Fletcher admits ………… Ferguson’s a hypocrite

Just over a year ago, having watched Darren Fletcher commit foul after foul against Arsenal without receiving a single booking, Arsene Wenger coined the term “anti-football”.

He said: “’I have seen today a player who plays on the pitch only to make fouls. The players who are never punished and get out of the game without a yellow card.

I think it is anti-football. I don’t know why it is this way. You should ask the referees. Look at how many deliberate fouls some players get away with. That’s a bigger problem because it cuts the flow of the game. And people pay to see football, not free-kicks.”


Of course Fletcher and Ferguson both said afterwards that Wenger was a sore loser and that Fletcher was an honest, skillful footballer.

A year later, and Fletcher has realized that Wenger was completely correct and he has now decided to admit to the error in his ways. Fletcher said that it is his job to “…break up play, sometimes to commit a tactical foul to stop the other team counter-attacking…”


Now I’m no Premiership referee, but I believe that what he is talking about is called unsporting behaviour, and should ON EACH AND EVERY OCCASION be dealt with by a yellow card.

I very much hope that referees were listening to Fletcher’s comments and will act accordingly in the forthcoming season.


And what are Ferguson’s true views on the types of fouls that Fletcher sees as wrtitten into his job description? Well, they are rather different when they happen to his team.

Here is what he said after Manchester United were knocked out of the FA Cup by a Portsmouth team that included the Fletcher-like Lassana Diarra: “He [Lassana Diarra] doesn’t get a booking [for a cynical obstruction of Ronaldo in United’s first attack],” said Ferguson. “That sets a tone for Pompey knowing that they can get away with so many things. He had eight or nine fouls in the match. It’s incredible. I don’t blame Portsmouth. If any team comes here and finds that a referee won’t do anything, won’t do the right thing, then they will keep on doing it. And I think that’s a tragedy.”

Yes that would be a tragedy – so let’s just hope that Premiership referees will call an end to this behaviour this season.

They can make a start by getting Fletcher’s name in the book the first time he makes one of those “tactical fouls”.

I’m not holding my breath though….

Written by mjc

100 Responses to Fletcher admits ………… Ferguson’s a hypocrite

  1. Implex says:

    #MUFC the club of hypocrites

  2. Ziggy says:

    what goes round…

  3. Jason says:

    it will never happen they will keep making these fouls

    england fa wants youngsters to play in the PL to play proper football but who in england except us play football?

  4. Rasp says:

    Morning all,

    I have to say that Howard Webb didn’t do a lot to demonstrate referee’s conviction to stamp out persistant fouling in the way he handled the WC final. Hopefully the backlash after the game will inspire the FA in the same way as the England ‘no goal’ gave Platini a prod.

  5. SharkeySure says:

    Great post MJC.

    Add to that the complete slating that the Dutch got from all quarters for their flirtation with anti-football in the WC final.

    Roundly condemned by all and sundry, incluidng those media muppets who have been lauding Fat Sam and Tony Pulis’ tactic of ‘getting in peoples faces’.

    My only surprise is that neither of those two have incorporated a pre match knife twirling Haka into their approach to games against Arsenal.

  6. kelsey says:

    I don’t really know much about Manchester United, do the play in an English league.I remember loads of people in Surrey always walking around in their shirts.Must be a local team who idolise some old scottish geezer.I did hear that a window company was backing them far off in a place called America.

    Their manager has one of those special him and her watches,but his always has a unique habit of either being a few minutes quick but invariably has a mechanism that alows 66 minutes to the hour.

    Fletcher was very good in Porridge, well of course he is an actor, isn’t he.

  7. Rasp says:

    Nice one sharkey 😛

    You alwys feel like you are up against 13 men when you play manure – the ref and fergie making up the numbers. Arsène can’t bring himself to stoop as low as fergie in the dirty tricks department.

    The ‘war of words’ between the 2 managers in the build up to a game is always started by bacon face (as chary calls him 😉 ) and is calculated to influence the referee in advance of the game.

