*Official* English Football Season 2009-2010

[duffer]

Over two legs we'll be fine. We're a far superior team to them.

 

[Uppercut]

Over two legs we'll be fine. We're a far superior team to them.

Celtic don't lose at home in Europe, so you absolutely have to do the job in London.

 

[sledger]

Over two legs we'll be fine. We're a far superior team to them.

We're a far superior team to a lot of sides we've been beaten by over the last 5 years tbh. I suspect you are right, but this really is a potential banana skin for mine.

 

[duffer]

We'll beat them. Willing to month long avy bet anyone tbh.

 

[TT Boy]

Celtic don't lose at home in Europe, so you absolutely have to do the job in London.

They lost last week in Europe, at home!

And the first leg is at Parkhead, isn't it?

 

[TT Boy]

Celtic are **** but winning in Moscow was a marvellous achievement, so it would be silly to write them off completely. Be nice if they ended Arsenal's season before September though.

 

[grecian]

Not entirely thrilled about this tbh, as it's the exact kind of match that Arsenal often lose, esspecially away from home. I can see them winning the home leg 1-0 or 2-1, and then being beaten 1-0 in the away leg. Bad draw for Arsenal tstl.

So who would you rather have? Lyon, Stuttgart, Sporting Lisbon, Fiorentina, Atletico Madrid???

The way it was structured this was always going to be a tough draw for you, I think you've got off pretty lightly, tbh.

In other news thank **** I'm going to Elland Road tomorrow, will totally avoid the cricket all day

 

[sledger]

So who would you rather have? Lyon, Stuttgart, Sporting Lisbon, Fiorentina, Atletico Madrid???

The way it was structured this was always going to be a tough draw for you, I think you've got off pretty lightly, tbh.

In other news thank **** I'm going to Elland Road tomorrow, will totally avoid the cricket all day

Yeah fair point.

 

[Uppercut]

They lost last week in Europe, at home!

And the first leg is at Parkhead, isn't it?

True. It doesn't happen often though.

I think it is at Parkhead, yeah. You'd always take the draw from there, and coming back to the Emirates needing a win is a tricky one, especially early in the season. I think they'll do it, but it's only 60-40 or so in their favour. And if they missed out it would be absolutely massive.

 

[Scaly piscine]

No idea google it.

Here to be proved wrong, but that's a really good draw for the Arse, possibly only one team that they'd prefer.

The hype will be tedium personified though, as all these Battle of Britain things are. Never really understood that name being given to these matches, I'm reasonably sure England and Scotland were on the same side in that skirmish

That and there is very little about the CDMs that's English and very little about Celtic that's Scottish.

Would laugh so much if the CDMs went out though, Chief Whingeur's potential personal fortune would take a dent.

 

[Jarquis]

Rosicky out for 6 weeks with a hamstring injury.
Jay Simpson on his way out on loan, Traore could follow but Wenger won't make a decision until the end of the transfer window.
We will only sign a CB if we sell Senderos.

The latest from Wenger.

 

[duffer]

5 live “If you went to the board and said I want two players and they are £25m each, what would your bosses say?”
Wenger “Are you sure? And then Yes”
5 Live “They would say yes?”
Wenger “Of course”

Ah, so that's why we penny pinch every transfer window.

 

[Jarquis]

Yeah but you've got to remember the impact they would have on the dressing room and how it would upset the lond term development of Song because he'd have yet another player (deservedly) ahead of him in the pecking order.

 

[sledger]

Am not holding out for any new signings of note tbh, reckon we might get one or two 22ish year old players from France/Africa but nobody who would be considered an established first teamer. I have all the time in the world for Wenger, and will support him and his decisions to the end, but there does come a point when this lack of Transfer activity becomes a bit frustrating. If you look at his record of big money signings it's not even like a lot of them have been complete turkeys either.

Nasri - £12m - has done a good job..

Arshavin - £15m - has had an outstanding start.

Eduardo - £7.5m - had a great season before his horrible injury.

Hleb - £11.5m - performed well and was a mainstay in the side.

Reyes - £11m - started well enough, tailed off massively but was hardly a total flop even when he did lose form.

Wiltord - £13m - underated player, people always bemoan how bad he was, but he scored a lot of goals, esspecially considering that a lot of the time he was playing on the right wing.

Pires - £11m - an absolute steal of a buy for a player of his quality, my favourite player of all time, at his peak there was no player in the world better in his position, so glad to got to see him play just the once.

