Afternoon guys.
I accidentally skipped a couple of seasons of the Emirates review yesterday, so here it is.
The 2009/10 summer transfer window was awful for Arsenal fans when just one senior outfield player of any note was signed. Thomas Vermaelen, a Belgian international central defender. Yet in the departure lounge sat Emanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure, both of whom moved to Man City. City By this time had been taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group and their splashing of cash was in full flow. In the January of the 2009/10 season, Sol Campbell returned on loan but by then, well, he wasn’t at the level he once was.
18 players were sent out on loan, a staggering number really but most were young players, the most noticeable being Goalkeeper Wojciech Scczesney joined Brentford in November 2009 and stayed their for the remainder of the season, while in the January window Jack Wilshere and Philippe Senderos moved to Bolton Wanderers and Everton respectively.
The season started brightly enough with Vermaelen scoring on his debut but it wasn’t long before Arsenal travelled twice to Manchester. The first time was to face Fergie’s lot when Andrey Arshavin gave us a 1-0 lead just before the before the break but then Almunia had one of those howlers I wrote about yesterday and conceded a penalty which Rooney converted. Diaby then scored the winner, not for his team though as he headed a Utd free kick past his own keeper. Arsene Wenger was angry. Having taken his anger/frustration out on a water bottle, he was sent off. After the game he said: “I have seen a player make 20 fouls without getting a yellow card. If you have seen the game, you don’t need me to tell you who but their player gets away without a yellow card. It’s quite amazing.” Darren Fletcher is the player he was referring to. Some things never change do they as opponents still stick the boot into our players and go unpunished but at least nowadays we are more streetwise.
The other match in Manchester saw Arsenal go up against Adebayor and what a ghastly blond he proved to be. After scoring, he ran the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of fans who once supported him. Television replays also caught him stamp on Robin van Persies’ head. By the end of January, Arsenal were still in with a chance of winning the Premier League but that chance grew slimmer and slimmer over the following weeks. Defeats against Chelsea and Utd and a draw with Villa, pretty put us out of the race.
Then came another awful day for Arsenal and in particular, Aaron Ramsey. Arsenal played Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium. We won but the game was overshadowed by an awful challenge by Ryan Shawcross on our Welsh midfielder. Shawcross was shown a straight red card, Ramsey’s season and much of the next, was over because his leg was broken. A “horrendous challenge” said Arsene. No one could disagree. Arsenal drifted to a third place finish. The domestic cups were ended dismally too with a fifth round 3-0 defeat at the now Etihad Stadium in the League Cup and in the FA Cup, Stoke City defeated us 3-1. The Champions League, well, we fell victim of Guardiola’s Barcelona in the quarter-finals.
2010/11.
This really should have been a League Cup winning season.
The summer saw a lot of activity in the transfer window as in came Marouane Chamakh, Laurent Koscielny, Sebastian Squillaci and Jens Lehmann. Sadly, I don’t think any Arsenal fan would have been excited about any of them at the time although Koscielny was meant to be good.
The departure list was long with Gallas moving across north London, Silvestre went off to Germany, Campbell to Newcastle, Eduardo to Ukraine, Senderos to Fulham whilst other younger players left either for free or a pittance.
The standout game of the season was Arsenal v Newcastle Utd but for all the wrong reasons in the case of Arsene Wenger’s side. 4-0 up at halftime and cruising but then five minutes into the second half, things went downhill. Rapidly. Abou Diaby saw red for pushing/shoving the ghastly Joey Barton and the rest as they say, is history. 4-4! To make matters worse for Arsenal, having managed to reach a League Cup Final, Birmingham City beat us in the dying seconds of the game.
In the Champions League, Barcelona proved to be too good again, as did Man Utd in the FA Cup and we finished fourth in the league as Arsene Wenger’s fifteenth season ended miserably. Again.
See you in the comments.
Nottingham Forest have made a move for Arsenal midfielder Fábio Vieira. This creates a major problem for Hamburg’s hopes of keeping him in Germany.
Vieira spent last season on loan at Hamburg and became one of their standout players. The Bundesliga side had been trying to find a way to sign him permanently. This was after deciding the €22m (£18.7m) purchase option was too expensive.
According to journalist Dominik Schneider, Nottingham Forest have submitted an offer to Arsenal worth €28m (£23.8m) in total. Meanwhile, the German outlet presents it as a “shock” for Hamburg, whose chances of signing the Portuguese midfielder are now falling.
Arsenal had recently appeared open to negotiating below the original option figure. Earlier reports in Germany had suggested they wanted around €10-15m (£8.5-12.8m). HSV, however, were only prepared to go into the high single-digit millions.
New post up.
Morning Devil and all by the way.
