Davey Boy wrote:I have been defending Spurs alot this week when people say that it was their junior or second team... Yes they have many young players but many of them are quality and have either/both international or Champions League experience. Even more to the point if you take someone like Walcott, he cost Arsenal £12m. If we paid that much for a player you can guarantee they would be in the first XI, and probably oe of our "star" players (eg Berbatov). By the end of the game Arsenal had Fabregas, Rosicky, Sendros, Adebeyor and others on the pitch, decent players in anyones eyes. I also read that by the end of the match the difference in the average age of players in the team was only a year (24 Arsenal and 25 Spurs I think). So gutting yes, but more understandable than people have been making out. [RANT ENDS]
I know what you mean. Referring to that Arsenal second string as 'reserves' does them a great disservice. I mean, Baptista scored 6 goals against us in two games at Anfield but he
still doesn't make their first 11!
Frightening stuff. That's why I rate Wenger as probably the best manager in the Premiership right now. Fergusson obviously did a fantastic job for Man U to break Liverpool's 80's stranglehold on the title to become the team of the 90's. They did have tremendous resources available though. It's hard to fault Mourinho's contribution at Chelski but there will always be a question mark over his achievements due to the limitless funds at his disposal. Wenger took over an aging but successful side, much like Souness at Liverpool in the early 90's, and added quality young players to bring the club unprecedented success. The comparisons with Souness there are stark, who ably showed just how wrong it
could have gone for Arsenal during that period of transition. And during a time with limited funds at his disposal when building the Emirates he's managed to unearth some young gems from African football instead of splashing the cash on big names. Walcott will only cost 12m over time (if he gets 100 England caps and they win the Champions League, etc.), the initial fee was only 5 million. I just wish we could have appointed Wenger back in 1996 when Roy Evans should have gone after our dismal FA Cup final display against Man U. I think both clubs histories would have been radically different if that had happened.
Davey Boy wrote:As for the window there wasn't a great deal that went on, from our point of view we sold Davenport and bought a guy called Rocha, who is apparently pretty solid at the back. Davids left to but as he wasn't troubling the starting line up much this season he won't really be missed... The only other thing of note I saw was that West Ham crazily offered Charlton £18m for Darren Bent, which they rejected! He's good but that is probably double his value in my eyes!
Whah did Liverpool get up to? I read that you signed someone from abroad who I'd never heard of...? Is he the next big thing for you?
Ha! Our singings were laughable. More than that actually, embarrassing. We picked up a foreign full back as cover when the Lucas Neill deal fell through and obviously we look like getting Macarrano as well.
We're on a good run at the minute so it was probably wise not to unsettle the team too much during the transfer window where, as you pointed out, players are hawked around for ridiculous sums of money to desperate clubs. Darren Bent isn't worth half the 18m West Ham bid you're right. That's crazy money. I can't believe they turned it down! They won't get anything like that if they go down in the summer.