Sagna rues departures and could leave! It could have been a cricket score 'they' say, pffff!!

Morning all.

Everyone calmed down a bit by now?

Saturday’s loss was hard to stomach in so many ways but we have to hope that the way we played and the way the game was officiated was a blip. One from which everyone at the club must learn from and becomes stronger because of it. Look at some of the positives too, Theo got off the mark with two good goals, Merts scored a belter with his head and Jack nearly scored the goal of the game and of course, we created plenty of other opportunities to score more.

Ok, taking off Flamini was not Arsene Wenger’s finest moment but we were losing and he clearly sensed that we were getting enough chances to score more and even nick the three points. He couldn’t predict that individual errors would bite him in the backside. He clearly didn’t expect the offside flag to go up when it shouldn’t either.

We are not the league leaders for fun, we have earned that right by winning our matches week in week out and ok, we are still struggling to beat the so called bigger teams but as long as they keep losing the odd few games as they are right now, we just have to concentrate on what we do against other sides we come up against and make sure we stay close to the top as January approaches. That’s of course if we ever get knocked off top spot.

It was inevitable to read headlines in the newspapers questioning whether or our season is now collapsing, the lazy pundits have been waiting for a few months to write those kind of headlines and some even suggest we got away lightly as it could have been a cricket score against us!!

They have a point the way England are playing… 😉

Funny how they fail to mention our goals scored and those we had disallowed but I’m used to that from the gutter press.

Reality is we lost out on three points away from home to a side who have spent million after millions of pounds in order to assemble their squad. I’ll be surprised if that side lose a fixture at home all season, they have such depth and strength and despite the score-line, we came close….

There is a long way to go yet before any side is crowned champions and IF Arsene Wenger/Arsenal show balls in this next transfer window, that side could be us. However, if we remain as we are, with the same squad, this years challenge will be a bit too much to ask in my opinion. This is our best start in years, we can’t afford to stagnate in January….

Another week to go before the players have to turn out against Chelsea and those seven days are key to what happens on that night. Rest, regrouping, iron out any internal issues and Arsene Wenger could do with sitting down with his players and watch some re-runs of the fixtures between us and Mourinho’s sides because he has the upper hand in this fixture. Never has Arsene Wenger beaten Jose Mourinho and that has to change at some stage.

And there is no better stage than The Emirates.

Going back to the newspapers and reports this morning suggest that Bacary Sagna has been offered a new two year £90k a week contract but, he wants a three year deal and so he’s not quite ready to sign on the dotted line.

He’s quoted as saying:

I was upset, angry when players left.. If we had them today, it would make a massive difference. Since 2007, a very competitive team left. I would love to win trophies with this club, it’s a club I love so much but something is missing.

I’ve still got six months on my contract with Arsenal. We are in negotiations. It’s an option to go somewhere in January but I always had a good relationship with Arsenal.

I’ve been playing there for seven years and I hope we will end up on something good. First of all I want to finish champion because we have got a good opportunity to do it this year and after we will see…

That one is far from sorted it would seem….

Finally, it’s the Champions League draw today and as we all know, whoever comes out the pot for us is going to be tough opponent. Very tough but if Arsenal have a productive January, who knows what we can achieve.

A win against Chelsea in a weeks time would be a great start…

That’s it for another day….

0 thoughts on “Sagna rues departures and could leave! It could have been a cricket score 'they' say, pffff!!

  1. potter says:

    My God :- The first time I’ve heard it mentioned, Neil Warnock of all people just said “” They should have had a penalty and suffered some shocking offside decisions “” The first pundit to even mention it . This was in a discussion about other teams in Europe wanting to avoid us in the C.League.

  2. Scott from Oz says:

    Offer Bac 4 years if that is what it takes!!
    Potter, i am probably lucky i’m not exposed to the English media.
    Then again, i stopped buying the paper years ago because i got sick of being told what i should think, regardless of what i saw with my own eyes, so maybe it wouldn’t matter 🙂
    Pundits are like the rest of us….some have good opinion and some do not.
    Sticking a microphone in front of someone does not instantly make them intelligent 🙂
    Morning all.

  3. rico says:

    Scott, not sure it’s that simple with Sagna, from what he’s said, he wants to win something and he’s not getting younger.

