Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2014/15

Looper007

greendom wrote: »

I really don't see how you can beat him up over the selling of players? that was when the club had to be very carefully managed and finances were very tight. he had little choice but to sell. the current situation leaving us short in defensively is a different matter but I'm still prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, as I'm sure everything was done to fill those gaps. Others don't and that's their prerogative.

I disagree he should have fought and been a bit more ruthless especially with Cesc one. I gave up giving him the benefit of the doubt the man is so stubborn and hates been told when he's wrong.

Looper007

greendom wrote: »

who's to say the best manager won't feck up ?

As I said greendom, its a risk but we need new blood cause I don't see Wenger changing the team. You think Wenger is the man to take us forward fair enough, I personally think we need young brash manager who shake us up, won't be afraid to change it up when needed.

greendom

Looper007 wrote: »

As I said greendom, its a risk but we need new blood cause I don't see Wenger changing the team. You think Wenger is the man to take us forward fair enough, I personally think we need young brash manager who shake us up, won't be afraid to change it up when needed.

Wenger's time is running out I agree - I did expect to see an improvement on the field once the financial shackles were loosened and I'm still waiting, patience is beginning to wear a little thin

jonneymendoza

Looper007 wrote: »

Once he started selling are best players off is when I started to lose a little faith in Wenger, there was no fight in him trying to keep them . I think the fact he had no interest in signing a centre back or Defensive midfielder (I still believe he didn't) is coming back and biting him now, I don't think he would have singed Welbeck if Giroud wasn't injured. He's been outthought and outfought by managers now.

I think every fan of this club have been through the ringer the last few years. I'm sure some of us don't want to be complaining but we can't there and let Wenger ruin our club, remember its Arsenal not Arsene Wenger.

even when he had all those players available we still won FA and did not compete for title

Thats surely down to wenger. AT that time i wanted wenger gone as he couldnt even compete for the title when we once had the best team in the damm league

Ed Winchester

jonneymendoza wrote: »

even when he had all those players available we still won FA and did not compete for title

Thats surely down to wenger. AT that time i wanted wenger gone as he couldnt even compete for the title when we once had the best team in the damm league

When did we not compete with the best team in the league? At no stage over the last 10 years have we had the best team in the league. I think you're exaggerating a little here for effect.

jonneymendoza

Ed Winchester wrote: »

When did we not compete with the best team in the league? At no stage over the last 10 years have we had the best team in the league. I think you're exaggerating a little here for effect.

We did mate. season after we won FA Cup. we had the best team in the league and diddnt turn up.

Heck when we won the fa cup 9 years ago, we did not compete for the title anymore.

for the first 3 seasons of our trophy drought we had a awsome team and won nothing and competed for just top 4.

Players like kolo toure, clichy, hleb, nasri, fabregas, adebayor where all at there prime and what we won back then?

Nothing.

we have a decent team now and guess whats happening now? Nothing. already 11 points behind chelsea, Already proven we cant win against a top team etc etc.

same echos from 7+years ago when we had a similar strong side.

Our team should be going toe to toe with chelsea.

We probably have one of if not the best midfields in the league man for man as a whole with so much quality around.

Ken Shamrock

jonneymendoza wrote: »

We did mate. season after we won FA Cup. we had the best team in the league and diddnt turn up.

Heck when we won the fa cup 9 years ago, we did not compete for the title anymore.

for the first 3 seasons of our trophy drought we had a awsome team and won nothing and competed for just top 4.

Players like kolo toure, clichy, hleb, nasri, fabregas, adebayor where all at there prime and what we won back then?

Nothing.

we have a decent team now and guess whats happening now? Nothing. already 11 points behind chelsea, Already proven we cant win against a top team etc etc.

same echos from 7+years ago when we had a similar strong side.

Our team should be going toe to toe with chelsea.

We probably have one of if not the best midfields in the league man for man as a whole with so much quality around.

