Arsene’s ego and some other things

Ugh, this is a terrible feeling. I feel like I have been hit by a ten ton truck. This team really has a knack (at least recently) of yanking your heart out and throwing it on the ground. I cannot believe what I have seen this season. I never in my life would’ve thought we’d go up 4-0 on a team and draw 4-4. I never thought Stoke would make us look like a team of school kids or that Darren Bent would have his meandering way against Arsenal. But alas, that and more has happened this season.
I am not going to spend time going over all that. Many blogs, sports journalists and the likes have already done so. We’ve spent time here ad nauseum talking about it. I want to foucs in on a couple things I have been saying via twitter. Twitter is a great resource, I especially find it useful when I want to scream my bleeping head off without annoying my neighbours. You do have to take it with an amount of salt though as opinion that is not shared by some people is often criticized and believe it or not – me an ardent supporter has been called a poor Gooner. But hey what do they know.
So what is it I want to talk about?
Arsene’s Ego.
We’ve called Wenger stubborn. We’ve called him ignorant to the failings of his squad. We’ve also called him egotistical and it is this I want to spend a little time with. Wenger is the architect of some of the greatest moments in Arsenal history and right now some of its worst.
As a man who prides himself on being the cerebral manager he is, he must be bothered by a few things that against his core of being. I don’t know of anyone who can ignore the level of criticism that is coming at him from all directions (save one). I believe Wenger to be very concerned with how is perceived and for a while when things went wrong, he was able to deflect criticsm. I am not so sure this is true now. And I think it has to effect him.
He wants to be adored. He wants the adualtion and praise that is granted him in light of his past successes. Sure, there are still large portions of the supporters who do that, but the number growing on the other side of the coin increases year after year. Look at his handling of questions a few years ago when his policies were challenged. He was not used to that and I don’t think he is used to what he is seeing or hearing now.
It is that reason alone why I think Wenger goes big this summer. Not huge mega deals. There will be deals that fall into his spending policies – but I suspect significant movement in and out of the club this summer. Wenger does not want the last thing thought of him to be failed policies. He wants success. He strives for it. Whether you believe it or not any egotisitcal man or woman does. Wenger has to do something substantial to get the ravens from ciricling over him like a decaying corpse.
Based on everything I have read recently fromt he man himself and from other areas, I think he knows changes need to be made. The real question is, can he got done everything that needs to get done this off-season and turn the ship around?
You’re a supporter or you’re not
I love twitter. I love twitter with all of its Arsenal supporters and more so for the growing number of players who access it – or at least their personal assistants access. But it is as devisive as can be.
Case in point: I went to the twitterverse after yesterday’s debacle and basically did the twitter equivalent of screaming and yelling about our team. With a captive audience of 4000+ followers boy did they get an ear full. Some of the more colourful responses I’ll leave out but frankly let’s say that because I said each one of the players wearing the kit yesterday should’ve been ashamed to do so or that I said certain players should be sold and that fans were right to boo – I was somehow labled as less than those who find a positive in everything we do – regardless of how shitty we look.
Let me make one thing absolutely clear – my support of Arsenal is never in doubt. If people don’t like what you say on twitter simply unfollow. If you don’t like what is said on this blog – don’t read it. It really is that simple.
The supporter universe is nicely broken up into three camps right now – the doom and gloomers who can find nothing positive in the Arsenal kingdom, the AKBers (Arsene Knows Best) who believe that are our manager and by extension our team is infallable and then the pragmitists – those that see both sides of the coin, who praise when and where its deserved and call a spade a spade when it is warranted. I will resolutely place myself in the pragmatist camp. I saw some good things this season, but the bad I have seen is at this point in time outweighing that.
The point is this, because someone expresses a negative opinion of the club or conversely expresses a positive opinion doesn’t mean that their support is any less than someone elses. It is support and how they vocalize it is their own choice. They are free to do so.
I addressed all the tweets I got yesterday and today individually but I thought I’d share some of my personal favourites are:
“Booing never improves a team or players performance. We want players proud of their support.”
“We have defensive issues… but one loss changes momentum for the next game. we won the game 3-2 yesterday.” (after we lost 2-1)
“You’re an Arsenal fan with warped expectations. Live in the real world. We are the 4/5th richest team in league.”
