Arsenal FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

yahoo_moe

Just thinking about Benik Afobe after his star turn in the U-18 final (and generally all year). Obviously huge potential but we all know the dangers.

So... who were the ones you feel that got away in terms of not fulfilling their potential (at Arsenal or at all)? My three:

- Arturo Lupoli: Very similar to Afobe in that he banged in loads of goals at youth grades and big things were expected. Drifted around through loan spells and then a couple of clubs in Italy after he left but was never the player we'd expected.

- David Bentley: Built an excellent career for himself at Blackburn and (eventually) doing alright at Spurs but when he first broke onto the CC team, I really thought he might be something special (esp. with Wenger's coaching). Saw himself as a Bergkamp apparently (and kept trying to chip keepers from what I recall) rather than a wide man, and wasn't very patient, so Wenger let him go.

- Stuart Taylor: Recently in the news for being injured so he hasn't forgotten his Arsenal training completely :rolleyes: While Manninger had his moments in '98, I'm not sure he wasn't overachieving there. But with Taylor, I thought for sure we had a good young 'keeper to take over from Seaman for a lot of years. Went to Villa and now with City but hasn't been first choice.

Honourable mention: Quincy Owusu-Abeiye (sp?), though he did alright in the end.

AnCapaillMor

Too many to mention, Anthony Stokes was banging them in in the reserves.

Graham Barret remember hearing alot about him.

Stephen Hughes, looked decent, had a great left foot, dissapeared off the face of the earth.

Paolo Vernazza, last i heard he was stabbed.

Merida to an extent, heard alot about him for too long.

Phillipe Senderos, turned down milan and real to join us, one of the guys on arseblog had an avatar of senderos with a clown wig and face apint, very apt i think.

Andri Sigporsson, had a fantastic goals to games ratio, wait a minute that was my CM 99/00 game, nevermind.

That Tavilridis guy.

Penant because i think he was a genuine talent but unfortunately a total idiot too.

Speaking of talents, reyes, that was just heart breaking to watch. Thank you very much Nevile brothers and scholes.

danlen

Matty Upson has to be one who excelled since leaving, although he never played for the youth side i dont think? (not sure what age he was when he signed from Luton).

I remember David Noble being a good player for the team which won the youth cup around 01/02. Last I heard of him he was playing for Bristol (either City or Rovers, can't remember!!)

Other notables were Jay Bothroyd and Julian Gray, both of whom have done reasonably well at Championship level. Always thought of Bothroyd as a bit of a hedder tho!:D

AnCapaillMor

Bothroyd was a head the ball, actually had a decent season over in italy but he pissed everyone off there, they could'nt get rid of him quick enough. He was pretty much despised by everyone at Arsenal, pity as he was a local. A less succesful penant.

Pepe LeFrits

Stokes was never really prolific at reserve level, despite a blistering start to his career at 15. I desperately wanted him to succeed but the writing was on the wall for him when he was shunted out to the wings to accommodate Lupoli and Bendtner.

cson

I wish we'd have kept Manninger. He was a very capable keeper.

cson

@ Pepe: We did well out of Stokes; he bangs in a few goals for Falkirk up North and we sell him for £2m. Not a bad bit of business.

Does anyone know how Nordveit did with Nurnberg this season? Is he any good, considering we paid a good bit for him iirc.

leninbenjamin

cson wrote: »

Does anyone know how Nordveit did with Nurnberg this season?

From what little I've read he's had a bit of frustrating season. He's been used mostly as a utility man, played primarily as a DM I think. He's gotten a fair few games out of it though and is still considered pretty promising.

yahoo_moe

Based purely on what I've read, I'd say it hasn't been great. He hasn't been a fixture in the team (and remember, they're not great) and has played DM more often than not according to reports.

He's also had a few quotes flying around saying that he was tired, etc. so overall, I'd be worried about having him too far up the pecking order next year.

But again, I haven't seen him play this year and I'd trust Wenger's judgment if he was with us for preseason and makes the first team squad afterwards.

leninbenjamin

I remember reading a piece about him recently enough but I can't for the life of me remember where it was, somewhere odd like bleacher report. Next best thing I could find was this small piece from arseneknowsblog.

This would also be a good time to have a quick update of Havard Nordtveit who has been frozen out at Nurnburg, being overlooked recently even for a place on the bench following the loan arrival in January of Brazilian central defender Breno from Bayern Munich. Nordtveit has so far made fifteen appearances this season, which is not bad going for a team in Germany’s top flight, however as the club’s relegation battle nears its climax it seems experience is being favoured and Nordveit is facing a real battle for a place in the first team.

