Arsenal FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 10/11

Frisbee

Since the Sunderland and Celtic rumours died down so I thought that was the end of it. His wife is a Geordie tohugh afaik so that's probably a big part to play in it. I'm not too worried if we lose him as long as we sign another CB, if we don't bring in another we're screwed as we'll have:

Vermaelen - Despite people covering him in their jizz last year I still have my reservations, coupled with the fact he's going to be very much the senior CB this year is slightly worrying. He is a fantastic ball winner though, I'm not saying he's not a good defender, just not as good as people perceived him to be last year.

Djourou is a more than competent back up, but I'm not sure if he's good enough to be starting for us. Having said that he's our one defender over the past few years who seemed to enjoy playing against Drogba, he was brilliant against him. Bit of an injury concern too.

Koscielny is someone who I really can't comment on. Never seen him play or heard of him before this summer. He looks very slight for a CB though, wouldn't like to see him up against Drogba/Torres/Rooney/Adebayor.

It will be between Djourou and Koscielny to partner Vermaelen through the season.

Nordtveit A 20 year old who spent last season on loan at Nuremburg and only made about 20 appearances. A promising youngster but not good enough for the first team right now.

Bartley A 19 year old who was on loan at Sheffield Utd last year. Another huge talent but not good enough for the squad atm.

One injury to Vermaelen/Djourou/Koscielny and we're fooked, seriously need another centre back if Campbell goes, and soon.

lord lucan

Knowing how thrifty Wenger is i wouldn't be surprised if he's happy to use Song as cover for the centre backs! It'd be a typical Wenger solution.:rolleyes:

Pepe LeFrits

ffs. What a great way to star the day.

Frisbee

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

ffs. What a great way to star the day.

If your starting your day at 11 you can't be complaining...

speedboatchase

Sadly, if we don't buy anyone there will still be tons of Wenger apologists, it's all looking fairly similar to the whole 'In Rafa we trust' blind hope nonsense at the start of last season for 'Pool fans - we know how that turned out. Honestly, if Wenger has no plans to spend a bit of cash, I kinda feel bad for Fabregas

lord lucan

A mate just sent me a link to this. It's actually very accurate imo!:D

May be NSFW due to some strong language!

Galvasean

THat was surreal! :pac:

cson

Arra feck.

Evil_Clown

Just looking at that predictions thread and most people have Arsenal finishing in the top 4, this may well not be the case if we do not buy a Defender and Goalkeeper before the start of the season. Losing Sol is a big blow and its crazy to say that a top 4 side losing a 36 year old defender who came after leaving a league 2 side is a big blow but that just shows the state of Arsenals defensive situation at the moment.

Galvasean

I want that massive German defender Mertzacker (sp). We need a tall guy to compliment Vermaelen otherwise we will get destroyed from corners and long throws.

Pepe LeFrits

I've met Gooners like that sadly. The Spurs bear is a retard too, though I suspect that was unintentional.

Wenger haaaaaaaaaas to buy a CB now.

Galvasean

Campbell leaving may be a blessing in disguise. It could force Wenger's hand in signing another strong and experienced centre back (with a few more years left in the tank).

speedboatchase

Gary Jacobs from The Times is doing a live webchat re: transfer targets and I put forward this question:

"I'm an extremely worried Arsenal fan after today's news of Sol leaving for Newcastle. Is Wenger really done for the summer, bar perhaps signing Schwarzer? Or do you have any possible links towards another centre-half, or defensive midfielder for us? Thanks"

He replied:

"According to the agents that do deals with Fulham, the managerial situation is having an adverse effect on transfer policy. No one is sure who can leave, who can come in etc. That has caused an issue for Schwarzer's possible departure. I agree with you that Wenger needs one more centre back. He has Johan Djourou coming back, so it would not surprise me if he brought in either a younger inexperienced player, or an older head, both happy to sit on the bench, as Laurent Koscielny would be expected to be a first choice. You wonder too whether Gallas might just accept the year that was on offer, since he has not found a club "

Interesting about Gallas possibly just taking a year with us, hadn't really thought of it

Pepe LeFrits

Galvasean wrote: »

Campbell leaving may be a blessing in disguise. It could force Wenger's hand in signing another strong and experienced centre back (with a few more years left in the tank).

