… and a very good morning to you all!
Day 3, and Geoff has informed me via pigeon courier that due to a lack of summer signings he has taken it upon himself to do some pro bono scouting work for the club. At the moment he is tracking a 12 year old suit case stitcher from the Himalayas, I’ll report back on his findings.
Nawang Topkay insists he what it takes.
So, this morning we have awoken to the heart breaking news that AC Milan are looking to sign our dear captain; Cesc Fabregas, for £31million. There is no source bar the Sun newspaper… and no real effort in their valuation. If you could get someone to buy your paving slab for £25million, why would you then sell your diamond for £31million? Cesc is on a 54 year contract, so if Milan have dreams of luring Cesc… I think they should firstly up their bid to a number that isn’t insulting and secondly… look somewhere else.
In other less exciting news… we’ve canned off talks with Numbchucks. Arsene Wenger believes £15million for a player entering the last year of his contract is a little extortionate… I’d have to agree. Especially as it appears we don’t need him.
‘In five months, Chamakh will be free to talk to any club and Bordeaux won’t get anything. It’s over. I’m in no rush.’
At least we know who our next striker is likely to be, eh? One of our bloggers whose been correct with a few insider tidbits has informed us that rumours of a Kalou bid are extremely wide of the mark… I’m still unsure as to why we need another striker.
I’m also tiring of the ‘Eduardo fitness’ debate. He’s been running about since November last year, he’s had 4-5 set backs along the way… but the key is he hasn’t had a preseason set back. You could take the fitness argument wherever you wanted to… for example, I read an article a few years back by a sports scientist who said on average, a professional footballer will sustain a serious injury once every 2 years…. so on the basis of that, we should buy a world class left back to replace Clichy who has had two injury free years… no? Does that sound ridiculous? Of course it does. I think Eduardo has as much chance as anyone staying injury free this year.
On the defensive front, apparently the 6ft 5in Federico Fazio has rejected our overtures in favour of re-signing for Sevilla. In other news, I rejected the overtures of Megan Fox to commit to my girlfriend. Sorry Megan.
I’m also pleased to announce that Phillipe Senderos has nearly agreed terms with Everton and will be heading up North to try and resurrect his career with the Toffees. Phil, the last time I went to Liverpool to see Everton, I was nearly attacked by 5 blokes in a stolen Vauxhall Zafira for wearing gloves at a petrol station… good times. I’m sure you’ll love it up there!
On the subject of Big Phil, what is it with Arsenal fans and their poor memories? Senderos left us under a cloud of embarrassment after spending his final season demonstrating he couldn’t cut it at the highest level… yet this summer, I’m reading comments about him being our best defender. Are we talking about the same defender who broke down in tears after the West Ham game and had to be rested due to ‘emotional issues’? Crying is for girls I’m afraid… not 6ft+ burly centre backs who want to be taken seriously. Crying… pffft… what a pansy!
The same with Eboue… ok, the guy has talent in the same way there is always a kid in Wembley doubles who is amazing… yet when they get out on an 11 aside pitch they can’t cut it. Eboue has never delivered for us, he has dived, time wasted and fluffed his lines more times than I care to mention. Even at right back he failed… because if he hadn’t, he’d still be our right back, wouldn’t he? Let’s stop worrying about players leaving who haven’t cut it… Wenger is usually pretty spot on about letting players go who no longer serve a purpose.
Finally, I’m getting pretty excited about the prospect of playing in a 4-3-3 next season. There are too many combinations to start picking out our best starting 11, which could be viewed as a bad thing, or it could signal that for once, we have genuine competition for a starting place. I’ve also been thinking about Theo Walcott a lot over the last few weeks (Not in a special friends kind of way). This is a major season for him… he has to prove himself, because Jack Wilshere is miles ahead of him for footballing intelligence and sadly, as a goal threat. Rosicky proved with his first touch on Saturday that he isn’t going to be a passenger this year, and there are a few other players who would be more than happy to give him a run for his money. If we can see the Theo we saw against Chelsea, but with a clinical edge… we could be in for a real treat!
Finally… I’m going to ask you politely to have a look at some of the other stuff we’re doing at the moment.
League pin: 244411-61733
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Here are a few snaps sent in of the training day. My thanks go out to Chary for sending them in!
Wenger watches head tennis with Jack, Theo and Denilson
Watching the penalty taking
The Verminator sprints past
The squad jog past
Gallas,Bendy,Robin, Fishead jogging by
Le Grove is now smart phone compatible!
Pedro
Geoff
Balls…..
Uno
…
Aaaarg!
That’s a photo finish right there……
balls
god damn it!
I was refreshing the shit out of the page, robbery lol
re the sun piece about us shrinking i made that point a few weeks ago and only some on here could make sense in what i was trying to say
we are truly shrinking and fast
Best opener, funny as fudge
paving slab – nice one
Franchise
good morning to you , Im glad you highlghted the Sun Shrinking article , I was just about to !!
I have said many times here about the hieght we had before , bergy , th14 , pv 04 , edu , pires , etc etc let alone the centre halfs all 6 ft plus compared to now .
no wonder we got found out in the cl semi .
“…Obviously, I don’t like writing negative articles. I hate to start any day by writing something like this and only do it if something annoys me.
My job here on ANR is to say what I think as clearly and as honestly as I can . If I don’t say what I think, I’m a fraud, a cheat, a camp follower, an apologist, a PR man, a liar and a total waste of space.”
You forgot to mention you’re a cunt regardless Myles..
Morning all
Good News is that we did bid for Federico Fazio… hey at least we are trying!!
morning all, good post and good pics!!
fucking hell i agree with myles palmer article this guy must be stalking my comments
http://www.arsenalnewsreview.co.uk/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=1351&cntnt01returnid=42
Can Arse play 433 like Barca?
he is right when he says players make formation and not the reverse
for a change the teams we have played in pre season have not sat back and invited us to attack
come 15th Aug against Everton it would be a different ball game
I dont agree with Myles , we are adopting a 433 not to imitate Barca but to play in the best way possible with the squad we have.
He goes on about raving the Barca system but he is right on one account we are not Barca and hence we will play our own way in a 433 , if we put the right players in correct positions we will be good.
If Myles Palmer hates writing these sort of articles he should not write them , not go on with another rant.
lol.. myles
“Dutch teams can play 4-3-3 because they’ve played it for decades.”
“But 4-3-3 will not work with these players. Song, Eboue, Bendtner, Denilson, van Persie and Walcott could not play 4-3-3 effectively. I’ll stake my reputation on that.”
myles is right though, we dont have the players to play ti well, namely the DM
chavs play 4 3 3 as well
We DO have good players to play our OWN version of 433 with Arshavin , RVP , Eduardo , Cesc , Rosicky
We dont have a dmf like Yaya , I agree with that but the players at our disposal fit very nicely atleast offensively in a 433.
also The Sun is complete Dung , they rehashed the Fazio article from earlier i remeber previous season , someone wmust have been on a deadline…..
myles is so right
433 is a very hard formation to execute
this current side can play with 5 in midfield but they dont have the players to play with 3 IMO
Follow Lequipe for all Arsenal related news , our manager prefers to talk to french journos . Isnt it strange most fans use newsnow etc for their team news , we need to use google translator
Given a choice I’d pick Wenger over Myles…let’s wait and see!
i think 4 3 3 is perfect for us.. we don’t have wingers to play a 4 4 2 and we don’t have henry to play a 4 5 1
I don’t think we have any intention of playing 4-3-3 like Barca so Myles is an idiot to think so or compare. Learn a thing or two about formations and watch a few press conferances please. We play a very fluid system, 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-2-1 to 4-3-1-2 etc.. That’s what makes it fluid, the fact our front six are able to interchange so much. The Barca 4-3-3 has three forwards and three midfielders and relies heavily on team pressing since there is so much open space for the opposition if not pressed. Ours doesn’t. There are a lot of differences, if this was a debate I could mention them, but it isn’t.
The point on our ‘shrinking’ is a case of stating the obvious…we all knew that years ago. Next thing you know the Sun would remind us we are in the month of August!
arsenal’s play is all about movement
we dont rehearse moves, we dont have plays
watch mancs and barca and u can see a lot of scripted play when they attack and defend
arsenal’s play is more flexible its quite advantageous and it is also quite disadvantageous
we lack positional discipline atimes hence we have situations where the strikers drfit wide crosses ar then sent in for the invisible man to tap in
IMO 442 is our best formation
Barca’s 433 is even on another level. its in their players DNA
arsenal can play with one up front and 5 in the middle with 2 kinda supporting the strikers
433 like barca involves the 3 upfront runnning the channels like a forward would
in that instance VP as a RF, Walcott as a LF and Eduardo or Bendtner in the middle might work
M Palmer if full of crap. Fact!!
One moment he stated Eduardo’s the new folwer and will be scoring hatricks.
Next is we need Huntelaar. We need Huntelaar.
Clueless!
Ali Saljuk, i had a little rant about that yesterday. Wenger and Arsenal need to realise that the core fan base are english speaking and based in london, they shouldn’t be talking to the french press first and shouldnt be doing crossbar challanges for french sports channels before doing it for the english ones!
Arsenal are an english club not a french one!
442 means our best player is stuck out on the wing and theo or eboue on the right wing…
no go
Myles has repeated what i posted here yesterday, arsenal cant play barca’s 4-3-3 because we dont have yaya toure.
I believe we can get away with it against weaker opponents but against teams that are half decent we need 2 DM to make for the lack of one proper DM like yaya.
You’d be surprised how French the English are!
i think wenger probably talks to french press because the english twist everything and pick and choose which bits to use to sell their papers
M Palmer and his blog are a disgrace. Not as bad as the twats who run Arsenal Action.
Anyways, regardless of our failure with Fazio or whatever his name is at least it sends a message of intent that are looking for another centre half, which is a good step in the right direction.
Top point there, Man!
Do you think they will do an article reminding us we have a lot of french players… or perhaps Jack W is good?
Having a team of small players isn’t a problem if most of your small players are brilliant.
Having a midget in the holding role isn’t very appealing… and having relatively small centre backs isn’t always a winner… but then again, two are 6ft… the other two are 6ft 2. Our Keeper is 6ft 3… Bends is 6ft 3, Robin is 6ft 2… do we really need height on the wings?
so Myles is right then Arsenal cant play 433 like Barca
4231 is not 433 its 451 same as the 4321 (christmas tree)
4312 is diamond 442
The Sun is really good at stating the obvious. I am sorry Telegraph but I am changing over to the Sun, they won me over.
Shame that Myles doesn’t write for the Sun…But then again maybe he is scared that Fran will stop posting on LG and he will have no material.
Morning all by the by.
we might not get away with 4 3 3 not because of yaya toure or any other player… but because of our lack of team ethic.
we don’t work as hard as we do when we don’t have the ball
id rather read about us buying a monster DM than CB.
without the DM we’re gonna win fuck all again
I suppose you’d be happier with fat Sam or ‘Arry then A&N? The man is French, I didn’t see it as a problem when we were winning, am sure neither did you. Nationality or language has nothing to with talent, skill, leadership. Some of the greatest players for this club came from elsewhere and if they choose to speak in their language to there countrymen that’s up to them.
Besides he speaks to the French press to get a message across to Triuad, Bordeaux, and there fanbase.
10 days to go and we’re not closer to anyone.
Oh man!!
choy… thats a great point mate, the whole barca 3 chase and hustle to get the ball back high up the pitch, we dont do that, thats what would kill us along with having song and not yaya
Fabregas to milan rumours make me laugh.Why would any1 want to go to ac milan right now.
choy, good point.
Barca are the best team in europe not because of their outrageous skill but because they press like a pack of blood hungry wolves. Even their kids played the same way at the wembley cup.
Duke ever tried stand up
iceman… get used to it mate
how funny was that article took off abit of stress i had. and i agree with him but he must stalking some of our comments.
we all know what happens when one gets interviewed in an english paper…
5 other papers will rehash the same story !!!
4-4-2
Arshavin Cesc DM Rosicky
RVP/Bendtner Eduardo
This can also work effectively
Our 4-3-3 will be different from Barcalona’s. They play with 3 real strikers who do not have to track back on defense while I believe due to the lack of a Yaya Toure figure our system will as more from the left and right wingers defensively as well as the centre forward as far as defending from the front. Basically I see our 4-3-3 relying more on collective defense rather then one ball winner.
A&N, more to the point… shouldn’t Arsenal.com be getting more of the exclusives?
I’m pretty sure the more exclusives you get, the more hits you get… the more dollar you get…
It seems mad how slow they are to report anything…
I don’t feel that site is run by football fans, because they are so very out of touch with what people want to read.
Big News:
Were signing F ALL !!
Wenger and the board are said to be delighted about this signing
Lazer, then why deny English fans of seeing their team do the crossbar challenge? They did it for french tv and everyone in the squad sat around speaking french to each other even the non-french squad members.
Pedro
Was that really denilson plaing head tennis ??
lol , fuck me , must have been alot of double faults .
“what do mean I have to make the ball go forwards and not sideways “.
out , fault , out , fault , out , fault , !
I also remember reading somewhere that the front three of barca… messi eto and henry had committed the most fouls in the team …
that means defending from the front..
Balls……
I like ANR, I can’t deny it…
Pedro, dont even get me started on arsenal.com ! What a waste of space, Arsenal are the worst at marketing themselves and handling good PR.
Mind you if the court was no more than ten yards long , he might of done ok , any longer and he would have been fucked .
Jules, they are Chary’s picks!
I must admit, I’ve never seen Denilson head the ball…
Tom..
Still keeping the faith mate
3 players in by Aug 31…Ok fine…2…:)
So with Senderos we will have about 45m to spend,
and Wenger only has this week to buy the players under his own admission that he shuts shop on Friday.
My fear is that he is looking for bargains and if he cant find them then we go as we are…..
Jesus Arsene, look at what Arshavin brings us and then bring in that quality CM.
Fran, I am more good on the spot, stand-up I have to work to come up with a show.
choy u 100% right
even when we play 451 we are still easily opened up (remember roma, villareal, mancs away)
its funny cos a 451 is a formation is meant to tighten up the midfield with the emphasis on defending
formations are a science. wenger is an artist it seems
The manager is French, he recruits in France, the players speak French, so what? If you were English playing in France wouldn’t you like to do something for the fans and fellow countrymen back at home once in a while?
the duke show. sounds posh and gay
We need to press upfront a bit more.Rosicky’s work rate is great.Rest are just alright.They need to step up
Pedro are you making money with hits?
2… and ill be genuinely shocked mate! shocked to the core!!
i think he’ll buy a CB then we’ll get destroyed in midfield when we only have fab, denilson and diaby for 2 months while songs at the ACN… giving wenger a perfect excuse for winning nothing
No LAzer… just friends! haha!
A&N, I agree. As someone who is going t business school to get an MBA in marketing. the dot com really do themselves no favours in terms of branding and marketing.
BendyTheViking u wrong about barca’s top 3 not having to track back
that was the first thing pep addressed when he took charge. they defended from the front better than any other team in europe last season
i read an article that the top 3 committed more fouls than the main CB pairings for most of the season (up to the point the article was written which was just b4 the Champs League semis)
LAzer i have no problem with them doing things for the french audience, just would be nice to get it here first for english fans.
To the best of my knowledge they have never done a english crossbar challenge, and wenger gives exclusives to the french media before the english.
Fine if he hates the english press but why not give exclusives to arsenal.com where fans pay a fee to find out first!
Pedro, you must be Nostradamus in disguise…I can see the Sun running with those articles you suggested…and they are shameless enough to go ahead with it even after our lambasting tututut
I stand corrected.
Me too.
Look forward to ANR.
But sometimes…Dayum..the man’s crazy!!
hahah Fran, maybe Russel Brand should start Ponderland again and name it the Duke show, ticks all the boxes
wenger having 45m makes no difference to if he had 15m, he’ll sign who he wants and spend what he wants we all know that, just cos he’s got more cash doesnt mean he’ll go for more expensive targets
I don’t mind Arsenal.com so much. In fact I could go as far as saying I like..
Whats happened to the Matuidi thing ??
gone very quiet ? Bob Wilson said he thinks we will buy one or two , hope he is right ,
I have a feelin we will still get chamak , think the Kalou thing is bollocks maybe to try and get Bordeaux to do something .
would much rather the ch and dm we have all said a zillion times about though .
Franchise, apparently Guardiola told Messi that he was the best player in the world on the ball, but needed to be the best off it… he would scream at him for not getting close in on his man on throw ins…
We sometimes need a bit of discipline like that.
Tom..
You best be prepared to be shocked
Cattermole+PV+Hangeland/Upson.Done.Liklehood zero.
EXCLUSIVE!!!
ARSENAL HAVE ACCEPTED A BID FROM LIVERPOOL (£5MILLION+RYAN BABEL) FOR THEO WALCOTT.
Sounds like a load of shite so dont believe it but what would you all think????
morning all, i’m a bit worried that every bid we make is around the 6 million mark. Is that all the money we have to spend? What happened to the 41 million we got from selling?
If you were wearing those free plastic protective gloves whilst filling up with petrol, maybe you deserved to get started on.
Wenger only spends big if he has £100m hence his quote ‘You think im stupid enough to have £100m in the bank and not spend it?’
Nick , Ryan Babel is shite. If Barry is worth 18m then Walcott can’t leave for anything less than 20m.
fack.. not babel of all people
Nick
where do get that bollocks from ?
no doubt no reply
Nick, not in a million years.
Jack, they were a delightful pair of fingerless knitted gloves. Combining coolness with practicality.
Hi everbady
if they offer us mascherano then we’re good to go
iceman… lol! ill welcome it mate
thats true pedro
without hard work and graft u cant win anything but hiosted pre season tournaments
that is one reason TR7, hleb and flamini were a sucCESC with Fab in 07/08
ill take my yellow
As long as he buys on merit with looking to improve on what we have got and does not prevent buying to protect some stubborn belief in potential I am fine with his transfer activity. Last summer was a disaster, probably one of the worst under his helm imo.
The think with Wenger here is he believes the players he will buy will add depth, not be starters and as such, he will refuse to pay more then 8 tops for any of them. It is frustrating because we need depth, sure, but buy a real fucking holding player and use Denilson for depth. PROBLEM SOLVED.
** hosted
Not meaning to critique the King of Arsenal… but after recouping nearly £50million this summer… do we really need to keep sniffing round players in the last year of their contracts?
Can’t we go out and spend £15mill on a decent player… why are we always hanging around the sale rail?
Franchise
I don,t take any qoutes seriously now , if you took them all in the last couple of years , the contradiction would be massive
easy fellas
Franchise… those players didn’t have the grit to last the season though…
Morning Eduardo
Fuck babel…i’d take ade back instead of him thats how bad he is…
Pedro, because Arsene will only spend 15 on someone to come into the first 11, not a squad player. He is looking for squad players. That is the problem. He thinks our first 11 is good enough, which is highly debatable.
well said Pedro…we almost lost AA through i miser attitude.im not saying we should do ” a sp*rs” but we could lay out as you say 10 – 15M Min on a cm. and i really am not convinced they have to be a dcm but more box to box. a world class flamini
07/08 from my recollection wasn’t a success. We won…oh nvm we didn’t.
jules i didn’t post it as fact mate so don’t get over excited for fuck sake
a shitty rumour site, anything thats different or worth a debate i put it up nothing more….the answer no doubt
LAzer… dont you think this one is going the same way!??
ade, toure, phil, all gone
vermaelen in
no one of any real stature or class being linked either, atleast last year we were in for alonso and inler with serious intent. it looks like more of the same from where i am mate
jules i was being sarcastic. im a student of Geoff
wenger would still sign the cheap unknown players if he raises £50m
having £50m wont make him did for some proven names
Proven is normally the word that makes the difference between costing £8m and costing £18m
the other word is English
Darren Bent £16m ?????
nick wasuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup?
Nick, were you attention seeking?
myles is right but its like writing an article saying that west hams 4-3-3 is not as good as arsenals 4-3-3. Barcas 4-4-2 would be better than arsenals 4-4-2 cos they hav better players!
Arsenals new formation is 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 but a very fluid system. I think this suits the players we have better than 4-4-2 because AA and cesc get more freedom. Barca have just got better players ie messi toure zlatan better than walcott song rvp but hey we’re not doing too bad if we’re second to them. That means we should win EPL! do you forget what barca did to manure and they didnt even play that well!
Excactly Pedro
40 mill readty to go and we are poncing around with 5 mill bids for chamack ,
wenger , learn the English adage of Buy Cheap Buy Twice .
for once buy the article ,
Bendy… I would lump £15million an really decent holding player… and a really decent 3rd choice defender who could develop into a first choice candidate.
I’m thinking this wont happen though… he is happy with Denilson and Song…
Fingers crossed Tom.
Maybe we can play 4-3-3 with PV back?
Yeah Tom…depressing isn’t it. But I’ll pass judgement when the window closes and the true test begins. But yeah, I hear you…depressing so far..
There will be one more signing this summer and it will be Patrick ‘Im to old and injured for Inter and only want to play for my old team so I can go to next years world cup’ Vieira. And yes, that is his full name.
I mean I agree pedro, I am not saying I support wenger’s think here rather just pointing out what his thinking is. I would certainlz shell our upwards of 20 for the right holding player and then 12 to 15 for a centre back and bank the rest. It is so frustrating because I feel we re two players away from being the best club in England but Wenger just wont sack up and buy the two fucking players.
Pedro would i do that, just think i would be tempted so just wanted to check if i was on my own….think i am
Oh fair enough Pedro. I pity the losers that use the free plastic gloves at petrol stations. Why wouldn’t you want petrol on your hands? It smells lovely!
iceman, only with him sitting very very deep as i dont think he’s got the legs to hustle people, his reading of the game was always amazing though which is something he wont have lost
haha! So true Jack!
talking of petrol i fucking put unleaded in my diesel on Monday what an expensive mistake that was…tip of the day if you are thick enough to do it dont drive it (as i did) and call AA they sort it on the road side
people dont get the point of myles article
a lot of fans had already started co mparing our formation to barca’s and felt as a result we have a God given right to win the quintuple just because barca used it
we dont have the players to play it and that was the essence of the article
Nick – You plank!!
guilty as charged sir TAIG
Fran – I thought that was obvious!
Being happy with Denilson and Song is like driving your wife’s minivan to work and showing up with a smile on your face.
There must be someone with more info about signings? surely someone is headin to emirates
LAzer – ha ha!
Franchise, we are missing one player to play it. The holding player. I think our front line could play similar to Barca as well as our back line, which I think is better defensively. Rafa Marquez is just a joke. Plus I hardly rate Victor ‘I fucked up’ Valdez.
not to many taig
ppl were saying
song = yaya
arhavin = henry
bla
bla
bla
u get my point
Nick, I will wait till this season finishes before I start thinking about that… but if he has another year like this one… you’d have to consider moving him on…
valdez is a better keeper than almunia IMO
How anyone that has had the likes of Vieira, Petit, Parlour and Gilberto in their team can then be happy with our current crop is beyond me! Just because they play for Arsenal, it doesn’t mean you have to say they are world class players!!
unfortunately not Aussie
and don,t call us shirley ,
so old I know
Fran – I get ya!
Pedro thats for me as well and really want him to do well…
People wear disposable plastic gloves while filling up?? Who are these people? Hand models?
franchise, valdez isnt that flash!
and mind u the way we played at the emirates cup, a lot of teams would be happy for us to play them like that. they would just try to deny us space behind the defence, we would have to try our luck from outside the area but would we shoot?
Fran, I’ve just read the article… I think we’re one player away from making that formation work.
I think Myles has over played how hard it is to play a 4-3-3… Barcelona would have been amazing whatever they did last year… and Arsenal could have a great run at it this year.
We don’t have to play exactly like Barca… we can create our own version of it utilising the skill set of the players we do have.
TAIG – completely agree 100% with your comment about the current mid 4 and the ones of old HOWEVER,
rosicky cesc nasri AA
that is NOT BAD
Aussie Az i agree then imagine how much i rate almunia
Denilson is world class Taig, did you watch the Roma game then?
to true i guess, i dont rate him either, should never let got him.
Pedro – My biggest worry about playing 4-3-3 is the amount of exposure it will give to Sagna and Clichy as I’m not sure which of our ‘attacking’ players would be capable of fulfilling the defensive responsibilities on the flanks??
Fran I disagree, I really think Valdez is a disaster waiting to happen. Also, I don’t rate Barca’s defense, except Pujol. The big Pique is a good prospect but still suspect at times and Rafa Marquez is awful. I rate Clichy more then Abidal and as good as Alvez is going forward he gets found out often on defense, which is pretty much the opposite of Bac.
all this about our squad shrinking, we have all said the squad is full of nomads and would rather sell two players and get one good to replace them.
Think this is what wenger is doing trimming the squad so we have two quality players in each position rather then a glut of shit.
bendy there defensive side was still good enough to win everything they could last year..
As an aside, god I hate that pathetic curly haired fouling cunt Puyol.
everything is COOOOOOLL. Seen som top football already. I’m just waiting for the wannabe managers to EAT THEIR WORDS. I’ll stand my ground, and reside safely in my ‘bubble”. This is Arsenal’s best squad yet.
eduardo – I think you know my comment was aimed at a certain other 2 players!
LAzer – Denilson is about as world class as Peter Beagrie!
Just gota say I love my Balackberry!
TAIG, Rosicky is great a covering back, we’ve seen Nasri muck in plenty of times. Theo improved towards the back end of last year… and Rambo used to be a right back, so you’d hope he was aware of his responsibilities. Arshavin is also good from a positional point of view.
Our man problems last year with the full back was that no one in front of them was good enough to hold onto the ball so they could go foraging.
Pedro its quite hard to play it. if we only started playing it in 2009 summer we would have to wait a few years b4 it becomes part and parcel of us
433 is very mechanical if i may use the word. a lot of player discipline is required
barca’s 433 is out of this world anyways
the thing is formation change for any team is not very straight forward
remember when chelsea tried to play 442 in 06/07?
That was meant to be Blackberry. Im not a Chelsea fan. HeHe
BendyTheViking when we win the league and CL double then come back to me and tell me how weak barca’s team is
Dave – We haven’t been tested defensively though have we! We played some 44 year old Austrian amateurs, some Hungarian minnows and Rangers. The one team that could have posed a threat, Atl.Madrid, cut us open with absolute ease…..
dave, best squad yet!???
you feeling ok mate?
Fran, I think its a good opp to try it… the old guard has mostly left and we have a lot of new players coming into the team this year.
It didn’t take us long to make 4-5-1 work for us on the way to the Champions league final, did it?
I am okay nasri or rosicky wide left cos their work rate is pretty good.Right might be problem.But then we have sagna there who is a really good defender
Bubbleboy Dave, what’s your take on Denilson then? Taig seems to agree with me he is world class..
franchise you think that arsenal cant handle the change? or the players are quality enough i know we still lack a strong DM
franchise
do you not think our players are better suited to 4-3-3 than 4-4-2?
A lot of our wide men prefer to play more centrally (SN AA TR TW JW) and in 4-3-3 the wide players can come in more as they have more cover behind them.
Their defensive side was given a break by an unbelievably poor United performance. In addition there were multiple scares throughout the season and a big reason they won the league was because Madrid was exceptionally poor.
Pedro – Yeah I guess so, I just get the feeling its either gonna be a huge success or put an end to everything Arsenal. Its a lot of responsibility on that middle flank of 3.
Pedro
I just checked FG, 451 registered. What is the prize again
Also, I think man city will challenge for top 4, but I think manure will be the one under most threat to drop out. You read it 1st from the prophet gnarley
Is it possible that we are delaying Senderos’ move to Everton until AFTER we play them?
Dave, the thing is… if you get it wrong… you wont be back admitting it next year!
Lewdy… welcome to the club, I hope you love it as much as I love mine…
Ahh… blackberry…
LAzer – Stop spreading these rumours about me! I’d rather you tell my girlfriend I’m cheating on her and my dad that I’m gay than you telling people I think Denilson is world class!!
Fran it is a FACT that throughout the season their defense was very poor and if it wasnt for the insane year Henry, Eto and Messi had combined with a dreadful season for Madrid we wouldnt he having this discussion. Fact is Barca almost blew their lead in La Liga two or three seperate times.
I must say clichy’s positional sense is really bad.2007-2008 it was okay.Beginning of last season you could see that clichy was way too cautious.He would stay too far behind.With his pace he really shouldn’t be doing that
Nasri on right and Rosicky on left solves the RM/LM spots but then you need a “world class” DM to play with Cesc as he is not a complete box-to-box himself. And what of Arshavin and Walcott?
GG9 – That’s crazy talk! Utd are and rightly so the favourites for the EPL! I fucking hate the cunt but SAF is a fucking genius and if anyone can find life after Ronaldo its him!
TAIG agreed BUT those four scare the shit outta me and if song/denilson/diaby via for back up then i can leave with it.
the trouble is the more you look at it liek that the less likely it is that AW WILL but a proven CM. perhaps matuidi, i would like that WITH sakho
Wenger shops in tk maxx
Sorry to hear about your girlfriend TAIG.
it didnt pedro cos the team was mature and determined
we also had henry
the point is we can play any formation we like inluding 433 but we can never play it like barca
u can write a book about their forward runs and their runs from midfield and full back positions. those guys are on another level
Gnarley… I’m taking it seriously this year… fear my team! haha!
I’ll hold you to your City prediction… I reckon they’ll finish 8th.
TAIG, I’d take anything over a 4-5-1 with Song and Denilson holding fort…
That’s why I’m hoping for Matuidi.
Fran, I don’t agree with this formation taking a few years to have effect… you have to make changes at some point… why would they take years to integrate?
nishanth – I have been campaigning for Gibbs to start. If he can improve that quickly in a couple of months imagine how good he could be for us by December. He is the future!
