Morning all.
Serge Gnabry has been chatting to the official website:
I am very happy with how this season has gone. I am a very young player, so to be alongside all these top players, in a squad with massive potential, has been really good. I have been involved in most of the games so I am very happy.
[My life] has changed a lot. Obviously you get more attention from fans and get recognised more often. Also, as a player you feel confident when you are in and around a team of top players. I’m just trying to get to the next level now.
It makes you a better person. I have grown up a lot since I came from the youth team, and it is a good experience to be playing, training and learning from all the top players here.
It is very tough to play in the Premier League, you have to be at a constant level – both physically and mentally. You have to prepare for the games and be spot on in them, so really that is the biggest challenge for me.
It’s hard to believe that Gnabry is still just 18 years old, although he’s not the tallest of players, he’s built like a wall. Strong, compact and he looks pretty darn fit. Maybe being just eighteen is the reason he’s not played at much as many would have hoped but I’m sure that will all change next season and thankfully, he’s tied down to a long contract because sure as anything, it won’t be too long before clubs like Bayern Munich come sniffing around for his signature.
Mind you, he’s reported to be on £20,000 a week, a lot of money for a player still in his teens but if his footballing career continues in the way it’s started, that salary may need to be reviewed in the not to distant future.
What is especially nice though is hearing a young player like him express publicly how happy he is and as much as we all want to see a few top class signings, he believes in the ones already with us.
But then so do we don’t we?
Well I do, in most anyway, yes there is one or two who frustrate the heck out of me on playing days but once Arsene Wenger adds 3/4 top players this summer, those players will either pick their game up, or they’ll be part of a stronger bench.
Talking of top players, ours are on the return.
Aaron Ramsey and Laurent Koscielny are reportedly back in training today so fingers crossed no set-backs for either and Mesut Ozil is not far behind.
Maybe the Everton game will be a bit too soon for Ramsey and Koscielny but Wigan in the FA Cup semi final should be a certainty…
Ozil and maybe even Diaby could appear soon after our big day out at Wembley……
Finally, in case you missed the story, Johan Djourou has made his move to Hamburg a permanent one.
Good, that’s another few thousand pounds, (£50,000 reportedly) a week saved and more to be used in the summer…
That’s it for another day…..
Morning again and thank you Rico.
Just missed your positive vibes Adam 😉
Glad JD has sorted his future out, good luck to him….
Rico. Really. I thought you had fallen back on statistics. 🙂
I’ve come up with one. Harry Redknapp is a better manager than Arsene because he has won an FA Cup during the time that Wenger has won nothing.
Ha ha..
Good old ‘Arry….
Just shows you statistics are a very small part of the story. 🙂
Intelligence with a modicum of imagination is perhaps a more reliable indicator. Similarly, with people talking about Cahill and saying they were right/wrong about him. The judgement that made was ‘then’ and this is now. If he had come to us he might not have turned out as well. Who knows?
Samba anyone?
Morning again, Great read Rico 🙂 nice to hear youngsters are coming through and he is a prospect.
I would like to bring up a subject that seems to be dismissed and that is equipment mainly football boots, We have a very good equipment sponsor and they have shown their generosity. I wonder if they can produce a football boot that can give extra protection say like a kevlar type material. I was thinking the other day about bank robbers, daft i know, but should a bank robber go into a bank would you feel better knowing he had a cosh or would you feel more vulnerable if he wielded a gun, Now i personally would feel that any robber would have more confidence with a gun and even the most feeble robber would feel more confident.
Having explained all that imagine a player wearing a specially made kevlar boot which covered the ankle, maybe leg coverings and maybe a reinforced shirt. Many would say that a player may be unable to wear this atire and still play, but when you look at what Cricketers wear and still manage to sprint between the wickets. Rugby players and what American football stars wear, they can still play their sports.
Arsenal do seem to get a lot of injuries and having a top equipment firm backing us seems a waste when they could give our players a little more protection whilst building confidence.
Ah but I was right re Cahill Adam 😉
And you know I like stats about as much as I do Jose…
Crikey Sp, finally a post you like, wonders will never cease 😉
Robbers/football boots, what you smokin’ lol
What about Sahko Rico? 🙂
As you know I was foolish enough to mention Costa to you many, many moons ago but I now realise that he is shit.
Was it Palmer who said the analogue / digital thing?
But he’s shit and injured!
Morning Lee. A complete non-starter then. 🙂
Rico, Confidence is between the ears, conquer that and you have a beast. Put that Vibration device down and concentrate. 🙂
Nice to see those Chelsea fans storming through Paris yesterday screaming Seig Heil and making Nazi salutes. Whoever said that wasn’t a classy club?
