Arsenal Football Club - The Gunner's Thread
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Senior Member
Wenger swoops for 'Little Angel'
Arsène Wenger has continued his policy of signing the hottest young talent in South America with the acquisition of two teenage stars, Angel Di Maria and Pedro. The pair will follow Carlos Vela and spend next season on loan at the Spanish club Salamanca.
One of his two latest signings, Pedro, a 17-year-old Brazilian who can play at left-back or at left-midfield was presented by Salamanca yesterday. The club said he will train with them, then spend two weeks at Arsenal before returning to Brazil until October. Then he will be Salamanca's player for the rest of the season.
Pedro, who can also play in attack, has already featured for the first-team of the Brazilian club Figueirense but it is Di Maria who is currently regarded as the more exciting prospect by the Arsenal scout Giles Grimandi who has watched the 19-year-old at the Under-20 World Championships in Canada.
Arsenal are paying around £2m to the Argentine club Rosario Central for Di Maria, who is known as "the Little Angel" and who has scored two goals in four games as Argentina have reached the last four of the tournament. After it finishes he will join Pedro.
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Sounds like real good prospects.. lotsa exciting youngsters coming in..
Arsène Wenger has continued his policy of signing the hottest young talent in South America with the acquisition of two teenage stars, Angel Di Maria and Pedro. The pair will follow Carlos Vela and spend next season on loan at the Spanish club Salamanca.
One of his two latest signings, Pedro, a 17-year-old Brazilian who can play at left-back or at left-midfield was presented by Salamanca yesterday. The club said he will train with them, then spend two weeks at Arsenal before returning to Brazil until October. Then he will be Salamanca's player for the rest of the season.
Pedro, who can also play in attack, has already featured for the first-team of the Brazilian club Figueirense but it is Di Maria who is currently regarded as the more exciting prospect by the Arsenal scout Giles Grimandi who has watched the 19-year-old at the Under-20 World Championships in Canada.
Arsenal are paying around £2m to the Argentine club Rosario Central for Di Maria, who is known as "the Little Angel" and who has scored two goals in four games as Argentina have reached the last four of the tournament. After it finishes he will join Pedro.
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Sounds like real good prospects.. lotsa exciting youngsters coming in..
Static
New Member
i hope this is a hoax... really REALLY hope
it's nightmarish to me..
It was a hoax. Confirmed...
Featured in yesterday NEWPAPER.
Anyway, it was said that number 14 jersey will not be used by any arsenal player at the
moment. About Justin Hoyte leaving.. is it confirmed ? I don't think AW would let him leave.
This is shocking
FooFighter
New Member
Just read it on the Newpaper.
Emirates Cup:
Saturday 28 July. Ch 22. 11pm. Arsenal v PSG
Emirates Cup:
Saturday 28 July. Ch 22. 11pm. Arsenal v PSG
Static
New Member
Just read it on the Newpaper.
Emirates Cup:
Saturday 28 July. Ch 22. 11pm. Arsenal v PSG
Thanks for the info
Anyway, new season begins in less than a month.
ExcitedLet's see how the other club's new signing fare.
:vhappy: We will see more of Theo Walcott, more of RVP, more of Emmanuel Adebayor (my personal fav cuz I see him as the most promising gunner) , more Cesc (Hope he eat more meat :sweat: ).
Let's see how our new signing perform ! No. 9 :thumbsup:
FooFighter
New Member
This season, Rosicky confirmed will be in my fantasy league! ;p
I will be setting up a EPL fantasy league soon, i might extend the invite to fellow CSers.. see how lah, no promises...
[Update]
Freddie Ljungberg has signed for West Ham!! Good luck Freddie and thanks for the 9 yrs of service!
I will be setting up a EPL fantasy league soon, i might extend the invite to fellow CSers.. see how lah, no promises...
[Update]
Freddie Ljungberg has signed for West Ham!! Good luck Freddie and thanks for the 9 yrs of service!
