So after Jackie boys double man of the match performances at the Emirates Cup at the weekend, I wonder if it brings out the little green man in him. I hope it does, Theo for me could be the Michael Owen of the 2010’s, he has what Owen had in spades, he has been put on the wing to develop but Owen went straight in the lone striker role.
When Theo played in the middle for England in the summer, he was woeful, so up front for us ahead of Bendtner, Arshavin, Robin and Eduardo? I’m not so sure.
I also believe Numchucks is on his way so there’s another one ahead of him. Yes I said Numchucks!
I believe Theo will be played as a winger again, or as we used to have in the old days, an inside forward, that used to be the number 8, inside right or the number 10, inside left.
In fact when I played, no one wanted the number 10 shirt, the number 9 was the big one, I think 10 became fashionable when Maradona came along.
Hodgson seems to think we will be back in for Hangeland and Wenger is sending signals that we will go to the wire on transfers, unfortunately he is only talking defender and forward, so as I see it, Song and Denilson are in again, Rosicky and Diaby will be injured all season, so here we go again.
I believe that he is proposing 4-3-3 to protect his favourites and it will negate his need for a DM, fine, it that’s his disguise, but we still need a big centre back, our defensive frailties have been there for all to see all pre-season, if he can’t see that then he’s the only one. I would still bring Paddy back, he’ll sort the kids out.
I found out today that Ronnie Biggs is an Arsenal fan, well welcome to the list, we all know that Osama is also a gooner. I would appreciate people not sending him get well messages on this site today, I am an honest man and he wasn’t, I’ve had to work for my family, he didn’t, if anyone wants to debate his new found status as the modern day Robin Hood go and find a Ronnie Biggs website, don’t do it on here.
Sorry about that Grovers but I’ve already seen one site this morning sanctifying him, it’s a shame the train driver who died only got £25 for his trouble. If anyone wants to show some respect, show it to his family, maybe he was a Gooner too.
Have a great day Grovers, today could be the day we make a signing, tomorrow we play Valencia, don’t they have someone we’re after at the back?
Le Grove is now smart phone compatible!
Pedro
Geoff
Next manager to leave heir post in the new season:
Arsene Wenger – 40/1
BET!!
Podium.
Heres to 3 new players
top 3
But the question is why has Wenger waited so long? Just to get a bargain at a shit player? All the big clubs have already added what they needed for the most part. We are the only ones haggling over a million here a million there. What the fuck for? Pay the price, do the business and get the squad ready. I am so fucked off with the whole last two hours crap. Wenger has turned us into a farce. Every club president must have a right moan up when contacted by Arsenal, its like alright here we go again with these cheap bastards harrassing us till we drop.
And finally before i stop moaning…Alonso is a prime example of why this doesn’t work. Simple as that. You can be a real shitbag sometimes Wenger, we would have had genuine quality for once if you would have gone the extra mile for him.
number 2, hahahahhaha, yeah
Usmanov for a take over.
woops , seems my refresh button is screwing
hmmm
Wenger will never get the sack, the board are constantly sucking him dry to ever get rid of him
Fuck Ronnie Biggs!!
I agree with that LAzer!
Lazer – I think could well be spot on about clubs hating to deal with us. Before long we’ll be the team that no one wants to negotiate with. What will Wenger do then. Probably have an early night with a smile on his face.
He’ll be having Song and Denilson over for a midnight tug off.
Yeah Theo up front is a bit of a joke right now. If you’re shit at the U21 level, sorry son you took a few steps backwards in your career.
I think he’ll wait for M. Diarra….its just too much of a gamble to wait till deadline day and the bid 50p for a player.
Damn where is everybody
lazer hahaha
Lol.
Morning,
I hear Gago is for sale…
Morning all,
Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t Wenger say earlier in the close season that he wanted to conclude his transfer business early so he could concentrate on bedding in new players? Silly me, he only meant players being sold so he could glory in the interest earned on all that cash sitting in the bank!
I couldnt judge theo’s credentials up front because of one bad tournament. But i was wondering if wengers master plan of playing him on the RW has actually back fired and ruined him upfront. Cant play there anymore coz he’s not used to it anymore
Everyone is in denial hoping for some miracle. We’ll be seeing a miracle alright..when the season starts…similar to one we saw last yr. Getting spanked by mediocre clubs who play for 90 mins and rough up the boys. A few injuries, some horrid defending, a bad goal keeping mistake or two, leaking goals after scoring, loose marking on set plays and their you have it. Back in 4th, fighting for our lives for a CL spot.
Morning all…
If we play a 4-3-3.. theo will still play on the right….
maybe that will be more natural than playing right of a 4-4-2
Also – I have to agree with Geoff – I could never understand why certain criminals were glamorised. Biggs was a common criminal so why he is some kind of icon to certain people escapes me, anyway that’s enough straying into non-Arse related chat from me.
It dies seem to me we are in for a flurry of later activity for players in for the last few days of the window. Unfortunately we’ll have had a few tough games by then buy which time we may come unstuck.
Like I said, happy days.
It’s all a game. He’ll buy no one.
Theo hasn’t many dribbling skills and is no where near clinical right now. His short passing can be poor at times and he gets out muscled still. AND he has no shot from distance. Apart from speed he really hasn’t got much. I am still willing to give him a chance but the way I see it right now his upside is getting less and less.
Just to clarify, the draw is at 11 BST i.e. 10am GMT.
Chary Wenger lies all the time but some people still hang on his every word.
Happy days indeed Chary. The writing is on the wall..
Lazer/Geoff – we’ll just have to shut ourselves off to all transfer hopes till the last week of August. We must be the opposite of Real Madrid(aka Franco’s team) when it come sto transfers – we’re late and cheap, they’re early and cash-splashers.
The only flurry we’ll see is how we missed out on so and so cause cuz we didn’t want to drop another million. This time is it I think, a lot of the senior players have implied throughout the summer we need signings ie Arshavin, Cesc, RVP, Eduardo, Almunia. Sooner or later someone we desperately need to stay will blow the door wide open and say enough is enough.
I wonder if Wenger knows what he puts us through every year. Just to save 2.50p on a 5 ft nothing center back from uzbekistan that knowones heard of
This time next year we will still be talking about needed a Defensive midfielder and be saying this is wengers last chance!! Wenger has made a lot of money on selling experienced first team players!! There is no excuse for not spending it!!
I hope we avoid madrid and celtic. The others i dont care bring em on….
Didn’t know that was the whole quote…
Arsene Wenger admits Marouane Chamakh has the perfect qualities to fit in Arsenal but is ready to play a waiting game to sign the Bordeaux striker.
The Gunners boss insists the French champions’ asking price is far too high, but can’t hide his admiration of the 25-year-old.
‘He’s an excellent player who works for the team and is good with others. These are the kind of qualities we like here.
‘But I also have the privilege of an internal solution. Eduardo is returning well.’
After having a £6m bid dismissed by Bordeaux, Arsenal are believed to be ready to return with a £7.5m offer.
This is still half the initial asking price, though Bordeaux have lowered their expectations to around the £10m mark, with Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers still thought to be interested despite signing other strikers.
Chamakh’s first choice would be to join Arsenal and the pressure is on Bordeaux as he only has a year left on his £16,000-a-week contract.
‘We had an interest in him,’ said Wenger, ‘but he’s rated far too high for us.’
‘We must respect the decision of Bordeaux. The player is under contract, so it is up to Bordeaux to decide. They have the right to ask the price they want.
‘I’ll give myself a few days to reflect. We can still make do with one or two players more. One could be in the defensive areas, and one in the attacking areas.
‘Usually the transfer market only speeds
Morning all, I watched the fulham game last night and reckon that Hangeland is a top defender but am i right in thinking that if we bought him now he wouldn’t be able to play for us in the CL as he has now played in the qualification for the Europa League?
And in other news…Ribery and Silva being rumoured to go to Manure.
i’m as big a gooner as anyone. I read this everyday and blog occassionally. But right now, and for teh last few weeks I can’t be fucked. I’m supposed to be excited abou the new season but all I feel is the same tired frustration as last summer.
Everyone knows what investment this team needs yet the decision makers at Arsenal are trying to be cute and it’ll never work, just like last season.
Conclusion: Something at Arsenal stinks!!!!
Guys, come on. Theo may not be the finished article yet but he has shown a lot of potential. Personally, with all of the injuries that we endured with Eduardo and RvP I would have already have started to give him time at the top of the field. But we haven’t been able to do that because (this is about 437th time I have said this) WE DON’T HAVE A RIGHT SIDED MIDFIELDER IN OUR SQUAD!!!! And quit frankly that is nothing short of fucking embarrassing!!
Theo’s pace is best used playing on the heels of the last defender. Imagine him running onto the sort of through balls that Arshavin, Rosicky and Fabregas could lay on for him. With so many world class passers of the ball in our team we missing an opportunity to put a pacey striker on the end of them.
All we have been allowed to see is Theo’s ability to beat a full back for pace which is there for all to see. But the problem is that he is ending up at the corner flag and he is not David Beckham. His options are to put in across which sometimes works but a lot of the time doesn’t. Or he cuts inside and is left with a lot of work to do as the space starts narrowing and centre backs start bearing down on him. But put him one on one with that centre back and there will usually be only one winner!
I also believe that Theo is there to learn on the right. Spending so much time on the flank will give Theo a bit of an edge when it comes to playing as a striker. With the knowledge of how his winger should be working he can put himself one step ahead of the game and put himself in the position he knows the winger is looking for.
We have seen flashes or Theo’s brilliance. He played very well against Chelsea in the Carling Cup when he was used as a striker. Also, don’t forget his goals against Germany for the U21′s. They were two special goals that showed the sort of clinical finishing that Henry or Eduardo would have been proud of.
So, lets not get on Theo’s back just yet. He has so much more talent that some of the dross he has to play alongside in most games and because of Wenger’s apparent disdain for right sided wingers he has found the amount of opportunities to improve his game as a striker very limited. I am convinced he is a special talent and I think he will be key player for both Arsenal and England over the next few years.
“10 became fashionable when Maradona came along”!!!!
Your age is showing, Geoff! 10 was Pele’s number.
I want to know WTF Gazidis is doing.
Wasn’t he brought in to handle transfers???
Why the fuck are we waiting till the last minute, when we know damn well no-one is going to accept our stupid offers and we’ll end up with another geriatric has-been.
I’m seriously getting pissed off with Wenger. Can’t he just be honest for once and say we’re not going to sign anyone. At least then our expectations are set and we can get over it!
I’m off to Amsterdam today, and hopefully when I return we will have the big fulham defender, the ninja french man and big Pat…
I may be dreaming, but we have… one week…
Getting very nervous… but hey ho…
That’s Football!!!!
Great post, have a wicked weekend guys
Rich from the mighty mighty North Bank Highbury!!!
Potayto, potahto…at least you dropped the b…
Clacko – Hangeland wouldn’t be able to join our CL squad until January when we get into the last 16 stage. I don’t see that being a problem. We should be good enough to win our group whoever we get as we are likely to be seeded.
p.s. get well Rosicky, even if you play 10 games this year in the red and white. we will support you.
most of you are beginning to sound like chelski/ cash city fans, Wenger haggles over prices to keep deals low thats why we are the only club to make net profits ok if he said il pay 15m for chamakh and wants rid in two years or so he would end up like the scouse or yids and lose money on the players leaving.
Top blogging! Especially the bit about the train robber, no criminal deserves celeb status.
TAIG, fair enough then. On the bright side if we did buy him he would always be a fresh defencer for the Prem game after the CL game!! At least until after Jan anyway.
Clacko – Also, and I said this yesterday, my mate who has worked on Fulham’s coaching staff says Hangeland is NOT to slow to play for us and thinks he would actually be a very good addition to the team. He also said he is very much a team player and puts the club first. Probably why he hasn’t said hardly a single word to the media whilst the whole world debates on where he will be playing next this season.
Pity Madrid spent so much money on players. We won’t get Pellegrini now.
Unless Madrid really screws up and he gets fired…
Clacko – Yeah, agreed. It wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me.
PDT are you sure he wasn’t 8?
Wenger is waiting until the last minute to do business because we wont pay more then a player is worth. Can you blame him? In a market where Glen fucking Johnson is worth 17.5 can you blame him for not wanting to pay extremely inflated prices? Fuck, Acquilani was over 20 mil for an injury prone italian who never played in the prem. We, unlike other clubs, respect the current financial situation of both our club and the economy. We wont mortgage our future by paying over the odds for a few over rated players. Sure it is frustrating and it annoys me but in 5 year of 7 years or 10 years when these other big clubs who spent themselves into the group are going tits up we will be sitting nicely, making a nice profit and having significantly paid down our debt. There is more to a football club then what happens on the pitch and we must respect the business side of it because without a solvent business side we have no footballing side. Honestly ask yourselves, would you rather Arsenal be in Liverpool’s position? of United who have over 600 million quid in debt? What happens to the Chavs when Roman gets bored and calls back his loans? It may be annoying now but I would rather deal with this now then be royally fucked in the future.
Wenger – Rosicky’s problem is ‘not major’
Tomas Rosicky has suffered an injury setback but, according to Arsène Wenger, it is “not a major problem”.
This morning’s media suggested the Czech midfielder had hurt his hamstring and would be out for six weeks.
That will be deeply disappointing news for every Arsenal fan given Rosicky has played in three pre-season friendlies this term. His first games since damaging his hamstring tendon in January 2008.
At his press conference at Great Ormond Street Hospital on Thursday afternoon, Wenger admitted: “It is worrying.
“He was so sharp that it is difficult to accept that he has had a muscle injury.
“But it is not a major problem. You get that type of injury after you have been out for 18 months.”
http://a.espncdn.com/i/eticket/20060628/i/pele_10.jpg
Refreshing Bendy
Did you hear about the fellow that was talking to his buddy, when he said, “I don’t know what to get my wife for her birthday. She has everything, and besides, she can afford to buy anything she wants. So, I’m stumped.” His buddy said, “I have an idea. Why don’t you make up a certificate that says she can have two hours of great sex, any way she wants it. She’ll probably be thrilled!” So the first fella did just that. The next day his buddy asked, “Well, did you take my suggestion? How did it turn out?” “She loved it. She jumped up, thanked me, kissed me on the mouth, and ran out the door yelling, ‘I’ll see you in two hours’.”
why the fack does there have to be an international friendly on 12th ?!?!
why oh why oh why!!!!
Pele was 10.
clacko i think it means brede cant play in the group stages but can play after the group stages
Bendy – A quick question. If the whole of the footballing world pays these prices and continues to go about their business and we are the only club who refuse to do the same and offer peanuts, are we respecting the current financial climate in football?
Glen Johnson isn’t worth £17.5m, true. Ronaldo isn’t worth £1m. Money in football is crazy when you think about it. Paying a club £1m pounds just to take a man from their team and put him in yours. But it has existed like this for so long and has continued to thrive as an industry.
Choy, that’s simple.
So that Walcott, Bendtner, Clichy, RvP and Eduardo come back injured and Arsene can use his standard excuse.
TAIG, we are a poor club…look at how much we are forced to charge for tickets to keep the club alive…
Me and my girlfriend were having a conversation about Ronnie Biggs release earlier.
She says to me, “So how many trains did he actually steal?”
I am hope you’re right about Theo Taig. I really really do. Like I said I am willing to giving him a chance and the door is by no means shut on his future for me but the way he’s been performing is worrisome. Nasri can play on the right when available but he doesn’t give us width like Theo does. I actually like Arshavin on the left, he is brilliant on the byline coming in and drifs inside very well.
It’s all relative Bendy, don’t forget what we sold Ade and Kolo for.
LAzer, Rosicky can play on the right.
Has anyone seen Vermaelen in a real match situation?
PDT – OK. But that doesn’t really answer the question. If a guy offered me £10 for my Porsche (my imaginary Porsche) I would say he is disrespecting the market. Just because he then tells me he is poor it wouldn’t change the fact that he is still taking the piss.
My point taig is football is not respecting global economic conditions. It is like fucking Monopoly money to these clowns. And mark my words, the recession WILL hit football and it will effect club’s revenue flows. Arsene knows this and is being smart about it. We have debt that we need to make sure we service and we are in the middle of a massive recession. Entertainment is unbelievibly exposed to economic turn downs and the club knows this. Other clubs who refuse to live within thier means will end up paying for it in the end. I mean LOOK at what just happened. Bear Stearns, Lehman, AIG all were leveraged like fucking 30:1. They took on way more rish and debt then they could afford to pay back and one of them went bankrupt, the other two only saves by governments who deemed them too big to fail Unfortunately for some clubs, football and sports is not as vital to the global economy as banking and finance. When companies, and that is what football clubs are, refuse to curb debt or have a poor business pla a la GM and Chrysler they fail. Arsenal know this and are positioning themselves to deal with global economic realities. Other clubs are not. It may be annoying but I would rather have this then end up like Lehman Brothers.
Two married buddies are out drinking one night when one turns to the other and says, “You know, I don’t know what else to do. Whenever I go home after we’ve been out drinking, I turn the headlights off before I get to the driveway. I shut off the engine and coast into the garage. I take my shoes off before I go into the house, I sneak up the stairs, I get undressed in the bathroom. I ease into bed and my wife STILL wakes up and yells at me for staying out so late!”
His buddy looks at him and says, “Well, you’re obviously taking the wrong approach. I screech into the driveway, slam the door, storm up the steps, throw my shoes into the closet, jump into bed, rub my hands on my wife’s ass and say, ‘How about a blowjob?’ … and she’s always sound asleep.”
Nice Porsche!
i think this season,fans would be booing wenger not players
I was kidding!
Lazer – Theo had a tough year last year with his shoulders that have the strength of an infant! But when he came back he had bulked up a bit, had definitely got stronger and even looked a bit more direct with his play. Gone are the days where he gets easily brushed off the ball. That doesn’t happen on the same level any more. He is a small lad so he will always lose the odd battle of course but that’s where his pace comes in. between Wenger and Capello tutoring him I think he has a bright future.
Bendy, look around you….we are over the worst. By January of next year, most economies will be flying again.
Flintoff out for the 4th.
Who is the most popular guy at the nudist colony?
The guy who can carry a cup of coffee in each hand and a dozen donuts.
Who is the most popular girl at the nudist colony?
She is the one who can eat the last donut!
If Arsene plays Wilshere consistently, then Theo will be reduced to being a 60th minute sub brought in to terrorize opposition defences.
PDT, yes I was at the Barnet game and saw Vermaelen. He looked quite good to me but he has not had the benefit of training with the team for long then so I’m not going to join in the stampede of people writing him off as a dud just yet.
What’s the difference between a pick pocket and a peeping Tom?
A pick pocket snatches watches.
wenger wont make any purchase. he has already stated that he wont be buying if Senderos doesn’t leave and will wait until Chamak’s contract expires.
Herbert,
Why are we trying to net profit in the transfer market? No other team in world football does.
What is the point in the club moving stadium and making £50m profit per year if we are gonna make a profit in the market?
Why are we paying twice what UTD & City fans do for their tickets but getting nothing in return?
I bought a new car last year, so i went to my local Audi, asked how much it was and paid them, i didnt negotiate for 2 months then miss out, the way we would have.
Good to hear, Chary! We need an intelligent defender to support Gallas. JD is good, but not that good.
Seriously Bendy the economics lesson is a bit much. Leverage to one industry is not the same to another. Please understand that. It is a simple concept, I don’t think I need to elaborate further. The firms you mentioned were leveraged based on a reliance of an ever increasing real estate bubble. In fact if anyone has to suffer in the footballing world it is the club that got greedy and relied on the same market. That would be us.
PDT, as someone who majors in economics and works in the research department of a global real estate investment firm, I strongly disagree. The worst of it will be over by the end of this year and in 2010 most Western economies will stagnate. We wont see solid growth recovery until Q4 2010 or 1H 2011. Credit and real estate markets are still royally fucked and equity markets are far from being stable again.
Nice, classy one, Nick!
Pele was 10, not 8
Bendy,
Football will not be hit by the recession, certainly not the bigger PL clubs.
Profits will drop as a result of the 50% tax rule, but turnover wont.
Gambon-you’re an audi man?? Good deal…so am I. Happy with it?
LAzer if you think any business can indefinetely spend you need to open a book. Companies but be balanced and currently, the Scouse, Chavs and Mancs are all in the red and have been for years. At some point spending has to stop. In addition, riddle me this, Since they won the CL the Scouse have spend millions more then Arsenal and gotten exactly where? MONEY DOESN’T EQUAL SUCCESS
I am sorry for you, Bendy, but you went through the eye of the hurricane, so you will see the worst of it. Football was always on the edge.
ManU and Chelsea have proved otherwise Bendy.
Gambon, remember the Ken who got fired for gambling on moving to the Grove? It was not a well thought out decision, but now that we are in the fire, we need to figure out how to get out of it.
I am losing faith in Wenger and THE BOARD. Every year is like this, lies about money, lies about transfers.
The only answer I can see is to get Ustinov in. He might not be everybodys cup of tea, but this man will lead us to the promised land of CL glory. He will give Wenger all the money he needs. Imagine Messi on the right wing, De Rossi in Midfield, and Villa up front. This is what Ustinov will bring. The current BOARD will only bring failure and bankruptcy to this great club.
VIVA USTINOV
Bendy, but they did win the CL. And we didn’t.
yo yo yo groverinos
This is more nuts that Wengers transfer strategy:
http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-news/article.aspx?cp-documentid=149033576
Chelsea wont temporarily but for the past three season they have not won anything big, despite spending big on players and managers. The Mancs have done well, I will give them that.
LA,
I am Audi’s golden boy. Got an S3 when i was 24, and since have had A4 Cabrio, S4 Cabrio, now A5 Tdi.
