Bobby Pires Interview

[donaldo]

he was injured a fair bit that season if i remember so that may have been the thinking... with 10 men arsene wanted some real runners

hleb and reyes and freddie did a great job supporting henry and defending.

i personally woulda taken off hleb, reyes even freddie ahead of bobby that night. was gutting. but if we had won i think he would have ultimately understood.

what is it with us and keepers??

Reyes came on in the 85th min,dont think he touched the ball

[rigsby]

Reyes should have come on when Flamini did. We were 1 nil up and looking good, Reyes would have added some pace to the game.

I remember Wenger had this horrible habitt of bringing on defennsive players when we were winning and us always conceeding.

[QuartzGooner]

Reyes should have come on when Flamini did. We were 1 nil up and looking good, Reyes would have added some pace to the game.

I remember Wenger had this horrible habitt of bringing on defennsive players when we were winning and us always conceeding.

Agreed.

Friend who sat next to me at the final spoke as soon as Flamini came on, said it was too soon to bring him on and that the initiative would pass to Barcelona.
The Flamini of 2007 - 2008 would have been great, but the 2005 - 2006 Flamini was not as good.

[USMartin]

Reyes should have come on when Flamini did. We were 1 nil up and looking good, Reyes would have added some pace to the game.

I remember Wenger had this horrible habitt of bringing on defennsive players when we were winning and us always conceeding.

2000-01 Good as Edu was I always used to cringe when he'd appear at the tochline when we were up a goal.It was almost automatic then that we'd drop the two extra points we had in the bag..

In 01-02 Mr. Wenger was a bit better about it - not 100% but a bit better. He really seemed to have gotten that out of his system in 2003-04 largely as at least we were more aggressive about controlling the ball late on.


The one time he really learned from his errors straight away was at Anfield in 01. We fallen apart against Newcastle at Highbury after Parlour was sent off - wrongly ofr me - and Mr. Wenger had taken off Kanu for Edu I think and tried to keep what we already had. Anyway at Anfgield when Gio was sent off - again wrongly for me - he kept Kanu which at least let us be a bit more positive and aggressive (Kanu did feature in midfield for Nigeria after all) and sure enough we went on took a 2-0 lead through Henry from the spot on half-time and Freddie - who won that penalty - from Pires and held on for 2-1. To me it still one of the biggest results of that season. Another defeat there after what happened against Newcastle and we would have been in real trouble as far as winning the Premiership went.

[Bring Back Pires]

He really seemed to have gotten that out of his system in 2003-04 largely as at least we were more aggressive about controlling the ball late on.

I beg to differ. I don't think AW has EVER learnt from this. He continues to this day to suddenly defend when we're leading (and most importantly, controlling the game). If we're on the backfoot, I could understand wanting to bolster the defence - but more often than not, he takes off attacking options in games that we could really kill off.

The glaring example from 2003/04 was the Man Utd 1-1 draw on 28th March, 2004. Leading through Henry's awesome goal, and looking pretty good for the three points, AW decides to bring on Cygan for Ljungberg with eight minutes left. Four minutes later, Saha's banged it in and cost us the game (or the win, at least).

I've lost count of the number of times Wenger has made these infuriating changes. Didn't he do it the night of the 4-4 draw with Spuds as well?

[GunnerDude]

That was a turning point for Arsenal FC as a whole, the inexperienced Cesc stayed on while Pires was subbed.

The exodus of the experienced players began

[sabastiane]

It was downhill all the way after that night.Pires Bergkamp Cole never played for us again.Campbell didnt for 4 years.Henry only played half a season.And that crunt Almunia gave us a preview of what we were going to get in the future

Lehman's red card that night was a big turning point. What would happened if he had stayed on.

[donaldo]

It was downhill all the way after that night.Pires Bergkamp Cole never played for us again.Campbell didnt for 4 years.Henry only played half a season.And that crunt Almunia gave us a preview of what we were going to get in the future

Lehman's red card that night was a big turning point. What would happened if he had stayed on.

If Lehmann hadnt have brought down Etto it would have been 1-0 and the way Barca play they may have gone on to win more easily.The Final came two years too late for us.If we had beaten the Chavs in 2004 the big one was in the bag.Monaco in the semi's and Porto in the final.

[I Hate Hleb]

I essentially agree with that Donaldo. Given the quality of our squad at that time and the eventual finalists, 2004 was the year we really should have done it. Mind you, had we beaten Chelsea and Monaco, Mourinho would probably have out-witted Wenger in that Final!!!

