart and Arsenal.”
Aparantly he was at Arsenal to ‘perfect his craft’ before he moved to a bigger club
The Cunt is gone, Lets hope the other Cunt will leave tomorrow…………. I hate using the word Cunt, but sometimes…….. well………. It just seems right !!!!!!!!!
Anyyone notice nothing on Arsenal’s website !!!
We are an ammateur poxhole run club and me for one is fed the fuck up about them…………. I feel for them on Saturday thats all I say !!!!!!!!!
Bud without protecting Arse,com Hleb hasn’t signed for Barca yet.. From the Barca website
If, as expected, Hleb passes the medical today then he will sign a three-year contract with the club on Thursday and be presented to the media as a new FC Barcelona player
No Surprise there then Bud, But at least we get to know that Arsenal TV is changing Channel Numbers…Oh I forgot that is something that brings money into the club.
Thats Fair enough David, but bear in mind it is all over the media, why cant they at least put up a story stating that Alexander Hleb has been allowed to discuss terms with Barcelona and will join them in the coming days if a contract and price is agreed
Especially as the last OFFICIAL Arsenal word I remember on the matter was them saying that they were not for sale and under contract.
David – you’re right its tomorrow, but it would be nice, just once every now and then, if Arse.com put something on the website that we didn’t already know. And, for that matter, it would also be good if they said something other than “we would like to wish him good luck and wish him all the best………blah….blah…..blah” and said what they really thought. Like “Arsenal would like to take this oppertunity to say good riddance you greedy little cunt, now fuck off and dont come back”!
David, according to the Barca website he has signed a 4 year deal. Not only that but the price is 15 million euro’s & 2 million of that is add on’s. So we eventually got 13 million euro’s for him meaning we sold him for less than we paid!! Come back DD we are desperate!!
Bud, I’m in total agreement about the website, Arsenal don’t give a fuck about us real fans all they fucking care about is their customers who swell the coffers!! Cnuts!!
Hleb can sod off; he can’t score goals.
You Know the policy they only report the facts.. After everyone else.
How come when we have a player over for a medical it’s like Thunderbird Island where the palm trees go down and the player sneeks in, a week later we get the first picture?
Barca have a fanfare and fireworks and it’s everywhere on TV etc. Then he has a medical.
Cause that excites the fans and gives them hope and belief and ha ha reassurance that we will challenge next season
GMR on the Barca website I have open it says tomorrow and a three year deal can you do a link please.
At least Barca have the decency to hold a press conference for new players so their fans see & hear from them. At Arsenal we’re lucky to get a couple of lines on the website & thats days after he players sign.
It says 2012. Maybe I’m misreading, was never much good at spanish!!
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/catala/noticies/futbol/temporada08-09/07/n080716104950.html
GMR theres a english version
.http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/english/noticies/futbol/temporada08-09/07/n080716104941.html
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/english/noticies/futbol/temporada08-09/07/n080716104941.html
Hows it going guys
Fabregas to join his mate Hleb next year?
id love to know what the Barcelona fans think of them signing HLEB.
surely they know of his utter shit scoreing record for us in 3 seasons.
‘I know what I want and I am very confident,’ he said.
‘I hope to turn that around in the next two or three weeks. They (fans) should be re-assured by what they see.’
‘It would be better to buy someone who has played in England because they are less risky, but it costs more money if they are from the Premier League,’ Wenger said.
‘Maybe I will try to do both.’
‘It doesn’t look like we have no team and we have to build a team,’ HA HA HA HA
‘If we are winners we come back and do it and that is what I expect from my team,’ he added.
‘I think the big core of the team is ready to come back and fight, and that all of them are determined to come back and win.
‘Like every big disappointment you have in life you go through a period where you have to swallow and digest it and think ‘Where do I go from here? Do I feel sorry for myself or do I fight and do something different?’
‘After a while the players come together and there is a good togetherness in the squad.
‘I feel they have created something special and not to take advantage of that would be criminal for me.’
What a load of Bollox, mind you he does have a degree in Politics and Economics so we should really expect this shit….
