*Official* English Football Season 2016-17

[Magrat Garlick]

I heard something about an extra point for the penalty shoot-out, too?

Real added time multiball level, that

 

[GIMH]

Yeah if it's a draw both get one point, they have pens, and the winner of that gets another.

 

[Furball]

Ripping off the Scottish League Cup I see.

 

[Cabinet96]

Seems like Wilshere is edging towards Roma. Which is nice.

 

[Furball]

Will be good experience for him to play abroad. Hope they've got good medical insurance.

 

[Uppercut]

Usually I would agree but Wilshere is so poorly suited to going to Italy in so many ways. His career is in a place where he doesn't have a lot to lose, but I'd be amazed if this works out.

 

[sledger]

Usually I would agree but Wilshere is so poorly suited to going to Italy in so many ways. His career is in a place where he doesn't have a lot to lose, but I'd be amazed if this works out.

Yeah, more or less my thoughts too. In any event, and in even the best case scenario, the extent to which him going and playing in Serie A for a year is likely to equip him well for playing regularly in the Premiership/for Arsenal strikes me as being fairly dubious, and presumably this is the purpose of the entire exercise.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah, more or less my thoughts too. In any event, and in even the best case scenario, the extent to which him going and playing in Serie A for a year is likely to equip him well for playing regularly in the Premiership/for Arsenal strikes me as being fairly dubious, and presumably this is the purpose of the entire exercise.

It also has almost no chance of increasing his value, so they should really just be selling him now. Maybe they tried and couldn't, but the reporting of the situation doesn't suggest so.

Really they should have sold him years ago, before his uselessness became common knowledge. I think Wenger is terrified of letting mediocre young players go permanently just in case they improve.

 

[Tangles]

Yeah if it's a draw both get one point, they have pens, and the winner of that gets another.

Sounds like a typical American idea tbh.

 

[sledger]

It also has almost no chance of increasing his value, so they should really just be selling him now. Maybe they tried and couldn't, but the reporting of the situation doesn't suggest so.

Really they should have sold him years ago, before his uselessness became common knowledge. I think Wenger is terrified of letting mediocre young players go permanently just in case they improve.

Yeah, I agree, which is odd, because I can barely think of any players he's let go during his time at Arsenal who have subsequently gone on to drastically improve/increase in value. So it's not like it should be a once bitten twice shy kind of thing.

 

[GIMH]

He's turned down AC Milan, Roma and Crystal Palace to go to Bournemouth

No, seriously

 

[sledger]

Good mates with Benik Afobe apparently. Anyway, IMO, on the whole it is probably one of the better choices he could have made. Serie A is an absolute basket case of a league, and the style of play over there would not suit the kind of player he is supposed to be at all.

 

[cpr]

Completely disagree, he's spurned the option of going to play in a different system, to learn a bit more about how they play over there (something that would be helpful at an international level, given the likes of Italy walk through us when it counts). What's he going to learn at Bournemouth? How to play a premier league style but at a worse club? If he wants to improve as a player than its a ridiculous step backwards.

I don't get the 'kind of player he's supposed to be' argument. Mainly because having played 34 minutes over the past 5 years, christ knows if anyone is sure what player he's supposed to be. Also, he's out of contention at the club he loves being that player, maybe thats a sign he needs to adapt a different style to get back in the team?

Seems to me he's taken the easy option.

 

[Cabinet96]

He's turned down AC Milan, Roma and Crystal Palace to go to Bournemouth

No, seriously

Arsenal turned down Roma. He wanted the move. Milan are an absolute car crash, would much rather he went to Bournemouth than there.

It also has almost no chance of increasing his value, so they should really just be selling him now. Maybe they tried and couldn't, but the reporting of the situation doesn't suggest so.

Really they should have sold him years ago, before his uselessness became common knowledge. I think Wenger is terrified of letting mediocre young players go permanently just in case they improve.

He's just a victim of the sunk cost fallacy. See also; Walcott, Theo and Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alex.

 

[sledger]

Completely disagree, he's spurned the option of going to play in a different system, to learn a bit more about how they play over there (something that would be helpful at an international level, given the likes of Italy walk through us when it counts). What's he going to learn at Bournemouth? How to play a premier league style but at a worse club? If he wants to improve as a player than its a ridiculous step backwards.

I don't get the 'kind of player he's supposed to be' argument. Mainly because having played 34 minutes over the past 5 years, christ knows if anyone is sure what player he's supposed to be. Also, he's out of contention at the club he loves being that player, maybe thats a sign he needs to adapt a different style to get back in the team?

Seems to me he's taken the easy option.

Playing at a worse club is better than not playing at all tbf. And regular Premiership football is surely what he needs if he's to have any prospect of... er, playing Premiership football regularly long term. For these reasons alone I don't think it can really be called a step backwards. And yeah, I'm generally in favour of England players going abroad, see the benefits of them doing so, and think they should do so more often. This just strikes me as a fairly obvious case where an exception should be made.

As for the kind of player he is, or meant to be, I think no matter how much he tries to invent himself, he's going to remain a supposedly cultured passing midfielder. I suspect he does not have the size, athleticism, or possibly even brain, to do anything else, let alone the technical skill. He is a player who enjoys time on the ball and being given the opportunity to play pretty passes. With the odd notable exception, most of whom are far more talented than Wilshere will ever be (e.g. Pirlo), Serie A is a league that tends to favour a direct and physical style of play. It just does not mesh with his profile at all. And that's before you get to the fact that, as cabinet alludes to, many of the teams in that league, including one of his suitors, are garbage.

 

[Ikki]

Bournemouth/Howe actually set up to play decent football, so it's not a terrible choice really.

 

[Uppercut]

Playing at a worse club is better than not playing at all tbf. And regular Premiership football is surely what he needs if he's to have any prospect of... er, playing Premiership football regularly long term. For these reasons alone I don't think it can really be called a step backwards. And yeah, I'm generally in favour of England players going abroad, see the benefits of them doing so, and think they should do so more often. This just strikes me as a fairly obvious case where an exception should be made.

As for the kind of player he is, or meant to be, I think no matter how much he tries to invent himself, he's going to remain a supposedly cultured passing midfielder. I suspect he does not have the size, athleticism, or possibly even brain, to do anything else, let alone the technical skill. He is a player who enjoys time on the ball and being given the opportunity to play pretty passes. With the odd notable exception, most of whom are far more talented than Wilshere will ever be (e.g. Pirlo), Serie A is a league that tends to favour a direct and physical style of play. It just does not mesh with his profile at all. And that's before you get to the fact that, as cabinet alludes to, many of the teams in that league, including one of his suitors, are garbage.

I wouldn't really describe him like that. He's decent at passing but he mostly just scraps and dribbles. Kind of makes him like Ramires without the durability or tactical awareness, and it's hard to imagine anything less useful.

 

[sledger]

I dunno, it's difficult to really describe him without having seen him properly for so long, but when he first came on the scene my impression was that Wenger basically wanted him to be the English Xavi.

 

[Cabinet96]

Think ideally he'd play like Santi has at CM over the last year and a half but with a bit more energy/pace/drive etc. Someone who's a good passer from deep, can also create chances and is press resistant because of his dribbling.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Liverpool signing Belgian striker Disis Aryear on a season long loan.