Considering the transfer window is firmly shut, it’s unsurprising that my thoughts have been entirely on the on-field action. However, away, from the pitch, Arsenal have also been making plenty of headlines. With some brief respite in our fixture list, here’s a quick look at some of the major contractual shenanigans of the last fortnight:
Tomas Rosicky’s new deal
The timing of the announcement of this deal is significant. Contract negotiations are a long, drawn-out process: Rosicky and the club will have been in talks over the past few months. Had a deal been concluded and made public eight weeks or so ago, the fan reaction would have been very different. At that stage Rosicky looked a shadow of the player Arsenal signed from Dortmund in 2006.
His recent form, however, has been startling, and I for one am delighted to see him staying. I don’t buy the argument that he’s been “playing for a new contract” – as I’ve already stated, Arsenal will have decided to try and extend his deal some time ago. It’s possible he’s been boosted by the manager’s show of faith. What’s far more likely is that he’s benefitting from his first run of starts in years. His combination of game-accelerating turns and passing and quite immaculate slide-tackles have been a vital component in our recent good run.
Handing Rosicky a two-year deal also represents a change of policy for Arsene Wenger, who had previously only offered players over thirty one year extensions. There will have been various factors involved in that gear-shift, many of them economic, but he has also doubtless been influenced by seeing the value of experienced squad members at other clubs, like Manchester United. The influence of Thierry Henry during his brief return to the club doubtless also gave Arsene food for thought.
The possible arrival of Lukas Podolski
The latest on this is that Dave Woods of the Daily Star reports that Podolski has now undertaken and passed a medical for Arsenal. This would not surprise me, and it’s worth noting that the Star are very close to certain influential members of the Arsenal hierarchy. It seems that whilst there are a few details of the transfer to iron out, Koln, Arsenal and Podolski all seem to have a determination for the deal to be done.
It’s hard to argue that this is anything but a good signing. A fee of little over £10m for a player with almost 100 caps for Germany is extraordinary business. Anyone who has seen Podolski play for Germany will have admired his pace, finishing, and ability to break quickly from the left-flank. This season, he’s been in great goalscoring form, and after an ill-fated spell at Bayern Munich a few years back will be determined to make his mark at a big European club.
At 26, he is another example of the shifting age profile of Arsene’s signings. Should the deal be completed he’ll add another finisher to the squad – something that the likes of Marouane Chamakh and Ju-Young Park have been unable to provide.
The future of Robin van Persie
Some have speculated that Podolski could be arriving as a replacement for Robin van Persie. That is certainly not Arsene’s plan. The club will make every effort to keep Van Persie, and hope to be able to deploy him alongside the German in our front three.
I can’t pretend to know what Robin will decide to do, but my gut tells me that if he feels Arsenal can challenge credibly for trophies in the next three years, he will stay. He loves the club, he loves the role of captain, and he wants to make it work. His decision will be influenced more by ambition than by money: Arsenal will be happy to make him the highest-paid player in their history.
Jan Vertonghen
The Times are reporting that Spurs are about to beat Arsenal to the signing of this Belgian defender. Good luck to them: my information is that Arsenal are not interested in signing a centre-half this summer. Whilst I don’t doubt we have kept a watchful eye on a talent like Vertonghen, Arsene currently believes the quartet of Koscielny, Vermaelen, Mertesacker and Djourou, with Miquel and Song available as back-up, is strong enough. And I’d be inclined to agree.
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Right, that’s yer lot. Now back to the football.
Happy for Rosicky and the club!
Things are finally looking a bit brighter! Come on you gunners!
greetings from Malaysia
Wenger must go
You deduced that all by yourself?
And who do you think should replace him?
Don`t know? Thought so.
Weg has a large penis. Let’s ask Weg!
The ‘Cat’ is a Spud fed up of losing year in year out, since 99 years already just only noisy neighbours …. hahahaha
Top cat, if wenger leaves will ur father be able to coach the club? we dont want people like tou in Arsenal so please ur very free to support clubs like Barca, Madrid or Enyimba of Aba.
I love rosicky as a player, always have but even I had pretty much gave up on the idea of him doing a job for us at the top level. All credit to him, he has proved me and I’m sure many others wrong and I’m more than happy for him to commit for another two years.
