Monaco (A)

[Redarmy]

Red army stay and fight your corner with opinions and stay away from hissy fits and insults. Get your tin hat on and be ready but people will respect you if you can argue your point without becoming a diva

OK i can do that, strange thing is on a lot of subjects totally agree with general views on this forum

[Redarmy]

What i can say overall on this one is that the team is not prepared mentally for the big games, bar Man utd/City away this season
Its the same old story, either too nervous or too gung ho......and end up getting stuffed, or embarrassed by a technically lesser team such as Monaco.
When Wenger won his earlier trophys he did not need this if anything he was a calming influence on people like Tony Adams who was punching the walls or an eager and excited Ian Wright.
That backbone of the team was George Grahams, since then we have put up with a succession of tossers like Cygan, Stepanovs, Silvestre...the list is endless, our support especially away fans deserve better.

[g88ner]

What i can say overall on this one is that the team is not prepared mentally for the big games, bar Man utd/City away this season
Its the same old story, either too nervous or too gung ho......and end up getting stuffed, or embarrassed by a technically lesser team such as Monaco.
When Wenger won his earlier trophys he did not need this if anything he was a calming influence on people like Tony Adams who was punching the walls or an eager and excited Ian Wright.
That backbone of the team was George Grahams, since then we have put up with a succession of tossers like Cygan, Stepanovs, Silvestre...the list is endless, our support especially away fans deserve better.

Funny how the mind can play tricks. You seem to remember the Cygan days as negative for the club, but from what I remember, Cygan was being kept out of the side by Campbell and Toure in an era when we won 2 FA Cups and became the invincibles and were blessed to watch Pires, Bergkamp, Vieira, Henry, Ljungberg, etc at their best. It was the most glorious period of the clubs history

Then you mention Stepanovs. He played at a time when Adams, Keown and Campbell were around, so we only got to see Igor when an injury crisis hit. It was also an era when we won the double, so hardly negative times either.

I'll give you Silvestre though

I also think it's more than a little unfair to highlight Adams and Wright from the Graham era then compare it to Cygan, Stepanovs and Silvestre from the Wenger era. It's twisting things beyond belief as some of the greatest players in our history have been signed by Wenger, and the 3 numpties you mention wouldn't be in Wenger's top 100.

I think you make a valid point though, but sadly it's hidden behind an obvious Graham bias and contempt for Wenger.

[Redarmy]

What i can say overall on this one is that the team is not prepared mentally for the big games, bar Man utd/City away this season
Its the same old story, either too nervous or too gung ho......and end up getting stuffed, or embarrassed by a technically lesser team such as Monaco.
When Wenger won his earlier trophys he did not need this if anything he was a calming influence on people like Tony Adams who was punching the walls or an eager and excited Ian Wright.
That backbone of the team was George Grahams, since then we have put up with a succession of tossers like Cygan, Stepanovs, Silvestre...the list is endless, our support especially away fans deserve better.

Funny how the mind can play tricks. You seem to remember the Cygan days as negative for the club, but from what I remember, Cygan was being kept out of the side by Campbell and Toure in an era when we won 2 FA Cups and became the invincibles and were blessed to watch Pires, Bergkamp, Vieira, Henry, Ljungberg, etc at their best. It was the most glorious period of the clubs history

Then you mention Stepanovs. He played at a time when Adams, Keown and Campbell were around, so we only got to see Igor when an injury crisis hit. It was also an era when we won the double, so hardly negative times either.

I'll give you Silvestre though

I also think it's more than a little unfair to highlight Adams and Wright from the Graham era then compare it to Cygan, Stepanovs and Silvestre from the Wenger era. It's twisting things beyond belief as some of the greatest players in our history have been signed by Wenger, and the 3 numpties you mention wouldn't be in Wenger's top 100.

I think you make a valid point though, but sadly it's hidden behind an obvious Graham bias and contempt for Wenger.

Yes a lot of above is correct, Adams and Keown being from Grahams team, but these low grade signings have continually been made have have gradually eroded the quality of the team, buying Man Utd rejects WILL NOT improve our team, now linked in media with Smalling, could be another on the way...
Of course would be churlish not to accept the success Thierry Henry, Nasri, Fabregas, Pires, Lungberg...etc
But his magic has run out, everyone has scouts everywhere over the continent...as the Banner says Thanks for the memories

[Redarmy]

What i can say overall on this one is that the team is not prepared mentally for the big games, bar Man utd/City away this season
Its the same old story, either too nervous or too gung ho......and end up getting stuffed, or embarrassed by a technically lesser team such as Monaco.
When Wenger won his earlier trophys he did not need this if anything he was a calming influence on people like Tony Adams who was punching the walls or an eager and excited Ian Wright.
That backbone of the team was George Grahams, since then we have put up with a succession of tossers like Cygan, Stepanovs, Silvestre...the list is endless, our support especially away fans deserve better.

Funny how the mind can play tricks. You seem to remember the Cygan days as negative for the club, but from what I remember, Cygan was being kept out of the side by Campbell and Toure in an era when we won 2 FA Cups and became the invincibles and were blessed to watch Pires, Bergkamp, Vieira, Henry, Ljungberg, etc at their best. It was the most glorious period of the clubs history

Then you mention Stepanovs. He played at a time when Adams, Keown and Campbell were around, so we only got to see Igor when an injury crisis hit. It was also an era when we won the double, so hardly negative times either.

I'll give you Silvestre though

I also think it's more than a little unfair to highlight Adams and Wright from the Graham era then compare it to Cygan, Stepanovs and Silvestre from the Wenger era. It's twisting things beyond belief as some of the greatest players in our history have been signed by Wenger, and the 3 numpties you mention wouldn't be in Wenger's top 100.

I think you make a valid point though, but sadly it's hidden behind an obvious Graham bias and contempt for Wenger.

Yes a lot of above is correct, Adams and Keown being from Grahams team, but these low grade signings have continually been made have have gradually eroded the quality of the team, buying Man Utd rejects WILL NOT improve our team, now linked in media with Smalling, could be another on the way...
Of course would be churlish not to accept the success Thierry Henry, Nasri, Fabregas, Pires, Lungberg...etc
But his magic has run out, everyone has scouts everywhere over the continent...as the Banner says Thanks for the memories

Can also add Senderos to that list, adding these players to that squad was criminal......
They eventually filter through to the first team, remember that mug Stepanovs in the 8-2 Man Utd defeat

[northbank123]

The 6-1 (not 8-2) where Stepanovs and Grimandi played CB was painful but a) we obviously had an injury crisis there and b) it was during the era where Adams was there that you're glorifying!!!

[StuartL]

If you use the analogy that a team is only as good as it's weakest player then we certainly had some dross in among our diamonds and unfortunately they were far behind in terms of ability.

Wenker didn't like to have ( or couldn't manage) quality players as squad players he liked to play his first choice 11 all the time which is fine and dandy until you get the inevitable injuries and suspensions which often left us short and using youngsters or aging squad members who were not up to the task, but were happy as bit part players.

Chris Wreh as striker no 4 was thrown in and scored a couple of goals but wasn't of good enough quality ( see Sanogo, etc)
Stephanovs, Sylvestre, Bendtner, Squillaci, Traore, Djorou are all well and good as squad players or Carling Cup team members until they actually have to play in important matches and cost you goals, points, cups etc .

We are slowly getting better squad members who do not look out of place in the first team (Coq & Bellerin) and take their opportunity to stake a claim, whereby in previous days the stand ins pretty much knew they were back on the bench when the regular first teamer was back fit again