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

Max Power1

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

I cannot believe the season starts in less than 2 weeks and no keeper has been signed. I actually want to cry.

Surely we could have signed Schwarzer as a stopgap if nothing else?

If wenger thinks we can go through this season successfully with just almunia then he is very much mistaken.

Even if we acquire akinfeev in december/january.

peabutler

I'd lean toward the view that Wenger will go with Fabianski over Almunia personally.

Royale with Cheese

They're both awful. I have to say I will be starting to lose confidence in Wenger if either of those clowns are the no.1 this season.

peabutler

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

They're both awful. I have to say I will be starting to lose confidence in Wenger if either of those clowns are the no.1 this season.

I hope Fabianski has some kind of Gomes like revival but I can't see it. I do think Fabianski is a better goalkeeper than Almunia though. My irk is that in say Spain and Germany they give young keepers a chance ( David DeGea, Iker Casillas, Neuer to an extent) but Wenger won't take that risk and give one of our highly promising youngsters a chance.

DH2K9

The keeper that has impressed me the most at Arsenal is Szczesny. Played well when given the chance last year in the Carling Cup and for the second half of the season went on loan to Brentford where he played so well that for the last game of the season the manager took him off with a minute to go so he could receive a standing ovation.

DB10

peabutler wrote: »

I'd lean toward the view that Wenger will go with Fabianski over Almunia personally.

Agree there, looks like Fabianksi will be no 1 to me.
Nobody wants to sign Almunia so he will probably stay instead of Schwarzer.

I actually rate Fabianksi highly, think he just needs more confidence and regular football. Mind you, he really disgraced himself in the games against Porto, Wigan and Blackburn last season. I've never seen such pathetic goalkeeping.

SDTimeout

I think we will start with both of them imo and Wenger will look to the Russian in Jan.

greendom

Max Power1 wrote: »

Surely we could have signed Schwarzer as a stopgap if nothing else?

If wenger thinks we can go through this season successfully with just almunia then he is very much mistaken.

Even if we acquire akinfeev in december/january.

Perhaps the managerial changeover stopped that transfer going through. Hopefully, just temporarily though.

Frisbee

I still maintain a massive 'meh' towards Schwarzer. He's decent alright, but even as a stop gap we should be looking to do much better than someone who has spent most of their time at Boro and Fulham. If he was good enoguh for a Top 4 club he would have been picked up years ago.

Even if he was to only be our keeper until January I still wouldn't be too interested.

greendom

Frisbee wrote: »

I still maintain a massive 'meh' towards Schwarzer. He's decent alright, but even as a stop gap we should be looking to do much better than someone who has spent most of their time at Boro and Fulham. If he was good enoguh for a Top 4 club he would have been picked up years ago.

Even if he was to only be our keeper until January I still wouldn't be too interested.

I agree with that. The unfortunate thing is though, he is better than anything we have at the moment.

keano_afc

Schwarzer is still more solid than what we've got though. Nearly 10 players gone and 2 in. Arsene, you've less than 2 weeks to sort this or we're looking at another season of mediocrity.

AnCapaillMor

Have the same feeling about schwarzer but Jens and tash played some of their best stuff for us at that age and he can't be worse than flappy or manuel.

greendom

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

I cannot believe the season starts in less than 2 weeks and no keeper has been signed. I actually want to cry.

To be fair, and perhaps a little pedantic as well, he has until the end of August.

Galvasean

Ten players? Who have we lost?

Merida
Silvestre
Campbell
Gallas
Eduardo

Frisbee

keano_afc wrote: »

Schwarzer is still more solid than what we've got though. Nearly 10 players gone and 2 in. Arsene, you've less than 2 weeks to sort this or we're looking at another season of mediocrity.

10 gone? All I can think of is Gallas, Silvestre, Campbell, Merida and Eduardo.

Unless your including youth players we've released, in which case you should include youth players we're brought in so:

Martinez, Silva, Galindo. Probably more that I'm missing.

Galvasean

As far as ins/outs are concerned I only include players that have played first team football as outs and only include new players likely to play first team football as ins.

Frisbee

Galvasean wrote: »

As far as ins/outs are concerned I only include players that have played first team football as outs and only include new players likely to play first team football as ins.

Same, but that's the only place I could possibly think of him getting a figure of ten players out.

