Only seen the highlights but have to say that I think Arsenal did ok for much of the match considering they were basically fielding a Carling Cup team. Having said that, it does inevitably lead us back to the same old point that they were in that position due to a woeful lack of players and no movement in the transfer market.
I'm sure that will change though with their new moves in the market. I for one was blown away when I saw their latest target was a young player from Ligue 1.....
The worst thing is you could see this coming from the moment Cesc was persuaded to 'give it one more year', yet nothing was. or has, been done to rectify it. So frustrating.
Not sure what is going on within the club regarding signings but it stinks. Mata would've been a excellent addition to the squad, that's is now missing the flair Cesc brought, but the deal fell through. Now Chelski sign him for only 4 million more than what we apparently offered. It doesn't make any sense. Hazard would also be a great replacement, but I doubt Lille will want to sell us him and Gervinho in one summer. And all this should've been sorted out months ago ffs.
It's the curse of American ownership I tells yeh. Maybe the fat Russian rapist will eventual get the club. Dude is 10 times richer than Abramovic, so then we will finally be able to compete. YAY for soulless football.
My frustration is that I actually agree with much of the way Arsenal conduct themselves: i.e. having a fixed and relatively modest wage structure for players, not paying inflated fees for players, developing young players, promoting technical ability etc.
But this all counts for nothing when other clubs simply throw cash at the most sought after players and effectively build real-life fantasy teams. I mean, in the last week I've seen Tevez and Suarez on the bench while Arsenal start with Jenkinson (who had previously been loaned to a Conference side) and Frimpong. I'm not saying that these won't become great players, but they're not the figures you want to see against a resurgent Liverpool side.
And for all the talk of defensive frailties, the more pressing concern is who is going to score? RVP is world class, but I will be amazed if he makes it through the season injury free. And aside from him there is, eh, Chamakh, Bendtner and the unproven Gervinho...
Just two games in and it already feels like the start of a looooong season. And if we don't get past Udinese things could get a lot worse.
I am now working for 'Meriman and they are pure bottom-line specialists. Everything as cheap as possible until people start dying. Cheapest place with the internet wins. I can't see anyone here working for another 12 months on this gig.
I imagine the conversations at Arsenal:
Wenger (adjust french accent as you see fit): "We muzt spend our 35 million Cesc-credeets on zees playeur!"
AMSHANKZ: "Ar-seen, can it buddy. We got this guy Pho Kmee in Mindanau who will do it for minimum wage. The shareholders really like this guy. The conversation has ended. Please hang up."
I wouldn't be surprised if that's not far from the truth Jim. Arsenal shares don't payout a dividend, so they claim they're not making any money, but the share price will continue to increase as long as the club is in a sustainable profitable position. So they can continue charging the highest season ticket price in the league, pocketing the transfer profits, and when it's time to cash in those shares they'll be quids in. Whilst the club stagnates and slowly rots.
i heard a rumour Arsenal was going after Hummels just like i suggested. if they get him and Hazard they might be able to salvage this season. (after 2 games, lol)
Extra frustrating when all the other title challengers are making it rain.
Modric + Mata to Chelsea is surprisingly exactly the sort of players they'll need to start challenging again esp after the somewhat dubious investment into Torres and David Luiz.
Howard Webb to ref the Man Utd vs Arsenal game then.... cue outrage... he was only good enough for the World Cup Final after all.
Still time for Sneijder to move to Arsenal. Would help to plug that midfield gap that just got a bit bigger. Wilshire is great but he can't wear four boots at the same time.
At the beginning of the summer Wenger said, 'We can't sell Cesc and Nasri and still consider ourselves a big club.' So well done for doing exactly that. And STILL not bringing in any sign of a replacement. what a fucking joke.
There's no way we could sign Sneijder, he'd want a wage similar to what Nasri is getting at Citeh. And we wouldn't even offer Nasri haft of that amount to keep him at the club. So we're now just a ManCity feeder club. great. Fuck football.
At the beginning of the summer Wenger said, 'We can't sell Cesc and Nasri and still consider ourselves a big club.' So well done for doing exactly that. And STILL not bringing in any sign of a replacement. what a fucking joke.
