Pah, what do they know about what makes for a successful team.Originally Posted by tarzan
Pah, what do they know about what makes for a successful team.
They won the first ever double for the Arsenal, got our first European trophy and played the kind of football that attracted me to the Arsenal every since the first game I saw on 6th October 1971. OK - so they are not managers, but I suspect they know a lot more about the game that most of the posters on here. Possibly even than me.Pah, what do they know about what makes for a successful team.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,195...989447,00.htmlRay Parlour says it would be a "disaster" if Arsenal lost both Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri this summer.
"It's a special club and I'm hoping he can see that and stay for a long period of time."
Ray Parlour
The former Gunners midfielder was speaking after the club's star midfielders were linked with big-money transfers away from the Emirates Stadium.
Fabregas has long been rumoured to be switching to Barcelona, while Manchester Unitedare reported to be monitoring Nasri,
And he insists it's vital that Arsene Wenger
"That would be a disaster," he told Sky Sports News.
"Samir Nasri was one of the best players last year at Arsenal.
"He's got tougher as a player and I thought he was excellent last season.
"To lose both, if they both go, would be a disaster for Arsenal, it really would. Then suddenly there's big work to be done from the manager and the back-room staff.
"I'm hoping Samir Nasri looks at Arsene Wenger, who's really brought his career on and says: 'I really like working with the manager, I want to stay another year, two years or three years'.
"Arsenal's a great club, there's no doubting that. You've seen the likes of Dennis Bergkamp stay for 11 years, Patrick Vieira was there nine years.
"It's a special club and I'm hoping he can see that and stay for a long period of time."
Champions Manchester United have already signed £20million defender Phil Jones from Blackburn and are close to concluding a deal for Aston Villa winger Ashley Young.
And Parlour says the next few weeks are a key period for Arsenal if they have ambitions of competing with the top sides next season.
"It's a massive summer for them, after last season the fans are very frustrated," he said.
"There's a long way to go in the transfer market - let's not criticise them yet - and hopefully there's money there to spend, but we don't know that.
"Arsene Wenger has been very set in his ways, saying: 'There is money, but we need to get the right players'.
"I think they need to get four or five players if they really want to challenge the likes of Manchester United, who've gone out already and bought players; or the likes of Manchester City,
"It's going to be very interesting."
With young English talent like Jones and Jordan Henderson
And while Parlour would like to see more English players in the Arsenal team, he can understand that Wenger may cast his net further afield.
"I've always said Gary Cahill
"It depends on how much money he is though. Arsene Wenger's always been of the policy that he can get a similar sort of player, who does a similar sort of job, for £5million cheaper.
"So it's going to be interesting."
Letting them go wouldnt be a disaster. Cesc is mentally in Barca already and has been for 18 months or so so he can f off asap.
Not replacing them would be a disaster.
cesc is going nowhere this summer thankfully
Probably not.
He has what, couple of years left on his contract?
I think it ends in 2014 so 3 at most. Xavi by then will be dead so Barca will get him then for a free
wenger said at the start of last season he had 5/6 years left on his contract
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-arc...than-one-year-
I think that Fabregas has 4 years left on the contract. I think (but am not certain) that next summer he might be able to buy out the rest of his contract. But the question is whether he would do something so obvious.
While all answers are responses, not all responses are answers.
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/...his-head-is-noCesc Fabregas has already checked out of the Emirates and it could be the right time for him to move to Barcelona, according to Arsenal legend Lee Dixon.
The former England right-back, who played more than 500 times for theGunners, believes the Spaniard's head has been turned by rumours of a move back to Catalunya and the pressure of being club captain is too much for him.
"I think maybe Fabregas' head is not there anymore at Arsenal," he told Goal.com. "I think the captaincy was given to him for a reason - not the right reason - I don't think he's a good captain. Maybe this summer might be the summer that he leaves."
Dixon added: "For me a captain is a natural leader - it's a state of mind that they are in a position when things aren't going well for them to be able to step out and actually lift other people; I don't see Fabregas doing that. He's said himself he finds that side of things very difficult and he's not someone if he's not playing particularly well that is going to be going round tapping people on the back going 'come on I'm there for you if you need me'. That is not the type of captain he is and for me that is the wrong type of captain. I don't think Arsenal have got a natural captain."