My absolute favourite was after I insinuated that Squillaci should be sold to Notts County:
“Stop insulting Notts County wit Squllaci offer, common they deserve beta. Send ur defender to the other Emirates (UAE) pls”
Sebastien Squillaci
I never thought someone could make me yearn for the return of Mikhail Sylvestre. Seriously, I cannot remember anyone being this bad. He actually made three attempts at tackling – didn’t make one. In the second goal while Sagna is at fault for playing Bent onside – Squillaci gives the man so much space, he could’ve walked in to goal and scored.
It was clear to me that Villa’s long ball threats were right at Squillaci. Houllier working with the FFF must’ve known how weak he was and where to hit him. Honestly, I don’t think I can remember wanting someone out of our club so bad as I want him out – with maybe the exception of Manuel Almunia.
Robin van Persie
So needs a true number 9 to make him truly better. No doubt about it – we’d be in the Europa league if it weren’t for Van Persie. He has simply been so good he is at this moment our best player. His problem that I can see is that he comes back too deep at times and takes him out of the attack especially when we need him as the central point of our attack.
We need him to have a number to play off, that allows him to come deeper as the 10. When Arsenal switched to a 4-4-2 with Chamakh up front and van Persie deeper, we created much more than we had for most of the game. We got lethal and if not for some bad refereeing it would’ve bore fruits.
Robin Van Persie has to be candidate for Arsenal player of the year. Not only for his scoring but for his absolute heart and desire. Next to Jack Wilshere, I don’t see much from any other player in terms of heart and passion except for Robin. I love his fiery attitude. He gets it. And regardless of how our team has played he is consistently our top performer.
Wenger, recognize this man’s skill, get him a number 9 for the summer and I think he will achieve greater things for this club.
The Referees
Alot of Arsenal fans are intent on blaming the refs for our predicament. I am not one such person. For starters refs are conceding easy goals. For instance ref impact aside – yesterday’s loss was not because a ref blew some calls, it was becuase inside 15 minutes we were down 2-0.
But there is something that has to be done about the refereeing. In two moments yesterday they did have an impact on least a possible draw for Arsenal. The non-call on the tackle by Dunne of Ramsey in the box, you can almost forgive, penalties go uncalled all the time but I am still at odds to figure out what in blazes they called on the Chamakh goal and the subsequent yellow to Nicky B.
The commentators were speculating that Chamakh pushed off the player in front of him. Well, if you look at the replay he does no such thing. So where is the call coming from? There is no saying that Arsenal would’ve scored a second had the Chamakh goal stood but still, the momentum would’ve been with Arsenal and Villa were no longer posing a threat. The likelihood is increased.
Somehow refs have to start being held accountable for making wrong calls. In the US in most pro-sports refs and Umps are evaluated all the time. You get the cushy assignments based on your performance. In some cases poor performance gets you removed from the rotation for a while. Or in very bad cases altogether.
Its not just Arsenal that this is happening too but I can only focus in on us. What woul’ve happened to the Barcelona game had Van Persie not been sent off. Or would would Newcastle have been able to mount a comeback if Joey Barton is shown a red for face planting Szczesny. Of course, defencive issues and game time decisions by the manager and the players also affected those matches but I’d rather all things be equal on the pitch in terms of how it is called, then leaving it to the whim of a ref.
Something has to be done.
Well, that it for today folks. We have one more match left. I can’t remember a season where I was so eager for the end of the season. We clearly all need to get a way from it for a while. Except for Arsene – he needs to get right to work next Monday on clearing out those who can be cleared out. The rest of us, we need to re-stock our heart attack pills for next season.
Until next time. . . Stay Goonerish!!!
[donate]
34 comments
Leave a reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Cheers Vibe (from below)….just keeping it real….or at least trying to….while, like you say, trying to remain hopeful and accept things as they appear to be….
The scale of the end of season implosion, however, still astounds me…. And worst of all, I really don’t see it turning around anytime soon.
AW’s ego or not, the financial die is cast and the new ownership will be taking it forward. The fact that they are pushing a ticket increase (which, my rough calculations indicate is worth a mere 10 million pounds) amidst the on-field results says it all.