  4. potter says:

    Scott there almost seems to have been a conspiracy not to mention the refereeing, I think you could call it a deafening silence as everyone has tripped over themselves to be seen to worship at the City altar. I was just surprised to hear someone actually mention it. It was however stopped immediately by the co- presenter then saying “but what about Liverpool.”

  5. Tim says:

    good post rico, I hope sagna signs this contract, we lost the game but we have positive points to take,as for the pundits they had missed something to write about us,the next thing I know they are eagerly waiting to write us off after the champions league draw but I know they will EAT THEIR WORDS VERY SOON.

  6. HenryB says:

    Another super Post, Rico.

    Sagna seems to be trotting out the same mantra as RvP, and all the others, about wanting to win things and having been with Arsenal for ‘x’ number of years, and needing to leave, even though he loves the club, blah, blah.

    He goes on about us having let many good players go, but as with the others, if he wants to leave we can do very little about it.

    Have any of them mentioned their responsibility to the fans? Not a bit of it. It’s all – me, me, me. 🙁

    I have grown to hate reading it.

  7. Scott from Oz says:

    Potter, what about Liverpool…we beat those wankers hahaha.
    Seriously, i have little time for the media.
    Rico, we are top of the League.
    Him signing now can’t hurt our chances, so i hope he realises that.

  8. rico says:

    Thanks Tim & Hb..

    Re Sagna, one minute I think he has to sign, the next I think, he says all he does about those who have left yet he is thinking of doing the same.

    Can’t work out if he holds the club or the players responsible for leaving…

  9. Scott from Oz says:

    It is exactly why Bergkamp is my fave.
    Of course, the was just the best, but stayed til the end.
    None of this crap about wanting to win trophies.
    If it isn’t won at Arsenal, it aint worth winning.

  10. HenryB says:

    I know we were all gutted at the result, and we have all mentioned the refereeing penalty and offside howlers, and the shakey defence etc etc.

    What does not seem to have been mentioned much is that two goals came from gifts in midfield from tame tackles on Jack and Serge Gnabry.

    Both of them had the ball, and were dribbling aimlessly, but seemed to dither when they were being closed down, at times when we had men upfield trying to get in positions to attack.

    The resultant breakaways left our defence little chance with the hordes of swift City forwards.

    They are both gifted players, although that adjective could be a little unfortunate in the circumstances, and maybe all they need is to be given a few forthright words in their ears from Bouldy.

  11. rico says:

    Saying that, we have the best group of players we have had in a long while, just not enough.

    Striker, DM and a winger and we’d beat most…

  12. gunnerpete says:

    A great and truthful analysis of the game. Its sick that score and not justified but only very few are going to say that. Normally if Chelski/City Manure or the Pool have a decision go against (which is highly unusual in its self) the BBC are analysing to the point of stupidity BUT guess what two very good goals and a penalty claim that would have stood at Chelski and Lancashire, and not a word ???? The very fact that at the time the scores would have been 5-5 without the penalty makes a person feel that more was going on that just a another bent ref. These dubious and wrong decisions for two or three ‘wealthy’ clubs make one think that corruption may be more widespread than we thought. I for one am more annoyed that we lost two of our best defenders in Kossy and Gibbs and their replacements were not good enough. Monreal was probably the worst player defensively on the park. Say what you like about Jenks but he would have been amassive improvement on Sagna too. Bent officials we cannot stop but players who go missing we can!

  13. rico says:

    I kind of touched on that in the post Hb, the two lame tackles in midfield were really poor. TV could and should have done better on the cross which led to another and Kos was half asleep for their first…

    What SB/Bould need to do is show the players their errors and the players need to wake up and not commit such howlers again…

    Will be very interesting to see who AW goes with at home against Chelsea, if he set us up at City, away from home so attack minded, goodness knows what he’ll do at home…

  14. babasola tokoya says:

    wenger should be held responsible for this horrible result and he bungled it with stupid selections and subswtitutions How on earth can wenger remove flamini the only defensive mildfielder in the team thereby further exposing our defence Secondly why did wenger play wilshere at the left wing as wilshere was t too slow and lazy in tracking back to help monreal defensively when we had natural wingers in carzola and gnarby Thirdly most times wehen we played strong teams with good attacking threat like NAPOLI DORTMOUND LIVERPOOL wenger adopted a double defensive midfield platform of ARTETA and FLAMINI to protect the back four and allowed ozil ramsey carzola and girourd the platform to freely attack but wenger MESSED UP BIG TIME with man city who had good attacking threat in nasri sylva aguero negredo and yaya toure I expected a better judgement and selection from wenger

  15. rico says:

    Pete, I didn’t think Sagna was off his game, towards the end he looked shattered.

