Morning all.
The Telegraph report that Arsene Wenger is considering letting Per Mertesacker go in the summer and bringing in a new defender. True, who knows but it would make sense.
Unlike Paul Scholes – you know the one, ginger hair and quite a dirty player. He’s also the bitter and twisted one who missed his penalty back in 2005 during the FA Cup final. After that miss, Paddy stepped up, found the back of the net and we had the big jug in our hands again…
Scholes still hasnt gotten over that day. Tough eh!
But clearly, just like so many sad and retired footballers who instead of putting their playing days into good use by coaching, he’s turned poacher pundit:
“Over the years, the big players who were really ambitious – Vieira, Thierry Henry, Cesc Fàbregas, Robin van Persie – have all left. They left for the simple reason that Arsenal are not in it to win league titles any more. Those players have realised that if they want to win championships then they have to move elsewhere”.
Forgive me if I have got my information wrong, but weren’t all of those players at the club when we were winning things? Ok, Fabregas and RvP were later, but both were involved in that FA Cup winning season albeit for RvP, it was the start of his run of constant injuries…
Fabregas just wanted to go home, Vieira, well there’s many a story about his departure but he did add few medals to his collection in Italy as did Henry in Spain with Barca after they left us but not many other players who left for more money silverware can brag the same.
As for RvP, well just look at him now. He left to play under Fergie, won the league, sulked under Moyes and now he looks finished. Good move eh! I bet he wishes he’d stayed at Arsenal and stayed loyal to the manager who stood by him through all the bad times….. And there were a few!
Scholes didn’t stop there, he went on to batter Mesut Ozil:
“It’s why I think Mesut Özil took the easy option joining Arsenal. Since he has been there you cannot doubt his quality but at times he looks like he is going through the motions, however much ground he covers. He needs a leader around him to get him going. At Real Madrid he had a chance of winning league titles. At Arsenal that is not on the cards.”
Its probably fair to say we lack a player with leadership qualities, so I’ll give him that but to suggest Mesut Ozil joining Arsenal was an easy option is nothing other than rubbish…
Scholes says that players have left us because they want to win trophies, yet, when it comes to Mesut, that same rule clearly doesn’t apply because if all players leave a club in search of silverware, then why would he sign for Arsenal? After all, didn’t he say winning trophies with us is out of the question these days?
Scholes is just one of many examples of ex players talking when they really don’t have a clue. An easy move for Mesut would have been to stay at Madrid, move to City, Chelsea or any other club who are constantly winning things. And of course, he’d probably be paid more elsewhere.
Mesut Ozil may not appear to be the hardest worker in the squad, but neither was Thierry Henry was he but the one thing they both have in common is that on any given day, they can destroy a side..
Thierry did it and Mesut still has plenty of time to follow suit in a different way – especially if other players help him….
But we all know what Paul Scholes game is, he’s trying to upset us all before Monday night. I just hope the manager and players have read his stupid article and go and whoop their backsides good and proper…
And for Mesut, let’s hope it’s his creativity or goals which steal the headlines….
Finally, good luck to Reading for today, I hope they can do what no PL side has done this FA Cup campaign, and that’s beat Bradford and book their place in the semi-finals.
That’s it for today, have a good Saturday all and don’t forget the clocks go forward tonight……..
Hi Rico, good post.
The ginger whinger is just trying to wind up the players. Wenger needs no team talk, just let the players read the rankings of a mad man.
The clocks change at the end of March.
I really hope that Arsenal play like they did against City on Monday night.
We are due a result against the Mancs. But only if they go about it in the right fashion.
Bloody iPhone key pad, should say rantings of a mad man…..
Hi Rico, quiet for a Saturday.
Merts may decide to go back to Germany and eventually retire and go into coaching.
He has won bucket loads of caps for Germany, but always had players with pace alongside him.
I read that due to the game being played on Monday night, there are only a handful of travelling fans making the journey.
Seems the odds are already against us.
When you are a hideous ginger dwarf and not the sharpest tool in the box plus you are an ex-Man Utd player with a sense of entitlement accrued after years of receiving unfair and corrupt refereeing decisions, you tend to acquire expertise in certain areas. The ghastly Scholes has clearly become a world-class disgorger of effluence. We can only hope that the dirty little cretin chokes on it.
Excellent Post, Rico, 🙂
It is no surprise to me that Scholes and his ilk feel free to criticise other clubs but steer clear of moaning about their old club – in the hope of getting a coaching or managing job in the future.
Özil gets a lot of stick for being ‘lazy’ and that included his efforts in that disastrous Monaco game.
