Every year, there seems to be a player everyone hates. And then, a year or two later, everyone loves him. The two latest players are Flamini and Hleb. The amount of shit talked about them was unbelievable. Now the en vogue player to hate seems to be Eboue. I, for one, think the guy is a great young player. His foot skills are great. His crossing ability is superb. He's won games for us with his crosses. He's very fast, and his link up play with other players is very good. And he's visibly improving. He has gotten better since August and will continue to. Most importantly, AW has seen these same things in him and thinks he's good enough to be our future RW. Sure he's eccentric. The way he exagerates fouls often annoys even me. But even Henry made a meal of quite a few tackles. Several of the regulars on this board, like Skizz and Anti, seem to avoid the Eboue discussions b/c they know the hate will turn to love as soon as he starts scoring. My question is: Does no one see his quality and improvement and does he really deserve this much hate?
I think more than anything, it's the petulance. The diving, the stupid fouls, etc. That's not the Arsenal way, and it's a poor reflection on the club.
I don't really hate on Eboue too much. His antics have no place on the team: play acting, lashing out at players etc. but his performances aren't as bad as everyone would like to believe. We CAN do better on RW, since he is still really just a defender playing out of position, but he is a player worth keeping around. He provides some extra defense down the wing, and has good chemistry with the team. He needs to develop his play though as he has very few moves that he pulls once he gets the ball - he also needs to improve his shooting and be prepared to shoot more since he is a midfielder now. He has got into many good shooting positions but kept looking for another 1-2 with someone. Again, we CAN do better, but at what cost? Not to mention we can move Eboue back to defense if ever we needed to(and our defense lacks depth).
I just like the fact me NOT talking seems to be noticed more than my talking. Does he deserve this much hate? From Arsenal fans, probably not. Does he do a lot to deserve it? Probably. It's not so much his abilities as a player that draw a negative reaction, as Catfish and Re have said it's more the fact that he is quite petulant. Perhaps that's his personality on the pitch showing, who knows. All I know is that people would probably bitch about him a lot less if they didn't see this side of him. However, I did say that I don't think he is a right midfielder. I stick by this, he's not quite a right back either so I think "wing back" is probably best to describe him. What I will say is that he has steadily improved the more he has played there (as I have predicted) and he does have the best aerial crossing ability of any of the wingers we have (considering the fact that realistically we should all count him as a winger now). If he keeps improving at this rate he will be a great asset out there by the end of the season. But I would like to see him tone down a bit, the diving is getting him a reputation and it's not really giving me a leg to stand on when I criticise Ronaldo. That's my two pence worth. And, for the record, I do admire his footballing abilities, just not some of the things that come with it.
exactly! his dives suck (if your gonna dive, at least practice a little to sell it better ) and he argues with ref on every call. annoying. besides that, i think he is nice addition to the squad
I'll go on record as being against his attitude. Wasn't it against 'Boro that he slapped someone...lucky he didn't get caught. Doesn't give us much room to get upset with Cashley lashing out at Cesc if we're willing to look the other way with our own guy. As for his play: I think he puts his head down to try to blow past defenders too often, but his crossing is excellent. When he learns to slow it up a bit and wait for help he'll be a very dangerous player.
I think it's interesting considering when Gallas was saying that Arsenal need to buy more stars everyone seemed to think we should ship him to Real or someone like that. Now he's our big-game-goal-scoring-Captain. Go figure.
i just dont personally think he is GOOD ENOUGH to be our starting right midfielder. the chemistry hleb and eboue had last year was pretty good when eboue was a RB. he is a decent squaddie with a serious attitude problem.
Gallas has turned his opinion round, so he's turned the opinions of those on this board round. What's the problem, people can't change their minds, or are they legally bound to stick to everything they say?
LMAO...I'm phishy's Deadhead sockpuppet. If you knew how phishy and I used to get on, you will be laughin' your @ss off too.
His main value right now is in his versatility. With RVP returning, Hleb likely returns to RM and Sagna is far superior than Eboue at RD. But, if either go down, or if either need a rest, or if Hleb moves inside again due to injuries to others, Eboue can fill in. Also, there were a couple of plays yesterday in particular where he showed a very nice first touch on the ball to cut inside and made some nice moves. And I remember thinking, hmm, that was Eboue that did that. However, he is not (yet) in the same class as most of the rest of the attacking players, which has on several occasions resulted in a disruption of the one-touch play frequently on display. He has value as a versatile sub because of what he can do, and there's reason to hope that he will further refine the technical side of his game to match his athleticism. He's drawn the ire of some with his antics (fouls, retaliation, dives complaints to refs, etc), but I like him as well, while recognizing that he's still a work in progress.
I would sell him tomorrow. His 'antics' are not just petulant, they are vindictive, nasty and becoming more common. I hear all this stuff about him being a greeat bloke off the pitch, a joker and a lovely team mate, well thats just great, but as soon as he walks on to the pitch he turns into a wnaker. I was never a fan of him as a RB, and although he's playing better as a RM, I still don't want him in my team. Arsenal players should be either admired by other fans because they're great players or disliked by other players because they're great players... ...and not because they're Joey Barton in disguise
i usually dont predict, i rate eboue on a game by game, and so far hes only gotten a little above decent in the over arcing game. although his crossing is superb and im willing to give him a chance.
Joey Barton? You're more than exaggerating there. AW would not have him in the team if he was on that turd's level.
Why do you want a mediocre player wearing the Arsenal shirt running around slapping people.....his attitude sucks, he's lazy....he slaps people.....he dives.....he gives the ball away and he can't put a shot on goal to save his life. Come to think of it are you taking the piss?
Joey Barton was a quick thought to be honest, but Eboue has always been a nasty sh!t on the pitch IMO, and whilst I shed no tears for Terry after his nasty follow through on Fabregas, I just don't want us to sink to that level. There are enough players of Eboue's quality that Arsene Wenger can dig up that don't have Eboue's temperment
Amen brotha!!!! and rep for the avatar...or not - got some spreading around to do I see. I know we were thinking of selling eboue, but after putting an even bigger asshole in his place this weekend, I think he deserves another chance- and probably a nice chat from Kolo while they are on ANC duty.