Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Bounty Hunter

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Anybody watching the Bristol - Pompey game? Traore's started on the wing. Had a bright enough start.

I wonder what will become of him?

had been wondering that myself heard he was on the left of a 3man attack, him then crouch then Nugent.

Green Hornet

Whats the latest "comeback" date for Rosicky anyway? Is there any chance that we will see him at all this year?

Beginning to wonder if we'll ever see him again actually :rolleyes:

DenMan

Knowing our luck Rosicky will be cleared to play in the spring, get selected for the Czech Rep's qualifiers and return to Arsenal crocked.

A Primal Nut

premierstone wrote: »

In fairness one of Rosicky, Walcott or Nasri are always goin to be injured so there will be room for Vela, and Eduardo for that matter.

Now I know this is going to probably lead to alot of abuse been thrown in my direction but if we are being 100% honest with ourselves here lads Gallas is in much better form than Toure (forget personalities and all that) there is no way in hell I would leave a fit Gallas out of that team at the moment, and the fact that he chips in with some vital goals adds to the arguement.

I dunno Gallas has been a bit unreliable this season - I'd prefer Toure. Good to see Djorou playing well

Its strange - we have a really good defense individually (Sagna and Clichy two of the best full backs in the premiership) yet most people consider defense the weakest part of the team. We need a new Petit/Gilberto/Flamini; who would have thought Diarra would turn out to be such a big loss just a few months later. Shame we didn't loan him for four months instead of selling him - Wenger knew there would be risk of Gilberto and Flamini leaving. Yaya would be the obvious target. Also, I think a team of Arsenal's stature need a world class keeper - Almunia's ok I guess but there's a lot of better keepers about.

Attacking midfield and forward - we have so many players to come back from injury - Fabregas, Wolcott, Rosicky, Eduardo, so many youngsters with potential - Wilkshire, Merida, Ramsey, Vela, along with the established stars - Nasri, Adebayor, Van Persie; I think we could be very strong going forward next season. Which is why I'm a little surprised we are after Arshavin - yes we could do with him for the rest of the season - but long-term, its a bit of a strange signing when we could do with players in other areas. Maybe give them 2-3million for a four-month loan?

The constant media attention surrounding Xabi Alonso is rediculous, great player, not a hope of him coming to Arsenal.

gosplan

A Primal Nut wrote: »

I dunno Gallas has been a bit unreliable this season - I'd prefer Toure. Good to see Djorou playing well

Its strange - we have a really good defense individually (Sagna and Clichy two of the best full backs in the premiership) yet most people consider defense the weakest part of the team.

Toure will hit form again and Toure, Djourou, Sagna & Clichy will make a great defence.

They've got it all, attacking full-backs, the big stopper, the ball-playing centre back with the occasional belter from 40 yards.

I think they could be great if they all get a run together(without Gallas).

wandatowell

gosplan wrote: »

ball-playing centre back

you mean Toure yeah? I think he ****es himself/looks panicky whenever he has to "play" football

Wouldnt call him a ball playing centre back.

gosplan

wandatowell wrote: »

you mean Toure yeah? I think he ****es himself/looks panicky whenever he has to "play" football

Wouldnt call him a ball playing centre back.

I respectfully disagree.

Think he's quite good on the ball and he often gets involved breaking from defence when teams do the 11 men behind the ball thing.

Quazzie

I have to agree with wanda on this one myself. I think what makes him a good player is that he doesn't hang around with the ball and is usually efficient in getting rid of it in time to not give it away

gosplan

Was looking for a youtube to back up my argument cause you can prove anything with a good video clip these days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T77FI4BHNQA&feature=related

Doesn't really prove much apart from he's a total legend.

Seriously, I would love if Arsne settled on the current defence. I think Toure will hit form again with Djourou beside him and Djourou will blossom with Toure beside him.

premierstone

Seriously I really think some of you are letting your personal feelings on Gallas cloud your judgement, there is no way in hell that Toure is playing anywhere near as good as Gallas at the moment

gosplan

premierstone wrote: »

Seriously I really think some of you are letting your personal feelings on Gallas cloud your judgement, there is no way in hell that Toure is playing anywhere near as good as Gallas at the moment

Don't think it's personal feelings. Personally, I still like Gallas. He went about some things the wrong way but he went about them his way. If he's not cut out to be a captain then fine but that's not any reason to dislike the guy.

