ioag
You are actually right. Juan Soler did make things worse though when he oversaw a spectacular collapse in matters on the pitch! Koeman almost got Valencia relegated ffs!

The club has actually never recovered from his disastrous spell as manager.

wow ! that was a good summer you had IOAG

now i know why you were in liverpool !

interesting stuff thats for sure

I think Moreno will do well, he's a v good player

happy bday too

Thanks peks, yeah, was great fun. Also managed to get enough time off in Liverpool to spend an afternoon and evening with my brother; if I'd been there any longer I'd have looked you up to see if we could meet up for a pint or two in L'pool, Chester or somewhere. Oh well, next time maybe!

Wump, yeah, Koeman charged in like a bull in a china shop, hiring him was a huge mistake. Djukic's short-lived term last season had some Koemanesque shades to it too. Gonna be interesting to see how the Dutchman gets on at So'ton.

yer that woulda been good IOAG.
If you're ever in that neck of the woods again, let me know

Hadn't thought about Djukic that way but I know what you mean. Rami had to go though, can't have someone disrespect his teammates like that. I actually quite like the vibes we are getting from the dressing room at the moment with the new manager. There seems to be a good atmosphere there and some optimisms that hasn't been there for a long time really. Everyone seems to be pushing in one direction and I feel that is why characters like Banega had no place in the team anymore. I know it's early days but signs are positive so far. Just hope we don't end up with a Portugese clique in the dressing room alienated from the other folks.

Fúck...

Super Cup!

We are really terrible! Cazorla is just...

Great result for Athletic though.

Cazorla was invisible tonight. He's been invisible for about 18 months actually.

Yet I get so much stick for mentioning that. He really is dreadful.

It's because a lot of your fans talk about the obvious ability he has rather than how well he performs. We have similar things with Kagawa on our board.

It's difficult to explain what's happened to Cazorla. He was brilliant when you first signed him but his form has been poor for a long while now.

Agreed, he has so much talent that guy but he just doesnt seem to show up! People say he got us 4th place in the season he joined but I always say that is nonsense. He was terrible from around December and there was no way we would have qualified for the CL without Rosicky.

Yeah if I remember rightly your defence was quality in that second half as well and helped you grind out a lot of results.

You watching the super cup?

Game starts at midnight here man and I don't have subscription anymore. Can't walk all the way back from the pub at 2am in the morning because it is quite a distance and it isn't 100% safe. Sadly the reason I missed most of la liga last year too

Oh that sucks. It's a crap game to be fair so you aren't missing much.

Of course it is. Atleti always drag these game games into such gritfests!

Spanish Chelsea.

They aren't that bad!

Yo Darren, I am banned from the scouse board but I am reading the Henderson/Wilshere thread and I completely agree with you there. Jack came back from injury playing with a completely different team! Nasri gone, Cesc gone, RVP gone, Song gone! He has never found a niche for himself in the new team since and has suffered as a result!

Wump

Jack obviously needs to take responsibility for his form, but he's definitely been a victim of circumstance in his Arsenal career.

I do hope he can kick on as there's a special player there, in my opinion. But until he starts playing football regularly it's going to be difficult to achieve.

Completely agree. Needs to cut out the distractions too. Cut out the bad press for a start. I feel he needs to take his talents and reinvent himself in the Arsenal system (if there is one anyway, we are pi$s poor). That actually makes me think, at the moment we have absolutely no identity as a team, no defined system when defending and absolutely no set out plan when attacking. A lot of players are being wasted because of that I feel.

Yep I agree with that. I actually think you've built up a pretty strong squad of players, although there are still areas that need improving, but your team identity seems to have suffered because they are all quite different players.

I think that's created a side that seems to rely a lot more on individuality than it does the team ethic, which is something I wouldn't usually associate with the Arsenal teams of the past.

I guess it doesn't help the team ethic when your players keep getting injured as the strongest side, or what we'd all deem the strongest side, doesn't have the chance to develop and the players that come in to replace them are either of lesser quality or differing in style and it upsets the balance.

Yeah, we are almost completely dependent on individual skill to score goals now. I find it very strange that even with such an abundance of talented ball playing midfielders we can't seem to be able to keep any meaningful possession any areas where we can hurt the oppostion. We have to rely on target men that are actually not that comfortable playing that role to link up our attacks. For a team as talented as we have, that is an absolute abomination!