Great cars, but a bit boring.
agreed Bendy!
sure geoff ManUre and to a MUCH lesser extent Che$ki.
Two titles and fuck all teh last 3 apart from tin cups, not the two big ones.
look at Blackburn, leeds etc…very very difficult for loadsa money to sustain itself therefore unworkable
oh…..and fuck em all, fuck em all!
Lazer – I miss my Audi!
But on the bright side I should be getting the S5 sometime within the next year. Audi & Merc’s are the way forwards!
Bendy, do you remember the collapse of the internet bubble? Spend a few minutes researching how much money Abramovich made during that time.
There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood etc. etc…..
Whether you like it or not, we are playing against robber barons from Russia and the Middle East. In Spain, we are playing against the whole establishment…banks are falling over each other to give Madrid a credit line.
We can sit in our corner and sulk, but the world is moving on. Weep and you weep alone.
No one mentioned indefinite. But when you are the only one obsessed with balancing the books year in year out in the industry your product suffers. And our product is getting worse by the year. We can talk economics all you like Bendy and you can boast about your credentials on here as well, the simple fact is you’re wrong. There is a happy medium that needs to be achieved where when the end product is lacking we need to spend and improve it. And to a certain degree money does equal success, if you don’t believe that you may as well be living on a deserted island of the coast of Cameroon, since you would be alone in that belief.
Duke, and we have won the league in the past 20 years and they haven’t. Bottom line is fans have become very arrogant and impatient. Wenger is the reason why we call 4 seasons without a trophy a drought. We assume we know everything about what he has and doesnt have at the club and what we need or dont need based on some five minute youtube clips. The man is not perfect, and I am not saying he is, but the amount of shit he gets seems unfair to me. I would like to see him bring in a player or two as well but it wont be the end of the world to me if he doesnt.
We are a football club. Success on the PITCH comes first! Then you do all you can to create financial harmony afterwards by all means. But right now we are operating the other way around. Financial harmony first and then seeing what that leaves us with to add to improving the football team. Its bollocks.
Well said BendyTheViking – in fact i’ve every confidence we’ll win the league this season
Bendy, Eduardo makes in interesting point.
It is a lot easier to go from a million to 10 million, a lot harder to make the first million. We have made the first million, now’s not the time to sit on our hands. Blackburn, Leeds, etc started with no money,. You can’t play leverage with no money!
Arshavin is a huge addition to the squad. We will make some more signings to strengthen at the back. Eduardo IS fit. RVP is finally going to deliver a huge season. Fabregas looks very sharp as opposed to jaded and injured for 4 months like last year. It’s all good this time around!
LAzer, everyone is throwing a shit fit because we wont spend 30m on some player. I am not saying the squad does not need investment but I am not going to run around like a headless chicken scream for whatever player the Sun has us linked to today. I think we need to buy and there is a fine line between being smart financially and being too cautious and I think we are learning to the latter but these knee jerk reactions about buy this and buy that for the sake of buying are just getting very, very old.
A bit boring Gambon?? I call that class…not in your face like Geoff’s Maser (although I am jealous) but a perfectly fine tuned machine that is the complete package both inside and out.
Of course, we can sell Arshavin, Fabregas, Walcott and RvP, make a hundred million quid, pay off the stadium debt and then rebuild the team around Wilshere and Eboue.
Everyone who thinks big money signings can guarantee success is deluded.
TIAG i agree we must have success on the pitch. We sell a product and that product is largely based on having something shiny to prove how good we are. But financial concerns also have to be taken into account, not to the degree that the club is doing. I think we take it a bit to far but too many people completely ignore the fact that there is a financial side to the game.
i suppose bendy the vikings just loves the football we play but is happy to see no trophy’s….
Lazer – True that! Has Geoff got a Maserati? I’m not being funny but I’d rather ride around in the Trotter Independent that a Maserati. Poor quality, shit performance. The father in law loves them and is considering buying one which is fucking ridiculous when he has a Merc SL65 AMG sitting is his garage!!
so…the CL draw…who do we NOT want????
my friend can’t afford a personalised number plate
so he’s changed his name to
V427TID
BBK! How you doin fella? Any rumors or gossip for me
put it this way timao you got a better chance of success with big money signings
Anyone other than Anderlecht. Fiorentina, Atl.Madrid & Celtic would put up a fight and that other team is a long way to travel.
Bad news for you Merida lovers
FRAN has been loaned ut to Levante for the season, at the end of which they can make the move permament
Looks like he is not in AW’s plans now or in the near future
Hodgson has also indicated that the only way Hangeland is coming here is if they get Vela on loan
Do you think we should let Vela go on loan??? There is no doubt that he has world-class potential, so we should defo not let him go permanently, but on loan is better than rotting on the bench right???
GM – ha ha!
yeah yeah m.p david villa is going to spurs in a swap deal for robbie keane can you adam n eve it
BBK, Bendy’s a young Arsene….like Le Boss, he is an econ grad!
Well we agree on that Bendy, I don’t think most on here have asked for 30mill signings but they have asked to spend the money we got from players sold and we have asked for first team talent not potential youth signings, and we have asked for signings prior to the last two hours of the window. But Wenger hasn’t delivered on any of those. If he is able to add a few players in the next few weeks, alright we will give it a proper go then imo. But if he doesn’t and we go down the road we took last summer it will be a disaster imo and a travesty to the fans that pay more then anyone else to watch their team.
AMG! Wow!
congratulations,would does he want a blue peter badge for it
Rob – I said all along that Merida would be back in Spain by next season! I think its the right move too.
And can we afford to loan out Vela if we have just lost two left sided attacking players in Nasri and Rosicky?
My next car is a hybrid.
geoff, if you meen raul albiol at valencia’s back , then , bad news is that he has moved to galactico
)
BBK, you are out of your mind´. Fist off, I would love to see trophies but if we don’t win one I wont go kill myself. All I want to see is us compete and give our best. I want to know that the players out there left everything on the pitch. If doing that for a whole season yields a trophy, fantastic. if not, I can still be proud of the team.
Secondly, how much money did Real Madrid spend during the first Galacticos period? How many trophies did they win? ONE in FOUR YEARS.
@ sabeel
Celtic are lining up a move for Indian international striker Sunil Chhetri, who signed for Dempo Sports Club in May but is available for £1m
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/gossip_and_transfers/8188940.stm
Bendy,
The thing is you are once again presenting the ‘False Dichotomy’ argument.
Saying that the options are either;
1- Making a profit in the transfer market
2- Bankrupting the club.
Why cant there be a middle ground. We make £35m profit per season AFTER all debt repayment, so why cant we have a net spend of £20m per season (which would match UTD,Liverpool, Chelsea).
More importantly, if we arent going to spend our profits why are there any need for profits? Why cant season tickets be reduced from £1200 to £600.
Then the club would not make a profit, but that wont matter cos we arent spending our profits.
A little bit of good news – Vidic out for 2 weeks; so it’ll be turtle face + A N other at the back for the Mankskummers initially.
Bendy, do you see Madrid going off into receivership?
LAzer, I completely agree. I would like to see some signing that will improve the squad now. But the window is still open and I will give it until the end before I declare the end of the know world. If september 1 comes and we still havent dipped into the market I will be as disappointed as everyone else.
Gambon, thou art missing the point. Fiszman is a diamond trader, not a football fan.
PDT
Madrid would if they had the same rules as us
No we cant
Im hoping that he’ll be an important player for us next season anyway
Zapata for me is the best CB to go for
22, but playing maturely
Tall and just a brute
Would cost way over the £10m some people are saying, we had a £10m bid turned down for him the season before last right?
Choy – Because FIFA and ALL the International federations have no respect for any of the clubs who supply their players……
There will come a time when the big clubs will unite against FIFA….
Can not place it now, but read that our wage bill will be up 10 to 18 million on account of UK Tax compensation. Any idea where this additional money will come from?
TAIG – Ive been car shopping teh ;last few months. got 25k loan for a motor. what do you think of teh a5/s5? or better motors for the money?
gambon, I agree there needs to be a middle ground. We should invest in players, but the summer is not over and the difference between last summer and this summer is this year we did not lose vital players. Ade and Kolo were both MORE then expendable.
PDT, I am not sayingt he did go into recievership but for all the money they spend they sure didnt get a whole lot back did they?
If I can paraphrase Stu’s words from yesterday, it is the scouts job to unearth talent, it is our job to cheer and sing (when the steards allow us to) and it the plc’s job to turn a tidy profit for the shareholders (even if they turn on the manager at the shareholders’ meeting).
PDT – Thats why I want Stan to take over rather than Usmanov. He trades in sport franchises. Usmanov trades in steel. Although Kroenke is partial to real estate business too which is not what we need any more of!
Yeah but the Maser is Italian, it might have the gearbox to near your crotch or the sideview mirror too high to see anything but you’ll still feel like you’re cruising the french rivera with a hot hunny stroking ur wang while you’re driving through Sarajevo in 1992.
Bendy, they made a heck of a lot of money selling shirts, filling the Bernabeu to the rafters and, don’t forget, playing thrilling football.
one in four is still more then what we have won
by the way have you not got a better insult then FIST OFF l.m.f.a.o
LAzer,
Dont get me wrong, theyre the best built cars and all round package on the road, but i used to have a BMW E36 M3, now that was a fun car, you just got the feeling you could die everytime it rained!
Driving a BM in the wet is serious fun.
TAIG, Stan is in sports by accident. I wouldn’t trust him either, by way of buying the Pepsi Centre (and the teams that came along free with it).
I’d trust an Abramovich-type who bites his nails through Chelsea matches.
That’s why I trusted (and still trust) Dein.
PDT, but they don’t win nearly enough to justify the amount of money they spend. Madrid lives off its history, not its recent success.
Gambon, the M3 is/was a serious car. The M5 is not the same.
Bendy, do you think RM’s fans, board or creditors care?
BBK, it was supposed to be FIRST, i missed the R.
The fans are pissed abotu the lack of success. They don’t care about the money, they just care about the prizes. But Madrid is in an altogether different situation then we are.
Eduardo – I can’t wait to get my S5!! I used to have a pretty good spec A4 and I loved it. Everything is where it should be with Audi and performance and build wise they are heard to beat. You usually get a lot of kit for your money too. Think you need to be thinking nearer £30k for an S5 though and it will be manual. If you want an automatic then you can add on another £5k at least. Sounds like you want a car with a bit of space but is also a performer too?? Possibly a Mercedes C Class??
The Multipla (!!) is Italian too…
evening well morning for u boys, the way wenger spoke in that interview surely someone is headin our way,, the must be someone that comments on this site that has inside information??????
CLK?
morning all…
@bnsb, 10:26
Player sales
“One could be in the defensive areas, and one in the attacking areas.” – Wenger
I hope that by ‘defensive areas’ Wenger also includes a defensive midfielder. I reckon that in this 4-3-3 we will have play both Song and Denilson away from home against the teams challenging for Europe, which is fine with me, i think that the combination of the two will work well, not great but well. Occasionally against the lesser teams at home I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ramsey given a few starts accompanied by Song and Fabregas.
But surely this exposes our need for a DM more than last season. Rather than having two players for one position we now only have two players for two.
In my opinion we have 8 players who can play the three central midfield roles:
Song
Fabregas
Denilson
Diaby – Not Fit
Ramsey – Not ready to start away from home.
Merida – Not ready to start
Nasri – Injured
Rosicky – Injured
Oh great, the season hasn’t even begun and we don’t even have a choice of who can start against Everton.
Read the blog for a couple of weeks now, first time commenting, great blog and apologies for the long winded comment, will be briefer in future!
Lazer – You got it exactly right! The father in law wants this car, I think, because he is Italian and loves all things Italian!
Eduardo, look at the Golf GTi.
http://arsenalyouth.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/freemans-drastic-improvement-bodes-well-for-season-ahead/
the future
fabianski
hoyte nordveit vermalen gibbs
wilshere ramsey song freeman
sunu
vela
ohhhhhh yeah
BendyTheViking Says:
August 7, 2009 at 10:33
PDT, but they don’t win nearly enough to justify the amount of money they spend. Madrid lives off its history, not its recent success.isn’t that what we are doing living off wengers past achievements
Simple fact is when the manager at Arsenal stops winning trophies he has to be replaced. The only explanation of why Wenger hasn’t been replaced is because we have new targets. And that is not winning trophies, but making the most money we can, and a semi-final of tournaments and a 4th place is the most money we make. The final of both cups is not at the Emirates, so we already made the most money from that…and to get a higher place than 4th requires to spend more money.
The board are happy like that. Last season plus this summer make the perfect season for the board, they can’t imagine a better one.
no doubting the M3 G. Btw whoever asked about the S5…you will not be disappointed if it is within your budget. For me in that price range it is a top vehicle that brings a lot of good things together and beats the crap out of the top line 335 (which is what it compares to). But no doubting the M3..I’ll say it again.
@ sir henry norris,
Worrisome, is it? balancing books is one thing, sound economics different ball game altogether.
may be i have missing something but i think at back they looked pretty solid to me,gallas,dj have both looked pretty good to me and so has song the only weak link there has been silvest,thonly reson i think another cb is needed is because silvest is not good enough cover but gallas and vern both look realy good,also i feel playing 433 will suit the way team plays and i feel theo will play in central role but just behind main striker
PDT – I think we think the same on cars eg Merc C/CLK Class!
i bet they think the emirates cup is an achievement aswell
how long before the draw?
an hour?
merc quality is shite this is really what happened,
synthetic leather…so its plastic sales man “na man made leather”…look unless the dude shagged a cow and the skin came from a cow its not leather…”well i wont go in to the details of its origin but its leather just synthetic” at this point i closed car door and opened show room door merc is just a badge build quality is crap and finish is poor inside imo
goonermichael, are you pleading “Gordon Brown done us in”?
i looked at a 911 (2003) C4S and the fucking loan company wouldnt pay out it for a two year loan bcause at the end of the term the car is over 8 years old and theres some rule on that…apparently.
CLK, PDT, the arse is so fucking ugly on that car!
i like the tvr tuscan but loads of agg and money in the shop i reckon…soooo smart money HAS to be audi…UNLESS anyone knows a 911 2004/05 for sale around 25- 30k? what do you think of our FUTURE team?
BBK, sure. I agree we live off of Wenger’s past achievements. But my point is spending the sort of money Madrid or Citeh spend wont make us a shoe in for the title. I want to see a player or two come in, but I want them to be in the Eduardo Sagna type. Not these egotist for 30 or 40 mil
Taig you sneaky devil! That means you’re shacked up with an Italian. Sweet. Does she have any friends?
Nick – Really? I have 2 Merc’s and like them. But I definitely don’t think the quality is as good as Audi hence why I’m heading back that way soon.
Lazer – She has loads of friends……and they are all pigs!! Bar one or two!
Eduardo – I flirted with the idea of getting a Tusan but soon fucked that idea off! Way to impractical, poor qaulity, poor service etc etc.
Eduardo looks to me you’re looking for a bit of flash. If that’s the case Audi may not be the way to go. Like you said its the smart buy but look at a used Maser. A shit load of time in the shop that means but it’ll be dropping panties on the motorway.
They keep on trying to beat the M3 but they still cant get anywhere near it.
Although to be fair the skyline R33/R34 kicked the crap out of it it still didnt have the class of the M3.
Be warned – Maserati quality reminds me of Sunderland.
I’m not pleading amything PDT. Madrid are a corrupt club suported by a corrupt local government. we don’t have the same rules. I wasn’t thinking about tax at all
I hate to write this but watching how Liverpool do their transfer business makes me so jealous: need a right back= buy a right back: Midfielder wants to leave= sell him + buy a replacement immediately.
The Arsenal way= sell half the 1st team from the previous season, claim we have a young emerging squad that need to be given chances. Meanwhile lowball every club in europe for their best players whilst all the time trying to dig up dirt on chairman to use in blackmailing them into selling!
After a disasterous christmas period, the result of injury ravaged squad, claim that if the group sticks together they will be world beaters next season.
Repeat steps aboove summer 2010!
I AM CRYING TEARS OF FRUSTRATION.
whatever,”chamakh is excellent” the words from wenger,i think he really has lost it now….
Zee GErmans went to shit when they messed with the boys from Detroit. They could make a picasso look like a portrait of a donkey cart in Nepal.
Lazer – Yeah, that sounds right about the Maser! You can’t beat an Audi for a car that you can take everywhere and a car that can perform with the best when you need it too! I’ve never driven an M3 so wouldn’t know about them. Been in an M5 but only as a passenger.
ha! TAIG, yeah it is a flirtation! i fucking test drove one, big mistake! loads of fun but uinde no illusions about the money and heatache that lays ahead with owning a TVR.
LA- exactly, all i want is a fun flash motor to rive from fulham to maida vale and fuck about at the wkends.
so two seats and alotta grunt!
aq Maser is an old mans car noooooooo?! im 28!
Lazer – “They could make a picasso look like a portrait of a donkey cart in Nepal.”
Ha ha, brilliant!
TAIG, the M3 is the best car I have driven. Doesn’t look like a sports car, though, and only gearheads will stop to look at it.
Taig had a couple of bm’s, i cant really judge merc and bms are reliable bmw service and customer care are a bit shit….
lexus good quality reliable customer service good had an RX300 sold when road tax went up.
now drive a jag quality inside and out and is as fast as fuck customer service A1 and reasonable on a service happy days.
the only car ive never lost money on was my 1st car a punto smashed it up 4-5 times wrote it off and brought it back and in the end sold it at auction for more or less what i paid for it now thats my best car
Dont buy a Tuscan, its not really a TVR.
The Cerbera is the only death trap TVR i’d ever own.
If you want street cred, buy a WRX and mod it.
Mornin All..
Thx for the post Geoff….but the nr 10 shirt Geoff,Maradona was ok…but lets not forget Pele(10)or Zico(10)who weared he shirt before that fat sucker Maradona..and in my eyes…where far better players…
Wenger holds a press conference and the media are full off twists and turns…still we got one clear message…He will buy to strengthen the squad
tom
Eduardo – You can get a Merc SL350 for £25k!!
All that’s made in America car wise that could be considered semi-decent is perhaps some trucks, maybe an Suv or two, but even those for the most part are for hillbillies from the country used to cheap gas. If you’re not a contracter carrying around heavy equipment or not towing a boat/home/anything you’re just another prick driving around in a big truck in my book.
and Sven mate…look at benitez transfers..and you would wish you never be a l’pool fan..that man is no less than a joke…didnt he buy Keane for a lot ..then sell him a few months later for nothing ???…and that just one of all the mistakes he has made….
tom
PDT – That’s what I’m after really. A quick, fun car that doesn’t need to stand out too much. My give an M3 some thought but pretty sure I’ll still be going back to Audi for a white S5. I’ll also be sticking a fixed pressure washer in my garage to keep the fucker clean if I do!
Nick – I heard BMW service can be a bit tough going. Nearly bought a Lexus IS but opted for the Audi instead which I was really chuffed with. Then my fucking 9 stone dog came along and I needed to get a big car so sold the Audi. I love a red dash!
Taig mate ..
quick fast …sounds like youre in for a Lada then…or
tom
now lexus is an old mans car…neither here nor there and its claim to fame is you can’t hear it.
TAIG, the M3 is one of the nicest cars around. My mates Dad owns one and let me have a drive of it and once my 1 and a half more years on my merc is up i will be going for that. Bit fiddly with all the geeky stuff you can do with the ride and transmission etc but the car itself is excellent and very comfortable!
Lazer – That’s fair. I’d still have the ‘GMC Ironhide’ from Transformers though!!
but y did rvp signed?? he was making all sort noises to add on quality players.. and that too was prior to ade and toure departure…i dont get it
How about the GT-r then? Out of my budget Taig but its mighty quick and fast. Althought S5 imo is the way to go, plus a darn lot cheaper.
The UEFA CL draw has just started….
Lazer – Lexus? Basically an expensive Toyota right!!
sl350 is a good car. AMG is outta the Q for £ the TAIG?
gooner-pak – don’t kid yourself. It was always about money.
if youre going with a merc the midlevel to highend are class but they sold their soul a bit with the base level models imo.
Billy bowden just saved Straussy
yeah-an over priced toyota with cheap tricks too boot.
I like the way AW does business, no one can screw AFC and we are still playing the best Footy.
http://iraqgoals.net/ch3.html
Lazer – Always loved the GT-r!! A bit too much to look at at my age now. My Mrs would never go for it. One day when I have millions that will be in my 10 car garage though!
Eduardo – That might be a push yeah!
Merida going out on loan to Levante….
TAIG but at every one here talked abt he wanted to add medals at his age he cant wait and bla bla bla and he is making right noises….
Lazer – I’m in a very privileged situation where the in laws give us their cars like hand me downs, although not free! Although I know we’ll never get our hands on the SL65 AMG no matter how much I campaign for it. But we do now have an ML65 AMG. I won’t grumble.
LOL what about an exige? crazy fun! like swedish bird with a drink problem!
and yeah, ive had that “problem”!
gooner-pak – Unless he thinks that Vermaelen is soooo good that it showed enough promise that we can compete for trophies then it was money.
What is Merida going to learn at a 2nd division spanish club!? he would have learned more by playing in the championship.
Eduardo,
Elise 111. A road legal go kart.
My mate has an Elise and I’ve driven an Exige around a track. A lot of fun but a bit too much like a go cart for me. Plus you will feel EVER SINGLE bump you drive over! Pot Holes will make you feel like you have just given birth!!
at 12.34:56
it’ll be 12.34:56 7/8/9
strange…
gambon – ha ha, snap!
