Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Galvasean

Dear Santa,
This year I want Chilieni (the Juventus guy), Matthew Upson and a solid defensive midfielder. Surprise me, maybe Velolso or Melo..
..also i know I'm asking for a lot but could I also have Arshavin? I know it might seem excessive but my Fabregas is broken
I have been a very good boy, only spending within my own means and have made friends with that Alex guy like you told me to.

Yours sincerely,
Arsene W.

Galvasean

Hey guys just got an email from arsenal.com
They're having a sale right now including (but not limited to!) 50% off the away kit.

tony1kenobi

I wouldn't have Arshavin now.

I'd have taken him last May but reading about hi over the last few months he comes across as a cock that is just after money.

Yaya or Alonso I reckon. Or both.

eZe^

Yaya is happy out over my friend, keep your grubby mits away... :pac:

Bounty Hunter

So will Almunia be Arsenal captain for the next few months now?

Frisbee

I was in worm all day and everyone I asked hadnt a clue about the Fab situation.
4 monthsa really hurts us and unless we sign someone of the calibre or Veloso/Yaya/Alonso we're ****ed.
Yaya and Alonso are unobtainable now I reckon, and the fact that Sporting are in the last 16 of the CL will mean they most likely won't sell their best player.
We're slowly falling apart

Galvasean

Frisbee wrote: »

We're slowly falling apart

Slowly?

Frisbee

Galvasean wrote: »

Slowly?

Aye, slowly, since 03/04 really

We've been losing our great players and replacing them either with ****e players or 'players for the future', this year has just seen a rapid escalation of it.
Arshavin should be our last target imo, the defense and midfield needs to be sorted first.

wandatowell

Frisbee wrote: »

Aye, slowly, since 03/04 really

Spot on, couldnt agree more.

What shambles of a midfield is gonna appear up at villa park on friday?

Really beginning to feel sorry for Denilson though, the kid gets thrown all over the midfield, he'll be a better player for it tho

PHB

Fabregas out is a huge blow, absolutely massive. Wenger has to buy in January if you've any hope of a title challenge, and he has to buy smart.

Galvasean

I'm thinking Nasri on the left, Eboué on the right. With Denilson and Diaby in the middle.

L'prof

tony1kenobi wrote: »

Yaya or Alonso I reckon. Or both.

Not a hope of either to be honest! Yaya is playing in an extremely talented Barca side which are on fire and could do great things this season and Alonso has been very solid for Liverpool, who should do better than us this year!

wandatowell wrote: »

Spot on, couldnt agree more.

What shambles of a midfield is gonna appear up at villa park on friday?

Really beginning to feel sorry for Denilson though, the kid gets thrown all over the midfield, he'll be a better player for it tho

Denilson and Song with Diaby on the wing probably, when it should be Ramsey and whoever with Vela on the wing! CM on the wing is a terrible move and with Fabregas out (doesn't even matter that Ade is missing to be honest), if this happens again we can only hope for a draw at best!

PHB wrote: »

Fabregas out is a huge blow, absolutely massive. Wenger has to buy in January if you've any hope of a title challenge, and he has to buy smart.

We have no hope whether he does or not and he won't...not significantly anyway!

Galvasean wrote: »

I'm thinking Nasri on the left, Eboué on the right. With Denilson and Diaby in the middle.

I doubt Eboue will start on the wing or Diaby in the middle to be honest!

leninbenjamin

Galvasean wrote: »

I'm thinking Nasri on the left, Eboué on the right. With Denilson and Diaby in the middle.

that would be the rational man's thinking. which doesn't seem to happen these days in north London.

Bounty Hunter

personally i expect Wenger to go with something like he did at Man Utd when he was missing RVP, Fabergas, and Ade esp if Bentner is still out. Something like this

.....................Almunia (c)..............

Sagna.....Djourou......Gallas.....Clichy

Eboue.....Denilson......Song......Nasri
.......................Diaby...................

......................RVP......................

just like then from a neutral point of view (though not from a Villa one) id wanna see Vela partner RVP instead of 1 up front but doubt he will start tbh.

atleast for you guys it looks like Laursen will not make the match for Villa, although Cuellar and Davies in CD is still decent.

jank

Does anybody really believe now what wenger is saying. I think the more I hear of him the more I think he is trying to convince himself more then anything.

A situation like this is not surprising at all. We need CM and our defense is still ****. 4th place will be a good season at the moment. 5th however might make wenger realise that the players he has are not as good as he is making out. Then again I think if Arsenal get 5th he should get the sack. There is said it.

However I think there is alot more going on behind the scenes that we dont know about. The board say there is money there but I believe that is a big lie.

PHB

jank wrote: »

However I think there is alot more going on behind the scenes that we dont know about. The board say there is money there but I believe that is a big lie.

