Andrey Arshavins agent has suggested that Juventus are interested in taking our little Russian to play in Italy this month. This one’s quite interesting as no matter which article I click on for more information, it’s gone. Draw from that what you wish 😉
Onto something we all know anyway, Sebastian Squillaci is out for 2/3 weeks – in Wenger time that’s probably six weeks but more importantly and worrying is the set back Thomas Vermaelen has suffered. So much so, Wenger has said that the club are concerned. They are consulting top specialists around the world and more will be known later today.
Wenger is obviously very concerned; he’s released another statement, telling the world that he’s on the hunt for a centre half, that’s just put the prices up then. He’s also said ‘Ideally it would be better if they were adapted to English football’.
In reality there are only two centre halves in the Premier League who are up for sale, one is Christopher Samba, the other is Gary Cahill who is 6′ 2″. To be fair, I cannot see Wenger paying what it would take to get Cahill unless of course JonJon is right and Carlos Vela is to be part of the deal. Bolton are on the verge of adding Wheater to their side, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. Samba is 6′ 4″ tall but is he really the one we need?
We’ll chew that one over in the comments.
Should either of the two mentioned not be on Wengers radar, the man I hope he signs is Vermaelens old partner and best friend Jan Vertonghen – I know he’s not Premier League ‘ready’ but if he slots in as well and settles as quickly as Vermaelen did then we are on to a winner. Just think about the long-term too, TV and JV together again, it could be a ‘match made in heaven’. 🙂
The one player out there who seems to have a lot to say about wanting to sign for us is Emir Spahic. Now if you believe all that Wikki tells you then back in August 2010, Spahić, who’s 6′ 2″, spoke to Arsène Wenger and agreed a transfer to Arsenal, but Montpellier wanted too much money so no deal could be made. Another linked to us this morning is some ancient Italian who was good once, Nicola Legrottaglie – he’s 34 years old so let’s hope this is just pure rubbish.
Time will tell who Wenger buys, just pray he doesn’t mess around, the transfer window is ticking by!
Right that’s it from…….. Hang on, we have a game tonight
I’ll admit, I know pretty much nothing about Ipswich, other than they have a player called Wickham we are supposed to be interested in, their manager Roy Keane recently got sacked and Paul ‘park the bus Jewell’ has taken over but not in charge tonight.
To be fair, I couldn’t really care about them either, all I care about is us, the Arsenal. I could rant on about how many games they have won and lost in the league, how many goals they have scored at home and away but what’s the point? League performances and positions mean nothing when it comes to a cup match.
Tonight isn’t about playing the safe game in football to ensure points are not dropped in the league, this is about getting a toe on the Wembley turf and Ipswich will want that as much as we do.
Ipswich may have just been battered 7-0 by the Premier League’s new whipping boys Chelsea, but it doesn’t mean they will surrender as easy tonight…..
West Ham won their first leg last night with a 2-1 home win so that’s still anyones game.
Big night, massive game and we need a massive performance to get one toe in the Carling Cup Final 🙂
That really is it from me for today, have a good one all……
Morning….
Why sign an unproven defender in january like the belgian? Would be a huge gamble, IMO.
What I have seen of cahill hasnt exactly impressed me either TBH especially given the fee being touted around and Samba is just a huge bloke, not a top rate defender! So, who the feck does that leave then?
Jagielka or Upson
Seeing as how Upson is also rubbish, then I think its clear…
We aint signing anyone and Migule the 16 year old youth player will be in the team when we face barca at the Nou camp!
Good morning to you…
Morning all. I would like to see two more CB’s brought in and then move JD to DM in front of them.
morning
id be very sceptical reading anything to do with arshavins agent..
AA announced on his website ages ago that latcher no longer represented him
i seen the article on sky sports about latcher on arsh to juve last night so i commented on their page telling them the same thing and they refused to put my comment up 😉
morning chapman, you are feeling positive this morning then 😉
Wenger has said he wants a PL ready defender, it has to be samba or cahill surely?
He’ll sign someone this time, who is the biggest question…
morning Will & jj…
you been upsetting sky too then jj 😉
I still think we need two in any case Will, Squlli won’t be back for a month or more and looks like TV is gone for the season…. 2’s a minimum in my book…
I have not seen enough of Cahill to make a comment but TV said his mate at Ajax is even better than he is.
Will, i would love us to get him if we can’t buy from the PL, think about the partnership for long term too with JD and Kos as back up… At least then wenger can rotate without too much disruption at the back…
Samba is not long term solution. at most, he will give us a good 1st season, before he got malaria during africa cup and sold to man city.
i hope AW will pay big buck for mertesacker.
rico
moi??
upset ppl??
never……. 😉
i think we’ll be ok with one guys and i think wengers got his team on cahill..
rumours are jets sick of playing reserves so we are offering both vela and jet to bolton on loan and bringing cahill the other way
the wheater deals practically done apparently so watch this space i reckon a deal will be done before weekend
we can cope for ipswich but in think wenger wants someone in before next PL game
Cahill will be JT longterm replacement for England…. he’s still only twenty five and we could get at least ten good years out of him, as long as his arms alright….
Is he that good though. Actually, scrub that, can he defend high balls into the box?
😆 jj
Hope you are right, whoever he gets he cannot fart around on the last day of the window, we could be out of the PL race by then if JD gets an inury…..
Cahill would bite our hands off, CL football, in both cups and a shout of the league….
