I am a qualified coach so know everything . Redmond may become a good striker after time, but we can't afford to rely on him as much as we have. Looking at the 1999 Arsenal squad they had Anelka, Kanu, Suker, Berkamp. We have Long and a Rodriguez that can't stay fit. My main problem is if Puel really wants to convert Redmond, we need to relieve some of the pressure on him with a better strike force. Also to say Henry struggled in 1999 is kind of mad: 1999 - 2000 Top goalscorer League: Thierry Henry (17) All: Thierry Henry (26) Last but not least, I had to look up this info as I was only 7.
But I can use I have a level 2 football coaching badge. As I am a qualified coach, I should know everything....
I'd love access to our football analytics department's stats. I'm pretty sure they know what they're doing and I'll bet the stats reveal something that we, as fans, are missing about our forward line-up.
I think the club may have thought both of these things would be happening by now given the data they had over the summer. Still, there's nothing they can do until January now, so they'll publically carry on saying they're happy or we'll have to pay through the nose during the window. And who knows, Jay might be recovered and Long in a purple patch by January anyway...
From Wikipedia ref Henry: "Henry was immediately moulded into a striker by Wenger, a move that would pay rich dividends in years to come. However, doubts were raised about his ability to adapt to the quick and physical English game when he failed to score in his first eight games."* The original link was to an article in the Observer headlined "Thierry Henry, you're having a laugh" but the link's broken. A pal of mine who supports them said that at the time he and everyone he knew just knew that Wenger was wrong and that Henry wouldn't fit in. Many of them were saying he should be sold, he tells me. Just saying. Vin *His first league goal being against... well, you don't need me to tell you.
Yeah, I think the whole "Redmond isn't Henry" thing is kind of unproductive to discussion. Everyone who thinks that is almost certainly correct. And I'm guessing pretty much everyone thinks that. So let's just take that off the table. I don't think even Puel expects Redmond to turn into Henry. That would be a silly thing to expect for even the top young player in the world. It was just a general analogy to make, saying he thought Redmond could be a good striker. And of course he'll say something nice about his own player to show his faith and give the guy something to dream about. What else would he say "Well, I'm going to try to turn Redmond into a striker, but believe you me this guy is no Henry. Not even close." We don't need Redmond to be Henry. We just need him to be a reasonably good, maybe 10 goal/5-6 assist a year guy who works hard and creates some problems for the other side. I feel that is certainly within Redmond's capabilities and he could be better than that. But who knows? As of now, he's just a promising young player who should never be compared to one of the all-time greats.
The coaching staff had no input in the buying of redmond, if they watched him training and saw him as a striker then thats good enough for me
I've only seen the Swansea and West Ham games so far this season - I thought he was good but maybe over inspired. I think CP has him wound up a bit too much. Maybe a clockwork bunny with a pause button might result in a few goals! Did think he was gonna get sent off with his harassing of the ref.
Not sure he's a "big transfer man" Ian - he was only £10m which is the equivalent of a bargain bucket buy in this market. Other than Pied on a free, and our backup keeper he was our cheapest summer transfer.
