Quick post this morning, as I’m making sweet content in Berlin today.
Holland are back, Germany are in a death spiral as a nation. If only they had Ozil to rally the troops?! Great to see the Oranje back in business. They have some very exciting young players that are no doubt going to start peppering the sides of the elite very soon. De Ligt looks a really exciting defender, would love Arsenal to move on him.
Funny how nations just run out of good players for a bit. The cycle of success is interesting to watch. My theory is it’s all down to formulas. Countries find a way of making players great in the moment, they rest on their success, their methods become stale, they have to start again. It’s incredible a game as simple as football can advance so quickly and leave people behind. Every 5 years the game is unrecognizable. Better fitness, smarter tactics, more technically gifted players… it just gets better and better.
In France, Thierry Henry has decided his future is at Monaco. Our goalscoring hero has taken over the reins from Le Grove favourite Leo Jardim. It’s a very odd move whichever way you look at it. Their current coach has battled the mighty PSG, won a league and constantly dealt with an exodus of players. Now he pays a hefty price to a novice 10 games into a season.
For Jardim, his fate is the same as the one Wenger faced a Monaco. He’ll weather the storm and get another good job. For Thierry, he’s been handed the keys to a huge first job. I’m excited to see what he can do. Does his obsession with football translate into being a good coach? Is he going to be able to deal with players that are lesser beings than he? Can he shake that moody persona and be a man people go to war for? Is he technically good enough? He needs all of those items. Just being a great striker 10 years ago isn’t enough in a game that has grown to be incredibly complex.
If he is all of the above, we’ll be looking at the next Arsenal manager. If he isn’t, well, he’ll just have to stay at smaller clubs until he learns. Oli Kay wrote a piece yesterday about the rise of the designer manager. Lamps, Gerrard and Thierry have all taken jobs with little experience. It’s either inspired or hopeful. My guess is a lot of it is hopeful. Maybe not so much with Thierry because at least he’s spent a lot of time around Europe learning. He also assisted Martinez to the semi of a World Cup.
It is tantalizing that the south of France is Paddy and Thierry. Who will win out? We shall see… likely drinking a batch of 2018s vintage champagne, which apparently folk are extremely optimistic about, next summer as the saga plays out.
The Mirror report that Emery was the architect behind pulling the Ramsey deal. He wants to make more of an impact on the squad next year and is keen to reduce the wage bill to make room for his own players. We’re again being linked with Sarr, the exciting young winger from Rennes. He could be the next Dembele, could also be the next Gervinho. Guy has a lot of sauce about him.
We’ve also been linked with Kai Havertz, the German kid ripping up trees at Leverkusen. Apparently, he had to miss a European match last season because he was doing his exams.
I am all for young exciting players coming to Arsenal. Rip out the old guard, start afresh, make Arsenal the factory for elite youth in the Premier League.
Finally, Aaron Ramsey has been linked to United. Good luck with that mate. I assume he’s going to unlock Pogba, or Lukaku or Sanchez? That place is a steaming pile of shite. I’m not sure I’d be taking my career there, but who cares at this point.
Right, that’s me done!
Jamie
Pedro can easily block him out if he so desires.
Maybe Pedro has opened a Russian language service.
Joey has a sickening obsession with Wenger 🙂
Dissenter.
It was brought up that we were being laughed at by players
Why hate the player for laughing at us
We were a laughing stock. It was embarrassing.
Spain 0 England 2
The Russian is offering paid review/feedback services. Ramsey’s agent should give him a shout, see if it helps with drumming up some interest in his client from other clubs for 200k a week.
His email address checks out.
CR7
I haven’t forgiven him and Wenger for the Champions league semi final defeat. I still feel the pain till this day.
That defeat hurt me more than the 8-2 or the 6-0 by the Chavs.
0 – 3
I rated Seedorf highly another top top midfielder.
Maguire has not been all that this game but the rest of the team is doing a good job.
Kane has been world class so far tonight.
England aren’t that shit now are they ?
before…..Steve perryman or Gary Mabbutt..
Now…..has to be shearer..
mystic
You hate Lampard did you hear the supposed story about him on 9 -11? It will be no surprise that Terry was there as well.
