[ENG] Premiership 2008/2009 (19 Viewers)

[only-juve]

[/B]


They'll never sack wenger cos he brings in the club so much money with his wheeling and dealing. if he was to go it'll be cos he cant take them further anymore and will resign.

More like it, i can't see arsenal sacking him Unless he himself wants to leave. Plus i don't think arsenal are in such a bad shape they just need 2-3 new signings in the summer and they'll cruize back to the top. Wenger knows exactly whats he's doing....

 

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[Henry]

cruise back to the top?! that's going to be pretty damn hard, considering the strength of manu





as for liverpool, we clearly need more quality, particularly in the attacking third. Benitez has done a great job of raising the average quality of the squad, but we still need more quality. Babel doesn't yet have the mentality he needs, not sure if he ever will. Kuyt is great when we need to defend from the front, but that's clearly not the case against middlesborough. El Zhar started very well, but after his miss his confidence disappeared.

 

[Esteban]

Ok back to rationality.

Nasri is a decent player, his abilities are there for everyone to see. But he hasn't really performed for Arsenal, the fact he hasn't stepped up in Cesc's absence shows that Arsene rushed him to the first team, i would have preferred it if we kept Hleb and gradually introduced Nasri to the first team, maybe that would have been better.

As for Denilson, just what you see in him is beyond me For the past two years i havent really been convinced by him, he really doesn't offer much to the midfield, as he is in no way a ball winner, nor is he a creative player, nor is he a box to box midfieler. He's nothing really. He's just a solid player that could make 4 yard sideway passes. I honestly believe we should sell him. As imo this is as good as he can get, he has reached his ceiling and its not good enough.

and i was serious about Arsene, the man needs to move on and so do we Arsenal fans.

Well, maybe it's because I am used to watching the not too well functioning passing game of this year's Juve midfielders and hence get worked up at first sight of a guy that can actually complete passes, even sideways. But I'll still say I think Denilson will come good. Remember when I said I liked what I saw from Adebayor and you said he is comparable to a pile of shit basically. That was before he scored 30 goals for you last season.

 

[bianconero]

cruise back to the top?! that's going to be pretty damn hard, considering the strength of manu





as for liverpool, we clearly need more quality, particularly in the attacking third. Benitez has done a great job of raising the average quality of the squad, but we still need more quality. Babel doesn't yet have the mentality he needs, not sure if he ever will. Kuyt is great when we need to defend from the front, but that's clearly not the case against middlesborough. El Zhar started very well, but after his miss his confidence disappeared.

I hear Keane is available for £20 million.

How could any rational (I use the word wisely) coach sell one of their two only strikers half way through the season, without having a replacement?

 

[Firestarter]

I hear Keane is available for £20 million.

umpkin:

 

[Fred]

Fredrick! your boys did a tad pants again today. was watching gillette soccer saturday and its another 2 points dropped. whats going on?? cant score for toffee. whys that!?!?!?

Because of our incompetent midfield. Our midfield is midtable team material. They were outplayed, outmuscled and outrun by Simon Davies, Dempsey, Murphy and Etuhu.

i read during the week that Wenger said "that bunch" will be ruling england like his "untouchables" team in just a couple of years

That is exactly why he should go. He's become delusional.

More like it, i can't see arsenal sacking him Unless he himself wants to leave. Plus i don't think arsenal are in such a bad shape they just need 2-3 new signings in the summer and they'll cruize back to the top. Wenger knows exactly whats he's doing....

Last season's squad was 2-3 signings away from being at the top. This current team needs a complete overhaul.

wenger doesnt do what he's doing anymore. If he did, we would not be playing in the Uefa Cup next season.

Well, maybe it's because I am used to watching the not too well functioning passing game of this year's Juve midfielders and hence get worked up at first sight of a guy that can actually complete passes, even sideways. But I'll still say I think Denilson will come good. Remember when I said I liked what I saw from Adebayor and you said he is comparable to a pile of shit basically. That was before he scored 30 goals for you last season.

Adebayor is still comparable to a pile of shit, i still dont think he should be starting, and i still do not rate him. Wouldn't mind him as cover though. Any half decent striker would have scored 30 season goals with that midfield behind him. Last season we had possibly the most creative midfield in the world after Barca. Without that service he has been downright terrible this season. I was actually happy when he got injured, he's that bad.

 

[Firestarter]

Yes, if Eduardo was fit most of last season he would have been even more successful than Adebayor, but then again it was his first season and he has to adjust.

 

[only-juve]

Last season's squad was 2-3 signings away from being at the top. This current team needs a complete overhaul.

wenger doesnt know what he's doing anymore. If he did, we would not be playing in the Uefa Cup next season.

