Arsenal Transfer Rumours And General Chat

astrofool

He's also not as easily aggravated as mad Jens.

cson

Nice to see Almunia get a go, excellent shot stopper and he has great anticipation although having said that against the tiny tots he had Toure to thank that time when Berbatov went through on goal. What a piece of defending.

AnCapaillMor

Richards is ment to have turned down the most recent contract offer, so fingers crossed.

yahoo_moe

But what first choice back four would Wenger have if he buys Richards? I've been delighted with Sagna, I think Toure and Clichy are two of the best defenders in the league so it's only really Gallas that'd be at risk... but he's our new captain for the season (fitness depending, obviously).

Richards is young, incredibly fit and has fairly solid England prospects (most immediately at right-back) so no doubt he'd feel justified in wanting to play every game and avoid a Shaun Wright-Phillips scenario... I'm not sure Arsenal can guarantee him that at this stage so I'm not sure it'll happen

AnCapaillMor

Feck was going to say at RB, but then you said sagna, who's really impressed so far this season.

Evil_Clown

It would be next summer if Richards was to come, and Gallas would be 31 then I think
So I would have no problem in selling Gallas to another club (non premiership of course) to make a few bob
Make Toure captain and have a centreback pairing of Toure and Richards
That would be sweet

PHB

I think Richards would come in as 3rd choice CB, and then begin to take over from Gallas as he gets older. He'll need a bit of training, as if you watch him, his pace makes up for his suspect positional sense. I'm pretty sure Wenger can train that into him, and then he could be as good as Rio in time.

It's hilarious to think that apparently Jose had a deal tied up for 5 million for him, but Grant et al didn't think it was worth it.

ErinGoBrath

Would be great to see him at CB with Kolo. Gallas has yet to prove his worth at Arsenal and appears to be made of glass. I'd have no quams putting Richards ahead of a fit Gallas.

I'd say he's be looking for a massive contract but would be a valuable addition to the back 4.

Pepe LeFrits

I've seen little recently to suggest that Richards will be leaving Man City any time soon. Why would he?

Furthermore, I don't think he's really what Arsenal need. He is the same mould as Gallas and Toure and probably wouldn't make a great partner for either of them - Gallas and Toure don't seem to be a great pairing either, as they have the same strengths and more importantly, the same weaknesses. He would make a great central midfield partner for Cesc but with Flamini in such excellent form and Diarra looking like another gem, there is no need for him there, while Sagna has been a revelation at right-back, so that avenue looks closed off too.

Arsenal need another centre-back, either from outside or from within, but it needs to be a 'number 6', the type of centre-back who reads the game well and is dominant in the air. That was meant to be Senderos, but he doesn't seem to be able to iron out the kinks in his game. I think Wenger may just make do with Gallas and Senderos until he can bring a young player through (Nordveit possibly).

cson

We need a Vidic of some sort.

yahoo_moe

PHB wrote: »

his pace makes up for his suspect positional sense.

That could just as easily be Toure as Richards - even though they can both go attack the ball, they're both very much covering centre halves...

EDIT: Oops, just saw the argument already went this way. Good post Pepe, great minds and all that Yeah, I'd agree that we need a Vidic-type player asap. As has been said, Senderos is the closest we have but he's slow as a boat when he turns to chase, which unfortunately happens occasionally when someone nippy gives him the slip

PHB

That's the thing, it's the same with Vidic. It's very rare you'll get a Vidic with pace, because the people with pace learn to defend with pace.

AnCapaillMor

Definately lacking in the height in the defence department when big phils out. Actually the avg height of our team has seriously decreased the past few years.

yahoo_moe

Yeah, when Vieira, Campbell, Keown, Henry, etc. were around, all you'd hear from Andy Gray was how we had loads of big lads but never scored any headers (in fairness, he discounted all those Pires 4-yard rebound headers).

Now we've got quite a short team and he's still feckin bangin on about it

Pepe LeFrits

van Persie went off injured in the Dutch game with a knee injury. Sounded like it could be serious, although nothing can be confirmed as of yet until a scan is performed.

