Of course anything reported from an interview in 'The Sun' needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, but at face value, Pires' comments in todays paper seem to be bang out of order. Having already threatened to strike over the Iraq war, Pires now feels that 3 games till the end of the season is the perfect moment to criticize his managers selection policy, and to suggest that he and Vieira will be on their way if squad upgrades are not to their liking. Not only is this appalling timing, but, coming from someone whose indifferent form is indicative of the teams season, his comments are hypocritical. Gallic arrogance perhaps? Right at this moment, I would be happy to take Valencia's cash for Pires. Then perhaps AW could spend it on finding someone more committed to the cause?
I don't know about getting rid of Pires, but I would like AW to buy Mehdi Mahdavikia from Hamburg who's leading the bundesliga in assists and has quite a bit of speed on the right wing.
I see one of the two scenarios following from RP's comments. 1) RP "clarifies" his comments, saying that he's really praising PV's desire and drive, and encouraging the board to go the extra mile (or 1.6 Km) to sign a few players in support of PV, AW, et al. OR 2) He's made an example, a la Nic Anelka. Remembe him? AW sold him, got the leading scorer of the '98 WC (Sukor) and the leading scorer for the '98 WC winners (Henry), and still had, like, 10M pounds in the checking account. Sure, Sukor tanked a bit, but we got Henry and 10 million quid. I think #1 is the more likely scenario. -G. Rex
Hope your right. Even so, what does his remarks do for team morale; how would you feel playing alongside Pires when he's implied to the world that your not good enough to be there?
You can never take what planetfootball reports at face value (much less the Sun), but this cr*p about the club not matching his ambitions is absurd. Martymarts has got it right: Pires has hardly gotten an E for effort since he's been back. Where was he during the ManU match at Highbury? Aside from a nice strike at Bolton, where has he been lately? And all of the sudden he surfaces to announce to the world that the club isn't up to his standards? Funny, because when he's on the pitch, he IS the club. If he's not happy with the way the team is playing, he needs to accept some responsibility. And to implicate Vieria in this tantrum is ridiculous. PV is the captain for crying out sideways. Let him speak for himself.
Pires is right about one thing. You can't put in Parlour for Viera and expect to be the same kind of team. Pires Bemoans Lack Of Depth 30/04/03 French maestro Robert Pires has blamed the Arsenal squad's lack of depth for their apparent inability to defend their Premiership title this season. Arsenal have suffered a cruel spate of injuries to key players at the most crucial stage of the season, with the loss of skipper Patrick Vieira leaving a void they have been unable to fill. They have seen Manchester United overhaul them at the top of the table and now require a minor miracle to take the title. Pires lamented the fact that the Gunners have been too reliant on their captain and should never have continued to play him while he has been injured.
My problem with that is, if you can't rely on your captain, who can you rely on? As for the lack of depth, Parlour, Edu, Wiltord, and Jeffers have all played better than Pires has in the last half of the season. Even Gio's had his moments. It's not the lack of depth that's been killing Arsenal. It's the lack of production from its stars, like Pires.
I cant believe im saying this, but, i wouldnt mind seeing ol' gallic bob on the exit... he actually has been one piece of the puzzle that the squad hasnt missed (when he was injured).. he claims he isnt interested in playing for real madrid (fave club growing up), but i'd like to hear how he would respond to that question now.. for the good of the club (his transfer fee should bring in a massive sum), we should turn round that dodgy backline... his position is easily replaceable (gio, toure, et al)and his comments certainly wont be missed... and to think, i just bought a kit last year with bobby's name on it.. alors~~~ sorry to waste anyones time in reading this.. lol cheers phishy
Whether or not Arsenal are too reliant on Vieira is not the point! The point is, 3 games before the end of the most closely contessed premiership ever is not the time to make these kind of loose canon comments. It smacks of poor judgement, arrogance and disloyalty. I don't think either AW the our board of directors lack of ambition is the reason for the current catalogue of injuries, or the poor form of key players like Pires himself! Furthermore, now that I'm on my soap box, what kind of crap is Pires talking? This very same squad of players, plus Tony Adams, waltzed there way to the double last year. Up till Christmas we were out right favorites to win the CL, no pundit would bet against us. Of course improvements can always be made, but this team needs tweeking not major surgery. Our main problem since Christmas has been inconsistancy and that rests on Pires' shoulders as much as anyone else. What he needs to be saying to the press is that between now and May12th he will be giving 100% to the team and spending the summer working to get back to the level he was at before his injury. If this is a back hand invitation for one of the other top clubs of Europe to come and get him... then let him be gone! Amen and thank you very much!!!
