₦airaland Forum

bgees:
shut the Fk up!! it was an accident.

are yu a baboon just let loose from its cage? I havent got time for your likes today so please stay off my case and don't respond to me at all.

Totally shattered by that injury to Aaron, the hope of a nation cut down like that just because some people believe the only way to stop us playing is to kick us, I mean we all play football or at the least most of us do and you do know in that fraction of a second when you can potentially injure someone. Shawcross' tears were a bit too late.
Most people downplay the effect of such injuries on players, Diaby took so long to finally realise the initial promise he showed, just maybe the poor lad had a psychological barrier to overcome who knows? Eduardo has yet to recover the courage to fully go for 50-50s and now Ramsey joins the list. The only thing he has going for him is his age and that the injury looks like its on the bigger bones and not close to the joints.
Do get well soon Aaron as I'm sure a lot of Welsh people will cry today, this is one too many and I hope those idiots in the FA will finally do something about this kick Arsenal into submission mentality. 3 such injuries from reckless tackles by opposing players in 5 years involving only Arsenal players is definitely more than a coincidence, they came from confidence gained after a lot of other tackles went unpunished.

I'm totally shattered, must an Arsenal player's legs be broken every 2 years? something should be done about these dangerous tackles.

Go on lads, in front of yu are the 3 points, TAKE IT, IT'S YOURS.

For once, Arsene is yielding to popular demand, no Denilson in the starting lineup. No disrespect to Denny but I'm glad he is sitting this one out.

abi o V3, the lads should take maximum advantage of these points leaking all over the place.

Illusion2 is only being unnecessarily emotional about this (like Wayne Bridge). I've not gotten all the facts of the case but it seems they werent even married based on what you guys are writing.
Even if they were married, they are now separated/divorced/whatever and she has a right to be bumped by anybody (a true friend should however have a bit more class or at least be open with his friend which I wouldn't expect from Terry who wasn't even open with his wife anyway)
Its all part of the decadence of western society, who knows who the girl was bumping before Wayne self.
The chap is overreacting but we are all different people anyway as what makes some laugh makes others cry so good luck to him if all he wants to do is play the victim and be feeling sorry for himself, for all we know he might never have intended to go to the world cup anyway.

slimshay:
Dudu something you said is what i've been trying to say as my defense of our state of being now. The youth thing was not an experiment, not a project . . .not somebody waking one morning and decided it will be more fun to win with kids. It is the path that was chosen after careful projection of what our financial situation was going to look like if we had to build a new stadium and yet remian competitive. . .and more importantly be worth something in money terms. Simply put it had to be done.

True talk something had to suffer, sadly for fans it had to be on pitch success. Here's to hoping it's all coming to fruition now. Maybe its not yet uhuru, but i believe the aspect of inability to buy personnnel or improve on player contracts based on finnacila constraints should be a thing of the past now. Anywyas thats talk for the summer.

I realised this a while back, the remarkable thing about it was that most people didn't notice cos (with all due credit to Arsene) we kept performance levels relatively high bar some slight dips in the 05/06, 06/07 (when the youth policy went into full swing with the gradual disintegration of the invincibles) and 08/09 seasons (when we took a step back after we lost Hleb, Gilberto and Flamini in the MF). I dare to say its uphill from now on cos we are financially stable enough to prevent any of these happening again (hopefully we'll show that by holding on to Cesc come summer).

slimshay:
Right now we have the some of Anak form Stoke to take on. Like A-40 said, we need to stand our ground not bee shifetd off the ball. We have by far more technically gifted players so outplaying them is not an issue. The matter will be to refuse to budge physically.

A bit of a shame Diaby has to miss this, but Big Sol should improve our physical outlook, a MF of Song, Cesc and Ramsey should be able to hold their own (note: this might not be a game to play Denilson) and Bendtner in front also helps us aerially. The extra time Stoke played against City plays into our hand nicely as they might not be able to keep up the physical pace for long. I think they've also lost 1 of their ball players in Etherington. We should be able to nick this.

@Debosky
That is not true when you place in perspective the Chairman's letter, and please verify the authenticity of that 70% thingy before you accept it as gospel truth as far as I'm concerned its a figment of someone's imagination.