Max Power1

Galvasean wrote: »

Ten players? Who have we lost?

Merida
Silvestre
Campbell
Gallas
Eduardo

senderos.

keano_afc

I was thinking about 8 players altogether, including young players. Sorry if the figure seemed sensationalist!

Smokin_Aces

Does anyone know what the deal was with Cesc and green/white jersey just shown on sky sports news? I'm deaf, there was no subtitles so I missed out. Thanks

keano_afc

Smokin_Aces wrote: »

Does anyone know what the deal was with Cesc and green/white jersey just shown on sky sports news? I'm deaf, there was no subtitles so I missed out. Thanks

Rather he sign for Celtic than Barca!

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Right I haven't posted here in a while so I'm just gonna ramble for a bit most likely.

First of all, on the keeper thing, it's disappointing that we haven't signed anyone yet. I was encouraged by the way Wenger came out and said there was no number 1 and criticised Almunia and Fabianski to an extent. I remember frequently thinking last season 'I hate Almunia', after watching him flap at the end of the Birmingham game or watching him hoof yet another kick out vaguely in the direction of Arshavin only for it to bounce over his head. Fabianski just seems to bottle it completely every second game and really inspires no confidence at all.

Having said that, they're probably not as bad as we have in our minds. All of our keepers are at least good shot stoppers. At this stage it's almost a mental thing where we're just waiting for them to **** up and any time they do we're gonna crucify them for it. That's one of the main problems as I see it if we don't sign a new keeper. Any mistake the current crop makes the fans are going to pounce on and, knowing the fragile mental states of our keepers, will only lead to more errors from them.

The likes of Akinfeev and Lloris(not that we were ever going to sign him) seem to be fairly dodgy from crosses and set pieces so there'd be no real improvements there. Of course Hart would be great but City wouldn't be stupid enough to let us have him. Ideally I'd like for someone like Frey to come in, he's experienced without being as old as Scwharzer, and may be available since Fiorentina signed Boruc. Perhaps one of the German keepers would be the way to go for a good solid option. Though it really is difficult to think of too many others that we could realistically sign and give us a properly top quality keeper again. If we don't sign anyone I wouldn't be against seeing what Sczesney is like on the big stage after all his rave reviews out on loan, but it may be too much of a risk.

On the centre of defence. I reckon Wenger will probably sign that Bosnian fella Spahic who seems like he could be a solid option for back up going by what I've read about him. I think that would leave us fairly alright at the back to be honest. I was really impressed by Koscielny against Milan and if he can play like that on a regular basis and remain injury free than he shouldn't be any worse than Gallas at least. Campbell only came in really because Djourou was injured so again if he can manage to stay fit it's not weakening very much if at all. Whoever comes in for Silvestre would have to try very hard to be worse than him so Spahic/whoever would be an improvement there. Senderos wasn't here anyway so doesn't matter about him going.

In Midfield I think we could have done with someone else as cover for Song. Frimpong looked good in preseason, has that bit of energy and bite we lack in midfield sometimes. But he'll have to work on his passing if he's going to feature in any real capacity. Nasri looked great in all the games recently so I'd be hoping he'll kick on from there into the new season. It's good to see that it's looking like Wilshere will be kept for the year. I'd play him ahead of Walcott in the right forward position to be honest.

Up top I think we're better off than last season. While I thought Eddie was a great guy, he just didn't cut it last year unfortunately and someone had to go. Chamakh looks great for holding up the ball and linking play so if we're without RvP and Bendy for periods at least we have someone now who can play the centre forward role properly.

keano_afc

http://goonertalk.com/2010/08/03/arsenal-open-talks-with-montpellier-over-spahic/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=arsenal-open-talks-with-montpellier-over-spahic

Pepe LeFrits

Arsenalyouth reckons Wellington could play for an Arsenal XI tonight.

_Bella_

FFS just heard that on August 11th Netherlands plays Ukraine, in Ukraine, and Spain plays Mexico in Mexico City. And it is rumored that both van Persie and Cesc will be called up for their respective nations. Generally internationals don't annoy me but RVP and Cesc haven't even started pre-season training yet and this is going to put them back even further! They probably already won't be able to play against Liverpool.

Pepe LeFrits

van Persie isn't being called up, it's effectively a Netherlands 'B' squad afaik.

