29 years old, coming back after having two serious injuries and he still has two years left on his contract. Sorry, I am with the club on this one.
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?
Well I have the best part of a bottle of red wine in me, but please forgive me if I say that anyone who calls Wenger naive is crazy. If there is anyone who understands what is going on in football right now better than Wenger, I don't know who they are. Ridicule him, insult him, or shout at him from the sidelines, and you are a fool, because the guy keps on making an idiot out of everyone who doubts him year after year after year after year...
So suddenly he makes this comment and he's considered expendable? if we roll back a few weeks i'm pretty sure the majority of you wanted us to keep him, as he is the best RB in the PL.
I rather resent your implication that I would shout abuse at Wenger and that's really quite a leap from what I wrote. My belief (and it's only my opinion, there's really no need to be quite so condescending!) is that he honestly thought that certain players loved the club as he did; hardly a damning indictment. He clearly values loyalty very highly, but the time of players like Tony Adams is pretty much gone. I certainly think that he's learned from certain players' actions and that there has been a shift in policy. But please don't shout down any view which isn't totally in line with your own, as it's rather childish. Arsene knows, no doubt, but that's not to say people don't have a right to ask questions every now and again.
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.
Sagna is the best RB in the league, those of you saying he's expendable with Jenkinson to replace him ain't got no clue, in fact, why don't we just sell all our players eh?
Somebody should tell Sagna, then because he claims no-one has spoken to him. Oh for the days of David Dein
You could see it as Sagna pushing for a new deal, or as genuine concern from a guy who joined Arsenal to win things & knows more than we do about why that hasn't happened. You done get this many unhappy players over consecutive seasons without there being a real problem somewhere.
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.
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.
Sure but people were expecting Giggs and Scholes's performances to drop for the last 5-6 years. Its not something you can put a timeframe on. Its all down to genetics. This is the main reason I have an issue with Wengers 1 year deals for players over the age of 30 stance. Sagna could go downhill in a couple of years on the other hand he could keep going at this level for another 6-7 like Roberto Carlos,Thuram or Cafu did. (He does'nt strike me as the type of guy who goes out drinking and eats un-healthily).
The thing that worries me about this is how many other players in the squad feel like this. Sagna naturally has friends in the team and would have spoken about the situation at length with them. Nothing spreads as quickly as disenchantment within a group of individuals. Theo Walcott hasn't yet signed an extension, does he feel the same way. Maybe Sagna is trying to beef up the next offer, maybe not. However it is very difficult, not to suspect that there are underlying problems at AFC. For me I hope he stays, I'm sure Jenkinson will become a fine player one day I don't believe he has the experience yet, and if he gets injured again we have a big problem. Last season showed that playing people out of position is not the answer.
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
For Manchester United? Definitely a waste of money, that 25M could have been better spent on a midfielder.
It will be good to see how many games our defence can keep a clean sheet. Each game they don't concede will help to instill faith that they can do it again for the next game
Defenses provide a springboard and Steve Bould has definitely changed ours around, However I don't believe you can win anything without great forwards. Barcelona have proved that. Van Persie on form is an excellent goalscorer, whatever you think of the guy. And please don't use those facey things, until I can work out how to do it myself.