Fran, they are indeed a top team… but they only beat the Chav’s on the back of a lucky break and some horrific refing…
i agree with lazer, cesc game dont really suit 433 either, we lacking the right players for it
What i can’t understand is why do we need to play 4-3-3 just cos barca did and it worked well.Also apart from the match against rangers our 4-3-3 has never really looked fluid.Playing bendtner wide and RVP as CF really didn’t he;lp
Taig and DenilSong sitting on a tree…what a threesome..the rest is history.
BendyTheViking u r funny. Barca’s defence in la liga was poor and our was……….
Barca had the best defence in the league conceding 17 less than Madrid
Pedro – Yeah I am with you on that one!
our defensive poor true but we didnt bring no bacon home
nisanth, thats down to not knowing nasri well plus he probably looked at who we had to play as a DM and knew he wouldnt be covered if we got caught out
Wenger always liked playing 4-5-1 in the Champions League, which he used to move into a 4-4-2 in attack. Then he used a straight 4-5-1 in both attack and defence in Europe, before bringing in a 4-2-3-1 last season, with two defensive midfielders and Cesc in a free role. In pre-season this year, he seems to be playing more of a 4-3-3, with Cesc one of two attack-minded players in the middle, and a holding player behind. Will be interesting to see if this is the formation he plays against Valencia, which I imagine will be a reflection of his plans for the Everton game. I’d love to see Cesc and Rosicky in midfield, with a new holding midfielder behind them, but I imagine it’ll be Denilson.
Agree TAIG.Clichy is never going to be great going forward in terms of end product.And defensively he is not the best either.Lets see what happens.Think by the start of next season gibbs would be our first choice LB and then wenger will probably seell clichy to madrid or city for 20million
Pedro if only we could have that sort of luck
the chavs and us arent on the same level anyways or u dont agree
chelsea are a match winning machine fucking hard to beat.
arsenal since 2004 have been quite inconsistent to be a force to be truly reckoned with
Almunia
Sagna – Hangeland – Gallas – Gibbs/Clichy
Cattermole/Vieira
Fabregas – Rosicky
van Persie – Eduardo – Arshavin
Fran, the Chav’s are an ageing team of top players. They are like the Milan of a couple of years ago… reinvigorating them with Jerk-off and Pirlo doesn’t do it for me…
We’re on an upward curve… I bet if we signed someone like Essien, we’d win the league. I think we’re on super signing away from competing.
Franchise is a winning way, i think chav hav still keeped it from the special one era, we need to bring back out 2003/04
Barca with a back 4 of Puyol pique yaya sylvinho stopped united from scoring.They are bad when it comes to set pieces.But as a team they defend really well
Fran, saying Barcalona’s defense was poor has nothing to do with our defense. Our’s was shit. So somehow us having a bad defense and Barca having a weak defense are mutually exclusive. They conceeded 17 less then Madrid but on several occasions throughout the campaign Barca had what was one a 14 point lead cut to between 6-4 points. They won the league and yes it was an amazing season for an amazing team but they don’t walk on water. They had thier weakness, that is all I am trying to say.
Fran, saying Barcalona’s defense was poor has nothing to do with our defense. Our’s was shit. So somehow us having a bad defense and Barca having a weak defense are mutually exclusive. They conceeded 17 less then Madrid but on several occasions throughout the campaign Barca had what was one a 14 point lead cut to between 6-4 points. They won the league and yes it was an amazing season for an amazing team but they don’t walk on water. They had thier weakness, that is all I am trying to say.
SAdly Franchise I agree on the fuckinshitbadChavs comment.
Pedro the formation may suit our players but its no guaranteed winner
if we signed a beast of a midfielder i would still prefer we play 442 mostly and 433/451 in the big games
taig nice side but some of them players are still missing from our pay roster
ha ha, who saw McLaren’s FC Twente get dumped out of Europe in the 95th minute by the Sporting GOALKEEPER!!!!!
true Bendy
Bendy barca won everything man, i dont know why u harping on point, the players they got are world class and can carry them through and the defensive just need to fill in the blanks
and this chelsea are old thingy is a myth
or Mancs are depleted
neutrals still see us as the weak link in the top 4
Chelsea will be one of the most consistent sides this year! they will be right up there. To say the likes of Lampard, Malouda and Anelka are too old to compete is a mixture of wishful thinking and naivety!
4-3-3 is defiantly the way forward with The players we have, but it wont count for much unless we find that much needed DM.
Franchise, no formation garentees success but given the number of attacking players we have a 4-3-3 allows us to accomidate more of them at a time and I believe it will work better then the 4-5-1 or whatever shitty formation we had when Cesc was being played as a second striker.
Fran – That’s because we most definitely are!
alonso leaving is a big blow for liverpool.Aquilani isn’t much of a replacement.
i dont think eboue is going at all and i dont dont wont him too his very good versitile squad player snd our only right back cover,wintshire wenger is going have handful trying get him to be patient,he should get at least 4games in prem for m ake.he is clearly he clearly has alot mor e vision than wilcat.delinson has a problem because ramsey is clearly a better player and anyone can see that diaby has tons more ability than him but just needs to be more consistant.dm is a bit of problem because song will be gone for african nations and delinson cant play there on his own
I just heard a rumour on ESPN that Taig is a big fan of Denilson
Aussie, I am not saying they didn’t win everything or they are rubbish. I am saying they are god’s gift to humanity.
I agree with Pedro as well though, in 09 they are a team of ageing stars who have not really been replaced or improved. There time is up, the Ruskie will not drop another billion in building a team. That’s what it will take City if not more to “buy” a top 4 spot and they are the most liable imo. Perhaps not this year, but soon..
cheski will still be strong even with aging problems everyone natural thinks that arsenal will drop out and man city take our place, but i think liverpool losing alonso will weaken them to
TAIG-Chelsea would be a tough team to beat.But i don’t think they have enough to win the league.And during ACN they will lose 3 key players.They will definitely challenge though
Jules, what they were doing was predominantly launching the ball into play with a kick then passing it to each other over the rope via the head or chest(which Song seemed to favour), Theo was in that group also and when he pulled off an overhead kick(the equivalent to a smash to reply to an attempted lob) he got a ripple of applause from the other players in that group and the usual “Theee-oo, Theee-oo” chant from those of us at that portion of the crowd. Denilson didn’t seem too bad at heading although Theo did look a bit rusty.
Another observation from the day was that the Septic CEO didn’t sound like a septic much at all when he was being interviewed by Bob Wilson. Interesting to note that he hinted at forthcoming changes around the Grove to make it feel more like home.
A real trophy would be a nice start.
I think neutrals and pundits are vastly over rating Citeh. I can’t see them cracking top 7.
My point pedro is not so much that man city will challenge for 4th, its more that manure look likely to be the one in the gun if change does occur. Anyway, thats my rumour & I’m quite enjoying sticking it up those manure fools
If we get a CB that can compete in the air and a DM that can strike a bit of fear into the oppo then 4-3-3 could work an absolute dream!!
But all the time we don’t win headers we will lose to direct teams like we did against Fulham and Stoke last year! And all the time we have Denilson or Song in our midfield the oppo midfielder’s will feel they are in for any easy day!
Picture this. You are Franck Lampard (and have gotten over the fact that you are a womanising fat cunt). You receive the ball in the middle of the park. You know that behind you is Denilsong. Your going to know that you have time on the ball, wont be receiving any crunching challenges and that you will be able to shrug them off the ball if they manage to catch up with you.
No if you had a ‘Cattermole’ type player in there you would be bracing yourself for a challenge before you even had the ball, would feel nothing like the level of comfort you would with the other two muppets and would start to rush your play. You also know that its gonna be a fucking hard days work!!
GG9!!!!!!!
Have to disagree Pedro, Zhirkov is an amazing player. What Chelski paid for him makes mugs out Liverpool for paying around the same for Johnson.
Chelsea’s team didn’t show any signs of aging last season! although I think we could get behind them with our pace in the squad.
For me it’s their manager who is the gamble. Didn’t we see this last season with Scolari? A well established manager but under estimated the speed of the Premiership.
The actions and signings of Ancelotti will determine Chelsea’s season and just hoping he’s going to fall clean on his back side.
GG9-At this point united don’t look that strong.But i am sure fergie will make more signings.Otherwise i don’t think they have that strong a team
the reason chelsea havent signed anyone since jerk off is cos they are trying to sign a marquee signing. dont raise ur hopes that the pensioners would be too old to move
i repeat chelsea are too fucking hard to beat. just too hard
the idea chelsea will fall away cos they are a year is ridiculous, their game hasnt been about pace for 2 years they are all about being strong and well organised and thats not going to change. they are a far safer bet for the league than we are.
apparently liverpool are in talks for poulsen from juve… another toughy CM
duke u kidding i dont even think that Zhirkov will do much i think luckin to get on there starting roster
The likes of Cech, Bosingwa, Alex, Terry, Cashley, Essien, Mikel, Malouda, Ballack, Deco, Anelka, Drogba, Zirkhov and the rest will do nothig other than challenge right until the end!!!!
I gota go with duke, Zhirkov is class.
a lineup of
Drogba Anelka
Zhirkov Lampard Mikel Essien
Cole Terry Carvalho Bosingwa
Thats a really strong team.
chelsea still have mikel, essien, malouda, anelka, lamps, drogba should i go on
plus dont forget anchelotti still had maldidni doing the business at 40… i dont see him having many problems with a 30yr old laps, drog or ballack
I agree with taig i dont want to say it but they will be there at the end of the day, i hope we are to but u can feel more safe being a chav fan right now
nishanth real fucking stong
not to mention alex and ivanovic as CB pairing 2
the chavs are fucking strong
they have no cause to panic buy imo
the only hope for us with the chavs is ACN…
no drogba, kalou, mikel and essien
Maldini did in in seria A where nobody runs.
‘challenge right until the fucking end’ i agree taig
Only way chelsea will struggle is if ancelotti turns out to be crap.We know they badly want to win the UCL.That MIGHT prove to be a distraction.Also they might struggle during jan and feb
Manure out of the top 4 is a reach imo. Very unlikely as nice as it may be. We are the weakest link based on form but you would hope that goes out the window with the new season. Everton should be good with what’s his name back in midfield pulling the strings. Better then Shitty will be. Based on there squad, to accomadate all the greedy cunts they may have to play 2-4-4. Villa will be found out a bit and not challenge as much imo.
the chavs are our complete opposites…
big, strong, no-nonsense, experienced and they know how to win
A&N.. yeah but at 40 thats still some achievement, considering most of the chavs players are 7-10 years younger achelotti will have no problem getting the best out of them
LAzer – That’s all spot on I think! Utd are fav’s to win the EPL with the chavs right behind them and rightly so.
Atom just to show u the difference between us and chavs the 2nd league game at emirates. we had like 5 good chances at the start the game ended 1-4
I thought Mikel was average last season.
LAzer… arteta
“You are Franck Lampard (and have gotten over the fact that you are a womanising fat cunt).” hahaha. High quality TAIG.
http://arsenalyouth.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/kieran-gibbs-back-with-a-new-number-and-a-new-objective/
Chelsea have lots of players who would be over the hill in about two yrs time , the same time our young ones will (hopefully) peak. If everything goes according the grand old plan of Le Boss that is !!
Thanks Tom.
Mikel was nothing spectacular but was also not average. he has adapted well for someone that used to be an attacking midfielder at Lynn oslo
Soooo bored!!!!
Fran – he’s fucking light years ahead of Denilsong!
Great post Pedro.. nice Megan pic, i swear there was a tear in my eye..
I hope wenger makes a signing before valencia game.After that he will talk about preparing for everton game and that means denilson as DM
All this talk of the chavs makes me prickly. I fucking hate the chavs, those blue fouling cunts with cuntley cole and the rest.
Essien I like though. He’s cool. He’d be welcome any day.
Aussie, maybe Chelski will ruin him, let’s hope so…but believe me, he would be one of the best players for Arsenal.
preach Taig
i wont be too happy if we dont sign someone to keep those 2 on the bench for most of the season
bring back pat and sign matuidi
makalele’s seal of approval excites me
http://www.arsenal.com/news/reserves-news/-they-needed-to-show-a-bit-more-patience- Arsenal FC – The Official Site 10:19
I was expecting and little bit sadistically hoping that this was going to be Wenger talking about the fans!! Its not though.
fran… exactly mate… the first 10-15 mins i was loving it, i though we were gonna demolish them.
how that ended 1-4 ill never know but they can only blame themselves… that game is the reason i dont want nasri in DM
It’s not even 11 and I’m already dreaming of a kfc zinger burger
LAzer….
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/6294/snn1627gx1437399aun0.jpg
hows that work for you?
Lets all just face the music right now. Denilson will be in the starting 11 at Everton and we will all be cursing anything and everything in site. Let’s just admit this to ourselves and be in misery for the next two weeks. You know deep down this will happen…
Fran – I watched that Makelele interview and I think he was just being a pleasant guy when talking about Matuidi. I don’t think he rates him that much. And this was even more evident when he spoke about Chamakh….he was hardly enthusiastic about him! It was kind of like when you were a kid and having to be oh so polite when you talk to your mates parents in their house. He was in our house as a guest and was just saying what he thought we all wanted to hear.
A&N
nishanth – I think your more likely to see Song as the DM than Denilson.
Does that make you feel any better?
you fatty A&N!
Nice Tom…lets post that on the Arsenal website and blog as annoymous, maybe we’ll get something going eh.
taig u r a heart breaker
http://www.thecomet.net/content/comet/sport/story.aspx?brand=CMTOnline&category=sportfootball&tBrand=HertsCambsOnline&tCategory=SportCMT&itemid=WEED05%20Aug%202009%2010:05:21:573
Fran – Just my take on it, but he wasn’t exactly beside himself.
The charity shield is going to be interesting, I think we’ll get a good idea of our rivals… I think they’re going to produce an unimaginably boring match..
Franchise makelele’s seal of approval excited me too.But i heard makelele also said that chamakh is the one of the best forwards in france and is a great player
if wenger signs no one
I wouldn’t mind getting Chamakh but not really necessary when we have a DenilSong sized gaping hole to fill. The boy is desperate to come to us, Wenger has essentially cornered Bordeaux into liqidating on the player. I find it hard for him to return after his comments. They will find a suitor, if not us then someone for him no doubt.
“Clearly I will stay and see out my contract if Bordeaux shut the door to my move. But it’s certain I won’t be 100 per cent.”
“To miss out on a move to Arsenal will play in my head. I’ll feel betrayed. I won’t have a good season.”
“If I go to the end of my contract, it will be a pity for me and for them. Everyone will be a loser.”
We could beat everton with song or denilson.We might even beat united or chelsea with a denilson in our side.But it will reduce our chances big time.
If denilson or song gets injured then wenger might buy a DM.Does wanting denilson to be out for like 2 months make me a cunt?
Guess what guys, Malaysia has a Zinger Maxx burger!
Its supposed to be a lot hotter than the zinger we get here,
http://youngguns.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/arsenal-sign-independiente-keeper-martinez/
Rule# 345: Ac Milan can no longer be labeled as “Italian Giants” in a headline linking them with anyone. A stale league in decline with decreasing viewership worldwide and a shit style of play to boot.
Reign it in just a little bit.
I’ll be hugely disappointed if we don’t get a DM this summer, but let’s not pretend that Wenger didn’t try. He clearly wanted Melo, but bloody Fio and Juve sold us up the river on that. He wouldn’t have been in for Melo just to put him on the bench.
I think at the moment he is tossing up between Matuidi and Vieira. I think Matuidi is the much better bet, as it’s a longer term solution. Vieira won’t come to be a talisman on the bench. He’s moving to play his way in the France team for next year.
8 teams in the non-champions play off round for CL
Arsenal
Lyon
Sporting CP
Panathinaikos
Stuttgart
Fiorentina
Atlético Madrid
Anderlecht
2 more to join from celtic, shaktar, dynamo moscow, Timişoara (matches played today)
Draw is on friday. UNSEEDED
chamakh would come im almost 100% certain
as for DM not so confident
if we think were contenders for the CL none of those teams should cause us any problems…
A&N – Let it go man!
outsideright – They hardly sold us down the river. Melo was up for sale and Juve offered the cash. There is no way La Viola would have strengthened Juve if we put in a decent offer but we didn’t. To say he tried to sign him comes down to someone’s personal interpretation of ‘trying’. If Wenger offered them £500k for Melo is that trying? I know he didn’t but we don’t know what Wenger actually offered.
Wengers going with his instincts again- attack , attack , attack.
Look forward to another season of 4-4 draws vs teams like the spuds
true ATOM but anything can happen and a few teams there could upset us like PSV did in the 2nd round knockout phase in 06/07
we should sign matuidi and vieira, why does it always have to be the bare minimum with arsenal
why 100%. What do you know!!!
Fran – They aren’t exactly push overs!! Anderlecht would be the ideal tie for me! Not far to travel and should be relatively easy to beat……
Arsenal have completed a deal to sign Independiente’s 16-year-old goalkeeper Damián Martínez for a fee of £1.3 million following a trial in May.
The Argentina Under 17 number one is regarded by his country’s coaching staff as one of the most promising young stoppers in recent years, and subsequently the national team’s goalkeeping coach Miguel Angel Santoro joined Damián in North London during his one week stay.
Steve Rowley’s trusted Brazil based scout Sandro Orlandelli is believed to have spotted the agile ‘keeper in action, and the Gunners moved quickly to secure his services even before the trial was completed. A $2 million (£1.3 million) incentive based contract was thrashed out and Arsenal have now decided to ‘give the green light’ and snap him up.
Martínez was in London this weekend to watch the Emirates Cup before putting pen to paper yesterday afternoon. Executive Richard Law was present and its believed that he will now attempt to orchestrate a loan move to UD Salamanca ahead of the new campaign.
Franchise – My Mrs spent over £800 on club level tickets for me to go and watch that game on my birthday! Ironically her name is Alex(andra)….just like the cunt that knocked us out!
fran true mate, but i mean we hear all this chat from the club about our targets being the CL & PL and got nowhere near last year. teams like stuttgart and fiorentina should pose no threat in theory, we all know they will though
Simon the business ppl in Bordeaux would allow it to happen
its abit like zenit and arsh
why loose out completeley on a player cos u dont want to accept some change for him
arsenal are clearly in for him its not like 6 other clubs are interested
it would happen by next week
TAIG, i blame your mrs then for that one
ATom – Don’t worry, so do I!!
Triaud the president of Bordeaux says the transfer situation of Chamakh will be settled “in a week or maybe quicker” from Lequipe.
yeah chamakhs on his way, his ‘i wont have a good season’ will force it, we’ll offer another mill or 2 to keep them sweet
Chamakh has said he would move to Sunderland if he could’t move to Arsenal. Well he can’t move to Arsenal because we haven’t bid enough. So hopefully he will remain true to his word and make the stadium of shite his new home!
2 legged ties are dangerous
i reckon we would be fine but it would be as straight forward as slavia prague which wasnt exactly straight forward.
I dont like how this chamakh deal is turning out. The kid is saying some stupid things which don’t say much about his character. How can he say “i wont have a good season if i stay, my head wont be right” -no doubt he will be using that line again in a couple of years time.
Arsene Wenger’s bullish transfer stance over the proposed deal for Marouane Chamakh could open the door for Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland to snap up the Moroccan international after Bordeaux’s President Jean-Michel Triaud made clear the Ligue 1 side expect the player to leave in the coming days.
** sorry i meant it would not be
Apparently Blackburn are in for him too now. Don’t now if he’s any good anyway. Hope Vieira comes back. Love a new centre back too.
A&N – And he must be fucking dumb to think that intentionally under performing cant harm his career!! Who the fuck would want to buy some kid who has been stuck in the reserves for having a piss poor attitude! He is worth more than £5m to Bordeaux if he were to help them win Ligue 1 and qualify for the CL again!! I don’t blame Bordeaux for rejecting that price! And it would only serve to prove to Wenger that playing the waiting game doesn’t always work!! He moans about the conduct of other clubs and their tapping up but isn’t Wenger’s comment of ‘he can talk to anyone he wants in 6 months’ basically saying we’ll sign you then and tapping him up??
Taig good u pointed that out
when wenger does stuff like that is genius when other do it its a disgrace
all a managers act like cunts excluding nobody
he made an offer
they said no
he said ok I’ll wait
how is that tapping up?
They are being knobs
Fran – yet some how people have allowed themselves to think that Arsene is a saint! He is no less corrupt when it comes to securing the services of players he wants. Look at why our links to FC Beveren in Belgium had to be severed. We were paying them money to be a stop gap for potential arsenal players and that was undoubtedly one of Wenger’s plans!
the higher the chances of chamakh coming in the ;less chances of getting a DM or CB are!!
not good
Pedro, one of players you faver must will be out soon; and I am sure it won’t be Eboue; because the position we are all dying to see improved is in midfield; which I guess players involved are not doing the job as they should. Don’t you think?
goonermichael – Its not tapping up but it is no better than it.
Wenger isn’t allowed to talk to the player. If making a comment of “In five months, if he doesn’t prolong his contract, Chamakh will be free to talk to any club and Bordeaux won’t get anything” isn’t on the same level as trying to persuade a player to do something for the benefit of another club then I don’t know what is.
its not exactly tapping up but if wenger said those comments attributed to him on l’equipe then its a shame co he is unsettling the player. FACT
* cos
goonermichael – Also why are they being nobs? This guy was apparently an integral part in them finishing 1st in Ligue 1 and therefore making them a lot of money. If he does that again he is definitely worth a lot more to Bordeaux than a paltry £5m.
The player has begged them to let him go to us or Sunderland. The player doesn’t want to be there. He’s finished with them anyway.
Hi Guys,
I do not usually comment, just like reading your comments. This Maruane Chamak saga is just totally out. The boy is not worth 15 million and we all know that. I think 7 million is a fair price and Wenger is right in saying he will be available for free in a few months time, Boudeaux are trying to tap us up if you ask me….
If Cesc was demanding a move and talking like chamak we would be knobs to make him stay. Just like we were knobs to keep the lazy togo cunt
Gunner win 1 – Well that’s ridiculous. Would we sell Bendtner for £7m? No way would we! And this Chamakh must be better if Wenger is trying to bring him into the team!!!!
yeah adebayor is truly worth £25m
my point is all managers are the same. wenger is no different
he is as moral as harry redknapp if u ask me
just kidding
or maybe not
taig
his contract is nearly up. he’s in the same position as flamini and he definitely won’t re-sign
Is Bendy?
gonnermichael – So you do you actually want Chamakh to sign because it sounds like you are defending a player who acts in exactly the same way as a player you just slated!!?? Chamakh is Adebayor Mark II. A spoilt brat, with an inflated ego and too much to say to the media!
wenger is a money making machine for the board…..
they are all in this keep the fans in the dark re finance etc mess
would we spend £40m plus we have gotten from players. No chance
would we sign some category B-C players? probably YES
would they help us win the league and CL. Not likely IMHO
Franchise
All managers are the same?
are you serious?
goonermichael – but he was happy to hold out on Kolo for £16m though! If Hughes said we are gonna offer you £8m Wenger would have hung up on him! He has to realise that if he is going to preach these things then he has to practice them too!
I’m not defending the player I was defending the conduct of our manager. I don’t give a shit about him. We don’t even need him.
GM morality in this game would get u no where.
its a capitalist world. develop in asia sell in europe
we are unwilling to sign good world class £20m rated players but are happy to sell dross for £25m?
all managers are the same i say it again
Man city are basically like a kid i went to school with. He arrived in the country with too much money and everyone (me excluded as I’m a saint) robbed him. doesn’t mean it’s ok but if kolo wanted to go that much and city did offer less he would have let him go.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/arsenal/5973767/Stakes-rise-in-battle-for-Arsenal.html
I reckon wenger has just offerd baldhoe what everton have offerd us for sen-dross
I don’t see how we need Chamakh? I really can’t get my head around it.
If we play the 4-3-3 we have so many players to fill in the positions.
I’m becoming worried now that Wenger wont improve the team before the season starts.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/arsenal/5973767/Stakes-rise-in-battle-for-Arsenal.html
NOW CHAMONEE! USMANOV…THE TRUE SAVIOUR
gonnermichael – You think Wenger would have excepted £8m for Toure from a club that has millions and millions to spend???? Come on, play the game…….
I wasn’t talking about morality
Wenger according to thgings you just said is different (and I didn’t say better) most managers pay big money for big players but not ours unfortunately
he cant bang on about fair prices for players with one year left if his getting more or less for senders imo
Arsenal Kenya – I’d rather Stan the man by the shares! At least he has experience in the world of sport and although his teams may not be title contenders he knows how to make the clubs money and that on the field performance is the key to success!
yeah that is why adebayor’s transfer took 3 weeks to complete cos City’s first offer was £25m
all the same, ours is even more annoying cos he wont even spend the money he raises
then he would say if he had money he would spend it when the heat is on
the truth is all we ask for
its indeed the opposite we get a game of lies and more lies….
also Franchise
Ade is dross but some people rate him.
Morning grovers
Fran & TAIG,
AW is no saint, but he didnt tap numbchucks cos the bordeaux supremo was the firts to tell lequipe AW called him for numbchucks, he unsettled his player. but the players attitude sucks actually just like bayor, said dt on monday when it was rumored he skipped out on his club to england
tonnyadamsisgod – Bendtner dosent have year left on his contract.
IMO Bendy is better than Chamak so we dont need it. AW never really buys anyone he publicly discusses. Although we have put in a bid which has been rejected so this one will drag till then transfer deadline day.
I am most worried like the rest of you about defence…there is no hope, Verma will take time to adapt…if Gallas or DJ get injured then we are in shaitza.
Anyhow, i hope we do get someone in…have a feeling by Friday there will be someone in.
GM – A quote from Wenger himself when he was about to lose Hleb, Flamini and possibly Adebayor:
“They let us do the work and develop the players and then they think they can just come in and offer them big wages, but after they cannot come up with the transfer fee. It should be the other way round.”
Well fuck me if that doesn’t spit straight in the face of what Wenger is trying to do right now!!!!!
GM i know u get my point
wenger is as immoral as harry redknapp
We can all way up the pros and cons about Ade, the bottom line is that he was a disruptive influence and that is last thing we needed. If Chamak can openly berate his current team what does that tell you about his character. Do not bite the hand that feeds you I say.
didee u right there he didnt tap him up but if he said those things as qouted by l’equipe then he is unsettling a player under contract something he always moans about
I’m worried about this cunt numbchucks
he has a bad attitude
he may be off to ANC
and he hates bacon eating Bentnder so there is bound to be trouble.
I disagree….rather have someone whos wants to play for us.
Didnt Arshavin kick a fuss when Zenit wanted more money from him…he took his own plane…..
Still dont think Chamak is worth it though…we have able cover for hold and up and front link up play.
Reasons not to buy Chamakh:
- Seems to be a disruptive little child and has no respect for his employers.
- We have 6 better strikers than him already.
- He’s a diving little cunt
- It would ‘kill’ Bendtner
kill Bendtner isnt a bad thing
i say bring him in
i always predicted he would end up in the championship anyways
lol yes he will do jihad on the bacon eating Bendtner
also heard somewhere that he is the biggest diver in the french league!
A&N hates nikkib???
Bendtner will be a very good player. he may not be winning any world footballer of the year awards but I really think he can offer a lot to Arsenal. He really improved last year and considering he had to play a load of games on the left flank and the rest next to that cunt Adebayor I think he did well. I mean, who could and would play with a guy that head butted you??
By all means bring Chamak in for Blackburn Rovers, and when we beat them 3 zip, we can sit back and smile at Sam Shitface…for wasting money!!!!
I’m a big fan of nikki b!
Bendtner would dissapoint the few fans that rate him when he moves to Cumbria Utd
Fran,
the supremo unsettled him first not AW, plus the AW only re-echoed what the player said to his club on monday. i’ll go for kalou ahead on him though cos IMO we need a player in each dept.
A striker to deliver 20+goals in the EPL, i believe in Edu buthe is the only COMPLETE FINISHER we have and one is not sufficient for trophies like we learnt in the final day of TH14. we also need the usuals, DM & CB
70% of lyon fans voted arsenal to be their opponent in cl qualification,ahead of teams like florintina,sporting..
what a shame!!!!!
Well said nikki b will be the man next year his strong and his finnishing can only get better and is better then ades already so it all good
didee – 20 goal strikers haven’t existed for a very long time mate. Eduardo might change that but we definitely don’t need any more strikers!! We have Edaurdo and his back up is Bendtner, Arshavin and his back up Vela and RvP and his back up is Walcott.
nikki b plays like a horse
he looks average when he plays wide put him in the middle and he looks clueless. what a striker
raisonar – says it all really!
denilson’s time with us is short…a month into the new season he’ll start spending more time on the bench…the word will go out he’ll be available in January and off he’ll go…Wenger just wanted a preseason look to be sure, and he got it…you can see it coming.
Franchise
redknapp is a bung taker (allegedly)
Are you suggesting wenger is that immoral?
why kalou, why would he come anyway, especially with the likes of ade and kolo going aswell
Fran – come on, 14 goals last term aint bad mate especially when you consider his limited playing time, being deployed on the left and partnering Cunty McCuntison up top!
GM that beveren connect was as dodgy as my replacement blackberry battery
We have the strike force, we sort of have a defensive force, we just need two above average players. One for the backline and a fucking monster in midfield to break down those no it alls of Manure and Chelski. Liverpool and Citeh do not scare n]me in the least bit.
and hopefully eboue
I really miss those years when AW would just pop up with an unknown siging out of the blue….
I am hoping with the Chamakh shananigans going in the front , AW sneeks a CB and a CDM in.
the way nick played last season i wouldnt have rated him if he scored 25.
nothing exciting about him
everton would suit him
GM – Wenger will be getting one hell of a huge bonus from Arsenal if he doesn’t spend the £50m he’s just made for the club! Fact! So Harry gets his money in a brown envelope and Wenger gets his in a pay slip. Both are immoral.
Fran – wasn’t it just!
