As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
The fact that transfer fees get spread over the length of contract makes it more baffling as to why Wenger ignored key areas for so long.
Was there really a need to play Almunia for so long or buy Arteta as an attacking mid & try to make him a defensive one when they could have easily gone out and bought more suited players for those roles?
We are now suffering as a result of such arrogance and negligence, the club really let the squad go to shit while we were in the CL, now we're out of it, it's very hard to get the players in we want.
A useless, useless b*st*rd - without doubt him and song are the worst players to represent our club in the wenger era, and we have had some shit play for us in that time
Again I emphasise this is not going to be a stroll in the park, after 22 years of which 13 saw us treading water in bad buys and unbelievable sales by the old regime which includes Gazidis and Kroenke because they approved it all, every fucking step of the way, we are now left with a heavily unbalanced team that resembles Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, but with no Golden Ticket...
I wonder how this New Reformation of AFC in its chain of command will work?
Who will be stepping on whose toes, and most importantly will our 1st team coach get the support on this major overhaul..
Again I emphasise this is not going to be a stroll in the park, after 22 years of which 13 saw us treading water in bad buys and unbelievable sales by the old regime which includes Gazidis and Kroenke because they approved it all, every fucking step of the way, we are now left with a heavily unbalanced team that resembles Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, but with no Golden Ticket...
I wonder how this New Reformation of AFC in its chain of command will work?
Who will be stepping on whose toes, and most importantly will our 1st team coach get the support on this major overhaul..
Trust me there will be no major overhaul. Emery has been signed to improve and work on the players we have. You can bet a few will improve quite a lot with new methods and training but some will just be the same.
If we keep Mustafi and we sign a really good DM it will be interesting to see if he improves or is just a complete disaster of a player.
A decent DM will take some of the pressure off our defence.
Agree with this, as a team, we've been crying out for someone to defend the defence and it's never been fixed, a lot of these defenders (& even the keeper) will look better if they aren't getting exposed every week like they do at this club.
People on here want a Ramos type c.unt who is happy to give it to the oppo - this bloke is exactly that. However, he's 34. Big question marks on his ability to adapt to premier league football at that age.
Can't see him being anything more than a bit part player backing up Bellerin. Would be happy if he's able to bring some winning mentality and a bit of meanness to our set up.
People on here want a Ramos type c.unt who is happy to give it to the oppo - this bloke is exactly that. However, he's 34. Big question marks on his ability to adapt to premier league football at that age.
Can't see him being anything more than a bit part player backing up Bellerin. Would be happy if he's able to bring some winning mentality and a bit of meanness to our set up.
Pretty happy with the signing. Will give Bellerin a boot up the arse, Lichsteiner will be good for his development.
Also absolutely agree with what everyone's said about a defensive midfielder. We've been crying out for it for so long.
This is where we go wrong at Arsenal, sentiment does not come into football, and it costs millions to keep past icons who really offer no intrinsic value to the club...
Wenger used these Sideshow Bobs to deflect the shit off him, the return of Henry blah blah etc etc to name one, mind you Sky are finally giving him the knock on his punditry looks like they suffered from Wengerama too....
I loved jens as a keeper but I absolutely want the club purged of every single wenger coach, plus I want emery to bring in his own EXPERIENCED coaches - our players have been THE most under coached players in the history of the premier league, and we need coaches who know what they are about both technically and dealing with players. In the last 2 or 3 years I see guys coaching my eldest lad that have recently qualified for uefa A badges or uefa B badges, and I swear to god the c.unts are not fit to tie their own boots They know all about technical coaching and using those tactic boards, but challenge them on anything that is not written in their text books and they havent got a scooby doo. Jens, henry and arteta are all guys that would have qualified on these courses in recent years and my personal experience tells me that these coaches need proper on the ground experience (and not just a few months either) before I would want them near our under coached pussies
Fuck Lehmann. He singlehandedly cost us the CL in 04 and 06 with his ego driven stupid fucking need to live up to the "mad goalkeepers" fucking bullshit. Complete fucking arsehole.
Agree fully though that the coaches we need have to be experienced and not just badge carriers.
