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Arsenal FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,046 ✭✭✭✭L'prof


    DenMan wrote: »
    I know Alex....your not the first and won't be the last.

    http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5487483,00.html

    I saw that. Good to see he has some nice things to say about the club, it makes me hate him a little bit less.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,372 ✭✭✭✭Mr Alan


    jasonorr wrote: »
    Good to see he has some nice things to say about the club, it makes me hate him a little bit less.

    i think the problem with him was he had nice things to say about most clubs when he was looking for a move!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,594 ✭✭✭jaykay74



    So who got injured tonight?

    Ramsey limped off for Wales apparently.

    from bbc...
    2108: Aaron Ramsey's passing and vision has been one of the highlights for the Wales team but Montenegro have been physical to say the least and the Arsenal midfielder limps off. I don't think Arsene Wenger is going to be happy.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,046 ✭✭✭✭L'prof


    Mr Alan wrote: »
    i think the problem with him was he had nice things to say about most clubs when he was looking for a move!

    That's true, which is why I still hate (hate is a very strong word) have a strong dislike for him.
    jaykay74 wrote: »
    Ramsey limped off for Wales apparently.

    from bbc...
    2108: Aaron Ramsey's passing and vision has been one of the highlights for the Wales team but Montenegro have been physical to say the least and the Arsenal midfielder limps off. I don't think Arsene Wenger is going to be happy.

    Disappointing, I would like to see him get as much gametime as possible as I think he really will be a big player for us, but I wouldn't expect him to start too many games this year anyway so it's not too bad.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,759 ✭✭✭belcarra


    Redzer7 wrote: »
    So Far,
    1. Redzer7 - Redzers Rovers.
    2. Mossy Monk - Minstrel United
    3. itsjaybud - Bella-Doyle United
    4. thor barry - Bucky fc
    5. the north bank - Ar5enal
    6. gosplan - CSKA UpYours
    7. Souless - The Gooners
    8. jasonorr - Rosicknotes
    9. OPENROAD - Highbury High
    10. keano_afc - Glorious Gooners
    11. playa3 - Banditos del Diablo
    12 Paleface - Recession Busters
    13 RedivideR - RedivideR
    14. FearDark - Grampus 8 my hamster

    Can you PM me that code for our league Redzer?
    I thought I PM'ed you for same a few nights ago but guess I mustn't have!


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 498 ✭✭Leprechaun77


    My team name is The Leprechauns.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,209 ✭✭✭Redzer7


    1. Redzer7 - Redzers Rovers.
    2. Mossy Monk - Minstrel United
    3. itsjaybud - Bella-Doyle United
    4. thor barry - Bucky fc
    5. the north bank - Ar5enal
    6. gosplan - CSKA UpYours
    7. Souless - The / Gooners
    8. jasonorr - Rosicknotes
    9. OPENROAD - Highbury High
    10. keano_afc - Glorious Gooners
    11. playa3 - Banditos del Diablo
    12 Paleface - Recession Busters
    13 RedivideR - RedivideR
    14. FearDark - Grampus 8 my hamster
    15. Balcrea - Quahog All-Stars
    16. ErinGoBrath - Half Volley Albion
    17. Royale with Cheese - FC lanesra
    18. Leprechaun77 - The Leprechauns


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,252 ✭✭✭Evil_Clown


    My team is: FC Phoenix


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,473 ✭✭✭Roddy23


    My team name is Let Christy Take It


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 787 ✭✭✭Roaster


    Redzer7 wrote: »
    So Far,
    1. Redzer7 - Redzers Rovers.
    2. Mossy Monk - Minstrel United
    3. itsjaybud - Bella-Doyle United
    4. thor barry - Bucky fc
    5. the north bank - Ar5enal
    6. gosplan - CSKA UpYours
    7. Souless - The Gooners
    8. jasonorr - Rosicknotes
    9. OPENROAD - Highbury High
    10. keano_afc - Glorious Gooners
    11. playa3 - Banditos del Diablo
    12 Paleface - Recession Busters
    13 RedivideR - RedivideR
    14. FearDark - Grampus 8 my hamster

    Thanks itsjaybud :) Fair play to yeh.

    Roaster - RoastGypsies


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,009 ✭✭✭kronsington


    my team name is Cu*thorpe Utd


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,009 ✭✭✭kronsington


    lads, will i set up a head to head league?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,706 ✭✭✭premierstone


    MY team name is ''on the river again''


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,094 ✭✭✭Joeyjoejoe43


    Redzer, can you pm me with the code for fantasy football, thanks..