FooFighter
New Member
Arsenal won the Emirates Cup by beating Inter Milan 2-1. Van Persie(cat) scored the winner after Milan took the lead in the second half and Hleb equalized for the Arsenal. ;p
Btw I just set up a private league in www.premierleague.com. If you are interested, setup ur own team in there and PM me ur email and I will send u the invitation.
Btw I just set up a private league in www.premierleague.com. If you are interested, setup ur own team in there and PM me ur email and I will send u the invitation.
FooFighter
New Member
Yeah.. Van Persie(cat).. meow! I mean bang! bang! goal!!!! ;p
This weekend I think there's another Arsenal game, Lazio V Arsenal (Amsterdam Tournament) on CH22.
Can't remember the showtime, can anyone post it here? :dunno:
This weekend I think there's another Arsenal game, Lazio V Arsenal (Amsterdam Tournament) on CH22.
Can't remember the showtime, can anyone post it here? :dunno:
FooFighter
New Member
Thanks babe!
Some Arsenal News:
Jose Reyes has joined Atletico Madrid from Arsenal in a deal believed to be worth £8million.
Reyes, who signed a four-year deal, joined Arsenal from Sevilla in 2004 for an initial fee of £10.5m, rising to £18m. So Arsenal lost something, but not as much as some of the figures quoted.
Arsenal defender Kerrea Gilbert, 20, has completed a move to Coca-Cola League One side Southend on a six-month loan deal. "At Arsenal I'm not going to get the chance really to play this season because they have signed another right-back," he said.
Sad to see JAR going, but that means Arsenal will be able to buy another player.. wait for news this week :thumbsup:
Static
New Member
Thanks babe!
Sad to see JAR going, but that means Arsenal will be able to buy another player.. wait for news this week :thumbsup:
Glad to see that JAR go. He is not good enuff for arsenal. I think AW will go for a proven and tested EPL player like martins (Newcastle). He spends so
much tinkering on "promising" youngsters.. :think:
FooFighter
New Member
I think AW will go for a proven and tested EPL player like martins (Newcastle). He spends so
much tinkering on "promising" youngsters.. :think:
imho, JAR didnt do well coz TH14 didnt wanna play him in, coz JAR will replace his good buddy Pires.
Dun think Arsenal will need a striker. Maybe a winger or another defender... ;p
As for Martins, there are rumours that he is not as young as the player registration form says. Remember he is from Nigeria.
N
nomaddy
Guest
I've heard others talk about how arsene wenger has been takling about his "promising" side for too long. Although I really don't want to believe it, I've read commentories of Manu having a young and exciting squad. Fergie puts youth with experience, like nani and the new signing of owen hargereves. Maybe AW should consider signing a bit of experience over "genuine potential" and "promise".
FooFighter
New Member
I understand how you feel about Arsenal's future.
Well sometimes there are alot of factors coming into play. AW has to find the right balance on the playing field and off the field (balancing the financial side) which is hard.
Last year Arsenal is the 3rd highest paymaster in the epl, but those high earners (Ljungberg, TH14) didnt justify the wages. I am happy to see them go. Arsenal can't afford to keep them in the team.
I think the club has some difficulties financially due to the new stadium, (notice that AW needs to sell before he can buy) but thats temporary. I have been to Emirates and its FANASTIC. Arsenal can only go up with the new stadium. There are 40,000 on the waiting list for season tickets.
At least we know AW is not a cheque-book manager with no regard to the future of the club (look at Leeds, David O'leary).
As for youngsters, Arsenal is competing with alot of London clubs for young talents (due to FA restriction on the 'catchment' area of each club, example Arsenal cannot bring in youngster from Liverpool area) so I know why AW needs to scout overseas for youngsters.
Anyway AW only buying players to replace those that left. He is telling the youngsters "this is your chance". No point investing in youth team setup and then buy someone experienced to put infront of the young player.
