Vermaelen Signs New Long-Term Contract

[Coney]

Originally Posted by The Guardian

"He has had the problem on both sides, it is exactly the same injury," Wenger said. "It is a little tendon called plantaris that pushes on your achilles tendon … only 25% of the population has it. It must come from the time when we were animals, on our four feet.

"The only difference is that for the first injury [last season], it took us a while to find the real source because at the start everybody said, 'It's an achilles problem' because he felt the pain there but when we made the scan, the achilles was completely clean. It's an injury that exists … one that has only been discovered 18 months ago.

"There's no medical reason why he should not play 50 games on the trot now. I was always a bit suspicions [about] why should it happen only on one side. I thought that at some stage the other side will come as well and it did."

Not very Christian of Arsene, is it?

I like reading Wenger's comments these days. Sounds like a more intelligent Karl Pilkington, IMO. Usually worth a chuckle.

Only problem is that if he is waiting for the squad to evolve into a winning team by natural selection, we may be waiting a few millenia for our next trophy.

[Letters]

Only problem is that if he is waiting for the squad to evolve into a winning team by natural selection, we may be waiting a few millenia for our next trophy.

It's like in one of the HGTTG books Douglas Adams writes about a world cup where players could be generically engineered and Scotland played one with a goalkeeper who was just a flap of skin 24 feet wide by 8 feet high and still failed to qualify for the 2nd round.

[IBK]

For me the principal issue is not whether or not he is going to get injured in future. Vermaelen is now one of our senior, and regarded as one of our best players. If we are to stauch the flow of our best players leaving and inject a bit of self confidence into the team, then we need to be re-signing players. I would imagine that RVP would regard Vermaelen as our best defender, and an important voice on the pitch. The fact Vermaelen has committed himself to the club can't be a bad thing as regards RVP's future intentions.

[Coney]

For me the principal issue is not whether or not he is going to get injured in future. Vermaelen is now one of our senior, and regarded as one of our best players. If we are to stauch the flow of our best players leaving and inject a bit of self confidence into the team, then we need to be re-signing players. I would imagine that RVP would regard Vermaelen as our best defender, and an important voice on the pitch. The fact Vermaelen has committed himself to the club can't be a bad thing as regards RVP's future intentions.

It certainly can't hurt.

[Cripps_orig]

It certainly can't hurt.

Well it can if Wenger uses the "We are not looking to buy a CB cos it will kill Vermaelen" BS cos if Vermaelen cant get fit then signing a contract meaning Wenger wont sign another CB will hurt us

[Özim]

He spends two paragraphs above saying how we're giving players who are always injured long contracts and the final one saying how we should be trying to get RvP re-signed, a player whose injury record is awful.

I myself have opined in the past that we should have sold RvP. That opinion is looking a bit silly right now as he's carrying us, but if he gets a long term injury again which, given his history, isn't hugely improbable, then what use is he on the treatment table? With players with poor injury records the gamble is always do you keep them and hope they get better luck with injuries or get rid? It's impossible to know really. If you sign them and they spend the next 5 years mostly on the treatment table then it's easy to look back with 20:20 hindsight and say it was a bad decision. If you sell them and they spend the next 5 years playing consistently well for someone else then you can say that was a bad decision too.

OK let me qualify what I said, RVP IMO is and always has been a special talent.....even as his one of his biggest supporters I've had my doubts though as he was constantly injured, if we'd have no given him a new contract I couldn't have argued as his injury record was awful. My comment about him is based on him seemingly staying fit more these days and basically being our only goalscorer, without him we have noone.

Vermalen isn't in the same class IMO, decent player yes but he's had half a good season, the second half was he was average, moreover he's been almost permanently injured since then..I question the decision to hand a long term contract (I'm thinking 4 years at least) to a player who hasn't proved he can stay fit, as Cripps pointed out this will also stop us signing anyone else....because Wenger will base all his decisions on the fact he at the club...fit or not.

We can't seem to find an extra few million to sign top players and yet hand out contracts to all and sundry as if it's as easy as taking a p*ss, if you asked me would I rather keep Vermaelen or give Van Persie more money by saving the money we'd pay Vermy, I'd go for the latter.....simply because RVP is the only world class player we have left at the club. If we lose him we really are a club moving one way, unfortunately it's not up.

As for Verm, re-signing him will mean a lot more when he's played regularly and has proved he's top quality and other clubs have shown interest, re-signing crocks isn't hard.....they don't exactly have many options open to them.

[Cripps_orig]

Thomas Vermaelen claims to have no intention of leaving Arsenal, with it his desire to repay the faith shown in him by the club and Arsene Wenger.

The Belgium international arrived at Emirates Stadium from Ajax in 2009 and has gone on to become a key figure in the Gunners' first team plans.

His presence within their back four is considered to make Arsenala much stronger outfit, with his recent injury troubles having seen them struggle.

Vermaelen is honoured to be a leading figure at such an illustrious club and has hinted that he will look to see out his playing days in North London.

"I have no intention of leaving this club," the 26-year-old defender told the Sunday Mirror.

"I feel at home in London and I feel that I have become a real Gunner. Arsenal is my club. In my eyes, they belong to the absolute elite of European top clubs.

"We are going for the Champions League again and this team can grow further.

"When I was young, I dreamed of playing for Ajax and Arsenal. Both dreams have come true."

Wenger handed Vermaelen the opportunity to fulfil his Gunners dream and he will be forever grateful to the French coach for sticking by him during his injury hell.

He added: "I have never known a manager so loyal to his players. He shows immense trust and has shown incredible loyalty towards me.

"I was sidelined for a long time with two nasty injuries. But it was under the orders of the manager that the board gave me a new contract until 2015. I can't describe the joy that gave me."

http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...unner-for-life

Hows he been this season?

[Olivier's xmas twist]

http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...unner-for-life

Hows he been this season?

Not great by his Standards. But he is class, so this is good news.

[Marc Overmars]

Got to love his enthusiasm to get forward, he's our 2nd best striker after all.

But he probably needs to work on his erratic defending at times. I think this is the type of CB he will always be though, so we just need to accept the good with the bad.

[Cripps_orig]

THOMAS VERMAELEN has handed Arsenal a boost by vowing to see out his career at the club.

The 26-year-old Belgian star has been in superb form for the Gunners since moving to North London from Ajax in a £10million deal in 2009.

And while Robin van Persie's future at the Emirates remains unclear, Vermaelen is in no doubt as to where he will end his playing days.

He said: "I will stay at Arsenal forever. I love London. I've got a house there, I'm happy there and I don't see any reason to ever leave the club."

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...t-Arsenal.html