If Diaby stays fit then this will be a big season for him. He has already started this season well and i can see him proving his doubters very wrong. Infact if we can stay injury free we will have some interesting choices to make as to who plays and who even makes the bench! We have the current 3 of Cazrola, Arteta and Diaby who all look good and once all others are fit we will have Wilshere, Rosicky, Ramsey pushing for a place. If Rosicky and Wilshere both return from injury with good form we have some amazing options in the middle. I personally think we have some real strength in depth across all areas of our squad, especially if it's true Arshavin wants to fight for his place again this season. We could maybe use an additional back-up striker, but otherwise we look good.
Is this based on any factual evidence - is there a report I have missed or is it just speculation on your behalf?
i heard that he went and got his own fitness coach when he realised he wasn't getting better with arsenal's staff
I'd say it's based on intuition. Consistent and recurring injuries - seemingly above and beyond other clubs, combined with the consistency with which players run down their contracts or fail to agree new ones.
Is there any evidence that we suffer more injuries or more long term injuries than other clubs though ? and if we do, whether it's down to bad luck, our training methods, diet and fitness, medical interventions etc It would be interesting to see some statistics on this. I'm sure there's someone out there who's willing to put hours of research in to find some evidence to slate our medical team. Would have been a good job for Jamrag
Plenty of factual evidence from players being allowed to run down their contracts (just last week Sagna said no-one had talked to him about a new deal + many other examples), to the injuries that seem to go on forever, despite the manager saying they will return much earlier. The main one here is Wilshere, but there's also Diaby and RVP. There's the second broken leg for Sagna where anyone could see he was slowing down substantially and had fitness issues prior to the leg-break. Then there's Diaby replacing the Arsenal trainer. Put together it suggests we're not a well run club. I know you don't want to hear it; I don't like to say it, but I'm just going on the evidence.... but sure, my conclusion based on the evidence is speculation.
Let's break this down point by point though. Sagna is nearly 30, has had two serious injuries and still has 2 years to go on his contract - I think the club are justified in not offering him a new extended contract just yet. Really ? I would have said that he was one of our better players before his second leg break, I didn't see any evidence of him slowing down and having fitness issues. Injuries to Diaby and RVP were long term. Don't forget that Diaby had his ankle smashed, it was never going to be an easy ride for him to get back to full fitness. Wilshere's injury is frustrating, but the reason he's probably not been rushed back is precisely because of the fact that when we've tried to introduce players back into the team before they are fully fit, they have got injured again. As for Diaby replacing the Arsenal trainer with his own - is there any evidence for that ? I'm not saying there isn't, but I'd like to see it. Even if he did though, I don't see it being a big problem. He's entitled to seek out whatever support he feels will help his progress. Lots of players utilise other fitness methods, Yoga, Pilates etc. Would you cite that as evidence of 'not a well run club' ?
One of the most frustrating things about Arsenal is the reticence to do the dirty washing in public. I say frustrating because it always leaves us open to speculation and conspiracy theories - but for as far as I can remember this has always been the Arsenal way. Because of this approach, anything that the club - in the form of Wenger - says is pulled apart to wring every nuance out and then re-assembled to fit the latest 'situation'. You are right, of course I dont want to hear that the club is badly run. I dont believe it is, but then I have nothing more to go on than you. That we see things in different ways merely indicates that the level of information put out by the club is minimal. I expect it is the same at most top clubs- and I dont think that they could be being run badly either - they wouldnt be 'top' clubs if they were.
Sagna is one of our best players so I would certainly be offering him a 1 year extension at this stage, although you're right that it's not essential yet. However, Sagna thought it necessary to mention it. Everyone on this board was remarking about how slow Sagna was getting. People were beating him for pace all the time. At the time, I put this down to a lack of fitness due to all the games he'd played after his previous leg break. Lets just say I wasn't surprised when he crumbled up on the pitch with no-one around him. That suggests some kind of stress-fracture, but like winifred says, that information isn't widely available (maybe it is, I dunno). Diaby had his ankle smashed, but the consistent injuries he's been getting all through his career (same with RVP) are very unusual. It's circumstantial though, maybe we've just had two extremely injury prone players. Wilshere though I don't understand. Wenger keeps saying he's coming back, and he keeps changing this estimate, presumably because new issues arise or Wilshere isn't recovering properly. This smacks of bad medical staff who are either rushing his recovery or doing something terribly wrong in the recovery process. The injury he had was never supposed to last this long. Diaby replacing his trainer seems to have coincided with his comeback to fitness and form. So make of that what you will: http://goallegacy.forumotion.com/t24365-diaby-s-physical-trainer-for-past-4-months-talks
I agree, all clubs want to limit what they put in the public domain. A top club can still be badly run; they'll just be under-achieving (perhaps like Arsenal has been the last 7 years, but again, that's speculation)
Well, I'm with the club on Sagna at the moment. I agree that he's one of our best players. But at nearly 30 we need to see how well he comes back before offering him another lucrative contract. He's got two years at the moment, so I don't see the need for a 1 year extension at the moment. Better to wait and see how much he has got to offer first. As for Diaby, more than any player I want him to succeed at Arsenal. The amount of **** some fans have given him is scandalous - and through no fault of his own. He basically had his ankle smashed by pub player Dan Smith and his road to recovery has been long, arduous and with a lot of setbacks. I'm not surprised that it's taken a specialist outside of the club to get him back to full fitness, as his injury and subsequent knock backs have been extremely specific to the root cause, his ankle. I don't see this as a reason to knock our medical team, more a reason to justify specialist treatment when it's needed, even if we have to buy it in from outside the club
I have to agree with this. I don't think you can expect your club physio to be an expert on the stranger injuries. Wilshere, Vermaelen and Diaby all seem to have had some unusual and rare conditions that have needed to be dealt with. There is no factual evidence to support a theory that our physios are not excellent. Our run of the mill, calf, hamstring and contact injuries take as long to heal as at every other club. Manchester United have had a number of strange conditions lately with Fletcher, Vidic, Rio, and Hargreaves and they have had the same kind of problems diagnosing and treating them.
Apparently he took a knock in the previous game and has muscle pain. Hopefully it's just a precaution . . .