Djourou is another story. If we could ship him out and bring Vertonghen in that would be an amazing and for me we would have the best defence we’ve had in 10 years. Add podolski, m’villa, gotze/ hazard (if I was dreaming both) and RVP WOULD stay and we would be without question ready to end our trophy drought!
dont really think gotze and hazard is possible, not even just the one. and i dont know why you would interrupt AOC’s rise.. between AOC, Walcott, Gevinho, Podolski and myachi we will cause enough damage on the wing.. perhaps if wenger though it was wise to use walcott and/or podolski more centrally a more appropriate target for us would be hoilett.
deploying djourou seams unlikely especially since he recently signed a contract extension himself. Vertonghen would be great for us but became available at the wrong time.. i think mert is more than adequate. slow yes but makes it up in positioning and inelegance.
Our defence needs sorting out, Djourou, Miquel just don’t cut it. Get these 2 out and 2 new ones in. Chamahk, Gelatin, Denilson, Diaby and Arshavin need to be shown the door too. Bring in Vertonghen as he can play left back and defensive midfielder which we need as back up to Song. Flapianski needs to go as well and we should get in a new 2nd goal keeper so we don’t worry when Schezny is injured. That position we only have 1 good player. Another strikers added wouldn’t go a miss either. Let Wenger work his magic on that one. Bring back Henry as a player coach maybe?
Miquel is useles??!?!?! Please check the matches he has played…he has been solid and still he is a kid. He’ll definitely get better having mentors like Mert, Verminator and Kos.
Nice. Like it, there are far to many having a go at our defence based on nothing but media speculation.
the injuries we have had would cripple any team.
Gibbs & Santos, Sagna & Jenkinson at full backs, TV, GFG, Kos for the starting 2 places….
I’m happy with that.
I agree that we don’t need Vertonghen. If we didn’t have Mert then I’d say he was good value to alternate with TV and Kos. Mert loves the club and we performed well at the back with him. I’d like to see Bartley and Miguel given chances and Wenger flogging Squid and DJ.
I’d love to see us get a winger that can dance through defenders like Ronaldo or Nani can unless Ryo is already at that level.
I’d happily upgrade Djourou. The rest of the defence just needs to stay fit.
I agree with all this but am massively concerned with: “Arsene currently believes the quartet of Koscielny, Vermaelen, Mertesacker and Djourou, with Miquel and Song available as back-up, is strong enough”
Djouorou is a menace, a saboteur and a totally crap footballer. No coincidence i think that our resurgence has come at the time that he has had no part to play (Also that Mertesacker has had no part to play).
Ship one of these guys out (or both, although i think they will not push out Mertesacker to be fair to him) and invest in Vertonghen. We already pay Djourou a ridiculous amount for someone of such low standards and without that wage bill, no sign on fee to talk of for Vertonghen we would have an amazingly experienced, powerful, and driven back four largely devoid of mistakes and idiocy.
Mind the GAP!
I agree Djourou is not good enough, he’s good at talking but thats about it !
with rosicky 31 and arteta 29 (next week) the two eldest starting 11 players, do you think we will hold on to benayoun 30 next season? or do you think players like ryo, lansbury, ozyakup will be given the nod.
Are you all mad! Course we need Vertongen! Djourou is useless, he had had more then enough chances to prove is worth and has more then proved that he isnt good enough for Arsenal! Gibbs is injury prone and we have no world class back up for Song. Vertonghen is perfect as he can play all over the defence and holding midfield. Plus he is friends with TV plus he is 6 foot 2 and PLUS he is far better then Merescaker who has proved to be a liability and too slow for the premier league. Miguel still a kid, Squillaci useless and guess what, we concede in almost every game!
Good point that we are still conceding in every game. That is a clear sign that OUR BACKLINE IS NOT FIXED. However, I’m not sure it’s just down to the capabilities of the players. I think all of them are competent but we definitely need a stronger defensive coach. If not we could sign God and still concede needless goals.
I’m really glad to see Podolski, especially for this value!! What a steal. Mario Goetze however seems to be really swelling our midfield, unless we can somehow offload Gervinho. He has a few good plays but is really too inconsistent and have not shown great potential. Ox/Podolski/Walcott/Goetze is much more interesting. And that is before Joel Campbell coming back.
I have a strange feeling that we will move to having 2 forwards soon, maybe a CF and SS. Especially if we buy Mario Goetze (please do). AW could be thinking of moving Walcott/Podolski as SS or CF.
Well this is pure speculation but I have no idea how he wants to fit all this midfielders. But guess he know half of them will spend the season in treatment for any period of time.
