₦airaland Forum

buzugee:
this is insane. whats going on in that country are you guys that rich ? in the western world they pay the equivalent of N1000 per month.

the infrastructure is not up to standard yet so the price at this time will be very dear. in the next 3-7 years, the price would come down. there was a time only the elite could afford digital tv(dstv). these days, tenants get it installed for free in some housing estates in lagos.

buzugee:
so the prices are justified because of the dearth of infrastructure ? 

the overheads the service providers incur is the reason for the high prices. most of these providers generate power from their own diesel when the govt should be providing 24/7 electricity.

RuuDie:
Expect the same team that played Chelsea (minus Evans, Oshea, Fabio) to be the team that starts against Barca in Wembley. . . . .definitely, Rooney & Chicharito up top with Giggsy in the heart of midfield.

if we start with giggsy in the heart of the midfield, then it would be a 3-0 loss at wembley.

HNIC:
5.it don't matter though, you are champions now, but the victory handed Chelsea a lifeline which didnt seem feasible just one month prior to then.

it was something you would expect of a team in the relegation zone. how can man utd win just 5 games away from home? in the history of the premier league, it's the worst record ever.

@gooners
it's so sad that in a season where 30 of our 67 points were obtained 'on the road' we still fall short.(next to us has just 26 points)
Rubbish home form.We dropped 20 points at home this season.
That's relegation form 

arsenal have so much pressure on them playing at the emirates. firstly, 90% of the teams in the league go to the emirates to park the bus which makes arsenal's sexy football impotent. wenger has no plan b whenever plan a fails which means teams often get away with this method of parking the bus. others try to nick a goal and then park the bus for the remainder of the game. lastly, the fans! they transmit their frustration to the players by giving up hope far too easily.

HNIC:
Don't have ready stats, but amongst the big 4, I think Utd are not really affected by travels.
Anyways, you tried to play down that Arsenal victory as an 'accident', yet if we had lost, you would have reminded us that we haven't won against Man u since 2008

haha. how many away games did man utd win this season?

HNIC:
@coogar,
travel to emirates after a trip to Germany, u talk like manchester to London is like 8 hours.To think you laughed at Arsenal when the Bus driver to 'Boro  messed us up in 07/08
Of course, you could afford to lose the match,but if u had won you would have been in a far better position against Chelsea.If arsenal had lost, citeh would have been in front of us by now,If Wolves had lost to u guys, they would have been relegated by now like the hammers

united don't travel well. every time the boys go away in europe and follow up with an away game in the league, the results are always ugly. if we had won against arsenal, we would have been 6 points ahead of chelsea before we played chelsea. who knows if complacency might have screwed us over against chelsea. a chelsea win at ot woulda meant 3 points difference with 2 games to go. united couldn't afford that.

HNIC:
Hehehehe
A match in which Arsenal dominated in every statistic you can ever imagine.
Where was the priority , if I may ask?
To qualify for the CL finals when you are leading 2-0 in the first leg against a Shalke side that could have been beaten black and blue by Swansea or N' Forest?
If you had beaten Arsenal on may 1, you would have been able to play Chelsea one week later with a relaxed mind, not needing to cop all 3 points

chelsea were then our closest rivals. beating chelsea was more important than beating arsenal cos we had to put day-light between us and chelsea.
before the game at the emirates, united played midweek in europe and they had to travel to the emirates on the back of that. united could afford to lose that match and it wasn't a surprise they lost. beating chelsea was the key to winning the title.

debosky:
Vieira left for a new challenge - he had won all he could at Arsenal and wanted to win elsewhere.

gilberto silva too? edu? ljunberg? bobby pires?

your fellow gunners had this discussion http://arsenal-mania.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28686

debosky:
@ Sharon

Giggs and Scholes are British - they stay on for ages. Rio is English.

The fact is that the 'better' players like Vieira and co didn't have the patience to wait for title winning sides to be rebuilt - they desired success immediately and decided to leave.

Vieira wasn't sold for clocking 30 - he chose to go elsewhere to win trophies, so did Henry.