I think Wenger made a mistake by giving him the captaincy but it was a clear option because he is a winner and one of the few old heads in the team. The mistake in my view was not giving it to Cesc in the first place. If your philosophy is one that you believe your young players are up to the task, then surely you must trust them with everything, including the captaincy. To give it to someone based on age is surely to admit that youth is in some ways a deficiency.

On a personal note, I'd like to add that I think the media have done an awful job on Gallas. Constantly the lazy bast**ds have referred to the Birmingham game where:

A:( He spent the preceding week with Sagna after his family bereavement
B:( Eduardo suffered the worst injury we've seen in a couple of seasons
C:mad:Clichy gave away two points in the dying minutes by trying to run the ball out of defence which ..
D:mad: resulted in a penalty that actually wasn't a penalty anyway

Now, I'm not sure if Gallas was aware of the last fact but you have to admit that's a pretty testing time for anyone and briefly he lost control of his emotions.

I think part of Gallas problem is that he's a solitary person, a bit of a loner if you will. When push came to shove, he reacted by separating himself from the team instead of involving them. For me this simply means that he's not a good captain but I wouldn't make any personal judgments about it(except that he's got a good mentality for tennis or something).

Anyway, enter the British media who cited the incident countless times usually with none-to-subtle undertones of 'you need a British captain - not a weak French surrender monkey'.

Note, when John Terry cries after getting knocked out of pretty much everything, it's because 'he wants it so much' and the 'made of British steel' comments die down. Also not much was said of his insane decision to give himself the potentially CL winning penalty ahead of people that can actually kick a ball with accuracy. (I'm not comparing the incidents directly - just trying to point out double standards)

As regards this season, I'm not sure exactly what happened with the media and the transfer of the captaincy. It had clearly become a very difficult job for Gallas who hadn't really clicked with the team. In the end Gallas was dropped for a week without really losing face (just being too outspoken a la Roy Keane), the Captaincy was transferred to Cesc and it all settled down again quite quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if either Gallas alone or Gallas and Wenger orchestrated this in some way because everyone was back to playing with a minimum of fuss quite quickly.

So to sum up, I do like the guy and believe that he's done his best but that this Arsenal team is a group of people 8,9 and 10 years younger than him that he simply didn't gel with. He was great for Chelsea but he had a rock solid, experienced defence around him. Perhaps he simply wasn't ready to lead a defence, or a team for that matter. The only lingering question I have is whether it was a good idea to sign someone for a position that one of our rivals clearly didn't feel they were up to - see also Silverstre.



So, from my totally impartial point-of-view Gallas has simply not been a better player than Toure for Arsenal. He weighs in with the odd important goal but equally he throws up the odd massive defensive gaff at the most inopportune moments.

Gallas' spell in the first team has pretty much coincided with Toure's loss of form and now everyone is willing to admit that they simply can't play together. This means that only one of them can stay at Arsenal because neither of them are squad players.

So, if Djourou is the big stopper, then I think it should be Toure alongside him rather than Gallas. This is because I believe that, playing in the right defence, Toure will recapture his form and be part of a very effective back four for the next few seasons. With everything that's gone on, I think Gallas is halfway out the door already.

I don't think Gallas currently offers us more solidity and besides, I feel that regardless of who we put there, we're going to ship our fair share of goals this season so we may as well do it while getting a future back four settled.

premierstone

Well put and a great post, hey we're all Arsenal fans here so we'll just have to agree to disagree personally if we were playing say a champions league final or a championship decideing game today, Gallas would get my vote over Toure on current form.

Interesting point made earlier about our defence actually been made up of very good individuals and i agree, so is there maybe a case that Almunia is not a very good organiser of a defence, communicater etc. (see the first twenty minutes against Bolton for two or three examples of this) ?

yahoo_moe

DenMan wrote: »

If we don't add to the squad in Jan does anybody think he could be put there more often in the second half of the season, at least until the summer when we can address the situation proper. Nice option to have with Fabs out, Diaby could play left (even though he prefers the middle). We really have a dilemma.

No dilemma. We're short on wide players (or even wide-ish like Nasri) already - Denilson's spent half the season so far on the wing and Ramsey's been there a bit too.

