You Lot Would Have Surrendered After Dunkirk
April 10, 2007 | 6 Comments
The comments of the last few weeks are understandable. I agree with some of them (Baptista and Aliadiere should go, Flamini sucks, Fabregas is either tired or has been found out, Arsenal cannot defend set pieces nor can it punish teams with corners, the wide midfielders Arsenal has are not true wingers, Lehman’s time may be up, Eboue needs to learn how to behave, Wenger should fess up more often and call out several of his men, Arsenal needs someone, anyone, to hold the players internally accountable.) I disagree with a bunch of others (Clichy is only half as good as Cole, Flamini has heart and should be retained, and most definitely, Wenger should go.)
100% Game Domination ?
April 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Well here we are again ,another game 100% dominated ,NO GOALS .Why ?
Is it that our game is tempered to the abilities of T.H .? Every-thing seems to be set up so we walk the ball into the net. Have we no-one who is willing to have a blast ,do we need a bustling centre forward (target man) to hold things up ,to create havoc in opposing penalty areas.Yes it looks very pretty ,but shouldn’t we be a bit more direct ?
Personally I believe we need 3 new players next season to shore up the spine of the team :- a G.K , Centre Half and a bustling C.F . Now the question is who ? Goal keeper ,could well be Buffon ,but could he handle the buffeting of the Premier League ? Centre Half , Alex from P.S.V. hard and robust not scared to tackle and get stuck in ,Centre forward ,Carew ,tall ,knows how to hold the ball up ,wait for help and can score goals with head and foot .
Well this is only the thoughts of a Very concerned Gooner who got a heap of stick from his west ham supporting daughter yesterday ,(sorry but I did try to bring her up right).
Wenger ready to let Flamini leave
April 10, 2007 | 4 Comments
BBC Sport reports that Arsene is ready to let Mathieu Flamini leave after the season. He is nowhere near as ready as I am. The guy has been rubbish all season. Hopefully he and Hleb can find their way to the airport on the Tube and we can put these unmotivated, soulless creatures behind us.
Decisions
April 10, 2007 | 7 Comments
Decisions Wenger has to make in the summer.
A big reason for our failures this season…
April 10, 2007 | 3 Comments
EXPERIENCE. Hugely under-rated by Arsene and the Arsenal, and we’re paying the price for it.
The recurring theme over the last few years has been experienced proven players leave, and young kids come in…
Just because a player reaches a certain age… it doesn’t mean he can’t contribute significantly to the team. Bergkamp, Pires, Vieira… these are class players who were solid contributors. Bergy retired, but he certainly had his moments in his last few seasons. Pires and Vieira made big contributions to the teams success as well.
You simply have to have some balance in the team. Scholes and Giggs is as far as you have to look. They have had an massive positive effect on ManU THIS SEASON. Something tells me if they were Arsenal players, Wenger would have ushered them out the door 1 or 2 years ago.
Giggs Scholes Neville Larsson – ALL over 30.
Rio Heinze Saha… ALL 28…
Who else are we chasing… Chelsea.
Let’s look at their make up…
Makelele(34) Schevy and Ballack are ALL over 30.
A large part of their CORE, are either 28 or 29 including Ferriera, Geremi, Lampard, Drogba, and Carvahlo.
These teams have players that have DONE IT. They have experience. They don’t cough it up when the pressure is on, or on those cold wintry road games versus lesser teams… that comes from experience. You can’t swap that out for youth and expect to win… not gonna happen.
We’ve got Gilberto at 30. He should probably be sent packing soon? Right? Can’t give him a 2 year contract?! Inter is already asking about him.
Other than that, Henry is 29, and has been hurt all year. Gallas is 29, hurt all year, and Freddie is 28, hurt very often.
Thats a LARGE part of why we failed this season. With only 4 seasoned veterans of 28, 29, and 30… and 3 out for prolonged periods of time… we had were probably lucky to have been in all competitions as long as we lasted.
