Toure's going!

As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
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rigsby
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Post by rigsby »

Gallas is the best defender at the club, how do you know he's going to leave in the summer? so might have kolo who I believe had a contract coming up. Gallas never handed in a transfer request, and it is Gallas who can help someone like Djourou and Vermalen develop into top players.

Kolo was never the best defender, his positioning and heading were supect even back in 2004, it was Sol that disguised these clear faults. It werent his fault, he was a midfielder, and he did a capable job, but 16 million for him is a brilliant piece of business.

Irish Gooner
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Post by Irish Gooner »

Gallas is 32 and getting worse with age. His contract is up in the summer and there has been no signs of a new offer so he is okay to talk to other clubs in January.

Toure was a brilliant defender until Gallas was signed and our defense has worsened ever since.

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afc-bob
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Post by afc-bob »

Thanks For The Memorys King Kolo
An Arsenal Great
:barscarf:

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augie
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Post by augie »

rigsby wrote:Gallas is the best defender at the club, how do you know he's going to leave in the summer? so might have kolo who I believe had a contract coming up. Gallas never handed in a transfer request, and it is Gallas who can help someone like Djourou and Vermalen develop into top players.

Kolo was never the best defender, his positioning and heading were supect even back in 2004, it was Sol that disguised these clear faults. It werent his fault, he was a midfielder, and he did a capable job, but 16 million for him is a brilliant piece of business.

If you watched the dozen or so games last season you wouldnt say that mate :roll: I am sick of kolo taking the rap for the teams poor defending or even more specifically gallas's poor defending in the last few seasons - if you watch last seasons highlights and gallas alone was at fault for 5 out of the first 6 we conceded (to the best of my recollection). We are not talking about getting caught out covering kolo but by him and him alone losing his man at fulham, at bolton etc etc. Now, like a lot of players, gallas's form improved as the season went on and was our best defender for a while but lets not kid ourselves here....we have a defender that is in the veteran stage, is in the last year of his contract and will be unable to perform a better partnership with vermaelen than he did with kolo regardless of how well they get on cos they are just too similar :roll:

Selling kolo was a good piece of business and a great price for somebody who best days were behind him and I stand by that regardless of how well he does for citeeh. However I think he has served us well enough not to be slated or ridiculed here cos there can be no doubt taht he great usw wonderful service and has more heart for this club than 90% of the other players put together :( I wish kolo well and will be giving him a good reception on his return 8)

rigsby
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Post by rigsby »

Its all about opinions obviously mate, but for me, and I've said this a number of times on here, I was never Toure's biggest fan as a defender.
I wouldn't pinpoint Gallas, or even Toure, but there partnership never worked well, and out of the two Toure was the one I would have sold.
Plus I stick with my view that Gallas was our best defender last year

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augie
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Post by augie »

Rigsby I totally agree that kolo was never a natural defender and it was his pace and enthusiasm that masked his other weaknesses for so long. But what I am saying is that, in my opinion, gallas has never delivered to the level that we all expected when he joined from the chavs. The partnership has never worked with kolo and it was down to wenger that he stuck with it for as long as he did but it seems to me that kolo has copped the blame for the malfunctioning partnership and gallas has largely gotten away scot free. :roll: In his time kolo has shown more passion for the club, shown more commitment and has yet been the scapegoat for those who are still looking at gallas the chav defender instead of the performaqnces he has turned in for us since joining :(

Last season his performances improved after starting the season with pub team defending and the general feeling was that he was doing it to put himself in the shop window and we all accepted that as long as he was playing well. Now however wenger has bought one defender who it seems will bring the same skills to the table as kolo so again I ask how can that partnership be expected to work ? :? In my opinion it cannot work which is why wenger should be either playing djouru as vermaelen's partner or buying a quality replacement but keeping gallas as 1st choice will not help us or him

Magic Hat
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Post by Magic Hat »

Gallas will leave when his contract ends but we aren't going to get a big fee for him and he is probably more useful at the club then sold for whatever small fee we get. I would also say he was out best centreback over last few seasons though I do share augie's concerns as to how a Gallas-what's his name partnership will work

I wish Toure well, he gave us loyal service and many happy memories
Last edited by Magic Hat on Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

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DB10GOONER
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Post by DB10GOONER »

God, I'm sooooo bored with this whole thread...

He's gone. Move on, folks. :roll:

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Percy Dalton
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Post by Percy Dalton »

My only worry is who is going to replace Kolo in the funny little ears stakes?

:lol:

Juan
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Post by Juan »

Bye Kolo! Thanks for the memories!



The ear question is a good 'un. I hate to put too much pressure on him... but Jack Wilshire has an interesting pair of lug-holes.

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digger
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Post by digger »

Irish Gooner wrote:Gallas is 32 and getting worse with age. His contract is up in the summer and there has been no signs of a new offer so he is okay to talk to other clubs in January.

Toure was a brilliant defender until Gallas was signed and our defense has worsened ever since.
Bollocks.

Gallas was excellent in the second half of last season.

Toure has been poor since he caught Malaeria in that joke of a competition 18 months ago. He's also put on a significant amount of weight - unless Gallas has been force feeding him at the local BK, that's his own fault.

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