“England aren’t that shit now are they ?”
Not watching but yeas they are. 99.9999999% of England players are also cunts of the highest magnitude. Almost as if it’s a requirement to get into the national squad over here.
What story is that Marc ?
I always thought England would be better with wingers playing off Kane rather than 2 up front.
A much more organic formation for the team.
duke
You don’t rate Spain?
Spanish players are being right Cunts
ddk -not duke
Marc what story? Do tell.
I never hated him as a human, just hated the fact he was consistently excellent and broke many records along the way.
Pierre, how does. humble pie actually taste?
For me it’s Drogba
That cunt traumatized many Arsenal fans during his Chavs days and would usually score against us
Hon’ble mention to the little prick G. Neville.. That slimy little prick
A Milner would calm these youngsters down.
Un na
“Scholes was a better player than Modric.”
Scholes was a very good player, but this is just dumb. Un na should be binned for bad takes. Really bad takes.
The difference between the two are modric could dictate a game from start to finish.
Scholes was a baller no one can ever deny it. His range of passing and goals he scored especially those crazy volleys. I don’t think they are miles apart, but I may be wrong.
Bamford,
““Scholes was a better player than Modric.”
I’m not sure it’s necessarily wrong. It’s certainly not far fetched.
Scholes was as good as Modric and he was a lot tougher.
Do you realize that Scholes won 11 Premier League titles and two Champions League titles.
Let that sink in.
I think as gooners we sometimes forget how good that United core were, maybe because we were direct rivals with them at the time.
We hated them so much it easy to lose sight of how much they won.
Scholes vs Modric is incredibly even a match, to suggest it isn’t is the only dumb thing going.
No wonder it took 20 years for you to land a team with the clear inability to pick up the game.
Dissenter
Nah, there’s no forgetting that. You’ve got to be will fully ignorant to ignore how good a side that was with Fergie directing matters. Class of ‘92 were un-fucking-real.
If you can’t come to terms with that because you wave the Pom poms of another team you’re a tampon of a human imo. They were phenomenal.
Dissenter Sorry, but the 90 England side was not better than the 90 Germany side. The England defenders, for example, were: Mark Wright Paul Parker Des Walker Terry Butcher Stuart Pearce Not really all that impressive. The German defenders were: Klaus Augenthaler Thomas Berthold Guido Buchwald Jürgen Kohler Andreas Brehme Pretty damn good, and much better than their English counterparts. And the midfield and forward lines were at best a draw for the English. The 90 German side may not have played the world’s most stylish football, but they were still quite good (think Matthaus, Brehme, Hassler, Voller, Klinsmann) and… Read more »
Stefano
I’m glad you pay such close attention to my work. Benteke did have more upside and athleticism than Le Lamppost, but in the end he didn’t have enough of the other things that go into making a top forward. I got that wrong; so too did others, and everyone gets things wrong from time to time.
I was correct about Giroud, though: he was never good enough to be our number one.
And I was also correct about Wenger: you and Charlie got that important question wrong.
Spain must be proper shit
https://youtu.be/JB1QiaF2Nyk
Ahhhh.. Anyone?
Always nice to beat the Spanish.
Bunch of wankers.
Spain 2 – England 3
Get in there !
Dissenter
I don’t need to think again about how good Scholes was. He was actually always one of my favorite English players and I have a good deal of respect for him. He did not have the technical quality of a Modric, however, and he would never in a million years be in the running for World Player of the Year, an award that Modric just won. Great player; not a Galactico.
Bin ford, are you a f**king masochist?
Your gimp-like attempts at drawing attention to your inedaquacies are almost impressive. To come onto an English based website and argue that the German team of 1990 was clearly better than the England side is futile and ridiculous.
‘You’ll never beat Des Walker’; Gascoigne at his best; Lineker at his best….
Even a German supporter would accept that they were lucky to get past England.
What are you trying to prove?
If Scholes had gone to Real Madrid he may have been in the running for World player of the year.
Bamford
It’s impossible to ascertain who was better in the 1990 world cup semifinal from looking at the team sheet.
Unless you watched that game contemporaneously, you would never know.
England dominated Germany and Germany were actually playing for penalties.