You sound like everything is horrible right now in arsenal i don't think the picture is as bad as you think (atleast for the long term).

When you have players like arshavin, nasri, fabregas, van persie, walcott, sagna, Clichy plus the others this team is definately quality. As i said wenger knows exactly whats he's doing. He sold "Hleb" last summer and got nasri, arshavin (both much better than hleb). Flamini left too and i can see arsenal getting much much better player in he's position (probably felipe melo or Inler who are both IMO better than flamini) plus one or two players more and this team will be set to winning titles.

I think arsenal's current owners are pretty rational and they know what they want. They have two options right now, they either fire wenger and get a new manager who will demand a set of WC players (which means heavy spending from the owners) and no gurantees on winning the league or european titles in the future.

Or they stick with wenger who was the main guy behind the success of the club in recent years and try to built a new team that most likely won't win domestically (league title) but they'll have a good shot for european trophies in the coming years. So he'll keep finnishing in top 4 every year and he'll probably focus on europe (with some luck) they can win it (liverpool and milan are good examples here).

Arsenal can't cope "financially" with the other clubs in england right now (united, pool, chelski and add to them City) so what they can do is to focus on europe and try to finnish in top 4 every year till something changes domestically (clubs goes bankrupt or slips for whatever reason). Thats what i think is on the owners mind right now and they're probably right in thinking that way....

 

[Firestarter]

Arsenal can't cope "financially" with the other clubs in england right now (united, pool, chelski and add to them City) so what they can do is to focus on europe and try to finnish in top 4 every year till something changes domestically (clubs goes bankrupt or slips for whatever reason). Thats what i think is on the owners mind right now and they're probably right in thinking that way....

Are you joking? It's not a matter of not being able to cope financially or not, they can but it's Wenger's policies which don't choose to splash the cash as many of their fellow 'Big 4' teams' have done. Only just this winter break they broke their transfer record in signing Arshavin for £15m, that's half of what Manure spent on Berbatov, who's transfer isn't even Manure's record signing. They can spend loads if they wanted to but he chooses to buy younger cheaper and develop them. Arsenal had a £20m profit compared in the current recession goes to how it runs. Half of the Premiership's team are foreign owned so coping financially isn't even the issue tbh... So bollocks they can't cope financially.

 

[only-juve]

Are you joking? It's not a matter of not being able to cope financially or not, they can but it's Wenger's policies which don't choose to splash the cash as many of their fellow 'Big 4' teams' have done. Only just this winter break they broke their transfer record in signing Arshavin for £15m, that's half of what Manure spent on Berbatov, who's transfer isn't even Manure's record signing. They can spend loads if they wanted to but he chooses to buy younger cheaper and develop them. Arsenal had a £20m profit compared in the current recession goes to how it runs. Half of the Premiership's team are foreign owned so coping financially isn't even the issue tbh... So bollocks they can't cope financially.

I never said that arsenal are financially struggling i know that they're doing pretty good in that aspect but they can't afford to spend the way other teams in england are doing. You said it you're self, arsenal's biggest signing doesn't even equal half of what united paid for berbatov for example. Wenger is not spending much and still he managed to keep the club in top 4 every year and i think their owners are happy with that at the time being.

 

[Salvatore]

Spurs lose

 

[Gep]

Ben Foster was superb today. he was the man why man utd won. And not just talking about the penalty shoot out.

 

[Gep]

cruise back to the top?! that's going to be pretty damn hard, considering the strength of manu




as for liverpool, we clearly need more quality, particularly in the attacking third. Benitez has done a great job of raising the average quality of the squad, but we still need more quality. Babel doesn't yet have the mentality he needs, not sure if he ever will. Kuyt is great when we need to defend from the front, but that's clearly not the case against middlesborough. El Zhar started very well, but after his miss his confidence disappeared.

If you actually watch a Arsenal game against the big clubs in the EPL they all fear Arsenal and the Gunners come out on top nearly all the time. Why!?!? cos they really are that good. its the lower clubs that they struggle with. They missed Vieira in that middle the dirty when needed attitude to give them that drive against the Boltons and middlesboroughs. They'll get it right soon.

 

[Henry]

That's completely true, but while arsenal have some extremely good players, manu also have extremely good players, but have twice as many. crucially, manu have better depth in central midfield. While Fabregas could easily end up being better than any of manu's current midfield (not counting Ronaldo as midfield) manu have a very nice collection of midfielders, some experienced, some young and talented, and some in their prime. While I wouldn't say that manu have the best starting central midfield in england (I think Gerrard-Alonso-Mascherano is about as good a central midfield as any in the world) their midfield is clearly the best geared towards surviving injuries and coming up trumps in a long season.