There's no way we could sign Sneijder, he'd want a wage similar to what Nasri is getting at Citeh. And we wouldn't even offer Nasri haft of that amount to keep him at the club. So we're now just a ManCity feeder club. great. Fuck football.
I'm looking at Alisher Usmanov as possibly the best thing that could happen to the team.
Sell our soul to the devil and he'd spend millions.
But the fat bast*rd is the devil.
Wenger has been relying on good will alone, but that isn't enough, and none of this is surprising. In 2006 when we got to the Champs League final, we were on a par with Barca. From that point on Wenger could've attracted the biggest names in football if he'd wanted. But he kept dismantling the invincibles with the one year contract extension policy for players over 30 - a tawdry thanks for delivering silverware.
How much of this has been down to limited funds, to a prudent wage structure, and how much has been down to stubborness? I suspect there will be no more signings for Arsenal. Arshavin & Percy to leave next year?
Compare what Wenger did with the Invincibles, and how Ferguson has managed his older players. Monday night's game against Tottenham shows that Ferguson has perhaps got his second crop after Becks, Scholes etc. Spurs were still in the game until Man U scored, and then the young squad scented blood and got better and better. Last kick of the game? A Man U shot when they were 3-0 up. They're going to give us a tonking on Saturday, as the team that played last night were better than the squad that won the league last year imo.
You have to hand it to Fergie, he's still hungry at 124 years of age and could motivate a pub team into Europe. I still can't see anyone catching them this year because of this. The belief has carried over from last season.
You dudes just need to embrace the fact that football became a true battle of the balance sheets the season Blackburn bought the title.
Just keep it real. Instead of a match, replace it with both clubs repped by a negotiating team, sat around a desk in the centre circle. They would negotiate the result based on who was willing to pay and receive. Put a dangly mic in there a la boxing match and we've cut to the chase.
Bloke at work has the bad luck to be a Whammer. Due to misfortune of birth location or bad parenting. Whatever.
He says he hasn't been this energised about a new season for years. Genuinely unpredictable games against teams truly trying to win. Big atmospheres against clubs with local support bases. Palace, Leeds, my team, Bristol, Cardiff, Forest. No more meaningless encounters with banalities of Wigan, West Brom, Bolton, Blackburn, Everton.
You can't predict who will be top 6 at season's end. Early season bookie favourites get battered, the newly promoted beast good teams.
EPL, in contrast...not so much. There's no glory in Man City or Liverpool winning this season, IMHO.
Guardian has the Nasri deal as good as done. Lille say that Eden Hazzard isn't going anywhere. Nobody that Arsenal can afford is available.
As good as Man U looked last night, I still think Citeh's squad is the strongest in the league. Just up to Mancini to make them tick.
It's far, far, too early in the season to start eyeing silverware but I do have to say that I'm very happy to see what's developed in our squad over the summer. When the league's joint top goal scorer from the season before is relegated to fourth in the striker line up without any new signings in that area you know something is going right.
Really no idea what's going to happen with Arsenal though a couple of decent performances and results could swing things round again considering how much Arsene teams tend to rely on confidence. Might be interesting to see what happens if they don't go through against Udinese (even with all their injuries/departures, I still think they've got enough knowledge there to overcome that hurdle).
Heart goes out to West Brom a bit at the moment, having played so well in what has to be their worst nightmare of an opening couple of games they're extremely unlucky to be pointless.
You dudes just need to embrace the fact that football became a true battle of the balance sheets the season Blackburn bought the title.
Just keep it real. Instead of a match, replace it with both clubs repped by a negotiating team, sat around a desk in the centre circle. They would negotiate the result based on who was willing to pay and receive. Put a dangly mic in there a la boxing match and we've cut to the chase.
Bloke at work has the bad luck to be a Whammer. Due to misfortune of birth location or bad parenting. Whatever.
He says he hasn't been this energised about a new season for years. Genuinely unpredictable games against teams truly trying to win. Big atmospheres against clubs with local support bases. Palace, Leeds, my team, Bristol, Cardiff, Forest. No more meaningless encounters with banalities of Wigan, West Brom, Bolton, Blackburn, Everton.
