he offered more than enough opportunities to utd for us not to worry about any sort of blame for the first.
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he offered more than enough opportunities to utd for us not to worry about any sort of blame for the first.
Spot on again from WrightyQuote:
ARSENE WENGER has a massive job on his hands. Again.
The Arsenal boss is relying on a squad who in some cases are not up to it — and this worries me.
I completely understand why the club’s fans were furious with Andre Santos for taking Robin van Persie’s shirt at half-time.
But apart from the fact Santos is not good enough and doesn’t appear to care, Wenger has other major problems.
It is baffling that Theo Walcott is repeatedly starting matches on the bench.
The time has come for Theo to not only start but to get a run as a central striker.
Having played in that position, I would like to think I have a good idea of what it takes to operate there.
With Theo’s pace and ability, I absolutely guarantee he will score goals if he gets three or four games up front.
It seems obvious to me and Theo should have had the chance years ago.
He’s a natural. Theo is a quality finisher, as he proved against Reading last week but don’t forget that he has scored goals against all the big clubs.
It doesn’t make sense to keep him as a winger. I understand why the guy has become frustrated with his lack of opportunities down the middle.
It’s annoying as Wenger keeps talking about playing Theo there but never actually does it. I think Olivier Giroud may come good up front but it’s not as though Arsenal have loads of other options.
I find it strange Theo has not played regularly since being unable to agree on a new deal.
It’s a shame, as he seems desperate to stay, unlike some of the stars who have left in recent seasons.
With Theo in the final year of this contract, he really needs to be given the chance to play in the position where he made a stunning impact as a teenager for Southampton.
The results over the last few weeks have shown something has to change.
Arsenal have not been good enough.
The form of defenders Thomas Vermaelen and Laurent Koscielny has been poor.
Bacary Sagna, back again after a broken leg, is a quality full-back. But even he has voiced concerns over the number of big names leaving, so I guess he could be next.
Wenger has said that when a top international player signs for Arsenal, he only asks about if the team is in the Champions League and not whether the club has won a cup.
I don’t know what Wenger is going on about — and I’m still waiting for those top players to arrive rather than go somewhere else.
Over the last six or seven years, Wenger has not signed the players who will take the club back to where it should be. Arsenal have lost out on the likes of Juan Mata and Eden Hazard.
Everyone keeps telling me how many caps Lukas Podolski has won for Germany — but I don’t care about that.
Podolski started well for Arsenal but he needs to be more consistent.
Wenger did incredibly well to take the club to third last term after a tough start but these are testing times.
Santos is a poor left-back. It’s been a long time since I have seen an Arsenal defender play this badly on a regular basis.
He gets roasted by opponents, caught out of position and goes to ground too easily. But the shirt incident on Saturday was really annoying.
I was lucky enough to swap shirts with Lothar Matthaus, Zinedine Zidane and George Weah — as you’d expect, the exchange was always made at the end of the game.
Had I asked for the shirt of Eric Cantona at half-time at Old Trafford, the boys in our team would have ripped my head off in the changing rooms.
But I would never have asked in the first place.
Santos was disrespectful to the supporters, disrespectful to his team-mates and disrespectful to the Arsenal badge.
I felt embarrassed for Santos.
The most worrying aspect of this unbelievable incident is it appears there is not enough discipline under Wenger.
Whether Santos asked for the shirt or it was offered by Van Persie is irrelevant — he took the item.
I hope Santos got abuse in the dressing room from his team-mates — but he probably didn’t. And that’s a shame.
I get loads of stick from Gooners but I love the club. I have to ask whether some of the current players really care.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...#ixzz2BaFfHJ2G
This was from before the Schalke match
Has impressed after a car crash of a season last seasonQuote:
Former England international Lee Dixon feels that Arsenal defender Carl Jenkinson has a bright future ahead of him following his call-up to Roy Hodgson's squad to face Sweden.
The firner right-back, who played over 600 games for the Gunners, argues that the former Charlton man has stepped up and improved this season due to more playing time in Bacary Sagna's absence with injury.
The 48-year-old notes that Jenkinson has all the attributes to be a top player for Arsene Wenger's side and hopes that he can continue to progress even now that the Frenchman has returned to action.
"He's certainly got potential to be an international player," Dixon told the club's official website. "The important thing with young lads like that is you let their progress go unhindered.
