Official Premiership 2008/09 thread

[-A-]

There are no signs that the credit crunch is going to significantly affect football, particularly the Premiership. Maybe match-day income will be affected, but the TV money is one of the most important parts of their income and the recent deal is 5% larger than the last one - almost keeping up with inflation.

[Thrilla]

Almunia is class, easily one of the best keepers in the Premiership for me, can't believe anyone would want to get rid of him. I can see Gallas going in the summer and I don't see him being difficult to replace or improve upon.

[Bryan Blade]

Yeah at the moment we have to hold onto him but i'm saying maybe when we do finish outside the top 4 wenger might realise that the kids he has so much faith in aren't good enough bar Fabregas,Clichy and to a lesser extent Walcott..i think the team needs to be rebuilt Alex Ferguson style as much as i hate to say it

Edited February 9, 2009 by Bryan Blade

[IAceI]

Personally I think players like Adebayor, Rosicky, Eduardo etc. are all good enough to help the team get into the top 4. Problem is they're suffering with a lot of injuries, but the team and players they have are very good and for most people very enviable but they just have to admit that this isn't their season. But they're still a top class team, I'd love to have a manager like Wenger and support a team that played as attractive football as Arsenal with as much emphasis put on the future of the team. It's an incredible set up and a lot of Arsenal fans seem unused to this sort of performance and are looking for someone to blame, having finished with Eboue they want to rip on Wenger it seems.

And yes, Almunia is a fantastic goalkeeper these days. He had a shaky start but Wenger kept faith with him and he's definitely one of the top goalkeepers in the game at the minute, but goes under the radar for the most part.

[Matt]

There are no signs that the credit crunch is going to significantly affect football, particularly the Premiership. Maybe match-day income will be affected, but the TV money is one of the most important parts of their income and the recent deal is 5% larger than the last one - almost keeping up with inflation.

Should also be noted that the international TV deal eclipsed the national one this time, so yeah, the credit crunch is only really affecting clubs below CCC level (and some CCC clubs) unless they have Icelandic owners.

To say that finishing outside the top 4 for Arsenal would be good for them, is insane however, the amount of additional money the champions league brings in is unreal, add to that some of the players will want to leave (Adebayor, for one) and Arsenal could end up in a very sticky situation. Not qualifying for the CL is the last thing Arsenal want.

[9 to 5]

No one heard the rumour about Rosicky then?

[therockbox]

I'll hazard a guess - he's got to retire?

[9 to 5]

A while ago there was a story that one top flight footballer got banned for a year because of a postive drug test but it was kept very hush-hush. It would be fun to see if it is exactly a year since being 'injured' Rosicky plays again.

[therockbox]

Maybe, although the same thing happened when Daniel Agger got injured as well. There were all these rumours floating about that he'd got involved with a couple of gangs in Liverpool because of debts with his restaurant, and had been tested positive for Cocaine. Would have made a good film.

I assumed retirement because he's been out for so long with an injury that Wenger originally said would keep him out for a couple of weeks.

[TheArsenal]

Lots of discussion. So I'll add my few pence from the last page or so.

Diaby is a good player for us. He's actually been one of our better players - playing that "Gilberto" role that sees him go pretty much unnoticed.

Adebayor can leave. NOW. He is far too lazy. He only ever puts in any effort when we're winning. The rest of the time he is one of the laziest players I've ever seen.

Eboue isn't good enough. Hopefully Senderos doesn't come back. Our defence needs strengthening. We need a better defensive midfielder to play alongside Cesc. Wenger needs to buy.

[TheArsenal]

Apologies for double post.

A while ago there was a story that one top flight footballer got banned for a year because of a postive drug test but it was kept very hush-hush. It would be fun to see if it is exactly a year since being 'injured' Rosicky plays again.

Rosicky was injured on Januray 26th last year. He's expected back in March or April of this year.

So it's already more than a year.

