Good morning to you all, Arsene Wenger has met the press this morning to give all the latest on the team news in the build up to the trip to St. James' park this Saturday. Here's the latest, as quoted on Arsenal.com;
On the team news in general…
"We have no new big injuries, we have some knocks, but nothing major. Mathieu Debuchy is two or three weeks away, Arteta and Wilshere as well. Arteta will maybe come back after the international break. Tomas Rosicky is hopefully available again for the weekend".
On Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Debuchy…
"They are still two or three weeks away".
On concerns about fatigue...
"West Ham was a very physical game. In the second half of the Monaco game we played some of our players offensively. We paid a little bit for it. It is a concern. We have to see how everyone recovers".It is no surprise to hear that we have a few knocks and bumps, so let's just hope they aren't serious enough to keep anyone out of the squad. I was also hoping to hear that Rosicky is fit and ready to go as he would have added more impetus Tuesday night, so it's a bit disappointing to hear that he hopes he will be available; if he is, he should ad probably will start. Wenger seemed more cagey than usual. let's hope that he isn't hiding anything too serious to any of the players, forget that he said there are no new big concerns; it's never too good when the manager is cagey.
Right i'll have a post up in a while on the press conference in full, so come back for that.
Subjectively, Cosmic Kid.
Sooner or later the truth will dawn: we have an outstanding manager. Not faultless - no manager is faultless - but certainly one of the very best. What he has achieved with zero NETT expenditure has been truly remarkable. Yes he has had money to spend on signings these past two seasons: approx. £95m NETT. And this, pretty closely, is his combined total NETT expenditure for the past 8/9 seasons. Let's remember that Real Madrid spent around £80m on one player, Bale, Man U £60m on Di Maria, Barca £72m on Neymar, £60m on Suarez. Our problem was (and is) our owners. A decent one would not have sold off RvP and Song. Or if he did, he would have given Arsene the cash to bring in players of equivalent quality. He is the guy we should blame, not Wenger. Last year, for all his promises, he paid himself £3m. A multi-billionaire! Married to another multi-billionaire. Contemptible. Let's wait to see what he pays himself this year.
ReplyDeleteMate are you on drugs? Repetitive failings suggest the lessons are not being taken on board. This feels the same sort of exit inflicted on us by Milan, PSV, PAOK and Lens. Unnecessary, entirely avoidable. It is what it is though and I think it was Lee Dixon who said last night that Arsenal have the first leg performance in them at any time, it can be dredged up from anywhere. As he said, consistency is minimising those outbreaks and in the Premier League – domestic football generally – there’s a sense that they have more control.
DeleteEurope? No, that type of performance is inevitable; it always happens.
For another season, aspirations are gone. As with 2003/04 and 2006/07, we can look at this as an opportunity wasted. The players go forward to the next match, toward ensuring they get the chance to try again in 2015/16. It would be great to dispense with the need to qualify for the group stage, to have a proper pre-season and to know that transfer market activity is not based on two matches in August.