Here are some interesting snippets from the Chairman's letter which I think is worth reading at http://www.arsenal.com/assets/_files/documents/feb_10/gun__1267173536_Arsenalhalfyr_30-11-09_WEBSITE.doc

[Quote]A feature of our football management strategy over the last year has been an intensive and determined policy of re-signing first team players to new long-term contracts. 17 first team players have been re-signed and this represents a significant level of investment in a very talented group of players. From a business perspective, having the players tied to long-term contracts is the best means of protecting the value of one of our most important assets. We have one of the youngest squads in the Premier League and their experience is growing with every game. We continue to believe that this group of players can and will be one to win trophies for the Club and they will certainly play some fantastic football along the way.[/quote]which is one of the things I've been explaining to most of my friends in recent times that the youth strategy is a management/board decision. I guess the recent jibes at Arsene's unwillingness to spend have led to this recent transparency.
That portion in bold clearly shows the youth strategy as a decision taken for the future direction of the club.

[Quote]
Match-day revenue fell from £44.4 to £41.4 million but this was simply a reflection of the fact we played one less home fixture against the comparative period for last year. The fixture schedule has also had some impact on the level of our other football revenues but there were also recessionary factors at play as both retail and commercial revenues dipped slightly.[/quote]Perhaps, some disgruntled supporters are beginning to show their hand, the explanation sounds plausible though.

[Quote]
Player trading produced an overall surplus of £20.8 million (2008 - £8.0 million) including gains from the sale of player registrations of £33.9 million (2008 – £18.5 million). The most significant player sales were those of Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor.[/quote]The portion I find most interesting, so it is wrong to assume that Arsene is sitting on a warchest of 40m somewhere. If you factor in the contract renewals and possibly bringing in Chamack, youth player purchases, that (20.8m) no longer looks like a considerable amount. At least not in any way near enough to buy Dzeko or any player that will significantly improve the squad.

Stoke cometh but before then, good news from the grove.

1. It seems the prognosis of RVP's recovery is good, Dutch coach says early April, Arsene says late April or early may so I'll go for mid april

2. Gibbs might also be back before the end of the season.

3. Half year results shows massive profits, growing year on year and significant debt reduction (while others are wallowing in interest payments) debt reduction and football/squad related interesting portions in bold (if yu've been wondering where our money is being spent)

from: http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/half-year-financial-results-announced

[Quote]
Half year financial results announced

Significant reduction in group's debt following progress at Highbury Square

    * Profit before tax of £35.2m (2008 - £24.5m) with increased contributions from both the Group’s football and property businesses.
    * Sale of 261 apartments at Highbury Square generated revenue of £96.6m (2008 - £58.4m) with all proceeds used in repayment of the project’s bank debt. The Group’s property business recorded a pre-tax profit of £9.3m (2008 - £4.9m).
    * Pre-tax profit from the Group’s core business of football increased to £25.8m (2008 - £19.7m).
    * Completed first stages of a programme of capital investment in the appearance and “Arsenalisation” of Emirates Stadium.
    * Further significant investment in determined policy of re-signing first team players to new long-term contracts.
    * By 30 November 2009, the Group’s total net debt had been reduced to £203.6m (31 May 2009 - £332.8m).
    * Since 30 November, there have been a number of further positive developments in relation to the Group’s property projects:
    * Of the 655 private apartments in the Highbury Square development, sales have now completed on 524 units with a cumulative sales revenue value of £217.0m.
    * The balance on the Highbury Square bank loan has been further reduced, from £35.7m at 30 November, to £12.9m (31 May 2009 – £123.6m).
    * Sale of part of the Queensland Road development site means that the Group’s other property activities are now debt free.

Commenting on the interim results, Peter Hill-Wood, non-executive chairman, said:

“I am pleased to report that the Group has delivered another profitable set of results for the first six months of the financial year.

There has been remarkable progress at Highbury Square over the last twelve months and it is clear that the next couple of years will see our property activities delivering surplus cash. [/b]This is very good news, although I would not want to speculate on the exact quantum or timing of this.  [b]How we will use this surplus remains undecided but, in addition to investing in the team, I think we will examine investment in Club projects and infrastructure, both in and around Emirates Stadium, which will provide a long lasting benefit to the Club and our tremendous, loyal supporters.

Looking ahead, our strong financial base allows us time to take a measured and diligent approach to determining the Club’s direction beyond our move to Emirates Stadium and into the next phase of growth.”[/quote]Now lets start delivering the trophies and then become a "Big football club" in every sense of the word.

debosky:
Anyone watching Olympiakos vs Bordeaux? I've seen nothing special by Chamakh in this game. . . . he's been peripheral all through.