We would tell you Tel but ,like the Arse.com, we will not give you any info until you have read it elsewhere first!
pat.. maybe a bit of a politician in him too!!!
So who do you reckon next Summer then
My money is on RVP, Cesc, Rosicky and Clichy
GMR they haven’t updated the English one then, Your link reads 4 years but you can see where I got the 3 year deal signson thursday from..
David, thats not the same article!!
David, sorry we was posting at the same time. They always update the english version later.
And he is French Pat, lets face it they aren’t that keen on us are they?
Hi Goonerman
Is this inside info ?
Honestly if I have any shred of confidence that these guys would be replaced by players that could actually contribute next season, I would feel ok about it
Fuck we were only just addressing the short falls of last season by bringing Nasri and Vela into the team.
Now we are missing Jens, Hleb, Gilberto, Diarra and Flamini
Pat – Cesc and Clichy wont go till they’ve reached their peak, so we should get another 3 seasons out of them and RVP and Rosicky wont leave till they manage 10 games in a row between them………….. I think we’re ok there then!
here wihere lads with my Spanish translator. this is what 1 fan said.
1: barca fan:
Help is a good player, is better than cesc, gives flavor to see him to play. .., is a great acquisition…
ill see i can get some more
Wow there hoping.
whilst the buy-out clause in Hleb’s contract has been set at £71 million.
El Tel – I’ve been speaking with Cesc
heres another barca fan.
i think u can get the gist of this comment
“The Arsenal does not pass to be third, fourth in the English League and this player is in that team, of average class. ..no is holder.. I have seen some 12 parties and is stiff, running and fighter, but nothing for the Spanish League. ..Esto passes for leaving elejir the players to a novice..
Better than Cesc Raif?
Are you sure it wasnt “Alexanda who? is he the one who does 3 piroetts(scuse spelling) then passes to the other team? We’d better get Cesc!”
i never said that Andy
this is what the barca fans are saying.
im checking the barca fan website, seeing what there making of the Kleb deal.
no one is better then cesc in my book.
Goonerman – The Cesc will be captain in 2/3 seasons time and will not leave. In that time we will have signed, Eto, Villa, Barry, Messi, Arshavin and Kaka and will have sold Senderos, Eboue and Song,(if hes not too busy at the olympcs), to Barca.
Raif – I know mate, I was laughing at the blind/ stupid Barca fan, not you
I thought Wenger said Hleb was going nowhere??? Does that mean we’ll now get a centerback? Wenger said when talking about Ade if a maanager says no, then the players goes, the manager looks foolish, does that make Wenger a fool by his own analogy?
Or a complete muppet with no nuts?
hahaha Sorry mate. mis reading on my part.
i find it very laughable from that comment.
another fan had said wenger is disprate to by somone thats why he sold helb to them.
or somthing along them lines.
id love to know who he thinks wenger wants. only god knows what his reading in them spanish papers
Andy B – I hope you are right about Cesc. Out of that lot I would have Messi, Arse Shaving and kaka. Barry is average Englishman, Etoo maybe knackered and Villa a short arse (we’ve got too many of those).
The only Englishman our team needs is Peter Storey!! Now he would stand no rubbish from the likes of Bolton.
Geoff –
wenger said not going any were to make sure the value of the player stays up and goes down. thats why he said that.
if he said yes i want to sell, then we wouldnt have gotten the fee we have got him for and rather have gotten somthing like 7 mill instead
stays up. and NOT GOES DOWN.. i mean
It’s on the arsenal site now and Wenger is thanking Hleb for his contribution, what fucking contribution, we’ve won fuck all since he’s been here, Wenger is such a wimp, it’s embarrassing.
Just on SSnews aswell Geoff.
Goonerman – yeah you’re right about the shortarses, although in fairness most of them are only 12
I’m so glad that I have season ticket at the most expensive ground to watch football played by the best young players that will one day play for Barcelona or AC Milan.
The Arsenal manager was speaking to the Sunday Mirror: “I think Ronaldo will stay at United because I cannot see the club making the kind of statements they have made if they have no assurance from Ronaldo that he will stay.
