Top (10) Guns

July 22, 2008

First, I want to pick the manager. In my mind, without a doubt, Arsene Wenger is the GREATEST Arsenal manager ever. Herbert Chapman had put Arsenal into the football map. And to me, he’s the “father” of Arsenal FC. Nevertheless, back in those days, Arsenal were “Bank of England”, the Chelsea of 30s. Chapman’s policy was to buy the best available, whatever it takes. Under this circumstance, it’s relatively easier to achieve success than Wenger, who has been operating a “mid-table club” budget lower than the likes of Spurs, Newcastle.

Despite all that, Wenger has become only the second man in English football history who had won two “doubles”. And guided his team to a historical unbeaten season in 2004.

Back to the players. Here’s my pick of Arsenal’s greatest top 10:

(1) Patrick Vieira

Paddy to Arsenal is like Cantona to Man Utd, a key figure to revive the club’s fortune. He’s part of every single trophy won by Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal.

(2) Thierry Henry

The most exciting player ever wearing an Arsnal shirt. Yet the real heartbeat of Arsene’s Arsenal was Patrick Vieira.

(3) Tony Adams

I disagree with Arsenal.com’s choice of Bergkamp. Bergkamp was great to watch, yet like Vieira, Tony Adams was the man the team built upon. With Dennis on the pitch, we might not necessary win. With Adams on the pitch, you can be sure he would not give up without a fight.

(4) David Seaman

No great team without a great keeper. Big Dave’s contribution was underrated.

(5) Dennis Bergkamp

One word “CLASS”. I am not sure if we will ever be able to see a player with such flair, elegant wearing an Arsenal shirt again. He’s a player only comes along once a life time.

(6) Robert Pires

Another low-key player belongs to the category “you will only miss him when he’s no longer there”. Probably the most intelligent player I ever seen. And if I am going to describe Pires in one sentence, it’s – he makes his teammates look better.

(7) Alex James

I do not know anything about him. But he’s the key player of Chapman’s Arsenal side, and cup final scorer of Arsenal’s first ever trophy FA Cup back in 1930, which had since turned the club’s fortune around. Surely his impact to the club should be enough to earn him a place.

(8) Frank McLintock

The captain of Arsenal’s first “double”, captain of Arsenal’s first ever European trophy (Fair Cup, UEFA Cup today). Like James, I rate them based on their actual contribution and impact to the club.

(9) Ian Wright

Tony Adams once said “Arsenal will not be able to win the league with Ian Wright”. What Tony actually saying was during the time Ian Wright’s with us, Arsenal built our attack soley on him, and the team relied so much on him (one season Wrighty scored half of the team’s goals in total), and no team would be able to win a league with them depending so much on ONE player to score goals.

Adams’ point was valid. As it proved with 1989, we did not have a 30-goals-a-season goalscorer (Alan Smith led the team with 23 league goals), but we won the league. Wrighty did not win a league medal until his final season when we had more options upfront to share the load.

(10) Liam Brady

I put Brady here simply because he’s widely known as the most gifted Arsenal youth rank graduate ever. Brady’s brightest moment was Arsenal’s amazing FA Cup final 3-2 victory over Man Utd some 30 years ago. With it still being remembered as “the Brady final”.

Posted by Andez | Filed Under Arsenal News 

Comments

13 Responses to “Top (10) Guns”

  1. ChicagoGooner Says:
    July 22nd, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    I agree with what you said about Bergkamp, summing him up with the word “Class”. I don’t think any player in the history of the game has had more superior technique. Reminds me of part of the Wikipedia article on him:

    “In April 2006, Simon Kuper wrote in the Financial Times:

    ‘One night last year some legends of Dutch football gathered for dinner in an Amsterdam house. Around midnight conversation turned to an old question: who was the best Dutch footballer ever? Dutchmen have been voted European Footballer of the Year seven times, more than any other nationality except Germans. Yet Jan Mulder, a great centre-forward turned writer, chose a player who had never even threatened to win the award nor, at the time, a Champions League: ‘Bergkamp. He had the finest technique’, said Mulder. Guus Hiddink, the great Dutch manager, nodded, and so the matter was settled.’ ”

    One area where I disagree partially with what you said is on Wenger spending much less than mid-table clubs such as Spurs and Newcastle. In transfers, yes… he spends much, much less than those clubs. But if you factor in player wages, Arsenal’s total expenditure on players is probably 4th-highest in the league. Salary-wise, there’s not a Big 4 in the EPL. There’s a big 2 (Man U, Chelsea), a fairly-large 2 (Liverpool, Arsenal) and then the rest. The ability to pay decent wages makes it much easier to retain quality players once they are in the side. If Ade played for a non-Big 4 club, he’d have bolted by now.

