Just to say - great response, a lot of you are spot on. Lokken, you may be right about us over-rating our players - I just don't know. You're probably right with Hleb, even if I have a major soft spot for him (just as you do with Benjani).
Deffeh's points on Walcott - fair, but he obviously needs time at a Premiership team who are willing to give him lots of starts, I'd rather not see him get the shit kicked out of him in the Championship. I remember when we sent Bendtner and Lupoli off to Birmingham and Derby respectively at the start of this season - one made the grade, one didn't. You just can't prove anything in Reserve/Under 18 games.
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Originally Posted by -Blue Moon-
- developing youth is a great idea, but i am a little ashamed that we only have 2 brits vying for a first team place (walcott and hoyte). if he's going to develop talent, then why can't he focus in our own backyard (UK) as opposed to elsewhere? We're the 4th best club in England, and yet we have no players in the England XI - that's horrible in my opinion.
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Perhaps England isn't producing the right talent
Certainly we don't produce a huge number of technical players. Also, clubs hold teams like Arsenal to ransom for English players - it's just not economical to buy them. It's a shame, but look at what Man U spent on Ferdinand/Rooney/Carrick - over £70m. We just can't do that.
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Originally Posted by -Blue Moon-
- henry needs a partner and i don't feel that anyone is suited to the way he plays. van persie is good, adebayor isnt that great (opinion) and i cant see alliadiere or walcott (i see him more as a winger) making the leap. baptista on the other hand - if he got a decent first touch like you said, he'd be a fantastic striker - with a fair amount of pace offset by his immense size and strength (he could be a tank).
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Adebayor's only 21, I like him. He's not scared of running at defenders, really causes problems for defences and creates space for other players. Henry obviously needs a partner, that goes without saying. Walcott isn't a winger - he's a lot like Henry in that because he's very quick, managers just want to put him on the wing and let him go, but he's suited to going up front. Let's face it, he's learning from the best - I can see him becoming the right-sided version of Henry.
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Originally Posted by -Blue Moon-
- i've been watching lupoli at derby this year, he's in a similar mold to henry, but i dont think they'd work well together - in fact i heard derby's advances to add him permamnently were refused by arturo, who wants to move (and is??) to italy.
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Yeah, he's going home to Italy, done deal.
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Originally Posted by -Blue Moon-
- lehmann in my opinion, is crap. i've disliked him for a long time, i don't actually feel that we have a quality keeper in him - and at the age of 37 (?) i dont think he has many seasons left in him - anticipate a problem here for the future.
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Like ****. Lehmann may be a **** but he's our **** and he's an awesome keeper. He's displaced Oliver Kahn as German national keeper - is that not a good enough sign for you? We wouldn't have had such a good run in the CL last year if it wasn't for him. Yes, he's getting old, but there's good young keepers around that we're eyeing up - Akinfeev, Gordon, etc.
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Originally Posted by -Blue Moon-
- arsene not spending his budget infuriates me, we need players and i find him to be too arrogant and headstrong to admit that he should buy some talent in to help our youth develop and give us a little more depth.
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I think I said this all earlier, but what manager isn't arrogant and headstrong?
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Originally Posted by -Blue Moon-
- eboue - everyone raves about him, but in my opinion, as a defender, he's lacking. the powerhouse defence we've had of the past bould/adams/keown/dixon/winterburn is long gone. that makes me sad and a little frustrated.
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Yes, those days are gone. But we have rampaging full-backs now, which brings a lot to the table as well. Eboue is improving as a defender - not as good as Clichy yet (he's superb going forward and defending) but he has time to get there.
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Originally Posted by Dark_Mage
Also I agree with Deffeh about Hleb, he seems a weak link in the Arsenal team. He does work hard but can't really do anything and he gives the ball away an awful lot. I think Rosicky is the better player by far.
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I think you're right here. Hleb does give the ball away a lot. Perhaps I would let him go and get good money for him. But Rosicky is no better on the left as lokken said.
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Originally Posted by lokken
On top of this you haven't replaced Pires in any shape or form. The left sided cluster**** of Cole, Pires and Henry used to be deadly and Rosicky ain't no Pires.
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Exactly. We have Clichy who's the new Cole. We still have Henry. So we need the Pires. Robben is my dream to be honest, although Ribery looks more likely. Here's hoping.
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Originally Posted by lokken
I'd take Flamini for PFC any day of the week, he seems to be a decent all action midfielder who will do a shift anywhere if you ask him
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Absolutely - and he'll dick on us as soon as he plays against us. But he's just not high up enough in the pecking order anymore.
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Originally Posted by Deffeh
You probably should have sold Henry at the start of the season but who would have known that he would decline so noticeably just in one year. Cutting your losses might still be a way to go about things, though its not clear who could possibly be brought in to play the henry role. Adebayor i thought was absolutely mince when he first came but has turned into a decent powerhouse striker; if you could actually use his aerial attributes more often and play more than one type of football, not only would that be beneficial in itself but it would also help your running game too with the added unpredictability the target man striker would add. Van persie was playing brilliant before he got crocked and his injury was merely unfortunate.
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Really spot on, kudos to you mate. I'm not convinced Henry has declined that much though - the guy's knackered and played through a sciatic nerve problem for 2 months before mentioning it to anyone. If he's refreshed for the 2007/8 season then he may get back to his best.