I think they have the manager they so richly deserve. Listening to his bleatings after the game and the way that he distanced himself from the team must be music to Abramovich’s ears. And being Jewish he must have loved the behaviour of ‘his’ fans.
Got that one wrong Adam, very wrong but that was a while back 😉
It was from ANR re Wenger.
Morning Lee, we might stand more of a chance of signing Costa if he’s injured….
Of course the whole digital/ analogue thing is very misunderstood Rico. The fact that Palmer uses it in such a demeaning way is irritating but hardly surprising as he is so typically thick. We live in an Analogue world and perceive things in an analogue domain. It could be argued quite easily that in attempting to insult Wenger in that way, he was in fact and quite unknowingly giving him a huge compliment. Once again it says more about him than Wenger in that he doesn’t quite ‘get it’. This is something that, from what I have seen, has been a feature of Palmer’s career. An angry little man. We’ve seen plenty of those. 🙂
I actually thought it was quite good really Adam, just took it to mean that in footballing terms, he’s not up with the modern game…
Rico. I am sure that’s what he did mean but I must say that, having watched the CL league games this week, albeit in a virus-induced haze, I am wondering the ‘modern game’ label might be a bit of a myth. I said a while ago, after we played them, that I am not sure what Pep has bought to BM other than more passes. For a club of that size and financial power to have such poor central defenders and so little up front makes me wonder. In a sense Bayern are like the German superstate. Great when they are told what to do, financially bullying on a grand scale, but unable to think for themselves. Seems to me that they rely on the fact that a bit of Robben’s cheating is going to win the day for them which is why I have no sympathy for Pigsteiger getting sent off for a Rooney dive. They deserve it and Pepe, although I like him, dropped in my estimation this week. I think I preferred them under that old geezer with the silver barnet myself. More power and purpose. Moved the ball quicker and more dynamically too. More analogue than digital.
Similarly, PSG. If that’s all they can come up after spending such an obscene amount of money? Well, no wonder they want Wenger.
But, I think I am being naive. This is modern football played with cynicism and dishonesty as exemplified by Chelsea. What a match made in heaven Robben and they were.
You might have thought that the latter stages of the CL would be where the great football was played by the game’s great players. Not so. It is a cheat-fest of over paid tossers trying to con the ref. pathetic really. Just like Myles Palmer.
Arsene Wenger to stay then Adam 😉
Just like I have always said Rico. 🙂
Something always seem to suffer with us, either we are pacey going forward etc etc and then the defence struggles, or we are all defence and our attack is slow….
I think he’ll stay Adam….
good morning
AW will stay in Arsenal?
Judge at the end of the season but if we not reach the CL, probably not.
Djourou this year vs PED and Lew was a comedy act… glad they had taken him off us… another player who should have stayed as a DM for us but he was deemed not to be as mobile as the Cesc of this world…
Good read Rico…
Morning JM…
Thanks Ts..
Adam re 11:14 reading that excellent view, I wonder why they think AW is an analogue manager but then say Pep and Klopp are modern managers…
From what I have seen with both Pep and Klopp’s team is the same naivety and kamikaze approach where defensive and DM positions are over looked…
My question is will Pep or Klopp have bought Neuer on that big fee?
So to me I completely disagree when I read that AW is not a modern manager… In fact all the said managers including even Simeone do not change tact or strategy to the scale most fans berate AW of not doing…
In Simeone’s case it can be argued because he of his personally and the position he played and the way he played it as a top footballer he pays a little more attention to the DM position.
What position did AW play Ts?? 😉
The quality of digital information is reliant on the sampling rate, given that the A-D and D-A convertors are the same. The higher the rate, the more defined and nuanced the info will be. If you take this to its ultimate expression ie. unlimited rates, what do you get?
Analogue. I would prefer to be known as an Analogue man, especially if Mourinho is Digital.
hi everyone……nice read rico…finally jd is off our books…interesting ts even though i don’t agree with what u said re pep and klopp would really like to know what you think of carlo ancelotti
🙂 Adam…
Hi snap, thanks…
the truth of the matter is arsene has a way of playing but he is not buying the required players for it…truth be told i dont think we as a team has an identity yet….if we want to be a counter attacking team we most definitely need pace and we lost that in walcott we cant say we are a possession team as we always falter when we get pressed and that is why we always fail against the big boys as when we lose the ball we have few ball winners in our midfield to help win it back…….this has been evident in all the big games this season but that is just my opinion
snap, that’s pretty much my view too….