You can't predict who will be top 6 at season's end. Early season bookie favourites get battered, the newly promoted beast good teams.
EPL, in contrast...not so much. There's no glory in Man City or Liverpool winning this season, IMHO.
I personally look forward to the day when Electronic Arts finally stump up enough cash to buy the premier league outright. All current managers would be replaced with gamers who had taken their respective teams to electronic success in the previous season. All player action on the pitch would be managed via a game controller wielded with authority and the bench would be replaced by a comfy chair with an overgrown manchild in it wearing a headset who???d spend every break in play riffling through a pile of snacks and soft drinks on his lap.
You dudes just need to embrace the fact that football became a true battle of the balance sheets the season Blackburn bought the title.
Just keep it real [...]
There's no glory in Man City or Liverpool winning this season, IMHO.
This is what Wenger was fighting against, and why he's been supported for so long with nothing to show for it. But when the players he's built the team around up sticks, he, or the club, have to look at that project as being 'on hold' until they weather the storm. Right now Arsenal are taking on water. There's no shame in backing down and spending some big money on transfers and wages to fix this. Doing nothing, and making statements like "I don't expect anybody to leave" is suicidally stupid at this point.
However, there is danger in making the wrong choices. Giving somebody like Usmanov control for example, despite the well-timed (and calculated) comments from him that he thinks it's the collective fault of the board that's hampered the squad. Likewise, I don't think signing up a free-agent like Barton is a good idea either. One of the few things going for our club (what with the lack of trophies) is that we have earned a modicum of respect from neutrals and other team's fans for the way we try to play football. I frankly don't want to tarnish that as well with a violent thug wearing the shirt.
I frankly don't want to tarnish that as well with a violent thug wearing the shirt.
I wouldn't want one running the club, either.
Of course Wenger has the tactical nous to field and orchestrate 11 playeurs capable of taking it to Barca, but when said playeurs can earn twice as much elsewhere, pride about their manner takes a backseat once the WAG wants a pink Benk-lee for her tattooed mam.
They are going to have to pay the going rate or deal, like the rest of the league.
Far more upsets would be on the cards when external factors such as having to take out the bin bags/go eat their dinner forced a manager to leave play unmonitored for great lengths of time.
Previous overpaid players would finally earn their money when they found themselves picked to play in 90% of the matches happening each weekend. Occasionally playing for both teams in one game.
Tyler, Tyldesley and co are replaced by a catalogued library of pre recorded quotes which bear little to no relation to what is happening on the pitch. No one notices.
ashley young/smalling/wellbeck/jones are going to be HUGE for Yanited this year
Citeh is real strong and if mancini can balance everything out they will be tough
Spurs looked lioke half the team they were without Modric the next game will be a tough one as well
however as Arry said they will be in a battle for fourth i suspect battling for 5th with arsenal and assou-akoto/kaboule is a stronger back line than arsenal currently has
for now chelsea,merceyside,citeh and yanited are above them
You are right that modric and mata are exactly the type of players we need...liked what i saw out of bosingwa recently but this whole torres start drogba on the bench sturridge question marks still irks me.
Finally cesc fit right in at bar??a i think he will have a great season provide timely passes/scores and with the ever help win a tough battle against the ever improving real (especially if neymar arrives)
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
skel said:
There's no glory in Man City or Liverpool winning this season, IMHO.
Sorry, but this is ridiculous. I don't take any issue with your observations otherwise; it's a widely-held view, and it's largely a valid one. But to suggest that if either City or LFC were to win the Prem this season, it would somehow be tainted on account of us having (*sigh*) "bought" it is nonsense. What about all the seasons we attempted to buy it and failed? Moreover, if it was simply a matter of buying it, how come Chelsea haven't won it every season since Abramovich arrived? And surely they've spent enough money to win the CL by now - we won it with a right load of old rubbish, after all.
I don't imagine you'll find too many City fans, especially, who'd feel bad about "buying" the title.
Comments
Frimpong!
I'm sure that will change though with their new moves in the market. I for one was blown away when I saw their latest target was a young player from Ligue 1.....
Fantasy League glory is my only chance for something good to come out of this season it seems.
