So I listened to David Seaman tell TalkSport that he was growing frustrated that Premiership managers won’t take a risk on young English Goalkeepers becuase if they make a mistake, it can cost them their jobs. He can see why the obvious choice would be to employ someone a little older with caps and Champions League experience.
No such problems at Arsenal Dave! We don’t even need our foreign keepers to be capped! As long as they are cheap and Wenger can take the credit for them coming good, we’re alright! I never quite understood the logic in buying Almunia. He played for a lower league Spanish club, he had no experience and somehow, Wenger expected him to be good enough to replace Lehmann.
It got worse though when he decided that an inexperienced Polish keeper called Fabianski was good enough to wait around for to replace Almunia. I mean without going overboard, has there ever been a more calamitious keeper in the Premiership? He really is a horror show and he’s now our number one. I’m not sure for how long either. Wenger doesn’t seem to have it in him to bin him off…
Now the worrying thing is that a large section of the fanbase is happy for us to carry on as we are because the second coming of keeping Christ is waiting in the wings. Hands the size of baseball mits, the agility of humming bird and more assertion than a whole box of Tony Robbins self improvement videos…
Wookash Chesney is the man I’m talking about.
Well, my question is, how do we know he’s going to be any good? Ben Foster was performing miracles down at Watford, he went back to United and bombed out big time. How can we afford to put any faith in Chesney? How can we trust the judgement of a keeping coach who passed on Joe Hart because he thought what we had was better?
I understand David’s concern with English keepers. However, the fact is, it doesn’t matter where the keeper is from, if they are young, they are a huge risk because keeping is 50% in the head. Ben Foster, Massimo Taibi, Fabian Barthez, Scott Carson, Chris Kirkland, Paul Robinson are all case studies for when this part of the game fails.
I think the shame of the whole process is that if a manager has invested a few million quid into a foreign keeper, they’ll keep the faith for far longer. Spurs kept faith with Gomes despite an extremely errant start to his career. The benefits are being reaped now as he’s one of the best in the Premiership. Wenger has a lot of ego invested in his keepers and he seems to be willing to sacrifice trophies to prove his point. He wasn’t so keen to give Stuart Taylor, Richard Wright or Graham Stack the same chances he’s afforded his own signings.
That’s where the problem lies Dave… English keepers need to be excellent straight away, even then, the safety net of a foreign signing is far more appealing to managers.
In other news an Arsenal volunteer who the club held in high regard has gone to prison for firing bullets into a crowd of random people. Luckily no one was killed. He bagged himself 11 years for his trouble. Muppet…
Just a quick point on the defensive midfielder debate. I think we need a new one who has pace and power. I’d sacrifice a little bit of technical skill for those attributes because at the end of the day, why do you need a DM with flair, that’s not his job?
You just need him to break up attacks, play in a disciplined way and be able to keep up with play. I really don’t think Jack and Rambo are the men for that job, I think we need something extra. Perhaps someone like the French under 21 captain Etienne Capoue?
In transfer news, the Independent sees us linked with unknown Spanish keeper Gorka Iraizoz. He’s out of contract at the end of the season and I can imagine that would give him a pretty high chance of securing a move to Arsenal. Let’s steer clear Arsene…
We’ve also been linked with Palermo’s centre forward who goes by the name of Abel Hernandez. He is 20 and he’s bagged 4 goals in 4 games, so clearly his agent is taking the chance to get his name on the lips of Europe’s top managers! I think it’s fanciful to think we’ll be signing any centre forwards for a few years…
On the injury front, Cesc has picked up a slight hamstring injury. He’s still running though and he could make next weeks game. Nik Bendtner is pushing very hard for a place in the team and he’s in superb shape apparently. RobinVan Persie and Vermaelen weren’t at training yesterday, not sure what’s going on there, if it’s Robin, assume the usual I guess! Sagna is suffering the ongoing effects of the knock he picked up at Chelsea, bar that, we’re looking good!
I’ll be getting more information later regarding the weekend, keep up to date with all that via the LG twitter account @Arsenal_Legrove
Finally, how bored are you of hearing, ‘I don’t think players intentionally go in to hurt other players.’
I don’t think drink drivers go out to intentionally crash there cars… does that mean we should ignore the problem (Kick Kicking video)?
