₦airaland Forum

[quote author=A-40 link=topic=439183.msg6529328#msg6529328 date=1281170273]Are you kidding me so his non-performance in a meaningless pre-season friendly is your barometer of judgement?? No wonder Arsenal fans now rejoice at Emirates Cup victories. Who played the ball behind the full-back when Theo setup brilliant assists against Liverpool in the UCL and PL what of the one he did against Blackburn? Since you love to nit-pick lets nit-pick together[/quote]Look at all those instance you've mentioned, only one thing stands out, a moment of brilliance or in Theo's case exploitation of a unique ability (pace). The difference between Theo and Arshavin is ability, if anything Theo is actually a more committed player than Arshavin can ever be. Theo was brought in to do something similar to what Arshavin does (accelerate the game), only thing is Arshavin can still pass and shield the ball and even when disinterested will not make our game totally disjointed.

[quote author=A-40 link=topic=439183.msg6529328#msg6529328 date=1281170273]Where you not there when the ineptitude of Denilson and Diaby cost us the midfield and essentially the game against Chelsea in the 08/09 F.A semis? When have those guys put up any decent performance against top 4 opposition?[/quote]The ineptitude of Diaby and Denilson did not lead to Fabianski's gaffe or Silvestre's inability to contain Drogba, if you look at possesion stats we still had better possesion than Chelsea in that match and lost to Drogba's physicality. If you ask me, one of the reasons why we lost was because guys like Theo and Adebayor did not help the MF translate possesion into danger for the opposition.
I would be on Denilson's neck if you can convince me that Frimpong or Eastmond would do a better job than Denilson which you can't do but I'm almost certain that any of Wilshere, JET and Lansbury would be a better player than Theo in any position you need him to be on the pitch. Infact you can add both Sunu and Barazite to that list.

[quote author=A-40 link=topic=439183.msg6529328#msg6529328 date=1281170273]The way you keep paying attention to irrelevance just to rubbish Theo makes me wonder! for the umpteenth time you are referring to a match we didnt even need to draw to win the group. What would it have mattered if Theo scored a hat-trick? Would we have skipped the first knockout round on the back of that? The squad took apart Wigan and couldn't even beat Burnley with Bendtner missing chance after chance so what point are you trying to prove?[/quote]I did not focus on that match alone, Theo has had enough opportunities with more game time even than even the likes of Diaby (prior to last season), Arshavin may not look interested in every match but I repeat, he will not give the ball to the opponent or run into blind alleys even when playing against Dag and Red.

[quote author=A-40 link=topic=439183.msg6529328#msg6529328 date=1281170273]Would it be such a bad thing if we play to the lad's strength from time to time since our possession footie has been exposed time and time again for its deficiencies. He is still our most direct player on the flank and we sure could use his pace for the sweet counter-attacking footie we where good at back in the days[/quote]Now this is the true source of our disagreement and to be honest it is a puzzle to me and one of the main reasons I think Theo might no longer have a place in the first team. The likes of Arshavin and Nasri can turn a game on its head with a moment of magical skill or pace and they do this without sacrificing the basic pass and move ethic of the team, if all we are keeping Theo around for is to make the odd run that leads to a goal, where does that leave the rest of the team? is that how to to build a team that plays total football? keeping in mind that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Anyway, I'm eagerly waiting for the completion of Wellington Silva's move in January, that would be the final nail in Theo's coffin cos that chap would be another Arshavin in the squad and I trust Arsene to do the right thing with Theo once we get this English player agitation off our backs.

@A-40

You miss the point completely, a good player is a good player at the least 80% of the time. My pointing out the Sturm Graz game was because Theo played in the same match and did nothing, it doesn't really matter who Theo is playing against once he doesn't get balls played in behind the full backs he is a liability on the pitch, all those guys I've mentioned will regularly beat their man and put in good balls into the box. You make it like I hate on Theo but I don't, I just call it like I see it. I want the boy to succeed as much as you do and actually credit his effort but if he aint got it by now, I seriously doubt he ever will.