“Once a club of their stature say he will stay, he has to stay. If he doesn’t stay you look weak, weaker than if you said nothing at all.”
lol thats so true geoff….wenger thanking alex hleberson is nothing but embarassing why dont our manager grow a pair and say good riddance we were waiting to get rid of him and that would make us feel so much better.
Just read the article on Arse.com.
I fucking knew they would say all that wish him luck bollocks.
Sack the board and bring in Simon Jordan, at least he has the bollocks to say it like it is, the orange freak!
We are comfortable with our decision to let him go and we are all looking forward to continuing our preparations for the new season ahead.
More spin from Arsene Wenger MP
Pleased he has gone Arsene, but remember our feelings about that
I HOPE WE SELL HIM AS LONG AS WE BUY A REPLACEMENT
Oh and Arsene
Definition of Replacement: the act of furnishing an equivalent person or thing in the place of another
Not the act of furnishing a non-equivalent or prepubescent footballer in the place of an experienced one
Why dont we just rename ourselves to Barcelona B
I was going to renew my membership tonight, not in the mood now
oh comon pat we could also call ourself arselona
Fair one Arselona is a better name
David – well quoted!!!
Are we sure AW was away comentating on the euros in June, or was he at Glastonbury doing mushrooms!
Someone needs to remind him of the promises he made before the euros, fuck me its not like when you tell the mrs yr only going out for one, I think some of us actually believed him
lol i have a feeling geoff is gona post a good one tomorrow on hlebs departure
Pat, don’t blame you mate. We’re treated like mugs & I bet Nasri was the last player we’ll sign this summer.
Oh well now that Hleb, Gilberto, Flamini & Lehmann have gone he only needs to sign another 5 players to keep his word!!
Arsene “I think Ronaldo will stay at United because I cannot see the club making the kind of statements they have made if they have no assurance from Ronaldo that he will stay.
“Once a club of their stature say he will stay, he has to stay. If he doesn’t stay you look weak, weaker than if you said nothing at all.”
“He’s under contract and that’s quite simple. I can tell you as manager of Arsenal football club I’m not worried.
Then Wenger said about Ade
“Of course I expect him to be at Arsenal next season – he’s under contract.”
What’s cracking grovers?
Has Hleb left?
Did Wenger say anything interesting?
Did he say why Hleb was leaving after Wenger stated no one would leave this summer?
Pedro. hi there mate
Yes.
Yes.
NO
yo pedro get me offeth moderation brotha
Unfortunately no media or press seem to ask him those questions
A bit like what happened to your plan of signing players before the Euros?
You’re not in moderation?
or maybe “do you feel the arsenal fans should be reassured with the signings of ramsey and nasri or are there more to come?”
AW: we are comfortable with the decision to let Hleb go
thanks pedro feels good to be a civillian again.
When did you go in there!
If you post a link, sometimes wordpress eats it up!
I think its class what we wrote on the website.
he was a cunt.. but we always bid adieu in a good way, whoever it may be…
forget about him people….now we need replacements!!!!
Here’s the Wen ger one talking about Hleb…
Wenger, though, insists Hleb – who has impressed this season – is going nowhere.
“We want to keep the team together, I do not change my mind every week. I am quite stable on that front,” insisted the Arsenal manager.
yea actualy i had posted a link i think and geoff mentioned me and denis were in moderation and didnt know the reason
any one has atvo.. what is vela saying.. does he speak english?
Choy.
http://carlosvelanews.wordpress.com/2008/06/13/carlos-vela-learning-english-is-ready-to-help-arsenal-fight-for-honours/
david.. thank you!
Wenger is far from a wimp. He is a really thoroughly decent human being who treats former employees with respect. He isnt some egotistical maniac (Jose) or antagonistic bitter old jock fuck (Fergie), and he doesnt feel the need to use the media to stick the knife into players who leave the club. He rises above stuff like that because he has more decency than just about anybody in football today.
Sure he’s made mistakes, he aint god. But just coz he doesnt want to publically slate everyone who’s ever left the club doesnt make him a wimp. He obviously liked Hleb, both personally and as a footballer, so why would he want to see him on his way with a right good slagging off? Nothing wrong with us slagging off Hleb if we didnt rate his contribution, but to call Wenger names coz he doesnt feel the need to criticise Hleb is just shit-stirring for the sake of it.