Samba or Cahill are much better than Squillaci and I would take either. If cahill is £20m then fine, pay it. we got that for Kolo. I think samba is just £8m.
Thats a good question Will, Bolton have conceded 29 goals this season and have kept only two clean sheets….
Hi GP, we got £15M for Kolo, regardless though we have the money, if wenger wants cahill, then best he go get him before the chavs do….
Re the CB. You have to be a bit careful with this one as I agree we need more cover but I now think Djorou is showing as a top class CD. When TV is back he and Djorou could form a formidible partnership. If you throw in another top CD someone is not playing when all are fit. It is easy to say worry about that later but it could be in 4 weeks and you can then end up with unhappy disruptive players who think they should be playing. I think we need someone in their late 20’s who is good for another 4 seasons but is happy to rotate around in a bigger club that plays more games, and also accepts that they can prolong their career if they are not playing every game. For me Samba ticks all the boxes. I like his size, leadership and that he is EPL ready. A lot of people talk about a lack of pace and technical ability but when I have seen him he has looked fairly decent on both counts. If he came to us accepting he would be one of a rotating 4 of CB’s that would solve our problems.
gareth P
i recognise that avatar are you the artist formerly known as gazzap by any chance?
Hi Browny, good to see you here…
You make a very valid point and i think no-one will disagree with you about JD, he has been immense and when he plays we seldom concede from open play..
Wenger suggests though that there is still ‘doubt’ over his fitness and has to be played carefully.
I wouldn’t mind Samba, he’s big and strong and would bring something to our defence but I’d still prefer a bit of English grit at the back…
Sadly though, I don’t think we will get either, my true belief is it will an older French player…
I live in hope though…
i just read one of the blogs predicting tonight’s line-up, and guess what… Denilson AND Eastmond are expected to start according to that blogger with MC29 being partnered by Vela upfront!!
Seriously, even a team that can be beaten 7-0 by premier league relegation candidates can beat this team….
oh wait, we are playing against a team beaten 7-0 by relegation candidates!! 😀
NB: Wilshere and Rosicky are the other 2 men in that guys midfield (WTF??)
jj, i knew i’d seen that avatar somewhere, your memory is better than mine….
will cahills rated highly by most
best described as a no nonsense defender..solid, big, tough, attacks everything..been doing well at bolton last few seasons and he knows the PL inside out..
Hi RJ, i can’t see Eastmond and Denilson starting this leg, i ceratinly hope they don’t. we need to win this well and then rest/rotate a few for the home leg, wenger cannot muck this up… surely
good poster, rico..
used to love reading his comments on east lower..talked alot of sence
I remember from LG jj, hope he comes back…
talked a lot of sense, you saying we don’t 😉 😉
Does anyone think this needs to be a statement buy?
Is Cahill well and truly over his injury problem from last year?
eastmond played in the reserves that got botty spanked the other night
cant see him playing tonight to be honest..
Ipswich have a bundle of injuries according to afc.com, connow wickham should be up front and no doubt playing for his AFC future 😉
not so much a statement buy, will..
but he does have to be a certain criteria..
dont wanna see no more squillacis or that saphic bloke or none of these other mugs that nobodies ever heard of..
we need someone who can come in an make an impact and if he cost 15mil then so be it..
This is a game we need to win big so we can rest players for the homeleg.
Exactly JJ, a statement buy 😉
that loss was horrid for them… JET played in it too so he won’t be involved, the two main centre halves didn’t play so no doubt Miguel will be in the squad..
I think it could be a similar starting eleven he played against Leeds…
If I were Wenger, I’d start with:
Chesney
Eboue Kos JD Gibbs
Walcott Song Cesc Jack
RvP Chamakh
Nasri, Nikki, Miguel, Rosicky, AA, and anyone else on the bench 🙂
Good squad that Rico.
I thought it was a defensive buy 😉
lol
Will, I just want this semi final done and dusted as quick as possible, no risks, no thinking about West Ham at the weekend, just get the job done that’s in front of us….
Exactly, get the game done. 4-0 and then rest some players in the next game.
Or even at half time 😉
I’m sure Wenger will take this one really seriously, he’s said he’s feeling the pressure of needing a trophy, well he won’t get a better chance right now..
i have it on good authority that as long as the new player diesn’t cost anymore than £2.50 & a packet of crisps with a resale value of £25 million he’ll cosider it.but only at 11.59pm 31/1/11 to try & get the price down…
😆 king, he won’t spend that much ….
It does annoy some times, I really wish Wenger would spend now and again, even the Spuds have caught up with us.
Morning all,
Whats all the commotion about Squilly i thought you all thought he was crap anyway, bung in anybody they have to be better than him
Will, they have agreed a deal for Pienaaaaaar too….
Hi Steve, he is not the best, but it’s another defender down….
It is a joke, I can see them over-taking us soon simply because they are willing to pay top dollar for top players.
VdV would have been immense in our team.
I recon Bentner could fit in there quite nicely he’s big and slow and he cant head towards goal and he kicks sideways perfect replacement and he likes it in the middle
Like your thinking Steve.
Morning Will, worth a try ah
Stop chatting shit Will! The spuds have caught up with EVERYONE if they’ve caught up with us! But then again, the gazillions they have spent over the last 5 years, they should be winning titles, which they aint, since how long…????
I would take cahill BTW, just dont rate him anywhere near the fees touted, more like £8m but that aint gonna happen. I prefer Jagielka, he is a much better defender and would compliment Djourou superbly IMO. Seeing as how Vermealen aint ever playing again, oops, did i say that or think it?