Maybe, although the same thing happened when Daniel Agger got injured as well. There were all these rumours floating about that he'd got involved with a couple of gangs in Liverpool because of debts with his restaurant, and had been tested positive for Cocaine. Would have made a good film.

I assumed retirement because he's been out for so long with an injury that Wenger originally said would keep him out for a couple of weeks.

Mis-diagnosis, several re-injuries (because of mis-diagnosis) and several operations later and he's just back on the training pitch (as of 6th Feb). A lot of people thought it would end his career considering how badly it kept reoccuring.

Edited February 9, 2009 by TheArsenal

[Bryan Blade]

Personally I think players like Adebayor, Rosicky, Eduardo etc. are all good enough to help the team get into the top 4. Problem is they're suffering with a lot of injuries, but the team and players they have are very good and for most people very enviable but they just have to admit that this isn't their season. But they're still a top class team, I'd love to have a manager like Wenger and support a team that played as attractive football as Arsenal with as much emphasis put on the future of the team. It's an incredible set up and a lot of Arsenal fans seem unused to this sort of performance and are looking for someone to blame, having finished with Eboue they want to rip on Wenger it seems.

And yes, Almunia is a fantastic goalkeeper these days. He had a shaky start but Wenger kept faith with him and he's definitely one of the top goalkeepers in the game at the minute, but goes under the radar for the most part

Yeah okay all good points but....Almunia(still dodgy) can't remeber who it was against but that dodgy throw out there a few weeks back to led to a goal hmm vintage almunia why wenger didn't go for Given all these years since seaman left amazes me..Adebayor should have left in the summer to go warm the bench with Hleb haha. Rosicky and Eduardo are good to nobody the last year.They'l be like new signings when they come back. I stand by what i said about diaby. We've still not replaced Vieira which is kinda sad since he's gone what 4 or 5 years now? And Arsenal have not been playing the same attractive football as we're accustomed to. I haven't liked Eboue since the year we got to the CL Final him and flamini were immense as wing backs in that run but eboue went backwards since then. The team needs to be majorly overhauled and soon

[-A-]

This is genuine

[alldaws1]

That is all kinds of awesome.

[HailtotheYo]

Fuck Adebayor. Sell his sorry ass along with Gallas. Use that money to go find more Clichy's and Sagna's and if he doesn't come back healthy, an Eduardo replacement.

Leave VP up front and have Cesc, Walcott, Arshavin, Nasri, Denilson all roaming the midfield. Sagna, Toure, Clichy and the replacement for Gallas behind them.

Yummy.

[ZJ Penn]

Away from home where they're going to get less protection from the referee, that team could get fucked up by a battling side like Blackburn, Bolton or Stoke.

[-A-]

There's no question that they need to bring in a defensive midfielder. Song and Denilson might have great futures, but they aren't even going to be worthy of a first-team place next year. That's the only place they have problems. It's not even a case of desperately needing investment to satiate the fans - if they sold Adebayor and spent all that money on the DM they'd be fine. Unfortunately, Gallas is a sulky cunt and Toure looks like he's wasting away match by match, so something needs to be done there as well.

[alldaws1]

They need less Sagna. It looks like someone taped several cheesestrings to his head, you can't win with that kind of hair.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Apparantly Inter are looking at Van Persie after his contract negotiations with Arsenal stalled. Seriously Arsenal fans you should all stage a protest outside your stadium until Wenger accepts anything that Van Persie wants. He's really important to you and as a Spurs fan he's the one player in your team that actually makes me feel really uncomfortable when you play us. I just expect him to do something ridiculously great at any minute.

[Crybaby Bunting]

What has Arsene got against keeping players now?

Arsene: You are a very important player to the club, and if you leave we'll probably crumble. What do you want

X: Double what I currently earn

Arsene: What? I can't put you on a 60k per week deal, you'll have to move elsewhere

X proceeds to go to Inter/Milan/Madrid/Barce/etc on a deal around 90K per week

Sure he can always say that the next generation of superstars will be even better than the current batch, but then again, all they'll do is get sold as soon as they have a decent season.