AKB ALERT!!
Gidster -
you Reek of AKB
i can smell the stencth from here
gunnerfever – LOL
the AKB alarm bells was RINGING for both of us there
Gidster… I am with you on that one mate.
Bad blood just makes you look unprofessional…
Never slag of your previous employer… and vice versa.
choy – he is probably saying “I love Arsenal football club, and am very much looking forward to playing for Barca next year”!
lol true raif my grover senses where tingling the moment i read the comment
Guys, he’s not being AKB…
If wenger stooped to Hlebs level, we’d all be a bit pissed.
Send him packing on our terms… get in a new replacement!
Hleb is the unproductive trophyless past… he didn’t work… lets change things around and make this season count!
Wenger wished Cole well… and let cole make himself look a cunt… which he duly did.
Hopefully Hleb will follow suit.
Who has been calling Wenger names I had a quick look back and i cannot find any?
yeah i know pedro mate.
were just having a giggle thats all.
its not smart being unprofessional
on the subject of cole Pedro, do you think he will be outed now Bridge has signed that new fat contract?
I fucking hope so!
David – shall we make them all stay behind till someone owns up?
Andy B – nah JT and Cole love each other
Pedro , he voted Cole in his best XII on his DVD in front of NW03.
Glad to hear it Raif!
AndyB, I thought the same thing!
Wouldn’t that just make your year!
its true pedro, wenger does have that gentlemanly disciplined conduct when it comes to players leaving arsenal on their terms but when geoff called wenger a wimp it was not coz wenger used those kind words to bid farewell to hleb, he mentioned the contribution in reference to arsenal wining anything since hleb joined us and the gidster took it the other way around and carried the akb stench quite convincingly in his criticism to geoff’s post.
Goonerman – good point, do you think it was those 2 with their mobiles up their arses a little while back?
David, that was being a little over professional in my eyes!
AndyB –
i was thinking that aswell actully..
its a hard one to call i say. but i hope cole gets shown the door and someone like newcastle pick him up as there shit and wont win nothing.
nah – according to the English press JT is a man’s man. Bulldog spirir and all that; he would not stick anything UP THE ARSE
Oh right… I misinterpreted it!
I thought he was having a pop at Choy for saying Wenger should have slagged him!
I haven’t even read the comments… he always says the same though…
i agree with goonerman.
its pennant and cole who are bum boys
JT hold 3 buds in one hand… that is impressive, even for a chav.
Pedro, Geoff
We are getting a slating on ACLF again. It is a shame for that blog as I really enjoy reading Yogi’s posts. here are the latest comments
Ateeb, OMG, you were an innocent trying to engage in rational discourse at Le Grove??? You poor thing! That just doesn’t work over there! You’re one of many of their victims.
In order to be accepted over there, you HAVE TO, absolutely no qualifications, you SIMPLY HAVE TO despise Arsene Wenger and the Board, believe he knows absolutely nothing about football, believe that everyone on that site knows better than he does; and you must trash everybody who has anything nice to say about AW (like “he has nice suits”), accusing them of being a hopeless AKB and therefore an inferior subhuman.
They are the true guardians of Truth and Justice in Football, no one else. Naturally your posts were censored, civilized voices liked yours are not allowed to be heard over there.
The thing is as someone who used to post quite regularly over there, I actually find you get more freedom to speak here. Not because of Yogi being over zealous with the moderation as he is a very good host, but more because some people there will not accept any criticism of the club whatsoever
As for me if things at the club are great, hey even if Eboue has a good game I will say so, but likewise if I dont agree with something I want to vent my frustration somewhere without being told to go and support Chelsea. is there anything wrong with that? The post above pretty much sums it up why I no longer bother posting there.
geoff’s comment is at 9.11pm pedro
PS I only went across to see what they thought of the Hleb Situation
There is a centre half too and a certain spud who joins in as well raif! allegedly and all that..
if that russian didnt buy Chelsea we would have had Terry. what a shame.
but then again the russian would have ownd the scumy spuds.
so come to think of it im glad,
lol dont even bother about what others have to say about this blog pat…..they might not even be getting as many clicks and comments as this one does and they are quite clearly venting their jealousy and trying to make an anti le grove akb horde losers.
night all grovers gota get me some shut eye.
