Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Roaster

Lads did you see last night's game. We are sorted with a DM. 2nd half and who does Wenger decide to put into the centre...Mr. Senderos. To be fair he wasn't half bad but then again the opposition? But it does scare me when talking of Toure and AW says we've seven CH and I have to play some in midfield.

I still trust the man and even with the current squad minus Kolo I think we'll be alright if they all stay fit. That's a big IF by the way.

Leprechaun77

Ok, here's another one for the transfer list dartboard. Rumour has it that Arsenal.com and Wikipedia (I know, Wiki can be a bit of a joke), listed as no.13 in our squad this morning none other than Daniele De Rossi. This was taken down after a short period of time.

Personally I think he is a great player, but I feel this is the usual b0ll1x again. It just made me think because I believe Wenger looked at him in the January window.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Sad enough to see Toure going but 16m is very good business and he hasn't really been his best in over a year now.

Would love to see the money invested in someone like Bassong or Hangeland and then a quality midfielder like de Rossi or Toulalan.

greendom

Leprechaun77 wrote: »

Personally I think he is a great player, but I feel this is the usual b0ll1x again. It just made me think because I believe Wenger looked at him in the January window.

I'm not sure how much you should read into that. After all Wenger looks at everyone, all the time

Leprechaun77

greendom wrote: »

After all Wenger looks at everyone, all the time

I always knew he was a God

Galvasean

Arsenal beat United in transfer race:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/cheltenham_town/8154769.stm

Oh wait no, its just some kid...

yahoo_moe

leninbenjamin wrote: »

I'm not denying any of that, but there'd still be a void in the squad if he were to leave as there's so few right sided players in there ... Walcott's the only right sided attacking player in the squad.

Yeah but there are two things there:
(1) the gap Eboue's departure would leave (cover for RB, which we'd absolutely need to fill); and
(2) the need of cover for right side midfield, assuming a 4-4-2. Here, Eboue doesn't really do it, Wilshere can play there, as can Rosicky.

If we can get 10m for Eboue (I'm basing my theory on this price being accurate, I don't want to sell him if we can't turn a profit on the sale/replacement combo) and replace him for that or less with a better/younger player, then I say why not?

As for right mid, I don't think he comes into the discussion.

itsjaybud

yahoo_moe wrote: »

If we can get 10m for Eboue (I'm basing my theory on this price being accurate, I don't want to sell him if we can't turn a profit on the sale/replacement combo) and replace him for that or less with a better/younger player, then I say why not?

As for right mid, I don't think he comes into the discussion.

Ok if we say 9-10m for Eboue just for the sake of it even though its a pretty big price tag stuck on him by the media. Realistically would you think that the profit margin that we would gain to make would justify selling him? I mean is there younger and a better RB cover out there in the market?

I just dont see that this kind of possible money that would be generated is enough imo for Wenger to have to go out and source this type of player, i know the club has plenty of scouts working throughout the season but still Wenger has more to think about down the center of the team imo.

To find a younger/better replacement for the sqaud might not come that cheap. Eboue i think is only 26 like and as ive mentioned already today he has plenty of premiership experience, knows what the manager wants from the team and im pretty sure he is well settled into living in London.

This premiership experience is worth something to the squad imo.

Radharc na Sleibhte

Leprechaun77 wrote: »

Ok, here's another one for the transfer list dartboard. Rumour has it that Arsenal.com and Wikipedia (I know, Wiki can be a bit of a joke), listed as no.13 in our squad this morning none other than Daniele De Rossi. This was taken down after a short period of time.

Personally I think he is a great player, but I feel this is the usual b0ll1x again. It just made me think because I believe Wenger looked at him in the January window.

I see De Rossi and Fabregas are now married according to Wiki.
Can't wait to see him in an Arsenal shirt.

Souless

Steven Finnan on a free ? :P lol I know no body will agree with that. Looks like Toure is pretty much gone at this stage anyway...well so all the rumours say Would have liked him to stay. Wouldn't really care either way about Eboue going if we got a good bit of cash for him and there's a suitable replacement brought in.

Redzer7

Looking forward to todays game .

yahoo_moe

itsjaybud wrote: »

Realistically would you think that the profit margin that we would gain to make would justify selling him? I mean is there younger and a better RB cover out there in the market?

Premier League experience is worth a certain amount, for sure - but I think we could find more of a specialist right back for, say, 6m (that's about what Sagna cost, sure). And if that extra 2/3m would help us somewhere else in the team, with a transfer fee or wages, I'd do it.