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,009 ✭✭✭kronsington


    Lads

    just set up wengerboys 09/10 head to head league

    PLEASE JOIN


    CODE IS 136255-249935


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,209 ✭✭✭Redzer7


    Lads

    just set up wengerboys 09/10 head to head league

    PLEASE JOIN


    CODE IS 136255-249935
    Should of put the code in a pm so no other fans can enter ;).


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,528 ✭✭✭NinjaTruncs


    Redzer7 wrote: »
    1. Redzer7 - Redzers Rovers.
    2. Mossy Monk - Minstrel United
    3. itsjaybud - Bella-Doyle United
    4. thor barry - Bucky fc
    5. the north bank - Ar5enal
    6. gosplan - CSKA UpYours
    7. Souless - The / Gooners
    8. jasonorr - Rosicknotes
    9. OPENROAD - Highbury High
    10. keano_afc - Glorious Gooners
    11. playa3 - Banditos del Diablo
    12 Paleface - Recession Busters
    13 RedivideR - RedivideR
    14. FearDark - Grampus 8 my hamster
    15. Balcrea - Quahog All-Stars
    16. ErinGoBrath - Half Volley Albion
    17. Royale with Cheese - FC lanesra
    18. Leprechaun77 - The Leprechauns

    NinjaTruncs - Evil Kings

    4.3kWp South facing PV System. South Dublin



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,209 ✭✭✭Redzer7


    So Far

    1. Redzer7 - Redzers Rovers.
    2. Mossy Monk - Minstrel United
    3. itsjaybud - Bella-Doyle United
    4. thor barry - Bucky fc
    5. the north bank - Ar5enal
    6. gosplan - CSKA UpYours
    7. Souless - The / Gooners
    8. jasonorr - Rosicknotes
    9. OPENROAD - Highbury High
    10. keano_afc - Glorious Gooners
    11. playa3 - Banditos del Diablo
    12 Paleface - Recession Busters
    13 RedivideR - RedivideR
    14. FearDark - Grampus 8 my hamster
    15. Balcrea - Quahog All-Stars
    16. ErinGoBrath - Half Volley Albion
    17. Royale with Cheese - FC lanesra
    18. Leprechaun77 - The Leprechauns
    19. Evil Clown - Fc Phoneix
    20. Roddy23 - Let Christy Take It
    21. Roaster - RoastGypsies
    22. Kronsington - Cu*thorpe Utd
    23. premierstone - on the river again
    24. nuinjatruncs - Evil Kings


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,761 ✭✭✭redzerdrog


    Lads

    just set up wengerboys 09/10 head to head league

    PLEASE JOIN


    CODE IS 136255-249935

    im in;)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 279 ✭✭TheNorthBank


    Lads

    just set up wengerboys 09/10 head to head league

    PLEASE JOIN


    CODE IS 136255-249935

    In also!!!


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 595 ✭✭✭Souless


    Lads

    just set up wengerboys 09/10 head to head league

    PLEASE JOIN


    CODE IS 136255-249935

    Count me in also :) I'm The Gooners


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,139 ✭✭✭Wreck


    In, team name Allyourbases


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,314 ✭✭✭✭Quazzie


    In, Gooneriffics


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 787 ✭✭✭Roaster


    I heard a rumour that Barca are going to bid for Eboue - £8m


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,314 ✭✭✭✭Quazzie


    1. Redzer7 - Redzers Rovers.
    2. Mossy Monk - Minstrel United
    3. itsjaybud - Bella-Doyle United
    4. thor barry - Bucky fc
    5. the north bank - Ar5enal
    6. gosplan - CSKA UpYours
    7. Souless - The / Gooners
    8. jasonorr - Rosicknotes
    9. OPENROAD - Highbury High
    10. keano_afc - Glorious Gooners
    11. playa3 - Banditos del Diablo
    12 Paleface - Recession Busters
    13 RedivideR - RedivideR
    14. FearDark - Grampus 8 my hamster
    15. Balcrea - Quahog All-Stars
    16. ErinGoBrath - Half Volley Albion
    17. Royale with Cheese - FC lanesra
    18. Leprechaun77 - The Leprechauns
    19. Evil Clown - Fc Phoneix
    20. Roddy23 - Let Christy Take It
    21. Roaster - RoastGypsies
    22. Kronsington - Cu*thorpe Utd
    23. premierstone - on the river again
    24. nuinjatruncs - Evil Kings
    25. Quazzie - Gunneriffics


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,571 ✭✭✭✭Frisbee


    I'm in for both.

