http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34208727 Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has denied that he misled people about the severity of Danny Welbeck's injury. The striker has now been ruled out until Christmas with a knee injury- but Wenger says he told the truth when he informed the press on 27 August that Welbeck was "progressing well". "I am surprised that people accused me of lying. I did not know Welbeck had had a bad setback," Wenger said. "I gave you the information I had. I did not lie to you." Wenger had been hopeful that Welbeck would have been fit to return after the recent international break - but that changed soon after his weekly Friday news conference. "I heard late on Friday night [27 August] that his condition had not evolved as well as we thought," he added. "He had needed specialist and needed further investigation." Arsenal revealed the extent of the injury suffered by Welbeck after the transfer window had shut. Injury to Welbeck leaves Olivier Giroud as the Gunners' only recognised striker fit for selection, with Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez having been mainly used as wide players. Arsenal knew the extent of the 24-year-old's problem before the transfer window closed on Tuesday, 1 September but did not reinforce their attack. "The solutions we had were not convincing at all," Wenger added. "I have made more than 300 transfers and every time it's a decision to make. "You either find someone who strengthens your squad or not. Whether we have players injured or not doesn't change the problem, You also have to be brave enough to say no." Wilshere suffers fresh setback Wenger also said midfielder Jack Wilshere's recovery from a hairline fracture in his right ankle was going slower than expected, and the 23-year-old would miss Saturday's match at home to Stoke. Wilshere, who missed five months of last season after undergoing two operations to repair ligament damage to his left ankle, suffered the injury in pre-season training in August. "I expected him to be back and available after the international break but unfortunately he had a little setback," Wenger said. What is everyone's thoughts?
That this is just going to turn into a Wenger bashing thread again. Which is fine by me. Because he's an inept moron and brings it all on himself.
I'm just reporting Wenger's latest statements. The main topic on our Board has been our transfer, and he's responded to fans reactions. End of the day, everyone is entitled to their opinions and it's better we restrict it to these kind of threads than everyone.
I'm not bashing your thread! It's about Arsenal and it's relevant. But you can see where it's going to head. I don't know what Wenger thinks he's going to achieve by making these comments though which leads me to think he was pressured into talking about this during a chat about something completely different. He just comes across as clueless.
With Wilshere, surely the time when the club have to make a serious descion about him is getting closer? He is a waste of space at the moment and we are simply wasting a squad place and wages. If we get rid, we could potentially, get a player that might you know, actually ****ing play.
Here comes the dilemma, do we cut loose or persist? We no longer have the heavy financial restriction of the past so can realistically get a replacement. Or do we stick and hope for him to stay fit. We've not had a great time with injuries and had some truly awful ones over the years. Wilshere is English, has talent and is a very popular player that brings in money in shirt sales V Not being available due to persistent and recurring injuries and not a guaranteed starter.
Is he that popular though? I think he's a bit of an oaf and find far more of our players more likeable generally than him. Sell him to City for £30m+ and buy someone who can stay fit and actually play football. £30m for someone who realistically is never going to be first XI for us anyway is a snip. But not until Wenger goes. Because he wouldn't spend the £30m anyway so no point. But, once Wenger goes then sell him and give the money to a useful manager. Although there is the million dollar question... do we have injury prone players playing for us? Or do we turn players into being injury prone?
"You either find someone who strengthens your squad or not. Whether we have players injured or not doesn't change the problem, You also have to be brave enough to say no." - Wenger Brave, Arsene? Or wrong? Because you appear to fall in the latter category. I find it difficult to believe that club specialists would give Wenger positive information to the extent where he could publicly state that he'd be back after the break, only to then say he's out for longer after the window shuts. This can only really mean two things. 1) he gambled on Welbeck's fitness. 2) the specialists forecasts were way off. In either situation, given the amount of time Welbeck had already been out of action for, how could he possibly think that we have is good enough to win the league from an objective point of view? Walcott is not a lone CF. He doesn't have the physical presence or the touch to be an effective striker for us. Doesn't take a genius to work that out. Sanchez? As good as he is, he isn't the most intelligent player that we have. He's certainly tenacious and persistent but we all know what he's going to do when he gets the ball. Dribble, cut inside & shoot. But he can't keep the ball well enough. Whenever he loses the ball, we always seem to then be hit on the counter because we've commit men forward to attack. He also likes to drift around a lot and doesn't have the discipline that is required from a CF. Giroud...less said, the better... So all in all, I just cannot fathom how our manager can think what we have is good enough and can't be improved upon. It's ridiculous that we're not (in my opinion) going to compete for the title this season just because Wenger can't abandon his fiscally conservative principles.