Chelsea may well get rid of one of Mancienne, Ferreira or Belletti, for example, although beyond that we'd be talking a Championship/overseas player so I can't say I know for sure who'd fit the bill.

I'm also factoring in the fact that he's made noises about leaving, although to be honest, I don't particularly mind him staying as RB cover - I just can't stand seeing him line up in one of the wide midfield positions and I'm sick of him being considered cover for RM.

thorbarry

ahh I'll be sad to see toure go, he never really did get that cracker of a goal i thought he'd score for us, a thunderbolt from miles outside the box, it just didnt happen sure maybe he'll score one against us

DenMan

It's confirmed.

I'm not liking this. Just the medical now stands in the way.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5459450,00.html

Does that mean Everton fans will be pleased? Will City still make a move for Lescott now?

Frisbee

Losing Toure to City is a disaster imo.

We've just sold them two of our senior players in straight succession.

Are we trying to have them finish above us?

Serious money needs to be spent at CB now

L'prof

DenMan wrote: »

It's confirmed.

I'm not liking this. Just the medical now stands in the way.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5459450,00.html

Does that mean Everton fans will be pleased? Will City still make a move for Lescott now?

Raging, I love Toure. We did sign him on a free though, so that would be a £15/16m profit on a central defender, that's great money!

Frisbee wrote: »

Losing Toure to City is a disaster imo.

We've just sold them two of our senior players in straight succession.

Are we trying to have them finish above us?

Serious money needs to be spent at CB now

Lescott for Arsenal??? No way we'll spend the money required to bring him in though!

CB and DM are priorities...how likely is it that we'll sign a good player in both positions??? Not very!

premierstone

Frisbee wrote: »

Losing Toure to City is a disaster imo.

We've just sold them two of our senior players in straight succession.

Are we trying to have them finish above us?

Serious money needs to be spent at CB now

While I agree with you in principle if you look at it in another way money is no problem for City so no player(within reason) is off limits and tbh I think they could have got much better players for £41/2m than Ade and Kolo.

Frisbee

premierstone wrote: »

While I agree with you in principle if you look at it in another way money is no problem for City so no player(within reason) is off limits and tbh I think they could have got much better players for £41/2m than Ade and Kolo.

True, and if it was Milan that had have bought them I wouldn;t be quite as worried.

But coz we're selling some of our most experienced players to a rival club you havee to wonder what kind of message is that sending to the likes of Fab, RVP, Arshavin, Rosicky etc.

Are we just a feeder club at this stage?

thorbarry

Frisbee wrote: »

Are we just a feeder club at this stage?

a feeder club for who? clubs that finish below us in the premiership, and will more than likely continue to do so... Money Money Money, f*ck Ade, and i suppose Toure as well... I suppose both players can rest more now that they aint in the champions league or Europa League

Frisbee

thorbarry wrote: »

a feeder club for who? clubs that finish below us in the premiership, and will more than likely continue to do so... Money Money Money, f*ck Ade, and i suppose Toure as well... I suppose both players can rest more now that they aint in the champions league or Europa League

City won't continue to finish below us if they continue to spend like they do. I don;t think they'll finish ahead of us this year.

But if by next season we haven't made serious changes to our transfer policy I can see them finishing ahead of us.

thorbarry

Frisbee wrote: »

City won't continue to finish below us if they continue to spend like they do. I don;t think they'll finish ahead of us this year.

But if by next season we haven't made serious changes to our transfer policy I can see them finishing ahead of us.

yea with strikers such as Bellamy and Ade, I'm terrified kidding, yea i do agree if they keep buying players, maybe some more defenders and mid fielders I'd get worried, but if we buy 1/2 more players this summer, I wont be worried

premierstone

The thing about City though is that they seem to be just buying random players without Hughes actually having a plan or an idea what he is trying to achieve

Wreck

I think losing Toure to City will be a big blow for us, I seriously hope Wenger has a top notch replacement lined up along with a dynamic DM or else we are going to struggle to finish 4th again, let alone challenge for the title.

keano_afc

Yep, unless he gets the finger out there are very few reasons for optimism this season.

yahoo_moe

premierstone wrote: »

The thing about City though is that they seem to be just buying random players without Hughes actually having a plan or an idea what he is trying to achieve

Yup, they'll need a top-notch partner for him to get the best out of Toure, who's a sweeping/covering centre-half with serious limitations (particularly if his pace continues to go). And I'm not sure if they'll get that immediately. So as things stand, it's far from certain that this will really shore up City's defence.