 

[Fred]

You sound like everything is horrible right now in arsenal i don't think the picture is as bad as you think (atleast for the long term).

When you have players like arshavin, nasri, fabregas, van persie, walcott, sagna, Clichy plus the others this team is definately quality. As i said wenger knows exactly whats he's doing. He sold "Hleb" last summer and got nasri, arshavin (both much better than hleb). Flamini left too and i can see arsenal getting much much better player in he's position (probably felipe melo or Inler who are both IMO better than flamini) plus one or two players more and this team will be set to winning titles.

I think arsenal's current owners are pretty rational and they know what they want. They have two options right now, they either fire wenger and get a new manager who will demand a set of WC players (which means heavy spending from the owners) and no gurantees on winning the league or european titles in the future.

Or they stick with wenger who was the main guy behind the success of the club in recent years and try to built a new team that most likely won't win domestically (league title) but they'll have a good shot for european trophies in the coming years. So he'll keep finnishing in top 4 every year and he'll probably focus on europe (with some luck) they can win it (liverpool and milan are good examples here).

Arsenal can't cope "financially" with the other clubs in england right now (united, pool, chelski and add to them City) so what they can do is to focus on europe and try to finnish in top 4 every year till something changes domestically (clubs goes bankrupt or slips for whatever reason). Thats what i think is on the owners mind right now and they're probably right in thinking that way....

Something you are not taking into account is, that if we fail to qualify for the CL, we are probably going to lose a fair chunk of our important players. With the salary cap that we have, we will not be able to convince our players to stay with high wages.

Who's to say Cesc, Van Persie, Gallas, Toure and Sagna will stay if we are neither competing for trophies nor playing in the CL?

If we are going under the assumption that we will be able to keep our core players then i would say we still have a chance to compete for the league next season if we sign a quality ball winner in midfield and a center back.

But the reality is, the future is uncertain at Arsenal, and quite frankly it looks bleak.

 

[Bozi]

wouldnt put it past wenger to do that? like he said that time we'll go a entire season undefeated........everybody laughed.

aye but back then he truly had a team of fantastic player, the current crop may mature into excellent players but they will not reach the heights that the untouchables team did

 

[Salvo]

for those saying wenger is safe are not thinking straight. if he doesnt have sucess in the cl or finish top 4 he will be gone next year, yes you can claim they are building a good young squad but the problem is they have been a good young squad for the past few years but nothing is coming of it, i think arsenal need to get rid of quite a few players and buy a few more.

 

[Bozi]

there is a common delusion among clubs who have produced top talents that the conveyor belt does not dry up. well arsenal are still producing good players but when you compare their current team to past players it is severely lacking

Pires>Nasri
Bergkamp>Van Persie (yes i rate him but nowhere near the level of teh master)
Henry>Adebayor
Ljungberg>Arshavin
Campbell>Gallas
Vieira>Denilson
etc,etc......

now Arsene seems to think that this current crop of players can emulate his greatest teams once they agin more experience but i doubt that. they do not have the same mental strength that his previous teams have had, they have always had winners such as Vieira,Adams,Henry,Petit in there who could help drive the team on. you look around and just see a group of boys and no leader at all there. cesc is a fabulous player,probably the only current player who could fit into any of the previous teams, but he is not a leader of men and there is far too much weight on the young mans shoulders with far too little quality to compliment hm

 

[Fred]

I think he should be gone. But no, the board won't sack him, not in a million years.

 

[Fred]

there is a common delusion among clubs who have produced top talents that the conveyor belt does not dry up. well arsenal are still producing good players but when you compare their current team to past players it is severely lacking

Pires>Nasri
Bergkamp>Van Persie (yes i rate him but nowhere near the level of teh master)
Henry>Adebayor
Ljungberg>Arshavin
Campbell>Gallas
Vieira>Denilson
etc,etc......

now Arsene seems to think that this current crop of players can emulate his greatest teams once they agin more experience but i doubt that. they do not have the same mental strength that his previous teams have had, they have always had winners such as Vieira,Adams,Henry,Petit in there who could help drive the team on. you look around and just see a group of boys and no leader at all there. cesc is a fabulous player,probably the only current player who could fit into any of the previous teams, but he is not a leader of men and there is far too much weight on the young mans shoulders with far too little quality to compliment hm

I agree on all counts with this post except on one small detail.

Ljungberg isn't better than Arshavin, not at all actually. I never rated the arrogant Swede to be honest.