re: Arsenal 2012/2013 Season Long Thread

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Ah, another AKB I see.

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I'm not sure what this means. If it isn't obvious to you why Arsene wants to play Walcott and Ramsey then I don't know what to tell you. Both have intangibles you cannot teach (in Walcott's case, pace, and in Ramsey's, vision). You can always teach technique. The development track of every player is not always going to be directly upward, though, and this makes the average fan upset, since they want the development to be more like Cesc's, who was an outlier in every way.

Ramsey pre-injury was an excellent prospect. It will take him time to get back there. But no one seemed to complain that it took Rosicky 18 months to regain his form in addition the time he was out with his injury. At the minimum, we should give Ramsey the same amount of support. He gets shite on quite unfairly, despite the fact he was 2nd on the team in chances created.

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What do you want me to do?

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Be more precise in your criticism. Give me specific instances in games where he made the wrong decision which costs us in a significant way. I've already explained to you why Walcott doesn't track back, as the LB is mostly afraid of going past him. I can't remember the last time we had a significant threat from the right side of the D, save for when Hoillet turned Sagna a couple of occasions, and some games with Jenkinson. I'm not saying he's a perfect player, but rather his net positives outweigh his net negatives.

From what I read, Walcott wasn't happy with RVP's departure and is starting to take a similar stance. If true, wages really wouldn't matter. It comes down to convincing the players that the club's goal and objective is to win trophies and spend money to do so. Pretty unique situation because it is like a cycle. The best players and leaders over the past few seasons have left because of a lack of trophies, basically ensuring that the generation under them struggle to do differently.

I have the same mindset. I'm skeptical they'll get £40M for them, much less 50. They probably will in this market, but we'll see.

Yeah you're right. realistically it'd be around £30-40mil. Be interesting to see what happens.

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Walcott is in no position to be saying something like "I want to win trophies".. You have to be proven to say anything like that and not be ridiculed

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He is when he has other top clubs offering him higher wages and trophies.

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My point isn't that it was one or two plays he was involved in that cost us. It is that his overall play during an entire game leaves much to be desired. And it is bs to say he doesnt have to track back.

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When has a LB ever done well against us? Any LB is hesitant to come forward during games against us because of our insistence on playing through the right side. We favor it when building attacks on the right side. 38% of our play is focused on that side, which reaffirms my point about the LB being pinned back. While his overall play may not satisfy you, he still produces. For all the fancy build-up play we have, we still need players who want to be on the end of it. Walcott wants to be at the end of moves, which makes him more valuable to us than players like Mata and Nani who want to be at the start of moves. If we insist on playing through the midfield, then we need players like Walcott to find space. If Walcott leaves, we'll have to play in a significantly different way, which will change the balance of the team.

Also, in general, Arsene does know best. He works with these players on a day to day basis. He wants to win. In the end, we have to trust in his decisions, because all our discussion about players leads to absolutely nothing. He hasn't really failed us yet over the course of the season. We're always top four, and we are always competing.

I'm not a fan of either. Usmanov is a crook, and Kroenke is not interested in helping the playing side of the game. I wonder what Kroenke's interests actually are. The article makes a lot of conjecture, but does raise some interesting points. I think this whole RvP situation is a power play by David Dein, whose son, Darren, is RvP's agent (or at least advises RvP on commercial deals). The timing of RvP's letter and then Usmanov's letter has to be more than coincidence. Darren Dein is also the agent of Alex Song, who I think will leave after this season, as his contract is running down, and I would be surprised if he signs a new contract. I wouldn't be surprised if most of this was orchestrated by David Dein, as it all seems far too coincidental.

Stan is in this purely as a business, just like his other 10 sports teams. I don't think we'll ever spend enough to really win.

Uzamov would probably help us win MORE... but it would be an even slimier version of Chelsea's russian billionaire.

Well there goes my conspiracy theory I concocted while taking a dump this morning. I just googled it and Darren isn't even Alex Song's agent.

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Based on his actions, it seems Stan is just waiting to sell and make an enormous profit.

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Spot on! To me this is the biggest problem facing the club. If Stan would just reasonably invest some cash into us signing and keeping players we would be challenging for trophies. Instead we lose one or two key players every year and then it is back to the drawing board. The cycle will have to end if we ever want to be a club that will regularly challenge for trophies again. Otherwise get used to this feeling because it will continue every summer for the foreseeable future.