I think my reply is outta thread, but I want to convey the message that AW is a responsible manager and Arsenal is lucky to have him. He won us many titles over the years against Manu with only 25% or less of Manu's financial muscle. He is building his team again but sometimes things does not work properly for him and he had to adjust along the way. (Baptista, Reyes)
Keep the faith
I think I might even put in S$10 on Arsenal winning the title ;p
Have a great day today Gooners!
FooFighter
New Member
Hey you guys playing the EPL fantasy league? There is a Clubsnap league in there. Join us!
Get more details here http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=299509
Get more details here http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=299509
i hope this is a hoax... really REALLY hope
it's nightmarish to me..
its real....they wore this vs lazio in amsterdam. also on sale on arsenal site ;p
Static
New Member
:bsmilie: lol :think: maybe they count their age according to their Nigerian Lunar Calender.
Hehe noted with thanks !!
Arsenal draw with the SPARTANS !!!! Hehehe
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=449873&cc=4716
Adebayor set to miss 1st part of the opening season due to groin injury
It's ok arsenal dun win anything as long as they play attractive football !!!!
FooFighter
New Member
Who's watching Ajax v Arsenal ?
I rather Arsenal win something every season so as to shut up the critics ya know?
This year Arsenal could surprise everyone. Since everyone else is saying Arsenal no chance to win anything significant, the pressure is off. Things can only improve.
Can't wait for season to start, bring on Fulham! :angry:
I rather Arsenal win something every season so as to shut up the critics ya know?
This year Arsenal could surprise everyone. Since everyone else is saying Arsenal no chance to win anything significant, the pressure is off. Things can only improve.
Can't wait for season to start, bring on Fulham! :angry:
FooFighter
New Member
Season about to start!!
This is a nice article on Arsenal...
James Lawton: Wenger's dark horses can conjure a triumph for the purists
The Frenchman's brilliant young Arsenal side have the quality and the self-belief to be surprise title winners
Published: 10 August 2007
Sometimes in football, as in life, it is necessary to make an act of faith. Ideally, though, it is accompanied by a thread of logic and a set of beliefs about what is right and wrong, what deserves success and what doesn't.
Most of all, if you are detached just a little from the apparent need of so many to have their team at the centre of their existence, the hope is for something that does most for the general good, in this case the spirit and the horizons of the money-loaded, morally poverty-stricken Premier League.
What am I saying? Two things. One is that is nothing would be more uplifting to the debate about how a football team should be run, what its priorities should be, and how it plays, than for Arsenal to return to the peak of English football and win another title for their allegedly embattled manager Arsène Wenger.
The other is that, despite the widespread dismissal of their chances by the bookmakers who have them 10-1, they are eminently capable of doing it.
Their chances should certainly not be dismissed, and least of all by the man who has so brilliantly re- invented their greatest rivals, Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson, claims that he has his strongest ever squad, which is of course what he would say. What he cannot suggest is that Arsenal are necessarily crippled by their youth. With great courage he made nonsense of such a theory, and the infancy of Alan Hansen's career as a pundit, when he released Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, the Neville boys and Nicky Butt. Hansen declared that you can't win with kids. Fergie proved him wrong and won the title, as his great predecessor Sir Matt Busby did, four decades earlier with his unforgettable Babes. It simply depended on the quality of the kids.
Relatively speaking, does Wenger hold the same kind of hand as Busby and Ferguson? Do the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Adebayor and the potential powerhouse Abou Diaby, and the physically and psychologically maturing Robin van Persie, Eduardo da Silva and Bacary Sagna suffer too much in comparison.? Not in the bright light of a new football dawn.
When you feed in the experience of William Gallas, whose substance was underlined by the strength of the reaction at Stamford Bridge to his noisy journey across town, and Kolo Toure and Gilberto, and consider the potential of such as the lurking young Brazilian Denilson, you have to question the rampaging belief that Arsenal, as serious contenders, are shot through.