Utd could continue to invest in Rooney, Tevez and others, Arsenal couldn't invest in the same manner.

vieira completed an unbeaten season in 03/04. . . .won the fa cup in 05. surely, he didn't leave becos of lack of titles. he left cos wenger had the age 30+ policy. as soon as a player crosses age 30, wenger puts them in a bin. he got the nickname "pedo" from that method.

debosky:
Check the Arsenal team that beat Utd at the Emirates

Arsenal - Scezney (cheaper than VDS) Sagna (more expensive than Fabio?) Djourou and Koscielny (much cheaper than Rio and Vidic) Clichy (cheaper than Evrra)

Ramsey, Wilshere & Song (cheaper than Carrick, Park & Ando) RVP, Walcott & Nasri (Cheaper than Rooney, Hernandez & Nani)

That shows you that in a 'one-off' game, a cheaper side can perform- it goes either way.

However, over the course of a season, the quality tends to shine through.

the priority was elsewhere. if this was the title-decider like the chelsea match, the result would have been different.

debosky:
He does - without the injection of quality that usually accompanies them.

all these players line-up for france o. clichy, nasri, diaby, etc are internationals.

The difference is that much of that quality remains in the club - Rooney, Rio remain, as well as the title winning experience of the likes of VDS and Giggs.
Besides, before jumping into Bebe and Hernandez, y'all were still signing 30m and 20m players and 15m players regularly - Berba, Carrick, Nani, Valencia, Anderson.

who forced wenger to sell his old guards? the fa? uefa? satan? how can you not apportion some blame to wenger's man-management? gilberto silva is still a force to reckon with whenever he plays for brazil? vieira still had about 2 years in him when wenger sold him. there were other players wenger sold because they clocked 30. yet, united have giggs(37), scholes(36), vds(40), rio(32), vidic(31), etc winning titles and marching to a european final.

That base of experience/quality is unavailable at Arsenal, retiring or otherwise. The title winning experience of Rooney, Rio, Evra, Carrick and others still outweighs what Arsenal has.

This takes me back to my previous argument - the base at Arsenal is much lower, hence the lower quality transfers has a greater impact.

what happened to all the players with wealth of experience in arsenal? did they just die? did they all retire?

dayokanu:
You can also argue that Maldini

Makes sense?

maldini won 5 champs league, thuram won??
besides, maldini did not grow on steroids.

debosky:
This is non factual. If JM's arrival simply made it harder (i.e. Arsenal's capacity to spend remained the same) then Arsenal should be losing the league in 2011 with a similar quality squad as he had in his previous title winning seasons.

Even the most ardent Wenger basher or Wenger lover will ever tell you that Arsene's squad is on the same level as it was in 2004 or any of the other title winning seasons.

The fact is, the squad quality at Arsenal has dropped - this is primarily due to reduced expenditure.

this same excuse applies to man utd. from signing veron, rio, nistelrooy, rooney to signing bebe, smalling and hernandez. there's difference in quality. what is amazing is. . . .this was meant to be a transitional season for united. the likes of scholes, vds, giggs, etc entering their retirement with the new kids on the block taking over and yet the transitional season produced another league title. wenger should really be ashamed.

From signing the highest goal scorer in France, an Euro winner a WC winner and a German WC keeper and so on to signing defenders fresh out of Ligue 2 and having a number 1 who came from division 2 in Spain?
JM's introduction created a challenge no doubt - but the greatest challenge of all was a reduction in spending by Arsenal.

the roman era and lately(the abu dhabis) have changed the transfer market. players readily available for arsenal are no longer there. they will rather go to clubs(chelsea/man city) with a better pay-packet than arsenal. arsenal are not the only ones on the receiving end here. ferguson is suffering from this as well. how many of united's targets dumped ferguson for chelsea? i can count like a dozen on top of my head alone. there was a reason fergie kept harping there's no value in the market.

Let me put it in clearest contrast.

From 1996 till 2003 there was only one year (2002-03) that Arsenal's transfer spending was negative. That's 7 years of net positive spending

From 2004 till 2010 there have been 4 seasons with negative transfer spending. That's only 3 years of net positive spending.