    The Wildcats


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,209 ✭✭✭Redzer7


    From The Other Thread, Never Knew This :confused:.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 595 ✭✭✭Souless


    Redzer7 wrote: »
    From The Other Thread, Never Knew This :confused:.

    "Is Denilson the perfect deep-lying midfielder? His total of 2213 successful passes was the highest in the league last season - and so, perhaps surprisingly, was his total of 147 interceptions. Only five players won more tackles."

    Who'd have thought it? If those statistics are correct im really shocked! I though Denilson had a pretty poor season last season :confused:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,571 ✭✭✭✭Frisbee


    I'm not hugely suprised by those stats to be honest. He does get on the ball alot.

    However I just think he really needs to develop the more physical style of his game before he deserves automatic inclusion in the team.

    As it is I'd still prefer Song in the middle at the moment for the physicality he brings as we already have polaenty of players that can pick a pass.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 101 ✭✭RedivideR


    +1
    At the moment I would definitely play Song ahead of Denilson. Song's main problem is his lack of pace, but if he keeps it simple and just sits in front of the back four breaking up play and making the simple pass to Cesc or whoever is around him, then with the pace and general talent in our midfield I reckon we can do serious damage.
    But does anyone think that Arsene is thinking of Song mostly as a CB this season? I hope not, but he keeps referring to all the CBs we have, including Song in the list...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,501 ✭✭✭Fuzzy_Dunlop


    Got my ticket for the Wigan match today, will be my first time at the Emirates!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,711 ✭✭✭keano_afc




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,128 ✭✭✭thorbarry


    playa3 wrote: »
    Got my ticket for the Wigan match today, will be my first time at the Emirates!

    You'll have a great time.. Emirates is a fantastic stadium, you can see the match from really anywhere in the stands, cushions on the seats too :D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,828 ✭✭✭gosplan


    keano_afc wrote: »

    Meh, they're overplaying it on F365.

    The only difference it makes to the weekend is perhaps Bendtner for Walcott.

    Anyway, if you think we're unlucky, look at Everton - Yakubu, Jagielka, Fellaini, Arteta, Jo and Anichebe all out - both strikers, two of the three best midfielders and last year's defender of the season. :eek:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,046 ✭✭✭✭L'prof


    gosplan wrote: »
    Meh, they're overplaying it on F365.

    The only difference it makes to the weekend is perhaps Bendtner for Walcott.

    Anyway, if you think we're unlucky, look at Everton - Yakubu, Jagielka, Fellaini, Arteta, Jo and Anichebe all out - both strikers, two of the three best midfielders and last year's defender of the season. :eek:

    Are they overplaying it though? We have a very good team, but we'll never have enough to cover the amount of injuries we get over the course of the season...drives me insane!

    Oh yeah, where's our new signings Wenger??? Get the finger out!!! Even just cover for the first team!!!


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 54,957 ✭✭✭✭Headshot


    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1206393/MARTIN-SAMUEL-Yes-I-things-say-I-didnt--protect-players-Welcome-world-Arsene-Wenger.html

    enjoy
    Even the most brilliant mathematic minds concede there is a stage in the explanation of life on earth where the sheer
    improbability of it all forces cold rationality and theology into a skirmish.

    And there comes a point in any discussion of football with Arsene Wenger when his polymathic concepts are exhausted and all that remains is faith. Blind faith. Chuckle-headed optimism, really.

    To rationalise his obsession, Wenger must believe. He must believe that the financial resources of a football club are not a predictor of its success; he must believe in youth over experience; he must believe in art over efficiency. For a man of reason, Wenger has to stay loyal to some highly paradoxical philosophies.

    But then Wenger is something of a paradox himself: a multi-faceted personality with the one-note singularity of an obsessive.

    If he occasionally strays from the path of logic it is only because if he were to countenance the idea that his Arsenal team might no longer be able to compete in a league increasingly dominated by the wealth of billionaires, one would seriously fear for his mental health.

