Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Im_No_Superman

keano_afc wrote: »

No Cesc or Toure tonight, could be a tricky one.

No Fabregas for the opening couple of games of the Premiership too, huge blow for Arsenal and my fantasy football team! :pac:

Wenger really needs to pull a midfielder out of somewhere now.

DenMan

Hopefully the can get that Ghanaian player, Anthony Annan, I believe that will be a terrific signing. African strength in the middle of the park. Wenger has a great way of unearthing unknowns and turning them into gems. African players do fantastically well when they come into the premier league.

PHB

DenMan wrote: »

Hopefully the can get that Ghanaian player, Anthony Annan, I believe that will be a terrific signing. African strength in the middle of the park. Wenger has a great way of unearthing unknowns and turning them into gems. African players do fantastically well when they come into the premier league.

Bad news
http://sport.setanta.com/en/Sport/News/Football/2008/08/13/Prem-Annan-on-future/

Galvasean

PHB wrote: »

Bad news
http://sport.setanta.com/en/Sport/News/Football/2008/08/13/Prem-Annan-on-future/

Feh, don't want him now.

Pepe LeFrits

Ramsey supported United as a boy too!

From what I've heard Annan isn't all that anyway. I'd like someone a bit more established and experienced.

yahoo_moe

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

I'd like someone a bit more established and experienced.

From Wenger's quotes, so does he...

Very young squad (especially in midfield) tonight, be interesting to see how they cope...

ErinGoBrath

Providing Djourou could provide a stable partnership for Gallas at CB I wouldn't be opposed to giving Toure a shot at defensive midfield with Cesc.

He's bursting with passion, his workrate is tremendous and if I'm not mistaken he's played upfront before he came to Arsenal?

Or maybe I'm just being a bit crazy...

Frisbee

ErinGoBrath wrote: »

He's bursting with passion, his workrate is tremendous and if I'm not mistaken he's played upfront before he came to Arsenal?

He might be able to fill that gap for a while till we get another CM.
Yeah he used to Play Left Mid before he came to Arsenal..

yahoo_moe

ErinGoBrath wrote: »

Providing Djourou could provide a stable partnership for Gallas at CB I wouldn't be opposed to giving Toure a shot at defensive midfield with Cesc.

He's bursting with passion, his workrate is tremendous and if I'm not mistaken he's played upfront before he came to Arsenal?

Or maybe I'm just being a bit crazy...

Personally I don't think Toure has the positional sense to play in the middle of the park. He's too much of a headless chicken and doesn't seem to have that natural 'map' of the pitch in his head that you need. Even at CB, he makes positional lapses that he uses his athleticism to cover for. So I definitely wouldn't want him in a less anchored position like centre mid...

ErinGoBrath

yahoo_moe wrote: »

Personally I don't think Toure has the positional sense to play in the middle of the park. He's too much of a headless chicken and doesn't seem to have that natural 'map' of the pitch in his head that you need. Even at CB, he makes positional lapses that he uses his athleticism to cover for. So I definitely wouldn't want him in a less anchored position like centre mid...

That's a fair point.

AnCapaillMor

Seriusly looking at it now what a total and utter idiot Diarra is.

Toure tried 1 or 2 games in central midfield last year and was none too impressive. Totally agree with Yahoo, toure is 110% commitment, all heart, very little tactical awareness.

DenMan

This quote from the Sky Sports Score Centre does not fill me with enormous confidence for the season ahead. I hope we are not in the middle of a downward spiral.

"Ramsey and Denilson are really struggling in midfield at the moment. Neither has had much possession and, dare I say it, they look a little lightweight"

Still 0-0 at the moment.

DenMan

William Gallas. FC Twente 0 Arsenal 1. Away goal. Happy days indeed. In off his knees. Well they all count.

DenMan

Update. FC Twente 0 Arsenal 2. Adebayor has put us 2 up. This really is a great result in what was always going to be a very difficult game. Well done guys, a very professional job.

Mossy Monk

I thought it was an awful display. One of the worst I have seen in a long time. 2 away goals is good though.

Royale with Cheese

Mossy Monk wrote: »

I thought it was an awful display. One of the worst I have seen in a long time. 2 away goals is good though.

Indeed. It's obvious the squad is too thin. Although I'd trust Wenger to make the right decisions for the club. If he doesn't sign anybody it's probably because finances are tight, not because he's too arrogant and cocky in his youth policies.

kronsington

a lot of these comments seem like a blatant violation of the first rule in the charter

Royale with Cheese

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That bit?

