THE CURSE OF "WENGERBALL"

[goonersid]

I was thinking a few weeks ago when I noticed a former "young arsenal starlet" was now plying his trade with Forest Green.
Do palyers who come through the youth system or those who have been at the club a long time, lose the ability to actually play football in it's more common form.
This would explain why so many who leave Arsenal find little success elsewhere. They have actually forgotten or had beaten out of them, so many other parts of the game which isn't in "Wengerball" rules.
Things like tackling back, defending set pieces, taking corners, headed goals, tough tackling, shooting from range, etc.
So when these poor unfortunate wenger offcasts move on, they become unable to integrate into any other team.
The list is huge, here are a few to get you started.
Bentley
Sidwell
Lupoli
Hleb
Petit
And countless "stars for the future"

[brazilianGOONER]

mate, petit had a wonderful world cup in which he and his teammates destroyed brazil in the final. he scored the last goal and had a terrific match.

how's that for a "curse" of wengerball?

[Boomer]

mate, petit had a wonderful world cup in which he and his teammates destroyed brazil in the final. he scored the last goal and had a terrific match.

how's that for a "curse" of wengerball?

Still bitter then!

[clockendal]

I was thinking a few weeks ago when I noticed a former "young arsenal starlet" was now plying his trade with Forest Green.
Do palyers who come through the youth system or those who have been at the club a long time, lose the ability to actually play football in it's more common form.
This would explain why so many who leave Arsenal find little success elsewhere. They have actually forgotten or had beaten out of them, so many other parts of the game which isn't in "Wengerball" rules.
Things like tackling back, defending set pieces, taking corners, headed goals, tough tackling, shooting from range, etc.
So when these poor unfortunate wenger offcasts move on, they become unable to integrate into any other team.
The list is huge, here are a few to get you started.
Bentley
Sidwell
Lupoli
Hleb
Petit
And countless "stars for the future"

Not sure I'd go along with that to be honest mate. I think a lot of players who don't make it at after having been at the top clubs slide down the leagues.

As for the ones you've mentioned.

Bentley - Was doing well at Blackburn and certianly seemend to fit in, his biggest problem was his ego (and still is)

Sidwell - likewise did a great job for Reading and playing in the championship would certainly have had to do a number of the things you've mentioned seemingly would've been beaten out of him.

Lupoli - overhyped as a kid and did not develop.

Hleb and Petit were already mature as players, I think they just beleived their own hype a little too much (like some others who have left Arsenal and gone on to nothing)

So I wouldn't say the fact they are trained in the art of "Wengerball" is the reason for their decline/failure to make it. I'd say it was more just the nature of football in general.

[Swale_Gooner1985]

Its an interesting concept i must admit, however i think the majority of the players we have let go do now go onto better things because they are either past there best or not good enough to start with

Gilberto, Petit, Overmars, Vieira etc... were all past their best when they went so failed to make an impact elsewhere

Players like Bentley, Sidwell, Lupoli, do ok for smaller teams as this is where there ability fits in, i dont think its a case of them having certain qualities taken from their game

The decent players we have let go who are in their prime have done ok...Anelka springs to mind, even Sidnwell could fit that as he plays for on of the Premierships better teams.

[Its Up 4 Grabs Now]

I’ve thought the same for a while now. As brilliant as our play is to watch when we get it right, it’s essentially systematic to the point of being robotic. Individual flair & the license to show a bit of spontaneous improvisation seems to have become more & more discouraged in favour of each & every player following a set list of actions in any given situation. I had hoped the arrival of someone like Arshavin might be the start of that changing but doesn’t seem to have been the case.

Perhaps yes some players become so programmed to play Wengerball that they struggle to adapt when they move on, like a component part tailor-made & moulded to work in one piece of machinery that then cant adapt to a new one. But more so even, it’s why we’re so much more susceptible to other teams figuring out a successful game-plan to stop us, compared to say Utd. Especially when they had Ronaldo as well as Rooney, Berbatov, Giggs etc - players who can & invariably do come up with a piece of individual inspiration out of nothing when the team as a whole is struggling.