That was in march, he finished with 20 appearances in total which isn't too bad for a 19 year old.

yahoo_moe

leninbenjamin wrote: »

That was in march, he finished with 20 appearances in total which isn't too bad for a 19 year old.

For a regular 19-year old, maybe. But for a guy who was named our reserve captain before he left (not sure if it was permanent or not but still), I was hoping for him to make a big impact.

They were battling relegation and didn't really trust him on a regular basis. Compare that to Ramsey, say, who's younger and played 18 times for our first team this year despite his injury.

I dunno, I guess we'll see - I just hope he hasn't stalled on loan compared to the progress he seemed to be making.

Frisbee

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Stokes was never really prolific at reserve level, despite a blistering start to his career at 15. I desperately wanted him to succeed but the writing was on the wall for him when he was shunted out to the wings to accommodate Lupoli and Bendtner.

I was in school with Anto up until he left to go to Arsenal. Used to hate being on his team in P.E. as he'd never pass anyone the ball.

I also remember Lupoli and Rossi tearing teams apart for Italy at underage level.

cson

Was he considerably better than everyone else at that age?

Sútalún

Yeah I know people who played GAA with him. They didn't exactly speak highly of him.. Can see him staying in scotland. Reckon, for now at least, he's found his level.

Frisbee

cson wrote: »

Was he considerably better than everyone else at that age?

No idea, he wouldn't pass the ball to anyone else so no-one liked being on his team. But he was about the size he is now when he was like 13 so he'd just batter past everyone with the ball and score.

L'prof

Frisbee wrote: »

No idea, he wouldn't pass the ball to anyone else so no-one liked being on his team. But he was about the size he is now when he was like 13 so he'd just batter past everyone with the ball and score.

So he was better and he knew it?

Frisbee

L'prof wrote: »

So he was better and he knew it?

Basically, when teams were being picked I'd always make sure I stood an odd number of people away from him so I'd actually get to touch the ball.

L'prof

Fair enough. 5 down, 1 to go...what a sesh tomorrow

Just changes my tagline there, I'm sure you did AI Frisbee?

Frisbee

L'prof wrote: »

Just changes my tagline there, I'm sure you did AI Frisbee?

Nope, I managed to avoid that

L'prof

Frisbee wrote: »

Nope, I managed to avoid that

Bastardo! Interesting I guess...

So, in tomorrow's news, Fabregas considering his options...conflicting quotes here, taken from different times?

Fabregas wrote:

If I decide to leave Arsenal, it will be to wear the shirt of Barcelona. I don't know when this will happen though. I'm very happy at Arsenal. I'm in no hurry to leave the club.

I want to make a decision about my future before the start of the World Cup. It's impossible to perform at a tournament like the World Cup if you're not fully focused on the sporting aspects of the game. I don't want to be distracted by transfer talk.

Barcelona are still playing for the Liga title and I'm still an Arsenal player. It would be a lack of respect to discuss a transfer now.

No candidates for the Barcelona presidency have approached me, so I don't feel used.

x PyRo

Came across this video and thought it was pretty cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH5UxBdIKgw

Pretty sad that probably our best tackler is an Attacking Midfielder but by God he's class at it. Sweeps the ball forward most of the time too, Class imo.

He is fast as lightening too, Plus works incredibly hard too. We must keep him! He's fit now so hopefully he'll rediscover his form again.

Galvasean

I thought his late season form was woeful TBH.

x PyRo

I know that but he has his fitness back now, move him in central again and if he found his form he could finally show what he's made of for us.

While I was browsing youtube I also came across this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ySXNh60jJc

I love that mad bastard!

FearDark

^ I love mad-Jens!

AnCapaillMor

Heard that when he was pissed off he was next to impsosible to score against. Henry and Pires used take the mick out of him in training to get him mad and get in proper shot practice.

cson

Probably because he'd scythe you down if you even thought about having a shot the crazy bastard.

Mr Alan

L'prof wrote: »

Bastardo! Interesting I guess...

So, in tomorrow's news, Fabregas considering his options...conflicting quotes here, taken from different times?

The quotes are being carried a few different places today so I doubt they were put together from different times.

Strange, I was in agreeance with most Arsenal fans that he wouldn't be going anywhere this summer, but those quotes certainly seem to suggest that he would be open to a move if Barca came in for him.

