Former Players Views

[Cripps_orig]

Former Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour says that Mikel Arteta will form the spine of the team over the coming years.

The 29-year-old Spaniard, a deadline day recruit from Everton for a £10 million fee is a notable change in transfer window tactics from manager Arsene Wenger, and Parlour said it is a move that will benefit the team following the departures of club captain Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri.

"The team needed a new spine," Parlour told France Football. "It also needed experience. It has that now.

"The big deal is Arteta, who will bring a lot in the midfield. That's what the young people like Wilshere and Ramsey needed; frames to progress. It was necessary after the departure of [Samir] Nasri and [Cesc] Fabregas."

Parlour also gave his backing to Wenger, saying that the club owes all its success to the French manager.

"The fans are frustrated," he said. "OK, to concede eight goals [against Manchester United], shake it off... I worked with Wenger for eight years. He's a great coach.

"I wonder if people realise what he did at Arsenal. If we have a training centre, a new stadium, it's because of Arsene Wenger. I'm his number one fan.

"People behave as if it were easy to win titles in England. Before, we brawled against Manchester United, period. Today, there are Manchester City, Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea...

"These teams have progressed and many of them have resources that far exceed those of Arsenal.

"Arsene Wenger is still the future of Arsenal. To those who say we should change coaches, I say: look around you. I do not see anyone that is able to do better than him, or like him."

Parlour also highlighted that the club has had to use income differently since the move from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium.

"People do not understand the impact has been the shift from Highbury to the Emirates. I do not speak for the players, but for the club and Arsene.

"[The move] has pumped resources. But you could not escape: 38,000 spectators [at Highbury] was not enough.

"As a result, Wenger found himself in a situation where he no longer had the same freedom in recruitment. He made the bet of youth, partly by choice, because it is his idea of football...and partly because he had no choice.

"But he kept the club at the top. It's been 14 years since we began playing in the Champions League every year. I do not know many managers that would have been able to accomplish this feat."

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/...al-ray-parlour

Parlour has a shocker

[fakeyank]

We've always been the underdog and sold off key players each season. We've always been the team in danger of losing our Champs League spot. If we were having trouble signing players like Kaka and Mata because they wanted Champs League football, then I'd understand that position. But besides Mertesaker, these guys are nobodies. We're a step up to their previous clubs and that includes Mertesakers. I can't imagine any of them acting like divas.

When we signed Arshavin, we were close to losing our Champions League spot, we sold off two of our main players that performed well last season but he still joined us and at a point where he knew he was eligible for the Champs League football and where there was a danger of us not qualifying.

Taking so long to sell off Nasri and Cesc was probably a factor but we went out and bought a left back and CB when we've known all summer that we needed players for those positions. I actually think Wenger was willing to take a risk and go into the season with the players we had. It's not the first time he's said we'll buy and has gone back on what he originally said. Also, after the Newcastle game, he praised our defence and started to mock journalists and all those that kept on going on at him about buying defenders. It's been a poor start to the season but if we'd have picked up more points I doubt we'd have seen so many last minute moves.

You ask why have we acted so late...ask yourself that. What's so different about this season compared to previous seasons? It's not the first time we've lost main players and it's not the first time we've had to qualify for the Champions League. Cesc and Nasri are big players, but Henry is even bigger. We lost him but didn't go crazy in the transfer window because the squad was looking good and ready for the challenge ahead. We were playing better and got off to a flyer. It's the complete opposite this season.

CL qualification mattered but was the be all and end all for some of these players to sign. 8-2 changed things for the good! I had mentioned before our 2nd leg against Udinese that it would be great if we lost the qualifiers as that would be a jolt for the manager and board that this team is not good enough. What transpired was even better.. we did qualify for the CL but also got a right bollocking from a class team. This was badly needed and you can see the club going in some sort of right direction footballistically..

[Letters]

Parlour has a shocker

What do you disagree with?

[Cripps_orig]

What do you disagree with?

He's a great coach.

No, no he isnt. Not anymore. Parlour still thinks of him as the manager he was when he was still here. Wenger was a great coach then.

"Arsene Wenger is still the future of Arsenal. To those who say we should change coaches, I say: look around you. I do not see anyone that is able to do better than him, or like him."

Wenger is not the be all and end all of Arsenal. He should be made culpable of the awful run we are on atm, a run where no other manager at a top 4 club would have cos they'd either sort it or they'd be sacked themselves.

