Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/14

shano_88

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/worldcupcentral/id/1330?cc=5739

Good article on Mitroglou who we have been linked with recently. He is in smashing form, scoring again for Greece tonight. Could be someone Wenger is looking at for January assuming a striker will be signed. Would be cup tied for the Champions league though.

Edit: recent video of him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOVf8ljy85M

Must admit I do like the look of him

extra gravy

Per captains Germany against England. Hopefully he can have a stormer and stick it to the pundits who don't rate him.

tayto lover

Per scores

shano_88

extra gravy wrote: »

Per captains Germany against England. Hopefully he can have a stormer and stick it to the pundits who don't rate him.

BFG gets a goal!

efb

Go on the Mert!

efb

extra gravy wrote: »

Per captains Germany against England. Hopefully he can have a stormer and stick it to the pundits who don't rate him.

Who doesn't rate Mert? him and Kos immense this season!

shano_88

Soccer Guy ‏@usasoccerguy 5m
GOALSHOT! Mertasoccer gets to the cross pass ahead of Biggie Smalling and head kicks it in to the soccer net. Germany Soccer Club lead.

extra gravy

AdamD

France through, so Giroud, Kosc and Sagna all fighting to go to the world cup
Wilshere came on for England and didn't get injured
Jenkinson scored for England u21s vs The Faroes
BFG scored the winner

greendom

AdamD wrote: »

France through, so Giroud, Kosc and Sagna all fighting to go to the world cup
Wilshere came on for England and didn't get injured
Jenkinson scored for England u21s vs The Faroes
BFG scored the winner

It'll be interesting to see if Koscielny is picked for the finals. He will miss the first 2 group games due to the sending off on Friday.

wawaman

greendom wrote: »

It'll be interesting to see if Koscielny is picked for the finals. He will miss the first 2 group games due to the sending off on Friday.

I didn't think 3 game bans carried in international football, was he not just banned for tonight? (I may be way off here)

Quazzie

wawaman wrote: »

I didn't think 3 game bans carried in international football, was he not just banned for tonight? (I may be way off here)

Sure isn't that what happened to Rooney?

greendom

wawaman wrote: »

I didn't think 3 game bans carried in international football, was he not just banned for tonight? (I may be way off here)

Thats what happened to Rooney when he got sent off prior to the last Euros. Hope Im wrong but I think he still has 2 competitive internationals to sit-out.

bad2dabone

France'll have to have him in the squad, when he avoids brain farts he's one of the finest CB's around.

And I also Love Per.

I hope england improve their displays in the WC, they've been outclassed in the last 2 games.

greendom

Wonder what shape Santi will be in when he returns from his jaunts around the World. He played in both Equitorial Guinea and South Africa. May well be on the bench on Saturday.

tayto lover

greendom wrote: »

Wonder what shape Santi will be in when he returns from his jaunts around the World. He played in both Equitorial Guinea and South Africa. May well be on the bench on Saturday.

You rarely see United players completing two full games.
I think Wenger could be more strict on this with the international managers.
These meaningless games have seen us lose players for long periods in the past through injuries.

shano_88

tayto lover wrote: »

You rarely see United players completing two full games.
I think Wenger could be more strict on this with the international managers.
These meaningless games have seen us lose players for long periods in the past through injuries.

Rooney, Kagawa, Smalling all played in two games.

Did Cazorla play 90 minutes in both games?

Gringo180

Whats it with the Spanish national team that nearly every friendly they play is on the other side of the globe? Not good for us I would say it takes Santi days after a trip to get back to some sort of normality.

dvemail

greendom wrote: »

It'll be interesting to see if Koscielny is picked for the finals. He will miss the first 2 group games due to the sending off on Friday.

Could be wrong but i think there is another international break in March. So he will sit out those games instead.

greendom

tayto lover wrote: »

You rarely see United players completing two full games.
I think Wenger could be more strict on this with the international managers.
These meaningless games have seen us lose players for long periods in the past through injuries.

To be fair he didnt start against South Africa but came on in the second half. I think in the main our players werent overly taxed. I think only Vermaelen played 180 minutes. I dont think any other player actually started in both games ( stand to be corrected on this).

Spain do play some ridiculous friendlies though. Is this something that they decide upon or does it come with winning the World Cup ?

greendom

dvemail wrote: »

Could be wrong but i think there is another international break in March. So he will sit out those games instead.