This looks like a classic case of "winning solves all problems." Now unfortunately it might be too late in the season for that to be true here, but in general you only here this kind of talk following a bad result. And let's take a step back here a moment. Everyone is upset because we didn't match or improve upon last season. That's a bit like Michaelangelo being disappointed because the statue he did after David wasn't quite as good. Yes, at present the season is a bit of a disappointment. But we're still in the top two in one of the top 3 leagues in the world. You wanna know what blows? Trying be a Spurs fan. When SuperBob was playing well we would have been tripping over ourselves rationalizing his comments. He's in poor form so we're piling on him. Personally I can't think of one player who isn't replaceable. I LOVED Marc Overmars. But he left and we still managed to win a Double. If Henry left but we brought in Trezeguet/Kluivert/Makaay/Shevchenko I'm sure we'd be just fine. Patrick Vieira? If he leaves we'll grab a decent replacement AND a defender. I'm not going to worry too much about what is reported to have been said by a player. If you're wearing the Arsenal jersey I'm assuming you're trying your best to win. If you don't like it here, or Wenger doesn't want you here, see ya. My feeling is that by and large, over the long haul, we are probably better with Pires than without him. I'm not going to judge him based on the last three months.
I don't know what to make of the Pires situation. His drop in form has been startling no doubt, but look at the injury he had, few come back from something like that to be a player of the year again immediately, if ever. His comments were ill timed and ill concieved no doubt about that. Hell if Wenger can get an inflated transfer fee for him to help stregthen the defense than maybe it's not such a bad idea.......
Having had all day to chew this over a worse scenario popped into my head. As bad timing and inappropriote as Pires' remarks were, maybe he's sending a message to the board. Letting them know that even without CL or Premiership success not to try to save cash by screwing him on his new contract? Arsenal recently stopped work on Ashburton Grove and have just announced a £9 million loss for the first half of the year. And while Hill-Wood confirmed the intention to proceed with the new stadium how could he do otherwise. If building work doesn't restart soon our best players will move on. Lack of CL success has put a big strain on the finances and if the £ losses continue a big name departure is almost certain to happen in the summer?
So how much longer before the rumour mongers start making noise about Pires to Real Madrid? I hope the club isn't forced to flip a coin between Freddie to Italy or Robert to Spain.
Pires' money is needed. Get rid of the sod, I say. We can replace him, maybe with one of West Ham's players. Vive le AFC! OPArsenal _______________ [size=0.75] "Believe." - Senor Askew, April 22, 2003, on what Arsenal fans need to do during the Premiership stretch run.[/size]
I wouldn't want to get rid of Pires, there's plenty who should be shown the door before him. His comments about not being able to replace Vieira are really just a case of stating the bleedin obvious. It's debatable whether anyone else in the world plays that position as well as he does. As a more general point, the team needs strengthening in the summer. In the past few years Winterburn, Adams and Dixon have retired from the defence or moved on. Seaman isn't able to play as many gamnes as he could in the past. We've replaced them with Campbell and Cole (fair enough), but then we have Cygan, Stepanovs Lauren (who's not a defender and never will be), Taylor (I'm still unconvinced) and Toure. As well as letting go of Upson, who for my money should be starting right now along side Campbell (yes ahead of Keown). Wenger needs to go out and buy a defender or two to make sure we can be as miserly at the back as we can be creative and downright dangerous going forward.
I agree totally here. No ONE player on any squad is irreplaceable. Now, as to why RP might make these statements... I can think of three snapshots that really turned around the season from a midfielder's perspective. 1. Late goal by Rooney turns a somewhat listless but well-deserved draw into a late 2-1 loss. Rooney rips through the center of the defense and scores a great goal--but he never should had that much room to run. Result: lost one point 2. Late equalizer by Heskey turns a great performance by Arsenal and 3 points into a 2-2 draw. This time the defense seemed to be ball watching and allowed the cross to come in uncontested. Result: lost two points 3. Arsenal comes to life in second half at home against Man United and goes ahead 2-1. Not a minute later, defense once again falls asleep and lets Giggs in alone to surrender a precious lead. Result: three point swing. So while I disagree with the timing and know that anyone can point to other games where the offense failed to put a team away, just a couple of smarter plays by a thin, patched-together defense and we're ahead by one point and a game in hand. jgw
Pires is over 30 and he has a media career lined up in France for when he retires. He is very unlikely to be around to feature as part of the Ashburton Grove Gunners. AW being the canny chap that he is, he realises that, as good as Pires is, his value will quickly depreciate. At a time when the club is strapped for moolar Pires is the obvious asset to liquidate!
AW being the canny chap that he is, he realises that, as good as Pires is, his value will quickly depreciate. In the past AW was a pretty good wheeler and dealer. These days, he's had more misses than hits. I just hope the defender(s) he buys won't be one of the misses.