Could not agree with that statement more.

gosplan

Good piece on Arseblog this morning saying that Parker and Arteta woudl be good solutions to our current problem.

I had mentioned Parker before but had forgotten about Arteta. Would everton sell? I'm sure he'd like to come. He can also play wide midfield.

The Arshavin rumours are still about as well but I'm not sure he can do what Fabregas does plus we need an immediate aolution.

In a perfect world I'd like Parker & Arteta to come and sort out this season with Blaise whatsisface and Arshavin coming with a view to sorting out the next few seasons. The one that least excites me would be Arshavin but I'd like to see a lot of competition in our squad as opposed to zero competition.

Fcuk Diaby and Bendtner!

PHB

Arteta would cost 20 mill at least I'd say. Steven Ireland would be a handy purchase I'd say for midfield.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Yeah i was just thinking the other night watching Everton that Arteta and Lescott(instead of feckin Silvestre) would be excellent signings. Not gonna happen though cos I'd say it'd cost too much.

Actually screw Arshavin, what about someone like Diego for attacking mid/winger signing? We used to be linked to him all the time but not any more, anyone know what the story is with him?

Just found this, Frisbee wont be happy if he goes for €8million to Fiorentina:pac: If we could sign him, Parker or the likes I'd be happy. Rumours about Senna today too but thats not gonna happen

Galvasean

playa3 wrote: »

Just found this, Frisbee wont be happy if he goes for €8million to Fiorentina:pac:

Havent seen too much of him playing TBH, but if he's as good as Football Manager tells me...


Galvasean has compiled a scout report as per your request.

Positions:
Veloso is a defensive midfielder. However he is equally adept in central midfield.

Ability
Galvasean believes that Veloso is currently twice the player as our next strongest DM Alexander Song.

Potential
Galvasean is of the opinion that Veloso has the potential to be a leading Premier league midfielder.

Strenghts:
Veloso is an intelligent footballer, with a keen eye for a pass and good anticipation.

Weaknesses:
Veloso has a determined mentality. He may have trouble fitting in.

Availability: £8m
Spoting Lisbon will be reluctant to sell Veloso as they regard him as a hot prospect for the future. A bid of at least £8million may be required to obtain his services.
Veloso is likely to demand wages of £65k per week.

Galvasean regards Veloso as the definitive purchase.

Frisbee

playa3 wrote: »

Just found this, Frisbee wont be happy if he goes for €8million to Fiorentina:pac: If we could sign him, Parker or the likes I'd be happy. Rumours about Senna today too but thats not gonna happen

Your dead right, Idd be fcucking disgusted if Wenger leets him slip...

Galvasean wrote: »

Havent seen too much of him playing TBH, but if he's as good as Football Manager tells me...


Galvasean has compiled a scout report as per your request.

Positions:
Veloso is a defensive midfielder. However he is equally adept in central midfield.

Ability
Galvasean believes that Veloso is currently twice the player as our next strongest DM Alexander Song.

Potential
Galvasean is of the opinion that Veloso has the potential to be a leading Premier league midfielder.

Strenghts:
Veloso is an intelligent footballer, with a keen eye for a pass and good anticipation.

Weaknesses:
Veloso has a determined mentality. He may have trouble fitting in.

Availability: £8m
Spoting Lisbon will be reluctant to sell Veloso as they regard him as a hot prospect for the future. A bid of at least £8million may be required to obtain his services.
Veloso is likely to demand wages of £65k per week.

Galvasean regards Veloso as the definitive purchase.

I Galvasean

Bounty Hunter

if he can actually be signed for as cheap as £8m then Arsene should really make the deal for Veloso immediatley

Frisbee

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

if he can actually be signed for as cheap as £8m then Arsene should really make the deal for Veloso immediatley

Preaching to the choir. After seeing how good he was in FM I decided to actually watch some Sporting games.
He is amazing. That CL game against Inter he was sex on legs

Bounty Hunter

Frisbee wrote: »

Preaching to the choir. After seeing how good he was in FM I decided to actually watch some Sporting games.
He is amazing. That CL game against Inter he was sex on legs

ill take your word on that Laura but he does seem to be exactley what Arsenal need and would imo form a great partnership with Fabergas when he is back.

Frisbee

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

ill take your word on that Laura but he does seem to be exactley what Arsenal need and would imo form a great partnership with Fabergas when he is back.

He really is amazing, if someone offered me him or Messi I'd take Veloso everytime.

Bounty Hunter

really too early to ask this, but if Arsenal didnt get CL football for next season do you think all your players would stick around or would you fear for the likes of Ade, Fabergas etc?

Frisbee

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

really too early to ask this, but if Arsenal didnt get CL football for next season do you think all your players would stick around or would you fear for the likes of Ade, Fabergas etc?