  8. SharkeySure says:

    Oh yeah Morning All

  9. charybdis1966 says:

    Fine post there mjc – you share my hatred for all things mank and can seek, locate and destroy the target for your vitriol.
    We can see time after time how when Wenger does something he gets roundly slagged off and the ole bacon face does the same thing he has all his lackeys in the press blowing smoke up his arse for it.
    In the immortal words of M J Gatting: “one rule for one and one rule for another”

  10. charybdis1966 says:

    And don’t forget the sweaty pisshead was on the blower with consoling words after the leg break at the Shittania – but he was consoling poor little Shawcross, not the Arsenal player who was rude enough to leave splinters of his shin bone in Ryan’s studs.
    Classy, eh Fergie ?

  11. Rasp says:

    Morning chary, we’ve obviously written something irrefutable here as this type of article usually attracts itinerant manc supporters in search of quality blogs to denigrate (a bit like their footballing ethos)

  12. SharkeySure says:

    Influencing referes…?? Fergie..??!!

    Woah there Rasp… steady with the scurrilous accusations this early (GMT+1) in the morning. Shocking stuff.

    I’m gonna go lie down, and yes – I am at work, problem..??

  13. charybdis1966 says:

    Raspers – you forget the time zone difference in Singapore – the mank supporting heartland is in bed now.

  14. Rasp says:

    That’s a great point chary. The fergie phonecall was nothing to do with sympathy for Shawcross but all about winding up Wenger and seeking to create the myth that the tackle was just an unavoidable accident rather than a planned assault.

  15. charybdis1966 says:

    Yeah Raspers – the same “man” who moaned about a few people at Ashburton Grove calling him whiskey breath is the from the team whose supporters sing the paedophile chant at Wenger (who never makes an issue of it) and had to go sit in a crowd of baying retard manks when Bart Simpsons dad sent our manager there for the crime of kicking a poor, indefensible empty plastic water bottle.

  16. dandan says:

    Nice post MJC. The big questions this season will be, Do the pundits on match of the day have the courage to finish what they started after the WC final or will it be business as usual its a mans game? Blah, blah, blah,
    Will FAT Sam and Tearaway Pullis get the criticism they deserve and most of all will the Referees at last make a stand even if it means some 9 men teams finishing games.

    I wouldnt hold your breath bloggers, expediency rules, fouls mean action replays and “Talking Points”
    which in turn means employment for Pundits. Could I be getting cynical, it must be the heat LOL

  17. Thandaninkosi says:

    Sore Losers!!!!

  18. Rasp says:

    Morning dandan,

    That’s a very interesting point that I hadn’t considered. Is it in the interest of the media to have controversial incidents on the pitch – of course it is …. can they/are they exerting behind the scenes pressure to ensure that such incidents continue …. I wonder?

  19. charybdis1966 says:

    Ah, someone is awake in Singapore after all !

  20. mjc says:

    Thandaninkosi, are you referring to Ferguson after Portsmouth knocked ManU out of the cup? Please explain….

  21. Rasp says:

    Morning mjc,

    Excellent piece, we gooners are duty bound to keep the debate about this kind of play going as we consistantly pay a high price for it season after season.

  22. shedzy says:

    Personally, I thought that Howard Webb reffed the WC Final pretty well – if he had punished every foul, it would have decended into utter farce, as the game would have had to have been abandoned because of too many sendings off.

    Can you imagine that?!

  23. mjc says:

    Slightly off-topic, but isn’t that “Hide Publication” feature on NewsNow fantantastic. I just applied it to ANR, so now I’ll never mistakenly read his egotistical self-serving ranting again…!

  24. charybdis1966 says:

    I do the same for “Republik of Manchuria” as well mjc.

  25. Rasp says:

    Morning shedzy,

    I have no doubt that Webb was under instruction to keep 22 men on the pitch as far as was possible – in that he was successful, but the message that gave out to kids worldwide was that persistant fouling will be tolerated.

  26. dandan says:

    Shedsy: It is taken as read that Webb was told by his masters to keep all the players on the pitch if he possibly could the Dutch took advantage of that.

