Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/14

2ndcoming

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

We'll fall short if he does that; the burden will fall more on Podolski than those three too I'd say.

The best way to replace Walcott's goals would be to sign a prolific striker like Costa because Giroud doesn't do enough to be first choice at a title challenging club. If the player has a release clause that should be doable. If there's no clause, the club has a decision to make. We do have the financial resources to force the issue and sign a top striker, but we’re still yet to display a willingness to do so, rather opting for a nicey-nice approach in transfer negotiations and looking for opportunistic signings which don’t come around all that often. Usually you have to ‘overpay’ a bit for the players at the top end of the talent pyramid and if the club wants to win things they’re going to have to do that sooner or later.

I agree with a lot of that, but I was donning my Wenger hat there and saying what I think we will do rather than what I hope we do.

That said, Theo has what, 5 goals so far? If Gnabry and Ox can manage 10 playing wide right the rest of the season it's not really a shortfall. They wouldn't have got hardly any if Theo was fit for the rest of the season because they wouldn't have been playing so it could balance out.

Pepe LeFrits

2ndcoming wrote: »

I agree with a lot of that, but I was donning my Wenger hat there and saying what I think we will do rather than what I hope we do.

That said, Theo has what, 5 goals so far? If Gnabry and Ox can manage 10 playing wide right the rest of the season it's not really a shortfall. They wouldn't have got hardly any if Theo was fit for the rest of the season because they wouldn't have been playing so it could balance out.

We’ve managed to finish the first half of the season just about on top largely without Theo sure, but my concern is that the second half of the season is going to be tougher as games pile up and fatigue increases.

Giroud is already struggling for goals and looks tired, and we’ve lost the player most likely to compensate for that. I’ll be surprised if we can repeat our points tally from the first half of the season in the second, and even if we do, the way City are improving (and Chelsea are also hanging in there), it may not be enough. I don’t think we score enough goals generally and if we keep looking to edge teams out by a goal we’ll drop points eventually.

bad2dabone

if we dont invest in another striker and Giroud gets injured we could realistically be looking at having to rely on chuba akpomb - and I think he'll be good in the future - but for a club with the resources of arsenal its shameful. And I don't think Wenger will actually invest.

TimeToShine

I never understood how Irish people somehow get dragged into this hatred of Spurs and vice-versa. It's completely understandable for people living in North London but for us? It makes no sense. I don't hate Spurs at all, I acknowledge they are our rivals and like to beat them as often as possible but some of the hatred on both sides in the Irish community is truly baffling. As far as we're concerned our main rivals should be whoever plays football at in or around our level. Getting involved in this cultural clash that is none of our business is beyond ludicrous.

wawaman

bad2dabone wrote: »

if we dont invest in another striker and Giroud gets injured we could realistically be looking at having to rely on chuba akpomb - and I think he'll be good in the future - but for a club with the resources of arsenal its shameful. And I don't think Wenger will actually invest.

How many of us expected him to go out and get Ozil? I cant believe that he would go into the 2nd half of the season relying on 2 fit strikers (Podolski, Giroud) or 3 when Super Nicky B comes back when we are in such a good position. Granted it might be only a loan deal but once whoever comes in is of a decent standard

farna_boy

The biggest problem with replacing Giroud, besides the obvious unsettling affect it could have on the rest of the team, would be that Wenger will not change his formation in the middle of a season.

Now just think back a few games for a moment to when Podolski played up front by himself, how many passes did he get that put him through on goal or how many clear cut opportunities did he get? Not that many as far as I remember and that should give you an idea how isolated our strikers actually are.

Even if you look at Giroud, how many clear cut chances does he get every game? I know he is going through a bad patch at the moment and in one of his last games he missed a few in that game, but usually he only gets one or two per game. I know people think every striker should be able to capitalise on those types of chances but to put it into perspective Suarez has a 25% conversion rate and that leads the league. Suarez also has the advantage of being able to play off someone else, something Giroud can't do.

I suppose my real point is yes there are better strikers out their , even in our league but many of them have a distinct advantage in that they are part of a two man striker team. Although it is possible, how many of them would be able to do that as a lone striker?

Giroud may not be the best striker in the league, but he may be the best striker that suits our formation and the way we play at the moment. He may not score a crap load, like others in the league but given his hold up play, the chance he creates for others and the space he makes for others by his runs, he may be the best player for our needs right now.

bad2dabone

i agree Farna, but what happens if he gets crocked?

batistuta9

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

The best way to replace Walcott's goals would be to sign a prolific striker like Costa because Giroud doesn't do enough to be first choice at a title challenging club. If the player has a release clause that should be doable. If there's no clause, the club has a decision to make. We do have the financial resources to force the issue and sign a top striker, but we’re still yet to display a willingness to do so, rather opting for a nicey-nice approach in transfer negotiations and looking for opportunistic signings which don’t come around all that often. Usually you have to ‘overpay’ a bit for the players at the top end of the talent pyramid and if the club wants to win things they’re going to have to do that sooner or later.