    But the rest, I pretty much agree…

  16. Scott from Oz says:

    How funny.
    Funny, because the guys that employed him are the people who got it wrong, yet come out clean 🙂
    Good night now….

  17. Merlin96 says:

    Morning all.

    Great, we can put the record right at the 3rd attempt.

    Arsenal 1 Bayern 0
    Bayern 0 Arsenal 0

    Clean-sheet s the name of the game, plus playing anti-football of course like “Rope Da Dope” circa Cardiff 2005.

  18. HenryB says:

    Rico

    It was because of the timely reminder in your Post that I mentioned Jack and Gnabry’s dopiness, which had otherwise gone pretty much unremarked elsewhere.

    The unnecessary nature of those balls being given away was so costly, and although it could have happened to others, they were such silly mistakes that it makes me want a no nonsense midfielder who just would not dwell on the ball so much, but would move it on quickly, which is what Arsenal’s pass and go football is all about.

    Anyway we are in agreement. 🙂

  19. rico says:

    I think they’ll be a few more goals than that M96.

    For me too Hb, which is why my belief was that had Yaya been playing for us, different game and different result..

    We so often do agree 😉

  20. Joywedsjeff says:

    Hi Rico… Was very disapointed at the weekend but spurs made my day. Shame about Avb though would have loved to see him finish seventh. Bayern is beatable but i don’t honestly care as i believe we should focus on the league for now. How much tiredness factored in Arsene’s decision making we can never know but the fact is that all our subs were people who had played less over the week while we had Mikel, Santi and Thomas on the bench.

  21. rico says:

    Hi jeff..

    We have to focus on the league, the next CL match isn’t until Feb. So the PL and FA Cup until then…

    I hope Levy appoints another cack manager and we can batter them in the cup.

  22. tsgh says:

    Very good read Rico,

    Ludivine Sagna should be swayed to ensure Bacary signs the ‘thing’. Maybe Sagna is joing AW at Psg next season… 😉

    Oh not BM? I guess with no club retaining the CL since 1979, we have a strong chance to eliminate the Bavarians. C’mon AFC!

    Afternoon all btw

  23. rico says:

    Thanks Ts. I think we can beat them over 2 legs, we are much much stronger than we were last season.

    But, we need to get a striker and start converting our chances to achieve a victory..

    Also, a right back if Sagna is to go and a loan for a CB if Kos is a longterm injury..

  24. tsgh says:

    I agree Rico re. BM;
    They sacked AVB a week too late; Kinsman renewed/extented his contract with the US of A on friday.

    Di Matteo is still earning 130k a week for another few months I think…

  25. ArsenalDK says:

    Hello everyone.

    Personally I wouldn’t care less if we lost out to Bayern, as long as it meant that we would win the league ans/or the FA cup

    we need a trophy

  26. tsgh says:

    Maybe Terry Venables.lol

    On a serious note I hope its not Diego Simeone, Luiz Enrique or Rijkaard who will take over

  27. rico says:

    Can’t guarantee that would happen Adk 😉

    But i’d rather a domestic cup or two this year as i honestly don’t believe we have the depth to compete in all 3…

  28. ArsenalDK says:

    We are alreadý getting tired. But if we buy a class striker in january, we may have a chance. But will we? Personally I would say no. We will hear the usual “We already have Walcott, Podolski” bla bla bla
    What a nice boost, a Rooney/Suarez/Falcao would be…
    Speaking of Falcao, wouldn’t he be a beast for us??