Totally agree
You guz got it wrong per mertatersekar is a gud player but u pple refuse 2 study d way he play is game,truly we needed verogen cos of injury plus he can play in any where in d defence line gud addition bt per is a gud player ok.wenar know some player he av 2 cash on n d one he as 2 bring in but per is a gud defender we miss is pairing wit kosheni ok
Good shout about the star & podolski…. It’s well known that PHW uses that as his mouthpiece but I’d have to disagree with you about Djourou though. I don’t think he is good enough, He’s tactically poor and too inconsistant. I’d much prefer to see Vertonghen at Arsenal and I think, if truth be known, so would 99.9% of Arsenal fans
Arsenal need Jan Vertongen ….. Djourou out for reasons obvious! Poldoski if all is true over the web will be a good partner upfront for RVP. Ryo coming in next season will give other attacking flair with his pace and ball intelligence jus see his performance at Bolton. Players that must be shown the door > Squilacchhhi, Djourou, Park, Denilson, Chamakah, Andre…[maybe] Fabianskiii just a start for now!
Those that need to be purchased Poldoski, Jan Vert, M’villa, Mathias Suarez,
Please keep Arsharvin. I have no idea why but please. Maybe just because I want a Russian on the bench. Or the promise of a sprinkle of magic. Or just reward for scoring the winning goal against Barca.
But it’s bye bye Squid, Chamakh, Denilson (who?), Bendtner, Benayoun (thanks), Park (why did we do this??)
Why are people forgetting about bartley? And we should know that any defender who comes in will be 4th choice, unless it is an established world-class player(which won’t happen, vertonghen is about the same level as vermaelen was 2 years ago). I’m pretty sure none of mert, vermaelen, vertonghen or kozzer will accept being 4th choice. Bartley can come in.
At left-back, we do need a player. I think we should go for a youngster from the championship and integrate him in at reserve level. Find a left-footed jenkinson.
guz 4get abut old age, we jst need lik 3-4 solid new face in d team dem i promise u somtin we ar lokin 4 wil surely cm our way.
djourou ermmm…i think we better clear him as well. Replace with verthogen. Enuf with experiment, these player always let us down with shaky performance..
djourou is a must to go, he will never make it (or we will never make it with him in the side). hazard has never shown any desire to come but as soon as manu is mentioned hes keen, (so forget him).everyone else seems to have turned there form around brilliantly, and suddenly we are all happy. keep it up boys it’s good stuff again. colinc
GS “Arsene currently believes the quartet of Koscielny, Vermaelen, Mertesacker and Djourou, with Miquel and Song available as back-up, is strong enough. And I’d be inclined to agree.”
______________________________________
Completely wrong!!
Verm is too injury prone, great when fit tho.
Kos has been very good this year.
Mert is very very average, decent sub.
Dj is crap. Full stop.
Arsenal need to buy one more world class CB
Me said:
Completely wrong!!
Verm is too injury prone, great when fit tho.
Kos has been very good this year.
Mert is very very average, decent sub.
Dj is crap. Full stop.
Arsenal need to buy one more world class CB
————————
POINT, called it very well. Kosy has done well of late but he battles too much for me has a history of giving away pens and o.g’s. The best defenders do no battle with every Tom n Dick, campbell just handed people of, Keown drop people on their asses, the best do not battle they make it look easy, CBs need to be the strongest players on the pitch, Kos is not strong enough, anyone over 5’6 physically competes with him.
I feel him and Verm have a performance consistency of 7 or 7.5 in them. We need a 9 CB like campbell, Toure was a 7 but along side Sol he averaged 8, when so declined and left Toure downhill slide was apparent. I hope verm and Kos can improve further still. The German is to slow, Jan V looks a utility player and a half, LB is our weakest position.
All the talk of hazard, I hope we get Robben at podolski cut-price. It would be overmars at LW all over again, just give him the ball, 15 league goals minimum.
I couldn’t agree more. I am so happy Rosicky stayed with us, I would have been more disappointed than the day we lost Farbrgas, to Rosicky is as important as the two mid-field players that left us if not better. Let Djourou go if we find a dumb buyer and get Verthogen in his place, this will strengthen our back line even to cover the right back if needed. Another player to consider selling is our sloppy Golly, Schezney. I despise that player, his inability to clear the ball out of the box and his incredibly idiotic timing, realizing the ball to his back 4 putting them under pressure, to me he is worst than Almunia and 50% of the goals scored on us was his fault. We need a wiser golly, oh God we need that badly.
“Handing Rosicky a two-year deal also represents a change of policy for Arsene Wenger, who had previously only offered players over thirty one year extensions.”
“Right, that’s yer lot. Now back to the football.”
Sounds like Arseblog.
mine is to hail van persie if he will choose to stay at emirates to avoid the go slow in forming up like what nasri is now at man city he is’nt in the first 11 yet while his form is perishing unlike he could have choose to stay at emirates where he was credited in his play as the best player in the team and at his national team as well………..