The last time i looked Arsenal Football Club was based in London, England – whose native tongue is English. Fuck France and fuck the French, Wenger whould insist ALL player wishing to be employed in the English League speak fucking English……….
Blazon – Not a hope in hell that Wenger will offload Denilson in January when he’ll be losing Song to the ACN at the same time!
fack.. how do you rate a striker then!!
lol
25 goals and you wouldn’t rate him!!! heheh
Chamakh could go to Blackburn after all because their current top striker, Chrissy Samba (I’m not laughing, honest
) is being linked with the spuds!
franchise…
thanks for CL list…how many of the 10 go through to the group stage?
i was talking with a colleague from work, 40 years she has been following the gunners and she mentioned jack wilshere’s perf at the emirates cup and i responded by saying it only shows that its better playing inexp players in their natural positions than experienced players out of position like he did with bendtner against atl. madrid.
her response was ‘i think he is shit anyways’
Fran – I think you would rate a striker that out performed Torres, Anelka, Ronaldo, Drogba and co!!
5 blazon
taig
they are very different though.
what wenger is doing may be stupid and bad for us but it’s not really lmmoral and certainly not illegal
a bit taig just a bit
i just dont rate bendtner
Fuck me! £10m for Samba! £10m!!!! What a joke!
goonermicheal u right but not cos something is not illegal doesnt make it moral
TAIG: Since we don’t know what Wenger offered, we cannot really say either way. However, Melo always stated a preference to stay in Italy. However obviously he offered more than 500K, and most probably more than 10 mill
As for Vieira, he won’t come if he’s not going to play. Simple as that. He needs to play regular first team football to get into French team. Domenech has basically come out at said it. Vieira + another with Song and Denilson will mean less chances for Pat, and I doubt he will take the risk.
And if he comes, we sign another guy in his position, and sits on the bench, he WILL cause a fuss. As much as I love PV4, he was hardly the model of tranquillity when he was here.
Unless you see Wenger abandoning Denilson or Song. Sorry, but I’m a realist
Nawang Topkay is cracking me up!!
Franchise that is one person’s opinion. Any striker that gives me 15 goals in a season and is not first choice and had limited appearances…fuck me I would jump at it!!!!
Fran,
I think you being harsh on nikki b, he had a bayor attitude initially with the pink boots et al, but e has put in alot since then, think he reads le grove. it will raise his game if he is made CF esp for arial challenge rather than RW/LW, RVP should play that role dt what does for holland and he drifts too much for a solo CF
TAIG, your analysis would be correct if play 4-3-3 but in the event that doesnt work and we need to go back to 4-4-2 than we are short of replacements
When we won the double we had 4 strikers not wing attackers…TH14, DB10, NK25, DS9. we need to look at our own blueprint for success
outsideright – I know he made some sought of offer but it was paltry compared to Fiorentina’s evaluation. We again find ourselves at the mercy of nothing more than Wenger’s frugal approach to spending money that isn’t even his to be tight with. And I don’t really want Vieira in the team either mate.
On the “Wenger is a saint or a sinner” debate I’d like pot point out that people can’t on the one hand say “Wenger – grow a pair” when it comes to transfer dealings where we feel he’s been a bot of a wimp AND say he is just as bad at being underhand in those same dealings as all managers are. You have to make your mind up – he can’t be slated both ways.
I suspect it’s a case of “if Fergie (aka ole 65% proof nose) does it it’s a stroke of genius and if anyone else does they’ve lost the plot”. That’s the SkySports(aka ManUre TV) and red tops hacks policy.
i keep bringing this up
our signings of merida and cesc comes to mind
barca were unhappy for them to leave but we tempted them with $$$$$$ and they joined us
we used a loophole to sign highly rated youth players for free that have trained with barca for years a year b4 they could sign a pro contract
imagine if inter snapped wilshere b4 he was eligible to sign for us in Jan 09?
wouldnt that just feel wrong?
anyway my point is wenger is no saint
u need that guile and cunningness to be a great manager
didee -Agreed and that why I have said all along that we need a new RW for the team!
Fran – And that completely contradicts what Wenger said here:
“They let us do the work and develop the players and then they think they can just come in and offer them big wages, but after they cannot come up with the transfer fee. It should be the other way round.”
saving money for the club is not immoral. It’s bollocks for us as fans and if that is definitely true and we don’t win anything this season (quite likely) than I’ll drive him to the station. (for a small fee!)
Fran – Yeah, no one is saying they would prefer a manager who paid massively over the odds, just that we shouldn’t get carried away thinking Wenger was such a saint!
limited appearnaces? bendtner featured 50 times last season
I think buying Vieira is like looking at your neigbors new Subaru and going out and buying youself a Prius….
GM – I’ll lend you my car and pay you the petrol money!
Franchise
I agree with most of what you say but he hasn’t done anything wrong as far as chamakh is concerned.
wenger seems to be the spokesperson for a lying board
others think he is just the prude who thinks when buying no player is worth more than £15m
we will never find out and until then depending on material i would keep accusing both parties of immorality
what’s a prius?
taig…
just wait and see who is still to come this month…I have faith.
goonermichael…its an enviromental friendly car with no frills.
ok
Fran – If it was 40 starts and 10 subs I’d agree but it was 27 & 23 so I’ll cut him slack!
The board room stuff bugs the hell out of me. I’m sick of the posturing of people like Bracewell-Smith, Hill-Wood, and Fiszman. I’m sick of this “we love the club crap”. How many millions did Fiszman and Dein make selling their shares. If they weren’t doing it “for the money” like they always bleat, then why the hell didn’t they put some of their return back into the club. Or why not hand over the shares to AST. Or how about a supporter’s fund? Something, anything, after getting fat off the success of the club.
Now Bracewell-Smith is apparently impressed by the financial clout of Usmanov (what Kroenke’s too poor), and we are supposed to believe that she is thinking about the financial future of the club. Bull. She’s thinking about how nice it would be to get 100mill pounds for shares she inherited from her husband. None of which will actually be seen in anyway shape or form by any supporter of the club
“For the love of the club” my arse
/rant
all football clubs are technically 80% owned by the fans IMO
its nice that there be some clarity in dealings
arsenal fans are left in the dark too much
not an exciting place to be
taig the roll call of the goals were against the shitiest sides we could have faced bar chelsea
i think spending big (not 50m!) could end arsenal misery for next 3-4 seasons.
we could definately get a great cb and dm in 25m.
cant wenger see this, how much we require them.
we have a great academy,but kids from acedemy needs time and experience players around them to make their journey to first team smooth and effective.
look at barcelona,they have many home grown players,but they always dare enter the market and spend big on players.thats why they are so successful,and we are not.
we have plethora of CB’s in our academy,and imo,thats what shackling wenger to spending big on a CB (just an opinion).
if all goes like this i think we would be booing our manager instead of our players this season
Fran – The thing with Bendtn………and there goes the lunch bell!!!!
Gunnerwin 1:
Ummm it’s a car with an electric engine.
Calling it just an “environmentally friendly car” is sort of like saying that rugby is a just a form of football
lol TAIG, love dt one, see ya afta lunch
whoops hybrid
bordeaux president Jean-Michel Triaud has said that Arsenal transfer target Marouane Chamakh could leave the French Ligue 1 club in the “next few days”.
Marouane Chamakh: Wanted by a number of clubs
However, with the Gunners unwilling to improve on their rejected offer of £6m, the door has been left open for the 25-year-old striker to move to Premier League rivals Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland.
Either way, Triaud insists the future of the Moroccan international will be decided imminently. “It will be settled in the next few days,” he told L’Equipe.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has publicly stated his admiration of Chamakh, but with the player able to leave Bordeaux next season he will not pay over the odds for the striker’s services.
Wenger said: “In five months, if he doesn’t prolong his contract, Chamakh will be free to talk to any club and Bordeaux won’t get anything. In the current context, to me, it is over.
“I like Chamakh, he is a forward that attracts me, but I have Walcott, Bendtner, Van Persie, Arshavin and Eduardo. I am in no rush, there are other options.”
have any of u guys seen this
vhttp://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=665234&sec=transfers&campaign=rss&source=soccernet&cc=3436http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=665234&sec=transfers&campaign=rss&source=soccernet&cc=3436
bordeaux president Jean-Michel Triaud has said that Arsenal transfer target Marouane Chamakh could leave the French Ligue 1 club in the “next few days”.
Marouane Chamakh: Wanted by a number of clubs
However, with the Gunners unwilling to improve on their rejected offer of £6m, the door has been left open for the 25-year-old striker to move to Premier League rivals Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland.
Either way, Triaud insists the future of the Moroccan international will be decided imminently. “It will be settled in the next few days,” he told L’Equipe.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has publicly stated his admiration of Chamakh, but with the player able to leave Bordeaux next season he will not pay over the odds for the striker’s services.
Wenger said: “In five months, if he doesn’t prolong his contract, Chamakh will be free to talk to any club and Bordeaux won’t get anything. In the current context, to me, it is over.
“I like Chamakh, he is a forward that attracts me, but I have Walcott, Bendtner, Van Persie, Arshavin and Eduardo. I am in no rush, there are other options.”
have any of u guys seen this
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=665234&sec=transfers&campaign=rss&source=soccernet&cc=3436
sorry 4 the double post:)
As much as I would like to believe that Wenger runs the show, I can’t help feel that he is being used as a mouthpiece. Why don’t the board just come out and say …we have money, but fuck you guys, we will not spend because we are greedy!!!!
Gunner win 1 its the properties i believe
no one might be pocketing anything per se but arsenal might have their hands deep in a short term bad investment call
we might have to sell again next year
Fuck…thanks for the upliftment Franchise!!!!
As an aside – All of us who recently received our membership packs, what do you think?
Personally i feel insulted, what a load of cheap, pikie, old rubbish, particularly the scarf, what a fucking embarrassment.
Why fucking bother? The last few years these membership packs were definitely worth keeping. But, this load of old cack can go back.
If the club are so desperate to save money, don’t send this jumble sale shit out.
mfker fergie didnt even mention arsenal among title contenders.
he is really getting older and more older!
lol GW1
its like 10 days to our 1st league game
would wenger buy a DM?
not looking likely i must confess
why wait so long to sign a player when he could have had a good preseason with his teammates?
we probably only sold those players to raise cash for the properties mess? who knows?
wenger said last season we were 2% away from united as good in attack but not as good defensively.
so he rectifies this by selling one CB and buying one CB
its a strange one my friend
rosicky and eduardo would be like new signings but how are they meant to address our defensive frailties?
or is the formation change which was very common already last last season the solution?
too many questions not enough answers
the emirates cup did uplift me a bit but im still not convinced that we have a team to last the marathon of a season ahead of us
haha, well said DDM, that scarf is poorer in quality than the ones you buy from the station… the crest is a pile of shite as well… in fact, the scarves outside the station are quite nice.
When people talk about Arsenal and class, it really makes me laugh.
Some superb brand management, you have to say.
DDM, is it really that bad? havent got mine yet!
raisonar… why would he mention us??
we finished 18 points behind them last year!??
do you think we’ll win the league this season?
ray parlour who has every right to have more know-how than me believes we are a CB, DM and striker (spine) short of challenging
im only asking for a DM
ppl would say what does ray parlour know over wenger? well ray parlour was in the last functioning wenger side and wenger has been wrong for 5 years with his squad evaluation
pedro.. that must be where all the cash is going
Guys all rants and jokes aside. I have this gut feeling that we Gooners are going to be smiling (forgive me for being optimistic) and for a long time. You know waht they say “Those that laugh last…are slow” and right now I do not mind being slow.
romford ray i spot on!
1st priority is DM
2nd CB
3rd CF
pedro one new rule for the blog should be
2009/10 – no one should blame injuries when debating
The Romford Pele knows! As does most of the footballing world!
ATom – Close:
1st – DM
2nd – CB
3rd – RW
just thought i add
if it were a level playing field – all managers with the same budget and the same wage caps etc
wenger would have an edge and truly be the best in management on and off the pitch
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UNFORTUNATELY IT IS NOT
I just had a Baxters healthy option spicy tomato and rice soup and it was fucking money!!
Franchise as much as I’d like DM myself (or a superb CB if Song is our DM) i think you’re being too cynical about the improvements(or rather their absence)… Yes we sole a CB and got one, why is that necessarily not an improvement. If we sold Ade and got Torres wouldn’t that be an improvement?(i know its not the same but still).. As for Edu and Rosicky helping sort our defensive troubles i think at least Rosicky can help. When Walcott and Narsi played on the flanks it exposed the WB with the addition of Arsh and Rosicky(and JW?) the ball retention will increase in the wings..
At least you guys are getting real merchandise from the packs. Living here in S.A. all I get is cheap imitations and it makes me feel as though I’m letting my club and myself down.
If wenger doesn’t buy a DM i wouldn’t be surprised to see nasri used as one
Mayank cynical??? if anything im being a bit just a lil tiny bit optimistic
its not like we are only 2 years without a trophy
if we dont win the league next year we are becoming liverpool II
6 years without the league
the same way we would have gone 6 years (God forbid) we can go another 6 years with the emergence of CA$H money billionaires in the league
Wenger sucks arse!!
SPAIN: Alvaro Negredo is very near to signing for an English club, according to Spanish paper Marca. Alejandro Camaño, Negredo’s agent, has said the Real Madrid striker has received five proposals from Premier League clubs and is weighing up his options.
if the report is true….It’s safe to assume Liverpool is one…i have a feeling Arsenal are also there !! wt say?
Nice to see all the old timers on the blog again!
Once we start winning i think we could go on a run like united have for the last 3 seasons.Its really really frustrating that wenger does not see the need for a DM when everyone else can.I am still hoping that he will buy one
ManCity are a top manager away from reducing our overall odds to win the league yearly
the arrival of Chelsea and to a lesser extent Hick/Gillette has ensured we only finished 2nd once since 2004 b4 2004 under wenger we never finished below 2nd
I didn’t say you were a cynic i said you were being cynical about the lack of defensive improvements.
And as for not blaming injuries, why? I’m sure if Rooney, Rio and Gerrard get injured for the wrold cup it will be a reason for England not winning.. Or if Lampard, Essien and Drogba get injured for a major part of the season it will be reason for chelsea not winning. WHy doesn’t it apply to us.
nishanth it worries me a bit when i think that we never defended the league under wenger with that team he had between 2002 and 2004. its hard to fathom
Fran, I second that rule!
It’s a 3 year old excuse now and cannot be accepted.
This season is going to be about momentum. If we can get some good results in the first 6-10 games (all competitions), then we will be difficult to catch.
The key is ensuring that the key players – Arshavin, Fabregas, Rosicky and Eduardo don’t get injured.
BTW, ANR has published an absolutely crap piece today.
wrold? damn dyslexia!
31st August 2009
wenger will bid for hangeland,matuidi and vieira and probably hunter,and bang!!!! all three rejected.
6th sept
arshavin out 8 weeks,gallas out for season,vermaeleen out for 6 weeks.
18th sept
eduardo out for 6 weeks
1st oct
we lost 5 of first 6 games.
1st jan
wenger- ” we dont need to buy,see we havent lost any game since oct(though not won)”
March 2010
injuries continues
END OF SEASON
wenger-”ill time injuries and first 6 games cost us champions league spot”
July 2010
here at le-grove we all again be cursing stubborn wenger for not buying,and he as always he would be giving same lame excuses of injuries for not winning,not his inability to stregthen squad.
Season 2010-2011
(same as above)
and the misery continues
Nish, there aren’t too many superlative DMs available today. Most of the ones in circulation are not dramatically better than the ones we have.
Mayank 2007-2008 season it could have been an excuse.But other than no.It could have helped us become third or maybe even second but we still wouldn’t have won the league
98 was a strange year we won the league without a 20 goal striker
Pedro, you own the blog….implement the rule.
And assume your December visit to these parts is till on?
PDT, it is… and I hope to be sharing a beer with you and Ethan!
Let’s be realistic, we are probably not getting another CB. Very few clubs have more than 3 specialist CBs in the squad. Buying another billion CBs won’t really help. The only way I can see a CB coming in is Djourou leaving, and I don’t see that happening. The only defender who could feasibly come in is someone who can play in a number of defensive position. Let’s take in on face value that Wenger believes in Djourou. Adding another specialist CB to Gallas, TV, and Johann just doesn’t make sense. Wenger’s reasoning will also be that Song and Silvestre provide cover.
Now, if we could get someone who could cover (RB||DM) && CB, then that seems much more feasible this season. Who though?
Our chance to get another CB will be next season when Silvestre’s contract is up and/or Djourou leaves
I agree PDT.But we do need an improvement in that position badly.Maybe we might have to pay a lil extra for that.I think a good DM will definitely help us win the title.
98 berg and anelka scored 22 goals between then 16 and 6 respectively
league goals
in 2008/09 our 3rd choice striker scores 15 and we win fuck all
football aint maths
in all comp
Everyone keeps saying Wenger should plan for injuries, how? Rosicky’s injury could have been planned for given his injury record but the rest were freak accidents.. We can’t have 2 world class players for every position one will invariably leave.
Outsideright – But we have no specialist for winning headers!?
Great, Pedro, let me know once your dates are frozen, so I can find an excuse to be in Bangkok.
outsideright
you are right,but the problem is that we dont even have three best ones.djouru is not good enough,and all our defenders misses single imp attribute-height.
what if we were to announce a 6’4 CB, a DM that looks good and Paddy V, would that be enough to win the league do you think?
Interesting franchise.Again in 2001-2002 when we won the title we conceded 36 goals and last season we conceded 37
Mayank the thing is u should be able to do without any one player for at least a 3 months stretch
if i were a manager that would be my rule of thumb
the replacements dont need to be as good but should be professional enough to stick in there and do a job
treze – that would go a long way!!
i think since mourinho came in no team has won the league after conceding more than 25
Treze13 if that happens we win the league
Mayank, that’s why Arsene keep Eboue around. Eboue is AW’s “world class player” for every position.
I still think you are Arsene in disguise!
Fraqnchise 13:28, that’s an excellent insight!
The height thing is a bit trivial. Would you rather play
Arsh 5’5″ or Diaby 6’3″
Fab 510″ or Song 6’1″
Gallas 5’10″ or JD 6’4″
The maximum goals chavs have conceded in the last 5 seasons is 26
What the fuck is the point in SSN asking Alan Wright to give his opinion on Arsenal’s height when is 5ft 4″ and played in a premier league that was way different to what it is now!!!! Of course he is gonna say height doesn’t matter….he’s a midget!
mancs won it conceding 27 i was wrong there
So lets say we have this new clinical edge with rosicky arsh and dudu back for a full season and we score double the goals we scored last season with no signings i’m pretty sure we would win the league then too, who cares if we concede 3 goals a game, lets just score 5
Franchise Utd won the league in 06/07 conceding 27 goals, but that’s the most someone’s conceded and won the league in that period
treze13, will the 6-4 CB be any good? Or are we just looking for any tall defender?
one thing is for sure,by no means we can win league with this squad.
We should play fabregas with a big strong DM or atleast someone like mascherano or flamini who would run all the time.And gallas also should be partnering a monster
Franchise, yes if we just lose that one player.. but we never have just one injury do we
PDT, no i’m not Wenger i’m his evil henchman.
The only place that height matters is in set pieces, and whilst we’ve seen that as a weakness, it isn’t that big a deal. Does anyone have stats for goals conceded from set pieces last season? I know Hull conceded the most, with 11, but no idea how many we conceded?
pdt lets say he would be a definite starter anyway
nishanth – Exactly! We need a DM that above all else makes the oppo feel uncomfortable and rushes their play. We need a guy like Cattermole that can snap at their heels and apply some real pressure! And we also need that tall CB to win all of those headers we miss!!
That’s an oxymoron, Mayank! If you are Arsene’s henchman, you must automatically be evil…just look at Pat Rice!
2 or 3 max
raisonar that’s your opinion, i’d have to disagree
goals conceded by champs from arsenal 2003/04
arsenal 2003/04 – 26
chelsea 2004/05 – 15
chelsea 2005/06 – 22
mancs 2006/07 – 27
mancs 2007/08 – 22
mancs 2008/09 – 24
Mourinho made the premier league realise the importance of clean sheets
come on now taig – cattermole?! Let’s not get silly now, we need footballers who can add tenacity and energy, not just thugs with little or no footballing ability.
Treze13, I don’t believe our problem is height. I think our problem is that we don’t practice defending against setpieces and we don’t have a defensive coach.
Get Keown in as the defensive coach and let’s practice defending….we have enough talent in our current team (yes, with Denilson and Song) to win the league.
We conceded against fulham(A),hull(h),bolton(a),porto(a),stoke(a)throw in,wigan(a),chelsea(h).Thats all i can think of right now.Free kicks also A?
One fact to prove we need a new DM:
19% – of the goals Arsenal conceded came from outside the box – the highest proportion in the top flight.
Vermaelon cannot be judged until a full season. Height doesn’t bother me too much, Since Keown was only 6’1″ and Cannavaro is 5’10″. But, as I said let’s judge him after the season. TV is 6’0, which is good enough for me. I mean, if we just want the tallest defender let’s go and sign Zack Knight then…
I have no problem with Gallas either. His attitude was much better than Toure’s despite being stripped of the captaincy, and I think he is class (but getting old).
Djourou, well, if he’s ever going to come good it has to be now. If it was me I would sell Djourou and get someone else, but Wenger isn’t going to do that.
As I said, most likely next year we will get the new CB, with Djourour leaving, Silvestre (Gallas as well?) out of contract.
And a fact to help promote Hangeland (yes I know he didn’t do it on his own):
21% – Fulham conceded the lowest percentage of goals from set-plays.
a good defensive team can relax over 90mins as they try to get into their stride knowing that they cant loose if they dont concede. that is how mancs won the title last year
raisonar, if Arshavin, Fab, Eduardo, Rosicky, Gallas and Almunia stay uninjured, we can win the league with this team.
Realise the importance of clean sheets? More like make the league shit their pants at the thought of attacking
Last sason PL had an even worse GA than Serie A
Great stats taig
Franchise I’m not sure you could say Mourinho made the prem realise the importance of clean sheets – George Grahams teams certainly did that! I just seems to go in phases
GA = goal avg.
Taig, it wasn’t just Hangelaand. The whole Fulham team defends as a single unit.
If all of our tall players defended set pieces as a unit, we’d be fine.
height does matter especially on smaller pitches
chelsea at stamford bridge with a midfield of essien, mikel, ballack, lampard… just take a draw and forget it
I am not sure cattermole.Someone in the cattermole mould with a little more ability
yeah taig, with hangeland i’m sure we’d concede much less from set pieces, just as we always have with senderos, but we’ve always conceded more from open play when senderos was in the team, and it would be the same with hangeland, it’s unavoidable with the way we play, unless we find someone with the height and organisational skills, AND the agility and speed, which is much easier said than done!
Are we still trying to sign chamcack? Pfff.. We have enough forward options.. Is it me or does anyone else think Wenger just doesn’t rate Vela at all!? He didn’t mention him as one of our possible strikers when talking about the break down o the chamcack deal and he opted to play eboue and diaby on the left of midfield during last season!
Personally I think Wenger’s seige mentality and his dislike of being “told to spend” will end in his downfall and us struggling to maintain a title challenge..
It’s evident once again that we do not have problems scoring goals.. Chance conversion is a bit of an issue but Eduardo should sort that out..
From last season and even pre season we are easy to get at and by the looks of things are bound to concede shed loads of goals.. I agree with the assertion that Gallas needs a monster next to him aswell as an astute box to box grafter (who can pass forwards aswell as sideways) in their next to Cesc.
Unless we sign the tall centre half and top quality central midfielder we wil again be also rans. Because a song, denilson etc might be able to get a result against an everton, but they won’t get you one at a fortress away in europe or against one of the big four domestically away from home. FACT!
Did we really make a bid for Subotic?
Arsene always gets his man, so if he made a bid for Subotic, then all we need to do is wait for deadline day. (Also, we HAVE to qualify for the CL; if we don’t AW will not push for new signings.)
A – Here we go again! Yeah, your are right, he is first name on the list for the England U21′s and has clubs like Liverpool courting him just because he is a thug. Really man, just because you don’t like him don’t make him out to be less than he is. He can move play forward very well and at the end of the day we need someone with a thuggish streak in them because we have enough players who can do nothing more than go forwards!
A
we dont have a DM,not a CB cover niether a great CB,how u can even think we can win.
no one cared about clean sheets until mourinho kept emphasizing it in press confies. rafa also helped
franchise essien’s pretty small, and lampard isn’t big, but the other two are tall yeah.
PDT Says:
August 5, 2009 at 13:41
Taig, it wasn’t just Hangelaand. The whole Fulham team defends as a single unit.
Every team in the world defends SET PIECES as a unit!! Name me one that doesn’t!
The old Hangeland is slow card! How boring is that one getting……
Wenger said he doesn’t give a fuck about vieira’s world cup ambitions when it comes to deciding whether to sign vieira or not and that arsenal comes ahead of everything.Wish he applied the same logic in the DM position and cared a lil less about denilson’s development
reVELAtion,
im a bit worried re the Vela thing. I think he could be a superstar but i dont think Wenger has much time for him.
TAIG – easy. Arsenal….just see what Nik B does during corners. Or for that matter, what Ade did…
And just when I was about to agree with you about getting a thug!
hmm just a question, would you guys sacrifice our beautiful football for mourinho style football if it was certain to win us trophies?
I want us to win trophies but i owould hate to see us play like that personally
I said LIKE Cattermole……LIKE…….
Our defense is still shite.. I’m not convinced by Sagna when defending against top quality widemen or clichy defensivly in any shape or form.. Those who think we can just get rid of eboue as the post suggested are not seeing the bigger picture…
If Sagna gets inujured who plays right back? Djourou? Song? Gavin Hoyte!! Talk about asking for a disaster..
Put it this way.. If Rangers had better forwards we’d have conceded at least 3..
I am not sure about hangeland.I think alex would do really well for us.He is quick enough
essien isnt tall lamps also isnt they are actually wide like american fridges
i meant size not height does matter on the pitch unless ur team have unbelieavable ability like barca’s last year who made up for their lack of size with being hardly wasteful and very workaholic when they loose the ball
taig i don’t get the “don’t like him” thing?! I don’t like him as a footballer because I don’t think he’s very good! He has no reading of the game, no ability on the ball, but can just foul people when they get past him, which happens regularly because he can’t win the ball off them legally. He starts for the u21s because they have no central midfielders, he isn’t the first name on the teamsheet though.
You could get 100 players in Europe who do exactly what Cattermole does, for 1/4 of the price. I don’t believe Liverpool were actually interested in him, that was just paper/agent talk. He’s a wigan player, and that’s his level, and it’s a level below denilson and song!
31st August 2009
wenger will bid for hangeland,matuidi and vieira and probably hunter,and bang!!!! all three rejected.
6th sept
arshavin out 8 weeks,gallas out for season,vermaeleen out for 6 weeks.
18th sept
eduardo out for 6 weeks
1st oct
we lost 5 of first 6 games.
1st jan
wenger- ” we dont need to buy,see we havent lost any game since oct(though not won)”
March 2010
injuries continues
END OF SEASON
wenger-”ill time injuries and first 6 games cost us champions league spot”
July 2010
here at le-grove we all again be cursing stubborn wenger for not buying,and he as always he would be giving same lame excuses of injuries for not winning,not his inability to stregthen squad.
i think it will continue till wenger is sacked
PDT – So when we defend a corner we don’t get in shape, put a man on each post, pull Adebayor back (like we always did) and generally set up! That stat was concerning SET PIECES!! Of course every team sets up to defend as a unit!!!!
PDT
If them guys stay fit we’ll still conceed way too many goals to win the league.
We need a DM who can get in the opposition’s faces, upset them, and demonstrate that we can DEFEND our own. Favourite quote from Roy Keane/Guardian “When you saw Patrick Vieira in the tunnel, you knew you would finish the game with bruises and pain”. I paraphrase.
Who in our current team inpsires that fear? Denilson? Song? Even Eboue doesn’t trip over them in practice!
reva eboue plays right back if sagna is injured, which is absolutely fine….
Wenger is starting to fuck me right off. How can he want to bring in chamcak therefore signalling the deaths of vela/bendtner but not want to bring in a central midfielder where our options are denilson, song & diaby!? Mug!
Revalation…I’m sorry I’m not normally rude but you are now talking shite…!!!!!!
Your comments hold no truth, have you not watched Clichy play?
If we don’t buy a DM it will be interesting to see wenger’s explanation.I think its clear from the pre-season and that song or denilson are not going to suddenly emerge like flamini did.
TAIG, Ade would just hang around in the penalty box. He never really did anything. Nik B does the same now.
A, what if eboue is sold like quite a few want i mean? Then what!?
I’d have to disagree PDT, we need a DM who has energy and wins the ball back, the fear thing is an irrelevance imo. Who instills fear in the Barca team?? Utd team?? Liverpool team?? We just need someone who does the footballing things, the psychological fear thing is just something the press like to talk up, it isn’t going to win or lose you matches
Sanga and Gael are good, they were the best WBs 2 season ago.. The quality is still there. Our previous MF exposed them too much.
A – Stuart Pearce raves about him!! Him and Noble ran the show, Noble mostly going forwards. We need a fit, energetic, hungry, tenacious midfielder that has some positional awareness unlike Denilsong!! I guess we could always get in Matuidi the guy that played well 2 years ago and as a DM helped his team avoid relegation on the last day of the season. He sounds much better.
Treze,
False dichotomy.
We can tighten up defensively & still score beautiful goals.
The idea that our options are either all out attack or all out defence is stupid.
Gambon, if we score 20 goals more than last year, we’ll win the league.
ah ok reva, yeah i’d be worried about right back cover if eboue was sold, the best bet would be lansbury or coquelin for me, but bit of a risk!
I’ve seen clichy play many times and he is defensivly a liability.. That’s my opinion.. To say i’m talking shit is a bit childish..
