Thanks Jitty for that cheerful medical enlightenment! Still it's hard for me to imagine how Santi goes from playing in a Champions League match, and then one year later he's lost 3" of a critical tendon, has gangrene, and has apparently been told he'll be lucky if he can just walk from here on in. Mostly I feel so bad for him. But also bad for all of us who loved his style of play and how he made our team go.
In reviewing the current Team News I came across this sad little tidbit ... It's sad for Santi how things ended for him... a medical disaster. Sad for Wenger who will never have him play for him again... at least not at Arsenal. And sad for us the fans who likewise will never see him don our shirt in a competitive fixture. Did anyone predict his career was over when he came up lame in October 2016? Certainly not me!
Gallas and Sagna should not even be in the same conversation. Great players but not GOAT. I won't vote for RvP and Cesc because of how they treated the club. Ozil is a work in progress. As Tim Still man aptly described, he is the oil to the engine. My vote is for Santi. Wilshere was asked the question on AFTV as to who was the best player he has played with -- Santi was the answer.
If you're going to put Cazorla in that list, then you have to include the others. Yes, Cazorla was and is incredibly skilled. But we're not talking about the best technique in the post invincibles era, because everyone who's ever talked about Abou Diaby is like "HOLY SH**" Sagna was the best right back in the league for six years. Gallas made Mikael Silvestre look like a functional central defender. That's at least as much impact as Cazorla had on the pitch at Arsenal.
If we're talking tekkers --- granted this was before Santi came to Arsenal, but I went on a stadium tour in 2006, and someone asked the guide who he thought the most just purely skilled player was. Without hesitation, the dude said Hleb. He said in training ground sessions, he was ridiculous, like the ball was connected to his foot by two inches of string no matter how fast he was moving. IIRC, @InTheSun was on that same tour.
Hleb and RVP were among the best to play in England with the tekkers. Santi is behind them, but those two are on a different plane to most of the elite footballers. Santi was not the best post-invincible player. Shoot, after his first season he wasn't even the best player on the team.
Are we really trying to compare Santi to Hleb? Gallas was a good player, not a great one. The only thing I remember of him was that header against ManU and the 1000 episodes of petulance. I would argue that Kos is a far better player than him. And Sylvester played on some pretty good ManU teams IIRC. He was just too beat up and old when he came to us.
No he was not. He did the most with his talents. Gifted players were the likes of Sanit, Diaby, Arshavin and Cesc.
technically, yes. Hleb was better technically than Santi Gallas was an amazing player for us. He never hit Chelsea heights, but he shined with Senderos next to him at the San Siro.
Don't remember Hleb well enough to compare the two, but Hleb was the better dribbler. Cazorla had an unreal first touch though: I remember him launching an inch perfect fifty yard cross field pass on the volley. Yeah, some people just forget how good Gallas could be. He did have his share of bonehead moments though.
The real shame about Gallas is IIRC he was already 29 when he arrived and despite his excellent performances the club didn't want to pay him as much as he wanted when aged 33 but he kept playing to a high level if no longer elite
Let's get this thread back on track: It's only Santi bloody Cazorla out on the Emirates pitch!!!! pic.twitter.com/uZHdQiko5c— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) April 26, 2018