Interestingly out of the top 5 players putting in the greatest distances in that game, 4 of them were from Monaco, and guess who was the only Arsenal player to appear in that list?
Yep, you have got it — the much maligned Ozil who appeared at number 3 in the list for the most yards put in.
The stats show that he is consistently among the hardest working Arsenal players – but everyone thinks he is lazy because of his effortless style.
Don’t think Scholes mentioned that.
Hi Marinello, Henry, Adam all all… Thanks re the post…
Good morning Lovelies and Hunkies.
Nice one today Rico. I would tie Scholes to a chair and make him watch his penalty miss for a whole month.
But why let Per go? Work this out. He lacks pace. So he has to concentrate on positional skill and tactics. Hence….he would make a good coach. So put him with the young ones to teach them.
I agree with your view Henry B, if only Ozil could add a bit of muscle and not get muscled out, he would have it all in his locker.
Expect Phil Neville to come out of his ferrets den and start criticising Arsenal along with Jamie Redknapp….
Arsenal appear to be like marmite, you either like them or loath them…
Per has definitely slowed down even further this season but he is still brilliant in anticipation and tackling – (at 6′ 7″ he cannot jump for toffee tho) 🙂
I am not sure that he will go in the summer, but at 30-ish I suppose the time comes for all of us to call it a day. Maybe it is time for one or other of the U 21s like O’Connor, Iwobi or Hinds to come thru.
Marinello, makes sense re Merts returning to Germany, I think Podolski will too..
Nicely summed up Adam re Scholes..
Henry – Ozil can’t help being born looking like he doesn’t care… 😉
The EASY option was taken by Scholes – too scared to challenge himself at another club or go abroad, so stayed with the team who were miles better than most in England. He then QUIT England squad in his twenties – couldn’t possibly fight to win, could he! What a Ginger Twat.
The easy option for Ozil was to go to ManCity or Bayern, just be part of a money-spending winning machine.
And any surprise that Scholes, the two Nevilles, and Owen – all ex ManU are taking turns having a pop before an Arsenal ManU cup tie. Must be a coincidence.
Thanks Rico. My vitriolic edge still eludes me though. 🙂
Personally I’d move dear old Per on and replace him with a top central defender. Varane would do or the evil and totally cynical Godin from Ath. Madrid perhaps. Dunno his age.
🙂 Adam. Surely not….
I would too re Mertesacker, but I’d love a good old English CB to come in… Mind you, not sure their are many around…
I heard that we’d been given 10,000 tickets…
Not sure about validity of that, but the club are doing their best to get as many up there as possible…
Morning All
Morning Rico
Varane is still around 21/22. He can play as a CB, RB and DM
Godin can play as a CB only. And he is around 27 I think
So with being French and can play in multiple positions leads to AW preferring Varane
Old as in ‘old fashioned’ 😉
Welcome and well said Trev.
Nice one Rico. Morning all.
Just dropped in to say. The following:
The Football Association has banned Manchester United’s Jonny Evans for six games and Newcastle’s Papiss Cisse for seven matches for spitting.
Defender Evans, 27, had denied the charge which related to an incident with striker Cisse in the Red Devils’ 1-0 win over the Magpies on Wednesday.
Cisse, 29, is suspended for an extra game as he was banned in December for elbowing Everton’s Seamus Coleman.
There is no right of appeal and the bans will take immediate effect.
As a result, Northern Ireland international Evans will miss Monday’s FA Cup quarter-final against Arsenal
Bbc website
So, one of the Scholes boys, the phlegmy one, won’t be lining up against us on Monday. Probably a good thing, but as a defender Evans is hardly out of the top drawer, a liability rather than an asset. Not sure that the FA have done us any favours there!
Of Scholes, he always was a nob and now he has matured into a twat as well. his opinions are not worth the toilet paper they are written on.imo, of course!
Thanks Devil, morning to you and Kev…
I wouldn’t bet against 10,000 and good to see the club sorting the travel issues out and subsidising the fares too….
Morning Wavy, thanks. Good re Evans, disgusting thing to do….
Marinello,
It is interesting that the best of the current crop of commentators is Gary Neville, and despite playing for a trophy winning team he has consistently said that the best footballing team ever to appear in the Premiership was the Invincibles.
He said that they (Manure) did whatever they could, on Ferguson’s instructions, to disrupt, rotationally foul or provoke Arsenal because if you played them at football they would murder you.
All the shit teams managed by Pulis, Fat Sam, Hughes etc have carried that on since.
Back-handed compliment or what – Arsenal suffered for that and the crap referees did not try and stop them – scared of Fergie I suppose.