Ideally it would be better if they were adapted to English football,” he said. “If you need players now in January then you cannot wait three months before they can play. If the opportunity turns up we will fetch it but, if not, I believe we can cope.
Am i the only 1 wanting to scream?
He can’t do any worse than he does upfront.
You guys might have picked up that I really don’t rate him.
Squillaci has done wel for usIMO, he has just had to play way too many times due to injuries to others is all. For a 4th choice CB, he is fine. The chavs would love a 3rd choice CB as good!
Chatting shit?
Who exactly do you rate Will? You seem to be biggin up the spuds more than Arsenal??? Hmmmm…
Yes, yes I am.
I will be supprised if Wenger buys, he’s a summer man and the two guys at Ajax are in the bag, wenger does this all the time to bung the price up for everybody else, while he has deals in place
Chapman – respect the rules please, no disrespect to others views….
Steve, do you really think he has the two guys at Ajax?
Morning DK…
Which two Steve???
The only player i think he may have sorted for the summer is Hazard…
Will, VdV would have been a great addition to our squad but its like you said yesterday, we have so so many midfielders, some need to go before wenger buys any more…
Yep i read a piece quite a while ago, and their contracts are coming to an end and there had been talks with wenger and he fancied both of them one partners virmin in the Belgian team, but that was for the summer
Steve, i think he will buy, AA joined us in january….
didn’t theo too….
Hazard for Rosicky or AA?
AA prob Will, I think Rosicky has another couple of years on his contract and he owes us….
Where as AA walks in the summer….
rico
Didnt mean any offence, just shocked to read stuff like that from a supposed Gooner is all.
Rico, he supprised me with Arshavin but theo was for the future
You are shocked too read that someone is upset that Wenger has allowed Tottenham to catch us up?
Chapman, were all gooners mate, and we all share your passion, but Wenger does all our heads in, but he’s still a genius
Chapman, no probs….
HH is a site where we just respect others views regardless of whether we agree or not – Will a regular here and and true Gooner…. To suggest he’s a spud fan is far off the mark..
You have to admit, the Spuds are spending like crazy and building their squad, while wenger just settles for bargins..
we are arsenal, we should be buying big players every now and again…
Steve, most of wengers signings these days are for the future – AA surprised me too but again he waited for his price to come down, had he bought him the previous summer when we needed him, he would have cost more…
Will, I’m furious that they sit just behind us in the league, topped their CC group and get a much easier match while we face Barca…. Also, to have lost at home against them in the fashion we did is a disgrace…
Why, all because wenger took those games against so called small sides in the CL for granted as did the players involved…..
The Twitcher will buy anybody, he’s not there for the long term, he dosnt give a shit about their future money problems he’s only trying to build his cv up for a big payout, the dirty Whealer Dealer
Aston Villa are after Samba……
Also, as you say, he has been getting future players/bargains but if we don’t start winning, there will be no future as players will no longer want to sign.
Top players really don’t care about the money, they care about winning.
Maybe Steve but right now it’s working for them….
Anyway, back to Arsenal….
Will, to be honest, I think we are alomost at that stage, young players want to join us but that’s because they want to learn from wenger…
but when was the last time we bought a real quality player?? and i don’t mean AA either….
I still think Wenger is the best manager out there but he needs someone that will challenge him in the backroom staff.
Someone that will say “Actually Arsene’, we need Player A and Player B so we should go get them”
David Villa was desperate to join us – why didn’t we sign him? Cecs dropped enough hints in his TV programme…..
Rico,
I would be interested in your team tonight are we going for it, or saveing our players to beat a worn out West Ham
And the board needs to sort itself out, we need one owner who is a winner and a gooner, someone ruthless to have a word in wengers ear and tell him to spend some money…
Do you think we need Dein back?
Put my team up earlier Steve
Chesney
Eboue Kos JD Gibbs
Walcott Song Cesc Jack
RvP Chamakh
You recon were going for it then
Tough call, i don’t know enough of what went wrong for him to have gone… i think we need a man like him but him himself, i’m not so sure…
As far as I saw, Dein brought in Kroenke and Danny say that as a betrayal.
But then he went off and joined the russian camp??
Anyone watching the TT cricket 🙁
I would be very supprised at any changes on the board at the Arsenal, it would be absurd at the moment when every thing is running smoothly big profits,team doing well,only if Lady share holder sells up may put the cat amongst the pidgeons other than that buisness as usual, buy cheap sell dear
tottenham havent caught us up
Thats just what i think will happen Steve Lady N to sell her shares…
I can’t see anyone buying her shares, they are worthless apart from to Kroenke or the fat Russian.
Phew, that was close 😆 Another England win…
Wengers a crafty old sod, probably got a fair share of his own, he wont be bullied in to buying and he will only buy at a reasonable price, he see’s it as his money, which i suppose some of it is
sport.co.uk being speaking to lachter http://www.sport.co.uk/news/Football/49043/Agent_Lachter_clarifies_Arshavin_relationship.aspx
for 3 weeks he still with by contract even tho aa dont wont to be with him
Steve – none of the clubs money is Wengers, it belongs to Arsenal and he should spend some when the board say it’s avaible and on better players than we have, he’s a great manager don’t get me wrong but he’s too stubborn…
Hi RSD, so he is still AA’s agent, does that mean there’s truth in the Italian rumours?
and we dont need dein back
he loved the arsenal but he was a shit businessman..
if it would have been up to him we would have been bankrupt by now..