PDT – The fact remains he was pulled back for it, regardless of what the twat did! Corners and set pieces are defended as units. Teams dont just let the defence handle corners and free kicks while the midfield wait up top for the ball.
We should use eboue at home against teams who would come just to defend.Away matches sagna for sure.
A, we are the most fouled team in the PL. We’d get fouled less if we kicked them more. The fouls lead to the injuries. The injuries lead to the discussions about whether we have enough depth, etc. etc.
preach gambon
manutd somehow can do both (closet manc
)
other great teams too manage to get the balance
IMO total football is almost dead. u need that balance and diciplined movements when attacking to reduce ur frailties when u loose the ball
u need to balance the pitch everytime irrespective of the offensive movements
he ran the show taig – did you watch the u21 tournament?! We had absolutely nothing in midfield, such a boring and defensive team, how on earth we got to the final i’ll never know. Noble is their best centre mid, but he still isn’t great, but better than Cattermole. The midfield of those two and Muamba was so lacking in creativity and actual footballing ability it was an embarrassment.
Cattermole doesn’t have positional awareness, that’s why he ends up fouling all the time, people get past him, so he fouls them, but as he plays for a little team the refs let him off!
anyone know when the champions league qualifier draw is?
I like to call the DM descriptions pl fans give as the Keane/Vieira syndrome.. They were one of a kind and will probably not fall out of the sky into our team.. You can’t teach that passion.
A – Who would rather play against? Roy Keane or Denilson? Of course it would be Denilson because you would be shitting yourself having to go into tackles with Keane. Why? Because he is a naughty and scary fucker! The fear factor does have some relevance!
aug 7th
gambon yeah i know but i was just asking hypothetically would you swap beautiful football for certain success?
It would be interesting to see roy keane vs denilson
a lot of the goals we conceded were over the top balls launched after we surrendered possession keane and agbolahor’s goals come to my mind… also drogs in the fa cup semi
if we could close the assisters more quickly before the laaunched the passes we would not have conceded those goals
Give me a break ReVELAtion.
When we lose, we say it’s about the score line, not the chances. Which I agree with wholeheartedly. You have to beat the team in front of you.
At the same time, you cannot talk about what other teams could’ve or should’ve done. You can only beat the team in front of you.
Liverpool beat Milan that night, Barca beat Man U, Chelsea spanked us the FA. Similarly, it was a pretty convincing and leisurely display against Rangers in what is pre-season
PDT we wouldn’t get fouled less, no opposition player is going to not foul us because we’ve got someone who’s going to kick them, it isn’t the likes of robben who foul us who you give them a kick and they fuck off. We get fouled because it’s the only way teams can stop us, and break up the play, and opposition players aren’t going to refrain from it because we’ve got someone who’ll foul them.
BTW, I wouldn’t mind Cattermole. All we need is someone who can win the ball followed by a sideways (yes, sideways) 10 foot pass to Fabregas. That is all that Flamini did. If he can kick the opposition and get away with it, all the better!
Total football is dead? The euros and CL showed that in the end football shines through. Of course you need to defend as a team but who says that is against total football..
i think the draw is this friday
Is there any reason why Eboue hasnt been tried in the defensive cm spot? Or has this already been tried? I highly doubt he was given a good go at it. Logic suggests he should go well: he can defend, he has a good motor, he gives his all, and he is the pass master lol
I do wonder how denilson’s stats looks soo good.
A – Did I watch it? Coming from someone that insisted Richards played RB for the tournament? Cattermole committed 2 more fouls than Denilson last year but I don’t hear you slating his record!? Read this link from UEFA titled ‘New stars emerge on Under-21 stage’. I think you’ll find Lee Cattermole is the 2nd player mentioned!!??
“Lee Cattermole (England)
The burley No4 mixed craft with his trademark graft to emerge as the driving force of the England midfield. Opened England’s account with a goal against Finland and was their best player in the final, skimming the bar with one drive and having another effort cleared off the line.”
He started last season as a DM.
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/under21/news/kind=1/newsid=842673.html
Perhaps, but if you think with the current defensive set-up we are winning anything then that is your opinion.. I’m not all for sticking 10 men behind the ball and grinding out 1-0′s, but playing the game “we’ll score more than you” has considerable pitfalls and against better teams or teams with big lumps we concede goals.. If you can’t keep a clean sheet or hold onto a lead you will win fuck all and we can do neither properly at current…
TAIG:
The value of the U21 cap means less when you realise one Francis Jeffers is all time U21 top-scorer.
I care even less about Stuart Pearces insights into talent. Wasn’t that the guy who brought Samaras and other gems (wow, city were a bit of joke back then as well)
I would love a PV4 or Keane type of player, but I don’t want a bloody Andy Todd or Allardyce-acolyte
Nish, because Denilson is good. I am not so convinced about Song, though.
I would like to see Denilson develop a mean streak and pick up a red card every ten games. (Now who does that remind me of?)
PDT – Exactly. We have enough craft in our midfield and forward positions to let them carry us forwards. Is breaking up the play that’s coming towards us that is the problem.
Mayank total football as in the dutch of the 70s etc is dead and buried the same way catenachio is dead
they have evolved but they are very different when compared to their initial models
total football only emphasis was attack hence the score more than u concede phrase. u cant win shite playing that way
Ok sorry Rev….you are allowed to have your own wrong opinion.
franchise in most situations it’s not possibly to close down the player in the long ball goals you mentioned. Both keane and droba’s goals were the ball being hoofed, noone could have closed the hoofer down, it wasn’t because they were given time to pick a pass, it’s just a clearance from defence, that our defence has to chase, and we can’t have defenders too slow to chase, or we’ll concede everytime in those situations….
closing down passers is an issue though, the goal against athletico madrid was almost entirely because cesc didn’t press and close down the passer, but backed off and gave him free reign and all the time and space in the world to look up and pick his pass. Sure that wouldn’t happen in a proper game though.
outsideright – read my post at 14:01…..
mwt, do you really want a player who trips over himself as your ball winner?
Denilson is just okay PDT.He is far away from being ready.You compare the DM’s other top teams have.It is a very important position and denilson is not ready yet
A – “closing down passers is an issue though, the goal against athletico madrid was almost entirely because cesc didn’t press and close down the passer, but backed off and gave him free reign and all the time and space in the world to look up and pick his pass.”
Cattermole could cut a lot of that out! He could…..
u think wenger is considering the one CF formation cos 433/451 is more exciting?
when u get crowded in the middle by top teams its hard to get into the game
almost all the top teams in europe adopt the one CF formation when they face each other
things are hard, times are changing
next season juve plan to execute 4231 with sissoko and melo in front of the back 4. u wont want to play those nutters
point taken PDT, id kill for flamini back.
Yeah true but what Spain, Barca and Arsenal2004 played was very close to total football. I think what total football means in the modern sense is that a team play every pass with purpose, no hopeful long balls and no rough play..
Nish, have you seen Federer run? He is never in a hurry, but he always reaches the ball. Denilson does not need Flamini’s all-action style to be effective.
Does any1 else think Theo’s wanting to go to the u-21 championships followed by pisspoor performances have soured his opinion in the eyes of pearce, cappello and wenger? Because in all honesty he should have torn that tournament up.. Instead he got subbed off at half time against finland and apart from a decent 15 mins as sub against sweden was non existent!
Persoanlly Theo has to have a tremendous year to justify his current favourite tag with arsenal fans. Because Wilshire is right up his arse. If he wasn’t english he’d be getting slated like eboue and bendtner…
Bruce knows cattermole well and if he wants ti sign him for a second time tells me his good couple that with displays he put in for England i want him.
Plus i recall when bruce signed him for wigan it was seen as a bit of a coupe in his behalf as no one thought (borough??) would let him go
Mayank spain played 442 at the euros until the semis when cesc replaced injured xavi. they won the tournament with 5 in midfield. even their 442 was executed with a designated sitter Senna
barca dont play careless attacking football. u might think they do but they dont. they always try to balance the pitch. they play like chess
And you are suggesting that denilson always reaches the ball?When put under pressure denilson struggles with his passing big time.He can;t win headers.He has never had a good game against a top opposition.Are you happy if we go into the season with denilson as our first choice DM
*will you be
sorry i meant injured david villa
yep ReVela.. theo has to perform…
wilshere, vela, merida… all can do a job on the wing and all are waiting for a chance.
Franchise, I believe they tried that once before with Vieira and Emerson.
Of course, they didn’t count on the presence of master midfield terrier Bobby Pires!
Rev, I agree with you re Walcott. He doesn’t have “make it” this season, but he surely does have to make significant improvement in his end product (goals or crosses)
REVELATION-Can’t blame theo for struggling in that comp.Hardly had any service.
even brazil play 4231 now
times are hard
almunia
sagna gallas verm clichy
….song…. denilson…
…….fab/rosicky….
…rvp…edu…arshavin
Yes but they dont hoof balls forward and they don’t rely on thugs to win matches.. The sitting player just allows the others to express themselves better.. IMO chelsea(or mancs2009) = negative football
Spain, Arsenal2004 = total football
remember how quick holland could counter when they played 4231 against france
outsideR yeah that was funny pires tackling vieira and setting up a move that led to a henry goal. happy days
guess what formation we played that day?
u r right
451
Mayank, I have a disagree with you. Call me a stickler but total footbal == good football. You can play excellent football without playing total football. To me, total football is epitomised by the Ajax and Dutch teams of the 70s particularly (maybe 80s?) with true position flexibility. Players would pop up in various places on the pitch, based on their own and their teammate’s movements. I have only seen videos of course, but I have never seen any modern team play remotely anything like it. I would not class Barca 09/10 “total football”. That is not to say other teams don’t play excellent, awesome football. They do, but it is of a different style
Personally i think Theo is another wenger large fee brit purchase gone wrong… For those who think he can play upfront are having a laugh! All he has is pace. All he uses is pace… His runs on and off the ball aren’t very clever, his finishing is somewhat lacking for a centre forward and his decision making is a joke…
It smacks of double standrds in my eyes.. I’m english, but the grief eboue and bendtner get i think is just frustrations of fans being unhappy at not winning anything over the past few years.. Why isn’t walcott afforded the same abuse? Those who think he will make it eventually don’t seem to want to use the same observation when talking about the other current hate figures…
You can even add song, diaby and denilson to that list but 90% probably agree they aren’t “arsenal class” in retrospect to what players we’ve had in their positions in previous years…
mwt dont get me wrong teams still play attacking football but with a lot more emphasis on defending or not in a kamikaze approach
football is very tactical nowadays 442 as a formation looks to be dying slowly
hate to admit it but its the case
whoops. total football != good football
Afternoon All..
Thx for the post Pedro…great pictures Chary
Rob Green mate,,,the champions league draw is friday 07.08 at 12.00…
tom
nisanth that’s a piss poor excuse.. He didn’t have any service? Didn’t stop the others from scoring goals.. Do you think they didnt pass to him because they were jealous of his senior level involvement? come on…
Btw just for the record i do not want kalou at arsenal or playing instead of walcott as he is even worse.. Just wanted to clear that up..
Revelation, I love Clichey and his commitment but you are right -there was a stat doing the rounds somewhere and it showed that most of our goals conceded came from the left. Clichey isn’t the best natural defender, his pace gets him our of trouble more than anything.
I havent seen total football played by any teams in the recent past.Even our invincibles didnt play total football.Beautiful football DOESNT necessarily mean Total football.
oh i agree. look at the way teams used to try and play us years ago. They gave us room to play free flowing and fast football. Now, these teams park a bus outside their 18yard.
IMO the 442 doenst work against teams like that. We end up stuck trying to break them down and they hit us on the counter.
Where we should be trying to draw them out n actually hit them on the counter. Which is a variation of what holland did. As soon as they got the ball with the opposition in their half it was like a race to get the ball in the oppo’s half (without just hoofing it). The 433 is better suited to that style of play i think
Arse&Nose – I’m not that big on stats as i prefer to go with what i see based on my own vision.. Stats tell you things like toure is the 67th best defender in the prem or that denilson is one of the top 3 midfielder.. All in all from what i have seen is that clichy, defsenivly is a liability and he has recently taken senderos’ “ultimate fuck up trophy”…
Birmingham and tottenham still are fresh in the memory! But he is commited to the shirt and a top bloke… He can improve, but needs to improve on his concentration when defending the space in behind him..
and i have to say..today i woke with a great feeling…and all pessimism sorrounding Our Beloved Arsenal is gone,even if we dont buy any new players….im more than convinced that we’re going to dominate both the premier and Europe..im actually thinking that we will grow stronger and stronger during the season..so far this preseason has been fantastic..we’re mech better off than last year..and looking back..last year wasnt a disaster….
We are nothing short of the new Brazil only far better…barca roll over there’s a new *boy*in town..
this was only my pessimistic view on the season…
Our Beloved Arsenal will rise and shine go on you Gunners !!!
tom
total football to me is attacking with pace and scoring 3 goals a game but defending like you lives depended on it also has a home in total football imo
tom after reading that you certainly are stoned
I reckon holding midfielder Christian Poulsen from Juventus would be a cheap – yet great – acquisition for us. He is an experienced danish international. Of course Paddy could be an option too..
Reva, whether you or I are stats men doesn’t matter. The fact is that Wenger is big on stats and must know that Clichey is a liability already like most big teams know. In europe how many times have we seen teams try to knock a long diagonal ball behind clichey?!
jan – Scousers are sniffing around poulsen atm.. Poulsen would be o.k, but with 40+m in the bank i expect us to sign better.. But i know we won’t.
Nick mate
thats true in total football…like Ajax played it the most important rule..defend with the whole team and attack with the whole team…and its not about one single player its all about the team….
tom
the formation we play will really dictate whether we need a holding/def mid, or just a box to box high workrate mid.
In a 433 u really need that holding mid to sit in front of defence – a gilberto. We could park song there if hes disciplined enough to stay behind cesc and rosicky all game
With a 442 i think a box to box midfielder would be more suited because u really need him to offer something in attack as well.
what about scott parker. He played well last season. Big question whether he can back it up thouugh
mwt – Scott Parker is an injury waiting to happen. Again.
Alot of times A&N… But some just told me i talk shit for calling clichy a liability defensivly and didn’t watch arsenal games.. It is just my opinion, but to be honest at this point in time i wouldn’t swap him for any1… Gibbs is the future though
What is apparent is that every1 has their favourites and hate figures… I will though however never boo or slag off players when they are representing us on the pitch.. The pub/forums are when to do it…
I cannot understand wenger’s dislike of vela.. It bgrates on me.. It’s probably because Wenger never got to train him up from the outset and the loan clubs probably take more credit than Wenger for his development at current.. Arsene can’t have that can he…
From what i’ve seen Vela is our best prospect bar none and i include wilshire, ramsey, gibbs and merida in that bracket..
So what then is the point of signing a chamcack? It only kills bendtner and vela which wenger is against doing apparently..
But will he get in a central midfielder? No.. why? because denilson, song, diaby will effectivly be killed off… It smacks of double standard bullox..
If you all could sign 1 player for 1 position what would it be? Central midfield or striker?
ReVELAtion…
no mate im all sober..but this season will be nothing but great mate
..we will rock’n roll…i see only one rival in the premier and that is thoose old hags at chelski…in Europe barca..but its time we showed them how to really play the game…
and just for you ..we havent seen Vela in the team yet…mix him up with Arshavin,Rosicky,Eduardo,Cesc,RvP,Walcott,Wilshere,..it will be magical..
and ill give you one clue as to why im so *pessimistic* mate…ive watche the emiratse cup over and over..and there is one thing that was missing last year…but where clear for all to see this year…the team click’s…
tom…
ReVE – my comment from earlier:
tonyadamsisgod Says:
August 5, 2009 at 10:24
nishanth – I have been campaigning for Gibbs to start. If he can improve that quickly in a couple of months imagine how good he could be for us by December. He is the future!
Almunia
sanga gallas verm clichy
*unknown*
rosicky cesc
Arsh Dude RvP
Fill that gap and tell me that team wont be up for the title
Heard from a reliable source that Chelsea are signing Gilardino from Fiorentina.
Dave – They can have him!
mwt mate
that is easy Song…and we will rule the world
the only question mark is RvP im not at all sure he will keep Vela out of the team 
tom
haha oh i dunno. i personally think well see the best of rvp in a front 3 formation. More similar to his holland position. But yes id love to see vela have a go in there too, walcott as well. With jack subbing in for rosicky
dave… good he’s shit… he flopped at milan under anchelotti!
even though we;ve sold a few (and potentially more) i still feel more confident for this season, than i did this time last year before the 08/09 season. Anyone else feel that. Or we all even more depressed
Hangeland News on SSN!
No contact from Arsenal for Hangeland.
Hodgson desperate to keep him IF anyone makes an offer.
agreed mwt
the fact that Vela is knockin at the door could be just what RvP needs..and for the team its just great…i feel that we have a damned strong squad this year..and we will be impossible to defend against…i have really only one worry…we’re still young so we will be relying on a good start..could prove that the everton game could be one of the most important games all season..but after we trash them…we’re running away from the pack ..no doubt..:)
tom
That’s it.
nick total football was crazy. u had ur positions as u would in today’s game but the movements was more crazy. full backs like u have now were wingers etc. it was like 2 at the back and every one else attack
442 was a good departure from teams that used to play 5 at the back incl one sweeper. now its seems 433/451 is the way forward
funny enough chelsea are reverting to 442
Taig mate..
i felt that Hangeland would be a great Arsenal player,but it was more or less not going to happen after he was cuptied …
tom
Franchise mate
if you look at chelsea, they are going backwards…Italian style..would mean more defensive play…and well the Italian way of playing isnt very fun to watch…and not very successfull anymore…boring chelski will be even more boring…
tom
tom… but they’ll still be effective and still win games
well that hangeland news was fooking anticlimactic
treze –
Why would Fulham wish to advertise the fact that Hangeland has had no offers?
It is the second time on SSN I have seen them take this stance, could it be that they are actually inviting offers!?
From their point of view they have an asset who is worth 10m + who is unwilling to sign a new contract, next season he will be worth less so is this a case of watch what I do not what I say from Fulham.
Yes Tom..and isnt that a great name
chelski will be the biggest hurdle for us this season…but there’s always a big risk..in playing boring football…still how on earth chelski picked an italian manager is beyond me…but well…
tom
afternoon all
Tom it’s nice to know we still have a very optimistic fan like you
tom… its an awesome name mate!
i think liverpool are the only team that might be weaker but that’ll depend on what happens with mascherano.
man utd will be fine
I see wenger bidding about 6 mill for hangeland
chelsea is becoming an old age home
were not going sign any defensive players
i can see wenger offering a fiver and a bag of randoms for him… although i would accept that offer for denilson or eboue
Although it remains unconfirmed by the club, the Spanish press confirm the following players are no longer required at the club; Rafael van der Vaart, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Arjen Robben and Alvaro Negredo.
treze – I’d sell Cesc and Arshavin for a bag of Randoms! They are fucking awesome!!
I see Wenger bidding about 6 million for Hangeland ——-Choy when was that
I’m bored of reading about Chamakh. I don’t wont him! We don’t need him!
afternoon BBK ..
and Gunnersmith mate…im not that optimistic mate
..didnt you see how the team actually clicked at the emirates cup ??..and i haven seen that since Bergkamp started to have an affect on the team back in the glory days…today football is all about the team not one single player..we often tend to forget that fact..
but look at barca last year it was more than anything else a team effort..and they have build theire team much the same as we do…only we are better of course and younger…Messi is a good player but Vela will be better..iniesta is great..Wilshere will be better…cesc is better than any barca player..we ARE the future..i like to call us the new improved Brazil…and thats just because we play the game better than them they have flashes of genius…we used to play one fantastic half ..last year ..this year we will be fantastic the whole game…
the reason –simple –the team clicks–…and look at how the players enjoy themselves…gettin rid of *the chicken man*has done the team the world of good
tom..
maybe we should get robben to replace rosicky as the medical teams pet
I am assuming that gunnersmith
Tom – We played Rangers who are equal to a team like Wolves and an Atl.Madrid side that showed us how easily our defence can be cut open! Our defence needs fixing!!
TAIG – thats true lol, maybe not arsh but cesc is off eventually anyway might aswell get something good for him
Rangers just won their league last season i think…
They would be at least a top 10 side in the PL.
our defense is fucked and i expect it to stay that way! wenger wants a team that will win by out scoring rather than just beating a team 1-0 or 2-0, theres no other explanation for why he’s going after chamakh and not a DM or CB
treze – I’d sell Arshavin for a bag of ‘Non-Randoms’ that was filled with just the yellow and white ones with the gooey centre!!
Taig mate
im usually agreeing with you ,because you usually have good opinions in my book…but why beeing postive about Ath.Madrid…i watched the game and be real..it was more a question of them hanging on..who opened who Taig ? we where all over them..they where outplayed for the most part of the game…
and Ath.Madrid was last season looked upon as the strongest team apart from barca…in spain..
so on a bad day
we rolled over them Taig.
tom
choy – do not get carried away with Scottish football! It is dire! Rangers would do fucking well to finish in the top 10 in the EPL!
that is tempting actually TAIG lol
I got a sneaky feeling Wenger will re-jig our player positions if we don’t sign a defender.
Diaby for CB? Walcott for RB? Fabianski for DM ?
Rangers arent such a great team….and we cheated in that game Taig ..we played with 12 players
tom
after our firts 4 league games we would have a better idea of what arsenal team we would watch this season
pre season can deceive
Tom – You cant just look at one side of the argument. Yes we are fantastic going forward but that is going to win us the EPL on its own is it! We will still concede goals to the Stokes and Fulhams and players like Torres and Rooney will continue to rip our defence apart. Its time to wake up mate and become a bit of a realist. I admire your optimism but you are really kidding yourself if you think that a couple of injured players returning, an untested CB and the sale of 2 first team members can win us the extra 19 points that we needed last year!
come on Grovers and Gooners..
have you really ever seen a better team than Our Beloved Arsenal this year…be real..not a chance mates..
im telling you the world will forget all about barca and Brazil…we are the future …and we will stay there for the next 5-6 years…so i have one advice to the other teams around…sit down and wahtch i awe
tom
i wish i wasnt so damned pessimistic
tom
Tom, are you serious?
go on Tom thats the spirit
Taig mate
selling Toure and *the chicken man* was a genius move..think african cup mate..and im not looking at things from one side only..im only asking you to look at both sides and then tell me was Ath.Madrid one of the top top teams in Spain better than us ??
tom
tom
i love your spirit and optimism mate but i think your a bit bonkers
tom we would have to conquer a town b4 we think of conquring a country
u r too fast ahead of urself
i used to be like u in 2004 look at what followed
Tom For President!
just a thought but how about going with the sweeper formation against teams that play long ball or would that be worse?????
Has anyone else heard the rumour about Jay Simpson going to Bordeaux on loan as part of the Chamakh deal?? Might explain why he was omitted from yesterday’s match squad, or it might just be a made up rumour because of his omission. Would be interested to see how he’d do in the French league!
athletico last year were our equivalent… finished 4th 20 points off the top
tom that shit u smoking is it grown in a lab or in the wild
just kidding mate
rock on
or smoke on
A sounds like bollocks to me mate, i doubt they even know he exists
Yes Pedro mate
i am..ive been studying the matches we’ve played this year and im almost surprised all You fine Grovers havent seen the same as i have the team actually clicks……havent seen that since Bergkamp started to have that affect back in the glory days…
and be honest Ath:madrid who is reckon by all experts to be one of the best teams in europe with players we have dreamt of buying ??..they where outplayed out calssed and left in shambles..and it seemed so easy…almost like we put in no efffort..and that proves to me..if we play the way we can…well there is no team in the world who come close..
tom
beside Pedro im gonna whoop youre as int the fantasy league this year mate
nick sweeper formation is no longer used for a reason
i think with formations u cant be too clever
the modern formation says 4 at the back midfield and attack nos can vary but 4 at the back is fairly standard
well the next manager to revert to it and conquer the world would defo have some admirers and followers
the Spanish press confirm the following players are no longer required at the club; Rafael van der Vaart, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Arjen Robben and Alvaro Negredo.
Jorge Valdano told the club’s official website: “We are still looking for destinations for some players, but I am sure they are aware that they will not be relied upon as squad members this year,”
“We aren’t allowed to have more than 25 players due to bureaucratic reasons and we know who we do not want.
“We aspire to improve every day and to fight for every tournament the team participates in. Real Madrid always has that obligation. Because such a great team was built, the goals only get bigger.”
u r called tomstoned for a damn good reason
fran
sweeper would be more attacking then defensive any way so not gonna help my bad
Yeah Tom I’d be surprised if they would have asked for him, but maybe Wenger offered him as part of the deal, along with a youtube video showcasing his talents that made him look like the next thierry henry?!
Would be a weird one if it was true!
Well off …dinner..
Have a great day in Arsenal Paradise all Grovers and Gooners alike…
and from this day on im a changed man ..because i have seen the light…or i have seen what Our Beloved Arsenal are going to be from now on..the best team ever….lets get ready to rewrite the history of foootball….from now on one word covers it all *ARSENAL*
and im not smokin..havent even been allowed one small beer by my Missess..damned !!
tom…
keeper
sweeper
cb
attacking/lb attacking/rb
dcm dcm
rw lw
ss
striker
later tom… take it easy
nick i thought u meant
…………………..GK…………………….
………………..sweeper………………….
……………CB………….CB………………
RWB………………………………………LWB
……………DCM………..DCM………………
…………………CM………………………
……………CF………….CF……………….
what u got there is a 4411
http://www.ukcitizenshiptest.co.uk/
according to this I don’t deserve to be a British citizen, ah well!
sweeper normally operated as a CB slightly behind 2 conventional CBs as u have in todays game
u could call the formation 352 going forward or 532 defending
lol A is it cos u r le chump
True Franchise, with a sweeper you generally play wingbacks and a back three. Not a particularly fashionable system nowadays, can’t think of anyone who plays it??
lol Franchise, I defy anyone to pass that test, just such a ridiculous idea!!
fran thats how you play traditional sweeper, i was going with the we will score more then you sweeper attack being the best form of attack turn out
………ALMUNIA…………
…….GALLAS……..
……VERMINATOUR…….
.SAGNA……………CLICHY.
……..NASRI CESC……….
..ARSHAVIN……….ROSICKY.
………RVP…EDDIE
A Napoli played it last season
its a great formation to break down a 442 but 433 fucks it up
Me neither, 6 out of 24…shit.
nick that is 442 with verm as a libero-man marking CB and Gallas sitting back that is what we play already or something similar
lol I managed 10 wonderboy, you need 18 to pass – what a piss take!! Does that mean if you fail you should be deported?? Long as they ship me off somewhere sunny i’ll be happy enough
A… that test was unbelievably hard!
……ALMUNIA…..
..GALLAS JD VERMI..
SAGNA……….CLICHY
……. CESC……..
NASRI……….ROSICKY
……ARSHAVIN……
…….EDDIE……….
Yeah it’s a joke pedro! I take it you failed too?? Not heard of anyone I know pass it yet!
Mind you… I bet if I had the handbook for a couple of days I’d pass it.
You wouldn’t pass the theory driving test without the book…
Yeah, I failed on 12… more luck than judgement! haha!
yeah Pedro I’m sure if you revised it would be easier, but still, how does it make sense that immigrants who are allowed in, would know more about Britain than 99% of Brits!?
sorry i meant with Verm as man marking
A it would probably be like the theory test for driving u would have to buy a study manual with all the possible Q&A
12/24!
stupid test
A, I think it’s more about making them show a commitment to coming in… and to perhaps demonstrate that they have a grasp of the language and the ability to learn?
it could work Nick
i think the work of the sweeper evolved and was replaced by the Makalele type DM sniffing out danger and nullifying it before it got to the more dangerous positions
good article on 352
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/nov/19/argentina-napoli
is 352 dead???
m. diarra
zapata
d. dein
title
myles rules (as does le-grove)- and if u don’t like him, don’t read ANR
Maybe ArsenalKenya will do worse than me, i’m off to Thailand to party with Ethan.
with the sweeper it was breach the defense and face me
now its i have to stop u b4 u get to the defence
True Pedro, but I don’t like the way it’s called a “citizenship test”, as if you aren’t worthy of becoming a British Citizen because of your lack of knowledge about Britain, but almost noone has that knowledge!
It’s just to appease the anti-immigration lobbyists and such like, but still seems very silly to me!
Another thing that seems very silly to me is job interviews, so forced and fake, it’d be much more useful if rather than spend a week interviewing different people for an hour at a time, you stuck them all together in a big brother style house and gave them tasks so you can see what they’re actually like!
Guess that’s what the Apprentice is though to be fair
I got 6 out of 24 and damn proud of it!
Is it true that Livershit have signed Aquilani? Anyone know?
19/24
Haha,and I’ve been living in the United Kingdom for less than an year.Most of my answers were wild guesses.
ha nicely done stu – some of the questions are just silly. Had absolutely no idea how many constituencies there are, number of days a school has to stay open a year, annd various other numerical ones, some of the other things you can make an educated guess but some are unguessable
Bloody hell Jaguar, very impressive!!
A, I agree with you regarding job interviews… I reckon flipping a coin is as effective…
I believe in a means test… you should have some value to offer the country you are entering and you should be prepared to work… kind of like how it works in Australia…
Well played Jaguar… you are more English than me!
Some formations come and go, waxing and waning in and out of fashion. When others fade, though, they disappear. Nobody would dream these days of playing a 2-3-5 or a W-M, and it seemed as though 3-5-2 was headed the same way. There are good reasons for that and yet, defying the prevailing wisdom, Napoli have climbed to second in Serie A using hthe formation. Perhaps, as Carlos Bilardo returns to the spotlight as part of Diego Maradona’s coaching staff with the Argentina national team, it is appropriate that the tactics he devised should fall once again under consideration.