  29. stevepalmer1 says:

    Afternoon all’, Rico one day i disagree the next day i take my hat off to you Fine post 🙂
    Sagna’s problems are not who has gone or his yearnings for silverware his problems are the same as many that are reaching that Arsenal retirement age, the length of his contract. Sagna has been a good servant to us he so many times has been my man of the match, but rarely does he get the recognitition in my mind of course. Sagna is a good professional but how many times has he said that he is not getting any younger and that when he play’e in the middle he feels a sight better. Sagna is the best right back we have at the moment but can he last for 3 years, i think maybe not but he could be a great man to come on if needed. At Arsenal from what i have seen, once a player reaches that magical 30th birthday he gets a one year deal if he reaches his birthday before a certain date he may get 2. Sagna should take that deal if its true because he won’t get any longer. and the longer he doesn’t pick up the pen may just see Wenger snap up a cheapy.

  30. Wavy says:

    Suarez would be marvellous, he really would make us the real deal.
    Brenda made him captain yesterday, we all know where that generosity of spirit leads to?! Of which, I am certain he is off in the summer. All this SaS -captain of the dippers, how happy he is with his tem mates and all the other crap that has dripped out of his lady mouth is designed to keep him ‘on side’ .
    I don’t believe we have a cats hope in hell of attracting him to the Erms, unReal or Farcer will come calling and off he’ll pop. But what a team we would have and what could we achieve with him in our improving side? Europe would be our oyster.

  31. stevepalmer1 says:

    Yes well put Wavy, but how many on saturday were linked to us and they also have merrit’s but Wenger tried and failed, a bit like the Suarez offer. Suarez is big time Brenda knows that Bale went for fortunes and Suarez is better , we don’t have a cats chance but as you say if only……..

  32. tsgh says:

    I agree SP1 re Sagna; it could also be added that has been earning peanuts RELATIVELY compared to others with his 50k a week salary.

    He is the only RB to have won the best RB award 2 times apart from Old Gary Neville.

    I am hearing he has only been offered 70k a week; whilst Psg want him for at least 90k for 3 years…

    I wouldn’t blame him if he left…

  33. Wavy says:

    Sp I agree about Sagna, more cash would keep him. Why are they so mean when they are dealing with long term, loyal servants of the club and so generous to some of the knobs they have signed and given oodles to? And have then left! Senseless!
    Those who we were linked with and then went to shitty we actually couldn’t afford and preferred the massive wages offered in rainy, drab Manchester. In a sense, who can blame them? But, now we can! We can match the wages and even the hope of silverware, so we have become far more attractive again, or so it would seem.
    The real problem is, will Ebeneezer splash the cash again, or was Ozil a flash ‘down’ the pan?

  34. stevepalmer1 says:

    AVB sacked eh, wouldn’t be at all suprised if Harry gets a ring, dodgy yes but man manager he is good at, but don’t let him near the kitty.

  35. stevepalmer1 says:

    I would be shell shocked if he spent big again this season Wavy, but i was knocked over when he bid forty for Suarez.

  36. stevepalmer1 says:

    Wavy, if somebody offered you 50 grand a week i bet you wouldnt even think about it. If that was offered to me i would insist on playing 7 times a week.

  37. bradlop says:

    Hi all,
    I agree it ts that I too wouldn’t be surprised if Sagna chooses PSG. Last contract, title chance and longer contract terms.

    I’m sure Wenger will try for a striker in Jan but may not be able to find a top top player.

  38. tsgh says:

    ”Why are they so mean when they are dealing with long term, loyal servants of the club and so generous to some of the knobs they have signed”… you couldn’t have said it any better Wavy. 🙂

    I agree SP1, offer him 95k for a year, if he is still good in 2 years time offer similar to what TR07 and DB10 were offered…

  39. tsgh says:

    🙂 Rico…
    Its amazing how Wayne Veysey, Goal.com and CoFside re-appear right on time just before the transfer window opens with the most outrageous speculations… lol

  40. tsgh says:

    Yao Gerv is a menace to Milan this evening…

    Will fans welcome Balo to the Erms this January if we can win the league this season?

  41. Nashuagunner says:

    Hi everyone.

    T’s. There are ups and downs sides to Balo. You get him, you get the full packet. Ups: he can find the back of the net, he knows the BPL,…

  42. devilgunner says:

    Good Morning Lady, Sir, Gentlemen and Ladies.

    how’s life????

    just to remind you that on the 26th September 1970 Arsenal went to Stoke and got hammered 0-5. yes NIL – FIVE by the rugby football club.

    And went on to win something that year…..I cant seem to recall what they won or where or how but I believe they won something. 🙂

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