    But the same criteria doesn’t need to apply to the PL but no doubt for the reasons I outlined in my earlier post it will.

  27. mjc says:

    Rasp – when I was writing the article, I spent a long time wondering how Fletcher’s interview could be brought to the attention of Premiership referees, and more generally how to get clarification on how the refs will, in light of the WC Final, be treating the tactical in the Premiership this season.

    Perhaps this blog could put together an open letter to the powers that be at the Premiership Referees Committee (which I’m guessng is run from Ferguson’s garden shed) and ask for a formal reply.

  28. dandan says:

    Nah cant be his garden shed, that’s full of press passes he has confiscated.

  29. am says:

    I heard Ferguson wants to bring in Van Bommel in as coach.

  30. Naija Dude says:

    Why do these idots (manc & chavs) come to arsenal blogs to spew bile? Get a life Thandaninkosi and idiots like you, leave us alone. This is our space where like minds (Gooners) debate issue and forge a common bonds. And a for Fergie, he’s senile and way past his sale by date.

  31. Rasp says:

    In the same way as an accumilation of yellow cards leads to a suspension, maybe an acumilation of fouls in a game – say 6, should lead to an automatic yellow card and if it got up to 10 a red … that could deter persistant fouling.

  32. charybdis1966 says:

    I see it’s Villa’s turn on the Bankruptalona roster for the “Cesc is coming to Barca” speech today.

  33. dandan says:

    Who is gonna carry the Abacus Rasp or will MR Blatter consider that new technology

  34. Rasp says:

    One thing that I think is a huge injustice is that when a player is injured because he is fouled, he has to go off the pitch and wait to be let back on by the ref. This penalises the team that have been fouled as they are reduced to 10 men. It would be very simple to rectify this by making the perpetrator leave the pitch and only come back on at the same time as the injured player so that at least both teams are down to 10 men.

  35. Rasp says:

    dandan,

    I’m all for technology in football. The referee has an earpiece and another official on the sideline can keep count so that he can concentrate on refereeing the game. The ludicrous 3 yellow cards from the previous WC would never have happened if that had been in place. Referees have an impossible job, it is crazy to expect them to concentrate on so many aspects of the game.

  36. dandan says:

    Nice one MJC over a thousand hits already, could be a big day

  37. dandan says:

    I am with you Rasp, Pity Scatty Blatty isn’t.

  38. charybdis1966 says:

    Off topic again, there’s a slight chance I may go the game against Welling Utd tomorrow – does anyone think it’s worth it and if so and I do go I may take some pics, would the blog owners(Peachy/Raspers) like me to send them in ?

  39. Rasp says:

    Hi chary, that would be great, but I don’t know who these blog owners you refer to are? Its a co-operative don’t you know 😛

  40. mjc says:

    Did any of you guys realise that according to the Permiership stats, Darren Fletcher only made 35 fouls in in his 30 appearances last season….!!! That is how far premiership refereeing is from reality!

    What is also interesting with regard to the above is to look at foul to booking ratio for last season, and see where the inconsistencies lie (table shows all players who committed 50 or more fouls last season):

    Player Club Fouls Yellows Fouls/Yellow
    John Carew A Villa 61 2 30.5
    Carlton Cole W Ham 64 3 21.3
    Bobby Zamora Fulham 56 3 18.7
    Michael Ballack Chelsea 50 3 16.7
    Gareth Barry Man Cty 57 4 14.3
    George Boateng Hull 55 4 13.8
    Wade Elliott Burnley 65 5 13.0
    Mohammed Diame Wigan 60 5 12.0
    Kevin Davies B’burn 103 9 11.4
    Andre Bikey Burnley 55 5 11.0
    Steven Nzonzi B’burn 54 5 10.8
    Karl Henry Wolves 60 6 10.0
    M. Fellaini Everton 56 6 9.3
    Tim Cahill Everton 74 8 9.3
    Dider Drogba Chelsea 59 7 8.4
    Hendry Thomas Wigan 64 8 8.0
    Craig Fagin Hull 56 7 8.0
    C. N’Zogbia Wigan 53 7 7.6
    Wilson Palacios Spurs 58 8 7.3
    Tamir Cohen Bolton 50 7 7.1
    Tom Huddlestone Spurs 53 8 6.6
    J. Mascherano L’pool 66 10 6.6
    Leiva Lucas L’pool 57 9 6.3
    Ricardo Fuller Stoke 52 9 5.8
    Fabrice Muamba Bolton 63 11 5.7
    Lorik Cana S’land 55 10 5.5
    Alex Song Arsenal 54 10 5.4

