Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

yahoo_moe

While I'm hoping for a midfield signing, I'll be so so so glad when all this window sh*te is over - I'm just sick of it at this stage.

Just on Champions League draw (we'll need something to talk about tomorrow after all), why is everyone so worried about Dynamo Kiev, a team that finished bottom of their group last year with 0 points and conceded more than 3 goals a game on average?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League_2007-08#Group_F

I really don't think it's that bad a draw - Porto are also one of the easier second seeds we could have drawn I think.

DenMan

yahoo_moe wrote: »

Just on Champions League draw (we'll need something to talk about tomorrow after all), why is everyone so worried about Dynamo Kiev, a team that finished bottom of their group last year with 0 points and conceded more than 3 goals a game on average?

This familiar? Hopefully better times ahead.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/champions_league/3206924.stm

yahoo_moe

DenMan wrote:

This familiar? Hopefully better times ahead.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/champions_league/3206924.stm

Familiar because it was five years ago - we went unbeaten that year too... but none of that matters this year

DenMan

It's still a very tricky place to go, that's for sure. At least our first game is away early and not in the very cold minus temperaure scales of Oct/Nov so that's a plus. A lot of big teams have gone out there and lost. A win out there would be fantastic and would put us in the driving seat in the group. A draw would also be a very good result. They are half way through their domestic season right now.

Royale with Cheese

Jesus, is it 5 years since the unbeaten season? That's a bit depressing.

Galvasean

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Jesus, is it 5 years since the unbeaten season? That's a bit depressing.

Im just glad we're the only ones to do it
Well in the Premiership

kronsington

not a sniff of a transfer all day.. wtf?

DenMan

Still 64 mins to go, Wenger might still have 1 or 2 aces up his sleeve. Let's be patient.

Royale with Cheese

Arsenal transfers always come out of nowhere. Watching SSN at the moment. Remember they had the same guy with the 3 phones on last year, talking all night like he knew all transfer dealings inside out. They had to just quietly announce the Diarra deal after midnight.

Not saying and deals are going to be done, just that I wouldn't be surprised.

ErinGoBrath

Hmmmm, not too confident of a signing at this stage. Come on Wenger...

kronsington

anyone still holding on to something resembling hope?

Royale with Cheese

Nope, pretty depressing alltogether.

Sqaull20

kronsington wrote: »

anyone still holding on to something resembling hope?

No.He's going to do it the hard way as usual and more than likely will fail.

But how can we blame him, he's spent nothing and Benitez etc have wasted millions :rolleyes:

He's too smart

Royale with Cheese

He'll be doing it the hard way because he has to. There were obviously no players available that Arsenal could afford, and thought would improve the squad. Either that or the club is flat broke.

OPENROAD

Don't know if their was any truth in this but..

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/arsenal-in-lastgasp-attempt-to-capture-alonso-915884.html

L'prof

Bitterly disappointed if it turns out that we really didn't sign anyone else, won't say any more than that right now!

AnCapaillMor

Never been a doomer but i'm getting there now. I just wish they'd quit the X amount of money to spend crap.

Xabi thing seems true alright, i was all for it but thought it odd as he cup tied.

Wreck

Whatever about no new signings yesterday, far more worrying is the Man City takeover. If the new owners are serious about spending whatever it takes and not interested in profits, then this has serious implications for both the premiership as a whole and Arsenal as a club with intentions to win trophies.

Royale with Cheese

Yep.

If City manage to break the top 4 within a few years, which is more likely than unlikely, leaves Arse scrambling for 4th with Pool.

If Pool fail to finish 4th, you'll get a load of whinging scousers, but I can't see that being a disaster for them. Huge fanbase, they'll always get money from somewhere.

If Arse fail to finish 4th, it could be a big problem. I think the debts in place are structured assuming Arsenal will be in the Champions League every year for the next 2 decades. Miss it one year, fall behind on payments, and that could be disasterous.

Indie18

well i think now it is clear theat under arsen wenger we are never going to win another decent trophy. arsenal football club needs to be rebuilt from the board right down to the majority of the players. i am losing fate in my team.

yahoo_moe

Indie18 wrote: »

well i think now it is clear theat under arsen wenger we are never going to win another decent trophy. arsenal football club needs to be rebuilt from the board right down to the majority of the players. i am losing fate in my team.

Relax, jeez. Name me one quality (defensive) central midfielder who's moved this summer that Arsenal could have gotten but chose not to go after. Or a top-notch centre-half. It was a pretty stagnant market and while I would have liked an extra player or maybe two, it's really not the end of the world.

