Two Out But Nobody Yet In The Revolving Door
Jan 8th, 2015 by 'holic
The night after the day before. I think it’s fair to say yesterday was a day for gut reactions, anger, and sorrow. That it came out on a football blog wasn’t popular with some. I make no apologies though for making the point that with everything else that happened yesterday it was embarrassing to see petty football squabbles on social media sites. Sometimes, contrary to what Bill Shankly once said, football is not more important than life or death.
That said it’s time to refocus on Arsenal matters on here whilst addressing the wider issues elsewhere. Not being a lover of idle speculation, as regulars will know, I have no new Arsenal signings to opine about. We are a couple players lighter this week however, most notably Lukas Podolski.
German national manager Joachim Low was widely reported in November to have told Poldi to quit Arsenal in order to get playing time to keep his place in the national team. The player himself confirmed this week that it was that advice that had been taken on board.
“I spoke with Joachim Low about my move to Inter and we think it could help my job for the national team.”
The arrivals of Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck pushed Podolski down the pecking order at Arsenal with the result that he got very little football this season. Whilst one cannot argue with his finishing ability (31 goals in 82 appearances for the Gunners isn’t shabby) the fact that he regarded defensive duties as an optional extra probably did for him.
Of course he is only on loan until the end of the season but the manner in which he has forced his departure makes any potential return highly unlikely. His £100k a week wages will be better spent on another talent. Having said all that I couldn’t help but like him and the public respect he had for Arsenal. Good luck Lukas.
Also today it was reported that young goalkeeper Matt Macey was joining Accrington Stanley (Who? Exactly! – older readers will know what that means) on a one month loan deal. It is an interesting one that given the situation that Wojciech Szczesny is reported to be in at the moment. Having said that Macey is also behind David Ospina and Emiliano Martinez in order of preference right now. Good luck to the lad. I hope he impresses.
That’s enough from me for now. No outburst tonight. Have a great Friday if you can ‘holics, and the Stoke City preview will appear at some point on Saturday so please come back then.
Cheers.
73 Responses to “Two Out But Nobody Yet In The Revolving Door”
First!
And I read the post too.
Didn’t Shankly say that as a joke, btw?
I’m quite sure it wasn’t intended literally Lars, you’re right.
i guess i’m an older reader. what’s on second?
guinness on the bar for you, ‘holic.
i think a lot of supporters take it literally…consider the response of various cretins to the members of oldham’s board…
I haven’t seen or heard any speculation that looks remotely likely other than the signing of the young Polish lad Bielik. With a lot of midfielders coming back and the emergence of Coquelin I think we must sort the CB situation if nothing else .
My preference would be for Van Dijk. I have a friend who supports Celtic and he considers him a real snip at the reported £ 8 m. I think BFG needs a rest and may be slightly injured . Monreal has done really well at CB is left sided and aid be happy for him to be fourth choice in that position until the end of the season
Holic, I wonder if Lukas shied away from defensive duties to cut down on the probability of reinjuring his ankle. In any event, will miss his presence on and off the pitch.
Now you haven’t mentioned the buzz surrounding Sanogo going out on loan. Dearly hope Arsene lines up a deal for him to stay in the PL.
He’s special, you know 😉
Not only is football not more important than life and death, it’s not even more important than a decent pizza.
Mind you, football was a lot more important when we had a team full of world class players and were winning stuff 😉
Here you go, SCG: http://youtu.be/kTcRRaXV-fg. And all done live in one take.
That would be speculation abb 😉
Ha ha, Holic! You got me 😉
On the other hand TTG, my brother in Scotland considers van Dyke very average and not Arsenal standard. At least Reid has a difficult game every week and looked pretty good in the Hammer’s cup tie v Everton.
Van Dyke can’t play for us until he gets the accent right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_rVzBt20N0
Interesting Bath, I had liked Reid until he had a frankly poor game against us at Christmas. My Celtic mate thinks Van Dijk finds it relatively easy in the Scottish League and sometimes coasts. But I’m interested in other views on him
Van Dijk cruises through most games played up here.
And Kyle Bartley looked top of the range when he played for the other evil twin.
But for Arsenal?
Meh.
Evening Holic. 😉
A horrible individual who has made no apology and shown no remorse for his foul deed.
Not only that, but his supporters sneer and jeer at his victim, and he does nothing to denounce them at all.
Yes folks, this weekend is Ryan Shawcross time again.
Urgghhh !
Naughty Trev. 😉
I have to chuckle at all this talk of Messi joining Chelsea for £200m. Does FFP mean nothing to these people?
Oh, hang on… *stops chuckling*
ned: naturally 🙂
Reposting what I posted in the last prior to reading…
Okay, I think the window has been open long enough to say anyone lined up to plug our defensive gaps prior to January would be on board by now. I suggest we all sit back and wait for midnight on the final day and any club desperate enough to sell us someone on the cheap.