I was going to ask why you were cheating on us Pat!
People who post rubbish like that have never been over here. If they have, they broke one of the rules of engagement.
I think the fact we get 500+ comments a day says something about the debate over here.
ACLF receives less comments because they all agree with each other… there is only so much back patting you can do before you run out of things to agree on!
Over here, we all have differing opinions, all tell it as it is and the most important thing is that we all get on (Mostly!).
Every time someone slags us off… we get more regulars! They are advertising the site without even knowing it!
(I like ACLF, I think he writes great posts)
Laters Gunnerfever
im off for a bit aswell. ill call back later. once i finish watching this movie called 21
its got kevin spacy in it and somthing about Card Counting
Le Grove is on 618 comments how many on there site??
Pat tut tut tut….. how dare you go over to their site, go fuck off to Chelsea you rascal……………… just joking……… all sounds a bit cult like with that excert you gave us, like a extreme preacher…………. is it always like that???
actullly ill make it somthing else as this fake dvd i got is shit and it has no sound whats so ever.
New comments record coming up (600 previous)
Plus… I don’t hate Wenger… nor do most Grovers.
Ahhhhhh David, glad your name popped up………… the Simon Jordan thing………….. I’m sure Geoff has had a tear-up with him in the past at some function or other !!!!!!!!!!
Don#t mean to give Geoff a bad name, Jordan, Beckham et all !!!!!!!!!
Got your mail Bud!
Printing as we speak!
In Wenger we do not hate, in Arsenal we frustrate……………… feck me trhat rhymes………. Pedro, do you want that as Le-Groves new slogan ?!!!!!!!!!
I came on the Grove a while back coz i was disappointed with some of Wengers decisions in the run-in last season and wanted to share my thoughts. It was nice to find a place where there seemed to be some rational criticism of the man. I did say in my post that he aint god, and he does get it wrong sometimes.
But I will defend his corner if others just want to knock him for everything that happens. He’s just behaved in a impeccably classy way, and secured us a pretty decent fee for a player who’s scored 11 goals in 3 years. He’s actually done some superb business and hasnt felt the need to leave a sour taste in everyones mouth by spewing a load of vitriol. This type of thing is one the reasons he stands apart from the vast majority of other managers in the game, and he shouldnt be ridiculed for it.
Doesnt mean he knows how to make an effective substitution…. or rotate his squad….
I can imagine Bud… he wouldn’t hit it off with Jordan.
Pedro – What is the other site I need to do another one about, the one that has been slating us?
Gidster… I appreciate what you are saying and agree about the professionalism thing… but we don’t need good business! We need to keep our players!
Maybe it is out of his control a bit… but it strikes me that we are losing the battle with players at the moment.
Wenger used to be brilliant at persuasion!
Top site on our blogroll Bud.
Blame the Arsenal Press Office Gidster………. darkness and shit makes us feel like mushrooms………….. and I fucking hate mushrooms !!!!!!!!!
As Pedro said, nobody hatres Wenger. Its like my wife, I love her dearly, but sometimes she gets on my tits and I momentarily think to myself………. this wasn’t what it said on the marraige certificate…………. then I have a fag, fart or breathe and I love her dearly again !!!!!!!!!
It never used to be, but looking at the names, it seems a lot of the old crowd have moved on.
A bit like Pedro says, all back slapping and nice comments about everyones new rose tinted glasses. I have got nothing against people being positive, but it is when you get slated for any negative (But True) comment and I got told to go and support someone else once to often so I stopped blogging.
All I do now is read Yogi’s post in the morning which is a very good read and then come back here.
We are richer for your company Pat !
Now who can we slag off next…………. where’s GMR or Odub, their both good for a rumble ?!!!!!!!!!!!
