Ian Wright yes, but you have to remember that Jack is English through and through. He will always support the English team that is playing, aslong as there not the spuds. Dont see anything wrong with that tbh, the same way that I hope all Australian teams do well in the ACL, except for Heart.

Edited by jlm8695: 20/5/2012 08:23:11 AM

I don't have any huge problems with what Jack said, just a bit too patriotic for his own good imo, but can understand why a lot of gooners would be angry with what he's said.

Wright on the other hand, well he can go fuck himself.

Edited by sydneycroatia58: 20/5/2012 08:25:30 AM

No idea what Jack Wilshere said that was so bad; as a Londoner and a gooner you always support the side from London in the cup or the English side in Europe. I wanted West Ham promoted, I want to see both Chelsea and Tottenham in the Champions League. I don't mean to sound horrible/elitist; but maybe as foreign gooners it's difficult to understand that.

I honestly would've preferred to see Tottenham in the champions league, in the eyes of many that would make me a 'traitor'. Frankly I could've done with the change; it's far more entertaining to see the yids in Europe, the banter would've been great fun. Now we have to put up with the mindless drones that are the chavs.

As for Ian Wright's Cashley comments, well... Cashley is a c*nt who made the right move. Maybe I'm suffering from another period of 'no trophies, no hope'; fact is, Arsenal have no ambition. We've won nothing (again), they're European champions.

It's interesting, he says Cashley made the right move going to Chelsea. I wonder if he thinks Shaun made the right move when Ian advised him to go to Chelsea because of the money.

For congratulating Chelsea? :lol:
And you thought it was bad me having a problem with Vieira telling our players to leave Arsenal!

Na it was more him actively going for Chelsea in the final that did it for a lot of people.

I think his hidden agenda in all of this is nabbing the England armband as soon as possible. Certainly making the right noises with this. Can't question his brightness or ambition, I like it.
Doesn't bother me whatever he does as long as it doesn't adversely affect Arsenal. He's one of our most loyal players in my eyes.

:lol: There is no hidden agenda because there is no chance of him being named England captain for a while yet, if at all. He's just to patriotic for his own good. I mean I personally couldn't care less about what he said because I don't really care about all that Chelsea being the first London team to win the champions league, but I can see why some wouldn't like what he said.



Edited by sydneycroatia58: 21/5/2012 12:40:32 PM

Ofcourse it would be something like 4 or 5 years before he even has a chance.
That changes nothing at all, he's made it clear that it's his long term goal is to be England captain (and lead them to a World Cup win) and I think he has one of those personalities that makes him quite obsessive with achieving his long term goals (like many great sportsmen).
Building the right profile through things like this will raise public support for his captaincy if/when the chance eventually comes.

Some people were already calling for him to be captain before he hit 20 :lol: so he's doing something right.

Well it's that time of year again... who do we need to buy to make us able to compete for trophies next season...?

Sadly I was all for Mertesacker in August but he's turned out to be too slow for the PL.

Defense is still our achilles heel... hoping that Steve Bould's appointment will mean our defenders might actually get some attention on the training track - could turn Vermaelen into a world class defender. At present he's a little too clumsy and not enough of a tight-marker for my liking - some of those end of season goals we conceeded v Norwich, WBA and QPR were horrendous. Kos has has a solid season but is he Premier League winning defender? Not in the same class as Sol, Keown and Adams etc.

A super-creative goals scoring central midfielder would also be a bonus. Arteta has been good but not great, Rosicky has had a great season but not many goals... too reliant on RvP to score... Aside from RvP who's opposed to us poaching van der Vaart?

Thoughts...?

I thought Mertesacker was very good befor ehis injury. Only really remember 1 big mistake against Norwich, but apart from that he was very solid and adapted well in his first season I thought. Overall I think he's a very good 2nd choice CB



Defense is our achilles heel, but I don't think it's a problem with the players we have, just a bit more organisation and concentration as a collective unit would go a long way to fixing our problems. As for Vermalen's tight marking, I'm the opposite, I think he gets to tight sometimes. QPR's first goal against us was a direct result of him getting to tight and diving in and Taraabt just went straight past him. I think him and Kos work really well together, just need TV to stop those runs forward so often. Kos has had more than a solid season and has been easily one of our best and most consistent players.

I also think people need to get rid of this idea of Steve Bould coming in and making our defence suddely super solid. His U18's conceded stupid goals from horrible defensive mistakes, just like the first team do.



Arteta just good not great? Really. I think along with Kos he was our best this season behind Robin. He was one of the big reasons we are finishing 3rd and straight through to the Champions League group stages and not in the Europa League.

As for us poaching VdV, no thank you. Sp*rs wouldn't sell, and most fans wouldn't want him anyway.

Edited by sydneycroatia58: 21/5/2012 03:25:02 PM

8-[

Yeah... Don't want...

Modric for Arsenal anyone?