Me said:
Completely wrong!!
Verm is too injury prone, great when fit tho.
Kos has been very good this year.
Mert is very very average, decent sub.
Dj is crap. Full stop.
Arsenal need to buy one more world class CB
————————
POINT, called it very well. Kosy has done well of late but he battles too much for me has a history of giving away pens and o.g’s. The best defenders do no battle with every Tom n Dick, campbell just handed people of, Keown drop people on their asses, the best do not battle they make it look easy, CBs need to be the strongest players on the pitch, Kos is not strong enough, anyone over 5’6 physically competes with him.
I feel him and Verm have a performance consistency of 7 or 7.5 in them. We need a 9 CB like campbell, Toure was a 7 but along side Sol he averaged 8, when so declined and left Toure downhill slide was apparent. I hope verm and Kos can improve further still. The German is to slow, Jan V looks a utility player and a half, LB is our weakest position.
All the talk of hazard, I hope we get Robben at podolski cut-price. It would be overmars at LW all over again, just give him the ball, 15 league goals minimum.
I would love some more Germans to accompany P’ski like lahm, schweinsteiger, and ozil.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_HpAXhBVik
The Complete Midfielder
Bah! That’s nothing… Don’t forget we already have a complete midfielder… who can tackle, dribble, shoot, pass and head… Alex Song!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwunav-HkUc
Contract negotiations are a long, drawn-out process: Rosicky and the club will have been in talks over the past few months.
Maybe this was the problem with Rosicky’s poor form. Trying to play football and discuss contract extensions simultaneously is very difficult for a professional footballer, especially at Arsenal. Look at Djourou too. Here’s more evidence to back this theory up. He’s been shit all season. I put that down to the distraction of negotiating a contract extension. Nasri admitted he couldn’t do both, and preferred to just concentrate on his game. Same with RVP, and he’s on fire.
Handing Rosicky a two-year deal also represents a change of policy for Arsene Wenger for the over thirties.
Silvestre was the exception to this rule, but hopefully this ridiculous self-restricting policy has been binned. The possible factors you’ve identified as to why Wenger has gear-changed are all very well, but why pussy-foot around and just come to the conclusion that it has taken several years for the penny to drop, and for Fergie to show him the way once again. A stupid policy that has seen us lose experienced players who still had something to offer as project youth took hold of Wenger.
Every time Wenger tries to rectify his fuck-ups, it’s called a ‘change in policy.’ Five signings on transfer deadline day after an 8-2 mauling was sheer panic buying, but described on this blog as a shift in transfer policy. The binning of the failed project youth is not the acceptance of a failed experiment, but a change in policy.
The AKB’s must be alarmed with all these changes in policies this season. After all, Wenger’s done such a great job in the last 5 years, why change it if it ain’t broke?
Errrr, I think your ignoring our players moving on the last day as well… Na$ri and Cesc weren’t as straight forward as you think, and it’s not like football Manager when you click a button and you’ve got a player.
as for the last five years… Eduardo’s injury seriously derailed a title challenge. 5 years of CL football… isn’t such a disaster.
You say it like there is no other teams are competeing for the league and it’s our God given right to win it.
Are thre that many spoilt kids that are Arsenal fans these days? It’s embarressing.
You should of tried watching Arsenal in the 80′s.
You’ve lost me.
I’ve given my thoughts on two ‘changes in policy’ made by GS. Where did I mention we should win the league?
I agree we shouldn’t hamper ourselves by giving 30-year olds only a 1 year extension. I’m just questioning why we had such a stringent non-negotiable policy in place to start with? Talk about shooting ourselves in the foot. If everyone wants to start praising Wenger for changing the policy, fine. That seems to be the way these days. We’ve got there in the end, it doesn’t matter how and why we got there, so let’s move on attitude. If only all jobs in the real world had such nonexistent accountability.
Likewise with the last day signings, called a ‘change in policy.’ This was just one big fuck up of a summer, nothing to do with a change in policy. Our policy was to make as much money as we could from our sales. The strength of the squad came secondary. You obviously know more about the situation though. To a layman like me, the fact that Nasri and Cesc clearly wanted out, and we needed to replace them is far too simplistic. Obviously these situations could only be resolved on the final day?
So if our transfer policy has changed, we can expect another farcical summer can we? RVP delays signing a contract; City and Madrid are linked with him all summer; Wenger can’t strengthen until the RVP situation is resolved: RVP signs for City in the final week; Wenger goes out shopping on 31 August for 5 new players, by which time we are only in the running for 4th again. Yes of course it was a change in policy.
