Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Roddy23

Also in Reserve team news, our young Polish goalkeeper - Wojciech Szczesny, will be out till next year, after somehow fracturing both his arms:
http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/football/Gunners-keeper-breaks-both-his.4717425.jp

Frisbee

Toure out for the weekend

Royale with Cheese

Who's going to play right back then if Eboue isn't fit? Gallas with Djourou in the middle, Alex Song?

Frisbee

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Who's going to play right back then if Eboue isn't fit? Gallas with Djourou in the middle, Alex Song?

---

Almunia

---

Song----Gallas---Djourou---Clichy
Ramsey----Denilson--Diaby--Nasri--

---

RVP----Ade

---

yahoo_moe

Late call up for Gavin Hoyte maybe? Though if he's not in the squad now I presume it's not an option.

If Eboue's fit, I reckon Song will play centre mid with Denilson, with either Nasri (left) and Ramsey (right) or Diaby (left) and Nasri (right) on the wings.

Otherwise I'd say Djourou at RB, Song CB, Denilson and Ramsey CM with Nasri (right) and Diaby (left). Can't see him starting Wilshere although I'd rather keep Nasri left side if possible.

I'd rather not see Diaby in the centre of a 4-man midfield and I'd be surprised to see it when it can definitely be avoided.

Frisbee

yahoo_moe wrote: »

Gavin Hoyte maybe?

If Eboue's fit, I reckon Song will play centre mid with Denilson, with either Nasri (left) and Ramsey (right) or Diaby (left) and Nasri (right) on the wings.

I'd rather not see Diaby in the centre of a 4-man midfield and I'd be surprised to see it when it can definitely be avoided.

According to the Toure article Eboue is still out

Galvasean

I'd imagine Djourou would be next in line to play RB?

1st choice: Sagna, 2nd: Eboué, 3rd: Touré, 4th Djourou

4th choice, damn. Squad is starting to look a bit thin.

Frisbee

Galvasean wrote: »

I'd imagine Djourou would be next in line to play RB?

Sagna - Eboué - Touré - Djourou

4th choice, damn. Squad is starting to look a bit thin.

Sagna and Eboue are injured?

Guessing you meant Clichy and Gallas?

Galvasean

Frisbee wrote: »

Sagna and Eboue are injured?

Guessing you meant Clichy and Gallas?

Actually, that was meant to be the line of preference, not our back 4.

I'll edit it.

edit: fixed

Frisbee

Galvasean wrote: »

Actually, that was meant to be the line of preference, not our back 4.

I'll edit it.

Haha ok, I prob didnt read it right

Faddymackshyte

Cesc AND Toure are out for the weekend?!
Awh man.
Gallas was such a poor choice for captain, he's too petulant and unreliable in most cases. He just doesn't cut it.

Galvasean

Unfortunately we don't have many good options for captain. Touré would probably be the only one that sticks out IMO. I still reckon Cesc is a bit young for it. I'd say he will be a very good captain someday but mt for a few more years. Should have kept Gilberto for one last season IMHO.

Faddymackshyte

Now don't quote me on this, but after that whole Birmingham sit down fiasco, I remember reading/hearing somewhere a discussion on who could be potential captains for this current team and both Kolo and Cesc were discussed. And yeah, apparently Cesc isn't experienced enough and Kolo is too quiet in the dressing room. As in, they don't think he'd be able to have a voice in the team, but he's good at what he does on the field and such.
Sorry if I've confused anyone with that.

PaddyTheNth

Roddy23 wrote: »

Also in Reserve team news, our young Polish goalkeeper - Wojciech Szczesny, will be out till next year, after somehow fracturing both his arms:
http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/football/Gunners-keeper-breaks-both-his.4717425.jp

Flippin hell I'd love to hear how that happened:eek:

Superman impression?

DenMan

I don't believe Wenger will strip Gallas of the captaincy. He may get a slap on the wrist and tell him he is not in contention for the weekend game, and that will be the end of it. It will also wake up the team to fight harder and win the ball back when we do not have it. Expect a huge improvement tomorrow against City.