And didn’t the Neville sisters follow Fergies rule to the end, poor Reyes…
Am I the only person, that when Michael Owen speaks, the nasal twang of his, really annoys me.
its like sand paper being dragged across glass…..
Be great if the 10,000 fans go and support the lads. Good to see the Club helping out as well.
I just really hope that the right team turns up and gives a good show of itself. it may need a replay back at the Emirates so see them off.
I’ll have to make do with watching it on the box in a pub in Parkway Camden. it will be rammed.
The 8500 tickets originally issued have sold out. People that are driving will have to leave early because of the traffic problems around the area. Fergie’s fledglings will all get into the “” mind games “” but they don’t have the brains of their ex manager. Any effect it might have will depend on our own players attitudes not their spiteful words.
Henry B says that Per can’t jump , it is something that has rung true for years, when kids have that advantage throughout their lives they don’t have to and if you haven’t learned to time a jump by the time your 15 /16 you never will and that’s why his strengths are on the ground with the covering and positioning. Perhaps he will find a place as a coach because he has said that he finds it hard to motivate himself to play nowadays , but even if he stays we still need another player to slot in whilst Chambers learns his trade.
Monday will tell us a lot , a bad result could see us fade away for the rest of the season , a good one though and who knows where it might lead.
I can’t stand listening to Owen either, he talks a load of rubbish too. Another with an agenda against us…
Henry B, Fergie always sent his players out to routinely niggle at the Arsenal players ankles and foul. As you say a back handed compliment really. The difference then, we had players who were able to give it out as well as take it. I feel we still need a bit more bite in the tackle from current players and the never say die attitude of Coquelin and Sanchez needs to flood through players veins.
Morning all just, Ireland just won again at the cricket world cup yippy.
It’s not his fault, Rico — Owen is just appallingly stupid.
Good point Potter about the outcome of the match on Monday defining the rest of the season.
A win at Old Trafford would give players a tremendous confidence boost, especially a player like Ozil who i think thrives on confidence.
Lets hope that Wenger’s pre match talk instills a feeling of unity, self respect and hunger into the players, and they go out and put a full shift in.
Marinello,
My concern has been that for too long we have acquired small skilful midfield players who are often taken off the ball by bigger less skilful players using their physique.
That is why we need to get a much bigger ‘enforcer’ to balance that up – nobody pushed Vieira around and since he left ………..
My thoughts entirely Henry B, add a natural leader to this role and in defence and who knows where we could end up.
Potter – did Merts really say he struggles to motivate himself to play these days? I’m amazed…
Totally agree re us lacking a bit of physicality in the side…
With all ex Manu thugs having a go at Özil it says just one thing to me they are running scared of him and Arsenal.
I think that playing a long season with Arsenal, 2013-14, where he played almost every game. And won the FACup.
Going to Brazil and to the end of the World Cup competition. Winning it and returning to Germany, the celebrations and emotional drain of that event.
Then having virtually no pre-season, going straight into 2014-15. Losing his regular partner in Koscielny and partnering Monreal, Debuchy, Chambers, whilst again playing in almost every game. Wax always going to have a debilitating effect on Mertesaker…,
Most other Arsenal players would be cut some slack in similar circumstances.
But not Per, who is routinely rubbished…
30 for a central defender, is not old…
30 for any footballer, these days, is not old.
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2014/10/23/5407061/mertesacker-i-am-struggling-with-motivation-at-arsenal
Just one site that covered it.
You could have a point Kev, but I’m not convinced… 😉
Thanks Potter, that was in October so hopefully things have changed for him since then…
Thank you Rico 🙂
Mertesaker also had, according to what I read, a very good game at QPR…
I read that too re Qpr Kev 🙂
ok, but that performance change anything?
if we any chance in sell hin i am agree. he is getting “older” quickly
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31779725
When Arsene met Martin Keown….
Yes JM, it did, because that performance came after the guy had had a break…
It’s obvious…
AK,
For ‘break’ that reads ‘dropped’. He came off the bench because of Gabriels hammy.
‘Old’ is too sweeping a word to describe all players when they reach 30, because there are players who are natural athletes and can go on well into their mid-thirties – others, because of previous injuries or because they lose their pace [Arteta/Mert] – struggle.
It is a subjective opinion.
Henry;
‘Dropped’, ‘rested’, ‘taken out of the firing line’, it’s all semantics…
Mertesaker is shot, mentality exhausted if not physically…
With Koscielny carrying a long-term injury, it was unlikely that both Gabriel and Koz were going to play the rest of the season.