“He left because he was told that he was behind Nketiah and Jesus . That worked out well didn’t it.?”
Hard to believe isn’t it…
He left because he was told that he was behind Nketiah and Jesus . That worked out well didn’t it.?
Balogun for Arsenal ………Might have saved us a pretty penny
Balogun for Arsenal 🙂
It was hot enough in Cyprus Devil , I don’t envy you having days on end in the high twenties and low thirties .
We all know that the rumour mill will be in full swing throughout the world cup , I just hope we don’t get a Johnny Jensen moment on the back of one spectacular moment.
Good morning Rico and all
Just read that Arsenal exploring deal to sign Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge.
24-year-old left winger expected to cost €40million.
Forget Barcola or anyone else for that matter. Those are click baits imo….this might turn out to be the real deal which I and many others, believe will happen.
Here we are already beginning to fry with the heat. Enjoy your summer. I won’t that’s definite.
Tim Southee had a nice little cameo for your lot, Andrew. I’m married to a Taunton girl so Somerset holds my allegiance. Lovely ground, tho’ my favourite in England is in North Devon, the Lynton and Lynmouth CC’s in the Valley of the rocks.
I saw that Kev but I’ll believe it when/if it happens.
Maybe we can use Vieira as part-exchange for Anderson?
There’s an encouraging rumour linking Fabio Vieira with a move to Nottingham Forest, although the fee remains unclear as a ‘package’ of £28m was mentioned but that may include his salary and other fees but it seems more than Hamburg wanted to pay..,
Andrew, Jordan never knows when to shut up either 😂
Definitely more interesting listening to the three of them rather than most on Sky etc.
Stuart, strange to me in that you retire before a series involving long travel, or afterwards. Rather than after one test. Maybe something happened at home or he is frustrated at declining form? As an Essex cricket fan and former member going regularly, I’ve enjoyed a few of your boys over recent years. Neil Wagner got a great short ball and Jesse Ryder was a character, just liked a bit of a drink!
Strange, indeed, Andrew, but understandable. Kane has been an excellent captain for us, but international cricket plays havoc with family life. Born in the cricketing hot bed of Tauranga, he is probably our greatest ever batsman. Certainly up there with Bert Sutcliffe, Martin Crowe and Geoff Howarth.
Rico, Simon Jordan probably most knowledgable pundit on off-field football matters, but talks down to most people. I agree with more than disagree with Morgan. But all three opinionated and makes a much better watch than the Nevilles, Linekers, Carragher, etc. We will certainly watch next episode.
Afternoon Andrew, might watch that as Piers Morgan makes me laugh. He’s a bit of a twit but has his moments.
Afternoon rico, all. After the Win and all the celebrations it is hard to be up for the World Cup. Did watch the Piers Morgan WC Uncensored on YouTube with Simon Jordan and John Terry. Piers can be annoying (when going on about his mate Ronaldo) but loved it when he asked Terry how Chelsea spent a billion, illegally for years, and ended up so many points behind Arsenal😂
Kane Williamson retires before 2nd Test, so many strange timings recently!
Morning Cicero, thank you.
Tennis and cricket I hope..
Good morning Rico, Potter.
It must be hard to write about some of the past events but you do it honestly and well Rico. Thank you.
Hopefully the weather will allow some tennis to be played at Queens Club, so my wife can hog the tele this afternoon, while I hope to get a look in this evening for The Saints v Tigers semi-final.
I hope the club aren’t entertaining the thought of selling Ethan either, he’s too good and too young to be cast aside.
From a report on England’s last training match before their first game :- Ivan Toney scored a hat-trick in a 6-0 win.
Highly-rated youngster Rio Ngumoha also got on the scoresheet with a curling effort from distance, while Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri and former Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson were on target.
I really can’t see why we would consider Nwaneri leaving again either on loan or being sold.
Apart from getting bitten to pieces, I hope you had a lovely break. I’ll keep going then, not many more to go. 😜
I watched a bit of the Mexico game, it was grim..
I have enjoyed reading the reviews whilst relaxing on the beach and getting bitten to death on the beaches of Cyprus . Still back now and no more beer for me and mojitos for the missus . I might get into watching world cup games featuring Arsenal players but I have to say the whole thing has palled into insignificance and my interest in it has waned.
As you read around the amount of corruption in the game generally in the governing bodies and the hand of certain team’s owners in the television media and Fifa and Infantino who makes Blatter seem like Mother Teresa just makes me hope that the whole thing loses so much money that it can go back to what was once a great football spectacle.
I read when I was abroad that FiFa now want a cut on all transfers and that all player contracts will have to have a sell on price and that Infantino wants about 5% of the fee.If this is true it just shows that Football is now run by greed
I think I’ll give up on the Emirates season reviews 😂