Not sure what is going on within the club regarding signings but it stinks. Mata would've been a excellent addition to the squad, that's is now missing the flair Cesc brought, but the deal fell through. Now Chelski sign him for only 4 million more than what we apparently offered. It doesn't make any sense. Hazard would also be a great replacement, but I doubt Lille will want to sell us him and Gervinho in one summer. And all this should've been sorted out months ago ffs.
It's the curse of American ownership I tells yeh. Maybe the fat Russian rapist will eventual get the club. Dude is 10 times richer than Abramovic, so then we will finally be able to compete. YAY for soulless football.
But this all counts for nothing when other clubs simply throw cash at the most sought after players and effectively build real-life fantasy teams. I mean, in the last week I've seen Tevez and Suarez on the bench while Arsenal start with Jenkinson (who had previously been loaned to a Conference side) and Frimpong. I'm not saying that these won't become great players, but they're not the figures you want to see against a resurgent Liverpool side.
And for all the talk of defensive frailties, the more pressing concern is who is going to score? RVP is world class, but I will be amazed if he makes it through the season injury free. And aside from him there is, eh, Chamakh, Bendtner and the unproven Gervinho...
Just two games in and it already feels like the start of a looooong season. And if we don't get past Udinese things could get a lot worse.
I imagine the conversations at Arsenal:
Wenger (adjust french accent as you see fit): "We muzt spend our 35 million Cesc-credeets on zees playeur!"
AMSHANKZ: "Ar-seen, can it buddy. We got this guy Pho Kmee in Mindanau who will do it for minimum wage. The shareholders really like this guy. The conversation has ended. Please hang up."
Modric + Mata to Chelsea is surprisingly exactly the sort of players they'll need to start challenging again esp after the somewhat dubious investment into Torres and David Luiz.
Howard Webb to ref the Man Utd vs Arsenal game then.... cue outrage... he was only good enough for the World Cup Final after all.
BBC still has him flying out for Udinese.
Is He Silva In Disguise or more Lucy In The Sky (Blue)?
There's no way we could sign Sneijder, he'd want a wage similar to what Nasri is getting at Citeh. And we wouldn't even offer Nasri haft of that amount to keep him at the club. So we're now just a ManCity feeder club. great. Fuck football.
This is how it felt being a City supporter until we had money.
I'm looking at Alisher Usmanov as possibly the best thing that could happen to the team.
Sell our soul to the devil and he'd spend millions.
But the fat bast*rd is the devil.
Wenger has been relying on good will alone, but that isn't enough, and none of this is surprising. In 2006 when we got to the Champs League final, we were on a par with Barca. From that point on Wenger could've attracted the biggest names in football if he'd wanted. But he kept dismantling the invincibles with the one year contract extension policy for players over 30 - a tawdry thanks for delivering silverware.
How much of this has been down to limited funds, to a prudent wage structure, and how much has been down to stubborness? I suspect there will be no more signings for Arsenal. Arshavin & Percy to leave next year?
Compare what Wenger did with the Invincibles, and how Ferguson has managed his older players. Monday night's game against Tottenham shows that Ferguson has perhaps got his second crop after Becks, Scholes etc. Spurs were still in the game until Man U scored, and then the young squad scented blood and got better and better. Last kick of the game? A Man U shot when they were 3-0 up. They're going to give us a tonking on Saturday, as the team that played last night were better than the squad that won the league last year imo.
Just keep it real. Instead of a match, replace it with both clubs repped by a negotiating team, sat around a desk in the centre circle. They would negotiate the result based on who was willing to pay and receive. Put a dangly mic in there a la boxing match and we've cut to the chase.
Bloke at work has the bad luck to be a Whammer. Due to misfortune of birth location or bad parenting. Whatever.
He says he hasn't been this energised about a new season for years. Genuinely unpredictable games against teams truly trying to win. Big atmospheres against clubs with local support bases. Palace, Leeds, my team, Bristol, Cardiff, Forest. No more meaningless encounters with banalities of Wigan, West Brom, Bolton, Blackburn, Everton.
You can't predict who will be top 6 at season's end. Early season bookie favourites get battered, the newly promoted beast good teams.