There is a buyout, everyone in la liga has one

They're not your normal buyout clauses thought and its not even clear if they apply to transfers to outside la liga, among other things

I couldn't be bothered linking as I'm on the phone but you can Google it or listen to football weekly from the 5th September from about 18 mins, sid lowe talks about it briefly

The 'imposters' with the United/herrera deal were actually the same lawers that done martinez to bayern - they spent over a month on that

If arsenal want costa it probably should've been moved on 7 days ago

dvemail

Problem with Podolski is that he is not a target man, nor can he run in behind like Theo does.
Majority of his goals come from passes laid off to him in or around the box or half chances that fall to him which he tucks away as he has a wicked left foot. If he is to play up front effectively we would have to change our style completely and rely much more on our midfield to work the ball up to the oppositions box i reckon. The usual long ball down to Giroud works great for the Frenchman, but the same cannot be said for Poldi.

hefferboi

TimeToShine wrote: »

I never understood how Irish people somehow get dragged into this hatred of Spurs and vice-versa. It's completely understandable for people living in North London but for us? It makes no sense. I don't hate Spurs at all, I acknowledge they are our rivals and like to beat them as often as possible but some of the hatred on both sides in the Irish community is truly baffling. As far as we're concerned our main rivals should be whoever plays football at in or around our level. Getting involved in this cultural clash that is none of our business is beyond ludicrous.

The only teams I hate are ManU and Stoke. I really dislike Spurs but wouldn't say I hate them. But I don't agree with your point. Its easy to hate teams from an Irish fan's pov. The endless media coverage and the access to almost every game played can make you easily dislike teams. I hate the two I mentioned because of Fergie, the fans, the way they play football (Stoke under Pulis).

ronjo

TimeToShine wrote: »

I never understood how Irish people somehow get dragged into this hatred of Spurs and vice-versa. It's completely understandable for people living in North London but for us? It makes no sense. I don't hate Spurs at all, I acknowledge they are our rivals and like to beat them as often as possible but some of the hatred on both sides in the Irish community is truly baffling. As far as we're concerned our main rivals should be whoever plays football at in or around our level. Getting involved in this cultural clash that is none of our business is beyond ludicrous.

Fair point but how can you not dislike a team that seem to release a DVD every time they beat us........ or even draw in one case.

farna_boy

bad2dabone wrote: »

i agree Farna, but what happens if he gets crocked?

I totally agree that we should have a backup player for him, even someone who has a different style in case he gets injured/ needs a rest/ his style doesn't suit a game. I just don't think we should be looking for a replacement for him in the middle of a season.

Pepe LeFrits

farna_boy wrote: »

The biggest problem with replacing Giroud, besides the obvious unsettling affect it could have on the rest of the team, would be that Wenger will not change his formation in the middle of a season.

Now just think back a few games for a moment to when Podolski played up front by himself, how many passes did he get that put him through on goal or how many clear cut opportunities did he get? Not that many as far as I remember and that should give you an idea how isolated our strikers actually are.

Even if you look at Giroud, how many clear cut chances does he get every game? I know he is going through a bad patch at the moment and in one of his last games he missed a few in that game, but usually he only gets one or two per game. I know people think every striker should be able to capitalise on those types of chances but to put it into perspective Suarez has a 25% conversion rate and that leads the league. Suarez also has the advantage of being able to play off someone else, something Giroud can't do.

I suppose my real point is yes there are better strikers out their , even in our league but many of them have a distinct advantage in that they are part of a two man striker team. Although it is possible, how many of them would be able to do that as a lone striker?

Giroud may not be the best striker in the league, but he may be the best striker that suits our formation and the way we play at the moment. He may not score a crap load, like others in the league but given his hold up play, the chance he creates for others and the space he makes for others by his runs, he may be the best player for our needs right now.

More teams play with a lone striker than not these days. Our setup simply isn't that unique; Giroud's aerial hold-up play is top notch but he offers close to zero threat in behind and isn't particularly exceptional on the ground, which is where most of our game is played. There are a lot of strikers would do better for us than Giroud would.

Marty McFly

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

More teams play with a lone striker than not these days. Our setup simply isn't that unique; Giroud's aerial hold-up play is top notch but he offers close to zero threat in behind and isn't particularly exceptional on the ground, which is where most of our game is played. There are a lot of strikers would do better for us than Giroud would.