Wenger has stated previously, that he would like to manage his countries National side before he retires, i can not see that happening, i believe he will stay here and retire, and end up being the new David Dein
Off for a bit, catch up in an hour or so……
maybe a little but doubt anything will happen till summer but 17 mil for him in the summer wouldnt be bad
Jon Jon you sound like an Arsenal board member 😐
Rico be carful watch JonJon 🙂
Rico this is my team for tonight;
Chesney
Eboue Kos JD Gibbs
Walcott Denilson(Song needs a rest) Jack and A.Arshavin
Bendtner Chamakh
Cesc, Song,Clichy(Gibbs might get injured:( ),JET,Fabianski on the bench
lol SD
the reason dein was sacked is because when the plans where drawn up for the emirates and the financial blue prints were uncovered dein disagreed becuase the club was going to have a transitional period while we developed players and ploughed all our cash into the emirates..which is normal..
dein proposed that we saved our money and moved to wembley so we could avoid a transitional period..which is dumb becuase whats the point of moving stadium if we dont own it..daft..
dien was on his own on that one and instead of waiting 5 years to become the richest self financed club in the world dein wanted a sugar daddy so he went behind the boards back and tried to get one..the baord found oout and sacked dien..so he sold his shares to usmanov..
the only reason kreonke and usmanov own shares is cos of dein..the baord wanted neither but they had no chaoice to bring kroenke in cos they had to fight dein off
and if we would have done what dein said we would have been playing at wembley being financed by a sugar daddy which would have left us fucked
short term success yes maybe but in the long term we would have gone under..especially with the financial rules..
Nice one JJ
Anyone seen this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9358589.stm?
Jon Jon! you still sound like an AFC board member.
But good to have you among us, keep the information coming.
Can you tell us who is lying between Wenger and the board members, why are we not buying big and keep saying there is money in the bank to spend if we want to.
Jon Jon , please tell us because i don’t understand what Wenger is waiting for , for not buying a CB now, we have Barca in few weeks time and we could do with somebody like Samba to scare the living day light out of Messi .
Messi will generally take Cahill to school in my opinion.
JonJon, take the floor.
Is it true we made £59m profit last year?
yeah thats about right will..we well rich..
if it would have been left to dein that figure would have been a minus
Someone needs to tell Wenger to spend before we are really left behind.
morning all…we have the first leg of the cup semi-final tonight – lets ignore these agent-serving bs rumors for now – we have something far more important tonight…
i hope arsene selects a strong team tonight – it is unrealistic to expect our strongest eleven out there, but considering our reserves were the ones that last played, i am hoping there is is more balance to our lineup tonight. we need to go for the throat, and if possible, get a big lead to take back to the ems. if we give ipswich the opportunity to believe they have a chance here, we are asking for trouble. i know we have w ham in the league on the weekend, but winning these two legs will put us in a cup final, our first since our maiden season here at ems. we should not squander this opportunity.
sd i thought the dien affair was a well known fact, defo no secret…
and whos lying i dont understand
we all know we now have cash, especially now all the debts are cleared and wenger admitted yesterday hes after a cb so im abit confused as to what u mean
SAMBA please, no playing arround Wenger ? He speaks french anyways, what is he waiting for ?
He knew VL wouldn’t be ready this January long time ago .
Jon Jon i meant the board will say Wenger has money to spend and Wenger goes on to get Charmach on a free and refuses to buy AA when we could have used him to win the league.
Refuses to buy David Vila because he was worth £25m
Sold Toure and Adebayor but bought Squilacci for £5m and Kesceiney (!) for £7m.
Is either they are not giving Wenger enough money or Wenger is just doesn’t like to spend or he gets bonuses for helping the club to make profit as rumour has it.
Which all equates to 5years trophyless seasons.
That what i meant JonJon
It is time we made a “statement” buy.
nah mate u seem abit confused
the emirates wasnt donated fella, new stadiums arent free, weve spent the last 5 years paying off debts and laons that were all tied into highbury and the emirates
we announced in summer that we now have no debts..those debts didnt pay themselves off did they
we aint citeh or chelsea… its taken years to get to where we are and to be honest id rather go 5 years without a trophy cementing our future than spunking millions that we dont have down the drain like chelsea and liverpool have only to end up like them just for the sake of short term success
of course we all want trophies but we have to look at it realistically..we didnt have the money for villa at the time and the kolo and ade money was used to pay off a loan..
in summer 2009 we had an agreement with RBS to pay off 150mil of the loan in one go..now where did that money come from??? doesnt grow on trees does it
this beckham thing has turned spurs into a freak show…
its nothing more than an uneccessary distraction and it wouldnt suprise me if spurs went on a downward spiral..
It is all about class JJ.
Oliver, i was hopeing for the strongest team we have, to show the commitment to the supporters, would be a crime to let this chance slip by, i personally want to see our best side in every game, i fail to see how players are knackered, this should spur all players to want to play, when we get to the final i bet no one wants a rest then
Afternoon peeps…
Now I know why you are more mellow jj, you’ve been buying AFC shares 😉
Reality is DD has gone and he isn’t coming back so Ivan needs to start working some magic with Arsene and get our defender in…
JON JON 🙂
Yeahp , you are 100% confirmed 🙂
Hi SD, I think samba is the more likely option, he’s a big lump and he’s cheap..
