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[Scum]

If that many players are really contemplating leaving Arsenal (even if they don't actually go), then it's down to more than money, and it's probably nothing to do with not winning anything either...here's my guess:

I'm with Ghost on this one. Best get rid of him this summer, along with Eboue. Arsenal will easily get a tidy sum for the both of them too.

 

[psycho_snake]

Very weird year for arsenal, isnt it? You start off this season brilliantly, then sometime in February everything starts to fall apart. You've won nothing and every player is rumoured to be leaving. A lot of it is rumours, but some of it has been true. Flamini left and Hleb looks like he's on his way out.

Its not all bad news though. I dont think flamini and hleb are huge losses. Both of them are replaceable. The thing is, you might need to spend a bit of money for replacements.

You also need to make sure that you keep the most important players. Adebayor and Cesc have to stay. I dont think there's any risk of losing cesc, but we're already hearing rumours about adebayor. If he's asking for higher wages, then you should give it to him.

 

[Manager]

What the hell is this shizznit

The thaigorian said this yesterday:

Scolari and former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho have been linked with the job at City but Thaksin would not be drawn on who might be in charge next season, only saying: "They all - Sven, Scolari, Mourinho - they are great coaches, great managers."

However, he did say he had told Eriksson he was unhappy with City's mid-season dip in form which saw them fall out of contention for European football.

"During the season, we may complain for improvement but that's normal for every club," he said.

"But we will discuss at the end of the season what needs to be changed, what needs to be added to the success of the club."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_city/7387397.stm

And in the same f'ing article, Benfica confirms that they are holding talks with Sven. Can't the asshole just say that he has fired Sven, is it that hard? Why keep on with this "end of the season" bullshit?

 

[hadareud]

:lol @ Arsenal fans getting angry at the press writing these stories. Talk about misdirected anger.

The agents have released stories, the press just spins them.

Flamini was left by your club to run down his contract to the final year - "seen by the press as an average utility player last summer"? No. Seen by your club as an average utility player, you should be signing them up while they have 2 years left on their contract at least, not making an offer with 13 months to go.

Flamini wanted to leave last year and decided last minute that he didn't - why would you offer a new contract to a player that's off?

He's had an offer on the table from Arsenal since before Christmas (Wenger), I think the club did the right thing.

Flamini was not seen as an average utility player by Wenger or the club. Maybe by the supporters, including myself.

Adebayour has also come out saying he wants a pay rise. The wage structure will be broken and it's a shame you're not breaking it now cos it will be broken the moment Fabregas looks for a pay rise. Might as well break it now and reward your spectacular players accordingly. (and give Fabregas an incentive to stay beyond his current deal!)

the whole uninformed drivel about our wage structure is annoying to say at least.

Arsenal still have the 3rd biggest wage bill in the Premiership, comparable to Manyoo's btw (about 7 or 8 million less a year, hardly a big difference when you are talking about 90 million).

Obviously you don't offer 20 year olds contracts worth 100k a week, it would be stupid (apart from very very special cases). You have to have a structure in place that avoids preferential treatment and jealousy. Adebayor is on 45k a week at the moment, he'll sign a new contract this summer. How much will he earn? 80k, 70k? Who knows. He'll be paid well, don't worry.

No surprise that there is potential for a mass exodus. Happiness in the camp has seemed very low, players unhappy with other individuals, unhappy with the captain, unhappy with the wages, frustration at the lack of experience or whatever that caused your downfall. These things add up and the pile your left with can probably be labelled bad management.

Thanks for your insight there, I'm glad you know all these things.

 

[kaizoku]

Very weird year for arsenal, isnt it? You start off this season brilliantly, then sometime in February everything starts to fall apart. You've won nothing and every player is rumoured to be leaving. A lot of it is rumours, but some of it has been true. Flamini left and Hleb looks like he's on his way out.

Its not all bad news though. I dont think flamini and hleb are huge losses. Both of them are replaceable. The thing is, you might need to spend a bit of money for replacements.

You also need to make sure that you keep the most important players. Adebayor and Cesc have to stay. I dont think there's any risk of losing cesc, but we're already hearing rumours about adebayor. If he's asking for higher wages, then you should give it to him.

if I was an Arsenal fan I would have expected a major overhaul anyway, getting rid of deadwood and replacing them with youth/quality signings, I would have wanted at least 3 and preferably 4 or 5 good players coming in and a few moving out.

Now that Wenger may have to replace 2 of his star players and 3 if Adebayour leaves, its a huge setback. that tally suddenly jumps to 7 or 8 and thats just not feasible.

Suffice to say, you cannot replace 2 of your key midfielders, your captain, and another major starter whilst also bolstering your squad. (Unless you're Chelsea and have unlimited funds).

Will be a tough summer for arsenal and unless Wenger plays his cards right or your young replacements are stellar next season will be even harder.

 

[Manager]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panthongtae_Shinawatra

In August 2002, his studies attracted media attention when he was accused of cheating in an exam.[1] A three-week university investigation concluded that Panthongtae had made a mistake by carrying unrelated notes into the exam room and he was cleared of wrongdoing, yet automatically failed the political science subject he was sitting.[2] He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2003. However, this has already destroyed his name and reputation.

Owned, asshole father asshole son

Asshole father's website is as advanced as his way of thinking:
http://www.thaksin.net/

I was hoping that there would be a slight slight chance of him changing his mind, being naive, but that Benfica confirming-crap has trashed those thoughts. And I don't want to watch the freakin' Portuguese league next year, couldn't he go to another Premier League club or La Liga or something.