So yu were on scouting watch like moi.
It might be difficult to draw much conclusion as to his proficiency in front of goal as that game showed that Bordeaux are a team not given to much attacking play, the only 2 players I cld see consistently in attack were Chamakh and Gourcuff(what a player). Chamack's goal return should definitely improve with the way we play.
One thing I can say about him though is that he is a player who can lead the line (in a different way from the Drogba's physicality as he hardly physically bullied any of Olympiakos CBs but more than held his own against them) with movement and combining with other players and is quite skillful on the ball, I didn't see much pace from him but then Bordeaux were basically coasting today. typical Arsene buy comfortable on the ball, hardworking and possibly what you would call a more matured version of Bendtner but less physically imposing, a Drogba he is definitely not but he can hold his own against most CBs.

Suara, una don remove Rodwell the big rod from una behind? abi the thing still dey sweet una?

dayokanu:
Last weekend, Bayern started and played 90minutes with Thomas Muller-20yrs, Holger Badstuber- 20yrs and Diego Contento- 19yrs. Tell me the last time Arsenal played a league game with 3 players 20yrs and below.

on the same day, we played 2 players 20 and under and we have played this season with Traore/Theo/Ramsey in the line up, 4 actually when we brought on Vela.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/match?id=269983&cc=5739
Now can you tell me what team has played the youngest team in UCL history?

dayokanu:
Are you never tired of this wait and see, or team of the future mantra?

Are you never tired of this local champion attitude at Bayern? all the small teams are catching up with you now and you can't even hide behind youth cos you've loaned them out.

Debosky, its Arshavin who's given Sauron the opportunity to make all this noise, we will still meet them again in due course and I will expect things to be different then. If we don handle dem the way Saha and co put fear into their minds, Sauron woulda disappeared from the forum for 2 weeks.

@lastpage

You are very right that men suffer more when marriage breaks down in most western societies but usually this occurs when children are involved (a true man wouldn't want his children to suffer now would he?) and women have the priority when it comes to child issues (dependent on their circumstances though e.g if the man is the house husband he may not be the one to move out). If pikin no dey , the next arrangement is how to share the property but it is not always 50/50 cos it depends on a lot of factors.
It is all to ensure equality at all times and that the children are minimally impacted by the changes.
Much better than our yoruba way of flinging the woman's property out or what do you think? 

Does it really matter how the marriage is ended? whether you throw an "End of marriage party" or you send a text message, the important thing is that the marriage is ended and they both made it out alive with no broken bones.

edoyad:
dudu you nor dey sleep ? Abi na you be that spirit wen dey disturb fine girls inside their sleep ? Leave chavScum jare, they're living in denial. Imagine telling a young bride her husband is about to pass, "noooo ! It's a lie !! He's young a. . . and i . .i i . . i"

abeg I no be incubus o   na Suara wan give me insomnia like Nzogbia.

triistar86:
dude I was about to say the same thing o. . . . how come david beckam is 43rd on the whole list. . . .? According to forbes list he is number 5 on the highest paid athletes list in the world in 2009. None of his fellow footballers are even ahead of him ( http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/17/top-earning-athletes-business-sports-top-earning-athletes_slide_6.html) . . . . Just an observation though.

Football earnings only. Not endorsements and all.

debosky:
I worry slightly about the stoke game, but given that they'd have faced Citeh midweek, we should have more than enough in the locker to beat them after dismal performances there over the past two visits.

I never even thot of this, all of a sudden its the opponent having to deal with fixture congestion that early FA cup exit may still turn out to our benefit. This plays into our hands nicely as that Stoke team is old and depend a lot on physical play which they are bound to get in abundance against City hence giving us the edge when we meet with our fresh players and Pulis being force to either play a tired squad or bring in less experienced and hulking players.

leave dem manure peeps living in the past thinking that this is 07/08 not knowing that the tables have been reversed with their 2nd messiah suffering a fracture and their main messiah reserving his best for the UCL.
Sauron better start praying that MON doesn' t deny them the Carling Cup this year cos the PL is out of it for this season. That match at OT on the 3rd of April will be an interesting one.

[quote author=~Sauron~ link=topic=400313.msg5565326#msg5565326 date=1266881968]Fletcher has achieved more than Arsene Wenger.
Ramsey will be knighted in Wales if he EVER wins the EPL. [/quote]Even if he has gone to heaven and come back, he doesn't have the mouth to call Ramsey shiite after what the small boy did to him. 

