Todays game will see Hoyte dropped, Theo rested and Ashely Cole getting his pay day somewhere else. There will be no Englishmen in the starting 11. I get real bloody fed up sometimes of the way the club seems to alienate itself from its local fanbase. Its a team full of foreigners... no local pride anymore. Maybe I am having an argument with a brick wall here as I dont expect the non Englishmen on here to understand, it has seemed that way before.
But is it really local pride unless you have players who came up through the system and are from the neighborhood - like Charlie George? If you have English players, but they are all from the north would it ne the same? I am a Non Englishman - and in the US you don't really have the local guys all playing for the local team, but we do have certain requirements that only allow so many non US Citizens to play on a team. With the EU it becomes a little harder to differentiate. I wouldn't mind seeing them require that a certain percentage of the starting players have to be born in the UK. But I also like to see the best quality football and sometimes that means going outside to get it.
I've thought about this and here is something I don't understand. Who is being alienated when Arsenal are filling a 60k stadium? Chelsea have Six English Internationals and they are taking out Ads on radio and newspapers practically begging people to attend. Most Chelsea games go on general sell where you can buy up to four tickets per person. At Arsenal, it's one membership, one seat if I am understanding the policy correctly. And you can't blame it on ticket prices either, because apparently we have the highest prices in the premiership.
you wont get much sympathy on here matt. but saying that, i do agree with u, it'd be nice to see a bit of english pride in the team. roll on theo's development
what do you want arsenal to do? The englishmen we have arent ready to start quite yet. The englishmen we started left the club. The englishmen we could have purchased over overpriced.
I'd like to know when Arsenal are going to play a Welshman again, thank you VERY MUCH. Mervyn Charles and Jack Kelsey are NOT amused by this treachery.
I wouldn't be so certain about Hoyte being dropped. If Djourou isn't fit (and physioroom is rating Djourou to be very doubtful) Gallas will play in center back and it will be either Flamini or Hoyte in left back. And Wenger might still continue playing Hoyte in left back even though he has been crap for the past few matches.
but the local kids aren't up to snuff. What do you want. A team to win or local kids losing? Plus Hoyte is NOT ready for prime time yet.
The only thing that I have to say is that we would probably have more English talent if it wasn't so fcuking expensive to buy English talent when you can get someone equal or better for a third of the price. I mean, why buy the cow if you can get the sex for free, you know?
It seems I pretty well directed my question in the January transfer thread to you, Matt. I'd be interested to read your response.
heh, heh. you're a bit confused here. the saying is "why buy the sheep if you can get the sex for free." and it's in reference to welsh talent.
Seriously, why are we still on this? Would you guys rather have less talent just so we can say we have english players? Is that more important than having the best team we can have?
I prefer the way our players play. Maybe if any rules redarding the minimum amount of English players in a team comes out, then i'm sure lots of Arsenal scouts will be in England. But for now, does it really matter ?! Just enjoy the game.
Well we aint doing well with the foreigners either... unless you think 1 point from a possible 6 is good.
******** you... Its not Xenophobia, and just like I thought, there was always gonna be some dickheads who wouldnt understand.
Someting very strikingly similar to Inter huh ?! No italian's there (first 11) .. Well, its not a really bad thing .. And looks like we're working on some english talent as well .. Like u said, Hyote's the closest englishman in the first 11 .. Well, there's the "Get rid of racism" slogan rit, and looks like we're the first ones to implement successfully ..
If it's not xenophobia then what is it? I think you need to explain why your original statement isn't xenophobic. Why do you feel alienated from the club because no Englishmen are starting today? I was born and bred in London and nothing about this alienates me. I would love to see more good English players playing for Arsenal, but if they're not out there or the ones who would make the team are out of our price range then so be it. It's not as if Wenger hasn't tried to get English players. He has signed a few, but I don't think you could call the likes of Jeffers and Wright an unqualified success (both England internationals by the way, so it wasn't as if he was buying nobodies). He's just spent £5m or so on an unproven 17 year old English player. And he did all he could to persuade Cole to stay, but the bloke was just after the big pile of cash. I don't know what more the club can do?
Xenohpobia would be me saying there should be no foreigners in the game, which if you would go and check other comments I have made in other threads today, I never said. I said there needs to be some foreigners in the game. Wanting somthing to do with the team to be English, just a small part of it, thats Xenophobia? Well then your stupid.
I'm stupid? From the starter of this thread that's a bit rich. I asked you to explain yourself, that's all. So what exactily is alienating you from the team, now that no englishmen are playing. What exactly did you have in common with the English players before? Apart fromt hem being born somewhere in England, my life couldn't be much more different to theirs.
Well i think I can understand what you mean here, but let me just say that we non-english supporters of course understand what you mean, after all we have local clubs in sweden or whatever as well, where the same discussions arise from time to time. It´s just that we really don´t care that much. We love arsenal, not the english people, and a discussion of alienation has nothing to do with us, since we´re just as alienated from the english players, or multi-millionair footballplayers to begin with. Just thought I make a mark here, because your first comment about the foreign supporters seemed kind of arrogant.
I have said this numerous times, do you want to field the best starting XI? YES, than more than likely we will have non-Englishmen out there. Will it upset irritate and upset Englishmen if a side with little or no Englishmen are losing all the time or not competing for the top 4 or trophies? YES! If an Englishmen is THAT upset about big clubs not having tons of Englishmen on their side, there are plenty of bottom of the table clubs or even better lower division clubs that will never break your heart by pursuing anyone, but the colin and ian's of the world. So ends the lesson.