Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2011/2012

Frisbee

Old Thread here.

Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2011/2012

This thread is for team talk, Gossip and Rumours pertaining to Arsenal. This thread is open for all users to post in. There are no preferences for fans of any team.

Please note the following Rules:

1. NO MATCH DISCUSSIONS
- Match threads will be created for matches/match weeks where required.
- Match discussion will be deleted.


2. Transfers.
- When a major transfer occurs, please post in the specific thread
- We will merge/split discussion on requests
- We will delete transfer discussion that continues here while a tangent thread is in progress.

3. Users who repeatedly ignore these guidelines will receive warnings/bans.

Galvasean

In the spirit of the times let my first post here say....

WE'RE DOOMED!!! :eek:

Noo

Dooooooomed

newbie2

Doooooooomed - I tell ya

Marty McFly

Ah I reckon well be ok, well finish one point above the relegation zone on last day of the season it wont be all bad, we can celebrate survivng.

Frisbee

I reckon Wenger and Gazidis are looking at the balance sheet and thinking it won't be the worst in the world if we miss out on CL football this year as they have the Fabregas and Nasri money to offset the lack of CL revenue. Then they can just bump up ticket prices again and tell us that we were just a little bit short and lacked mental toughness.

It's groundhog day over and over with that lot.

Plus I have training on Thursdays so will be missing our games against the mighty Vorskla Poltava and Sturm Graz.

tony1kenobi

I never realised we can't discuss matches or transfers in here....

......Johan Djourou is a fierce nice lad isn't he?

Galvasean

Book those tickets!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/16567387.stm

edit: Perhaps Kanu will be the next arsenal old boy to be brought back?

amacachi

Just a little aside I've been thinking about over the last few weeks, other than the obvious 4 or 5 outstanding players, how many really great players have been at Arsenal since Wenger came in? He won the league a few times with teams that were admittedly outstanding but how many of the players in those teams actually did anything away from Arsenal?
I'm wondering if (up til a coupla years ago) Wenger's talent was to get a load of players and get a coupla good years out of them and the successful years were when more or less a full team of players hit their prime together for a season.

ImpossibleDuck

Ahhh a shiny, new thread!

And let me be the first to say:
C'mon you Gunners!

KeithAFC

~Rebel~

KeithAFC wrote: »

wow...

KeithAFC

KeithAFC wrote: »

Madness

KeithAFC

rarnes1 wrote: »

Madness

Why is it madness? A lot of Arsenal fans are now turning on Wenger and it will only get worse.

efb

In Arsene we trust 20 years a gooner this year- this isn't the worst it's been.

We have a legend of a manager and some decent players. We are in the knockout stages of the UCL 5th in the league and not much of a transfer kitty.

Just one thing I noticed we seem to do better in non televised EPL games- or is that just me?

~Rebel~

KeithAFC wrote: »

Why is it madness? A lot of Arsenal fans are now turning on Wenger and it will only get worse.

It's madness because the only reason Arsenal have consistently been in the champions league places with their transfer spend is Wenger.

Change managers and give the same transfer budget, and watch the club drop down.

The only thing I could criticize the man for is wages, and I'm not even sure if that's his remit.

KeithAFC

~Rebel~ wrote: »

It's madness because the only reason Arsenal have consistently been in the champions league places with their transfer spend is Wenger.

Change managers and give the same transfer budget, and watch the club drop down.

The only thing I could criticize the man for is wages, and I'm not even sure if that's his remit.

This is a myth. Wenger is one of the big reasons for this. Instead of putting in an extra 10 or 15k for Mata, we decided not to sign him. It is the same with so many other players.

We signed Silvestre instread of Vincent Kompany. How did we not get Vincent Kompany who is one of the best defenders in Europe now? Wenger always goes for the cheap option.

He has dismantled the team. He was so deluded that he thought Fabregas and Nasri would stay and had absoutely no plan at all in that transfer market. He was so desperate, he ended up signing all the players on the last day.