TAIG, happy days! it pays to be in bed with teh cosa nostra!
doesnt it make you laugh when players (specially ex-arsenal) leave and say they need trophies etc etc when its their fucking responsability to win them ffs! very few players actually accept responsability….grrrr wankers! my mood isnt helped by a fucking fore alarm that WONT STOP RINGGGGGGGINGGGG!
peroni anyone?
A&N – He’ll stay there, that’s why.
Lyon Vs Anderlatch
CELTIC!!!!!!!!
we have drawn celtic
Celtic!!
Celtic Vs Arsenal
Arsenal vs. Celtic
18/19.08.2009 – Away
25/26.08.2009 – Emirates
celtic
lol@taig!
vermalen is going to be a rock for us….albeit a small one!
dont understand why franny is going on loan, this should be his breakthrough season surely? and if he does go why wuld we agree a perm at the end of teh season? wehave just invested 4 years in him
celtic
Are we happy with Celtic?
CELTIC
Don’t much fancy playing Celtic on a rainy night in Scotland!
I’m quite happy with Celtic
Eduardo – I have never thought he would cut it here so I’m not surprised.
I am not really familiar with Celtics’ game. Will we cruise? Or it will be a tough one?
i will take that, not too far to travel and a team that i think we can beat.
Why do people keep on banging on about spending the money madrid spend or City spend or indeed spending £30m on one player?? Who the fuck on here has said that?? All most of us want is a decent reinvestment of funds into the first team, 50% or even 75% of the funds generated by the Kolo & Ade sales could turn us from 4th place also rans into Championship contenders ffs, unless of course you are content with 4th every fucking year!!
We can beat Celtic, its just annoying that we drew them!
Choy thanks for posting! top man.
TAIG – had an RS4 couple of years back. Truly an awesome peice of engineering, and actually made me a better driver (or at least it makes you think that!)
Had to let it go sadly when the business levels fell due to you know what! Am planning the day I can go get another. Keeps me focused!
Great cars the fast Audi’s
any scotch here? damn scottish, fuck em! nice short trip, managed by mowbray for crying out loud. we will steamroller them!
Mowbray will want to play football and that should suit us just fine. Amg is sweet taig.
Ryanor – I looked into one of those but couldn’t afford it at the time really. Very, very nice though, huh!
Fucking Celtic!
4-1 aggregate score to us
But I wouldn’t underestimate them at home. Unlike us they feed of the home support and never stop cheering.
DDM – Exactly! I want them to spend £30m on 3 players, not one!
Would have preferred somebody else as they WILL fight hard
Lazer – Yeah, I’m not going to assume we’re through just yet!
fucking shit draw
agree Herb, maybe more to us….they will attack and that will be their undoing!
we remind me of Brazil in 98 WC in french france. cavalier swashbuckling “if you score 3 we shall score 4″ attitude.
we all know what happened to THAT brazil team! lol
you’re welcome lazer
Tosser!! Strauss out already, after deciding to bat!
Merida is confirmed then? Taig why did you always feel he would be gone? Seemed like he came on well, it was just a preseason game but the boy looks big for his age and seems to have some talent.
Celtic was the best draw we could get..lets give the bhoys a good whipping….im very happy…its a walk in the park….the club has great support..and always up for a fight…but is a mediocre team when it comes to talent ..and playing..
my tip 8-0 over the two legs…
tom…
all you lot are writing them off do so at your peril,there atmos will blow us away
what a shit day, cant believe we’ve drawn celtic. of all the teams, why couldnt we have draw one of the other 4?
im fucked off!
charlie nicholas says arsenal might not win cuz we arnt bringing in loads of players, tony mowbray said arsenal were the only team he wanted to avoid.
BBK – you have a very negative outlook about Arsenal I’ve noticed…
nicholas is scared cuz of what we did to rangers
LAzer – I’m not sure really. Something just didn’t look right. I thought he went missing in some of the CC games he played in. I think Wilshere and Walcott show more signs of making it. Also, he never really seemed to be that happy when he played. He always looked a bit subdued. He was a bit like Reyes to me.
BBK mate
they are a fighting team and great support ill give em that
still look back ..everytime celtic has met a team of quality they have been well beaten…it suits us just great…Lyon..Ath.Madrid would have worried me…celtic hell NO…
and besides i rate Rangers higher than Celtic..more quality..and we just struggled to beat them
tom
Celtic are just the type of team we should beat but often struggle against, it will be interesting to see if things have changed this season.
BBK- the atoms is hardly imtidating! supportive yes but certainly no more than what weve encountered before.
bigger and more intimidating at galatasary for example. teh atmos WILL NOT lose us the game. absolutely no chance and as Herb says, their boss has already mentally lost….LOL or words to that effect!
This draw could have been a million times worse. Thank god we avoided Madrid and don’t have to travel far.
TAIG – I truly wonder about these ‘supporters’ who feel we shouldn’t be spending big money on players. Do they want this team to progress and grow? £30-£35m on two or three quality players will make all the difference to the young players, and keep the more established players interested in staying for the long-haul. And, because you have that ‘spend’ type of opinion they can only argue back that you should fuck-off and support the Chavs!! Well i say that YOU are the type of support holding back MY club, so why don’t you fuck-off and support someone else…..
Tom – 8-0? Ha ha. Good for you! Celtic have usually done alright against the likes of Utd in the Champs League so I wouldn’t get too carried away!
Great decision to bat Strauss, you twat!!!!
are we really scared of Celtic? Come on. They’re crap.
Samaras up front.
They’ve got one good little winger (McGeady?) and thats it.
1-1 at theirs
3/4-0 at ours.
easy
Mowbray likes to play football but he knows we play on a different class. Should be interesting, atleast the travel is short but the home support will be immense for them no doubt. Problem is our defense is shit so the pressure on if we concede at home.
No Dennis, I think there is a difference between people saying spend big and spend. To me, spending is what you have said. 30 on three players. When someone says spend big that to me means 60-70 on two players. I think we need to spend but we don’t need to spend big.
and Evo if youre upset over us meeting celtic..well mate..we’re gonna have to beat alot of *much*better teams this season mate…celtic be real…its a poor scottish team..hasnt got a chance in hell..
we will destroy them…no less…
tom
DDM – It was only the other day I told someone on here that they should go and support Everton or Villa if they are happy challenging for 4th spot! Its in inconceivable to think that a club that is about to take its summer spending to £30m in the black cant re-invest at least that back into the team!!!!
This has nothing to do with leveraged investment (a la the investment banks) and the debt incurred by other clubs trying to buy success. The club has been mismanaged by the board for a number of years purely driven by self interest. It has seen the club’s brand value shrink and other clubs close the gap and in some instances overtake us. Our fiscal prudence policy has seen us fall behind our peers in our investment capabilities because we have failed to increase and diversify our revenue streams and create new markets. Our spend a penny save 2 approach has created a small minded mentality where we rely on buying and selling players to create working capital (like League 1 and 2 clubs ffs). Rather than allow the club to be run and managed by professionals and grow the club(until recently) the board were happy to run it on a prudent and outmoded business model because it protects the share price and therefore safeguards their personal investment and future P&L. Guaranteeing the club’s financial survival (given current economic conditions) was incidental and a by-product imo (the club never foresaw the economic downturn otherwise they would not have invested heavily in real estate development).
Wenger built the club’s brand inadvertently through the quality of our football. This had fuck all to do with the club’s strategic growth. We were able to punch above our weight in the late 90′s and early 2000′s because we were successful and thus generated the revenue that could be directed into buying players and paying the going rate on wages. Now the business model is being shown up because we cannot compete in the current market. Inflated or not it is still reality
Bopara is soooo shit!
Very true Tom. People worrying about Celtic, then they gonna have themselves a coronary once we beat them, because just about every other team we could face will be considerably better!!!
Tom – If I was local to you I’d be asking you to make a bet on the goal difference between the two legs, that’s for sure!
Taig mate…
i remember the two meetings against manu..and even though the result was pretty even…3-2 to manu at trafford.. celtic was very very lucky…in that game
tom
Simon – Real cack, huh!!
Tom – I remember another tie in which Utd were very lucky too!!
PRAY FOR RAIN
Taig..no worry the bet will be done
tom
Bopara you fucking mug!
Sarge – Nice post. While I agree with all of that I still think Wenger is far too frugal as well. What do you think? A bit of both or just the board?
well Taig mate
celtic will fight for theire lives..no doubt
but we are ten times the team they ever be..so 8-0 over the two legs sounds just right to me….if it where rangers…5-0 sounds right…
and im sorry to say but the style played in Scotland..belongs back in the seventies…stoneage…
kick and run…
tom
Bendy – My point exactly. AW needs to invest in the first team AND let players like Wilshire & Ramsey feature more, anything else and the team will stagnate, and established players will want to leave….
the celtic game is all about getting through the first leg unscathed in my opinion. have they actually got any players you guys rate? i cant think of any.
DDM – No doubt he owes players like Ramsey and Wilshere the chance to show their worth considering the amount of opportunities he continued to give to average performers last season!!
TAIG – It’s hard to say. He never you used to be – GBP10m on Henry, 13m on Wiltord, 10m on Reyes, 8m on Jeffers etc. and never blinked an eye. Didn’t get into long protracted negotiations either. One day they just appeared. I think the board are keeping a very tight hold of the purse strings because they have made a massive misjudgement on their cash flow forecasts arising from the economic crisis
Tom – I think we’ll win but the margin will be more like 2 or 3 at the most. The likes of Scott Brown will not let our midfield settle and he will target Cesc and give him a torrid time and we’ll only have Denilson to stop him. I think Celtic are far better suited to play against the EPL teams than Rangers.
raynor73 Says:
August 7, 2009 at 11:25
BBK – you have a very negative outlook about Arsenal I’ve noticed…is it not surprising considering the past 4-5 years we have had
people write them off at your peril that’s all im saying even man united have found it very difficult up there and if they struggled we will surely especially with our shocking defence….
Celtic are superb at home. THey give it everything when they play at home. THey useless away. So we need to atleast get a draw at Celtic and we will be fine.
Sarge – I know what you mean. But why would Wenger stay on when he has had the opportunity to walk away from a club that has so severely hog tied him? I think its fair to say both parties have had a hand in it.
I cannot believe that in a Summer where we have spent £10m on bringing players in and have made £40m-£45m (soon to be £45m-£50m) that we don’t have the money to reinvest. I have said before that I am sure we do not have bundles of cash laying about waiting to be spent. But I do think the board will give Wenger whatever he wants, when he wants. I fear Wenger has forgotten that his main objective is on field success not off field profits.
Overall I think we will be too good for them.
survive the first leg and we should be ok at home
scott brown must fancy his chances up against denilson
Mark – I would too!
Who knows what games Wenger plays! He must be a right tit to deal with!!
http://www.sport.co.uk/news/Football/24685/Blanc_I_don’t_believe_Arsenal_really_want_Chamakh.aspx
and me
Morning all, fucking brilliant news about Biggs…
haha, kidding!
Brilliant news about the Brede! I’m glad to see Wenger recognises the same qualities as most of us do!
We got Celtic? Thats good..
they lost at home to dinamo and won the return leg. If we can’t knock them out we don’t deserve to be anywhere near the CL.
morning all.. so Celtic it is. Thanks Choy and all..
I have a funny feeling about Celtic. They are a difficlut team on some days. I smell an away match which we may not want to remember.
celtic turned up and expected to win,against us they will go all out
Playing Celtic should not be a problem for us, but knowing how hard we like to make things for ourselves makes me worry about this fixture. Having said that if dont win then it will be a disaster for the team and the club. We will not sign anyone good if dont have CL.
I read Villa are after Wesley Schnieder, wtf!!!
I think we got the best draw. We know about Mowbray and how he tries to play like Arsenal, not only that, there is plenty of player info on SPL teams and players, Wenger should have no trouble getting past them.
I’m glad to see Le Boss has acknowledge that he’d like to add a player or two more to the team. One attacking and one defensive player. We need a defender and Hangeland is still on the radar.
I’m actually for 4-3-3, it’s a potent attacking formation and we have the players to play it and play it well. I’ve called for 4-3-3 in the past, I’m glad Wenger has decided to give it a go.
Could this be it?
——–Almunia—-
Sagna—-Vermaelen—-Gallas—–Clichy
Rosicky—-Fabregas——–Arshavin
Walcott——-Eduardo——-RVP
That would be an awesome lineup. Because in 4-3-3 you sacrifice a midfielder for an attacking player
it makes you more vunerable in the middle, but you need to trust your back 4, central midfielder and wingers. With the pace and technical skill of Rosicky, Fab and Arsh….we can do it. Not only that…..with the extra man commited to our bombing forward game….We could be the top scoring team in the Prem. Therefore a solid back 4 and an extra attacking player makes me quite excited, the amount of chances we create already suffocates most team….with 4-3-3, we could keep possesion more in their area and have 1 extra player to help in attacking combination plays.
I’m all for 2,3 and 4-1s to the Arsenal.
the start of the season will break us,we are not good enough defensively to cope with it
fuck me if we cant beat celtic we dont deserve to be in the CL
some are worring about them what they gonna be like when we get real madrid in the group stages
finest that just exactly what we dont do is defend well
So Merida has gone out on loan, while Rosicky is injured again.
Let’s hope that stupid twat Wenger pisses off for good at the end of the season. Just when you think he’s picking the RIGHT youngsters for once he sends them out on loan.
What a dick.
Paulinho Merida isnt ready for the prem yet he goes on loan to get constant games under his belt
Villa after Schneider is bad news, albania – he has serious quality
merida is pony aswell
cricket; another one out ,bell
i think everyone should just accept this season is going to be a disaster wenger is going about it in the the right way aswell…..
snjeider will not be going villa!
BBK- i think everyone should just accept this season is going to be a disaster wenger is going about it in the the right way aswell….. why?
Fuck Off Bell, you talk the talk, now walk the walk back to the dressing room you facking cunt….
Morning all… we’ve got Celtic, a fairly easy draw.
I don’t really rate Scottish league. It’s a second class league and teams like Celtic & Rangers are only as good as a championship side. You all saw what we did to Rangers (Scottish champions) last Sunday, now we’ll cruise past Celtic and send them back where they belong to. Piece of cake…
Nick – The team has only preseason under its belt so playing such an important game against Celtic will be worrying because of match fitness, concentration, team gelling etc.. playing Real when the team is in full flow, I would be more confident.
@ finestcuts
Where is the holding midfielder that is crucial to every team that want to win anything in that line-up,get a grip… by the way rosicky is injured in case you didn’t know !
got a beat em both if were gonna win it mate
i think a defender is certainly coming in… arsene’s holding out for price so he may not land Hangeland – Fulham’s not deperate….and we will end up with a surprise 5m face from Ligue 1 or Croatia or Greece or someplace.
absolutely, I think we have a better chance of CL than PL with our current squad
So we got Celtic?
Nice…
AW sends out the very promising Merida on loan, but sticks with the ever one dimensional Denilson, why doesn’t he send him out on loan, let some other poor misfortunate outfit try to teach him how to play in central midfield….
tom you cock, you forgot to take into account my feelings as a human being when i said i didnt want to draw celtic, it was purely because i dont want to see them out!
fuck sake!
Less debate and more jokes today, please!!! After all it’s Friday…
Because yet again herbert he’s not bringing in the quality we we need and please don’t say he brought in vermaelen as the quality we need because he is far from it
Pedro, you dirthole, how you doing?
collingwood duck
Good DDM, what do you think to Wenger saying he’s going to sign 2 players? Chamakh and Hangeland… or have you heard any goss?
Friday joke, old but still funny:
A guy was in a cave, looking for treasure. He found an old lamp, rubbed it, and a genie came out. The genie said “I will grant you three wishes, but your ex-wife will get double.” The man agreed, and said “I wish I had a mansion.” The genie granted it, and his ex-wife got two mansions. The man said “I would like a million dollars.” The genie again granted it and his ex-wife got two million dollars. Then the man said, “Scare me half to death.”
TAIG – May be his outlook has changed in recent times. When he joined the club was eager for success (mainly driven by Dein and his plans for world football domination) and were willing to invest to achieve that. Markets were different, bargains were there to be had. Clubs are more sensitive to the value (inflated or otherwise) of their assets. I don’t see the same level of ambition in PHW or Fiszman (hence my earlier post – driven by money.)I also think that he believes that he is not a million miles away from getting the side he wants(most of us agree with that). You can look at it in 2 ways. Firstly take the patient view that the team will have matured to the right level in a season or two and be better equipped to succeed. It’s risky (you may end up with key players who become disaffected through lack of success and want to fuck off) but requires little investment and thus pleases the board. The second is the immediate view and you buy. It pleases the fans but there is still no guarantee that there’s trophies at the end of it. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Wenger’s situation has been compounded by the year on year loss of established players for significant sums of money with very little coming in the other direction. Logic dictates that the stadium plus current economic conditions are taking their toll on cash flow (something completely different to the published accounts).
Zapata for me is the best CB to go for
22, but playing maturely
Tall and just a brute
Would cost way over the £10m some people are saying, we had a £10m bid turned down for him the season before last right?
Finest,
the team & formation you mention would score 90 goals, conceed 45 goals, and finish somewhere between 4th & 6th.
I’d rather finish higher than that, scoring 70 and conceeding 25.
Rosicky and Nasri are both injured which is why I think Wenger could be going for a winger.
Fabregas can stand in front of defence and create counter-attacks going forward….why not? Viera can attack and defend, why should we not expect the same of Fabregas. and why should we dount him. The primary cause of our flawed defence has been the Toure-Gallas pairing, it didn’t work….and then Wenger tried to force it to work for another season.
With Rosicky injured we can play 4-4-2
——–Almunia———
Sagna—–Djourou—-Gallas—-Clichy
————-Song———————
Walcott————————–Arshavin
————Fabregas———————-
Eduardo———————RVP
That’s a good team which should get past Celtic and beat most EPL teams.
Prediction:
Arsenal 3 – Celtic 0
seems like we’ve reverted to being shit again at cricket
We had a look at him, but we have not contacted Fulham,We have not contacted Hangeland and have not made our choice on him or anybody else,”
so at least his thinking about who to buy,lesscott could be a wenger surprise you never know
On BBC Television, “AC Milan has announced the signing of Klas Huntelier from Real Madrid while Arsenl forward Rosiky, after 18 months absence had again suffered an harmstring injury in trainig”, Meanwhile Liverpool has completed the signing of Aquilani to replace Xabi Alonso who signed for Real Madrid just two days ago”.
My question: Can their ever be any good news coming out of Arsenal? why can’t I stop supporting this club? I cant.
finest-why djourou
Rob – i concur on Zapata!
Nope, not much Pedro, only the chances of signing Vieira have all but disappeared because he’s happy with his squad and the way they’ve played in pre-season!!
Oh, and i was told that we’re NOT looking at forwards, we’re only looking at CB’s!!
I think Wenger will sign a DM before he signs a CB.
He has already said that Song is a CB this year, and i just dont believe he will go into the year with not a single defensively minded midfielder (Denilson is kind of half defensive)
ddm we have bid for numbnuts but no cbs!!!!!!
We don’t know for certain if Vermaelen will be fit again…..and I think Djourou is a good defender….We now have Vermaelen and we need one more, we need depth, so it’s good new that Senderos is off, because he wasn’t used. I want Sulvestre pushed right to the back of the queue, only to be used in a major crisis.
Well that’s good news… at least we’re not about to go into the year minus a full compliment of centre backs.
I’m not fussed about Chamakh… is Rosicky injured?
djourou and good defender no.no.no.no
Does anyone think that Wenger’s recent comments about Wilshere are an indication that he might get some playing time now that Rosicky is injured?? It would make sense as he needs to back track a little bit from his ‘lets not rush him’ comments and means he wont have to buy a replacement. I can Wilshere getting games against the footballing teams in the EPL but not against the physical teams.
Silvestre is back-up left back and back-up Centre back, but Wenger loves him, so he will play cause he is super fit this season!
Yeah Tomas injured, could be upto 6 weeks. Wheres the Rosick list and Le Champ?
Guys, let’s assume we buy Hangeland, won’t he be cup-tied and unable to play in CL due to his involvement in last night’s Europa League tie for Fulham?
taig – my guess is Wilshere will get some 15 odd starts and maybe some more as an impact sub. you’ll burn out if you play a full season at 17.
Not such a bad thing GTS, Hangeland would be first choice for Prem games and we’d rest a defender before a cup game.
If we get Lesscott then we can challenge for the title IMO
Would MUCH rather Hangeland than Lescott.
We can’t inside because City will offer him 150k a week and they are intent on signing him.
Cracking draw in Celtic looking forward to the 2 games against them shame i carnt say the same for the upcoming season if we dont buy a min of 2-3 players we have not a hope in hell of challenging for the title and what a shame that would be as this would have been our best chance for seasons, but i suppose on the bright side we will have a nice lesiure complex to look forward to hopefully we will get Free Entry as it seems our ticket money goes straight to Arsenal Fc Property Developers and not the football club, Looking forward to some more comical defending and teams cutting us apart through the midfield as well as a heavy defeat at home to the west london slags, and maybe united will be kind to us and give us another thumping in Europe, But hey we will have 2 new signings in september to look forward to when Nasri and Rosicky return well for a week anyway !!! If Wenger and The Board thought the Fans were pissed last year this year could take it to whole new levels if money is not re invested people are sick of the spin and bollocks being spouted all the way down the club viva the revolution
FUCK THE BOARD
I’m with Gambon… Hangeland looks a better player to me.
Alex… 6 weeks! What a nightmare… the guys is broken and out of warranty… I hope we don’t give him a new 4 year deal.
Pascal – Yeah, I don’t want him starting loads of games. Just a few where he can have an impact and until Rosicky or Nasri come back.
Hangeland is the better option!! I really hope we sign him!
please no lescott, that could and would never happen!
lescott is not good enough for arsenal
I think Lescott is a good defender and can be good for us at set pieces.
