Arsenal FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Frisbee

Roaster wrote: »

I think Hodgson would be mad not to rest his best players ahead of the final of the Europa.

He will rest. But Wenger will as well I'd imagine and we'll see something shíte like this:

---

Flapianski

---

Eboue

---

Djourou

---

Campbell

---

Gibbs

---

Diaby

---

Eastmond----Denilson

---

Walcott

---

Eduardo

---

Vela

Roaster

This proves to me that Fulham will rest players

http://www.teamtalk.com/arsenal/6136429/Premier-League-snub-Cottagers-request

Frisbee

Roaster wrote: »

This proves to me that Fulham will rest players

http://www.teamtalk.com/arsenal/6136429/Premier-League-snub-Cottagers-request

Of course he will rest.

But I reckon we will too, and most of our players look like they couldn't give a shíte.

leninbenjamin

Rumours linking the club with a swap for Buffon are in the Italian media again today URL="http://www.tuttosport.com/calcio/serie_a/juventus/2010/05/06-67220/Juve%3A+Buffon+si+vende%2C+ma+a+caro+prezzo"]link[/URL. They will supposedly look to do a swap involving one of Cesc, RVP or Sagna.

Frisbee

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Rumours linking the club with a swap for Buffon are in the Italian media again today URL="http://www.tuttosport.com/calcio/serie_a/juventus/2010/05/06-67220/Juve%3A+Buffon+si+vende%2C+ma+a+caro+prezzo"]link[/URL. They will supposedly look to do a swap involving one of Cesc, RVP or Sagna.

Pass

L'prof

Transfer gossip: Buffon & Diakhate.

Buffon in a swap deal with either van Persie, Fabregas or Sagna. If they were the terms, it would have to be Sagna although I'd hate to lose him! I hope we sign a keeper very quickly.

Frisbee

jasonorr wrote: »

Transfer gossip: Buffon & Diakhate.

Buffon in a swap deal with either van Persie, Fabregas or Sagna. If they were the terms, it would have to be Sagna although I'd hate to lose him! I hope we sign a keeper very quickly.

I wouldn't want to lose Sagna, no way.
There's no-one we could replace him with who is available.

Also it's funnier if we call that Senegalese lad Dickhate.

L'prof

Frisbee wrote: »

I wouldn't want to lose Sagna, no way.
There's no-one we could replace him with who is available.

Also it's funnier if we call that Senegalese lad Dickhate.

Hate to lose Sagna too to be honest. Don't want another African player...we lose enough players to injury without signing more players we'll lose to the ANC!

Frisbee

jasonorr wrote: »

Hate to lose Sagna too to be honest. Don't want another African player...we lose enough players to injury without signing more players we'll lose to the ANC!

That's a good point actually.

But I'd rather him brought in for CB than no-one.

L'prof

Frisbee wrote: »

That's a good point actually.

But I'd rather him brought in for CB than no-one.

Definitely, we need a CB regardless of whether we keep Gallas or not!

leninbenjamin

<triumphant music>

I give you...



:pac:

In all seriousness though, my spidey sense tells me we haven't given up on landing this guy yet. I'll be keeping an eye on Italian gossip in the coming weeks.

L'prof

leninbenjamin wrote: »

<triumphant music>

I give you...



:pac:

In all seriousness though, my spidey sense tells me we haven't given up on landing this guy yet. I'll be keeping an eye on Italian gossip in the coming weeks.

I could do Columbian, no silly mid-season international tournaments in South America!

leninbenjamin

Actually, it seems my spidey sense is correct. Reports in Italy say we're still interested URL="http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2010/05/03/1906004/arsenal-real-madrid-showing-interest-in-udinese-defender"]link[/URL.

Frisbee

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Actually, it seems my spidey sense is correct. Reports in Italy say we're still interested URL="http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2010/05/03/1906004/arsenal-real-madrid-showing-interest-in-udinese-defender"]link[/URL.

6' 2"

I'll have a bit of that.