Diaby might have had a screw loose in  the past but you always knew he had the skill and technique but was only tactically deficient and that seems to have come with game time, Denilson is class but only needs to buff up physically and shake off his back complaint, Bendtner has all the physical tools he needs but needs to work on his touch and marksmanship and stop being arrogant , have you so soon forgotten his purple patch where he scored 9 goals in 11 matches and kept us going for a while towards the tail end of last season? Put any of those guys you mentioned with the young ones in the squad and you'll see that they are a class above them. If you need convincing, go and watch our match against Olympiacos away in the UCL last season where Song, Ramsey and Theo were the senior players, the other two were so assured on the ball and had great games but not Theo, his presence on the pitch that day in my opinion hindered the likes of Wilshere who sort of deferred to him as the senior player in the squad and kept giving him the ball. That same young squad took Wigan apart in the Carling cup the previous season  with Jay Simpson and Vela as the strikers.

Theo is only good if he can exploit his pace and that is why he is a good impact player, for a team that plays possession football like we do, he is a liability most of the time. His flaws might not show up much if he is played as a striker through the middle but I wouldn't hold my breadth that he is going to be exceptional there.

@A-40

I dont like to get on the back of any of our players but IMO Theo is the worst player in the arsenal squad, true enof he has unbelievable pace but that boy no be footballer. I've watched, hoped and prayed that Theo would change but it seems I have to face up to the truth. Theo is the worst "footballer" in the Arsenal squad, true he is an impact player but methinks that is all he'll ever be particularly if not played centrally.

I'm almost ashamed to say it but Nzogbia, Young and Lennon are all better wingers than Theo.

One of the hallmarks of an exceptional player is versatility and adaptability, Theo practically sucks out wide and rarely goes past his man despite such blazing speed and IMO messes up team play, you should have watched some of our pre-season matches cos at a stage against AC Milan, Nasri stopped passing to him. If you watch his game now, all he thinks of is facing the goal and going to score because he sucks at everything else.

All the young players (Wilshere, JET, Frimpong, Lansbury, Aneke) coming through the ranks right now might not have his pace but they are first of all footballers, when you pass the ball to them at the least you expect them to do something with it or give it back but with Theo, it is more likely he will give it to the opponent. Theo is either very exceptional or sucks very badly, there is no in-between for him.

I think he is in the last chance saloon now, so many people I know are already saying it would be a shame if the likes of JET have to go on loan while we keep Theo around, just go and watch the Sturm Graz game again, JET in one half of football created as many opportunities as Theo probably did all of last season, and he was playing as a right sided MF for the first time whereas we've been trying to make Theo a winger now for the past 3 seasons or so.

I love every Arsenal player, but this is my opinion of Theo, I can't fault him for trying, perhaps if we could match his tenacity to Vela's ability, then we would have a Messi on our hands but make we siddon look sha, time will tell.

slimshay:
Riddle me this, how is it that everybody there has the same DNA, isnt that reserved for blood relatives. . . hmmm *scratch bia bia* something tabooish must be going on in catalonia!!!!

Yu're on to somefn here Slim, I wouldn't put anything beyond that classless lot.

In your face Barca, and you can chew on my middle finger while yu're at it.

^^ seems they got the weakest team in the draws, but then they eliminated Fernerbache in the last round. BSC Young Boys is a Swiss Club.

Watching the UCL play-off draws, hope the Spuds draw a tough team so they are knocked out early and end this mouthing off by the likes of Defoe. They've drawn Young Boys, how strong are they?

debosky:
Hmm. . . .I'm not usually given to speculation, but is there more to this?

Reports have been made that he will express a desire to leave today, so if that is indeed the case it would be unlikely for him to appear at a session with the press.

Do y'all know if he participated in the club picture? 

Calm down Debo, Cesc aint goin no where this season you can bank on that and I'm sure paddy power and co would have reassessed their odds by now. 