As for where it leaves our defence, it looks certain at this stage that Wenger has bought Vermaelen to start at least 25 games. I'm not sure how much he'll rotate, but we currently have Djourou, Gallas and Vermaelen as our three main CBs, and then Senderos (for now), Silvestre and Song (Wenger mentioned 7 CBs the other day, so he must be counting Song too) as back-up options.

So I'm just trusting his judgment - if Vermaelen's a hit, then Toure wouldn't really have been playing much anyway (he's similar to Gallas, but Gallas is better) so Wenger may have just taken £16m for someone who'd be surplus to requirements. But we don't know for sure yet.

angel01

I think if they lose Toure, that will really effect them. He hasn't been as good as in previous years but he is very dependable.

Frisbee

thorbarry wrote: »

yea with strikers such as Bellamy and Ade, I'm terrified kidding,

But add in Robinho and Tevez and it's looking a lot grimmer...

L'prof

Shots taken may decide the tournament if teams are tied after goal difference and goals scored.

From here.

speedboatchase

"Do you love money enough to give away your last Kolo?"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1202938/Do-love-money-away-Kolo-How-Arsenal-banked-83m-flogging-wantaway-stars.html#ixzz0MeyGrIIf

What a headline

DenMan

jasonorr wrote: »

Shots taken may decide the tournament if teams are tied after goal difference and goals scored.

From here.

Well thats Rangers fcuked.

gosplan

Wreck wrote: »

I think losing Toure to City will be a big blow for us, I seriously hope Wenger has a top notch replacement lined up along with a dynamic DM or else we are going to struggle to finish 4th again, let alone challenge for the title.

)

I wouldn't hold my breath.

To be honest though I'm not as pessimistic as most of the Arsenal fans here.

Man United won the league last year playing Anderson and Fletcher as their defensive midfielders. I can't seriously say that that's a big improvement on Song and Denilson.

OK so Man United had an awesome central defense and that won them the league, but my point is this - you don't need a perfectly balanced amazing-on-all-fronts team to challenge. You just need to regularly score more than your opponents, whether through attack - scoring a few and conceding only one, or defence - conceding nil and having Ronaldo dive to win a penalty(just kidding :P).

I really think that this year we're going to have the strongest, most robust attack in the premiership. If RVP and Arshavin stay fit and combine well with Cesc and Rosicky, then we're going to score a hell of a lot of goals. Add to that the possibility of Bendtner and Eduardo chipping in about 20-25 goals between them, and we're a force. If Rosicky stays fit, that's another bonus.

Obviously, we all look at the DMF position and see that teams like Chelsea and Liverpool have better players there but it wasn't Denilson or Song that couldn't score against Fulham, Hull or Stoke.

The problem with last year (and I've said this before here) was that no part of our team ever bailed another part out of trouble. When the defense was having a bad day, suddenly the attack couldn't score and when the attack couldn't score suddenly, the midfield couldn't pass the ball and the defense began to slip up.

Obviously we can always improve the team - that's a given, but it is totally incorrect to say that without a defensive midfielder we'll be nowhere near challenging or will finish fifth. To do that is to basically say that the only problem last year was that we needed one better player whereas the truth is that the team were collectively at fault last year when, at crucial moments, they were found seriously wanting. Fix that problem and we're good enough to challenge. Buying two players like Vidic and Essien would of course make the job easier but they're not essential.

BTW, I'm typing all this now as we're not buying a new DMF or Defender before the season starts - defo not one that slots straight into the first team.

yahoo_moe

Anyone else think we should try (or should have tried if it's already gone through) to make Onuoha part of the Toure deal? Good little player, I've always thought, English and can play CB or RB (even LB)... good for any upcoming Champions League quotas and would allow both Toure & Eboue to go...

Redzer7

Yeah would have been a great signing but i think they already agreed the deal so it's just a matter of Toure completing a medical .

keano_afc

yahoo_moe wrote: »

Anyone else think we should try (or should have tried if it's already gone through) to make Onuoha part of the Toure deal? Good little player, I've always thought, English and can play CB or RB (even LB)... good for any upcoming Champions League quotas and would allow both Toure & Eboue to go...