I would be happy with either tbh.
Here’s ‘The Gooner’ end of season survey, results taken from 1,900 Gooners!
I’ve also added a few of my own personal observations
Arsenal Player of the Season 2008/09
1. Van Persie 30%
2. Arshavin 29%
3. Almunia 15%
4. Nasri 9%
5. Song 6%
Most Disappointing Arsenal Player 2008/09
1. Adebayor 52%
2. Diaby 20%
3. Silvestre 15%
4. Eboue 5%
5. Denilson 4%
Most Improved Arsenal Player in the last 12 months
1 Song 57%
2 Gibbs 26%
3 Almunia 10%
4 Walcott 5%
**** Well I suppose if you as thoroughly shit as Song, being able to find your own way onto the pitch is construed as improvement ****
Best Team Performance of the Season
1. Man United (H) Premier League 2-1 46%
2. Villarreal (H) 3-0 20%
3. Chelsea (A) 2-1 18%
4. Sheffield United (H) Carling Cup 6-0 12%
Worst Team Performance of the Season
Man City (A) 0-3 37%
Man United (A) Champions League 0-1 17%
Aston Villa (H) 0-2 14%
Fulham (A) 0-1 13%
Stoke (A) 1-2 10%
**** WTF? No mention of ManUre (H) Champions League or The Chavs (H) in the league or Hull (H) in the league??? ****
Most Frustrating Injury Time Equaliser 2008/09
Tottenham (H) 4-4 84%
Liverpool (A) 4-4 10%
Aston Villa (A) 2-2 6%
Best Arsenal Goal 2008/09
Eduardo vs Burnley (H) FA Cup
Arshavin’s 2nd vs Liverpool (A)
Adebayor vs Villarreal (A)
Arshavin’s 4th vs Liverpool (A)
Van Persie vs Liverpool (H)
Nasri’s 2nd vs Man United (H)
Walcott vs Villarreal (H)
Best Goal Against Arsenal 2008/09
Geovanni for Hull (H) 48%
Senna for Villarreal (A) 26%
Bentley for Spurs (H) 16%
Keane for Liverpool (H) 5%
**** Who gives a fucking shite??? ****
Who would you most like us to sign this summer?
1 Brede Hangeland
2 Yaya Toure
3 Xabi Alonso
4 David Villa
5 Any decent centre back
6 Gareth Barry
7 Nemanja Vidic
8 Marcos Senna
9 Michael Essien
10 Joleon Lescott
Which ONE area of the team do you think needs addressing the most urgently?
Defence 79%
Midfield 18%
Attack 2%
Goalkeeper <1%
**** What about halftime refreshments Mutha Fuckers?? ****
Do you think the current squad (as at the end of 2008-09) is capable of winning the Premier League next season without any major summer signings?
Yes 7%%
No 93%
How many players do you think we need to buy this summer?
Three 54%
Two 23%
Four 19%
Five or more 3%
One 1%
We last lifted silverware in May 2005, so how many more seasons without silverware would you be prepared to accept before a change of manager is required?
Three or more 42%
Two 34%
One 19%
None (a change required this summer) 5 %
Which of the other “big four” clubs would you rather won the title if Arsenal don’t?
Liverpool 59%
Manchester United 35%
Chelsea 7%
**** None!! I hope they all die of Syphilis!! ****
If Arsène left the club this summer who would you want to take over?
1 Guus Hiddink (Russia)
2 Jose Mourinho (Inter Milan)
3 Arsène Wenger won’t be going or similar comment
4 Frank Rijkaard (Galatasaray)
5 Steve Bould
6 Dennis Bergkamp
7 Fabio Capello (England)
8 David Moyes (Everton)
9 Josep “Pep” Guardiola (Barcelona)
10 Martin O’Neill (Aston Villa)
Which of these youngsters who have been on the fringe of the first team this season do you think will make the most Premier League starts next season?
Kieran Gibbs 47%
Carlos Vela 33%
Aaron Ramsey 13%
Jack Wilshere 7%
Should Arsenal fans ever boo their own players:
(A) During a game?
No 86% Yes 14%
(B) At the final whistle?
No 55% Yes 45%
How do you most commonly refer to our home ground?
Emirates 54%
Ashburton Grove 19%
Arsenal 18%
Highbury 7%
**** My own personal preference is THOF ****
How many home games have you attended this season?
1-10 37%
None 19%
Over 20 17%
11-20 14%
All of them 13%
With the current economic situation in mind how many home games do you think you’ll attend next season?
About the same 74%
More >13%
Fewer <13 %
Have you generally been able to get tickets for home games when you've tried?
Yes 41%
Not Applicable (Season Tick Holder) 33%
No 27%
The club have persevered with playing "The Wonder of You" before every home game this season. For next season, should they:
Try another tune 48%
Keep it 33%
Drop the anthem idea 19%
Best chant heard this season.
1 Eduardo De Silva Arsenal's Number Nine
2 Come to see Eboue, you’ve only come to see Eboue
3 Harry Redknapp's got a twitch
4 John Terry's mother is a thief
5 Theo Walcott is an Englishman at Arsenal
6 Is there a fire drill?
7 One Song, we've only got one Song
8 Eboue ooooo, he comes from Africa, hes better than Kaka
9 I like Eboue-boue I like Eboue-boue I like Eboue-boue
10 Gael Clichy, Clichy, He's better than Ashley, He should be number three, Gael Clichy, Clichy
Has the atmosphere at home games improved this season?
Yes 42%
No 58%
Best Atmosphere at a home game this season?
Man United (League) 41%
Man United (Champions League) 30%
Villarreal 14%
Liverpool 8%
Which of the following ideas do you think would most improve the atmosphere?
Larger or second REDsection 58%
More flags and or scarves 25%
Drums 13%
Loud Hailer 4%
**** Why no mention of kicking out the fucking stewards??? ****
Who have been the best opposition fans this season?
Portsmouth 35%
Stoke 27%
Burnley 17%
Man United 6%
Plymouth 3%
Tottenham 2%
Hull 2%
**** Again, who gives a fucking shite?? ****
The 'Teddy Sheringham' Most Despised Premier Player Award
1 Ronaldo/Ladyboy
2 A Cole/Cashley
3 Drogba/Dogsbreath
4 Barton/That dirty scumbag
5 Bentley/The rat-faced ****
Most Despised Premier League Manager?
Phil Brown 67%
Sam Allardyce 13%
Alex Ferguson 10%
Harry Redknapp 5%
Rafa Benitez 3%
The 'David Pleat' Award for worst TV pundit or commentator
Jamie Redknapp (Sky) 28%
David Pleat (ITV) 12%
Andy Gray (Sky) 9%
Alan Hansen (BBC) 6%
Craig Burley (Setanta) 5%
Mark Lawrenson (BBC) 4%
Clive Tyldesley (ITV) 4%
Alan Green (BBC) 3%
Garth Crooks (BBC) 2%
Alan Shearer (BBC) 2%
Favourite Matchday Pub
1 Twelve Pins
2 Gunners
3 Rocket
4 Auld Triangle
5 Tollington
6 Coronet
7 Arsenal Tavern
8 Herbert Chapman
9 Bailey
10 Highbury Barn
**** Oi, why no mention of The Che Guevara?? ****
Worst national newspaper for Arsenal coverage?
The Sun 30%
Daily Mail 28%
The Mirror 20%
Daily Express 6%
The Times 6%
Daily Telegraph 4%
Do you think Arsenal provide good value for money with their official merchandising?
No 57%
Yes 43%
Have you bought any official merchandise from club shops this season?
Yes 60%
No 40%
Are you happy with how the current Board of Directors are running the club?
Yes 63%
No 37%
Did you welcome the introduction of Stan Kroenke on to the Board?
Yes 87%
No 13%
Would you support representation from Alisher Usmanov on the Board?
Yes 32%
No 68%
Would you welcome David Dein back in a senior role at the club?
Yes 67%
No 33%
Do you support the club's financial drive of being "self sustaining", i.e. living within it's own financial resources with no "sugar daddy"?
Yes 88%
No 12%
Are you concerned about the prospect of the club being taken into private ownership by Kroenke or Usmanov or an as yet unknown investor?
Yes 66%
No 34%
Do you think it would be desirable for Arsenal to be wholly owned by supporters with equal shares and have periodic presidential elections in the way that some clubs in Spain and Germany do?
Yes 49.6%
No 50.4%
At 07.00 in the morning, mother walks into her son’s room and tries to wake him up.
“Wake up, son. It’s time to get ready for school”, she says.
“But mom, I don’t wanna go to school”, replies the son who is still in bed.
“Why don’t you wanna go to school”, she asks.
“Cos nobody like me at school. All the teacher hate me and children draw my cartoons on board. Everyone hates me there”, explains the son.
“But you have to go to school. You’re not a kid anymore. For Christ’s sake, you’re 40 years old man and Principal of the school. Now, get ready quickly”, she answers.
where’s gnarley george?
*teachers
we need a centre back and a defensive midfielder!1 what the hell is wenger waiting for!! just go and get them!!
“If he goes, and if there is an opportunity, then we will look. But we still have Silvestre, Gallas, Djourou, Vermaelen and Song. That’s five centre backs.”
Well… for anyone who thought Song wouldn’t be classed as a centre back this year…
Oi Pedroso, i just posted an uber long post, and it’s gone for a walkabout, is it in moderation??
72 for fucking 6, good decision to bat first Strauss you clueless fuckwit…..
Here’s The Gooner end of season survey, results taken from 1,900 Gooners!
I’ve also added a few of my own personal observations
Arsenal Player of the Season 2008/09
1. Van Persie 30%
2. Arshavin 29%
3. Almunia 15%
4. Nasri 9%
5. Song 6%
Most Disappointing Arsenal Player 2008/09
1. Adebayor 52%
2. Diaby 20%
3. Silvestre 15%
4. Eboue 5%
5. Denilson 4%
Most Improved Arsenal Player in the last 12 months
1 Song 57%
2 Gibbs 26%
3 Almunia 10%
4 Walcott 5%
**** Well I suppose if you as thoroughly shit as Song, being able to find your own way onto the pitch is construed as improvement ****
Best Team Performance of the Season
1. Man United (H) Premier League 2-1 46%
2. Villarreal (H) 3-0 20%
3. Chelsea (A) 2-1 18%
4. Sheffield United (H) Carling Cup 6-0 12%
Worst Team Performance of the Season
Man City (A) 0-3 37%
Man United (A) Champions League 0-1 17%
Aston Villa (H) 0-2 14%
Fulham (A) 0-1 13%
Stoke (A) 1-2 10%
**** WTF? No mention of ManUre (H) Champions League or The Chavs (H) in the league or Hull (H) in the league??? ****
Most Frustrating Injury Time Equaliser 2008/09
Tottenham (H) 4-4 84%
Liverpool (A) 4-4 10%
Aston Villa (A) 2-2 6%
Best Arsenal Goal 2008/09
Eduardo vs Burnley (H) FA Cup
Arshavin’s 2nd vs Liverpool (A)
Adebayor vs Villarreal (A)
Arshavin’s 4th vs Liverpool (A)
Van Persie vs Liverpool (H)
Nasri’s 2nd vs Man United (H)
Walcott vs Villarreal (H)
Best Goal Against Arsenal 2008/09
Geovanni for Hull (H) 48%
Senna for Villarreal (A) 26%
Bentley for Spurs (H) 16%
Keane for Liverpool (H) 5%
**** Who gives a fucking shite??? ****
Who would you most like us to sign this summer?
1 Brede Hangeland
2 Yaya Toure
3 Xabi Alonso
4 David Villa
5 Any decent centre back
6 Gareth Barry
7 Nemanja Vidic
8 Marcos Senna
9 Michael Essien
10 Joleon Lescott
Which ONE area of the team do you think needs addressing the most urgently?
Defence 79%
Midfield 18%
Attack 2%
Goalkeeper <1%
**** What about halftime refreshments Mutha Fuckers?? ****
Do you think the current squad (as at the end of 2008-09) is capable of winning the Premier League next season without any major summer signings?
Yes 7%%
No 93%
How many players do you think we need to buy this summer?
Three 54%
Two 23%
Four 19%
Five or more 3%
One 1%
We last lifted silverware in May 2005, so how many more seasons without silverware would you be prepared to accept before a change of manager is required?
Three or more 42%
Two 34%
One 19%
None (a change required this summer) 5 %
Which of the other “big four” clubs would you rather won the title if Arsenal don’t?
Liverpool 59%
Manchester United 35%
Chelsea 7%
**** None!! I hope they all die of Syphilis!! ****
If Arsène left the club this summer who would you want to take over?
1 Guus Hiddink (Russia)
2 Jose Mourinho (Inter Milan)
3 Arsène Wenger won’t be going or similar comment
4 Frank Rijkaard (Galatasaray)
5 Steve Bould
6 Dennis Bergkamp
7 Fabio Capello (England)
8 David Moyes (Everton)
9 Josep “Pep” Guardiola (Barcelona)
10 Martin O’Neill (Aston Villa)
Which of these youngsters who have been on the fringe of the first team this season do you think will make the most Premier League starts next season?
Kieran Gibbs 47%
Carlos Vela 33%
Aaron Ramsey 13%
Jack Wilshere 7%
Should Arsenal fans ever boo their own players:
(A) During a game?
No 86% Yes 14%
(B) At the final whistle?
No 55% Yes 45%
How do you most commonly refer to our home ground?
Emirates 54%
Ashburton Grove 19%
Arsenal 18%
Highbury 7%
**** My own personal preference is THOF ****
How many home games have you attended this season?
1-10 37%
None 19%
Over 20 17%
11-20 14%
All of them 13%
With the current economic situation in mind how many home games do you think you’ll attend next season?
About the same 74%
More >13%
Fewer <13 %
Have you generally been able to get tickets for home games when you've tried?
Yes 41%
Not Applicable (Season Tick Holder) 33%
No 27%
The club have persevered with playing "The Wonder of You" before every home game this season. For next season, should they:
Try another tune 48%
Keep it 33%
Drop the anthem idea 19%
Best chant heard this season.
1 Eduardo De Silva Arsenal's Number Nine
2 Come to see Eboue, you’ve only come to see Eboue
3 Harry Redknapp's got a twitch
4 John Terry's mother is a thief
5 Theo Walcott is an Englishman at Arsenal
6 Is there a fire drill?
7 One Song, we've only got one Song
8 Eboue ooooo, he comes from Africa, hes better than Kaka
9 I like Eboue-boue I like Eboue-boue I like Eboue-boue
10 Gael Clichy, Clichy, He's better than Ashley, He should be number three, Gael Clichy, Clichy
Has the atmosphere at home games improved this season?
Yes 42%
No 58%
Best Atmosphere at a home game this season?
Man United (League) 41%
Man United (Champions League) 30%
Villarreal 14%
Liverpool 8%
Which of the following ideas do you think would most improve the atmosphere?
Larger or second REDsection 58%
More flags and or scarves 25%
Drums 13%
Loud Hailer 4%
**** Why no mention of kicking out the fucking stewards??? ****
Who have been the best opposition fans this season?
Portsmouth 35%
Stoke 27%
Burnley 17%
Man United 6%
Plymouth 3%
Tottenham 2%
Hull 2%
**** Again, who gives a fucking shite?? ****
The 'Teddy Sheringham' Most Despised Premier Player Award
1 Ronaldo/Ladyboy
2 A Cole/Cashley
3 Drogba/Dogsbreath
4 Barton/That dirty scumbag
5 Bentley/The rat-faced ****
Most Despised Premier League Manager?
Phil Brown 67%
Sam Allardyce 13%
Alex Ferguson 10%
Harry Redknapp 5%
Rafa Benitez 3%
The 'David Pleat' Award for worst TV pundit or commentator
Jamie Redknapp (Sky) 28%
David Pleat (ITV) 12%
Andy Gray (Sky) 9%
Alan Hansen (BBC) 6%
Craig Burley (Setanta) 5%
Mark Lawrenson (BBC) 4%
Clive Tyldesley (ITV) 4%
Alan Green (BBC) 3%
Garth Crooks (BBC) 2%
Alan Shearer (BBC) 2%
Favourite Matchday Pub
1 Twelve Pins
2 Gunners
3 Rocket
4 Auld Triangle
5 Tollington
6 Coronet
7 Arsenal Tavern
8 Herbert Chapman
9 Bailey
10 Highbury Barn
**** Oi, why no mention of The Che Guevara?? ****
Worst national newspaper for Arsenal coverage?
The Sun 30%
Daily Mail 28%
The Mirror 20%
Daily Express 6%
The Times 6%
Daily Telegraph 4%
Do you think Arsenal provide good value for money with their official merchandising?
No 57%
Yes 43%
Have you bought any official merchandise from club shops this season?
Yes 60%
No 40%
Are you happy with how the current Board of Directors are running the club?
Yes 63%
No 37%
Did you welcome the introduction of Stan Kroenke on to the Board?
Yes 87%
No 13%
Would you support representation from Alisher Usmanov on the Board?
Yes 32%
No 68%
Would you welcome David Dein back in a senior role at the club?
Yes 67%
No 33%
Do you support the club's financial drive of being "self sustaining", i.e. living within it's own financial resources with no "sugar daddy"?
Yes 88%
No 12%
Are you concerned about the prospect of the club being taken into private ownership by Kroenke or Usmanov or an as yet unknown investor?
Yes 66%
No 34%
Do you think it would be desirable for Arsenal to be wholly owned by supporters with equal shares and have periodic presidential elections in the way that some clubs in Spain and Germany do?
Yes 49.6%
No 50.4%
Wooooooohooooooo…………..
So The Arsenal has drawn an Irish club in the CL I see.
Hattus Trickus as Biggus Dickus might’ve once said….
So we get Celtic, Platini must be happy, one less Brit team in the Champions League proper will have him “jazzing in his pants”.
I think that plank Strauss should declare now and tryt and make a game of it, the fucking marchod!
Ahem! Bloggus Fartus
Hands down the most worrying of all of those questions and answers is:
We last lifted silverware in May 2005, so how many more seasons without silverware would you be prepared to accept before a change of manager is required?
Three or more 42%
WTF – How can anyone be happy to let ANY manager take them through at least 8 years of football with no trophy!!!!!!!
Fuck me, Where’s Dario Gradi when you need him!!
Whilst travelling to work on the train this morning I noticed this really fit bird that I couldn’t take my eyes off. She saw me looking and smiled back. I thought,’ wow, I’m in here.’
For the next ten minutes we continued to smile at each other and gaze into each others eyes. As the train pulled into the next station she looked like she was about to get off. I decided to make my move and got out of my seat to ask for her number. She rose towards me and without even asking she passed me a bit of paper with her number already written on it. As she pressed it into my hand she kissed me gently on the lips and whispered in my ear, ‘ Please call me.’
The train doors soon opened and she disappeared with the departing crowd.
I returned back to my seat feeling giddy and light headed with what had just happened until I felt a smack on the side on the head and the wife shouted ‘What the fuck are you doing?’
I thought the cricket might go tits up when I heard Ronnie Irani talking us up this morning… that guy knows fuck all about sport…
Does anyone get the feeling that the McCann’s just want to meet Victoria Beckham?
I’ll take a yellow for that!
Gnarley – good win by the blue baggers mate!
Damn why does strauss want to make the series interesting….
Better get 250 at the least,and get aussies out asap
Hi All,
I have been awake for about an hour (night Work) put the TV on SSN (MUTV) in anticipation of lots of Arsenal v Celtic news. Waited until a couple of minutes ago to get the draw 30 seconds then they went straight on to the important news tlking to the Red nosed cunt about the massive charity game this weekend.
They are all Cunts and like me I hope many quit the Sky package.
I gave up giving them 50 quid a month to watch the Mancscum a couple of years ago. I would rather go to a pub and watch our games on some Arab channel than give the so called greatest biggest Team in the world more of my time and money.
Arsenal v Celtic should be the BIG news of the day not the fucking Community fucking shield.
By the way whoever wins the shield this weekend will for sure include it in their trophy haul. Wankers.
TAIG – I get the feeling that the majority of the supporters qyestioned were probably day-trippers, the type od supporter how’s just as likely to take in a day trip to London to visit the Tower of London!!
DDM – No doubt they were carefully screened somehow!
Pedro
You are right mate that tosser Mancscum twat Irani knows jack shit about anything.
the Aussies could have won the cricket at anytime they wanted but the interest would have dissapeared and dear old MUTV wouldn’t want that now would they.
They will win this Test then take the ashes back in the final Test.
So fucking easy.
Do you support the club’s financial drive of being “self sustaining”, i.e. living within it’s own financial resources with no “sugar daddy”?
Yes 88%….this lot must be happy to see us win fuck all year in year out then
No 12%
well said El Tel – good work old son, ill back you mate!
http://gunnerblog.com/?p=1895
el tel – Congratulations, the first leg is on Sky Sports 2!
What is wrong with my fucking digits today!!!!
Still more worrying is the amount of people thinking this board is doing a good job. Anyone who answered yes is a retard!!!
Dennis
I work at the Ground and I can tell you that most of the people in my section are tourists.
I was pissed off at the Emirates Tournament when they gave a freeby from Denmark the chance to experience the Diamond Club.
The Club know full well where the diehard fans are so why couldn’t they send the tarts choosing the winners to that area. Maybe the proper fans wouldn’t wear those cheap freebie caps they were chucking around.
TAIG – Spot on mate, we wouldn’t wanna be too controversial now would we
champions league qualification is not crucial according to wenger
Who is on SS1 then?
DDM – Heaven forbid!
financially crucial
well if that’s the case then get your cheque book out and sign some top class players
‘Do you support the club’s financial drive of being “self sustaining”, i.e. living within it’s own financial resources with no “sugar daddy”?’