    This isn’t meant to take anything away from Wenger, it’s just that club’s salary outlays are always overlooked for some reason when people compare expenditures, which makes no sense to me.

  2. live_dont_exist Says:
    July 22nd, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    I dont think I’ve watched Arsenal long enough to do a top 10 list coz all I’ve seen is AW’s Arsenal and I’ll always always put DB10 right at the top with Titi just behind him coz DB10 was our Hleb in those days if you may…its probably disrespecting the great Dutchman though to be even linked with Hleb.

    DB10 made Freddie play better, he made Titi play better he assisted Pires a lot and his overall footballing intelligence was just sheer class. I’ve never seen any one make so many eye of the needle passes..ever.

  3. tAi Says:
    July 22nd, 2008 at 1:00 pm

    Yeah, I started watching Arsenal when Wenger came. I guess it wont be fair to all other players before that if I came up with a list. But I do agree on DB10. He is at the top of my list too well above TH.

  4. tAi Says:
    July 22nd, 2008 at 1:06 pm

    Anybody watching the Szombathely game? I just joined now and we are down 1-0.

  5. tAi Says:
    July 22nd, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    Theo, Wilshere, Bentner, Vela, Ramsey all playing. Should be fun to see.

  6. tAi Says:
    July 22nd, 2008 at 1:23 pm

    1-1 Theo. Nice goal from Bentner’s pass.

  7. nipuna Says:
    July 22nd, 2008 at 11:46 pm

    Just watched the first half highlights. The CB pairing of the Hoyte brothers was totally at sixes and sevens. Nice control and pass by Bendtner on our goal.

  8. joshuad Says:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 12:11 am

    I agree with Vieira being one of the most important players. Someone posted a thread a few months back asking who was the biggest player at Arsenal and we haven’t won a thing since his last kick as an Arsenal player. He was simply magnificent.

    On another note, have you guys heard anything about Kolo Toure getting malaria while on international duty? I heard a rumor that he’s sick and won’t be fit to play until September. I just wanted to know if this was rubbish or actually real.

  9. CaribKid Says:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 2:06 am

    Appears to be true.

    Song at Olympics, Toure with Malaria, Eduardo out until October, Rosicky not back into training until September. Sounds like a familiar theme. These players will all miss the important pre-season training and games, and will take time to be integrated into the team.

    Lehman, Diarra, Gilberto, Flamini and Hleib moved on to other teams.

    Ramsey, Vela and Nasri in.

    Once again we are thin in the DM and CB positions.

    Surely we will venture into the market for a DM and CB! Or will we?

    Hopefully we have learnt our lessons from last year.

  10. CaribKid Says:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 2:12 am

    Hopefully we are not into another “Eboue” experiment by playing the Hoyte’s at CB.

    I just cant fathom the reasoning behind this. Where is Djourou and Nordveidt? They could have benefited a lot more than Justin and Gavin by playing these pre season games.

  11. Kiwi Says:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 4:02 am

    With Toure, assuming it’s malaria let’s hope it’s a strain that is treated and done with….not the recurring kind.

    A familiar theme CaribKid and a predictable one. Dudu was always likely to be a long-term rehab case and Rosicky is simply a bad risk.

    Wenger may buy, but I reckon that will depend on the ‘appeal’ of the deal not because he thinks we are inherrently lacking. I think he sees 5 options for both DM and CB. And he’d be happy enough to go into the season with that.

    A big signing at CB is a long-shot and I think would only happen if Gallas left.

  12. stag133 Says:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 10:03 am

    Andez.
    I think you could flip-flop any of the top 3 for me.
    All for different reasons.

    Bergkamp marked the ARRIVAL of the Arsenal Football Club.
    A legend. Pure Class.

    Vieira. As you said, we never won a thing in Arsene’s reign… without Patrick Vieira in the team. Does anything more really need to be said? He was the ENGINE and HEART of the team. We’ve never replaced or recovered completely.

    Henry. The best football player ever to wear an Arsenal shirt? Yes, I’d say so.
    Thierry was so f’n brilliant on the pitch at times… that you can hardly believe some of the stuff you saw. He was magnificent.

    We all have our favorites. You can debate this or that… Adams was essential for reasons you mentioned… and Ian Wright was Henry before Henry… (though not as good or as skilled)…

    Fun. We’ve been lucky enough to have some truly great players in the last 15 years or so… its been quite a run. Long may it continue.
    (though it would be nice to end our trophy-less run soon)

  13. Bookmarks about Chelsea Says:
    December 7th, 2008 at 2:15 pm

    [...] – bookmarked by 6 members originally found by tomkittygb on 2008-10-31 Top (10) Guns http://www.arsenalamerica.com/2008/07/22/top-10-guns/ – bookmarked by 3 members originally found [...]

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