World player of the year means nothing..sorry but that’s true.
There are excellent players in the Messi vs Ronaldo years that never got a mention.
Besides everyone knows there’s an anti-premier league bias.
Bob
No, they weren’t. Sorry. And what I expect of Le Grove is what anyone who has been coming here for years expects of Le Grove: objectivity, impartiality, critical thinking. That’s why this is an Arsenal blog where people criticize Arsenal players and managers.
Dissenter
“there’s an anti-premier league bias.”
This is pure hooey. Just as much nonsense as Pierre’s the-refs-have-it-out-for-Arsenal bullshit.
The best players and the best teams have been outside of the PL for a long time now. This is just a basic fact.
Kane was outstanding tonight.
Chilwell did a very good job as well, as did Gomez.
Impressed with the effort of Sterling and Rashford as well.
Dissenter
Guy, not only did I watch all of those games in 90; I recorded them and re-watched them many times. I had a library of games from that tourney. Please stop making silly assumptions.
Dick swinging Banford living his best life tonight, mum must be out the house.
Charlie, as usual, supplies us with dumb, meaningless ad hominems.
Bob
Just ignore the mug. He feeds off negative attention.
Scholes was better than modric. He put Barca out in 2008 with a beauty. He was a goal scoring midfielder, then box to box then a quarter back.
His one touch game, his vision, his calm were astounding.
Banford
You’re not qualified to call anything or anyone dumb, let’s get that straight.
Charlie
*mom
Bamford
Maybe
But that doesn’t mean that the modern players are better than they were 10-15 years ago. Prime Scholes was better than any midfielder in the world today. Pogba could t touch him. The only one who gets close is modric but not close enough.
Xavi Hernandez: Paul Scholes is a role model. For me – and I really mean this – he’s the best central midfielder I’ve seen in the last 15, 20 years.
I’ve spoken to Xabi Alonso about him. He’s spectacular, he has it all: the last pass, goals, he’s strong, he doesn’t lose the ball, vision. If he’d been Spanish he might have been rated more highly. Players love him
Zinedine Zidane: My toughest opponent? Scholes of Manchester. He is the complete midfielder. Scholes is undoubtedly the greatest midfielder of his generation.
Marcello Lippi: Paul Scholes would have been one of my first choices for putting together a great team – that goes to show how highly I have always rated him. An all-round midfielder who possesses quality and character in abundance.
Un
I do like De Bruyne and he got it all both footed.
I always like the Ronaldo story about Scholes and the tree
Has anyone else noticed comments post really fast now? Literally a flash of Brazilian bum and you’re back. It use to be a little bit of a load time.
Cesc
True.
Un na
Yeah, I’m not disputing that Scholes was excellent. He was. But he didn’t have Modric’s technical quality and he would never have won a World Player of the Year award. Not IMO.
What exactly makes modric so special? World player of the year? Please
Scholes was a class act. I actually got more joy watching a prime Fabregras than watching Modric now…class player but nothing special
Maybe because a world player of the year award is a meaningless award
Anyone know who Henry’s #2 is at Monaco?
“Maybe because a world player of the year award is a meaningless award“
Ding ding ding. I think most normal football fans understand this, his type however tend to use this type of thing as ‘evidence’ of something.
Aaron Ramsey won fans player of the year last year for Arsenal if you didn’t know, which obviously denotes his respective quality. At least that’s the view of some….
Spain unbeaten at home in 15 years till tonight
Paul Scholes was an exceptional player who, if given the opportunity to play for RM /Barcelona/ Milan etc, would have probably won the balloon d’Or.
Zidane’s favourite player.
Still waiting to hear this story about lampard and JT on 9-11 ?!…. anyone shed any light ?
Here”s something that should make all fellow gooners proud to think we have a player of such quality at our club . I’m sure you will join me in wishing Mesut Ozil a happy birthday and hope that he continues to be the leader in creativity on the football pitch. “To mark Mesut Ozil’s 30th birthday, German stats outlet OptaFranz revealed that the Arsenal playmaker has created more chances than anybody else over the past 12 years. The former Real Madrid man has created a whopping 1033 chances in league football since the data started being collected across the Premier… Read more »
Scholes not only had technical ability, he was also one of the best strikers of a ball I’ve ever seen.