Why is the suspicion so entrenched? Largely, it seems, because Thierry Henry is gone. In truth, it is the fantasy of Henry that left for Barcelona. The reality of him was scarcely present last season - and certainly not when Adebayor scored a beautifully sculpted goal at Old Trafford for the first of Arsenal's two Premier League victories over the champions-elect.
When Henry was operating at his best for Arsenal the idea of his leaving was unthinkable. He was the spirit and the genius of the side that played so beautifully and, so staggeringly, went a whole season undefeated. That Henry was precious and irreplaceable. He illuminated both the game and the sky. The one that finally packed his bags was much less than that. Some of his aura slipped away in the Champions League final a year last spring. He had the perfect chance to pull the trigger against Barcelona but his instincts froze. So, you had the sense, did his willingness to continue as the supreme guiding light of an emerging young team.
Now those taking the Arsenal odds in preference to those against United, 11-8, Chelsea 6-4 and Liverpool 9-2 has to take the leap on which all of Wenger's immediate hopes depend.
They have to believe that in a way Henry's absence is not a blow but an incentive.
An incentive, this is, for a whole team to grow up, to grasp that potential is a diet on which you can exist only so long without losing a certain strength and panache. Last season Wenger yearned for signs of such dawning knowledge and that it came so spasmodically was no doubt the greatest source of his frustration. Sometimes you could look at his face and see that he ached for a sign of a new force creating the old alchemy.
Fabegras, at 20, has already expressed his desire to be captain of the club. There is nothing wrong with this as long as it is underpinned by a consistent body of work. Some older heads might mutter about an upstart's pretensions but not those who recognise the kid's extraordinary ability to shape a game, to invite responsibility with the moral courage to get on the ball and make things happen. This is a rare quality in a modern midfielder and Fabregas's progress is still another tribute to the insight and the operating style of his manager.
There were times last season when a popular view was that Wenger was losing it. His touchline capers smacked of desperation. But then Wenger's vision of football has always been that of an artist and it has to be noted that, unlike Vincent Van Gogh, he has yet to cut off an ear... or the lifeblood of his success.
Wenger would no more dream of stocking his team with players he has never seen as Sven Goran Eriksson has done in his wild punt with Manchester City as spend half a training session practising long throw-ins. Wenger is about the certainties of knowing and believing in his players, and whatever the internal politics at Arsenal and whether or not his friend David Dein will return to the fold in the company of vast amounts of American money we can be sure that his priorities will remain undisturbed. Yes, we know he is a wretched loser, in some ways worse than Ferguson, but how much in the end does it matter? What is more forgivable? A fierce, and sometimes dislocating, hatred of defeat for the team you have made and whose best values you cherish? Or a desire to win for its own sake and at the expense of all that creates the excitement and the beauty of the game which has given you so much? We should know, by now, where Wenger stands on this most important question of all.
We certainly know that Wenger, no more than Ferguson or Rafael Benitez, would not still be in his job if his club had behaved towards him as Chelsea have recently treated Jose Mourinho. Mourinho has buried, at least publicly, his angst at the appointment of owner Roman Abramovich's nomination Avram Grant to the coaching staff and, in the context of the Russian's wealth, a cruel pegging back of his ability to spend on the players he wants, but there has to be the strongest sense that the Special One is reduced, for the first time in his extraordinary career, to papering over cracks in what was once a fortress. He walked away from Benfica, the most important club in his own football culture, because they wanted him to surrender some of his independence. Now, whatever he says, he is Abramovich's compliant servant a status that Wenger, we have to believe, wouldn't countenance for a second.
Of course, Chelsea are still formidable, and not least because of the players' devotion to their embattled coach, but the plague of injuries, and the sense of divided command, says here that they will again be a stride short of the mountain top.