SDTimeout

Love that rosicky video, he is easily in my top 3 players at the club. Was horrible to watch some of his end of season run of form he cesc arsh and rvp linking up will be jizz worthy.

Just got a letter in my door too, prefect for 6th year next year

SDTimeout

Mr Alan wrote: »

The quotes are being carried a few different places today so I doubt they were put together from different times.

Strange, I was in agreeance with most Arsenal fans that he wouldn't be going anywhere this summer, but those quotes certainly seem to suggest that he would be open to a move if Barca came in for him.

in different places today yeah, but all from this which reassures me he won't be leaving this summer.

Fabregas told Spanish newspaper Marca.

cson

SDTimeout wrote: »

Just got a letter in my door too, prefect for 6th year next year

Young 'uns!

What age is everyone here?

Mr Alan

SDTimeout wrote: »

in different places today yeah, but all from this which reassures me he won't be leaving this summer.

I thought Marca were a Real mouthpiece, didn't think they'd be into inventing good news for Barca

Paleface

Mr Alan wrote: »

I thought Marca were a Real mouthpiece, didn't think they'd be into inventing good news for Barca

I would have thought their main priority would be to sell copies. Cesc going to a Spanish club would be national news.

Sútalún

Barcelona striker Thierry Henry has signed a pre-contract agreement with Major League Soccer side New York Red Bulls and will head to the United States in the summer.

From the Sun via BBC.. interesting, he's been used quite sparingly this season with Barca. And with looking to sign Villa it'll only get worse next season.

EDIT: Just realised I'll be in NY during the summer. Go Thierry, GO GO GO!

Galvasean

cson wrote: »

Young 'uns!

What age is everyone here?

23.... and 11/12ths.

cson

I think where Titi suffered was he struggled to get around the fact that he wasn't the main man anymore at Barca. Still, he didn't do too badly out of his sojourn there; a La Liga, Copa Del Rey and of course Champions League Medal in his back póca.

Frisbee

cson wrote: »

I think where Titi suffered was he struggled to get around the fact that he wasn't the main man anymore at Barca. Still, he didn't do too badly out of his sojourn there; a La Liga, Copa Del Rey and of course Champions League Medal in his back póca.

Tbf Thierry was very good at Barca for the last two season, it's just this season he's had a serious dip in form.

I know this was on the video the other day but for those who didn't get a chance to see it here's the article about the GPS tracking in training:

http://www.arsenal.com/news/ladies-news/gazidis-gps-tracking-could-ease-injuries

Ivan Gazidis believes a state-of-the-art GPS tracking system could help Arsenal ease their injury problems in years to come.

Arsène Wenger had to contend with more than his fair share of absentees during the 2009/10 campaign with up to a dozen players injured at any one time. It's impossible to quantify exactly how that impacted Arsenal's quest for honours but it certainly did not help.

Nonetheless, the Arsenal medical team have now introduced new technology in order to monitor players’ fatigue levels. At a Q&A with Arsenal shareholders this week, Gazidis explained how GPS tracking can help.

"If there are things we can do [to prevent injuries] we will do them," said the Chief Executive. "For example, we've introduced a GPS system this year for the first time. This is tracking literally from satellites in space, the training movements on the training field of every player.

"It gives you a lot of information. It tells you not just how far the players are running and how fast they are running and what levels of intense activity they have in training. It also measures something called 'the load' - and this is literally the amount of time a player's foot is on the ground while he is running.

"You can see if you have a player coming up to a risk of injury in a subsequent game because you can see two things in general: one is that their work-rate comes down in training and secondly their 'load' increases. In other words, their foot stays on the ground for longer when they run. When you are feeling good and feeling active you are more on your toes. When you're not, you're more on your heels. That can help you to predict when players are in a dangerous situation."

It's no surprise to see Arsenal in the vanguard of clubs already using this new technology. But Gazidis is not expecting GPS tracking to have a major effect next season.

"Unfortunately to get the full benefits of that and fully understand it you need to have a long record of any individual player so it takes a while to build up because every player is different," he said.

"It takes a while to build that record to get the full benefit of that system. We're unlikely to see the benefits really coming through until the second half of next year. But that's the type of investment - and there are others - that we are making to try and push forward and get ourselves to the cutting edge with respect to our injury management."

L'prof

Galvasean wrote: »

23.... and 11/12ths.

Beat you, I'm 26 ner ner ner ner ner ner

cson

L'prof wrote: »

Beat you, I'm 26 ner ner ner ner ner ner

21.