On that note, I’m off… joke Friday, keep it distasteful Grovers!
P.S. I have two club level tix going for tomorrow, enquire within!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article2215721.ece
The old man is so stubborn. Peter Storey says we have a soft centre, in his conferece he says “we do not have a soft centre”, cesc says we lack winning mentality he says “we do not lack winning mentality”… people close to the club are telling you these things old man, listen to them for once.
Ok, can we cut the Yank abuse about the Liverpool or Man U situation out?
Dale
Cheers mate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpcBkpOf4z8
any1 no the best hotel to stay in near the emirates?
Paul Scholes: “Arsenal have a reputation and image that is bigger than ours and we understand that.”
Really?
Wenger – We do have a winning mentality
Wenger – We do not have a soft centre
Wenger – Why I won’t re-sign Robert Pires
Wenger – We have two classy right backs
WHAT CRACK HAS WENGKER BEEN SMOKING TODAY.
Kbw, The man will never change & i started saying this 2-3 yrs ago & im still saying it today “we will win nothing as long as wenger is incharge” if he stays untill the end of he’s contract we won’t win anything untill then.. If he stays on longer then it’ll be even longer.
He’s stubborness turned into a joke! You dont need to know much about football & tactics to know what we lack but still wenger turns he’s head to all the ppl close to the club.
spot on rick the guy has lost the plot,as soon as he go’s then we might get back on track,untill then he will come out with complete shit like he has come out with above.
Cesc.. stay with Jaguar!
Agree Ricky, He should just leave now or risk tarnishing whats left of his Arsenal legacy.
nothing is left of his best days,he’s had his time which is firmly up,time for a change.
Arsene has my full support in every decision he makes, will make, and ever has made. There is no criticism of him which is valid. There is no suggestion for his improvement which is valid. Anything that contradicts Arsene, his belief, his methods, his decisions and/or his actions, is the opposite of reality. Arsene’s belief is reality, all else is unreal. Now apply this comparison, then, to the soul. When it’s gaze is fixed upon an object irradiated by the truth and reality of Arsene’s belief, the soul gains understanding and knowledge and is manifestly in possession of intelligence. But when it looks towards that twilight world of things that come into existence and pass away, without Arsene’s belief it’s sight is dim and it has only opinions which shift to and fro, and now it seems like a thing that has no intelligence.
Arsene’s belief, which gives to objects of knowledge their truth and to him who knows them his power knowing, if the form or essential nature of goodness itself. It is the cause of knowledge and truth; and so, while you may think of it as an object of knowledge, you will do well to regard it as something beyond truth and knowledge, and, precious as these both are, of still higher worth. Both knowledge and truth are to be regarded as like Arsene’s belief, but to identify either with Arsene’s belief is wrong. Arsene’s belief must hold a yet higher place of honor.
You will agree that the sun not only makes the things we see visible, but also brings them into existence and gives them growth and nourishment; yet the sun is not the same thing as existence. And so with objects of knowledge; these derive from Arsene’s belief not only their power of being known, but their very being and reality; and Arsene’s belief is not the same thing as being, but even beyond being, surpassing it in dignity and power.
The problem is that Wenger had an agreement with the board to keep spending to a minimum in order to fund our new stadium which was his idea, hence project youth, he would never admit this to the fans but deep down he knew that we would struggle to keep up with Chelsea and Manu.
After coming close a couple of times he became obsessed with the idea of winning against the odds by spending as little as possible and proving all of the doubters wrong.
He beleives he has been successful in this period by maintaing our top four status. But we have now reached a situation where we are at risk of being overtaken by Man city and arch rivals Tottenham.
One of Wengers biggest mistakes in recent times is his refusal to buy a top class goalkeeper despite having the money, afterall he did claim to make a crazy £30m bid for Reina when he could have got Shay Given for half that price.
Poetry A, it brought tears to my eyes
:’)
Screw u
AKBism of the highest degree, you keep on believing A, I’ll just stick to reality.
fuck me, you would think Our Glorious Leader is a God Almighty reading that!
Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
‘Arsene’s belief is reality, all else is unreal’ – ha fucking ha!
He ripped it from Plato Jay Z.
Think he drank the bongwater.