 

[kaizoku]

Flamini wanted to leave last year and decided last minute that he didn't - why would you offer a new contract to a player that's off?

He's had an offer on the table from Arsenal since before Christmas (Wenger), I think the club did the right thing.

Flamini was not seen as an average utility player by Wenger or the club. Maybe by the supporters, including myself.


the whole uninformed drivel about our wage structure is annoying to say at least.

Arsenal still have the 3rd biggest wage bill in the Premiership, comparable to Manyoo's btw (about 7 or 8 million less a year, hardly a big difference when you are talking about 90 million).

Obviously you don't offer 20 year olds contracts worth 100k a week, it would be stupid (apart from very very special cases). You have to have a structure in place that avoids preferential treatment and jealousy. Adebayor is on 45k a week at the moment, he'll sign a new contract this summer. How much will he earn? 80k, 70k? Who knows. He'll be paid well, don't worry.




Thanks for your insight there, I'm glad you know all these things.

You're deluded mate. I dont why you bother making excuses, if Utd let a first team regular leave on a free then questions would be asked. Why doesnt he want to stay? Is the club not big enough? Is he not paid well enough? why are we unable to compete? Even if you dont agree about the contract, questions should be asked.

Keep making excuses for this bad management.

As for all this "misinformation" about the pay structure, how is it drivel? Wenger has come out publically and said we have a strict pay structure in place which he will not break as the club has just paid for a stadium and cannot budge on finances.

Which wont be the case once Fabregas realises he could be earning twice as much somewhere else. That wage structure will be out the door and its in your club's best interests to break the structure now. but once you do, you will have a big line of players asking for a pay rise.

 

[GHG]

Very weird year for arsenal, isnt it? You start off this season brilliantly, then sometime in February everything starts to fall apart. You've won nothing and every player is rumoured to be leaving. A lot of it is rumours, but some of it has been true. Flamini left and Hleb looks like he's on his way out.

Its not all bad news though. I dont think flamini and hleb are huge losses. Both of them are replaceable. The thing is, you might need to spend a bit of money for replacements.

You also need to make sure that you keep the most important players. Adebayor and Cesc have to stay. I dont think there's any risk of losing cesc, but we're already hearing rumours about adebayor. If he's asking for higher wages, then you should give it to him.

Don't get me started... It always happens though (at least under Wenger). Its the reason we have never won back to back titles. As soon as things start looking good and we look like we are going to push on to the next level we get complacent and then cracks in our squad get shown up.
I mean after the unbeaten season you would have thought that Wenger would ahve bought a couple of world class players and push us onto the next level (having a world class squad, not just a world class 1st team) but nooo, lets stick with what we have and ignore the fact that we were very very lucky with injuries throughout the 03/04 season (no player in our starting 11 missed more than 6 games I think it was). I mean, wasn't the fact that we got dumped out of the CL and FA cup in the space of a week indication enough that our squad wasn't strong enough? As soon as we rested 1 or 2 players we looked vulnerable.

The club is becoming a shambles. Football is moving on and we are standing still. Other clubs ahve wised up. We wont be able to find another Anelka... ever. Other clubs realise. If Wenger is interested "he must be good right?", so lets bump up the price by 5 million. Its times to wake up and smell the coffee. If I was Wenger in football manager the board would be delighted with the state of the clubs finances but they along with the fans would be deeply concerned with the performence of the team.

We have to spend a bit more than usual this summer, a huge shakeup is needed, if not we wont be able to fill our stadium pretty soon. You already saw indications with the Reading game a couple of weeks ago (I went to that), tons of empty seats and you could have bought tickets right up to the moment of kickoff. Then we will be in really big trouble.

 

[hadareud]

You're deluded mate. I dont why you bother making excuses, if Utd let a first team regular leave on a free then questions would be asked. Why doesnt he want to stay? Is the club not big enough? Is he not paid well enough? why are we unable to compete? Even if you dont agree about the contract, questions should be asked.

Keep making excuses for this bad management.

Flamini wanted to leave because he wasn't a regular starter.

He wanted to go to bloody Birmingham to get some playing time ffs

Please don't try and tell me something if you have no clue what you are talking about.

As for all this "misinformation" about the pay structure, how is it drivel? Wenger has come out publically and said we have a strict pay structure in place which he will not break as the club has just paid for a stadium and cannot budge on finances.

Which wont be the case once Fabregas realises he could be earning twice as much somewhere else. That wage structure will be out the door and its in your club's best interests to break the structure now. but once you do, you will have a big line of players asking for a pay rise.

Of course we have a wage structure, and it is strict. We are a club that doesn't live beyond its means, unlike certain other Premiership clubs that amount debts of nearly 400 million pounds without building a stadium.

It becomes drivel when people think that our players are paid shit. Like I said, our players are being paid good money - comparable to any other top club except for Chelsea.

However - and let me say this again - apart from financials that also play a role, when you build a team with young players a structure needs to be in place and it needs to be strict. You cannot have one person earn 10k a week and another that earns 100k a week. It creates jealousy.

You can not all of a sudden pay Flamini 100 grand a week and expect his teammates to be happy with it. All of a sudden everyone wants a slice of the pie.

Flamini would not have received a much better offer from any other Premiership club to renew his contract than the one we made him, it's as simple as that.