Good post Gidster
But it is only good business if we use the money, That comparision chart that Choy posted earlier (Here again for those that did not) shows we have failed to replace people with adequate replacements in recent years.
http://img378.imageshack.us/my.php?image=5yearspendingcomparisonan4.jpg
I second that Bud! Glad you’re blogging over here Pat!
I saw Odub on earlier Bud! Loved your comment about Arsene! So damn true!
Anyway, I’m off… have a good evening Grovers
Pat… get your fantasy team up!
hey sorry for asking just trying to get my toes around this AKB thing
a coupla days ago i asked what it stood for and got a response so thanks for that
BTW made me laugh
now i am trying to figure what it means to be a AKB or i guess not a AKB
I like Le Boss and think he could be a real football visionary however he is beyond frustrating at times and feel he could stand a kick in the ass as a reality check
his policies are exciting in theory but comes with great fucking concern in reality
overall he is a maestro of fancy football but of late just not fancy title winning football
would this view make me AKB
ah i just read the AKB guide so my answers are there thanks anyway and congrats on such a successful blog
It is already there Pedro
Aiming for Midtable
Pleased to be here
JLP, you don’t sound like an AKB to me…
http://le-grove.co.uk/spotting-an-akb/
That is the official guide to an AKB.
After cross checking your statement… you are officially not an AKB.
You could be a Grover though…
Nice one Pat! I’ll announce the Fantasy Grove thing on the blog tomorrow… so hopefully we can get a few more on board!
How many teams are we on now Pedro?
22!
time to go people…
nite all!!
Nite Choy!
Pat -
22 teams so far
MUTV (SSN)
Are going to try decypher AW comment about Hleb, the bit that went He goes with our blessing. AW has probably said good riddance in a classy way.
Jeez… record day achieved!
We could get up to 700 tonight!
Evening El Tel!
Well done Pedro
Like you say, wait till we actually play a game
Barnet Saturday will surely be a new record
And good night El Tel!
What did you think about Seaman’s endorsement of Big Al?
Speak tomorrow!
Have a good one for the last time!
Cheers Pedro
The senile Seaman said nice things as expected from an Arsenal legend. Bet the old boy wishes he was 5 years younger.
Good night mate.
Ther was a film many years ago called the Arsenal Stadium Mystery.
They should make a new film based on the Arsenal called the Arsen Wenger Mystery.
Are the Arsenal the secret service of the football world.
I wonder how much Hleb, Jens, Flamini and Gilberto are off the wage bill
Do you reckon we will buy replacements before the weekend?
Surely it is worth a cheaky punt for Barry now
So it looks lke we will be left with that prick Ade after all. I was getting so excited about a new striker, the Hunter especially but it now looks like the Mancscum will be buying a decent forward and we will just have to hop the guys we have step up to the plate.
I think they will but it could result in a tactical change by Wenger again.
Ok guys the bar is empty it seems I will check out tomorrow to see who we are linked with.
Wont hold any hopes though.
Up the Arse
Just like to say ,FUCK OFF HLEB YOU UNGRATEFUL BACK STABBING BASTARD, I HOPE YOU GIVE THE BARCA FANS TWO YEARS OF SETTLING IN , i’m sure they wont be giving you the bird and white hankies.
come on boss spend some money ,it’s a joke we get money coming back with sell on clauses with other players as well as the cah we have,
BERTIE GOOD LUCK IN GREECE YOU OUR AN ARSENAL LEGEND(THE INVINCIBLES), like i have said before you got shafted by the boss ,when he took the captaincy off you to give it to arrogant blue, but remianed dignified and didnt go to the press and throw a hissing fit
ALL THE BEST,,
well said simon Bertie is a legend maybe a bit harsh on that backing stabing cunt helb though
Last….
till tomorrow morning. and the new Post
I said horseface going to AC would spell a quick departure for hleb ..
it seems thats what we were waiting on .. horseface’s sale …
So barca are cash strapped too ?
Well whatever it was pretty predictable for me …
Fuck ACLF ! nazi’s the lot of them ! don’t worry about them pat !
go there for a read and have a laugh at the inbreds ..