United, augmented by Owen Hargreaves, Nani and Anderson, remain the team everyone has to measure themselves against. Ferguson's confidence is founded solidly enough, but there are still vital questions to be answered. Will Cristiano Ronaldo produce the full range of his talent in the most important matches something he failed to do last season despite a blizzard of acclaim and will Wayne Rooney achieve with Carlos Tevez the chemistry that was once or twice so thrilling when he travelled briefly in the company of the old but still bright star Henrik Larsson? Will Rio Ferdinand, for all his gifts, be able to banish another wave of doubts about his defensive resolution? Positive answers to any of these questions will lift the bar for United's three significant challengers, not least Liverpool, who may know that Fernando Torres is a major acquisition but are unlikely to be too sure of their best line-up before Christmas.
There is maybe just one certainty in the coming season. It is that Arsenal will play as they always do, which is to say with artistry and intelligence and a wonderful ambition. That, and the anticipation that Fabregas will make his most serious challenge thus far as everyone's idea of a footballer of the year, surely makes the blood run fast. The hunch is that it will do so all to way to triumph, for both Arsenal and football, in the spring.
This is a nice article on Arsenal...
James Lawton: Wenger's dark horses can conjure a triumph for the purists
The Frenchman's brilliant young Arsenal side have the quality and the self-belief to be surprise title winners
Published: 10 August 2007
Sometimes in football, as in life, it is necessary to make an act of faith. Ideally, though, it is accompanied by a thread of logic and a set of beliefs about what is right and wrong, what deserves success and what doesn't.
Most of all, if you are detached just a little from the apparent need of so many to have their team at the centre of their existence, the hope is for something that does most for the general good, in this case the spirit and the horizons of the money-loaded, morally poverty-stricken Premier League.
What am I saying? Two things. One is that is nothing would be more uplifting to the debate about how a football team should be run, what its priorities should be, and how it plays, than for Arsenal to return to the peak of English football and win another title for their allegedly embattled manager Arsène Wenger.
The other is that, despite the widespread dismissal of their chances by the bookmakers who have them 10-1, they are eminently capable of doing it.
Their chances should certainly not be dismissed, and least of all by the man who has so brilliantly re- invented their greatest rivals, Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson, claims that he has his strongest ever squad, which is of course what he would say. What he cannot suggest is that Arsenal are necessarily crippled by their youth. With great courage he made nonsense of such a theory, and the infancy of Alan Hansen's career as a pundit, when he released Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, the Neville boys and Nicky Butt. Hansen declared that you can't win with kids. Fergie proved him wrong and won the title, as his great predecessor Sir Matt Busby did, four decades earlier with his unforgettable Babes. It simply depended on the quality of the kids.
Relatively speaking, does Wenger hold the same kind of hand as Busby and Ferguson? Do the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Adebayor and the potential powerhouse Abou Diaby, and the physically and psychologically maturing Robin van Persie, Eduardo da Silva and Bacary Sagna suffer too much in comparison.? Not in the bright light of a new football dawn.
When you feed in the experience of William Gallas, whose substance was underlined by the strength of the reaction at Stamford Bridge to his noisy journey across town, and Kolo Toure and Gilberto, and consider the potential of such as the lurking young Brazilian Denilson, you have to question the rampaging belief that Arsenal, as serious contenders, are shot through.
Why is the suspicion so entrenched? Largely, it seems, because Thierry Henry is gone. In truth, it is the fantasy of Henry that left for Barcelona. The reality of him was scarcely present last season - and certainly not when Adebayor scored a beautifully sculpted goal at Old Trafford for the first of Arsenal's two Premier League victories over the champions-elect.
When Henry was operating at his best for Arsenal the idea of his leaving was unthinkable. He was the spirit and the genius of the side that played so beautifully and, so staggeringly, went a whole season undefeated. That Henry was precious and irreplaceable. He illuminated both the game and the sky. The one that finally packed his bags was much less than that. Some of his aura slipped away in the Champions League final a year last spring. He had the perfect chance to pull the trigger against Barcelona but his instincts froze. So, you had the sense, did his willingness to continue as the supreme guiding light of an emerging young team.
Now those taking the Arsenal odds in preference to those against United, 11-8, Chelsea 6-4 and Liverpool 9-2 has to take the leap on which all of Wenger's immediate hopes depend.
