Yanka, Willian, Mikkhi, Salah No we're missing Lucas, Enrique, Agger hopefully Sakho back though, cant imagine he'd start though would he They're missing a lot of good players as well though and not just Theo
don't like cinemas, 1, no leg room, and 2, you cant relax and have a smoke unless you go really really late. i always wait for dvd now days lol
A few points about this thread: 1) Arsenal have had to accept 4th spot as being a success in the last few seasons due to several factors. The main one being the move to the Emirates. It financialy hamstrung us and meant we struggled to keep a hold of our top players. With them leaving and a reliance on youth and bargain signings we had a couple of poor years. Our lowest point since Wenger has been at the club coincided with Spurs having their best team for years and City spending billions to assemble a team. The combinations of factors made it feel like a success to have maintained that CL position (which other big clubs have failed to do). Particularly when without CL football there was still the opportunity for us to pull a Liverpool and end up in mid-table for a handful of seasons ( ). The financial implications of being in the CL, along with the attraction to incomming players meant it was important for us to maintain our place in the top 4. We've done this at the expense of City, Spurs, Chelsea and Liverpool at times over the last handful of years. Granted it isn't a trophy but there where very obvious reasons why it was so important for us to keep at that level. Think it's a bit of a WUM to try and ignore the reality of Arsenals recent History to try and annoy Arsenal fans Since our last trophy we have been to a handful of finals including the CL and come close to winning the league in 2 seasons. Fine margins have been the difference between staying trophyless and having a very respectable trophy haul during that time. Baring in mind that a couple of domestic cups is all Liverpool have won during this time and that they haven't had the enjoyment of playing in the top competions when winning those lowly trophies i don't think it's exactly a big stick you have to beat us Arsenal fans with their. Yep you have won a couple of trophies but so have Wigan and Birgmingham down in the lower leagues. Over the trophyless period that you try to slate us with i think the majority of people would see Arsenal as being the bigger club and being closer to proper success. Now it looks like better times for both clubs to be fair. Arsenal are back challenging for the title and bringing in world class players (finally we are in a much better financial position with new financial deals in place with our sponsors) and Liverpool look like they may make it back into the top 4 for the first time in a handful of years (which id prefer to either of Spurs or Utd!). Both teams haven't had their greatest periods of history in the last few years, so i think it's worth holding the punches in that area 2) I think it's pretty funny that you're all turning on Toure now, after i came on here and discussed defenders at the start of the season and made it very clear that i thought Toure was past it and would make mistakes. And i got shouted down, told i didn't know what i was talking about, Toure was obviously better than both Mert and Kosc (one of, if not the best CB pairings in the league) and almost run off your board Glad to see your all comming round now 3) Not sure what the issue was with Wengers comments RE Suarez, why would he regret making a bid? He thought he could get a top player at a good price, turns out he couldn't get that player so went and signed Ozil instead leading us to the top of the table. What does he have to regret? lol 4) Can't wait for this game. I always enjoy our matches with Liverpool because you try to play football and don't turn it into a dour affair where everyone is too scraed to go for it. Should be a brilliant game given the form of both teams this season and both styles of play. We've had a good record against you lot in recent times so i feel confident we can get a result. I think a lot will come down to how well you can press our midfield and how well Kosc does up against Suarez. 5) Despite hoping we destroy you on the weekend I do hope you lot can maintain your form and take that 4th spot.