[quote author=~Sauron~ link=topic=400313.msg5565198#msg5565198 date=1266880263]Aaron Ramsey is shyte.
Gibbs is double shyte(another Theo Walcott in the making)
Lansbury is half-decent but i don't see him imposing himself at the Emirates.

Jay Simpson is your only hope. [/quote]Go and tell that to Darren Fletcher

[quote author=~Sauron~ link=topic=400313.msg5564239#msg5564239 date=1266869584][/b]

Buncha witless players.
Ramsey. Wilshere, Gibbs, JET and Lansbury ARE not good enough at this level.[/quote]Ramsey is already established himself as being capable of playing at this level, Gibbs woulda too but for his injury, if you believe Cleverly will make it then Lansbury is a sure bet to make it. I agree the jury is still out on JET and Wilshere but those 2 are either at the same level as Lansbury or even better and they are younger too. Our young players are looking good and already playing at high levels.

md4real:
What do you expect from Arsenal when all they do is buy players like Royco three for Ten Naira.

Go siddon, we don't buy big players but we make big players.

MrCrackles:
Benik Afobe actually went over to Barca to check them out. . . .
He was invited with Chuks Aneke, Aneke declined the invitation, but Afobe went. . .
One for the future me thinks. . . Watched him play for the reserves three times
Starred for England at the recent Algarve tournament and was instrumental to England winning the competition
Raw power, lively and pacey. . . Gets about on the pitch, second top goal scorer for the reserves this season and an all round performer
He should go places with Aneke. . . .

Spot on Mr Crackles, Afobe looks lively and should be a good player to have around since Ris-Murphy has turned out to be injury prone and is increasingly being left behind by Welbeck and Victor Moses whom he started out with at U17 level.
Between Afobe and Freeman, we should have at least one English man good enough to make the first team add that to Wilshere, Ramsey, Gibbs, JET(who I'm sure will also make it) and Lansbury who also should make it. In the next 2 years, the English press will have to look for other means of taking pot shots at us cos their foreign player jibes will no longer be relevant even if Theo doesn't make it.

dayokanu:
Common sense is the greatest Irony in the world because it is assumed that its common.

Do you have to be a know all to know that a retired player as at January 2009 cant be among the highest earners for the year 2010?

DK, stop making unnecessary noise, your point has been taken on board and correction effected now can you let it rest and stop being a difficult Nazi? Since we are in the year 2010 and no one knows who will drop dead tomorrow or will renegotiate their contract (if you choose to be positive), I've already pointed out that this list is for the outgone year hence the fact that a lot of the player's current status don't tally with the current data. You and I also do not know the terms under which Sagnol ultimately left Bayern Munich so cannot say much about how much he ended up earning as salary or as payout to him.

chic2pimp:
The Wages some of those players earn is nothing short of ridiculous .

For Instance why is Ibra earning twice as much as rooney?

I agree with you but I also remember the popular saying that "Life aint fair", Rooney's contract seems to be up for renewal though.

dayokanu:
So if football finance said Jimmy carter is the president of America, you copy and paste hook, line and sinker?

Why bother to have a brain let football finance tell you the colour of your shirt and your sexual orientation

Now this is getting ridiculous, did someone snatch your feeding bottle? go and attack the people who generated the figures, and you are being quite silly, the fact that Willy Sagnol retired in 1st February 2009 does not mean he did not earn money that year, did you flush your brain down your toilet in error?

dayokanu:
Stop embarassing yourself in public. Sagnol retired from football in January 2009 and he last kicked a ball for Bayern in 2008

That one is your problem, go and tell that to the Futebol Finance staff who generated the list or the soccernet journalist who put it on their site.

dayokanu:
Na wa for internet copy and paste o

You sef for try reason am na

You posted the rich list for 2010 and you included a Willy Sagnol who has retired from football more than a year ago

Right now, Sagnol is an advisor for St Ettiene

GAYYner logic sha.