Come on man

Alfred Borden

Do we hope Dortmund win both games of their double header with Gala so that if we win our two we go through so we can rest players. Or hope they drop points somewhere? I think if we want top we need them to drop points somewhere as cant see us beating them on the head to head now.

On a side note, Rudi Garcia is the one for me. Seems a special manager.

Mr Blobby

Raf32 wrote: »

Do we hope Dortmund win both games of their double header with Gala so that if we win our two we go through so we can rest players. Or hope they drop points somewhere? I think if we want top we need them to drop points somewhere as cant see us beating them on the head to head now.

On a side note, Rudi Garcia is the one for me. Seems a special manager.

Who cares.. We won't win the bloody thing! May as well just not bother turning up.



That dark enough for some

Gringo180

Mr Blobby wrote: »

Who cares.. We won't win the bloody thing! May as well just not bother turning up.

Was actually thinking the exact same myself when I read that :pac: 2nd in the group, knocked out by Barca, Bayern or Real in the last 16, 3rd or 4th in the league and an FA Cup quarter final, how wonderful

Ken Shamrock

Ah lads enough of that! If the Liverpool team of 05 could win it the CL and the likes of Wigan and Portsmouth can win the FA Cup then there's always hope! :pac:

Hyzepher

There is no point comparing teams of the past with today. The game has changed and the introduction of mega-money has a huge impact on success.

Arsenal either decide that they are going to compete and spend what is necessary to get the right players, or they continue to try and pluck someone out of nowhere or try and do deals in secret.

The latter is harder to do and sometimes results in the player going elsewhere because of money.

We've seen that recently the club have put up the money for players but somehow have failed in getting the right ones.

The issue over injuries is a much more important issue that our transfer spending.

batistuta9

if you're into injuries ABW done podcast last week on the injuries with the guy (dom) who's works rehab, strength & conditioning with athletes - so someone who knows what they're talking about.

out of 10 they reviewed, that's the first hour, they said only 2 could've been prevented by the club - arteta because of his problem with the calf, dom reckoned it's known as old man injury and is pretty much guaranteed to be recurring, can't mind who else - & one 50/50

Looper007

Mr Blobby wrote: »

Who cares.. We won't win the bloody thing! May as well just not bother turning up.



That dark enough for some

Don't give up man should play this before they go out, its fighting music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oomCIXGzsR0

wandatowell

PUT HIM IN A BODY BAG YYYEAAAAHHHH

Greatest movie quote ever.

Alfred Borden

Ospina out for three months.
If you dont laugh you will genuinely cry lol

Irish Aris

Raf32 wrote: »

Ospina out for three months.
If you dont laugh you will genuinely cry lol

just keeps on giving. . . :rolleyes:

Looper007

Raf32 wrote: »

Ospina out for three months.
If you dont laugh you will genuinely cry lol

Arsenal Ball boy pulled a hammy. Out for a few months :pac:.

gosplan

Looper007 wrote: »

I agree, I hate to complain I rather be sitting here nice and relaxed and watching us compete up the table. But we have been awful this season, I ain't certainly moaning for the hell of it. 5 draws, 2 wins and 1 loss and already so many points behind Chelsea and City. Wenger not addressing the issues from last season. We, as fans, deserve to rant and rave when are players and manager aren't performing.

You see this is where I think people are making mistakes.

This has nothing to do with last season.

We were far far better than this last season.

The old narrative is that Wenger's not addressing the obvious problems.

But the far far scarier truth is that we're actually going backwards and coming up with new fresh problems.

Alfred Borden

Looper007 wrote: »

Arsenal Ball boy pulled a hammy. Out for a few months :pac:.

I feel an injury coming on myself :pac:

gosplan

Bob.Carcass wrote: »

I stated Verm and Kos were ****e cuz of Verms form at the time and their positioning, i also stated i would prefer an in form verm over mert or kos so? yeah

So last year, given Verm's form, you would have started Hayden over him?