The KIDS are only going to take you so far… at some point, against teams like Bolton, Blackburn, and the like, the other teams veterans out wit, out think and out play us too often. To me, its as simple as that.
When we’ve had PROPER balance in the team, we’ve been scary successful… hell, we’ve been UNDEFEATED.
(and note, I am not counting the keepers, you can add in Lehmann, but as usual, we’re probably going to lose him, at 37 he’s a dinosaur)
Bring in proper proven players with some seasoning at this level, and perhaps we can get back to the elite teams in football, otherwise, we’ll be watching until the kids get a few years of experience under their belt.
Arsene, as Black Sheep once said: “The Choice is yours, you can get with this, or you can get with that”.
Please … start getting a little more with “that”. (experience, that is!)
The Unimportance of Flamini
April 10, 2007 | 2 Comments
Lead up to my previous article.
I had written an article in which I had submitted a realistic submission of what the Arsenal squad should look like next season.I had not put in Flamini as a midfielder.It is not that I hate him,but it is just that I really feel he is not Arsenal standard.
Yesterday,our team had a off day.It was really really boring.It was frustating.I just thought imagine the plight of someone who was paying 50 pounds plus for this game.
Anyway,coming back to the point.Flamini.I understand Flamini is a squad player the kind who plugs in gaps whenever they arise.It is impossible to see him fitting the permanent role of an attacking or a holding midfielder.
So why him?I really do not understand.On of the keys of our success aganist Bolton was the technique and tackling of both Diaby and Denilson.They both could make excellent passes.But that is not the case for Flamini.He takes one touch too many.And his tackling is average at best.
Though to be fair to him,he has Heart.But that can only take you to a certain level.Not the Arsenal level.The one signing that i wish for next season is actually Sidwell.He really has some steel!And he does make us stronger.
Another discussion that I wanted to have Bentley Vs Alidarie.A few year back,on this very forum I had mentioned the importance of Bentley.I thought he would fit right in the Beckham mould.He is performing very well.And I feel it was wrong of us to let him go.Though essentially it is a Midfielder Vs Striker debate.But again at that time Bentley was seen as a Holding Striker.
A more apt comaprison is him vs Van Persie.Where it seems more even.Though I wish he had stayed.Looking for feedback.
Season’s over, let’s balance it all up
April 10, 2007 | 3 Comments
In view of some of the hysterical writings I’ve viewed on the Internet on various blogs etc., regarding the future of Wenger, and how he doesn’t have one – I think now is as good time a time as any to balance things up.
Yes, the season is over in that Arsenal will not be winning any trophies and should comfortably be able to scrape up enough points from our, admittedly difficult, remaining games. All that’s left to do is keep playing the youth and let them get games under their belts. Arsene needs to experiment with players in certain positions and now is a good time to do that, so I will back him wherever he plays defenders and midfielders.
Personally, I never expected Arsenal to win any trophies this season, therefore I am not too disappointed to end up in this current situation. What I was looking for was a big step-up from our youth players and certain senior players and hopefully see the team tighten and knit together as a unit. This has been partially achieved but with mixed results, whilst injuries have undoubtedly ruined the season for us.
So, first of all, looking at the players that most of us are are pinning our future hopes on:
Diaby – his chronic injury last season has meant time has been lost and he’s only just finding his feet in the team. Needs time to develop next year; I’d eb surprised if we see the best of him until after then.
Denilson – has come out of nowhere but, like Fabregas, will probably require two more seasons to become really accomplished.
Fabregas – one year further towards growing into the magnificent player he will become, or already is in patches. Has been overplayed this year and is paying for it now, but will have more strength and stamina next season.
Flamini – proves again this season that he has no real long-term future at the club, except as distant back up.
Senderos – has failed to impress this year. It’s easy to bash the lad because he looks, and often plays like a donkey – but I would have expected him to have come of age by now. He’s 22 not 18 and shouldn’t be making the same silly errors he was 3 years ago. I don’t see any marked improvement since he’s joined the club and this makes me wonder if he’ll ever make the grade.
