New player for Arsenal?

May 31, 2008 | 104 Comments

This guy is a “sniffer” and is already creating headlines.

Tarik Elyounoussi :
(born 23 February 1988 in Al Hoceima, Morocco) is a Norwegian footballer playing for the Norwegian Premier League side Fredrikstad.

Of Moroccan descent, Elyounoussi started playing football in the club Trosvik in Fredrikstad, from which many of the young players in the Fredrikstad Youth team have their roots. He is said to be the greatest talent Fredrikstad has produced in decades. He was awarded the Young Player of the Year trophy in 2006 and 2007, after two great seasons in the league, and a Norwegian football cup trophy. In May 2008, he was linked with a transfer to top English Premier League side, Tottenham Hotspur????????. He scored in is first appearance on the national team against Uruguay on 28 May 2008 after only 4 minutes on the pitch, the fastest debut-goal on the national team.

Posted by Toe | Filed Under Mailbag 

Players & Game talk continued…

May 27, 2008 | 75 Comments

A new entry to continue the discussion from the previous thread.

Posted by Sachin | Filed Under Mailbag 

Transfer rumours, players & games talk, etc

May 23, 2008 | 159 Comments

Posting a thread for any Arsenal or general football related discussion. Of interest on Sat, May 24 is the play-off final between Bristol City and Hull to determine the final team getting promoted to the Premier League next season. Also, on Sat & through next week are plenty of international games prior to Euro 2008. The African World Cup qualifying games start next week as well.

Posted by Sachin | Filed Under Mailbag 

Sticking it to Ashley C***

May 22, 2008 | 57 Comments

Now the season is officially over, I suggest we re-channel all our emotional energy to someone who really deserves it. Instead of insulting each other under the guise of healthy debate, let’s make this a dumping ground for all the toxic love we feel for football’s Mr. Greedy/Vomiting/Cheating Scum. Memo from Moscow to Ashley: It’s called karma c***hole! What a bonus: I just loved it, loved it, when John Terry slipped because I knew he would blub like luvvie. As they say in The Big Lebowski, “Strong men also cry… strong men also cry.” Well, cynical f***ers like me also laugh ourselves silly. “Strong men also cry… strong men also cry.”

Posted by macmac123 | Filed Under Schadenfreude 

Do Arsenal need a Sugar Daddy?

May 21, 2008 | 53 Comments

Yesterday, a little bit more detail about Chelsea and Man U’s debts has been revealed in the Guardian; it turns out that this year’s Champions League finalists collectively owe £1.5bn. The funny part of the story is Chelsea’s insistence (through Peter Kenyon’s rabid drivelings) that they don’t have any debt. Oops, I mean “outside debt.”

In a rather Orwellian manner, Chelsea are claiming that they have no debt because, as it turns out, all that money that Abramovich is pouring into the club is actually just “interest free loans.” Which isn’t really a debt right? So, while the Guardian maintains that Chelsea currently owe £736m, Chelsea says “we owe no external banks.”

Right, you just have bonds issued to the tune of £578m in the name of Roman Abramovich and payable within 18 months of his demand. David Dein once famously described Abramovich’s spending as “Roman’s sitting in his tank firing £50 notes at us.” As usual DD was wrong, because if you look closely at those notes, they are IOUs.

Debt? What debt?

The other interesting fact in this article is that both United and Chelsea are actually running annual deficit spending as well. So, not only do that have enormous, unsustainable, club killing debts, but they run nearly £80m in the red every year. And every year their debt gets bigger and bigger and the prospect of their wealthy owners ever earning a dime on their billions in “investments” gets smaller and smaller.

I can’t see any future for these two clubs that doesn’t lead to a financial collapse. If you look, the signs of crisis are already in the offing; United can’t even pay off their transfer fees from last year’s foray into the market. How long before teams stop selling them players on IOU? What happens to United if their banks demand payment on their debt (they currently can’t even pay their interest)? What happens to Chelsea when Roman gets sick of losing £100m a year and stops funding their unsustainable salary structure? Or worse, demands a portion of his £600m debt be returned?

There was a time, when I, like many Arsenal supporters, saw the free spending ways of Man U, Chelsea, and Liverpool and wished that we had some rich guy to help us compete in the market. I no longer have any lingering doubt about the course the Arsenal board is on.

So, whichever club wins, I hope they enjoy the Champions League final today; I’m sure the trophy will be for sale soon on Ebay.

Posted by timmy_the_tooth | Filed Under Mailbag 

Do Arsenal lack leaders and winners?