With the greatest of respect, that is bullsh*t - jens made two good saves before being sent off, and the tackle on eto was a genuine attempt to win the ball off eto when he was through one on one. I would suggest that our starting team and formation that day was more about containing the opposition with henry up front on his own - going a goal down early (as we would have if jens didnt foul eto) would have put us in trouble, but with the defence we had that time, setting up to hold a lead was possible.
Anyway if you want to also point the finger at below average al who conceded TWO goals at his near post, or mention henry who missed TWO shocking chances that night, then we might have some ground to agree on
If Lehmann had kept his head then there would have been no need to bring Almunia on. His rash charge out at Eto was all about his personality and arrogance and there was no need to do it. He should come out to close the angle and forced Eto to decide what to do giving our nearby defender time to come into play. Just charging out full tilt and ploughing into Eto was rank stupidity and typical of Lehmann.
I don't agree that going a goal down would have been worse than the sending off. With 11 men and Pires still on the pitch and the option of a late Bergkamp substitution that team was well capable of overcoming a one nil defecit.
Lehmann was far more at fault in 2004. 100% responsible for conceding the goal in the away leg, with his usual clowning about then after we had recovered to get a draw and were cruising at 1-0 in the second half of the second leg he was 100% responsible for gifting lampard his goal.
We had beaten and frankly outclassed Chelsea 3 times that year already and were much the better side in the tie until that lampard goal.
Anybody ever wondering why the Invincibles weren’t European champions need not look any further. We would have made fucking mincemeat of Monaco and been absolutely overwhelming favourites to beat Porto.
Agreed. 06 was bad but his absolute fucking stupidity in 04 was worse. We should have and would have won that 04 CL if Lehmann hadn't acted the cùnt.
And to whoever posted that Moron would have out thought Wenger tactically.... no he wouldn't have not in those days. That 04 Arsenal side would have annihilated his Porto side. Don't let your current view of Wenger colour everything.
We all seem to agree that a defensive midfielder is a priority; but I've not heard many names mentioned. Nzonzi is one, but who else do people want? I can't think of many obvious candidates.
I saw a story today that Blind will leave Manure. I've always thought that he's a better DM than a centreback, which Mourinho tried to make him.
We all seem to agree that a defensive midfielder is a priority; but I've not heard many names mentioned. Nzonzi is one, but who else do people want? I can't think of many obvious candidates.
I saw a story today that Blind will leave Manure. I've always thought that he's a better DM than a centreback, which Mourinho tried to make him.
It's trying to get rid of shit players we are, not trying to recruit more
Arsenal have offered Aaron Ramsey a five-year contract - here's @MattHughesTimes with the exclusive news that Unai Emery wants to build a team around the Wales midfielder
Other than the victims I don't see any of the remaining top 5 teams coming in for Ramsey - And if he is coached properly I think he could be much better - He lacks discipline in his positioning, but also needs to be sat down and told stop with the (99% failed) flicks and tricks...
As someone has already said it is just as important who we sell as who we bring in - I mean Iwobi and welbeck need to be sold/let go as do cech and ospina - But sadly i think cech will stay.
We have some exciting youngsters who - after they've been de-wengerised - can come though into the first team on a permanent basis...
At least I feel excited about the start of the new season instead of the usual dread that has become familiar these past 10 years...
Any thoughts on Bale replacing Ozil?
I've always preferred Ozil, but Bale could work out better given Emery's style of play.
I just hope lichsteiner is given licence to tackle hard in training, like they used to do.
DB10 beat me to it, but no way would the 04 team let mourinho team stop them had they got to the final. Imagine how many CL's we could've won had Wenger not prioritised the league?
Between 2002-2006 we had the best team but it never transferred to European campaigns.
Paris United claim #Arsenal are set to sign 17-year-old PSG wonderkid Yacine Adli. Despite a larger proposal from PSG, the midfielder is not convinced by the club's project. He is rated as one of the biggest prospects in France. https://t.co/DnDeFaJkGX
Adli is regarded as the jewel of the PSG academy & has already been involved in their star studded first team squad, featuring as an unused substitute in a Coupe de la Ligue victory over Strasbourg. https://t.co/3uaZigEUty