Djorou – Topsy turvy season. Niggling injuries have seen him struggle lately, but I believe he has a far better future than Senderos.
Clichy – the only young player who has made massive strides and looked indispensible in his position. A star for the future? No, a star right here and now, we need two or three more players to step up like he has next season at the very least.
Aliadiere – clearly not good enough at this level. Must be sold, and will be sold, with Bendtner filling his vacancy.
Traore – thrown in at the deep end a little this year, don’t expect to see him covering for Clichy for a year or two yet – but if anything looks more skillful coming forward.
Song – treated disgracefully earlier this season by Arsenal fans at Fulham, resulting in his unprecendent half-time substitution by Wenger. Now looking quite good at Charlton – although I believe Wenger has put him on loan with a view to selling him. People need to start realising that most of these loan players are only at the club with a view to funding Arsenal’s youth academy. Some will surprise us, but most won’t.
Adebayor – we all admire his work ethic. Not a natural goalscorer and never will be, but his sheer persistence should bring 10-15 goals per season and he has an effect on the team which is important, as he generates excitement in the crowd and a tangible physical presence up front.
Eboue – fantastic potential, but his constant diving and cheating frequently annoys supporters. Some are even wondering whether they even want him at the club, such is his embarrassing play acting. Going forward, exceptional, but defensively he has gone backwards this year, as many young players fo before stabilising. Still has an awful lot to learn, particularly psychologically.
Hoyte – has done better than I expected this year. BUT, if you want to win major trophies you need players who can do more than just an adequate job. I think he’s ok as back-up but long-term wouldn’t want to see him playing more than 5 games a season. Luckily for him he’s English, and Wenger wants to keep that quote up in case of impending UEFA laws about fielding home grown players.
Walcott – again, people have been too quick to jump the gun regarding his talent, or their perceived lack of it. Has had a debilitating shoulder injury for 4 or 5 months, culminating in Arsenal’s last game where it was quite obvious he should not have even been on the pitch. The fact that Wenger even considered playing Walcott, considering all the attention he supposedly pays to physical stats etc., makes me think he’s somewhat lost the plot. Walcott will develop well over the next two years and be a very exciting and dangerous player.
The one thing that is clear is that most of the young players are too behind in their development to turn Arsenal into title winners in the near future, they are mostly a year or two behind in fact. That’s why for Arsenal to have any chance of winning trophies the ’senior’ players have to step up to the fold. However, ironically, this is where I believe Arsenal’s biggest problem lies.
Toure – a fantastic defender, but how many more goals are we going to concede due to his clueless marking in the box? He is not an organiser and never has been – he was much more solid when Campbell was next to him. Gallas is not an organiser either, he leads by example. I think Toure should be a right back and Arsenal need a vocal, defensive organiser – I believe this is absolutely essential. Even if we only buy one player it should be a commanding centre back.
Gilberto – really stepped up this season and has scored some important goals, although most of these are penalties. There’s no reason to suggest he will continue to score many goals from midfield in the future, but is still a key player that everybody respects.
Ljungberg – tries hard, we all love him, but let’s face it – he’s gone. His pace has gone and he can’t get past players and he no longer has Bergkamp’s almost psychic ability to thread balls onto his runs from deep.
Rosicky – one goal from midfield is obviously not good enough, but although he will never score as freely as Pires did, because he simply doesn’t get in the box enough, he should manager 7 or 6 a year when he acclimatises to the Premiership and gets rid of these niggling injuries.
Hleb – a real problem player. On his day a genius, but those days are few and far between. Next season is massive for him in my opinion. I’m also getting fed up with his persistent fouls around the box, which are causing a lot of grief to a team that cannot defend set pieces adequately. He has to be pulled aside about this and needs to work much harder for the team and gain consistency.
Henry – lost his pace, but easily capable of 20+ goals a season. His attitude will never change, he won’t chase lost causes like Adebayor, so either put up or shut up because Arsenal is not in any sort of financial position to do anything other than keep up a player of his technical ability.