Wenger would probably sell Ade and bring in someone else.
Fab getting injured could actually be useful, it might delay his departure to Barca for a year...
For me Fab, Clichy and (to a lesser extent) RVP are the players we jsut cant afford to lose...

Bounty Hunter

Frisbee wrote: »

Wenger would probably sell Ade and bring in someone else.
Fab getting injured could actually be useful, it might delay his departure to Barca for a year...
For me Fab, Clichy and (to a lesser extent) RVP are the players we jsut cant afford to lose...

thankfully the fact that those players are young might mean they arent in a rush yet and could handle 1 year without CL football. Fabergas being captain and just back from injury as you say might keep him at the club a bit longer, but yeah I would fear for Ade especially after last Summers antics.

ill tell you one thing, simply the fact that we are having this conversation is showing how the premier league is getting so much more competitive and next year even more so when City are bound to have finally gotten their act together.

Frisbee

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

thankfully the fact that those players are young might mean they arent in a rush yet and could handle 1 year without CL football. Fabergas being captain and just back from injury as you say might keep him at the club a bit longer, but yeah I would fear for Ade especially after last Summers antics.

ill tell you one thing, simply the fact that we are having this conversation is showing how the premier league is getting so much more competitive and next year even more so when City are bound to have finally gotten their act together.

While this sucks from an Arsenal POV, from a football POV I find it great.
During the summer I couldn't have cared whether or not we sold Ade, however I'd like to hold onto him now...

OPENROAD

Frisbee wrote: »

Wenger would probably sell Ade and bring in someone else.
Fab getting injured could actually be useful, it might delay his departure to Barca for a year...
For me Fab, Clichy and (to a lesser extent) RVP are the players we jsut cant afford to lose...

Wenger will sell Ade even if we qualify for cl, just a feeling I have.


I think we will qualify though, I'm confident Arsene will spend in Jan

Frisbee

OPENROAD wrote: »

I think we will qualify though, I'm confident Arsene will spend in Jan

Will we buy the players we need though?
Or a 16 year old currently playing in French Ligue 2 who will be amazing in 4 years?
We need someone established to hold the midfield together.

OPENROAD

Frisbee wrote: »

Will we buy the players we need though?
Or a 16 year old currently playing in French Ligue 2 who will be amazing in 4 years?
We need someone established to hold the midfield together.

That is the fear I suppose. Just hoping Arsene does go out and buy a couple of established players. I think he will, he has to really.

Frisbee

OPENROAD wrote: »

That is the fear I suppose. Just hoping Arsene does go out and buy a couple of established players. I think he will, he has to really.

In Arsene we trust

OPENROAD

Frisbee wrote: »

In Arsene we trust

+1

Bounty Hunter

well if you can get near 30m for Ade as suggested in the summer, and people like Veloso are only 8m then Arsene should be able able to easily bring in the players needed even if he doesent get a transfer fund.

Veloso, a 10m CB and a 12m winger plus all the injuries back i.e eduardo, Rosicky, Walcott, Fabergas etc and Vela, Wilshere and co getting more game time and Arsenal would be extremley formidable. Hell even if they didnt get CL that might just mean their players would be more rested for the league if they can hold onto them. If Arsenal were in the Uefa I would imagine Arsene using it like he does the CC and playing the kids in it

Frisbee

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

Veloso, a 10m CB and a 12m winger

Not even.
Arsene wont go mad and If I had to take one player it would be Veloso. Djourou is impressing me this season and we always have Havard to come back aswell, he always impressed me hugely in the CC.
If we only signed Veloso in January I'd be more than happy...

Bounty Hunter

well that spending spree I was suggesting was a summer thing as there is no way Arsene will sell Ade in January imo

Frisbee

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

well that spending spree I was suggesting was a summer thing as there is no way Arsene will sell Ade in January imo

Ah ok, gotcha.
Veloso in in January with Bendtner out on loan could be a good option.
Then Nordtveit will be back for next summer which should provide good cover for our CB's, although if Gallas goes then Upson would be a fantastic signing.
Out of the players we have now and those we could sign I think our best line up would be:

---

Almunia

---

Sagna

---

Djourou

---

Toure

---

Clichy

---

Walcott

---

Fab

---

Veloso

---

Nasri

---

---

RVP

---

Ade

---

Subs: Fabianski, Denilson, Eboue, Song, Vela, Traore, Eduardo.