Like i said the other day if you lie for long enough you all start believing it …
And you’re right Yogi is a good writer , but he edges towards his disciples to keep them happy instead of keeping it objective and informative . I remember him saying Rumours are that hleb is leaving but its just a lot of paper talk ! He says that to every rumour he reports on .. Predictable and boring to read .. I’m sure he thinks ade is going nowhere either !
He doesn’t take into account that arsene has let every person who is unhappy at the club, go .. Backing the odds is a smart thing to do if your trying to use your gray matter ..
But i fully agree with you pat , that was a rant straight out of the ethan handbook ! well done to you .. and very true and informative , good to see you’ve finally got with the program ..
And if you re-read all your arsene quotes then add to it the current one where arsene states ‘he has money but wants to give the young players a go because it would be unfair to bring in players ahead of them ‘ !
if you can future what he means , it means we are in a transitional period again
Defensive midfield is a HUGE concern ..
from Flamini – diarra – bert – denilson ..
to
denilson ONLY ..
well it looks like its denilson’s year dont you think ????
HLEB
“I love this team,” said Hleb. “I will give my best and I want to win everything with Barca.
Hleb arrived at the Nou Camp on the day that Brazil star Ronaldinho was in Milan having a medical as he prepared to leave the Spanish side.
Hleb’s departure from the Emirates Stadium seemed likely all summer after the player admitted he was “mentally tired” of the combination of living in London and playing top-level football.
He joined Arsenal in 2005 after the club paid Bundesliga outfit Stuttgart £11.2m for his services.
Hleb becomes Barcelona’s fifth summer signing following the arrivals of Seydou Keita, Gerard Pique, Martin Caceres and Daniel Alves
so we made 500 000 on him !!!
well its still in the green ..
PS : there you go pat LIVING IN LONDON ….
665 is that a record ??
666 the Ethan number !!!
got to at least jump in and get 666!
haha… you snaked me!
i wonder if hleb will be “mentally tired” of living in barcelona after he’s had his wallet stolen 5 times…
I wonder how Hleb will fit into the Barca play style. He is a great footmaster, but goals . . . that is the mark of a great midfielder. Time will tell.
I like the comments from some . . . give Gallas a chance. What other choice do we have? Plus, I think that Arsene is going to keep him as captain.
So what happens now? So we can put the Hleb saga to bed. There is only one item left on the AKB list . . . Ade off to AC Milan or Barca. I forget when the transfer window closes, but I have to imagine that Ade is thinking to himself . . .
“whatamIgoingtodo?” (It’s all jumbled together because he speaks at mach 5). What his interpreter says is . . . “What am I going to do?” Ade, you had your agent run his mouth . . . you cried wolf, and now that everyone is running out of money . . . the le Grovers are pissed, and well . . . I can’t imagine that Arsene is having you over for French bread, wine, and a chat around the fire place.
So, at this point, we either pray that someone comes up with “magical fairy dust/money” and buys Ade, or he had better make the rest of the strikers look like a bunch of nancies next season.
At least he set the bar low.
parlane
sorry mate im sure a lot of people expected me to get 666
after being the son of the devil and all
but your right Spain is like Thailand you take away the good weather
and its far less desirable .. But he sounded like a recluse anyhow ..
so i don’t think he will be in the position to be pick pocketed 2 often!
transfer season closes 31 august i think maryland .
it finishes on the end of the month that our football season starts ..
thats always august so , im pretty sure the transfer window closes
31 aug … it over laps the start of the season by a week or 2 ..
Not sure if ade will still go to AC , but im sure another club will dive in for him ..
even if its man shity or chevski even ..
Arsene will be more open to offers with the 1st session failing ..
That would be a good Trojan , sending ade to chevski!
let them sell drogba and get ade .. id be laughing so hard id get a hernia !
But i think chevski’s robinho choice is far more scary for us .. And far more the sort of choices we need to be making !
Chevski are serious this season .. new manager deco the portugeezer right back , they have recruited pretty well ..
Ive got to say im with pat on this one . Im really disappointed in wenger ,with his recruitment so far , his faith in his youth will be the undoing again this season ..