Tactically we are awful, we can't defend and our shape is all over the place. That is down to the manager.

The board is a pack of **** but you can't ignore the obvious errors that Arsene Wenger has made. I would rather we look to rebuild the whole team from the back, with a new manager in who can build from the back. I think the Wenger era is coming to an end.

keano_afc

While I think its wrong to blame all the current problems on the manager, its ignorant to say he's blameless at the same time.

Fair enough he can do little about our injuries. But lets not pretend this is unusual. Every season we lose our top players for months on end, the problem is that the back up is cheap crap, and that is Wengers fault.

Yesterday's team was full of internationals, class players that should be capable of beating a newly promoted team. We were schooled, no doubt about it. The performance was horrendous, the same lethargic crap we've come to expect around this time of the season. There was no motivation, and that is Wengers fault. I've been saying for a couple of seasons now that he's lost the ability to get the best from this team and I stick by that.

Our chances of getting 4th spot are totally reliant on RvP staying fit. Every game we hold our breath that he wont break down, considering his past. For a team challenging at the top to be completely depending on one player is crazy. And that is Wengers fault. He has had the opportunity in 2 transfer windows to buy good proven support for RvP. We get a Korean who is so below standard he gets subbed off for the reserves. I dont believe the excuses that we dont have money, the revenues from the Nasri sale and the spineless flogging of Fabregas were more than enough to buy and wage a decent player.

So while he has been unlucky, he's also been naiive and too stubborn for his own good. He can get us back to the top again, but he really needs to examine himself and his motivational tactics.

L'prof

I can see why people are getting a bit annoyed, but ~Rebel~ is right. If a new manager were to come in with the same constraints as Wenger we'll soon find ourselves in a far worse position. If a new manager was given money to spend, I'd be absolutely livid that it wasn't given to Wenger!

This is his 16th season in charge of Arsenal and in that time his net spend is about £4m if even. That's £250k a season. I don't see how anyone could argue that Wenger chose to spend so little, so under those constraints who the hell do we bring in that won't lead us to oblivion???

emergingstar

Just want to say I think Ramsey is getting unfair and people calling for him to be sold Is madness

Are people forgetting this is basically his first season, only back from a horrific leg break and have to play way to much football I think already

Now he was utter ****e yesterday but not once did the lad go missing he kept looking for the ball and trying,it wasn't coming off but he kept at it. We can't say that about other players who just disappeared

The lad is only 21 and is gonna be world class I think people should go a bit easier on him

He needs a go on the bench and so does Walcott, but we have no one to go in rosicky is nearly never fit to start, the ox is not ready, and I think benyaoun is only a 20 min man

When ya have 25 of a squad it's hard to compete with 13 players out I don't think anyone not even man city would compete and alot of them players that are out are our very best players

The wenger out brigade back again is laughable, the man done wonders building the team back together he can't compensate for 13 players been out

But he has to take some blame we needed full backs he new that and never acted I think that was the main reason we lost them two games

Wenger to blame for this run bad form yes wenger out give over

Blatter

My gut feeling is that I think Wenger will go in the Summer anyway, for a multitude of reasons. (Not that I think Arsenal should want him to leave)

He's a good bet to take over at Barca if Pep leaves imo.

Pepe LeFrits

~Rebel~ wrote: »

It's madness because the only reason Arsenal have consistently been in the champions league places with their transfer spend is Wenger.

Change managers and give the same transfer budget, and watch the club drop down.

The only thing I could criticize the man for is wages, and I'm not even sure if that's his remit.

That's a pretty big only. He is involved with the wages and Arsenal spend £110m a year on his players; Arsenal are traditionally the fourth highest spending team in the league although Liverpool have pushed us back to 5th in that regard now I believe. So really, I don't see how getting fourth with fourth translates to Wenger being the only man capable.

gosplan

Hey, wouldn't it be great if we were just doing things backwards this season.

i.e. instead of being crap when it most counts from Feb on, we just turned it on then.