Now 10 million isn’t nothing. It represents a Koscielny or a Squillaci transfer fee or maybe the extra pay that Cesc or Nasri might get with a renegotiation. It also might represent what we owe the likes of Denilson, Diaby and Eboue to see out their contracts. (Frankly, I think this information should be public so we can all play CEO….) The bottom line is that there is absolutely nothing to indicate that we will be spending big without generating income elsewhere….(i.e, through player sales.)
That said, I think Wenger and the club will have a much more active summer than in previous seasons but not because his ego needs trophies. Instead, the situation that spurred our biggest buy ever (Arshavin) will be in effect; we’ll be spending because we’ll be in a dogfight for fourth….(the real prize….) And, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Fred is correct that we hold off on the biggest of the big deals until after our qualifiers are complete (assuming we have to play them and that we win them. Given the current results–under pressure—that is no guarantee…..) Of course, the best deals are to be had at deadline day. Still, it doesn’t bode well for accumulating those early season (confidence building) results…..
City and Chelsea have the money so there will be an extraordinary number of transfer rumors with agents (and players) hoping to cash in. It leads to incredible uncertainty in the marketplace and lack of cohesion for the poorer teams, but we (along with United, ‘Pool and Spurs) should be able to feed on the scraps. Still, the bargains are to be had in the younger players, so I wouldn’t expect Sneijder or Schweinsteiger to suddenly be at the center of our MF nor Ibra or Eto’o playing up front with RVP….
Boring as it is (and possibly not the jolt we require), IMO trying to keep players like Nasri and Cesc are a better use of resources than trying to find replacements. If they go, it’s a scramble and the only positive we have to offer potential replacements is more playing time, given that we’re an inherently weaker squad….
Fun times indeed…..
So City formally take over third. Will lasagna save the day once again? Or maybe lasagna only works to get 4th and not 3rd?
maybe Mancini has higher standards for lasagna and might not allow just anybody to prepare it.
All will be thrown up on Sunday
@Sachin,
Another interesting thing that Wenger claimed his policy would create is an infallible team spirt. Young lions growing up together, with a view to ‘dying’ for each other in the heat of battle.
Umm……hasn’t quite worked out like that has it?
City meanwhile, bunch of passionless mercenaries that they are, look a very together bunch with a genuine team spirit.
Another bullshit Wenger myth busted.
@Mazza, that Wenger myth ignores the importance of coaching, organization and defensive training into the mix. One cannot throw the world’s best players in a team and expect them to win games of their own accord. Similarly one cannot expect young players to become winners merely by growing up together. A lot of work has to be done to create that team spirit and generate a togetherness.
In previous years, 4th place was called a success because the grand plan meant that would lead to riches in the future. However, there is no escaping the fact that 4th place this year would be a failure even by previous years standards. Yes there are many other teams who would want a 4th place failure just like there are teams that want the glory of a top finish.
This season finally all the excuses have run out. No longer any place to hide. And like you say, myths busted.
ManCity in 3rd…
storm to a 3-0 win led my Tevez… a player you can jump on and ride to a win…
Can’t see them dropping points in the last match, with automatic CL qualification riding on it…
we’d be more likely to draw or lose anyway.
ho-hum.
4th place. :skeleton:
Yep, as Vibe said, Arsene’s ego has gone off into the horizon, and his sense may be somewhere in Bermuda……
In other words, gone for good.
Interesting take on his ego and how that will lead to a more active summer of transfers. For me, it’s the opposite. It’s his ego which means he will stay entrenched in this policy of signing one or two for sensible money, papering some cracks in the process, but never actually addressing all the flaws he needs to.
He wants to be proven right, and for that to be happen there needs to be a good nucleus of players in the squad that were around back when he started project youth, otherwise he won’t be able to brag about how his faith was justified, and would need to concede that serious modifications – modifications that the press, pundits, and fans have called for years – were needed to win silverware.
Where is the satisfaction in that for Arsene?
Pandering to ‘crowd’ would kill him, so he’d rather continue floundering.