 

[kaizoku]

Flamini wanted to leave because he wasn't a regular starter.

He wanted to go to bloody Birmingham to get some playing time ffs

Please don't try and tell me something if you have no clue what you are talking about.


Of course we have a wage structure, and it is strict. We are a club that doesn't live beyond its means, unlike certain other Premiership clubs that amount debts of nearly 400 million pounds without building a stadium.

It becomes drivel when people think that our players are paid shit. Like I said, our players are being paid good money - comparable to any other top club except for Chelsea.

However - and let me say this again - apart from financials that also play a role, when you build a team with young players a structure needs to be in place and it needs to be strict. You cannot have one person earn 10k a week and another that earns 100k a week. It creates jealousy.

You can not all of a sudden pay Flamini 100 grand a week and expect his teammates to be happy with it. All of a sudden everyone wants a slice of the pie.

Flamini would not have received a much better offer from any other Premiership club to renew his contract than the one we made him, it's as simple as that.

and the bad management aspect comes from the fact that "he was on his way out" as you said yourself - yet no top class replacement was brought in. Unless you plan to bring a youth player in - but again thats not bolstering your squad, you will still need to sign someone to replace him.

If you get lucky Diaby and Denilson will fill the void - but someone will have to fill their place and then you have a question of quality over a full season. I dont expect a disaster or Arsenal to be in 6th place or anything.

its funny you say I dont know what I'm on about but you just basically repeated what I've said in a way which makes it seem like you've disagreed with me and attempt to call me stupid. You do this a lot, makes posting here really irritating. Are you just really simple or what?

The only thing we've disagreed upon is that Flamini contract situation was handled badly, I say its bad management to let him go on a free and let his contract run down so much and you say it was inevitable. I retort by saying if it was inevitable you all knew it was coming and so this should not be headline news, or a surprise and it should be a situation which was already sorted. From the sounds of it, its not.

 

[hadareud]

The club is becoming a shambles. Football is moving on and we are standing still. Other clubs ahve wised up. We wont be able to find another Anelka... ever. Other clubs realise. If Wenger is interested "he must be good right?", so lets bump up the price by 5 million. Its times to wake up and smell the coffee. If I was Wenger in football manager the board would be delighted with the state of the clubs finances but they along with the fans would be deeply concerned with the performence of the team.

Wenger had to choose a different policy from other top clubs because we moved stadiums, something that cost 400 million pounds. He went for a policy of bringing young players through because it was cheaper.

We are starting to see the benefits of it - we've improved by 15 points over last season. Something that no other team has done.

1 or 2 players leaving will not change our progress.

We have to spend a bit more than usual this summer, a huge shakeup is needed, if not we wont be able to fill our stadium pretty soon. You already saw indications with the Reading game a couple of weeks ago (I went to that), tons of empty seats and you could have bought tickets right up to the moment of kickoff. Then we will be in really big trouble.

we will spend a bit more than usual this summer, Wenger already confirmed that. Last season he was talking about bringing nobody in and we got 2 quality players. This season he's talking about bringing 2 experienced players in - we'll see how that goes.

As for the attendances. The Reading game was still sold out btw, people just didn't bother to go.

The club must be shaking in fear.

I'm number 45,367 on the season ticket waiting list btw.

 

[GHG]

and the bad management aspect comes from the fact that "he was on his way out" as you said yourself - yet no top class replacement was brought in. Unless you plan to bring a youth player in - but again thats not bolstering your squad, you will still need to sign someone to replace him.

If you get lucky Diaby and Denilson will fill the void - but someone will have to fill their place and then you have a question of quality over a full season. I dont expect a disaster or Arsenal to be in 6th place or anything.

its funny you say I dont know what I'm on about but you just basically repeated what I've said in a way which makes it seem like you've disagreed with me and attempt to call me stupid. You do this a lot, makes posting here really irritating. Are you just really simple or what?

The only thing we've disagreed upon is that Flamini contract situation was handled badly, I say its bad management to let him go on a free and let his contract run down so much and you say it was inevitable. I retort by saying if it was inevitable you all knew it was coming and so this should not be headline news, or a surprise and it should be a situation which was already sorted. From the sounds of it, its not.

We are talking about a guy who held his previous club ransom though, he's obviously not easy to deal with when it comes to contract negotiations and if theres anyone you don't want to try and play hardball with, its Wenger. However stubborn you are, he can be more so.

Oh and there's an interview with Wenger up on ATVO. Looks like we wont be replacing Flamini because "we have Denilson, Diaby and Song". FFS man...

 

[hadareud]

and the bad management aspect comes from the fact that "he was on his way out" as you said yourself - yet no top class replacement was brought in. Unless you plan to bring a youth player in - but again thats not bolstering your squad, you will still need to sign someone to replace him.

If you get lucky Diaby and Denilson will fill the void - but someone will have to fill their place and then you have a question of quality over a full season. I dont expect a disaster or Arsenal to be in 6th place or anything.

We brought in Diarra, pretty top class in anybodies book.

He too left for the lack of playing time btw.

its funny you say I dont know what I'm on about but you just basically repeated what I've said in a way which makes it seem like you've disagreed with me and attempt to call me stupid. You do this a lot, makes posting here really irritating. Are you just really simple or what?