Henry - £8m - pointless to say anything here, record speaks for itself.

 

[sledger]

Yeah but you've got to remember the impact they would have on the dressing room and how it would upset the lond term development of Song because he'd have yet another player (deservedly) ahead of him in the pecking order.

**** that, if you aren't good enough then you shouldn't be in the team, if you're too soft to accept that then you're in the wrong profession. You should never ever make a decision on the basis of it might upset certain people, that's how you end up in all sorts of trouble,

 

[Jarquis]

**** that, if you aren't good enough then you shouldn't be in the team, if you're too soft to accept that then you're in the wrong profession. You should never ever make a decision on the basis of it might upset certain people, that's how you end up in all sorts of trouble,

It was sarcastic. That's Wenger's philsophy though, every year is building for next year. Developing players for the future, he's quite regularly come out and said he doesn't want to spend money on big names if they're going to disrupt the dressing room and upset the players we already have. I'd back Wenger to the hills on most things but players like Song are never going to be world class, then there are others like Diaby who has more talent in his litttle toe than Song does in his whole body but he has no work rate to speak of.
You can give them time to develop but there must come a point where you realise this isn't going as well as originally planned and bring somebody in. Until Wenger does that, we will eventually end up in all sorts of trouble as you just said yourself.

 

[duffer]

Yeah but you've got to remember the impact they would have on the dressing room and how it would upset the lond term development of Song because he'd have yet another player (deservedly) ahead of him in the pecking order.

Why not replace players not good enough to start for Arsenal with players who are? We might actually win something.

Arsene is paid to have the best interests of Arsenal at heart, not the best interests of Song, Denilson and Diaby. Leaving money in the bank while his team is so deficient is inexplicable.

EDIT: Oh, you were kidding. Haha.

 

[The Sean]

Reyes - £11m - started well enough, tailed off massively but was hardly a total flop even when he did lose form.

Pires - £11m - an absolute steal of a buy for a player of his quality, my favourite player of all time, at his peak there was no player in the world better in his position, so glad to got to see him play just the once.

Henry - £8m - pointless to say anything here, record speaks for itself.

Bobby was only £6.5m, which makes him even more spectacular value. Henry was about £11m though.

And I thought that was the initial fee for Reyes, eventually rising to a maximum of £17.5m? Didn't make it that high obviously but I think he ended up around £13-15m or so.

 

[Jarquis]

Bobby was only £6.5m, which makes him even more spectacular value. Henry was about £11m though.

And I thought that was the initial fee for Reyes, eventually rising to a maximum of £17.5m? Didn't make it that high obviously but I think he ended up around £13-15m or so.

Nah, IIRC none of the clauses were evoked. Didn't play enough games, didn't score enough etc etc.
I do believe that the Reyes saga genuinely led to Wenger suffering from the "once bitten twice as shy" policy in the TM.

 

[duffer]

Am not holding out for any new signings of note tbh, reckon we might get one or two 22ish year old players from France/Africa but nobody who would be considered an established first teamer. I have all the time in the world for Wenger, and will support him and his decisions to the end, but there does come a point when this lack of Transfer activity becomes a bit frustrating. If you look at his record of big money signings it's not even like a lot of them have been complete turkeys either.

Nasri - £12m - has done a good job..

Arshavin - £15m - has had an outstanding start.

Eduardo - £7.5m - had a great season before his horrible injury.

Hleb - £11.5m - performed well and was a mainstay in the side.

Reyes - £11m - started well enough, tailed off massively but was hardly a total flop even when he did lose form.

Wiltord - £13m - underated player, people always bemoan how bad he was, but he scored a lot of goals, esspecially considering that a lot of the time he was playing on the right wing.

Pires - £11m - an absolute steal of a buy for a player of his quality, my favourite player of all time, at his peak there was no player in the world better in his position, so glad to got to see him play just the once.

Henry - £8m - pointless to say anything here, record speaks for itself.

None of those were truly huge money signings although some were spectacular and the rest were at least useful. Considering how big and rich a club we are they are though it's crazy how low the tope end of our expenditure is.

You have to give Arsene props, he's made a net gain fo soemthing like 40m over the past 3 years in the market while still keeping us somewhat credible but he's here to win trophies not make money for us. On that criteria the past 4 years haven't been great no matter what our spin doctors at the club try and say.