If you want a free-spending, unplanned football club to follow, go bugger off and support City or Chelsea.

mike65

Quite in here innit?

Will Ashburton Grove turn out to be the gravestone rather than the christening font for Arsenal?

Mike

PHB

I don't know why Arsenal fans are sad. I think the problem is that they look at respective squads and go, well clearly we need another so and so to match it. But Wenger plays a system in which the whole is better than the sum of its parts.

Once Wenger is around, I can't see this current team dropping below 4th, because in reality, they are part of the top 3. Nobody expects Chelsea or United to get done for the top 4, but I don't see why people expect Arsenal either. People just look at their squads and go, that isn't as good, but it doesn't need to be the way Wenger plays.

I'd say, if Fabregas stays fit, Arsenal will be at least within 5 points of the league winners this year. It is all dependent on Fabregas [much like United used to be on Rooney, but Berbatov changes that]

keano_afc

In all honesty, was anybody ever convinced we were going to sign somebody?? All we've spent in the last 2 seasons is money we've made on other transfers so it seems to me that we cant buy unless we sell beforehand. Some people are saying its not all doom and gloom but its going to be another trophyless season, unless there are some surprises in the FA Cup. I'm very annoyed at our situation, but only because AW promised a midfielder. Our players have shown how prone they are to injury so I see no reason for optimism with the current crop.

Galvasean

yahoo_moe wrote: »

. Name me one quality (defensive) central midfielder who's moved this summer that Arsenal could have gotten but chose not to go after.

Vincent Kompany

Indie18

yahoo_moe wrote: »

Relax, jeez. Name me one quality (defensive) central midfielder who's moved this summer that Arsenal could have gotten but chose not to go after. Or a top-notch centre-half. It was a pretty stagnant market and while I would have liked an extra player or maybe two, it's really not the end of the world.

If you want a free-spending, unplanned football club to follow, go bugger off and support City or Chelsea.

i didn't say that i wanted arsenal to just buy the league i have no respect for that and i still don't view chelsea as a real football team because of this but i really feel we needed to sign players in the window because the squad has no dept to it and in the long season this is gonna prove to be our down fall its the same every year. i love arsenal but its sad to be at a stage were you know your team is not going to be fighting a battle it can win. i hope i'm proved wrong but i doubt it.

kronsington

yahoo_moe wrote: »

Relax, jeez. Name me one quality (defensive) central midfielder who's moved this summer that Arsenal could have gotten but chose not to go after. Or a top-notch centre-half. It was a pretty stagnant market and while I would have liked an extra player or maybe two, it's really not the end of the world.

If you want a free-spending, unplanned football club to follow, go bugger off and support City or Chelsea.

Vincent Kompany could have filled both those roles

MIN2511

lads no need, ye have a young driven team. I don't think you should fear Citeh...

eZe^

kronsington wrote: »

Vincent Kompany could have filled both those roles

Seydou Keita can also play both those roles, although he is much more of CMF.

Christian Poulsen...

If you had kept onto either Gilberto or Flamini...

De Guzman moved from Feyenoord to Deportivo, and he is a quality DMF who can play centre-back.

FFS even Thiago Motta would have a added that little bit of grit like Silvestre.

Pepe LeFrits

eZe^ wrote: »

De Guzman moved from Feyenoord to Deportivo, and he is a quality DMF who can play centre-back.

De Guzman went from Hannover, not Feyenoord. He's a midget though so I can't imagine him being the best at centre-half.

I'm very, very disappointed that Arsene has not signed anyone. Letting three DMs go in the space of 6 months and not bringing anyone in is a very poor show.

Still, it isn't the end of the world. While we've weakened in central midfield we have strengthened elsewhere. I also think Alex Song may be ready to make a real impact for us, as he has been outstanding for Cameroon over the last year.

I believe Arsene Wenger definately tried to sign Xabi Alonso - hopefully he can get him, or someone else in January. We have a pretty decent run of fixtures up to January so hopefully we can stay in contention until then.

Evil_Clown

Stephen Appiah is a free agent apparently and so could move outside the window

**clings to faintest hope**

roryc

Just heard a rumour that Van Persie broke his metatarsal at the weekend... any truth in this? Cant find much on tinterweb

L'prof

PHB wrote: »

I don't know why Arsenal fans are sad. I think the problem is that they look at respective squads and go, well clearly we need another so and so to match it. But Wenger plays a system in which the whole is better than the sum of its parts.

