₦airaland Forum

I think it is poetic justice that the man who was the conduit between the American government and the rebels (terrorists, Al Qaeda, Jihadists e.t.c) in Libya was killed by the same group of people who killed Gaddaffi and in exactly the same manner.

I remember my boss at the bank in Nigeria lambasting me for daring not to greet him when he came in. In England, when my oga enter na so I go just dey look am. If e greet me when I dey bad mood, I go just ignore am. I dey enter lift with MD, blank am. If e wan look me funny, I go givevam screw face join. I love England!

Dont try this in Naija o! U no go last. U must carry bag, buy lunch e.t.c My branch manager even had his own personal toilet.

@ duduspace

What do you think about Scezney making the trip to Belgrade and not Mannone. I have searched everywhere to see if Mannone is out injured but no such news. Do you not think the gaffer might be rewarding Scezney's rebellion?

duduspace:
I think there should be a button to do it through my profile, I can't find it when I view your profile too, not sure if it has to do with some lockdowns on internet explorer while I'm at work, will check when I get home. Where is Log Me In when you need it? 

Diaby misses the trip to Belgrade, methinks he was rushed back a bit too soon, Gibbs is back in the squad, I hope that foot is fully healed.

I didnt find the button but I have sent you a message on Yahoo msngr. Please have a look and let me know if you will kindly oblige my request.

Regards

@ dudspace

How does one PM? I ned to send you a PM but I have been looking for a way to do it all morning.

Almunia injury puts Fabianski in goal

Lukasz Fabianski will be in goal for Arsenal at Partizan Belgrade on Tuesday night.

The Polish keeper is taking the gloves because Manuel Almunia picked up an elbow injury during the penalty incident against West Brom on Saturday.

“We have Manual Almunia out,” said the manager. “He has a problem with his elbow. He caught it when he made the penalty on Saturday.

Almunia came under scrutiny after the 3-2 defeat at Emirates Stadium over the weekend but Wenger made it clear that, but for this injury, he was not going to leave out his No 1.

“No,” the Frenchman responded. “[The keeper] is always the easy target, the easy scapegoat. But we win together and we lose together even if people think he made a mistake on the second goal.”

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/almunia-injury-puts-fabianski-in-goal

Wenger - Almunia not the only one at fault

"For what happened, everybody will criticise Almunia but if we are 0-0 at half time it is because of Almunia," said Wenger.

"Overall I believe that, defensively, everybody made individual mistakes.

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-almunia-not-the-only-one-at-fault

Wenger - The team had no electricity

"West Brom played very well but it is the usual defending we get when we play. We made really basic errors defensively if you analyse any of the goals. I just feel that from back to forward we were flat and poor.

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-the-team-had-no-electricity

Vieira:
and Wengers opinion is that he needs a better keeper.

If you cannot see exactly what is wrong with Alumnia then there is no point to this thread.

If you do not understand what an opinion is, then I suggest you check a dictionary, the Merriam Webster online dictionary is a very good one if you care to know. You cannot form opinions for others and please leave it to Monsieur Wenger to decide if he needs a keeper. If you had a bloody clue about football, you,ll be the manager of Arsenal and Arsene would be the one posting useless comments on Nairaland. Some of you guys that claim to be supporters and fans are nothing as such but are mainly frustrated people in life that need an outlet to vent their frustrations. It is plain to see that is the case as you guys are never able to form any opinions by yourselves but just jump on the bandwagon. You can never see anything good come out of the club you purpotedly support and just critisize, critisize and critisize. It was Bendtner, Theo, Silvestre, Denilson now its Almunia.

I delibrately made this thread a stand alone one instead of a appendage of the Arsenal one so as to reduce the number of vermin like yourself that come visiting. It is not your place to tell me if there is a point to the thread.

duduspace:
GBAM right on the head, he only started playing after we were 3-0 down, he was so lackasidal before that. Trust the media to descend on Almunia as usual, it is so easy for them to make him the scape goat, if Sagna will stand like a mumu  and allow Jerome Thomas go past him like that on the edge of our box or Clichy will claim to be blocking someone and open his toros like a love-peddler's kini, what exactly is Almunia to do? 

LMFAO to the higjlighted comment!