    ‘No great thing has ever been accomplished without somebody’s crazy belief,’ Wenger said. ‘The biggest advances have been made by people who, at the start, would have been judged mad. Yet if we had not had these ideas the world would have been less intelligent.’

    Wenger was explaining why, sometimes, he is driven to statements that fly in the face of the evidence. Why, for instance, two years ago, he tipped Arsenal for the title in April, while lying six points adrift of Manchester United and facing a match at Old Trafford, where his team had recently lost 4-0 in the FA Cup.

    ‘Yes, the objective judgment from outside was more realistic then,’ he admitted. ‘Many times I say things I find hard to endorse in my mind but this job can be like quicksand when you lose and being a football manager everyone wants to push you down. It is all guided by fear.

    ‘What will happen if you do not win? Why do you not buy players? When you allow that to infiltrate your brain too deeply you become guided by it, too. Life drags you down and if you do not make the effort to rise above it you are being punched right and left, so much that you do not even notice any more.

    ‘Once you are in that state, it becomes hard to say to your team, “I believe you are good”.’

    There is more to it than that, though. Wenger is consumed, and therefore defined, by football and success as a manager. He confesses to having little concept of downtime. He realises he might be just a bit mad. He has not
    seen a film in 10 years. He watches only sport and political discussion programmes on television because then there is no plot to follow, no commitment of time or intellect.

    At 59, he still adopts the dietary regime of a player, because he genuinely fears indulgence might cause him to overlook a nuance in training the next morning. To achieve the goals he sets each new season is essential in validating his level of commitment, but while he has questioned whether football is worth a lifetime of dedication and
    sacrifice, he makes no apology for the affirmative in his conclusion.

    ‘I decided the most important thing in life is to have a target and aim for it,’ he said. ‘Not to do it would be even more stressful, because in all of us is the desire to feel useful, to have qualities and to demonstrate them.

    ‘For me, football dominates all the time. When you are 30 years in this job you have to be, somewhere, crazy, because you cannot say it has not had a psychological impact. You live it, you think it, there is no escape. There is madness in my obsession as there is in that of anyone who is at the highest level in sport.

    ‘I worked with Dennis Bergkamp for 10 years and I have not seen a man more obsessed with every little technical thing. Thierry Henry the same. You could call Thierry at home, 10 o’clock every night, and he was there. At 23 years of age. And talk to Thierry about football: you cannot beat him.

    When you are manager of Arsenal, if you lose a game you drive away and you feel completely sick. Then you think, as well, of all the people whose weekend is dead because of it. So you feel that responsibility, too.

    ‘If you think about that too much you can become crazy, but it makes you rigorous in your preparations. That is how I became the person I am today. I know I look like a robot: but everyone who has targets is like that.

    ‘Did you see the last match Sir Bobby Robson watched? A charity game, but still he had that spark in his eye. He had two, three days to live, he could have sat at home, yet he chose to go to football. What else would he have done? Sit there and think about dying, maybe be terrified? The way to get out was to go to his passion.’

    How fixated is Wenger? We talked briefly of life after football, which he fears. He revealed an interest in abstract art. When I asked if he had been to Tate Modern, he said yes, but before he was Arsenal manager.

    It had to be explained that he must have visited Tate Britain because its sister gallery only opened in 2000, four years after Wenger arrived in London. When the conversation moved to cinema, Wenger admitted that he liked The Deer Hunter, a film that came out in 1978.

    Wenger’s father was a restaurateur in the Alsace region, yet his son has lived a life of self-denial. He has rejected the aspect of French culture that glories in food and good wine, fuelled sufficiently by football, an art form he feels ranks alongside any when done well.

    ‘For every passion there is a big price to pay,’ Wenger insisted. ‘I tell the players that when you are hungry, it is only your stomach that is telling you it is hungry, it is just a part of your body. When you are hungry for success, it is the whole person, the whole life that wants success.

    ‘It is something in the structure of your personality that says this is vital to me and it is worth organising my life around this desire. This is the core of my life. I do a lot of things I do not like to do. I would prefer to be able to go out, but I think that tomorrow I will be mentally dead, I will forget something or I will not be competitive.

    ‘As a manager, you now have to live like a player. The time when you could have too much to drink, come in the next morning and not be focused, telling people to do this or that, is over. Finished. The players are more demanding.