Bit of a stupid question…
Would you rather be a self made millionaire or marry a women who would fund you…
You’d pick self made… but if you ended up with a rich women, you wouldn’t lose any sleep over it…
It’s a loaded question aimed at getting people to answer a particular way.
How about:
Would you prefer to struggle to compete under the self sustaining model, or would you prefer a sports invester to invest in the team to put us back on the map?
You’d probably get a 90% split the other way…
el tel – fuck knows pal, I could be completely wrong. It just says that the CL Qualifiers is on SS2, SS2 HD & Setanta Ireland. Are Setanta even still running?
el tel – those fuckers ‘running’ the club have no interest in the fans, they only want customers now!
Gotta say those survey answers are very reassuring – seems the majority of gooners actually have a decent head on their shoulders!!
I like the idea of the last question though, just the fact that in the question when it says like some clubs in spain do, people think of the circus that is madrid, so it puts people off. A sensibly run, supporter owned club would be awesome.
Gotta say the Celtic draw is the best we could have hoped for, apart from maybe Anderlecht, should be comfortable and not far to travel.
I was on my way home yesterday and the local tramp approached me
“Any change mate?”.
I said “No, you’re still a smelly bastard, now fuck off”
Lets see how crucial the CL is if we are not in it. This shows full well that The Arsenal are just a well run Bank.
I don’t want us to sell our sole but DD was right we are not doing enough to be the Worlds best.
The product is there but no ambition from those running it.
If Wenger doesn’t want to compete then the Players will get the vibes.
seems the majority like seeing us win fuck all
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/8189501.stm
them cunts are just there for the entertainment well seeing us win fuck all isn’t very entertaining to me
I told my nan Ronnie Biggs is out of prison. She said “That’s good. I love the Snowman”
getting slapped by the mancs and chelsea must be fun to them idiots
DDM – Sweet! What a joke we truly are…..
We get SS2 or ITV4.
The battle of Britain they say well those Mancscum cunts would be on SS1 or ITV.
What do the people running The Arsenal do about that?
We play the nicest football bar Barca and get shown on the same channels as Fulham etc.
In the good old days of the BBC and ITV all Clubs had a fair showing but because these channels have shares in the Mancscum we all get 2nd helpings.
tel its because we are not important anymore
I walked past a kid the other day wearing a shirt advertising thebobbymoorefund.
I don’t know what a bobbymoo refund is but I want one.
Celtic is a plum tie for me. Anderlecht or Timosura (sp.) would have probably been the more preferable, but not as bad as some others. Providing the creche isn’t rattled by the celtic park atmosphere (which they shouldn’t be after ties at rome and milan in europe already) and we can come away with a anyhting bar a disaster we should have enough about us to go through..
Rosicky’s injury has come at a bad time with nasri also out on the treatment table.. But Wilshire, Arshavin, Walcott & Vela provide options of creativity from the flanks..
The same issue of a centre half and top class central midfielder won’t go away though. The Chamackh deal still doesn’t make sense to me and it’s the only real transfer news for us at at the moment that seems a go-er if anything thing else at all…
this fucking entertaining football is overrated id rather see us win all the time,that would be more entertaining then see us play pretty football and winning fuck all
I’d rather Celtic than timisoara reva, because that would mean travelling out to Romania 3 days before going to Old Trafford, so players could get tired, and injured playing in dodgy surface etc. Anderlecht maybe best imo, but any of those three we should beat very comfortably.
The lack of signings have pissed me off, very weird Wenger saying about the transfer dealings being closed, and that he’d only sign someone once the season has started if there was a disaster, then says about there being much more activity in the last 5 days. Maybe he thought the bloke meant transfer activity in January when he said only if there was a disaster?!
Seems it’ll either be a centre mid or a centre back. I was certain we’d sign a centre mid, but seems possibly not now with Wenger talking about Hangeland, and saying one defensive signing, very irritating
Hear hear El Tel – it’s one of the recurring things I say here.
We have the effin Mank cnuts rammed down our throats to a wildly disproportionate degree and I’m sick to death of the over glorification of the drunk old Scottish cnuts team.
I could do another guest Blog explaining the above in more depth but I think the rest of you have had enough of my bile filled rants about the Manks for a while !
4 Jamacian’s are sitting in a bar and were debating what is the quickest thing in the world..
Stanley say’s “The quickest ting in da worl’, is a thought. ‘Cause if you af an idea you a already thought of it”
Leonard puts down his guiness and retorts “Nah man.. In dat case the quickest ting in da whole worl’ is when yu blink dread..
Desmond then takes a sip of his dragon stout and adds “Da quickest ting in the worl’ is electricity iya.. Yu turn the light on an it a come quick lion”
But Leroy just shakes his head “The quickest ting in the worl’ is diarrhea man.. Ca’ last night before me could think, blink or turn de light on me shit meself”..
A… do you think he has high hopes for Diaby taking over in the holding role?
Denilson and Song don’t cut it at the highest level… but an applied Diaby might?
Pedro, i’d call that clutching at straws from a fans point of view and a huge risk by the manager going into a season when the previous 4 have ended trophyless..
Merida’s joined Levante on a season long loan.. Strange decision imo
I’m just trying to see some logic in not recruiting in the middle revel… I’m not doing too well!
Pedro – Diaby + the most physical position on the pitch = injuries, injuries and more injuries.
A/Pedro…but Diaby is injured too…so …
I saw an article where the St.Etienne boss said he has seen no interest in Matuidi…….thats strange..with nasri and rosicky out…plus Merida on loan…..
he needs to get Matuidi in …because Song will off to ACN so that means in the critical period..its only Denilson…….thats suicide..surely Wenger does expect him to play that whole stretch as the only holding mid….
I think with Nas and Rosicky out we should buy Matuidi and play like this for the first part of the season…
……………….Back5…………………
………………..Matuidi……………………
……Cesc…………………….Song/Denilson…..
…RVP…………………………..Arshy………….
…………………Eddy………………………….
With Matuidi and Song/Denilson taking turns holding….
I mean with all these injuries we need another body in there…….I am not so fussed about CB…..and Wenger does seem fussed either because he says even if Sendy leaves ..he has 4 left + Song the utility man that can play there…..
I really dunno Pedro, I don’t see Diaby ever having that experience, and when he played in pre season he was in a more advanced role, so you’d imagine if that was Wenger’s thinking then he would have played there in pre season. I think both Denilson and Song can cut it at the highest level, but neither suit our system we played last season, nor the one we’re going to play now, we need someone more athletic. Wenger also referred to Song as a centre back playing in midfield, and always lists him as a centre back when talking about centre backs, so it’s a really weird one.
Even if he thinks Denilson is up to it, then it’s still odd having his only cover as a centre back who’ll be away in January for the African Nations.
Maybe he has Lansbury in mind for that role?! Or Ramsey, though he hasn’t played their in pre season either.
Maybe the centre back talk is just silliness, and the defensive player he’s looking to bring in will actually be a DM, who knows?!
surely Wenger does NOT expect him(DENILSON) to play that whole stretch as the only holding mid
Yeah reva, i really thought Merida would stay and step it up a level this season, feature more and more. Also I would have rather he stayed in England than went to the Spanish league, but maybe there was something else in it, Merida being homesick or something?!
Diaby does not have the discipline, the concentration or the positional awareness to pull of the DM role.
why are all our games at 5.15pm this season?
A guy walks into an elevator and stands next to a beautiful woman. After a few minutes he turns to her and says, “Can I smell your pussy?”
The woman looks at him in disgust and says, “Certainly not!”
“Hmmm,” he replies. “It must be your feet, then.”
A – That’s kinda what I was saying about Merida earlier:
tonyadamsisgod Says:
August 7, 2009 at 11:26
LAzer – I’m not sure really. Something just didn’t look right. I thought he went missing in some of the CC games he played in. I think Wilshere and Walcott show more signs of making it. Also, he never really seemed to be that happy when he played. He always looked a bit subdued. He was a bit like Reyes to me.
Matuidi is too small for the dm role in the prem
Pedro – But, We are crying out for a top class central midfielder.. Someone who is going to play 30 games + as Cesc’s confirmed central partner..
Denilson and Song have made improvements but are still both young and are not, at this point in time, the answer when you want to be expecting to compete for the prizes.. The lack of activity means the club is happy to be also rans and not make the neccessary purchases the fans (who have been with the club though the ages) crave and deserve..
It isn’t like we are that annoyed and are asking the board to invest 70 odd million in players at all.. We and everyone else it seems can see that we are crying out for a bit of presence at the back and in the centre of midfield of real class..
A player that complents Cesc and is of equal quality imo is vitally important to keeping him in the long term rather than the current selection which enivitably suggests to fans and pundits alike that it is a forgone conclusion that he’s joing barca/madrid next season… It’s ridiculous and small minded.. A mentality i don’t think the club should want to be assosiated with…
Then there’s, as someone said earlier (el tel/ddm) the freebie kid who got to go to diamond level when they know who’s there who’s been putting the overtly expensive ticket money into the coffers.. It’s a joke..
We’ve gone from being a football club to a commercial, self sustaining enterprise..
Even england are getting spanked 98-8 now, christ.. Bad mood today, sorry for the rant Pedro..
Herbet – 5ft 7″ right? Too small that!
C’mon, would anyone one of us be truly surprised if AW decided to persist to flog that dead horse Denilson at CM for the whole season, because don’t forget he has ‘belief’ in this squad……………oh, silly me, i almost forgot, we can bank the £40m+, that’s a relief then….
I wouldn’t say he’s shown signs he won’t make it taig, i think he’s gonne be a top player, I’ve not seen him looking unhappy in games, but was just speculating really about his happiness off the pitch. It’s frustrating, he looked very good in the Emirates Cup.
I wouldn’t write him off as a Reyes just yet, maybe
Wenger said he thought it would be better for him to go on loan, as he won’t get much game time with Ramsey and Wilshere ahead of him, as well as the older first teamers, and he said “well if you’re sending me on loan I wanna go on loan in spain”.
Again, just speculation though, it is a weird one, and a bit frustrating
Wenger must be up for an uber bonus this year chaps, especially as he’s done so well……c’mon a round of applause for our all conquering hero!
taig he’s 5’9″, one inch smaller than essien, 2 inches taller than makalele.
Did people see makalele’s quotes about Matuidi, said he’s a mixture of himself, (makalele) and gerrard.
Where’s Odub when i fucking need him???
A – Perhaps. Personally, as I said a week or so ago, I think he’ll be back in Spain (permanently) next year.
hc – Yeah just like Makelele was……
maybe taig, though levante said they wanted an option to make the deal permanent, and we refused, so i wouldn’t say it’s a foregone conclusion.
A – Wikipedia had him at 5ft 7″ the other day. Now someone has changed it to 5ft 9″. St.Etienne’s website is shit and doesn’t give any stats so who knows.
If he was a cross of Makelele and Gerrard he would be commanding a bigger fee than £5m. I won’t take Makelele’s comments as Gospel.
fuck it, you guys made the 100 mark, i was hoping it would be all out for 99
A, Who cares how tall he is..
Question is : -
Can he play and be the top quality partner for cesc that will end up playing 30-40 games with cesc in the middle of the park this season going into the 5th season without a trophy?
or
Going to need a couple of years to make the step up and maybe even then not be the answer?
A – Oh ok, I thought that the permanent thing was in the deal. That’s a bit more positive.
Evo – me too!
come on 1 more wicket now
no taig it’s been 5’9″ for ages, unless someone changed it to 5’7″ the other day. He’s 5’9″, his height is on the st etienne website, if it was 5’7″ then someone was just playing silly buggers.
He was commanding a fee of 10 mil plus last summer, it would cost that to get him this year, the bbc are just being lazy making a figure up because they don’t know what they’re talking about!
Hi boys and girls
I promised myself last pre season never to look at news now or arsenal blogs over the close season.Well i surcumed as i love The Arsenal so much.This is more painfull than last season ‘Twenty pence Wenger’ never fails to do my tits in, will he never look at the team like i do, i shit myself when the opposition come forward as we are shite at the back. Please Wenger you Scruge Cunt and spend some of our money on a couple of quality defensive players. What the fuck are you playing at?
It makes me sick that we are so fucking good at balancing books, I don´t fucking support an accountancy firm i want to see the best in red and white not Denilson, Song and Fishface.So you bastards that run the club i´m in love, with stick your hand in your long old Etonian bleedin pockets any get me out of this misery, or we are gonna get done again this season.
Sorry about the rant lads but i am sick of supporting a well run company.
how slow is today going its only twenty past two and if feel like ive been here all day
Reva i’d say the top option, if we signed him I’d expect him to be the DM equivelant of Sagna, and Nasri. Young, going to improve alot as time goes by, but already at a level where he could come in and be more than just adequate immediately.
BUT what would all doubters say if no mf enforcer comes in and song turns out to be/have a quality year in that role flamimi was poor the year before he left after one good season everyone cries when he leaves only to be a bench player at milan. Too many people put name value before real tangible internal solutions.
A – If he was £10m last year it because he had a much better season in 07/08 than he did in 08/09 which has been documented. I guess it could be £5m now because he was injured for so long last year people probably think that St.Etienne would be grateful for the money after only just surviving relegation.
all out, ripper!
evo
has the 20/20 series started
oh hang on they lasted for 34 overs 
Nah, St Etienne aren’t short of money, they’ve already sold Gomis for big money. He’s very highly rated in France, just because he got injured last season doesn’t suddenly reduce his price, if he comes to us, or goes anywhere else it’ll be for around ten mil, give or take a mil or two, the £3 and £5 mil talk in the British media is just lazy journalism
A small enforcer works when the surrounding midfielders have height if anything we need one of stature a yaya kind of player
To me it’s not even a case of buying now.. To really compete we have to buy the top quality.. These players who will take a couple of years or are rough diamonds are not the answer…
The club has too many what if’s going into the season and it’s a joke..
I actually have changed to the concencous that selling toure and adebayor is infact not good business sense…
IF you aren’t actually going to go out there and buy better players therefore making a statement of intent…
All this belief in my squad and whatnot is good behind closed doors, but doesn’t wash well in the media to the fans in my eyes…
Contrasting and conflicting statements from the manager and the board have got the majority of fans brainwashed.
If you really think about it, who really has chats about our business model down the pub, foreign billionaire owners, balance sheets etc.. Not even arsenal fans that are accountants…
We’ve been brainwashed into thinking about a debt (we are currently paying back if anything) when we should be more concerned with the quality on the pitch for the amount of money we py for tickets and the stature worthy of a club like arsenal…
I don’t have any problem with any players who currently wear the shirt.. they are selected by the manager and have my full support.. But i do not support this current setup’s regime of a commercial enterprise when i pay money to go and watch football..
I am not happy with a Matuidi, chamackh etc and are not good enough and not the statement of intent of a big club going into a 5th trophyless season.. But cheap players who will do just enough to keep us quiet and keep us paying the moey to the club..
I am expecting a top class central midfielder and a big brute central half as a minimum from the board and manager.. they owe it to the fans especially, to the players and to themselves to show we are infact a big club…
as i said earlier:-
“A player that complents Cesc and is of equal quality imo is vitally important to keeping him in the long term rather than the current selection which enivitably suggests to fans and pundits alike that it is a forgone conclusion that he’s joing barca/madrid next season… It’s ridiculous and small minded.. A mentality i don’t think the club should want to be assosiated with…”
A – Its not a deal breaker but he is 5ft 7″ according to the St.Etienne official site and a few other web sites. Wikipedia are the only ones that don’t have him at 1.75m (5ft 7″). I have only heard Makelele talk about him. Other than that its all been blog reports and journalism . I don’t speak French so I don’t know about the reports in France.
I definitely don’t think he is the guy to take a starting role in midfield.
Herbet – Good point. We may get away with him if we didn’t have Cesc in their too but the pair of them would get out jumped and out hustled a lot of the time. Or that’s what I think anyway.
taig i’m sorry but that simply isn’t true. wikipedia are the only ones who have had him at 5’7″ if they have.
As you say, he’s 1.75 metres, that’s 5’9″, compared to Mascherano and Makalele, 1.70, 5’7″ and Essien and Flamini 1.78 metres, 5’10″
By Jeremy Wilson
Friday August 07 2009
Arsene Wenger has renewed his criticism of the strategy of some of Arsenal’s biggest rivals, accusing Manchester City and Real Madrid of “financial doping”.
City have spent almost €116 million on players so far this summer, while Real Madrid, who wanted to appoint Wenger as their manager, have paid out in excess of €233 million on their galactico policy.
Wenger, though, said the influx of so many new players could threaten the balance of their teams.
“Manchester City look to me as if they have great squad quality-wise but sometimes, when you buy more than three players, you go into a technical gamble a little bit,” he said.
“Sometimes it clicks straight away, sometimes it can take a few months. If you do not find your balance straight away in the first games it is difficult.
“Football is not as scientific and predictable as people have [it] sometimes.”
Wenger first coined the phrase “financial doping” in respect of Chelsea and, asked on Thursday if it was still his view regarding clubs with the money Manchester City and Real Madrid have, he said: “Of course.
“We live within our resources, when we make money that is because we have worked well and made good decisions.
“It is a bit difficult to live in that environment. It’s not because you cannot be successful. I believe that you can be successful despite the fact that some teams have more money.
“But what it does is put a lot of pressure on the wages of the players in the other clubs.
“They [Manchester City and Real] are similar financial potential, similarly ambitious. Of course the history is on the side of Real Madrid.”
Despite Arsenal’s financial disadvantages, Wenger said that outside expectations were now immense.
“I feel what is accepted is just to win the Champions League and win the championship – anything else is looked at as a disaster,” he said.
“In 2007-08 we were very close to winning the championship and last year we were in the semi-final of the Champions League and it was looked at to be a disaster.”
Wenger is considering whether to make an offer for Fulham centre-back Brede Hangeland and potentially a renewed bid for Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh.
He also appeared to finally draw a line under the possibility of re-signing former captain Patrick Vieira, saying that he was not now planning a deal.
Tomas Rosicky is potentially out for six weeks with a hamstring injury.
Although this sounds like an interesting snippet:
He is a tireless midfielder who does a tremendous amount of work in defence, but is also a good technician. Statistics show that he constantly leads the team in distance covered and number of interceptions in a match.
A, I think we NEED and DESERVE better then a Matuidi..
i havn’t heard many quotes apart from the makalele one, though i’m not sure you usually do?
It’s just that all i’ve heard from people in France, who watch French football regularly, are glowing reports, all positive, nothing negative. The only negativity about him is from people who havn’t seen him play much if at all.
It’s a stark contrast to Cana, where the reports from regular watchers of him, or people in France, were mixed at very best, and positive amongst those who havn’t watched him much, if at all!
http://www.asse.fr/index.php?page=detail_joueur&id=13&teamId=1
Every length converter I have used says 5.74 feet.
“I feel what is accepted is just to win the Champions League and win the championship – anything else is looked at as a disaster,” he said.
——————————————————–
Of Course it is!!!!
Not even competing for them is just embarrassing.
(I don’t think getting shown up in a semi final or finishing 18 pts off the title is competing tbh.)
Small minded mentality.. This our manager talking ffs!
would you have said that about nasri, and sagna reva? and vieira, henry going back further than that?
yeah taig, 5.74 feet is 5.74 feet, which is 5 feet, 9 inches….
Just how well is a lad that played for a team that finished 17th in a weak league going to fair in a team that will competing within the top 4 slots?? Its a bit of a risk for me.
Just woke up. We drew fucking Celtic?!?!?! We should win, but I do remember them losing 3-2 at Old Trafford and winning 1-0 at home.
A – Ha ha, yeah I get ya, sorry I was being dumb!
Its still short though!:D
And their record against English sides in Europe is excellent – just three defeats in 14 matches
we’ve got over a hundred in the cricket is that good?
Pat – yeah, not as easy as some think!
ha it’s quite alright taig, i’ve done that before, should’ve thought that’s what the confusion was!
where a team came in the league has absolutely nothing to do with how good he is!
He was their best and most important player, and lead them to a 5th place finish, then the following season he was injured for a good while, then came back and played injured in the latter part of the season, and it just shows how important he was to the team that without him they went from getting into Europe, to nearly getting relegated!
gm – stop it!
Celtic arent as shit as some are making them out to be. They have a good home record in europe and although their away record is awful they won be a pushover.
We only beat Mowbrays WBA 1-0 last season as im sure ye will remember so his new team wont be an easy game. We should win but dont underestimate them.
LOL
I can stop pretending to like it now. mind you one of them is a duck apparently
meh I think the only better draw we could have got would have been anderlecht Pat. Our kids thrashed Rangers, who are the same standard as Celtic, it should be comfortable. They’ve only played English teams in the champs league in the group stages, which is very different to knock out football
Yeah, I know his teams result isn’t the be all and end all. But I think What herbet said about it being ok if we had height around him is a fair comment. It will keep our midfield bank very small and I can only presume there might be a better option in someone like Diarra?
Stu the league is different too though, we completely dominated that wba game, could’ve won by alot more, in a knockout game we’d put them to the sword, as we should do to celtic. It’s like playing a bottom of the table prem side over two legs, it should be very comfortable.
So Matuidi is the only good player at St.Etienne and without him they are a second divison standard team? I dont buy into that. They didnt only finish fifth because of Matuidi, they had Gomis and im sure a few others performing well that season.
He might be the greatest thing since sliced bread for all i care but to imply that he got them 5th simgle handidly(sp) is ludacris.
I’ve got ho’s…..I’ve got ho’s…..In different area codes……
Should have won by more A, but we didnt and they could have gotten a draw out of that match because we lacked the finishing. Im just saying they arent to be taken lightly.
A – What have Sagna and Nasri won at arsenal? 2 Emirates cups that’s what..