The only thing we've disagreed upon is that Flamini contract situation was handled badly, I say its bad management to let him go on a free and let his contract run down so much and you say it was inevitable. I retort by saying if it was inevitable you all knew it was coming and so this should not be headline news, or a surprise and it should be a situation which was already sorted. From the sounds of it, its not.

If by repeat you mean said the opposite then yes.

 

[GHG]

Wenger had to choose a different policy from other top clubs because we moved stadiums, something that cost 400 million pounds. He went for a policy of bringing young players through because it was cheaper.

We are starting to see the benefits of it - we've improved by 15 points over last season. Something that no other team has done.

1 or 2 players leaving will not change our progress.


we will spend a bit more than usual this summer, Wenger already confirmed that. Last season he was talking about bringing nobody in and we got 2 quality players. This season he's talking about bringing 2 experienced players in - we'll see how that goes.

As for the attendances. The Reading game was still sold out btw, people just didn't bother to go.

The club must be shaking in fear.

I'm number 45,367 on the season ticket waiting list btw.

Oh what wonderful fans we have... I'm not happy with whats going on at the moment but I'm still a gooner till death. Even if we get relegated you can bet I'll still show my face and give support.

Yes we saw improvements this year, but that was what we were building up to. It was a product of 3 years of patient team building. Thats why what Hleb and Flamini are doing is so hard to take. I had a feeling next year we could have gone unbeaten again with a bit of luck had we kept our players and bought one or 2 to fill in squad gaps. Now though, we are back to square one. Half of our starting midfield has bailed out. Next season we wont get anywhere near 4 points off the leaders, let alone win anything, unless Wenger plays his cards right.

 

[hadareud]

I know what you mean, it's really disappointing to see them go - especially Hleb would be hard to take. Flamini, I don't know. He was outstanding this season but we didn't expect anything from him before the year, it's not a major blow for me.

I think both can be replaced though, and I think we can improve in both positions.

Don't buy everything that Wenger is saying btw, he's just trying to build up the players we already have. He also said that he wouldn't buy a striker when Henry left last year.

btw: I had a ticket for the Reading game but couldn't go because I had the flu and bronchitis

Our home support is pretty shit though, it has to be said.

 

[Frenck]

According to recent reports Bremen is the new favourite to sign Marcelo Moreno. Manchester United is supposedly interested but they haven't made an offer yet, well, nobody has.

Only Shaktar offered 7 million euros for him but he is not interested so they're out of the race. Berbatov and Huntelaar are Manchester United's priorities and I predict that they will lose interest if they sign either one of them.

I guess our offer will be about 8 or 8.5 million euros for a 4 year contract. Cruzeiro was elmininated from the Copa by Boca Juniors so I guess we'll strike soon

Rrumors suggest that Werder wants to sign him even if Klasnic doesn't leave. Werder use a classic 4-4-2 formation and we would have Rosenberg, Sanogo, Klasnic, Almeida, Harnik, Hunt and Moreno available to fill the two striker spots. Pretty much all Werder supporters agree that we need to play with two sixes (DMF) next season because we concede too many goals so I don't see us adapting a 4-3-3 like Barcelona or Schalke.

All of our strikers represent their countries so there's going to be very fierce competition.

- Almeida is a key part of Portugal's squad and he scored 10 goals for us this season.

- Rosenberg isn't a that important for Sweden's squad but he proved to be our best striker this season, better than Klose at Bayern.

- Sanogo was awesome in the first half of the season but he never really found his form after the African Cup of Nations.

- Klasnic is the one striker who will definately suffer the most when it comes to caps next season. He doesn't play particularly well with any other striker and he misses chances that none of them would miss. He'll be a part of Croatia's Euro side and maybe he'll be able to boost his self esteem if he scores some goals (against Germany perhaps?).

- Harnik is key member of Austria's squad (doesn't say much) and he complements Linz really well. The two of them ran circles around our defense in our last friendly against them. One for the future, but not for the immediate future if we sign Moreno.

- Hunt is one of our U21 internationals and he prefers to play as a striker. He's played his best matches for us as a striker so he would want to contribute as much as possible. Schaaf is going to play him as a midfielder though and I predict some tension coming up.

This summer is going to be really interesting for us.

 

[Ronok]

Oh what wonderful fans we have... I'm not happy with whats going on at the moment but I'm still a gooner till death. Even if we get relegated you can bet I'll still show my face and give support.

Yes we saw improvements this year, but that was what we were building up to. It was a product of 3 years of patient team building. Thats why what Hleb and Flamini are doing is so hard to take. I had a feeling next year we could have gone unbeaten again with a bit of luck had we kept our players and bought one or 2 to fill in squad gaps. Now though, we are back to square one. Half of our starting midfield has bailed out. Next season we wont get anywhere near 4 points off the leaders, let alone win anything, unless Wenger plays his cards right.

Season ticket holders not showing up for the game after we pretty much lost the league? SHOCK! A lot of them actually sell the tickets online if they have someone else going who can look after the membership cards. That's how I'm able to actually get to games... :-/ Really, it's not suprising that the suits wouldn't turn up when there isn't much to play for.

The only real shame is that those empty weren't available to others who really want to go. :-/


Next year we won't get near 4 points or win anything? So erm, pretty much the same predictions as last year then? Alright, seemed to be a pretty good motivator for most of this season. :-/

 

[GHG]

Season ticket holders not showing up for the game after we pretty much lost the league? SHOCK! A lot of them actually sell the tickets online if they have someone else going who can look after the membership cards. That's how I'm able to actually get to games... :-/ Really, it's not suprising that the suits wouldn't turn up when there isn't much to play for.