And Diaby's muck on the left - the only dilemma is where to try and get the best out of him as it's hard to give him game time ahead of players in better form playing in positions they already know well.

yahoo_moe

premierstone wrote: »

we'll just have to agree to disagree

I don't think anyone's really arguing with what you're saying - that Toure's current form is better.

But people seem to be pitching the argument forward a bit and for a variety of reasons, saying that they [find it easier/would prefer] to see Toure at the centre of our defence for the next, say, two or three seasons. Alongside someone more along the lines of Sol Campbell, which is when Toure's Arsenal form peaked.

I'd rather Gallas in there now, for the simple reason that I don't think we can afford to try and allow Toure time to regain his form in competitive matches. However, if Gallas is truly as isolated from the rest of the players as the media make out (which none of us actually know), then maybe that'll only be an option for this season.

GuanYin

Toure hasn't looked as solid since his injury and I think the last time I really thought highly of him was when Campbell was at Arsenal.

I just don't understand the negativity around Gallas, I've never watched a game and thought he was disinterested. He's had bad games but then again he often plays behind a weak midfield. He's also scored some vital last minute goals for Arsenal which never seems to be appreciate.

L'prof

GuanYin wrote: »

Toure hasn't looked as solid since his injury and I think the last time I really thought highly of him was when Campbell was at Arsenal.

I just don't understand the negativity around Gallas, I've never watched a game and thought he was disinterested. He's had bad games but then again he often plays behind a weak midfield. He's also scored some vital last minute goals for Arsenal which never seems to be appreciate.

Gallas will leave Arsenal soon, it's as simple as that! That's where the negativity stems from, even before he lost the captaincy he was hinting at leaving. Yes Toure needs a solid defender beside him, but then so does Gallas.

yahoo_moe

Not everyone feels negatively towards Gallas - I certainly don't.

And whatever anyone feels Gallas may have hinted or tried to engineer, Toure handed in a transfer request... so I'm not sure I'd go bringing that into any Toure v Gallas debate if I were on Toure's "side" (as that seems to be how things are going).

Bottom line for me is that we don't know half of what goes on at the club in training or in the dressing room or in the boardroom so all we can really judge is performances on the pitch - where I really don't see how anyone could prefer Toure of the last year and a half (not the potential Toure of the future) to Gallas over the same period.

premierstone

yahoo_moe wrote: »

Not everyone feels negatively towards Gallas - I certainly don't.

And whatever anyone feels Gallas may have hinted or tried to engineer, Toure handed in a transfer request... so I'm not sure I'd go bringing that into any Toure v Gallas debate if I were on Toure's "side" (as that seems to be how things are going).

Bottom line for me is that we don't know half of what goes on at the club in training or in the dressing room or in the boardroom so all we can really judge is performances on the pitch - where I really don't see how anyone could prefer Toure of the last year and a half (not the potential Toure of the future) to Gallas over the same period.

+1 Ah so its not just me, thought i was loosing it there for a while

OPENROAD

Just been watching Bob Wilson meets Dennis Bergkamp on Arsenal tv, what a player he was for us, would love to see him back at the club in the future in some capacity , he seems to really love England and in particular London so no doubt he will be back.

tony1kenobi

OPENROAD wrote: »

Just been watching Bob Wilson meets Dennis Bergkamp on Arsenal tv, what a player he was for us, would love to see him back at the club in the future in some capacity , he seems to really love England and in particular London so no doubt he will be back.

He is at the club....he presents Bob Wilson meets....oh...wait.:p

Galvasean

Anyone see Jay Simpson's fist goal for teh Albion? Great turning strike from 2 yards out. Hope to see more of this in the Premier League soon.

Quazzie

Quincy Owusu-Abeyie is on trial at the moment for the spuds. I remember when he came on the scene first it was a close call between him and Eboue for the one position. Did Wenger make the right call?

Galvasean

Doesn't Owusu play left forward?

I see the youth team won 3-1 against Wolves in the FA Youth Cup on Tuesday. Sunu coming off the bench and grabbing a hat trick.

OPENROAD

Brilliant news


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1116553/EXCLUSIVE-Three-cheers-Eduardo-returns-hat-trick-style-Arsenal.html?ITO=1490

Royale with Cheese

I made a point of never looking at those pictures, damn you daily mail. I feel a bit sick now.