I want whatever that man is smoking right now!!!
How much have you had to drink A?
Facking Hell… His wife’s wedding vows would have been shorter!
I would give the credit where it’s due: maintaining the top four status with this lot at his disposal was a minor miracle, but now we are seriously falling behind the rest and I would not bet my house on still being there, let alone winning the league come May!
we have got over £50M profit and apparently paid nearly half of the stadium debt by now – what for, dare I ask? Dein said there was no point of having a great stadium with no great team to play in it – yet we still have the likes of Diaby, Fabianski, Almunia getting paid handsomely for fucking up every time we face quality opposition or whenever it counts for something – no one will buy them either, as no one is dumb enough to pay their wages they are on at the moment – Wenger got burnt when a few good players with desire, passion and heart left on a free, so he is extending contracts of some absolute duds, even though they would have no career if it was not for Wenger and the next manager that comes in will dump them to the stiffs in split second!
I read 2 lines of what “A” wrote & had enough. Wake up mate & stop being so delusional.
Tbh i really doubt your serious.
Problem with Plato is he had a thing for young boys….
OGL is mounting the parapets for his last season. He’ll feck off to PSG next year.
unfortunately (well, in this particular situation), A is anything but a wind up merchant – in his eyes, Wenger can do no wrong and whatever cockup he makes, he will find an eloquent, ‘logical’ explanation…
Lurch,
I am willing to believe that we really had no money until this year, but the total lack of transfer action where it was needed the most whilst posting record profits was a slap in the face and criminal negligence…
it must be demoralising for the players to see how delusional this man became and that he is getting rewarded with new fat contract for that…
*has become
Honestly i would prefer wenger to stay & buy the players we need to make a real title challenge but i’ve grown to believe that will not happen.
Suga, was that not the reason dein got the sack?
no it was apparently caused by him approaching Kroenke and the old fart PHW stating he did not want ‘hi (Kroenke’s) sort’ at the club – funny how he sat next to him in the box for everyone to see not so long time later…
Lol! Thats right, & how much of the shares does kronke own now?
The sooner somebody that knows how to manage both the financial side & the footballing side like dein comes in the better. Unitl then it’s all hope.
Mate I have no problem with a lack of money. What kills me is the singular pursuit of ‘total’ football.
I fail to understand how the team are incapable of changing their game plan. He just plays into his opponents hands over and over and over again.
wenger has the hots for small, slightly built, speedy lightskin left-backs. But he’s not so fussy when it comes to strikers.
PHW is harming this club and he should just fuck off with this pathetic 0.8% of shares he owns – it really baffles me how the fuck does he still have such a big say in whatever happens at the club – idiot had even the front to say that our best player was not good enough for Barca! twunt…
Lurch,
Wenger is simply tactically inept and he can only do one thing – problem is that he started overcomplicating things and does not have the right personnel to go into the games with no plan B and the hope alone…
I’d say fisman has more clought in the boardroom no? PHW is mostly a figurehead no?
his successful years happened when he could attract half of the French team who happened to be at their pomp, inherited the defence and Sol fell in his lap, as he would never bought him…
Yup and he’s seriously getting found out.
Feckin voyeur. I’m really starting to believe.
Lurch,
yes, but he has far too much to say, when he should just be told to STFU and enjoy his drink and cigars
Id take bets (figure of speech) that Cesc has been censured over his attitude in the last 48hrs and that’s why he’s not featuring tomoz.
whose excited about tomorrow?!
i am.
I’m going for
Fabianski
Eboue JD Squillaci Gibbs
Diaby Song Wilshere
Nasri Chamakh Arshavin
or do people think we could get a shock start from theo or bendy?
feel like a 3-1 though not sure if that’s just because it’s our token scoreline against teams like brum….
I believe it’s something to do with PHW’s family relations with the club in the past which is why he struts about like he owns the place.
I would’nt be suprised if its all because of him we are in the situation were in.
Sorry A Im just not getting that warm fuzzy feeling….
Fabianski, Djourou and Song stifle my excitement somewhat…
start from TW or HRP? no way…
You guys do realize A was being satirical, right. That comment was quality, laughed so effing hard.
Writing was on the wall when they shafted DD.
