Notice, I did not say stop. Now, Rayzor (whom I love) and Kanu (whom I like a lot), you can go ahead and bash. Even though Nwankwo set up the all-important goal yesterday. At least this year we have exciting things to say, like, "Ooh, here comes Tolo Koure," as opposed to "Oy, here comes Igors Stepanovs!" Not that there's anything wrong with that... -G. Rex
I'll second this motion. In fact, I just awarded Wiltord a set of Iron Balls (see www.arsenalamerica.com )for his contribution to the West Ham match.
Birmingham goal As a previous Wiltord basher I am happily eating humble pie after borrowing a tape of the opening day match against the brummies. Magnificent stuff!
And he's bagged three goals in his last four regular season games. Thirty-four goals in all competitions in just barely more than two seasons. But who's counting?
My guess is that some of the Wiltord-bashing will subside some if some posters stop being so in-your-face about evangelizing on his behalf. It's getting to be a little much in both directions.
My take on the spirit of this thread was that it was fairly light-hearted, with a bit of teasing thrown in. My comment on Saturday in another thread that might have been taken as "in-your-face" was motivated more by the crappy Saturday morning I was having thanks to the newly installed Dish network not working than any malicious intent on my part. Ian, although I haven't read them all, I'd guess that in at least a couple of your 10,100+ posts you've belabored a point a bit too much, or written something you later perhaps regretted a bit.
What I'm trying to say is that it's getting a little much that every time Wiltord has a good game, you make him out to be the best thing since sliced bread (sliced bread being actually overrated, in my opinion), and the heart and soul of the team. He's a good player, and nobody needs to defend him anymore. Yet at the same time, he'll never be the most popular player on the squad. And that's... (deep breath) OK. *** Who, me? If I've got 200 actual serious posts in that whole lot I'll be amazed, as anyone who's ever gotten lost in FFA will readily attest to. I'm a first-class jacknut. Can I get a witness?
chortle Of course not, not while I'm still playing. I don't want you to love me. I insist that you do so.
Re: You asked for this one. These jokes were much more effective when one could actually post the picture rather than provide a meer link. Confound you Huss!!!!
I normally bash Wiltord during a match, because when I do, he invariably does something magnificent to redeem his self. Lately, though, I haven't been bashing him at all, and look how he's doing.... Truthfully, I've never been really down on the guy. He has a habit od looking like crap for stretches, but he somehow always seems to end up with the ball at his feet in crucial situations, both for Arsenal and France, and he generally puts them away. He's just taken a lot of heat because his transfer fee was so high. As we saw this summer, the transfer fees from years past are seriously overvalued. Interesting that the announcers for the WBA game mentioned that Silva could possibly be the best buy for any Premiership club this year, and they also mentioned that Wenger has a real knack for finding guys with talent for rock-bottom prices.
Wiltord has enjoyed the happy knack of scroing important goals over the last six months or so. Hopefully, Wenger will be able to coach him some more to improve his all-round game, which is lacking at the moment. His second goal on Tuesday was well taken, a good first touch to evade the defender and a crisp finish. His first was like before, a poor first touch which nearly got away from him which meant he just had to try something. It came off, but it's not the clinical finishing you want from your strikers.
I'm not saying this in defence of Wiltord, but to be honest I could care less how they score. Sure, I like to see DB10 magic or Henry turning and firing over Barthez in one move, but when it gets right down to it I'm not going to knock a guy because his finishing isn't clinical. I'm going to knock a guy if his finishing isn't successful.
The point is, if he was a clinical finisher, he wouldn't miss the easy ones that he does. I'm quite happy to take them is they go in off someone's arse too!