On the bright side I read today that Dennis Wise’s son has left QPR for the Arsenal Academy, where he will join David Beckham’s three sons and Frank Lampard’s nephew. When looking for a proper football education, rather than personal financial rewards, it seems our elite players know where to look.
Öskar
Oskar, Harry Kane was in our Academy before moving onto Tottenham 🙂
Let’s get Messi!
😀
Nice one H! See ya Sunday. Cant get too messy meself like, but I expecting big things from others.
Messi leaving Barca for Chelsea for 200 million smackers? Not at all sure that will happen. If potential buyers are the least bit clever they will offer far less than that kind of sum. Let’s assume Messi really wants to leave, could Barca say no to, for example, a 110 million Euro bid? He will be 28 in June and while still of course an incredible player he has most likely passed his peak and will he still be as motivated to play when he can no longer dominate games like he used to? Because that day will inevitably come and it may not be that far away. Potential buyers know this and while buying Messi would be just as much about cock measuring as getting a player for his abilities, I’m not sure even the oligarchs of this world are ready to pay 200 million for him.
If we had 200m to blow and would definitely get Messi, this is of course,assuming that we’ll be able to recoup half of that immediately through sales of merchandise and sponsorships! 100m isn’t too bad for who is currently, my opinion of course, the best player in the world for his position.
I too can play in.. ‘who wants to launder money in a football club’!
😀
..just think about it linking up with Ozil and Alexis and Santi and Theo…etc! 🙂
Any Messi ( y) transfer- see what I did there !? is hugely complicated by FFP which will bite anyone given the sums involved. I have a bit of inside track at Chelsea and have even given them some advice a few years ago on a professional basis. ( I made sure it was wrong but then most of my advice is anyway ) They have been curtailed by FFP and I think they are looking at whether their vast and expensive youth system needs to exist in the firm that it does when despite the quality of player they have none ever make the first team on a sustained basis.
Citeh with their Barca DNA would love to bring him over but would need to fiddle the system even more than they do now. Money is not an object, the rules are. The most likely destinations are Real Madrid if Messi would consider it or PSG but again FFP makes it unlikely. We might get sponsorship from Puma but he’s not contracted to them I think . There would be creative ways of doing it- if you got him you would immediately get new massive sponsors and as zbB says you would shift huge amounts of merchandise but his image rights are probably incredibly complicated. We never had this problem with Perry Groves and Ian Allinson
You can imagine the commercial department (Jack Kelsey in the Arsenal shop) going, “Endorsements? Perry Groves, sparkling wine adverts. Allinson? Bread. That’s them sorted. Now what are we going to do with Limpar…. mobility scooters?”
Arsene Wenger for teh winz as so often:
AW laughs on Szczesny’s smoke: “What happens in our dressing room stays in our dressing room – apart from the fact it doesn’t stay there.”
Has Szczesny apologised? AW: “Yes of course. He’s a serious boy who works very hard. He’s not the first to make a mistake and not the last.”
(Quotes from Amy Lawrence’s Twitter account)
Ramsey and Özil are available for Sunday.
Heh @27. Too true.
The best part of the presser was when the boss said- I dont listen to fathers, grand fathers and all. Hilarious and apt.
Ozil Ramsey Giroud back, Mikel to i believe. This is great news but where will they fit in? Atleast where will Mesut play? With the form Santi has been, moving him away to the left isnt a great thing but then the same applies to Mesut as well. Agreed Ozil wont start sunday but whenever he plays, where will he play may determine his performances from now till end of the season.
Arteta and Ramsey in the middle is our best bet until and unless we buy a dm, so that should be our settled partnership from now till end of the season hopefully. If Mikel is not fit enough for tom, coq and Aaron should play midfield and let us avoid flamini as much as we can. Sorry he just shouldnt play for us in the league.
After all the rumblings woj may play sunday and i really dont want that to happen. he needs to be given a break and made to realize how hard it is to get back( hopefully Ospina does that).
Stoke will stay compact but with this team, we should be able to beat them come sunday. 2-1 again to the good guys??? Na Mesut is back 5-0 to The Arsenal.
I’d probably keep Ramsey and definitely Ozil on the bench. Part of the problem we have with injuries, IMO, is that as soon as certain players are fit, they go straight back into the team without playing a minute of reserve team football to ease back into things.
At least we didn’t just chuck Walcott back in, but that may be because he wasn’t fully fit and we had options in his position.
I’d keep Ospina in the team, probably pick Monreal ahead of Gibbs (if available) and Koscielny (if fit – if not Gibbs plays and Monreal goes in the middle)
Stoke may have Crouch but they’re not really the long throw, Rollerball, type of team they were under Pulis. Hardly cultured footballers, but not as bad as they were.