In terms of Arsene’s Ego, the ship has sailed and then run aground. There will be no course correction while Captain Bligh is still counting strawberries, so I’m breaking out my lounger on the Lido Deck and getting some sun.
Many of us have argued Arsene has not known for years. Arsense, simply, is nonsense. For those just tuning in to this fact, your wishful thinking will not be granted. Not even worth arguing about anymore. We’ve been proven right more than enough.
Didn’t see the Villa match. Not surprised by the result, nor do I care. The five stages of death are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. I have fully accepted the club will be moribund until Wenger is gone. I’ll welcome a miracle, but am fully two years past hoping for one. Perhaps the rapture will actually come on the 21st and we can all stop thinking about this. (More likely, we’re stuck in this Hell at least another year.)
Enjoyed Steve’s rants/posts a couple of threads back. Steve, I give you full credit as the ONE person I can think of on here who has called himself a hippie and had the clear-eyed perspective to evolve in his thinking and the heart to acknowledge it. Doesn’t make you any less of an optimist at heart, just someone capable of nuanced, non-dogmatic thinking. The site is made more interesting by you being able to think/communicate this way. Frankly, a lot of us got really tired of those who seemed to say ‘Believe me, not your lying eyes!” A low tolerance for BS and weak arguments did bring the level of discourse down, as it will.
Now that most of them have slunk away, while a few others pretend they knew better (and said so) all along try to re-write what they’ve already written, hopefully we can have some good, open discourse based on, ahem, reality. (What a concept.)
Did enjoy seeing Boston for the first time this past weekend. Regrettably, could not find the Stagg Memorial Statue. Then again, we were in nicer neighborhoods. :-)
@vibe4arsenal, Shoulda told me Vibe… would have given you some insight into the area, restaurants, and the like… but I am sure Boston didn’t do you wrong…
you could have watched the match in Southie, with the Boston Gooners!
ah. next time.
@stag133,
You’re right, I should have.. In truth, we were there for 36 hours before moving onto to Newport. But, man, as NYC snobs, my gf and I were truly so impressed with what we saw. We stayed at XV Beacon and walked around the Beacon Hill area and South Bay (Back Bay? Either bay, it reminded us a little of parts of Brooklyn). Gorgeous areas and amazingly clean, great looking streets. We’ll definitely go back for a more extended stay. (Could have done without going to Newport at all, honestly.) And I will absolutely get some recommendations from you then.
@vibe4arsenal, Oh, hell yes… The Back Bay and Beacon Hill are lovely… you didn’t go wrong there… yes, can definitely steer you in the right direction on a return trip… Boston has its positives, no doubt…
@stag133,
Among my favorite sites seen, the official sign on the Massachusetts State House with an arrow pointing in the direction of the
“General Hooker Entrance”
Awesomely shameless.
I love your blog, read my blog.
@Terry, ummm. what’s your blog? link?
@stag133,
I don’t have a blog some moron is using my email address and name to comment on blogs can this please be deleated. Cheers
http://www.terrysbloglateorange.com
something certainly needs to change. while i’ve given my view on what changes i believe are required, i’m not the one responsible for making changes happen.
arsene says he knows what has to be done. i genuinely hope that’s true; meaning i hope he has an actual plan and not just an idea. i hope he’s been thorough with his planning, considering variable tactics, injuries and any other contingencies as well as the personnel required to execute his intent. likewise, i hope he feels the need to act quickly.
while we all agree that some players need to move on, it’s not always so easy. there’s a team building concept that must be considered. you can’t just tell a player he’s done because what if you can’t sell him? remember the cancer that wiltord became? an even better example was arsenal’s failed attempt to offload flamini to birmingham. i’m sure the bitter flamini, despite his fabulous play that season, resented the club’s treatment and even influenced hleb to follow him out of arsenal. dissent will undermine years of work and you simply can’t afford it when building a team. a manager has to insulate all of his players and isolate no one, regardless of their status in the team. flamini showed that season how quickly one’s status in a team can change.
likewise, a replacement isn’t adequate if he’s only marginally better that what we have. if we’re going to pay a transfer fee, the player has to be good enough to help us win. for instance, is squillaci 6 million pounds better than silvestre?
i hate to make this sound complicated but these are legitimate factors to consider. after 21 years in the army and 18 years as a football player and coach, i place a large amount of value on leadership and team building and not just cutting and pasting players. wenger dragged his feet and now he’s under pressure because if he gets this wrong, he may not even make the top four next season. we’ll see if he gets it right and yell obscenities from the sideline if he gets it wrong.