They have to believe that in a way Henry's absence is not a blow but an incentive.
An incentive, this is, for a whole team to grow up, to grasp that potential is a diet on which you can exist only so long without losing a certain strength and panache. Last season Wenger yearned for signs of such dawning knowledge and that it came so spasmodically was no doubt the greatest source of his frustration. Sometimes you could look at his face and see that he ached for a sign of a new force creating the old alchemy.
Fabegras, at 20, has already expressed his desire to be captain of the club. There is nothing wrong with this as long as it is underpinned by a consistent body of work. Some older heads might mutter about an upstart's pretensions but not those who recognise the kid's extraordinary ability to shape a game, to invite responsibility with the moral courage to get on the ball and make things happen. This is a rare quality in a modern midfielder and Fabregas's progress is still another tribute to the insight and the operating style of his manager.
There were times last season when a popular view was that Wenger was losing it. His touchline capers smacked of desperation. But then Wenger's vision of football has always been that of an artist and it has to be noted that, unlike Vincent Van Gogh, he has yet to cut off an ear... or the lifeblood of his success.
Wenger would no more dream of stocking his team with players he has never seen as Sven Goran Eriksson has done in his wild punt with Manchester City as spend half a training session practising long throw-ins. Wenger is about the certainties of knowing and believing in his players, and whatever the internal politics at Arsenal and whether or not his friend David Dein will return to the fold in the company of vast amounts of American money we can be sure that his priorities will remain undisturbed. Yes, we know he is a wretched loser, in some ways worse than Ferguson, but how much in the end does it matter? What is more forgivable? A fierce, and sometimes dislocating, hatred of defeat for the team you have made and whose best values you cherish? Or a desire to win for its own sake and at the expense of all that creates the excitement and the beauty of the game which has given you so much? We should know, by now, where Wenger stands on this most important question of all.
We certainly know that Wenger, no more than Ferguson or Rafael Benitez, would not still be in his job if his club had behaved towards him as Chelsea have recently treated Jose Mourinho. Mourinho has buried, at least publicly, his angst at the appointment of owner Roman Abramovich's nomination Avram Grant to the coaching staff and, in the context of the Russian's wealth, a cruel pegging back of his ability to spend on the players he wants, but there has to be the strongest sense that the Special One is reduced, for the first time in his extraordinary career, to papering over cracks in what was once a fortress. He walked away from Benfica, the most important club in his own football culture, because they wanted him to surrender some of his independence. Now, whatever he says, he is Abramovich's compliant servant a status that Wenger, we have to believe, wouldn't countenance for a second.
Of course, Chelsea are still formidable, and not least because of the players' devotion to their embattled coach, but the plague of injuries, and the sense of divided command, says here that they will again be a stride short of the mountain top.
United, augmented by Owen Hargreaves, Nani and Anderson, remain the team everyone has to measure themselves against. Ferguson's confidence is founded solidly enough, but there are still vital questions to be answered. Will Cristiano Ronaldo produce the full range of his talent in the most important matches something he failed to do last season despite a blizzard of acclaim and will Wayne Rooney achieve with Carlos Tevez the chemistry that was once or twice so thrilling when he travelled briefly in the company of the old but still bright star Henrik Larsson? Will Rio Ferdinand, for all his gifts, be able to banish another wave of doubts about his defensive resolution? Positive answers to any of these questions will lift the bar for United's three significant challengers, not least Liverpool, who may know that Fernando Torres is a major acquisition but are unlikely to be too sure of their best line-up before Christmas.
There is maybe just one certainty in the coming season. It is that Arsenal will play as they always do, which is to say with artistry and intelligence and a wonderful ambition. That, and the anticipation that Fabregas will make his most serious challenge thus far as everyone's idea of a footballer of the year, surely makes the blood run fast. The hunch is that it will do so all to way to triumph, for both Arsenal and football, in the spring.
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