    ‘I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes art. You read a book and the writer touches something in you that you would not have brought out of yourself. He makes you discover something interesting in your life. If you are living like an animal, what is the point? What makes the day interesting is that we try to transform it into something that is close to art. When I watch Barcelona, it is art.’

    It is not just desires and distractions that Wenger seeks to control. The emotions that could result in an ill-considered word to a player in frustration at the end of a match, or a confessional to a fellow manager that reveals weakness, are also controlled.

    One wonders about the toll of keeping all this in and feels almost gladdened by memories of Wenger losing momentary control on the touchline, as he did with Alan Pardew, the former West Ham United manager, who celebrated a goal too eagerly at Upton Park. Mention of it brings a smile of recognition.

    ‘When I was at Nancy as a young coach, the father of Michel Platini was a director of the club,’ Wenger recalled. ‘We had a really poor team and one day he said to me, “Do you know what I really cannot stand any more? To see the other bench jumping up and down”.

    ‘I thought about him on that day with Pardew. I discovered in Japan that at the end of a sumo wrestling match you can never tell who has won because they do not show their emotion to not embarrass the loser. It is only here in England that everybody pokes out their tongue when they win.

    ‘Sometimes you feel under more stress or you will have less resistance to nervousness but the value of experience is that you can better dominate your nature, your emotions.

    ‘On television, the politician who loses the debate is the one who gets nervous. As soon as you become aggressive you have lost. It is a basic rule. That is what everybody says about Kevin Keegan at Newcastle United, that he surrendered the league because he argued with Sir Alex Ferguson.

    ‘It is not true, it was because Newcastle had no defence, but that night people thought he lost the plot.

    ‘I am not extrovert. I do not like to show my emotions. In my job I learned very early that you can cause a lot of damage if you express your feelings with the team. After a game you can do fantastic damage by saying negative things.

    ‘In Japan, a man loses his wife in the morning yet comes to work and does not speak about it. They do not wish to disturb others with their problems.

    ‘I am not saying that is healthy. It is criminal for that person. Whenever there is trauma in the world, psychologists encourage people to talk about it because it is important it comes out of you. So I am sure I pay sometimes for holding it in. I don’t know what it does to my health. I know it pays a price on my head; that is for sure.’


    And on his dignity, considering the urbane Wenger is notorious for defending his team in adversity, or claiming he
    has not seen a controversial incident, in which an Arsenal player is in the wrong. So will he admit that he is sometimes guilty of what Edmund Burke called ‘economy with the truth’?

    ‘Yes, because you are thinking, “Why has he done that?” and you know you cannot explain it,’ Wenger said. ‘At times I saw it, and I said I didn’t to protect the player, because I could not find any rational explanation to defend him.

    ‘This is a job where you have to have an optimistic view of human nature or you become paranoid. You always have to think that a guy wants to do well.

    ‘A coach is there to help. He must think that if he helps in the correct way the players will respond. You cannot be suspicious.’

    Was that Jose Mourinho’s problem, that he was suspicious? ‘He was certainly suspicious of me.’

    And Ferguson?

    ‘We now have a respectful relationship, but that was not always the case. It has become a lot better since we stopped competing with Manchester United at the top level!’

    Are you good friends with any manager?

    ‘No,’ Wenger confirmed. ‘And it has nothing to do with the quality of the people. On the day, it is you or them, so there is always mistrust. You cannot be completely open.

    ‘If you are the manager of Everton and I am playing against you on Saturday, I call you up the week before and we are talking. I cannot say, “This player is driving me mad”, because then you will know that I have a problem.

    ‘There are managers I respect, but I cannot be completely friendly. That is why I do not go for a drink after matches. What can you say if you have won? And if you have lost all you want to do is get home and prepare for the next game.’


    Reading this, one may feel that Wenger would be a lonely spirit. Even as a player with Strasbourg he was apart from his team-mates, travelling to Cambridge to take a three-week English course in the summer, or to Hungary to see how the Communist system worked.

    He retains interest in politics (he stayed up to watch the American presidential debates), he theorises on the subject of global economics (a world government and a maximum wage) and enjoys travel beyond football’s traditional axis.

    A recent trip to China contained disappointment because there are 700 million farmers in China, apparently, ‘and I did not get to meet one’. How does this man enjoyably swim in a shallow pool of twenty-something millionaires?
    The secret is to involve them in his grand plan and lend them a small piece of his soul.

