Official Gooners Thread - A New Hope

[muppet]

It's going all Rafa-shaped.

[ballinaman]

Bar RvP not one of that Arsenal team today would get near the top 4.

Walcott is f**king awful.

He's still young though, how old is he now? 17?

[EC Unique]

It's meltdown all over the shop. This time last year Arsenal were looking good. In the title race, easing through the CL, Fabregas/Nasri/RVP firing on all cylinders...the Arsene project was heading towards some form of silvery vindication.

If Wenger can somehow managed to challenge for 4th (City, Utd and Chelsea are too strong) come March it'll be his greatest achievement.

With the form spurs and Liverpool are showing I really doubt Arsenal will get a sniff of 4th. Massive money needs spent and the type of players that are needed do not become available in January windows. Arsenal are this years Liverpool.

[Dinny Breen]

Any chance we can just restrict this thread to Gooners only as all other comments just seem to come straight from the tabloids and equally laughable.

Any Arsenal watcher knows Arsenal's problems aren't related to money. Money can't buy you attitude and commitment.

[Boycey]

Any chance we can just restrict this thread to Gooners only as all other comments just seem to come straight from the tabloids and equally laughable.

Any Arsenal watcher knows Arsenal's problems aren't related to money. Money can't buy you attitude and commitment.

Maybe you should just lock the thread..... again.....

[brokencrossbar1]

Any chance we can just restrict this thread to Gooners only as all other comments just seem to come straight from the tabloids and equally laughable.

Any Arsenal watcher knows Arsenal's problems aren't related to money. Money can't buy you attitude and commitment.

Nah Dinny, you have to suffer the fools the way we have to suffer them over on the Liverpool thread.  I thin to k the big issue that Arsenal have is that Wenger bought late and consequently cheaply to replace the 2 players who everyone knew were leaving.  If he had said well f**k it they are gone now so lets spend big and get Mata and AN Other as opposed to the funny head shaped and Cesc very lite then there would have been a better start.   You are right though that the attitude is not great but surely it is the managers job to address that?  If he can't and if his purchases are not working then surely he has to accept responsibility.  I am not saying he should be sacked but the same arguments that were made to get rid of Rafa for years and Hodgson last year can now be made against Wenger. 

[Boycey]

Any chance we can just restrict this thread to Gooners only as all other comments just seem to come straight from the tabloids and equally laughable.

Any Arsenal watcher knows Arsenal's problems aren't related to money. Money can't buy you attitude and commitment.

Nah Dinny, you have to suffer the fools the way we have to suffer them over on the Liverpool thread.  I thin to k the big issue that Arsenal have is that Wenger bought late and consequently cheaply to replace the 2 players who everyone knew were leaving.  If he had said well f**k it they are gone now so lets spend big and get Mata and AN Other as opposed to the funny head shaped and Cesc very lite then there would have been a better start.   You are right though that the attitude is not great but surely it is the managers job to address that?  If he can't and if his purchases are not working then surely he has to accept responsibility.  I am not saying he should be sacked but the same arguments that were made to get rid of Rafa for years and Hodgson last year can now be made against Wenger.

Arsenals problems go way deeper than a couple of poor buys at the tail end of the transfer window. The signs have been there for 18-24 months?

[Dinny Breen]

Any chance we can just restrict this thread to Gooners only as all other comments just seem to come straight from the tabloids and equally laughable.

Any Arsenal watcher knows Arsenal's problems aren't related to money. Money can't buy you attitude and commitment.

Nah Dinny, you have to suffer the fools the way we have to suffer them over on the Liverpool thread.  I thin to k the big issue that Arsenal have is that Wenger bought late and consequently cheaply to replace the 2 players who everyone knew were leaving.  If he had said well f**k it they are gone now so lets spend big and get Mata and AN Other as opposed to the funny head shaped and Cesc very lite then there would have been a better start.   You are right though that the attitude is not great but surely it is the managers job to address that?  If he can't and if his purchases are not working then surely he has to accept responsibility.  I am not saying he should be sacked but the same arguments that were made to get rid of Rafa for years and Hodgson last year can now be made against Wenger.

Arsenals problems go way deeper than a couple of poor buys at the tail end of the transfer window. The signs have been there for 18-24 months?

Locking the thread only results in personal abuse from same said idiots so let them have their say and be shown for the tabloid monkeys they are.

Anyhow as Boycey points out the malaise has been there for a few years, you could say since they moved to the new stadium which has been a financial strain on Arsenal.

Arsenal's model over the last 5 years has been to bring in young talent on high wages and all are coached to play a certain way, this has been done at the expense of experience, players over 30 were only offered 1 year extensions. This lack of experience has been an issue in Arsenal's failure to win trophies, you look at the Arsenal team and there are no leaders. The Arsenal faithful though understood the financial constraints and bought into this new model but the believers are losing faith and what is sparking that loss of faith is that the players have lost faith. Fans respond to the actions on the field and too many times in the last 2 years these fans have seen poor work-rate, poor commitment and too many players hiding.  The sum of the parts is defintely less than what it should be and Arsenal are the polar opposite to Manchester United when it comes that metric, Manchester United are a team Arsenal are 11 individuals.

I only saw the last 10 minutes yesterday I saw no hunger, no drive no desire to get an equaliser, this was a derby against the Spuds, disgusting attitude.

Wenger is the architect, comparisons to Rafa and Hodgson in particular are flawed, Rafa tried to build something at Liverpool but even for a Madrid manager struggled with the Anfield politics, the way is Arsenal is run is entirely down to Wenger. This is his model and it's a model that has failed. The cross-roads that Arsenal are at is simple, do they allow Wenger time to rebuild or do they jettison him.

The Tabloid response is to get rid of him. That is not Arsenal way nor should it be. Wenger deserves the chance to build confidence in his team and give them back their faith. It's not going to be done over night and the players need to start to show the fans that they care about more than their bank balance and start showing some pride.

And on the transfers, Arsenal had to qualify for the UCL before they could determine a transfer budget hence the late deals and for the last time I will say this Gervinho was bought in advance to replace Nasri. The Fabregas saga was a gamble that failed.

Still apart from the top 3, Arsenal have nothing to fear, will be surprised if they make 4th now but wouldn't be shocked if they did.

[Orangemac]

Any chance we can just restrict this thread to Gooners only as all other comments just seem to come straight from the tabloids and equally laughable.

Any Arsenal watcher knows Arsenal's problems aren't related to money. Money can't buy you attitude and commitment.

I know Arsenal fans will not value his opinion but thought Bendtner's comments today that he enjoys coming into training at Sunderland are interesting. He says that there is great banter and camaraderie there.

There doesn't seem to be enough strong characters on or off the pitch at Arsenal. Wenger should have brought in the likes of Shay Given and Scott Parker (who ran the show yesterday) in the summer for next to nothing instead of the likes of Gervinho and Chamberlain..

[ONeill]

League resumes. Gulp.

The Bender cannot play against Arsenal today.

[muppet]

League resumes. Gulp.

The Bender cannot play against Arsenal today.

No Gaa or RWC to hide behind. When does the fantasy golf start again?

[Dinny Breen]

Are we still on the philosophical thread?

[ONeill]

Trawlers and sardines

[Gaffer]

League resumes. Gulp.

The Bender cannot play against Arsenal today.

He could never play against anyone if the truth be told.

[gawa316]

Van Persie almost did a cantona