If that doesn't tell the story, I don't know what does.

this might be as a result of wenger being an excellent business man. he manages to sell dud players at over-rated prices. anelka bought for 500k and sold for 22 million. adebayor sold for 25 million, toure for 15 million. all these players cost pea-nuts but they were sold handsomely. it has nothing to do with the quality of the players. wenger still recruits his clairefontaine graduates every season.

debosky:
I repeat - Wenger has won titles - there is no doubt as far as I'm concerned that he has what it takes to win titles as a coach. The obviously missing ingredient is the quality of his squad.

he won those when the league was dominated by two teams. when jose arrived, there were fears fergie's era would come to an end. fergie responded by winning it in 06/07. wenger allowed the tide to wash him away. now, there are man city, liverpool and tottenham to join man utd and chelsea. it's safe to say wenger will not win the league again before he retires.

duduspace:
My position has not changed, I have always said that I never judge this team on the 6 year mantra most people judge it with. At the start of the season, I believed this team was good enough to at the barest minimum finish in the top 2 and I believed we had enough quality to finish ahead of manure but that was before Chicharito's explosion and Chelsea going on their 70m spree,  both of those teams further spent to improve their teams despite finishing 10 points ahead of us last season.

so hernandez's explosion was the reason united won? why didn't chamakh explode like a taliban bomb? van persie? vela? bendtner?

montelik:
It is interesting you say this, yet you would go with a front 3 of Valencia, Park and Rooney (leaving out our form striker Hernandez). I won't put too much fate in d barca-arsenal game at d emirates. That was a 2 legged tie. Barca were already more than happy with d away goal they had, knowing they could finish d job at d Nou Camp. This on d other hand will be a winner takes all, one-off final. I doubt their defense will be so easily susceptible to counterattacking threats of Valencia, Rooney & Park.

our best counter-attacking play had valencia/nani + park + rooney on the pitch. hernandez can finish but his hold-up play is sub-standard.

dayokanu:
So Dudu and Wengay would be the only ones left who still belive in this failed experiment.

I heard wenGAY and his team were booed off the field yesterday

four-fifth of the whole stadium was empty when arsenal did their lap of honour. the ones that remained booed the team throughout.

dayokanu:
Who is a better defender Paolo Maldini or Lilian Thuram.

One stayed at one club, the other journeyed all over.

I hope all the consideration above would be used in evaluating this also

maldini is the best defender of his generation. his longevity is enough to put him in the all-time best defender on the planet. who is thuram compared to maldini. should we count titles? european glory or what? maldini to thuram is like fat ronaldo to chamakh.

scotia:
I just thought I should share this with you people. . . It's a lilttle old.

Carlo Garganese runs down a list of 10 players who are maybe not as good as their reputation suggests…
By Carlo Garganese

9) Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona): You can’t deny the genius of Ibrahimovic, and there is no doubt he is a top class player. But, at the same time, Zlatan’s record in big knockout matches – especially in the Champions League – remains very poor. As does his contribution to the Sweden national national team. Until he fixes these inconsistencies, he doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the Lionel Messi’s and Wayne Rooney’s of this world.

Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United): Always relying on his partner in central defence – Nemanja Vidic or John Terry – and found wanting when he has to do the job alone. And that was the case long before the troubles really started this season.

7) Sergio Busquets (Barcelona): The weak link of both Barcelona and Spain, there are question marks over how he commands a starting place for either. Comes across very ordinary at times, but we wouldn’t dare make any accusations of nepotism relating to his father Carles’ history with Barca.

i stopped reading after these 3 names. whoever this journo is - he is a reeetard. zlatan? busquets? rio? 3 rolls-royce players who have mastered the art of positioning are on this list? these are the kind of twunts who appreciate players with blood n thunder behaviour on the pitch. i am amazed berbatov is not on his list.

dayokanu:
And let them make a bid,

If Torres was bought for 50m, Messi should go for around 250m.