How an Eduardo injury 4 years ago that ‘derailed’ our title chances is relevant to changes in policy goes over my head?
Don’t make us laugh …infact maybe you can tell us why the nasri and cesc deal were so badly managed because that is exacly how you would describe those transfers ……..
“Arsenal let me get to the point where I had just half-a-year on my contract and could talk to anyone I wanted.
“It started to get interesting because I had very lucrative offers. This turned my head a little, but I have to say that Arsenal were my priority.”
this is a quote from one of our players just the other day ….no one with a brain can say arsenal football club manage there playing staff correctly when it comes to contract negotiations as it is blatently obvious we are being porly managed for what ever reason …as the player above says his head was turned can you imagine the persie situation as he is gonna get offers that will break ya bloody neck let alone turn your head .Yet still we leave our selfs open to this very tiring sh1t every frigging year
Jesus christ mate. Yeah cause Nasri played so well from january til may, he was shit. Contract negotiation has nothing to do with anything. And Rosicky has been great since january and we should be happy about that. Fucking christ. I am not happy with much of AW`s work lately, but as long as we win we can`t complain all the time.
Selling Nasri for 25 mill was a coup, I admit at the time it seemed strange, but I mean he is so bad these days its sad.Did anyone see the Swansea game? Clichy has yet to learn how to stop players from crossing that damn ball.
It must be just coincidence that our shit players like Djourou, Denilson and Bendtner can sort out their lucrative contracts during a season, whereas players like Cesc, Nasri and RVP can’t?
But the change in policy will allow RVP to fuck us about all summer if he so wishes and drop us in the shit at the final hour? And it will be the player that gets lambasted if this happens, not the club for allowing it to happen. They’ll always come out of it smelling of roses. As long as Arsenal get the right price, whenever the sale is made, that will be the main priority of the summer. Then we’ll be able to go late night shopping again on 31 August.
Word Stevieo
So far the team as a whole has defended
creditably.If they can continue to defend as a unit,then there is no reason why third place cannot be achieved.I must stress defence is every gunner’s job and not for the full backs and centre halves.
I stiil have my doubts about the German guy. He could be beaten for pace and needs backup.
In a one on one encounter,I am 80 % sure ,he will have problems stopping the striker.
How pleasing to see the gunners have started to make less passes. I still feel the breakout from the gunners box after the opposing team has a corner kick is too slow to take advantage of the space.
Now if they can break out fast enough,more goals could be scored.
DJ is a good player and very decent for a 4th choice CB. You have all forgotten he was our best defender for long periods last yr and really came on. He’s short on confidence and has bn deployed at rb which he finds very uncomfortable lacking awareness against slippery wingers.
I think Mert is more of a liability because Arsenal is unable to play the high line they currently deploy to good effect. Its why Rosiky Song and Arteta look more effective in midfield as better able to press. Mert was a mistake imo we needed a faster more athletic CB. We’re stuck with him so with Wenger unable to adapt tactics to players, expect a few heart in mouth moments when arsenal employ the off-side. Any pacey striker will relish the opportunity
I think DJ, Lansbury, Bartley will still be here because of the 8 home grown rule. we cannot go out and simply buy or sell without considering the implications.
I feel that we do not need another CB, as we have five good players there.
Podokski will be great. Plus one of Hazard or Groetze.
Vert maybe. But M’villa better. more dynamic.
Perhaps the Boss will be going German next few years as German football is up there. And, they have more heart in their play.
Why is everyone moaning still about what we haven’t got…..
Try supporting the players we do have.
Even DJ – he’s just signed a new contract, and he is not that bad, as a bench warmer he’s ideal. As for Mert being average… how many average players collect 80 German caps?
This isn’t Football Manager, and alot of you are winding yourselves up over things that aren’t going to change.
Are people blind to what happens in the game?
Buying player after player is not the answer.
Liverpool spent 35 mil on Carroll, 23 on Suarez, 22 on Henderson…. has it imporved them?
City have spent millions, hundreds of millions and it looks like they will miss out on the league this year.
We have players like Campbell overseas, Maychi at Bolton. These players will play first team. there are people insulting Miquel as useless… Please give these guys a break, He’s yet to break into the first team and some have already made their minds up because he hasn’t cost 15 million.
Van Persie cost 2.5 million is he shit? Had you heard of him before he came?
Whoa! Hold on there. I’m still waiting for Denilson, Diaby, Bendtner, Fabianski, Gibbs, Aliadiare, Senderos & co to come through in to the first team. Weren’t they all part of the 5 year wait that was going to bear fruition.