Once Wenger is around, I can't see this current team dropping below 4th, because in reality, they are part of the top 3. Nobody expects Chelsea or United to get done for the top 4, but I don't see why people expect Arsenal either. People just look at their squads and go, that isn't as good, but it doesn't need to be the way Wenger plays.

I'd say, if Fabregas stays fit, Arsenal will be at least within 5 points of the league winners this year. It is all dependent on Fabregas [much like United used to be on Rooney, but Berbatov changes that]

But, top 4 isn't good enough any more for us Arsenal fans and neither is this continual state of transition where we are constantly "building for the future", we have no future if we can't hang on to some of our best players and add to that as well. It's just all so disappointing, Carling Cup/FA Cup aren't good enough either! We have to win the Champions League/Premier League this year...beaten finalists isn't good enough, 5 points from top isn't good enough! If it doesn't happen this year, then there needs to be huge changes made. Our squad is not strong enough Mr. Wenger and we do not have enough money to spend Mr. Fiszman! :mad:

Rant over!

Pepe LeFrits

roryc wrote: »

Just heard a rumour that Van Persie broke his metatarsal at the weekend... any truth in this? Cant find much on tinterweb

Bull. He's off to play with the Dutch team.

roryc

So is he around for the match vs Blackburn?

yahoo_moe

kronsington wrote: »

Vincent Kompany could have filled both those roles

Is Kompany really that good right now? I'm genuinely asking because I haven't seen that much of him but to me, if Hamburg was the best club he could have gone to when he was leaving Anderlecht, then there's an issue. Also, I seem to recall reading when he moved to City that his attitude was poor, which wouldn't exactly be Wenger's cup of tea.

eZe^ wrote:

Seydou Keita can also play both those roles, although he is much more of CMF.

Christian Poulsen...

From what I saw the other night (all I know of him), Keita's passing would leave a bit to be desired in the Arsenal system.

Poulsen is probably the best shout of any of the names mentioned.

eZe^ wrote:

If you had kept onto either Gilberto or Flamini...

Not to be a smartarse but - well, obviously. Or even better, Lassana Diarra.

eZe^ wrote:

FFS even Thiago Motta would have a added that little bit of grit like Silvestre.

I used to like Motta when I saw him with Barca but isn't he constantly crocked? We don't need anyone else who's injury-prone.

Basically I just don't see that many people around to turn this current Arsenal squad straight into serious title contenders (ie when they're not overachieving slightly like last year).

EDIT:

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

I also think Alex Song may be ready to make a real impact for us, as he has been outstanding for Cameroon over the last year.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, for me this is practically a new signing, given that he was away at the ANC and then the Olympics. I'd also be very hopeful that he can bring something that we missed last year.

eZe^

yahoo_moe wrote: »

Is Kompany really that good right now? I'm genuinely asking because I haven't seen that much of him but to me, if Hamburg was the best club he could have gone to when he was leaving Anderlecht, then there's an issue. Also, I seem to recall reading when he moved to City that his attitude was poor, which wouldn't exactly be Wenger's cup of tea.


From what I saw the other night (all I know of him), Keita's passing would leave a bit to be desired in the Arsenal system.

Poulsen is probably the best shout of any of the names mentioned.

Not to be a smartarse but - well, obviously. Or even better, Lassana Diarra.

I used to like Motta when I saw him with Barca but isn't he constantly crocked? We don't need anyone else who's injury-prone.

Basically I just don't see that many people around to turn this current Arsenal squad straight into serious title contenders (ie when they're not overachieving slightly like last year).

Keita is playing for Barca, hardly a step down in passing sides? It was his first competitive appearance, once he adapts, he'll be excellent. Although I doubt he'd be a straight DMF, he is more like an Essien style CMF.

Poulsen is excellent, and would have been perfect for Arsenal, as he slots in at CB brilliantly too.

Yes, why you let go of 3 CMF/ DMF's in less than 8 months I do not know.

Motta is injury prone, and he's kinda inconsistent too, but it would still be nice to have at least one more experienced player there.


I just want to see arsenal challenging for the title knowing they can afford an injury. It was terrible when Eduardo got injured, I knew their title ambitions were gone after that game tbh.

Royale with Cheese

Diarra, obviously has attitude problems. Didn't look like he was needed, was let go at a nice profit. Nobody was exactly devastated at the time were they?

Flamini, wasn't much of a player up until last season. Proved to be very important to the team. Board dicked around too long on offering a contract, and he left. Can't blame him, definitely the club's fault.

Gilberto, why the fúck was he let go? He'd have been perfect to keep for at least another season. When he was let go everyone was certain there was a centre mid signing coming soon, because it really didn't look like Arsenal had a choice, they had to. They didn't.