The birth of 3-5-2
Bilardo, having been part of Osvaldo Zubeldía’s brutal and pragmatic Estudiantes side, was as system-driven as any coach; putting him in charge of an Argentina side featuring one of the greatest individual talents there has ever been seemed like football’s great joke. His solution was to make Maradona his captain and to develop a new formation to accommodate him.
Wingers were in decline, becoming auxiliary midfielders, he reasoned, so what was the point of full-backs? They had been becoming increasingly attacking since the early 50s and the days of the great Brazilian Nilton Santos, so why not simply redesignate them as midfielders?
It was desperation that drove Bilardo to experiment on a tour of Europe in 1984. He had won only three of his first 15 games in charge, and his position was under threat. So low had his reputation sunk that when he read out the team to face Switzerland, journalists assumed he had made a mistake. “They told me I was wrong, that I’d named three central defenders,” he said. “But I told them I was not confused. We were going to use three defenders, five midfielders and two forwards. We had practised it for two years, and now I was going to put it into practice in tough games.”
Switzerland were beaten 2-0, as were Belgium, and then Argentina won 3-1 against West Germany. Bilardo then retreated from the 3-5-2 – perhaps to shield his new formation from spying eyes, or perhaps because he had no grand plan but was constantly tinkering – until it came to the World Cup quarter-final against England two years later. He dropped the centre-forward Pedro Pasculli, who had scored in the previous round against Uruguay, instead deploying the midfielder Héctor Enrique as part of a central trio with Jorge Burruchaga and Sergio Batista. “You can’t play against the English with a pure centre-forward,” he explained. “They’d devour him, and the extra man in midfield will give Maradona more room.” His playmaker, in other words, became a second striker as the shape shifted from 4-3-1-2 to 3-5-2 (or perhaps, more precisely, 3-5-1-1).
How the idea spread
European football had been heading to a similar point. Catenaccio – and the slightly more liberal gioco all’Italiana that followed it – had usually featured a libero, a marking centre-back, a marking right-back who tucked in, and an attacking left-back, with the right-midfielder dropping back where necessary – as a ‘tornante’, or ‘returner’. It didn’t take much to play the tornante deeper as what would become known as a right wing-back.
German football had been wedded to a 1-3-3-1-2 since the 1974 World Cup, often with an attacking libero and/or full-backs. In 1986, West Germany’s coach Franz Beckenbauer, depending on the opponents, began pushing one of his central midfielders into a deeper role, so that by the time of the World Cup final, they too were effectively using a libero, two markers, two flank defenders who were expected to provide attacking width, two holders in midfield, a playmaker and two centre-forwards – what would become known as a 3-4-1-2, a close cousin of the 3-5-2.
And so the system spread. Variants of 3-5-2 won the World Cup in 1990 (West Germany) and 1994 (Brazil) and the European Championship in 1996 (Germany). Even England, the great stronghold of 4-4-2, experimented with the formation through the 90s. And yet now – outside of Brazil and the Balkans – it is barely seen. Not a single side at Euro 2008 used it; not a single side who reached the last 16 of the Champions League last season used it; not a single side in the Premier League uses it (although Portsmouth did dabble).
Why have teams turned their back on 3-5-2?
José Alberto Cortes, head of the coaching course at the University of São Paulo, believes the issue is physical. “With the pace of the modern game,” he said, “it is impossible for wing-backs to function in the same way because they have to be quicker and fitter than the rest of the players on the pitch.”
Others, though, see the turn against three at the back as the result of incorporating skilful players by bolstering the midfield. Bilardo’s formation, curiously, contained the seeds of its own undoing. If the playmaker is deployed not as a midfielder but as a second forward, he drops deep, leaving only one central striker. Modern attempts to use creative players wide in a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 equally feature a single central striker. (Here it should be made clear that the modern 4-3-3 – perhaps more accurately a 4-1-2-3 – is significantly different from the 4-3-3 Brazil introduced in 1962, and which was relatively common in Britain in the 70s and early 80s. That system commonly featured two centre-forwards and one winger: it was, in effect, a lopsided 4-4-2, with one wide midfielder more advanced than the other).
Bilardo’s scheme had two markers picking up the opposing centre-forwards, with a spare man sweeping behind. If there is only one centre-forward to mark, though, that leaves two spare men – one provides cover; a second is redundant – which in turn means a shortfall elsewhere on the pitch. “There’s no point having three defenders covering one centre-forward,” explained Miroslav Djukic, the former Valencia defender who became Partizan Belgrade manager in 2007.
An analytical approach
Nelsinho Baptista, the experienced Brazilian coach who took charge of Corinthians in 2007, has developed software to explore the weaknesses of one system when matched against another. “Imagine Team A is playing 3-5-2 against Team B with a 4-5-1 that becomes 4-3-3,” he said. “So Team A has to commit the wing-backs to deal with Team B’s wingers. That means Team A is using five men to deal with three forwards. In midfield Team A has three central midfielders against three, so the usual advantage of 3-5-2 against 4-4-2 is lost. Then at the front it is two forwards against four defenders, but the spare defenders are full-backs. One can push into midfield to create an extra man there, while still leaving three v two at the back. So Team B can dominate possession, and also has greater width.”
One of Team A’s central defenders could, of course, himself step up into midfield, but if you’re going to do that, it is surely better to use a defensive midfielder in the role (full-backs are rather more used to advancing than central defenders, so it is more natural for them to function as an auxiliary midfielder). Which is precisely what Chelsea do with Mikel Jon Obi, and Shakhtar Donetsk with Mariusz Lewandowski, a holding midfielder allowing the full-backs greater rein.
Putting it into practice
The 2008 African Cup of Nations provides a practical example. Egypt won it with a 3-4-1-2, but that can be explained by the fact that 4-4-2 still tends to dominate tactical thinking in Africa. In fact, in 2008, aside from Egypt – and at times Cameroon – only Guinea and Morocco, both of whom used a 4-2-3-1, did not set up in some form of 4-4-2.
In their opening match, Egypt hammered Cameroon 4-2, a scoreline that flattered their opponents. They went on to add a further 10 goals in disposing of Sudan, Zambia, Angola and Côte d’Ivoire before meeting Cameroon again in the final. In that first game, Cameroon’s coach Otto Pfister had his players in a 4-4-2; in the final, he opted for a 4-2-3-1 and, for the first time in the tournament, Egypt struggled for fluency. The central defender Wael Gomaa looked like a spare part, anxiously and uncertainly wandering into midfield, and, although Egypt bossed possession, they ended up beating a limited side only because of a terrible individual error from Rigobert Song.
Signs of recovery
So what, then, of Napoli? If 3-5-2 is ailing, how can their success be accounted for? The answer is that they are quite happy to have, in effect, two liberi. Napoli are not a team who need to take the initiative to the opposition; rather – as happened in the early days of catenaccio – they often sit deep, invite the opposition onto them, and break quickly, using the pace of Ezequiel Lavezzi. Having an extra spare man at the back makes it easier for them to pick up runners, and Edy Reja, their coach, is prepared to sacrifice possession for the extra defensive security.
It would not work for everybody – probably not for a top, top club, who feel the onus to take the game on themselves – but it works for Napoli. And that illuminates a universal truth about tactics: there is no right or wrong, just fads and fashions and systems that are right for particular teams at particular times.
Is 3-5-2 dying? No, but the trend towards one central striker has exposed a serious shortcoming.
I guessed most of them A. I actually knew none of the answers…
van der sar’s out for 8 weeks.
never mind.
lol the first question I knew Stu, it was a true or false, but after that I was very iffy. Things like
“in the state school system education is free and so is sports equipment and uniform”,
or
“in the state school system education is free and but you have to pay for sports equipment and uniform”
Really couldn’t remember
yep Tom, and Foster has looked very dodgy in pre season, could be a bigger loss than people think!
I am delighted that vds is injured. Without him all they have is Kuszcak (sp) and Foster. Neither of them are very good. Decent cover but no more.
Now all we need if for one of Vidic or Ferdy to pick up an injury and they will be fucked.
lol stu, clutching at straws is hardly encouraging..
We’ll remain fucked if we don’t sign a top class central midfielder..
Fran wenger said we have to many cb and are short in dcm so he is playing them there si to save money and get an effective formation that will work with the players we have the sweeper is the one move the holding midfield enforcer to the back positioning and experience all sorted happy days if it works im taking all the credit
A… i just hope its the first of many for them!
We have the money for de rossi so why are we fucking about with t-mobile contracts for an ex legend and some kid who’s team nearly got relegated.. Not exactly big club mentality is it!
Yeah I agree Stu, I already expect them to be battling for 4th along with City, a fair bit behind us Chelsea and Liverpool, but if they lose their defensive stability too they’re fucked imo!
Well Rev, if we cant have a good defence then im hoping the others dont either.
ReVelation… be prepared to remain fucked then mate
man utd battling 4th!? they’ll probably win the league again!!
crash bang wallop
hatrick
What the fuck is up with Merson? I always knew he was a few sandwiches short of a picnic but on SSN today all he has been sayiong is that we are shit and that Theo is shit and we should buy Vieira (type player).
Why does noone ever have a good word to say about us.
Not a chance Tom, defensively they’re still strong, but in terms of creativity, and scoring goals, they’re WAY behind the others, City included actually!
Hattrick? Or blogfart.
He’s a clown Stu, idiots like him doubting us shows we’re on the right track!
11/24, i’ll pack my bags
so coke habit thinks we need a new dcm that can play a bit not sure theo is the man for us emmmm……
Merson could be any arsenal fan i know
14/24 im off to Ireland
Unfortunately you’re probably right Nick, Merson could well mimic the majority of football fans, very sad so many having the inability to think for themselves, or rationally!
i was expecting questions like ‘who is katie price?’
what do u find on page 3 of the sun?
what is the most craved food after a night out?
stu.
hatrick…. just!!
mersons only saying what we all are!! we’re dying for a vieira!!
A… you’ll surprised then mate, they’ll still be up there, no way they’ll be outside top 2 or 3 let alone top 4
Irish has deserted us. Too much testosterone
NICK N STU U BUWWIED HER AWAY
How dare you Franchise. I did no such thing. As for Nick? Yeah he probably scared her off.
If i had no choice but to bet my savings on a top 4 club to win the league or face death by Megan Fox snatch God knows i wont be betting on Arsenal. Megan is hot
I don’t think I will Tom, they’ll be 4th, no way they’re in a position to compete with Liverpool, Chelsea, or us imo. Depends whether Fergie can sign an Arshavin when they’re languishing in 5th come January whether they’ll stay in champs league!
Grovers,
I have had enough of the Song bashing. The guy has really improved. He brings solidity to our mid. Did you watch us at home to liverpool? I admit he is not very pacy. I agree we need another body there as he alone cannot cut it all the time and Dennilson is not strong enough.
My wish is that Usmanov gets extra sharea and ousts this crappy ambitionless board. They have refused Wenger to splash the cash!
“lol yes he will do jihad on the bacon eating Bendtner” – A&N
“The last time i looked Arsenal Football Club was based in London, England – whose native tongue is English. Fuck France and fuck the French, Wenger whould insist ALL player wishing to be employed in the English League speak fucking English……….” – DDM
“all football clubs are technically 80% owned by the fans IMO” – Fran
That’s real classy stuff above fellas. Dare I whisper the “r” word but it smacks to me of it.
And Fran-how can a club be owned 80% by its fans “technically” when its your opinion. That ain’t exactly technical.
Franchise there should be a “don’t give a shit” option at the bottom of every question. Would make it much more British. All these people who know all those things aren’t gonna fit into the British way of life – bunch of geeks!
Aqilani offer accepted. Meh, no idea how he’ll adapt to prem, can’t see him replacing alonso perfectly straight away.
Why are they twisting wenger’s words to make it sound like he’s saying we aren’t big or strong enough?! Really isn’t what he said!
LAzer they cant do witout us. that equals 80%. im a genius dont argue with me
I just don’t get the recent transfer targets of the club though.. Arsene has always been astute when buying younger players and developing them into top ones.. But there comes a time when you can’t gamble on 6 or 7 anymore and now is that time..
He hopes that after 4-5 years together the kids will just click.. It’s a huge, huge gamble on his part and one where it can’t really afford to go wrong for him! There is trusting what you have and being a deluded arse.. The truth is somewhere in between…
We will alwys be confident of our chances at doing well but there are too many what if’s surrounding the club.. The majority of fans are slightly annoyed and rightly so..We’ve sold some players in recent years and at current have chosen not to replace them…
We need just two top quality signings brought in, ideally 3. The lack of a top class partner for cesc is evident and it’s all a case of:
what if song/denilson/diaby continue to put in indifferent performances and don’t improve at a rapid rate?
what if cesc gets injured again. Who do we turn to?
what if merida, ramsey & wilshire aren’t ready to play premiership football?
Then there’s the centre half situation. Some will say we have to defend as a team, height doesn’t matter etc. Others will say we’ve been crap from set pieces, corners and free kicks for 3 years now.. When is it going to get sorted? Again, alot of what if’s:
What if gallas or the untested saviour vermaelen sustain serious injury?
what if we sell eboue and have to see djourou, hoyte or at worst, song at right back?
What if we get beaten by hull, stoke, blackburn, bolton due to set pieces?
The centre forward situation isn’t the most apparent, but the push to sign chamackh or kalou (as some would have you believe) is quite clearly the last of our priorities surely.. But there remains question marks still, like:
what if van persie and eduardo don’t stay injury free? Pessemistic, but not improbable
what if bendtner doesn’t score the 20 goals in all comps we are hoping to see?
what if chamackh turns out to be what his goal scoring record suggests, cham-cack?
I’m not particularly optimistic..
Well thats a bastard. Aquilani is good, i dont want Liverpool wasting him.
I do however hope that like most italians before him he fails miserably in england.
oi stu fuck you,a little limmerick for ya
Song may have improved but he is by no means a world beater
Confident… that is a baseless comment there… Wenger has £40mill at his disposal now and he doesn’t seem too keen to spend it. My guess is that even if a free spending billionaire does come in, he still wont spend.
Song has improved… but what are you gauging improvement against? Improving the Vieira standards, or improving on being one of the worst Arsenal players of the last ten years?
fran have you spoken to irish then or are you just putting stu’s testosterone levels as your reason why???
death by meg minge sounds good
i havent spoken to her nick
it gets too sweaty and ballsy attimes on here for a lady to cope with
she’ll be back come season kickoff i reckon
Hey Nick! Shut your face! Wanna fight about it! Dont bother, i’ll just win anyway! Grrrrr!!!
Pedro all we know is that we’ve made £25-£30 mil this window, people need to stop making up numbers about how much money there is!
It’s like saying “Wenger has a bazillion pounds available”
LAzer… I think calling Bendtner a bacon eater is about as racist as calling me a Limey… same with saying fuck the French…
Neither are racist… especially as they are the same race as us anyway.
A bazillion huh? We should just but another club and use their players if we have that much.
Fuck the French is kinda xenophobic Pedro
So who do we need to win out of celtic and dinamo? Or does it even matter?
snatch, crackle and pop
So sell lfc alonso 30 mill , same day agree a fee for aquilani 20 mill .
afc sell two players , bank 40 mill , wank about ,
state we lack hieght give me hope he has reconised this (wow ) then say but we have bentner and diaby to cope , offer measley money for a player not all are sure we need and do fuck all else
great . so pissed off with this crap
i think at best we will end up with chamack and maybe pv 4 and no more .
but the board will be happy with a 30 mill profit
Doesn’t make any difference in terms of seedings Stu, so just which ever one we’d prefer to play, maybe Celtic to avoid having to travel out to Russia midweek, potentially before the Utd game, but we should beat either. We want Timisoara to beat Shakhtar later, so we can draw them, but if Shakhtar win they they’re seeded, and Stuttgart are no longer seeded
stu you win
…good fight
fran you fucking racist cunt stop upsetting people and you say about me and stu…i told him yankie
jules currently we’ve brought in £35-£40 mil, and spent £10 mil, so currently we’ve made £25-£30 mil profit. I really expect a DM to come in, so that’d be £15-£20 mil profit, and then either a forward or a defender.
Probably end up with about £10 mil profit
The board are probably thinking “we can make more money from selling players than we can from winning trophies. So why is everyone giving out that we dont win trophies. Profit is the best thing ever FACT!”
+ £13million starting budget (Minimum)
+ £25million
+£15million
+ £8million
= £61million
- £13million
= £48million
I haven’t included salaries in that equation either… but I can do…
Kolo £2mill
Phil £1.5mill
Ade: £4.1mill
= £7.6mill
-
Verma: £1.3
RvP: £2.05
Walcott: £500k
Jack/Rambo/Gibbs: £750k
= £4.6mill
Surplus £3.3mill
Total £51.3mill
Less of the £30mill A…
With the champs league draw, I just wanna avoid fiorentina and athletico madrid, would be happy with celtic/moscow, anderlecht, or stuttgart/timisoara
pedro you nicking nicks posts again,im sure no one would have got their nickers in a twist
Pedro where’s the £8 mil from?! Ade was anything from £20mil – £25 mil, more likely around £22 mil, as Wenger basically said it wasn’t £25 mil.
We have NO idea whether we had £13 mil as starting budget, that’s nothing apart from speculation. I’d say it’s more likely we started on a level plain, with ade and kolo always gonna be sold. There’s even a possibility that part of the ade/kolo sale went towards covering Arshavin’s purchase in January!
All that we currently know is that we’ve made £25-£30 mil profit from this summer’s dealings, anything else is pure speculation, we might have that amount to spend, we might have more, we might have less, but we won’t know.
Add to that the money we didnt spend last summer, the money we got from player sales last summer. But also consider the board would have takena chunk of that for paying off some debt and paying off Arshavins fee. But we would still have a good bit of money left over.
all those wages are again just speculation as well, where on earth have you got them from?!
oh and phil hasn’t been sold yet….
Stu if you include Arshavin in the 2008/09 season spending, we spent £20.75 million more than we brought in….
A… you’re just down playing the fee for the sake of it.
So now you think that we started the summer with no budget… what’s your basis for that? £13million was being extremely frugal.
How could a business that generates as much money as start a summer with no budget? We’d be a ticking time bomb… no one would buy us if things were that bad… because if we missed out on champions league one year, we’d be in the red by £40mill.
What ever the figure are , the point is lfc actions
show a little more ambition than ours , going for a established 20 mill player with the money they have got in .
compared to …….. erm .
funny how last year we could have got alonso if they had offered a few mill more now he goes for 30 .
alonso , what a player for us he could of been !
still arsene knows best
Well we got 13m for finishing 4th i seem to remember. So thats where the 13m came from,
Well, the Ade wages are pretty well documented.
Freddy Ljungberg was on £40k a year when he left us… so Kolo 3 years on can’t have been earning far off.
I read that if you are foreign you start on £25k for the first team squad… so I think I had phil on roughly £35k a week.
I know you’d like to believe that the Arsenal players are all on £4 an hour… but our wage bill isn’t £100million because we pay peanuts.
My basis for that is that we’ve got no idea Pedro! As we knew Ade and Kolo wer going to be sold, the board may well have decided that that would provide enough transfer funds for the summer, so didn’t need to add £13 mil. That £13 mil could have gone on Arshavin’s transfer in January.
The point is we have literally NO idea, the £13 mil was just the tabloids speculating and making up a number, and everyone treating it as a fact! We could have started off with more, we could have started off with less, we could have started off with nothing, we could have started off with a deficit from Arshavin, that we needed to cover, we just don’t know at all.
Anyway… I’m off out to the gun house… I’ll be back later!
The ade wages are pretty well speculated about, not documented at all! How do you work out Theo is only on half a mil more than he was before etc etc?
I don’t have a clue what the Arsenal players are on, and wouldn’t just guess, then try and state my guesses as factual information that backs up an argument!!
A… we’re a profitable business, I think it is safe to assume that we didn’t start off on zero.
We finished 4th… not 16th… and we’ve posted a surplus in the transfer market for god knows how long.
AGAIN !! what ever the figure really are and you can speculate all you like as you don,t really know .
The point is ambition / activity or in our case lack of .
Wenger is penny wise pounds foolish. Lets take for example, he believed that Melo was worth 21 mil, so he offers about 8mil +Eboue+senderos…now if he believed he was what it to offer that much..why didn’t he just fucking pay the cash and get Melo. Its just plain stupid way of thinking he is extremely smart always.
No one can bring up the arshavin fee as that was more or less paid for by bentley and diarra’s sell on fee’s.
Last year we sold four first team players and bought one .
This year we have so far sold two and got one probable .
What does being a profitable business have to do with anything? We’ve got big debts that need to be paid off, as we knew there would be £30-£40 mil coming in from player sales, the board may have felt that would be more than adequate as a transfer budget for the summer, therefore we didn’t need to put money in from the club coffers, and that would be better spent on clearing some of the debt. I’m sure if those deals didn’t happen we wouldn’t have had nothing, but as they did there was no need to spend money from within the club on transfers.
We’ve posted a surplus in the transfer market once in Wenger’s entire time at the club….
And one fuck all lately A
reva bentley and diarra were just under £5 mil each, that doesn’t cover £16 mil unless my maths are very retarded!
sorry .
won
fran you about
later peds what the fuck is the gun house ?)
* ?|
wanker
not you me
Wilshere has been left out of U21s YET AGAIN!!!
Stuart Pearce is a fucking idiot lol.
good
maybe it’s because he’s gonna be in the full squad sion
wilshere is creative anyways, pearce doesn’t want ANY creativity whatsoever in any of his teams
Sion you could read it another way round that Jack Wilshire not being in the U21 squad means he is in the senior squad?!
I know no chance but yes Stuart Pearce is a prat!
liverpool make us look like such a bunch of clowns the way they’ve gone and got aquilani… gazidis and wenger should be taking notes
has jack played for the u19s yet?
I don’t know how you could have a player who is obviously that talented and not play him. I don’t know if Capello will risk putting him in the seniors, and will probably rather have him continue his development at a slightly lower level, but not with Stuart Pearce thats for sure.
Actually we got about 7m for bentley and about 8m for diarra hence the astronomical amounts they both went for at 15m and 20m respectivly..
Anyhow A, even if we had to put in 2-4 mil that’s like 1 home games revenue… So again yes, they basically did buy arshavin
ex-lenegd cocke nose the clown does an half talkshite.. speaking of talkshite am i going to get to hear anymore legendary transfer insights from ian wright.
Why am I still in moderation ?
He fulfils precisely the profile that we were looking for. He is a target man, just like Mario Gomez.”
When asked about the fee which had been reported as 10millions euros, he declared the true figure was “in the region of five million”.
“We said that we would not do anything crazy.”
“Pavel only had six months left on his contract so 10million would have clearly been too much.”
Pogrebynak had even suggested a move to Arsenal was his preference which would have seen him team up with former international and club team-mate Andrei Arshavin at the Emirates. He had said, “It is the first time I’ve heard about Arsenal’s interest, but, of course, I’m pleased that the club is interested in me.
“I think that for any player to get the opportunity to work with Arsene Wenger would be a big step forward.”
The 25-year-old had been playing for Zenit St Petersburg in his homeland and is rated as one of his country’s top strikers. He rejected a move to Blackburn in January but his contract was set to expire in November which led to his price tag being so small despite his status.
The player had shown he regards himself as good enough to play for one of the big English clubs when he told the Russian press, “I was puzzled when Zenit general director Maksim Mitrofanov said he was going to talk me into accepting Blackburn’s offer in the winter transfer window.
engalnd at u19 and u-21 level have really gone back to the big lump forward plus loads of big boys = win tactics haven’t they?
lol Tom – Liverpool have made us look like right mugs, by panic buying as soon as Alonso went spending more than the player was worth, on someone who might not adapt to the premiership at all, definitely!!
Wilshere played one match for the u19s, but that was a one off last season, he was still an u17 for the duration of the euro campaign. He’d be in the u18s for the world cup later this year, but not sure England qualified?? Or did they? Can’t remember, just know they failed to get out of their Euro group?
Reva £5 mil a piece, look it up
reva not necessarily big lump forward, generally have quick forwards, but just have no creative midfielders at all coming through! U19s were ok with Lansbury playing in the Gerrard role of the 4-2-3-1, offered them drive, but still far from a passing team. The u21s with three defensive mids and just quick forwards basically play like Villa, so so deep and boring, just hoping to score from set pieces or breaks
Its really silly actually Wenger trying to hide his targets. He know how much he values a player and won’t pay much above it, so why make it secret then. Let the club know you want the player for xxx fee and if they don’t want to accept, walk away..simple. Why make it secret, spend a whole season negotiating and then final don’t buy the player cause of a mil or two..and tell the fans..” We tried “.that is pure shit to me.
if benitez didn’t move soon enough, the fans would’ve killed him!!
I agree TG. Its annoying when that happens.
He says that he doesnt reveal his targets because hen the price goes up. What about when he contacts the club with an offer. Then will obviously then realise Wenger wants him and up the price.
Keeping things quiet is fine but he just goes too far with it.q
Top Gunn that is what we do, but if the press know about it then other clubs will know about it, so they’ll come in for the player, and may well be prepared to offer more money so we’d fail to get people. Also if we fail to agree a fee for a player, but announce that we’re after him, we’d cause trouble and unsettle the player, and if we didn’t ever agree on a fee then it would leave the player unsettled. We respect other clubs so aren’t willing to do that, as well as the fact it would make it more difficult to get players if we went public.
I doubt any other fan has the patience that we do.
Aquilanin is a good player tho. Being tipped to replace Pirlo in the international set up eventually. I would like for us to have signed him but he isnt a defensive midfielder. He can play there but is similar to Alonso as in he is a deep lying playmaker…
And how much did they spend on him? 15 or 20?
what choy?! Arsenal fans are amongst the least patient i’ve ever come across!!
Arsenal could face one of the following: Stuttgart, Fiorentina, Atletico Madrid, Celtic, Anderlecht, Timisoura, Dinamo Moscow.
Yeah it’s apparently £20 mil Stu, lot of money
Well if we bid for a player and the club refuse it then we should just move on….why all this prolonged(sp) negotiations over a few million when neither club is going to bugde on their evaluations?
A,Sorry to say that,but its too early to judge if Aquilani,would adapt to the PL.I do agree with your point that he is not worth 20m.But was Alonso,worth 30m.Definitely not,you cant have it both ways(Read Arsene’s way).Apparently,Arsene wants to sell all of his players above the market price,and buy players at a price,which he bids way below the market price,and in the fag end,we dont recruit anyone.
He made a bid of £5.5m, for a player who was one of the best performers for the French Champions(not that I want him),and slapped a ludicrous tag of £6m,for one of our defenders,who didnt make it at Arsenal.Our transfer policy in terms of buying players is a shame,and we were lucky enough to have an Arshavin.
Yeah Man, currently celtic moscow going to extra time, i’m hoping celtic win, much rather play them than moscow!
Then really cheering on Timisoara, much rather play them than Stuttgart actually!! Wouldn’t mind a cheap trip over to romania as well!
Bit of a fucker panathaniokos and Sporting came back last night, with ten mins to go looked like we might not even have Athletico, Fiorentina, or Stuttgart in the draw!
Yeah, wanting to challenge for the title after 4 years without one, all the while we buy no appropriate quality players to compete. Thats impatience for you…
A Says:
August 5, 2009 at 17:23
What does being a profitable business have to do with anything? We’ve got big debts that need to be paid off, as we knew there would be £30-£40 mil coming in from player sales,
=============================
Gate revenue, TV cash, and sponsorship…..more than cover the annual installments we pay on the loan…not to talk of player and staff wages…we are not in the red….i think the board would have us assume that we are….but we are not so….and this money making thing from transfers to salvage the depth is ludicrous…The stadium/shirt sales and the fact that we dont go on world tours where we would be playing the best in the world for somewhere around 10-15 million extra or the fact that Arsenal refuse to increase their name as a global brand in the world of sports till the creature that is Gazidis came….is a sign of people who dont know what they are doing to run the club….they are juss a bunch of stingy misers spending club money.
and to think we could’ve had alonso last year for 14 mill!!! fack
Jaguar gotta disagree there.
A player is worth x pounds to us, and that’s the minimum we’d sell him for, and the maximum we’d sign someone for.
Just because other teams are willing to spend stupid amounts on players, way over what we value a player at, it doesn’t mean we would then be willing to spend more than we value a player at
The gun house is where all muslims are conducting jihad on the bacon eaters and the french are getting fucked.
So we’ve seen this and we’ve been here before….We’re going to have to wait till August 31st again to see a new signing.
It puzzles me really. Arsene admitted he was wrong. Said defense was a problem. Said we were light in the middle of the park…and he would fix it after the shareholders meeting and he’s done feck all.
I agree with Jaguar on this one. Last summer Wenger wanted 35m or whatever for Ade when he was clearly not worth that. If Ade was with another club and had that same season and we were interested wener would have offered more than 15m.
He wants to buy low sell high.
I would agree with the comments regarding Vela: although he seems to be regarded as “not ready”..”not strong enough”,etc. by most English Arsenal fans and our French manager..I think Vela is being wasted. He is a hugely regarded talent in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. The guy is fearless and strong…but he gets few chances. Arsenal will move him and he won’t be a Reyes..this guy can flat out play.
isn’t the gun house a poker haunt in east london or is that the gun shop?
Hey A, yep I’d rather we played the Scots than the Russians but honestly I think we knock any of those teams. I’d like us to avoid Atletico simply because I’d like to see how Forlan and Aguero cope in the latter/group stages of the competition
Apparently Rosicky is going to out for around 6 weeks…Season has not even started and they are dropping like flies..
How capitalist of Wenger to want to buy low and sell high.
Dont know if anyone else is listening to Talksport but Wrighty just got a message from what he said is a good source that Rosicky is out for 6 weeks Fuck me if thats true at least weve got a new signing coming in September
!!!!! Wonder what the excuse ill be for buying know one now !!!