FUNKY LOVER

if torres starts at anfield and van persie and cesc dont i really want answers!!

Frisbee

FUNKY LOVER wrote: »

if torres starts at anfield and van persie and cesc dont i really want answers!!

What answers?

Torres has been back training since Monday. Cesc and RVP aren't back until Thursday. In fact, Id rather we rest them for the Pool game, maybe give them a half hour if they feel up to it.

greendom

Frisbee wrote: »

What answers?

Torres has been back training since Monday. Cesc and RVP aren't back until Thursday. In fact, Id rather we rest them for the Pool game, maybe give them a half hour if they feel up to it.

But surely we'd want our best players playing at Anfield - especially as it's the first game of the season

Frisbee

greendom wrote: »

But surely we'd want our best players playing at Anfield - especially as it's the first game of the season

Not at the sake of playing unfit players I wouldn't. If they're not fit enough for 90 they shouldn't be starting. If needs be we can bring them on in the second half.

FUNKY LOVER

Frisbee wrote: »

What answers?

Torres has been back training since Monday. Cesc and RVP aren't back until Thursday. In fact, Id rather we rest them for the Pool game, maybe give them a half hour if they feel up to it.

an answer as to why torres was back training and cesc and van persie were not.torres played more minutes in the world cup and van persie was off for SIX months with 1 month back!!

no excuses these players play for arsenal,why should we accept them missing a very important game,one that could get our season off to a good start or knock our confidence at the start??

i totally disagree with you saying you would be happy for them to miss it,i actually cant understand why any arsenal fan would say this.

FUNKY LOVER

Frisbee wrote: »

Not at the sake of playing unfit players I wouldn't. If they're not fit enough for 90 they shouldn't be starting. If needs be we can bring them on in the second half.

thats what i want answers for,if torres can be fit they have no excuses??

do you understand?

Frisbee

Cesc played a huge amount of games for us last season, waaaaay more than Torres did for Pool. Came back form injury too early and was out again after singlehandedly winning us a game. He then took a peno with a broken leg and missed the rest of our season. That's a serious amount of commitment from someone who is already disillusioned with life at the club. The last thing we need to do now is rush him into a high tempo game with less than a week of pre-season under his belt.

RVP would be in a better position to play but that's a less troublesome position, I'd be happy to see Chamakh get 60-70 minutes before being subbed off for RVP.

And as for Torres, he missed a huge part of last season too so would be fresher than Cesc.

You have to think in the long run. Getting 3 points against Liverpool but then losing either of them for a month with a hamstring injury or something would be worse than drawing/losing at Anfield.

FUNKY LOVER

cesc was injured for parts of the last season too,our games after pool aint that hard,they can rest then,but its vital we arent beaten at anfield,it really is.i can see your point about picking up another injury though.

greendom

There's something wrong though, if un-injured players can't get match fit for the start of the season.

Frisbee

greendom wrote: »

There's something wrong though, if un-injured players can't get match fit for the start of the season.

They've both just had roughly a month off after a long gruelling season with club and country. From Thursday they will have until maybe Wednesday to put in intense physical sessions, after Wednesday they will have to slacken off or even if they are fit they will be too tired to play on Sunday.

Even as pro athletes the recovery time after a properly heavy fitness session is at least 24 hours. The rest of the players have had upwards of a month to get back to peak fitness and you want Cesc and RVP to do it in less than a week? I don't think 5-6 intense sessions will get them back in time for Anfield, in fact, doing that many so close together will probably do more harm than good.

greendom

Frisbee wrote: »

They've both just had roughly a month off after a long gruelling season with club and country. From Thursday they will have until maybe Wednesday to put in intense physical sessions, after Wednesday they will have to slacken off or even if they are fit they will be too tired to play on Sunday.

Even as pro athletes the recovery time after a properly heavy fitness session is at least 24 hours. The rest of the players have had upwards of a month to get back to peak fitness and you want Cesc and RVP to do it in less than a week? I don't think 5-6 intense sessions will get them back in time for Anfield, in fact, doing that many so close together will probably do more harm than good.

Yes I take your point, but it's wrong that footballers should be given back to their clubs after a major tournament without enough time to recover for the start of the new season.