Frisbee

DenMan wrote: »

He may get a slap on the wrist and tell him he is not in contention for the weekend game,

Jayzus if Wenger told Gallas he wasnt in contention for the weekend game then our defence would be proper fubared...

mike65

Gallas stripped of captaincy. According to SNN

Mike

wandatowell

I cant believe it, Im shocked. Gallas has lost the captaincy and hasn't even
travelled with the squad. Arsenal in turmoil

Royale with Cheese

He needs to go now. He's always been a headcase, can't see him reacting well to this. Like Campbell he'll probably leave for nothing and go on to play well enough for his next team while Arsenal struggle to get a decent centre back in.

leninbenjamin

mike65 wrote: »

Gallas stripped of captaincy. According to SNN

Mike

Thank fuck for that. let's hope he is quickly disposed of in the the January transfer window, and Wenger will then be forced to get a real defender in.

Frisbee

He was never a great captain but this isn't going to make things better switching captains mid season and with Chelsea in two weeks...
I would he preferred for him to keep it till at least Christmas...

monkey9

He's a joke of a captain to be honest. You's are better off. Should probably give it Fabregas.

Royale with Cheese

Almunia is getting it for the weekend. Can't disagree with that (apart from giving it to a goalkeeper), there's not really any options there with Fabregas and Toure not playing. Clichy maybe? He seems quiet but he has his head screwed on.

Frisbee

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Clichy maybe? He seems quiet but he has his head screwed on.

If we saw him being more vocal he would be a shoe in for me. He's the model professional. Does his job on the pitch very well and keeps his head down off it

AnCapaillMor

Jesus it just gets worse and worse.

Supermanscat

As a man united fan i get no satisfaction out of this whatsoever. I think Arsenal play a brilliant brand of football but IMO wenger does have to have questions asked of him. The character of some players leaves a lot to be desired and can ony imagine such people like Gallas and Van Persie only worsen matters.

Royale with Cheese

I don't see how their character worsens matters. Gallas' character wouldn't be such a problem if he wasn't made captain. Do you think Ronaldo's character hinders United? After that summer long fiasco do you think he's now making United play worse?

The problem with Arsenal is there are no strong characters, no leaders there. One strong leader to captain the team on the pitch and you can afford to have a few selfish players, especially up front. It may actually help matters.

Supermanscat

No but at the same time Ronaldo hasn't been in the centre of any fighting the way Adebayor, Bendtner and the other two players after the Spurs game have been. I agree Ronaldo's character during the summer was questionable but that was during the summer. He's not fighting in dressing rooms after games.....

Royale with Cheese

How do you know, I'm sure arguments go on. United just don't have a twat captain to publicise them in the press.

Supermanscat

Cant Argue with that:D

event

clichy is the only choice for ye, giving it to fabregas would burden him even more, the chap needs pressure taken off him, not more put on.

it will be given to almunia but it should be clichy

tred

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

He needs to go now. He's always been a headcase, can't see him reacting well to this. Like Campbell he'll probably leave for nothing and go on to play well enough for his next team while Arsenal struggle to get a decent centre back in.

At least Wenger has the cop to react. Hes let him off with enough. hes set us back years, the squad was so much more together before he arrived. Ill be glad to see the back of him in January and you know, when we had senderos and toure playing for a while, we looked so solid season before last. Now, were leaking goals all over the place, and i think hes being playing for most of them. Its just so hard to even find a world class centre back, gallas was supposed to be one of these. Whos out there.

yahoo_moe

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

How do you know, I'm sure arguments go on.

Exactly - we really have no idea what goes on about 95% of the time... we only see matches which, while important, aren't enough to know the full story.

tred wrote:

At least Wenger has the cop to react.

Wrong time for me - press say Arsenal crisis with crap captain, Wenger reacts by firing captain. It just doesn't seems right to react to his very public, spur-of-the-moment sins with a very public, spur-of-the-moment punishment.

tred wrote:

Now, were leaking goals all over the place, and i think hes being playing for most of them.