Hi oliver, i’m all for starting our strongest tonight with Chesney in goal – get the game off to a good start and if we get a couple of goals up with half an hour to go, make a few little tweaks…
Re Becks, is it any worse than when he trained with us??
hiya rico…
steve, i would like to see the best team as well, but i think it is unrealistic for us to play our starting eleven each match. think of it in the context of our bench players – they need match action as well, otherwise they won’t be ready when the inevitable suspensions (sangna) and injuries bite.
with that said, i really hope not to see eight or nine changes to this side. this is not an ordinary domestic cup tie – this is an opportunity to effectively make the second leg a formality and book our spot in the final. that should be the absolute priority tonight, not “blooding” miguel, resting our core for the second consecutive match, or anything else.
we’ll have to change a few spots, that is inevitable – but no mass changes. tonight’s match is too important. and it is not a formality, either…
Manchester United and Liverpool will bid for Southampton starlet Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the next 48 hours…
Whats the betting Wenger goes in for him at the eleventh hour….
Is it me or has Capello really gone below the radar , desperately avoiding the media i guess.
Once bitten twice shy 🙂 or in his case: permanently shy. 🙂
Looks like Nikki is in tonight….
Arsène Wenger expects Nicklas Bendtner to rediscover his best form once he gets first-team games under his belt.
The Danish striker has had a stop-start season thanks to injury and competition for places but a total of four goals in six starts still represents a decent return.
The presence of Robin van Persie and Marouane Chamakh has restricted Bendtner’s opportunities in his preferred centre-forward role but the 22-year-old could play through the middle when Arsenal visit Ipswich Town for the first leg of their Carling Cup Semi-Final this evening.
“At the moment it is a bit congested centrally so he might have an opportunity to play [on Wednesday],” Wenger told Arsenal.com.
“Through the middle? I don’t know yet. He has played very good games for Arsenal on the flanks but I know that his preferred position is in the middle.
“Overall his battle is more to get in form again and that comes from playing. He has worked very hard and he is getting sharper and sharper, but he is not completely there yet.”
rico, i think szczesny has earned the right to play in goal for these two ties. if/when we reach the final, arsene will have to decide who he starts in goal – i know who i would start. djourou played against leeds, so i have a suspicion that he will not start and miguel will start alongside koscielny. if so, i think we need a strong midfield. cesc, jack, and song. samir was rested (i think) against leeds, so he can return. ditto robin. i think chamakh has to start in the hopes he can score a couple of goals and get his form back. i would like to see vela figure as well.
doubtless i will be proved incorrect on a couple of those. we’ll know how arsene will play this in a few hours.
let those sides have him. another over-hyped kid – we have seen plenty of those in our time.
oliver, that’s just it, apart from chesney we don’t have a clue really who wenger will pick, an earlier poster came on saying about another site suggesting we could play eastmond and denilson in the middle – while it may not be who we hope to see play, its anyone’s guess really….
and that’s all we are doing..
Afternoon all.
Just a brief visit.
Firstly, no messing about tonight,a good hammering of ipswich and put the game to bed here and now.
Arshavin was dropped for the last game,so let’s see if he puts in a shift tonight,though i have my doubts.
JJ, not entirely true with your comments about DD.
He proposed a stadium move at a third of the cost with the same capacity as the emirates to kings x, but it was rejected.
rico yeah it is worse
A- we didnt want to sign him he was only getting fit
B- we didnt have the media coverage spurs have..it was kept behind closed doors
sky might as well have created a david beckham chanel cos every time i turn ssn on its some dude stood outside spurs creaming his knickers over becks over becks..
if that would have been us i would have been embarrased
becks has a hat on
becks has a blister
becks has 77 on his hat
becks talking to arry
becks scratching his balls
fucking hell who gives a shit lol
Hi kelsey, i thought AA played against Leeds 😉
He pulled off a great save the other day, but his kicking is suspect
you know what Sky are like, why watch it 😉
Bring back Setanta …..
I think Wenger has given up on starlets for now.
We now have a second team that have all got First team potential (Bendtner, Vella,AA,Rosicki,Ebue,Squillaci,Gibbs,Denilson,Chesney)and he doesn’t know what to do with them.
No more potential starlets please, he should just buy Samba so that we can win our Carling Cup , beat Barca to qualify 🙂 and kick Manure United’s butt when they come to the emirates.
And Win the League .
rico, sorry i meant league game when he was a sub.
i hope not to see either denilson our eastmond – never mind the two of them starting together. that is a recipie for trouble. denilson played 90 minutes against leeds and did not exactly cover himself in glory. the best way to handle this is put a strong side out, pile it on early, break ispwich’s will, and then ease some squad players in as the match winds down. that should – although not guarantee with this side – a fairly straightforward second leg…
hiya kelsey
i dont agree… i beleive the kings x proposal was a plan drawn up by the whole board..it was one of many venues the baord was looking at and it was the cheaper option but we were refused permission
so ashburton was given the go ahead and dien spat his dummy out cos of the price…so he wanted wembley..
Is there a reason why we couldnt use Bendy as a central defender he does pretty well when he comes back
BREAKING NEWS
becks is tying his bootlaces
kelsey, i knew what you meant, just teasing but like you, i don’t expect a big performance from him if he plays….
another dental visit for me 🙁 back shortly…..
john jensen is assisstant at Blackburn
jj, caught you out, that was in the post yesterday about Jensen, you obviously didn’t read it 😉
Looks like Nasri hasn’t travelled….