Let Roman and Citeh make bids

how much is 250m to the abu-dhabi guys and roman? it's chicken feed. messi is in a comfort zone. he joined barcelona at a young age and he will retire there. i have got no problems with that. the issue of his staying in one club crops up when people compare him to ronaldo. messi finds it easier in barcelona than ronaldo who moved to man utd at 18 and then moved on to real madrid at 24. messi has been playing with the same team-mates since 13. the ethos of barcelona were engrained into his system since puberty - how can you then do a pound to pound comparison to ronaldo who must still learn to adapt into a new environment and new team-mates.

dayokanu:
Messi came to barcelona Pre-pubescent.

He probably got to Barcelona the same age Scholes and Giggs got to man Utd. Messi has been with Barcelona for over 10yrs. Including when barcelona was nothing in European football, So why should he leave when they are the best in Europe.

Messi probably feels more Spanish than Fabregas,Arteta or Almunia self. For a boy who got to Spain at age 13.

I havent commented on who is better but to make assertions like he needs to go to another league when he is already in the best team is weak and moot.

Who in EPL can even match his Sale price? Or would he just buy out his own contract to play for Liverpool or Arsenal?

man city owners will buy the entire barcelona football club, roots and supporters and ship them all to carrington. roman will also buy half of their squad without blinking.

dayokanu:
Barcelona is the best team of his generation so why should he change?

Why didnt Giggs and Scholes play in another EPL side to prove that he is one of the best EPL players of his time?

We would never know how good Giggs and Schole is until they play for Chelsea or Arsenal.

giggs and scholes are british, messi is not a spaniard. giggs and scholes have been with man utd for 15 yrs +. they have played when the club was on the high, when the club was struggling and stuffs and they have proven their worth time n time again. besides, we are comparing 2 foreign players in foreign leagues in ronaldo/messi. scholes/giggs analogy cannot cut it here. is it normal for any striker to have scored 85 goals in 88 apps for his new club?

dayokanu:
Thats a moot point. Messi is playing in the best team in his generation why should he go to another league? To prve what?

Would someone quit Goldman Sach for Afribank just to prove a point that he can survive in another league

why shouldn't he? so how would we ever know he can cut it in the tougher premier league as we all know la liga has gone to the pits. what's the difference in points between the top team n the bottom team in spain in comparison to england. ronaldo has done it in the 2 leagues - what about messi?

Jarus:
A few great games and good goal returns and people are saying CR7 is better than Messi.
This is most laughable. Where were they when Messi not only outclassed him in games both played? Where were they when Messi was redefining the round leather game in the last two years? Even a look at the earlier part of this thread will reveal this.

Class is permanent, form is temporary. I refuse to be deceived to change my opoinion just because a player had few extra-great games. Messi has had so many of that.

mr jarus, ronaldo has scored 85 goals in 88 games for real madrid since his 80 million transfer. you talk about messi outclassing him in games they both played. it wasn't only messi that outclassed him. xavi, iniesta, villa and pedro all outclassed him. that goes to show messi plays in a much better team than the real madrid side that mourinho is just putting together. will messi outclass ronaldo if they swap teams and play against each other?

why is messi such a mediocre player in the argentinian shirt? coincidence. no one is disputing messi is a superb player but ronaldo edges him for the fact that ronaldo has conquered two top leagues in europe while messi will retire in barcelona. cristiano has scored 39 league goals in 33 games. he will win the pichichi and the european golden shoe to boot. jokes aside, ronaldo is the truth.

4llerbuntu:
btw, that point about chicarito and bebe vis a vis squllacci etc is soooooooooooo on point!!


and they will have us believe money is why we have been doing the same thing for 6 yrs.

at a point early this season, it was generally agreed that of all the top four clubs arsenal had the best squad depth, now music don change again.


what is so hard in simply accepting that the wrong poo has been done severally and there is a need to move forward by changing tack?

a very good point!

HNIC:
You talked about LK6 having 6 years of european football pro experience
and I am asking where?
is it at the non-league clubs he played for or in 3rd division in France?
Quick to Forget that hernandez was at the world cup with Mexico and he's had  2 years experiece playing with the NT. . 23Apps. . .14 goals. . (He was the 'buy' of the season and even he himself, didnt think he will do that well)
Smalling has also played up to 19 matches for Fulham.
Bebe
he doesn't fall into the equation

fergie bought hernandez before the world cup. he was bought on the day bayern eliminated man utd last season. buying chicharito was a risk, a far bigger risk than buying koscielny n chamakh(players who have already proven themselves in europe).

debosky:
Is the base team Utd have better or worse than Arsenal’s?