Trying to trip me up Rico? 🙂
AW started off as a striker but he was not good enough so ended up as a defender allegedly…
I am not sure how he was a defender but he described himself as a ‘Parlour-type’ of player…
Hi Snap, I rate Ancellotti.. he tries to incorporate the Saatchi method of play…
Like I always say though, I like the proactive nature of Conte..
He is the only manager in modern football I see who actually changes tactics in games… switching from 4-3-3 to 3-5-2 and vice-versa…
Like I always say I would like to see Pep build a team after a team he has inherited begins to age…
At Barca he bought 4 big money defenders but only Pique teh cheap version could make it…
French and Dutch teams have always flattered to deceive imho…
I know Lenz and yourself Stan have disagreed with my views on Klopp and his defensive naivety but I do not like the way he overlooks the DM and CB roles…
Sokratis will not make it in this league imho nor did Sahin look like he could hack it in this league…
What BVB/Klopp is lucky with is that B’laski, Reus and co are all hardworking and tactically switched on than the likes of Ox, SC19 and JW…
One of the defining emotions of these latter years of Wenger is one of frustration surely. Last year the club let it be known loud and clear that we had reached where we wanted to be financially and that, in a money-driven environment, we could at last compete. Obviously, after years of under achievement and creatures like Mourinho rubbing salt in our wounds at every opportunity, this sounded like great news. We had taken it royally from Chelsea, then Man City and had been contending for years with the unholy cabal between Riley and Ferguson that had so distorted the PL. While Arsenal were trying to do things the right way by not accruing debilitating debt other clubs were taking a somewhat easier route but who’s to say that, if a Sheikh had bought Arsenal and pumped in billions, we wouldn’t have celebrated a few trophies and held a different view.
The frustration came in bucketloads this season. By not equipping the team with enough quality, particularly in the striking department, I think he made a serious misjudgement and I will never understand how he possibly imagined that we could win the CL or the PL with just Giroud up front. Yes, he has been catastrophically naive tactically too and the defeats at Chelsea and Liverpool were truly horrible, but eminently avoidable.
Yes, he probably will sign a new contract but my hope is an old one. To be able to look at the squad on September 1st and think ‘Yes, we could win the PL with these guys’.
I haven’t felt that for years.
🙂 Ts, but AW a Ray Parlour… Never…
I hope that’s the case too Adam. However…..
Off for an hour or so now, catch up later…
I think if we had not lost the players we have lost recently we wouldn’t be far off the top team…
Saying that, it is chicken and egg situation… if he equiped the team with more options or trusted the players he had he won’t have to over play the same players so often…
Adam glad to see you’re back…AW signs a new 2yr deal and we buy a couple of £10m players, although being linked to loads of top draw players! We’ve been here many times before….its sooooo fucking boring! The change needs to start from the very top…..
If my aunt had bollocks she’d be my uncle…
TS. I completely agree. Factoring in injuries is all part of building an adequate squad. We know we will get at least twice as many injuries as the other top teams so, while we try to figure out why, we must plan accordingly.
I’d be more ruthless with the injured players….
And the medical staff…
Lee. I reckon you would be too. 🙂
Lee. Cheers mate. I still feel ropey though. My mate out in Chelmsford just rang to say that the air quality out there today is the worst he has ever known.
After the shit that I smoked last night, I’m not overly concerned brudder…..
AW is like one of those dooms day preppers around the world who fail to provide more than the basic needs for their families but would rather hoard up tonnes of food supply and other rations for an apparent dooms day that may not happen in their life time…
As one of Aw’s biggest fans it really cheeses me off knowing that the so called better managers win less than 6 more games than Aw each season on average and they have almost all the resources they need but AW will rather do it the hard way…
I thought the pollution was from the 3 wheeled car? 🙂
Afternoon all…
Arsene Wenger and his bloody £100 million war-chest..,
What a load of old tosh…
Rico, haven’t you sorted out that bloody iPhone yet… 🙄
I see that Jonkers has recruited two new (Dutch) coaches for the Academy…
U18’s will be coached by Fran’s De Kat
U16’s will be coached by Jan Van Loon (yeah, I know 😆 )
Wind up or what…
Afternoon Kev, I’m getting there but with a lot of help from a friend 🙂
Wow, that’s interesting re Jonker Kev…
The good news is i arrived home at 11.30 pm safe and sound.
The bad news is, after falling into a heavy sleep, i am awake a few hours later!