The only real shame is that those empty weren't available to others who really want to go. :-/


Next year we won't get near 4 points or win anything? So erm, pretty much the same predictions as last year then? Alright, seemed to be a pretty good motivator for most of this season. :-/

Thats the thing. The real fans get shafted while those prawn eating toffs get to pick and chose when they want to support the team.

 

[Wes]

Two exams down, one to go.

 

[Ghost]

West Ham United have clinched an agreement for Gil Vicente defender Diego Gaucho.

The 26 year-old Brazilian will join the Hammers on-loan next season with the view to a permanent deal.

whee another South American who will cost us points at the start of the season, then get good and fuck off to somewhere better when he's acclimatised.



Look him up on FM scout for me would ya Had?

 

[Mama Smurf]

Tottenham are ready to match Blackburn's £15m valuation of David Bentley and bring the ex-Arsenal midfielder to White Hart Lane. (The Daily Express)

There's no "valuation". We haven't said £15m, that was Liverpool with Crouch. I don't believe we'd sell for that much unless Bentley really wanted out, and I'm not convinced he's going to really want out for anything other than a top 4 club.

Mentioning Liverpool, Benitez said this about Alonso, when asked if he would leave if Barry joins:

"He is our player, he has a contract. Barry can play in three different positions, so I don't think we need to worry about this."

He didn't outright say they wouldn't sell him, but it seems less likely than it did. It's weird though if they're not, the way he was sent on against Man City and the fans all stood up and cheered him really seemed like a goodbye.

And I don't like what he said about Barry. Yes, he can play lots of positions, but if you play him left back or left winger outside of an injury crisis, what a waste.

Oh and does anyone else get pissed off with the buyout clause? I mean is there any point in a contract OVER 3 years anymore?

It's a pretty crappy clause, but the advantage of course of offering a 5 year contract over a 3 is that you at least get some money if they leave as they have to buy out their remaining wages. It's nothing compared to what you'd get for them with a normal transfer, generally, but it's still the reason to get them on board for more than 3 years.

Nobody has used it yet though, since there's a gentlemen's agreement between the clubs to not use it. Players do threaten to use it though. Let's see who will be the first one.

Well...no one's used it since Webster. That's when this whole thing came to light really, when he bought out his contract at Hearts to join Wigan. Hearts took him to court but lost.

I dont think flamini and hleb are huge losses. Both of them are replaceable.

I disagree. Well, I don't disagree that they can be replaced with the right spending, but I think they're huge losses. Losing the best defensive central midfielder in the Premiership this year and and second best winger? That'd be terrible. Arsenal had most of the pieces of a complete side, there were just a few areas they could do with improving. Flamini and Hleb were two of those pieces. If they both go, they have to rebuild those positions again. Used to be I'd think Arsenal could do with a centre back, a world class keeper and an out and out winger. Now I'm thinking centre back, world class keeper, out and out winger, Flamini replacement, Hleb replacement.

They can recover from it, if it does happen, of course they can. But it's two big steps back in my opinion. I think any side in the world would reel from the losses of those two.

I suppose the only upside to it would be an even better chance of Walcott starting regularly.

 

[SupahBlah]

Scenes From A Memory is very very good. How do you find Systematic Chaos?

I really enjoyed Systematic Chaos. In The Presence of Enemies (Complete) is brilliant (even if its just a little bit smaller than six degrees of inner turbulence :lol) they play the song complete live. I saw them play Manchester with Symphony X was quality. I also like The Ministry of Lost Souls. Going back to other songs In The Name of God and Sacrificed Sons are also great.

http://chelsea.theoffside.com/files/2008/05/petr.jpg[img]
Why does he have an Xbox on his head?[/QUOTE]

because that's how he rolls? Be awesome if he puts advertising on it. :lol

[QUOTE=Ronok]Season ticket holders not showing up for the game after we pretty much lost the league? SHOCK! A lot of them actually sell the tickets online if they have someone else going who can look after the membership cards. [/QUOTE]

Are Arsenal's season tickets still tickets? Liverpool have used a credit card for a while. It contains all your games so I wouldn't put it anywhere near online. :lol Especially considering the fucking waiting list for season tickets here. Most of the time families pass it down because of how ridiculous it is.

I nearly didn't notice kaizoku without his old avatar. :lol

Sammy Lee will be announced as Liverpool assistant manager in the coming weeks.

 

[Cornballer]

Good grief. It's like last Summer all over again.

 

[h0pper]

Wenger refutes Hleb 'to leave Arsenal' claims

Arsene Wenger insists there is 'nothing' in reports that key midfielder Alexander Hleb is set to follow Mathieu Flamini out of the Premier League club.

Click here
The Belarus international's agent Nikolai Shpilevski was quoted on Friday morning claiming the 27-year-old 'is leaving' Emirates Stadium this summer, with Inter Milan most strongly linked as a possible destination.

Shpilevski told Belarussian paper Pressball: 'Alexander is preparing to make the most important moves of his life.

'He is leaving Arsenal even though they want to offer him a new long-term contract and better conditions. Only time will tell if leaving is the right decision, but there's no way back now. Everything will be cleared up in the next two weeks.'

