₦airaland Forum

@ debosky,
what about the matches u have battered teams into submission? the glory months of aug-oct especially sept when u won all the games u played and created so many because of flamster/cesc combo. it took ferguson 2 matches to unearth the anderson-hargo combo in united's midfield. managers can only rely on what has worked well for them.

@ i-man,
nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, uruguay is better than france, holland and england because they have won it twice between 1930-1950.

good question @ sagna. i saw arsenal's pre-season games and i knew sagna was going to be an instant hit. sagna's fitness is unquestionable plus he doesn't engage in theatrics like eboue. sagna supports the attack and rarely "gets caught". as a matter of fact, he is the only arsenal player that will walk into man utd's starting eleven. arsene wenger will play flamini-cesc combo because of the partnership the duo has formed in the last 18 months. it will be folly for any manager to break that trend. besides, most of diarra's supposed experience was as a right back when chelsea was in crisis last season. diarra knows this as much as i do and he decides to leave. there is no way diarra is going to ever disrupt what wenger has carefully built in the last 3 seasons.

my only worry was why diarra didn't see this coming before joining arsenal. the only reason flamini is keeping gilberto on the bench is gilberto's age and tired legs. anderson would also have given schole's a run for his money if scholes didn't get injured. the way the game is being played these days requires loads of running. players cover around 5km-6km hopping around the pitch so the demand favours young players. one of the reasons why arsenal players play with the same stamina from the blast of the whistle till the final whistle. the number of late goals scored is a pointer to that.  i think diarra feels its no contest hence he decided to move on. gabriel heinze also wanted a move when it was obvious evra was getting more games. where? liverpool. a team that has over 55 squad members. u begin to ask yourself if these players have any common sense.

@ mcomo,
keep digging, keep toiling. i insist u have me confuzzled. give me that thing u are smoking. like the yardies will say, pass the blunt to the left hand side.

manure, man-yoo, scums of the north, and whatever. call us anything u like, we dont care. one thing i know is man utd is the most succesful club in england. wenger envies ferguson's position and will give his arms and legs to achieve what sir alex has done. 2 cups continue to elude wenger and he is being taunted as best manager in the world. by who? of course-by arsenal fans. how pathetic!!!!!

thank you. . . the debate continues,
ashley cole has nothing on gael clichy when he was at arsenal. ashley is english so it is expected to hear the tabloids go gung-ho over him. afterall, terry gets all the credits at chelsea at the expense of carvalho and makelele. terry's inadequacies was exposed during the world cup when he had no such cover. moving on, what i am saying here is if arsene has to choose between 2 players who are neck on neck in technical ability, he will choose the one that has experience @ arsenal over the other. every manager will stick to the formation that has worked well for them. why exactly was arsenal playing 4-5-1? afterall, wenger has walcott, bendtner and eduardo on the bench.

sagna/eboue's case barely holds water. sagna plays better than eboue at the right back. experience cannot count when its obvious one player is far better than the other. experience counts when there's no daylight between the two. giggs and nani is another example. giggs performance at the start of the season should have condemned him to the bench but ferguson prefers his experience to what nani will offer at any point in time.

what do u mean by the best european team? is it at club level or national level? are we considering league games and european games or just uefa games only. u need to be specific, mate!

oh lard,
pillock, ninny, get it in your head, shut it -----must u resort to these kind of cheap insults to drive your points home?  nothing irritates me more than a nigerian acting like a wannabe gangstar. i would have ignored your prattle if all these insults come natural to u. the fact that you are forcing yourself to use such demeaning words makes u sound like a poof. your rants should be compared to pasuma trying to feature in an eminem song. i have lost the appetite to carry on with this debate. wannabes don't have a say around me. get a life.

@ mcomo,
stop having me mixed up with someone else. no sir, i have never chatted with u. the more u probe, the more confuzzled u will get. keep digging.

@ i-man,
i have grown to learn something on this forum. arsenal fans have a grudging respect for ronaldo but they wont admit he is great cos he plays for man united. fabregas has not even done 30% of what ronnie has done this season and some arsenal fans are already forseeing him to win the pfa awards. the best fabregas can get is pfa young player of the year(if anderson does not nick it from him).
dayokanu and mc omo have loads of things in common. the highest pires has ever scored in the league was 14 goals. paul scholes matched his records in 2002/03 season and lampard broke it 2 seasons later before ronaldo now threw the record books into a pit. u cannot but admire ronaldo. what a talent. few objective arsenal fans i spoke to admitted they will rather have him than play against him.

i know more than arsenal than u do even if u support then. vieira, overmars and lauren were all due to go when wenger sold them. please, lauren does not play in the lb position. that coming from an arsenal fan is the goof of the century. wenger played ashley cole ahead of clichy even though we all know there was nothing to choose between the two. why didn't fabregas start games ahead of vieira when he came to arsenal? look at u saying vieira was sold off. patrick vieira dumped arsenal for the lack of your continental success. go and read his autobiography and educate urself on club issues and stop printing hokum.