OPENROAD

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

That bit?

I think he might mean discussing the match.

titan18

Ok,I'm not an Arsenal fan,but I enjoy watching the team play football as it should be played and I admire what Wenger has done and the way in which he brings through youngsters.But on tonights display,I fear for ye this season.Ramsey was terrible.He couldnt pass the ball properly and has no strength at all.The whole of the midfield was a right off tbh.Eboue,Denilson,Ramsey and Walcott(who I rate highly but tonight wasnt too good).I know that ye have injuries to Fabregas and Rosicky and Nasri wasnt playing,but ye need a few players in midfield that can win the ball and allow Cesc to pass the ball about.

I hope that Wenger brings someone in before the transfer window shuts or else ye'll probably finish outside the top 4.The only thing that makes it easier is that Liverpool had a shocker aswell.

GuanYin

By that logic, Liverpool were bad too and will slip out. Arsenal still managed two goals in a poor performance (their first compettitive game of the season, understrength and rusty) away from home.

I think that it is rather foolish to:
A) Judge Arsenal's season on this performance given the reasons above

Think that Wenger is stupid enough not to know the strengths of his own team.

All that said, the sentiment of Arsenal needing more players rings true. They seem cursed in terms of their injury problems for some time now, but all the more reason to strengthen.

Wenger has money, Arsenal need cover. It isn't very hard to work out.

MIN2511

GuanYin wrote: »

By that logic, Liverpool were bad too and will slip out. Arsenal still managed two goals in a poor performance (their first compettitive game of the season, understrength and rusty) away from home.

I think that it is rather foolish to:
A) Judge Arsenal's season on this performance given the reasons above

Think that Wenger is stupid enough not to know the strengths of his own team.

All that said, the sentiment of Arsenal needing more players rings true. They seem cursed in terms of their injury problems for some time now, but all the more reason to strengthen.

Wenger has money, Arsenal need cover. It isn't very hard to work out.

To add to that, Arsenal would be the only British club making earnings and i think its time they invested more money in their players. Surely they can afford it:rolleyes:

leninbenjamin

they played sh*t against weaker opposition and still won the match. if they did that last season we'd be happy out. i actually find it encouraging in a perverse way.

Galvasean

I think we are one quality experienced holding centre midfield player away from being genuine contenders this year.
Some people say we played poorly today. I say a two nil away win while missing a few key players and never leaving first gear is quite positive. Arsenal had a look about them that if they needed to up the tempo and play better today they would have. FC twente didn't.
It was a controlled performance. Just what we needed to get the season started.
Next 4 games are WBA (H), Fulham (A), FC Twente (H) and Newcastle (H).
That should ease us into the season quite nicely.

Royale with Cheese

Slowness in the transfer market may also be because the team weren't guaranteed a spot in the Champions League. Now they are (95%) we might see some movement.

Galvasean

Also, now Wenger may have more time to negotiate transfer deals now that the Twente game is out of the way.

Pepe LeFrits

Some fairly excessive comments here relating to last night’s game. There have been many performances poorer than that in recent times. 4-0 against United, 5-1 against Spurs, 2-1 against Boro, 1-0 against Sheffield United – nothing like as bad. Away in Europe, first game of the season and with lots of players out. Not that bad. Look at Liverpool’s performance – they were even worse.

Defensively, we were quite good last night, and restricted Twente to quite few opportunities. Djourou had another encouraging performance and hopefully he can get back to being rated as highly as he was 18-24 months ago. We need him to because Gallas isn’t getting any younger and Touré looks f**ked physically.

I don’t think central midfield was the main issue last night although we do need another player there (we will get one before the window closes too, in my opinion). Denilson, particularly in the second half, had quite a decent game, and Ramsey was OK. The big problem was what was going on around them – Eboue, Walcott, Adebayor and to a lesser extent van Persie couldn’t pass water. They couldn’t hold up the ball or pass, and their movement was terrible. Eboue and Walcott in particular played far too wide and Ramsey and Denilson never had anyone to pass to. Nasri is apparently going to be back for West Brom and combined with the big Emirates pitch that will make a difference, because he will improve our passing game considerably. We can usually get away with having one of Walcott or Eboue in midfield, but not both.

Evil_Clown

Galvasean wrote: »

Also, now Wenger may have more time to negotiate transfer deals now that the Twente game is out of the way.