Baptista – big sigh!!! do we get rid in the summer or hope that he has a Drogba-like renaissance next season? No way will Wenger pay above £10m and neither should he. I’m completely divided on this player but believe he would have adapted much better to a team that wasn’t ravaged by injuries or in a state of flux. Could be worth holding onto if the price is right, £6-£7m – we’re all willing him on, but it’s touch and go. Again, fans are too impatient, it’s his first season in England after all.
Van Persie – injury has killed a season in which he was finally beginning to flourish. He will be a much required 20-goal a season striker in years to come.
Lehmann – Arsenal are obviously skint and therefore cannot afford to throw money at a new Goalkeeper when other areas of the team need improving. Offering him a two-year contract is a complete no-brainer as far as I’m concerned.
Gallas – injuries have ruined his season, will be a rock next year.
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So there’s lots of question marks over Arsenal’s senior players too. Ultimately, the young players are too far behind, senior players are too inconsistent, injury prone, and in some cases – waning! This dose not bode well for the future, and I don’t believe Arsenal can win anything next season unless the club buys in three key areas, Central Defence, Left Wing, Striker.
Without these purchases, Arsenal will struggle – especially when there are injuries, which is pretty much a given these days.
Wenger has been unlucky with injuries; they have been pretty horrific this season and are definitely a viable excuse for the club’s lack of progress/development – but on the positive side it’s enabled the young players to play more, which is important as the club doesn’t ‘appear’ to have the funds to build any other way.
Now funds really is a very important issue, wouldn’t we all know how much Wenger has to spend?? It’s really hard to make up our minds about Wenger not knowing what his kitty is. If he has £20-£30m sitting there I would say he is being stubborn in not spending it and is making a big mistake banking on so much youth coming good. However, is the man is broke, how can he not be doing anything other than a brilliant job bringing such exceptional talent through – who else in Europe is bringing through such talent on such limited resources?
The only clue to Arsenal’s financial state is that they seem intent on letting go of players on high wages – Vieira, Campbell, Pires etc. all probably one or two years before they were completely past their best.
People are criticising Wenger without having a full picture, none of us have – therefore I feel he is beyond criticism, save for certain tactical aspects.
If he has the money I would urge him to spend in key areas. Because three solid, experienced players could transform this team and make winning trophies achievable as early as next season.
If he is financially straight-jacketed, I think the team will struggle much like this season next year, and Wenger will come under severe pressure from supporters and the media for the first time. His position will be widely questioned and Arsenal will probably be forced into coming clean about its financial status – then we will see this muddy picture a lot more clearly.
So, theoretically, if Wenger does have £15-£20m to spend, I would advocate he bites the bullet and sells Reyes, Ljungberg, Senderos, Aliadiere and Flamini – and uses his £25m -£30m kitty to bring in a centre back, left winger and striker – I don’t necessarily include Baptista in that.
In the meantime, we need to get off Wenger’s back. Yes, he has frequently annoyed me with his frustrated excuses and rabid touchline antics. Tactically we all know he is not the best and will probably never win the Champions League without a lot of luck. But you need luck to win a cup anyway. Could anyone else do a better job that he is at the moment? Probably not.
All we need for next season is a goal-scorer
April 10, 2007 | 18 Comments
I like Danny’s comment, putting things into prospective. Not being positive nor negative. Most of all, not being overreacted.
The Liverpool game was disappointing. ‘Cos the team played poorly and didn’t even seem trying.
The West Ham game was purely a combination of poor finishing and bad luck. Important thing is – the team still proved that technically they are extremely talented, or they would not have created so much chances. And those chances are not long ball into the box, they CREATED it through sweet passing.
A team like that, it’s only a matter of time before they click and turn into a geniue title challenger.
West Ham fans being chatting “We have only got one shot”. True. But let’s put it this way – that’s exactly why they are in the bottom three.
If you been watching football long enough, you would see from time to time a team with only one or two shots on target beating the team who created 10 times more chances. But those teams will never go far.
Football is a possession game. Naturally you need to score to make it count. But the ability to create chance is the BASIC element a good team to come.
