The Dangers Of Wishlists
Apr 24th, 2008 by 'holic
I hope the Football Manager 2008 crew were watching the Champions League semi-final first leg in Barcelona.
As the press hounds start to bark out their stories of discontented Gunners seeking pastures new there is a danger that every blog and forum produces a desperate wishlist of replacements for players who have not, and may yet not, leave the Grove.
Cast your minds back three years. Vieira was ‘allowed’ to leave and we were in danger of freefall. The names on everyones lips were the players we had watched compete in the African Cup of Nations. Arsenal must get Zokora, or must sign Yaya Toure.
The former now cuts a comical figure up the road. Inconsistent and moody, he is their ‘Eboue’. The latter could be seen against United. A square peg in a round hole. A ball-winner in a team that doesn’t give the ball away very much, his contribution overshadowed by the technically gifted around him.
We should be very careful what we wish for. We may not want it to come true!
24 Responses to “The Dangers Of Wishlists”
Good stuff, ‘holic
Are you mad Yaya was brilliant for Barca, and has been all season he would be the ideal replacement for the departing flamini.
Absolutely. Most people naming these fantasy players have only watched them once or twice, unlike our players who they watch frequently and dissect their every mistake. All players have their downsides.
What a rubbish article.
Yaya Toure was absolutely awesome last night. He won the ball back most of the times Barca lost it in the final 3rd.
Yaya would be a capable replacement should Flamini leave.
Hmm, the Toure brothers forming the defensive spine..
I think you are very wrong Didier Zokora would have been a tremendous signing for Arsenal , He has technical abilities in abundance and if Wenger had worked with him for two years or so , we would have the most feared midfield .He is very versatile and would have provided good cover for centre back and right back.
Yaya Toure played against the highly rated British midfielders , Carrick , Scholes and still showed that he is way ahead of them in several dimensions of the game.
I think Wenger on his own would have loved to bring one of them to Arsenal.I still think Zokora can be snatched from Spurs if Ramos tries to shake things up a White Hart Lane and wenger should stay prepared to get him.
You must be joking about Zokora. All I ever see him do is pick up he ball deep, run like a maniac with it across the pitch, stop and then play it 5 yards backwards. He is the last player Arsenal need. Yaya was excellent last night but has been slightly better than average all season. Last night he won the ball and played it off and that is what a good holding midfield player does, all day long. Just like Makelele. Zokora has been an expensive flop for Spurs and i expect him to be shipped out at the season’s end.
I am not one of the FM crowd as you know but I really do see Yaya as one that got away. He can play Wengerball, at high tempo, and like heis brother he has a good attitude about him.
I wish……………………….
Flamini would sign a new contract
Rosicky would never again get injured
We sell Hleb for £6m,Gallas for £5
Wenger finds a new CB & 3 midfielders for £11m
YaYa was simpy unstoppable last night. What a great lost for not signing him and we are going to lost Flamini soon.
Early of the season the midfield department seem like pack with players – diaby, rosicky, hleb, cesc,gil, Diarra, eboue…. what we have at last quarter of the season now?
I am not saying yaya is suited to Barca but he would have been great for us and we would have picked him up for peanuts a few years ago. he would be a legend by now and imagine how strong brothers would be in the same side. they would telepathic and also very happy.
I don’t know what match you were watching. Yaya had a very good game. He broke up most of united’s attacks before they started. He’s exactly what Barca have needed or quite a few years.
what the hell are you talking about, Yaya Toure was top class last night, fantastic player with a big prescence in the middle
We tried to sign Yaya in 2003. We had him on trial and wanted to buy him but we couldn’t get him a work permit. The article is bang on, it frustrates me so much when people indulge this FM crowd (I’ve done something on this theme for the gooner next month). But when people start saying, “buy so and so from France” my immediate reaction is, “how much French football do you watch?” Basically, our transfer budget is miniscule again this summer because we’ve made a loss on the Highbury redevlopemtn since last September. Expect someone you’ve never heard of signed for peanuts who turns out to be amazing. How many people were on these forums last summer saying, “it’s simple, what we need to do is sign Sagna and sell Henry”?
Guys guys guys, let s not beat abt the bush. Arsenal has had an overhaul on the players part and did not deliver so they is only one more overhaul nded, and that is that man Wenger. He shld learn to face facts, he is failing. And pliz note that Man Utd were very strategic in their aproach to the game unlyk our Mgr who does not adjust acording to occasion and oposition. We shld praise Man Utd and their Mgr for their performce yesterday.
14hlaka – Shut up you moron.
Yaya Toure is a very good player and also played a great game last night so your analysis of him is badly wrong.