Looper007

gosplan wrote: »

You see this is where I think people are making mistakes.

This has nothing to do with last season.

We were far far better than this last season.

The old narrative is that Wenger's not addressing the obvious problems.

But the far far scarier truth is that we're actually going backwards and coming up with new fresh problems.

That's the worrying thing, we don't look like we're getting stronger rather weaker and weaker. Wenger's stubbornness at not wanting to spend money where its needed (I really think Defence is his weak spot) and still waffling a pile of rubbish at press conferences. Been outdone by managers by rival and mid table teams in the past 5 years. Happy to accept 4th every year and bull****ting the fans.

I think the FA Cup has cracked over his mistakes from last season.

Looper007

Raf32 wrote: »

I feel an injury coming on myself :pac:

I pulled a ligament in my index finger, I'm done for the season :pac:. Diaby will take my place.

bad2dabone

It's got to be a gypsy curse

Looper007

bad2dabone wrote: »

It's got to be a gypsy curse

Jose with the Voodoo curse on Arsenal :pac:. I think a few of us will be getting a run out sooner rather then later.

efb

Heard Cashly had a bit of a mare tonight

extra gravy

Another injury ffs...I wouldn't be superstitious but I'm starting to think that the Emirates was built on a sacred old burial ground or something.

fulmer1984

Part of me believes that Arsenal died when we moved to the Emirates

efb

Wenger's 65th birthday today

wawaman

efb wrote: »

Wenger's 65th birthday today

Happy Birthday Arsene, heres your present, a drab 0-0 at anderlecht

Ken Shamrock

gosplan wrote: »

So last year, given Verm's form, you would have started Hayden over him?

Well i didn't even know who Hayden was at the start of last year. What's your obsession with this anyway? I don't like Mertesacker, build a bridge.

byrneg28

An excerpt from Pep Guardiola's book

It’s noon in Munich and the team have done their morning training and listened to the second-last team talk. This is the one that strips down their opponents’ strategy, followed by a quick run through how to attack and defend corners and wide free-kicks. But Pep is still thinking about his line-up.

He is not sure which is the better strategy: attack or control. At training the day before the match there are no clues as to the starting line-up. Pep still hasn’t decided whether they’re going out to get goals or settling for ball domination. The session doesn’t focus on either. Instead they rehearse how to defend the way that Arsenal begin their attacks from the keeper. They go over the co-ordinated movement the back line must make when the ball is being put long from the Arsenal goalkeeper.

“We know that [Lukasz] Fabianski almost always sends the ball to his right,” Carles Planchart, one of Guardiola’s scouts and tactical analysts, says. “If it reaches Olivier Giroud it’s so that he can chest it down and hold it up. If he puts it to Bacary Sagna it’s to make our full-back push up towards him and Sagna will try to head the ball onwards and into the space behind our full-back.”
And on Monday evening they go over and over the way to defend against these Arsenal goal-kicks, with goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in the role of Fabianski. For 20 minutes, Dante and Bastian Schweinsteiger are busy marking Claudio Pizarro, who acts as Giroud, and David Alaba tries to perfect the way to close down Sagna, whose role is taken by Rafinha

Next, Pep explains in detail how Mikel Arteta tries to draw in the opposing pivote in order to create a space in the middle of midfield into which Mesut Özil will try to appear. Pep walks through Arteta’s movements whilst emphasising to his players, who are spread out in front of him: “Özil is the dangerous one – he’s the one we really need to keep the closest eye on. Arteta draws you in, Özil pops up in that zone with Santi] Cazorla and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain around him and that’s the way that they achieve superiority in a key area. We can’t afford that to happen.”