Perhaps, not sure if the ban applies to friendlies or not ?

Quazzie

Gringo180 wrote: »

Whats it with the Spanish national team that nearly every friendly they play is on the other side of the globe? Not good for us I would say it takes Santi days after a trip to get back to some sort of normality.

I think it's because they have already qualified as holders that they don't play qualifiers so every international break is an opportunity for some meaningless friendlies all over the world.

ronjo

Quazzie wrote: »

I think it's because they have already qualified as holders that they don't play qualifiers so every international break is an opportunity for some meaningless friendlies all over the world.

They didnt qualify as holders. That rule is gone.
They won the group France was in.

Jaafa

Gringo180 wrote: »

Whats it with the Spanish national team that nearly every friendly they play is on the other side of the globe? Not good for us I would say it takes Santi days after a trip to get back to some sort of normality.

There's rumours they were paid 15 mil to play in guinea. The manger refused to comment as to why they were playing there.

wandatowell

Im very surprised at how good Mert is.

keano_afc

wandatowell wrote: »

Im very surprised at how good Mert is.

You're obviously an RTE pundit.

bad2dabone

I love mert so I do, and he has a real affinity for the club.

So big match coming up this weekend, Southampton, tight defensively, good going forward, a real surprise package.
The good news is that I think they’ll play football against us so it should be a fairly open game which suits us, and Walcott should be back and raring to go.

I’m confident of a gunners win 

gnfnrhead

I remember having arguments here when we signed Mertesacker. People saying he was a panic buy and wasnt up to much. This in spite of his previous record and that was just the Arsenal fans. I was delighted we signed him and even happier that he has proven so many people wrong.

Likewise with Kosclienly. He was getting a lot of stick in his first season but has proved everyone wrong. I even admit to questioning him at times, thinking he would never be more than back up

.jacksparrow.

gnfnrhead wrote: »

I remember having arguments here when we signed Mertesacker. People saying he was a panic buy and wasnt up to much. This in spite of his previous record and that was just the Arsenal fans. I was delighted we signed him and even happier that he has proven so many people wrong.

Likewise with Kosclienly. He was getting a lot of stick in his first season but has proved everyone wrong. I even admit to questioning him at times, thinking he would never be more than back up

Yet still most fans I talk to claim he is a liability, really gets on my nerves.

Royale with Cheese

Koscielny gets too many red cards and gives away too many penalties for my liking. He can be really great but seems to have these idiotic moments every now and then.

cathalio11

I believe that anyone who still calls Mertesacker a liability is narrow-minded and lacking a lot of football knowledge; most likely due to the fact they've probably watched 1 Arsenal match in the last 12 months.

wandatowell

keano_afc wrote: »

You're obviously an RTE pundit.

No. The fact Werder Bremen had conceded more goals than they had scored the season before we signed Mert and also that he was on the verge of losing his place in the German squad.


That's why I'm surprised he has turned out as good as he is.

tayto lover

wandatowell wrote: »

No. The fact Werder Bremen had conceded more goals than they had scored the season before we signed Mert and also that he was on the verge of losing his place in the German squad.


That's why I'm surprised he has turned out as good as he is.

He has an absolutely uncanny sense of timing. He gets his foot in at exactly the right time to win the ball. I don't think he has conceded a penalty since he arrived (maybe i'm wrong).

jester77

wandatowell wrote: »

Im very surprised at how good Mert is.

Mert is funny. They were interviewing him and Schürrle before the game last night about life in London. Schürrle was talking about the great sites, shopping, restaurants, etc. Mert said he took an open top tour around London and seen everything there was to be seen, no further interest.

Spanish Johnny

bad2dabone wrote: »

I love mert so I do, and he has a real affinity for the club.

So big match coming up this weekend, Southampton, tight defensively, good going forward, a real surprise package.
The good news is that I think they’ll play football against us so it should be a fairly open game which suits us, and Walcott should be back and raring to go.

I’m confident of a gunners win 

I really hope Walcott is back otherwise we will struggle. Southampton will press us incessantly and we have really struggled against that at times. We need a different option rather than playing 2 more natural central players on the flanks. A bit of width will be required to prosper. Walcott unlikely to be match sharp - fancy a draw.

tayto lover

Would not be happy with a draw at home.
You need to win games like this if you want to win the league.