Exactly Chelsea, United and Liverpool all essentially play the same system we do. It probably the most common system in today's football.

Very few teams play 4-4-2.

Blaming our system on Girouds lack of goals lately is just the easy way out.

WoollyRedHat

`Really think Arsenal should make a bid for Martinez from Porto, seems to be unsettled and we should get there before Chelsea does. Would be a good buy.

gandalf

I have a feeling something is afoot. On todays Gossip on the BBC not a mention of a player linked with us, normally there is infact everyday there is. I have a feeling we are going to sign someone.

OK I am getting desperate

Hyzepher

The trouble with this year is that the WC is in the Summer. This means that "usually" transfers dont take place until much later due to everyone waiting until after the WC etc and with our track record it could be a difficult time. Especially if some of our targets have a good competition and become more high profile.

I think AW should take the current injury issue and use it to his advantage to convince the board that a big name striker is needed. With a little money we should be able to get the quality of player we need.

We just need to be proactive a little

gosplan

Just saw the easy story of linking Morota has cropped up again today.

I wouldn't mind the club buying him but a loan for a young CF needing experience is not waht we need.

I think, as others have said, we need to replace the goals. We'll perhaps get more from players like Ramsey and Wilshire this year but we'll still be short.

A finisher to stick on the pitch would be nice. I mean we'll always create chances with or without Walcott.

Maybe there's someone like Eduardo who might not do a huge amount around the pitch but would be great at the whole 'putting the ball in the net' side of things.

Marty McFly

I wouldn't mind Morata on loan as long as there was a deal in place to buy should the loan go well, which I imagine Arsenal would insist upon were not a club were other teams prospects go to gain experience.

Pepe LeFrits

Anyone know how reliable Kike Marin is? He's saying that we want to sign Costa and the transfer fee is no problem, but the club aren't sure if Costa will want to leave Atletico.

Nemeses2050

SkySports is saying "Walcott given a glimmer of hope", can't access it from work. Can anyone post the full story please or just the jist of it.
got these from newsnow.

Alfred Borden

Here you go

Two Belgian surgeons have identified a knee ligament which they think could revolutionise the treatment of Anterior Cruciate Ligament injuries like the one suffered by Theo Walcott.

Walcott has been ruled out for six months after he was injured in Arsenal's FA Cup win over Tottenham at the weekend and is now set to miss the World Cup.

But Professor Johan Bellmans has offered Walcott a glimmer of hope of making an early return by suggesting recovery periods are so long because some patients suffer further damage which medical professionals were previously unaware of.

"When somebody tears his ACL then undergoes surgery we know 10%-20% of patients continue to have some form of instability," he told Sky Sports News.

"That is illogical because we have fixed what's broken so therefore we were convinced there had to be another structure which was also damaged but which remained unrepaired so far."


Belgian surgeons offer hope to sports patients
Dr Steven Claes added: "The human ACL is located deep in the centre of the knee but the ligament we have described is running at the lateral side of the knee.

"While the ACL is controlling stability from front-to-back, this ligament is controlling the rotation of the knee.

"What we've noticed in many ACL-injured subjects is that both ligaments seem to be disrupted and so you can expect if you only treat one of these injuries, some laxity, some instability, particularly rotational laxity will persist."

Several other Premier League players are currently sidelined with the same injury - Walcott's Arsenal team-mate Abou Diaby is not expected back until March whilst Aston Villa's Jores Okore and Chelsea's Marco van Ginkel are both out until June

Crystal Palace's Glenn Murray returns later this month but Everton's Darron Gibson is another long term absentee as is Liverpool defender Sebastian Coates and Newcastle's Ryan Taylor.

gandalf

All thats on the website is a story about his positive attitude so unless there is something breaking I don't think you should be getting your hopes up!

Dolph Starbeam

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

More teams play with a lone striker than not these days. Our setup simply isn't that unique; Giroud's aerial hold-up play is top notch but he offers close to zero threat in behind and isn't particularly exceptional on the ground, which is where most of our game is played. There are a lot of strikers would do better for us than Giroud would.

Llorente would be one of the best, great in the air and on the ground, not a threat in behind but thats not his job. He would have been a great signing, and he was available for free. He was unhappy early in the season at Juve, not sure if he is happy now though.

Pepe LeFrits

Nemeses2050 wrote: »

SkySports is saying "Walcott given a glimmer of hope", can't access it from work. Can anyone post the full story please or just the jist of it.
got these from newsnow.

