Calum Chambers

So some of the idiotic Arsenal fans are absolutely crucifying Calum Chambers after the Swansea match the other night and saying he's not good enough etc.

WHAT DO THEY EXPECT?!

I mean he's a good young player but he's not even played a full season in the premier league with us as he was quite rightly second-fiddle to Clyne last season. The Swansea winger Montero is absolute lightning and was clearly going to do Chambers for pace all day long so I really do fail to see how Arsenal throwing away another lead was young Chambers' fault.

Surely they should be pointing the finger at Mr Wenger who played a left-back at centre-half again? Monreal was lost-at-sea when Gomis headed in the winner...

As much as I have little sympathy for Lallana or Lovren I do feel a bit sorry for Chambers.

Also I do wonder how well Chamberlain and Walcott would have developed if they stayed with Southampton. I do feel Arsenal have a bit of a poor record of bringing through young players. For every Fabregas that an Arsenal fan references there's always a Mark Randall, Benik Afobe, Emmanuel Frimpong etc.

Perhaps this will serve as notice to the other young players at our club. Maybe they will not have their heads as easily turned by the so-called 'big clubs'.

 

I could have sympathy for Calum Chambers but I don't. Didn't see his future at Southampton FC and jumped ship as soon as the first big club came to call. I suppose, unlike other bigger clubs, Arsenal are prepared to play younger quality players, but then to consistently play him out of position is ridiculous. He's not blessed with lightning pace and RB is only a position he played so as to get nearer the first team at Southampton. He's actually a CB or a midfielder. Perhaps Arsenal should play him as the DM they so desperately need..?

 

It's a very valid point about that missing DM. I was actually thinking earlier about Flamini (who's been awful so far this season) and I'm fairly sure he played at RB for AC Milan for a season. Maybe a better option would have been to play Flamini at RB, Chambers at CB where he was looking promising at the start of the season and then play Ramsey and Wilshere in CM.

But hey, what do I know??! I'm not the untouchable Wenger!!

 

Not that I'm hugely interested in the fortunes of Arsenal, I do find Wenger a bit of an enigma. Someone, one day, is going to find him out. He professes not to know why his players let slip leads. He doesn't question their mentality or their performance or ability, at least not to the media. In fact, in not admitting anything concrete he makes himself look a complete berk and leaves himself open to the accusation that he's the one found wanting because he can't see the basic weaknesses in his side.

 

Did you never make any mistakes when you were young? He got his head turned, but haven't we all been tempted at some point in our lives?

 

Sure I did, but I don't and didn't expect a whole swathe of people to sympathise for/with me. Besides, I'm sure he's absurdly happy, so I don't suppose I need to waste any emotion on him.

 

Calum had a bad game when a good player got the better of him, but he's a young player thrown in the deep end. I am certain he is going to be a terrific player.

If he'd stayed here he may not have got many games...probably best he went to a lesser side.

 

I was always being tempted when I was young but I resisted all those young women, well most of them anyway.

Seriously though Calum was bound to play second fiddle to Nathaniel and he was never going to play DM or CB for us so what was he to do? Just sit on his hands? He was one player I didn't feel bad about him leaving.

 

You've a decidedly naughty streak, Fran. I can only guess how much you enjoyed writing that.

 

It is interesting to hear people criticising Chambers. Do they not think that every player no matter of what standing makes mistakes? Are they so fixed in their thinking that all players no matter what age or experience are perfect? If they do then they are not living in a real world. Chambers is a good honest player.....yes he had his head turned by a so called bigger club. Which of us can honestly say we would not have done the same thing?
No matter the experience of any player they are always vulnerable to a player who has a particular skill which is better than theirs. Hence why they are in a team. To blame any single player for not preventing a player from crossing or what ever it was that cost the goal, is ludicrous. After all where were the other players who were there to prevent him scoring. Mistakes happen all the time and the consequences vary......that as they say is football!!!

 

No one was sayuing that Chambers would never break into the first team or that he couldn't play RB last year.

 

I was sorry he left because I think he has huge potential and so mature for one so young. A sensible head on his shoulders. That's why I don't consider he had his head turned...his move to Arsenal was part of a planned career. He could have stayed here, but he will eventually be fine. Now Luke is different...he's soft like toffee...and should definitely have stayed here.

 

I was reading on the thread about Lovren that Saints haven't made any defensive errors and yet we have conceded 5 goals.

That being the case was Chambers being beaten for pace a Chambers 'mistake' or just excellent play by the winger. I suspect it would be classed as the latter.

This is going to happen from time to time Arsenal.

 

They must be very stringent on what amounts to a defensive error...what else could explain that Lovren has apparently made only 5 mistakes (6 if you include leaving Southampton).

 

We need to ask why we let them both go .... I believe the answer is this: we had another one coming through in each position. Les said similar in one of his videos where we don't keep too many youngsters I the same positions. We signed Ryan as a safety net on Targett (by the way, how good was that) and we have McCarthy coming on at RB. Both could go at the right price.

 

I might just save that for the next time Vic gives the ball away

 

I've just figured out why all these players left. They didn't match the ambition of the club. They were happy with mid table mediocrity so they got booted out to those mid table clubs.

 

I'm surprised that Wenger doesn't receive far more criticism for bringing on English players. Watching Walcott in a Saints shirt he genuinely looked like being of the same class as Alan Shearer. Granted, he hasn't been bad but I would have expected more from him and wonder how he might have progressed under someone like Alex Fergusson. Oxlade-Chamberlain also looks like a squad player as opposed to the goal machine he was a St. Marys.

Chambers was a strange choice for Wenger and it made me think that the Arsenal manager was seeing something in him that wasn't apparent to Saints fans. I agree with the comment above about him being second string to the superior Clyne.

Given that the omnly other English player is the over-rated Jack Wiltshier, I don't think that Wenger's Arsenal is a very good destination for English players looking to advance their careers. Given that English players are unlikely to impose themselves in the mult-national Chelsea squad (Cahill and Terry excluded), that Man Utd seem in decline and that Liverpool seem on the verge of imploding, can their be a better club at this point in time for an English player to develop his career than Southampton?

 

Nope. He doesn't do that anymore.

You see, I was right about him all along. Everyone who said he was great last year were wrong. This season is what 'great' looks like.

 

Love it!


You must have gone for a drink the couple of times Saturday he passed it to the opposition, that or you had zoomed in with those narrow lensed field glasses on to Corkie and missed them