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.
Dan_85 wrote:Chief window licker John Cross has been churning out plenty of pro-Arsene propaganda today about how he's earnt the right to rebuild for next season yadda yadda yadda. Repeat ad nauseum, it could be any article from May of the past 8 years...
And there's the crux of the issue. How many opportunities does he get to rebuild/strengthen (and repeatedly ignore) before the window lickers like Cross call him out on it?
Bendtners Drinking Buddy wrote:We are 7 points off the top - Ramsey, Walcott, Wilshere and Ozil are worth those 7 points, plus their absence meant our bench / options in tight games were particularly poor.
Im not saying we are the bestg football team in the world, but our key players have been injured together at key times and it has had an effect.
I do not disagree that buying a striker in Janaury might have cut that gap down, or indeed another attacing option - im just stating that injuries have held us back this year, i dont see how that can be disputed.
BDB, I think the problem is that it (at least) appears that you seem to be defending Arsene with the injuries, as if he couldn't allow for that. Correct me if I'm wrong there, mate. But my point and many others too is that this happens every season and thus it is gross mismanagement for Arsene not to anticipate it happening and plan accordingly by strengthening in the summer and in January.
I'm not really defending Wenger per sae - i think he has left himself open to a huge amount of critism with some of his tactical set-ups, selections and lack of strengthning, moreover we could all see the Ramsey injury coming - just not to the extent it was.
My point is really that despite some horror shows we could have won the league this year, we really could - so we are not the dire straits some likle to make out (whilst conceding we do need to push on from here)
4th and the FA Cup - we would have all taken that in August in light of the spending of other clubs.....one team spent £100m trying to get where we are. Im not saying 4th is enough, it isnt, but we are competing against a couple of teams with resources we dont have, and one that has played 1/3 less games than we have. Yet we could have still won it this season if just 2/3 of thise key players had stayed ifit
guys- i just thought of something. maybe the reason we've not been adequately strengthening our squad with top quality signings is because we've been paying off the new stadium
Heard dear old Bobby Gould on Talkshite a short while ago.
His opinion on if Wenger is leaving, was, and I quote, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
And he pointed to last nights strolling victory over the worse Newcastle side since they were relegated to back his argument.
Its happening, the spin is in full swing, a handful of wins over mid table non entities and all is well again.
Is Gould part of the PR campaign? ain't broke? did he actually watch the spankings we were handed down on our travels to the top clubs?
foxinthebox2001 wrote:Heard dear old Bobby Gould on Talkshite a short while ago.
His opinion on if Wenger is leaving, was, and I quote, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
And he pointed to last nights strolling victory over the worse Newcastle side since they were relegated to back his argument.
Its happening, the spin is in full swing, a handful of wins over mid table non entities and all is well again.
Is Gould part of the PR campaign? ain't broke? did he actually watch the spankings we were handed down on our travels to the top clubs?
Its about now when the Wenger luvvies are twitching on him not signing that we'll be warned to be "Careful What You Wish For'
"We'll learn our lessons"
"Come back stronger"
"Injuries and the early kick off away games killed us"
We won't learn a single thing under Inspector Clueless, Per me old mucker. Look forward to more 'roll over and surrender' displays at the Etihad, Chavvy Bridge and OT
I see that wenger has been guest writing on arseblog today - this was written in relation to the heavy spankings we got at citeeh, the chavs and the victims...
"Yet, now that a little time has passed, and without trying to downplay how terrible we were and how poor our approach was to those games on a tactical level, is it possible to suggest that it was something extraordinary to lose like three times in one season ? "
Bendtners Drinking Buddy wrote:We are 7 points off the top - Ramsey, Walcott, Wilshere and Ozil are worth those 7 points, plus their absence meant our bench / options in tight games were particularly poor.
Im not saying we are the bestg football team in the world, but our key players have been injured together at key times and it has had an effect.
I do not disagree that buying a striker in Janaury might have cut that gap down, or indeed another attacing option - im just stating that injuries have held us back this year, i dont see how that can be disputed.
BDB, I think the problem is that it (at least) appears that you seem to be defending Arsene with the injuries, as if he couldn't allow for that. Correct me if I'm wrong there, mate. But my point and many others too is that this happens every season and thus it is gross mismanagement for Arsene not to anticipate it happening and plan accordingly by strengthening in the summer and in January.
I'm not really defending Wenger per sae - i think he has left himself open to a huge amount of critism with some of his tactical set-ups, selections and lack of strengthning, moreover we could all see the Ramsey injury coming - just not to the extent it was.
My point is really that despite some horror shows we could have won the league this year, we really could - so we are not the dire straits some likle to make out (whilst conceding we do need to push on from here)
4th and the FA Cup - we would have all taken that in August in light of the spending of other clubs.....one team spent £100m trying to get where we are. Im not saying 4th is enough, it isnt, but we are competing against a couple of teams with resources we dont have, and one that has played 1/3 less games than we have. Yet we could have still won it this season if just 2/3 of thise key players had stayed ifit
The issue here though is that a repetative mistake keeps having a repetative outcome.
As I said in an earlier post, Chelsea went to Liverpool with a weakened team and won. That's because they have two things we don't.
1. Depth of squad beyond the first 11.
2. A manager that has tactical awareness and understands how to get a result in any circumstances.
And with regard to the other team that spent £100m this summer, they didn't really did they. They spent a nett amount of about £20m. That's half the nett amount that we spent. Yes, they bought a load of shite but at least they went and spent what they had in the bank from the sale of the monkey. We would have banked £80m+ of that windfall, not reinvested it in the squad.
I accept the high spending of two of the top three but don't accept the excuses that Liverpool played far less games than us. If our players have all been out injured at various times for long periods, they haven't exactly played many more games than Liverpool's players have they?