  41. charybdis1966 says:

    You two are always the guvnors round here in my eyes Raspers/Peachy!
    Mjc I wrote a piece for this blog a while back about how low our fouls per yellow count is and it doesn’t surprise me that Song is at the bottom of that table.
    The link is here : https://arsenalarsenal.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/carry-on-fouling-they-arsenal-dont-like-it-up-them-mr-mainwaring/

  42. Rasp says:

    mjc … that’s amazing. Alex Song got more cards per foul than any other player.

    That just goes to show that not only do referees tolerate more fouls against Arsenal because they see it as a bona fide way of negating our technical advantage …. but more depressingly, they penalise us more heavily when we foul for the same reason!

  43. mjc says:

    Rasp – with regard to the leaving the pitch issue, I’ve thought for a while that a player who asks for treatment should have to leave the pitch for a minimum of two minutes (with the fourth official doing the timekeeping). This would stop all the play-acting and time-wasting, but would also be to the benefit of the players health as treatment would not need to be rushed. If the injury was caused by a foul, then the fouing player should also leave the pitch for two minutes. If the fouling player was given a yellow card then this should be increased to four minutes. Would be interesting to see how this would impact.

  44. SharkeySure says:

    Someone show that list to Geoff !!

  45. Rasp says:

    mjc – that’s perfect common sense … therefore it will never happen 😦

  46. mjc says:

    Charybdis – just read your post – very much the same conlusions…. and Darren Fletcher’s name turned up in your article to!!!

    Seriously, we should get all this in front of referees and ask the big question.

  47. mjc says:

    The other change I’d make is to bring in offsides from throw-ins – this would stop Stoke in their tracks.

  48. SharkeySure says:

    Its not even as though Song is a dirty fouler…generally its a genuine attempt for the ball, or a test of strength that refs have deemed unfair…but only if Song emerges victorious

  49. mjc says:

    Sharkey – absolutely true. In fact, if you look at the yellow that Song was given that caused him to be suspended for a couple of games, the foul was actually being committed by his opponent, who had trapped Song’s arms under his own.

    BEWARE – I have a photgraphic memory for injustices against the Arsenal…!!!

  50. charybdis1966 says:

    Mjc- you must also recall that the majority of Paddy and Manu’s reds were for retaliation after the aggressor was allowed to go unpunished. I recall Manu getting one for putting his hands in front of him when a ref sprinted up to him to give him a yellow and was in danger of barging petit to the floor.

  51. tommystout says:

    morning all.
    great post MJC, i’m waiting for those tards at MOD to explain how stokes/birmC tactics are different to the way holland approached the WC final. i have no doubt that they will support anti football this season especially against the arsenal…. someone will bring up the holland abomination and they will then explain away the differences…. they make me sick – i just wish the likes of dixon, wright and parlour had the gonads to stick up for our cause!

  52. tommystout says:

    it will take a massive sway of public opinion, petitions and the like to change the way referrees officiate our league, if they want a football playing nation then anti football has to be wiped out and only the refs can do that, and only the FA can make them.

  53. SharkeySure says:

    MJC – I hear ya loud and clear re THAT ‘foul’ !!

  54. tommystout says:

    its so obvious to me the injustices that arsenal experience at the hand of these cretins…. the alex song stat is just one example. but as gooners we get hardened to it, it is what we expect – us against them.
    to other fans we just seem paranoid!

  55. tommystout says:

    where the hell is this new goalkeeper…. christ the season is less than a month away!

