Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is ready to make his first big purchase of the summer - with Wolves striker Kevin Doyle being the unlikely £12million target. Wenger is keen to bring Republic of Ireland international to the Emirates this summer and will now test Wolves boss Mick McCarthy's public declarations that he wants to keep Doyle. The 27-year-old ia a top priority as Wenger rebuilds his team around a core of British and Irish talent. Wenger is known to be a huge admirer of Doyle's work rate. He repeatedly sung his praises while commentating on Ireland’s World Cup play-off with France in November 2009 for French TV. Doyle was a club record buy when he signed from Reading for £6.5 million in 2009. He is halfway through the four-year deal he signed and the Molineux side are keen to start discussing a new deal. Molineux chairman Steve Morgan said: “I’m sure we’ll have those conversations with Kevin and his agent at the right time. “Kevin has been a fantastic signing for this club and is a really, really key player for us. We’d like to secure his services going forward.” Boss McCarthy has previously claimed only a bid of £50 million would convince him to sell his star striker.
The 27-year-old ia a top priority as Wenger rebuilds his team around a core of British and Irish talent. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would love to believe this statement to be true but if it were it would fly in the face of everything Wenger has said, done, thought and alluded to over the last 15 years. Wengers pathological dislike of British footballing culture has hitherto blinded him to some great talent and while he was winning things with his 'foreign legion' it was difficult to consider otherwise. Now maybe at long last he realises the frailties of the 'continental' style in the premiership. It is all very well playing tippy tappy but the evidence is it won't win us anything. I'm hopeful of a change of heart by Wenger but i'm not holding my breath.
As bad a signing as Franny Jeffers proved to be. A non scoring striker, great!! Works hard, but we need more than hard workers to win the league.
passport doesn't matter, ability does. the british football schooling system is flawed right from the beginning. small pitches, small goals, small balls should be used. too many young players play on over-large pitches with large balls from too young an age. it develops the "lump it to the big guy" mentality that is great at under 14 level, but doesn't develop any technical skill. arsene went abroad to find that technique, and revolutionised the british game while he was at it...see this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2006/oct/01/sport.comment1 now players are starting to come through at Arsenal and other places with the required technique. hence the meteoric rise of Wilshere, the first player to come through schooled exclusively in "Wenger-Ball." what would you rather have, an over-priced, underskilled player, or a cheaper, higher-skilled player? pretty obvious you'd think.
what would you rather have, an over-priced, underskilled player, or a cheaper, higher-skilled player? pretty obvious you'd think. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So called 'higher skilled' players have not won us much over the last 6 years. I would rather see a combination of skill and grit, something you rarely find in continentals but found in abundance in home grown players. Wilshere has potential to be a great player but Wenger will stifle his development by surrounding him with tippy tappy midgets or drive him away due to his aversion to high spiritedness off the field. Wenger is becoming like the ex French manager Domanech, intransigent and overbearing now the players are turning on him and don't want to follow his failed methods, like the fans they want to win trophies and they know they won't do that while Wenger remains at Arsenal.
"the british football schooling system is flawed right from the beginning. small pitches, small goals, small balls should be used. too many young players play on over-large pitches with large balls from too young an age. it develops the "lump it to the big guy" mentality that is great at under 14 level, but doesn't develop any technical skill". Absolutely correct. I was in Paradise park watching Arsenal coaches last week with 5 year old kids on a massive pitch using a full size ball. It was half the size of them! Madness. Sure its not just arsenal but sums up how we train kids from an early age. I remember at school how the coaches/teachers would pick rugby players instead of skilled footballers for teams because they were bigger and got stuck in.
Does he really have an irrational dislike of British footallers or a more rational dislike of paying through the nose for them when better, foreign ones are available for less? I'd imagine the latter is probably more likely. He has decided to use Walcott, Wilshere and Ramsey after all.
Let's also sign Heskey to go along side him CHAMPIUNNZ LEEGE AND PREMIER CHAMPIONSHIPZ ERE WE CUUMMMZZZ!!!!!!!