Good players, yes.. But what do Vieira and Henry (Arsenal Legends) have to do with it… They came in and were the unfinished articles, but Vieira won the double in his first full season built on graham’s back 4.. Henry walked into that double winning team at a later date costing 10.5m from a big club called juventus…
5 years without a trophy for a big club means you bring in top class and make a statement of intent.. Tottenham and even Sunderland have spent more money on players and in some cases getting players above their weight…
What does signing a matuidi and chamackh say about a supposed big club like us then, hey?
Need to stop living in the past A and get with the times.. The times say top class players cost money.. You can’t pick up vieira’s and henry’s for 5-8m these days…
I agree that height would be preferable, but it certainly isn’t the be all and end all, it’s only really relevant at set pieces. The most important thing we need is athleticism, tenacity, and intelligence, as long as we sign anyone who fits those criteria then i’m happy, though things like height would be a bonus.
it says the same as signing players like nasri and sagna did reva. if they’d come into the invincibles side they would have won the double too!
yeah spurs and sunderland have been spending, as they have along with others for years, and how many seasons have they finished above us?!
Matuidis height is an issue because the rest of the midfield is already so small so he wont solve any problem with it.
People say Makelele was small and one of the DMs in the world as was, but he also had quite a few 6 footers around him so his lack of height didnt matter.
I agree Stu, though alot of people would say that they’d be happy with Flamini back, and he’s only a tiny tiny bit taller than Matuidi…. There are currently more important things than height, and yaya is the only “perfect” DM who ticks all the boxes. If height was the most important attribute then Song could play!
They aren’t expected to finish above us A..
But I expect us to challenge for the title and champions league.. Not just limp in at 4th spot and be like “hey, we did o.k you guys”.. Fuck that! it’s all abouting winning and if not winning i’m expecting us to be right up there competing…
The current set up of the squad says to me “also rans” not “winners” and that’s the managers fault and the board’s fault for not giving him a kick up the arse to reign in the creche..
Diarra? Anyone? Why not?
well that’s what it says to you reva, i’m incredibly optimistic about the current set up of the squad, i think we’ve got an absolutely superb set up in fact, and with a couple of additions could be unstoppable, let alone just challenging, which is what I think we’ll do without adding anyone
No Diarra b/c he’s off to the ACN.
Vidic out for the start of the season, as is VDS.
and spurs are “expected” to come ahead of us by half the pundits the last 3/4 years, and have massively outspent us, and it’s got them nowhere!
We aren’t “expected” to come ahead of chelsea, utd, or liverpool….
We need a tall CB, not a tall DM….
Pat – Its highly unlikely Mali will make the finals or so I think. Pretty sure they wont win their group and it will be hard for them to make one of the three best runner up slots too.
Not the expectations of the “pundits” A. The epertations of the fans. We expect to challenge for the title, most titles, every season but we havent been.
The spuds fans who expect to finish above are thick. But Sunderland, Bolton etc etc fans dont expect to finish in the european place. But their clubs still spend to try reach and surpass their aims. We dont soend at all and still expect to challenge. But it doesnt work that way.
Reva, Nasri’s not even won an Emirates Cup.
A – a couple of additions? Unlike you i’m not just content with the any decent cheapee will do…
And if you think the current squad is capable of winning the title, even challenging for it, then that is your opinion.. I’m the complete opposite..
Selling 2 of your most experienced player for whatever excuse makes you sleep better at night be it you think they are either Past it, nood good enough anymore, a bad influence, profit on original fee etc. only makes good business sense if you go out and replace with better players…
Toure at 28 is a senior member and pretty much starter in out first 11.. vermaelen is a 23 y/o untested in the premiership or hghest level in europe. Is he better than Toure? The answer is: could be.. There’s too many of those in the squad.
There’s a thin line between winning and losing i accept that.. But, there is an 18 point gap between winning and competing.
PDT i meant between them.
Boruc worries me a bit. He’s always one of the top 3 keepers in the CL. With our finishing and his saves, we could go home early.
We play away in the first leg, correct?
Pat – Not with Eduardo firing them at him. It wont be a walkover but we’ll go through.
Mali did qualify unfortunately, otherwise I wouldn’t mind the idea of Diarra.
We do spend Stu, just not stupid amounts! Our entire team would cost less than Spuds entire team, so it does work that way….
It’s just harder to do it our way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BGC6Oek_wA
Like that. I won’t even mention the game he had against Milan which was chosen as one of the individual performances of the decade, from a keeper.
Ahh ok….I thought there was another round left. That’s a shitter. If the fee was low enough I’d still buy him. Anyway, how far can Mali go?
Mali have some quality players. Diarra, Keita, Kanoute
Yeah correct Pat, unfortunately. Boruc makes some good saves but makes a hell of a lot of mistakes too, he doesn’t particularly worry me, though nothing about Celtic does! I want a nice 3-0 at their place, then we can play the league cup team in the home leg!
yeah taig, that’s something that could be interesting, Mali you’d guess would be knocked out in the group stages, though you never know
A, Boruc has never made a mistake in the CL. The reason he’s recently(past season) been making mistakes was cause of his lifestyle. A lot of shit happened at home w/ his wife, child, etc. He began drinking a lot.
He’s over that now. The Poland Nat’l team coach told him to get his shit together or not be called up.
3-0 away A? Thats never gonna happen.
Based on Diaby’s past performances Pedro I can’t see him being good enough, or having the footballing intelligence or ability to concentrate for a full 90 minutes. If he does overcome those failings his woeful injury record does not make him a va choice that sits comfortably with me.
Of course we can’t predict how he may progress this season, as the old proviso goes “past performance is no guarantee of future returns” – so it is possible he could ”do a Flamini”; possible, but in my opinion unlikely.
there are alot of pretty pants teams in the ANC, cape verde islands, sudan, guinea, kenya, benin, uganda, sierra leone, gabon, algeria, mozambique, rwanda, burkina faso, zambia, malawi!
Mali prob would get out of their group actually!
Buts thats taking yet another risk. We already take enough. I don’t want DIarra
Not a huge mistake but he did spill a shot to Giggs (i think) which they scored from when they lost at OT.
And Berba scored from a spill too (i think). Not sure but he isnt perfect in the CL.
boruc had a mare last year in the champs league against utd, gifted them the equaliser….
Stu I reckon it could happen, Celtic really aren’t great
Stu, true. Forgot about those. But if you look before this season, he was one of the best keepers in the world. SOme Italian newspaper actually voted him as the 3rd best, after the CL season 06/07
Celtic really are a poor side… look how bad rangers were and they were champions!
Not great A, but certainly no pushovers. I would be happy with any win away from home. Even 1-0.
Im not saying Celtic are gonna win, just they arent that shit. Especially at home, the crowd give them lots of help.
Stu… it would be like playing Pompey over 2 legs… I think it’s the best draw we could have got… it’s fairly local, they don’t have any amazing players and we’ve just beat their champions.
yeah agree pedro. It’s even better that celtic are the footbally team whereas rangers are the physical team up there. Their start striker signing was fortune! They don’t have a single player i’d have in our squad, let alone team, i think we’ve gotta be aiming to win by two goals up in scotland.
Guys i live in Scotland and follow scottish football…. Rangers never turned up when they played us and they can play alot better… Celtic missed out to rangers on the title last season but only just. Celtic tend to play more attacking than Rangers… Rangers are a very defensive side. Celtic at home can be really awesome. If we have a full strength team out at parkhead we should win comfortably but as we all know wengers team selection and tactics baffle sometimes.
The main thing here is not to under estimate Celtic and they can also defend very very well especially at home. At parkhead we need to take our chances.
If you can remember alot of this celtic team played when Scotland beat France in Paris and at Hampden…
Also Aiden Mcgeady can be a real hanful and unless we sort out this defense i can see us conceding to them
I know they arent a threat. But they wont be shit at home is all im saying.
15Sat EPL A Everton
18Tue CL A Celtic
22Sat EPL H Portsmouth
26Wed CL H Celtic
29Sat EPL A Manchester United
^^ Now that is as tough a start as it can get!!
Oh the Internationals on 12th
I am over the moon with the CL Draw, that could have been a lot lot worse.
I just hope it does not justify the mindset of Wenger and no need to sign players mentality.
Thatk you Kenny. At least someone knows what they are like.
*n
They may not have any big names but what they do have is a spine in their team right down the middle and ball winners which im afriad to say we lack. Before last season this same Celtic team won 3 titles in a row. Ok its only the scottish league but they play to win. They have run Milan and man utd close lets not forget they beat the mancs at home and narrowly lost 3-2 at old trafford….. we really really dont need to underestimate this team
You are right Kenny
Don’t underestimate them, but we should win the tie quite comfortably, especially if we buy the two needed players.
Hello Grovers,
I dont know much about the SPL. Who are Celtics best players?
Anyone know why Arsenal tv has been taken off sattelite sports menu ?
Anyone who thinks Celtic will be a walk in the park, is in for a surprise.
I have considerable doubts as to whether out ‘wrapped in cotton wool KIDS’ will have the stomach for Parkhead and the intensity generated there on big match nights.
I for one will not be surprised if we are chasing the game back at the Emirates.
We still lack quality at Centre Half, centre midfield and upfront. Whats more, we still lack maturity and balls to be really successful.
yeah, stevo. I tried to tune into Arsenal tv last night but it wasn’t available. Arsenal have closed it for a while until they make a decision about Arsenal tv’s future.
Anyone know who Celtics best players are?
Ok thanks gts,I have it on pretty good authority that it will be upgraded but dont know who with,ESPN maybe?
mcdonald, samaras erm….
does anyone have virgin cable? They’ve just swapped setanta 1,2 and news with espn, espn 2 and espn classic..
gooner 786
McGeady, Scott brown, Gary Caldwell, Glen Loovens
Loovens will be well up for this game as he is pretty much best mates with RVP… they were at Feyenoord together
BH1, I disagree with your comment on us lacking quality. We have Fabregas, Song, Diaby, Wilshere, Denilson & Ramsey in Centre half & midfield and Arshavin, Van Persie, Eduardo, Vela & Theo upfront. Where do we lack quality. You shouldn’t jump the gun before the ball has even been kick-off.
Last Friday at this very time, everyone on this blog was commenting how shit we are, we’re doomed or we lack quality. Even a few suggested we’ll lose 2-0 to A. Madrid and get thrashed 5-0 by Rangers. By Sunday afternoon, we were more than worthy winners. Us gunners should be supporting our team not our opponents.
We lack defensive quality and fight. We will need lots of fight to overcome the crowd.
Sorry kenny those names don’t exactly instill fear.. We should win this comnfortably, getting knocked out at this stage is a catastrophe. Rather go to the san siro then some backwater stadium in romania.
Gunners,
Were sleep walking into another predictable season, the one coming, unless we buy quality soon. The only difference is that we will finish outside the top 4 unless that cheque book is opened.
I have been supporting Arsenal for 30 odd years, and was never as frustrated as last year. Never have I seen such an Arsenal side with a weak underbelly. This fragility will be well tested by Celtic and their supporters.
Denilson, Diaby, Ramsay, and Song. That’s where we lack quality.
Mcgeady and Scott Brown are good players.
I can see McGeady making Clichy look like a mug.
Gunners, we are all behind the team otherwise we wouldn’t be blogging, but we are able to question, and once again we have sold top players and not replaced them, it gets boring.
I didn’t see anyone on here saying we would lose to Rangers, why would we, they are an average side.
The fact you use the word doomed again suggests you read the other blog too much. Go back, I’m sure they would agree with your comments.
paulinho
hey ramsey and diaby is quality,and song is good,just denilson is shit
g.t.s you rate this lot way to much
you think denilsong and diaby are quality why,also what the hell is ramsey and wilshere gonna do
I’m sorry but Denilson and Song hold us back, they are just not good enough.
Geoff:
Agree re: Denilson and Song.
BBK:
“what the hell is (sic)ramsey and wilshere gonna do?”
ummm…dunno..perhaps play football..perhaps wash Arsene’s car..does it matter?..the team is shit and is goin down, right?
Geoff, I’m only referring to the comments I read here on Le-Grove last Friday. Someone said that we’ll get thrashed 5-0 by Rangers. You can check that.
Song has a chance if he keeps up the level of improvement he showed last year.
Dennilson and Diaby – no thank you !!
bbk
delinson-song are good squad players, song is very solid in both cb and dm position.i feel both players were very solid for most of last season and so was central defence the only weak player we have cd is silvest,both wiltshire and ramsey are both17-18 long long way to go
We should be able to beat Celtic, and if we can’t then it doesn’t really matter if we are knocked out now, because we will be facing far better teams than them in the later stages. You have to be prepared to beat anyone. Celtic are the least of our worries
diaby has quality,the problem with him is injuries and as a result consistency suffers.
ramsey and wilshere are more than excellant backup for fabregas,ashravin,rosicky.
yeah rtist great
Celtic will be a tough one but we have enough in our team to beat them.
The only thing i am worried about is the lineup in the away leg against celtic.Hope wenger doesn’t play defensive lineup by playing both denilson and song.
I’d consider that an understatement nisanth! Our reserve team have enough to beat them. Celtic will be comfortable, they don’t have enough to actually threaten us, it might be relatively tight if we play horrifically but I doubt it
listen the whole reason we have not been winning trophys is because we have to put up with the likes of denilsong,bendtner,eboue,djourou in our team.
A Celtic have an amazing record at home.Overall i am sure we will go through.Really wish we had nasri fit
guys i dont think celtic is a problem for us.
The problem is same,we are two players short.there is no point discussing celtic.
yeah bbk, just like you could never hope to win a trophy with the likes of cygan, aliadiare, graham stack, justin hoyte
but did they start week in week out a no they didnt
we seem to love destroying teams who have superb home records though nisanth, i could see us doing them over up in celtic. Celtic have a home record that is better than their relative abilities, but not an amazing record! they lost 2 weeks ago at home to dinamo moscow!!
last season at home they drew with aab, utd, and beat villareal, that is impressive, but group stages is very different to knockout. In group stages it’s like the league, teams at home go to dominate, and away teams are more defensive, in knockout away goals makes a massive difference, and I expect us to get a few in celtic
bbk only denilson started week in week out for us last season out of that list
obviously they will step it up against us,celtic probably thought they just have to turn up and they would win against dinamo,they would not be doing the same against us
http://www.oleole.com/blogs/arsenal-truth/posts/celtic-strong-at-home-but-abysmal-away
to be fair their home record is way better than it should be for a team of their quality (celtic) but it’s largely imo because they rarely get out of the group stages, it’ll be very different playing them in a knockout as we are
they thought they just had to turn up to win bbk, how on earth is that?! on paper dinamo are just as good as celtic, that was a massive game for them, it wasn’t them taking it for granted, as if they usually beat those sorts of teams easily!
Ok Gunners, fair enough!
So Ade, now he’s gone are you changing your name or supporting Man City.
well the majority of that list would of had more games then what cygan,aliadiare, graham stack, justin hoyte would of had
a they have got a good home record.i.m.o they did take that game lightly
my worry will be that cose we won the Scotland champions last week he may be thinking the Celtic isn’t that much of a problem for the team he has right now
True bbk, apart from cygan made more appearances than JD. The reason that they had more games though was because of injuries last year, which the invincibles had incredibly good luck with
abnet-I am not really worried about that.Wenger will be taking this one really seriously
that’s a strange opinion to have bbk, i disagree totally! Celtic would never take a game against a team who are as good as them lightly in a knockout game, especially when they knew that on paper, for them to have any chance of getting through with their horrific away record, they needed a big result at home!
we won’t take celtic lightly, as in the players won’t, but i think it’ll be relatively easy
go and ask man united if it was easy up there and they will tell you different
A are you about the formation which wenger might play in the first leg?I am slightly worried.I really don’t want to see denilson and song in the midfield
BBK..I think celtic away is a tough tie.But that man united game i remember.They totally outplayed celtic.Their keeper was amazing that day.Boruc i think
guys a question
which was your favourite rumour this summer.
mine was,milan offering us 20m + flamini for ade!
we’ll see won’t we bk, utd never played them in a knockout, it’s very different in the group stages, in that situation it’d be more difficult.
No not worried nisanth, the formation will be 4-2-3-1, but no idea about the personnel, it’ll probably depend on how everyone’s feeling after the first competitive game of the season, some people might be tired, or have little niggles etc. Denilson and Song might play I guess, with Cesc as an attacking mid, and theo and arshavin out wide, so we can hit them on the break. Bit early to know though, still two and a half weeks away, could be new signings, new injuries, new departures by then!
mine was de rossi and villa signing for us last sunday,cracker
depends what you mean by favourite WB – in terms of the funniest I reckon it’d have to be cattermole or gary cahill, though David Villa was the other end of the ridiculous scale!
no matter who will play we always short of two players this season and the last we need one DM and CB that’s a reality what Arsene don’t believe in
i mean a feasible one.villa and rossi were never going to happen.
you mean who would we most like to sign who wasn’t completely out of the question?
yaya for me, matuidi after that, still holding hope there
2nd that yaya is taylor made for us.
never know actually bbk, not TOTALLY out of the question, if barca were to get mascherano….
can’t see liver letting masch go aswell that would fuck them over completely,don’t think yaya would want to come now that his bro has vacated
100% wont sign yaya toure
i feel that silvest is huge problem at th back particualy against top strikers if were playing agains team like stoke then he is ok i suppose but ifhave a crucial game againt manu,liverpool eytc and we have few injuries i trust song and dj the look solid enough but silvest realy worries and its nothing to with age either he is only 1 year older rio ferdinand,but i feel song,delinon.dj are good squad players.for some reason he has not played in many of matches hopefully that means he is not wenger plans in the squad
Silvestre was good about 6years ago when he played left back for united….now hes awful hes just cover
well well well, Celtic… …just about everyone predicted that one!
Dangnabbit, moderation moi!
moderation hat trick methinks, (hums)
there is nobody to bblog with anyway!!!
yeah we 100% won’t sign yaya now kolo’s gone, pretty annoying we’ll never get to see him at the emirates now!
Gunner8 you’re freed from the Black Forest, top blogging!
I hope Arsenal learnt from the Rangers game that you can’t let the supporters mix
lol it’s very different in pre season paul, that’d never happen in any competitive game!
Gunner8 there may be many more lurkers like myself…
hoping for news but just so angry with the inactivity on the transfer market that we’re ‘spent’ having repeated the obvious so many times with no light at the end-of-the-tunnel
team for celtic match:-
almunia
sagna Gallas vermaelen clichy
song
walcott cesc ramsey arshavin
Eduardo/RVP
i would play 433 formation,also vern i think is still injurd
almunia
sagna gallas dj gibbs
song delinson ramsey
vela nikki b wilcatt
depending on hwo many legs there for this but i would to keep the players fresh and this team still has enough to win we still have prem game next week or a few days later and injuries not realy an option
We went into last season with fuck all chance of silverwear. This year we are weaker than last year, oh wait unless you believe that bullshit about rosicky and eduardo playing more than 20 games between them. So here we are having signed no one bar one defender and Peter hill wood says this
“On the commercial side we’re lacking and we’ve got a lot of catching up to do with Manchester United, Barcelona FC, Real Madrid, even Liverpool and maybe Chelsea.”
These wankers dont want to win anything, finishing fourth forever and raking in the dough is the ambition of this club.
You would have thought that Wenger would have taken a hint at the AGM but no, come next saturday its denilson and Song with maybe a hint of diaby on the bench and whilst we claimed the fee for Melo was too high we conviniently bank all the transfer cash.
I cant wait to hear the same old bullshit excuses brought up when weve won fuck all again
“They are a year older”
“Theres only 4 trophies every year” x 5 years = 20!
“I believe mentally they are tougher”
“we have the youngest average age in the league”
Yada yada fucking yada.
Hey Leon, only if you’re prepared to bring Arshavin, Eduardo and Cesc on if the situation calls for it otherwise you’re underestimating Celtic I think
Verm is fine, he merely had a tight hamstring and they didn’t want to take a gamble, But otherwise he could have played in the last game.
test
if take giggs and schols out the manu there team is same age is ours.i have no problem with age of the team.there alot changes in midfield last season and that cost the team alot,that compounding with cd was a problem in the beginning,through the middle -end we did finish very strongly.i am in the opinion if they sort cd i.e better cover i.e alot better than silvest will be bid help and winning more home games
Stuttgart vs Wolfsburg to start shortly
Where can i watch that Coadsi?
ray
i dont think am at all i feel these young players are more tham capeble,vela,theo and brentna are more than good enough and if they cant csore you bring more senior players but thats why you have a squad
cheslsea say no more summer signings!!
man united say no more signings!!
liverpool have lost their best midfielder!!
arsenal have £50m to spend, now is the time to strike!!!
evening All…
what a great draw celtic…a mini mouse when it comes to champions league…however i do respect theire fans who are truly solid …still they will get smashed…and to be truly honest they play a game who belongs in the past….still…i respect them…and i feel a little bit sad for the bhoys to being kicked out of the champions league ….it will be a trashing….i reckon 8-0 over to legs…
have a great wekend All Grovers and Gooners alike..
is there any other choice than to be a Gooner ??? not in my book
tom
leon
i think your team is more suitable for the carling cup, Not for the most important game of our season. even though that team would probably would beat celtic, i would’nt risk it.
and since im allowed to the pub by Misses….have a great song for all Gooners ..sex on fire ..by Kings Of Leon…great Gooner song …stay safe all..
Best Regards tom
good man, TS, but 8 is a bit far fetched, don’t you think?
I’ve found this on 606, hilarious…
posted 1 Hour Ago
Super_Gooner
“only chance Celtic have… is if william mcwallace is resurected and boot on a pair of football boots to inspire your poor excuse of a football club.”
