"The first trophy is to finish in the top four," said Arsenal's manager in the wake of Saturday's 2-0 FA Cup fifth-round defeat at Sunderland. F off Arsene.
that's akin to a surgeon saying the most important thing is to keep the patient alive. No shit Arsene. What else can you say at this point. thanks for the deep insight though.
That quotes makes me laugh...I think it's finally even becoming too hard for Wenger to spin this shit.
I think like the rest of you that we need to make some wholesale changes this summer. If we can survive in 4th spot, that will be a great sign for the future and a pretty remarkable accomplishment given how shit we've played all year Next year I'd like our 18 to be Strikers- RVP, Matias Suarez Attacking Midfielders/ Wingers- Gervinho, Eden Hazard, Ox, Walcott Central Midfielders- Song, Wilshere, Coquelin, Ramsey Outside Defenders- Santos, Sagna Central Defenders- Kos, Mert, Vertonghen, Verm Goalies- Shez, Fabianksi Suarez (10 mil) Hazard (35 mil) and Vertonghen (15 mil) would be a good way to spend the roughly 55 mil Wenger can spend this summer (this is a rumor) Id like to see Diaby, Ryo, out on loan and everyone else not part of this list offloaded
That squad still doesn't fix two of our biggest issues which are pace in the midfield and attacking passes (for lack of a better term) from the midfield
it sort of has. chamberlain is pretty fast and his playing so far suggests he can see defence splitting passes. wilshere sees the same passes, though not spectacularly fast, as can hazard (not sure how fast he is tbh). song can surprise us with incisive attacking passes.
This team would yield yet another fourth place finish. It's still rubbish in the midfield. Here's something interesting I saw this morning: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/feb/20/arsenal-flaws-exposed-sunderland-hybrid While everyone's got the knives out, at least this guy seems to be somewhat surgical about it, and it really tells us what we all already know: the problem is that the midfield is rubbish. This is the sort of thing that requires completely rebuilding in the middle: all three guys don't play the ball quickly enough, Arteta's the only one that repeatedly makes himself available to keep possession, no one gets into threatening positions, and all three guys get caught in possession/make sloppy passes all the time.
That's only 17 players, you need at least another dozen to fill out the squad and account for injuries, rest, etc.
Sorry was in bit of a rush when I posted that.. Gibbs, Jenkinson are worth keep as squad players and obvious backups to Santos and Sagna. Frimpong is another squad player who if we have no injuries we could send out on loan. Djorou would be fine as a fifth choice CB. I think Yennaris, Miquel, and Afobe all should be training with the first team; they have shown promise ( if not loan them out) I'm not sure how Lansburys been doing at West Ham- he is a potential squad player though. WE NEED TO OFFLOAD- Rosicky, arshavin, park, chamakh, Squillaci, Benayoun, Denilson, Bendtner - All of these guys are either old/ not shown enough promise to be Arsenal quality( if we sold all of them we should get at least 40 million) I think we should purchase Suarez, Hazard, and Vertonghen as immediate impact players. ( If we can't get Suarez or Hazard- Sturridge would be a great pickup- not sure how much merit there is to that rumor though) Also we need a star Center midfielder- Arteta and Ramsey are backups in my opinion ( would not mind offloading Arteta- Don't think he has enough movement to play in the arsenal midfield 3) If we bought Sneijder/kaka along with the other 3, I'd think we would be title contenders I know this is all highly unlikely- But Wenger reportedly has 55 million at his disposal so I hope he gets at least 3 major signings and offloads at least 6 of the under performers
I agree I think we need to add a playmaker in midfield to complement Wilshere and Song. IMO Song is a world class DCM and Wilshere is a world class box to box midfielder... So I wouldnt call a Song/Wilshere/anyone midfield rubbish
I think Arteta has been doing a pretty good job since he joined. In my opinion he's earned himself a spot on this team for next year.
40 million We don't own Benayoun. Bendtner and Denilson had to be loaned out because we couldn't find buyers. Park, Chamakh, and Squillaci barely can make our team. You'd find takers for both Rosicky and Arshavin. But Arshavin is getting old, and is nearing the end of his contract. And Rosicky always is old, has an injury history, and hasn't scored in years.
I don't think Mikel is a bad player but I don't think he is of starting quality for Arsenal. He is smart in possession, but I think were at our best when we have movement in the midfield. Wilshere is a perfect example of an Arsenal midfielder- Can defend, penetrate, distribute, and is quick. Arteta is too slow and not really that strong in defense, and has been having a bad habit as of late of being caught on the ball. That being said let's just pray Jack continues to improve when he returns
I think you are being too harsh on Arteta. Give him a offseason. You have to remember he showed up with the season already started. He has partnered wonderfully with Song almost every time out. At other times this has extended to spells with Ramsey and/or Rosicky. But imagine getting thrown into a team on the ropes and verge of collapse. He has brought solidity to a team in disarray and allowed some guys to shine, let's see what an offseason when he can reflect and learn brings us. As for offloading, if you've seen some of my other posts, I believe it is time to continue purging. I don't mind taking complete losses as long as we can just move some of these guys off of our rosters. Looking at some of them is a painful reminder of falling short. Some of them have had opportunities to answer the bell and have collapsed every time. Cut your losses and move forward.
I think Arteta is a quality player, there is no denying that. But is he Arsenal quality that we've seen over the past two decades? I think RvP, Kos, Sagna ( in about a months time when he's back in the swing of things), Song, Gerv, are class players. Other than that, I don't think the rest of the XI is up to that standard. If we really want to build a team thats going to contend for a title, we need dynamic midfielders. Look at Yaya Toure and Scott Parker. We need someone like that playing aside Song that can be the engine for the team. I don't see that in Arteta.
BTW, there is a massive game coming up this Sunday. Anyone feeling lucky enough to start a thread for that?
no disrespect to you but, ohmi********inggawdsinheaven, i hate that damn phrase. it gets thrown about way too damn much. you don't need and, in fact, can't have 18-25 "starting quality for arsenal" players because, really, how many "starting quality for arsenal" players (say, mr. suarez that you mentioned) will come to arsenal to sit on his ass behind van persie? will hazard be coming to sit behind gervinho and walcott? no? okay, he starts. will walcott renew his contract to sit on his ass behind gervinho and hazard? don't think so. and we're not packing man city money where we can say, "well, you'll be collecting splinters on your ass but you'll make 225 a week? cool? cool." we need people in the second team who can come in individually and, when mixed in with other first teamers, can still provide threats and not bring the level of play down overly horribly. we need more people like oxlade-chamberlain who, if he comes in to replace gervinho or walcott and is mixed in with other first teamers, does not bring the level of play down significantly (okay, we can argue that he brings it up if he replaces walcott). we need wenger to keep players fresher by bringing in rosicky for arteta or ramsey more frequently and before they are worn out (and, for the love of all that is good and holy, keep him in the middle instead of insisting on trying to shoehorn him into the winger spots). we need more of the certain types of players, say, an organizer in the back who can get the group playing as a unit when shit goes wrong (sagna-koscielny-vermaelen-gibbs are terrific in my opinion but, together, they play as 4 very good individual defenders where, with mertesacker in, they can play as a good defensive unit). we need more people (as scally touched on once awhile ago) who are just downright fucking offended to lose a game and will try to bring up the rest of the squad, van persie, vermaelen and song have a bit of that in them (i am not claiming that the rest of the professionals were not trying hard because you can clearly see that they were but there's That Thing that some combative and competitive ass people just have when they're losing).