Now that it is official what effect do you think he will have on our first team squad. I recognise our u18s were never exactly solid as a defensive unit but they seriously lacked personnel. However the fa youth cup winning squad was defensively pretty sound having luke ayling and kyle bartley marshalling the defense. However the main diiference may well have been the midfield duo of coquelin and frimpong possibly inculcating that midfield formation into our first tean in the form of song and mvila or wilshere and mvila (or neither). One thing i do notice however is that the team performs with far more fluidity than the first team albeit at a lower level. He does command respect in the dressing room and seems a sterner proposition in contrast to the soft exterior of arsene wenger and rice instilling a sense of urgency into the team coupled with the essential element of fear we have been lacking recently. A youth player (i forget who) recently described him as soft off the field and hard on the field which strikes me as maintaining a good balance. The most obvious quality may well be recongnizing and untapping to.full effect the potential within our youth system recognaning not only who has the physical qualities.to succeed but also the mental strength to persevere and succeed (i have my fingers crossed for gnabry in preseason ). At the same time he appears to have immense respect for wenger and is humble enough to learn yet bold (no.pun intended!) enough to transpose his own dimension onto the team. Having been a defender himself he.may well pass on his own tactical aspect of coaching into the team too though thats by no means a given. Time will tell but all in all i feel this is a fantastic decision. Errr i seemed to hace rambled on too much....sorry about that!
I don't think any of the players would describe Pat Rice as having a soft exterior But I do agree that Bould may bring a freshness to the first team that was evident in his youth team. I also think one of the main benefits that Bould will bring is a more immediate link to the 'winning mentality' needed to go the extra mile. He was involved in winning teams not that long ago (showing my age) and I think he can instill this mentality to our first team.
I am also not optimistic about Bould, but still live in hope. Bould's youth teams play in a very similar way to the first team, and the defence has shown the same weaknesses
i'd have thought he would instill some sort of organisation and responsibility to the defence (and midfield). I can hear him saying - don't take any notice of Arsene he talks a load of bollocks....
This Have to agree with Piskie as a long time Stoke fan, I remember Steve Bould playing for us and his tremendous defisive display for Arsenal as well. And, he was never afraid of actually saying NO to anyone or any Manager! I'm sure he will organise youre defence beyond recognition. At times he may tell a Centre half to just get rid of the ball, put it into row Z if it keeps it out of our net it works. Then defend again and again. The guy was a born winner as was that great defence Bould was a big part of. Has to be a great decision by Mr Wenger IMHO.
Bould was a great player for Stoke - and of course a Stoke native. He's done both of our clubs proud (as did Lee Dixon)