Nevertheless, I have to concede that our finishing this season has not been good enough.
Simple fact is – there are only TWO proven scorers in our team – Thierry and van Persie.
This is plain simple not good enough. Thierry’s outstanding goal record has somehow overshadowed the fact during our unbeaten season, goals were coming from everywhere. This is the main weakness of our current team in my opinion.
Personally, I feel this West Ham defeat, along with that draw with CSKA (when we created 20 plus chances and blew them all) pretty much sum up our season.
Maybe there are other weaknesses in our team, but none bigger than FINISHING.
I like Adebayor, and he’s getting more and more an impact player. His strength and direct play turns himeself into someone we can trust when he’s on the pitch. Not to mention his remarkable workrate. But he has to improve his finishing.
As for Baptista and Aliadiere, I have given up hope. They are simply not good enough for Arsenal. And I am not someone who easily given up hope on a player.
We started very well yesterday with Freddie pushing up. He may not have lost a yard or two of his pace. But his clever movement created a lot of space in our attack. And Freddie is all about HEART.
When Freddie’s legs were gone in the second half and we brought on Baptista and Aliadiere, our attacking play actually became less fluid.
If Freddie, as a midfielder, made a bigger impact in forward position than Baptista and Aliadiere, it pretty much sum up the story.
Lastly, if there is one position I don’t mind to see Wenger bringing in a quality player, it has to be a GOAL SCORER. As if things remain unchanged, I honestly don’t see either Baptista, Aliadiere, Hleb, or Rosicky will be able to add to their goal tally next year.
Perhaps we can give the youngster Bendtner a shot. But I have a high hope on us next season, and still firmly believe it will be the year we start to launch a serious championship challenge. In order to achieve this though, we need to get ourselves a guy who could put the ball into the net.
Newcastle United 0 – 0 Arsenal
April 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Well, at least it wasn’t a loss. That’s pretty much all that can be said about today’s dour affair at St. James’ Park.
Bright side of life
April 10, 2007 | 2 Comments
With the current poor run of form…
Look at the bright side: at least the remaining fixtures will now keep our backsides firmly on the edge of the seat! Watching football with nothing at stake would be a bit boring wouldn’t it?! 
It has also proved that the current Arsenal side is determined to substain the Arsenal TRADITION – we like to do things the HARD WAY!
Another bright side: At least it’s NOW we found out we have in fact got only THREE strikers (I included Adebayor as I grow to love this guy more and more, though he needs to improve his scoring touch). When everybody is healthy, we are probably living under illusion that Baptista and Aliadiere could do the job. ‘Cos as long as someone else score and we win the match, nobody would pay too much attention on how effective those two really are.
Now it’s the moment of truth, when we really need them. Aliadiere, for instance, can no longer complain he doesn’t get a fair chance. Sure, the pressure is hugh at the moment. But if you want to cut it in the Premiership, you got to deliever UNDER PRESSURE.
Although Wenger didn’t suggest otherwise, I firmly believe the pair are on the way out. And for those of you worry about new summer signing, don’t worry too much. Since when the last time when Wenger signed someone he would tell the world beforehead? Should, the Beast and Aliadiere really on the way out as I predict, Wenger WILL buy a new striker.
Like I say, it’s better to find out NOW the pair are as good as useless in terms of contribution to the team, then to find out middle of the next season.
Ok, my head agrees with Danny perhaps we won’t be able to win anything next season, but the best thing about the word “NEXT” season is another word “HOPE”. That’s what keep the fans from Arsenal to Lincoln, Exeter, everywhere all over the country, all over the world going – you always have this little voice inside of you saying “perhaps, this IS going to be our season”.
Who knows? When Wenger first arrived, he inherted an old, wash up team (on paper) with the captain and a star forward just declaired themselves as alcholic, drug addict… I thought it would take him at least 5 years to win anything for Arsenal. No… I am lying. In fact, I never heard of the name Arsene Wenger before at that time. I thought he wouldn’t have lasted 5 seasons…
Again.. who knows….
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