By Walter Broeckx
The official transfer window was closed last Monday. But to my surprise the constant stream of transfer rumours didn’t stop at all.
The levels of insanity in the media have risen to new heights. The one that made me laugh out loud was that Alexis was going away this summer because…. Cazorla won the last two player of the month polls.
Yes that really was a rumour that was spread around. Some say this rumour was produced in Spain (too much Sangria I guess) but people took it over all over the world and most amazingly some seemingly believing it! Can you believe that? Oh well some people really need to have something negative each day or they will not be happy. As far as you can be happy by being negative.
But of course each team can make deals with their own players outside the official transfer window. And that is exactly what Arsenal have done in the last few days. And so in the weekly press conference Arsène Wenger said the following thing according to the official Arsenal twitter account: “Wenger: “I’m very happy with the business we did. We met our targets and extended Akpom’s and Coquelin’s contracts” ”
The business we did is of course the two incoming transfers. Bielik our young Polish eagle being one for the future (but at Arsenal the future can come quickly if you perform well enough no matter your age). And of course our right-centre-left back-in-one, we bought in the person of Gabriel. For this transfer the language barrier being one of the biggest problems it seems. But I’m sure they will work on that and he will get his chance. Who knows maybe next week in the FA cup?
But more importantly we also did internal business. Coquelin extended his contract that would have ended this summer. And looking at his recent performances that is great news. I think the older legs of Flamini and Arteta will spend a bit more time on the heated beach. That is of course the case for Flamini as Arteta is still out injured. But I think the captain will find it hard to get in the team as long as Coquelin keeps performing like he does.
However as we slowly are preparing ourselves for more midweek matches starting from next week and then at the end of the month the CL will start again I do think that even the young legs of Coquelin will need a breather every now and then.
Come to think of it for the position of defensive midfield beast we now have Coquelin, Arteta, Flamini and young Bielik. That is four players to play in that position. And we spentalmost nothing for them in the last transfer windows. Despite all and everyone shouting out loud that we absolutely had to spend big for that place. Arteta is getting some fitness problems but after his operation they could be solved maybe so he can last longer. Flamini is always handy to have around when we need some fight in a match.
Coquelin looks to be something in between Arteta and Flamini. More aggressive than Arteta but also his technique seems to be better than Flamini. I haven’t got a clue about Bielik but he also seems to be a very skilful player. And as I have written for many years: Arsenal don’t need a beast in that position. We need intelligence.
The last bit of internal business we did is about Chuba Akpom. I still remember a few years ago when in an article I had written Apkom and kept on repeating my mistake. I blame it on the way the letter K and P are place on the keyboard but the wrong way just types easier than the correct way. But I somehow got a feeling that I might be getting used to typing his name in the future. I think in his short spell at Brighton he was rather impressive. If he hadn’t been chopped down on numerous occasions he would have scored a goal at least. The way he took on players and went passed them be it on pace or by pure skills was great to see. And he also was great in closing defenders down, working hard.
And now against Aston Villa I could see him live and from close range. And I think the boy has it all to become a great striker. The way he went past the Aston Villa defender when he was brought down by the keeper was all about having quick feet and control. If the crosses or his positioning (difficult to tell what was the real reason) would have been a bit better he would have scored again.
What is important I think is that his movement took him in to good positions. It is only a matter of time before he will be in the right place at the right time. And I think that once he starts scoring he will become even better. The first goal is something that a striker is chasing too much maybe. It is understandable but it is important to let him know that it will come. No need to put too much pressure on his young shoulders now.
I must say I was impressed by Akpom in recent weeks and I do admit after seeing him play in those matches I was getting a bit worried about his contract situation. But now the boss has told us it is done I must say that I am very happy about it. We seem to have found another Arsenal product that will make his way to the first team. And as most strikers only begin to really produce when they are older than 20 we should give him time to grow slowly.
In my opinion this transfer window was a big success. Some new guys, some internal solutions. We did it the Arsenal way.
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10 Stories of Arsenal and Tottenham that the media won’t mention and one that they might (but will get wrong).
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal
“Come to think of it for the position of defensive midfield beast we now have Coquelin, Arteta, Flamini and young Bielik. That is four players to play in that position. And we spentalmost nothing for them in the last transfer windows. Despite all and everyone shouting out loud that we absolutely had to spend big for that place. Arteta is getting some fitness problems but after his operation they could be solved maybe so he can last longer. Flamini is always handy to have around when we need some fight in a match.”
I’m not entirely sure who all those people were ,who said we had to spend big to fill the DM position, but Im sure there were some.
For the most part people were only saying we needed an upgrade over what we had.