@ i-man,
dayokanu is clueless. he was exhibiting the same characteristics yesterday telling us how bayern munich won 4 ucl titles. 3 of those were won in quick succession and since then they got one by playing in a penalty shoot-out in 2001. the game ended 1-1 after extra time. dayo in his fanatsy believes ucl should be the only yard-stick to measure greatness. i asked him if nottingham forest and aston villa are greater than chelsea and arsenal. trust me, dayo came out with an emphatic yes!!!!! now, how sane is this dayo?

@ dayokanu,
it seems u are dyslexic. those words came from i-man not cougar.

@ dayokanu,
shame on u. u have to add 2 striker's records to beat a midfielder. are we talking about the same klose that scored 15 goals in all competitions last season compared to ronaldo's 23 as a winger? u need to get yourself knocked out by a liquor. ronaldo has 16 league goals in 17 starts this season. that is by far phenomenal for a striker let alone a winger. give credits to this lad especially when he is 22. i insist, kaka has nothing on him.

@ mcomo + kitaun,
adebayor will outscore ronaldo? arsenal fans are here again. adebayor who plays as a striker has 13 league goals in 19 starts. ronaldo has 16 goals in 18 starts. this is common sense and not algebra. ronaldo tops the epl and ucl scorer's charts while adebayor's 13 goals have all come in the league. ronaldo will outscore any player by may 2008 even if he gets two 3-match bans like he did in august. he is destined to be great. all arsenal wingers put together have not scored more than him in the epl alone(never mind the ucl and the fa cup).

@ dayokanu,
this is common sense. this is why uefa seeds top teams. your performance over the years are calculated in coefficients and are used to rate top teams.
tell us why bundesliga can only play 3 clubs in the ucl and epl plays 4 or sometimes 5 in the ucl.

@ justkunmi,
are u aware hleb has only scored 7 league goals since he joined arsenal in 2005? rosicky has only scored 8 league goals since he joined arsenal. theo walcott is yet to score a league goal for arsenal it means all arsenal's wingers put together hasn't scored more than ronaldo this season alone. what a shame!!!!!

@ i-man,
please don't let us even go to bayern munich. what is ribery's contribution for bayern this season? he has scored only 4 goals in 16 starts and he is considered a legend in germany. he was even given mehmet scholl's jersey to prove he was being regarded as a demi-god in germany. no player in the world is better than cristiano ronaldo at the moment. kaka has nuthing on him. he is head and shoulders above kaka.

good question concerning big ronaldo when he was spain. he scored 34 league goals in la liga but how many were against real madrid, valencia or athletico. some people are so clueless they forget head to head games normally end in goalless draws or slim margins like 2-1 or 1-0. its not their fault they want ronaldo to score, such is the quality of the portugese midfielder that plastic fans expect him to outscore the adebayors/eduardos/luca tonis and kloses. p.s: the last time fabregas(a midfielder) scored a league goal was 11 weeks ago.

@ dayokanu,
barcelona is marginally better than real madrid. they completed a double in 2006. retained la liga in the same year plus boasting world class brands in their team in messi and ronaldinho. one look at barcelona's academy will drown other european clubs in the sea of death. check this out: messi, iniesta, fabregas, reina, xavi, luis garcia, giovanni dos santos, arteta, bojan, valdes, puyol all came out of that academy. u have to respect what barcelona is doing to football. they are miles ahead of real madrid in recent times.

@ dayokanu,
this is why u must kneel and bow down to the highest scoring midfielder in the epl. a winger that tops the scoring charts in england and in europe is no fluke. how many goals has ribery scored playing from the wings?

@ debosky,
ronaldo's return against the big 4 is now a yard-stick? u keep disappointing me. what is ronaldo's position on the football pitch? is he a striker? u are mentioning ruud and henry who are strikers and u are comparing them to a winger? somebody wake me i am dreaming. how many goals has hleb, robben, kewell, duff, bentley, pedersen, walcott, rosicky, and other wingers have scored against the big 4. get back to me when u have an answer to that. for ronaldo to have sdored 22 goals as a midfielder is outstanding. only a fool will expect ronaldo to score against the big 4 more than messi, kaka, henry and ruud. i cannot believe what i am reading here. i thought nairaland members have more brains.

