Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/14

cathalio11

Mickeroo wrote: »

4 days :pac:

Buzzing. 3 games in a row on Saturday. Will be great.

keano_afc

As Arseblog said today, signing Gustavo almost makes too much sense. We're probably going to walk away.

cson

Gourcuff would be a regressive step imo.

Unless we're getting him for < £5m I'd much prefer a younger target with more potential.

cathalio11

Arsenal vs Aston Villa.

I contacted Setanta 2 weeks ago, and a lady told me that the match would be broadcasted on Setanta Ireland and NOT Setanta Sports 1.

This morning, I was disappointed to check the UPC guide for Saturday and see that it was on the pay channel, Setanta Sports 1.

A mistake or harsh reality?

Gringo180

Mickeroo wrote: »

4 days :pac:

Joking aside, did anyone start an Arsenal thread fantasy league yet?

Yeah there's 8 of us in so far so get joining lads more the merrier.

The code is 371924-96395

Soups123

Soups123 wrote: »

I understand frustrations, I get the lack of player in concerns but player out this summer has been excellent.

While I'm fine with the players leaving leaving, the squad has been decimated. If we sign 3 starters we'll still be on the verge of playing last year's reserves as soon as some injuries are bunched together.

The start of the league though isn't the be all and end all, Wenger probably feels the squad he has now is well capable of being thereabouts after the first 8 games with the new additions then in and settled. The league isn't won in the fist 3 weeks. I'd much prefer waiting until the death for players like Gustavo/Suarez than just signing an anyone before the start of the season.

It can't be won in the first 8 games but last season we were 9th after 8 games and that was that. Signing someone at the death means the settling in excuse lasts even longer.

emergingstar wrote: »

People forgot his age and that injury he was coming back from
It got to the point when even when he played ok he was slated to the high heavens

My main problem with how he played wasn't down to how he moves, although he's amazingly slow off the mark as well. The issue is that if the team wants to counter attack then bypassing him is pretty much a necessity.

speedboatchase

Gringo180 wrote: »

Yeah there's 8 of us in so far so get joining lads more the merrier.

The code is 371924-96395

Joined as the Wild Qats :in

(I live in Qatar)

batistuta9

cathalio11 wrote: »

Arsenal vs Aston Villa.

I contacted Setanta 2 weeks ago, and a lady told me that the match would be broadcasted on Setanta Ireland and NOT Setanta Sports 1.

This morning, I was disappointed to check the UPC guide for Saturday and see that it was on the pay channel, Setanta Sports 1.

A mistake or harsh reality?

it's on that channel on the sky guide too

ask in this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056889518&page=48 and someone will know for definite what way it works

Soups123

[Deleted User] wrote: »

It can't be won in the first 8 games but last season we were 9th after 8 games and that was that. Signing someone at the death means the settling in excuse lasts even longer.
.

We are much better equipped this year than last for the opening 8-10 games, definitely not for a season long effort but I think if we added Gustavo and Suarez on deadline day with 1/2 other players we would as a whole be better shaped than last year at that point

Marty McFly

Gringo180 wrote: »

Yeah there's 8 of us in so far so get joining lads more the merrier.

The code is 371924-96395

I would but everytime I sign up to do fantasy premier league, I have always lost interest and never managed to last a full season.

Ed Winchester

Gringo180 wrote: »

Yeah there's 8 of us in so far so get joining lads more the merrier.

The code is 371924-96395

Joined there!

keano_afc

I've changed my team name to Bitey McRacist

Soups123

Soups123 wrote: »

We are much better equipped this year than last for the opening 8-10 games, definitely not for a season long effort but I think if we added Gustavo and Suarez on deadline day with 1/2 other players we would as a whole be better shaped than last year at that point

Ya think? This time last year we still had Song and had made all our summer signings.

Skylinehead

keano_afc wrote: »

I've changed my team name to Bitey McRacist

Was going to ask who did that. Wonderful

I don't follow any blogs or the like so has anyone come across any analysis of all the kids we've released? Are we shutting down the academy or something?