A serious injury to Robin would effectively **** our league campaign up. Hopefully Eduardo and Bendtner are ready to step up to the plate.

Bounty Hunter

well Bendtner has been making noises about not being happy not gettin his game so now might be his chance, and i hope he grabs it with both hands.

jank

Heard this too but he walked off the pitch apparently so he may be ok in a week or so.
We will see tomorrow anyway,

AnCapaillMor

Yeowch!!!! http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/1160/77377117pr0.jpg

Does'nt look too good, it'd be good to see Eduardo get a good go, and Bendtner too, see what all his hype is about.

Evil_Clown

I reckon gAWd will go with Adebayor and Eduardo upfront
Eduardo scored again for Croatia this week so his sharpness will prob give him the edge over Bendtner

yahoo_moe

****

really can't afford to lose van Persie beyond this weekend. Bolton are in a bit of disarray at the mo so (fingers crossed) should be okay but with Liverpool and Man U coming up in the next two Prem games, we could really do with having him back... if he walked off, then he could be available (although remember he took a knock against West Ham as well)

yahoo_moe

And on a separate note...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/7050691.stm

BBC wrote:

Arsenal move to prevent takeover

Usmanov has said he is keen to up his 23% shareholding
Arsenal's directors have taken steps to prevent any attempt to take over the club in the immediate future.
They have extended a "lock-down" agreement on the sale of shares.

It means directors can only sell to "permitted persons" before April 2009 and must give fellow board members first option until October 2012.

Bounty Hunter

reports ay RVP could be out for up to a month with an injured knee

Galvasean

Wenger finally got his bronze bust today. i',m sure no one will say he doesn't deserve it.
http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=483070&lid=NewsHeadline&Title=TV+Online:+Wenger+-+I%27m+very+touched+by+this+gesture


Well, as for Bendtner, he has scored in his only competitive match this season against premiership opposition no less. He is just unfortunate taht Adebayor and van Persie are on great form this season (probably the best Premiership strike partnership at the moment). As well Eduardo is a big money signing who has been scoring very regularly on the international stage. Maybe with van Persie injured for a while Bendtner will get some lengthly run outs and a chance to prove himself. I watched him closely in the Emirates Cup, he certainly has all the attributes required to become a leading premiership striker (football manager terms) if he gets enough games under his belt.

AnCapaillMor

Sky sports says a month for RVP.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11670_2808520,00.html

Galvasean

Wenger dismisses talk of the England job again.

Good.

handsfree

Arsenal always get the length that players are out wrong. form this pic RVP injury looks quite serious

oh no.jpg

i would like to see bendtner given a spot ahead of eduardo from what i've heard, he's the real deal

PDN

Does anyone else think this season has given us the easiest opening run of fixtures ever? After tomorrow's match we will be a quarter of the way through the season, yet we will only have played 3 away matches! Also, we haven't played any decent teams yet.

Things look great now, but this means a run of tough games, and some consecutive away matches, is building up down the line.

handsfree

nah we did well against the big teams last year and i think we'll do well against them again.

AnCapaillMor

handsfree wrote: »

i would like to see bendtner given a spot ahead of eduardo from what i've heard, he's the real deal

You were'nt listening to him by any chance. Meant to be good but is meant to have a totally bloated opinion of himself.

jester77

PDN wrote: »

Does anyone else think this season has given us the easiest opening run of fixtures ever? After tomorrow's match we will be a quarter of the way through the season, yet we will only have played 3 away matches! Also, we haven't played any decent teams yet.

Things look great now, but this means a run of tough games, and some consecutive away matches, is building up down the line.

I've been thinking about that as well, but then again you can only beat what's put in front of you and Arsenal have been doing that.

Interesting that Lehmann has been dropped from the squad, not even on the bench. Was hoping he wouldn't get his spot back just yet but didn't expect to him to be the no. 3! Wonder is there more to this, he's not exactly subtle!