  56. tommystout says:

    yet again i clear the room! 🙂

  57. Rasp says:

    Perhaps the collective geniuses at the FA who are looking for the solution to the current dearth of English talent should consider the effect of the emphasis on physicality over technical ability. If our youngster were taught to retain possession by ‘pass and go’ rather than ‘get stuck in’ because we can’t hold on to the ball, we might have a national side that can compete with Spain in the years ahead.

  58. charybdis1966 says:

    TommyS – I think being a gooner the inconsistent treatment we get from the FA and the media comes with the territory. Being a seasoned/gnarled campaigner I welcome the injustice – it helps to fuel the siege mentality which we thrive on.
    As Georgie Graham said to his squad the day after the original battle of Old Toilet ”The press are loving it, they’re just loving it… another excuse to have a go at The Arsenal”

  59. Rasp says:

    Hi tommy,

    Don’t take it personally, it always goes quiet as we approach lunchtime 😆

  60. tommystout says:

    hey rasp, charey –
    well at lunchtime i tend to start browsing, maybe i should be pub lunching like you lot! 🙂

  61. GunnerN5 says:

    mjc; the quickest way to stir up Arsenal fans is to print anything about Man U on their pages.

    I’ve got many bones of contention – biased refereeing being at the top of the list, it’s blatantly obvious that the “darlings” of English football have different rules applied to them.
    How many games have they won at home due to them getting their “obligatory” penalty?

    I guess you all know that according to game commentators Paul Scholes never commits fouls – he’s simply clumsy and has not learned how to tackle.

    I’ve disliked SAF (silly auld fart) since his quote after England won the World Cup in ’66 – he said, “The worst day of my life was when England won the World Cup”

    Game commentators on Man U games never seem to notice
    that there’s another team on the pitch and yet they can quote every statistic, that you’d never want to know, about Man U. including their players kid’s birthday’s.
    When Man U passes go astray it’s characterized as an unusually poor pass” yet the opposition “are scrappy and have given the ball away”.
    Did you know that they also play “scintillating” and
    “exquisite” football.

    Oh gee – Thank goodness for the mute button.

  62. Kipmonster says:

    I am proposing that Arsenal fans World wide post letters once a week for the next four weeks to UEFA & FIFA complaining about Barcelona FC’s persistent public ‘tapping up’ of Cesc Fabregas.

    Also post a letter just once to Arsenal FC requesting that they formally complain to UEFA & FIFA about Barcelona FC’s rule breakin…g disrespectful behaviour.
    I have drawn up 3 template letters that I will email to willing participants. All that you will need to do is type in your own Name & Address before printing off & posting.

    A momentum is needed in this regard & can be boosted by you forwarding the email I send you to every single one of your Arsenal FC supporting family & friends and encouraging them to post letters off once every week for four weeks to UEFA & FIFA and just once to Arsenal FC.

    The aim of repetitive letters would be to create an Administrative headache for UEFA & FIFA with hopefully thousands of letters received from all over the world. It would be a great way to display the strength of feeling from Arsenal FC fans.

    The purpose of the single letter to Arsenal FC is again to display the strength of feeling from Arsenal FC fans.

    The Arsenal FC hierarchy seem to exist in an ‘Ivory Tower’ immune or just simply ignorant to the feelings & wishes of their fans.

    My email address for this campaign from where I will email you the letter templates is …….. ArsenalFansHateBarcelonaFC@gmail.com

    COME ON !! …… Lets DO this & be taking substantive action for a change instead of simply bleating on web blogs which achieves nothing as it goes unnoticed by those who should hear the complaints the most.
    I will post this on the anti Barca facebook group ………….

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116042895106146

    & also on as many Arsenal blogs as possible via ……………

    http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Sport/Football/Premier+League/Arsenal/All+Sources

  63. tommystout says:

    GunnerN5 – yes the scholes clumsiness is a real gem for you to pick.
    Young jack is people say the new scholes, we all know that jacks tackles can be clumsy but i bet they wont be called that by the pundits.

  64. tommystout says:

    well done kip monster , i hope this site embraces your offer, i for one will email you!

