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.
Somebody has got through to Song . He always had talent but his lazy dont give a shit attitude was tolerated by us. A short sharp shock at the racist catalan club seems to have stirred some gumption within him. If he had come back to us he would have festered.
It's just perspective really. At Arsenal he was meant to be the DM, the lynchpin of our midfield allowing our more creative players a bit more freedom. So in the context of that his few fantastic assists (which generally still involved van Persie burying a volley from 15 yards) didn't really stack up when we were playing such an expansive game and he was found wanting time and time again defensively.
Transport him into a West Ham team that relies on plodders like Kevin Nolan and Mark Noble for creativity and doesn't commit anywhere near as many men forward - obviously there will be far less expectancy on him to hold the team up defensively and far more appreciation of his marauding forward, diving in and ambitious Hollywood passes.
Our DM role in the context of the complete tactical shambles that Wenger passes off as an effective system of play is incredibly difficult, and I don't think anybody could argue that we got the best out of him. But Song could never be a competent disciplined DM and if you're looking at him as a CM he's not better than a mid-table player.
he was a good player but too limited at a club like arsenal and especially Barcelona, where I do think they wanted to convert him into a ball playing CB. Some on here try and make out he was as bad as Eboue.
Arteta (current ver.), Flamini v2 and Song are not good enough for arsenal, but then this is our standard. A few good players mixed in with some average ones.
Get the rose tinted spectacles off, lads. Mong was rubbish. Slow, clumsy, turning circle of an oil tanker, fired most passes right into the heels of a runner instead of a yard or two in front (or 5 yards either side of a static team mate looking for it to feet), often fired passes clean into touch under no pressure, constantly gave away stupid free kicks in dangerous areas, no idea how to anticipate and could only react (often way too late), delayed on the ball and was often robbed after being initially under no pressure.
But hey!! He did lob in that one Hollywood pass for RVJC each season!! Yay!!!
Never mind that it was basically VanCunty's acrobatic skills that often made those Hollywood passes look better than they really were.
He wasn't good enough to be a starter but was okay as a squad player.
I remember sitting in the clock end with REB during a Spuds game when Song was bang on it all day. We were both surprised how good he could be from time to time. It would be unfair to put him in the same group as Eboue.
He's playing quite well for West Ham at the moment. By all accounts he was man of the match on Saturday.
With regard to original question though.....of course we should have bought back Fabregas. He is making Chelsea tick now and should be doing that for us. He is a game changer (as was seen a few years ago against Villa at home). I simply cannot believe we didn't sign him. Criminal!
Mong played really well on saturday - well in the MOTD highlights and he was Motm - However that's where it ends - As someone rightly stated selling him for mega profit was great business....BUT one of wenker's greatest errors was Not seizing on the opportunity to re-sign Fabregas who is a world class player who would make a real difference to Any team - especially one that struggles to score, to open defences and who can take a game by the scruff of the neck and change it - especially whilst the manager sits on the sidelines waving his feckin' arms about like a lobotomised windmill and doing feck all else but whinge and moan at the 4th official.
OneBardGooner wrote:Mong played really well on saturday - well in the MOTD highlights and he was Motm - However that's where it ends - As someone rightly stated selling him for mega profit was great business....
I watched the whole of that game and he did okay. He was a bit above average against a team firing blanks. Not being overly critical either. He was ok. No more really. He probably was worthy of the MOTM but only because his slightly above average performance was way better than the shit standard on the pitch.
OneBardGooner wrote:Mong played really well on saturday - well in the MOTD highlights and he was Motm - However that's where it ends - As someone rightly stated selling him for mega profit was great business....
I watched the whole of that game and he did okay. He was a bit above average against a team firing blanks. Not being overly critical either. He was ok. No more really. He probably was worthy of the MOTM but only because his slightly above average performance was way better than the shit standard on the pitch.
So we're in agreement - he's a Mong who we are all glad is no longer at Arsenal AND that wenker fucked up by not buying Fabregas!
OneBardGooner wrote:Mong played really well on saturday - well in the MOTD highlights and he was Motm - However that's where it ends - As someone rightly stated selling him for mega profit was great business....
I watched the whole of that game and he did okay. He was a bit above average against a team firing blanks. Not being overly critical either. He was ok. No more really. He probably was worthy of the MOTM but only because his slightly above average performance was way better than the shit standard on the pitch.
So we're in agreement - he's a Mong who we are all glad is no longer at Arsenal AND that wenker fucked up by not buying Fabregas!
If anyone watched the Whammer cúnts game over the weekend I'm sure you'll agree we can now lay to rest the myth of Alex Mong's improvement, yet again.
Hey! Who's that caught standing square on as the oppo stream past him? Who's that turning ever soooooo slooooooowly ten yards - nope sorry, now 20 yards - behind the play? Who's that passing right into the heels of a runner and five yards behind the lad standing still? Who's that flying through the air both feet up Hollywood style out near the halfway line when there's no danger and no need to go making yourself look like a complete bell end?