I'm not confidant of this though - so much depends on getting everyone fit and keeping them fit and I am waiting for the RVP gamble to blow up horrifically in Wenger's face - I reckon it'll happen during the first game after the transfer window closes.

It's just do annoying because we've got such a strong first 11, we just never see them.

And I know we suck at defending but we didn't for while when we actually had our first choice defenders on the pitch.

Frisbee

We need goals.

Goals from a striker other than Robin and goals from the wings.

Henry is a bargain bin temporary answer. We need two more players before the window closes or we'll be playing on Thursdays next season.

emergingstar

Frisbee wrote: »

We need goals.

Goals from a striker other than Robin and goals from the wings.

Henry is a bargain bin temporary answer. We need two more players before the window closes or we'll be playing on Thursdays next season.

I'd rather us slip down the table than play thurs football next year

But fully agree we need signings for fourth

Drexel

emergingstar wrote: »

I'd rather us slip down the table than play thurs football next year

Me too. Least then we can concentrate on gettin back into the CL places without any distractions.

If we do make the Europa league. Would ye want Wenger to go for it or do a spurs?

Underground

Jaysus,2 defeats in a row and the "Wenger Out" brigade shows up already,madness.

keano_afc

Underground wrote: »

Jaysus,2 defeats in a row and the "Wenger Out" brigade shows up already,madness.

Ablely supported by the "Wenger can do no wrong" brigade. Both sides of view are wrong, some people seem to think Wenger is above reproach though.

maximoose

Underground wrote: »

Jaysus,2 defeats in a row and the "Wenger Out" brigade shows up already,madness.

In fairness, they've been around since the summer!

Pepe LeFrits

Wenger will sign an attacking player of some description before the transfer window closes, as ‘the prize’ is at risk. This time however it won’t be enough and we will miss out on the top 4.

It’ll be all doom and gloom during the summer, and van Persie leaving will be hailed as a sign of the coming apocalypse. Wenger will sign someone underwhelming as a replacement but there’ll be a soft undercurrent of ‘Arsenal will do better than expected, wait and see’. A strong run early next season will have this group clucking I-told-you-sos.

This strong run will ultimately result in Arsenal reclaiming ‘the prize’ next season. However the following summer we’ll lose at least one of Vermaelen, Koscielny, Sagna or Szczesny. They’ll be replaced from within. There’ll be panic but also more clucking as Arsenal win 4th place in 2013/14 again. With other clubs reducing their spending this will be hailed as a triumph and ultimate vindication of Wenger's policy of 9 years without a trophy. The 10 year plan is ready to deliver.

The 10 year plan will begin with a defeat away to Shrewsbury. Despite this, 2014/15 will be a difficult start, but the team will put together a strong run. At some point (the second week in January), the team will even look like title challengers - the ultimate in damning indictments of the doubters - but these dreams will have collapsed by the second week in February. However the mood will be boosted with Wenger signing a new contract.

In the summer another key player will leave, but again there’ll be optimism that the young players are surely going to deliver and end the 10 year wait. Things will fall apart the following March, when a thrilling 5-4 defeat at swash-buckling Stoke, managed by Kevin Keegan, ends title hopes.

Arguments will be put forth for Wenger’s removal, but these will be dismissed out of hand as knee-jerk complaints.

jmayo

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Wenger will sign an attacking player of some description before the transfer window closes, as ‘the prize’ is at risk. This time however it won’t be enough and we will miss out on the top 4.

It’ll be all doom and gloom during the summer, and van Persie leaving will be hailed as a sign of the coming apocalypse. Wenger will sign someone underwhelming as a replacement but there’ll be a soft undercurrent of ‘Arsenal will do better than expected, wait and see’. A strong run early next season will have this group clucking I-told-you-sos.