Two games a week would eventual destroy Koscielnys hamstring(?)…
As for Mertesaker being too old at 30…
Well Rosicky is 34…
Players are not machines, they sometimes have poor seasons. That doesn’t mean that they’re finished…
qpr 0 toots 1… was offside in my opinion! and QPR was much better on the pitch (they had hit the post!9
come on QPR!
Hi Kev, I agree. Tomas run and plays like a teenager. Modern day footballer are like a finely tuned race horse, they get a knock or a pull and they are out injured. We just seem to have a run of injuries every year, and it disrupts things a little.
I read the Diaby was in the Royal Free hospital last week having an operation to have the treatment table surgically removed from his back…..
Just saying…
Marinello 😀
1-2 …. penalty for QPr? obviously not…
Totts, MU and Liverpool the clubs of the system
A prediction from Kev, Wath, Lee and Rico for Monday night?
I fancy a 1-2 victory.
I’m going for an away win too Marinello…
How rude, evening folks……
I am off out now. Have a nice evening Rico and everyone. Catch up tomorrow.
Marinello
Good evening Lovelies and Hunkies.
Merts finished??? you got to be joking right!!!!!
Imo he is not finished. he needs just a rest and to be mentally motivated. It would be a mistake to sell him. As I have said a few posts ago…….keep Per, Kos, Gab and rotate them…..2 games each out of 3. That will have them rested and motivated. And also play differently each game.
AW should even try that with the FB. We have Bellerin, Chambers, Monreal and Gibbs. All of them are quality, while Monreal and Chambers can also play CB. And do not forget that Debuchy has to return. So that is 8 players for 4 positions.
A prediction from my side. I have a feeling about the result. But I will keep it to myself. dont want to spoil it and we end up loosing. but its that quiet funny feeling if you want a hint 😉 and its rarely that I get it.
Just another hint…..in 2006 I kept telling my old Pa…….that Arsenal will go all the way to the final, but I stopped short of telling him we will win it. It was only on the eve of the CL final that a feeling of doom replaced that funny feeling.
You too Marinello, have a fab evening….
Devil, I wouldn’t play Chambers at right back ever again unless we were in dire straights, for me, he’s a centre back who is young and still learning. If when playing right back he faces a tricky winger, he gets exposed and roasted and that will do him no good whatsoever and his game against Swansea really hurt him… Imo of course…
As you say, Debuchy should be back soon so just rotate him and Bellerin….
you are right Rico. on all points. However he is still young…..so learning and will be ready in three years time to take over, by which time Per will be past it and Kos nearly there as well. So for now rotate with the other three CB’s and RB when in dire straits.
Imo…..the situation with regards the defence is more healthier than it has been in the last 8 years.
That’s what I’m saying Devil, let Chambers learn his cb position and become a master, don’t destroy all confidence by exposing his deficiencies at right back…
Anyone here considers Caulker a good buy for the Arse?????
Who? 😉
I’m off to watch tv, catch you all tomorrow…
Night all….
Nighty night square eyes… 🙂
rico, beware of the voices.
Have to agree with Scholes, not as if he’s the next Maradona is it !!!
Good Morning Lovelies and Hunkies.
Seems that the clouds of doom are beginning to hang over Manchester. Good. Let’s hope they continue to hang on for the next 10 years at least.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/pictured-what-bizarre-ufo-like-cloud-8794966
Morning Devil and all…
Micko, cant miss Will I. Am. on a Saturday night….
Morning All
It’s a beautiful sunny Spring day in London Town, even Waterloo Station looks quite nice…
Morning Rico…
Was the Voice very emotional again? 😉
Good morning Lady
Seems that shitty want Jack.
They want cresswell as well. what is your opinion on him???
Morning Kev. Not so bright here today, maybe later the sun will shine..
The Voice was good, a few dire contestants but the judges made me laugh as always… 😉
Coach, there is no way that I’d like to see Arsenal sell any of their players to ManCity, ManUre, Liverpool, Spuds or Chelsea…
Surely those days are gone?
I know nothing much about Cresswell Devil….
Rico, I see that Arsenal are again being linked to Mario Mandzukic…
Mario’s agent couldn’t possibly be looking for another percentage pay day surely?
🙂 Kev, I saw that one, he’s supposed to have had a bust up with Simeone isn’t he? As did their DM, Suarez…
I hope so Kev. But if Jack continues to get injured and misbehave and not adhere to getting better than cash in to the highest bidder. If Shitty offer good money……then by all means.
New post up now..
I thought that to start with Devil, but as Lee said a while ago, sell him, but only to an overseas club. Selling to City would send out all the wrong messages imo…