Scored some wonderful goals.
There is no doubt for me that Paul Scholes is still in a class of his own. He’s almost untouchable in what he does. I never tire of watching him play. You rarely come across the complete footballer, but Scholes is as close to it as you can get. One of my regrets is that the opportunity to play alongside him never presented itself during my career.” [25]
Zinedine Zidane, August 2010
Un na
Fuck off mate, Banford is a student of the game for 30 years have some respect.
Lil p been having some “me time” over that article…..
At La Masia (Barcelona’s Academy) his name was mentioned a lot. He’s a teacher.” [38] Lionel Messi Scholes was probably the best English midfielder since Bobby Charlton. Since I have been in England, Paul Gascoigne was the best of those who could lift you from your seat. In his last few years, Paul Scholes elevated himself above Gascoigne. One, for longevity, and two, for improving himelf in his thirties. He was such a brilliant long passer that he could choose a hair on the head of any team-mate answering the call of nature at our training ground. Gary Neville once… Read more »
Its actually amazing how many different sporting and non sporting outlet wished Mesut Ozil happy birthday. Maybe Ramsey should consider the reach he has and the fact he has more footballing talent in his little toe than Ramsey has in his entire body before seeking pay parity with him.
Its funny Bamford was raging and asking someone get banned for comparing Scholes to Modric. Modric himself will thank you for such a comparison.
Receding
I said that earlier about Ozil. It’s the factor of his contract that gets overlooked too often in reality. Yes, it’s an excessive amount, and it was a back to the wall deal he profited from, but Ozil IS our commercial lightning rod.
Ramsey by contrast offers near fuck all commercially, down in 8/9th in terms of popularity based on shirt sales whilst Mesut is comfortably number 1 despite being pretty gash by his standards for a while now.
Ray Parlour revealed the Arsenal team thought they couldn’t win the league with “useless” Thierry Henry after he went 7 games without a goal.
Didn’t Laca receive similar condemnation from a few on here?
Yea sure, he’s not near Thierry but Laca is a striker we could win the league with no doubt.
Charlie Ozil is one of the top ten marketable players on the planet. Many tend to overlook that here but I don’t.
It was interesting to note how giddy man united fans got when they thought he was moving to them…it would have been a commercial coup.
CC
yes he has been poor but it’s been a bit of a stop start year .. give him time ,he won’t want to go below Iwobi and welbeck in the pecking order ..
The choice for him is to either up his game of move on.
Bamford
I asn’t suggesting that ou don’t atch the 1990 world cup in real time.
I was merely pointing out that the team list do not reflect the actual games
Netherlands had the most loaded team and were European champions at the time. They didn’t make it past the first round.
Receding
FAncy us to go a bit mental next season in that respect with Ozil and Arsenal being Adidas partners. He’ll be on double time commercially.
Charlie
Actually, the Arsenal brass thought Lacazette looked unconvincing after his eight game drought. That’s why they went out and spent £60m on another center forward (Aubameyang).
And when Aubameyang arrived, he started immediately and Lacazette went straight to the bench.
Yes, Lacazette has improved since then and is currently looking like a decent striker, but there was good reason not to be won over by him in his first four months.
And he remains no RVP, or Aguero, or Suarez, or that level of striker.
“Some of the Eng;ishy players should have taken foreigh sounding names. It would have helped their perception among their country men/women,” Not a bad idea… Lampardi, Gerardi, Ronneldo etc. Seriously, I think there’s ideally another test for WC vs rest. A WC player is usually courted by most top clubs in top leagues AND many play in different top leagues too. A well known ‘problem” that many excellent (@ domestic level) English players for whatever reasons didn’t realise the ‘wC’ potential when they don’t play anywhere but the PL granted it’s the most exciting in the world. Not a must… Read more »
“Actually, the Arsenal brass thought Lacazette looked unconvincing after his eight game drought. That’s why they went out and spent £60m on another center forward (Aubameyang)“
Classic example of opinion masquerading as fact.
Let’s ignore that we sold Theo and Giroud, it’s almost like you’re desperate to serve our own POV regarding Lacazette.