They test out the way to defend against this Arteta-Özil movement. The idea is that Arjen Robben and Franck Ribéry squeeze infield and that Javi Martínez, in his central-defensive role, pushes into the empty space which Arteta has created. In turn, Rafinha’s task will be to fill the space which the Spaniard has had to leave open in the middle of the back four.
They go through a series of different actions, moving constantly. Pep keeps shouting out the names of Arsenal players – Arteta, Özil, Cazorla, Mertesacker – and these echo round Säbener Strasse whilst the Bayern players push themselves to a degree unheard of for a training session the day before a game. In fairness, they don’t go on for long. Just 20 minutes. It’s the rhythm and speed they’re working at that is so unusual.

Something is changing. The players perform brilliantly and there is a growing sense of pride and total security so that it seems absolutely impossible for them not to win. Everyone is sweating at the end. Pep explains his thinking. “You play at the rhythm you train at. If you train badly, you play badly. If you work like a beast in training, you play the same way. And these guys, they train like beasts.”
Guardiola chooses control over aggression and picks Schweinsteiger instead of Toni Kroos. By the time the bus is leaving the training ground for the Dolce Hotel, where they will spend the intervening six hours, the coach is feeling positive. “I’ve gone for control. Control and more control.”

Ken Shamrock

^^^ For some reason i doubt Wenger does similar things.

Hyzepher

In fairness Pep would transform our club and attract the players that simply AW has missed out on

keano_afc

Wengers training session:

"Ok chaps, we've lost 2 players since we left the dressing room. Diaby stood in a puddle and now has Trench Foot. It is a little bit niggle, at the moment it looks like 3 weeks. Wilshere tackled a telegraph pole and took a big kick. It is 3 weeks. Lets go and train. This week we play Bayern. I know they are a good team, full of top top super quality players. But I have a surprise for them. We are going to set up against them the same way we do for every other team. They wont be expecting that. Lets go. Lukic here is going to be in goal, since I started speaking we lost Martinez, who has a little niggle. 3 weeks."

gosplan

Bob.Carcass wrote: »

Well i didn't even know who Hayden was at the start of last year. What's your obsession with this anyway? I don't like Mertesacker, build a bridge.

The comment was rediculous. The idea that we should start Hayden and Monreal when Kos is out is just plain nuts.

The obsession is just trying to get you to see that.

There's a lot of good constructive negative stuff posted in here. Then there's the whacko stuff that just ruins any form of debate.

DenMan

Anderlecht game is live on Sky1 tonight guys!

Ken Shamrock

gosplan wrote: »

The comment was rediculous. The idea that we should start Hayden and Monreal when Kos is out is just plain nuts.

The obsession is just trying to get you to see that.

There's a lot of good constructive negative stuff posted in here. Then there's the whacko stuff that just ruins any form of debate.

I don't think we should start Hayden and Monreal? I think we should start 2 top notch CB's but Wenger didn't buy any in the window, Chambers has to play RB and Kosc is out.

None of that is my fault, I'm sure we'd all love 2 good CB's starting but we don't have that. We have Mert and Monreal? That is terrible, i don't think taking Mert out and replacing him with a young hungry quick CB is too bad of an idea.

If that makes me whacko? then so be it.

greendom

DenMan wrote: »

Anderlecht game is live on Sky1 tonight guys!

And Setanta

gosplan

Bob.Carcass wrote: »

I don't think we should start Hayden and Monreal? I think we should start 2 top notch CB's but Wenger didn't buy any in the window, Chambers has to play RB and Kosc is out.

None of that is my fault, I'm sure we'd all love 2 good CB's starting but we don't have that. We have Mert and Monreal? That is terrible, i don't think taking Mert out and replacing him with a young hungry quick CB is too bad of an idea.

If that makes me whacko? then so be it.

He's a 19 year old CB with one league cup match.

I agree with you about the lack of squad depth.

I also think you're being unrealistic about Mert's contribution last year. They were a really good partnership for the majority of the time.

Ken Shamrock

gosplan wrote: »

He's a 19 year old CB with one league cup match.

I agree with you about the lack of squad depth.