No issues with Wengers comments at all just adding info to the thread Toure was doing very well for us and started not doing as well after the Hull game so when you came saying that, we could only go off what we'd seen of him "Despite hoping we destroy you on the weekend I do hope you lot can maintain your form and take that 4th spot" Back at you, if we cant win the league (Im obv going to choose us first and foremost so no piss taking) then I want you to out of the other contenders, especially dont want Chelsea winning the thing
AFCFTW: Nice to see a decent, not overtly WUM, post from a rival fan. Few and far between on our threads, unfortunately. We seem to attract WUMs like flies to the proverbial. Your long defense of not winning a trophy and your 'told-you-so' attitude on Toure doing a 'reverse Mert' aside I thought you had some valuable points which were made in a humourous and measured manner. 1) I appreciate that Arsenal have been close to trophies but their lack of silverware makes their trophy drought all the more strange. It's almost as if it's a mental thing with Arsenal. Liverpool's failure to challenge on more than one front has usually (and mostly fairly, TBH) been attributed to small squad size, quality within the squad, or both. Our first team has always been capable of winning things, but the squad has usually been too thin to rotate and keep winning and was massively impacted upon (and still is!) by injuries. Probably one of the reasons we're shipping as many goals as we have this season. 2) Easy to say in retrospect. Toure flattered to deceicve in his first few games with us and I'm sure he can still put in performances for us, but he's certainly proven, and also given his age, he's not regular starting material. Some Arsenal fans (along with rival fans in droves!) were slating Mert when he first went to Arsenal as he looked ponderous and seemed unable to adapt to the style of the Premiership. After sticking with him he's been excellent for you guys and a consistently positive influence on your defense. Also, a lot of people (Arsenal fans included!) were calling for Wenger's head not so long ago ... Just goes to show that opinions on people can change almost overnight and overreactions are almost the norm with footie fans. (We're a fickle crowd! Some more than most!) 3) Just think the lads are having a bit of banter on this to be honest. I couldn't (just in case you're American! ) care less about Wenger's comments, TBH. 4) Also looking forward to this game. We've performed well against the top four but not really got any joy from the games. Fans of the 'Gambler's Fallacy' might say we're due a win against a top team, but this is not necessarily so. Chances are we're equally likely to play well/poor and lose again. But we're scoring well and our home form is excellent, and we're conceding goals, too, so this game has the potential to be a goal-fest. (Watch it be the dullest bore-draw ever!) 5) Also hope you do well this season, except at Anfield this weekend!
It's definately a mental thing with Arsenal, the 2011 League Cup was a prime example. We get right up to the finishing line and then something seems to come unstuck. I think now we have a different kind of player though, we have hard working players who know to win they need to maintain that consistency and hard work. Before we relied on talented foreign players who seemed to think there obvious talent and ability meant they would be default beat worse opposition. Agreed i think it may be a bit of a goalfest on saturday as well. We seem to score 2-3 goals per game as a standard at the moment and you lot have the most lethal strike partnership so far this season! (p.s. my Toure comments where meant as a light hearted i told you so to the guys on here who took great pleasure in telling me i was a fool to doubt Toure in comparison to Arsenals defence Didn't mean it to come across overly wummy hehe)
I respond because its putting me in the same box as others that have been critical. I don't think Toure has done much wrong and he is getting unfair stick because he made a costly error in the last game. But then, i never expected him to be a world beater when he joined either.
I doubt it, he obviously had information that he could get Suarez for that amount so he bid that amount. It wasn't possible so he stopped being interested in the signing. Nothing to regret about that at all. He tried and failed to get a player and given the opportunity and same informationagain i'm sure the same decision would be made. Anyone in his position would have done the same thing. I know some people like to think they would just throw away an extra million or two onto the bid so as not to annoy the opposition club, but in reality business don't just throw away millions for the fun of it when there is nothing to be gained from it. I know you guys like to have a good laugh at the +1 thing and given the amount of stuff about Suarez leaving and then you guys managing to keep a hold of him i get why you have latchedo nto it - and tbh i have seen it used in some pretty funny ways But i don't see what there is to regret about trying your luck for a top player.
+1 pound though, there is trying your luck and then there is taking a bit of the piss! Especially when Bale goes for around 80 million, that was always going to be a hard bid to pull off when Suarez was at that level if not higher! Am curious as to what the buy-out clause is now that it is surely put into the new contract he signed, must be massive.
nothing wrong with the bid, just we was on the wrong end of it we have probably done similar to get a player, why pay more than you have to, just we didn't want to lose a class player with the precarious position we are in currently, as he can take us to the next level, it was good for comedy value though the £1 bid.
tbf to him we did that when we were going after Suarez. The best player in the dutch league and we came in with a 12 mil bid. It was so low they almost pulled the plug and Commolli had to get over there quick and make up for it, eventually getting it to 22. 10 million we were trying to get away with........ then again it wasn't 12 mil +1 and a bag of crisps.
Whether he had information or not, he came out of it looking very silly because of that +£1. Plus the fact the fact he basically admitted an illegal approach by making such a move, how else would he have known? Whether he was trying to make a point (it got into the media somehow) or not is pretty much irrelevant. It was an embarrassment for Arsenal and Arsene. You said anyone else would have done the same and that they would have thrown a million or two away if they didn't need to. Fair point but there are other ways and means of achieving the amount. Why not offer £41m or £42m but make the payment performance related so it doesn't cost the club in terms of turnover? Ie, if Arsenal had to pay the extra bit then you would have achieved something that would have paid the difference anyway. Anyway, I've had this discussion with you and other Arsenal fans before and I know we won't get anywhere