Interesting members day and 5 reserve team members have been promoted to the first team, they are:
Emmanuel Frimpong, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Henri Lansbury, Craig Eastmond and Havard Nordtveit

You should expect all of them to be major members of the Carling Cup team as well as none critical FA cup squads as well as the odd PL appearance. I expect all of them to be kept around for the initial part of the season and then some of them would either have broken through to the first eleven (injury and form of incumbent players permitting) or go out on loan in January.

Chuks Aneke also had a stint with the first team today, for those who don't know him, he is a Nigerian born briton who wld have represented England U17s in the Euros if not for an injury he picked up. He has once been described as Arsene Wenger as being "Technically perfect" when he was just about 14 years old. He is an interesting player in the JET/Diaby mold, physically imposing yet extremely skillful on the ball and I would say he is more tactically adept than someone like Diaby, definitely another one to look forward to in the future. He has only just clocked 17 but played a reserve game against Fulham reserves last season as a 16 year old and bossed the midfield against Dikgacoi and Andranik Teymourian who are both internationals for their countries.

Okay o, it is a fanses thread.

[Quote]Meanwhile, Barca captain Carles Puyol has denied claiming Arsenal were making a mistake by holding Fabregas against his will.

"Recently a British news outlet has published some statements I have supposedly made but they are totally false," he told his official website. "I just saw them and I can guarantee that I have not said anything nor talked to anybody about this subject."[/quote]Do I see an organized retreat here? why did this people have to disgrace themselves like this? E no go better for Joan Laporta.

mukina2:
your mind needs cleansing

No be my fault, my next door neighbour is about to get an ASBO for noisy sex.

lordimpaq:

someone has been watching too much porn. 

News from the grapevine is that Wellington Silva has been around traning with the reserves and will be playing at Boreham Wood tonite with an Arsenal XI. A certain triallist named Miyaichi will also be in the team (maybe Arsenal is finally aiming for the Asian market we've largely left untapped, chap might turn out to be our own J.S Park or Keisuke Honda).

Just noticed Sanchez Watt is going on a season long loan to Leeds in the championship (seems he impressed there last season), I must make sure I go to watch a Leeds game this season. That makes 2 of the young guns out on season long loans with Coquelin at Lorient. I think JET is good enough to get a season long loan with a PL club and I hope some manager takes an interest in him like OC did with Wilshere last season. Seems Nordtveit and Wilshere will go into the squad and Arsene has suggested he wants to keep Frimpong around too.

That means Lansbury is likely going out on loan again and maybe Eastmond and Barazite will be joining him, but I think it is high time we close the book on the likes of Jay Simpson and Randall ever having long term careers at arsenal except something totally unexpected happens.

To be honest eldee, the rule was agree upon by clubs even before the world cub so its not a knee jerk reaction in that sense. It is however a silly rule and like Arsene I wonder why a player's union should agree to such a rule as it would reduce employment opportunities for players in limiting the squad size to 25. I think it was a tradeoff so as not to appear anti-foreigner.

I guess the motivation for most of them was to have more opportunities for english players but it remains to be seen how directly this rule will impact that. Like Arsene I don't see any reason why any group should be protected, if you are good enough then you are good enough. The normal English Xenophobia has now gone into hyperdrive.

What the English fail to realise is that Oezil and Muller did not get into Bayern's team because of any rule but because they were good enough, just like JW looks good enough to break into our first team this season. The media largely drives public opinion, and when they come up with their silly statistics, the gullible ones easily get convinced. They still can't explain why a country with such a small population like Uruguay did so well without even having a world renowned league.

Abeg v3 wey my cake? I no dey wish you happy baiday until you scatter ground o.
Can you also kindly remind B52 that his priority for now should be banging in goals and not knocking up royalty with persistent groin injuries.

Great pics Ahonohai, so you were in the Orange Quadrant too? I was located a bit further up, but wth a good and almost television like view of the ptich.

slimshay:
Good game yesterday. Frimpong was my man of the match, ok maybe man of second half. Arshavin no need smile let him just be putting in work like he did yesterday. Djourou is no more a DM. Theo Walcott should still remain on the wings, wasnt exactly effective in his 15mins in the centre. Koseniyan the Kokomaster is better than people want us to believe. Good ball player finds his man perfectly weighted passes. And he's got a leap alright.

