Friday Round-Up: Diarra wants to play 16 November, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News, Transfers, Uncategorized.trackback
Not a great deal going on today, hence the late blog. I suppose the main story is that Lassie Diarra finds his situation at Arsenal ‘puzzling’. Here’s what he said:
“I am a midfielder. The French team coach recently used me on the right and I was pleased to play. But my position is in the midfield. If Willy (Sagnol) was here I would not be in the starting XI. Each time I join the French team it is a big pleasure. But it is true that my situation for my club is puzzling. But it will be sorted out soon. To be called again by Les Bleus I have to play for my club.
So that situation has to be settled quickly, I am not getting mad with that. I am patient. At Arsenal I don’t feel in competition with Bacary Sagna, as I am a midfielder. The midfielders are outstanding, but I work fine in training sessions and I am waiting for an opportunity.”
This is not the first time he’s reminded us that he’s reminded us that he’s a midfielder, not a right back. In fact it’s about the 100th time. I said the other day about how Diaby’s not happy with the lack of appearances he’s getting and it’s not helping that Diarra feels the same. He joined us from Chelsea because Ashley wants his bum he wasn’t getting played at Chelsea and thought he might be able to get first team football at Arsenal. I don’t really know why he thought he’d come straight into our first team but fair play to him to have that self-confidence.
It’s good news that Lassana has said he’s ‘not getting mad’ and that he’s just going to wait until he gets the call. Like Diaby, he’s got a hell of a lot of potential and is certainly one we’ve got to keep. However, if I’m being honest, I think that Diarra might just be the bigger talent out of the two and Diaby might make that summer move he hinted.
There’s been a lot of talk about our lack of English players recently. I haven’t really spoken about it because it’s a load of crap. England’s lack of success has nothing to do with us, they’re just shit. In fact, there are quite a few players that we’ve brought up but they’ve moved on either because they’re not good enough for Arsenal or because they like to put mobile phones up their bums. Anyway, Arsene says we’ve got homegrown talent coming through. He also says he hopes England go through to the Euros.
Tomas Rosicky got linked with a move away from Arsenal the other day but these quotes assure he’s going nowhere.
That’s about it for today I’m afraid. Don’t forget to enter yesterday’s t-shirt competition! Thanks for reading.
Those players coming through where will they play as there are so many young foreign players supposedly ‘better’? ahead of them. Let’s look at the potentials.
1. Matthew Connolly 18/19
CB, tall and strong in the air and good in the tackle with pace. Captained the reserves before sent on loan to Colchester. Just called to the U21 squard. Believed better than Song, Senderos and Djourou but all in front. When will he get a chance?
2. Kierran Gibbs 17/18
High prospects. Played in the Emirates Cup against Inter Milan at LM and played the full game in the Carling Cup against Sheffield United as a Left Full Back. With the range of midfielders, it will take years for him to grace the Emirates regularly.
3. Randall/Lansbury 17/18
Players touted as future Arsenal greats but Arsene has gone in for a lot of young foreign players thus doubt if they could ever get a chance ‘cos of Diarra, Diaby, Denilson, Merida all available for the position.
4. Ryhs Murphy/Jay Simpson 18/19
Strikers with prospects. Simpson was the first to get a hatrick at the Emirates but how far can he get a chance?
Unless Arsene stop bringing young foreign players, I don’t see us seeing the full potentials of these boys.
I can see Connolly and Gibbs in particular getting through next season as Arsene feels the pressure of the critics and will now have a critical look at some of the English players with potential.
diaby is way better than diarra what r u thinking?
I for one am tired about reading the papers about players complaining about playing time. If you have a concern that you are not playing, bring it up with Arsene or Boro or Pat, but not in the papers. It is the wrong place for this kind of talk. If players are concerned that they are not playing enough, perhaps they should buckle down and work harder in training instead of devising media strategies to get into the team. It is a waste of their time and improper. It unsettles the team.