Mickeroo

Deleted User wrote: »

I don't follow any blogs or the like so has anyone come across any analysis of all the kids we've released? Are we shutting down the academy or something?

Not read anything on that but thought the tactics column on arseblog today made a decent case for why we've improved as a team despite not sigining anyone.

http://arseblog.com/2013/08/how-arsenal-have-been-shaping-up-for-201314/

Soups123

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Ya think? This time last year we still had Song and had made all our summer signings.

Yep I think we are better prepared at this point for kick off than we where last year, we have a settled team, a starting 11 that know each other and no key player losses to fill or key new players to settle. But as I said we are better prepared for the first 8-10 games after that the squad is too thin and we are lacking quality for a real push

cathalio11

I also think we are better prepared for this season.

Of course, we had Song. But we had a discontent and rattled Song.

There is no doubt that players like our English contingent have improved since this time last season, whether it is marginal or huge.
We have Wilshere to start the season for the first time since his first season.
We haven't lost a pivotal player.

Also, that victory against City will give the players confidence, especially Ramsey and Walcott. And Giroud can only be feeling good at the moment too.

Pepe LeFrits

Our starting line-up for the first game of the season last year was:

Chesney
Jenkinson Mertesacker Vermaelen Gibbs
Arteta Diaby
Walcott Cazorla Gervinho
Podolski

Bench: Mannone, Djourou, Santos, Coquelin, Ramsey, Arshavin, Giroud

We're a lot better defensively with Kos, the new improved Ramsey and Sagna in the team, but offensively we don't look to be much ahead of last season. Santi looks unfit and we've lost a lot of our depth (not that it was particularly good depth, but still...). We do have Wilshere, Chambo probably Rosicky available though.

Mickeroo

Mickeroo wrote: »

Not read anything on that but thought the tactics column on arseblog today made a decent case for why we've improved as a team despite not sigining anyone.

http://arseblog.com/2013/08/how-arsenal-have-been-shaping-up-for-201314/

Basing things on pre-season is unreliable to say the least. Also if we're going with Arteta and Ramsey as suggested that'll mean Wilshere ahead, Giroud up front and Walcott and Cazorla on the "wings". A bloody waste.
Last season I was hopeful that we were returning to counter-attacking football. We seemed to be trying to get defending right and I assumed we'd add a player or 2 actually capable of that style of play, looks like I was wrong and there was no reason for the ugly stuff we played except a lack of quality available.
If people want to talk about when we had a settled squad let's look at last February. 3/3 wins in the PL, all by one goal, all while playing stuff that was horrible to watch. Still, maybe it was part of something. Nah, we got knocked out of the FA Cup by Blackburn and then raped by Munich. How much more settled are we meant to be now?

Pepe LeFrits

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Our starting line-up for the first game of the season last year was:

Chesney
Jenkinson Mertesacker Vermaelen Gibbs
Arteta Diaby
Walcott Cazorla Gervinho
Podolski

Bench: Mannone, Djourou, Santos, Coquelin, Ramsey, Arshavin, Giroud

We're a lot better defensively with Kos, the new improved Ramsey and Sagna in the team, but offensively we don't look to be much ahead of last season. Santi looks unfit and we've lost a lot of our depth (not that it was particularly good depth, but still...). We do have Wilshere, Chambo probably Rosicky available though.

Pretty sure plenty on here knew we were better with Kos than Vermaelen, funny that an injury improves the team.

AdamD

Deleted User wrote: »

Basing things on pre-season is unreliable to say the least. Also if we're going with Arteta and Ramsey as suggested that'll mean Wilshere ahead, Giroud up front and Walcott and Cazorla on the "wings". A bloody waste.
Last season I was hopeful that we were returning to counter-attacking football. We seemed to be trying to get defending right and I assumed we'd add a player or 2 actually capable of that style of play, looks like I was wrong and there was no reason for the ugly stuff we played except a lack of quality available.
If people want to talk about when we had a settled squad let's look at last February. 3/3 wins in the PL, all by one goal, all while playing stuff that was horrible to watch. Still, maybe it was part of something. Nah, we got knocked out of the FA Cup by Blackburn and then raped by Munich. How much more settled are we meant to be now?