Zakora is awful and I’m glad we didn’t go for him.
The one African player you fail to mention and would have been an amazing addition to the side is … Stephen Appiah. I think he’s been injured for a while but 27 yrs old, captain of Ghana and a tireless and combative box to box midfielder …. might be a useful replacement for Flamini should he leave.
“We shld praise Man Utd and their Mgr for their performce yesterday.”
what the f–k are you talking about??? Very few people are praising Man Utd’s performance. Have you even seen all the insults and criticisms against Ferguson that manu fans have thrown all over the blogs and reader comments sections in the papers? They’re furious with him. Manu were CRAP last night.
Just like Arsenal at OT, Barca exposed Manu’s weaknesses for all the world to see. And just like Arsenal, Barca’s problem was lack of clinical finishing. Manu were very lucky to win against us at OT and draw last night. We stopped them from scoring in open play and we marginalized Cronaldo, just as Barca did.
And I have to agree with everyone here correcting you, holic, sorry: Yaya was fantastic last night.
However, I agree completely with your basic sentiment. Most of the people demanding that Wenger buy Villa have never seen him play, or seen maybe in 1 or 2 games. They’re all armchair experts.
i agree with you, but in fairness i don’t feel yaya toure should be singled out. Both sides in my opinion were poor, after watching it i questioned having spent 2 hours of my life watching two teams i hate on television. In fact to me all 4 sides left in the competition looked far away from the sort of displays we have been watching this season.
That Cup should have been ours!
Names, Players? Who Knows?
i hear the names being thrown around, and i must say as usual i don’t know too much about them, as tends to be the case w/ mr. wenger’s signings
Personally i think there is one player in the world that would be a great acquisition for arsenal, i doubt we could force him to leave madrid, but i feel robinho would be a great buy for us, in terms of his style of football. David Villa?? I don’t know? sure we have seen him score some good goals, but you hear he is trouble, the last thing we need to do is spend a horrendous amount of money on a marquee ‘le sulk’ that complains about the rain …
have some faith in mr. wenger, we were written off this season after we lost ti-ti, and we have spent less money than everyone else and arguably (with a little more legs) could have achieved great things this season …
i think we all realise we need to strengthen a little, i feel a defender must certainly be on the shopping list, our defenders seemed incapable of handling anything over the top again towards the end of the season,
a goalkeeper would be nice, almunia has done well this season, but it has been a long time since we had the security of a seaman behind our back 4
otherwise it depends on who goes… obviously we have been stretched towards the end of the season, so the ‘departing’ spaces will need to be filled, and have faith, this team will be one year stronger too!!
Robin Van Persie said in the early season “we are playing football from another planet”, and there is no reason with a good fit squad, and no long term marquee injuries …. we clearly have the ability to do so again
Trust me, as a Brazilian who follows the careers of most Brazilian players in Europe (as many as I possibly can), I know that Arsenal fans would NOT take well to Robinho. He’d never come to England anyway. Like Dinho, he needs to be coddled and indulged and would never adapt to the physical English game. He’d hate it, like Baptista did.
Also, I like Robinho as a player very much but Arsenal fans would soon grow hostile toward him because of his antics on the pitch. His understanding of “sportsmanship” is about as obnoxious as Cronaldo’s, maybe even worse.
Evening all. Looks like I am in the minority on Yaya’s performance last night. I still maintain I was not impressed on the basis that he was not required to perform his principal task given that United surrendered possession cheaply all night as a result of their formation, and going forward my view was that he lacked guile and contributed to his side not being able to open up a team that came for a draw and got it.
However I have no divine right to say I’m right and you are wrong. My main point was not actually to do with singling out Yaya, as much as to point out why I don’t like the wishlists being bandied around. Too many people bandy around names on the basis of having signed them on a computer game which rates them, or on the basis of having seen one or two appearances on high profile TV games.
Most importantly of all though let’s wait until we know just who is, or is not, leaving the Grove. I suspect our transfer priorities would change pretty quickly if we were to lose three midfielders in a short space of time.
YAYA or BARRY to replace FLAMini (if he leaves)
Hey Holic,
Great to meet you last weekend.
Have been reading your wise words ever since.
Dont mind what some of these muppets say.
You’ve seen it all down through the years.
As was said on Arseblog you are a gentleman and a gentle man.
Keep up the sterling work good sir.
Boris.
Thanks Boris,
It was great to meet you and all the boys (!) too, but don’t believe everything you read.
😉
Glad to see the lobbying for the ‘holic blog is working! 😉
I see I’ve only missed two blogs this week? Very kind of you, Dear Sir.