Bounty Hunter

I almost dislike that its Arsenal Villa have to take on for the CL place as I really (like most neutrals tbh) love watching Arsenal play and enjoy picking them in FM... getting the new one from my bro tommorow, looking forward to seing how good a prospect Wilshere is.

thats the great thing about FM in that you can be sure that Fabergas, Vela, Wilshere etc do all play in the same Arsenal team in 5 years

Frisbee

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

I almost dislike that its Arsenal Villa have to take on for the CL place as I really (like most neutrals tbh) love watching Arsenal play and enjoy picking them in FM... getting the new one from my bro tommorow, looking forward to seing how good a prospect Wilshere is.

thats the great thing about FM in that you can be sure that Fabergas, Vela, Wilshere etc do all play in the same Arsenal team in 5 years

For me I'd rather not have to struggle for that CL spot at all. But as we have to Villa are the team I'm happy enough to have that battle with and won't begrudge them if they beat us to it as they are a great side and MON has done a top class job there.
If it were Evertone/Spuds/Citeh however...

OPENROAD

Know we are going to have lots of these over the next few weeks, thought I would post it anyway.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/article-23607781-details/Wenger+set+to+make+fresh+bid+for+Alonso/article.do

Pepe LeFrits

Frisbee wrote: »

Djourou is impressing me this season and we always have Havard to come back aswell, he always impressed me hugely in the CC.

Nordtveit has never played in the CC. He barely got any games at Salamanca so I'd rather see him on loan at a Championship or Premiership side first before considering him for first team duties.

Frisbee

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Nordtveit has never played in the CC. He barely got any games at Salamanca so I'd rather see him on loan at a Championship or Premiership side first before considering him for first team duties.

Sorry, meant to say CC team, aka Reserves.
I was sure he played in the CC at some stage...
And the reason he barely got any games at Salamanca was because they played him out of position and weren't impressed with his displays.
But in fairness if your play a CB in CM thats whats gonna happen...

Green Hornet

I notice that there has been a marked decrease in the amount of posts calling for a new goalie. How do people feel about Almunia now? I know we have other areas of the team that we need to strengthen more but the goalie situation was always fairly near the top earlier in the season, particularly after the Spurs debacle.

I'm actually feeling a bit better about him now. Rarely makes game costing errors and in fact in most of the recent games he's made some good saves to prevent losses (including the Liverpool game). Seems to be quite consistent. He'll never be a Cech (who has not been up to his usual standard this year it must be said) but a pretty stable, reliable guardian nevertheless. Bound to drop a clanger agaist Villa now

Frisbee

Green Hornet wrote: »

I notice that there has been a marked decrease in the amount of posts calling for a new goalie. How do people feel about Almunia now? I know we have other areas of the team that we need to strengthen more but the goalie situation was always fairly near the top earlier in the season, particularly after the Spurs debacle.

I'm actually feeling a bit better about him now. Rarely makes game costing errors and in fact in most of the recent games he's made some good saves to prevent losses (including the Liverpool game). Seems to be quite consistent. He'll never be a Cech (who has not been up to his usual standard this year it must be said) but a pretty stable, reliable guardian nevertheless. Bound to drop a clanger agaist Villa now

I'm very happy with Almunia. Although we might want to bring a new goalie in next year as I'm not sure Fabianski will cut it as our #1 when Almunia retires/leaves

Green Hornet

Frisbee wrote: »

I'm very happy with Almunia. Although we might want to bring a new goalie in next year as I'm not sure Fabianski will cut it as our #1 when Almunia retires/leaves

Agreed. I'm not convinced about Fabianski either. Capable of making good saves obviously but decision making is chronic.

One thing that drives me nuts with Almunia though is his kicking. He is constantly giving away possession by humping long hopeful balls up the pitch. On the other hand I suppose he rarely makes an actual mess of his kicks/miskicks in the area but my heart was always in my mouth when a backpass was sent back to Lehmann.

Frisbee

Green Hornet wrote: »

One thing that drives me nuts with Almunia though is his kicking. He is constantly giving away possession by humping long hopeful balls up the pitch.

At least he's willing to do this, especially if we're losing when we still seem content to pass the ball around with no end product.
I'd much rather him kicking than VDS anyway... :cool:

gosplan

Green Hornet wrote: »

I notice that there has been a marked decrease in the amount of posts calling for a new goalie. How do people feel about Almunia now? I know we have other areas of the team that we need to strengthen more but the goalie situation was always fairly near the top earlier in the season, particularly after the Spurs debacle.

I'm actually feeling a bit better about him now. Rarely makes game costing errors and in fact in most of the recent games he's made some good saves to prevent losses (including the Liverpool game). Seems to be quite consistent. He'll never be a Cech (who has not been up to his usual standard this year it must be said) but a pretty stable, reliable guardian nevertheless. Bound to drop a clanger agaist Villa now

Bigger fish to fry right now

Galvasean

Fabbregas doesn't require surgery. but still should be out for nearly 4 months.
A little bird told me we put in a 20million bid for Arshavin.

Watch

this

space.

Green Hornet

Nice if it happens:

http://kop-tv.com/go/arsenal-plans-january-alonso-bid/

This was knocking around in the summer too though and nothing happened.