Pepe LeFrits

leninbenji wants Zapata, I want Hazard. Let's get both, deal?

Frisbee, jason, time for ye to start banging a drum too!

cson

leninbenjamin wrote: »

<triumphant music>

I give you...



:pac:

In all seriousness though, my spidey sense tells me we haven't given up on landing this guy yet. I'll be keeping an eye on Italian gossip in the coming weeks.

Frisbee wrote: »

6' 2"

I'll have a bit of that.

One of skinniest 6'2" -ers I've seen based on that picture! :eek:

Anyone else delighted for Adebayor last night?

Frisbee

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Frisbee, jason, time for ye to start banging a drum too!

Hmmmmmm.

I'll take a bit of:

leninbenjamin

cson wrote: »

One of skinniest 6'2" -ers I've seen based on that picture! :eek:

He's a tank. Here's him up against Zlatan a few years ago (he's only 20 in this afaik).

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

leninbenji wants Zapata, I want Hazard. Let's get both, deal?

No, they're both mine! Muhahahahaha

you can have sloppy seconds if you really want though :pac:

L'prof

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

leninbenji wants Zapata, I want Hazard. Let's get both, deal?

Frisbee, jason, time for ye to start banging a drum too!

So that our drums don't clash, I'll bang the Buffon or Green&Hart drum!

Frisbee

jasonorr wrote: »

So that our drums don't clash, I'll bang the Buffon or Green&Hart drum!

Doirty!

Say we had the opportunity to sign either of Hart or Buffon for the same price.

Who would people rather?

The experienced master who has about 5 or 6 years of top flight left in him?

Or the young up and comer who has shown great potential and would most likely sort us for years to come?

Roaster

jasonorr wrote: »

Transfer gossip: Diakhate.

Can no one remember this guys performances against Drogheda a few years ago? Unless he's improved immensely I'd stay well away.

L'prof

Frisbee wrote: »

Doirty!

Say we had the opportunity to sign either of Hart or Buffon for the same price.

Who would people rather?

The experienced master who has about 5 or 6 years of top flight left in him?

Or the young up and comer who has shown great potential and would most likely sort us for years to come?

For the same price? Buffon all day long, I'm fed up of potential. We need to win things now, as well as in the future!

Roaster wrote: »

Can no one remember this guys performances against Drogheda a few years ago? Unless he's improved immensely I'd stay well away.

Can't say I bothered to watch the match!

Frisbee

Roaster wrote: »

Can no one remember this guys performances against Drogheda a few years ago?

Nah I'm a barstooler.

Pepe LeFrits

Frisbee wrote: »

Doirty!

Say we had the opportunity to sign either of Hart or Buffon for the same price.

Who would people rather?

The experienced master who has about 5 or 6 years of top flight left in him?

Or the young up and comer who has shown great potential and would most likely sort us for years to come?

Buffon. Buffon. Buffon.

Different leagues altogether, even if the Italian is older and has questionable fitness. Hart's had a good season for Birmingham.

Pepe LeFrits

So it's settled. Buffon, Zapata, Yaya and Hazard. Someone call Arsenal, tell them boards.ie has the solution to the club's problems!

cson

Frisbee wrote: »

Doirty!

Say we had the opportunity to sign either of Hart or Buffon for the same price.

Who would people rather?

The experienced master who has about 5 or 6 years of top flight left in him?

Or the young up and comer who has shown great potential and would most likely sort us for years to come?

Based on the Van Der Saar example, Buffon every day of the week. If only we had gone in with Fulham for Edwin back in the day.

@ lenin: **** me Zapata is an animal!

Frisbee

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

So it's settled. Buffon, Zapata, Yaya and Hazard. Someone call Arsenal, tell them boards.ie has the solution to the club's problems!

I've text Aaron (we're mates) and told him to get in Arsene's ear.

I'd expect a press release within the next 72 hours.

Galvasean

Frisbee wrote: »

and most of our players look like they couldn't give a shíte.