Second youngest so far after our Prefect

leninbenjamin

Frisbee wrote: »

I know this was on the video the other day but for those who didn't get a chance to see it here's the article about the GPS tracking in training:

http://www.arsenal.com/news/ladies-news/gazidis-gps-tracking-could-ease-injuries

ummm.... my oul fellah has an app on his Blackberry that does that for him. I'm really really surprised that this hasn't been implemented already.

funkyjebus

leninbenjamin wrote: »

ummm.... my oul fellah has an app on his Blackberry that does that for him. I'm really really surprised that this hasn't been implemented already.

while you can get a gps traker on your phone, they're not the same technology. id image arsenals to be a lot more advances in hardware and software terms.

that would be great, sellotape a blackberry to everyones arm!! wenger and his tight fist!!!

yahoo_moe

L'prof wrote: »

Beat you, I'm 26 ner ner ner ner ner ner

How many months though? I was 26 in January...

And if we tie, I'm noticing more and more grey hairs these days so that's gotta be worth some bonus points

funkyjebus

yahoo_moe wrote: »

How many months though? I was 26 in January...

And if we tie, I'm noticing more and more grey hairs these days so that's gotta be worth some bonus points

boom. 26 last september. eat my grey haired dust

leninbenjamin

funkyjebus wrote: »

while you can get a gps traker on your phone, they're not the same technology. id image arsenals to be a lot more advances in hardware and software terms.

Some phones use the mobile network to track people's location but the blackberry has a proper GPS tracker in there afaik. So it'd be pretty much the same as they all use the same satellites, it's just the more expensive receivers have more accurate clocks and so the margin of error is smaller. You'd expect Arsenal's to be more sophisticated, but it's not new technology, I thought they would have had that data available to them already.

funkyjebus

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Some phones use the mobile network to track people's location but the blackberry has a proper GPS tracker in there afaik. So it'd be pretty much the same as they all use the same satellites, it's just the more expensive receivers have more accurate clocks and so the margin of error is smaller. You'd expect Arsenal's to be more sophisticated, but it's not new technology, I thought they would have had that data available to them already.

your right the blackberry does have gps as do may phones. but the hardware would be quit different while of course the principal stayed the same. now seems the right time to have this, as thet need the tech to be small, accurate and durable for a whole training session. you can get them for your bike for years, but i assume they needed to get smaller.

anyho im not so sure it'll work. sure it will track the distance. i just dont see how this will stop suomone pulling a hammy or breaking a metatarcle (im sure thats the wprng spelling, but you know what i mean). what about internalional duty.

leninbenjamin

funkyjebus wrote: »

anyho im not so sure it'll work. sure it will track the distance. i just dont see how this will stop suomone pulling a hammy or breaking a metatarcle (im sure thats the wprng spelling, but you know what i mean). what about internalional duty.

From the current location and time elapsed you can work out a heap of different information not just distance covered. Essentially they will just compile as much data as they can about a players movement, speed and acceleration and then look for trends, over the training session, over the week, over the year even in a bid to help predict when that player is more susceptible to injury.

By the sounds of it its not just GPS either, when he refers to measuring "the load" it seems to me that there's additional hardware like an accelerometer or something similar incorporated into the trackers.

yahoo_moe

leninbenjamin wrote: »

when he refers to measuring "the load"

That was the key thing I got from it, I have to say - to have a precise measurement of when someone's getting heavier on their feet can only help.

Most importantly, and I suspect this is why Gazidis mentioned it, it shows that they're trying to address the situation in imaginative ways.

Evil_Clown

New rumoured Kit, looks sweet imo

keano_afc

Frisbee wrote: »

Tbf Thierry was very good at Barca for the last two season, it's just this season he's had a serious dip in form.

I know this was on the video the other day but for those who didn't get a chance to see it here's the article about the GPS tracking in training:

http://www.arsenal.com/news/ladies-news/gazidis-gps-tracking-could-ease-injuries

Here's an even better way to solve our injury problems....STOP RUSHING PLAYERS BACK AND PLAYING THEM WHEN THEY'RE STILL INJURED.

I seem to be on the older ones here....31 in a couple of months.

EDIT...Those kits look sweet.

gingelion

29 in july.

Those kits are great, except for the little stripes on the sleeves.

Frisbee

If they took the stripe of the sleeve I'd buy one fo sho. I love when our away jerseys are yellow.