Arsenal boss Wenger has previously reacted angrily to rumoured interest from the Italians, even claiming he might report them for 'tapping up' the former Stuttgart player.

But he insisted on Friday that there was no reason to suspect that Hleb would not be playing for the London club next season.

Asked if there had been any developments, Wenger told Arsenal TV: 'Frankly, no.

'You cannot stop people talking but at the moment there is nothing (to discuss).

'I believe that usually all the players want to stay, and I expect this team to say 'let's make a pact together, come back next year and win'.

'That's what I expect them to do and my priority is to keep the team together, add what I think can help us to even be better and then see from there.'

Wenger also insisted there was nothing more the club could have done to keep hold of out-of-contract Flamini, who signed a four-year deal with AC Milan this week.

But the Gunners manager sees no reason to hold a grudge against his countryman.

Asked if everything possible had been done to keep the Frenchman, Wenger said: 'Yes. I believe that even Mathieu would concede that.

'We put him in the bracket of where we could go (financially, with a contract offer), and we made him that offer, but unfortunately it wasn't enough.

'We have to accept that because Mathieu was a good servant of the club for four years and he came without costing any transfer fee and left without costing any transfer fee, so he was free to go.'

Wenger does not believe that Flamini's exit means a central midfielder must be brought in this summer, citing Denilson, Abou Diaby and Alex Song as possible replacements.

He is also hopeful that Brazilian Gilberto may still be at the club next term.

'I personally would like him to stay but he has to make a decision on that - I want him to feel comfortable,' said Wenger.

'I like Gilberto and since he has been playing again he has shown how good he is as a player, but we will see.'

Wenger has, meanwhile, tipped Manchester United to claim the Premier League title on Sunday by winning at Wigan.

If they do so, whatever Chelsea achieve against Bolton at Stamford is likely to be an irrelevance, given the Red Devils' superior goal difference.

Asked for his title tip, Wenger said: 'You would say Man United because Wigan do not have a lot to go for and a team who has only 90 minutes to play, of that quality, doesn't give it away.

'But there is always an uncertainty about the game because you can have a player sent off in the first minute and a penalty against you and then struggle.

'But logically it should be Man United.'

I dunno, he could refute it all he wants, but if the quotes are real, then Hleb is gone in my opinion.

 

[hadareud]

Good grief. It's like last Summer all over again.

I know. And I'm again one of the few to believe

Are Arsenal's season tickets still tickets? Liverpool have used a credit card for a while. It contains all your games so I wouldn't put it anywhere near online. :lol Especially considering the fucking waiting list for season tickets here. Most of the time families pass it down because of how ridiculous it is.

yeah, it's cards. Your membership card is your ticket, you just put it on like an Oyster card. Means that there's no paper tickets at all anymore, since you can only get tickets if you are a member.

The season ticket waiting list is ridiculous here. Like I said, I'm number 45,000 something. My grandson might be able to get one. I just got on the waiting list in the hope of being upgraded to silver level membership.

Which isn't gonna happen either any time soon, since there's another 50,000 of those fuckers.

 

[Scum]

England will have an additional club in next season's Uefa Cup after topping Europe's fair play rankings.

The place will be awarded to the best-behaved Premier League team that does not qualify for European competition next term.

Manchester City are the side who would qualify in the current Premier League fair play standings.

City, whose final game is at Middlesbrough on Sunday, qualified for the Uefa Cup on the same basis in 2003.

Sven-Goran Eriksson's side currently stand fifth in the fair play table, behind Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool - who are all already guaranteed a place in continental competition.

This means City, with only a single league game remaining, stand on the brink of an unexpected European spot once Uefa clarify whether this weekend's matches count towards the final calculation.

Everton and Fulham are the other teams in contention to qualify, although David Moyes' side will enter the Uefa Cup automatically if they get a point against Newcastle at Goodison Park on Sunday.

England will have an additional club in next season's Uefa Cup after topping Europe's fair play rankings.

The place will be awarded to the best-behaved Premier League team that does not qualify for European competition next term.

Manchester City are the side who would qualify in the current Premier League fair play standings.

City, whose final game is at Middlesbrough on Sunday, qualified for the Uefa Cup on the same basis in 2003.

Sven-Goran Eriksson's side currently stand fifth in the fair play table, behind Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool - who are all already guaranteed a place in continental competition.

This means City, with only a single league game remaining, stand on the brink of an unexpected European spot once Uefa clarify whether this weekend's matches count towards the final calculation.

Everton and Fulham are the other teams in contention to qualify, although David Moyes' side will enter the Uefa Cup automatically if they get a point against Newcastle at Goodison Park on Sunday

England got the extra spot.

 

[hadareud]

Adebayor - Reports I want to leave the Club are 'rubbish'

Following media reports this morning, Emmanuel Adebayor wanted to put the record straight by making the following statement.

"I am very happy here. Reports which suggest I have threatened to quit are rubbish. I love the club and the fans. We have a great set of players here with a fantastic team spirit. We have had a good season but next season we want to go one better by winning a trophy."

[ Friday, May 09, 2008]

http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?...eports+I+want+to+leave+the+Club+are+'rubbish'

Adebayor,
Adebayoooor,
give him a goal
and he will dance with fucking Eboue

 

[h0pper]

Adebayor,
Adebayoooor,
give him a goal
and he will dance with fucking Eboue

well thank God. I didn't believe the reports about him. But, we should make any player who comes under speculation to go on Arsenal.com and give the real deal.