What is with that? You'd think the fringe players would be raring to prove themselves in a bid to get into the first team for next season.
I have a feeling that we will have a massive clear out. It wouldn't surprise me if we lost the majority iof these guys:
Almunia
Fabianski
Gallas
Silvestre
Campbell
Arshavin
Merida
Vela
Eduardo

Gonna need more than Chamack to replace those guys. The defense needs a serious overhaul. I'd say we'll need two new defenders (plus the return of Djourou - on that subject is he in contention for Sunday?) because I'm fairly certain we're losing Peanut and Big Willy. Might keep old man Sol for another season though. It could be rough. Remember the trouble we had rebuilding after the famous 4?

Frisbee

Galvasean wrote: »

Almunia Gone
Fabianski Should be gone, won't be
Gallas gone, unfortunately
Silvestre Should be gone
Campbell Will get one more year
Arshavin Will stay
Merida Gone imo
Vela Will be kept for one more year as Chamakh settles
Eduardo Should be gone

Gonna need more than Chamack to replace those guys. The defense needs a serious overhaul. I'd say we'll need two new defenders (plus the return of Djourou - on that subject is he in contention for Sunday?) because I'm fairly certain we're losing Peanut and Big Willy. Might keep old man Sol for another season though. It could be rough. Remember the trouble we had rebuilding after the famous 4?

Djourou and Gibbs were both on the bench on Monday so I reckon both should be afforded a starting berth on Sunday.

leninbenjamin

Funny thing is, for once, we could probably afford them all.

In
Zapata - £13.5m
Hazard - £19m
Touré - £12m
Buffon - £20m

---

Total - £64.5m

Out
Eduardo - £8m
Vela - £5m
Diaby - £7-8m
Almunia - £3-4m

---

Total - £23-25m

And you could probably add another 5 million if you were to sell a few fringe players and reserves like Traoré, Lansbury, Watt, Fabianski etc.

So that leaves us with a net spend in the region of £35m to bring them in, similar to the supposed transfer budget available. Totally doable :pac:

Frisbee

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Funny thing is, for once, we could probably afford them all.

In
Zapata - £13.5m
Hazard - £19m
Touré - £12m
Buffon - £20m

---

Total - £64.5m

Out
Eduardo - £8m
Vela - £5m
Diaby - £7-8m
Almunia - £3-4m

---

Total - £23-25m

And you could probably add another 5 million if you were to sell a few fringe players and reserves like Traoré, Lansbury, Watt, Fabianski etc.

So that leaves us with a net spend in the region of £35m to bring them in, similar to the supposed transfer budget available. Totally doable :pac:

We'd get 2M for Almunia, tops.
Diaby won't be sold.
Only one of Vela and Eduardo will be sold.
I think traore will be sold for about 5M.

Overall from transfers I can see maybe 12-15M coming into the club.

We really need the board to just say to Arsene; "Here's 40M, build us a team that will win the title this year, no players for the future, no potential superstars, just good established players that will give us that extra edge to win the title."

cson

How good is Djourou though? He's been alright the times I've saw him but not a first teamer for us. Big Phil is still on the books afaik; he would have been excellent had he not been raped by Drogba/****ed up v Pool in the Champions League Qtrs. Poor guy lost the plot after that.

Galvasean

We may be in luck. Wenger has strongly hinted at not going for youths/unknowns/potentially good players twice in a row on the official site:
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-the-transfer-market-has-changed
and
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-targets-experience-in-the-close-season

Galvasean

cson wrote: »

How good is Djourou though? He's been alright the times I've saw him but not a first teamer for us. Big Phil is still on the books afaik; he would have been excellent had he not been raped by Drogba/****ed up v Pool in the Champions League Qtrs. Poor guy lost the plot after that.

Djourou is nothing spectacular. But he is big n' tough. I'd much rather him on our bench than Peanut. Senderos is out of contract in the summer. I can't see him signing a new contract with us.
Speaking of contracts, my Dad indform me that Eduardo has been offered a one year extension. :eek:

Frisbee

Djourou is nothing spectacular but he's solid enough to trust with play 15+ games a season and filling in for injuries etc.