I know…not like you at all
Let’s get this straight the balon d’or and world player of the year awards are ridiculous pieces of pointless shit honestly. The year a defender (Cannavaro) won it over Henry after the season he had should tell you what you need to know about it. Dani Alves was in the world 11 and he’s been shite for a few years now hell even Iniesta was in it in recent years and let’s be honest he’s been phoning it in for a while. Pointless shite so when someone cites that in a discussion about this player being better than that player… Read more »
Let’s get this straight the balon door and world player of the year awards are ridiculous pieces of pointless shit honestly. The year a defender (Cannavaro) won it over Henry after the season he had should tell you what you need to know about it. Alves was in the world 11 and he’s been shite for a few years now hell even Iniesta was in it in recent years and let’s be honest he’s been phoning it in for a while. Pointless shite so when someone cites that in a discussion about this player being better than that player take… Read more »
Bamford
You mean wenger wanted another striker
A man who’s judgement you’d do almost anything to disassociate yourself with.
Brass had no say according to some of your previous posts
I think everyone who does not agree 100% with Bamford should be binned.
If England were so good in 1990, why did they need the referees help to make it past Cameroon?
Good post marko
Very true
Scholes was a baller, no doubt. However, let’s not pretend he was the English Pele.
I can see the comparison with Modric tho, nothing heretic there.
England were shit in 1990.
Belgium hit the post twice and it took England a late late injury time goal in extra time to beat them.
Cameroon outplayed England.
The irony is England played their best game in the tournament against Germany and still were second best in the match.
Scholes was a dirty cheating cunt of a player.
I remember when Schooes kicked Jose Antonio Reyes off the pitch in that FA cup final at Villa park.
Schoolies was 5’6″ but had balls of an elephant.
It used to make me angry until recent recently. Now I find it mildly amusing because Reyes was as weak as they come.
Dissenter Anyone can go on a football pitch and kick someone..that doesn’t make you hard or brave. The bravest players imo are the ones who are prepared to put their foot on the ball and use their dribbling skills ,knowing that they would be chopped down at any given moment with no protection from the referee,especially in years gone by like the game at old Trafford when Reyes was repeatedly the victim of dangerous tackles without punishment to the opposition players. Basically you are saying that if it was Reyes doing the kicking instead of being kicked he wouldn’t be… Read more »
Charlie Walcott was not a CF, and Giroud was a back-up. Are you suggesting that Aubameyang was a replacement for Giroud and was signed as a back-up CF? For £60m? That’s a really expensive back-up. Or are you suggesting that Aubameyang was a replacement for Walcott and was signed as a wide player? Except that he wasn’t. He was signed as a CF. Which is why he was our starting CF immediately upon arrival and Lacazette was relegated to the bench. They spent £60m on a starting CF in January they believed we needed a starting CF, and they believed… Read more »
Red
Glad someone remembers that that 90 team was not really all that great. Good, not great, and definitely not the best team in the tournament.
Michael
I think you should try spelling “Michael” correctly.
Un Na
Even if the decision to sign Aubameyang was entirely Wenger’s — I have my doubts about this — this wouldn’t touch my point in the least; my point is not that signing Aubameyang was the correct decision; my point is that they signed Aubameyang because they weren’t convinced by Lacazette.
Whether signing Auba was Wenger’s decision alone — or some combination of Gazidis, Mislintat and Wenger — is irrelevant to my point.
Imo Messi is the bravest footballer in the game because he knows that the only way teams can stop him is to kick him off the pitch but he continually takes players on without fear. I know the players receive more protection today but he is fearless on the ball. Mesut Ozil is the opposite,as much I like parts of his game ,he is weak and very rarely attempts to dribble last an opponent because he plays with fear . Sane of man city, I feel is prepared to put his neck on the line by using his dribbling skills… Read more »
Bamford
“I think you should try spelling “Michael” correctly.”
Are you trying to tell someone how to spell their own name ….
on dear ,it Looks like it could be another Bamford foot in mouth moment.
Micheal is the Irish spelling of Michael fyi.
Saying ‘Micheal’ is an incorrect spelling is pretty ignorant.
Ah Pierre, you beat me to it.