Conversely, most people on here were saying we needed no one at all , and Flamini, Arteta, and if need be Wilshere could handle our DM needs.
Whether one considers Coquelin a new signing or not , he is clearly an upgrade over Flamini and Arteta, and he is probably one of three Arsenal players who are an automatic selection for any game. Pretty ironic isn’t it.
The fact we paid nothing for him can only be a good thing.
Great news on Coq. What a ridiculous runmour about Alexis, seem to remember a few articles suggesting he was unhappy being here due to his appearance on his first team photo last summer. To me at least, he looks overjoyed to be in this team, it is made for such a player.
Then, there were the doom merchants saying Ozil would be off to City come Jan.
Instead, he seems to have come back looking hungry, and certainly stronger.
Do other clubs get as much media fed tripe?
Walter
You know far better than me, the “absurd” headlines get all the clicks and clicks bring in the dosh. Does tell you something about the average reader ,though, just like certain newspapers you wouldn`t eat your chips out of, are the big sellers
I`ll get `orf me soapbox now
Good analysis thank you, the team looks far more balanced especially with the returning injured
Got to go, just read that a little green man has been seen flying over White Hart Lane, some say he`s the Mekon of Mekonta (Eagle comic for your younger readers, circa 1955)
There were two news headlines bothering me last night, and one hopefull one out this morning (for me, it is only 7:30am).
A number of USA news organizations are going to try and come up with robots to produce the news. Perhaps we will get fair and accurate news again?
The FA is going to investigate the transfer of Chambers to Arsenal. Some third party has filed a complaint. Wenger says there is nothing wrong with the transfer, and I believe Southampton says the same thing.
This Alexis Sanchez story. The Spanish organization is Mundo Deportivo (sp? Sport World in English). Apparently the first English News Organization to point at this “story” was the Guardian. Last night, I seen article by Metro and Daily Mail about this. I looked at the Spanish web site last night, there was no article. Lots of news organizations seem to withdraw stories, so perhaps this one was withdrawn?
Whenever Arsenal is on a full stride, the media will of course will do their best to unsettle or Hurt the club, as always, every time. But in AW, we have a EPL veteran and master of such tactics. As long as the players stay focus and have faith in AW, I don’t see anything can prevent the unstoppable force Arsenal is due to become. I was never worried about Coquelin as Flamini is around to share his experience with the youngster about his misfortune in Milan. Very similar situation, both of them. Akpom has always been loyal to Arsenal or rather AW. He shared his younger days with Wilshere, Coquelin, Szec and Bellerin, so his buddies are here. Very exciting decade to come.
The media know that Arsenal have a section of fans that are amongst the most gullible on the planet.
Well, it may not be that they are gullible, just desperate to find anything they can to do the club and the manager down.
On ‘that’ blog today, according to a friend, those lunatics are blaming the injury suffered by Alexis in training, on Mr. Wemnger. Just like very injury we have ever suffered, these guys are bonkers.
This is what I mean. We are easy prey because some really stupid fans.
…..because we have some really stupid fans. (My Internet connection buffers, sorry).
Think you are right Proud Kev, guess all clubs have them, but some examples that leech onto this club are a bit extreme to say the least. Not sure why some of them bother, their spiritual home is clearly now Stamford Bridge, as it was Old Trafford in Fergies era, and even WHL when Arry was in full flow. Terms like fickle, and glory hunters were invented for such types.
Although i rate Le Coq very highly i don’t think he is enough to fill our DM role. look at the likes of chelsea, man city, real madrid, barca, bayern… all these top sides have at least 3 world class players available for rotation at the DM/B2B position. lets not be naive Arteta, and Flamini are subpar and Bielik is nowhere near ready. Even if you through Rambo into the mix as a B2B our midfield engine still doesn’t compare to top side.
Chelsea: Matic, Ramires, Mikel
Man City: Fernando, Fernandinho, Toure
Madrid: Kroos, Khedira, Modric
Barca: Busquets, Mascherano, Rakitic
I definitely feel like we need to let Flamini go in the summer and I guess Arteta is sticking around in a mentoring role considering his contract extension. But the likes of Schneiderlin for backup/competition for Le Coq are a must to be competitive and combative in midfield against the top sides in the Prem and in Europe.
Maybe Gabriel will make his debut on Tuesday when we play Leicester at home, which would seem a more suitable environment than the Spuds away.
Micheal Ram
The truth is, none of the current players seem unhappy. None are at a critical part of there contract.
Our form looks good.
Still in the ‘not a trophy anymore trophy’, otherwise known as the FA CUP.