"But he kept the club at the top. It's been 14 years since we began playing in the Champions League every year. I do not know many managers that would have been able to accomplish this feat."

Who gives a toss? Its not a feat worth mentioning. We've also played in the FA Cup 14 years in a row. Yay go us

[Letters]

If "We've also played in the FA Cup 14 years in a row" is really the level of your riposte then I'm not sure there's much point engaging.

[Cripps_orig]

Fair enough. That was a bit wummy of me.

The rest of what i said still stands

[Power n Glory]

Arshavin's alternative was to stay at Zenit and they had already been knocked out of the Champions League. Plus, their domestic season had already finished (they did not qualify for the Champions League 09/10).

I'm not sure why you're talking about players being divas because I certainly am not. Arteta a nobody? That's pretty odd for somebody suggesting players might be acting with ideas above their station. Is he on the level of Mata (Kaka is gone)? No, obviously not, we all know him though (!) but that's an irrelevance anyway.

I'm asking you why you think we acted so late - this whole back and forth started by me expressing (vicariously) to GG why I think we did. You can ask me what's so different but the fact is and you've already conceded this, we have done things differently this year to other ones. There has to be a reason for that surely? If Wenger comes out of his own volition and says that you cannot say you're not a big club anymore if you sell your two best players, is it not possible that level of thinking is transmitted and influenced throughout the board and their combined decisions? I don't remember him saying that after Henry had left, probably because we hadn't lost him during his prime years. We also sold Henry fairly early on, late June, possibly? Plus one of those players went to a club we are supposed to be competing with.

Maybe the only way we'll sift through all this is if we think as what kind of club you would join (or hope to join) if you were a player of, on say the same level as Arteta? And would you have taken stock of all the things that have been at happening at those clubs you might possibly join? I know I would but I guess I haven't been in that football environment of an early age, so if I was, maybe my mentality would be different.

Yes, we've done things differently this year because the shit hit the fan when we lost to Man U. Also, Wenger must have known Vermaelen would need surgery and that Jack would be out for a few months so that probably changed things as well. But I don't think this us going in late and waiting to qualify was an overall strategy. We panicked a little. It was obvious that this team couldn't face up to the challenge and we needed to bring players in quickly.

I'm not saying Arteta is rubbish or anything like that, just saying we're an attractive proposition to him regardless of us having to qualify for the Champs League and the same applies to the rest of the players. I'm not suggesting he's the type of player to act above his station, it's the opposite. He's the type of player that should jump at a chance to join us. He's not like one of the many star players being courted by Europes elite clubs.

Wouldn't you say that Arshavin's situation isn't that much different to Arteta's or the other players we signed? It's not as if we've signed players used to playing Champions League football so I find it hard to believe that they'd demand CL football as a condition for their signature. Not saying it's not a factor when a player moves to a club, I just don't think it's our reason for making deadline day moves. GG is right to question why it took us so long.

Last point, Wenger's big club statement might have just been a message to his players a last attempt to show defiance and togetherness. I don't think it was a message to the board otherwise he wouldn't have told them to lower the asking price for Fabregas. Also, it could have been a bluff to Man City and Barca to up their offers and to show how important the players were to this club. Who knows. But he doesn't need to make such statements to get the boards attention. Not when he can tell them to lower the fee for Fabs and they agree to it.

[Letters]

Fair enough. That was a bit wummy of me.

The rest of what i said still stands

Interesting about how you think Wenger has changed. IMO it's football which has changed more than Wenger but I'd agree he's not kept up. Partly because of billionaire owners which are hard to compete with, partly because his diet and training regimes and awareness of the global game were ground-breaking at the time and that's no longer so.

[Cripps_orig]

Interesting about how you think Wenger has changed. IMO it's football which has changed more than Wenger but I'd agree he's not kept up. Partly because of billionaire owners which are hard to compete with, partly because his diet and training regimes and awareness of the global game were ground-breaking at the time and that's no longer so.

Football always changes. I genuinely believe Wenger was on a personal crusade to prove you can win without spending money cos we all know how much it pisses him off having these teams who won f all (Chelsea and Mancs) now up there challenging for trophies through no hard work of their own and all down to their owner and i commend that but ultimately what other clubs do have little to do with our own failings. Other clubs spending money has f all to do with our defensive problems, our lack of killer instinct etc. Thats all down to Wenger.

[Letters]

Agree. And what's frustrating is he has come very close to success doing things the 'right way'.
With a bit of pragmatism and spending a bit more money we could have won some trophies and pushed Utd very hard last season.