@ aieromon

We are all entitled to our opinions but the good thing is that only one man's opinion matters and that is monsieur Wenger.

@ Tkb

You have said it all, the defenders were shitty i.e were culpable in all 3 goals and the penalty conceded but yet in the same sentence you point out Almunia's errors were glaring. why call Almunia by name but not the defenders that werent up to par? double standards?

V West Bromwich Albion: Mixed game. Got down well to stop Osazes shot in the first half. Poor defending left him one on one with Osaze and he had no choice but to rush off his line resulting in a penalty. Got down well to save the penalty albeit a poor one. Very good first half. In the second half was let down by his defence once again. Anyone remember the Blackburn game? WBA's first goal was exactly the same! halfhearted defending by Sagna on the right this time, ball watching by the defenders in the box and an easy tap in for Osaze. Could have done better for the second goal but once again let down by the defence. How was a WBA player in such an advanced position to have a free pot shot at our keeper so soon after conceding. You are forced to ask why wasnt our keeper protected. Could do nothing about the third goal. Made the right decision to stay on his feet because if he had gone down and missed the ball, he would have got a second yellow card (sent off), conceded a second penalty and erased any hopes of a comeback. Again very very poor defending by the Arsenal.

It is always easy to highlight an error by a goalkeeper but Arsenal's defence made four major mistakes against WBA. Some myopic people will look back to this game and say Almunia cost Arsenal the game but that is so far from the truth. Poor defending and not the keeper cost Arsenal the game.

I do not look to apportion blame as everyone has a bad day in the office. I am only highlighting the mistakes made by the defence to point out that Almunia did not cost us the game.

Damn I spoke too soon! I was actually talking bout the first goal.whatagwan!

Schwarzer will have stopped that. We need a damn new Keeper!

@ duduspace

You get too much brain. You are one of the few Arsenal fans that I know who understands the morden game properly.

What has Reina won Liverpool, What has Given won City?

Wenger - Don't blame Fabianski for Keane goal

Lukasz Fabianski was not at fault for Robbie Keane’s equaliser during the Carling Cup tie against Tottenham, according to Arsène Wenger.

The Polish keeper has come in for criticism from sections of the media after getting hand to Keane’s shot but failing to divert the ball away from danger.

Arsenal went on to win the tie 4-1 after extra time and Wenger was quick to defend Fabianski for his performance on Tuesday night.

“You can't blame him for that goal because he touched it and when a goalkeeper touches the ball you always think he should stop it,” said Wenger

“But if he dives and doesn't touch it nobody speaks about it.

“First of all, the goal was offside and apart from that I think he had a sound game.”

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-don-t-blame-fabianski-for-keane-goal

@ Mr T_A

You think VDS doesnt 'cost you points'. The two goals you conceded against Fulham early this season went through his hands. The first goal I may accept but the second one was a tame header into the ground and then through his hands. I am not blaming VDS, all I am trying to point out is that goalkeepers are not brick walls.

@ Vieira

Joe Hart at WHL? really. What about Joe Hart at home to Blackburn; he runs 30 yards off his line, tells his defender to leave the ball, misses the ball, falls over like a mug and gifts the opponent a goal. That is far from an exceptional keeper, that looks more like Mickey Mouse. I am not sure that as a defender I would listen to whatever instructions he barks for another 10 matches or so. Speaking of biased press, because Hart is one of theirs, most people who are not proper footballing people do not even know he made this blunder becuase it was kept hush hush by big media. Imagine if Almunia made such a mistake, it would still be running in the news today. Again I ask one person to prove me wrong that Almunia has never made a blunder/ howler in an Arsenal jersey, maybe technical errors but never a blunder a la Joe Hart/ Pepe Reina. Imagine big media are calling the Spuds goal aginst Arsenal yesterday a blunder/ howler. I am not even sure if people understand anymore what a blunder is?

Just to make this thread complete I will also add the performances of our other goalkeepers when they get a game

Fabianski V Tottenham: Good performance. Did not have much to do. Maybe could have done better with the goal but he must be given credit for even getting a hand on the ball in a one on one situation where the keeper was let down again by some poor defending. I have noticed already people blaming him for the goal but a better striker wouldnt have even given him the chance to lay a finger on the ball. Van der Sar let 2 goals in through his hands earlier this season against Fulham I can t remember anyone in the press blaming him for that.