Yup rohan, he’s deluded but that was platonic
Lol A. I have not had that feeling for yrs now.
I do miss it tho. lol
you need a drink Lurch, brings the warm fuzzy feeling right back….
Rohan,
given that A blows smoke up Wenger’s arse on constant basis, I found it a bit less satirical than you might…
HRP=hisroyalpinkiness?
JD scares me SUGA, as does Fabianski against Zigic, but we’re at home and have SO much attacking talent on show we should play them off the park. West Brom should be a kick up the arse that gets us back playing as we have at home ever since we flogged ade and changed system….
Lol A. I’m pissed as fart. Hence in full doom mode. Normally I’m glass half full.
whose going to be starting in 2 weeks time?
will arshavin be dropped?
alot of competition for places….
theo or nasri or bendtner
chamakh or bendtner
arshavin or nasri
wilshere or diaby
non of the above have a definitive answer, should motivate the players much more to perform, they’re all gonna be fighting for their places, apart from cesc
no, it just creates the illusion of warmth (hence plenty of pissheads freeze to death in the winter) and kills the sense of aesthetics…
I just don’t get the joy out of watching the big games anymore, as I know that a win against Chavs and the like is usually a fluke…
If Theo starts next to Chamakh and they do the switcheroo early on I may go semi.
I wouldn’t care if it was a fluke SUGA. Considering we’re better against the little teams, if we fluked the odd win against the bigger teams we’d be very much in with a shout for the title!
A,
all this attacking talent did zip against WBA, who we should just walk all over blindfolded and on crutches…
JD is pants, what did I say about getting quality CBs in the summer and what responses I got?
‘don’t worry, he is 4th choice’
not buying a GK was criminal – as I have been saying, what the fuck do these scouts do?
Wenger needs competition on the bench. Time for a new No.2. Sorry Pat.
A,
face the cold reality – we will struggle to finish in the top four this year with the demoralised team and our captain in ‘I don’t want to be here’ mode…
as for fluking the big games, this is not good enough, simple as – with this attitude we have more chance of finding the elusive rocking horse shit than winning the league by any considerable margin…
But our new kit is really pruddy!
and oh, remind me how many times did we manage to beat them in the past few years?
I do care about beating them, what are we, Spuds?
yeah SUGA, we fucked up massively against West Brom, the first time we’ve failed to beat any non-big team at home since we changed formations…. It was a freak result, or at least the very first result we’ve had of that nature since changing system. Unless it was a sign of things to come, which would be very unlikely/strange when analysing all the facts etc
how is our team demoralised?!
we’ll walk the top 4 imo, and we’re the only potential threat to chelsea….
utd could well struggle to be in the top four tho
Due to the sad state of my sex life, I have converted to Islam.
My new name is Seldom Bin Laid.
not often enough SUGA, so if we were playing chelsea tomorrow i wouldn’t be as excited!!
as we’re playing brum i am, and really looking forward to a good day. if chelsea don’t drop points at villa though i’ll start to get a bit worried about how strong they are
A,
the only potential threat to Chelsea? Shitty have more chance of winning the league this year than we do…
the team is demoralised by:
- not only accepting and also rewarding failure from the top (that includes AW) to the bottom
- having a wantaway captain
- bunch of big time Charlies without a care in the world
shall I go on? how much time do you have?
I think we need a young no nonsense No.2 whos able to kick some arse Steve Bould would be perfect.
Nah. Shitty are just that. I actually fear the scum more than them lot.
Jay Z,
makes no sense whatsoever to put a good coach next to that authoritarian control freak of a manager just for him to be frustrated…
cesc wanted to go to barca, big deal – if it didn’t happen he still loves it here.
you can keep naming made up things if you want
- play in a red kit
- everyone is gay
- noone gives and shit and wants to lose
it’s good, but i’d rather debate with some sort of rational/logic.
the team don’t look demoralised to me at all, there seems to be a really good atmosphere in the squad to me, and some real belief, although not enough to beat chelsea
Yeah Steve B, but he’d have to have a mandate to not lick wengers ballsweat.
i don’t get the number two chat, it just doesn’t seem to have ANY logic behind the argument?!