Quazzie

Arsenal needed to buy. Thats not opinion its a fact. We didn't just have a bad day against Fulham, that was the lack of depth in our squad showing through. If reports are right the money is available to be spent I just think that Wenger refuses to spend because he wants to mould a team to suit his play, which is fine except that he is never going to get that team when he sells such influental parts of it. At the moment it feels likes the once might Arsenal has become nothing more than a feeder club for the 'bigger' clubs.

yahoo_moe

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Nobody was exactly devastated at the time were they?

From last December in the old thread when Diarra first started to talk about leaving:

yahoo_moe wrote:

as for diarra, i'd be very disappointed if he leaves. i was seriously confused when wenger signed him but i think he's shown a real touch of class mixed with the ability to get stuck in. in fairness, i guess it doesn't help his patience that he had the exact same experience just before we signed him...

Evil_Clown wrote:

I wouldn't like to see Diarra leave but if he does it will be for a nice profit

OPENROAD wrote:

Diarra has looked quite good so far, I hope we hang onto him

yahoo_moe wrote:

Central midfield is about partnerships - out of Denilson, Fabregas, Flamini, Diarra, Gilberto, Diaby (though he's not played there yet), you have to look at how many balanced partnerships we have.

Look at the partnerships yourselves but I think we absolutely need Diarra. Personally I'd like to hang onto Gilberto till summer but I'd rather keep Diarra for current and future reasons if it came to a straight choice.

Denilson can get stuck in but he's cover for Cesc as far as I'm concerned. Diaby is a good worker too but I consider him cover for Hleb/Rosicky primarily - again he doesn't do the job Gilberto/Flamini do. For me, Diarra is the one who best fits into that mould but he's got far better passing than either of them to go with his tenacity.

A 5-year deal for Flamini doesn't exclude injuries/loss of form and if Diarra goes, I wouldn't fancy Cesc + anyone else as much as I would Cesc + Diarra.

I'd have loved Diarra to stay then and I'd love to still have him now, more so than Barry or Alonso. I like Denilson and Song a lot though so hopefully one or both of those will justify Wenger's faith in them. They'll have to.

Wreck

Lads things are no where near as bad as people are making out. I expect us to challenge for the title this year and if things go our way we could pinch it. Ok, we're not favorites, but we are certainly in with a shout. Yes the squad could definitely have done with another defensive midfielder, and it seems Wenger wanted to sign one, but that didn't happen so he will make do.

People should remember that unlike most managers, Wenger consistently makes decisions for the long term benefit of the club, rather than focusing on the short-term and his own personal gain. Now, obviously he's not going to get it right 100% of the time, but I don't think there is any other person who could do what he does for the club. The day Wenger leaves is the day we will be facing into a crisis situation. Failing to sign one player is not the end of the world.

Royale with Cheese

I agree with you about Wenger, he's not refusing to buy because he's too arrogant and wants his youth team to win something. My guess, there's no money there. Wenger knows best, that hasn't changed in the past few years. He's a very smart guy, and some fans are becoming frustrated because they actually believe the board when they say he has £30m to spend but just doesn't want to.

But I think you're a bit deluded if you think Arsenal can win the league this year with the midfield they have. Yeah they did well in the past week against poor teams at home, but it was only 10 days ago they were soundly beaten by Fulham. Without a doubt the team has gone backwards from last year, although on first thoughts, Nasri might actually be an improvement on Hleb. 3 centre mid's all gone without replacement. Senderos swapped for Silvestre, and Vela coming in. All our rivals have strengthened.

L'prof

Big football club my Arsenal! This is just an estimate taken from a website on how much teams have spent and received on players since then...it's absolutely disgraceful! Of cousre this seasons trophies haven't been counted yet!

Liverpool: -€132.783m, FA Cup 1
Chelsea: -€121.475m, Carling Cup 1, FA Cup 1, Premier League 1
Man Utd: -€121.25m, Carling Cup 1, Premier League 2, Champions League 1
Spurs: -€116.835m, Carling Cup 1
Man City: -€116.175m
Villa: -€94.515m
Sunderland: -€89.91m
Everton: -€67.225m
Fulham: -€59.265m
West Ham: -€49.11m
Portsmouth: -€44.805m, FA Cup 1
Middlesbrough: -€31.325m
Bolton: -€29.859m
Stoke: -€21.255m
Newcastle -€20.625m
Stoke: -€12.775m
Wigan: -€12.445m
West Brom: -€10.695m
Arsenal: +€1.63m
Blackburn: +€5.455m

kronsington

Evil_Clown wrote: »

Stephen Appiah is a free agent apparently and so could move outside the window

**clings to faintest hope**

i was just about to raise this point. sky sports news just mentioned some club were in for him but i doubt it's us, would be a good signing, for nothing!

j14

According to the BBC, Appiah is in talks with West Ham maybe we could muscle in there.
An extra body in mid-field is always welcome.

