Back From the 'Dam!
I'm back! Amsterdam was, well, Amsterdam! Had a blinder and we won the Tournament - which was nice! I must say I was inpressed with our new boy Hleb.I'm gonna post some pics in the next day or so, but until then it's back to the news!
It appears Ash is now fully commited to us. (Despite hearing rumours that the only reason he signed a contract extension was to keep his value when we sell him to Real Madrid next year!)
Ash told the wonderful Daily Mirror: "It's hard to focus on football at times when you have things going on in your private life. But I want to put that behind me now and show to everyone that I am still 100 per cent committed to the club."
Le Boss has stated that we're not interested in signing Michael Owen, and Julio 'The Fucker' Baptista has signed for Real Madrid.
So, we've spent a month chasing a player that never wanted to come....what do we do now? I still believe that we NEED to sign someone....what do you guys think?
posted by NyssietheGooner at 1:04 PM
16 Comments:
Nice to have you back!
I think we should buy Andreas Isaksson. He is a much bigger talent than Shaaban ever was.
We need a goalkeeper, a midfielder and a target man type striker. I am surprised Wenger hasnt opted to bring in Christanval on a free as extra cover at the back. Anything's betetr than the effect Cygan has on our backline.
I think Wenger realises after the Amsterdam tournament that we arent quite strong enough squad wise. He said as much when he wrote off a move for Owen.
Seb Viera sounds an interesting prospect for a keeper, but again anything is better than Almoronia.
Maybe he might make a move for Diarra, although we have been dubiously linked with Essien. Thats bollocks as far as im concerned. Lyon are using the Russians perfectly, asking for £32m for a player worth only £15m max. Seems as if we will sign Alex Song, but he is only 17, would be a lot to ask of him to play 20 games this season.
Up front we still need a plan B. We have been linked to the lanky Monaco striker Adebayor and yesterday to Heerenveen's 20 year old greek striker Georgios Samaras. Dont know all that much about either, but Samaras has 20/20 for heading on FM 2005. We could do with some aerial threat.
Our performances at the Amsterdam Tournament, although pre-season, hardly filled me with optimism. Yes we were without Gilberto and Fabregas, but in central midfield we looked awful. Pires is a left winger, nothing else, he was out of his depth and Flamini, a fine squad player no doubt, is not good enough or ready to anchor our midfield. Any injuries in that area and we are in serious trouble.
We did win the Cup, but coming 4th last year filled me with more satisfaction, as although we failed to score in both games we were so fluent and exciting to watch. This year i though we were average most of the time with the odd flicker of class.
Worried....
In addition, i was quite impressed with Hleb. I think he along with Bentley need to bulk up a bit to cope with the physical side of the premiership, but Hleb is a nifty, skillful, determined and creative player.
One other point: I worry about our Captain. There is so much pressure on his shoulders now. I cant see any other striker making it past 10 goals this season and i can see a burn out coming mid seasn and then we would be in deep trouble. I hope Wenger can bring some players in to take a bit of the pressure off certain players, Noteably Henry, Fabregas and Senderos.
I'm a little worried bout Thierry aswell...I hope that being skipper doesn't put him off his game too much. It's different when you've got a whole team to worry about.
Too right. His focus is now divided on scoring/creating goals whilst also being captain and leading from the front. He is now constandly jeeing up his fellow players and encouraging. He needs an effective foil up front, someone who can share his heavy burden.
I must admit that I was slightly alarmed at the amount of tracking back he seemed to do over the 2 games. He is obviously relishing his role as skipper and feels he should do as much as he can to push the lads on, but do you really want the best player on the planet forraging and tackling in the middle of the park??? May I be so bold as to ask if anyone else is going to the Charity Shield next week as all of my usual away game mates seem to be blowing it out and I'm getting quietly concerned of being the only Gooner there.
nice to have u bck but like we all have been saying we need a md i think arsene has now woken up to d fact that pires is a winger and flamini still needs to do a lot more work with d coaches he is a good worker 1 of the workhorses in the team but we still need a solid md young or old as far as he is still solid not good not world class but solid we r linked to viera but i read somewhere that arsene said he was too short for a gk so y is he now saying he is an option but what i know is that we r still a good team but with 2 good players in d right departments we can b a great team this season
We are a great team Mr.Anon. Maybe those extra couple of signings will make us invincible again.
Apparently Arsene will make his mind up on Song and Christanval on Wednesday.
Cygan although pretty decent in Amsterdam, even bordering on 'good' against Porto has such an awful effect on the defenders around him that signing Christanval on a riskless free transfer would be a great signing.
Song is young and not too much can be expected of him. What worries me is if we sign Song, does that mean Arsene will do nothing about the central midfield position? Because in my view that is where we are going to lose games. We will play against a lot of bullish aggressive sides and we look a bit flimsy in there right now.
I must admit Eboue looked very good when he came on but he did last year when he played , gonna be an excellent replacement for Lauren one day and then hopefully Hoyte as cover for Manu
Gilio is correct about Essien. I'm sure AW would love to have him here but at £32m?! I say good on the Lyon chairman and make those b@stards pay as much as possible. If Chelski weren't involved I suspect he would be £10m cheaper.
I'm not so sure about Owen though. Many on this site have questioned his worth to the team while others say we need a proven goalscorer to help TH14. Well they don't come much more proven than Owen but I take the point that he wouldn't provide the plan B that we do need. I'm pretty undecided on that one.
I also agree about our seemingly lightweight midfield. But you can't expect the younger players to bulk up too quickly. Rooney is a powerhouse but he is just built that way. I can't see Fab steamrollering a team or Flamini for that matter. Diarra does seem to be a powerful midfielder with CL experience who could be available at the right price. Get him before Essien goes I say.
I know they were friendlies but Hleb does look like another gem though. Loves to take players on, quick feet and good acceleration. Got a good eye for a pass as well. Good stuff!
Welcome back Nyssie by the way
Cheers Legrande! ;o)
Do I take it from your lack of replies that you are just ignoring me or indeed I am going to be the only Gooner in Cardiff next week????
Sorry westside! I'm not going i'm afraid...I'm gonna be up in Lincoln at a mate's who's just moved up there - he happens to be a Y!d aswell - so I'm gonna spend the weekend telling him how shit his team is!
NICE!
Be rude not to I feel. On a seperate matter I got my booklet through about renewing my season ticket for 06-07 at the weekend. I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of price hikes.
welcome back nyssie what did i get out of the tournament,? well we scored a goal this time,and Hleb looks like an excellent buy,but for me henry has enough on his plate already and i would not have made him captain,for that reason only, i also saw that pires must not play in the middle we are definately short in midfield and need to get another player in
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