Your XI which sums up the worst of the club since 2008

[nut flush gooner]

Nobody has picked Ozil?

We’ve had many talented players and a shit load of average ones but never have we had such a talented player racking up £350k a week yet not give a shit if he’s picked or not.

His career has fallen off a cliff in recent years yet he appears to have zero desire to move clubs. Instead happy to pick up his salary and not play.

That contract sums up the self destructive insanity of Wenger and Gazidis.

Ozil would be my captain of this rogues gallery

He wouldn't make the side due to an ongoing back injury!

[augie]

I should clarify that when I considered the list of players available to me, I only considered those that were consistantly selected over a period of time - park, the postman, etc would indeed be worthy nominations, but I didnt feel that they had inflicted enough pain and suffering as those that were frequently on the team sheet

[goonersid]

Flappy would make my 11 ahead of Almunia.
There are so many terrible defenders to choose from, but I’d bet if someone could do a check, Luiz and Mustavashite, have been solely responsible for costing us more points than any of the rest.
Full backs? Santos and struggling to pick a partner.
Midfield? Xhaka, Denilson, then so many of similar ilk.
Strikers (and I use the term reservedly)
Sanogoals, Chamakh, Clingon head and that spanish bloke the genius Emery was looking to buy, but had to take on loan take your pick.
If pushed on Giroud or Lacazette, I’d choose Lacazette, due to his poor finishing.

[arrgee]

who Zoolander and the Capuccino Kid are ?

French postman ?

Zoolander = Bellerin https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football ... tine-look/
Capuccino Kid = Walcott https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 67506.html

(OK figured Sanogoals is the postman)

[g88ner]

Nobody has picked Ozil?

We’ve had many talented players and a shit load of average ones but never have we had such a talented player racking up £350k a week yet not give a shit if he’s picked or not.

His career has fallen off a cliff in recent years yet he appears to have zero desire to move clubs. Instead happy to pick up his salary and not play.

That contract sums up the self destructive insanity of Wenger and Gazidis.

Ozil would be my captain of this rogues gallery

He wouldn't make the side due to an ongoing back injury!

Haha very true

[Retro Gunner]

who Zoolander and the Capuccino Kid are ?

French postman ?

Zoolander = Bellerin https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football ... tine-look/
Capuccino Kid = Walcott https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 67506.html

(OK figured Sanogoals is the postman)

Ah right, Walcott and Bellerin, thanks Arrgee.
I knew who the French postman was....can we ever forget ?!

Btw, just read that article about Bellerin. They’re taking the right piss out of him.

[northbank123]

g88ner Ozil would be an unused sub soaking up £350k per week and smirking, obviously

[GoonerMuzz]

In keeping with the title, Lukas Podolski, played 60 times over 4 seasons and scored 19 goals but due to Wenger's obstinacy, one of Germany's most prolific left foot strikers was either shoved out on the wing or more usually on the bench, brought on far too often when it was too late to make a difference, reminds me a bit of the PEA situation these days where it is pure modern football snobbery that you cant play two strikers

[DB10GOONER]

In keeping with the title, Lukas Podolski, played 60 times over 4 seasons and scored 19 goals but due to Wenger's obstinacy, one of Germany's most prolific left foot strikers was either shoved out on the wing or more usually on the bench, brought on far too often when it was too late to make a difference, reminds me a bit of the PEA situation these days and it is pure modern football snobbery that you cant play two strikers

Agreed 100%. Podolski was one of the best most clinical finishers I've ever seen. But it was Wenger's snobbery that stopped him going old school 4-4-2 and playing Pod off Giroud. Given a proper run together they'd have scored shedloads. But no, Arsene wanted to play tippy tappy 3-6-1 formations....

[StuartL]

In keeping with the title, Lukas Podolski, played 60 times over 4 seasons and scored 19 goals but due to Wenger's obstinacy, one of Germany's most prolific left foot strikers was either shoved out on the wing or more usually on the bench, brought on far too often when it was too late to make a difference, reminds me a bit of the PEA situation these days and it is pure modern football snobbery that you cant play two strikers

Agreed 100%. Podolski was one of the best most clinical finishers I've ever seen. But it was Wenger's snobbery that stopped him going old school 4-4-2 and playing Pod off Giroud. Given a proper run together they'd have scored shedloads. But no, Arsene wanted to play tippy tappy 3-6-1 formations....

