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You may well be right, but he certainly had more natural talent than Walcott so he probably would have been a more effective player than he has been in his 11 years here. Walcotts' major strenght was essentially his pace, anything else needed to be taught, Bale had more than that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur
Wenger hasn't been able to develop and elevate young players for years. His coaching is ancient.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur
They all come onto the scene raw and exciting but give it a few years and the common trend is they won't have a position, their bad habits will remain and they'll probably become scapegoats for the fans too. Bellerin is the latest guy heading down that path.
The exact same thing was said about Ox being more talented than Walcott which was true. But look how he has turned out? I highly doubt Bale would have been more effective for us.Quote:
Originally Posted by Özim
Bellerin, Iwobi... Two more examples of players that have everything in their locker to be top players. Raw talent that will be wasted.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
We are going back a long way here. However, I can’t remember anyone anywhere mentioning Bale when we were competing with other teams including Manchester United for Walcott.Quote:
Originally Posted by Özim
Sure we could have signed Bale, but this was not an either/or.
Can’t believe I’ve joined in such a pointless discussion.
He is more talented and you can see that, last season he was decent for us, granted he hasn't developed as much as he could have but he still showed some of his quality.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur
Walcott had very little natural ability in truth, pace and that's about it, paying 12 million for that was illogical, I could understand it if he was prolific or had dazzling skills, but for a speed merchant, really??? I can understant the Ox signing more than the Walcott one, Ox clearly has some decent football attributes at his disposal.
To be honest, Walcott was a signing out of the blue, noone knew who he was and when we did sign him we all assumed he was some sort of magician based on how much we paid for a kid, the only surprise was that he turned out as one dimensional as he was. What possessed us to spend so much money on a kid who was nothing special at all is beyond me (and by that I mean he's not particularly naturally gifted).Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall Quinn
Nooone mentioned Walcott before we signed him anyone, not saying we talked about Bale either, but I do remember Bale was highly rated after his first season (a year after we signed Walcott), we could have signed him for 5 million then (a pittance), we have a habit of missing out on all the top quality talent in favour of the more middle of the road young players, Mbappe being the perfect example (apparently we we're interested but scoffed at paying a few measly million to his advisers, if we thought he was that good we'd have paid up, clearly we didn't).
He is more talented. But does it matter considering he produced far less than Walcott and was just an injury prone? So even when we identify someone with more talent, we somehow produce a worse player. All the players Wenger has said he was close to signing would probably be nobodies or unbalanced in a way that makes them flawed and not considered as the world class talents they are. A young Maldini could be made to look an absolute shambles under Wenger.Quote:
Originally Posted by Özim
Walcott was not a signing out of the blue. Even though it is a long way back, I remember enough to know he was slated to be the next big English talent and we were in fierce competition for his signature.
So much optimism bask then. Theo has become a mascot for the monotony Wenger has drowned us in since.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall Quinn
Let’s all take a moment to acknowledge that Walcott has been here for almost 12 years.
The poster boy of how low standards have fallen in that time.
Walcott needs to get in the fucking landfill with Corrie McKeague.
Give him a chance.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
He’ll come good.
He has a lot of potential.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall Quinn
Guys, you missed out the real gem in that reportQuote:
Originally Posted by Niall Quinn
"Referring to new arrivals Emmanuel Adebayor and Abou Diaby, he said Arsenal had signed "three players" but then changed that to "two-and-a-half".":haha:
Poor Diaby. It was written in the stars for the poor fella. Possibly the most talented of the 3, given that Adebayor was shit for brains.and Walcott had sawdust between his ears.
Ok let me clarify a bit, out of blue was perhaps not strictly correct, but what I'm saying is noone knew anything about this guy until we were after him a week earlier. He wasn't really someone who'd been on the radar for a while.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall Quinn
Ramsay would be another one, we signed him and sure Man U were after him but noone knew anything about him.
You'd think he's have some dignity and self respect and think to himself 'this isn't happening here, it's time to move on', but no he's happy to stay and collect his cheque.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
He must look back at his career and be like 'wow, what a waste... ive achieved nothing'.
Watch Wenger ruin his development by playing him out of position just so he can fit him into the Carling/Uefa team/B-Team.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vieira
That’s what I don’t understand about Theo or the people around him? They can’t be focussed on football or concerned about his development considering how things have panned out. I’ve watched players of a similar age in a similar position with other clubs and they all made a decision to move on when it looked like their development hit a blank wall. What’s worse, he didn’t stick by his convictions on playing up front and talked his way out of playing that position. He’s wasted his career but finessed his way into £140k a week so maybe he’s not so pissed off. :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Vieira
Poor old Theo's paying the price of failure.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur
140K a week, fancy house, fancy car, fancy fuck buddy, gets to play footy every day with his mates. It can't be easy.
He's never struck me as a particularly driven or hungry player. Made a song and dance about playing up front but clearly Wenger never fancied him there, so that should have been enough reason for him to leave years ago. Must be family related - settled in London with a big contract, easy life.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur
That striker song and dance routine was when he still hd some market value, his contract was up for renewal and the chavs were sniffing around. His market value is now zero if he wants to hang on to that 140K, so the striker thing has died a death. Ox gets shit for leaving but contrast and compare with Theo. Certainly things aren't working our for Ox right now, but he made the move, took the pay cut. Shows he cares about the football whereas Theo leaves himself open to all sorts of questions. It's not about loyalty either. Loyalty only comes into play when other clubs are chasing. I can't recall a hint of interest in Theo during the summer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Again though, it's all on Wenger. Either you push the player to get what you want from him or you push him out the door and get something better. At Wenger's Arsenal it is always an option to do neither and let the player waste away. We've seen it many times. Wenger tolerates second best, mediocrity, waste, missed opportunity. He's the best mis-manager in the business.
I can understand why Ox left and add that to what Chesney said about his development, it's understandable. If Wenger couldn't develop Ox into a CM or winger, you'd have to be insane to trust him to turn you into a proper wingback. Ox moving made sense to me. Especially when you factor in that we were slow to offer him a contract. Wilshere is sitting in that same boat right now. We haven't developed him as a player, he's suffered injury after injury because of poor management and now his career at Arsenal is on the line. Moving to Bournemouth for game time was the wrong move but I understand it. If you don't take things into your own hands to try and raise your stock, you may end up frozen out of the squad like Walcott and be in no mans land. Gibbs is another example of that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Then there are the guys who never get a chance at all, like Perez. And now Chambers. Wenger prefers to play a CM in the CB role. It's genuinely bizarre how he goes about things.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur
He's made 20,000 subsitutions and yet has failed to grasp the basic concepts of football, very odd.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Personally I'm happy to see as many of the weak minded brittle players like ox, Theo and Gibbs from the banter era leave. Their weak mentality seeps through the squad.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur
We could have a revolving door at Arsenal, that weak mentality will stay within the squad so long as Wenger stays at the helm. He is the root and cause. Bad students, bad teacher.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vieira
Pretty much, he also signs players with little fight, preferring 4 ft midgets that can pass 5 yards but can't tackle. For years people have thought we're a soft touch, now someone has actually come out and said it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur
I look forward to the day we're no longer a bunch of pansies on the pitch, I miss the days when the opposition feared playing against us.
The biggest crime of last season - drove me crazy seeing Perez do well on his very few appearances and then be constantly ignored in favour of Giraffe, Feo, Danny Woeful etc...Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Theo's a disgrace. You'd think he'd have an ounce of dignity and think it's not happening here, time to move on. But no, he's happy picking up his wage and letting his career drift.