Morning all.
Over the years, Arsene Wenger has disappointed fans with some of his player signings. Not always of course as looking back to the better days under his management, an awful lot of players were outstanding footballers. Too many to mention really but I think we all know who I mean…
That’s not always been the case of late though as when most wanted a top player snapped up, often a poor substitution arrived at the club. Gervinho instead of Hazard springs to mind and I think the general consensus is that Bale would have been a better option than Theo Walcott. Arsenal needed a strong midfielder so what did the manager do, re-sign Flamini instead of going in search and finding the right kind of player.
He’s made a few cracking signings too like Ozil and Alexis so this is not about me having a rant about the manager although that would be so easy to do.
Now there are question marks being raised over the signing of Ben Wigglesworth, Arsenal’s new scout who according to Walkers finest crisp eater, is not the genius behind Leicester’s fine transfer dealings.
I love how Arsenal nicked the wrong scout. Steve Walsh is the guy who found these players and brought them in. I know when he found Mahrez he was sent to watch someone else and came back with him.
He’s such a bitter man isn’t he, mind you, I guess having been cast aside by his young wife just because he’s knocking on a bit, can’t be easy to deal with…
Another chap who annoys me is our American billionaire who has just bought a nice new two up, two down ranch in Texas. Kroenke is of course, thrilled:
“This is an incredible opportunity and an even greater responsibility. We are honoured to assume ownership of the Waggoner – a true Texas and American landmark.”
$725 million, the highest-priced estate in the world, is reported to be the price he and his wife paid for their new home which kind of irks doesn’t it, especially when his English interest struggle to spend a few million in a transfer window.
Still, perhaps he’ll think about recouping some of his money by selling his Arsenal shares to a man/woman who really cares about the club. A person who wants to make Arsenal great again by investing more money into the squad. A person who doesn’t just care about the finances coming into the club but success on the pitch.
Heck, they might even know something about the game too, now that would be novel…
According to reports in The Sun, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain isn’t happy at Arsenal. He wants more playing time and fears his Euro place for England is under threat. If true, it’s simple, work harder, play better and make it impossible for the manager not to select him.
That’s your lot for today, have a good one…
Did Stan buy an estate, or a state for that price?
Morning all.
Most of Texas I think. Apparently there are a lot of oil fields on the land… 😉
It’s obscene, either way.
Stan has a nice excuse. His wife’s Walmart is bigger than his franchises and so…
Neocon at its finest; I am still awaiting some of Stan’s assets to trickle down to me… 🙂
Where is Mr kev btw; Strikes everywhere today- Black cabbies, Doctors, Nursing students…
I wouldn’t care if he wasn’t our majority shareholder…
I must be old fasioned Ts. I thought ‘what’s your is mine’ in a marriage? lol
😛 Rico.
Its women who say that especially when they are getting ready to take you to court for 70%
You clearly haven’t been divorced recently Ts… 😉
Good to see stan isn’t afraid to splash the cash on stuff he’s actually interested in. He should sell arsenal to the highest bidder *insert Usmanov* .
On the other hand he might propel us to greater heights with all that oil money *tsk am kidding.
OC is complaining about lack of playing time? Imo i think he got too much time to prove himself and he didn’t. Aw should tell him to work hard or sell him to China- the rejects are going for top dollar there.
🙂 Rico
I wonder if Usmanov is still interested, or has that ship sailed..
Ha ha re China Marshall..
Afternoon all
Marshall very funny!
I’m all for flogging the Ox …Chinese have more money than sense…
Would also throw in Walcott as well. They both don’t do enough on the field….
Your a hard man George….. lol
I heard Adam was interested but you need a syrup to bid for the club!
Its true Rico, if we judge them on the last 50 appearances, how many goals and assists are we getting from these attacking players? Hard, well, when we have been blessed with players like Overmars Limpar Ljungberg Pires in wide areas for alot less than we paid for these prospects…
Someone like Joel Campbell may never have the potential these 2 have but at least he will track back,win a tackle , hold the ball up , play a deft pass, actually run somewhere forward with a purpose and find a team mate with a pass and is not scared to shoot…
And he is on less and didnt cost sh*t compared to the overhyped Englishmen…
Jury is out on Wilshere…we pay good money to watch these donkeys, and all we want is effort and application. If the quality isnt there , perhaps we should look at our academy and ask the question why southampton can produce talent and we get soft midgets who cant run, tackle or take a tackle or actually put the ball in the net.