A
So either our market valuation is ludicrous,or other clubs,dont have an economist at their helms.In my opinion,Wenger’s comments about Chamakh’s contract were totally unwarranted.He made a bid of £5.5m.Bordeaux didnt want to accept it.He should in no way have made a comment in the press,which didnt sound good for a manager who’d alwayds upheld high ethics and value.Do I need to mention about the KSK Beveren saga?
Manager Arsène Wenger is keen on deploying his new 4-3-3 formation against Spanish side Valencia this weekend in preparation for the season’s opener away to Everton.
The Frenchman has diverted from his traditional 4-4-2 system to the one more commonly deployed by Spanish side Barcelona. As a result, Arsenal fans saw a more direct and fluid midfield during the Emirates Cup, with an array of attacking players terrorising the opposition defences [beating Atletico Madrid 2-1 and Scottish champions Rangers 3-0].
Wenger had previously said that 4-4-2 was more flexible in terms of switching from defence to attack during a game, but now 4-3-3 allows him to play to his squad’s strengths as most of his players are attack-minded and prefer to play in a central position.
He said: “I wanted to see how [the new formation] works because we have many offensive players and maybe we have to tighten up a bit in midfield to keep balance between offence and defence. But I wanted to see how it works in a game and I am quite happy with it.”
The new system hasn’t been tested against top quality opposition away from the comforts of home, and Valencia this weekend will be its first (and final) test.
I believe that…especially because Wright is the beacon of knowledge and everything he says is true. I’ll believe it when its on arse.com
if that’s true it’ll be denilson, song and fabregas in the midfield 3 against everton.. hooray!
well yeah – other clubs are indeed absolutely crazy, because they get their funds out of the pocket of a billionnaire they don’t have to act rationally, or make decisions that made any financial sense. I don’t believe wenger actually made those comments about chamakh, or certainly not intentionally to the press, he’s never done something like that before and is very anti that sort of thing.
rtist i think wenger rates vela VERY highly, he’s just had really bad luck that he’s ALWAYS off in south america playing for mexico.
really hope the rosicky injury news is more bollocks, as the previous rosicky injury news, and eduardo.
Revelation
I think we have already seen the formation against some Austrian and Hungarian powerhouses,and the stellar performances against them,have made Arsene believe that,it would work against minnows like Manchester United,Chelsea and Liverpool in lower leagues like EPL.
Though if rosicky was out then it would force wilshere and/or merida into the first team, so not an absolute disaster, though obviously very annoying. So good that we’ve got so much depth now
@Stu bit unfair.. Wrighty would not say something like that if it were not true.
besides the Viera thing was very much sport on…
Jaguar we’ve seen the formation ever since the last third of last season, and throughout all the pre season games this year. It’s obviously the system we’re going to be playing on a regular basis, and i’m delighted about that, been wanting it for a long time!
lol henry norris, because wrighty has never been wrong before!! It might well be true, but wrighty coming out with it is less reliable than if the sun reported that they’d heard rumours about it, won’t believe it until hear it from a reputable source
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/aug/04/arsene-wenger-marouane-chamakh-deal-over.
Straight from the Guardian.
“In five months, if he doesn’t prolong his contract, Chamakh will be free to talk to any club and Bordeaux won’t get anything,”
If anyother club,had made similar comments against anyof our players,we would have been up in arms.
If you believe that Guardian is not credible enough,here you go
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=In+five+months%2C+if+he+doesn%27t+prolong+his+contract%2C+Chamakh+will+be+free+to+talk+to+any+club+and+Bordeaux+won%27t+get+anything%2C&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=
Well Wright isnt known for breaking news. And the Vieira thing…its not happened as of yet…if its even happening at all.
If Ian Wright’s source is correct re Rosicky then I am afraid it means not only does Wenger have to buy but you have to seriously wander if it is the end of his career in the sense that he simply cannot be risked.
Playing basically 45 mins against Barnet and only a few minutes over the weekend, to then breakdown means there has to be something worryingly wrong – its a shame if its true.
And negotiating via the press was began by Triaud if I recall. No one ever mentions phone calls (unless you’re Ade the cunt) unless a agreement has been reached but Triaud chose to do so. In sheer idiocy he isolated his player by talking so openly about Wenger’s interest and is now forced to sell it seems. Wenger just replied via the press that which is obvious to everyone at this point. I really see this aspect as a bit of nonsensical Wenger bashing. Bordeaux’s own president unsettled the player, not Wenger.
What’s your point jaguar?! Wenger was quoted in the French press, and all those tabloids copied the quotes and put them in stories, how does that make it reputable?!
Wenger was asked on Saturday and Sunday about Chamakh, and just said he wouldn’t make ANY comment about a player until they’re signed, and the Bordeaux President can say what he wants (as he keeps making statements)
Rosicky started against Atletico and played more than the first half (i think).
I wasnt expecting him to play against Valencia anyway. As long as he is fit for Everton i dont really care.
Keith I was really surprised that Rosicky played twice in the Emirates cup, 45 minutes in the first match, and 20 in the second. Especially as Rosicky said after his 45 minutes against Barnet that his whole body hurt and he couldn’t run for 4 days. Yet he played the day after his next 45 minutes, seemed weird to me.
And here you go. Triaud responded to Wenger’s statement, gently adding other clubs are interested as well so implying the market value should be higher.
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Bordeaux+open+to+new+Arsenal+bid+-+Chamakh+£12m&artid=vnR3HWp4AmY=
Big deal, it is really just an open negotiation we are seeing in the press, it is not unlike a conversation they would have face to face. I don’t really see why some are up in arms over this farce.
Lazer I still don’t believe that Wenger responded in the press anyways, it’s just triaud being a mouthy twat
Meanwhile,Klaas Jan Huntelar signs for Milan.Hopefully,there wont be anymore blabbering about him.
Where’s the news link for Rosicky not playing? As expected then boys..That one I am definitely upset about. To me it seems Wenger would have played him to satisfy the fans a bit as well as see him in action but in all honesty should have known from training he is not ready for competation yet.
that official jaguar??
good if it’s true, less people rabbiting on about him, just like when cana signed for sunderland. media/youtube hyped players are falling by the wayside, though sure new ones will pop up
Just listening to Talksport and they are saying its a hamstring for Rosicky but not sure if its a tear or tweek but has been confirmed by a Club representative.
He is currently being assessed so we dont know if he is out for 6 weeks though.
To me even if he did A, it is really a non-issue. He is trying to negotiate down with Triaud (a guy who seems to like to mouth off to the press) and did nothing but state the obvious. He said we are not interested at the moment since he believes his valuation is correct for a player that will be out of contract in a year’s time. Just stating the facts there it seems. Mostly Wenger is bashed cause he never says anything, and if for once he did reply to a mouthy cunt and openly negotiate so bloody what. Like I said for those that are up in arms about this it seems a bit of nonsensical Wenger bashing. Bash him for not signing the right players, or not signing anyone, but not for negotiating.
Thanks Keith. Bloody sad new as usual…
still really hoping it isn’t true
evening all…
i wouldnt be to worried about Rosicky..but still it is unfortunate of course,,,but it is to be expected..and actually a part of him recover…and he will not be fully fit before christmas i reckon..but there is a bright side to this injurie and that is Rosicky’s body is reacting normal..a build up being away for so long will always be troublesome..look back at eduardo the same kind of problems..so it is expected and all part of a healthy recovery..
tom
The best way i can think of to cover Rosickys absense wuthout playing youht in midfield would be to just drop Arshavin in there. And then either have Bendtner in the middle or Vela out left. Or even Wilshere if need be.
at least wenger now has to surely buy?
We are fucked. I feel sick, just thinking of a midfield with cesc having to bite his tongue a face the preposition of being partnered by song and denilson.
Secondly it makes the 4-3-3 formation redundant in my opinion. As i would of thought that in the midfield 3 we would have cesc then an attacker ie nasri or rosicky, and then a dm. But nooooooooooooooooooo we will have 2. and please don’t kid yourselves into thinking wenger will play merida or wilshere in rosicky’s place. As he will most defintely play 2 of his beloved trio.
We have to buy….i said it before….Not surprised Rosicky injured again….
praying that isnt true
i’d expect wilshere to replace rosicky in the team stu. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. Wasn’t it sky sports and talksport that claimed rosicky was injured after barnet, and claimed a club representative confirmed that too….
celtic through from an injury time samaras goal, wouldn’t mind drawing them
kevin there’s no chance of denilson song and cesc being a midfield three unless we suffer alot more injuries! one of merida and wilshere will play, or arshavin dropping deeper with theo, bendtner, and eduardo as the front three not a biggy as we’ve actually got alot of depth now, even if he does have a knock
and furthermore for all of you crying for another signing…this would be a blessing…as im sure that Wenger was hoping that Rosicky would avoid theese kinda problems..as he stated before..he would use this preseason to make a judgement on the squad..well he just got an answer..so Wenger is going to look for a replacement…i think Wenger had the same questionsmark about Eduardo’s recovery..and that again led to the speculations over chamakh…which died a litte when Eduardo proved to be more than ok..that man is fresher now than when he arrived
tom
if i had a nickel for all the times we have all said that choy…Wenger may get more cuntish and refuse to buy. Who knows. Nasri and Rosicky out, promote Wilshere and Merida from within, sell Adecunt and Toure, sign Vermaelen. Typical Arsenal summer, honestly I don’t even know why we show up anymore to debate the transfers. We know nothing will happen till the last week and that too if he can get a deal. Otherwise we settle for Silvestre level and some more youngsters. Typical fuckin shit.
almunia
sagna gallas verm clichy
….song…. denilson…
…….fab/rosicky….
…rvp…edu…arshavin
yeah choy, that won’t happen, wilshere or merida would come into the midfield, or arshavin drop deeper with theo or bendtner coming in. Song and denilson will play together VERY sparingly this season, only in really tough games
fuck are they for real rosicky hamstring gone,there goes that one and we all know how long he will be out for…..
okay it looks like we’re officially fucked then. Its ironic that cesc spoke about our title credentials depending on injuries. However bad this news is, it has to be a blessing in disguise, imagine this happened 6 weeks down the line.
2 creative midfielders out before the season even starts… fack
it’s only a rumour ffs – let’s wait until it’s official before getting silly!
they reported exactly the same less than a week ago and everyone got silly!
they also reported about eduardo and everyone got silly about it.
wait until it’s confirmed!
A, the team wenger played against hamburg is our first team make no doubt about it. And i was reading an article where wenger was deliberating about our new formation, and he talked about how he would have make it more defensively stable. In other words both song and denilson will play.
Pplease don’t get me wrong i like both denilson and song. But only if ONE of them is played alongside our technically superior and more creative players. But when both play in the same team, we are likely to see similar results to Arsenal 0-0 sunderland.
lol everyone freaking out about Rosicky..the same thing happened a few weeks ago and it turned out to be total bullshit. Same as Eduardos “injury”.
exactly gunnergetyou…
and i could throw it back to all who have cried for Wenger to buy earlier..to me Wenger again has proved himself right..and for thoose who wondered why Rosicky played more than expected in the emirates cup..well that only proves that Wenger doubted that Rosicky’s return would prove to be without any problems and..tried it out ..genius to me.
tom
To be fair the Eduardo thing came out of Arsenes mouth tho…we all witnessed that one….it was out of the horses mouth himself.
It was hannover kevin, and i’d have to disagree, it has more stability because it has three central midfielders, not because he’s gonna play two DMs. That team played against Hannover because of the players available, there was a game two days before, and there was no other side that could have played, they had to play as the central midfield pair. That might happen VERY rarely in big games when we have injuries but that’s it. Cesc will play as the deep playmaker the vast majority of the time unless there’s no alternative.
Who’s up for diaby on the wing. Or denilson,;seeing as he did so well there when he played there against chelsea away. Or better yet eboue, seeing as he adds “defensive stability”
lol Stu, it wasn’t even a few weeks ago, it was less than one week ago!! Some people never learn do they?!
It could be true, but until we know getting silly about it is just that, silly!!
Yeah David, but we could all easily understand what he was saying, it was only when it was written down so it was taken out of context that it was intepretted as eduardo being injured!
A, you will see. Eboue will come in. And of course denilson will be there.
Denilson may play alongside cesc kevin, or song may play alongside cesc, but they won’t be playing alongside each other. Have to wait and see, but I can’t see that happening more than a handful of times this season, if at all
Talksshite reckon it is a Hammy and he is being assessed.
Always likely to pick up such injuries after being o long out….
A, it’s going to happen. PLease accept it. Song is first choice midfielder in my eyes. And denilson is like a cancer, you think it’s gone, but fragments of it still remain and resurface.
if this injury keeps him out for long i think wenger should call it a day with him
lol kevin, have to wait and see. Wenger has already referred to song as a centre back playing in midfield, and i expect another DM to come in, but i really don’t think song is seen as a first choice midfielder!
and here we thought nasri and rosicky would be fighting for a place …. lol
if he really is injured i wonder if diaby had anything to do with it?!
They will be choy…they will be fighting for the best treatment table…
choy who would of thought it hey lollll
I bet he did A. Diaby is working his way through all the players ahead of him in te pecking order.
new season is going to start and am already in such a sad mood
A, i understand. But in my opinion denilson lost it when we were playing liverpool he couldnt cope. As soon as he was subbed i saw song getting past his man and distributing the ball well. I pray one day we see a midfield of nasri, fabregas, and rosicky. But i am resigned to a midfield of cesc, and denilsong. And if one half of denilsong is injured, the assassin… oh sorry i mean diaby is gleefully waiting in the wings. I actually don’t mid diaby, but he pissed me off when he glides past 3 players and then gets cocky and thinks he can take on the whole team instead of passing it.
dont worry guys arse.com will update us on rosicky’s fitness sometime next month
Certainly no chance of nasri, cesc, and rosicky as a midfield three kevin, you need one defensive minded midfielder! i don’t expect us to play with two, but certainly we won’t play with non!!
choy don’t get into a bad mood until it’s confirmed!
or when there’s actually factual news about it GGY, but what fun would that be if all the news outlets only reported on things that were true!
I refuse to watch our first 3 away matches, im so nervous.
so who do we want in the c.league draw on friday i fancy us to be drawn against lyon
I heard song’s out aswell.
i feel ramsey is ahead of delinson in terms of ability,playing 433 will suite the team with all the attacking players there,if diaby can be more disaplened and more consistant will be higher up pecking order,risicky will be vital who can play in central role two.it pretty clear there no problems creating,there might be slight problem in central midfield defensively but i feel song has done well there a little bit tinkering that can solved
I thougt Lyon didnt make the CL this season?
We can’t be drawn against Lyon BBK
It’s Celtic, Anderlecht, Athletico Madrid, Fiorentina, and then either Stuttgart, or Timisoara if they win tonight
leon denilson is a long way ahead of ramsey in terms of defensive ability, but ramsey is miles ahead in terms of attacking ability. Denilson is in as a DM, Ramsey wouldn’t play ahead of him in that role.
really lol ok my bad cheers for that a lolllll
‘evening…
still no news on TR7 on Pravda.com…
anyone thinks he was just pulled into action prematurely for some good PR effect?
lol nope suga3, cos that would be plain ridiculous!
The strongest team we can face will surely be athletico, i would back us to beat any one of them. Does anyone know when they draw is??
fed up with this shit
watching rafa instantly replace alonso is a huge reminder of what an egotistical arsehole arsene wenger has become
yeah i agree ggy, i’d rather avoid athletico and fiorentina, stuttgart as well possibly, so anderlecht, or celtic, or timisoara if they win tonight!
believe the draw is on friday
haha yeah incesc, we should have just bought chamakh for £16 mil the day after ade left.
rafa has spent over market value, on a player who constitutes a big risk, seeing him act like that makes me very happy we’ve got wenger as manager!
SO OUR NEW SIGNING ROSICKY OUT FOR 6 WEEKS
we’ve got no idea mark whether rosicky has an injury of any sort, and how long he’s out for, and neither does ANYONE currently!
ok its just that colin lewin apparantly txt ian wright saying that he has torn hamstring
thats a reliable source
the press reported that rosicky was injured on the 16th, and the 30th July, third time lucky perhaps?! Or maybe they’re just planning a bi-weekly report hoping at some point they get it right?!
thanks for that A
We should be able to beat any of those teams. If we can’t, we don’t deserve to be in the competition.
Bring ‘em on.
A
wenger has had over a year to replace flamini…
three transfer windows…
out
ade
toure
senderos
flamini
hleb
diarra
gilberto
in
arshavin
vermi
nasri
think before you blog
http://fourfourtwo.com/news/italy/34594/default.aspx
lets get stuttgart and Pogrebnyak and hleb in cl
Bent signs for sunderland
how good a player is Alberto Aquilani anyone?
we wanted him last year, Aquilani
well, we are not close to signing anyone, are we?
it is not ridiculous, A, as giving him a runout and a few interviews where he was in bullish mood defo lifted spirits of a few fans…
now I just cannot bear to think of seeing Denilson on the pitch – I hoped he will be dumped to reserves or loaned out, but no, he will fuckin’ play…
aaaarghhh…
if rosicky is really injured, the question has to be asked, do we strengthen in that area? or do we give a chance to vela, wilshere, or merida. my guess is that walcott will get more chances to impress. but please no more eboue on the right!!!
By the way a strong man city side are loosing to rangers, with toure apparently having a shocker. entertaining times ahead.
Citeh trail 0:1 to Gers
a
i dont think delinson is ok but for me ramsey in terms of ability is alot better all round midfielder and in few years will ahead of him delinson clearly is squad player ramsey i think is first 11 player remember he is only 18,delinson /song is not bad
shit, they’re level…
anyway no matter the final score, im still not convinced about citeh, and im definately not worried
If Rosicky’s is injured then it would make sense to bring in an attacking player – Chamakh anyone?
Another defensive or central midfielder wouldn’t go amiss either
how are united doing against valencia?
yep…looks like we need another attacking player.
Evening sports fans! (<- In dedication of ESPN)
viera on his way to arsenal….
evening Pedro
espn better not have US commentators
Sky Sports Headline – “Bruce Delight At Getting Bent”
LOL
Evening Suga!
Herbert, I think American commentators would make watching soccerball all the more entertaining!
Spanish commentators are funny….
Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooolllllll
Pedro, that would get boring real fast. Soccerball, punting up field, Ebowie, score is one to zero etc etc… a few months of that and i would go mad.
agreed, Pedro and only the knowledgeable ones for that matter
dont think id last the first quarter of a match-half
Stu, anything is better than listening to David Pleat or Andy Gray…
The worst thing about liverpool signing Aquilani is that i actually liked the player and will now have to dislike him.
I remember watching an u-21 tournament a few years ago and Aquilani was very much their star man. Captain, played centre mid and then went into defence after a red for Italy so he is versatile as well.
Oh and Ade missed a chance. Was in on goal and defender got back.
Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky could be out for up to ‘5 to 6 weeks’, after the Czech international reportedly sustained a hamstring injury in training this morning.
According to radio station talkSPORT, Rosicky – who only recently returned from a long-term injury – will be missing for almost two months with the Arsenal press office revealing that the injury is currently being assessed.
The show’s host, former Gunner Ian Wright, said that a press conference has been planned for tomorrow afternoon, where Arsene Wenger is expected to tell the media how serious Rosicky’s ‘injury’ is.
——————————————————
Smokescreen for paddy vieira press conference.. U heard that here first
David Villa is juss pure class
38 Grovers away from 500 in the Fantasy Grove… it’s going to be a big push… but I’m sure I can lure them in!
Revelation… that’s one signing down then… haha!
To be honest, it doesn’t bother me too much because I held out little hope of him staying fit anyway.
I’m hopeful over Eduardo though…
There is nothing to fear about this manure team
crikey I had Alonso in my team…now what?
david villa vs silvest on saturday david
Is Ian Wright the new spokesman for Arsenal?
pedro but if it’s true then with nasri crocked we can expect a midfield 3 of cesc, denilson and song… oh change one of denilsong for vieira who is unvieled tomorrow
How far in is the manc match?
LAzer you have time till the start of the season to change things!
Valencias new shirt is a bit shit isnt it.
LAzer you can transfer him at no extra cost.. You can actually change your team as much as you want before the season starts.
Why choy? I can emulate AW and wait till the last day..
lol choy
fun times
timisoara beat shakhtar, so in the draw we’re gonna be facing one of celtic, anderlecht, timisoara, athletico madrid, fiorentina. Any of the first three and I’m very happy!
We’ll see Man… hopefully not…
Seriously A? Didnt Shakhtar just win the uefa cup…shouldnt they be good.
Forehead will be chasing like usual all day..Silvestre, ebowie, JD, Diaby, Denil,Song, thomas bendtner in the starting 11! What a dream lineup.
Rosicky is hurt? Officially? What?
No its a smoke screen for revealing Viera tmrw luke…which is a smoke screen for actually signing a dm.
apparently not Stu! timisoara through on away goals, drew 2-2 at shakhtar last week and drew 0-0 tonight!
No not officially luke, very loose story at the moment coming from talksport
lazer are you getting on that vieira talk too? that’s £5 because i patented that shit holmes
no signings then…
If ros is injured them it should be Rambo to come into the side. Den and Song should already be vying for the DM spot. Rambo is more attacking. Diaby is too injury prone. If true then I def think we need another midfielder with both Nas and Ros out.
Petrov just scored for Citeh…
why are we watching citey?
am just spreading the gossip..I can provide credits if necessary. Besides am not really in the need of a story and certainly don’t value it at 5 so at this point I am backing away. (My offer is .00001 if you would like to discuss further.)
2:2
Shitey…the powder puff boys run by a sheikh as toys. Petrov won’t get a look in during the season, otherwise one of the “greed” boys will have a fit.
for a few laughs, David, I just had one seeing Kenny Miller running through the City Gate wide gap (excuse the pun) between Richards & Kolo…
besides they play Rangers I can compare this to Sunday game…
any1 got a link to the valencia game?
http://myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=44435&part=sports
choose one…
Kuszczak has got a fat childs face hasnt he. Puffy cheeks and all….oh and he is shit too…
stu what channel is the manc game on?
http://www.iraqgoals.net/ch1.html
if you need better quality, try myp2p, Reva…
Sorry Rev, im watching on mutv..not a tinternet link..
Gazzap… if Rosicky is out long term again… you’d have to write him off for good wouldn’t you? We should go out and buy whoever is needed to replace him…
Stu, how did MUTV make it into your house?
this transfer window was the biggest one of wengers career.
last season he lost the fans
hes done nothing about it all summer
i hope its his last season
Pedro no chance of an attacking mid coming in even if rosicky is injured – Arshavin was bought last year to replace Rosicky, so if he’s made it back as it appeared before these unsubstantiated rumours, it’s a bonus. Arshavin was Rosicky’s replacement though, so there wouldn’t be someone else coming in,
Has anyone signed up for the new ESPN channels ?!
Stupid Setanta completely fucked it up.
erm did i read correctly?? Stu u have mutv? thats blasphemous!
I dunno Pedro…im assuming some prick broke in and gave it to me because somehow i have chavski tv and livershit tv too but there is no arse tv in sight. someone is messing with my head and its fecking working too..
Not yet Keyser, will do though.
Stu – always thought you might be a closer manc!!
Closer manc than who?
am seeing it more and more that way as well incesc.
closet manc stu, sorry not closer
I think they’re showing Seria A games regularly aswell, but I think I read it’s 12 squid a month now.
stu’s a double agent blogging for red nose.
Shit defending, valencia cross and shrek couldnt miss…1-0
fucking Rooney scores.valencia the creator,the fucker is lookin good
I’ve already got espn on virgin cable as a stright replacement of setanta.. Espn, espn 2 and espn classic
Well im not paying for any of it so i dont care…
Who’s the valencia left back? Because he is shit..
after watching that united goal we need a big fackin CB
havent got flash player on this laptop so am just watching u stream game with citeh..urgh! Adebayor just got taken off.. On this showing citeh aren’t going to much to worry about.. Too many new faces, they look disjointed..
ReVELAtion – Was it free ? What do you think of Virgin ? Ever had SKY ?!
SOo many questions.. Heh
rooney torres and eduardo up front in my fantasy league team… Loadsa points
Stu .. at least you cared enough to tell us all.. Thaaanks..
Stu… please… no… no more blaspheming!
Yellow card!
…someone broke in…
I used that one when my mum discovered my collection…
lol sorry keyser..
oh yeah? well you’re all gays so i dont care what ye say….
evening all
Well if Rosicky is out there are two solutions…
……………Back 5……………..
…………….Song/DM……………….
…….Cesc…………..Merida/Ramsey…..
…RVP…………………….Arshy……….
……………….Eddy……………………
or
……………Back 5……………..
…………….Song/DM……………….
…….Cesc…………..Arshy…..
…RVP…………………….Bendy/Vela……….
……………….Eddy……………………
If united think theyre going to cross and head the ball to the tittle theyve got to be joking…..Owen is short…so is rooney….and berbatov might be a threat…but theyll have problems with teams that sit deep and protect the far posts.
I am glad that Huntelaar signed for Milan…he may not be the best out there…but I think he is better than playing for Stuttgart with all due respect….
The Italian league will probably suit him as well. He will take over for Inzaghi..(fox in the box type)…with Pato supporting him
I almost forgot…Wneger will probably just do this instead..
……………Back 5……………..
…………….Song/DM……………….
…….Cesc…………..Denilson…..
…RVP…………………….Arshy……….
……………….Eddy……………………
A Says:
August 5, 2009 at 17:02
Fuck the French is kinda xenophobic Pedro
Ha! Remember Agincourt Mutha Fungler….
ddm heard any news on these injurys
39 y/o david weir volley from a corner makes it 3-2 rangers… already in extra time.. happy days
ddm is that rocky injury update press conference a smokescreen for paddy v?
Ja_G
Back5
Denilson
Cesc-Rosicky
Walcott/Wilshere-Dudu-Arshavin
what’s the valencia manc score?
aren’t inter in the far east or something
2-0 to the bad guys…cant understand how these idiots can play like absolute shite and still be winning.
Chaps – I’ve just surfaced from a rum induced afternoon, so i’ve been outta the loop since two this afternoon, what injuries????
Watch me win that league Pedro, Sheriff’s back in town
rosicky out for 6 weeks and song out for 4 apparently??
Antonio Valencia…assists is what a pacey winger would give you
Nani’s shit
ddm – according to the beacon of truth Ian Wright, Thomas Rosicky is injured for about 6 weeks.. Said so on talksport.. Apparently there is a press conference tomorrow to outlay the length exactly as the medical team are assessing him now..
I reckon it’s bullox and pady v will be unveiled
WTF??? Song’s no loss, but Rosicky’s fast becoming a joke now….
can u imagine the scum chants!
Vieira ooo-oo-oo
vieiria oo–oo–oo
since he left arsenal
they’ve gone and won fuck all
man:true
All lies about Rosicky….couldn’t care less about Song…
ReVe – Is Wright the only one who has ‘reported’ this news??
What time is this supposed press conference?
didn’t specify but i’d say 12 or 4 as per..
yes it is only wright to my knowledge that has reported it.. other sites picking up on it i.e the vieira deal… ratings must be shite…
it wont be the unveiling of vieira put it that way
PDT:show song some love mate,he is the defensive midfielder of your team you know
I’ll try and talk to my chum tomorrow morning, and find out if anything’s going on….
He is the poor imitation of the defensive midfielder of your team………….
yep ddm, he is the only one who’s reported it, and the press conference is the weekly thursday press conference, though if he’s injured they’ll say then I’m sure.
Apparently wrighty was reporting that it was 6 weeks before the club had even got the chance to assess it!
pdt is right,all we need now is for denilson to have a lengthy injury lay off
Actually scrub that, he’s now been ‘promoted’ to a CB as of this season……
with thomas it’s the least likely time he’ll be out anyway… so i’d call it a good estimate based on mr bubblewrap
Fucking Wrighty, i gotta be honest A, and say that last week he ‘broke’ the Vieira story, and that WAS a true story. So, he may have a valid insider!!
reva an estimate is based on something, it’s no more than a speculation, or a guess!
It’s the third time talksport and the press in general have reported Rosicky’s injured again in the last 3 weeks, hope it’s just the same as the previous two instances
We have an excellent chance to win the league next year, Look at this….deployed either as a 4-3-3 or a 4-5-1
Almunia/Fabianski
Sagna/Eboue-any 2 of Gallas/JD/Verm/Song/Silv-Clichy/Traore
Denilson/Song/Nasri
Fabregas/Wilshere-Rosicky/Nasri
Walcott/Wilshere/RvP-Arshavin/Vela
Dudu/RvP/NikB
I think we have enough cover in our current team. The key is for the “big” players – Arshavin, Fabregas, Rosicky, Almunia, Eduardo and Nasri to play at least 30+ games (including FA Cup and CL).
eboue is a top bloke
Crap, I missed out Diaby!
A, you are probably right – Wright just woke up to the Rosicky injury story from earlier…
eboue is a clown
arsenalised, I don’t mean to be dismissive of Song; I think we can survive without Song, but we will definitely lose points without Rosicky.
Actually, I should put it the other way. Song can’t win us points, Rosicky can.
yeah pdt.
or someone spotted rosicky holding his hamstring, therefore decided he’d pulled it, and a hamstring pull can put someone out for 6 weeks, therefore rosicky is DEFINITELY out for 6 weeks!
The fact that they reported 6 weeks at the same time as saying that the injury was being assessed shows that it’s far from concrete reporting! Really hope they’re wrong
Eboue might be have two left feet, but he is good backup for Sagna and he keeps the dressing room happy.
pdt u also forgot gibbo..
Right, ReVEL! I missed Gibbs!
Been up the whole night suffering from bloody jetlag!
I saw the second Arshavin goal again on TV yesterday. That bloke really wants to win every time! I think we have the core that we need this year!
With our defence.. he is sure to get disappointed
If you go round the league, you won’t find another team with the talent AND work ethic of FIVE players like Arshavin, Fabregas, Rosicky, Eduardo and Nasri.