Galvasean wrote: »

my Dad indform me that Eduardo has been offered a one year extension. :eek:

If this is true then it's Vela who's getting the chop.

Galvasean

Frisbee wrote: »

If this is true then it's Vela who's getting the chop.

Now now, it could well be Vela who is getting the contract. My Dad frequently gets them mixed up. And Nasri too...

leninbenjamin

Frisbee wrote: »

Overall from transfers I can see maybe 12-15M coming into the club.

I know, didn't mean for that post to be taken seriously. You see that type of ****e all the time in the other superthreads so I thought I'd have a go at the same

In actuality i think he'll look to bring in two more players on top of Chamakh. One more established, probably a CM along the lines of a Melo or Touré, and then one more relatively young up and coming, a CB most likely, and possibly English because of the new squad rules, Cahill, Jones, Rodwell (unlikely but we did win Walcott and Ramsey in similar battles). Think the likes of Suarez and Hazard are just pipe dreams.

cson wrote: »

How good is Djourou though? He's been alright the times I've saw him but not a first teamer for us. Big Phil is still on the books afaik; he would have been excellent had he not been raped by Drogba/****ed up v Pool in the Champions League Qtrs. Poor guy lost the plot after that.

Djourou is worth keeping on the books, at the very least he's better and more versatile than Silvestre. His positioning wouldn't be fantastic, and he wouldn't have the aggression of Vermaelen but he's strong in the tackle. He can offer cover for both the CBs and Song.

Pepe LeFrits

Vela and Eduardo could both be let go if we got Hazard, because we've got Chamakh coming in already.

Galvasean wrote: »

We may be in luck. Wenger has strongly hinted at not going for youths/unknowns/potentially good players twice in a row on the official site:
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-the-transfer-market-has-changed
and
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-targets-experience-in-the-close-season

Wenger says the same bullsh1t every year and I've lost all interest in what he has to say. He'll say he'll only buy 'top quality' and then buy Silvestre. He'll say 'trust me, you'll be pleased' and then sign nobody.

Actions speak louder than words.

Frisbee

leninbenjamin wrote: »

I know, didn't mean for that post to be taken seriously. You see that type of ****e all the time in the other superthreads so I thought I'd have a go at the same

Apologies

leninbenjamin wrote: »

and then one more relatively young up and coming, a CB most likely, and possibly English because of the new squad rules, Cahill, Jones, Rodwell (unlikely but we did win Walcott and Ramsey in similar battles).

I know he's been hyped to the nines and would cost about a gazillion pound but I'd love to see us sign Rodwell. If anyone could help him fulfill his potential it's Wenger and He'd be sure of more game time at Arsenal than the likes of City or Chelsea.
United could tempt him more though as their CM is farily shíte and he'd get a good bit of game time. I think Rodwell and Ramsey would complement each other perfectly for a long time to come if we could get our hands on him.

Galvasean

Id say Rodwell would cost 20million. Bit rich for us. Especially with Wenger complaining about overpriced English players again:
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-english-players-could-be-cheaper

Frisbee

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Vela and Eduardo could both be let go if we got Hazard, because we've got Chamakh coming in already.

Where are we expecting Chamakh to slot in?

As our striker, or one of our 'wingers'?

As if it is a striker where does that leave Bendtner? He won't be happy being third choice.

leninbenjamin

Galvasean wrote: »

Id say Rodwell would cost 20million. Bit rich for us. Especially with Wenger complaining about overpriced English players again:
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-english-players-could-be-cheaper

It depends, these new rules on homegrown players have changed the game slightly. At the moment I think we satisfy them but by a fine enough margin so anyone coming in who isn't from an English academy will effectively force another player out URL="http://wearearsenalblog.com/how-the-new-premier-league-rules-will-impact-arsenal%E2%80%99s-summer-transfers/"]link[/URL. This means Arsene may be forced to buy at least one homegrown player this window.

Frisbee wrote: »

Where are we expecting Chamakh to slot in?