And so was Almunia, and so was Theo, and so was Clichy - even given that a lot of goals came through the centre, there's still Denilson as well. I'm not defending Gallas completely but you can't just automatically attribute that kind of blame on that kind of basis.

Only plus side is that Wenger's shown he's not afraid to act - even when we can't really afford to leave players out of a squad. But wrong time for me.

EDIT: Though obviously I only see 95% either.

gosplan

yahoo_moe wrote: »

Wrong time for me - press say Arsenal crisis with crap captain, Wenger reacts by firing captain. It just doesn't seems right to react to his very public, spur-of-the-moment sins with a very public, spur-of-the-moment punishment.

I think Wenger's probably put off reacting to Gallas for long enough as opposed to reacting too quickly here.

It's really a difficult thing to give someone the captaincy and then take them off it the next summer - which is why I think he didn't do it sooner.

At this stage though, I think Wenger probably feels that it's not going to get any better under Billy.

To be honest I agree with this point of view. There's a serious rot in Arsenal at the moment. Player's hankering for moves over the last two years, people not being happy at the club and results all over the place. This isn't the usual up and down spell that teams get every so often, it's far more negative. If Gallas isn't partly responsible, then it's clear he's not going to solve it.

Frisbee

event wrote: »

clichy is the only choice for ye, giving it to fabregas would burden him even more, the chap needs pressure taken off him, not more put on.

Another two years and I would gladly give it to Clichy. In fact I sincerely hope he is at the club in another few years so we can give him the captaincy. I have nothing but good words to say about the guy.

However he's only been a first team regular for two years and, like Fab, I'm not sure he's ready to stand up to the added burden of captaincy.
Kolo or Almunia, hopefully Kolo.

leninbenjamin

Frisbee wrote: »

Another two years and I would gladly give it to Clichy. In fact I sincerely hope he is at the club in another few years so we can give him the captaincy. I have nothing but good words to say about the guy.

However he's only been a first team regular for two years and, like Fab, I'm not sure he's ready to stand up to the added burden of captaincy.
Kolo or Almunia, hopefully Kolo.

I'd rather Almunia tbh. His contributions for the past few seasons have been seriously underrated. He's the only player on the Arsenal pitch who seems to actively communicate with those around them, and he's one of the few who give a sh*t while retaining an air of composure. Finally, he's one of the few players i can remember in the past year who was actively encouraging his team mates, as opposed to continually berating them in the Henry/Gallas mode of captaincy.

Kolo on the other hand is a passive player, relatively quiet on the pitch, particularly for a centre half, a pretty awful organiser of defence when it falls to him, and overall a really good player, but far from being a leader.

I think we had this conversation over a year ago, and back then i wanted Kolo, but over the past year what with his woeful form and some atrocious communication and decision making at times I think i can see why Wenger didn't give it to him in the first place.

OPENROAD

Apparently Arsene will talk about the Billy Gallas situation after the Man City match, think much of what we have heard today is speculation.

Interesting that Roy Keane has come out and has indirectly backed Gallas.

Quazzie

OPENROAD wrote: »

Interesting that Roy Keane has come out and has indirectly backed Gallas.

He might be interested in buying him. He'd be the type of shite player that would be suit at the stadium of light.

Quazzie2002

Quazzie2002 wrote: »

He might be interested in buying him. He'd be the type of shite player that would be suit at the stadium of light.

lol :Dyeah exactly he can fcuk off and join djouff, cisse and all the other eccentrics that roy gives a chance to.

Galvasean

Supermanscat wrote: »

No but at the same time Ronaldo hasn't been in the centre of any fighting the way Adebayor, Bendtner and the other two players after the Spurs game have been. I agree Ronaldo's character during the summer was questionable but that was during the summer. He's not fighting in dressing rooms after games.....

I'm willing to bet there was some in fighting after the 'winker' fiasco between him and Rooney. This sort of in fighting happens and passes unheard of all the time in football. Like Royale with Cheese said, we just have a twat of a captain revealing all to peddle his book.