I was thinking that alright. Hoping he goes for someone versatile like Jagielka who could fill in at DM too (and GK )...

Galvasean

I like Jagielka but he's shorter than Vermalaen. We need some bloody height in the back!

Pepe LeFrits

Meh, don't care. I'd rather a Vermaelen-Jagielka pairing than Cahill-Mertesacker one. Besides, Koscielny and Djourou are big enough.

cson

But then did we spend £10m odd on Koscielny to sit on the bench?

Don't get me wrong I'd love to see Jagielka come in but he'll cost a fortune and it'd make Koscielny's signing hard to justify. I think Koscielny and Vermaelen are the two first choice CBs whether we like it or not but I hope we do get someone in as well for cover.

DB10

Well, Sol is one his way to Newcastle.


So our already pathetic defense has lost its fall back plan!

Royale with Cheese

cson wrote: »

But then did we spend £10m odd on Koscielny to sit on the bench?

Don't get me wrong I'd love to see Jagielka come in but he'll cost a fortune and it'd make Koscielny's signing hard to justify. I think Koscielny and Vermaelen are the two first choice CBs whether we like it or not but I hope we do get someone in as well for cover.

Other teams around Arsenal would happily spend £10m on a non starter to strengthen in an area that desperately needs it. Would love to see another signing in the Koscielny price range at centre back. The way injuries have gone recently you could have 3 'first choice' centre backs and they'd all get roughly the same amount of game time over the season.

Pepe LeFrits

cson wrote: »

But then did we spend £10m odd on Koscielny to sit on the bench?

Don't get me wrong I'd love to see Jagielka come in but he'll cost a fortune and it'd make Koscielny's signing hard to justify. I think Koscielny and Vermaelen are the two first choice CBs whether we like it or not but I hope we do get someone in as well for cover.

Well, it seems we did bid for Jagielka, but that may well have been before we signed Koscielny... but if we did go for him again, Wenger might justify it to himself as signing a player who can play in 2 positions where we lack cover. He'd get plenty of games.

Galvasean

I suppose in certain games Jagielka could play DM while Song gets a rest.

Paleface

So John Cross gets it wrong again :rolleyes:

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Transfer-news-Sol-Campbell-to-snub-Newcastle-Sunderland-and-Celtic-and-sign-new-Arsenal-deal-after-honeymoon-article533785.html

I think its safe to say he's not the Arsenal expert he lets on to be!

Galvasean

But but, he has INSIDE SOURCES!!!!

AnCapaillMor

DB10 wrote: »

So our already pathetic defense has lost its fall back plan!

We had a back up plan?

Galvasean

Pepe LeFrits

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11670_6281457,00.html

_Bella_

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11670_6281457,00.html

Didn't look too good in the WC but I'd take him over Schwarzer

Galvasean

Oh my, I didn't think he looked very good at all. Quite poor IMO.

speedboatchase

That'll be the Marchetti that had a 20% shot-stopping record at the World Cup - the worst of any keepers that played more than 2 games in the tournament

yahoo_moe

Galvasean wrote: »

I want that massive German defender Mertzacker (sp).

Have you seen him turn though? Slooooooooow. I think he's only just finished turning to try and catch David Villa now.

Galvasean wrote: »

Campbell leaving may be a blessing in disguise. It could force Wenger's hand in signing another strong and experienced centre back (with a few more years left in the tank).