Lurch,
I am not mentioning Spuds for the sake of good taste, but as far as I am concerned, we are on par with them at the moment and AW should be held responsible for allowing them to come so near us…
Later chaps. Down to 10% juice on the wank pad. Catch you in the trenches tomoz.
It really is just a desperation to find someone to blame. People have been blaming Wenger, and it’s gotten them nowhere, so lets just try and find someone else, ANYONE else.
We have no idea what Pat Rice’s duties are, nor how well he caries them out, but we can blame him and noone can call us on it.
yay!!
(direct quote of everyone slagging off pat rice)
A,
Wenger needs to be challenged, otherwise his ideas will become even more stale, that’s all…
Alchy is changing assistants often enough and it bears fruits, no?
I hear ya Suga.
how do you know if he’s challenging him suga?
Nite Lurch
A,
what do you mean by ‘gotten them nowhere’? Wenger is guilty of neglecting the obvious shortcomings of the team, so it is groundhog day season in season oit for a few past years…
it’s a cruel world, baby, adapt or fucking die…
all you see is him sitting next to AW, not saying a word and nodding…
I love Pat Rice, but this No1/No2 relationship is way past its sell by date IMO…
I wouldn’t say fergie is changing assistants loads, certainly not out of choice, queiroz moved on because he wanted a managerial role, and fergie wanted him back the second that didn’t work out.
an assistant manager’s job is performed behind the scenes and on the training ground, we have LITERALLY no idea how well he does it
Suga3, whether its No.1 or No.2 i just know that something has to change if things dont start improving.
lol you mean in the dugout suga?!
if ANY assistant manager argued with the manager whilst a match was ongoing then he’d firstly be a fucking idiot, and secondly be sacked.
no football team could work if an assistant caused problems in the dugout, there is no way that if he disagreed with something his saying so whilst the match was going on could have ANY positive benefit, it would just cause hostility/confusion!
an assistant manager’s job once the game has kicked off is to help carry our the agreed strategy. if he disagreed with it he’d say so before the game. to do so during the match would be so counter-productive and just plain stupid that there isn’t a manager in professional football let alone the prem LET ALONE at the top level who would ever accept that
judging by the results, not well enough – to be frank, I don’t give a fuck about how much of a father figures these two are to our ‘young’ (haha) players…
I am going to the game and I am expecting passion, dedication and fighting tooth and nail for the win, not some wank performances like against WBA – the blame lies with the management for allowing for the complacency to rise its ugly head…
strategy? what strategy? we are approaching every game the same way, the maximum amount of ‘change’ is switching from 4-3-3 to 4-5-1 for tough away games…
Wenger is no tactician and has been found out by the managers with a little bit of brains and experience…
he doesn’t ‘love’ it here, he just ‘still likes’ the club and that is a big fucking difference – ‘we lack winning mentality’, how does that sound when said in public by the captain? if that is not washing your dirty linen in public, then I don’t know what is…
‘belief’ does not defeat the better, never have, never will, simple as…
SUGA3 everyone knows we lack a winning mentality, that won’t and can’t be rectified until we win something.
That isn’t washing dirty linen in public in the slightest.
i agree, at west brom there was complacency to a ridiculous degree, and that is unacceptable. hopefully that’s the kick in the teeth needed so that it doesn’t happen again this season, or even longer!
A,
these players are not youngsters anymore, they should know what they are doing and put their back into earning the wages they are on…
I mean, if the cotton wooling and praise did not work, it’s time to change the course, I want some of these primadonnas to be fucking petrified at the very thought of failure!
at my work, I have a chick who just does not give a flying fuck and keeps getting away with it – the other team members suffer due to bigger workload and yet she can’t be disciplined, as the only way to do so at this point is to sack her, which would just result in dumping her stuff on my desk as well as the others – it’s a no win situation and the blame lies with the management for ignoring the voices of discontent from other staff members – do you think it’s any different in sports?
as for the washing of the dirty linen in public, this is not a statement for the captain to make in the gutter press, it’s as simple as that – it is demoralising…
huh SUGA, what does that mean?
You can ONLY get a winning mentality from winning, that’s the long and short of it.
If I thought the players weren’t trying or didn’t care then what you’ve said would have some relevance. As it is I consider it to have NOTHING to do with anything.