This strong run will ultimately result in Arsenal reclaiming ‘the prize’ next season. However the following summer we’ll lose at least one of Vermaelen, Koscielny, Sagna or Szczesny. They’ll be replaced from within. There’ll be panic but also more clucking as Arsenal win 4th place in 2013/14 again. With other clubs reducing their spending this will be hailed as a triumph and ultimate vindication of Wenger's policy of 9 years without a trophy. The 10 year plan is ready to deliver.

The 10 year plan will begin with a defeat away to Shrewsbury. Despite this, 2014/15 will be a difficult start, but the team will put together a strong run. At some point (the second week in January), the team will even look like title challengers - the ultimate in damning indictments of the doubters - but these dreams will have collapsed by the second week in February. However the mood will be boosted with Wenger signing a new contract.

In the summer another key player will leave, but again there’ll be optimism that the young players are surely going to deliver and end the 10 year wait. Things will fall apart the following March, when a thrilling 5-4 defeat at swash-buckling Stoke, managed by Kevin Keegan, ends title hopes.

Arguments will be put forth for Wenger’s removal, but these will be dismissed out of hand as knee-jerk complaints.

Can you predict when Wilshere, Oxo and Frimpong get fed up and up sticks ?
To the nearest month please for my Paddy Power bet.

Oh almost forgot can you tell me if Squillaci and Arshavin are still around in 2014/2015 ?

BTW would anybody be interested in a bring back George Graham campaign.

Frisbee

Underground wrote: »

Jaysus,2 defeats in a row and the "Wenger Out" brigade shows up already,madness.

People can criticise Wenger without saying they want him to leave.

No way in hell I want him gone but he's managed pretty much every one of the last six transfer windows woefully. He continuously goes for the cheapest possible option that will do just enough instead of going out, spending some real money and turning us into actual contenders. And now having done that year after year we now need to go blow a wad of cash just to have a go at fourth place as opposed to the title.

TimeToShine

Galvasean wrote: »

In the spirit of the times let my first post here say....

WE'RE DOOMED!!! :eek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USHHQRodF88

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Wenger certainly deserves a large proportion of blame for the lack of signings needed (and quality) but an equal amount of the blame needs to be directed towards the board imo.

It seems like the board have restricted spending and let Wenger out on his own to an extent to deal with the ire of fans. Certainly this is the impression I get from the opinions of journalists who cover Arsenal and other people who have close dealing with the club.

The wage bill is quite high as some have mentioned but is Wenger even involved in that side of things anymore? And even if the wage bill is as high as our competitors, the actual transfer spending is far and away lower than any of our rivals. There should be plenty of money there to spend on transfers, so basically it comes down to why it's not being spent, and what will it take for us to spend it? (probably the fear of missing 4th)

Marty McFly

Ill admit I have been one of Wengers biggest critic in recent times, but its only because I dont see fourth place in the league as being satisfactory for a club of Arsenals stature, we should be aiming for 1st. Now we can all speculate on whos responsible for our transfer policy be it Wenger or the board well never know for sure until someone speaks out, but either way we can all agree theres a problem there.


My biggest gripe with Wenger is for the last few years we have not lived by his footballing philosophy and played attractive football, weve become flat and predictable in our style of play to the point were many a team now has us figured out and we have no plan b when it doesnt work.

Also were is the drive from the players he puts out onto the pitch we go behind all you see is heads dropping no fighting spirit at all no passion for the club, only one player springs to mind really from the current crop and thats Szczesny, were are the the days of Martin Keown in Van Nistelrooys face after missing a peno, the like of Vieira who never gave up and would do his best to get the team going again.

Its a managers job to pick the tactics and implement them, and to motivate his players so they have a desire to win at all costs, thats were he has failed Arsenal and the supporters. Yes you could say we havent got them type of players anymore leaders but that still falls on Wengers door.

Now im hoping he can turn it around and prove me wrong in fact id be delighted if he could but ive lost faith at this stage in his ability to do so. But if he does ill hold my hands up and say fair play. I say give him till the end of the season and see what happens no point calling for his head mid season.