Honestly, I think you're all making too much of a deal out of this Jack Wilshere thing. It's a very common attitude to support clubs from England in Europe. Frankly, it's one that I was brought up with and my family aren't patriotic at all.

He's played alongside John Terry and Frank Lampard for England. They're professionals, they're going to have more respect for one another then the idea that 'he's a chechan and i fucking hate chelsea'.

I think for all the complaints about our defence; it isn't the area that needs the most attention. Frankly, I still think we haven't replaced Cesc Fabregas. We need some extra spark, an extra oomph; someone to take the pressure of Van Persie. We need another world class player. Modric would suit us well actually hahaha.

If you're saying we need another player like Cesc to take the pressure off RvP, Modric definitely isn't that player. Besides Cesc only took the pressure off our strikers in 1 season out of 7.

I do agree that we need to take the pressure off Robin, and that's obviously a big part of why we bought Podolski.

Edited by sydneycroatia58: 21/5/2012 09:26:09 PM

Not necessarily in a goalscoring sense, more in a creative sense; we need more spark. Modric would suit us like that, certainly; I'm a fan of his, good footballer.

On that note, how will we play Podolski and RVP? I can't quite see it to be honest. Maybe RVP behind Podloski?

Would love to see Podolski play upfront with Robin, but it wont happen. Think Podolski will be good wide left though, he is a very direct player, and will probably help us against very defensive teams.

I think it'll be Podolski on the left with RvP upfront.

49 goals in the league... that to me says BOTH personnel and organisation. Think of the goals where players are waltzing straight through with not even a tackle laid...!

Mertesacker was way too slow... I wanted him but now he's looking like a liability.

Sagna still has no competition for his place.

Quick question Gibbs or Santos?

Agree with the comment about a creative central midfielder... one who contibutes goals hencemy suggestion of Rafael van der Vaart.

I think people need to give Per a break. It was his first season in England. I think it's crazy the people saying this stuff about him when most of these were same people that said how bad Kos. Look how thats turned out, more humble pie to be eaten I'd say.

I don't think Sagna needs competition for his spot. It's not as if he's a player to become complacent with his starting spot. I just think we need a better back up than Jenkinson. I mean competition surely won't hurt, but i mean he's had Eboue and Jenkinson as his "competition" the last 2 seasons and hes still been the best RB in the league along with Richards.

I would definitely have Gibbs over Santos. I just hope his injury record improves :d

I do think we need another creative midfielder. Probably not essential but would be nice :lol:

I agree that a Van der Vaart type of player would better suite us than a Modric. I see Modric as more of a deep playmaker (who we have plenty of) where as we don't have more potent attacking mid/centre forward who consistently scores and assists.

Would prefer it not be Van Der Vaart though. Someone who can play on the wing as well would be ideal. Someone like Affelay or Younes Belhanda would be perfect (or even someone like Gotze/Hazard if we were willing to fork out the cash). Still feel like we missed out on Juan Mata when he had that cheap buyout clause.

The other good news is that we're close to signing the next Yaya Toure.
The bad news is that he's 13 and we would have to wait 5+ years to see him in the small chance that he lives up to those huge expectations :lol:
Does seem promising though, he was called up for England U16's when he was only 12 years old. That must be unheard of? Big Arsenal fan too.

In answer to your question: Gibbs in the long run, Santos for now depending on form and opposition. They create good competition for each other though. Santos is more aggressive, better ball winner and a better passer but terrible positioning. Gibbs is a more well rounded leftback and will only improve.

:lol: there are no words that adequately describe how happy it makes me to see Sagna refer to Sp*rs as "the enemy"

So that purple and black kit may be real, thankfully.

Thinking about getting 'Sagna 3' on the back of the new hoops kit if it is indeed the maroon and black/navy one. It's either him, the Ox or nothing. Maybe Rosicky or Robin if he stays but I'll probably end up with no one on the back.

Edited by gooner4life_8: 22/5/2012 09:12:29 PM

[size=9]We finally got rid of Almunia!!![/size]

:lol:
Thats 1 out of about 8 or 9 players on decent wages that we need to get rid of.

Fabianski is out of contract and not renewing as well right? Not that he's one of the 8 or 9, we need a solid #2 like him so I hope not.

Na Fabianski's not out of contract, he's just been making noises about wanting to leave to get regular game time.

Good, then we'll at least get a transfer fee if he leaves :)

Yay we got rid of Manuel . Thank the lord , wish we could've conned a club into buying him :lol, wish we got rid of squillaci as well and denni

and Chamakh and Park and Arshavin and Bendtner and Vela and maybe Diaby.

Might have to keep one or two of them since we'd be pretty low on strikers if we got rid of them all.
But think of the wages we would save on if we cleared them all :shock:. Could afford some very good signings again.

In relation to Chamakh:

Arsenal are prepared to offer €8m plus Chamakh to sign Oliver Giroud of Montpellier if Van Persie is leaving. Just a rumour at the moment.

Edited by keepersball: 24/5/2012 09:39:56 AM