Arsa - Barca

[Dpleezy]

quincy has been at arsenal for a while no

"Promising young striker who joined Arsenal in the summer of 2002 from Ajax. A skilful forward with pace to burn, Owusu-Abeyie spent nine years learning his trade at the Amsterdam club. Given his first-team debut against Rotherham in the League Cup in October 2003, the Dutch teenager scored his first senior Arsenal goal in the same competition, against Everton in November 2004. Also made his Champions League bow in the Gunners' 5-1 demolition of Rosenborg in December 2004. Agreed a new three-year contract in July 2005."

[blaqsouljah]

i think calling arsene wenger the best coach in the world is a bit of a stretch of the imagination - maybe one of the best at club level. i think he's been very good / lucky with his player acquisitions, but now i think he's challenging for title of queen of england along with fergie. remember when arsene first came to highbury and how fergie and the rest of the old guard looked at him with disdain? now he looking at every other new manager the same way as fergie did with him. i think with viera and henry he was very lucky receiving two players who had been considered failures at their previous clubs because of their inability to step up fast enough to the plate. henry had a tough time trying to emulate the feats of ravanelli and vialli at juventus. it took a very long time before anyone did for that team what those two did back in the mid 90s. so coming to arsenal he was not rushed and the standard of italian football was much higher then.

arsene wenger is a good manager, granted, but he must stop bitching too much. i used to respect him for his tactical abilities - but to me it seems like he can't handle a manager much more tactically astute than he is.

it's very strange that this morning on skysports paul merson and jamie redknapp both said that arsenal would not get far in the premiership or champions league without henry - it's too much of a burden to put on any player to try and fill the guys boots. and i have to admit that this was my initial thought when speculation on his leaving first surfaced. they need a decent striker and soon because van persie is still a kid in awe of his own superstardom and with a serious anger management problem. this could be the time for adebayor to step up but he needs a pertner up front - maybe atletico's talisman fernando torres.

[Dpleezy]

i don't think i called him the 'best coach in the world' did i? :)

you can't possibly call wenger 'lucky' for his player acquisitions. that's his job. he is rated as _one of the best_ because he finds good players that haven't had their potential unlocked. Then he turns them into world-cla** players through coaching and personal management,,, there's no luck involved.

i think a place in the champions league final proves that he is tactically astute,,, it speaks for itself. he beat some great managers on the way there. if henry had put away chances he normally does, we'd have won the final, even with 10 men.

With the resources available to arsenal, and the injuries we've had, Arsene has worked miracles.

"arsene wenger is a good manager, granted, but he must stop bitching too much."

come on now,,, you're really clutching at straws. what managers don't bitch when they lose or feel like they've been unfairly treated?! It's an emotional game.

[soulquarian]

From the beginin that game was just Filled with a whol lotta unexpected Happenings.... Sitting on my couch Kadiskoppas ... here i am thinking its Ronaldhino Vs Henry......Little did i Know When That Idiot goal Keeper was given a Red Card I thought aaaaagggg what the fcuk its over .....i mite aswell go listen to som Jacaranda or sum shit like that......... Then Cambelll scored and im thinking well there goes Ronaldhino Vs Henry.... Here i am thinking yaaaah Barca We gon Kick ur a**es... Et'to Is the f***ing Man.... Belleti okay what a surprise ...But i must say with only ten Men we pulled off agood fite....Mistakes Made by Ref: Giving Henry a Yellow Card come onnn man he was playin the game...anyway They shouldnt have taken out Pirez Should have sacrifised sum uda Goat..... Fabrigas Should have stayed.... Eboue Shouldnt have been on that Field But i must say his Marvellous skill at DIVING helped us get that goal.....  Cole was on point after not playing for so long...... Ronaldhino is an entertainer last night he played like one....... yaaah yaaah his moves yesterday were great but the aim of the game is to get the Ball in the back of the net..... Dissapointed.....But then again Et'to was the only other tm8 p actually playin the game .........VivA Arsenal......Oh  .... Bye Bye World cup For dat Goalie Yall....

[blaqsouljah]

Dplanet writes:

he probably has the best coach in the world teaching him the job though.

i do believe you did say that. the man has done a good job with limited resources, rafa benitez did even better with even more limited resources. and it's no secret that wender has a problem with the iberian managers - mourinho can vouch for that any day. fabregas in my opinion is a barcelona youth programme reject - he was never gonna make it in the first team anytime soon anyway - maybe never. that is my opinion.

and i believe that ronaldinho didn't play badly because arsenal played well - he just played badly because he tried to do too much. notice how at times gilberto was a**igned to mark him? worst move ever - besides being skinned easily, do you believe that he was gonna lunge in as he usually does on his country's hopes of retaining the world cup? i don't think so. it's hard to say that arsenal would have one had they been full strength because i believe eboue dived and conned the ref into giving arsenal a free kick which lead to the opener. it's easy to draw scenarios after the fact - because i can say that had the refree awarded barcelona the goal and just cautioned lehman instead of sending him off, then barca could have possibly scored more than they did. that to me would have been anothe scenario - but one that didn't play itself out on the field. wenger never used to mind playin second fiddle to man united when it came to signing players - but as soon as chelsea had a much superior cheque book, we started hearing say that one cannot build championships on a hefty cheque book. so far though - two out of two attempts for jose. look i'm sure he would love to have the resources of teams like real madrid and chelsea - but he doesn't so he must settle for the ones who get away from the bigger teams.

[Dpleezy]

Dplanet writes:

he probably has the best coach in the world teaching him the job though.

i do believe you did say that.

Hahah,,, my bad

[blaqsouljah]

Dplanet: i'll have to admit though that arsenal did a good job of pluggin the whole left behind when viera left - this they did buy using two players with differing approaches to the game but who complement one another, hleb and fabregas. the only way arsenal can live with themselves is if the person chosen to fill in the void caused by henry's departure (should it come to that) must be a different player from him - but good is in way.

[RuSh]

did the chicago bulls win again?

[syc]

Rafa benitez did even better with even more limited resources.

not rafa benitez man
its called Steven Gerrad FC( i rate stevie g as the 2nd best playa in the world)