May 19, 2008 | 52 Comments

Recently, I had a very feisty argument with a friend. He is a German and his favorite club is Bayern Munich. In England, his favorite club is actually Arsenal. But he essentially told me that Arsenal are a team of pussies and we will never win anything with this set of players. I obviously disagreed and we had quite an argument. He put forward some scenarios to illustrate his point

1. Gerrard converts penalty against Arsenal in the CL. Ballack converts penalty against ManU in the league. Ronaldo converts penalty on the final day at Wigan. When the stakes are so high, which Arsenal player would you trust, not just to step up to take the penalty but actually convert it?

My first answer was RvP, but he is injured often and not guaranteed to be on the pitch. The only other person I could think of was Eduardo.

2. Free kick for Chelsea against ManU, Ballack and Drogba are actually fighting over who takes it. Free kick for ManU against Arsenal, Ronaldo or Hargreaves can take it and maybe others too. If Arsenal get a free kick in a key game, who will step up? Will it be a case of you first?

Again, my first answer was RvP. I really couldn’t think of anyone else.

3. Torres’ 1:1 against Arsnal and Chelsea in the CL, Rooney’s 1:1 against Chelsea at the Bridge and Drogba’s goals against Liverpool in the CL. Which Arsenal player would you trust in a 1:1 in such a tight game?

My only answer was Eduardo. We all know Ade is not very good on 1:1s and I am not sure of RvP either.

There were some other examples, but you get the drift of it by now. My main line of defense was that you don’t come so close without having top players in the side. Just because we fell apart doesn’t mean we lack leaders and winners? There were lots of other reasons – injuries, bad referee decision, fatigue due to lack of depth, etc.

My friend also made some other comments. Living in Germany, he sees lots of Bundesliga games. He claims that not only is Hleb a big loser (something most of us know by now), but also that Rosicky is not much of a big game player. He claims that despite being captain of the Czech team, the big boys are Nedved, Poborsky and Koller.

Certainly the fact that we fell apart in key games at Anfield, the Bridge and OT does show a certain vulnerability. Is it simply a weak defense or do we need more leaders/winners in the team?

Posted by nipuna | Filed Under Mailbag 

Penny for your thoughts

May 17, 2008 | 96 Comments

[Two separate questions by GoonerRob & arsenal904]??????

??????If you could ask Arsene a question….. by GoonerRob

Don’t ask me why, but yesterday I found myself daydreaming about last summer’s transfer season. More specifically, Bacary Sagna. I wondered what Arsene saw in him that nobody else happened to see. Pace? Agility? Stamina? Football acumen? Or merely a piece to the puzzle that happened to work out? No doubt we have a wonderful worldwide scouting network and Arsene has pulled off some real gems.

So my question (or questions) for Arsene would be: When you send your scouts out, what instructions do you give them? What are you looking for? When looking at a player, do you just look at him as a player playing a position? Or are you already brainstorming another position for him to play? I have Thierry Henry in mind when asking this question. (While at Monaco, Wenger did play TH as a winger, and his ability to play wide contributed a lot of assists while with Arsenal.)

Anyway, if I could spend some time with Arsene, these are some things I’d like to pick his brain about. How about you?

Who’s to lead our boys??????? by arsenal904

Who should the captain be next season?

Posted by GoonerRob | Filed Under Mailbag 

Transfers, Rumours, Links, etc

May 15, 2008 | 81 Comments

Posting a thread to discuss any Arsenal related team news or rumours.

Posted by Sachin | Filed Under Arsenal News, Mailbag 

Best players & moments

May 13, 2008 | 89 Comments

[Two separate queries...]

Best in Two Decades: by arsenal904

Which Player at Arsenal do you think has been the best over the past 20 years?

Best memories of this past season: by Sachin

Wanted to put something up to capture some of the good memories of this past season. Here are some possible items for discussion:

  • Favourite moment of the season:

    • If you could take just one snapshot of the season, what would it be?

  • Favourite goal of the season:

    • What was your favourite goal this past season? Arsenal scored over a 100 goals in all competitions. The final total of 113 goals includes 74 in the league, 24 in the Champs league (including 5 in the qualifying round), 10 in the Carling Cup and 5 in the F.A Cup. Here are the Arsenal first team stats.

  • Favourite player of the season:

    • Who was your fav? For the record, Arsenal.com chose Cesc.

    Posted by arsenal904 | Filed Under Mailbag 

    End of the season, but hopes for the new

    May 11, 2008 | 78 Comments

    Well, the season is over, we failed to win any hardware and we all suffered severe anxiety attacks when leading the EPL for three quarters of the season, anger when we were trounced in the Carling and FA Cups, depression when we lost to Manu and Chelsea and total dementia when we were finally eliminated from both the CL and EPL competitions.