Boggles

Deleted User wrote: »

lol :Dyeah exactly he can fcuk off and join djouff, cisse and all the other eccentrics that roy gives a chance to.

Arsenal could do with Cisse at the moment.

jaykay74

Gallas would be fine elsewhere I'd say outside the top 6. Just not as captain though

Quazzie2002 wrote: »

He might be interested in buying him. He'd be the type of shite player that would be suit at the stadium of light.

Deleted User wrote: »

lol :Dyeah exactly he can fcuk off and join djouff, cisse and all the other eccentrics that roy gives a chance to.

yahoo_moe

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Kolo... a pretty awful organiser of defence when it falls to him... his woeful form and some atrocious communication and decision making at times

Personally, I don't mind quietness on the pitch in a captain (I think most of the preparation should be done already, that most of a captain's job is about off-the-pitch behaviour and that it should be more down to the manager to organise the team on the day anyway) but I'd agree that Kolo would be a poor choice. At the moment, he isn't (and shouldn't be) an automatic first-teamer so he can't really be made captain - and the team's already suffered from having a captain that should probably have been dropped from time to time but couldn't be.

As for who should get it (if it doesn't stay with Gallas, that is), probably Almunia - it shouldn't take captaincy for him to organise his defence but at least his attitude seems generally good and he'll always be playing. I wouldn't mind Fabregas myself (his current form shouldn't count against him) but if there's a chance he's going to bugger off during the summer, then it shouldn't even be considered.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

This whole situation is ridiculous at this stage. Hopefully Wenger will be able to clarify things in his press conference. Interesting that during the week he was talking up Djourou's quality, so maybe he will get a decent run in the team it to see if he can keep up the record of not having conceded while he's been on the pitch:pac:

As for the new captain, ideally I'd like it to be Kolo or Clichy as they're arsenal through and through and are actually great professionals. But i don't know if they'd be suited really. Kolo might not even play every game and Clichy may be too quiet on the pitch, though maybe thats not too bad a thing if he leads by example. Wouldn't be surprised if it was given to Almunia though, fairly safe option.

Boggles wrote: »

Arsenal could do with Cisse at the moment.

Nah but they could certainly do with Roy Keane at the moment!

So that's it. Arsenal fc who only this time last year looked like champions elect are heading for mid table mediocrity! People pay a bloody fortune before they even get a bite to eat to see arsenal every week and in turn the *****rs that run this club penny pinch right left and centre. unless these f*cking morons get their act together the next trophy we'll win is the the coca cola championship.

wenger is showing too much faith in one or two tools anyway. as i said before, bendtner is like having a donkey in the coolmore stables. Alex Ferguson must have the fax that arsenal sent to them with their silvestre offer pinned up on the wall to give all his players a laugh when they're down. i didn't rate him at man united but now i despise him

Mossy Monk

He has to strengthen in January now or 4th place will be gone. If there is no Champions League then a exodus will happen.

DenMan

Arsene Wenger please bring in Stephen Appiah. He is still a free agent, has a clean bill of health and would toughen up our team. Ghana captain and we should get him in now.

Mr Alan

is there any Arsenal fans who think that Wenger may have taken the team as far as he can?

and that if he cant alter his transfer policy he should maybe think about moving on?

Royale with Cheese

IF

Results don't change between now and February 1st and he still doesn't bring anybody in and Arsenal go on to finish below 4th.

and IF

The reported £30m transfer budget is actually there...

then I think yes it may be time for a change. Two big ifs though.

Frisbee

DenMan wrote: »

Arsene Wenger please bring in Stephen Appiah. He is still a free agent, has a clean bill of health and would toughen up our team. Ghana captain and we should get him in now.

Appiah would be good but he's far to injury prone after the whole Fenerbache fiasco.

Mr Alan wrote: »

is there any Arsenal fans who think that Wenger may have taken the team as far as he can?

and that if he cant alter his transfer policy he should maybe think about moving on?

In Wenger We Trust.
There is no manager out there that could fill his boots. So there'sa no point in getting rid of him to bring in a sunb-standard manager.