Still in the CL with a decent draw coming up.
Okay, the title may be out of reach, but an impressive run into 3rd, even 2nd looks possible.
That would set us up nicely for a good summer transfer window and a real push next season.
All in all, everything in the Arsenal garden seems Rosey.
So you can just imagine how nuts this is driving the Muppets at Talkshite, the Sun, the Mirror and the like.
Oh, what to do.
Dig for some shit, and if you find nothing did some more, and if you still find nothing dig some fucking more, and if you STILL find nothing…….MAKE IT UP FOR CRYING OUT FUCKING LOUD !!!
Those calling out for quick fixes by spending lots on a player to fill a position, still haven’t realised how Arsenal do things, and probably never will. There is a fine balance between buying youth class and experienced class. Also there is no guarantee with either.
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At the end of the season the only thing the “muppets” will be saying is:
“but can they keep it up and do it again?”
This is the mantra they roll out when Arsenal performs.
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There is a lot of pressure to perform now, with having many players for some positions, which is good.
//
Looking to see us blow Spuds away, but suspect they may well have some teeth tomorrow, since for a long time. We cannot afford to be surprised, but i’m sure the staff and players know this.
Andre
Given that Bielik has not been seen in an Arsenal shirt yet on what evidence do you conclude he is nowhere near ready yet. Has Wenger said as much? Did you see him in Poland or are you just making an assumption because of his age and small transfer fee.
The media’s obsession to denigrate any achievement Arsenal do has culminated for many seasons with the ‘one-man team’ tag. First But the fact remains, despite losing all their ‘one-man teams’ to transfers or injuries, Arsenal remain the BEST team in England without a Billionaire buying them success or outspending their rivals.
But the media refuses to acknowledge this. It praises Liverpool for ‘breaking into’ the Top 4 (despite having no European football and playing 16 games less than their rivals like ManU are doing this season), but then they mock Arsenal for completing a staggering 16 consecutive years of Champion League qualification (matched only by Real Madrid) as a club accepting under-achievement with a top 4 finish.
So what does the media concentrate on about Arsenal.
1. Whenever they get a red card, to mention how many red cards they have had in the Prem – despite the fact that Everton, Chelsea, Newcastle have had MORE red cards than Arsenal since the Prem started, but only Arsenal’s number are always stated.
2. When Arsenal don’t beat a ‘big’ team, to list exactly how many times they haven’t beaten a big team.
3. To show – and actually stop showing the match – to show Wenger zipping up his jacket! It’s incredible. EVERY match will revert its cameras to Wenger when he’s about to zip up. all the snide comments are made – treating Wenger like a child. This is all ‘propaganda’ to ridicule the club and the manager. If you had a camera on every manger in every game of them doing u their jacket, you could compile a lot of fumbling of others – but they never do. Only Wenger is an idiot who cant do his jacket.
4. Ozil is rubbish. It’s hard to fathom how this snowball started, but it is so contrived and manipulated it is bordering sinister. Ozil is an outstanding footballer. Even on his bad days, he’s arguably better than most. But an absolutely targeted campaign against him has grown like a tidal wave of derision. And the consensus is ‘He Is Lazy’. The stats show Ozil covers MORE distance than any other player at the club. More than Ramsey – who was apparently showing Ozil what graft means.
5. The Arsenal selfie. Again, classic manipulation. EVERY club has players that take dressing room photos after games. EVERY CLUB. When Arsenal do it its an embarrassing celebration. When they beat Wigan in the Semi-finals last year their celebrations were an embarrassment apparently. When Chelsea/Spurs players celebrated their semi-final Tin-pot Capital One Cup wins last week, the players danced with FLAGS in front of their fans. Nothing said about that.
6. An Arsenal loss is bigger than another teams loss. Example – When Arsenal lost to Bradford away – on penalties in a meaningless cup with half the first team – The Mail’s Headline the next day was ARSENAL HUMILIATED. When Bradford spanked a £400m Chelsea team, at Stamford Bridge 2-4 – The Mail’s headline the next day was BRADFORD ENDS MOURINHO’S QUADRUPLE DREAM. (the same paper that claim Mesut Ozil is ‘stealing a living’)
7. And finally, Arsenal have had the most injuries than any team in the last five years. This is reported as proof that Arsenal are weak and inept. Arsenal have the most injuries becasue they are the MOST fouled team. They are the team that has sustained the MOST broken legs in the prem. FACT. 3 of those injuries were SHATTERED LEGS – Diaby, Eduardo, Ramsey. Only Ramsey could continue with his career at the same level. Diaby & Eduardo LOST their careers due to the ‘hit Arsenal hard’ mentality instigated by the dinosaur mangers and pundits they call this tactics. And just last week we have a moron like Phil Neville claim that he would ‘two-foot’ and ‘smash’ Rosicky if he tried a look-away pass. Just like he did with Reyes when Wenger’s Arsenal were humiliating Ferguson’s United with style and skill and made Ferguson blatantly instruct his thugs to kick Arsenal off the pitch – as bad as anything we’ve seen from the likes of Stoke and Bolton.