Lets just ignore the 8 wins and 2 draws out of 10 afterwards?

TheGunns

Diaby was immense at the start of last season, need someone to take hold like he did. A slow start would be a disaster when I think about it

cathalio11

TheGunns wrote: »

Diaby was immense at the start of last season, need someone to take hold like he did. A slow start would be a disaster when I think about it

I don't mean to be a complete tool but Diaby against Sunderland was woeful, then against Stoke he was decent.

Obviously had that amazing game against Liverpool and one or two other good performances but it seems that it's only the few moments of magic getting the recognition.

If he had stayed fully fit, it would have been great but he always had that thing about him where he just performed uselessly on occasions.

But maybe I'm just bitter because the only two games I've seen live, Arsenal vs Sunderland (twice), ended 0-0 where he played a shocker in both

Pepe LeFrits

Nah that's fair, he had a stormer against Liverpool alright but otherwise it was a mixed bag from Diaby, and then the usual happened.

bad2dabone

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Basing things on pre-season is unreliable to say the least.

Agreed. Although it can't hurt to have had such a good one.

AdamD

AdamD wrote: »

Lets just ignore the 8 wins and 2 draws out of 10 afterwards?

So it was only then that the squad was settled? Quality of opposition and apathy was a massive factor in our run-in last season.
The only decent side we beat in the second half of the season was a non-trying Munich after they'd battered us. Our second half of the season looks like this:
Wins: Stoke, Sunderland, Villa, Swansea, Reading, WBA, Noriwch, Fulham, QPR, Qigan, Newcastle and Munich when they let us.
Draws: Southampton, Liverpool, Everton, United when they'd already won the league.
Losses: City, Chelsea, Munich, Spurs.

bad2dabone

bad2dabone wrote: »

Agreed. Although it can't hurt to have had such a good one.

Draw with Napoli, lose to Galatasaray, beat City. Anyone looking for anything meaningful from the matches before that wants their head checked.

cathalio11

Deleted User wrote: »

So it was only then that the squad was settled? Quality of opposition and apathy was a massive factor in our run-in last season.
The only decent side we beat in the second half of the season was a non-trying Munich after they'd battered us. Our second half of the season looks like this:
Wins: Stoke, Sunderland, Villa, Swansea, Reading, WBA, Noriwch, Fulham, QPR, Qigan, Newcastle and Munich when they let us.
Draws: Southampton, Liverpool, Everton, United when they'd already won the league.
Losses: City, Chelsea, Munich, Spurs.

Honestly, this post contains a lot of exaggeration. "Munich when they let us". Any Arsenal fan can see the effort both sides put in and the brilliance Arsenal showed that night.
In fact, it ended a huge unbeaten run against one of the most committed teams in the world.

And to add to that, Bayern didn't exactly give up in their second leg against Barca, did they? No, they creamed Barca twice. So to say they basically let us win is a joke.

Also, you will find that many big teams dropped points to little teams "full of apathy" at the end of last season. So Arsenal's achievements were impressive.

overpronator

Deleted User wrote: »

Quality of opposition and apathy was a massive factor in our run-in last season.

This is 100% right, lets not forget how excruciatingly bad we were in the majority of the run in too, people never seem to mention that. It was so so poor at times. There is no way we will get away with that over 38 games.

bad2dabone

Galatasary loss was down to tiredness and cheating from Drogba. I'm talking about in terms of how the team are getting on with each other. They really come across as a group who gets on with each other and we seen the spirit again with coming back from two down version napoli. We weren't fazed at all by city and that also bodes well. We have been weak against the likes of them and especially united in recent years. Hopefully this season we can turn that record around.

.jacksparrow.

overpronator wrote: »

This is 100% right, lets not forget how excruciatingly bad we were in the majority of the run in too, people never seem to mention that. It was so so poor at times. There is no way we will get away with that over 38 games.