GeorgeBailey

Frisbee wrote: »

We need two more players before the window closes or we'll be playing on Thursdays next season.

And of course the worst thing about that is that we could no longer call them Spursdays

Drexel

Have to agree with bulmers above about the lack drive and determination been shown by the players. Heads drop far to easily. The players are responsible for this but wenger has to take blame also. He just doesnt seem to be able to motivate them. Part of the problem i reckon is players seeing arsenal as a stepping stone to barca, city and other clubs like them and dont really give two ****s about arsenal in the long run

Fuzzy_Dunlop

jonny666 wrote: »

Have to agree with bulmers above about the lack drive and determination been shown by the players. Heads drop far to easily. The players are responsible for this but wenger has to take blame also. He just doesnt seem to be able to motivate them. Part of the problem i reckon is players seeing arsenal as a stepping stone to barca, city and other clubs like them and dont really give two ****s about arsenal in the long run

This is a fair point. Too many players that just seem to accept it if they're losing. The only players that I can think of that aren't like that are szczesny, vermaelen, jack, Koscielny and RVP.

the untitled user

This whole 'club of Arsenal's stature' stuff is something I don't fully get. You do realize that over the course of Arsenal's history they've had some successful periods, and some not so successful periods. And on average the wait between successful periods is around 7 seasons*.

Arsenal are only a big club in the modern sense because Wenger made them into one. Could have easily gone the way of the other sleeping giants i.e. Leeds, Villa etc. Fair enough we might do better with a new face but don't bite the hand that feeds and all that.

*: the wait between major trophies when we've gone 2 seasons or more without winning one, that's adjusted for WWII btw.

greendom

the untitled user wrote: »

This whole 'club of Arsenal's stature' stuff is something I don't fully get. You do realize that over the course of Arsenal's history they've had some successful periods, and some not so successful periods. And on average the wait between successful periods is around 7 seasons*.

Arsenal are only a big club in the modern sense because Wenger made them into one. Could have easily gone the way of the other sleeping giants i.e. Leeds, Villa etc. Fair enough we might do better with a new face but don't bite the hand that feeds and all that.

*: the wait between major trophies when we've gone 2 seasons or more without winning one, that's adjusted for WWII btw.

I think he's been a victim of his own success - both in how you describe above and in that when he came to England he revolutionised so much thinking in football. Before too long though clubs were copying his regimes and his scouting networks and its become harder and harder for him to keep his competitive edge. It hurts me to say this but maybe things do need freshening up a bit and Arsene should be moved upstairs to let a fresher face with new ideas take over.

Having said that the board will need to freshen up their ideas too and loosen those purse strings a little. I'm not talking Man City levels but surely if they'd been a bit bolder we'd be in a much better position now.

Drexel

the untitled user wrote: »

This whole 'club of Arsenal's stature' stuff is something I don't fully get. You do realize that over the course of Arsenal's history they've had some successful periods, and some not so successful periods. And on average the wait between successful periods is around 7 seasons*.

Arsenal are only a big club in the modern sense because Wenger made them into one. Could have easily gone the way of the other sleeping giants i.e. Leeds, Villa etc. Fair enough we might do better with a new face but don't bite the hand that feeds and all that.

*: the wait between major trophies when we've gone 2 seasons or more without winning one, that's adjusted for WWII btw.

a club that charges the most expensive ticket prices and has one of the biggest staduims in England should aspire to more then scraping a CL place each year. Especially with our most successfuly manager still in charge

the untitled user

jonny666 wrote: »

a club that charges the most expensive ticket prices and has one of the biggest staduims in England should aspire to more then scraping a CL place each year. Especially with our most successfuly manager still in charge

One of the reasons the ticket prices are so expensive though is because they overpaid massively for the land in order to stay in Islington (not only did they have to over pay the council for land used by a refuse centre, but they had to fund the acquisition and construction of a replacement location). I know that wont mean much to your average oversea fan like me, but the extent to which the club overstretched themselves to accomodate their local fan base has to be acknowledged.