Frisbee

Eduardo wrote:

'I had faxes and emails from people who had the same sort of injury, telling me to be calm and not worry because it would get back to normal. Robbie Savage, Alan Smith and David Busst were three of those who were in touch with positive thoughts.

Very nice imo...

Quazzie

Galvasean wrote: »

Doesn't Owusu play left forward?

He does but when they both first came on to the scene and competing for a first team place at Arsenal both of them started out as left wingers. Owusu gradually worked up the field and Eboue gradually worked back, but has moved back up recently.

gosplan

Frisbee wrote: »

Very nice imo...

Yeah, wouldn't have expected that but really nice from all of them.

At a time when you're wondering what's going to happen, it must really help from people who have been through the same experience.

Frisbee

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/van-persie-vela-s-impact-is-all-important

Good man Robin. Maybe if all the players start saying it he'll get a start at some stage...

yahoo_moe

OPENROAD wrote: »

Brilliant news

Sure it was only against Arsenal's first-team defence

I'm particularly impressed with Robbie Savage, though - never liked him much but that shows he's obviously a decent guy away from it all. Much like when Beckham came over for Martin Keown's testimonial even though he couldn't really play - very nice gesture that showed a lot of class.

Headshot

came across this while browsing

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_4797542,00.html

Arsene Wenger remains optimistic that Andrei Arshavin will be an Arsenal player before the transfer window closes.

The Russian playmaker has been strongly linked with a move to the Gunners throughout January, with a deal believed to be in the process of being thrashed out.

His current employers, Zenit St Petersburg, have admitted that they are willing to do business with any potential suitors should their valuation of the player be met.

Arshavin has also made no secret of his desire to join one of Europe's top clubs and would welcome the opportunity to accept a new challenge in England.

At present, Wenger admits an agreement remains some way off, but has not ruled out the possibility of bringing the talented 27-year-old on board before the 2nd February deadline.

"We are not close to signing anybody, but we know what we want to do," said the Frenchman.

"We are not close to making a signing today, so we have no new news. We are in negotiations but we want to respect our principles."
Improve

Wenger went on to confirm that an potential deal with Zenit is likely to be struck sooner rather than later as he looks to get fresh faces on board as quickly as possible.

"I am very hopeful," he added.

"Days? Yes, because the transfer window will close and we have already crossed halfway. It will be days. But, if it doesn't happen then it doesn't happen.

"We want to continue to improve and focus on what we can improve here with the players we have."

are Arsenal even interested in any CB or Dm

Do Arsenal fans expect any signings this january

Frisbee

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote: »

are Arsenal even interested in any CB or Dm

Who knows?

Headshot

Frisbee wrote: »

Who knows?

Arsene has his priorities all mixed up tbh

Frisbee

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote: »

Arsene has his priorities all mixed up tbh

Veloso will be leaving Sporting in the summer most likely.
We just have to make sure he wants to come to us...

Headshot

Frisbee wrote: »

Veloso will be leaving Sporting in the summer most likely.
We just have to make sure he wants to come to us...

you'll have to finish in the top 4 then

Frisbee

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote: »

you'll have to finish in the top 4 then

We have to finish in the top 4 regardless.

Headshot

Frisbee wrote: »

We have to finish in the top 4 regardless.

that stadium is a blessing and a curse

and they cant sell the flats at Highbury either

tough times

Smegball

Veloso has always been a United target apparently, I could see us going for him in the summer if Hargreaves doesn't start to overcome his injury problems.

Like I said in the other thread I think Arsenal should go for Gourcuff before Arshavin.

gosplan

Obviously I'd love if we signed a top notch dmf (not sure sure a centre back is as urgent with the emergence of Djourou) to tighten up our defence.

but.........

I can't think of who at this stage

and........

If we sign Arshavin and get Eduardo back, we're gonna have a pretty interesting attack for the remainder of the season.

Lot's of 4-3's methinks.

Also, if we finish in the top 4 without a decent defensive midfielder then we'd have to be one of the most interesting prospects for someone like Veloso or Alonso.

Vokes

Smegball wrote: »

Like I said in the other thread I think Arsenal should go for Gourcuff before Arshavin.

I remember Arsenal were linked with him last summer and the previous winter. Wenger is a big admirer of him.