Let’s have a whip round and buy him one then….
Thinking about that George, how much defending did Bobby, Freddie etc do, or hard to do? I’d say not too much, but back then we had much stronger midfielder’s and even defenders…
True Rico, how we badly need a 6ft plus midfielder who can win the aerials in midfield…I can see why we are always linked to Carvalho yet never table a bid
I wouldn’t have been disappointed had we got Sissoko….
George he just signed a new deal at Porto…. that ship has sailed!!!
Plus they’ve sold the other midfielder to Stoke so can’t see two going in such a short space of time.
Still, that won’t stop Arsenal trying with a huge bid in the summer… 😉
George, Ox and Feo both came from the infants at Soton! I guess our overpaid coaches pissed on their development, so I guess you’re right!
China it is then. I mean they’re bothe precious pieces of porcelain and seem to break quite often. China cabinet would be an excellent place to move them to!
Everybody Out…!!!!
Power to the People….
hahaha Kev, keep Cech inn goal, koz as sole defender Sanchez as midfield and attack. 3 muskateers 😀 Wavy has it nailed on. Sissoko would have been great Rico…guess that one has sailed as well. Wanyama might still be available….
Salam George ?
Long live the TPF!!!
Salam Kev
Hi George,
I think we overhype the Saints academy…
As Dev alluded to recently, English/british players find their standard very quickly in their career and hardly ever make any improvement.
When one is a 17 or 18 y.o player, speed and exuberance can be deceive for so long..
After 50 or 100 games, fans expect that said player to start thinking or making decisions on the pitch that makes a difference.
Unfortunately most British players have no tactical awareness and so they find themselves outthought and most times out muscled in the EPL.
Back to my question of Saints acaademy products, how many of them a certain starters at their various clubs?
Llalana (spelling) even though his older is no different to Ox or Theo; none can think on the pitch…
My opinion of course.
Good point Dev/ Ginge
Perhaps they hit a wall once they get to a certain level and they become average at best…
Still , Clyne comes to mind and he is doing ok as is James ward Prowse…
Wanyama would do for me too George but he’s a dirty git… lol
Kev/Bt – I always liked Woolfie… lol
Gareth Bale
BT ?
Hi Rico, good post…
AOC is an enigma wrapped up in a conundrum, or something like that…
planet of the apes Bale would not do for me Kev
Rico we need a dirty git in the midfield lol
He does have an unfortunate face George, but he’s a bloody good footballer…
Granit Xhaka, Verrati, or Neves.
Wagamama not for me….
Or Noodles to his friends
The current Saints starting XV has no academy product in it…
Yes it could be said that Bale, Theo, Ox,Luke Shaw, lallana and Chambers were sold for big money but apart from Bale who initially flattered to deceive at LB (which was his natural position btw) none have made it beyond where they were before they left Southampton.
From the list of 5 or so players I have listed only Bale will walk into the Saints team now.
Ox can’t lace a player like Clasie’s boots nor can Theo compare to Mane nor Chambers compare to martina.
Others like Fonte, Schneiderlein were all brought in at 18 or 19 y.o and were given the chance to play at a club and a level where they were able to gain experience.
previous graduates like Wayne Bridge were solid players but nothing special. When the internationals arrived at Chelsea he was shipped out immediately as his quality was found out…
Famed Southampton academy imho is baseless and no better than our academy.
The difference imho was that the Saints were lucky to have English/British graduates. Also clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool were stupid enough to pay the overpriced asking price for them at a time when Greg Dyke, Danny Mills another clueless pundits were wrongly analysing the way forward for our national team.
Lee- I wonder how Rico never gets her ruler (wiki) out to measure Verrati’s height whenever you mention him.
Super player though;how AW did not buy him after his showing at the youth world cup 4 years ago…
george- I forgot about Ward-prowse
Bale is not bad either…
Silva Neves has played less games than JW but seems more matured when on the pitch..
