₦airaland Forum

I don’t doubt that everyone at the club works hard, especially Arsene Wenger who, regardless of if you think he should stay or go, will be hurting about our current form.

I suspect he’s also a worried man because he’s been in the game long enough to know that this kind of inconsistency, the inability to produce from one game to the next, is symptomatic of a deeper malaise than just  a basic loss of form.

But once again the board bang the drum about how money is not withheld from the manager, how he decides how it’s spent etc. And that’s fine, that’s really how any manager should operate, but maybe the board need to insist that it is spent.


It was interesting to note Arse2Mouse touch on the issue of our scouting network in his post yesterday, and with the inevitable stories appearing about how Arsene has eleventy-billion pounds to work with in January, this is probably something we ought to be focusing on a bit more.


It’s fair to say that many of our recent signings haven’t worked out. There are successes like Koscielny, while buying established, professional talent like Arteta and Cazorla is something most managers can do, but we’ve had too many who have failed.


Worryingly, Arsene’s eye for a bargain, or a player who comes to the club on the cheap and improves immeasurably, seems gone. Chamakh, for example, is a miserable flop, despite his purple patch at the start of his Arsenal career. It seems that is as much down to his character as his footballing ability, but nevertheless it’s true.


The signing of Park will always, always baffle me. Never good enough, a waste of everyone’s time and money.


Our chief transfer negotiator spent the best part of 10 days trying to sign a kid from Costa Rica, getting the run-around from amateurs and semi-professional football people, and all for a player who still hasn’t kicked a ball for us.



Gervinho must have been watched countless times. Did nobody notice that he has a fatal flaw in his game, his shocking technique when it comes to the most basic of footballing skills – kicking the ball? It’s like a cricket team signing someone who can only bowl underarm.



Wenger’s knowledge of the French league and the hidden gems is gone. That advantage has disappeared, and it’s not as if the talent hasn’t been there. Newcastle have plundered Ligue 1 to much greater effect. We have scouts in Germany telling us players aren’t good enough for the Premier League only for them to rock up elsewhere and set the place alight with wonder goals.It’s goes to what I spoke about yesterday, about how it goes beyond just the manager and his day to day work.


We’re reliant on the same scouts who brought us the flops to save our January bacon. There’s an issue there which perhaps we can solve by having more money at our disposal. Not having to try and find budget priced gems could make life easier. We may still have to fashion some diamonds in the rough but that’s a whole lot better than the cubic zirconias we’ve had to work with in recent times.Still, January is a few weeks away yet, and there’s a lot of football to be played before then.



The reality is anything could happen on the pitch, and probably will. We just have to hope it’s mostly positive.

From an Arsenal point of view there’s little of real interest going on. The Mirror runs a transcript of Wenger’s chat with the print media, after yesterday’s press conference and there are a few interesting snippets. The manager is quizzed about players who haven’t excactly set the world on fire, like Chamakh, Squillaci, Park and Gervinho.

Q: Some of those players were big buys. What’s happened to Park? It’s an extraordinary situation.

AW: “Who are the big buys?”

Q: Well, Gervinho?

AW: “How much?”

Q: £11m.

AW: “He was £8m.”

AW: “Chamakh was a big buy? He was free. Squillaci nearly free. You cannot say that we have a squad of no quality. They are international players.”


Q: I could miss from two yards, but Gervinho is not supposed to?


AW: “You can and everybody can.”

Q: What’s the difference now between this team and other teams which have won trophies?

AW: “The difference is that we have created a new team. I believe that some players have come in, some players have come back from injuries and we have to show now until the end of the season that we have the quality that I think we have.”