Rico this is my team for tonight;
Chesney
Eboue Kos JD Gibbs
Walcott Denilson(Song needs a rest) Jack and A.Arshavin
Bendtner Chamakh
Cesc, Song,Clichy(Gibbs might get injured:( ),JET,Fabianski on the bench
No Nasri man , that is Wnger big game man right now. he is for game on saturday man.
SD, i always hate seeing any line up with denilson in it… otherwise thats not so bad and should come home with advantage us…
lot of speculation that Song will partner Kos at the back as JD won’t cope with another game…. either that or Miquel..
i haven’t a clue who he’ll play… but someone will need to keep wickham in check..
Neven Subotic is being linked with Chelsea……
Craig Bellamy arrested for assault – when will these players learn….
Where you all gone, come on, we have a game in a couple of hours 🙂
Any news on the team tonight guys?
Only Nasri left at home and Chesney def in goal Will….
i am on and off rico. here at the moment. but gone for a while in about 45 minutes. i anticipate no problems doing the match report – hopefully a positive one.
We really need to put on a show tonight.
Give the fans and players confidence
Finish the tie off in one go
Scare the bejebus out of West Ham.
or brum…that tie is not quite finished yet…
thanks oliver, i hope its a positive one too ….
i have brum down to win that one now Will….
I am thinking more about Saturday.
im back..
sorry rico i was in ssn updates mode 😉
Has Beckham picked his nose yet?
Sorry Will, forgot the ‘Ammers are up at weekend…
your forgiven jj 😉
You just knew it, Upson is the latest link…..
lol will..
i dont know how they can mention upson tho rico. i laughed when i saw the story
‘so far their has been no bids but it maybe an option arsene wenger is looking at’
lol
if theres been no bids then it aint news is it..divs
Martin Atkinson is the ref tonight, whats he like….
SSN making up shit for a decade.
me neither jj, not now, but we all knew it was coming…
it’s always “maybe this” and “maybe that”…not even worth regurgitating at this point – arsene rarely tips his hand, and i am not completely convinced that we will actually bring anyone during this window.
i think he knows we need cover, but i also think he will not compromise on it. in other words, if he thinks it is not the fit (including player’s age, skill set, money involved and probably a few other factors), he won’t do anything. for me, we are one more cb injury away from disaster. and if that injury is djourou, it becomes doubly worse…
we’ll see what happens. i try my best to ignore this two-plus-two-equals-five nonsense that is currently circulating. i am confident arsene knows how important bringing cover in is, but i imagine he is looking at situation slightly different than i – i.e. giving more consideration to all the aforementioned factors than the staring-us-in-the-face need for another centre back.
i think AW does want to bring some cover, oliver
but the problem with january is that not all clubs want to sell their players so getting a club to agree a fee could be difficult at this point of the season..
I think that is exactly the reason he will buy oliver – if Johan Djourou gets injured we are snookered, right now he is by far our best CH and if he suffers any kind of injury our defence isn’t fragile, its gone….
Squilli was a ‘silvestre’ kind of signing but due to TV’s injury he’s had to play more than expected – for the firts time in a long time, i’m confident he will stick to his word, only a few days ago he said he wouldn’t say he would buy because he didn’t want the media to question why he didn’t if he then felt no need to…
if he’s fibbing now, the man truly is an idiot and a liar….
The transfer window is hard to avoid, no doubt every fan of every club sits and watches/reads about who their club is linked to, in hope and anticipation that just one, maybe two players will be bought…
No matter how annoying it is, no matter how much garbage is branded around, theres nothing we can do about it… we all know most is just the silly red tops after a good headline, we don’t fall for it but maybe just sometimes theirs a little bit of hope that one or two of the stories might hold some truth….
jj, clubs are often reluctant to sell players – but i think there are still some available. if we have to pay over the odds to entice certain clubs to sell, our position dictates that we should strongly consider doing so. depth is our big problem at the moment – arsene would have us think that anyone who comes in must be equal to/better than what we already have. i disagree – we need cover, not necessarily new starters. djourou and koscielny seem to be our first choice partnership – until tommy comes back. keep the former two in place, and bring someone in to back them up, and occasionally spell one or the other. there will be a dropoff, but we lived with that when squillaci played…
and no, i don’t want fat sol back. that ship sailed this summer. if things end badly at newcastle – and it looks like that is the way he is headed – i would not allow him back to train with us while he looks for a new club. he walked away from us in the summer, not vice versa.
if it sounds like i am contradicting myself with the pay over the odds and stressing the need for lower-grade cover, i probably am. but we should consider the actual situation we are facing and make a concerted effort to get cover.
back in a little while…
oliver – Sol is no longer over weight, he’s trimmed down, ask jj 🙂
Cahill and Samba are available….. Wenger just needs to pay what their club value them at… Just once wouldn’t hurt…
catch you later oliver…
Eurosport reckon we are really in for Cahill and will go for Upson only if the deal breaks down….. If the Cahill ‘deal’ breaks down, go for Samba, not Upson….
Bridge has passed his medical for the Hammers, theo could have a field day on Saturday 🙂
yeah theres some available..its all about chain reactions..if a club can replace a player they will sell
no, i understand oliver,
if bolton for eg say to wenger yeah you can speak to cahill for 18mil we should just take it..
we dont have to tell anyone we paid 18mil we can just say undisclosed..bolton wont care
Thing is, recently there have beeen a couple of winter windows were everyone could see just one signing would have made us real contenders but Wenger backed away stating buying would stunt younger players growth.