[/quote]Arsene has definitely made inspired signings yet again, Koscielny IMO is a more natural defender than even Vermaelen is, reads the games extremely well and is able to anticipate danger before it becomes critical, he is definitely first choice over JD who still has his attention issues. I wonder if someone has the stats of his interceptions yesterday, must make for interesting reading, that chap makes defending an art like Rio Ferdinand and Nesta, he is the perfect foil for an all action defender like TV5. Chamakh also will get better as the understanding between him and his team mates improve.
I always rated both Frimpong and Coquelin over Eastmond so his emergence is no surprise, Steve Bould always said that he believed at least one of those 2 would definitely play for the 1st team at some stage.

[quote author=slimshay link=topic=439183.msg6489632#msg6489632 date=1280651820]How is it that some things dont change, pre season friendly against a team from another country yet the situtaion looks so familiar: an EPL referee makes a wrong call which leads to a set piece into our box which three of our defenders cant get to and neither can our keeper which leads to a goal. We need to sort this thing out. There is no managing it anymore. It needs to be sorted. Defend defend defend.
Come on the Arsenal!!!

Would like to take another look at that Goal, my initial thots was that Fabianski shld have claimed it, he still doesn't contol his area well, did some nice things during the game though. No matter how you look at it though, yesterday's performance was encouraging as we faced a strong and experienced AC Milan team with a lot of first teamers out and did well. This might just be our season if Arsene is able to get in that extra CB and a GK. And did I remember to say that Theo shouldnt be a first teamer this season?

@Debo

I'll be attending day 1 with 2 friends tomorrow and will watch our match against AC Milan, Any other gooner attending?

I'm watching the final of the European U19s. What a player Chelsea have in Gael Kakuta, surely a Chelsea superstar in the making, the boy is class. If only he and Pacheco of liverpool play for Arsenal, they would have had earlier first team opportunities. Anyway, the new ruling will help them.

HNIC:
Really Sauron should post his pics for all to see to rest these stories.
I heard aki and pawpaw are both taller

This is a revelation, are you saying that Sauron is one of those people we used to call SMD those days?

cescky:
PLEASE WHERE CAN I WATCH THE EMIRATES CUP??

Its on Sky sports, I guess streams will be available on the usual sites like myp2p.eu.

What most people fail to realise is the depth we now have in our squad, the only youngster I feel we might end up regretting haven given playing time is Theo, all the other boys can tap soccer. People like Denilson, Song and Cesc already have 3+ years PL experience prior to clocking 23 (most people forget Denilson is just 22) and all these younger boys are already giving them a run for their money even before clocking 20. Jack Wilshere, JET and Havard Nordtveit on the strength of what they've done in pre-season could very easily have breakthrough years or at least be quality backup in the squad and Aaron Ramsey is yet another quality backup. I'm sure many PL clubs will be in the running to get any of those 3 on loan as well as Lansbury.

If Arsene sorts out the GK and CB issues as well as rotate well early on in the season, I will be very optimistic of us winning something.

doncaster:
I tot duduspace once said that man united will suffer when the rule in introduced. I knew right from time that that dudu chat rubbish.

You heard rubbish though I never chatted rubbish but I'm not responsible for your crossed wires now am I?
What I said was that Arsenal are the best prepared for the new rule. Manure up till now cannot claim to have ready made replacement for old men like Giggs and Scholes in their mid 30s whereas most Arsenal fans can already look to life after Cesc even in his early 20s (not that he is leaving just yet) in players like Nasri, Wilshere and Ramsey.
Man Utd will be even more exposed next season I can assure you as they start to depend more on youth as it is not likely the likes of Giggs and Scholes will be able to put in 20-30 games this season as they did last season. Arsenal have suffered in the past for exposing our youth early, now its about time we started reaping the rewards of our labour.

proudly9ja:
However, I think if Sol stays then we won't get another CB and considering Sol can play only one game a week, I will be a bit worried.

Wenger said last season anything more than 5 CBs including Song will be too much. Verm, Kos, Djorou, Sol and Song will make it five.