Arsenal manager ArseneWenger could also lose Fabregas' midfield team-mate Samir Nasri, who stepped into the Spaniard's shoes when he was injured this season and excelled. But the Frenchman is yet to agree a new deal and could leave the Emirates for free next summer but Wenger has claimed he will do everything he can to keep the midfield star.
"Samir Nasri has come into his own last season with Fabregas having his injuries and not playing as much; he found a little space to come in and play more centrally and his development improved because of that," Dixon added. "He had a great first two thirds of the season; he would be a massive blow [if he goes]. On last year's form you would say that Nasri would be a bigger loss than Fabregas."
Earlier this month former Gunners ace Thierry Henry urged the club and supporters to stick by Wenger despite six trophy-less seasons in an exclusive interview with Goal.com, and Dixon agrees.
"I completely agree with [Henry]." he said. "I think [Wenger] needs to look at the team and he needs to maybe change a little bit his philosophy. I just look at that team now and I think if I was in that team I'd be going mad with certain aspects of it. We all love watching them when they have got the ball, there's no better team in the Premier League than that, but at times there's a lack of cutting edge; when they've had 20 passes they seem to want 21 and not put the ball in the net.
Arrgh! | Dixon - like Wenger - has been frustrated watching Arsenal this term
"But the biggest problem is the team mentality when they haven't got the ball and that needs experienced players in there and it needs not just one it needs two or three - that goes from the pitch on to the training pitch into the dressing room."
There was, though, one bright spark during another disappointing season in the shape of Jack Wilshere. The Arsenal midfielder picked up the PFA Young Player of the Year and progressed from the England Under-21s to the full squad. The 19-year-old was involved in a club versus country row ahead of this summer's Under-21 European Championships with Wenger claiming his youngster has already played enough games, but Dixon believes Wilshere should not have been in StuartPearce's squad anyway.
"I don't believe that once you make your progression from the Under-21s to the senior level that you should be playing in the Under-21s," he said. "He's made that transition into the first-team and he should stay there. Yeah it's great if the Under-21s win the tournament but I still think they can do very well without Jack Wilshere and he can go on and progress his full England career.
"He's got that doggedness about him, that will to win. That character that Jack possesses is something that needs to rub off on a few of the others."
"Jack has got that doggedness about him. It needs to rub off on a few others"
Dixon made the right-back spot his own at Arsenal after 14 years with the club, so knows a thing or two about playing that position, and had high praise for current incumbent Bacary Sagna, who was selected in the PFA Team of the Year this season.
"I do like him; he's settled into the team [and] come in off the back of some Arsenal legends like Oleg Luzhny and Pal Lydersen - he had some big boots to fill! I think he's settled into the position very well. He has still got lots of things to learn, the position has changed over the years even since I stopped playing. He's possibly the best [in the Premier League]."
Dixon is now putting his time and money behind a new online football game I AM PLAYR that puts you in the boots of a young hopeful and lets you experience the pitfalls on and off the pitch. There are choices in the game that were exactly what the 47-year-old had to face during his playing days.
"I thought it was a really brilliant idea and it could go really big," he said. "It's quite intriguing from that point of view with me because I've actually been there and to be honest with you been on some celebrations after games where there are choices to make. Certainly my experience of playing football with Tony Adams, who is a recovering alcoholic now, on some nights he would definitely go left and I would definitely go right.
"I can remember reading his book and thinking that I remember being out with him on that night and then thinking 'there's another 10 pages of the chapter to go and I can remember I went home then' and you turn the pages and there's another whole new world opens up of where Tony went and the things he got up to."
Lee Dixon is a brand ambassador and an investor in the first-ever point of view football game I AM PLAYR (www.iamplayr.com) from games developers We R Interactive
Dixon
How he is missed
Dicko is a legend. Spot on the money.
Sod Adams, this is the former player with intelligence. Love to see him back at the club and on the training ground.
Punched a spud right in the kisser and got sent off too.
It's better to burn out, than to fade away.
Always great reading what he has to say. Legend.
Should be promoted from MOTD2 as well.
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