Yu be proper mumu, has the year 2010 ended?   even you should know that this must be for the past year
and yes it is internet cut and paste abi yu think I did the research myself? here is the link in case you are interested.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=743836&sec=global&root=global&cc=5739

Futebol Finances Top 50 earners in football for the year 2009

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=743836&sec=global&root=global&cc=5739

1 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, £11.3m)
2 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona, £10.4m)
3 Lionel Messi (Barcelona, £9.1m)
4 Samuel Eto'o (Internazionale, £9.1m)
5 Kaka (Real Madrid, £8.7m)
6 Emmanuel Adebayor (Manchester City, £7.4m)
7 Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, £7.4m)
8 Carlos Tevez (Manchester City, £7m)
9 John Terry (Chelsea, £6.5m)
10 Frank Lampard (Chelsea, £6.5m)
11 Thierry Henry (Barcelona, £6.5m)
12 Xavi (Barcelona, £6.5m)
13 Ronaldinho (AC Milan, £6.5m)
14 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, £6.5m)
15 Daniel Alves (Barcelona, £6.1m)
16 Michael Ballack (Chelsea, £5.6m)
17 Raul (Real Madrid, £5.6m)
18 Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United, £5.6m)
19 Kolo Toure (Manchester City, £5.6m)
20 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, £5.2m)
21 Robinho (Manchester City, £5.2m)
22 Iker Casillas (Real Madrid, £5.2m)
23 Victor Valdez (Barcelona, £5.2m)
24 Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla, £5.2m)
25 Deco (Chelsea, £5.2m)
26 Didier Drogba (Chelsea, £4.8m)
27 Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, £4.8m)
28 Francesco Totti (Roma, £4.8m)
29 Luca Toni (Roma, £4.8m)
30 David Villa (Valencia, £4.8m)
31 Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich, £4.8m)
32 Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern, £4.8m)
33 Ashley Cole (Chelsea, £4.8m)
34 Fernando Torres (Liverpool, £4.8m)
35 Gareth Barry (Manchester City, £4.8m)
36 Patrick Vieira (Internazionale, £4.8m)
37 Charles Puyol (Barcelona, £4.3m)
38 Andres Iniesta (Barcelona, £4.3m)
39 Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid, £4.3m)
40 Andreas Pirlo (AC Milan, £4.3m)
41 Willy Sagnol (Bayern Munich, £4.3m)
42 Frank Ribery (Bayern Munich, £4.3m)
43 David Beckham (AC Milan, £4.3m)
44 Wayne Bridge (Manchester City, £4.3m)
45 Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid, £4.3m)
46 Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United £4.1m)
47 Andrei Arshavin (Arsenal, £4.1m)
48 Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea, £4.1m)
49 Ryan Giggs (Manchester United £4.1m)
50 Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus, £4.1m)

Club distribution:

Real Madrid = 6
Barcelona = 8
Inter = 2
Man City = 6
Chelsea = 7
Liverpool = 2
AC Milan = 2 or 3 (Beckam is on loan from the MLS)
Manchester Utd = 4
Sevilla = 1
Juventus = 2
Athletico = 1
Arsenal = 1
Roma = 2
Valencia = 1
Bayern = 4

[quote author=A-40 link=topic=400313.msg5551422#msg5551422 date=1266677112]Yeee Haaah!! Manure just got r/aped without prophylactics! We would be dumb not to take advantage of yet another slip! I ain't expecting much from Wolves though

@Duduspace
Did you see the difference those young chaps Rodwell and Gosling made? Those are the players that can justify Arsene's youth policy not the sankwas we are parading at the moment[/quote]When they become starters in the PL and still continue doing that week in and out, I'll agree with you. You're all quick to forget Theo having his minutes of fame against Liverpool in the UCL and against Croatia in the WC qualifiers.
Good talents those guys are though and will definitely either start for everton someday or be bought by bigger clubs, but they are not better than what we have I must say. Even the oft maligned Owusu Abeyie (by Dayokanu) is looking like the saviour of Portsmouth now.  

Sauron, can you point out one thing Graham Poll has said to support Arsenal? even during the Eduardo issue he told us Eduardo had dived even when UEFA later said there was contact while blatantly supporting his countryman Rooney when he dived the following week. The referee had control of the ball and dropped it, for an opposing player while blocking our player from even making a tackle. Even if he allowed the goal on a technicality, he should have disallowed it because he was blocking our player.

Gekko:
i was also convinced that the referee raised his hands after the free kick and even had his back turned to the free kick but this picture tell a diff story.  I think we goofed on this one, although the referee is blocking Sol.
https://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01580/falcao_1580761c.jpg

That picture there is not of the initial free kick, it is the player having the second touch, the free kick had already been taken by the player standing by Sol Campbell. It is one of those things we will have to deal with though and our players did show a lot of naivity, wont matter if we beat them at the emirates and our boys should be fired up for that due to the injustice of that goal.