We have an incredible core to our team…now if they just don’t get injured….
all we need now is a defence and were sorted
might aswell take rosicky out of that list
and Rambo
I think we should trade Cesc for Yaya
and nasri.
Choy, the glass is definitely more than just half full this year. You can look at the defence or you can think we will just score more goals than we let in.
BBK, if Nasri’s back in October, then he will still give us 30+ games.
do you think so pdt????
That is hardly optimistic.. how many 1-0 wins did man u have last year… around 11 or so…
Right, chozzer!
BBK, what do I know…I have slept 4 hours in the last 72, the alcohol level in my blood is high…I am entitled to be happy!
you don’t have a defender on your core players list PDT.
Choy, I think we will see a lot of 2-1, 3-1 and 3-2 scorelines this year.
Also some 5-0 scores!
Nasri is not a DM
that’s why we need Yaya
Cesc we lose next year anyway, why not get some trophies in the mean time?
You are right, choy – we need Gallas also. In my defence, I did mention Gallas in my posts earlier in the day. See post at 13:39
David, I meant Rambo as a backup at DM, as chozzer has pointed out. Put that down to my old age.
Is the Rosicky injury confirmed by any credible source?
We don’t need 11 superlative players. All we need is a core group of 5-6 superlative players, with at least four of them available in each game.
Cesc can win us more trophies than any Toure…
Bottom line is if Wenger doesnt sign a quality DM we are proper fuked
Whatche talking about?
There is a top a UFC top 100 fights on shitanta right now. Its going well with a few beers…i advice watching it.
Cheers, Choy!
For me, the glass is half full of single malt. It is coming on to 5:30 am here and I will need to sober up in the next two hours!
Welcome, Shtu!
Hic!
Are you serious? Denilson never has and never would never get injured…will play 90mins of every match running every second of that as well…HE IS THE BIONIC MAN
Bye guys! Have fun!
Denilson……….*yawns*
Pat no it isn’t confirmed by anyone other than wrighty at the moment!
Cesc isn’t gonna go next year, give it 2 more years at least, he won’t go until Xavi is closer to being past it
disagree PDT if you’re disengaging slowly
I think that we could replace Cesc more easily than we could fill the DM role
I’d have to disagree Ray, very few in the world could do what cesc does, there are a hell of a lot of DMs around who could do an adequate job. Very few of yaya standard, but apart from him, mascherano, senna, they’re all much of a muchness.
A: we have a lot of speed and creativity in the midfield and forward ranks
we have almost no bite or physical presence
remember Chelsea in the EPL at Emirates?
evenin All…
just in with a quick though everyone seems to be missing..so last year we where fourth..semi’s in Fa..and Champions league…quite good i think…so when we look at this season ..are we stronger…most defenitely YES…are manu stronger ?? liverpool ?? chelski?? mancity may be…still…
take a deep breath and just accept…this year Our Beloved Arsenal will rule…and we are better than the rest ..no doubt..
Arsenal Paradize
tom
… Essien…
Pedro mate..
watch out for DenilsonX in the fantasy league
tom
Cesc would be a lot harder to replace like for like if we are to but but we have some great attacking centre midfielders coming through so when he eventually leaves we should be fine.
But DM, specifically the type of DM this team needs is obviously pretty hard to find because they are either amazingly pricey or just not there. We need a DM who can protect the back 4, play our style football and have either amazing energy or a dominating style where he doesnt need to run like a mad man.
Essien is BIONIC MAN 2.0 – an upgrade, but don’t worry Denilson will get there one day…
TOM’S DA MAN!!!!
A: maybe we don’t need a player of Yaya’s standing, but we do need a rock we can count on
or Mascherano or Senna but somebody
I would rather have Yaya than 45 million in the bank that doesn’t get reinvested in the team hence the Cesc trade
But thats just ideally….we could buy just an above average DM and he would do fine. But we all know Wenger wont do that…sigh
Much though I detest Flamini, I have to admit that there’s no one like him in the market today. Maybe we should really get him back.
And is it true that Hleb is back at his old haunts in Stuttgart?
Ray against the Chavs at home.. we should have put away the numerous chances… we didn’t and got raped
Stu: Total fan of Cesc, but if he went, I think the team could replace his contributions collectively
Without a commanding DM, even Cesc’s fabulous contributions may not be enough
Yeah ray we do certainly need a dm, i don’t disagree with that.
However cesc’s ability to orchestrate and organise attacks from the start, set everything in motion, is only bettered by xavi imo, other than that there’s noone who equals him, and as such he close to irreplacable.
That’s what I was saying, we do need a DM, an above average young DM, who will currently do the job well, and then go on to become the next yaya, or mascherano.
So we still might play
Politehnica Timisoara.
give me a ‘P’.
give me an ‘O’….oh fuck it.
Choy: then with our lack of efficiency in front of goal we need to up the number of opportunities even higher
and stop the arrogance that the Chavs radiated
Anelka felt free to take speculative long shots and Drogba felt he could run at goal whenever he wanted
Thx PDT mate
here we are supporting one of the absolute best teams in the world..that we all agree on ..right ?? and we are growing stronger by the minute…youngsters gettin better every day at the training pitch…look at Wilshere….look at Vela..Ramsey…pure quality and they only get better…so why arent we happy ??
and A a direct question..do you think Our Beloved Arseanl look better this season..?? have the likes of Wilshere taken another step ??
tom
A: “we do need a DM, an above average young DM, who will currently do the job well, and then go on to become the next yaya, or mascherano.”
no wonder they named plan A after you
People who can “do the job” short term arent the young up and coming ones because they are still learning their position.
The players that can do a job are the ones with years of experience at the top level wh has been there and done that.
Experience of a few years like Matuidi isnt what we need. We need smoeone who is used to the high pressure of a top club. Someone who know what to do and when. Young players dont have that and thats why we havent won anything for a while
Who would you suggest, Stu?
and i was watching l’pool against Lyn this evening and that was pure shit…
tom
Outside of Yaya, Mascherano, Senna, there aren’t any DMs who are SIGNIFICANTLY better than Denilson.
So, let’s get over it!
I’ll leave that up to the scouts Man. Thats supposed to be their job aint it.
Stu
Yeah of course tom! I think we’re miles ahead of where we were last season, been saying it for ages!!
Technically we’ve lost two players from last season, and gained two players, but I consider us as gaining much more.
Although Toure and Ade have gone, Vermaelen and Arshavin have come in, Senderos was on loan last season so doesn’t count as a player lost, so numbers wise we’re the same.
However I consider in terms of our squad strength, Rosicky and Eduardo are two additional players.
Bendtner was unrecognisable from where he was at the start of last season, so he’s actually a proper player now.
Vela, Wilshere, Merida are all additions to the squad, all in a position where they could start games, even if not every game.
Nasri and Arshavin have had a pre season with the team, and there from the start, which will have greatly helped their adaptation (even if Nasri missed the end of pre season)
The squad have properly adapted to the new system which started to be introduced at the end of last season, everyone knows their roles now and it seems natural to them.
Significantly the morale in the squad seems to be at a massive high, it was on the way down ever since the Gallas, Eduardo Birmingham game, reaching it’s lowest point just before the City game, and has been on the rise since then, and is now fully recovered, along with the departures of ade and kolo, releasing some of the squad tensions that those two caused.
We’re in a MUCH stronger position than we were last season, and that’s in stark contrast to utd and in liverpool losing players very central and important to them, and chelsea bringing in a new manager so being a completely unknown quantity!
Have to disagree Stu, young players still improving, who will become top quality, are the same standard as decent but experienced players playing at their peak. Their current level is the same, but the younger players will go on to be far superior. That’s why a matuidi would be absolutely ideal for us.
Cesc, Nasri are still young players who will improve loads, but despite not being the finished article they still do a job for us, and then some!
seems like the worst thing you can be on this blog is positive…if one is…well then ure either drunk or just plain stupid…
its almost funny…and me who tought being a real Gunner was to stand firm behind Our Beloved Arsenal ,not critizise every fuckin thing Wenger does or jump on every player we have…
have a great night all Grovers and Gunners alike..
Best Regards tom
Believe it! We can win the league if we can generate some momentum in the first 10 games or so in the PL and CL. August and September is tough, but if we can survive them without getting blown away, we can only finish stronger.
Thx A..
great answer have a good one ..
nite all ..
tom
or stoned, Tom!
Well A, from the start of last season compared to this we are also short Nasri, so isnt that a player lost?
Vermaelen is injured and for all we know he could miss the everton game. Toure is gone and effectively replaced by JD.
Overall we might be better off but defensively we arent.
potayto, potahto…
when Henri left there was a great debate about whether or not we would miss him
the season started well, but resting Henri’s back until February when we tragically lost Eduardo and then playing him for the runout might have had a huge impact on that season
We DID miss Flamini, Hleb & Ghilberto
We are seriously considering taking Paddy back
Saying AW knows when a player is ready to leave is not fully supported by history
so let’s use another argument when players come up for departure?
of course PDT
later mate
Well surely if we dont qualify for the CL then our league chances would improve, right? Sabotauge (defo spelt wrong) anyone?
We are a momentum team, Stu. If we lose one, it has an impact on everything else. When we are good, we are very, very good, but when we are bad, we are horrid…
Bye, Tom!
For all we know stu?!
Vermaelen had a slight injury and is gonna play on saturday! He was training at the members day, even if not full training, there’s no way he’ll miss everton!
Nasri isn’t out for that long, if it was a more serious injury then yeah, but it isn’t so I wouldn’t ignore him. He’d be sub to rosicky anyways! Or wilshere.
I think defensively we’re better with Vermaelen rather than Toure, but depth wise we’re no better, which I’d like to be addressed.
We are however stronger in defensive mid, as Song is unrecognisable from a year ago, but I’d still like, and feel we really should get someone better.
What Ray?! History shows Wenger almost always gets it right offloading people. Vieira left at exactly the right time imo, Henry should maybe have left a year before, but we couldn’t anticipate the injury, and Flamini, Hleb, and Gilberto left of their own accord, we didn’t choose to offload them!
Yeah Flamini left himself, Diarra good riddence to bad news, But Gilberto was one let go imo because he wanted first team football. Wenger should have waited until Flamini signed before letting him go imo.
But cant change the past now so no point talking about it.
Agreed we couldn’t have predicted the injury, but we could have anticipated a shortfall at some point in the season
what were the actuarials mentioned earlier…a player is likely to receive a significant injury every 2 years
And, if, Vieira was let go at the right time, why is there so much enthusiasm (me included) to take him back?
And, and, we did miss Flamini, Hleb and Gilberto and seemed to lose them without too much of a fight
1 more day in your opinion A,
Time to start panicking?
If Rosicky is injured again, I think even I will lose hope with him. Bring in Eden Hazard or Silva, who had a great game against United today.
I agree stu – though Flamini was never going to sign?? He pretended he was so he could go on a free!
I really hope we sign a Matuidi or equivalent in the next 2 days, that’s all I want and then I’m happy! A DM equivalent to Sagna/Nasri, talented young player who’s had 2-3 years playing regularly, ready to come straight into the side and do a good job, but capable of improving to become one of the best around! Fair bit to ask but Wenger’s scouts are capable of it – they’ve managed it in every other position!
The optimism on here right now is making me sick to my stomach. Where’s Geoff, Fran, Taig, BBK when you need em???
Silva is gonna go to Utd
Matuidi aint all that, or so i hear. I would rather we sign an established international of quality than a young player who has potential.
What makes you say hat LAzer?
I really do feel for Rosicky if he suffered a set back as this might be his last arsenal season. Now can somebody tell me what is holding up Mutudi deal ? {spelling???} 5 effin sake, wenger wants this guy and no other club is known to be after him, how long does it take to reach an agreement. There is a very thin line between being wise{ buying early and letting the player gel with the team before the season startst} and being foolish {missing out on the player cause you left it till the last deadline day} Wenger is on that line and has started to cross over to being ?OOLISH !!!
A: i think there are lessons to be learned from this recent history regarding Senderos and Eboue
I like them both, yeah Senderos reputedly cried, but he can get over that
I like the fact he took responsibility and I like the fact that it meant something to him and didn’t blow it off with a big shit-eating Togolese grin
I like Eboue, he has battled back from the subbed-sub debacle to becoming a very effective player
I think they both could have important roles to play this season (60 plus games again, we hope) and letting them go, if it can be avoided, may not be in our best interests
re Vieira it’s because of his experience Ray – We let him go when his legs had given up on him, he could only manage 60 minutes in a premiership game, so we cashed in, and let him go to italy where the slower paced game there would suit him!
We want him back for his experience in the dressing room, and as a composed old head to bring him on as sub, in footballing terms we let him go at absolutely the right time, if not a year too late, though we couldn’t anticipate his legs giving up that season.
We lost Flamini and Hleb doing all we could to keep them, they were just cunts! Gilberto wanted to leave for first team football and we couldn’t promise him that, so let him go, it’s fair enough.
David – I thought the game was on Friday evening not sat, so 2 more days! Not panicking yet – still got faith! One DM, and maybe Chamakh too!
Pat don’t see any way we’d bring anyone in if Rosicky is injured – Arshavin was signed as a Rosicky replacement, if he got a serious injury then maybe!
Can anyone confirm the story about Rosicky being injured again?
A young DM of Nasri/Sagna quality Stu, what’s wrong with that?! Getting an experienced player, who would be at the same level now, but without the potential to improve, wouldn’t make sense….
I agree Ray, I like Senderos, but after his treatment from the fans, he felt it was necessary to leave, and now wants to ensure he gets first team football which he wouldn’t with us, so we’re letting him go.
Eboue is going to stay now, I’d be surprised to see him leave.
Nope Simon, no confirmation at all, no media or gossip columns seem to have even picked up on it, only wrighty on talksport claiming it currently. Guess we’ll find out tomorrow
aaaaa-who made it through for fridays draw??????
Cheers A. I’ll be so gutted if this is true…
timisoara bbk, which is good!
so it’s
athletico madrid
fiorentina
anderlecht
celtic
timisoara
any of the bottom three and i’m a happy bunny!
A, im not saying buy someone at their peak because that would be stupid. Just someone older than 21/22. Someone at 25 would have the right experience and still time to improve a lot. Thats one of the reasons i was gutted when Flamini left because he was the prefect age.
where are timi from
romania
Romania bbk
Stu Nasri was 20, and he had a quality season, and had been playing since he was 17/18. Sagna was 24, and he came straight into the team, but had made less appearances than Nasri had when we signed him as a 20 year old.
Age isn’t what’s important, it’s how long the player has been playing at the top level. A 20 year old would be fine if they’ve been playing regularly since they were 17/18. A 25 year old just guarantees that a player will have played those games, but if someone is very talented, they’ll have the required experience.
Flamini when he went to Milan was 24, but had played less games than Nasri had when we signed him at 20….
And Flamini had made less appearances than Matuidi has now, at 22….
Celtic or Anderlecht would be my preference, although timisoara should be very easy, it would still mean potentially travelling over to romania, playing on their shitty pitch with risk of injury, 3/4 days before going to Old Trafford
yeah kinda odd that no other news outlet has reported Rosicky hammy injury. talkshite are still running with it in their sports news bulletins..
But Matuidi has only made more appearances because he has played for shite clubs compared to Flamini who has played for major clubs in france, england and italy. Meanwhile Matuidi has been battling relegation in france.
More games…arguably more experience but not the high pressure experience. Know what i mean?
Stu, the relegation argument is bullshit. He was brilliant before his injury. Matt has no clue what he talking about. He only watched 5 games FFS!!
LAzer
Hi !! Well ive just gone in and I am completely pissed off . If the Rosicky thing is true that is a ” just like a new signing ” out for six weeks which is probably going to happen anyway .
I am fucking sick of this shit now , AFC expect me to pay £20 more for the same seat for a “grade A ” game ie west ham , lol !
but we have no spine and clearly lack to the whole world a couple of proper solid players , yet we fuck about offering 6 mill here and 5 mill there for b list players whist Liverpool sell one and agree terms for a PROPER replacement on the same day .
AND GUESS WHAT !? LFC HAVE DEBTS TOO , YES ITS TRUE .
ITS A FUCKING JOKE .
We can all come on and do our figures of which we don,t know anyway and make up teams with Denilson still as a dm and think we will win something .
within a few games Denilson will partner cesc , Diaby will be left and eboue right. progress zero .
but we might get chamack on a free in Jan .
Pathetic
With three of the first of the first four league games being against Everton, Man City, Man U and throw in a champions league qualifier, the loss of Rosicky and Nasri while not insurmountable reduces are options. Arshavin, Eduardo, RVP, Cesc with Bendtnar who remember bullied both Ferdinand and Vidic at the emirates in the league game, Theo and possibly Vela to play supporting roles their are reasons to be confident. For the Man U game if Ferguson is going to play a traditional 442 with the personnel he has at the moment against us, I think we will win and whisper it win well.
The Man City game is going to be a circus and no doubt the hacks are already salivating as they prepare to write were us out of the “big Four” if we loose, by contrast if we win City will only be a work in progress.
so many doom mongers on here
Haha that’s hilarious. Rangers beat City 3-2
City are having a worse pre season than Liverpool. Maybe things arent looking so bad after all. I mean we have had a pretty great pre season in comparison.
face is it really surprising considering what sort of crap we have been dealt these past 4-5 years
crap?
you fucking johnny come lately mug
did you watch the neil/howe team of 80/81?
you aint got a clue.
Come on guys ,
get a reality check , keep the squad togeather ,erm , no
no more inexpireinced players we have enough , erm
I will do my business early , then I will use pre season to assess what everyone knows anyway ,
1 or 2 expirienced signings , nothing
I now know what we are lacking , ( before pre season !)
we will do it , i am happy with my squad ,
we lack hieght , but we have bentner and diaby to cope , even though they did,nt last season .
etc etc etc etc etc etc
only 2% behind utd ( 18 points )
jcl hahahhaha,i will take that as a yes then
Yeah Pat the relegation thing is just ridiculous, when you see stuff like that you know rather than people looking at the rationality and making a decision, they’ve made a decision and then looking for rationality to back it up! Sagna at Auxerre never came as high in the table as St Etienne did the season before last, when Matuidi was fit and their best player all season….
Sagna is almost an identical comparison to Matuidi, apart from Matuidi has most games under his belt than Sagna did when we signed him, or Vieira, or Nasri, or Henry.
If you’ve had at least two seasons under your belt, if you’re good enough you’re experienced enough
Are we sure ROsicky is hurt? Remember when everyone thought Eduardo got hurt, and then he said he had no idea he was hurt, and then played and scored in the emirates cup?
lol Jules
Yeah luke, and talksport and the rest also claimed Rosicky was injured twice, on the 16th and 30th July, and both were complete bollocks!
He might be injured, but panicking before we know is just silly.
Agreed A.
Rant over A
how are you ? I am just pissed off with what is or not going on .
soooo obvious what is needed .
So I guess were not going to sign anyone then eh? I guess we dont have any money or wait do we?
Even if he is injured it isn’t a massive problem, just arshavin dropping deeper and central, and theo coming into the side. Or wilshere, or merida.
Obviously isn’t ideal, but we’ve got so much more cover than last year it isn’t like a player gets injured and we’re fucked
By the end of the week I still expect a DM, and possibly one other to come in, maybe Chamakh, two more days!
yea, I thought we did. Not even Blaise Matuidi. Not even an 8 million dollar youngster. No one Arsene! COme on, I love mr. Wenger, but this is scary.
I’m good Jules, yourself??
Which part of the world are you in, A? Do you normally stay awake through the night?
Normally, only BBK and Stu are on in the graveyard shift. Plust the folks from this part of the world – ethan, Evo, gg9, etc…
by the end of the week A
madness
how long does it take us to sign players now days??
nasri??
arsh???
A, only weeks ago you were convinced Chamakh was an impossibility, now you think he will be here in a few days. What the fuck!
OK A thankyou , hope you are well too
Sorry to be doom and all .
I just find it sooo frustrating to be yet again for the second or third year 2 players away from doing the absolute business ,
I am convinced with a couple of good signings we will do the the bizz but yet again are not doing it .
drives me crazy !!
I think Subotic and Matuidi would win us a trophy, add viera to that, Id think we’d be favorites for the league.
In England PDT, just something of a night owl!
Yeah incesc, by the end of the week or never, that’s what Wenger said!
Ha I dunno Stu, i’m less sure he won’t come now – Purely because I didn’t realise his contract was up! I was sure that he wouldn’t come because he wasn’t good enough to make a difference, and wasn’t young, so couldn’t ever see Wenger spending on him, but if he’s half price then an additional forward to add depth isn’t out of the question! Sorry!!
I’d be OK with just another CB. Subotic would be great.
A, I reckon Rosicky is injured. The Eduardo mix up was down to Wenger being dislexic and the previous Rosicky stories were media conjecture due to him not participating in a number of games they expected him to.
Anyway
turning in
good night all
one day we will sign the two quality players needed
and win something .
night all .
dream of haagerland and de rossi/senna ,
and suppose be happy if we get chamone ! uhmm
Well then A, remember what i said. If he comes its your fault.
Angelos, why do you reckon hes injured?
Don’t hold you’re breath Jules.
“i will be looking at all the options we have during the week, and then we will close. I believe we have quite a strong squad now, but if we can add one or two players then we will do it, but no more.”
Yeah Angelos, it could be true, but we don’t know what sort of injury. Wrighty claimed he’d been told that it was a hamstring injury, but didn’t know if it was a twinge, or a pull, or even just a tight hamstring, and heard about it before it had even been assessed, then just speculated that a hamstring injury COULD be six weeks, therefore – “ROSICKY IS OUT FOR SIX WEEKS” etc etc
Haha cutting down on harrassment of referees, yeah right.. That is until Wayne Rooney or someone does it. Then it’s perfectly acceptable passion
It fits Luke. I didn’t believe any of the previous stories but this one has some gravity to it. There’s always the chance that it’s a minor strain but something has happened nonetheless.
fuck hangeland jules, no thanks! Nite!!
Ha yeah I know stu, I apologise in advance, if I’d known about his contract I wouldn’t have been so categorical in my insistence he wouldn’t be coming!
luke Says:
August 6, 2009 at 00:31
I think Subotic and Matuidi would win us a trophy, add viera to that, Id think we’d be favorites for the league.do you think the bookies would see it that way????
Ofcourse not, but I would
why??
The bookies aren’t very good with predicting leagues at the start of the season bbk – they always have the league’s champions from the year before as the favourites, and although utd have won the last 3 years, it’s rare that a team retains the title.
who would you have down as favs right now aa???
Teams retaining titles isnt that rare in leagues. Lyon did it for a while. Bayern are usually the team to beat if you want the german league. Celtic won it 2 or 3 times in a row before rangers last season. Inter won it a few times in a row as well.
It doesnt happen in knock out comps but in leagues its all the more likely.
Does everyone remember when we were linked with Sagna a couple of years back?? Everyone was like ‘why are we signing a rb when we have Eboue and need a blah blah blah’.
If there’s a player out there Wenger likes, he’ll try and get them regardless of postion.
I want to know how the Vieira saga is moving along. It’s all gone quiet, which at Arsenal usually means it’s either a done deal or dead in the water.
Probably Chelski are favorites, then Manure, then liverpool, then us.
i hate transfer season so much
Stu it’s much rarer than the team not retaining the title, therefore the bookies are wrong the vast majority of the time!
Lyon is different, they were pretty much the only team in France for a few years, just like in Scotland there are only two teams, so it happens more regularly there.
Inter won it a few times because Juve and Milan were done for cheating so they had no competition!
Odds are for idiots. I mean it fluctuates as well depending on the number of Average Joes betting on any given team. People are most of the time betting on close outsiders so Man City are obviously going to get a massive amount of bets, thus shortening their odds.
yeaman u and chels are 2-1 and liverpool 11-4 according to william hill
BBK I’d say Liverpool, Chelsea, Us, Utd
Actually liverpool lost alonso, hmm.
Liverpool, Chelsea, and Us level favourites, Utd 4th favs
Chelsea will definitely finish ahead of Liverpool, even if they still had Alonso.
Wenger wants Chamak, but is not desperate for him. Besides, Wenger has publicly given Chamak the re-assurance he needs and as long as Wenger does not sign another striker, Chamak knows that all he has to do is to bring a pen with him to Wengers office in January. Either Bordaux take Wengers offer, or its Chamak on a free.
However, if the same Wenger could want a striker, it goes without saying that he is looking at two further players. Had he not lost Toure, then we would have unlikely needed another defender. But because from last season he did admit lack of defensive strength and depth, and that we have lost Toure, then it would be illogical for him not to buy another CD, or has Doure stepped up? Sounds like Eboue could be leaving as well. Something I appreciated after seeing Wilshires weekend perfomance. But what about Eboes defensive contribution?
And if its true that Wenger was pursuing Melo, again we are looking at a DM coming in.
But because these are his priority targets and that nothing is yet predictable or obvious, I understand Wengers stance of claiming that he has enuff cover because he wont want to be deemed desperate at the negotiating table.
Spurs are favorites
unless we sort out our defending we won’t be winning nothing
for relegation
How can you say definitely Angelos?! They didn’t last season, we’ve got absolutely no idea how well Ancelotti will do, and he’s got a poor record in the league anyways, just a champs league specialist. He’ll be focussing on the champs league too, whereas benitez is focussing on the league more than europe.
skwam wenger said eboue isn’t going. Vermalen was brought in as kolo’s replacement, but I agree, i’d like another centre back
FACT BBK, FACT!
If our players never got injured, we’d sweep the league easily, imo. And if we got a CDM as good as Matuidi or better.
Almunia
Sagna Gallas Verm Clichy
Cesc CDM Rosicky
RVP Eduardo Arshavin
CDM is such a huge priority right now, especially with Song going off to the ACN. Unless Wenger is planning to buy one in the winter market…
Well then, ita settles. Noone is gnna win the league.
United have lost a lot and ar shit now.
Chelsea have a shit manager who even with AC milan could only win the league once in 8 years.
And liverpool have Rafa who more or less shit.
It’s nothing to do with Ancelotti A. It’s to do with Cech, Terry, A Cole, Lampard, Essien, Ballack, Anelka, Drogba. To me the only players we have who compare are Van Persie, Arshavin and maybe not even Fabregas on current form. Man Utd have Berbatov, Rooney, and most of their defense. Liverpool have Gerrard, Mascherano and Torres.
Thanks for that A Says. Coz at times when Eboue isnt simulating pain he does contribute. And hes the nearest we have to a utility player. Hope he comes back intack from the Africa Cup.
The Ancelotti isn’t good in the league argument is a lazy one to be perfectly honest. The Milan players were mostly on the upside of 29 and took it upon themselves to prioritise the matches that they played in. I have watched a hell of a lot of AC over the years and the players just didn’t perform. I think with a squad that age it’s hardly the managers duty to fire up the players or pressure them to perform. The blame always falls on the manager and it’s almost always undeserved.
I would rather sell Eboue and get a proper utility man who can play any position. Like John O Shea for the mancs.
and since alonso has moved to Real, is there now a possibility of getting Diarra back?
Ancelotti is not my favourite manager in world football…far from it, but to dismiss Chelsea’s title hopes because of him is silly.
Thats fair Angelos, i suppose. But if the players arent performing then its the managers job to move them on and get players that will perform. And for a manager of his status he should have had the players working how he wanted.
Aquilini is a very good player, but he’s no Alonso and I think he will have a hard time adjusting to the PL. For me Alonso was every bit as important to Liverpool as Gerard and Torres. They beat Man U at home without Torres or Gerard, they wouldn’t have without Alonso. Tactically and technically they’ve lost a huge player. Given their reliance on four player Carragher, Mascherano Torres and Gerard they will have to be extremely lucky with injuries to do what they did last year.
I still think UTD will add to their squad, if they don’t they are their for the taking. Their regular central midfield partnership could conceiveable consist of Carrick and Fletcher with Hargreaves still on the treatmant table. With the loss of Tevez and Ronaldho and the signings of Owen and Valencia they will certainly be a more orthodox less dynamic team and if they are to regain the premiership it will be on their defensive displays as i think they should be easier to contain for the better defences in the league. Owen will score for UTD but most of his goals will be against the poorer teams in the league.
Chelsea have Essien, if we had him we’d win the league. For them he’s a “utility” player who sacrifices his own game to accomadate Lampards contribution to the team which is Goals. Any real tinkering with the Chelsea system causes problems both on and off the pitch but what they do they are incredibly good at. They will be strong again this year but given the age of their key players it really is the law of diminishing returns.
With a fit squad Aresnal without doubt have the most quality attacking talent and options in the league. Protecting the back four is still an area of concern. I like Song and Denilson I consider them to be miles ahead of virtually all their peers. Song has gone through a period of rapid improvement in the last 12 months and when you compare a shadow chaser like Anderson to someone who is so positionally and tactically aware like Denilson at 20 years of age you should be excited at the thought of these players being at the club in four or five years time. If i had my choice of CM players to choose from i’d go for Essien, De Rossi, Toure, Senna or Mascherano. In the real world however their is an absence of an Essien like somebody out there to sign, so why waste a huge amount of money on someone who isn’t going to improve the team in real terms? If you can think of someone by all means point them out. Players who could add a bit maybe include the likes of Sessegnon, and Lucho Gonzalez who’s went to Marseille but neither are midfield general more footballers who can also tackle. Its such an easy out to slate Denilson and Song yet when pressed for an alternative fans regularly hark back to Flamini who made his descision, Viera whose body has given up on him and Matudi whose not at the level Song or Denilson is at. The point is the type of player that were in need of is pretty thin on the ground. Suck it up Grovers unless a De Rossi or Essien becomes availible start supporting these two kids.
None of the teams are perfect and i’m really looking forward to this season because we do have a chance.
No Skwam. The reason they bought Alonso is because they wanted to get the midfield balance right with Diarra as a starter.
Angelos they had all those players last season and came 3rd….