It was our ability to create chances that let us down we looked so poor going forward, hopefully its improved, certainly looked like it against city.

Marty McFly

Deleted User wrote: »

So it was only then that the squad was settled? Quality of opposition and apathy was a massive factor in our run-in last season.
The only decent side we beat in the second half of the season was a non-trying Munich after they'd battered us. Our second half of the season looks like this:
Wins: Stoke, Sunderland, Villa, Swansea, Reading, WBA, Noriwch, Fulham, QPR, Qigan, Newcastle and Munich when they let us.
Draws: Southampton, Liverpool, Everton, United when they'd already won the league.
Losses: City, Chelsea, Munich, Spurs.

So your pretty much discounting the fact we had the second best form in the league from January till the seasons end? or the fact we had the second best defence in the league last season?

Spin whatever way you want that second half of the season was impressive and our defensive record was equally impressive, a non trying Munich for a team that didn't try a lot of there players have felt the need to say how impressed they were by Arsenal that night, I love how when they beat us they battered us but wait when we outplayed them it was because they weren't trying despite fielding a very strong team that night and a team on a massive run who were demolishing everything put in front of them but for that one night only they only left there winning mentality and competitve streaks at home.

tayto lover

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

It was our ability to create chances that let us down we looked so poor going forward, hopefully its improved, certainly looked like it against city.

I wouldn't read much into friendlies.
City were very loose and teams in the EPL will be anything but. They will be fine-tuned for the games that matter.

bad2dabone

Regarding the run in, yeah we didn't exactly put everyone to the sword but... we won. We won games we would have drawn or lost before. United have won championships by winning ugly. It becomes a habit and I'm still happy we did it.

Of course we shouldn't have put ourselves in the position in the first place!

overpronator

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

It was our ability to create chances that let us down we looked so poor going forward, hopefully its improved, certainly looked like it against city.

In fairness we did look lively in that game but in the rough and tumble of the 11 men behind the ball football we come up against throughout the season im not so sure it will be any different. Here's hoping though.

gosplan

Deleted User wrote: »

So it was only then that the squad was settled? Quality of opposition and apathy was a massive factor in our run-in last season.
The only decent side we beat in the second half of the season was a non-trying Munich after they'd battered us. Our second half of the season looks like this:
Wins: Stoke, Sunderland, Villa, Swansea, Reading, WBA, Noriwch, Fulham, QPR, Qigan, Newcastle and Munich when they let us.
Draws: Southampton, Liverpool, Everton, United when they'd already won the league.
Losses: City, Chelsea, Munich, Spurs.

Arsenal went pragmatic - did what they needed to do first.

Strengthening aside, do you have an issue with how we played or approached games then?

cathalio11

cathalio11 wrote: »

Honestly, this post contains a lot of exaggeration. "Munich when they let us". Any Arsenal fan can see the effort both sides put in and the brilliance Arsenal showed that night.
In fact, it ended a huge unbeaten run against one of the most committed teams in the world.

And to add to that, Bayern didn't exactly give up in their second leg against Barca, did they? No, they creamed Barca twice. So to say they basically let us win is a joke.

Also, you will find that many big teams dropped points to little teams "full of apathy" at the end of last season. So Arsenal's achievements were impressive.

Why the massive turnaround then? Points like these raise serious questions about Wenger's ability to manage, if people actually believe what you said.
I was talking about separate groups, the crap teams are one group, United are another. :pac:

Marty McFly wrote: »

So your pretty much discounting the fact we had the second best form in the league from January till the seasons end? or the fact we had the second best defence in the league last season?

Where am I discounting that? As I've said many, many times, and everyone has ignored, if you look back (or think back if capable) to the match threads you'll see what we all thought of the performances and just how many times we scraped through. Easy to talk about bad luck at the start of the year for some people.