@joshuad,
Wiltord became a cancer? Thats news to me. When was this?
And yes, you CAN tell a player he is done. It happens in EVERY single other club in the world. We should stop treating these mediocre clowns like babies.
What if we cant offload them, then we loan them out. Or give them away for free. Just get rid of them.
Guess what you might think Flamini was bitter … but we all know (including Flamini) that ALL clubs can ditch you at any time. It is a cut throat world out there. We dont owe the players squat and the players dont owe us anything either.
The whole tippy toey thing so as not to hurt the players’ feelings is what has contributed to the clubs RAPID decline.
Millions of people get fired EVERY day from work around the world and they get on with their lives. The offloaded players can survive. (Though I dont hold much hope for Denilshit). Either way its none of our problem.
You get one or two chances, if you dont cut it, you get CUT from the team. That is how it should be. There is no “team building” when shit, lazy players get to strut their mediocrity on high wages.
@Fred, i remember wiltord wanted a multi-year deal and wenger only offered him one year because of his age. i also remember wiltord wanted to play as a striker but wenger had him on the wing. long story interesting, things got bad enough between the two that wenger ended up dropping wiltord completely from the first team. ie. witord trained with the reserves. after that, i think wiltord made one more appearance for arsenal because we had injuries. it’s probably unfair for me to refer to wiltord as a cancer as i don’t know what happened. but wiltord was too good to be in the reserves. clearly he did something that set wenger off.
you echo my sentiments about flamini. he experienced first hand how cold arsenal could be. flamini owed arsenal nothing as they isolated him by offering to give away the last year of his contract instead of insulating him as part of the team.
you can’t just fire or loan or give away a player if he has a contract. the player has to agree to deviate from the terms of a contract or you have to respect the terms of the initial agreement for the duration. i’m sure you know that so i don’t understand how you say otherwise. there is a big difference to how you do business when there is no contract and you can simply fire someone. contract supervisors understand and respect the concepts of team building and leadership. if they don’t, they will fail; especially when dealing with young adults. this doesn’t translate into coddling or babying a player. but you have to respect a player because you may need him to give his all for you.
@joshuad,
Either way, Wiltord did not say anything bad about the club. Plus he had all sorts of injuries in his last year and Wenger bought Reyes who took his place.
And remember, back then there were only 4 outfielders allowed on the bench! There just wasnt enough space for him … but that doesnt make him a cancer or anything negative.
—————————————————————————–
Oh please stop this “you just cant get rid of players” spiel. Clubs do it ALL the time.
Sell them for cheap, failing that sell them for FREE, failing that LOAN them out. Do whatever …. just get the mediocre clowns out of the club.
Clubs SHIP players out ALL the freaking time, stop trying to argue like its some complicated puzzle.
And no, some of the players we have are widely acknowledged by all (including the staunchest) AKBs as being useless …. we DO NOT need any of them to “give their all” for us. We just need them gone.
@Fred, look fred, i don’t come to this site to try and win arguments with you. i come here to talk about arsenal football. i’ve never said or implied that wiltord said anything bad about the club. i said something happened bad enough for wenger to drop him to the reserves. i don’t know where you got your idea from.
likewise, i’ve never said that you can’t get rid of a player and i’ve never said that fabregas was the reason we haven’t won anything and i’ve never said that you can’t buy a player in january or many of the dozens of different things where you’ve changed my words around.
honestly, i enjoy arguments as they’re enlightening. it’s a way for people to tell me something that i may not have considered. i could care less about being proven wrong. however, when these arguments lose legitimacy when you change the words around. you’re no longer arguing with me but with something you’ve made up; a figment of your imagination. while that may give you joy in some twisted way, it does little for anyone else.
@joshuad,
“I never said or implied” ….
I think calling someone a cancer “said” and “implied” he was a strong negative. And those are your words not mine, so no need to get on the ultra-defensive.