I have to disagree, if we but a top class player, this should make the younger player want to be better or he is not good having around. We don’t want players who are happy being premiership players, we should have players who strive to be internationals and world class players.
There is no room for competent only excellent.
arshavin came in jan
adebayor
diaby
i could go on and on wenger does sign players in january but its not always easy to find world class players
who sells their best players half way through the season??
clubs that need money.
Take Cesc, Jack, Sagna, Chesney, Gibbs, JD, Theo, TV, Ramsey, Lansbury, Frimpong, Nasri and even Song out of the equation…
What signing would ‘really’ kill any of our current crop??
I’m not talking about Chuks, Miquel, Bartley or Afobe here…..
That is my point Rico, if the player is good enough, a world class signing would not kill him.
I know where you are coming from Will, if they are good enough they will play regardless of who we buy…..
Sadly though, we have far too many who are not good enough….
That is the problem, Wenger coddles them.
Sometimes i wonder if he’s a football manager or a foster parent… 😉
BUT, he is a great manager other than that….
A nice bowl of baked tortillas with salsa, cheese and roasted peppers awaits me – oh, and a glass of Pinot…..
Back very soon…..
just choked on my dinner, ipswich are going for this with three up front…..
Enjoy.
might as well…they have nothing to lose and our defence is potentially suspect. i think even royston would have figured out attacking early is probably the best way for ipswich to go…
Szczesny Eboue, Djourou, Koscielny, Gibbs, Denílson, Wilshere, Walcott, Rosický, Arshavin, Chamakh
or is bendtner starting for chamakh?
and is cesc actually starting?
Cesc starts as does JD 🙂
so cesc and nik are starting…ok…hopefully we can build an early lead and will not need cesc for all 90 minutes.
spot on oliver, put this semi to bed, tonight…..
We need to get that Aura back and then teams like this would not send out such an attacking team.
They have nothing to lose Will, no-one expects them to win over two legs, just hope the team tonight realsie that that is so so wrong……
But yes, we need that ‘fear’ put back into any side that has to face us……
When we have Paddy, Denis, Thierry, Bobby et al, we scared the life out of teams, now they all think they can get something*
* Except Man City
Oh for those days back Will…..
We would walk this league and I think even Barca would be scared of that team.
See you folks at H/T 🙂
kickoff just a minute or so away…
2 mins in and theo messes up a 4on1
3 mins in and kos makes second mistake of game already..
just need to settle down a bit and be more composed..
we are giving the ball away too cheaply. we’re winning it off ispwich, but not doing anything with it…agree, we just need to settle down here.
ooooff…that wasn’t far away for ispwich.
This is unbelievable.
will somebody just fucking shoot
not really. this is starting to resemble the same disjointed, no-cutting-edge performances we saw against wigan and leeds. the longer it continues at 0-0, the more reason for ipswich to start believing.
see the problem when theos stuck out on the flank??hes hogging the touchline again and eboue is coming inside
will someone tell that shithead that hes shit and to stop taking theos space cos hes fucking up the whole system
eboue take the flank let theo come inside you tosser
if you ask me, nobody really looks up for this. arshavin has been poor yet again, jack and cesc look pretty subdued. ipswich working harder than us here.
I can see Ipswich scoring pretty soon.
The Dane and Brazilian should have the good grace to quit Arsenal.
we almost look like we are playing for 0-0.
rambo chamakh and vela on at half time
if norris could have gotten proper contact on that header, we would probably be 1-0 down…
Arshavin is dreadful, Eboue is nothing but a cheat and let’s swap Nik for Wickham???
We are poor…………..
we look like we are sleepwalking out there…if it is 0-0 at the break, what odds that arsene changes nothing during the interval?
rico, do you think a couple of players have – either consciously or subconsciously – decided they have had enough of arsene? and won’t give their best anymore?
that was very poor and they need a rocket
Abysmal.
this is embarrasing – we are the ones hanging on at the moment…where is cesc? where is jack?
ok, goalless at the half…that was poor, very, very poor – no other way to describe it…
a better side would have already scored against us…
Ipswich now have confidence and I really can see them scoring.
the worst player was cesc beleive it or not
We hav,nt a clue, who is the premier team
Denilson and Bendnter need to be shipped out now.
we have a free kick and three of them are holding hands
yeah, it was bad. i am really disappointed by cesc – of all people, i thought he would understand how important tonight is to the club. but he just does not look interested. i am sure that we will start the second half with no changes…
songs presence is missed
the midfield is full of passers..ok when we have the ball not ok wen we dont cos denilson couldnt win a raffle
we lack a ball winner
There is nothing from the front three.
oliver, re your earlier about wenger, possibly but if they have, they can go…..
Song, Nasri and RvP are the missing link… see you at FT
no changes….
If Eboue bottles another tackle, someone shoot him.
Come on Ipswich, beat us please.
has cesc been bribed???
He looks like he can’t be bothered.
It’s fucking Ipswich. That is embarrassing.
he had a chance to shoot in the box, but…surprise surprise…he opted to pass. that is our collective mentality – look for the past first, second, and third.
he has been hugely disappointing. i think his off-key performance is bringing jack down as well…denilson is denilson…
Ipswich have worked out, a ball over the top scares the shit out of us.
if priskin did not hesitate, we would be 1-0 down. no movement on the bench – this is not working, what more evidence does arsene need? unless, of course, he will be happy with a 0-0?
well, they have us under the cosh now…
all ipswich at the moment here…i cannot tell which side is third in the prem is which is struggling in the champo…
we’re playing a 4-6 formation it looks like. when cesc or jack try to pass into the box, there is never anyone there to get on the end of it…
song and chamakh on…jack and nik off. i’d haul denilson off myself, but…
Thing is, this is not a one off performance.