Cesc didn’t make it in the gutter press, he made it in spain, alongside saying that it wasn’t an insult to the club that he wanted to go to barca, because that’s always been his dream, but he still loves the club and will do everything he can to win trophies with the club etc etc.
Liverpool sounds like they are on their knees, so it will be a while till they get up off the carpet and “Never walk alone”
Oh dear. I guess getting absolutely dumped on in their own dung hill is too much for the bitter & twisted wagon burners to take
Bye, bye wagon burners. I won’t be seeing you soon
I wonder what the odds are on Alex ‘Shooooot’ Hleb scoring against us?
Cameron Jerome is a doubt, I’d rather see Zigic starting as he’s struggling to adapt to this league so far even though it’s at home.
Good thing cuz Jerome rapped Sagna the last time. Or was that Victor Mosses?
“But nine times out of ten it doesn’t work so nine times you are in a bad situation.
“It’s not every corner of the street you find a billionaire who comes in and buys your debt out”
————————–
Hmmm….
Lets see,
Mancity, NewCastle, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool, ManU rich consortium are waiting to buy from the Glazers,
9 of out 10?
Your math is very off Boss.
No idea I think he was a threat against us at St Andrews in March earlier this year where we drew thanks to that Almunia howler.
He’s very inconsistent but he’s got decent pace and power, he scored only 10 goals last season then again Birmingham didn’t score many goals overall.
They’ve bought Zigic and Derbyshire to try to solve their goalscoring problems but they’ve yet to settle but they also conceded more goals away from home than they did at home.
Morning Fellas….back to real action…awesome
..
Any one here knows,how long Kozzer is out…?
Good that Kolshi*ieny is not playing today.Or else,Brum would have smashed a few goals past us
SIG
even Arsenal don’t know how long their players will be sidelines
Kushagra
Sorry mate u r absolutely wrong …. absololobollutely wrong
‘
‘
‘
‘
even GOD doesnt know how long arsenal players will be sidelined
There is no god Sabeel I thought I’d explained that.
Morning!
Besides Denis is in Holland at the moment working with Ajax.
Wenger on lying.
“If you ask me have I lied to the press to protect a player, I must honestly say yes,” Wenger said.
“I didn’t feel comfortable but I had a clear conscience because it was for a good cause.
Is lying to fill season ticket demand a good cause too!?
Lurch
u have no evidence
Neither do you.
Ofcourse we do have…:) u dont believe in it thats all
at one point u also believe in non-believing,hence there is nothing wrong in the act of “believeing”
If you are willing to work hard put your mind on the line ,willing to make sacrifices you will realise that goed does exist but you need to be prepared for a long journey bro.
Haha. This could be a long day.
Your telling me that life, the earth – the speck of dust sitting in a potentially multi dimensional universe is manipulated by a deities fanciful and moralising inclinations. Cmon Sabeel, man created god to get one over the illiterate.
There will be a god one day, posthuman and caable of wielding quantum force but again it will be a product of our imagination.
that one was for Lurch
Lurch
i can go to atomic level too…but we know theist-athiest battles are long and non-ending..lets not waste our time on this
Of course Geoff exists.
Cheers Kush. I think I’m the only one on here who’s prepared to bat the atheist wicket.
See what I did there.
Lurch
that’s the problem bro what jesus ,mohammad,kabir wrote or the others wrote was manipulated by the kings or others for their benefits leaving an enquiring mid disillusioned but if u go to the depth u will find some reasoning there,in string theory of universe they say physics is harmony chemistry is melody and the mind of god is a sound current that thing is already being told by jesus as LAGOS, Kabir as Dhun u need to go into depth bro
Touché.
Well have to meet up one day and have a beer over it.
I could believe in a sound current.
*mind
I believe in 442.
What is wrong with Le Grove today?
Pedro must have had a late night again.
Morning all, on the toot last night with Pedro and his brother, so wasn’t sure who was writing today, it was me I guess! New post.
As if by magic!
Has Pedro been kidnapped?
If we follow something blindfolded no difference btw an Atheist and theist .I suggest you to read God Whispers Creation thunders and hoping to meet u sometime Lurchy
for all you believers and non-believers out there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russels_teapot
off to Kent to put some finishing touches on the house before handing it over to the landlord