He’s learned nothing .. We have 5 or 6 good players .. If we filled the gaps we could have had a crack this season … time is running out and all the GOOD players are finding new homes quickly ..
A lot of AKB are saying the transfer window isnt over yet .. well thats correct
but have you ever been to a clear out sale???
& by lunch time all the really good bargains are gone
to get a winner you needed to be shopping at 8.30 am !
(or before the Euros!)
no problem ethan,
i’ve read enough of your posts to know you deserve it more than me! haha.
i can live with being the neighbour…
i agree with you that chelsk under scolari is a serious proposition and i hope they don’t end up landing robinho. i remember dreaming about him being an arse player 2 or 3 years back before he moved to real… but knowing it wouldn’t happen of course…
hopefully you’re wrong about the clearout sale and the last couple of days transfers will get the wheels rolling a bit. hopefully we can get rid of ade and recruit someone who actually wants to play for us.
i think barry and the arshavin Russian will be a good prospect ..
but there ages at 27 dont make sense if you know arsene !
surely he would rather buy some star Brazilian unknown at 23 -24 for the DM job ?!!
plus if villa wants 18 mil for barry i think arsene will have none of it ….
also ive been reading the news .. and its said that nasri is the replacement for flamini in the gilberto moves story … and in the hleb story nasri is the replacement for hleb ..
sounds like the cunt will be busy
i just saw the 24 man squad for barnet…. barazite isn’t there… so he is definitely off to UDS along with bothello.
Rui fonte is included and so is wilshere…. major surprise… wehave more than 4 englishmen in the team..
lansbury
randall
wilshere
the hoytes
walcott14
i definitely dont see arsene extending his contract beyond this spell… he is certainly aiming for making a strong english background for the team…. so the “real arsenal fans” at le-grove must be pretty pleased…. I am not… I am an AKB… when he goes… you would understand why so many people were AKBs
Who will be the greatest gunner?
Dennis bergkamp (over henry). I hope so….
T14 will be a definite starter, as would Rosicky (if fit), and Nasri should be given the hleb role in the hole. But the boy can shoot better, and more of a threat. As for pressure of playing in premiership, it’s huge, but nothing new for the velodrome kid. Playing for Marseille is the most intense experience for any player, the atmosphere is second to none. He reserves his best against the best teams from europe n ligue1. Coming back from Injury, he could still trouble liverpool for the time he was on. And this is supposedly his worst year. haha, then imagine what he could achieve. It at all anything you guys could judge about a plyer from youtube, it’s his first touch, and control. Nasri’s is the best of all french kids (incl. Benzema n benarfa). Of course, he’s a more special talent than Benzema, and is the closest thing to be compared with young Zizou. His reading, vision, and passing is far better than Reyes (for one particular example). Wenger has done it again. He got the player when he is injured, and had an indifferent season (like how he managed to get Thierry from Juve).
Ikon, Barazite is in the squad, he is second on the list!!
I hope that after 3 months the little shit doesn’t start saying how much he loves Arsenal, like all the others do.
I hope Wenger does some kind of test on the psychological side of his new signings, I can understand if they were with us for 7 years, but these wankers don’t even finish their 4 year contracts.
It’s a joke.
So Barca sell Deco, Goofy and Dos Santos and bring in Hleb, who’s the fucking mugs?
Morning all!
Record day!
Wooo Hooo!
Where is this new post Geoff?
I’m posting at 9 Pedro, you’ll like it!
683rd!
Geoff / Pedro – What are the chances of getting a “le-grove.co.uk” banner made before Saturday????????
685 !
bud, if you parade one of those about all you get is more people who don’t post football related comments competing for first and last place every day.
687! boom boom!
NEW POST! 689!
geoff
you’ll have a hard time topping yesterdays post !!!
it was an ”academy award winner
the blog body count is justification enough 686!
690 a new record !!!!!!!!!
Thanks Ethan, I think todays is a postive spin on yesterdays negativity!
gday geoff and all, great post today, very positive and optimistic, just the way i like it, well written! nice stuff!
can we confirm bitchslapp is on the list yet?