Alexis - by far, a player I like who would have gone on to drive the team on with his spirit and drive. Alas, Özil was chosen instead

It's crap not being in europe. One of the benefits of the Europa League was that some of the kids could get a run out against lesser opposition. It's hard to see the likes of Martinelli, Balogun etc getting much game time at all barring an injury crisis. How do they develop their game?

Down to the bitter end at City, 6-3 over Leipzig. Pep working towards that CL trophy. If it happens.

I was not saying I wanted him back but Arteta seems to be keen to have him around. I do not want him signed to any contract but if we saw a need for him then no payment other than pay for play. He was part of the old problem not the solution. And we would have to have a real injury problem to register him.

The Mirror, on the strength of what David Hillier says, are reporting Wilshere’s return, if it happens, will be only for training and not playing.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... dium=email

And Hillier is in the know!

'I have got inside information on this. I am a lucky man, so I am actually playing golf on Friday with a guy who does all his security systems at his house and he is very friendly with him.'

Sounds solid to me.

First time I’ve ever seen ‘solid’ and ‘Hillier’ in the same passage. ‘Rubbish’ or ‘useless’ or ‘garbage’ - plenty of times!

For as good as Nasri was for half (the initial 50%) of his last season with us (rather than 6 months), he was just as bad for the other half (the latter 50%). His two full seasons were okay but not anything I’d write home about. For that reason I wouldn’t give him a place in a post-invincible side.

I honestly believe Özil ended up being paid (I won’t say ‘earning’) £18.2m (£350k x 52) a year at Arsenal because Sanchez decided he was going to leave, and obviously did exactly that.

That's pretty much how I see it. We couldn't face the embarrassment of losing both so we did whatever we could to keep at least one, and Sanchez had the greater desire to leave.

The Mirror, on the strength of what David Hillier says, are reporting Wilshere’s return, if it happens, will be only for training and not playing.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... dium=email

No wonder they conceded three. They were missing their first-choice centre-backs, who between them cost £100 million, and had to play their third and fourth choice centre backs instead (who between them also cost £100 million).

When Özil signed his last bumper contract, no-one on the forum objected very loudly. It ended up being one of the club's worst decisions in living memory - maybe not as bad as signing Bryn Jones in 1938 for a British record transfer fee: #AllisonOut - but hindsight is a fine thing.

To be fair I don’t think it was a case of Sanchez going because Wenger chose to keep Özil instead. Time wise there was a significant overlap between their respective Arsenal careers. I suspect the departure of Sanchez had more to do with him (not Wenger) wanting to move on.

Where I believe there was an important consequence between them is that Sanchez going made the club feel they couldn’t afford to lose both at around the same time. Hence we offered Özil £350k a week to renew his contract, and we all know what happened from that.

I honestly believe Özil ended up being paid (I won’t say ‘earning’) £18.2m (£350k x 52) a year at Arsenal because Sanchez decided he was going to leave, and obviously did exactly that.

Most unfortunate we did not have the financial power to keep both of them. They would have helped propel the club together.

Clear illustration of the lop sided tactics with Tierney’s and Tomiyasu’s touch maps from the Norwich game.

I don’t mind these complex tactics but my biggest concern with them is the effect on the right winger, who either doesn’t get enough help or who has to stay wide because no one else provides the width. It must be a lot more fun being the left winger, Tierney always next to you, you can drift inside and affect the game more.

I think Arteta tries to overcomplicate a game that is essentially very simple. Guardiola is the same but the difference is that he has elite players in every position and I sometimes feel City win games inspite of his tactics and not because of them.

Let's face it, having players like De Bruyne, Kompany, Aguero, David Silva, Yaya Toure (to name but a few) over the years has hardly required him to be a tactical genius to get results.

What Guardiola has done very well is to get elite players to work incredibly hard out of possession and implement the pressing game. Not always easy when you are dealing with big egos.

I read this on Le Grove

https://le-grove.co.uk/2021/09/16/what- ... long-read/

Seems incredibly complicated.

Morning socrates. Conceptually I wonder if what you say is similar to Wenger’s biggest single error, in my view anyway. Namely turning his back on what made his Highbury years so successful with power and physical presence in midfield and moving to a tiki taka system with the midfield jam packed with skilful midgets (I’m not being too literal when I use the word ‘midget, which I hope everyone realises).

I still see Arsenal’s best (let alone Wenger’s) central midfield as Vieira and Petit. Even after Petit we had Gilberto who was a player with physical presence.