Sorry for the delayed response HB, go to arsenal insider, then on the toolbar at the top u have Home, About, Chat……..select chat, then wait about 10 seconds or so for the page to load then scroll to the bottom u see the matche on for today. if u click on it, you will find what media the game is available in ( WMP, USTREAM etc) and what language. hope this helps
it’s William Wallace, obviously…
Thanks Coadsi
what time is the game tomo and is it televised?
Its a good job the fans arent playing these games against celtic. lol. i hope the players will be proffesional about it. i hope they dont have some of your attitudes towards the games
freduardo i think its 8:30 kick off and its only on ATVO
home leg against celtic:
—————-Almunia——–
Sagna—Vermaelen—-Gallas—Clichy
—————-Song———–
———fabregas—-arshavin
—–Walcott—Eduardo—van Persie
cheers kenny
http://www.footballshirtculture.com/09/10-kits/partick-thistle-2009-2010-puma-away-kit.html
have you guys seen Partick Thistles away jersey? just shocking.
wenger said 90% of the team that starts against Valencia on sat will be his first choice team next season… so we will soon see
this getafe one is pretty ridiculous too
http://www.totalprosports.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/new-getafe-kit-has-players-showing-love-for-the-burger-king/
freduardo…. thats a bad kit… have u seen Evertons new either away or 3rd kit…. its got pink in it!
leon, sorry for the lag was on an errand
I hope you’re right about your selections as I feel/fear we may see it put to the test on more occasions than I would be happy with
90% huh…thats means all but 1 of the players starting tomorrow night will be first choice. If Vermaelen is still out, so are Rosicky and Nasri…that means the midfield 3 are likely to be first choice all season because surely Vermaelen will start when fit.
Bollocks!!
Stu he said that on an interview with ATVO which i watched… he didnt indicate personnel….
midfield 3 i reckon will be denilson holding, cesc and arsh,
Forward 3 will be theo arsh and RVP and eduardo
i would’nt believe anything wenger says at the moment, he told us that he would make a decision on pv4 this week, but no, he’s still fucking around. he’s gonna keep us guessing untill transfer deadline day.
sorry take arsh out of the forward line
Yes Stu bllocks indeed.
As I said, Song and Denilson are not just our first choice, our squad is so fucking shit, they are the only choice.
People were moaning about signing Melo, so instead we bank millions and have pricks in our center mid.
Quality.
i believe wenger will go as his strongest team of
————Almunia————-
Sagna– Gallas—Vermaelen–Clichy
——-Fabregas—Denilson——-
Walcott——–Arshavin——–Eduardo
—————–RVP—————
Preferably i would have RVP swapped round with eduardo
Just saw Cuntleys goal at the gorve. the defending from Silvestre and Denilson in particular was a disgrace!
Almunia really had a shocker didnt he! Fuck sake lad!
Stuart Pearce is at the riverside watching boro vs sheff utd, this cunt really does’nt have a clue.
yup that was another game where we underestimated our opponents… cesc said before the game remember that spurs couldnt beat our womens team…. we got sloppy and threw that game away…
sheff utd are all over them too….
I suppose as we haven’t made a signing yet it will be done b/w 9-15.. Surely not after that
RVP is useless up front by himself. He is not a lone striker, He needs to play off someone like Bergkamp did. god bless
Arsene is retarded for not signing Melo…if it meant Eboue and 12 million id have done that deal with the scent of it…MElo is facking brilliant going forward wit the ball
David,
I doubt if Melo would have fitted well into our style. We need a hard man, runner and ball winner. I think Cana would have fitted better. Melo is a flair midfielder and may not make it in the premiership.
Every great player adjusts..Essien was a fouling machine…even PV4 wasnt the dogs his first season
Blog fart?
Am still pissed off with Wenger + Board. We all knew our problem areas at the end of the season. Why have we not addressed them? No funds? Are we run on water or money? FFS Liverpool are in deeper shit financially, but they always buy players! what more, we just made 40 million or more from Greedybayor and Kolo! Something is not right.
Lets all hope that Usmanov and Lady Nina get their act together and send home this clueless Board!
Hola,
Although this Wolfsburg team plays ‘the right way’ they look a physically imposing side…looking forward to seeing them in the champs league, I don’t think Martins is a guaranteed starter
buenos nueve
Breaking news there may be a problem with the date of the first leg due to U2 concert at the same time
Huntelar has signed for Milan then
Cana is shit. Thank God he went to SUnderland. I don’t want him anywhere near Arsenal.
Melo isn’t a flair player. He just has it. He doesn’t use it as often as the typical Brazilian.
Paul, thats not really breaking news!
It is to me
for the game on sat i would play
almunia
sagna dj gallas gibbs
song ramsey
diaby
vela rvp theo
my reasons for this i feel it would good to see how they well play togther particualy ramsey to how well he do defensively and there is nothing on the line but in the celticgame i would play a far strounger team
almunia
sagna gallas vern clichy
song delinson
fab
aa rvp thoe
VDS could miss games against Arsenal, Chelsea, City, Liverpool. 10 weeks
Also, interesting comments from various posters on a United blog. I do agree with most of it. Except we do need a CDM, thats it. CB if Senderos leaves.
“Yeah ,that was as honest as you’re going to get from a chelsea fan.
He dosen’t sound too optimstic but I think they will be our biggest threat along with Arsenal who people are writing off but looked pretty handy in pre-season.”
“Arsenal have a quality squad. The reason they completely underachieve is all to do with mentality. They bottle it.”
“nice read.
yep, agree that arsenal have a good squad.they’re a good team.and i don’t hate them that much as i hate the rest.but of course, i still do hate them.:)”
ANother:
“The Guardian like them all – know F*** all – sorry for the language – and in any case how many years have they (the papers) not fancied us? Do we care what they say? Where’s Man city on the lists? Liverpool have bought what exactly? Weren’t they supposed to be on a shopping spree like our neighbours? Chelsea are supposed to be signing a Marquee signing? Oh really? Do you guys reckon Roman is pumping any more money in since he’s lost so much in this recession? And as for Arsenal, well they really are us on the other side of the coin aren’t they? But they don’t have what we have, and that is experience, so thank the Lord for Scholes Giggs Neville Van Der Sar, God even Wesley…”
They seem to rate us higher than LPool and even with Chelsea
And thats great Pat because FOster and Kuszczak are kinda shit imo. How Foster is being hailed as england new amazing keeper is beyond me.
guys seen the pre-season results? this one a bit surprising. i think Bobby Pires got 2 of the goals
Villarreal 4 – 1 Juve
Its funny how different sets of fans have different views on almost everything
I’m hoping Villareal can give La Liga a try. Quality team with plenty of youth.
Santi Cazorla scored for Villareal. Their new signing, Nilmar, also scored on his debut. Pires with the other 2
hat trick
Everton won 2-1 against malaga.
Wolfsburg won their opener. who is this Grafite guy? He’s been scoring every single game I’ve checked since February/March!
Wonder if he will go 4-5-1, accomodating dennilson and Song. Will prefer to see
————Almunia————-
Sagna– Gallas—DJ–Clichy
——-Fabregas—Song——-
VP——–Arshavin——–Theo
—————–Eddy—————
Grafite was their (and the bundesligas) top scorer last season. Beat Dzeko too it by a few goals.
How is Vela doing? Does he have to go through a pre season or what? Because he played over the summer for Mexico so im assuming he is fit. Wenger should use him tomorrow night.
Was Vela at Member’s day?
i would realy want see vela play he looks pure class every time see him play,but i realy dont see arsenal play 451 it does not suit there style of play it leaves the strikers to isolated,there was reason why we had somany draws last saeson and they had play that way because cesc was injured and song delonson were playing they needed help and from defensive stand point it helped i am sure but all the passing and movement all went,no playing 433 suits them alot more it gives them alot more attacking edge and gives all our play makers to link up well and leave delinson song to deal with defensive side give the defence extra protection and let cesc do what he does best we have so many attacking players which will allow them to linkup together much the way manu play a
hillwood says we are lacking commercially….Wonder who’s facking fault that is!
We had so many draws last season because the defence was useless. We take the lead, the defence lets the equaliser in. We are controlling the match, the oppo score a goal and we have to try get an equaliser ourselves.
Its the defence all the time. In our amazing 21 unbeaten run we had so many shit attacking performances and failed to score 4 times. For the most part our attack had to be left to one side so we could keep clean sheets. Im sure ye all remember the lineups with the defence, Denilsong AND Ebowie all playing. Any team would struggle to score with those jems playing.
Yeah what we need is more cash coming into the club so we can compete with the Sunderlands and Wolves of this world for cunts like chamakh.
The booing will start this year when the sun is still out, mark my words.
stu
for most part that quite true gallas was not plaing that well then toure was playing crap then they started to play alot better,plus alot injuries and playing 451 they wont scoring and the longer they went without scoring confedence dropped,but you can have pop at delinson- song as much as want but being without a player as good cesc is going have huge impact on any team,you cant blame them for everything
I for one,hope we get thrashed by Valencia,just to remind Arsene,that a midfield consisting of, Denilson and Song,wont be good enough for a CL/PL winning team.
Evening lads:
Team for tomorrow probably:
Almunia
Sagna Gallas Verm Clichy
…..Song…Denilson….
……….Fab……….
RVP……Edu…….Arsh
Fuck that Jaguar! I dont want us to lose. Maybe a 4-3 with some defenders embarrassing themselves and Bendtner, Theo, Vela, Arshavin scoring for us.
We would win but Wenger would still have to see that our defence is shit. Hopefully a long ranger with Denilsong not blocking he shot, a smal valencia outjumping our defence and…..i dont mind how the other is scored.
In-Hangeland, Matuidi, (Viera)
…i wish
i hate that Wenger says the transfer window speeds up at aug 26. what the fuck happened to getting the buisness done early so the team could gel? I need a talking down today boys.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8189448.stm
Such a shame… nice that he has the support of everyone!
yeah well luke… don’t think the manager and the board are going to of much help…rather get behind what we have…
second half team
Almunia
eboue verm dj gibbs
…..Song…Ramsey….
……….Wilshere……….
Nikki B……Vela…….Theo
Is vela ready to play for us?
i hear rosicky’s out for 6weeks – we are looking a bit shaky…..
rather see front 3
Theo Nikki Vela
stu
which players in defence are shit because i think gallas,vern are top class defenders and dj is good and theonly week player in defence is silvester
so much for a strong start eh? No nasri or Rosicky. Awesome.
l’pool have got AQUILANI – quality player.
as good as Xabi alonso…I think not.
out for 2 months km….
I hope not
A-what!? 2 months for rosicky? Last i heard it wasnt serious.
if wilshere is the real deal, are we going to give him gametime with walcott on the right wing?
Even without Rosicky and Nasri we have a strong line-up imo.
Almunia
Sagna Gallas Verm CLichy
Cesc Song Diaby/Denilson
RVP Eduardo Arshavin
Obviously its better with Rosicky/Nasri instead of Diaby/Denilson, but we’ve only seen DIaby play 1 game(in preseason) and he looked pretty good. Lets not write him off yet. Who knows how well he can do in this new system?
I love the fact that some idiots got pissed off at Wenger when Benitez signed up Aquilani – who is hugely overpriced at £20 mil, noone knows if he’ll be able to adapt to the prem, always a massive risk from Serie A, Veron looked looked like the best centre mid in the world there, and to top it all off he has a worse injury record than Rosicky!!
Yeah Wenger should be more like Benitez in the transfer market!
Agreed Pat, but have you taken a look at the first fixtures, including international friendlies…We need everything we can get.
no luke, aquilani!
haha, been thinking the same thing
A – Aquilani is a quality player. he’s in the same mould as Alonso, Carrick & Pirlo. But ur right, rarely do italians settle in the EPL
HAHAHAHAAHAH! AQUILANA IS OUT 2 MONTHS!? HAHA
Although I wouldn’t mind a midfield of
Cesc-Song-Ramsey/Wilshere
Rosicky out for 6 weeks AT MOST, from what I understood. When Wenger was asked if Tomas is out for 6 weeks, he replied, “he could be”.
Aquilani is a completely different player than Xabi. He’s a LOT better going forward. Has probably the best shot in the premier league. Tactically, I’d say Xabi was better. Neither are good CDM when they’re playing alone. Aquilani isn’t even a CDM, more of a box to box.
I pin liverpool for a 4th place finish.
never realised HOW bad aquilani’s injury record was, serie a starts –
08/09 7
07/08 11
06/07 9
05/06 20
04/05 14
and that’s his career to date! 25 years old and 61 league starts in his entire career!
Imagine if as soon as Kolo got sold, wenger went out and spunked £20 mil on Ledley King!
wouldnt this be something
almunia
sagna-gallas-hangeland-clichy
Cesc-Matuidi-Rosicky
Rvp-Eddie-Arshavin
subs-viera, vermaelan, nasri, diaby, song, bendtner, vela
Aquilani out 4-8 weeks.
Also, he wasn’t even a starter for Roma when he was fit! 20 million is hard to believe!
Wow. Good luck Liverpool, you are going to need it.
yeah km aquilani is awesome at times for Roma, but I just remember thinking Veron was absolutely incredible in serie a, but when he came over here he was very average, quicker pace of the game.
Also what’s gonna happen to aquilani’s injuries in the more physical and faster paced prem?!
luke swap hangeland for vermaelen and that’s what i want! apart from eduardo swapped with vp
A, he wasn’t a starter! Those seasons weren’t injury ravaged by any means.
Do you remember when we were linked with him? He wanted to leave because he was complaining about playing time.
Agree with eddie and vp swapped, but we need a tall cb. Maybe Vermy is good in the air, maybe not. I know what ive seen from the experienced captain of norway. I cant stand another season of the stokes scoring against us from throws and corners and free kicks
heard we were linked with veloso…good enough for us?
Ok then, sub appearances too
08/09 7(7) 1 unused sub
07/08 11(10) 3 unused sub
06/07 9(4) 4 unused sub
05/06 20(4) 3 unused sub
04/05 14(15) 5 unused sub
the most league appearances he’s ever made, including subs, was 29, in his first season
so the total games he was in the squad for
08/09 15
07/08 24
06/07 17
05/06 27
04/05 34
who knows how many of those sub appearances, and unused subs he was actually anywhere near matchfit too as out so often??
Actually, he became a regular towards the end of the 07/08 season, around April/May. My apologies.
luke i couldn’t handle another season of dominating, and just a hoof from defence going over a centre backs head, and the forward outpacing the nearest centre back, so i’m very against hangeland
hes not that slow and he makes up for it with positioning IMO. Pair him with a pasier Cb then
think matuidi has to be the priority though…over a cb
incredibly slow luke, and you can’t make up for your positioning in a foot race. If we’re dominating he can’t be any deeper than the half way line. It doesn’t matter if he’s paired with a pacier defender, it can’t work like that – the two centre backs have to be on one side each, if the ball goes over one of their heads, then it’s them who has to chase it. It certainly wasn’t planned that it was silvestre who had to chase drogba when the ball went over his head, rather than the much pacier kolo in the fa cup semi!!
wenger has already stated that he is lookinf for defensive player and an 1 attacking player and in defence hangland is not the only good defender out there
i agree completely luke, matuidi, or a similar dm HAS to be the priority, i am starting to get worried now though
A- good point mate. I agree with you infact. SO it looks like we either concede on set pieces with Gallas and Vermy or on counter attack and open play with hangeland and gallas. Either way, we need some help IMO. MATUIDI!!! VIERA!!!
Chamakh can go fuck off. We dont need any offense. Our backup strikers are fucking brilliant. Vela is one of my favorite players to watch, Theo can only have gotten better, Nikki will be a pleasure if he works on finishing…
yeah i know luke, that’s the big problem!! though i do think that one player won’t solve the set piece thing anyways, one player can’t mark all of their attackers! Though he would make a difference, as Senderos did. If only we could play rolling subs, sub on hangeland whenever we concede a set piece, and take him off straight away after! To really address the problem the team as a whole really has to improve, or if it’s simply something that we could never fix because of the nature of our players then we have to just accept it and make sure we don’t give away set pieces!! Or just score an extra goal to make up for it!
A- agreed mate. Wenger doesnt sound that silly when he says hes focusing on training and not signing then…he still does sound silly not focusing on signing still
he’s been very weird over the last week luke – saying on Saturday that he’d assess things as the players had a day off after the Emirates Cup, then the Valencia game, then things were “closed.” When the journalist said “will you not sign anyone once the season has started then?” Wenger said “If there’s a big disaster with a player, then maybe, otherwise, no”.
Very weird, maybe Wenger thought the journalist meant in January?!
Those quotes aren’t exactly word for word, but the meaning is the same!
Then yesterday he came out with everything getting more active at the end of the window etc…. Though they’ve not released the full press conference so no context etc to work with but still, weird quotes
I’d welcome Chamakh. I was expecting Bendtner to do more during preseason, to be honest. I think Chamakh could lead the line much better than him.
Positioning won’t help Hangeland if its a hoof.
i find that hearing him talk and reading about what he said are two different worlds even if its the same press conference.
Pat Bendy was the best player at the start of pre season! It was only in the emirates cup he seemed to not be particularly sharp, though i guess that’s also the first time we came up against proper opposition
We’ve signed sooo many players last minute. I don’t thik we should be worried. Only time we havn’t signed a player last minute was last summer. The previous 3-4 summers/winters we’ve signed last minute, I believe.
Maybe A. I noticed Nick can’t take a proper touch + shot. The ball more often than not gets stuck underneath his feet. Players like Eduardo and RVP know how to trap a ball in order to hit it right away. Nick can’t do that. He seems clumsy.
All we need is a CDM though. A CB would be the whip cream and a striker would be the cherry on top.
diggin the analogy pat
Yeah I know what you mean Pat. I wouldn’t say it’s clumsy though, I’ve thought the same of Toni before. Bendtner has good feet for a big man, but because of his size and build he doesn’t have THAT quick feet, so whereas the likes of Eduardo and VP can touch and shoot before a defender can react, it would take Bendtner that split second longer, therefore he shields the ball to protect it. It is frustrating at times, when you think it’s a good goalscoring opportunity, but things close up because of it.
I agree re cream and cherry on top, if that happened it’d make one hell of a pre season
Hello all…whats the topic?
A, is Aquilani really injured? What happened him?
well one things for sure wenger has realized that buying kids dont work ..
if nothing else , i think this last 8-9 months have proved that ..
signing the experienced AA, then a 23 year old captain from ajax ,
i don’t mind if he gets wellington or any other wonder kid for that matter , i view that as smart future business , but im glad he has stepped up his game in the recruitment department .(well currently it would appear so)
i think this proves wenger has admitted some form of failure in ‘project youth’ , now he is looking for a bargain ,hence the delay.. hopefully several bargains ..
2 or 3 at least ..
im sure numchucks will be next , its just wenger dancing around negotiations untils he wares them down to a bargain price …
nasri and AA before that were the same deal …
Apparently he’s arrived injured Stu, hasn’t played since March, and had an ankle operation.
Regarding people saying the likes of Matuidi isn’t experienced etc enough for us, Wenger should have gone out and signed someone like Aquilani –
Matuidi has started 60 games in the last two seasons, Aquilani has started 61 games in his entire club career
Stu with A there is no topic
so i started one ..
wengers realization of failure
I do hope we sign both Zezinho and Wellington. I don’t want us to be missing out on possible gems, like we did with Robinho and CR.
“If only Bendtner could learn how to stop the ball first, position himself between the ball and the defender (causing the defender,not wanting to risk conceding a penalty, to fear touching him, let alone using the substantial amount of force required to stop him from settling down and taking a FAR BETTER shot), Bendtner would be a far better footballer won’t he?”
Guys. Rememger last pr-season. Wenger keeps us all hanging on by every word. He keeps pushing back the dead line. Last week it was before Valenica . Now its between 26- 31st. Guys read between the lines!! No More Transfers will Happen!! Hes leading us up the garden path! Chamakh is being lead up the garden path!! Its all foil and counter foil!! He has complete faith in his squad. To buy anyone is admiting defeat in his crusade of building a team without expentiture!
As usual I’d have to disagree with you ethan
Wenger’s policy hasn’t changed at all –
Arshavin was bought to replace Rosicky, so it was like for like….
Vermaelen is younger and no more experienced than the last defender signed to come straight into the team, Sagna….
Things are no different to how they’ve always been!
I really don’t see any way Wenger won’t sign a DM. If he doesn’t then come January with Song going to the ANC we have literally only Denilson, Wenger would never leave us in that situation unless he has some other cunning plan!
Lansbury for DM?!
yes pat
they are a caliber of player AFC can very much do with ..
shirt sales will go thru the roof if we sign wellington .. can you imagine that ?!
of course nothing is set in stone, i thought alfonso alves would fare better for boro also , but if wenger gets him young enough he can iron out any EPL glitches early on .
I thought alves would do much better as well ethan, he showed promise when he first arrived
We are all dreaming about the new permations after wengers next 1/2 signings. Guys come August 2009 we will be still dreaming!!
A
errr. A i know rosicky hardly ever features but we havent sold him ?
so WTF ?
—————————–
Arshavin was bought to replace Rosicky, so it was like for like….
—————————–
AA was brought in to offer some creativity up front, because up until he joined we had ZERO ..
ade was crap and wenger knew this already ..
and so was our midfield creativity and ball retention . AA can combat both …
and besides the planets lined up with that signing .. we needed a player when other clubs had little cash to splash in the 1 month window , he had 6 months to move or threaten them on a free , and AA wanted to join us and not other clubs .. you can hardly say he was a wenger target .
but what you can say is wenger purchased EXPERIENCE ! and that is a fact , the rest was just luck and money …
I have to side with Ethan on this one. If Wengers ways hadnt changed then he would have used one of the kids to cover Rosickys inability to play last season. And he would have either promoted JD or someone else instead of buying Vermaelen.