Flamini + Gourcuff in a double deal would be good for Arsenal i think.

yahoo_moe

gosplan wrote: »

but.........

I can't think of who at this stage

This is something that I think gets overlooked a lot. We'd all love a Makelele but they're tough to find. Diarra's moved this window but we already had him. And while a lot of people suddenly piped up about Kompany after he signed with City, I'm not sure he would've been the answer either (though I haven't seen much of him, his star seems to have waned a bit since what was apparently a great debut).

We can't guarantee league titles no matter who we sign, but our best bet is to sign quality - whenever it becomes available.

Munster Magic

anybody know where I can get the Arsenal goalkeeper jersey? out of stock on the official site

OPENROAD

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote: »

that stadium is a blessing and a curse

and they cant sell the flats at Highbury either

tough times

We still don't have figures though of what has actually been sold, think originally something like 94% had been sold i.e. deposit paid, it will be interesting to see how many have closed.

TheNorthBank

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote: »

Arsene has his priorities all mixed up tbh

IN ARSENE WE TRUST!

Wenger knows what he's doing, he always does. He makes very few mistakes. I admit that I'm very, very frustrated with the team this season and also very impatient for some quality signings. But I'm 100% sure though that if a suitable DM or CB was available he'd sign him. Its just that they're not available atm or clubs won't release them (which is the same thing really I guess). He can see what the team needs just as you or I or anyone can (even a spuds fan can see what we're missing, its that obvious).
I don't think he has his priorities all wrong at all actually, I think he knows something that we don't. Lets face it, he's not going to sign some guy who's only been playing in the Russian league and expect him to make an impression in the Premier League this season? In fact he's openly said in the past that signings in the Jan transfer window are really only expected to be prepared for the following season.
So the question is... Who's leaving???
(My moneys on Ade or maybe he's written off Rosicknote)

Frisbee

Vokes wrote: »

Flamini + Gourcuff in a double deal would be good for Arsenal i think.

TheNorthBank wrote: »

So the question is... Who's leaving???
(My moneys on Ade or maybe he's written off Rosicknote)

I think if we wanted to get the Flamster back and get Gourcuff aswell the only deal they'd settle on would be one in which we see Ade going the other way...

Headshot

OPENROAD wrote: »

We still don't have figures though of what has actually been sold, think originally something like 94% had been sold i.e. deposit paid, it will be interesting to see how many have closed.

came across this

Arsenal's former ground Highbury is in the midst of being turned into a large property development including 680 apartments, 598 of which have already been pre-sold producing an estimated £40million worth of sales income.

Acting manager Ken Friar told the club's official website that the development is a separate entity from the football side of things, but the profit it generates could be used to finance squad acquisitions.

"The financials for the Highbury Square development have been ring-fenced so they are separate from our usual football business," Friar explained.

"As such we have not budgeted for the profit and this allows the board to be flexible over its use as the money has not been earmarked for anything in particular. In that sense it will be a bonus.

"We have options available to us... profits could be used to reduce the stadium debt or to strengthen the team if the manager wishes," he concluded.

The Highbury flats are due for completion in summer 2009. Gunners legends Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, and Robert Pires are believed to have already financed their future residencies.

but that was reported back in 22/10/2008

But i saw some where that the flats sale was going bad but i can't remember where

Royale with Cheese

I think I read somewhere those pre-sales weren't final and a lot of people backed out.

OPENROAD

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

I think I read somewhere those pre-sales weren't final and a lot of people backed out.

Yes deposits were paid, however no confirmation as to how many if any had backed out.

Frisbee

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-we-have-other-targets-than-arshavin

Awesome.


Also see in his latest ATV interview he talks about playing Nasri through the middle and Vela coming off the bench onto the left.
Wonder will we see a midfield of

Eboue

---

Denilson

---

Nasri

---

Vela

anytime soon...

yahoo_moe

TheNorthBank wrote: »

he's openly said in the past that signings in the Jan transfer window are really only expected to be prepared for the following season.
So the question is... Who's leaving???

A signing in January doesn't necessarily mean that someone's leaving. It's very possible that he just feels we need more cover in a particular area. And while that player may not be at their best until next season, it doesn't necessarily mean a departure.

eg if we signed, say, Yaya Toure today, I don't see that it would automatically mean Alex Song leaving in the summer or whatever.