Spin whatever way you want that second half of the season was impressive and our defensive record was equally impressive, a non trying Munich for a team that didn't try a lot of there players have felt the need to say how impressed they were by Arsenal that night, I love how when they beat us they battered us but wait when we outplayed them it was because they weren't trying despite fielding a very strong team that night and a team on a massive run who were demolishing everything put in front of them but for that one night only they only left there winning mentality and competitve streaks at home.

Again, if Munich were going full-tilt for both matches then either the Arsenal players should have been docked a week's pay or Wenger should've been dragged in front of the board. Only the most blinkered could say that Munich did anything other than try to avoid losing the tie in the second leg.

gosplan

gosplan wrote: »

Arsenal went pragmatic - did what they needed to do first.

Strengthening aside, do you have an issue with how we played or approached games then?

Yeah I have a couple of issues. Playing the poor-to-watch stuff is fine if you do it properly but we did it without a proper DM and without displaying much counter-attacking finery.

However we wish to play next year we need to strengthen. When we set up "pragmatically" we still looked vulnerable. Some of the times we tried to play more advanced against decent opposition we looked lost when trying to break through, a common thing over the last 6 years or so.

AdamD

raphael honigstein ‏@honigstein 6m
Sky Sport News in Germany have spoken to Luiz Gustavo's agent: "He will make a statement on his future on Thursday"

Wouldn't be optimistic about this, usually players just leave if the club are willing to accept bids, no statements necessary..

speedboatchase

Guatavo to make a statement on his future on Thursday, according to his agent. I wonder what that means?

overpronator

Wonder how much they're gonna pay Flamini a week

AdamD

AdamD wrote: »

raphael honigstein ‏@honigstein 6m
Sky Sport News in Germany have spoken to Luiz Gustavo's agent: "He will make a statement on his future on Thursday"

Wouldn't be optimistic about this, usually players just leave if the club are willing to accept bids, no statements necessary..

He has offers from a few clubs as well as staying at Bayern should he wish to do so (though he isnt part of Peps plans) so i suppose its natural he wants to take time and mull it over. Wouldnt worry about it too much.

Moneymaker

keano_afc wrote: »

I've changed my team name to Bitey McRacist

Brilliant.

gosplan

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah I have a couple of issues. Playing the poor-to-watch stuff is fine if you do it properly but we did it without a proper DM and without displaying much counter-attacking finery.

However we wish to play next year we need to strengthen. When we set up "pragmatically" we still looked vulnerable. Some of the times we tried to play more advanced against decent opposition we looked lost when trying to break through, a common thing over the last 6 years or so.

Granted.

For me though, issues of quality aside, the focus and determination we saw during the run in was what's been lacking for years.

We've had the players to win trophies before but we didn't have that.

speedboatchase

Perez has been denied a work permit: http://gossip.ladyarse.com/arsenal/2013/08/13/perez-denied-work-permit-and-returns-to-colombia/

BUT we have a new target. Daily Express are linking us to Stephen Lichtsteiner.
http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/421803/Juventus-ready-to-let-Stephan-Lichtsteiner-join-Arsenal-to-fund-Christian-Eriksen-move?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-express-sport-news+%28Daily+Express+%3A%3A+Sport+Feed%29

tayto lover

speedboatchase wrote: »

Perez has been denied a work permit: http://gossip.ladyarse.com/arsenal/2013/08/13/perez-denied-work-permit-and-returns-to-colombia/

BUT we have a new target. Daily Express are linking us to Stephen Lichtsteiner.
http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/421803/Juventus-ready-to-let-Stephan-Lichtsteiner-join-Arsenal-to-fund-Christian-Eriksen-move?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-express-sport-news+%28Daily+Express+%3A%3A+Sport+Feed%29

We don't buy too many 29 year olds. Can't believe this at all.

speedboatchase

tayto lover wrote: »

We don't buy too many 29 year olds. Can't believe this at all.

I don't either, nor do I think Juve will sell. Don't shoot the messenger!

emergingstar

Tick tock

.jacksparrow.

emergingstar wrote: »

Tick tock

Don't start this, you have been the most optimistic, if you're loosing hope were screwed!