I want Ipswich to tonk us tonight.
an ipswich goal was coming…only ourselves to blame…
We are shit, we have been shit more then good this season.
this is pitful..just before that goal, cesc missed an absolute sitter – what the &%$& is wrong with him tonight?
an arsene finally drags arshavin off, after we concede.
we just dont want a trophy do we..
thats just shocking an embarrasing and those players need a weeks wages docking
u dont perform u dont get paid its that simple
Wenger needs to earn his money this window.
I am thinking of giving up on this team. The players have.
im fucking disgusted..
ive defended these bastards and im being honest when i say im actually embarassed to be a gooner..
embarased..
Who out there has earned their wage tonight?????
i’m numb…… shocking display tonight, just shocking and if anyone says its ok we’ll beat them at home……
I’ll say, ‘Dont be so bloody sure about that’……
Yet again we cant knock the wall down pittyfull
i know how you feel jj. we are – were – on the verge of a winnable cup final, and we turned in a pitiful effort like this…even if we somehow conjure up an equalizer this evening, it won’t mask the embarrassing effort…
YOU WAS ALL RIGHT, THEY ALL NEED A REST
disgusting…words fail me…once again, it would seem we looked at the 7-0 fa cup reverse versus chelsea and decided showing up was enough to win. once again, arsene did nothing to instill a sense of urgency in this side, or change things up early enough to make a difference.
At least Wenger was gracious afterwards….
oliver, don’t bother wasting your time with 1000 words for tomorrows post, our performance could be summed up in three words…….
as rico says, the second leg is anything but a foregone conclusion. do you trust this group of players to score – even at home? if we want to progress, we will most likely need to put our starting eleven out. we should have taken care of business tonight so we wouldn’t have to risk our best players in the second leg. now we do. unless, of course, we are just going to say forget it and start another unbalanced mix. at his moment, i wouldn’t put that past arsene….
I am serious, I have given up on this team.
When you can’t
A: Get a decent shot on target and
B: defend a simple long ball over the top
There is something deeply rotten about the team.
that should have been our full strength team..
weve fucked it
we are now going to have to play our best squad in every game cos some of those guys arent good enough to get a result
oliver,
Ipswich be up for the away leg and they’ll have their new boss in place, they will believe they are going to wembley….
this is a really really bad night for Arsenal and all of us fans…
so much for putting the tie to bed, we nearly did, but not our bed…..
fair play to ipswich. they fully deserved the win…
Yep, agree there oliver…..
hate to mention this but Priskin was offside….. even jamie redknapp says so…
however, we were still shocking…
Bendtner or Priskin…. I’d rather have Priskin in our side ….
we’ll see…ipswich now have a quandry because they have a lead – coming in, they could attack because they had nothing to lose. now they – jewell – will have to decide whether to try and defend that lead or get a second. if it were me, i would do the same at the ems.
we have history with jewell. 05-06, we lost the league cup s/f 1-0 up at wigan, in a very poor performance. in the second leg we dominated, went 2-0 up to take the aggregate lead, but were caught by a sucker punch injury time goal (jason roberts?) and went out on away goals. the first half of this one has played out similar.
I’m off for the day all… had enough of all this stuff called arsenal for one day…
catch up tomorrow…… be good…
even if he was offside, ipswich were by far the better team tonight – we deserved nothing, played like garbage. i refuse to let an offside goal overshadow a pathetic non-effort by our team…ipswich made their luck – we made nothing, did nothing..
So angry, I am going. See you tomorrow.
report coming later tonight rico…it will not make for pleasant reading.
go get em oliver..
let em have it mate they dont deserve no mercy
Thanks oliver and ditto that jj….
Night guys, another really good day, thanks all….
Morning all.
Good morning.
Where to start ? Firstly a limp excuse from Wenger that we have to many games in succession .That was a diabolical team performance,and I stress the word team.When you follow Arsenal fervently as many of us do,one can usually predict the way the game will most probably pan out after only 10 minutes,as was the case tonight and on several other occasions recently.
Where was the urgency and motivation to win the game and secure a place in a final, even if it is only the C.C..Ipswich stifled our game as did Leeds and City.Passes went astray, there was no fluidity in any moves of note and when it gets to the point that one can’t even be bothered to watch the dross from the team i have supported for many a year,one has to accept that we have real problems within the squad,and that includes our captain who is partly just going through the motions.there is an arrogance running through the team and at the same time one senses a couldn’t care less attitude if we win or not.No point in picking out individuals performances,they were all pretty poor and WestHam, Leeds and even Ipswich is the return leg,will not be losing any sleep having to play us.A disappointing night would be an under statement.
Good players don’t suddenly turn into bad ones but there are noticeable exceptions who just simply aren’t of Arsenal standard.I hope this gets through to you Mr.Wenger.Barcelona must be quacking in their boots.
Sorry if this should have waited until the new post goes up,but i had to get it off my chest.
I have been as polite as possible 🙂
Love to see the player ratings from someone as for me not one player rose above a 6 going down to 1(just for turning up ) 😉
morning kelsey, not good eh……
Angry, very very angry.
Very very Will….
Give me five mins and i’ll post the new one
New one up…..