[USMartin]

It was downhill all the way after that night.Pires Bergkamp Cole never played for us again.Campbell didnt for 4 years.Henry only played half a season.And that crunt Almunia gave us a preview of what we were going to get in the future

Lehman's red card that night was a big turning point. What would happened if he had stayed on.

If Lehmann hadnt have brought down Etto it would have been 1-0 and the way Barca play they may have gone on to win more easily.The Final came two years too late for us.If we had beaten the Chavs in 2004 the big one was in the bag.Monaco in the semi's and Porto in the final.

Yep that was the year. I mean we had no injury problems at all till right then and we just ran out of gas against the Chavs. I just felt helpoless because when the equalised you could see from there there was one winner - that night - we were just too gassed. I was hoping for penalties from the moment they scored that first goal.

It's weird because if we'd had a player or two more that year we might well have won the Treble as we reach the FA Cup Semis too and got caught resting Henry and others for Chelsea and let that just get away too. That's the beauty of finishing unbeaten and well ahead and clinching it at s***s - its easy to forget all this..
If there is a silver lining here its that it made Henry's hat-trick against the scousers on Good Friday utterly utterly epic. What a day, what a player, what a Gooner.

[USMartin]

I essentially agree with that Donaldo. Given the quality of our squad at that time and the eventual finalists, 2004 was the year we really should have done it. Mind you, had we beaten Chelsea and Monaco, Mourinho would probably have out-witted Wenger in that Final!!!

He might well have but it wouldn't have mattered with that team. We'd have gone up 2-0 then eased to a 2-1 win like so many times that year.

[I Hate Hleb]

Except against Chelsea, where he and that team got beaten by an inferior side and the more tactically inept Ranieri!!

[USMartin]

Except against Chelsea, where he and that team got beaten by an inferior side and the more tactically inept Ranieri!!

We were gassed then as I said. If we had gone through somehow yy guess is we would have had an extra gear to go to especially as Millwall would have been our Cup Final opponent - even Aliadere might have bagged a brace on them! And Edu certainly could have bossed mid-field with Parlour against that lot. And we could have seen Jens tonk Dennis Wise - and good.

We'd have gone in much fresher to the final I think and a bit fitter as well

[bergkamp10]

Deserved so much better than that. Still can't believe fucking Hleb was kept on instead, especially with such little experience (both at Arsenal and in big match environments).

It's worth repeating that Pires was infinitely classy during the entire night. I can't think of many other players who wouldn't have gone ballistic, and I fully understood (and approved) of his decision to leave. After that incident, AW didn't deserve him on his books anymore, quite frankly.

It was that moment, coupled with Bergkamp's departure and the move to a 'foreign' stadium all happening together, that spelled the end of what I formerly knew as Arsenal. It's been a pretty empty experience ever since, for me anyway.

Edit: Oh, and I was delighted when Villarreal were drawn out of the hat as our CL opponents. I made sure to get a ticket, wore my 2005/06 home shirt with 'Pires 7' on the back, and chanted his name all night long. I'm glad he was appreciative of the fans that night.

The only downer was some utter cock in the tube on the way to the stadium, who'd spotted my shirt. All I heard was, "Pires?! He don't even no fucking play for us no more". And award for 'thickest c**t of the year' goes to...

That was a crying shame, taking Pires of for Jens. Hleb should of been the one, but Pires/Henry may of nikced thats econd goal between them...

Chances of us ever reaching the final anytime soon, and pretty unlikely I would say. Damn shame..


Was certainly the end of great team....

[g88ner]

I actually agreed with Wenger's decision to take Pires off in the final - in fact, I called it as soon as Jens was sent off. It just seemed the logical move to me.

Pires was not the player he used to be, and I was surprised he started that night to be honest.

We should have stayed with the way we played against Real Madrid at the Bernebeu, with Henry supported by Reyes, Freddie and Hleb.

The team for the final lacked pace, and considering how well it worked against Real Madrid (where Reyes/Henry frightened the life out of Madrid) I was surprised we didn't stick to the same formula against the equally attacking Barcelona, on another huge pitch.
- it restricted the counter attack, and was a poor tactical decision, in my opinion.

The main decision for me when Jens came off was whether Freddie or Pires would be sacrificed. And in the end, I felt that being down to 10 men probably meant we'd be defending more and that Freddie would be more useful.

Hleb, who was playing well at the end of that season, wasn't going to come off.

I honestly think Pires was picked ahead of Reyes that night on sentiment, rather than logic - perhaps even a reward for his GREAT service at the club. For me it was the wrong decision.

Only my opinion, but I do wonder whether some people are remembering the great Pires rather than the guy in the last few months of that season, where he just wasn't the same Pires we all knew and loved.