Both play in the CM or CDM role but Neves does not try to do a ‘maradona’ like JW10.
according to rumours Neves’s buy-out clause is more than £30million (40m euros)…
He is like a younger MA08 and not the Coq type fans would want though… me think
Hi Kev.
George, in red and white, he’d get sent off more… lol
Ts, I think you take the Arteta comments the wrong way, it’s not the player or how he plays, it’s down to his legs and body being old. He can’t keep up with the pace of the game these days imo…
And did Wiki give you the game stats for comparing Jack and Veratti Ts, or a different site??
At least I don’t try to make out my info comes from personal knowledge….
TS I wish Bridge had stayed at Southampton. We may have won the Champions League in 2004 if he had!
Indeed Bob J…
Bj- That goal like most players who score wonder goes against us…
Good evening folks,
Not surprised with kroenke’s nature of greedy cheapskate.
Me prefers Xhaka more than Neves.
Agreed Xhaka is a better all round player…
Good afternoon Rico and all. It does seem strange to me that, after 20 years of Arsene, we are still so far from having a balanced squad. I somehow doubt it will ever happen. We are either too small, too injured, too limited in several positions, don’t have enough experience, have too many kids in the team etc, etc.
Surely, if nothing else, we should have this squad business sorted by now? I know that teams and squads are in a constant state of flux but where is the development and the sense of continuum? AOC, Theo have all been around for years but they don’t really seem to be moving forward to me.
Xhaka has issued a “come and get me” plea to mam citeh so he won’t be visiting theEms or London Colney any time soon.
We can strike him off our bucket list of dream midfielders!
Agreed there Adam.
Fergie once said his secret to success was knowing that a squad had a shelf life of 3 years at best or 5 years in exceptional cases…
AW agreed to that comment during one of the last PLA dinners where the media made a big deal over the new found friendship between the 2…
AW it seem as a way to negate that observation has decided to keep his squad in perpertual transition.As such this current squad has members over this age and the team needs a serious overhaul imo…
Looking at model of the current best club on the planet, when Barca’s squad was 5 years old around the 2013 stage they began to struggle.
The addition of 2 exceptional players like Neymar and Suarez has given it the impetus it needed.
The big question is can AW add 5 top players to his existing starting XVII?
Wavy- apparently Pep or should I say FC Munchen board tried to sign him last summer.
Bild reported that Pep wanted him but the board over ruled…
We need to replace Arteta, Flamini and Rosickly….that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
I think Per needs replacing….
We need a proper goal scorer BUT Wenger will have to move on some of his favourites to accommodate them……and that isn’t happening imo!
it seems that ‘boring’ might well be the way to win the league this year. For the first time in a while I don’t hear claims that Arsenal, though losers ultimately, play the best football.
Afternoon Adam.
I bet Elneny has already replaced Arteta/Flamini.
I assume Elneny’s absence is due to paternity leave, which of course is pharaoh ’nuff, after all he has to look after the mummy! Hohohoho!
Ok, I’ve got me coat….again!
Tim “Wavy” Vine! 🙂
What a shame I’ve got to take a new client to the Barca game!!!
A real shame Brudder. I have been looking forward to seeing you.
Hope your business doesn’t depend on the result Lee… 😉
I actually think that Lallana is a very good player, but went to the wrong club.
Shaw has spent the majority of his ManUre career injured.
So the jury is out.
I always thought he was heading our way Kev..
Bale is top quality.
Jay Rodriguez is also a very good player
Lallana would have done well for us Rico
As would Rodriguez Kev…
Apart from his injuries lol
Night Kev and all, catch up tomorrow…
Liverpool have listened to their fans and acted accordingly. There isn’t even match categorisation by the scouscers! Shows arsenal are all about making money. (tickets freeze isn’t enough)
Even after Munich fans 5min boycott arsenal didn’t blink. Fans need to boycott an entire match esp the category A Barca game they want to suck us dry on. About time clubs listened to fans.
Ah, I forgot, wasn’t it fantastic, seeing those Scousers humbled again by West Ham…
There’s nothing quite as enjoyable as seeing that overblown, overrated mob come a cropper…
It really made my day…
Night Rico ?
Morning all…
Few teccy problems this morning but all resolved now..
New post up..