FUNKY LOVER

greendom wrote: »

Yes I take your point, but it's wrong that footballers should be given back to their clubs after a major tournament without enough time to recover for the start of the new season.

exactly.

OPENROAD

greendom wrote: »

Yes I take your point, but it's wrong that footballers should be given back to their clubs after a major tournament without enough time to recover for the start of the new season.

Exactly, after all it is the clubs who have to pay HUGE wages for these players.

gosplan

keano_afc wrote: »

http://goonertalk.com/2010/08/03/arsenal-open-talks-with-montpellier-over-spahic/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=arsenal-open-talks-with-montpellier-over-spahic

Wow, that would mean actual competition for a starting place in the defence :eek:

Last year Sagna, Verm, Gallas, Clichy and big Al were virtually undroppable when fit ... though Al at least tried his best, it's not his fault Fabianski managed to be even worse!!

Hopefully with Verm being the only sure CB, Clichy looking over his shoulder at Gibbs and our goalkeeping position being well up for grabs(unless Wenger does us all a favour and signs a new No.1), our defence could be inspired to do a bit better at times.

Remember, back in the days of competition for places Almunia played his way into the team and ended Man Jens' Arsenal career. No mean feat.

Galvasean

Max Power1 wrote: »

senderos.

Oh yes him. I forgot about him. Poor guy didn't feature in a single league game. In fact I saw his last ever Arsenal match at the Emirates stadium last season - a Carling Cup match.

Frisbee

greendom wrote: »

Yes I take your point, but it's wrong that footballers should be given back to their clubs after a major tournament without enough time to recover for the start of the new season.

If this were a friendly international/qualifier I'd agree with you.

Fab and Robin were released back to the club on the 12th July, it's the club who (rightly so) gave them nearly an extra month of a break. If the club demanded them back in pre-season a week and a half ago they would be fit. But they didn't, as they realised what a tough tournament they'd been through. I would have possibly had Robin back a week ago as he was out basically all last season, but that's neither here nor there.

Galvasean

Just looked on ticketmaster. Our reserves are playing Man United reserves on August 19th in Tallaght stadium. Costs €23

iMuse

Theres no point taking chances with our two key players for the sake of one match, we need both of them fit all season and we all seen what happened when Cesc played against Barca last season. We are capable of getting a result against liverpool without them.

yahoo_moe

FUNKY LOVER wrote: »

its vital we arent beaten at anfield,it really is.

I refuse to accept 'six-pointer' talk or anything similar about the first game of the season.

There are 38 games there to do your thing and while it's not ideal, we should get what we deserve over the course of those games. Do you remember how lifeless Cesc looked the season after they won the Euros? No way would I put the two of them at any more risk of longer-term injuries just for one game.

tony1kenobi

Galvasean wrote: »

Just looked on ticketmaster. Our reserves are playing Man United reserves on July 19th in Tallaght stadium. Costs €23

Are they gonna lob in a delorean with that?

Galvasean

tony1kenobi wrote: »

Are they gonna lob in a delorean with that?

August

yahoo_moe

OPENROAD wrote: »

I am disappointed at how things have turned out this summer

As am I. I think Cesc missing the final games of last season (and the piss-poor performances that resulted) has had a big impact, probably too big an impact, on his thinking. And obviously I'm none too happy about how things have been done.

the constant drip feed of comments from Spain could easily be stopped.

See I'm not sure Cesc holds enough power over Barca to do much about this. I've posted before that between those two parts of this triangle, Barca hold all the power - they don't particularly need him and they're the only club he seems interested in bar Arsenal. Hence their piss-taking.

It's quite an odd situation really and there are two reasons that I'm cutting him some slack:
(1) the move he wants is pretty understandable and is more about that one dream destination than about getting away from Arsenal at all costs;
(2) I'm not sure how much of this was in his head last season but there was almost certainly at least an inkling. But where he differs from others who've wanted to move is that his attitude was exemplary at all times, and I think will be again next year. Huge difference from Ade, even the narky Henry of his last year. Cesc upped his game last year, almost to try and win something so he didn't have to make a decision over leaving.

Pepe LeFrits

http://younggunsblog.co.uk/2010/08/boreham-wood-0-3-arsenal-miyaichi-wellington-star/

tony1kenobi

Galvasean wrote: »

August

Aha.