Look at Eduardo for example. Being left out of the team again and again has to be difficult on him. But I have not once read anything in the papers about him complaining. Maybe he does it to the Croatian media? But he is not doing it to the Sun or Mirror or Express. I appreciate that about him and have a feeling that Arsene does too.
Sure, fair play to Diarra for having that level of self confidence, but can anyone honestly think that they are joining a team with already 6 midfielders that they are going to get a shot? The only think I can think is that he fancies himself better than Flamini and if so, well if not Flamini then Gilberto. Sorry buddy, but you are 3rd choice DM and 2nd/3rd choice RB. Get over it.
As for Howard, get over yourself already. If those players end up not good enough, then they are not good enough. And you thing about Gibbs taking years, what are you on about? He is 17! Of course it will take years! Again, he is 17!
If you have ever seen Lansbury play, you will know that he is a real talent, but now is a critical time in his development and I hope he turns out. He is the playmaker of the England U-17 midfield and has a bright future ahead.
Murphy and Simpson are classic English center forwards that likely have little future at Arsenal. They work hard and give it their all, but don’t have that extra bit of skill on the ball. So get over it. Both will have decent professional careers ahead of them. Probably Murhpy more so than Simpson.
If Arsenal stops recruiting the best young players in the world, Arsenal stops being one of the best clubs in the world. It is that simple. Wenger can do a lot on a shoestring budget, but he cannot work wonders. And just so you know, for EVERY Premier League club, getting one or two players coming through from the academy to the first team every few years is a remarkable occassion. And it is even more remarkable when the player is a Gerrard. Between Gibbs and Lansbury, Arsenal have the prospect of two high class talents coming through and that is more of an achievement than Liverpool, ManU or Chelsea could lay claim to when you evaluate the quality of their academies. Fact: the only recent academy graduate from ManU to break through in recent years is that Scotsman Fletcher, who is kind of crap. And if you saw them bomb against Coventry in the Carling Cup, you will see that they don’t have a lot else in the pipeline.
That is soooooooooooo true, jus got England, was and always will be shit isnt arsenals problem!….lol
Bubba; so how can Lansbury move up when we have Diaby, Diarra, Merida, Denilson marching in front of him. May be if Arsene had not gone for these many foreigners he could make it in a year or two but with all these in front?
You talk about skills but if you look at our players the only gifted ones are Rosicky, FAB4, Hleb, Clichy, Sagna, Kolo, Traore and RVP. The rest of Eboue, Ade, Gallas, Almunia, Senderos, Djourou and the rest of the foreigners are all replaceable by equally good English players.
For instance, Agbonlahor and Ashley Young are far better than Eboue at the wing and can do better job. Apart from Gallas, the rest of Almunia, Ade( he misses goals like Harewood), Senderos, Song, Djourou (all leaks) and yet Arsene choose to bring them in at the expense of young Enlish players.
It’s the ordinary foreign players in the team who’ll eventually block the progress of players like Connolly, Gibbs, Lansbury, Randall and co. Eventually, Arsene will keep players like Song and sell Muamba, Sell Connolly and keep Djourou and Senderos, Sell Gibbs and keep Diaby and the rest. This is the problem in the team that some of us are concerned.
Alliadere, crap was kept in the club for so long even though he wasn’t performing but Arsene quickly disposed of Stokes, Sidwell, Bentley and co why?
Well Howard, the difference between Ashley Young or Abonglahor and Eboue, is that Eboue cost us £250,000, Young cost nearly £10m and the recent Abonglahor rumor has the offer sitting at £15m. Now I don’t know about you, I like brand name products as much as the next guy, but if the store brand is that much cheaper and just marginally not as good, the answer is simple.
As for the queue of midfielders standing in the way of Lansbury and his Arsenal dream, the only thing I can say is that if the lad is not up for the competition within the team, he is not up for the competition in the big matches either. Competition should make you better. If you can rise up to the level of competition, then you deserve your success. It should not be given to you just because of some quota scheme. And I have a feeling that Lansbury is highly regarded within the club and will be getting more and more matches in time. He’s only 17 ffs! Can we at least wait until he is 20 before saying that he is being blocked by undeserving foreigners?