And nothing special about being shut out of the first team when your contract is running out. Wenger used to do that, and so do the vast majority of coaches. It also happened to Edu. In Wiltords case, there was also the frequent injuries, the arrival of Reyes and the fact that there were only 4 outfield players allowed on the 5 man bench back in those days. Nothing to do with him being a cancer.
———————————————
The folks in charge of the transfers or personnel are doing this job FULL TIME especially in the summer, and so there should be absolutely no excuses for the club if they fail to ship out the failed players.
Sorry, but this is the same kind of line coming out in January saying how “hard it is to get players in January”. etc, etc. We dont want to hear that. These people work full time professionally in the game.
No one wants to hear about how “hard” it is to get rid of shit players. Surely their incompetence is not so epic.
@joshuad,
Either way, Wiltord did not say anything bad about the club. Plus he had all sorts of injuries in his last year and Wenger bought Reyes who took his place.
And remember, back then there were only 4 outfielders allowed on the bench! There just wasnt enough space for him … but that doesnt make him a cancer or anything negative.
—————————————————————————–
Oh please stop this “you just cant get rid of players” spiel. Clubs do it ALL the time.
Sell them for cheap, failing that sell them for FREE, failing that LOAN them out. Do whatever …. just get the mediocre clowns out of the club.
Clubs SHIP players out ALL the freaking time, stop trying to argue like its some complicated puzzle.
And no, some of the players we have are widely acknowledged by all (including the staunchest) AKBs as being useless …. we DO NOT need any of them to “give their all” for us. We just need them gone.
@joshuad, I also don’t remember Wiltord being a problem at all…
@joshuad, I remember Wiltord caused headaches (or threatened to?) for Bordeaux because he really wanted a transfer to Arsenal. That was a rare case of a player expressing desire for a transfer into Arsenal because in the last few years players have been more eager to leave Arsenal. A few years ago, I used to wish for experienced & talented players whose dream move was for coming to Arsenal. Sadly the last few years, including this season, have probably reduced any desires of good players to head to the Emirates.
Good point about AW’s ego, BUT Arsene to change, wishful thinking.
He won’t accept the truth about his failed policies, the first condition to remedy a problem is to RECOGNIZE the problem.
He’ll probably buy some second rate French defenders or some wizkid from Patagonia, and perhaps some cheap hasbeens.
We’ll all start dreaming about the best CB pairing, and the wonderful prospects for Sczscz, Kos, Jack, Aron, RVP , and they’ll get injured and we won’t have any good replacements, and everything will fall of again in March.
Is he going to change the team’s style of play?
He wants to play Barca like with much worse players and COACHING, just impossible.
Their play is painful to watch, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING.
It does astound me that there are folks who believe you are NOT a supporter if you say ANYTHING bad about the club or its players. You can’t boo the team? Are you serious? we should just clap them off the pitch, regardless of the effort and performance?
SMH… I don’t get it.
I like some of our players. I am not one that believes ALL or even MOST of them should be sold. Some have to move on, for the benefit of the team and player in some instances…
I thought RVP had a pretty good season, and I have zero problem with him in our team, ever… he’s a scorer… you can’t have too many of them. He’s NOT reliable, because he’s so oft-injured. That’s just the way it is with certain players.
Ramsey and Wilshire are two that I think have a solid future.
I like having Song in the team… No problem with either Sagna or Clichy….(yes, Clichy) … Vermaelen? Cool. Djourou is a good 4th Central defender… we have nough matches for him to play his part…
You want to sell me Koosh being 3rd CB? OK, well No.2 better be a MONSTER… with experience, size, speed and power…
Nasri had a very good season. Not sure why he’d want to stay, as his stock is at a HIGH. We usually SELL high, buy low… so he could be sold for crazy money.
Cesc. Our best player.
Also, a player who doesn’t not want to be at Arsenal Football Club, and sometimes plays that way… often injured… and has no business being Captain, of a team he doesn’t want to be on.
Some players are just personal opinion… I like Theo, think he is very useful… had his best scoring campaign by far… and scares the shit out of some teams with his speed. I also think Arshavin is useful at times… just needs to be surrounded by the right players/chemistry.
