wow that might be the worst Arsenal team I've seen in my 15+ years of support

Dzeko scored again lolwut

The bad thing is I already said that about last week's line-up against Liverpool and here they've gone and lowered the bar considerably. At this point I would be ecstatic if they brought in Cahill, Arteta and the Korean striker not because they're great players but simply experienced bodies. I still don't expect that to happen.

Van Persie fail

I can definitely understand Wenger when he says that he can't find anyone in the transfer market capable of upgrading our squad.

World class performance today

Glad my power is still out

take a bow Wenger

3 games, 3 red cards

The capability difference as a manger between Alex & Wenger couldn't be more stark at this point. He's had a club for years that was only slight upgrade or two away from being able win the title and has now, due to stubbornness/insanity, torn the depth and talent of that squad to pieces and replaced it with nothing. Alex, wins the title and signs high quality players to add to his championship squad. It's sad to watch.

staggering performance.

Wenger out tomorrow, bring Hiddink in to rescue the squad and give him the money to buy the replacements needed

The difference between Ferguson and Wenger is that Ferguson has figured out that you can compete for the title in the current season as well as bring in players for the future. Since the Invincibles season Wenger has been determined to build a second season like that but hasn't kept his eyes on the current as much as he should. Then when young players like Flamini and Adebayor and now Nasri and Fabregas leave, it sets the whole process back.

And that brings us to another problem: the current Arsenal wage scale. It's rumored that Fabregas was on about 90,000 pounds a week which is great until you look at Rooney pushing 200,000 a week and others up in that area. How can you ask world class players to play for half the wages of another world class player? They were in negotiations with Nasri until he became aware that Man City would pay him 50% more than Arsenal were offering. Who can blame Nasri for his decision? And the same thing will happen next summer when RVP has one year left on his contract. How will he react when he is offered 100,000 a week. He'll say 'thanks but I'll wait til next year and move on'. Will Arsene sell him so they get something out of him? And Vermaelen will eventually be in that position also. The bottom line is that Arsenal are now a selling club, not much different than clubs like Villa and Everton.

There is now a current top tier in the EPL and it includes the Manchester clubs and Chelsea at the top followed by Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs. This comes down to the willingness and ability to spend massive amounts of cash to bring in players. I'll be interested to see if the Man U structure is a house of cards waiting to collapse in on itself. When Ferguson leaves will they find an adequate replacement?

So where will Arsenal finish this year? Certainly out of the top 4 but they'll still be in a position to qualify for the Europa Cup or what ever they call it. Without a change in philosophy from Wenger, Gazidis and the board that is where they will stay for the forseeable future.

Its not just the amount spent on wages, its how its spent.

We overpay nothing players like Almunia, Denilson, Diaby, Bendtner, and others who haven't done shit. They make £55-60K per week, and our top end earners are making only £90K per week. I bet Danny Wellbeck isn't making £60K per week already. We need to pay elite wages to our elite talent.

Everyone is blaming the board. The problem is Wenger. He wants to win a title with a "team of kids", and he feels like spending big sums of money would invalidate his project. The problem is, the board has given him unchecked control and is allowing him to turn the club in to his own experiment. We're sitting on over £100M in cash reserves, we've turned a profit on transfers since moving to the Emirates. We can spend £12M on Chamberlain, a prospect who played in League 1 last year, but we can't spend £10M more on a world class talent like Mata, who is only a few years older. Wenger only wants to buy players that have big re-sale values, which is why he put in a lousy loan offer for Lucho Gonzalez.

The club is in shambles. Top 4 appears to be gone. Not only has Wenger lost the plot in terms of balancing the squad with youth/experienced players, but he can't coach defensive tactics. Our team is so lazy off the ball and so tactically naive it hurts to watch.

What does naive, in the context of soccer, mean?

jeff2sf wrote:What does naive, in the context of soccer, mean?

tactically naive = loses track of where they are on the pitch, get caught out of position regularly, fail to track their man when he doesn't have the ball.

hmmm ok. I've heard that term a lot and used basically in your context - that doesn't seem like the right word. With which Englishman should I take up my complaint?

its often used for inexperienced players who don't know any better. That's the correct usage of the word.

Anybody see the 6-0 thrashing Real Madrid put on Zaragoza yesterday? I guess Zaragoza is pretty bad, but still it looked like Madrid could have named its score. Cristiano Ronaldo with three of the goals.

GOL TV announcers were actually predicting Madrid to upend Barcelona for the La Liga championship this year. I hope so.

Barca are better than last year with Fabregas and Sanchez, and I don't know why anyone would predict Barca to lose at anything.

Picking Madrid to win La Liga is like all those people who picked the Braves to win the NL East in March. It could happen if the right series of injuries happen, but it's not at all likely.

Barca Villareal is on ESPN3 in an hour.

jerseyhoya wrote:Barca are better than last year with Fabregas and Sanchez, and I don't know why anyone would predict Barca to lose at anything.

Picking Madrid to win La Liga is like all those people who picked the Braves to win the NL East in March. It could happen if the right series of injuries happen, but it's not at all likely.

Barca Villareal is on ESPN3 in an hour.

Fair enough. I'm not picking Madrid to top Barcelona, just hoping it happens.

I think the Barcelona/Villareal game will be on GOL TV today, too, if you get that.