The reason guys like Stokes and Bentley did not stick around was because they were impatient to get their chance. It has nothing to do with getting shown the door. They wanted their chance to play and they wanted it now. And Stokes, who is not as talented as Bendtner I might add, is not even a regular starter for Sunderland this season. Not good enough right now for Roy Keane in his relegation fight, but according to you good enough Asenal? As for Aliadiere, he was patient and waited around a long time hoping for his chance and he never proved good enough. He was not blocking anyones progression, he was just there, like your kid brother tagging along to a party when you were teens.
We only have a couple players in our squad that are “average”, perhaps Song is even below-average. But the difference in price for quality for those players and English replacements is on a scale that would bankrupt the team. Should we replace Senderos with Curtis Davies? Eboue with Young? Almunia with Carson? That is already a £30m difference right there or more for just 3 squad players.
I think the problem has a bit more to do with attitude with many of the English lads. They want it all, now. And if you have ever listend to David Bentley talk, you would know that he did not have a proper one. If he stayed and worked hard and bided his time and tried to actually learn our system instead of playing for himself (his short passing and teamwork was lousy in every match I saw him play in an Arsenal shirt) he would probably be a regular in the side right now. It is not a deep secret that we are lacking width at the moment. Instead he decided he could not wait and then slagged us off after he did leave, claiming he was always a Spurs fan and didn’t learn anything from Wenger (which I believe, because his ego was in the way - probably never learned his abc’s either).
I don’t know fully what the Muamba situation was, but from what I read, Birmingham could promise him first team football as an 18 year old and he took it and Arsenal did stand in his way. He seemed like a good lad and it is disappointing to see him go, would probably have preferred to toss Song instead as well, but again, do 18 year olds somehow deserve to have first team football right now? Is that the standard that is now set?
As for Sidwell, he is a good player for Reading, but clearly not good enough for a Champions League quality club. Gibbs, Lansbury and Randall are all getting their chances within the club. Maybe next year some will fancy their chances to start for Premier League or Championship teams and want to go on loan. What should Wenger do? Tell them no? Or let them go?
Bubba; I’m really happy that you were prepared to debate rather than being insulting on this issue. Football has become business and thus the views of our environment is critical for success. We seem to be losing the PR game. For an English club, we need to have some English presence in the first XI. The perception is that Arsenal has become the nursery team for the French national team.Wrong but we should be sensitive to the criticism of being anti-English. This perception is baseless but because we have a foreign dominated team the ’spinners’ are able to put it across that we are anti-English and this don’t help our course. Something has to be done.
We should spend some money to push the image of the team up. Let’s buy Micah Richards, a self-proclaimed gunner who dreams of playing for us. He will fix our CB problem, pacy, strong in the air and good in the tackle at only age 19? Arsene can also sell Rosicky and Eboue and use the money to bring in Agbonlahor or Young for the RM. Rosicky is injury prone and we’re not getting the best from him; he seems to visit the treatment table after every two games. Eboue is crap and his antics and low skills doesn’t fit as an Arsenal player. The GK position also has to be looked at as Almunia hasn’t got the quality as No.1. Once we solve these problems in January, the title can be ours. We have the money now to do it.
Well I would like to see Richards in an Arsenal shirt as much as the next guy, but is corporate PR the reason the spend £25m? That is what he would surely cost IF ManCity agree to let him go. And that is a big if. Is Richards a team player with the right attitude, or does he have that Ashley Cole baby Bentley mentality? That is another consideration as well. Spending that much on a player who is just a prat is not worth it (not saying he is, but I have read little about him and don’t know if he favors the Page 3 girl scene or not).