I think Szcz has to play. Ospina has not demonstrated that he can handle the high ball approach that Stoke will employ. Szcz had an excellent game vs West Ham who used the same approach. Despite errors v Saints, he has not become a poor keeper overnight. His father’s comments as reported in the Times were perfectly accurate imho. Agree with your back 4 Cynic and starting Ozil on the bench. Not so sure about Rambo. If fully fit, I would start him alongside Coquelin and give him an hour. If we are home and hosed (larfs) at 75 mins I would put Ozil on for Santi. Up front: Walcott, HFB and Alexis. Bring AOC on for Alexis at 60-75 if possible.
Some measure of reassurance from Wenger that he will not be making an Arshavin-style signing imminently:
“We have plenty of creative players. We are short on the defensive side of our game but not the offensive side. We have plenty of offensive players who don’t get a chance to play so we wouldn’t get someone else in the attack.”
With Crouch winning aerial duels the way he does, surely Woj will start?
And Ozil playing in THIS fixture, makes me fret. Hell, when Ramsey plays against THEM, I worry! 😉
If Stoke play to WIN, that will make it a tad easier, for us. Plus we have our secret weapon, Le Coq. He must start, Arsene!
Link by Arseblog this morning to an interesting and complimentary article about Arteta’s role in the team, and why we have been sputtering without him in there. I do seem to remember us sputtering with him in the team as well, but that’s another story.
“Zonal Marking” wrote the Arteta article as I recall.
It is a home game, we must win, we have missed Ozil the most when it comes to creating chances and it is ideal for him to have game time before he plays the city game. He must play atleast 20 min for sure. Same with Ramsey though compared to both, Aaron is definitely the more robust and someone who can fit in to start right away. Mesut we will need to protect him but not wrap him in silk, so he needs to play tomorrow.
Stoke will come for a draw, most teams who come to the Emirates will play for a draw. We need to win, so simple, Sanchez Theo and Giroud all start.
Vinay, You’re from Bangalore, right? So it must be around 2140 your time. The Mighty Arsenal play on Sunday, not Saturday 🙂 xxx
Hello all. Just finished an epic back drink from NYD. Loads happening- too much to comment on. I’m glad the New Year has been kicked off on a such a firm foot. I’m looking forwards to another year’s lively debate on here.
In the meantime, I’ve got a ticket for Stoke. Anyone going? Tollie? I would really love to meet some Holics this time…
Opps my mistake, yes we play sunday and indeed it is ten minutes to ten here. Maybe its the weekend excitement or more so the return of Mesut.
it’s a back dated howdy dr Fau
cheers for the wordy recommendations
unlike yer musical ones
to be honest i won’t be taking ye up
i know very little about a few things
less than more about more
and i’m pig in muck happy with that
but
cheers fella
hope yer well
.
UP THE ARSENAL !
.
(and howdy ‘holic , howdy ‘holics)
🙂
So good to see the holics filing in ♥
Oh Vinay, Don’t feel bad. It’s just you were confusing me and I kept checking the calendar! 😉
French hostage crises appear to both be over. No word on hostage casualties so far, but it does look like all terrorists are dead and the hostage taken by the Charlie Ebdo murderers is alive.
If I knew how to get the screen to show one of those lovely little hearts then, abb, I’d send one at you.
And a tip of the cap to cba. Happy New Year squire.
Oh GSD, try ALT, then the # 3.
And what a lovely sentiment, thank you!
Cynic, yes. It’s over.
When we post here, we are carrying on, as best we can. Even when our hearts, are heavy and full of worry. xx
What a nice bar!
Cheers ‘holics!
😀
Chelsea: ‘Impossible’ to sign Messi
—–
SO we have a chance then….
😀
BB, I agree. That it’s a nice bar. 🙂
As for Mr Messi, dream on lad 😉
One can but only hope ABB!!
😀
well howdy there gsd and abb
🙂
.
i’m wrapped up like a bloody mummy
feckin breezy here
last night though
holy mother o fuck
mph-a-plenty bobby charlton repelling gusts
thirsty comb-overs up and down the county
nose pressed against the window
weighing up a jar against humiliation
.
anyhoo
.
beers on the bar for them that beers
.
dinner time
Good Lordy. Not only do we have all three of Beckham’s lads playing for us, Frank Lampard’s nephew is on our books and so is the son of Dennis fackin’ Wise.
Has John Terry got any sons? 🙁
N7 (from previous),
Apologies for not getting back sooner – the new year start has been a rather busy one.