Afternoon guys.
I feel like CRAP!!
Hopefully, i drift off again soon, but who knows.
Hong Kong…..hated it.
If one more bloke attempts to accost me on the side of the road asking do i need a good tailor or a “copy watch”, i will btch slap him!
Hated the place, and am glad to be home.
Hi Scott, I heard you were back safe and sound and really pleased…
HK sounds a bit like Weymouth 😉
Rico, even my normally placid wife had a crack at a few of these street side pedlars.
Anyone going, stay away from Nathan Rd 🙂
I’m not surprised Scott, never been to HK but I found that kind of thing bad enough in Turkey and Tunisia, goodness knows how bad it must have been in Konkers….
I’m not even going to ask re Nathan Rd..
To think we’ll never see Djourou fill in at right back again, brings a tear to the eye.
Scott you old goat, glad your home safe and sound mate!!
Cheers Lee, i coped quite well during the trip with the change of time zones, but i think it is hitting me now lol.
Still, soooo memories, and not a bad one…….well, 6-0 was a little hard to take first up 🙂
Tears of celebration Micko…. lol
False alarm rico, turns out just a bit of dust on the ole contact lense.
Phew Micko, you had e worried, just for a second ….
Afternoon Rico. We’ll be able to do a FaceTime call now. 🙂
Or FaceTime Audio perhaps which is great quality.
And free……:)
Hi Scott. Glad you and the family are back home safe and sound.
Kev, any news on Van de Vest ?
Afternoon Adam, Facetime?? I’m only just getting used to iphone messaging 😉
Rico. All in good time. Feel free to message me though. 🙂
I will Adam…
Back in a while, dinner calls…
You folk seen this??
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/you-wont-believe-sexist-abuse-3350415
I personally wish LA all the best and hope she gets all the support she deserves….
I agree Rico.
Face time is good…
If you know how to use it… lol
Poor old Benteke is out for 8 months….
You could have at least broke the news gently rico, tsgh will be as sick as a parrot.
You and your iphone, going all digital, take note Arsene !
Ha ha Micko..
Well overdue for me, just like Arsene…
Talking of overdue, my bedtime is getting quite close so I’ll bid you all a very good evening…
Night Micko and all, have a good one….
Rico, did i see you have an Iphone??
Never thought i would see the day lol
Thanks Adam.
I feel great.
3, maybe 4 hours sleep last night has me firing on all 2 cylinders haha.
Plus the rain is belting down…..am i back in London 🙂
Mick, bad news mate.
Van Der Vest didn’t make it….
I think it’s pants myself…
Night All, and, you know who…
I am wiiiiiiiide awake Kev 🙂
Good to hear you arrived safely; Scott…
I can always sense when Micko is plotting a coup d’etat against my regime… 😛
Only if Yaya and Flamini was as reliable as Benteke… 🙂
Ah well even Falcao has been out for the whole year so we can’t blame the EPL for that… 😉
Night Kev
Hi Ginge.
I’m at Sean’s school training session…..just what I needed, but I promised to catch a session before terms end, and this is the last day!!!
I’m interested to see how they go.
Morning all..
Chelsea may have to see Oscar and Hazard to fund Costa…
I know, Jose wouldn’t sell to us…..
Morning Rico and all…. I read that he’ll need to sell Lukaku as well and we’re interested, I’m up for that! I think Torres will go to Athletico to help fund the Costa deal, methinks. Trouble is that poisonous vertically challenged bell won’t sell to us!
I know it’s wishful thinking but I’d love us to do our business early doors and buy some real quality…….then my alarm clock went off!
Morning Lee, ditto re Lukaku, big strong and just what we need but you are right, Jose won’t allow him to sign for us. I suspect he’d rather Everton signed him…
Surely this has to be the summer we see a change in the way we do our deals, especially with all the sponsorship money so well published…
2/3 early top class signings would set us up nicely….
What Iphone you got?
5s Lee
Snap…I’ll mail u my number.
Fab, thanks…
Morning Rico and Lee.
I wish I had an iPhone 5, of any description. 🙂
Adam, when the 4g works it’s quicker than wifi….
Morning Adam, but you have the pad…. lol
I know Lee. I would like a 5. Perhaps I can buy Rico’s when she upgrades to the new iPhone 6?
I won’t be upgrading Adam, it will take me two years to work this one out 😉
Only just seen this little rumour, Menez of PSG is tipped to join us on a free in the summer…
Free now that fits Arsene’s criteria……
Least he’s a winger Lee 😉
New post up now…