It's a Belgian doctor basically talking about the knee ligament recently discovered that might lead to quicker ACL recovery times - the idea basically being that because they never knew this ligament existed before, they wouldn't have been repairing it when it tears along with the ACL and this would hamper recovery.

The research appears to be at an early stage and probably has little relevance to Walcott.

Pepe LeFrits

In fact, Skysports are taking the piss with that article.

Nemeses2050

Thanks folks, I thought they had a full scan and it wasn't bad as the initial scan...just on those lines...

gandalf

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

In fact, Skysports are taking the piss with that article.

So no change in form from them then

AdamD

Probably less to do with recovery time and more to do with Walcott actually making a full recovery.

Pepe LeFrits

AdamD wrote: »

Probably less to do with recovery time and more to do with Walcott actually making a full recovery.

Well yes, assuming Walcott has even torn this ligament which there doesn't seem to be any indication of!

Free clicks for sky...

AdamD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5wf1U0yLhE

Crowley looks pretty good..

tayto lover

gosplan wrote: »

The first thing we should do is bid 50 million for Rooney.

No way would we get him but it'd be comical to see the reaction.

All in all I don't think we'll get a winger. We need Walcott's 15 goals more than we need his wide play. Let the CF search begin!!

Have been impressed with Swansea's man Bony.
I wonder would he do a job for us as Giroud's deputy.
He seems good with either foot and very good in the air too.

Dolph Starbeam

AdamD wrote: »

Crowley looks pretty good..

That first assist was incredible. I know he's played for England but he is eligible for Ireland. Get Keane after him now!

wawaman

AdamD wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5wf1U0yLhE

Crowley looks pretty good..

He looks very Jack Wilshere like

Manzoor14

AdamD wrote: »

Crowley looks pretty good..

Love his support play for the 4th goal. Gives an option to each player, from the centre backs upwards, as they pass the whole way up the field and only touches the ball once, for the assist. Lovely patience and touch!

Alfred Borden

Playing Coventry on a friday, absolutely loving that
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/live-blog-news-sport-coventry-6466209

dvemail

Raf32 wrote: »

Playing Coventry on a friday, absolutely loving that
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/live-blog-news-sport-coventry-6466209

That works out well as we are due to play Southampton on Tuesday after.
Nice to get a favourable fixture change.

Nemeses2050

dvemail wrote: »

That works out well as we are due to play Southampton on Tuesday after.
Nice to get a favourable fixture change.

Moyes won't like this as he was giving out about them playing on Sunday and then today again.

dvemail

Nemeses2050 wrote: »

Moyes won't like this as he was giving out about them playing on Sunday and then today again.

That's their fault for making it into the semi final of the League Cup.

Gringo180

That Crowley fella looks an outstanding talent, very Wilshere like the way he floats around the place. Can he play for Ireland as well yeah?

Dolph Starbeam

Gringo180 wrote: »

That Crowley fella looks an outstanding talent, very Wilshere like the way he floats around the place. Can he play for Ireland as well yeah?

According to Football Manager he can.

Maire2009

Raf32 wrote: »

Playing Coventry on a friday, absolutely loving that
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/live-blog-news-sport-coventry-6466209

Not for me :mad: Was going to head over to it but can't now with work ... flip!

tayto lover

Maire2009 wrote: »

Not for me :mad: Was going to head over to it but can't now with work ... flip!

Time to pack-in the work then

Maire2009

tayto lover wrote: »

Time to pack-in the work then

Being thinking that for a while

greendom

Yilmaz? http://spor24.eu/haber/4459-buraka-arsenal-kancasi

tbh I think we are going to be linked with everybody and anybody until this window comes to an end

dvemail

More people are reporting that we are willing to activate Costa's release clause if we can convince the player to leave.

tayto lover

dvemail wrote: »

More people are reporting that we are willing to activate Costa's release clause if we can convince the player to leave.

He has now become a United target too.
We would want to move quickly.

dvemail

tayto lover wrote: »

He has now become a United target too.
We would want to move quickly.

Chelsea also.
If i was in his boots i wouldn't want to leave before the summer. They have a great chance to win La Liga and are in with a fair shout for the Champions League also, which he won't be able to play in if he left.

fulmer1984

heres a question lads, how do you think Januzaj would get on if he was an Arsenal player? would he be getting much game time?

i personally dont think he'd get a look in this season anyway

HazDanz

fulmer1984 wrote: »

heres a question lads, how do you think Januzaj would get on if he was an Arsenal player? would he be getting much game time?

i personally dont think he'd get a look in this season anyway

Not being funny but if he was an Arsenal player as he is now no.

If he came up through Arsenal with the talent he has he would be better presently and would be Gnarbying for a place.