 

[Ghost]

:lol so Sven made it into Europe and still got sacked.

 

[Cornballer]

Are Wenger's press conference quotes up yet?

I know. And I'm again one of the few to believe

True.

 

[Wes]

So now that City will be in Europe, will Sven stay? :lol

 

[Mama Smurf]

Sven should get together with the players he thinks will leave when he goes and organise a mass brawl against Middlesbrough and stop City playing in Europe next year.

 

[hadareud]

Are Wenger's press conference quotes up yet?

should be another hour or so.

I think his press conferences are usually at 3.

 

[h0pper]

should be another hour or so.

I think his press conferences are usually at 3.

yeah, I'd like to hear what he has to say as well.

 

[Manager]

So Sven is even a head of the schedule, and still fired. I bet Thaksin must feel like a big idiot now, like after every time he shoot innocent thai's. Oh wait.... No but seriously, will be interesting to see how 17-year-old Filip Mentel handles the Uefa Cup after Isaksson, Kasper and Hart are gone, and a crappy benched goalkeeper is bought by Scolari. I bet Thaksin puts his son in goal anyway.

This is so typical City

 

[Ghost]

Sven should get together with the players he thinks will leave when he goes and organise a mass brawl against Middlesbrough and stop City playing in Europe next year.

Yes. And Fulham should do the same thing for some reason.

Then whatever lucky team happens to be in 8th right now will get into Europe. Whoever it is, I'm sure I don't know.

 

[SupahBlah]

yeah, it's cards. Your membership card is your ticket, you just put it on like an Oyster card. Means that there's no paper tickets at all anymore, since you can only get tickets if you are a member.

The season ticket waiting list is ridiculous here. Like I said, I'm number 45,000 something. My grandson might be able to get one. I just got on the waiting list in the hope of being upgraded to silver level membership.

Which isn't gonna happen either any time soon, since there's another 50,000 of those fuckers.

I thought Arsenal would, it would be weird if they still used paper tickets in the new stadium. Everton switched over this year my friends love it because their mate on the turnstiles can get them in for free. :lol

Liverpool's I'm not joking is unreal the waiting list is the worst in the league. One of my friends has been on it for 6 years. The Liverpool website says "Please note, there is currently a waiting list of many years for new season tickets." and you have to write to the "Season Ticket Waiting List Team" to be added onto the "extensive" list. :lol

When we moved to this house, the previous owner was a bit of a bitch. Like she ran up debts and still used our address. The day we took down the "Sold" sign a bunch of debt collectors working for Marks and Spencer turned up. :lol had to explain we just bought the house and we don't know where they moved to. They weren't happy but understood our position. Couple of months later a Liverpool season ticket renewal letter comes we had a stack of letters for her (mainly bills she never paid) they hadn't collected them for months and gave us no forwarding so I said I'll definitely get their season ticket if they don't claim it. :lol

Few weeks later she called all sheepish asking if a letter from Liverpool came and could she collect it. She came and we gave her all the bills, stuff and the Liverpool letter and we got a forwarding address. Few weeks later another debt collecting crew came (I dunno who they were working for) and were very happy to get the forwarding address. Then all the mail to her stopped coming to us. :lol

 

[psycho_snake]

I disagree. Well, I don't disagree that they can be replaced with the right spending, but I think they're huge losses. Losing the best defensive central midfielder in the Premiership this year and and second best winger? That'd be terrible. Arsenal had most of the pieces of a complete side, there were just a few areas they could do with improving. Flamini and Hleb were two of those pieces. If they both go, they have to rebuild those positions again. Used to be I'd think Arsenal could do with a centre back, a world class keeper and an out and out winger. Now I'm thinking centre back, world class keeper, out and out winger, Flamini replacement, Hleb replacement.

They can recover from it, if it does happen, of course they can. But it's two big steps back in my opinion. I think any side in the world would reel from the losses of those two.

I suppose the only upside to it would be an even better chance of Walcott starting regularly.

Well it all depends on how Wenger spends. If he actually goes and spends a large sum of money on proven quality players, then I think the lose wont be so bad. However, if wenger is going to replace them with some 16 year olds that no one has heard of or they go and buy a decent player, then they're in trouble. Thats why wenger really needs the board to back him up with alot of money because this summer they're going to need to spend big.

As for flamini being the best defensive midfielder in the league, I;d have to disagree with that. I'd go with essien. He's great defensively and he's also good going forward. I rate him as the best midfielder in the league along with cesc.

 

[Mama Smurf]

Essien's wasted as a defensive midfielder imo. Whether it's a 2 or a 3 man central midfield he's playing in, I think it really hurts his game if he's the most defensive one.

 

[psycho_snake]

:lol @ City. Patience is a virtue Thaksin

 

[psycho_snake]

Essien's wasted as a defensive midfielder imo. Whether it's a 2 or a 3 man central midfield he's playing in, I think it really hurts his game if he's the most defensive one.

yeah I guess so. He's a lot better at being the middle midfielder where he's given freedom to go up. But the reason it hurts essien to be the defensive one isnt because he's bad at defending, but because he offers a lot going forward. if you tell him to sit back, he doesnt get to help out as much. He does a sound job defensively when he's told to be the defensive midfielder though. You dont see him do much wrong.

As a defensive midfielder, flamini is better, but as an all rounded midfielder essien is much better.