Enough said
Mick/Andre.
Gnabry and Bielik play Monday night in Newcastle for the U21.
Hello Tony and Walter,
I’m a frequent visitor here, but a first time poster, so firstly I’d like to say well done on the site.
Secondly, and the reason I’m here losing my posting cherry, so to speak, is that in the past day or so I’ve found something that I find to be somewhat curious, and thought may be of interest to you and your readers…
With time on my hands I was idly speculating on how the rest of the season would unfold for us. You know the kind of thing- comparing remaining fixtures between the good guys and our rivals, impact of champions league and domestic cup games on our league form. Pure speculation of course, but I’m sure we all do it!
Anyway, this train of thought led me to Arsenal.com, where I found to my relief that we don’t have any of those horrible runs of domestic ties either side of our champions league matches, which have proved to be so costly in recent years. We also have the fairly standard 3 or 4 days to prepare for each Monaco game. Great! I thought, the best we can possibly hope for! But is it…
As I’ve said I was comparing our fixtures with our rivals, so naturally I wondered if Man City or Chelsea had tough fixtures around their champions league games and so I went on their websites to look. The toughest fixtures I found were City having to go to Anfield after playing Barcelona and Arsenal to Newcastle after Monaco; not great, but not a disaster. Chelsea “luckily” have 2 home games after their European exertions.
Now, to get to the point, (yes I know it’s taken a while, sorry!) the thing that struck me is that Arsenal have 4+3 days to prepare for the 1st and 2nd legs of their last 16 ties. City have 3+4 days respectively.
And Chelsea? Well, Chelsea, good old lucky Chelsea have 6+7 days!?!
Thats a full 3 days extra per match to prepare compared to their domestic rivals.
Now, I’m not in any sense a conspiracy theorist, but it did strike me as odd, especially as I couldn’t ever remember Arsenal being the beneficiaries of such fixture list largesse…(Of which more later)
So I thought I’d look a bit closer at the 2014/15 champions league, specifically to see if there are other teams who might get the same favourable treatment…
Yesterday I went to the websites of all 16 remaining CL contenders (I don’t recommend it, BvB’s will make your eyes bleed!)to find out how much time they have to prepare, because surely those dastardly Europeans give their teams every chance of progression, don’t they?
Well, no actually. Of the 13 remaining non English teams, 7 of them have the same preparation time of 3+4 or 4+3 days for their 1st and 2nd legs respectively. There are 4 slight outliers- Dortmond 4+4, Monaco 5+3, Barcelona 3+3 and Bayer04 4+4, surely nothing unusual there?
The final 2 teams- Porto and Shakhtar are slightly different. Shakhtar have 7+4 days to prepare, although as they’re playing Bayern you would think that any amount of practice would be insufficient. And as my knowledge of Ukrainian league football is non-existant, I don’t know if this is normal practice. Ukraine, like the past, is a foreign country. They do things differently there.
Porto’s website seems to suggest that they only play 3 games between now and the end of the season, so I couldn’t draw any meaningful conclusions.
So that leaves Chelsea…
Chelsea alone, certainly out of the other English teams, and of all other realistic competitors have a substantial advantage heading into a tricky tie in the round of 16.
Paranoid! you say? A mere quirk of the fixture list?
Well, maybe…
However, my interest fully piqued, I thought I’d have a look at Arsenal’s history in the CL from 2005/06 (the furthest you can go back on Arsenal.com) to the current season. I found that in those 10 years of CL football on no occasion have we had an advantage comparible to that which Chelsea will enjoy this year.
In fact, back to, and including, the 2005/06 run to the final, and including this year’s ties against Monaco, we will have played 33 knockout ties in the CL. All but 2 ties, over a 10 year span have given us 4 or fewer days to prepare, that’s an average of 1 fixture list quirk per 5 years… In case you’re wondering the 2 ties were Real Madrid away 05/06, and Bayern Munich away 12/13.
(We won both. Amazing what fresh legs can do)
As I’ve said, I’m not much given to conspiracy theories, but when a rival seems to somehow have a competitive advantage that’s difficult to account for by chance, I think we should all be concerned.
