What has the world come to when we can't trust the motives of a diamond merchant and a woman who married into money?
Re: Take the money 3 Keeping with the Arsenal forum tradition of hijacking threads, I think we've got to consider that a fair bit of the team's problems don't have anything to do with money or the board, or only tangentially. Eg, 1. Bad character, in the sense that as I see it there's no players on the team motivated by total disgust at the prospect of losing. IMO Eduardo are Senderos are the closest we have, but neither are good enough football-wise to count on. 2. Training methods that discourage shooting at the keeper. This one is a biggie, and could be addressed without spending any money at all. 3. Overplaying (and possibly overtraining) guys to the point of taking away their competitive hunger for the game.
Re: Take the money 3 That is quite a stretch I think. To single out only 2 guys on the entire team that are disgusted at losing is ridiculous. You don't think guys like Cesc and Kolo (just to name a couple) hate losing? Even our captain is disgusted at the prospect at losing, as shown by his tantrums last season.
Re: Take the money 3 Gallas is always ridiculously emotionally invested in every game he plays. I even remember from his Chelsea days crying on the field after losing to Pool in the CL semi.
Re: Take the money 3 Bad character is talking sh*t about a player coming back from a career-threatening injury suffered while wearing the shirt. The man's a class act and a class player. He deserves better than that.
Re: Take the money 3 No, I don't. Cesc especially, also Adebayor and Hleb while he was here, are great players, but they seem to be a bit too good-natured to be genuinely pissed at the prospect of losing. I don't know why you think I'm hostile to Eduardo. I really like his character. Unfortunately his game is too limited outside the box and he's coming back from a career threatening injury so I don't know how much we can expect him to set the tone for the team. I forgot about Gallas a bit. Unfortunately, the more emotionally demonstrative he is, the worse he plays and that doesn't really help.
Re: Take the money 3 http://www.dailyherald.com/special/mjretire99/mjretire3.htm "He's sick, I tell you. Michael Jordan is sick. In the greatest possible way an athlete can have this illness, no one has ever done it better or with more cold-blooded brutality than Michael Jordan. It's not just that he wants to beat you, but he must humiliate you and stomp on your chest as he looks down at you. In the game, in practice, in miniature golf. It doesn't matter." When I talk about character on our team, I don't mean that our players are bad guys. It's that too many of them have the _wrong_ character to win, a la Michael Jordan above. I wish we could have someone on our team who is genuinely offended that Reading gets to breathe the same air they do. I think about the comparison between Cesc and Roy Keane sometimes, mostly because of that bet between Coach and Father Ted. I think it's fair to say that in many ways Fabregas, at the age of 20 or so, is a better player now than Roy Keane ever was. But the particular qualities Keane had in spades we lack.
Re: Take the money 3 Jordan is a prick. Always was. Cesc does hate losing. Remember how he challenged Mark Hughes? Pizzagate? He gets into it with players bigger than he is and doesn't think about backing down. If that's not competitiveness, I don't know what is. Cesc is a petulant MF (and just to be clear, I don't mean midfielder) and I love him for it. Cesc rules. Go Cesc. Yeah.
Re: Take the money 3 Please. Jordan wouldn't have allowed the collapse last season. Not saying Cesc is responsible just that Jordan would have raised absolute hell. Which we need.
Re: Take the money 3 but in basketball, jordan can dominate as an individual. football needs much more than that (like american football). we played #1 in the nation duncanville, lost by a last second bucket, and had ME as the 2 guard. meaning in hoops all you need is a star (and i wasnt it) lol
Re: Take the money 3 Jordan wasn't winning NBA titles at 20. It took a while, and the right combination of coaching and teammates, before he became the marvel that he was. He had all the tools, including the competitiveness, but he and the Bulls had to mature first. But you're right. We need that fire, and we didn't have enough of it at the right times last year. I hope those kids, as well as the supposed leaders like Gallas, have laid awake many nights over the summer, burning to make it different this year.
Re: Take the money 3 By 20, he had won the NCAA title on his last minute shot. I understand basketball is easier to be tby one player but it's pretty common knowledge that he dominated the whole Bulls organization while he was there.
Re: Take the money 3 Here we go again Why is that anytime a team loses the primary reason is that the asshole/dickhead/wanker factor is not high enough? Being a punk ass drill sergeant is not a recipe for winning. Ask Tim Duncan(who I can't stand by the way...go heels). Every bit as respected and successful as Jordan with 1/3 the talk. Go figure.
Re: Take the money 3 Cesc can score and pass, two things that thug was never able to master. "He's only 17 and he's better than Roy Keane!"
Re: Take the money 3 If anyone won that game it was James Worthy, who was the dominant player on that team and the best player on the floor that night. 'Mike' Jordan (as was known at the time) hit a wide open go-ahead jumper with like 15 seconds to go. That's it. One of the most overhyped moments in sports history, imo, that's only replayed because of what Jordan accomplished later. When Jordan was Cesc's age, he was still in college, averaging 19.6 ppg and 5.3 rpg for a UNC team that failed to get past the Sweet 16. This is not comparable to someone who was just selected for the Best XI in one of the best two professional football leagues in the world and was the sparkplug for the European Champions.
Re: Take the money 3 True. But I'm sure you've heard the old joke: Who's the only person to consistently hold Jordan to under 20 ppg.? Dean Smith.
Re: Take the money 3 Trust me, he gets as much or more respect from his teammates as jordan got from his. Need I mention the whole Scottie Pippen saga?
Re: Take the money 3 I would say Jordan was far more respected and feared than Duncan. Duncan has yet to show any leadership abilities as far as I know.
Re: Take the money 3 The post Robinson years? Who do you think led them to those championships? Even the years they lost he still made a clearly overachieving team competitive.
Re: Take the money 3 So true, it's funny how Jordan fans give him all the credit while Basketball Hall of Famer James Worthy is a footnote. And don't forget Sam Perkins was on that squad too.
Re: Take the money 3 not really even close man. jordan is the epitome of success, and the best player of all time.