So you are saying Arteta is not part of the reason we are doing better? Because if you played Cazorla, Fabregas and Song, you couldn't play Arteta, or Diaby. Jenkinson was man of the match on one blog I read. I don't agree with that, but why should he get less credit for the clean sheets than the rest of the defense. You can't say he wasn't involved.
It gets very tricky when you start mixing players and opinions. I like Sagna, and I liked his attitude until now, but if the boss doesn't think he fits in, I will not shed a single tear for him as the door hits him on the way out..
I'm very, very impressed with Arteta (always rated him at Everton, too) and he's a tremendous asset to the club. I was only being hypothetical in mentioning those players and I certainly don't want to take anything away from the current team, but I think the question of what might have been had players not walked is a germane one. Probably the team would look quite different as we wouldn't have made the same buys had they stayed and yes, one does start to enter the realms of fantasy, but it's not too much of a stretch when one considers a player who left recently, like Van Persie. I know some people think that Giroud and Podolski were bought purely as replacements, but I disagree. I honestly believe that Wenger (perhaps naively) thought that he would stay and the prospect of an attacking force of Podolski, Van Persie and Walcott (for instance) is formidable. That's not to say we would necessarily have beaten Stoke or Sunderland, but surely you can't deny that we'd be stronger had the Dutch turncoat stayed?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...e-their-next-first-team-regular-to-leave.html
According to the above, the club will start talks about extending his contract soon, along with Chamberlain and Walcott.
I really hope we extend his deal.
It does annoy me Wengers reluctance to keep players over the age of thirty.
Players are going for longer now due to better nutition and medical treatments. Arsenal seem to be one of the only clubs that has'nt realised this.
Just look at Maldini, Puyol, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Van Bummel, Di Natale etc.. This is happening in all sports not just football.
Sure but people were expecting Giggs and Scholes's performances to drop for the last 5-6 years.It is getting very expensive to do this. Nowadays players can see out their contracts in the USA, China or Qatar, and earn up to 5M a year, then you also lose their potential transfer fee. Given that Sagna probably only has a year or so left where he will be significantly better than his replacement, we are effectively spending 30M or so, for one year of a full back.
I'll be interested to see what happens to Man United. They just wasted 25M on RvP and didn't make their team much younger. They dont have the money to replace the half of their team that is turning geriatric. SAF is working miracles, but there is going to come a point where that team is going to drop off a cliff, performance-wise.
It is getting very expensive to do this. Nowadays players can see out their contracts in the USA, China or Qatar, and earn up to 5M a year, then you also lose their potential transfer fee. Given that Sagna probably only has a year or so left where he will be significantly better than his replacement, we are effectively spending 30M or so, for one year of a full back.
I'll be interested to see what happens to Man United. They just wasted 25M on RvP and didn't make their team much younger. They dont have the money to replace the half of their team that is turning geriatric. SAF is working miracles, but there is going to come a point where that team is going to drop off a cliff, performance-wise.
Mr. Trumton are you really saying that RVP was a waste of money, given that so far he has personally scored twice as many goals as our entire team, surely not

Mr. Trumton are you really saying that RVP was a waste of money, given that so far he has personally scored twice as many goals as our entire team, surely not
3 Goals against one of the worst defenses in the league. So great
Defenses win titles, our is currently the best defense

3 Goals against one of the worst defenses in the league. So great
Defenses win titles, our is currently the best defense