Spanish Johnny

tayto lover wrote: »

Would not be happy with a draw at home.
You need to win games like this if you want to win the league.

Agreed - and I hope it doesn't pan out that way but I think this will be seriously competitive and I don't see it being free flowing or lots of goals going in. Hope I have it wrong

tayto lover

Spanish Johnny wrote: »

Agreed - and I hope it doesn't pan out that way but I think this will be seriously competitive and I don't see it being free flowing or lots of goals going in. Hope I have it wrong

Whatever we do we have to start well and a lot better than we did at OT.
I find that games where we have slow starts are killing us.
Focus and attack from the start and knock the fight out of them.

After the OT loss this is the start of a new series of games where we must return to winning ways and go on another run.

Spanish Johnny

tayto lover wrote: »

Whatever we do we have to start well and a lot better than we did at OT.
I find that games where we have slow starts are killing us.
Focus and attack from the start and knock the fight out of them.

After the OT loss this is the start of a new series of games where we must return to winning ways and go on another run.

At the risk of sounding overly negative is it that maybe are 'let' start well against some teams? I find when we are pressured early by good teams who can keep it up we struggle.

I think Liverpool started well against us but we took our first opportunity and went on from there. Napoli gave us an ocean of space that surprised me.

If we score first we are very hard beat as opposition have to come out and then we thrive. Unfortunately we are easy to defend against due to our lack of pace at present.

extra gravy

New Flickr account announced today. Some really nice photos on there, old and new http://www.flickr.com/photos/officialarsenal/

extra gravy

Back to wearing suits on matchdays. Looks great. Hopefully Flamini won't take the scissors to his

Gringo180

extra gravy wrote: »

Back to wearing suits on matchdays. Looks great. Hopefully Flamini won't take the scissors to his

Proper order. Remember the day of the Carling Cup final against Birmingham when we turned up in tracksuits :eek: Knew when I seen that it was going to be a disaster of a day :mad:

bad2dabone

extra gravy wrote: »

Back to wearing suits on matchdays. Looks great. Hopefully Flamini won't take the scissors to his

love it, the lads look the business.

gnfnrhead

Am I the only one who isnt bothered about suits? Wear whatever you're comfortable with.

I remember the story of an old folk singer, called Jackson C.Frank who back in the sixties, wore a suit to every gig as, "It's (playing gigs) my work. Other folk have to wear a suit doing their work, I'm no different. It helps focus me and takes away any nervousness."

I think it's a psycholigical thing really, one of the club, etc.

wandatowell

Deleted User wrote: »

I remember the story of an old folk singer, called Jackson C.Frank who back in the sixties, wore a suit to every gig as, "It's (playing gigs) my work. Other folk have to wear a suit doing their work, I'm no different. It helps focus me and takes away any nervousness."

Jackson C Frank, Love him!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4it9vK6G7o

Pity the way he ended up.

Amazing life story too! Guitar given to him by Elvis after the fire in his school that killed all his friends, living in the basement of Simon And Garfunkels house with them recording his first (and only) album, convincing his girlfriend Sandy Denny, to drop waitressing and becpme a singer. Then homeless in New York for 20 years due to his mental abilities being messed up by the painkilling drugs he had to take for his burns, losing an eye from a bb gun drive by by some kids, "shooting the crazies", getting rediscovered by a record collector who (barely) recognised him. Back to playing gigs and dying a lot happier than you would have expected!


Ehhh...

Yeah, back on topic....

Southampton.

Tough match. They're playing well. The least we should get is a point...

AdamD

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-transfer-news-julian-draxler-2813902

Marty McFly

wandatowell wrote: »

No. The fact Werder Bremen had conceded more goals than they had scored the season before we signed Mert and also that he was on the verge of losing his place in the German squad.


That's why I'm surprised he has turned out as good as he is.

In the German national team everyone's position is constantly under threat they have that much quality .

When we signed Mert I didn't look at Bremen's record I looked at the fact he was an established German international and from his very first game he had a huge calming influence on our defence he had one or two blunders but was solid came in for far to much criticism mostly from fans who had read and heard pundits destroying him before he had even kicked a ball for Arsenal.

Kos took more time to settle the first game I remember him really showing what he could do was against Barca were he was immense.

Spanish Johnny

AdamD wrote: »

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-transfer-news-julian-draxler-2813902

Positive quotes and fantastic player but he is not exactly what we need given that he would cost 45 million?