The future’s always good at Arsenal. Always waiting for it though.
i can wait, wenger can wait, the owners can wait
only the baby fan cant wait…and like fuck if we listen ot babies crying in the stands when it comes to run our football club.
City will miss out on the League ? They’re ONE POINT behind Man Utd! Please shut up.
There are reports of arsenal personnel going to germany and podolski having a medical…Why would anyone have a medical now in the middle of the season…can anyone please explain
Fuck knows?
It doesn’t work like this in Championship Manager. You just press a button!
Watch the matches djourou played when others are nursing injuries it is very to reflects on those matches you would keep are asking yourself who signed this guy to arsenal. He is total flop. He fall more than 15times before 90 minutes, he gives wrong passes. He can’t run, where he try small is heading, out of three times he goes to head two mistakes one correct head shame, he should leave for free.
In English please ….
dejouro is not a good footballer
What?
Understood and agree with the last 5 words, but the rest of it???
If you want tp post on here, please learn the lingo
Good post GS. Found myself nodding all the way until you mentioned and arsenal team with jd in it. Why do you do that? Get me all noddy then slap me in the face with a wet kipper.
why is Coquelin not mentioned anywhere? i think hes good too. very versatile
Kem and other trolls here are mad. Now Manure and Mank City are out of Europa Cup ROTFL. So that leaves Mank City with just the PL. Wow so poor for a club that tries to buy trophies. Even though I don’t like Manure I hope they win the PL and Arsenal come within points of 2nd spot. That way there is a credible argument that you are more likely to win something at Arsenal than Mank City. And this will expose the lies from the likes of Nasri, showing that they are only in it for money. If Nasri and Fabregas hadn’t played so shit at the end of last season and start of this season we would be better off and could maybe have won the PL.
PS Fabregas “misplaced” backheel pass when we played Barcelona last year was probably deliberate so they could win.
Just a thought…
If Arsenal had beat Man Utd in both league games this season, we’d be 3 points behind them right now…
That is with the terrible start & losing against Swansea & Fulham…
Maybe, just maybe…
Not so excited about Vertahogen. Heard he is good but not so great this season, no Premier League experience, and he wont come to replace Djourou as our 4th choice centre back. And why complaining about Mertesacker, we all cried out for Wenger to sign a tower defender to defend set pieces, and now Wenger delivered. Agree that he lack pace, but I believe Wenger will utilise him against big tall forward like Crouch or Zamora. Kos and Vamaelen is a better pair for containing speedy forwards.
Personally I think we are pretty ok at CB, Djourou is OK as 4th choice especially if he can get back last season form, Miquel and Bartley can give him serious competition next season.
Here are the three positions that I think we need to address the most
- Backup/rotation striker to replace Van Persie: Podolski is a good striker and I hope we can get him. He can also play on the left.
- A world class creative midfielder who play at center or on the wing: Our midfield clearly lack class, flair and creativity this season after departure of Cesc and Nasri as well as Wilshere injury. The in-form Rosicky helps us in recent games, but he is not long term solution. Hazard will be a great addition but he may be too expensive for us, Goetze said he wont leave next season. M’Villa, Nuri Sahin and Martinez could be the more affordable targets. Eriksen, Iker Munain and Sergio Canales can be great prospect.
- Left back: Gibbs and Santos is good going forward, but both have pretty poor positioning and sometimes get beaten a bit too easily by opponent winger. Would like to see us buy Leighton Baines from Everton. Always like Everton player like Arteta, full of hard work, commitment and discipline, technique good enough to play for us as well.
Out: Bendtner, Chamack, Vela, Denilson, Squilacci, Almunia.
Promote: Miyaichi, Joel Campbell, Coquelin, Frimpong, Bartley, Miquel, Yannaris. Heard Mannone is performing well in his loan spell.
Frimpong is nonsense. You guys have been reading too much of his tweets.
Coquelin and Miquel should get the first seats on that bus with Miyachi and JC next. Bartley deserves more game time but Frimpong and Yannaris can fight it out for a place in the trunk.
Gervinho is blaming his poor showing recently for his horrible loss in the ANC. Really. So next time we have a hard loss to swallow, guess we should loan him out for a year? What a muppet. Be a professional. Whiners out.
Interesting article talking about Miyaichi on loan at Bolton. They say he’s in the same bracket as Jack Wilshere. Quite a mouth water prospect if that’s true..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/tottenham-hotspur/9149388/Bolton-winger-Ryo-Miyaichi-on-loan-from-Arsenal-has-the-talent-to-topple-their-arch-rivals-Tottenham.html
Come on Muamba!!!!! Fight!!!!!!! All fans of arsenal, now is the time to pray.