It’s also another reason why we’re so unable to affect games with substitutions. Player B comes on for player A - or player Z (Theo) comes on for player Why? (Denilson) - etc but essentially they’re both programmed to make the same runs & look for the same pass as each other in any given situation. It’s a bit like replacing one part of your engine with an identikit piece - at best it’s gonna make your engine run better if it does it’s job better than the piece it replaced, but it’s not gonna change the way you’re engine works or how much horsepower it generates.

[goonersid]

Point taken lads, I'm not having a go at Wenger on this one. And maybe I should have restricted the list to youngsters who actually played in the various "lge cup" runs we had.
Most of them have gone on to do f**k all, having looked like stars in the making.

[hatemanu99]

mate, petit had a wonderful world cup in which he and his teammates destroyed brazil in the final. he scored the last goal and had a terrific match.

how's that for a "curse" of wengerball?

You're talking about '98 BG. Way before Petit left in 2000, when he went on to do.........nothing.

No-one has gone on to do anything post-Arsenal under Wenger bar Anelka (who has still taken years to get his head straight and play to his potential), and unfortunately you could say Cashley. Even Thierry really was/is a bit-part player although he's won the CL.

[brazilianGOONER]

mate, petit had a wonderful world cup in which he and his teammates destroyed brazil in the final. he scored the last goal and had a terrific match.

how's that for a "curse" of wengerball?

You're talking about '98 BG. Way before Petit left in 2000, when he went on to do.........nothing.

No-one has gone on to do anything post-Arsenal under Wenger bar Anelka (who has still taken years to get his head straight and play to his potential), and unfortunately you could say Cashley. Even Thierry really was/is a bit-part player although he's won the CL.

you are surely not watching barcelona's games

i hate barcelona with all my heart, but what a fucking great team they managed to create there... and yes, henry is a big part of it

[DB10GOONER]

I'd take Petit off that list just because he was fucking brilliant for us and because he was a mature player and on the downward slope of his career when he left us.

[potter]

Petit was an injury waiting to happen when he went. As for many others I think it was two or three weeks ago that as the scores went up on the Sky rolling results ,it seemed every third or so goal was scored by an ex Arsenal player.

[djhdjh]

The ones who I think find it hardest are the ones who drop down as young players, never make it at Arsenal and end up in the Football League. Had a right back Ogogo on loan from Arsenal at Barnet last year, wonderful technique, two footed, quick. But no strength or heading ability or grit to get stuck in. That means you're useless as a League 2 defender (same applies in all FL divisions). Oh, and he was injury prone.

Young Arsenal defenders really don't have a clue. See Paul Rodgers struggling at Northampton this season for that.

[highburyJD]

agogo and rodgers never even got proper runs in the carling cup side

in fact a better example would be our carling cup side that got beaten by the Chavs after evil JT fouled Diaby out the game with his face

obv denilson, diaby, cesc, almunia, theo and traore are 1st team players now (some with far better impact than others)

toure + senderos are gone
can't remember the rest...

bentley is scum but was quality last night, cashley is worse scum but is prob the best lb in the world
we got our (big) money back on hleb so he was hardly a failed 'star for the future' and made a big profit on petit (who just suffered from injuries after leaving rather than failing to fit in)
aslo are you seriously suggesting emanuel didn't like tackling back, defending set pieces, taking corners, headed goals, tough tackling, shooting from range - that (ok apart from headed goals) describes much of his game ffs

sidwell has been signed by 2 prem teams and got one to the prem - I think he has made some bad career choices but he's hardly 'failed'

[djhdjh]

The point I was making with them, and it's true generally, is that Arsenal youngsters, particularly defenders, are utterly hopeless at doing the ugly side of the game even after they leave Arsenal. I see lots of ex-Arsenal youngsters in the lower leagues and you can spot them a mile off. For an entire club to be so one dimensional is not a good thing regardless of how good players are or not.

[highburyJD]

thing it's kind of a premade point...
if youngsters from ANY premTeam are that good they won't be in the 'lower leagues'

IMO we've got tons of good ex players who trained as youths with us delivering at prem and championship level
cashleycunt, bentley, larsson, thomas, bothroyd, volz, aliadiere, pennant, sidwell, stack, taylor, quincy, barrett, stokes, simek...
I bet there's even more