It also seems that the Hammers have just announced two new loan signings, blaming "Administration errors" for the delay.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/w/west_ham_utd/7594781.stm

C'mon Arsene get Alonso & Zapata in and blame those pesky administration errors!

OPENROAD

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

If Pool fail to finish 4th, you'll get a load of whinging scousers, but I can't see that being a disaster for them. Huge fanbase, they'll always get money from somewhere.

If Arse fail to finish 4th, it could be a big problem. I think the debts in place are structured assuming Arsenal will be in the Champions League every year for the next 2 decades. Miss it one year, fall behind on payments, and that could be disasterous.

I have to disagree, if we fail to make the champions league for one or two seasons it would not be a disaster, of course this is not ideal, Arsenals accounts have been published on numerous websites and while no expert I have to say the figures suggest that the club is in a good financial state and is producing a large amount of EXCESS cash. I would rather our fincial position than Liverool who really do need to make the champions league year on year at the moment. Having said all that it is still vital that we do still have a good football team that is competing on trophies and can continue to some extent to fill the Emirates and in particular Club Level which is a great earner for the club.

OPENROAD

jasonorr wrote: »

Big football club my Arsenal! This is just an estimate taken from a website on how much teams have spent and received on players since then...it's absolutely disgraceful! Of cousre this seasons trophies haven't been counted yet!

Liverpool: -€132.783m, FA Cup 1
Chelsea: -€121.475m, Carling Cup 1, FA Cup 1, Premier League 1
Man Utd: -€121.25m, Carling Cup 1, Premier League 2, Champions League 1
Spurs: -€116.835m, Carling Cup 1
Man City: -€116.175m
Villa: -€94.515m
Sunderland: -€89.91m
Everton: -€67.225m
Fulham: -€59.265m
West Ham: -€49.11m
Portsmouth: -€44.805m, FA Cup 1
Middlesbrough: -€31.325m
Bolton: -€29.859m
Stoke: -€21.255m
Newcastle -€20.625m
Stoke: -€12.775m
Wigan: -€12.445m
West Brom: -€10.695m
Arsenal: +€1.63m
Blackburn: +€5.455m

You are not suggesting that the size of a football club is based on spending are you?

L'prof

OPENROAD wrote: »

You are not suggesting that the size of a football club is based on spending are you?

No, but I do believe that if we continue this trend, then we won't be able to compete for trophies any more (which we are barely doing at the moment) and without that, we cease to be a big club. I know we have a big fan base, but I don't think that alone makes us a big club.

I don't even think we need to spend as much as the rest, just enough to make sure that we can challenge on all fronts and start winning trophies again!

Basically our squad was too small last year, but instead of adding quality we let quality go and now our squad even smaller!

OPENROAD

jasonorr wrote: »

No, but I do believe that if we continue this trend, then we won't be able to compete for trophies any more (which we are barely doing at the moment) and without that, we cease to be a big club. I know we have a big fan base, but I don't think that alone makes us a big club.

I don't even think we need to spend as much as the rest, just enough to make sure that we can challenge on all fronts and start winning trophies again!

Basically our squad was too small last year, but instead of adding quality we let quality go and now our squad even smaller!

I know where you are coming from, with all the hype yesterday I have to admit that when the transfer window closed I was really reaaly down about it. That said when I saw those figures earlier( are you on awimb?) Im actually not so down now.

Football clubs can't carry on spending the amounts of money they are spending. I believe the board when they say that we have money to spend however it appears that Arsene does not want to spend it for whatever reason he obviously has great faith in the likes of Denilson Song etc... We will see come the end of the season if he has made the right choice or not.

L'prof

OPENROAD wrote: »

I know where you are coming from, with all the hype yesterday I have to admit that when the transfer window closed I was really reaaly down about it. That said when I saw those figures earlier( are you on awimb?) Im actually not so down now.

Football clubs can't carry on spending the amounts of money they are spending. I believe the board when they say that we have money to spend however it appears that Arsene does not want to spend it for whatever reason he obviously has great faith in the likes of Denilson Song etc... We will see come the end of the season if he has made the right choice or not.

I doubt it, I can't see us winning anything...again!