  65. tommystout says:

    kipmoster you should do a similar thing for the FA and campaign for the eradication of anti-football, by means of new directives to the referrees.

  66. 26may1989 says:

    Like it MJC, well done.

    The real villain in the piece isn’t Fletcher or even Ferguson. It isn’t Pulis, Shawcross, that orange bloke who got the sack at Hull or even my personal favourite object of hate, Kevin Davies. It’s the referees and the FA.

    Players and managers will push things as far as they can go – as Fletcher says, a tactical foul. But they will respond if referees punish them properly, as is more often done in other European leagues. The end of the 49-game run stands in my memory as a particularly obvious example: United’s gameplan was clear, kick and kick the Arsenal players as long as Mike Riley allowed them to. And it worked. I don’t really see much point in criticising the perpetrator of anti-football, they are just doing what they can to get a result and even up the disparity in skill by some other means. But the referees need to enforce the rules of the game, simple as that.

    The ultimate price, lest we forget, for not enforcing the rules is not so much us losing points we (and the other more creative sides) are entitled to; it comes in the form of players’ broken bones (Eduardo, Ramsey and Cech being the obvious examples). It’s no good denying there’s a connection between anti-football and tactical fouls on the one hand and gross injuries sustained as a result of “in their faces” challenges. It’s interesting how often we see these injuries in English football, and how rarely it happens in other leagues. To me, that shows the referees elsewhere are doing their jobs better.

    As for Ferguson, yes he’s a hypocrite, but frankly, I’ve seen even Wenger’s Arsenal play a decidedly negative strategy occasionally and much as I love the guy, there’s no denying Arsene can fairly be criticised for hypocrisy himself. (In fact, can’t we all?)

    Re rule changes, I still can’t understand why football doesn’t adopt sin-binning as a happy medium between the ineffectual yellow card and the sometimes excessive red card. And I like MJC’s suggestion of the offside rule applying to all passes, whether from throw-ins, goal kicks or whatever. Makes sense and would undermine negative tactics.

  67. 26may1989 says:

    And MJC, thanks for telling me about that newsnow blocking option – now I too can get rid of that egomaniac on ANR.

  68. goonermichael says:

    fletcher is a useless wanker. Vinny jones had more skill

  69. Oh no what happened – everyone must’ve gone to the pub.

  70. 26may1989 says:

    It’s very quiet, Rasp promised an online punch-up….

  71. SharkeySure says:

    I reckon a fair few of us have looked at this afternoons ‘radio silence’ and thought, ‘I should just write something…anything’.

    I know I did, but didn’t… if you get my drift

  72. Hi Sharkey – so what happened to your post then???????

  73. 26may1989 says:

    Still 40 days till the transfer window closes, can you bear it? Will anyone other than City actually spend any money?

  74. SharkeySure says:

    The one about wifebeaters…??

  75. Rasp says:

    As it stands, our defence is weaker than last season. Sol will add experience if he stays but it will not be good enough.

    I remind everyone of what I repeatedly stated at the end of last season. We do not make surprise signings any more. If we are going to try to sign a player it will be flagged up for weeks in advance = Schwarzer.

    We are not in the market for a big right sided defender more’s the pity and that is a big mistake – unless you consider Sol to be the answer.

  76. 26may1989 says:

    Sol is definitely not the answer – a good fifth choice back up maybe, but we need more than that.

    We’ll see about the susrpise signings, you never know.

  77. Rasp says:

    Very true 26may – I live in hope.

    My allegiance to the club and the manager won’t change, but it is only human to wish!

  78. London says:

    If we do not buy an additional CB it must be assumed that Wenger believes that we can win the league with one of either Djourou or Koscielny alongside Vermaelen in central defence. We are all saying that it is way too early to be critical of this pairing and that we will have a better picture after the Emirates cup but I have to tell you I am mighty sceptical.

  79. Rasp says:

    Hi London, there is another option. If we do not buy another CB it may be because we actually don’t have the money to spend that was declared and once again Arsène is being the fall guy.