50-50

If Utd’s is better, were the additions made by AW sufficient to close the gap?

in principle, yes. the additions made by AW were sufficient enough to win a title, not necessarily win the league.

Utd’s defence, particularly VDS, Rio and Vidic are far better than any at Arsenal - the improvements didn’t bring us even close to that level.

how many games did this trio play together. where were you when johnny evans kept making howlers after howlers earlier in the season?

Berba and Rooney are far above any pairing at Arsenal. Giggs - with his technique, vision and title winning experience is an almost ‘unmatchable’ element that Utd had in its favour as well.

rooney was poo in the first half of the season. the worst united player by a country mile. he didn't get going until the new year. granted, berbatov stepped it up this season. however, arsenal's midfield is miles better as far as creativity is concerned. that should count for something.

We might be at par in a few areas such as at RB, or on the wings (minus Giggs), and even ahead in central creative midfield (Cesc and co) but we are deficient in so many other areas.

areas where united are better: goalkeeper, attack.
areas where arsenal are better: central midfield

defence = even. rio's rubbish fitness is responsible for that!

dayokanu:
Point is Kolscieny alone had more European top flight experience more than all players manure bought added together.

there's no need to debate any further. it's a fact that ferguson would have won the league title with any of the teams occupying the top four presently.
it's about getting the very best out of the players at one's disposal. it's about making players with 50% talent produce 150% efficiency.

StarBoard:
@Cougar,
I really don't think this squad is the best like you alluded.That's why we're scratching our heads to see the best possible combo to play a Barcelona side that is porous defensively.

the best way to take advantage of their porous defence is via counter-attacks. arsenal exposed that at the emirates. with better strikers on display, gaynners would have won the tie. chicharito would have buried the bendtner chance @ camp nou.

ahonohai:
Your ignorance is alarming. . . damn!

pot calling kettle black. an ignoramus like you have the chutzpah to say someone else is ignorant. what input have you added to the discourse? nothing!
little wonder your club keeps failing. the failure transcended from the fans to the manager. . . . .and to the players. some of you gaynners need brain transplants.

debosky:
^^ Another exercise in displaying your lack of cognitive abilities.
Games we've lost have come from defensive mistakes - if RVP was a defender then your analysis would make sense. Mumu.

shut up your mouth. you have shifted the goal post several times concerning arsenal's failure to win titles. you have blamed the defence and you have also blamed the attack. the key is to outscore your opponents. every goal is caused by a defensive mistake - it will be idiotic to think a team will not concede goals throughout a season.

rio + vidic + vds have committed howlers this season but united's attack ensured most of those mistakes were nullified by either drawing or winning.
if the attack is good enough, they will score more goals than the defence conceded which is what is needed to win league titles.
a team that won 100-99 for 38 games will win the league. a team that keeps 38 clean sheets and drew half of it will not win the league.

eyoniggar:
Medjai, Ajanle, I beg you both in the name of God, please do not respond to this ediot. His Talent is the work of steroid?Ohmy God .

Am out.

this epileptic beast of burden will not stop typing. at least come up with sound opinions instead of displaying the behaviour of a retarded sty-occupant. when you keep your mouth shut, people will guess you are stewpid. when you open your mouth, people are sure you are stewpid.

dayokanu:
Smalling too had how many starts in first division? All the Man utd signings had less than 20 starts combined in European football before joining, When Kolscieny the youngest of Arsenals signing had 6yrs of experience

smalling made his epl debut less than 2 yrs ago. before then, he was playing for maidstone(a non-league club) in kent. trust arsenal fans to generate excuses upon excuses to cover up for wenger's failure.

if only van persie had remained fit all season, then the league table would portray a different story:

arsenal's league games featuring rvp:
p24 w11 d7 l6 %loss = 40%

arsenal's league games not featuring rvp:
p13 w8 d3 l2 pts %loss = 15%

arsenal lost more league games with rvp on the pitch. . . . . but we have been told on these pages a fit rvp = league titles.