No matter what players there are, they have to fit into a system, or the manager has to develop a system that fits around the players. Just have players x, y and z on paper doesn’t guarantee success, as we saw with chelsea last season….
Stu. He wanted to do that. Do you know how hard he had to try to bring in Pato as well as his failed attempts to get other players in like Mexes. Milan have had money problems for a good 6 years now, the board wanted to see how much they could squeeze out of the squad they had. The structure of the backroom staff there proves it too.
No they didn’t A. Essien, Drogba and Terry all had injury problems. The only ones that managed to stay relatively injury free were Anelka who was the top scorer and Lampard who was better than every top 4 midfielder bar Gerrard.
So they made him keep using older players on undoubtedly higher wages than younger players would have been on? Thats difficult to believe
Milan couldnt be that stupid.
I think not Angelos. Check the stats. Denilsong are the best midfielders in the premiership.
What Stu?? It’s got nothing to do with wages and everything to do with what they deemed unecessary transfer fees. I’m not asking you to believe, just offering the truth.
Angelos Essien did, but Terry certainly didn’t, and Drogba didn’t have injury problems, he just didn’t get on with Scolari!
Angelos, im not saying you’re not telling the truth. Just saying if money was a big issue then i thought the board would have offloaded the high earners. Thats all….
Brady right foot….am agreed with you. my concern is when you lose diarra, flamini etc and ask song and denilson to take over…suddenly. arsenals game was based on having a midfield fortress that was the basis from which attack was launched. And whenever this midfield fortress was breached, Arsenals defense was VERY vulnerable. So not ensuring that we held onto the platform of our success was a failure, and demanding or expecting 20 year olds to suddenly step up to the level of Gilberto or Flamini who was allowed his education in the trade right into his mid twenties is folly. I salute the two lads. But I have concerns about having them put in the situation in the first place. Couple more seasons, DM wont be a position to worry about with them not sold, but the jobs came one if not up to three seasons too early for them
Lampard and Terry weren’t just “relatively injury free either”, they only missed 4 Premiership games between them all season!
Essien was a massive loss for them, and is a top top player, as are Drogba, and an on form Anelka. Lampard has certainly stepped it up a level as well.
Terry is average though, very overrated, and they’d be better if they offloaded him imo, he’s become bigger than the club, a la shearer at newcastle.
Cech has been average since his head injury, Almunia made less mistakes last season than him!
Terry had an ankle injury for almost the entire season A, as well as knee problems. Just because players play A it doesn’t mean they’re not being troubled. What were the reasons Scolari gave for Drogba not playing initially? It was wanted him to get to match fitness. After that yeah, there was a deterioration of their non-relationship but nonetheless he wasn’t an ever present.
Chelsea had really good luck with injuries last season actually, they had 7 players who started all but five or less games! Essien apart obviously.
We had just two, Denilson and Sagna too, not the most influencial players!
Get a grip A. Almunia?? The only difference is Almunia knows to make his few mistakes in the big games. And you can try and put it anyway you want but all of those players I mentioned would walk into this Arsenal team. Maybe Van Persie to partner either of the Chelsea strikeforce.
Angelos, the stats on Denilson I have issues. The problem I have with him is that he tackles brilliantly only to pass the ball back to opposition. He does this again. And again. And again. This merry-go-round tactic he has does make his stats look good.
Yeah Angelos, Cech was VERY poor last season, not saying Almunia is good, but Cech was below average last season, something was very wrong with him.
Out of the Chelsea team I’d take Alex rather than Terry, Bosingwa, Essien, and that’s it. Cesc rather than Lampard, they’re different types of players, and Cesc is better for us than Lampard would be. Arshavin and VP over both Drogba and Anelka. Zhirkov maybe, but have to see how he adapts to the prem. Cole isn’t the same player as he was when he was with us.
I trust my eyes and ears skwam not stats. And they tell me that Denilson is far from poor but just as far from great.
The chelski players i would defo take are Alex, Essien and Anelka(maybe). Other than that i really wouldnt take the others.
Oh and Zhirkov too. And Sheva is he was free because he one of my favourite players ever.
This would be my Chelsea/Arsenal team A
Cech
Sagna Gallas Terry A Cole
Arshavin Essien Lampard Rosicky
Van Persie Drogba
Mine would be
Almunia
Bosingwa Alex Gallas Clichy
Rosicky Cesc Essien Nasri
VP Arshavin
Or maybe Arshavin left Eduardo or Anelka up top
skwam. You are basing that off one pre-season game. Denilson rarely passed the ball to the opposition, the stats back that up, and if you’re seeing things otherwise then your subjective opinion is obscuring the facts
And in a 4-3-3
Lampard Essien Fabregas
Arshavin Van Persie
Drogba
Skwam m8 decent shout, I think Wenger thought Flamini wouldn’t leave,but for whatever the mistakes of the past and i’m sure Wenger should have done more earlier to keep Flamini the player the fans are crying out for this midfield general who is he and how much will he cost?
Yeah Denilson rarely lost the ball. But a lot of that was because he didnt try any adventerous passes. But some of his passes were bad because they were to players who werent open to the pass…were under pressure and lost the ball. But Denilson pass was still recorded as complete.
He doesnt lose the ball but his choice of forward passes could be better.
Angelos..right way to go about mate.
But definitely one to hold onto for the future. He is still learning and we dont know how much more he is capable of. But if he improved on his passing, his contribution with his tackling stats would be automatically immense. He is Brazilian, right?
The Arsenal/Chelsea team should be 4-3-3 because thats what both teams play and have the players to suit that formation.
Arsene said that Denilson was a mixture of Thomas Rosicky and Gilberto Silva skwam. Let’s see what happens…hopefuly he takes more from the Czech.
Stu. i’m just saying that if people are going to criticise a player, don’t do it based on their imaginations. We all have the tendency to attribute certain characteristics to people based on one or two things that stuck in our minds, but that is where the stats do help. They help you to see that your view of a football match is limited, and when it’s your own team you are prevented from objective analysis by your emotions
In a 4-3-3 you have to have both Essien, Lampard and either Anelka or Drogba up top otherwise it’s not a 4-3-3.
Noone took the ball off his feet, but he either made a poor passing decision that lost Arsenal the ball or he completely failed to pass the ball to a team mate. On too many occassions from what I saw. And with as many tackles as he made, and with passing as good as you say he had, Im sure we wont be screaming out loud for a defensive midfielder, considering that we also have Song who was deemed better than Denilson last term.
Cech
Sagna Gallas Terry Cunt
Cesc Essien Lampard
RVP Drogba Arshavin
What a team
what ever happened to Kalou rumors?
We picked the exact same team Pat. It’s scary good.
He rarely failed to pass the ball to a teammate skwam. So your memory of what you saw is obviously flawed just like any other human being. Because from what I saw, he always makes the safe pass, passing either sideways or in to negative space. The stats back that up
I actually wouldnt have cashley at left back. I woud prefer Zhirkov. Cole was arguably once the best left back in the world but imo since leaving us he has been half the player he once was.
I would take Clichy to both Zhirkov and Cashley.
Yes it is Angelo. You have the spine/toughness in midfield, along with a little maestro pulling the strings. A world class CDM, an assister, and a goal scorer in midfield. What more can you ask for?!?!
I tried squeezing Rosicky in there. Maybe if cesc wasn’t available, I’d put Rosicky in the middle.
I like my full-backs to be balanced mentally in terms of attacking and defensive duties. From what little I’ve seen Zhirkov he likes the opposition half a hell of a lot. That’s not a bad thing though and Barca proved with Dani Alves sometimes it can make a big difference.
I’d take Clichy if he didn’t have such an awful season in 08/09. Clichy on 07/08 form is a no brainer.
For me hopefully nothing further happens.
Because if we are able to get Chamak free, who is good, coz Wenger thinks so, then we are less restricted on the choice of DM or defender coz of finance.
But I dont think Wenger would buy Kalou if he knows that Chamak is available for what he Wenger is willing to pay or on a free as a belated xmas present.
Kalou could happen if Chamak signs for another club. But as I said earlier, Chamak knows that he can walk into Arsenal in January, if Wenger hasnt signed someone else
gday all,
so who do we want?
Team Ranking
1. Arsenal (QUALIFIED) 106.899
2. Lyon (QUALIFIED) 91.033
3. Sporting Lisbon (QUALIFIED) 68.292
4. Panathinaikos (QUALIFIED) 56.632
5. VfB Stuttgart (QUALIFIED) 45.339
6. Fiorentina (QUALIFIED) 42.581
7. Atletico Madrid (QUALIFIED) 41.853
8. Celtic (QUALIFIED) 40.757
9. Anderlecht (QUALIFIED) 32.065
10. Timisoura (QUALIFIED) 25.781
Yeah Pat, the midfield is so complementary as is the attacking trident. Skill and shooting ability in Van Persie, Strength and aeriel threat with Drogba and pace and creativity in the form of Arshavin.
Watch the Birmingham and Tottenham mistakes and come back to me on thet luke.
Not January skwam, next june. I’d be surprised if Chamakh happened in January or next June, but I guess it’d depend on how other players do between now and then.
Anderlecht, Celtic, Timisoara, Fiorentina, Athletico for me Evo, in that order
ive seen him. He has premier league experience though, where Jerkoff doesnt, and Cashley can go piss up a rope as far as Im concerned.
If you have the stats to back you, wont argue. But I will stick to watching football
them*
skwam, why would you bother when you can apparently come to conclusions about what happens without having to?
Timisoara would be no.1 due to lowest ranking, although they knocked out shaktar. I don’t want Celtic as they are my Scottish team!
yeah evo, but i think we’d beat any of anderlecht, celtic, and timisoara comfortably, but I’d rather avoid timisoara, because it means potentially having to travel to romania 3 days before travelling to old trafford, so there are issues with travelling distance, and crappy pitches over there so potential for players getting injured, or just being more tired than they would be playing in celtic or anderlecht
Anderlecht would be the best bet for me
yeh, could jus go to central statistics office. should have thought of that one. But more seriously, I might say is that if i have seen denilson fail to pass a few good times, i might have concluded that he aint any at passing and maybe I started picking on him on that more than other players. am starting on a clean slate with ALL players nex term. PEACE?
Fazio is a decent central defender – and he can play DM role as well.
Signing a new contract is standard in spain to bump-up the transfer fee. Unfortunately he is good and they don’t want to sell – and we won’t pay more than $500 anyway
yeah true. no celtic for me, but ill play any of the others
skwam fair play mate. As i say, people’s memories are unreliable. One can watch a game and sit there waiting for creative passing and something good to happen, so all the little safe passes just don’t register. Whereas a misplaced pass at an emotionally charged moment of the game will stick in one’s mind “He gave the ball away”. In our minds the tendency is to remember that mistake.
This is where stats are helpful because they allow us to supplement our memories with the facts. I’m not saying that Denilson is a good passer, or even claiming him to be a good player. I’m just saying that the criticism that he gives the ball to the opposition is inaccurate.
Celtic for me. Not far to travel, good pitch and not crap enough to make us complacent but not good enough to beat us even if we are.
Anderlecht, Celtic, Reyes, Timi, Fiorentina for me.
Celtic might not be so good, we would probably end up with half our squad injured. I’d much rather we play a continental side
Celtic arent a physical side (apart from Scott Brown). And with Mowbray as manager they will try to play football and we generall walk all over any team that tries to play football against us.
Admittedly i haven’t seen much of Celtic recently. Possibly just a stigmatism i attached to the fact that they’re a jock side
Celtic wouldn’t be half as aggressive as an eastern european team Bill.
And if you take into consideration that players have gotten injuries just by running on bad or hardened pitches I think Beltic are definitely the best option.
And by Beltic I mean the hoops.
Yeah i was kinda hoping to meet Anderlecht, nice and close, weak enough to walk all over. Don’t know about the quality of the pitch
I find it surprising that the Fulham boss keeps saying we shud back off on Hangeland. Is he inviting Wenger? Hes even suggested that we throw in Vela if we interested in his defender, but NO approach has been made for him as far as I know. Wats this all about?
The other thing is that if he is that good, would he not be a candidate for Man City or Villa if he is refusing to sign a new contract. Cant come up with any conspiracy theory other that he is not as good as he is made out to be. I like him. Make coz he outjumped our defense and showed more determination, leading to his goal. But throughout the season he was rated highly, made it into the premiership team of the season, if Im not mistaken. Aint worth adding to our side and his valuation?
Im goin sleep. Night grovers….
Stu, you are copping out a bit mate.
You claim we need an experienced DM with top-class experience. By this, you must mean Champions League experience, because I’m SURE you don’t mean we should pick up a guy with 50 caps for Latvia or something.
Then you say that it’s the scouts job to find such players.
Well, obviously the top-class DMs with lots of CL experience are known to everyone. It’s not like there is a 29 year old with heaps of experience in the EPL, La Liga, or CL, plying his trade in relative obscurity out in Muaritius or something. The scouts by their very nature will be looking for players without the experience, but with the ability to play at that level.
Once again, if you know a DM who has CL experience and who is available and realistic, please, tell us who
DDM aka Mr. Xenophobe…Fuck the redcoats. Remember Yorktown.
Celtic? aren’t they an Irish team
Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky could be out for up to ‘5 to 6 weeks’, after the Czech international reportedly sustained a hamstring injury in training this morning.
According to radio station talkSPORT, Rosicky – who only recently returned from a long-term injury – will be missing for almost two months with the Arsenal press office revealing that the injury is currently being assessed.
The show’s host, former Gunner Ian Wright, said that a press conference has been planned for tomorrow afternoon, where Arsene Wenger is expected to tell the media how serious Rosicky’s ‘injury’ is.
http://goonertalk.com/2009/08/05/reports-rosicky-sustains-serious-injury/#comments
Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood insists there is “absolutely no chance” captain Cesc Fabregas will leave the Emirates Stadium this summer.
The 22-year-old is under contract with the Gunners until 2014 but his future has once again been the subject of much speculation this close-season, with AC Milan having emerged as the latest big-name club to target the Spain midfielder.
However, Hill-Wood does not expect Fabregas to be following Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure out of the north London club’s exit door.
He said: “There is absolutely no chance of us selling Cesc and all this talk is just fabrication.
“This sort of thing crops up from time to time and it is something we are perfectly used to. Cesc is happy at Arsenal, as far as I am aware.”
—————————————–
when things get messy up steps PHW ,
Arsene is his bitch and he is the drunken husband who spurts it out LIKE IT OR LUMP IT not really giving a #### what others think of him …
if you think wenger is in charge of NOT spending then your all delusional .
out for the C.L qualifier ..
GREAT
http://www.imscouting.com/global_news_item.aspx?id=2754
PEDRO , you can tell me he’s just like a new signing again in September/October
or maybe Christmas knowing Rosicky ..
So who decides if we’re gonna get that much talked about DM?
There is only 1 source reporting Rosick’ys injury. We’ve already had 3 false alarms this preseason. 2 with Rosicky(both talkSPORT) and 1 with Eduardo
Ladies Smith…Sell your shares to Usmanov…lets get this party started…and end this tight fisted fiasco that has seen us spiral down in the world of football…
Rosicky out again
WTF
Outsideright, scouts watch every player we are about to sign… that is their job.
They don’t just hunt out unearthed talent, because in today’s game… there is no such thing.
Ethan, we’ll wait and see on the Rosicky thing… too many false flags on this one mean I’ll wait on it.
You are right about the spending bit… and I reckon this £40+mill he has in his hand now will show everybody that it’s always been Wenger’s choice not to spend.
David I’m with you. Years & years of meally minded Labor fiscal policy has rubbed off on those in charge of The Arsenal.
Gnarley… I really don’t think it’s the board holding back the finances… it’s Wenger.
I don’t know why everyone blames the board? Arsene is independent enough to be this demi-god at Arsenal… yet everyone thinks he is under some sort of financial gagging order from the club?
It makes no sense.
Rafa loses a player… straight away he goes out and purchases another. Fergie loses Ronaldo, straight away he replaces him… why do Arsenal insist on taking 3 months to do their business? Are we that short sighted that we don’t have a look at who is available before we flog a player?
there you go with the £40+mil talk again Pedro, deal with the facts, not speculation treated like fact!
Pedro, who do you suggest we buy at DM?
Arsene doesnt believe in replacing great players…Henry, PV4, Tony Adams, David Seaman, Overmars….etc.
Pedro previously it’s been the board, Wenger has more or less said that, saying he’ll always spend within his means. This summer if we spend nothing else then we know it’s Wenger, because he’s said that he has the ade/kolo money to spend, so we know he’s got some money.
I disagree about the short sightedness thing – we signed kolo’s replacement well BEFORE kolo went! Ade went because he was surplus to requirements, a replacement wasn’t necessary, but chamakh it would appear was always going to happen, but his circumstances require waiting for longer because the closer to the transfer deadline the lowed the price.
Hard to think of one great player on the team asides from Arshy
Also with Ronaldo and Alonso both of them were absolutely central to their respective clubs, if we’d lost vp, or cesc, then things would have happened differently with regards to ade, but seeing as he wasn’t even going to be a first team player this year, the necessity to replace him immediately wasn’t there, as it was with alonso say for liverpool.
David i’d say arshavin, vp, cesc, gallas
VP, Cesc might well be great players but its been a while since theyve had a great season?
Gallas is emotionally unstable.
The fact that we arent even linked to any DM’s says alot about Arsene and his spending.
Morning all!
So shall I say ‘I told you so’ to everyone now or save it for the new post? The amount of times I have said that Rosicky will be a permanent crock is ridiculous!
Now we are without Nasri and Rosicky during a very tough start to the campaign!
i’d say vp had a great season last season david, even if not a perfect season. 11 goals 10 assists in 28 games is pretty impressive.
not being linked to a DM means nothing, i’m still certain one will be signed. Being linked to players or not, doesn’t say anything about anything to do at the club!
taig only talksport have reported rosicky is out, and they did that on the 16th, and the 30th of july, and were completely and utterly wrong. Wait until it’s actually official before you state it as something that’s happened, doing otherwise is ridiculous!
A
every player we’ve ever bought we’ve been linked to at least once.
Except Silvestre.
Even the gutter press has learnt from talksport’s false alarms – the last two times skysports and the press reported rosicky was injured, this time even they havn’t said anything, because they’ve learnt their lesson when it comes to treating talksport’s word as gospel!!
A, my facts are as accurate as yours… in fact, I would say I’m closer to the true figure.
Unless of course you yourself have evidence to the contrary?
I think what was apparent A, is that we needed to bolster our squad last summer… so the fact that the hunt for a centre midfielder has dragged on into August is a bit ridiculous…
We didn’t know Kolo or Ade were going to go… If City had purchased Terry and Eto’o, those two would still be here. The only defender we knew was going was Big Phil… and we knew Silvestre wasn’t going to be first choice this year. So I don’t really subscribe to Vermaelen being a direct Kolo replacement.
If I have £500,000 to buy a house, and instead, I buy a tent for £200… I have spent within my means.
A – Jesus am I not allowed to believe it? I think you would argue with me if I said its Friday tomorrow……
We weren’t linked to eduardo before we signed him, nor sagna, nor rosicky, nor ade, diaby….
We’ve signed players out of nowhere completely unexpected before. We’ve been linked with matuidi, but i could see it being someone different if not him, that we’ve not been linked with
PDT, I’d go for Matuidi… purely based on Makelele’s assessment of him!
A cross between Gerrard and himself… that sounds like a pretty awesome combo.
Same sh*t. Different season!!
Oh man
A… we were.
I remember reading about all of those transfers on Tribal football bar the Eduardo one.
Sagna and Diaby weren’t instant transfers… Chelsea nearly nicked Diaby!
If Matuidi was going to happen..it be done by now because of AW and Comolli’s relationship.
Th fact that it’s not done by now…doesn’t look too likely.
Yes Pedro, but it is a bit rich to say we need an experienced top-class DM with champions league and international experience, then not provide a name because it’s the “scout’s job to find him” You can count those players on one hand, and none seem like realistic targets. As I said, it’s not like there is a 28 yr old Champions League winner playing in Turkmenistan that the scout could find. These sorts of players are widely known and most likely unattainable. Please, tell me one player who fits the criteria now who we can realistically get?
… and I didn’t read about the Eduardo one because I was on Holiday…
Pedro – As I said to Franchise yesterday I think Makelele was just saying what he thought everyone wanted to hear. He’s not going to turn around and say ‘no, I hope Arsenal don’t buy him because he’s shit’ is he! He was even less enthusiastic about Chamakh, hardly beside himself with excitement. He was a guest in our house and was just being polite.
Toulalon? Mahamadou Diarra? Keita? Flamini?
Actually we were linked to Eduardo, and Sagna and Ade..infact the french press where buzzing that he would arsene has found “baby Kanu”….Same thing in the Croatian Papers…Sagna is hardly a low profile signing as he was rated the best player the season before we signed him….
TAIG, he wasn’t… I watched the interview!
He doesn’t plays for Paris… he had no reason to say nice things. He said Chamakh is the best striker in french football at the moment… that is pretty enthusiastic… how else was he supposed to say it?
David… I’d say that we hardly ever sign a player that isn’t part of a protracted transfer…
Iceman… I’d have to agree… he is going to stick with his love children in the holding role.
Pedro – He’s not going to say he shit regardless of who he plays for. Why would he be rude and portray himself in such a manner in front of the media, that’s just stupid. he just sat there rambling on talking with no real passion and saying such obvious things. Just because he said it, doesn’t mean he meant it.
Or he’s decided against Matuidi and is going to spring an Eduardo on us Pedro….
There is always a glimpse of truth in one of these protracted transfers…
That’s high praise for Matuidi….
Taig, that is a pretty negative way to view someone’s comments?
Why would you assume that a 35 year old man has to be nice about a footballer because he is under pressure?
If he wasn’t entused… he’d just say, ‘He’s a good player’. He wouldn’t go on to make such a lavish comparison. Judging someones demeanour when you don’t know them personally is a but rash? How many interviews have you watched where he has excitedly praised a player?
What is the point of Gazidis?
Huntelaar to join AC Milan
http://www.imscouting.com/global_news_item.aspx?id=2759
Pedro I take your point, but the fact of the matter is that someone has the final say on “to spend or not to spend, that is the question” whether it is Wenger or The Board doesn’t matter, the fact is its happening, & its time a new style be implemented in the spending department. & it appears that that “new style” is already in waiting. Lets just fast forward it.
Pedro – Its just the impression I got.
Perhaps it has something to do with me not wanting any more average/progressing kids at the club. Chamkah is coming across like Adebayor reincarnated and Matuidi is as young as Denilson, 4 inches shorter, had a good year during the 07/08 season and then spent a lot of time injured last year (only 27 league appearances) for a club that only just survived relegation on the last day of the season.
Right, I’ve spoken to my man, and there is no press conference this morning.
Rosicky has pulled his hamstring and will be out for up to six weeks. Think about it, why would any club feel the need for a press conference to announce a player’s injury!!
Ian Wright = Clueless Twat
Also, the Vieira deal is all but dead and get this, the reason is based purely on the fact that the performances of the team during pre-season has shown Wenger that we don’t need him!!!! Absofuckinglutely, haven’t we done ever so well against a bunch of also rans and pub teams!
There you go Grovers, he’s so happy with his team there’s no need for reinforcements, you can almost hear Fizsman and PHW spark up another couple of Cubans, as they pat their backs and congratulate each other on £40m+ banked……..
dennisdamenace Says:
August 6, 2009 at 08:32
has shown Wenger that we don’t need him!!!! Absofuckinglutely, haven’t we done ever so well against a bunch of also rans and pub teams!
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oh dear
…..anyway, The Arsenal are on notice. If the experiment fails by May 2010, heads will roll. Its an English tradition streching back to King Alfred etc, & would be more appropriate than wishy washy crap that Gordon Brown would use. Results, YEAH RIGHT!!!!!
Well fuck me sideways for believing Rosicky, of all people, got injured!!!!
So now I will say I told you so!! This is exactly why we were warned not to buy him! Years of poor dieting has given him stupidly weak muscles and it seems to have reached the point of no return. These set backs will continue for as long as he is playing!!!!
do you really believe that Dennis? About the board i mean
That’s depressing!!
What did Clarkson call Gordon?
Why the fuck is Wenger being allowed to get away with this???? Why isn’t anyone questioning this? I have always said I would like it if Kroenke took control of the club but right now I think I’d even except Usmanov’s advances!!!!
Taig, don’t worry we’ve got Denilson
Chamakh is not Ade reincarnated… just a few know alls who’ve watched his youtube vids have said he is. The guys has pace, he is good in the air, his touch looks fantastic and he has a lot of skill. He is nothing like Ade and he is 25… so he’s not a kid… he a Champion of France.
Matuidi might be very young, but he’s played a lot of games in France, he is fast, tough and tenacious… what more do you need of a holding player? He doesn’t need finishing composure… he doesn’t need bundles of skill… he just needs to be what we don’t have at the moment.
DDM, that is disappointing… the first year it is clear Wenger has money and he doesn’t spend it… my guess, he’s had money for at least the last 3 years… this year his bluff has been called.
Lets hope 4-3-3 works a dream.
They definitely need to sign someone to replace rosicky
For the first time since the end of last season i am SERIOUSLY worried about how our club is being run, and the true motives behind these decisions. Can players like RvP and Fab4 truly be happy going into next season with the current squad, because i’m not. I will however, wind my neck in for the moment as we still have time in the transfer windwo, but the signs are not good at all………
It’ll be much worse if Atletico Madrid sign Eboue
I have a great piece that I will share with you in September about Arsenal and their injuries… you’ll be shocked because it is some very juicy information.
why september?
Why september?
you tease….
Well Gnarley, whatever happens we know one thing for sure…
The new manager will have a substantial war chest…
DDM – Yep, I’ve always, always said that Wenger has my support until the 1st September at which point if he hasn’t done all he can to improve this team I will be calling for his head as loud as I can. No more signings will completely prove that he has become a completely clueless and talentless manager. If he cannot see the most fundamental failings of this team and fix them then he should not be managing a club in the EPL let alone Arsenal FC!!!!
I am 100% convinced that if someone were able to get close enough they would find that Wenger gets a bonus that relates to how the club performs financially. That is completely the wrong motivation.
why is we get the same oh same fucking summer every year as even the pools have spent 20mil on a crook why Arsen why
morning all
USMANOV COME ON AND TAKE OVER ARSENAL!!!
BUY LADY NINA’S SHARES NOW!!
WE ARE TIRED OF PHW’S ANTICS AND HOW THEY INTEND TO MAKE PROFIT FROM PLAYER SALES BUT DON’T WANT TO BUY REPLACEMENTS…
If anyone is reading this blogg and has Red and White holdings address tell them to move fast and take over Arsenal…We are tired of being told how the team has matured, strong enough and can win titles, just have a look at Chelsea for example…………..
Simon – That part of it was just my bitterness, but for every transfer window like this one they are the ONLY winners, so my guess (and it is only my opinion) is that they are over the fucking moon with the current situation………why buy a top quality CB when you can play that mug Song there instead, why buy a title winning class CDM when you can play that one-dimensional Denilson there…..
The worrying thing about that DDM is that we played hopeless teams and the one test we had in Athletico…Arshavin saved our skins…
Pedro – When I said Adebayor reincarnated I meant his personality not his ability. I haven’t watched a single video of him. All this talking to the press EVERY day, slagging off his employers, his petulant comments about not trying if he stays at Bordeaux. He sounds like another destructive personality with an over-inflated ego that thinks he is better than he really is.
And as for Matuidi, he can do all those things you say but it doesn’t mean he’s good at them and he cant use them if he is injured all of the time. 27 appearances. It would be interesting to know how many were starts.
When the new post is up i will re-post my information for the ‘benefit’ of all the not-so-early-bird Grovers…..Happy Fucking Days!
DDM – Really cant say I’m surprised! Wenger is being more stubborn than ever before. In fact I’m not even sure if that is the reason any more. Its gone so far that I can only presume he does somehow believe these average players are world class footballers. I think he is really losing the plot.
if we can get PV4 I dont mind if we didnt sing another DM PV4 + song in midfield for me will do it
I guess when people look back in history @ The Arsenal 2006-2020 it will be seen as the period when The Club went trophyless to pay off the Stadium. We can all tell our grandchildren “the reason you are winning so many trophys now is coz our era bit the bullet for ya”.
Morning all,
Is Rosicky really injured? I know it’s in the Sun, but surely it would be a new low to lie about and injury when it didn’t happen…
hi
TAIG, Diaby, Sagna, Arshavin all agitated for a move away…
If you know that this might be the last chance to make it in the big time, wouldn’t you do the same?
He’s 25… if he doesn’t move to us… he might end up at Sunderland… I’d be pretty fuming, especially if I was in the last year of my contract.
Morning Sabel.
So, if we believe all the reports, the gossip, the pre-season games etc etc Arsene Wenger has spent his summer so far buying one (not so tall) Centre Back and flirted with yet another relative nobody from the French league in the shape of a striker, Rome burns while Nero fiddles, by his own fucking words our major failing last season was defence, so we lose a CB with not only EPL experience, but a EPL winner too and get a ‘replacement’ from a lesser league, so once again we’re not strengthening, we’re replacing, treading water, while the coffers are bumped up again and again, only this time it’s been fucking blatant, it’s been in your face the willingness not to spend football generated money, what an opportunity missed, Chelsea, ManUre and the Scouse are all potentially weaker than last year, but let’s be honest as it stands right now so are we…….
morning to u 2 pedro
Top ranting DDM.
I was going to write a post earlier in the summer to say that we never really add to the squad anymore… we only seem to replace the departed.
For me, that season we nearly did something… Ideally we could have done with Arshavin and Nasri to compliment that squad… that’s how we should roll…
Yeah, A big chamoneeeeeeeeeeeeeee to DDM
NEW POST!
ddm and Pedro, great comments, feel the same way…
Anyone care to answer me on the Thomas front?