  80. No Rasp – not the money again – we have the money now

    either

    1. He can’t find one
    2. He’s found one and they don’t want to come to us

  81. Rasp says:

    Maybe we don’t have the money as it is earmarked for another purpose?

  82. Like what? I think the money is there……it wasn’t there before but it is there now.

  83. Rasp says:

    In that case, you’re saying Arsene’s a tight wad……

  84. barumgooner says:

    Sorry have I missed something ? Is AW now saying we have enough cover in defence ?

  85. barumgooner says:

    So exactly why are we weaker now than last season ? We have lost Silveste, Senderos, Eduardo, Merida, Gilbert and Gallas. The only one who actually contributed anything last year was Gallas and he is the wrong side of 30(and just a little bit mental). He has been replaced by a younger faster stronger player who Aw and his team have identified as being worth a lot of money. We have added another strong centre forward, all of our young players are a year older and hopefully wiser. Djourou, Nasri and Rosicky are fit and raring to go when 12 months ago they weren’t. For the first time in several years we are in a position where our less than effective players must be looking over their shoulders at the young lads coming through and thinking that they have to earn their bacon. Alrite in an ideal world we could do with a couple of introductions but I really cant see where the weakness is compared to last year. The future is bright the future is red and white. Keep the faith gooners !

  86. […] Fletcher admits ………… Ferguson’s a hypocrite Just over a year ago, having watched Darren Fletcher commit foul after foul against Arsenal without receiving a single […] […]

  87. gnarleygeorge9 says:

    ManU Who???

  88. Rasp says:

    After having seen both Djourou and Koscielny play, my opinion that defence is currently weaker stands. I am quite sure those players will improve and I have great hope for Koscielny, but at the start of the season, we will be shaky in defence as neither are anywhere near as good as Gallas at the moment.

  89. barumgooner says:

    You are probably right Rasp but it only takes one quality signing and we are streets ahead of where we were 12 months ago. I dont think AW sees either of those two as first choice, merely quality back-up which we were sadly lacking last year. Its getting a bit last minute but im still of the opinion that another CB will be brought in to partner TV.

  90. London says:

    I suspect we all have the same wish that a new CB is brought in to partner TV, a CB that by reputation would expect to automatically start next to the Belgian. The result would be, however, that Djourou is consigned to the bench for another season, now I obviously don’t care about that but I cannot see Wenger doing it, especially knowing that if he did Djourou would ask to leave straight away, something I feel sure Wenger would want to avoid.

    I find myself changing my mind on a daily basis, today I cannot see another CB coming in.

    By the way, that was a good read at 12:12am andy.

    And this has got nothing to do with money or lack of it, this has got everything to do with Wenger believing we have what it takes to win the League with what we have; he must do if he doesn’t buy another CB.

  91. barumgooner says:

    I know exactly what you mean London, one minute i’m totally convinced that we are on the verge of signing a player and the next i’m equally convinced that we aren’t going to buy anyone. I am beginning to hate the silly season !
    thanks for the comment by the way.

  92. Rasp says:

    Guys,

    We are not going to sign another CB, so all I can hope is that Koscielny gets up to speed very quickly. If you read Arseblog yesterday, he also thinks that we don’t spend £8.5m on a defender unless it is with the objective of playing him.

  93. barumgooner says:

    If Sol stays then I would probably have to agree with you Rasp.

  94. Morning all

    Theres a NEW POST

  95. Gooner64 says:

    I know its been said before but until the FA cracks down on professional fouls and allow games to flow football in England will suffer. Not just for teams like Arsenal but the national team as well. Its a joke.

  96. fuzzy says:

    MUFC-the club of legends!!! haters need to STFU 😛
    do check up on my blogs at http://www.afuzzyrants.wordpress.com call this “shameless self-publicity”

  97. […] Just over a year ago, having watched Darren Fletcher commit foul after foul against Arsenal without receiving a single booking, Arsene Wenger coined the term “anti-football”. He said: “'I have seen today a player who plays on the pitch only to make fouls. The players who are never punished and get out of the game without a yellow card. I think it is anti-football. I don't know why it is this way. You should ask the referees. Look at how many deli … Read More […]

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