All of which makes everything as clear as mud. If the manager didn’t want to get into individual assessment of players then he probably shouldn’t be asking journalists to name names. I also fail to see the relevance of Gervinho costing £8m instead of £11m, other than it’s a bit less money wasted on a player who just isn’t of the requisite quality. Chamakh free? Thank goodness.

pheesayor: N.B. It is rooted

Thanks

arbitrage: lte or 4g has nothing to do with h speed. even as i type now, airtel signal as well as glo and mtn in my area is h speed, beyond 3g. but the data thruput is far from all those noise making.

proudly9ja: All

[b] I know is Arsenal has never really been known as a club that brings in 'star' players.

We've always brought in virtually unknown players at bargain prices and turned them into stars. So using Chelsea and City as excuse is really weak.

What world star player did we bring in to Arsenal when we were at Highbury? Henry? (was struggling at Juve) Vieira?(hardly got a game at Milan) Reyes? (scored 22 goals in 4 seasons at Sevilla before joining us says it all) Edu? (from Brazil) Petit? (from Monaco Only serious contenders back then was Rangers).

Did we lose players, yes we did Anelka went to Madrid, Overmars and Petit left for Barcelona.


@coogar, Henry and Vieira made their names at Arsenal, just like Fabregas (world and European champion at Arsenal), Nasri (to an extent), Adebayour.


Wiltord was bought just after he topped the charts in the French league. We bought Giroud on that pedestal too.

Pires was a star player at Bordeux before joining us, same as Carzola at his previous club.

Nothing has changed for Arsenal in terms of getting players. Same way we couldn't afford the Ronadinhos, Ronaldo, Denilson, etc back then is same way we can't afford the Matas, Hazards, etc now.

In spite of the challenges back then, we were still able to make do with what we had. Why are we struggling now? I really don't agree that Chelsea and co have spoilt any market.

The market has always been beyond our reach but it has never been an excuse until now.
[/b]

Kay-Dee:
We had a good shot @ winning @ least 2 trophies (CC and EPL) in the 10/11 season (just last year) but ended up empty handed again mainly because of a leaky defence and I blame Wenger for that.

Who knows what the CC final outcome would have been if we had a more solid defence; and we were title contenders until March/April before horrible defending caused us to lose to relegation candidates like Bolton, Westbrom, Stoke and A.Villa. . . . . . . and I personally attribute these failings to Wenger's refusal to sign a defender (Cahill or @ least someone better than Sqills) in January over a couple of millions, he kept telling us TV5 was coming back only to realise he needed another surgery the same week the window closed.

joanana: 4llerbuntu Plz how do i connect my s3 to my computer. I have tried many times n its not see the sd or my phone. what do i do? I could connect my s2 why in my s3 not connecting? Its is annoying Plz help me!

efewhoa: Hello everyone, I have a samsung Galazynote Gt I9220 and I want to know how to install the google playstore on it, as it did not come preinstall. Also when I tried to download apps from the web version of the playstore this message comes up 'you haven't accessed the Google play store app(the white shopping bag icon) on your device using this email account'. Someone help me please

KazeKage1: Hello 4ller y everyone else.

I have a slight problem. There's a wifi that i connect to at work and it requires username/password(which i know)but the problem is there's no provision for entering that anywhere on the android tablet(Galaxy Tab) .

"Cannot say i am surprised or disappointed or whatever hyperbole you want to use.
This is normal for the setup at arsenal."

"But, the fact is that these performances are not 'new' or 'odd' when taken in light of Arsenal's overall history."

"It's not a lack of quality. We couldn't convert our chances for different reasons. Overall it was a real cup game.

"We will get over that. It's part of our club, it's what we do."

R2bees: stup.id man, did i say arsenal signed nani, i just shared rumour i copied from net...u dnt even know anything when it comes 2 arsenalnews and rumour

coogar: 4llerbuntu is a simpleton - any man who feels nani is not better than walcott is a troglodyte - if nani moves to arsenal, he would be their best forward since thierry henry! i doubt the story though - fergie won't sell his most potent winger to his rival.....fergie ain't wenger!

debosky: If Fergie decides to let Nani go, I will gladly welcome him to Arsenal with fanfare.