Yup, thought occurred to me too. I wanted Sol to sign again but I'd have fewer reservations about someone I know can play 5 games in 3 weeks if he has to come in because of an injury. This certainly clears up our CB situation.

yahoo_moe

Oh and the Marchetti stories seem to be coming from Cagliari as far as I can tell.

Though if it works for them, we should start doing something similar ourselves. Will Arsene buy a keeper if Almunia and Fabianski are both at the club still?

Frisbee

Serious Arselol day we're having

Pepe LeFrits

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/8859257.stm

ho hum

Quazzie

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/8859257.stm

ho hum

I wonder will they resort to wear a sponsor that actually pays them on their shirt?

AnCapaillMor

Seriously after taking 28M for toure, 29M is an insulting bid.

gosplan

Sad to see Campbell leave Arsenal again but (with the most sincere respect to my fellow gooners) most people here are really misjudging our defensive frailties.

Gallas never stood out last season for me, Campbell did but it didn't lead to defensive solidity.

We lost to Sunderland when Bent acted quicker than our defence and scored the games only goal, and we drew with Burnley when we gave them a stupid penalty(as an aside Almunia had his worst game ever but somehow it didn't lead to a goal).

As far as I can remember, apart from those two occasions, we dropped points because we were either outplayed (Chelsea twice, United and City once) or we conceded sloppy unprofessional goals (too numerous to mention).

They came either from goalkeeping errors or midfielders not bothering to track back.

Our center backs were neither great nor terrible last year, replacing some of them with neither great nor terrible backs won't make a difference. Getting a competent keeper and defending as a team will.

gosplan

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/8859257.stm

ho hum

So are they 'less than a club' now, hee hee

cson

gosplan wrote: »

So are they 'less than a club' now, hee hee

Will they go into NAMA I wonder? :pac:

Delighted for them; for the way they conduct themselves it's just desserts.

Max Power1

cson wrote: »

Will they go into NAMA I wonder? :pac:

Delighted for them; for the way they conduct themselves it's just desserts.

couldnt be happier for them tbh

hope they go bankrupt and we can make a derisory offer for xavi!

Royale with Cheese

Almunia starts today. Shít.

Arsenal1986

Anyone got a stream for this one?

L'prof

Arsenal1986 wrote: »

Anyone got a stream for this one?

http://iraqgoals.tv/ch112.html

_Bella_

Arsenal1986 wrote: »

Anyone got a stream for this one?

http://www.iraqgoals.net/10488--sc-neusiedl-vs-arsenal-.html

yahoo_moe

gosplan wrote: »

most people here are really misjudging our defensive frailties.

See I think you're misjudging our defensive performance last year by absolving our CBs - yes there were goalkeeping errors and a lack of a consistent midfield shield (and issues with our version of 4-3-3) but we also, as usual, got hit straight through the centre on occasion too.

Getting a competent keeper and defending as a team will.

Absolutely - but I still think CB could do with an addition. To cover injuries if nothing else, but also to try and organise that team defending that we all want to see.

I'd also consider a change in our full-back policy as it leaves us very exposed (for little enough benefit - a lot of teams just leave our full-backs as spare men to cross balls in as they know how little damage it'll do them). A lot of solid teams play 3 (even 4) CBs across the back four, which we might need to consider at times. 5 in midfield / 3 up top (whatever you consider it) should have more width than 4/2 without relying on the full-backs all the time.

_Bella_

1-0 Arsenal scored by Walcott. Great dummy by Wilshere

Djourou taken off only 28 minutes in...

iMuse

1-0 Theo. Djourou gone off injured Fcuk, injury curse strikes again Edit: 2-0 thomas

j14

Djourou off injured it seems???

j14

2-0 JET, drilled finish.

Arsenal1986

Wilshere is so good, every little touch is fantastic, passing is unreal

JET been impressive again

Gibbs and Arshavin linking well, Gibbs going forward anyway is excellent

L'prof

2-0 JET, well taken.

I'm happy enough with an injury now as long as it's not too serious. Might force Wenger's hand!