@ hnic,
typical gunner. anyone that leaves arsenal is doomed. why don't arsenal fans wish players leaving their club good luck? henry, pires, edu, vieira and now young diarra? arsene wenger promised diarra he would get regular playing time if he joins arsenal. this was why lassana left chelsea to join arsenal. what is wrong in that? he believes he will get more starts at portsmouth so u guys should wish him well.

@ debosky,
old player theory works here. why bring up those comparisons? arsene wenger chooses experience over youth when the 2 players involved are neck on neck in technical ability. baptista will always be a good player and he is better technically with loads of experience over aliadiere. the only reason ade got more games than van persie was the lack of discipline in the dutch player. i can still remember his sending off against southampton fc that robbed 2 points off arsenal and caused wenger to display uncharacteristic anger in public with a player. all this added to ade being used ahead of van persie. u dont know your football. arsene wenger goes with experience if there's no daylight btw player a and b in terms of technical ability.

@ folem,
nice one. i have strong reasons to think we are going to win this competition. apart from the 14 years winning syndrome, there is the under 17 factor as well. we won the under 17 in 1993 before winning tunisia 94. we have won the under 17 in 2007, can we win ghana 2008?

@ deboosky,
u are always too quick to take shots and u always miss. "old players" in this context means players that diarra met in the club and not their respective ages. arsene wenger plays the fellas he's been used to until they prove to him they were no good. u mentioned lehmann, what a way to shoot one's leg. lehmann should have been dropped 2 seasons ago with his chain of blunders. his goofs in august convinced all and sundry that lehmann has lost it and that was why almunia became arsenal's number 1 goalie. diarra was never going to play in the first team at arsenal. wenger promised to play him often and the young lad felt he isn't getting what he was promised. leaving was his only option. well done diarra.

@ wormedup,
there's no light to shed here. all i said was ronaldo is faster on n off the ball than kaka. if u have anything that says otherwise, please bring it here and lets see.

@ wormedup,
when u stop watching nta for premiership and u watch skysports, u will get the drift. sky measures speed and time taken for a player to cover 100 metre dash so i am sure of what i am saying here. theo walcott and cristiano ronaldo have done sub 10 seconds this season.

@ hnic,
at arsenal, he had flamini, gilberto silva, diaby and maybe denilson ahead of him. arsenal is thick in the midfield area and diarra knows wenger believes in loyalty to old players more than anything. his best option was to leave for a club like portsmouth where he can express himself for 3 weeks before the african players in pompey gets back.

@ dayokanu,
whats your point? what makes a club great? is it the number of ucl titles or consistency over a long period? nottingham forest and aston villa have won the ucl before but is it right to say they are better than arsenal and man utd? bayern munich won it 4 times but does that make them a better club than man utd or barcelona? bayern munich's failure to stamp their authority in recent times has left germany with the option of playing just 3 clubs in europe. if their poor trend continues like this, uefa will cut it to 2.

@ dayokanu,
there are many strikers in the epl that has done sub 10 seconds. freedie ljunberg in 2002, ronaldo in 2006/07 and wayne rooney in 2004/05. i have been told theo walcott is also quick. u can forget about asafa or mustafa. some football players are faster than iaaf sprinters.

@ wormedup,
stop watching your football on a pocket tv. go and watch man utd v bolton last season at old trafford and see ronaldo's run to set up rooney's goal. skysports calculate it to be 9.99 secs in 100 metres. ronaldo is the fastest player in the premiership which is why nike chose him to do the buggati advert.
after ronaldo comes theo walcott. all others dont even come close.

HNIC:
I really don't understand Lassana.
You are number 2 in the pecking order and u are getting a fair share of games in a team that is in all competitions, Joint top of the league with the mancs(f#@k goals difference)
What makes him think Pompey would be that easy , There's competition there also, or has Harry guaranteed him a starting shirt also?
Don't be surprised that he might be off to Watford by the end of the season.He would be guaranteed a starting shirt there!,
This 22 year old lad might be making a mistake, Let's wait and see

well, what goes around comes around. this was the same way chelsea fans felt when he left for arsenal last summer. when u sign an unsettled player, there's always the tendency he might get unsettled in your club as well. i think diarra has a chance to play more games at pompey if he can put up a virtuoso performance before the african players get back in february.

@ debosky,
no need to go down that path. one must admit at this stage bayern munich thrives on past glory. they won the ucl in 74, 75 and 76 and then in 2001. one can deduce they were fortunate to have a golden generation in the mid 70s and they won it in succession. there's nothing to suggest that they can do a repeat performance in this modern era if u consider the fact that they won it via penalties in 2001. penalty as we all know is like national lottery. if it's not, how did liverpool eliminate chelsea in last season's ucl? petr cech in goal and he couldn't save one shot? karma is a tart.