http://football.guardian.co.uk/Fiver/0,,2162307,00.html Poor little Jimmy Volmer's going to have to take steroids again because there's a new entrant in the Special Olympics!
If you think thats bad watch this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWAAUIWCmsc Phil Neville playing the yes & no game. It is sooo funny you will wet yourself (sad I know)
Speaking of tard farmers, anybody watch Fox Soccer news tonight? Was it me or was Owen Hargreaves actively trying to fake an English accent? There's no way he'd have one - he'd never lived in England before he signed for Man Utd and he'd only even been there a couple times on holiday before he was called up for England. It sounded like Madonna trying to do an accent, except his attempt sounded more like Dick Van Dyke doing Scouse.
Meh, given him freedom going forward and you see a different Ashley Cole, for Chelsea. With the way Chelsea play, they need their full backs to do the job of defenders. Whereas with us, our full backs acted as wingers sometimes and Cole had developed a good partnership with the like of Jose and Bobby. Which is why I was not worried about the Alves to Chelsea rumours. Chelsea would've ordered him to stay back, blocking his creative freedom and destroying half the player. In all honesty, Ashley Cole has been grossly misinterpreted by the media, and fans have immediately ate up every piece of crap The Sun came up with. Was it not true, that he was the best LB in the world when he played with us? The likes of Lampard and Gerrard are all key players for their club in country, on par with Ash for importance. He was all to glad to accept 60,000 P/W when other clubs would've offered him much, much more. Yet the board don't even offer him that? Sounds like them being tight, and at that time, worried more about the Emirates Stadium than putting quality players on the pitch. Really, after all that, I don't see how Cole can be considered greedy. People say things like: They know that for a fact then? At the time, I hated him as much as any one, but after reading his autobiography, it seemed half the shit from the Sun was fake. Yes, they met coincidentally at a restaurant but did not discuss him going to Chelsea at all. The papers "source" was from a bloke who could not count to 10. The board then informed the papers that Cole turned down a 80k P/W contract, when he was never offered it in the first place. Another way to defame Ashley Cole. The FA wanted to make an example of him, the board refused to give permission for the hearing, but the FA did it anyway. And did the club back him up? Even Arsene thought the club treated him poorly. Although we played a significant part of his development, it was through his own hard work he was where he was. It's all a question of feeling wanted, and if Cole is speaking the truth in his biography then the club treated him like shit. He was at fault in some occasions, and he could've dealt with the situation in a better way but he did not. Even Paddy did not feel wanted by the board, do people slag him for leaving? He went to Chelsea, yes. He rejected Madrid because he did not want a change of lifestyle when he was happy in England and no other English club was interested. Really, we got the better end of the deal. We now have Clichy and Gallas and look much stronger as a team. He is no longer "Ash" in my eyes, what ever his reasons, he is now "Cole", another twatty Chelsea player, one out of many. But really, we should just move on now.
Sorry, did I just read an apologist ranting about the poor misunderstood Ashley Cole? His meeting in the restaurant was an innocent coincident? Yeah, that is about as believable as Sputz chairman just running into another coach at a bar. Tell me, did that turn out to be an innocent coincidence or was a contract offered? And you use Vieira as your proof? A guy who flirted with so many other clubs he made Paris Hilton look monogamous. I guess, by your standard, Henry was telling the truth and his reason for leaving was that Wenger was leaving... Or was the poor way Dein was treated. Or was it... Sorry they all lie so much that I can't keep it straight but yes, by all means, let's believe poor Ashley Cole who almost swerved off the road at being offered the pitance Arsenal deemed him worth. And your argument that he is being used differently is fine except one point, he chose to go to Chelsea because he "could win more trophies there". If he is being under utilized, that is the price he pays. I have no problem "letting it go" as we have actually a much better LB now and got Gallas and 5m for our trouble. But please, don't try and convince me that Cole and Posh-lite are the victims here. That argument might work on someone who actually swallowed his self-gratifying auto-biography but not the rest of us.
Right, so you slate the view of The Sun (who are independent to Cole) but value his view of the matter over what was told to an inquiry by Arsenal FC and the executives? And selling PV4 was Arsene's decision, he said himself he had no intention of leaving. So I think he was quite happy with the situation at all levels, including board level.
Juventus made an approach to Arsenal for Veira. Arsenal informed Paddy and said they were "neutral" towards the deal. PV had put in some of the best years of his career in us and after all that, we barely tried to keep hold of him. If a player is not wanted he will leave. It was not only Cole's biography, PV4 said something similar in his.
How does Neutral = "we don't want to see you ever again." He was with us for 9 years, and juve are a huge club. The ball had been put in his court for him to make up his mind. If he chooses to stay he stays and we move on, if he wants to go he goes and we keep in touch. (or would have if he hadn't been a wind up merchant, anyone else seen his comments on teams "like" arsenal, funny enough Inter are very much like us)
This doesn't go against what I said. > Juventus bid > The board inform Wenger, who then decide as a group whether or not the valuation represents good value for the player. Wenger also decides whether the money can buy an adequate replacement, or if the players currently at the club are up to the task of stepping up. > The player is then informed the bid is accepted and they can negotiate personal terms if they wish > Transfer is complete. At the end of the day the board ask Wenger whether this is a good deal and whether or not he wants to keep the player. Wenger fended off so many approaches from other clubs but in the end with the emergence of other midfield players it was determined that while Vieira wasn't surplus to requirements, the money would represent good business. I don't think that means we "barely tried" to keep hold of him. We didn't want to keep hold of him and accepted the bid. Arsenal made the decision, and having seen Vieira go on the slow slope downhill in Italy the right decision was made. IMO. The point I made initially though was that Cole put his view across in his book. Several credible news sources had the facts, and Cole just tried to bullshit his way through it. Remember this is the same person who insisted for ages he hadn't met Chelsea and he was commited to Arsenal. I wouldn't trust his words so easily.