Nordtveit can also play as a CB, if we get Sol that is definitely it for 1st team CB buys this season but Arsene might still be tempted if a young upcoming CB shows up though.
One thing I'm happy about is the technical ability of players coming through our academy now, imagine at a stage last season Kyle Bartley played as a Center forward for Sheffield Utd. 
If only Arsene hadn't gone ahead to shell out for Theo, it is sad that even when Theo plays with the U18 guys he still manages to look the least technically adept player on the pitch, I've given up on Theo ever becoming a Stellar winger. Owen type striker maybe,  Robben/Overmars or even Hleb/Rosicky quality wide player definitely not.

debosky:
It would be foolish to lose Campbell, leaving Vermaelen as the most experienced CB in the side. That said, I think we still need one more player at CB. If he needs convincing, give him a player-coach deal too.

Any international goalkeeper with pedigree would be better than the ones we have at the moment. But will the lack of a coach at Fulham scupper the deal for Schwarzer?

, bribery and corruption.

This scenario is not uncommon, upstart arises and thumbs its nose at an incumbent operator, enjoys some initial success but ultimately fails because the incumbent has too much of a financial and quality advantage. Its just the Setanta and Sky scenario replaying itself all over again. Someone made a nice suggestion which is currently being done in the UK where the likes of Tiscali (now Talktalk TV) and BT Open Vision are carrying Sky Channels to their subscriber's homes with Sky being mandated to sell those channels to them at reduced rates to what they charge their direct customers (the case is still in court though and Sky might just win it).
I think HiTV will survive, I think they have Nigezie up on Sky though I don't think its a subscription service cos I don't subscribe to it. Government intervention may be required to stop DSTV becoming a monopoly though, not to kill them but to encourage the smaller companies.

DKAAAAAY

Stop rewriting history, Henry scored 26 goals and had 12 assists when Barcelona did the treble. If that is not contributing, I wonder what it would mean to contribute to the club's success.

[quote author=~Sauron~ link=topic=439183.msg6431636#msg6431636 date=1279808244]Vidic won't be missed. . . . .Johnny Evans is now a year older.
United still have Smalling, O'Shea and Wes Brown in that position. . . .HARDLY a scratch!!![/quote]You have Smalling don't you dare play that chap when you come to the emirates if Fergie doesn't want to spoil his legacy. If you lose Vidic, you are in hot amala.

[quote author=~Sauron~ link=topic=439183.msg6431437#msg6431437 date=1279806101]Wenger felt he could manage with his kids but em kids flattered to deceive everyone in the end.[/quote]The jury is still out on that, you better go worry about losing Vidic, seems Fergie is about dismantling his invincibles too. 

If that Smalling chap is who y'all want to rely on, I pity Man Utd this season.

@Bluediva

Wetin be your own? if Diego Maradona the all time greatest player doesn't feel embarrased with a pot belly, why should Henry? age takes its toll on all of us and Thierry in now on the wrong side of 30, but we all remember those years when he was taking yur club apart and tearing yur defenders new orifices season after season with his va va voom.
Just wait until those balloons of yurs start to collapse like a giant skycraper and then yu'll understand how Henry feels.

jalether:
@ follipimpi. How's denilson a biscuit bone.

He is not as injury prone as you make him out to be

Its that back of his, don't know what he did with it. I think it is one of the reasons he wasn't tracking back well last season and it usually sends him to sudden 2 - 4 weeks periods of injury during the season.

JET was by far the most dangerous player for us on the pitch in that 2nd half, he created 4 goal scoring opportunities with his pace, trickery and power out of which one resulted in a goal. If I were Arsene, I would rate him ahead of Theo as my right winger.

Johan Djorou still has his attention issues but this Koscielny guy is as cool as a cucumber.

The one player who has impressed me the most in pre-season so far is Nordtveit, no wonder why they played him as a DM at Nurnberg. This guy can pass and is fast, CB might not even be his best position.

proudly9ja:
good goal by Lansbury

even better work from JET, that is what he can do.