I’m fairly sure that Podolski, scored a hat trick and still got dropped for the next game - saved Wenkers bacon as a sub in the champions league too I recall.

[Retro Gunner]

In keeping with the title, Lukas Podolski, played 60 times over 4 seasons and scored 19 goals but due to Wenger's obstinacy, one of Germany's most prolific left foot strikers was either shoved out on the wing or more usually on the bench, brought on far too often when it was too late to make a difference, reminds me a bit of the PEA situation these days and it is pure modern football snobbery that you cant play two strikers

Agreed 100%. Podolski was one of the best most clinical finishers I've ever seen. But it was Wenger's snobbery that stopped him going old school 4-4-2 and playing Pod off Giroud. Given a proper run together they'd have scored shedloads. But no, Arsene wanted to play tippy tappy 3-6-1 formations....

I’m fairly sure that Podolski, scored a hat trick and still got dropped for the next game - saved Wenkers bacon as a sub in the champions league too I recall.

You know Stuart, I seem to remember rumours that Podolski questioned Wenger's training methods, which were probably primary school level. This was a German international, who'd played and trained with the best and it's very possible that he made his feelings very clear.

You know Wenger....question the great man and you were frozen out. I've a horrible, nagging feeling that Arteta might be cut from similar cloth.

[GoonerMuzz]

How about Tomas Rosicky, Jack Wilshire, Abou Diaby, Aaron Ramsey etc etc oh and especially Kim Kalstrom as examples of not only our medical teams incompetence in dealing with injuries during the period but also not being able to spot them in the first place, i know this thread was probably aiming more at the team but fuck me our medical team was utterly woeful for a considerable period of time

[Herd]

To be honest Wenger post 2006 could make a bad player out of anybody ,but squalchi mustafi kallstrom and sanogo are shoe ins .
Bendtner ,Giroud and even santos could play but with our lack of a credible system which never changed and was so easy to counter even fat sam could beat it made life hard for anyone as we fell into the traps set time and time again !

[SteveO 35]

I was pondering whether Xhaka summed up the absolute acceptance of mediocrity more or less than having Giroud as our unchallenged lone striker for around 4 seasons.

That got me to wondering what an Arsenal XI which sums up the worst parts of the club since 2008 would look like. Not necessarily the outright worst players, but those who sum up everything that is wrong with the club - so extra marks for those who have somehow racked up hundreds of appearances.

Almunia

Eboue
Gallas
Mustafi
Clichy

Bendtner
Denilson
Xhaka (c)
Song
Gervinho

Giroud

Quiet morning this morning, so I did a quick Wiki check on that bunch above - collectively 1,331 appearances between them, so an average of 121 per man. The great genius that is Arsene Wenger rewarded that lot with an average of 121 games per man (ok......in the case of Mustafi and Xhaka it is shared with Emery and Arteta). The funniest thing is I'm sure at least six of them featured as captain, including that glorious day when Almunia took the armband

I would agree that Clichy is probably the one harsh one - played a decent support role in a successful team behind probably the best LB in Europe at the time, but ask how many top 4 teams/supposedly "competing with Europe's elite" would reward that bunch of no marks with more than 100 games for their club. Giroud's scoring record was ok overall but not at the time we most needed, and there is an equal shout for putting fucking Wally Walcott in his place - fucking 270 games for us !!

Some other fucking gems who appeared more than 100 times and well worthy of a shout include Djourou, Senderos, Grimandi, Luzhny

In terms of individual players who played far less but were absolute comedy gold then Park, Chamakh, Squillachi, Silvestre, Santos, Kallstrom and Traore need to be up there with them

[Ernie71]

Almunia

Eboue
Squillaci
Mustafi
Santos

Iwobi
Xhaka
Suarez

Walcott
Gervinho
Sanogo