    ‘The common denominator of successful teams is that the players are intelligent,’ Wenger said.

    ‘That does not always mean educated. If you speak to a player after the game and ask him to rate his performance, if he analyses well, you know he is the sort who will go home thinking, “I did this wrong, I did that wrong”. His assessment will be correct and he will rectify. That player has a chance. The one who has a crap game and says he was fantastic, you worry for him.

    ‘At Arsenal, we are building a stadium. So I thought I would get young players in early so I would not be exposed in the transfer market without the money to compete.

    ‘I would build a team, and we would compensate by creating a style of play, by creating a culture at the club that, because the boy comes in at 16 or 17, when he goes out he will have a supplement of soul, of love for Arsenal because his team has been educated together. This will give us strength that other clubs will not have.

    ‘I am not a big fan of tennis, the big tournaments, but I like the Davis Cup because it is a team sport. I like golf, but only the Ryder Cup. It is the team ethic that interests me, always.’ He pauses.

    ‘It is strange, I know.’

    Not really, if you think about it.

    ____________________________________________________________
    Arsene Wenger says he would have betrayed his beliefs had he quit Arsenal this summer for Real Madrid.

    In his most detailed interview since arriving at Arsenal 13 years ago, Wenger admitted he knew exactly the scale of the project he was turning down when he rejected the opportunity to work with Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka at Madrid this season.

    He says he stayed because he believes he can win the title with Arsenal.

    ‘I felt if I left I would have in some way betrayed my beliefs,’ Wenger told Sportsmail as he launched Arsenal’s Great Ormond Street charity appeal.

    ‘It was that simple. It was nothing to do with Real Madrid, it was about Arsenal.

    ‘I knew what Madrid were about to do, but I have a project here that I started four years ago and I wanted to reach the end of it. I could not leave this team at this stage of their development. The team we have now gets there, and by that I mean it wins the championship. At 22 or 23 I think a team is mature enough to deliver and it is a massively important year for our club. I am conscious of that. I know people have no patience any more, but I agreed on a structure at the club that I believed could work, and we are at the period now when we will see whether I was right.

    ‘To talk of winning the league is an audacious statement but I built this team and I want to deliver with this team.

    ‘So far, we have flirted with success. We were never in the race for the championship last year, but before that, and certainly in 2006, when we were in the Champions League final, it happened.

    ‘The team looks to be growing and gelling and being close, but at the moment they do not get credit for what they produce and, like every team who have not won a trophy,
    they still doubt whether they can win.

    ‘Other clubs have more money but that is not difficult for me. At Arsenal, we try to go a different way that, for me, is respectable. When you look to buy all the time it becomes a trap.

    ‘When Cesc Fabregas was a teenager, I would play him with Patrick Vieira and it did not work. Gilberto Silva and Vieira worked, Fabregas and Silva worked, but I could not play Fabregas and Vieira. But Fabregas was 19 and if he did not play I knew he would want to go, so we risked destroying everything, all the work we had put into this player. That is why I sold Vieira.

    ‘Now we have that situation with Jack Wilshere. He is 17 and we cannot ask him to play every game to win the championship. But next year he will be ready, he will want to play all the time and if we have bought a player in his position he will want to go.

    ‘I believe in work, in connections between the players. You can win in different ways, by being more of a team, or by having better individual players, but I think what is more important is to look at what you have at your own club.

    ‘If I had gone to Real Madrid I would have spent, yes. If you have the money and you find the one player who can make you win and make the difference, no matter how expensive he is, you should do it. But there are not many players in the world who will make a real difference.’

    Wenger also defended selling two of his first-team players, Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure, to Manchester City, tipped as strong challengers to Arsenal this season.

    ‘My only question was whether we could afford to sell Adebayor,’ Wenger added. ‘You come to the conclusion, can you stop Manchester City creating a big team? I don’t believe so. If we do not sell Adebayor they will buy Samuel Eto’o or somebody because they have the resources.

    ‘After that, where he went was less important. To be scared of that would be more of a problem.’


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,046 ✭✭✭✭L'prof


    Headshot wrote: »

    Cheers, I'll read it tomorrow...too tired now.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,397 ✭✭✭yahoo_moe


    Souless wrote: »
    Who'd have thought it? If those statistics are correct im really shocked! I though Denilson had a pretty poor season last season :confused:
    Wenger spent a lot of last season praising Denilson's passing and ball recovery stats so I'd been using Chalkboards towards the end of last year to check him out. Pretty good pass percentage as well I seem to recall - only thing was when you looked at the chalkboards for individual games, not many of the passes were particularly long or incisive.