Aye, him or Richards. Once he gets over his swine flu obviously...:P

Souless

Yeah we definatly should of tried to get one of the defenders thrown in with the Toure deal pitty its pretty much a done deal now
Wonder how we'll fair against Hannover tonight, doubt it'll be as much of a walk in as the last friendly

Qs

gosplan wrote: »

Obviously, we all look at the DMF position and see that teams like Chelsea and Liverpool have better players there but it wasn't Denilson or Song that couldn't score against Fulham, Hull or Stoke.

Well it was sort of. That is to say they didn't score in those games, nor did they assist. My point being a central midfielder needs to be involved in all aspects of the game. I think both of them are going to be excellent players eventually but I'm not really happy with either starting right now.

gosplan wrote: »

The problem with last year (and I've said this before here) was that no part of our team ever bailed another part out of trouble. When the defense was having a bad day, suddenly the attack couldn't score and when the attack couldn't score suddenly, the midfield couldn't pass the ball and the defense began to slip up.

I'd put alot of that down to a lack of leadership and a lack of experience.

gosplan wrote: »

BTW, I'm typing all this now as we're not buying a new DMF or Defender before the season starts - defo not one that slots straight into the first team.

I don't think we will either and I think its ridiculous considering if the sales of Toure and Eboue go through we'll have made £50m in the transfer market this summer.

Anyway the Hannover match is on now in a minute. Should be a decent enough test for us compared to the last few friendlies.

Qs

Fabs in for this game.

yahoo_moe

Qs wrote: »

I think its ridiculous considering if the sales of Toure and Eboue go through we'll have made £50m in the transfer market this summer.

Just on this - arseblogger made a decent point today that the purchase of Arshavin was probably budgeted for based on Ade leaving this summer, so we were essentially £15m down at the start of the summer. And given that we're probably always looking to turn a slight profit these days, we're not exactly sitting on a pile of money and refusing to spend it.

Souless

1-0 Fabergas, nice little set up from Bendtner and Van persie also, he's looked lively in these few friendly games.

Also in other not so nice news http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_city/8172622.stm Toure's gone it seems.

newbie2

he's deffo gone

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/kolo-toure-signs-for-manchester-city

Royale with Cheese

Doomed. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMED.

Seriously though, if this summer's transfer activity is to bring in Vermaelen and some 15 year old, and sell Adebayor and Kolo... Arsenal are fúcked. The defence needed strengthening anyway. Really could have done with another centre back on top of Vermaelen, instead one of the most experienced players in the squad has left.

Souless

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Doomed. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMED.

Seriously though, if this summer's transfer activity is to bring in Vermaelen and some 15 year old, and sell Adebayor and Kolo... Arsenal are fúcked. The defence needed strengthening anyway. Really could have done with another centre back on top of Vermaelen, instead one of the most experienced players in the squad has left.

Yeah it's pretty depressing but you never know I mean there's still over a month till the end of the transfer window so fingers crossed a new CB, RB (if eboue goes) and DM are signed call me a dreamer...fine lol.

newbie2

ffs, Traore off and silvestre on. Silvestre should've been part of the deal when selling Ade.

Souless

newbie2 wrote: »

ffs, Traore off and silvestre on. Silvestre should've been part of the deal when selling Ade.

Lol I dont think we could give sivestre away Traore's looked fairly decent at LB on the plus side though after the best part of a season on the bench at Portsmouth

newbie2

Bendtner misses from 1 yard.

As it was in the beginning is now and shall be forevermore.....;)

Souless

I think Silvestre thinks he is playing CB instead of LB, looks like it's only a matter of time before they get a goal

Redzer7

Where the fcuk is Silvestre playing?

Souless

Redzer7 wrote: »

Where the fcuk is Silvestre playing?

Lol im glad im not the only one confused as hell! I dont think even he knows what position he is in. Only thing he's done so far as give the ball away so a normal match for him.

Anyone else watching this on IraqGoals? Im so confused they didnt have a line up or tell about who's gone on and off at half time And I hope Eboue goes off soon so he can stop mispronouncing his name

Redzer7

I wouldn't mind seeing him playing behind Van Persie :pac:

Have a feeling Van Persie is going to get sent off.

Souless

Redzer7 wrote: »

Have a feeling Van Persie is going to get sent off.

Yeah he looks a bit pissed off alright since that clash of heads. Would be a good idea to bring someone else on I'd say. Any time Arshavin gets the ball there's like 3 red shirts around him was hoping to see abit of magic from him today.

There we go lol. Go on Eduardo