And Chamakh, i cant think of any reason AW would be after him apart from his age and “experience”.
I dont totally agree that his ways have changed but they are changing.
A,mate,I really wish I had a hundredth of your optmimism.I wont believe Arsene’s words anymore.Last year,he promised us,three quality signings,and what we got apart from Nasri was a mancunian outcast called Shitvestre,and a permacrock,who did justice to his name BITCHOFF and fucked off.Arsene has a deal with the board,that he wont spend much on his transfers,so that he receives a bonus on the ‘profit’,and that he would take the blame,than passing the blame onto the board members.
A
nasri for DM .. he stated it on day 2 of the transfer window !
fuckkkkkk
yes denilson and nasri ..
SONG is a CD now mate .. where have you been ?
ethan it was obvious at the time, and Wenger has even said since that Arshavin was signed because Rosicky suffered another setback, so Wenger felt he needed to sign someone with experience who could provide the creativity Rosicky had done.
I agree he was brought in to offer creativity up front, but had Rosicky returned from injury when he was expected to, Arshavin would never have been signed. Arshavin was signed as someone at the same age, with the same experience, to do a similar job.
All I was saying is that it wasn’t a change in policy – Wenger has a certain balance in his squad, and the balance was buggered because Rosicky wasn’t available, and wasn’t going to be available for the foreseeable future, so he bought a replacement that offered the same.
song is the new younger ( slower) toure !
and i dont see why anything would change since ARSENAL.COM ran the narsi story of him playing next to cesc as DM ..
he said he would give it a go ..
and maybe im mistaken but the season hasnt started yet !!! so we are still yet to GIVE IT A GO !
wenger will sign a DM in jan if it all fails ..
@ETHANGUNNER:
“well one things for sure wenger has realized that buying kids dont work ..”
Ha ha!! Completely forgotten about the success of your current captain, have you? Did he buy him last transfer window? What has wenger realised FOR SURE?
“if nothing else , i think this last 8-9 months have proved that ..”
Did you compare the number of old players in the arsenal squad to that of the old players? Question, what’s the AVERAGE age of the ppl that played in the last “8-9 months”? Does it prove anything?
“signing the experienced AA, then a 23 year old captain from ajax ,” – YOU CAN’T GET YOUR PRIMITIVE HEAD AROUND THIS DECISION CAN YOU?
“i think this proves wenger has admitted some form of failure in ‘project youth’ , now he is looking for a bargain ,hence the delay.. hopefully several bargains ..”
Finally you thought of something, there’s hope for you yet, And what happens if that bargain is a youth player capable of INSTANTLY IMPROVING THE TEAMS CHANCES, SURE arsene wenger won’t CONSIDER HIM NOW WOULD HE?
lol ethan, Nasri isn’t a DM, it was a misinterpretation, he could never play as a proper DM, he was talking about ending up as a deep lying playmaker/DM, like Pirlo, not a flamini! But people misinterpreted as him thinking he was gonna be a hardman!
I know about Song, Wenger keeps calling him a CD too – another reason why there’s surely no way we wouldn’t sign a DM?!
Jaguar Wenger will receive MUCH bigger bonuses for footballing success than for monetary success, all managers will get bonuses for meeting their respective targets, but obviously all managers will get much much greater bonuses for meeting footballing targets. The Wenger money thing is a laughable myth, why on earth were we out in Austria rather than the states or the far east if money was the main priority?!
Last season was a weird one, I guess Wenger just firmly believed Alonso was going to come, but it fell through at the last minute
oh i thought you were joking rather than actually thinking nasri would be considered a DM ethan!! A Pirlo-like DM, Nasri even referred to Pirlo in the interview, a deep lying playmaker, not a proper DM! Cesc and Nasri could obviously never be a midfield partnership, and noone would ever try that because it would be ridiculous!
stu
I dont totally agree that his ways have changed but they are changing.
—————————————–
yes , but the signs are more promising ,that is what im saying .. he will use nasri as a DM with denilson , and song is the new toure .. i semi agree with it also ..
lets face it he hasnt sold off either song or denilson , so you have to assume they will feature far more next season ..
and he wants them both playing at the same time
so make song a CD ( you saw it V rangers)
and denilson with the narsi injury will be top billing ..
id be very surprised if we get a DM .if he does he might as well sell denilson right now ..
A,
weather tactics change or they both share the defensive role its irrelevant . but he quite clearly said partner cesc …
i think you need to go back to 2nd of june and read the MF !
ethan the entire interview is on arsenal tv online, he doesn’t mention playing alongside cesc at all. He talks about that role as a defensive midfielder meaning he can get on the ball more, and influence the game more. He also said that he’d played the role against Man Utd in the champions league (when song was playing)
Honestly, i dont care much what players play as long as Silvestre is never one of them. Whatever about lacking creativity, we can always score 1 goal. But with Silvestre back there we will ALWAYS concede. Thats not an over exaggeration its a FACT! Silvestre is the shittest thing since tax and will always cost uis points. More so than Almunia in goal or Denilsong and Diaby/Ebowie.
http://tv.arsenal.com/default.aspx?p=channels/C4_S1&a=66908
well fuck me A . read the title
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/nasri-i-see-myself-in-defensive-midfield
MODERATOR!!! have I used any swear words, NO! Must you fully understand everything I say before allowing others to read it?
He’s referring to a role in “4-4-2″ where cesc plays as a “second striker” exactly as the system against Utd was meant to work, when song was playing alongside Nasri, and Cesc more advanced. I consider it 4-2-3-1 though
Nasri – I could be a defensive midfielder
what do you read into that ????????????????
lol i just put a link to that ethan – that’s my point, people who didn’t actually listen to the interview mis-interpretted it because they didn’t understand what Nasri meant when referring to “defensive midfield”. He said he is stronger so can help out with dirty work, but the reason he thinks he’ll end up there is that he can get on the ball more, and influence the game. AND he said he played there against Utd!!!!
he isnt saying i can be an attacking pirlo like DM is he ???
fuck where do you get your info from A ?
this info has been available to us since june 2
and BEHOLD no DM signing ..
if you know wenger he likes to sew the seeds early in the minds of the fans so thats the reason for this article on A.com ..
“Nasri revealed France coach Raymond Domenech and former OM boss Albert Emon have also told him his regular position should be in front of the back four, similar to the one taken up by Italy star Andrea Pirlo”
He said he’d played in the role in the champs league game against utd, in which he played alongside song….
That’s the role he was talking about, but people just read the headline and mistakenly thought he meant that he or someone else thought he could play as the makalele, gilberto, flamini role, which he, nor anyone else have ever claimed, nor would ever claim
well like i said we cannot debate tactics as they change game to game …
maybe one day V’s the chev’s or liverpool he will play FLAT OUT defense only ..
who knows .. who cares , its irrelevant..
what we are debating is team positions ..
and youll find nasri will probably parnter cesc next season with denilson ..
where do i get my info from ethan?! Just listen to that interview, he says it all right there!! That’s where I get my info from, Nasri’s mouth, therefore my info obviously can’t compete with yours, which comes from the headline taken from the interview!!
yeah ethan, denilson will play dm this season if noone gets signed, nasri or rosicky will play slightly ahead of cesc, or cesc will play slightly ahead of them, but if denilson got injured then we’d be buggered, so unless wenger thinks lansbury can play there then surely we must sign a dm?!
I see A has got into another storming debate.
Stu I agree about the Manc spy in the camp but Almunia IS the problem in defence.
regardless A …
the DM position as far as arsenal are concerned is to partner CESC !
and if your sitting in front of the defender’s your hardly an attacking C midfielder .
more a central midfield role . and you can debate all day who is better cesc or narsi , but when you talk about the vacant DM position you are TALKING ABOUT PARTNERING CESC ..
or the 3rd position to the right in a 4-4-2 setup .. (midfield row)
What exactly is a DM and if its what I think it is the last one I can remember was Peter Story 1971
Sorry Peter Storey
A sitting Defender who shields the back four is a Makelele imo A player who rarely ventures past his own halfway line a 5th defender a sweeper.
PV4, The Flamster, and even Grimandi used to bomb forward at times.
A
no one is going to get signed .. that’s the point !
what is the interview all about if it isnt ?!
El tel
i 1000% agree with you , big al is not good enough .. good back up .. but little more !
the fans are retarded enough just to follow wengers coat tails on the signing issues ..
but the real signing needs this season is a
clinical striker .. who WONT BREAK DOWN
and a CLASS GOAL KEEPER .. maybe a backup defender , but i think JD / song/ fish face will fill that gap if the regular back 4 break down ..
el tel Says:
August 8, 2009 at 01:31
What exactly is a DM and if its what I think it is the last one I can remember was Peter Story 1971
——————————
precisely my point el tel , im not going to get invovled with the way each player plays on the day …
the facts are Nasri pre- season said he was going to play next to cesc ..
and we have denilson who can do it also ..
even song … so i cant see why people are babbling on about signing a DM ..
if you can read the messages from the club , we have known since june 2nd that we wont be getting a DM !
FFS !
plus you have gibbs and traore ..
as wing subs ..
wenger has 2 players in every position now ..
what do you mean what is the interview all about ethan?! the interview has nothing to do with wenger at all…. wenger has nothing to do with the website, apart from when he makes official statements on it….
the interview is from nasri playing that role against utd, so when he did his arranged interview with arsenal.com, the web people asked him about it, so he answered, that’s all….
i agree el tel, people refer to vieira as a dm, but petit stayed back much more which gave vieira freedom to go forward, though neither stayed back the whole time as makalele does. Not sure about grimandi bombing forward?! can’t remember that one, though he was never a regular, played all over the park.
We need a makalele type imo, no idea who though if not matuidi
ethan nasri never said about playing next to cesc!!!! You just invented it!!
Speaking about gibbs, I wouldn’t mind him as a sub DM if we didn’t sign someone, left footed so would give good balance too
well said Ethan I too am worried about the striker position. I like Bendtner,Theo,RVP,Vela but they are hardly prolific. Eduardo our one true striker will have an injury knowing our luck so a big scoring striker we need.
I have always disliked Almunia and have yet to see him keep us in a game let alone actually making a match winning save.
Long rangers are a problem for him and he reminds me of that fat tosser Robinson.
a
i think wenger signed vern to replace toure has he already new toure was leaving for while,i think song will do well cd position he does look very solid there,i feel 433 will suit the team as i feel wenger want use 2 dm players,but wenger has not made it clear what his plans are for song,but wenger must realise he cant rely on delinson in dm position
oh come on … A
this interview is a statement that we have the DM (position next to cesc) covered this season.
and wenger knew the fans are screaming for a DM after flamini’s departure ,
so on the same day barry becomes available we say nasri will fill the role next season …
sorry i think this interview was a direct result of wenger telling nasri his role this season and for him to speak publically on it .
A
fuck me !
——————————-
ethan nasri never said about playing next to cesc!!!! You just invented it!!
———————————
if your talking about playing centrally (or DM) your obviously playing next to cesc …
the DM role is a position for arsenal .. it means central , so are we going to bench cesc then ???
or does the DM position mean not playing centrally next to cesc then ?!?!?
fuck you talk some bollocks !
yeah I agree leon, vermaelen was brought in as a replacement for toure, but toure just didn’t move for a while. That’s also why vermaelen wasn’t given a squad number, because he was always going to take kolos when he left. 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 will be the system we use, but I don’t think with two DMs, except when a very tough game comes up. It’ll be one DM, currently Song or Denilson, with Cesc or Nasri alongside him starting off as a deep lying playmaker, and either nasri, rosicky, arshavin, wilshere or whoever as a third centre mid more advanced than the other two. I do think Denilson will start off in that DM role though, which although he gets more stick than he deserves, does worry me as I don’t think he’s got the required attributes to fulfil all the responsibilities of that role.
Nasri actually played a couple of games as the so called Dm and he was put there by Wenger in one of the most important games of the season CLSF 1st leg after trying him there 1 game before that.
Nasri can do just what the Flamster did for us cover lots of ground and break/set up play.
The Flamster wasn’t a defender he just covered a lot of ground being a nuisance.
Petit and Edu were very strong defensively but they got forward more often than not and so to did Gilberto, those three also chipped in with a few goals too.
ethan you said nasri specifically mentioned cesc, which he didn’t!!
He said he played the role he was talking about in the Utd game, in which he played alongside Song, with Cesc in a more advanced attacking mid or second striker bollocks.
Seriously I’m trying to simplify things as much as possible, I don’t see how I can dumb down things any more than that!!
Nasri wants play DM
Nasri played DM against Utd
Against Utd Song played too, Cesc more advanced
NEVER has he mentioned Nasri and Cesc as just two centre mids, NEVER has he played that
I agree el tel, he was put there with cesc more advanced rather than the other way round because he has more energy, but he wasn’t THE DM, he only played there with Song there alongside him doing more of thei dirty work, which Nasri would never be capable of doing himself, or he’d be wasted because he wouldn’t be able to use his offensive attributes
IMO Theo is a big weakness to the side while playing out wide as he left the midfield and even the RB unprotected.
Clichy makes silly errors along the lines of Diaby losing the ball in possesion and the defence are usually left on the back foot.
The high aerial stuff and the long range hits are Goalkeeper problems. In all my years watching I have heard comments like our Keeper wont get beat from there (Long Range) but Almunia does time and time again.
The reasons are many 1. Because the Opposition see it as a weakness. 2. He is to slow with his reactions.
Positionally the Keeper is poor and he has been done on the near post many times and for a giant of a msn he rarely comes for crosses.
We can sort out the defenders tactically (Wengers problem) but no matter what he will not become a better keeper.
a
i just think delinson play dm role his own particualy against teams like chealsea,but is pretty good player but i very suprised by the amount of unfair stick,but i do think he willplay 2 dm players and cesc play further forward and link up with aa,risick,vela theo there so may plamarkers it suit the team to play that
I have read on here people saying Van Der Sar is shit well we will see in the next few weeks won’t we.
This interests me a lot as imo he is the best Mancscum siging of recent years. They won fuck all before he came along for a couple of seasons.
I hope I am right as they may get a poor start without VDS in goal. Vidic is out too I think.
i never said nasri said it …
but it was obvious which position they are talking about !!!!
like el tel said , nasri has already played next to cesc in the so called DM role last season so that is what he is on about ..
ok the vacated flamini role .. if that makes you feel better A …
However, after the Gunners saw a €7 million bid for the front-man rejected, Wenger insisted he would not be increasing his offer nor his efforts to sign the striker, stating he would rather wait a year and land the front-man for free.
Whats this Veloso like only he is still at his Club with no one linked to him?
hmmmm 7m bid rejected …
and wenger saying he would rather wait until he can land him on a free …
just as well its all paper talk that A doesnt believe
you also never honored your bet A !
he’s too good for us el tel
the price tag would be too high …
it seems wenger wants to spend 7 mil and no more
on a new striker ..
(after selling ade for 22)
its a sign of wenger either wanting money left over to buy 1 or 2 other players ..
or giving the board of stiffs another dividend for the 5th season running
Ethan
What kind of message does Wenger send out to the Football world and more importantly his Players and the Player he wants to buy.
We are The Arsenal We are one of the biggest Clubs in the World with or without the Cash.
The whole world see London as Engerland just talk to a yank and you will get what I mean.
Manchester is known only as a football Club and not as a City.
We are the biggest in London by far and with quite a few large teams to compete with.
Why the fuck do the people running our Club not use the location and our History to turn us into the biggest in the World?
Maybe thats what Dein meant when he said we are in the stone age compared to our rivals.
Ethan
Would you be unhappy if Wenger was to go? and would you take a failure for us to get the jolt we need to move on?
I think we are stale, I like most of the Players we have and see the potential but I think the Manager confuses them more often than not.
Guys
I am leaving the room as I am going home early tonight.
Good night all and G’day to you fellas in the Southern hemisphere.
Till tomorrow.
A silly rumour or a dream. We will sign David Villa after the game later today.
“narsi story of him playing next to cesc as DM”
“he quite clearly said partner cesc …”
of course you never said that nasri said he was going to partner cesc ethan!!
“it was obvious which position they are talking about !!!!
like el tel said , nasri has already played next to cesc in the so called DM role last season so that is what he is on about ..
ok the vacated flamini role .. if that makes you feel better A …”
Nasri NEVER played alongside Cesc, he only played when Song played, there was not a single game where Nasri partnered Cesc, and there has never been a time when Nasri has said about partnering Cesc….
I agree, it’s VERY obvious what position Nasri was talking about, for anyone who listens to the interview, or any of the interviews!!
The significant elements are that Nasri wants to play that role so he can get more time on the ball and have more of an impact.
Domenech is someone who told him he should play that role, likening him to Pirlo, who started out as an attacking mid, and dropped deeper.
He tried the role out against Utd in the champs league, in which he played alongside Song, with Cesc more advanced.
Seriously ethan, you need to think before you write things sometimes, and actually try and work out the rationality of your posts, or whether you’re just saying things that are absolutely ridiculous and make you look very silly!
ethan you wanted to bet that Chamakh was an Arsenal player within three weeks, and you refused to make the bet despite about two hours of my trying to persuade you!! Look back through the old posts!!!!
Though I was wrong about Chamakh, it does seem there was/is a genuine interest in him, I never knew about his contract which is why I’ve been so adament we’d never sign him
Villa, Toulalan, Hangerlaand and a Keeper.
Job Done.
Night all.
el tel ,
id like to know definitively once and for all that all this tight fisted-ness isnt a direct result of the board ..
if it is the board penny pinching from wengers
self – generated transfer kitty , then i see them as the DIRECT problem ..
i think its bad enough that the club doesnt give wenger an annual transfer kitty , but then to steal money from the money he then generates from player sales is REALLY below the belt ..
if indeed it is wenger himself (which i dont believe ) id want him gone ASAP !
i really want who ever who is stopping us from spending every red cent that we got on ade/toure/senderos sale GONE !
i have a good feeling its the board who is too blame , and rejecting Usmonov’s money helps me to believe its the board .. not wenger ..
we all know by the purchase of AA , that wenger
wants experience and talent .. i feel the money is the key factor holding him back …
i feel the board are like the tax department .
they tax everything they can and leave you with just enough to survive !
nite el tel, past my bedtime as well actually, nite anyone else that’s up
A
what the fuck are you on about ??
back pedal all you want ..
but its there in black and white and if you realized that A.com is a vehicle for the message
to gotten across , you would realize this article is basically saying
WE DONT NEED A NEW DM !@!!!
full stop
NO you told me that Chamakh is just purely fabricated paper talk and there is nothing to it !
and i said it was , and you be-littled me , saying i believe everything i read ! FFS !
A .. the bet was it wasnt paper talk , i just said to you at the beginning of the conversation that i bet you he will be a player for arsenal !
or at least there will be some proof eventually that the negotiations took place !
there you go again twisting reality into fantasy !
A and ethangunner – Seriously both of you are splitting hairs and getting all wound up for no reason.
The truth is that Denilson as a cm is not good enough to win anything but a carling cup…maybe.
Bendtner will only dissapoint when given a run of games.
And we’ll just have to wait and see if letting Toure go and bringing in a defender from the dutch league is going to solve all our defensive problems. I don’t really share A’s unwavering optimism.
A generally knows what he’s talking about and the only times he gets a bit strange is when he tries to debate the blatantly obvious…oh and when choosing Boswinga ahead of Sagna in an Arsenal/Chelsea dream team…seriously? what’s that all about?
Oh, and that Chamakh rumour was so obviously true. It’s tough to believe that there were people who didn’t buy into it.
Sixtay, you can only get out of moderation when we are here, 1.15 am I’m asleep.
You are now free to blog. Welcome. We don’t slag our own though.
Was watching wolfsburg vs stuttgart.Hitszlsperger guy is not bad.Better than denilson anyway.Really strange to watch hleb play for them
Wow!! looks like I missed a battle btw two stalwarts in A and Ethan. Darn. What the hell are they on about??
when is the new post? I just finished my exams! exciting times ahead!
I predict robin van persie to have a great season.Hope he stays fit.
Nishanth, what do you think of the chamakh rumours?
Think we will get him.I don.t think there are many teams out there who are trying to buy him.They will definitely reduce their price.We don’t really need him
Good Morning All
hotell breakfast is bad,,so i just ordered some egg &bacon..and a beer…its sunny and clear…just viewed some very nice titties …next balcony…well newspaper…then kids down to the pool….and yes a cup of coffee…
tom
Yeah Lazer some battle.
Nasri said he was going to play dm
No he said he was going to partner cesc
Partnering cesc is dm
Not that kind of dm…the pirlo dm
But he said he was gonna partner cesc
He never said that…he said he was going to play dm
Wait the makalele dm or the pirlo dm because Domenech said something about pirlo
Pirlo
So he’s partnering cesc and playing dm
No Song is playing dm and Nasri is playing pirlo
What??
….What??
ahhh titties!! No post…Pedro and Geoff got smashed last nite and enjoying a nice set themselves this morning.
New post!
Fascinating debate that…top le grove stuff which tyoically goes:
You’re wrong..
I am wrong??
You’re blind..
Bollocks
end.
Thanks for the recap Angelos.
Angelos mate
ive been down here for about 12 hours..and the next room well two swedish girls..blonde..hehe..invited them over for lunch…:) never too late to be a Gooner right
its 70 degrees fahrenheit….havin a cold Amstel..nice beer…and just agreed with Misses….to go shopping..im not just Misses and my wallet…im staying right here by the pool…
tom
Swedish girls? Heat? A swimming pool?
All that’s missing is security installing a large vertical pole right infront of you and Megan Fox showing up to give you a lapdance.
Enjoy tom