Our thoughts are with Muamba.
prayed for Muamba. Make a recovery mate.
I think we should seriously look at buying the entire Bilbao side and selling our team. It’s a great little side and I personally think their brand of high-tempo pressing and passing would sit the Premier League down to a T.
I don’t care if they can’t cut in on a cold Tuesday at Sunderland. They play beautifully and cohesively.
Well said WEG on Muamba and Bilbao.
Very saddening to see GS not postin a blog abt Muamba…
Hope badly that he recovers…!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/mar/19/fabrice-muamba-bolton-wanderers-hospital
Good news…!!
I have my hard cock in my hand!!!!
I going to start stroking it any second…
“Arsene currently believes the quartet of Koscielny, Vermaelen, Mertesacker and Djourou, with Miquel and Song available as back-up, is strong enough. And I’d be inclined to agree”
GS you really are a clueless sheep aren’t you? The main reason Arsenal have won nothing for the last 7 years is because they cant defend. What you are doing is cosigning Wenger to do something he’s been doing for the last 7 years, instead of addressing the problem, which is pour money into the offensive side of the team, and not enough on the defensive frailty’s. You can say its the coaching, its not the actual players, but do you seriously think someone of the caliber of Lucio, Vidic, or a prime Sol Campbell need Wenger drilling them on how to defend? Wenger was the gaffa when Sol was there, only difference is, Sol was a world class defender. He didn’t need clueless Arsene drilling him defensively. That’s what you get when you buy real quality. Wenger has been exposed tactically more so over the last 7 years because of this. He HASN’T been buying that standard of defender, so there has been more emphasis put on him to drill the team and set them up tactically.
Kos is a decent defender, but he’s always one ricket away from fucking things up. He’s no better than a 3rd choice, simply because he cant be relied upon consistently, due to his weak mental strength which sees his consistency level fluctuate up and down. One min he’s good, next min he’s poor. As for DJ, that clown shouldn’t even be 4th choice. Hasn’t he messed up enough times for you to come to the conclusion?
If Arsenal were adequate in the defensive department. Why have we conceded almost as many goals as Fulham?
DaveyB, I believe that this line-up is adequate on the proviso that we bring in a defensive bloke to coach the lads in the dark arts of Arsenal-esque defending. The quality is there. We have speed, technique, youth, cojones and in Mertesacker, a man who is genuinely big enough consider entering a three-legged race all by himself.
I disagree with your assertion that bringing in great defenders will automatically turn the back four into a well-drilled defensive unit. Remember what happened when we paired Toure with Gallas? And compare years with the preceding year with Toure and Senderos!
In short, a man with a large penis automatically has the heads-up on a man with a small penis. Therefore, I do not want to rub your head into the cold mushy mud of logical thinking, but I do think you should consider the words of a well-endowed Aussie bloke (and a top Aussie bloke at that), and be mindful of them.
thats because toure was oringinally a defensive cm of sorts and was converted to central defense and I agree with what davyb says as it is apparent as we never had defensive problems when we played with experienced pro’s who already no how to defend think sol and adams proven hardened prem defenders so what does arsene do …he gets cheap rate defenders with no prem experince from slower leagues than our own and worst still they are young and need to learn the art of defending which they are not going to get at arsenal and that is why we have such a shocking defense as our record shows we get worse every year but yet we are told by our geniuos coach not to tell him how to coach as he has been coaching 30 odd years .well mr wenger you ought to get some frigging help then as your coaching of the defense clearly has not worked as the facts tell us for the last 7 years
Well said SHAUN AND DAVYB
hit the nail on the head – unfortunately nothing – I MEAN NOTHING will get done…you will not be heard – from when own arsenal gulliable fans become ignorant to what your trying to explain then what chance have we got of wenger taking heed to the logical comments you guys have made!
Wegrice Weguamba March 20, 2012 at 11:32 am
DaveyB, I believe that this line-up is adequate on the proviso that we bring in a defensive bloke to coach the lads in the dark arts of Arsenal-esque defending. The quality is there. We have speed, technique, youth, cojones and in Mertesacker, a man who is genuinely big enough consider entering a three-legged race all by himself.
I disagree with your assertion that bringing in great defenders will automatically turn the back four into a well-drilled defensive unit. Remember what happened when we paired Toure with Gallas? And compare years with the preceding year with Toure and Senderos!
Toure was not on Sol Campbells level. He used to look shaky when ever Sol wasn’t along side him. I remember him shooting his mouth off before a CL game against Bayern back in the day, only he ended up making a useless backheader that was capitalized on. We ended up losing that game 3-0 or something. Toure was not as great as people make him out to be. Dont get me wrong he was a very good, solid defender most of the time, but instances like the ones with Gallas were there when he didn’t have Sol next to him.