"He seems like a good kid. I don't know him but I'd like to sit down with him and have a chat to find out what his thoughts are. I believe he's a really good kid and he's got a huge future ahead of him.
"As a player, you want a chance to play and show what you can do, as well as learning as you're playing. It's important you get those opportunities. Sometimes you don't always get a chance to get a run of first-team games because it's not your time. I like him a lot. I think he's got a lot of attributes to go towards being a very good full-back.”
Dixon feels that the 20-year-old has shown a lot of maturity to adapt to the Premier League after limited experience at the Valley and hopes that he will continue to progress in the future.
"It’s a big step and he's done it a little bit differently to me," the ex-pro continued. "He's only played about five minutes for Charlton before he came. I played quite a few games in the lower league and knew a little bit about was I was doing. It was still a big leap [for me] to come to Arsenal.
"He's gone right in the deep end. He's an Arsenal lad as well so it's good to see. The fans relate to it - they can see his passion. He's still got a lot to learn but I see a lot of potential in him going on and being a top-class full-back.
"As long as he keeps trying to learn and progress, and not think he's made it when he's played 50 games, then he's got a real chance."
http://www.skysports.com/tv_show/sto...281501,00.htmlQuote:
David Seaman says Arsenal fans should vent their frustrations at the lack of investment in the club, rather than criticising manager Arsene Wenger.
The Gunners boss was subjected to jeers during the goalless draw with Aston Villa on Saturday evening with a section of the travelling supporters chanting 'you don't know what you're doing' when he substituted Olivier Giroud for Francis Coquelin in the closing stages.
But former Arsenal goalkeeper Seaman, who won the Premier League under Wenger in both 1998 and 2002, said the club would not be able to find another manager of his calibre.
And he insists the Frenchman is doing a good job on a budget which is not as high as many rival clubs.
He told Goals on Sunday: "Arsene Wenger was getting a load of stick from the Arsenal fans and there was a chant going round 'can we have our Arsenal back?'
"Say they didn't have a manager at the moment and Arsene Wenger was out there with his track record, they would take him any day.
"For me it's not the manager where the restrictions are, it's the financial restrictions."
Heart
Seaman has seen Arsenal sell the likes of Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Alex Song in recent years and feels it will be difficult to achieve success without retaining their top players.
And he said a bigger investment may be needed at board level to ensure the club's top performers are not tempted to move on.
Seaman added: "Losing your captains all the time - like Van Persie and Fabregas - is like when Patrick Vieira left. It takes the heart out of the team.
"We used to be able to keep our best players and that's why we were winning trophies, but at the moment we can't do that.
"What are people looking at Arsenal for? Are they looking to advance their careers? They're not looking to advance themselves financially because they know they can get more money elsewhere.
"It's going to be hard for them to attract players and what's happening is they're getting players in, making them into great players and then they're having to let them go.
"When Arsene came it was a given that they'd be in the Champions League all the time and we were winning things as well, but you can't do what they're doing at the moment and expect to win trophies."
Just thought id post the full article.
Quote:
Seaman added: "Losing your captains all the time - like Van Persie and Fabregas - is like when Patrick Vieira left. It takes the heart out of the team.
There really is no heart left - and that is what is really hard to stomach.
A real kidney punch. We just don't have the guts for it any more. I've given up venting my spleen.Quote:
Originally Posted by GB.
Seaman, Parlour, Wright, Adams.... they all state the obvious but for some reason they don't understand that in their day the only competition was Man U. It's A LOT harder now for Arsenal to win anything.
I agree this season will likely be a fuck up and our team is shite. BUT we finished 3rd last year only behind City and Manure and above Chelsea - does anyone expect Arsenal to finish any higher than 3rd? You could have Mourinho as boss of Arsenal and give him £50m to spunk and he still wouldn't do better than 3rd.
for seven years? i don't believe that. even if it was once where we were real challengers going into april/may then that would be something to cling onto, instead of a loop of mistakes.
Well we have challenged in that 7 years. The trouble now is we've won jack for so long that every year we will lose our best player because the grass is greener else where. This makes it impossible to achieve any kind of success.
If we'd have kept Cole, Fabregas, RVP, Nasri we'd be challenging right now for sure.