And while you propose an interesting suggestion, selling two players for one (Ashley Young) is not a good deal. Especially considering that while Rosicky has injury problems, Young is nowhere near the level of quality that Rosicky is. If we do that, we will be just as dumb and wasteful as Spurs. All for what? So we can show people that we will waste money on Englishmen too?
If the rumours are true and we are planning a £15m bid for Abonglahor, then hopefully that should be sufficient to shut the press up. But frankly, there are not a lot of English lads out there who are available to be sold or would be worth the money if we did buy them. And how many have the right mentality to play for us? Ashley Cole evidently developed paranoia because sometimes folks would not speak English in the locker room. Now we all know he is an ignorant fool. But still, he is representative of a lot English players out there and to paraphrase Peter Hill-Wood, we don’t need that sort around our club.
Bubba. Good debate. Richards is only 19 and will play for us for more than 11 years if we go for him so 20/25 will not be much in the long term. Senderos at 23 is still not good even though he’s been around for about 5 years, too slow to fit into Arsenal attacking style and he always has one big mistake in him in every game. Djourou has midfield mentally and is also not good enough. Gallas is already 32, lacks aerial ability and as you know is in the Rosicky group.
Agbonlahor or Young are Arsene type of players; young, pacy and still under 21 meaning that when they come to the football ‘university’ they can develop further and play for us for over 10 years. Both of them are better than Eboue but while Rosicky is better, they have the ability to be better than Rosicky. We can’t get much from Rosicky because of his injuries. I’m informed he had similar injury problems in Germany. Arsene didn’t check this before he went for him; not suitable for the EPL. Better Arsene offload him and bring in a stronger player, younger with potential. I’m not Arsene and will never be but my choice for a winger will be Young or Agbonlahor who can play at the high level immediately. Young is an Arsenal fan and said so when he was at Watford.
They’re all expensive but their age means that they can pay back any investment made on them.
I’ve carefully selected these players because I’ve seen them play against us several times and watched them play other teams and aside the price they are the type of English players that can only help Arsenal get better.
Gallas lacks the height and the other alternatives are not good enough. Matthew Connolly and Haarvard are still young and may take some further development to be in the first team.
Let’s do it in January, there’s money and the investments will pay itself as aforementioned.
The inability and seeming reluctance of Wenger to purchase English players seems to me a function of the players rather than an inherent bias against Englishmen.
Arsenal’s style is dependent on players having exceptional technique with the ability to receive the ball, control it instantly, move it quickly then move into position to receive it again.
This level of technique is something learnt at an early age and if not learnt then cannot be taught after ones early teens (if not younger).
This type of training is something English coaching is notorious for not providing and leaves English players with a distinct disadvantage when it comes to attracting Wenger’s interest.
The failure of Baptista illustrates this since whenever he was in the team his inablility to control the ball and move it quickly caused the whole attacking impetus of the team to stutter around him. Having just one player who cannot function in the Wengerball scheme would distabilise the entire team.
Whatever Eboue and Adebayor’s failings technique is not one of them. If a player is brought in who does not have the right skillset for the system the Arsenal will suffer more than probably any other team since the system demands total understanding between all players to function at all.
Jackson
By your analysis then the only players fit for the Arsenal are as follows; Hleb, FAB4, Rosicky, Eduardo, Diaby, Diarra, Kolo, Sagna, Clichy, Bendtner, Denilson and Flamini’
The following falls short yet they are in the team; Eboue. Ade, Gilberto, Song, Senderos, Djourou and Almunia.
Howard
I should have said more clearly those attributes are vital in the attacking players.
I disagree with you if you consider Eboue and Ade’s technique and first touch are bad on a consistent basis (although it is bad when they are playing badly). I suspect your frustrations with them come from games when they are unable to display those qualities that Wenger values. But they do have the fundamental ability to do those things.
I think Wenger feels that if a player is unable to do the things I mentioned then he is unsuitable for Arsenal’s system and there is a decided lack of these who are English.