I’ve always suspected Wenger fell in love with the way Barcelona played the game and decided to copy it. The trouble is, they used it with players of the quality of Messi, Iniesta and Xavi and in Spain where football is less physical. We didn’t have that level of player.

Even Fabregas, our best skilful midget at the time who obviously went to Barcelona and played many games for them, never became an automatic first team choice ahead of Iniesta and Xavi.

Martin Keown said the same a few (perhaps more than ‘a few’ now) years ago. These days I think Keown can be a right plonker. But I reckon that’s something he got right. Wenger tried to copy Barcelona with inferior players. As you imply, is Arteta doing the same with Guardiola’s Manchester City?

I never really went along with this...

Wenger was never really a master tactician at all, I don’t see him telling his players to play differently. His team got the ball down and played and his success was more about enabling individuals to be the best they could be rather than how they were set up. It was his weakness. Didn’t TA call him tactically naive about defending. I couldn’t disagree.

I think the change in style lent more to the fact we didn’t have the finances to sign the top players of height, power and pace anymore. I’m sure wenger would have lapped up drogba, Essien, Yaya Toure if he had the finances.

I think we all look back on the post-invincibles era far too harshly, purely because we didn't win any pots. This video shows just how dynamite we were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkXZRHG5RxQ&t=198s

Pep would die for his current City to play with this much verve and pace. It's absolutely electrifying, whatever the size of the players... and there are Bendtners and Eboues out there too. Doesn't look like tika-taka to me. Looks like lightning in a bottle.

That season more than other is tragic on so many levels. We were magnificent, we won nothing, and you can see from moments in this video that other teams saw only one way to stop us, and that was to clatter us around. And on top of that, the media also decided to legitimise the "stop Arsenal by any means necessary" approach and we all know how that ended up... with players in hospital beds having their legs pinned back together.

I think we all look back on the post-invincibles era far too harshly, purely because we didn't win any pots. This video shows just how dynamite we were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkXZRHG5RxQ&t=198s

Pep would die for his current City to play with this much verve and pace. It's absolutely electrifying, whatever the size of the players... and there are Bendtners and Eboues out there too. Doesn't look like tika-taka to me. Looks like lightning in a bottle.

That season more than other is tragic on so many levels. We were magnificent, we won nothing, and you can see from moments in this video that other teams saw only one way to stop us, and that was to clatter us around. And on top of that, the media also decided to legitimise the "stop Arsenal by any means necessary" approach and we all know how that ended up... with players in hospital beds having their legs pinned back together.

...I think the change in style lent more to the fact we didn’t have the finances to sign the top players of height, power and pace anymore. I’m sure wenger would have lapped up drogba, Essien, Yaya Toure if he had the finances.

Watching this clip I can't help but feel we never got the best of Hleb. He had amazing feet.

Yes that is right - he loved powerful players and pre oligarchs those guys could well have been at Arsenal rather than elsewhere. Song, Bendtner, Baptista, Chamakh and Adebayor were strong guys who might have done a better job for Arsene - especially Ade who ended up with a mixed career, rather than the stellar one his talent promised.

At Highbury v United I was sat next to a Man U supporter who was gobsmacked by Hleb's skill. "Where did you find him?" This was praise from an unexpected source.

Absolutely the “he tried to make us Barcelona” myth is also crushed by Michael Carrick saying he was literally supposed to be signing for us on the Monday had cesc not turned in that shock performance in the charity shield that changed wengers mind

Decent player but the bloke couldn’t score in an Amsterdam knocking shop. Didn’t score in 19 appearances for Barcelona and only scored 30 odd goals in his whole career. Probably overachieved rather than under if anything

To be fair that was actually in 2004, when we still had Vieira and Gilberto. So I don’t see how Carrick crushes any idea about Wenger later turning his back on power and physical presence in midfield.

.

Per what AG posted about Franck Ribery not getting the Ballon d'Or. He's Muslim. Converted from Christianity to Islam in 2002, as his wife is of Algerian descent.
Not that there haven't been any Muslim players in the running for this award, Yaya Toure, Karim Benzema, example. Yet don't recall any actually receiving it. So based on that premise, most receiving this award were of the Christian faith. If any Jewish players were ever nominated or won the Ballon d'Or, not aware of it. Really shouldn't matter what religion a player is. If they're exceptional, they deserve it.