    Oh and my team name for Fantasy is "cristiano gone-aldo".


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,139 ✭✭✭Wreck


    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/arsenal/article6795542.ece

    Interesting interview with Wenger in the Times, to awkward to copy and paste so you'll just have to click the link :).


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,611 ✭✭✭smilerf


    howdy folks im new here but reading for awhile.
    id definately play song over denilson.
    he gives the defenders more protection ok he's passing may not be great
    but still
    i think wenger only banged on about denilsons stats because of he's failure to get a good dm
    btw i think another striker whose a 20-30 goal man is needed rvp eduardo and bendy would b lucky to get that between them. only my opinion


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,706 ✭✭✭premierstone


    smilerf wrote: »
    howdy folks im new here but reading for awhile.
    id definately play song over denilson.
    he gives the defenders more protection ok he's passing may not be great
    but still
    i think wenger only banged on about denilsons stats because of he's failure to get a good dm
    btw i think another striker whose a 20-30 goal man is needed rvp eduardo and bendy would b lucky to get that between them. only my opinion

    LOL ok then, any chance your given odds on this little pearl of wisdom :rolleyes:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,956 ✭✭✭Paleface


    Interesting article and video on how the premiership is marketed worldwide

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/8199528.stm

    It made me wonder though if Arsenal are as cash strapped as we are led to believe why they are the only top club that doesn't seem to do these types of PR tours in Asia or America??


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,094 ✭✭✭Joeyjoejoe43


    Nah, if RVP stays injury free he'll bag 15-20, Eduordo should bag 15 min, and Bendy should be good for 10..


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,397 ✭✭✭yahoo_moe


    smilerf wrote: »
    btw i think another striker whose a 20-30 goal man is needed rvp eduardo and bendy would b lucky to get that between them. only my opinion
    Can't agree with this - just Van Persie and Bendtner got 35 goals between them last year (20 in the league). Add in Eduardo for even half a season and give Bendtner more playing time and you'd have to say they should get about 50 between the three of them.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,119 ✭✭✭✭event


    Paleface wrote: »
    Interesting article and video on how the premiership is marketed worldwide

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/8199528.stm

    It made me wonder though if Arsenal are as cash strapped as we are led to believe why they are the only top club that doesn't seem to do these types of PR tours in Asia or America??

    i read before somewhere that wenger doesnt want them going away to the far east or america as it tires out the players, he doesnt wanting them to go that far for friendlies


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 747 ✭✭✭WillieCocker


    Agreed.
    He can't keep them together & Injury free on homesoil, think those trips would ruin us.:)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 279 ✭✭TheNorthBank


    event wrote: »
    i read before somewhere that wenger doesnt want them going away to the far east or america as it tires out the players, he doesnt wanting them to go that far for friendlies

    Thats just ridiculous. I've heard Arsene say that before but I just don't agree with it. Every year Utd are out in the U.S. or Asia and it doesn't seem to stop them winning the f*ckin league every year!
    Yes, Utd can spend more money on players than us so they have a bigger squad to cope with the riggors of a full season after these tours, the money generated to buy these players come's from where...? Exactly these long haul pre-season tours and their huge worldwide fanbase!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,611 ✭✭✭smilerf


    LOL ok then, any chance your given odds on this little pearl of wisdom :rolleyes:

    this is my opinion. im sure u have one of your own somewhere !!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,611 ✭✭✭smilerf


    yahoo_moe wrote: »
    Can't agree with this - just Van Persie and Bendtner got 35 goals between them last year (20 in the league). Add in Eduardo for even half a season and give Bendtner more playing time and you'd have to say they should get about 50 between the three of them.

    maybe ur right. i just would like to see an out and goalscorer at arsenal imo we dont have 1 bar arshavin maybe


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,706 ✭✭✭premierstone


    smilerf wrote: »
    maybe ur right. i just would like to see an out and goalscorer at arsenal imo we dont have 1 bar arshavin maybe

    Arshavin is not an out and out goalscorer at all, Eduardo is and Van persie would be next in line in that category, a front paining of RVP and Eduardo is as good as any in the premiership and better than most, this is the last area of our team that needs improving.


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