All the defenders and DM you mentioned while not outstanding at those skills are certainly better than the vast majority at their positions.
And I think we can forgive a goalkeeper for not being the best at passing and moving.
Finally all those you mentioned as falling short would probably in total cost the same as one English player. Which is unfortunate for an English player wanting to join Arsenal.
Jackson
Were you discussing cost or skills? I can tell you that both Ashley Young and Agbonlahor are better than Eboue at same position at RM. Richards is also better than our Senderos and Djourou even though he’s younger. The point is that if we’re talking about skills, then there are a lot of players in the team who’re not ‘true and true’ Arsene picks yet they’re in the team.
I want discount the notions by fans that English players can’t get into the team ‘cos they lack skills; its not all true as there are young Enlish players with better skills than some of the players we have.
Even Bentley now is better than Eboue and i can tell you that both Dean Ashton and Andy Johnson are better in front of goal than Ade.
Wenger did not push Bentley, Sidwell, Stokes or even Pennant out. They demanded out. In fact, Wenger reluctantly let Bentley go. Alliadere persevered and did not ask to leave until last season.
Pennant has blamed Wenger for playing Ljundberg ahead of him. The dickhead must’ve thought he was better than Ljundberg and Pires. Look at Bentley. He refused to play for England U-21. The problem with many overpaid English players is their disgusting attitude. Compare Pennant and Bentley against the humility that we’ve seen from Fabregas, and we know what has been so wrong with English football.
English players are twice as expensive as continental players with half the skills (except for the long balls and the shoving). Any coach worth his salt buys the best players at the best prices affordable for the club. It’s irresponsible if not stupid to do otherwise.
The reason why clubs, such as Reading and Sunderland, still field English players in their teams is not because they care about English football. It’s because they don’t yet have scouting networks to recruit foreign players like big clubs. Believe me. That will change and we will see even more foreign players in the mid and low table teams. Roy Keane has already admitted his poor local buys after spending 30 million pounds (almost the cost of the entire Wenger’s first team).
English football will not improve until English coaches learn to teach English kids how to play football like the rest of the football world, i.e. stop pumping long balls and concentrating on the basic skills instead. It’s the price that England is paying for lazily playing long balls for such a long long time. It should come as no surprise to anyone.
It’s time to admit and accept the truth.
Howard
I certainly think we can upgrade at RM. Eboue has not shown he can be the goalscoring MF that Wenger and fans would prefer (and his antics are shocking). But his power pace and touch mean that he does not destabilise the team when he is played. I am hoping that Walcott will eventually be the long term solution. I also fancied Wright Phillips in his Man City days for his Wengeresque qualities.
Adebayor’s finishing is erratic certainly, but he is better than 18 months ago and may still improve. Bringing in a player like Johnson who, while a better finisher, we would have to change our playing style to accomodate because of his technical limitations. And players do not improve technically at his age.
Young and Abongalhor seem good players. I will admit I have not watched them often enough to give even a laymans opinion on whether they have the skillset to function within Arsenal’s system.
I do agree on Richards but Djourou is young for a CB and has time. But cost is a factor. A year ago people were hyping Curtis Davis who cannot get into Villa’s team now. (and by his admission does not currently deserve to). I doubt Richards will fail but is the investment worth it?
Your list a few posts back of players who you thought were not up to it included 5 internationals. We got them for the price of one English player of sufficient quality. The problem with getting that player is not only the risk of injury to him, or him not being up to scratch, but the cost to the squad because of overinvestment in one area. Sacrificing those would have left us short all over the pitch. So the risk is no longer just injury to one English player, but injury to players in positions weakened by getting that player. Wenger’s job is to improve the team overall.
I agree having more English players would be useful if only to end debates like these. Some English players are not bad players. They are just bad deals.
Arsene knows what he´s doing but if those scumbags make teams play 6 english players we should have to play Hoyte, Walcott, Lansbury, Gibbs, and we should sign Agbonlahor and Richards.