Pardon me for going on and on. The main aim of this thread is to create a blog that follows Almunia throughout the season and details his performance as honestly as possible, recording any exceptional saves, howlers or technical errors he has made.

So far so good;

V Liverpool: Good performance. He couldn’t have done anything about the goal. Mr Wenger came out this week and explained that before a keeper makes a mistake, about 5 mistakes would have been made leading up to the keeper making this mistake. This game showed how true this is because it was an error by the Arsenal players plus some shoddy defending that led to the Liverpool goal.

V Blackpool: Good performance. Not called upon too many times. Clean sheet

V Blackburn: Assured performance. He could have done nothing about the goal. Shoddy defending.

V Bolton: Good performance. He did well to push Lee wide after another defensive error. He could do nothing about the goal though.

V Braga: Good performance. He didn’t have much to do but dealt with crosses and set pieces very well when called upon. Clean sheet.

V Sunderland: Good performance. He did well to get of his marks quickly in a potential one on one situation when a Sunderland man lost his marker. He could do nothing about the goal.

Manuel Almunia is a ‘fan’ favourite at Arsenal and he is a true gentleman. He has had a lot of unfair and unsubstantiated negative press recently. I will try to keep this as short and succinct as possible but I have to give you a little insight into how the English media works.

Do you know that Manuel Almunia was being touted as a possible England goalkeeper just three years ago? The press kept spinning this story back then even though they knew there wasn’t a chance in hell for it to happen. In England, the press can make or break you (if you let them). The press is very powerful just ask Gordon Brown. In the run up to the last election you would have been forgiven if you assumed Gordon Brown was Hitler’s No 2 because of the way he vilified in the press. Every so often the sport press need a sensational negative or positive (rarely) story to move their papers.

Enter Arsenal FC. Arsenal are a very easy target for the English press for the following reasons; A very successful French manager with a sizeable contingent of fellow countrymen as players (We all know there is no love lost between the English and the French) and Lack of English players in the Arsenal team (Mr Wenger has said in the past that he doesn’t look at passports and has so far refused to pay over the odds for any average overhyped English 'talent'). The press have ended the Arsenal careers of quite a few players, the most notable being Senderos. What was his crime? Drogba scored against Arsenal every time Senderos played.

Manuel Almunia was derided and ridiculed throughout last season, the same continued throughout the close season and the story isn’t any different in the early stages of this campaign. In Arsenal's first game of the season against Liverpool, Almunia was blamed for conceding a goal at his near post. Show me that keeper who hasn’t plus David Ngog’s shot was a brilliant one. How ironic that in the same match Pepe Reina, who was touted by the same press as a possible replacement for Almunia made a big howler that you wouldn’t expect to see happen in a Sunday league game.

Manuel Almunia may make the odd technical error (again show me a keeper who doesn’t) but I can authoritatively say that in his Arsenal career, he has never made a blunder/ howler. Many Arsenal 'fans' have heard the story about Almunia so many times that they have started to believe it is as gospel. You can’t blame them, after all what choice have you got when big media continues to force feed you with the same false and recycled lies. I think this was a tactic that was once used on Prisoners of War.

On many Arsenal blogs and forums I read these days many ‘fans’ have concluded that Almunia cost Arsenal at least 15 points last season. This can’t be any further from the truth. Of the top of my head I remember two incidents last season when Almunia gave Arsenal points; The penalty save against West Ham at Upton Park and a wonder save from a Ryan Babel effort against Liverpool. In these 2 games he saved us 4 points. I can also remember 1 technical error from him last season against Birmingham where you can say he cost us 2 points.

On his touted replacements, Pepe Reina has made a blunder; Joe Hart has made an even bigger one. I wonder why Schwarzer who became Chilavert overnight has been stuck with clubs in mid table obscurity for the better part of his career. If he was such a wonderful goalkeeper why haven’t the likes of Inter, Real, Bayern or Manchester Utd come calling for his services?

Schwarzer will have stopped that, It was all Clichys fault, Denilson is useless blah blah blah. The same moronic comments from fake glory hunters. Well done gunners! Not a very good day in the office but we salute your hard work. Rosicky think nothing of that penalty miss. It was just one of them days.