Sneezy. OK. Maybe a No.2… nobody else in my opinion is worth of mention…
The reality is… the buck starts and stops with Wenger.
I do NOT believe anything he says… about bringing in players, seeing the light, changing his ways… doing right by the fans, etc.
I just don’t think its a possibility.
Will this be another Summer from HELL, where we sit around and watch and wait… for what? I have NO IDEA?
Wenger wants another shot?
OK. first 2 weeks of the off-season… RELEASE or SELL 3 or 4 players … Thank you for your time here, and GOOD LUCK.
Almunia, Denilson, Bendtner, Eboue, Chamakh, Diaby… add a few more… the options are NUMBEROUS.
BRING IN PROVEN PLAYERS… bring in SOMEONE SPECIAL with a freaking track record of scoring,or defending or WINNING.
CB, Defensive Midfielder, Powerful Proven Striker… when we sell Cesc, a replacement of some NAME.
4 PLAYERS MINIMUM.
Does anyone even think its POSSIBLE? let alone LIKELY?
That is what HAS to HAPPEN… but we all know it is just so damned unlikely, that most of us will be checking the internet 3 times as day for a month, for ANYTHING ARSENAL, besides “transfer gossip”… actual moves… and we’ll be driven mad again…
I truly fear… once again… Charlie Brown is running up to kick the ball, and Lucy Wenger will once again… pull it away. And we’ll hit the ground… on our ass come August… with a thud and an “ugh”. :skeleton:
@stag133,
Did you remember when Gibbs played that one-two with RVP and had a shot saved?
Well, Gael Clichy hasn’t even managed to do anything remotely similar to that in his ENTIRE career.
Gibbs isn’t perfect, but you’ll never win anything with full backs that are as passive attacking wise as Calamity. That’s one of several tangible San Andreas scale fault lines in this squad full of chancers.
@Mazza, Mazza, mate… we’ll have to agree to disagree on Clichy… with a good CB pairing, I think he’s solid. Gibbs is not close to being his equal. He plays hard, plays with passion… never gives up on the ball or the game. I can’t say that for about half the team… he does have footballing skills…
he is not the perfect left back, but there aren’t many in the Prem that are better… listen, he’s not Ashley Cole… but few are.
And Gibbs isn’t the answer next year… maybe in 2 or 3 years.
but regardless… Gael Clichy, is NOT near the top of the list of problems and players that have to go for Arsenal to be successful.
IN. MY. HUMBLE. OPINION.
I can give you 5 or 6 players easily that we have to jettison … before even starting to worry about Gael.
@Mazza, i agree with stag, mazza. judging a defender on his attacking qualities is silly. everyone knows gibbs is a midfielder that wenger has tried to converted to lb. if you want a clear idea of how good a defender gibbs is, i encourage you to watch the fa cup match against man united from last month. i think you might have missed that game.
with that, i do like the look of blackburn’s lb, olsson. he’s too good for that team.
@Mazza, I’m also fed up with Clichy mostly because of periodic lapses in concentration, some awful mistakes that cost us points.
BUT I’m very disappointed with Gibbs this year, as a defender. His positioning is frequently wrong, he didn’t pick up any strength, he left opponents going by without recovering many times, his defending at corners is atrocious.
Of course both of them would have played better if there was good cover from the CBs and a good and reliable keeper.
There are only two groups of supporters – awake and brain dead. How to tell which one you are? If you trust wenger with another transfer window you are not awake. :sun:
@Paul,
BULLSEYE!
@Paul,
GET IN THE HOLE!
GET IN THE HOLE!
*Crowd erupts*
I too am a pragmatist…lots of good performances but WAY to much for Gooners just to let go. They underperformed in many instances this year which goes to both the manager and the players.
Found it interesting that Wenger was “excited Pat Rice was going to stay one more year.” Personally, that looks to me like a now or never for both of those men? Maybe? They have to find a new way to motivate some of these guys or it could be the same result. Of course…this is all just speculation on my part but could very well see both of these men walking TOGETHER if things don’t change. Weird…they understand the together concept.
Vic Con Cred.
@jasonjonesSWT