    We lost Flamini and the Internet has been deluged by numerous reports indicating Arsenal is in mortal danger of losing Hleb, Ade, Gilberto and even Fabregas. Arsene for once has taken a surprisingingly, acerbic, firm stance, uttered that all the reports are rubbish, threatened to rake Hleb over the coals if he attempts to break his contract and is already in the process of acquiring new players and eagerly looking forward to having his best ever team next season. Both Fabregas and Adebayor have fervently denied any intention of leaving the club (with Ade saying the reports are “totally rubbish”) and they have both uttered their love of Arsene and Arsenal and their desire to win trophies in the new season. In the meantime, Hleb has remained conspicuously silent UUUUUUMMMMMMMM?

  • As fans, we are anticipating the arrival of Vela with bated breath, hoping that Theo will finally fulfill the promise he has shown this year, that Song, Djourou, Traore, Bendtner and Senderos step up to the plate and that Rosicky and RVP remain injury free.
  • As fans, we are hoping Gilberto regains his 06-07 contribution on the field, Toure regains his pre ANC form and Eduardo fully recovers physically and mentally from his horrendous injury.
  • As fans, we hope that a few of the youngsters from the likes of Randall, Lansbury, Gibbs, Wilshere, Barazite, Simpson, Nordveit, Merida and Mannone not only get a chance to shine in the Cl but also use this opportunity to define their promise of moving up to the bigger stage.
  • As fans, we hope Gallas leaves his tear drops at home and finally, that Eboue will go on Safari, have his Land Rover run out of gas and take a dive when being chased by the Lion on his walk to the Gas Pump. Let’s see him complain to the Ref about that one.
  • As fans, we are speculating on who the new acquisitions will be and which positions are going to be filled.

    • GK:
    With only the relatively young and untested Fabianski and Mannone as backups to Almunia I see a new Gk arriving at Arsenal with Mannone being sent out on loan to be blooded. Do not expect a Gomes, Casillas or Buffon type, but rather someone from the EPL who is experienced, currently out of contract and will compete for the starting assignment but will sit without complaining if needs be. Names that spring to mind are Green, Jaaskaleinen and Keller with any one of the three being able to more than adequately fit the bill.

    CB:
    I have no idea who we will get but we have been associated with Richards, Zapata, Lucio, Kompany, Dunne and a host of others. For me though the ideal addition would be Jolean Lescott. He is tall, good leaper, excellent in the air, excellent on the ground, technically sound, would seamlessly fit into the Arsenal game, not blazing speed but has good positional awareness, scores goals, can utilize the long throw in, excellent passer out of the back, young enough for improvement, versatile in that he can play across the back four as well as DM and is British to boot.

    MF:
    With Flamini’s departure and Rosicky’s lingering injury we may get one or two versatile mid fielders with at least one being an experienced and establish type who would certainly be a day one starter. We have been linked to any of a hundred players including but not limited to, Ben-Arfa, Quaresma, Barry, Ya Ya Toure, Robinho, Kranjcar, Deco, Diego, Gattuso, Ribery, some Australian youngster we have never heard about before and someone from Timbuktu which we have also never heard about before (just being facetious).

    In all likelihood, Kranjcar and Ben_Arfa seems to be the most likely to arrive at the club although it would seem that it would be one but not both. However, neither player gets my juices flowing and If I had to get one midfielder it would either be Diego or Juan Roman Riquelme. Both play across the MF, can play with and instead of Cesc, are experienced world class players, technically excellent, makes players around them better, like Henry, can create unassisted goals and would be day one starters. Riquelme in particular piques my imagination as he is in a contract dispute with Villareal and Boca Juniors and would be available for under £10 million. Diego would be a no brainer but will command in the range of £15-20.

    Forward:
    Again, we have been linked to a host of players ranging from Villa and Henry to Eto’o. I will probably have the wrath of Mazza, Stag , Fred and an army of AA bloggers reign on my choice as the perfect acquisition to bolster the forward position in case Eduardo and RVP fail to regain their form and remain injury free, but I stand firmly behind my selection Mauro Zarate. A prolific goal scorer at lower levels, 21 years old, valued at about £8-10 million, excellent technical abilities, obtained on loan to relegated Birmingham from Al-Sadd of the Qatari League in January of this year, has EPL experience and not a big ego. He was a key member of the Argentina U20 team which won the 2007 FIFA U20 World Cup, scoring the winning goal in the final against the Czech Republic. Zarate has only scored 4 goals for Birmingham in 5 starts and 8 substitute appearances but took a while to gain a measure of the EPL and his recent form has now matched his abilities. Being Argentinean, thus Spanish speaking, Cesc and Gilberto could be his mentor (I know Gilberto is Brazilian, but apart from Portuguese he is also fluent in Spanish). Worst case scenario is him being sold at a profit if RVP and Eduardo comes good.

    Posted by CaribKid | Filed Under Mailbag 

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