I also think you're being unrealistic about Mert's contribution last year. They were a really good partnership for the majority of the time.

And everyone starts somewhere, if you said that about every 19 year old with 1 game then none would ever play. Look at the lad who got called up for united and played a stormer the other week.

How am i being unrealistic about his contribution? I said they were a good partnership for the majority of the season?

Ed Winchester

keano_afc wrote: »

Wengers training session:

"Ok chaps, we've lost 2 players since we left the dressing room. Diaby stood in a puddle and now has Trench Foot. It is a little bit niggle, at the moment it looks like 3 weeks. Wilshere tackled a telegraph pole and took a big kick. It is 3 weeks. Lets go and train. This week we play Bayern. I know they are a good team, full of top top super quality players. But I have a surprise for them. We are going to set up against them the same way we do for every other team. They wont be expecting that. Lets go. Lukic here is going to be in goal, since I started speaking we lost Martinez, who has a little niggle. 3 weeks."

Very good sir!

wandatowell

keano_afc wrote: »

Wengers training session:

"Diaby stood in a puddle and now has Trench Foot"

Soups123

Looking forward to tonights game, for some reason I feel this team and Wengers approach is better suited to Europe. I expect a win tonight and a decent performance.

Be good to see Bellerin again tonight and Chambers back in at CB.

byrneg28

Soups123 wrote: »

Looking forward to tonights game, for some reason I feel this team and Wengers approach is better suited to Europe. I expect a win tonight and a decent performance.

Be good to see Bellerin again tonight and Chambers back in at CB.

Yeah was just thinking that, maybe he just wants to have a craic at the UCL one last time, that's why the league is abandoned :pac::pac::pac:

gosplan

Bob.Carcass wrote:

How am i being unrealistic about his contribution? I said they were a good partnership for the majority of the season?

That's not what I took from this

Bob.Carcass wrote: »

Mert is complete ****, I rather Hayden play alongside Kosc

GavRedKing

byrneg28 wrote: »

Yeah was just thinking that, maybe he just wants to have a craic at the UCL one last time, that's why the league is abandoned :pac::pac::pac:

Winning the Europa League is the new 4th place anyway

Does the winner go automatically into the UCL or do they have to play a qualifier?

bad2dabone

GavRedKing wrote: »

Winning the Europa League is the new 4th place anyway

Does the winner go automatically into the UCL or do they have to play a qualifier?

Automatically.


Honestly I'd take a europa league win when we get a EL spot (we cannot keep getting CL forever it's inevitable that we'll drop-out of the top four at some point in time).
Our European trophy cabinet is sparse to say the least

Ken Shamrock

gosplan wrote: »

That's not what I took from this

Oh no?

Bob.Carcass wrote: »

He had a good season with Kosc other than that he just costs us goals with his lazy half arsed attitude since returning from the WC and his lack of pace is a massive problem even for our style of play, we can't play a high line with him yet we continue to make that mistake (Chelsea).

Every player with a bit of pace says pfft I'll take him on, his weaknesses out weight his strengths and regardless of your personal preference he has been poison since the start of the season, particularly early on.

This here is 3 months old.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=91130946

Few posts down you'll see me agreeing that Mert and Kosc were better than Verm and Kosc, my opiion has never changed and you quoting specific posts and trying to twist them around is just ridiculously childish.

GavRedKing

bad2dabone wrote: »

Automatically.


Honestly I'd take a europa league win when we get a EL spot (we cannot keep getting CL forever it's inevitable that we'll drop-out of the top four at some point in time).
Our European trophy cabinet is sparse to say the least

Its not a bad trophy to have, only becomes enjoyable when you go far into it. When we won it the league was pi**ed away with draws but the run in the Europa League was a good distraction and as ya said, always nice to add another title to the list and its a winnable one if youve a strong squad, only downer is playing Thursday night and usually playing on Sunday, or late k/o Satuurday, which is a disaster for doing day trips to London and the flight times