EPL, in contrast...not so much. There's no glory in Man City or Liverpool winning this season, IMHO.
As good as Man U looked last night, I still think Citeh's squad is the strongest in the league. Just up to Mancini to make them tick.
Really no idea what's going to happen with Arsenal though a couple of decent performances and results could swing things round again considering how much Arsene teams tend to rely on confidence. Might be interesting to see what happens if they don't go through against Udinese (even with all their injuries/departures, I still think they've got enough knowledge there to overcome that hurdle).
Heart goes out to West Brom a bit at the moment, having played so well in what has to be their worst nightmare of an opening couple of games they're extremely unlucky to be pointless.
I personally look forward to the day when Electronic Arts finally stump up enough cash to buy the premier league outright. All current managers would be replaced with gamers who had taken their respective teams to electronic success in the previous season. All player action on the pitch would be managed via a game controller wielded with authority and the bench would be replaced by a comfy chair with an overgrown manchild in it wearing a headset who???d spend every break in play riffling through a pile of snacks and soft drinks on his lap.
This is what Wenger was fighting against, and why he's been supported for so long with nothing to show for it. But when the players he's built the team around up sticks, he, or the club, have to look at that project as being 'on hold' until they weather the storm. Right now Arsenal are taking on water. There's no shame in backing down and spending some big money on transfers and wages to fix this. Doing nothing, and making statements like "I don't expect anybody to leave" is suicidally stupid at this point.
However, there is danger in making the wrong choices. Giving somebody like Usmanov control for example, despite the well-timed (and calculated) comments from him that he thinks it's the collective fault of the board that's hampered the squad. Likewise, I don't think signing up a free-agent like Barton is a good idea either. One of the few things going for our club (what with the lack of trophies) is that we have earned a modicum of respect from neutrals and other team's fans for the way we try to play football. I frankly don't want to tarnish that as well with a violent thug wearing the shirt.
Typical post-match reaction from chavvy rat-faced manager:
Q: Tyson, What do you take away from the game tonight?
A: Nah it was good bruv, is it. Innit. Later yeah?
I wouldn't want one running the club, either.
Of course Wenger has the tactical nous to field and orchestrate 11 playeurs capable of taking it to Barca, but when said playeurs can earn twice as much elsewhere, pride about their manner takes a backseat once the WAG wants a pink Benk-lee for her tattooed mam.
They are going to have to pay the going rate or deal, like the rest of the league.
Far more upsets would be on the cards when external factors such as having to take out the bin bags/go eat their dinner forced a manager to leave play unmonitored for great lengths of time.
Previous overpaid players would finally earn their money when they found themselves picked to play in 90% of the matches happening each weekend. Occasionally playing for both teams in one game.
Tyler, Tyldesley and co are replaced by a catalogued library of pre recorded quotes which bear little to no relation to what is happening on the pitch. No one notices.
Citeh is real strong and if mancini can balance everything out they will be tough
Spurs looked lioke half the team they were without Modric the next game will be a tough one as well
however as Arry said they will be in a battle for fourth i suspect battling for 5th with arsenal and assou-akoto/kaboule is a stronger back line than arsenal currently has
for now chelsea,merceyside,citeh and yanited are above them
You are right that modric and mata are exactly the type of players we need...liked what i saw out of bosingwa recently but this whole torres start drogba on the bench sturridge question marks still irks me.
Finally cesc fit right in at bar??a i think he will have a great season provide timely passes/scores and with the ever help win a tough battle against the ever improving real (especially if neymar arrives)
Sorry, but this is ridiculous. I don't take any issue with your observations otherwise; it's a widely-held view, and it's largely a valid one. But to suggest that if either City or LFC were to win the Prem this season, it would somehow be tainted on account of us having (*sigh*) "bought" it is nonsense. What about all the seasons we attempted to buy it and failed? Moreover, if it was simply a matter of buying it, how come Chelsea haven't won it every season since Abramovich arrived? And surely they've spent enough money to win the CL by now - we won it with a right load of old rubbish, after all.
I don't imagine you'll find too many City fans, especially, who'd feel bad about "buying" the title.