See nuff mans with Ph.D (playa hating degree) and ting! Kai! Wetin Terry G do una. This cat came from the gutter and made his life better with his talent so why all the hating? In the words of tthe famous Robert Nesta Marley; ''But who Jah bless, No man can curse''.

Terry G carry go, nothing do you, No 1, [b]S[/b]hampion!

@ Boladez

I appreciate your input but i think it is flawed. Driving into a large articulated lorry at 50Km/hr most likely = instant death. You ask why people drive at certain speeds when they know there are no street lights and reponse time for clearing broken down vehicles is low? That is the problem I have with that country, things are so rotten that mediocrity is now the norm. Why doesnt your government reduce the speed limit to 40km/hr in light of its failings in the area of accident management on its roads? You could have well have said people should just not bother driving at all and just walk since there are no street lights and response time for accident clearance is slow, at least that way they have no chance of running into any trucks.

You also praise the 'emergency services' who were on scene at 4am. This was a whole 120 minutes after the abandoned truck contributed to the death of 3 people. This is what I say about mediocrity. Things in the country are in such a deplorable state that people accept anything.

I will not say any more, but enlightened people must understand my viewpoint.

Cheers.

An opinion? Talking ill about the dead without facts? Assuming they were breaking the speed limit?

You only need to be travelling at 50mph and run into a stationery truck for you to die. I am sure u have seen a video of crash tests.

I will not normally diss anyone, at most I just read and shake my head at their ignorance but this topic hits closer to home for me. I hope you do not ever lose someone close to you through this type of gross negligence by your government. Cos only then may you understand where I am coming from.

You harakari are a big f.ool!

You wonder what speed the cars were doing to run into the truck abi? why dont you wonder why in your useless country, an articulated lorry is left abandoned on a major road/bridge for that long. I lost a former roomate to a crash like this many years ago and only God saved my sister although she bears the scars from her own experience with an abandoned molue on wait for it; a bridge (Iganmu).

The cars that crashed into this truck needed only be doing the speed limit of 100km/hr to have fatalities.

In all my years of living in this obodo oyinbo I honestly cant remember seeing a truck break down on a motorway lane. When there is an accident or incident on the roads, the emergency services are there in the twinkle of an eye and if need be the road is closed for as long as necessary regardless of whatever disruption it may cause. The authorities in developed countries recognise that every human life is valuable unlike in your useless country where people die avoidable deaths like chickens.

I believe Danny Shittu moved to England long before he decided to play football professionally so I doubt his passport age will be different from his real age. But maybe he may have reduced his age by at most, about 2 years in that usual wuruwuru way most Nigerians do on their passports and other documents. Why Nigerians do that, I dont Know. I was a year older than most people in my class but only God knows how many of them were really older than me.

Do you think Bolton could have terminated Shittu's contract just like that? Lailai! If he didnt commit any gross misconduct they would have had to honour the contract and pay his wages for the remaining year on his contract. They reached an agreement where I am sure they paid something like half of his wages upfront and then made him a free agent which means he is free to sign for another club tomorrow and start earning again. Bolton save themselves some money and Shittu can hopefully find another club were he can enjoy playing football again.

Everyones happy and Its all sweet!

what is wrong with it?
who is better qualified to help baba carry the Ghana must go bags laden with cash if not his own son from his very loins.
The bags will even be going in the same direction so less fuel,money saved for the country.
What a great idea!

LMFAO

I can tell you are really 17 years old. When you are my age and there is no more bank of daddy and mummy and you've got to provide for your own kids, come back and tell me this your patriotic story. Basically come back in about 20 years and tell me the same story. Good luck.

You guys interested in the topic of child soldiers must see the movie called Johnny Mad Dog by Emmanuel Dongala to have a good idea of how these child soldiers operate

You mumus castigating the poster have no brains. The poster is not begging the white man to come back nor is he/she saying that colonialism was a good thing. All he/she is asking is did the British leave too early (since they were already here)?

My answer to this is YES!

Angiefan has made very good points and has covered base on almost everything i can think of. All I will add to what she has said is Hong Kong. The British only left Hong Kong in 1999 and it was definitely a blessing in disguise for the country.