Arsene has a habit of leaving his summer transfer dealings to the last minute
So we may have to wait another week for activity, I think he likes to scare us fans :eek:

Evil_Clown

Found this online, Ade seems to be pretty good behind it all

http://news.accra-mail.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1012:adebayor-rescues-ghanaians-in-togo&catid=39:sports-news&Itemid=58

Pepe LeFrits

Hoyte bid accepted apparently, and Wenger says he'll buy a player.

Good news all-round.

Galvasean

Evil_Clown wrote: »

Found this online, Ade seems to be pretty good behind it all

http://news.accra-mail.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1012:adebayor-rescues-ghanaians-in-togo&catid=39:sports-news&Itemid=58

And to think, we werent going to give him a pay rise...

DenMan

For anybody who missed the goals from last night's game. Bad performances in games last season saw us drop valuable points and exit big competitions near the end of the season. Joe Cole is right, we need to have bad performances but still put the goals away when needed, and that was achieved last night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56_KSJF4zaM

Galvasean

Wenger expects a new signing before the 2nd leg.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/new-signing-expected-before-twente-return-leg
As per usual he wasn't naming names.

Galvasean

Nasri and Touré in the squad to face WBA:

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-nasri-and-toure-confirmed-for-albion

patrickc

roll on tomorrow, sky sports back again and hopefully a great season for us

PHB

Match posts moved to match thread.

JPA

Anyone have a stream that works?

eirebhoy

16 year old Conor Henderson called up to the Ireland U19s. Anyone know much about him?

http://youngguns.wordpress.com/Conor-Henderson/

MIN2511

I know the Daily Mirror is ****e but i just saw this

Arsenal have opened talks with Liverpool on taking Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso to the Emirates. (Daily Mirror)

As far as i know the top four cant buy players from each other????

leninbenjamin

MIN2511 wrote: »

I know the Daily Mirror is ****e but i just saw this

Arsenal have opened talks with Liverpool on taking Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso to the Emirates. (Daily Mirror)

As far as i know the top four cant buy players from each other????

first off it's old news, as Benitez practically confirmed a few days ago their had been discussions with an old slip of the tongue. secondly, anything is game if the price is right.

AnCapaillMor

Wenger pretty much shot down the xabi and barry transfers because they're cup tied.

GuanYin

Tim Cahill would be a great signing for Arsenal.I wonder if Downing or O'Neil would be a target, Hoyte's transfer came with a comment from Boro about the great relationship between Boro and Arsenal.

Frisbee

GuanYin wrote: »

Tim Cahill would be a great signing for Arsenal.I wonder if Downing or O'Neil would be a target,

Cahill isnt the right kind of player we're looking for really, too much like the midfielders we already have. And I doubt O'Neil would be good enough for Arsenal.

If Wenger wants to get a good slolid traditional CM in the Vieira, Petit, Gilberto mould he's going to have to look out side the Premiership...

Galvasean

eirebhoy wrote: »

16 year old Conor Henderson called up to the Ireland U19s. Anyone know much about him?

http://youngguns.wordpress.com/Conor-Henderson/

I know he looks about 5 years old.

Wasn't too impressed with yesterday's performance overall. Would have preferred a more comfortable win.
Good to see Nasri off the mark so soon. It was a very well worked song.

AnCapaillMor

Cahill is the last kind of player we need. Really dissapointed about Xabi. Diarra from Real would be nice.

leninbenjamin

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Really dissapointed about Xabi.

i'm not. i don't think he's suited to the system, he's not dynamic enough imo and i think it's been shown time and time again how easy it can be to nullify his presence. secondly another playmaker is not what is needed.

OPENROAD

Frisbee wrote: »

And I doubt O'Neil would be good enough for Arsenal.

Wouldn't be good enough even for our Ladies team

yahoo_moe

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Cahill is the last kind of player we need. Really dissapointed about Xabi. Diarra from Real would be nice.

No, Gary O'Neil is the last kind of player we need

Never been sure about Diarra myself - I never saw him much with Lyon when there was so much hype about him but he hasn't impressed me too much when I've seen him with Real... his distribution seems particularly poor

yahoo_moe

So much for our Nordtveit predictions - he's off to Salamanca for the season:

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/defender-joins-spanish-club-on-seasons-loan

Kieron Gibbs is also gone to Reading.

Royale with Cheese

Adebayor signs new long term deal. Haven't heard what he's being paid yet. It had better not be a stupid amount. He hasn't earned it, and he doesn't deserve it. A bad season now and he'll be worth under £10m earning big money.

That said, the booing needs to stop. I'm sure he's got the message now. The team needs him playing at his best and the fans have to realise that.