Both. Over the years, we have bought players with similar footballing qualities and have similar injury records. We then gamble on their fitness every time they play and then when things don't work out, we blame "bad luck". Also, I think part of it is down to us and the way we train or prepare. Ozil and Welbeck barely ever got injured at their previous clubs. They come to Arsenal and look what happens. This hardly ever seems to happen to any other club, so there is evidently something fundamentally wrong.
Don't forget Vermaelen, barely ever got injured before he signed for us, went through the whole 1st season without an injury but played almost every single game - then we broke him and he's hardly played a game since! (for I think 3 years now!)
Though thinking about it a bit deeper, it is even stranger as when Wenger arrived at the club we had players like Adams whose bodies were knackered from constant abuse - fast living, drinking, big knocks, not training properly and poor diet. His methods dramatically improved their careers, their condition and reduced injuries. But it seems ever since we started playing possession football since 2004/2005(ish) that we've picked up huge amounts of injuries and bought players like Rosicky, Diaby, Wilshere (not bought), Walcott, Oxo, Gibbs (not bought), rvp, vermaelen ect who have spent almost as much time in the physio room as on the pitch! Even players like Sagna have broken bones multiple times - Giroud has had a bone broken. Kos has a repetitive Achilles injury for example. It seems if you sign for Arsenal, either through training, an inherent weakness, being injury prone or bad luck, you're going to miss huge parts of your career to injury!
One of sagna broken bones was due to colliding with an advertising boarding I believe, you can hardly blame that on wenger and training methods, diaby was due to one terrible tackle that left his ankle out of line, and changed his gait pattern, again nothing to do with wenger. And before anyone asks, yes I am a physiotherapist and work with professional athletes, some competing at quite a high level, so I do know what I'm talking about.
So do you think there is a problem with our general fitness, omitting those who received a bad challenge or advertising boards?
Without knowing all the details of what they do in training, and what the injuries actually are (the information given out to the public is usually quite vague) it is difficult to tell. A lot of the injuries have started from impact ect. Ox for example, damaged his Posterior cruciate ligament in a challenge 2 years ago that kept him out for 6 months, since then he has been injured on and off, the initial injury was not the fault of wenger or medical staff, but possibly what they did with him after that could have had a detrimental effect on his general fitness. One problem I do think we have is playing some players to much, and could do with a bit of rotation, a good example of this was roscky last season, hardly played a game when fit to do so, he could have used more rotation, to rest players ect, I think that would help, and also keep the squad fresh, and possibly reduce injuries.
Thanks for the info. As for the case of rotation, i agree. We do have quite a few similar/backup players available, so we should try and use them more often. I can understand you want to keep your best team and maintain consistency, especially against tougher opposition, but at home against lesser teams, we should try and rotate more. No more than two or three at a time and make like for like replacements.
I wasn't blaming it that incident on Wenger - I was trying to say that due to lots of reasons including bad luck, but lots of other reasons as well, we have picked up huge amounts of injuries for multiple reasons (bad tackles, bad luck, repetitive injuries, totally unconnected injuries striking injury prone players, muscular problems, broken bones ect). I don't think it's all down to one factor at all.
I couldn't disagree with you any more. Besides, You think its coincidental that we have had RVP, Rosicky, Diaby, Walcott and Wilshere have all been like this in recent years at Arsenal? The problem lies somewhere with our prehab/rehab/Mobility/Strength and Conditioning coaching and or/medical staff. Not with the players.
I don't think WIlshere will fulfil his potential. He'll be the first player sent out when Wenger's replacement takes the reigns. Time is also running out for Welbeck. I am fed yup of people saying he is still learning. I'm not convinced. I would have preferred tio have got RVP back. I've been questioning Arsenal's fitness regimen for some trime as our injury/recovery record compared to clubs around us is woeful. I thought Wenger had seen this and ordered a review and overhaul. Comapre us to Chelsea and how they were able to manage Costa through. Our lot would have had him out for months.