I wanted to respond to your post from previous following the now widespread reports on Wojciech’s “le petit fumeur” in the dressing room. It would appear from Wenger’s interview today, that Wojciech has indeed apologised. So maybe I wasn’t reading too much into it at all. And it would seem that John Cross was reliably informed, as one would expect, considering that he is one of the few journalists with obvious contacts at the club.
We’ve been defending poorly all season. That lack of discipline or mental fragility or as Patrick Barclay (just to quote someone else who has links with the club and someone who has recently penned a book on the life and times of Herbert Chapman) put it recently “recurrently flaccid defending” has been an issue for years now and I don’t think we can continue to proffer the usual excuses of injuries, lack of resources or this being a “world cup year” as though no other teams have the same problems. Because that’s all they are: excuses. So the link between off-field indiscipline to on-field indiscipline is not so big a rut that any frog could straddle I feel (and of course, thats not to say that Wenger has not been good for the club. There is doubt that he has been brilliant in his philosophy, financial management, sourcing of players etc.)
While the underlying tests for defamation are much the same in this jurisdiction, the application of the libel laws over here are more stringently applied and can lead to substantive damages. So it was my mistake in not making that mental distinction when I said that the Mirror could have been sued. I must say it was reassuring and somewhat amusing to see the error of my ways being so diligently corrected and for you to tell me that you knew what you were talking about, and to trust you, because you are “a lawyer”. There are many professional people on this site, but none, to my knowledge as yet, who have sought to rely on their profession as some form of self-validation for their opinions or views espoused. It’s merely a forum for the respectful exchange of views.
As for your quip in relation to “you can’t handle the truth”: that’s not what I said, so I would be grateful if you didn’t misrepresent my comments. In light of what has transpired in the mean term, it would appear that the only person who couldn’t “handle the truth” as you so colourfully put it, was you!
cba, you have such a love affair with adjectives … so much so, I feel the wind ! Enjoy your supper, lad! 🙂
One for cba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5CSj0r7dpo
Mandzukic?!
That would be an interesting move… give Giroud a proper run for his money. One of them would probably have to go then.. or welbeck too!
😀
For my part I am getting tired of the “so-and-so to score at any time” kind of betting, and will be looking for some odds on Giroud to score at ALL times. 😉
An ‘early poo’ special is on offer up to 45 minutes kick-off with Potters able to purchase a mini poo or large soft shite for £5.
Welcome.
Stoke fans enjoying that early poo special. 🙂
http://ih1.redbubble.net/image.3604316.6097/flat,550×550,075,f.jpg
Nice dummy @16 Trev!
Apparently good old Ryan is stoking things up by saying Stoke players hate us and love to beat us.
Believe me Ryan old lad. The feeling is very mutual!
Mordor comes to London
howdy again abb
love here
love it
esso
cheers big man
🙂
Messi is going nowhere, he’s priced himself out of the market. No club is going to pay out two hundred mil (plus Dennis knows what salary) on just one player. Only two clubs could actually do it under FFP anyway, RM and Manure, and the former doesn’t need him while the latter has 6 or 8 spots to fill ahead of him.
Or perhaps he’ll discover hitherto unknown North London DNA in his make-up and join us on a free when his present contract expires. That would be our best chance I reckon.
Öskar
In fact might I suggest that checking for North London DNA be done for all the world’s top players? You never know what you might find…
Öskar
The posts here have gone a little mad over the past 6-months or so.
First Steve T goes and then some minor remark from someone (Dexter I think) regarding the content of a non-related football post from ‘holic is greeted by a rant from a ‘regular’.
Can we not let people express opinions without resorting to the kind of hysterical response that we’re starting to see here with increasing regularity (I rarely post, but I’ve read for here for well over 5-years).
We support the Arsenal for crying out loud…
If you want respect for people’s opinions, that includes the “rants” as well.
But it was odd that on a day people were murdered for expressing their freedom to speak that a blog post was criticised and the criticism was then criticised and now that criticism has been criticised and I’m criticising it.
Fuck it, I’m going to watch the cricket 🙂
Re: 64 and 65.
Completely out of line. 😉
Love y’all. Thank you.
65 cynic
now that’s how ye do it
cracker 🙂
.
66 8ball
now that’s how ye double do it
cracker 🙂
.
smart cunts haunt ‘holic’s halls
(repeatedly)
Anyone feeling cold?!, here’s something to warm you : http://imgur.com/gallery/t377s
😀
Arsenal striker Yaya Sanogo, 21, is set to sign for Crystal Palace on loan in January, turning down a rival offer from Hull.
——
🙂
Sanogo should gel well with Chanakh at Palace.
I’d imagine they’ll be quite brilliantine together.
A very slick partnership.
Etc. etc. …….. 🙂
Not going to be permanent, Trev. (*waves*)
Preview time >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>