 

[Steroyd]

Well it all depends on how Wenger spends. If he actually goes and spends a large sum of money on proven quality players, then I think the lose wont be so bad. However, if wenger is going to replace them with some 16 year olds that no one has heard of or they go and buy a decent player, then they're in trouble. Thats why wenger really needs the board to back him up with alot of money because this summer they're going to need to spend big.

The problem isn't wether Wenger will get the board's backing, they'd probably give him 100 million to spend every summer, it's Wenger himself.

He doesn't neccesarily need to buy proven well known talent like a David Villa per se, just someone who should make an instant impact now rather than in 3-4 years time.

Watching Arsenal in the transfer window this Summer will be interesting everyone knows what Wenger should do but... will he do it.

 

[Cornballer]

Things to look for from a replacement:

- goals
- more assists
- more efficiency
- technique
- pace
- experience
- the right mentality and personality

I've read reports about Kranjcar and Ben Arfa being lined up, I don't know if Kranjcar has the necessary quality and I don't know Ben Arfa is ready yet to be a full replacement. My guess would be no on both counts. Ben Arfa would be a good buy, but he's more for the future - not somebody who will get over 30 starts a Premiership season yet.

Who would you suggest, football thread people?

Depends to some extent what Wenger wants to do formation-wise. Fabregas is, of course, inked into the central midfield. Shouldn't there be a more defensive minded player there with him? Add two wingers and two players up top, and all of the spots are taken. The player pool this year has been strange for Arsenal - there isn't always a go to formation that makes a lot of sense given who's available.

Interestingly Wenger was talking about the current English reserves generation in the Shareholders Q&A and he said that he expected 5 or 6 of them to make it as Premiership players, but "2 maybe" to make it as Arsenal players. I wonder which two he has in mind. Gibbs? Wilshere? Randall? I am intrigued.

There are grumblings that Simpson is on his way out this Summer. Of the remaining English kids, I'd bet on Gibbs and Wilshere. Gibbs looked classy in the Emirates Cup last year, and everyone is raving about Wilshere. I don't know too much about Randall. I do think that a few of them will move on, and then there will be lots of finger pointing about how Arsenal don't develop English players, etc...

 

[psycho_snake]

The problem isn't wether Wenger will get the board's backing, they'd probably give him 100 million to spend every summer, it's Wenger himself.

He doesn't neccesarily need to buy proven well known talent like a David Villa per se, just someone who should make an instant impact now rather than in 3-4 years time.

Watching Arsenal in the transfer window this Summer will be interesting everyone knows what Wenger should do but... will he do it.

But the well known players are usually the ones that make an instant impact.

Thats what arsenal need anyway; players that will make a difference straight away.

I do feel for arsenal. Wenger was so close to putting a great team together. He just needed a couple of players and they were sorted. Now they've taken two steps back by losing flamini and the probably departure of hleb.

Well, its repairable. Spend the money on the right players and things will be ok.

 

[Mama Smurf]

Well he's not adverse to buying players for now, in the past couple of years you could point to Sagna, Rosicky, Gallas and Eduardo as examples of that. I just don't think he'd spend £30m to get the best man for the job if he can get a player 90% as good for £10m.

 

[psycho_snake]

Depends to some extent what Wenger wants to do formation-wise. Fabregas is, of course, inked into the central midfield. Shouldn't there be a more defensive minded player there with him? Add two wingers and two players up top, and all of the spots are taken. The player pool this year has been strange for Arsenal - there isn't always a go to formation that makes a lot of sense given who's available.

Didnt wenger say he was looking for a playmaker? If thats the case, then you'll probably be playing a 4-4-1-1. Things might have changed now that flamini and hleb are going.

 

[Cornballer]

Didnt wenger say he was looking for a playmaker? If thats the case, then you'll probably be playing a 4-4-1-1. Things might have changed now that flamini and hleb are going.

Yup, he said that. I'm trying to figure out what that means formation-wise. The 4-4-1-1 makes sense if you're going to have both Fabregas and a playmaker in there. Perhaps the lack of strikers won't be such a big deal after all if he only plans on playing one of them.

 

[Cornballer]

Couple of other things....

Rosicky is going to miss out on Euro2008.

Full Euro2008 television schedule for the US. All games in HD except for the ones on ESPN Classic.

 

[psycho_snake]

Yup, he said that. I'm trying to figure out what that means formation-wise. The 4-4-1-1 makes sense if you're going to have both Fabregas and a playmaker in there. Perhaps the lack of strikers won't be such a big deal after all if he only plans on playing one of them.

The first team lineup would have been something like this

rosicky/ wallcot / new winger-------cesc----------flamini----------Hleb

----------------------------------------playmaker-------------------------

------------------------------------------ade------------------------------

But instead of getting just a new winger and a playmaker, he might have to get a midfielder and another winger on top of the original shopping list.

Or, he might not bother with a playmaker anymore. Instead he'll focus on getting a top qulaity winger and central midfielder, and will play a 4-4-2 with one of your current strikers alongside ade.

 

[SupahBlah]

As for flamini being the best defensive midfielder in the league, I;d have to disagree with that. I'd go with essien.

Essien is a brilliant midfielder, he's like Gerrard in both can play defensively but both are wasted in that role.

His versatility is his strength and his problem like having to play right back because Chelsea have no one with quality in that position. He's much more effective in the middle and I believe Chelsea suffer without him look at the first leg in the Champions League at Anfield they struggled without him.