Thanks for reading (if indeed you did), sorry I went on a bit.
So, how many kicks does Alexis get in the first 35 secs of this video, and how many more afterwards? Is it Vengarrrs fault that Brighton told the world they were gonna KTSOOA (kick the shit out of Arsenal), and when they did – any punishment was minimal? Should Arsenal not use any players in any match, so then they won’t be kicked and won’t get any injuries, innit? Tut.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bsah-5U7Ixk
We need to get Bellerin to sign. His contract is up in the summer and Barcelona have announced that Alves won’t be offered a new one. DNA anybody?
Dont know about u guys but Akpom reminds me of Kanu, especially the way he takes the ball past the defenders.
Check the Hacks Q’s in the pre totty presser. Is it 3 times they press Arsène to try and make the point that Jack is evil, or that he’s still failing the SSFM Requirements?:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UCOXcVs8NdM
Andre I will do for us what you done for City and Chelsea:
Arsenal: Le Coq, Arteta, Flamini.
In that order for that position.
Because for you to say Ramires, Mikel!!! And Fernando, Fernandinho are world class is laughable. Just as to claim Modric is RM’s DM is laughable. If you are talking about CM positions then add Jack, Ramsey, Rosicky, Santi, The Ox to our list.
4th Gen Gooner
I would say what you spotted about Chelsea is sort of an accident. They are out of the FA Cup. They do have a League Cup game on March 1, but in order to fit that in, their league game against Leicester was postponed, and has not been rescheduled yet.
Posted on a HITC page
Sorry to show my ignorance but what is that about?
Whatever it is I agree with every word.
Excellent comment from Posted on a HITC page.
4th Gen. Gooner, that’s some excellent research. Wenger has in the past alluded to a study that showed Arsenal got the least rest between games among teams in the Premier League that are competing in the Champions League, or something to that effect, although I don’t think anyone was able to find that study he reffered to. You’ll probably remember last season when we had to go all the way down to Napoli in the Champions League on 11 Dec, and then had to play Man City away, at lunch time on 14 Dec. That was basically two and a half days between games, less if you include travel.
Gord, what you say is surely not that unusual that something similar hasn’t happened before. I think 4th Gen. Gooner may be on to something, and it may be worth looking into in more detail.
4thgen, taking that at face value, that research is quite amazing. You mention Chelsea and luckily in the same sentence, and also say you are not a conspiracy theorist. Chelsea get things going for them beyond luck, referee Atkinson in key games being just one of their little advantages. Conspiracies exist, a conspiracy is just a plan hatched between two or more people, they happen all the time, especially in a monied game run by Mr Blatter. Many try and discredit conspiracy theories, or indeed anything that questions the establishment and status quo, but doesn’t mean something is not going on.Chelsea have money, some would suggest money from dubious sources, they often get very favourable refs, cahill could probably kill someone and not be sent off, ok costa does get sent off, but gets a lot of latitude….and they have a manager in league with a very…shall we say influential agent…..I am convinced Chelsea are the new Utd
Your research is interesting, but sadly not surprising.
Chelsea: EPL, CL, League Cup
ManCity: EPL, CL
ManU: EPL, FA
Southampton: EPL
Arsenal: EPL, CL, FA
Tottenham: EPL, Europa, League Cup
Liverpool: EPL, Europa, FA
Seven teams, involved in 6 leagues. I suspect it is easy to run into scheduling quirks.
If it’s easy, surely it would have happened at least in another league? Surely it’s worth more investigating?
By all means, investigate. But it is probably best to go into assuing there can be multiple reasons for such a gap.
Recent news from Moaninho. He says ManCity should be not allowed to be declared EPL title winner because of the FFP problems last year. Or something to that effect, I only looked at the headline.
Numbers.
Arsenal.com has that tomorrow is Theo Walcott’s 200th appearance in the EPL. In the pre-game, is a mention that tomorrow is AW’s 700th game in the EPL.
COYG!
I had noticed over the years that Arsenal seemed to have been short changed on fixtures over the last 4-5 seasons.
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I am not going to be “surprised” when Chel$ “mysteriously” get beaten again by another “cup” team and is then out of the TIN Cup too. They want the double, PL and CL. They are getting nothing this season, even though it does not look that way, but things will change in an instant.
//
@Gord
I wish for Theo and Arsene to be celebrating today and all of the rest of us too.
Another 5 and three quarter hours to go.
Come on ARSENAL.
That would be great Para and I hope specialist in failure is his new name the imbecile.
Just hope no one gets injured but some spuds fan wishing for Walcott injury again…
HITC page, some great points in there