If you dont think there is a mental edge lacking among the current crop of defenders than you’re clueless. That has nothing to do with technical ability, or how they are drilled. Its about having a strong mentality where by your a dependable individual when put under adverse conditions, of which Kos has been found wanting numerous times.
The very best players have excellent mental strength to compliment their ability. Kos has the talent, but not mental strength. This is why he’ll never be a first choice. He will have a run where he looks a class defender, then revert back to his ways. Mertsacker is just a cart horse, see the Chelsea game.
I never thought Gallas pwas a top top CB either to be honest. Thuram was a top defender, Nesta, Stam, Cambell. That is what you call quality.
We will never be able to defend adequately until we start seeking out the top elite level defenders.
That’s ridiculous, DaveyB.
I have been praying for Muamba.
Have you?????
Everton vs Arsenal…. Thoughts?
Wojciech Szczesny, Bacary Sagna, Laurent Koscielny, Thomas Vermaelen and Kieran Gibbs are unbeaten when they’ve started together this season, with six wins from seven games, conceding just four goals.
got a feeling santos may start and that would be a good call in my opinion and could see him scoring 2 ha ha look at me and my crystal ball ….if we find it hard to break them down which we will my money is on santos as we have not had this kind of goal threat from the left back position for as long as I can remember ….gibbs , cole ,clichy and even winterburn did not posess the goal threat this guy has, just got to watch his positional sense but when he is fully fit , he is a big guy to just needs a good run of games to get sharp .gibbs has looked iffy to me but to be fare has come on a little in the last games .would love to see theo pin back baines as it is these type of all action left backs that he really needs to get round consistantly to step up to the next level which I think he can do now after a couple of average to good performances which are a whole lot better thatn the poor shit he was putting out some 5 or six games ago but that said I would be a whole lot more confident of the ox giving much more trouble ….hopefully theo starts using his brain as the ox is the perfect foil for him to come in all sly and pick pockets with his speed …2-0 to the goons persie and ox or persie and walcott as long as that same desire and belief is there , then I have it as well only thing is we know it is not the manager who is responsible for that …. so lets just hope the boys come out with fire and desire ….two points infront of spurs will make me very happy …sad I know but hey gooner till the end
after reading that let me correct myself lol……………………….lol persie santos 2-0 goons
enjoy … do you work in the press office at arsenal….?
intresting statistic if correct!…
JD20,, never really played well when his head was in the righ postition … now it not will he be trusted again on the pitrch?
is it his thought or is it wengers? what is his true postition, he started as a mid., then moved to CB, nnow Right back , no one the lads confidence is shot to bits!
some players can be moved around till wenger finds there ‘right’ place others it freaks out like JD20, when he started we all had hope, now he is the scapegoat , i just dont think thats fair … do you?
RSPCA, which head were you talking about?
I think DJ Ourou will have an excellent career at the Arsenal, and will become a great centre-back.DM.RB for us in the future!
Let’s just trust in Wenger and believe!
from arsenalinsider:
THIERRY Henry has got a lot on his plate it’s fair to say. A hectic professional life and a busy personal life. He’s a superstar footballer jetting all over the US of A to represent the New York Red Bulls in the MLS.
So you would expect no more from Henry than to at least deliver a heartfelt public tribute to stricken former Arsenal team-mate Fabrice Muamba as he continues his remarkable recovery after suffering a heart attack playing for Bolton against Tottenham at White Hart Lane in the FA Cup at the weekend. It would be the least he could do after all.
Everyone in football has shown the love in a massive fashion – as have those from all walks of life – and we know the midfielder’s family and close friends have taken great comfort from the huge amount of support he is receiving in his hours of need. Arsene Wenger has spoken of the great affection so many people at the Arsenal have for Muamba.
And Henry falls into that category, as well, it seems. As a member of the Arsenal family he too wanted to demonstrate just how important is it to cherish the important things in life.. So it comes as no surprise that he did far, far more than simply issue a sound bite statement offering his prayers and urging Muamba, 23, to win his critical battle.
Instead, he got on a plane and flew around 5,000 miles from Salt Lake City to the Big Apple and then on to London to visit Muamba in person for an hour or so at the London Chest Hospital.
His actions say bundles about Henry. It speaks volumes about the Arsenal family’s bond cultivated under Wenger. But it says even more about Muamba.
Once a Gooner…
Get well, Fabrice.
CARL ELDRIDGE – on Twitter @eldomedia
Nice.
Very nice!