All I'm trying to point out btw is that things are never as black and white as the average fan likes to think. An awful lot more tends to go into those decisions than the whims of an invidual.

greendom

I'm beginning to think we do all our shopping at Poundland or the local second hand shop

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2086419/Saad-Al-Mukhaini-arrives-Arsenal-trial.html

greendom

Here's some better news though. Wilshere could be back early Feb and Vermaelen and Sagna could be back for Man U. Sagna wouldn't start though, would he ? Not after 4 months out.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2087559/Arsenals-Jack-Wilshere-return-February-4-EXCLUSIVE.html

Could be losing Botelho though - thanks to his own stupidity

L'prof

greendom wrote: »

Could be losing Botelho though - thanks to his own stupidity

This is his 5th season on loan, he's hardly up to much!

L'prof

Looks like we're offering van Persie trials to prove his worth.

gosplan

Christ Samba hands in transfer request.


I'm not a massive fan of Samba, think he's been overhyped but he'd defo add to the squad. I know people will say you don't need another CB but in reality we could always use one.

Verm will see more time on the left wing in the near future methinks and we can't always rely on both Mert and Kos to be fit. I mean, he probably would have played yesterday if we had him.

Also, he'd be our second best striker.

tayto lover

jonny666 wrote: »

Have to agree with bulmers above about the lack drive and determination been shown by the players. Heads drop far to easily. The players are responsible for this but wenger has to take blame also. He just doesnt seem to be able to motivate them. Part of the problem i reckon is players seeing arsenal as a stepping stone to barca, city and other clubs like them and dont really give two ****s about arsenal in the long run

That comes from lack of success. If they experienced success they would want more and fight harder a la Man Utd and Chelsea. Their players don't lie down and accept defeat like ours do. Their manager won't accept that kind of mentality so when they do lose they nearly always bounce back straight away. Arsenal need to win something but to do that you need a good panel of players who are prepared to knuckle down and fight when up against it. We don't have those players because our great manager and Board are happy with mediocrity it seems. As long as profits are being made who cares about the fans.

greendom

gosplan wrote: »

Christ Samba hands in transfer request.


I'm not a massive fan of Samba, think he's been overhyped but he'd defo add to the squad. I know people will say you don't need another CB but in reality we could always use one.

Verm will see more time on the left wing in the near future methinks and we can't always rely on both Mert and Kos to be fit. I mean, he probably would have played yesterday if we had him.

Also, he'd be our second best striker.

Would have preferred him to Metersacker, truth be told. He certainly would have been more effective when he has to go in the opposing penalty area. It's a possibility I suppose if Squillaci does clear off to Monaco and they are mad enough to pay money for him.

Galvasean

greendom wrote: »

I'm beginning to think we do all our shopping at Poundland or the local second hand shop

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2086419/Saad-Al-Mukhaini-arrives-Arsenal-trial.html

Wow, a player so obscure it was easier to find a picture of the guy who scouted him! :pac:

Underground

Frisbee wrote: »

People can criticise Wenger without saying they want him to leave.

No way in hell I want him gone but he's managed pretty much every one of the last six transfer windows woefully. He continuously goes for the cheapest possible option that will do just enough instead of going out, spending some real money and turning us into actual contenders. And now having done that year after year we now need to go blow a wad of cash just to have a go at fourth place as opposed to the title.

Not saying he's above criticism or anything like that, of course he deserves a fair share of criticism for his part in what has been a disappointing season thus far.

Just can't see how we could get someone better, who could do any better given the financial restraints. I can understand his reluctance to spend as pretty much everyone decent is overpriced in January and the 2 record signings in Arshavin and Reyes both turned out to be disappointing.
Plus,he's hardly helped by some lacklustre performances á la Arshavin and Ramsey yesterday.