As our striker, or one of our 'wingers'?

As if it is a striker where does that leave Bendtner? He won't be happy being third choice.

I've a feeling we're going back to 4-4-2 next season.

L'prof

leninbenjamin wrote: »

It depends, these new rules on homegrown players have changed the game slightly. At the moment I think we satisfy them but by a fine enough margin so anyone coming in who isn't from an English academy will effectively force another player out URL="http://wearearsenalblog.com/how-the-new-premier-league-rules-will-impact-arsenal%E2%80%99s-summer-transfers/"]link[/URL. This means Arsene may be forced to buy at least one homegrown player this window.

I think we have 13 and only need 8. Players under 21 don't need to be registered, so we have Ramsey and Wilshere waiting in the wings (at least) to add to that!

Wreck

leninbenjamin wrote: »

I've a feeling we're going back to 4-4-2 next season.

I really hope not tbh. Quite like the system we have at the moment and it seems to suit the players currently at the club.

leninbenjamin

jasonorr wrote: »

I think we have 13 and only need 8. Players under 21 don't need to be registered, so we have Ramsey and Wilshere waiting in the wings (at least) to add to that!

That's the wrong way to look at it. It means we have only room for 17 players over 21 and not homegrown. We've close to that already, by my count 15 and Chamakh already on the way, that's 16.

Frisbee

leninbenjamin wrote: »

I've a feeling we're going back to 4-4-2 next season.

I dunno. The 4-1-2-2-1 (4-3-3) really got the best out of Cesc and Song.
But at the same time we saw a diminished amount of performances for Bac and Gael.

Personally I prefer the 4-3-3 and to make it work much better I think we just need a partner in there for Cesc and song who can do the business consistently. It would have been Ramsey next year imo but not after the leg break. Diaby can be great but he's far too inconsistent, we need someone in there to partner Cesc and Song and complement them.

L'prof

leninbenjamin wrote: »

That's the wrong way to look at it. It means we have only room for 17 players over 21 and not homegrown. We've close to that already, by my count 15 and Chamakh already on the way, that's 16.

I get what you're saying now...I'm sure some of those are on the way out though and homegrown players will be given more consideration in future purchases.

Galvasean

Wreck wrote: »

I really hope not tbh. Quite like the system we have at the moment and it seems to suit the players currently at the club.

Except Vela. My God I've never seen someone to fail to adapt to a new formation so spectacularly.
NEVER getting a player's name/number on my shirt again:
Lehmann - leaves
Vela - turns to shyte
Arshavin - wants out

Pepe LeFrits

lb may well be right about the 4-4-2, but even with a 4-3-3 we can expect to see any one of Bendtner, Chamakh or even van Persie in the wide roles. I don't think game-time will be a problem for them. If we signed Hazard too I'd view it as seven players for 3, occasionally 4 positions, which is good depth, especially given our injuries. Save for injuries 2 of the above would compete for the central role, while the surplus striker would compete with Arshavin, Walcott, Nasri and Hazard for the 2 wide roles. Also to consider is that Nasri would occasionally play in the centre, particularly with Ramsey out... and Arshavin probably won't be at the club for more than additional 2 seasons.

leninbenjamin

Frisbee wrote: »

I dunno. The 4-1-2-2-1 (4-3-3) really got the best out of Cesc and Song.
But at the same time we saw a diminished amount of performances for Bac and Gael.

Personally I prefer the 4-3-3 and to make it work much better I think we just need a partner in there for Cesc and song who can do the business consistently. It would have been Ramsey next year imo but not after the leg break. Diaby can be great but he's far too inconsistent, we need someone in there to partner Cesc and Song and complement them.

I like to too but it's just as a formation it has clear weaknesses. Requires an awful lot of the fullbacks, can leave the CBs isolated and when we are pushing up it actually leaves us quite thin in midfield. Maybe a new addition to the midfield would shore things up, but I just think we're missing that wee bit of quality across the field to make it fully work at the highest levels. I'm just speculating now, but I'd fancy Wenger will be considering it.