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The Goon Thread

What players that have wanted to leave the scum have actually regretted it? Fabregas, Clichy, Nasri all obviously happy being gone, would have thought Henry was happy at Barca as well... Maybe way back when with players like Overmars, Petit or whatnot???
 
I often wonder would they regret it though. Some say at the end of their career they would look back and regret these things but to use Anelka as an example, he still got to experience football in different countries and cultures at some big clubs making a huge amount of money in the process. But still, I am sure football fans think that in a few years he'll be sitting at home depressed and bitter thinking back to the regret of leaving Arsenal too early.

The other point to consider is that football is now just a business and footballers are employees, surely earning the biggest contract you can get is everyones goal at work. If RVP joins City, he'll effectively set himself and his family up for life if he can stay for 2 or 3 years and win trophies aswell. Obviously you could turn this argument around when it comes to Bale or Modric and while much more painful to accept the same would still apply.
 
In the case of Anelka, he's a sulky bastard and has a brother agent that's eager to make money.
 
But maybe Anelka doesnt care about football. Some players like our very own left back dont even care about football, its just a job to them. People are ridiculing them based on football fan logic when in reality what we see as a career wasted, they would see as successful. They had a chance to live and work in different countries and make vast sums of money in the process. When they retire, they have easily enough money to live off without having to work again and basically do what they like.
 
There's a germ of truth and some evidence to back up Merson's "theory" about players who leave Arse. The ones that spring immediately to mind are Petit, Viera, Overmars, Anelka and Henry. Sure, some of them won big medals and did just fine, but none again reached the heights they did at Arsenal, and none seemed to have quite the same exuberance or fun playing the game anywhere else.

I guess Overmars was the closest to having a happy and productive Arse after-life, but he didn't win anything at Barca and in the end slipped out of the place fairly unmourned. He then failed to score in 24 games for, erm, Go Ahead Eagles, before retiring.

I had to laugh a couple of seasons back when Anelka started getting praised (in patches) for his performances at City and Chelsea. They were good for sure, but people seemed to forget what an absolute fudging beast he was as a kid at Arse. He was almost 1 in 2 as a 19 year old over 2 full seasons. His finishing was frightening, absolutely frightening back then and he was never within a million miles of being that good again, even during his hot streaks. His RM spell was a disaster.

Viera and Petit were one of the most downright impressive midfield duos I've ever seen. Their work-rate, skill, and bravery in the tackle (and there were still some hard units knocking around in the early 90's - Keane most famously) were amazing. But they were never quite the same when they left. Petit played only 23 league games for Barca and then had a mediocre spell at Chelsea. Viera did better, but played just 31 times for Juve and his spell at Inter was stop-start.

Henry seemed a gloomy and out-of-sorts mess at Barca. His final season or two at Arsenal were among the best we've ever seen in the PL.

(I'm not including Fabregas in this because a) He was always just a young Barca player on loan, not an Arse player, and b) He is a step above all the players above and so not subject to the rules of normal man.)

If RvP followed this pattern I would not at all be surprised.
 
Chancer: All of those bar Henry were around 10 years ago, no? Back then Arsenal were challenging for titles consistently and they had a very good side unfortunately. I don't think the players leaving then can be compared with players leaving now and examples like Clichy, Nasri and Fabregas are a lot more relevant than what happened back then. When Henry retires and looks back at his career I'm guessing he will be quite happy that he made the move to Barca, had the chance to play alongside Xavi, Iniesta and Messi for a bit and not least actually add a CL winning medal to his already very impressive career.
 
Yeah, fair enough BE. But on Nasri, he was pretty damn pants last season. If we're measuring it by buying titles, yeah he walked into a medal, but I doubt he feels a terribly deep level of personal satisfaction with his own contribution. Fabgregas is special and will be be anther 10 years wherever he is so is a bit unfair to include. Clichy is talented and has done well, but Toure has gone a bit bonkers (and Wiki tells me he cost £16m! Forgot it was that much).
 
Rumours on Twitter of £13m + villa. Would be a horrible deal for Barca if true, which I'm almost certain its not.
 
RVP without a doubt is world class player and our best player of last year. However I think it's the perfect time for us to sell and we will be a better team next year without him and better in the future for these numerous reasons:

We are a self sustainable club, by selling him it will free up money to spend. Business wise, his stock is at it's highest it ever will be. Now I hear the cries 'but the money won't be re-invested, it wasn't last year'. Well we did spend 50million last year and nearly spent more (if the Gotze/M'Vila rumours had truth behind them) and have spent over 20million thus far this year, so yes selling RVP gives us more money to buy players. We should get 20-35million for an injury prone 29 year old. It seems likely we'll also sell Bendtner/Vela for a combined sum of 10-14million. Even if just 10million is re-invested

Yes RVP may be the best striker in the PL at the moment, although I personally think Rooney edges him. However will he be better than Giroud and Podolski in 2 years? Or 3 years? Will his injury prone nature see him play as many games as them? Giroud and Podolski may be on par with him now, Podolski having outperformed him internationally. I remember when Henry was supposed to be a downgrade on Anelka, when Pires was supposed to be a downgrade for Overmars

Lastly RVP is world class but he's also overrated, no this isn't knee jerk, I've said it before. We have a team built around him that allows him to shine that he won't get at other teams

I want to compare some stats and ratios

..........Shots In The League..Goals...Conversion Percentage
RVP........174..................30.............17.2%
Rooney....157...................27..............17.2%
Arguero....130..................23..............17.6%
Dzeko....92...................14..............15.2%
Balotelli..82................13...............15.8%
Cisse....39.................13...............33%
Podolski..85................18...............21.1%
Giroud...160...............21...............13%

What does this tell us? RVP get's more chances than anyone else but isn't more clinical than the best. Why does he get chances, part because of very good movement but largely because the wingers, CAM and midfielders direct the attack through him. What does this mean:

At United/City he will not get near the number of chances he has for us, so he won't get anything like as many goals. He isn't more clinical than the quality of strikers they already have so won't improve them that much, they're not suddenly going to start creating shedloads more chances per game. Yes they will improve, especially United, but I don't think as much as people may think

We have bought 1 striker in Podolski that is more clinical and we've bought another in Giroud who's also been played as a focal point and has the workrate/positioning to get as many chances to get goals as RVP has. There's a possibility these players in the short term could be on par with RVP or even better. Yes they're leagues were weaker (although France is traditionally hard to score goals and Podolski was in a relegation outfit). Giroud also like RVP has 9 assists. Having Podolski play as a left forward or secondary striker alongside him, will make us harder to defend against, Giroud will drag defenders away from Podolski to give him chances and vice versa. Giroud also seems more of a traditional target link up man, which may give him a better partnership with Theo

In the long term Podolski is 27 and Giroud is 25, compared to a 29 year old RVP. Some say RVP will age well because of his technical ability but that's a bit of a gamble and he will slow, he will get less chances and finish more. So I don't think he'll be as good in 2years, never mind 3 or 4 from now. Also we will have 2 World Class strikers and can play the man in form if either of their form slips. RVP's form himself slipped in the run in last year

So in conclusion, our forward options won't be weakened and maybe stronger. Wenger will have the money to bring in a midfielder, either a creative or defensive force, in an ideal world both and a fullback. We also have Wheelchair and don't laugh Diaby coming back. We'll be much stronger than last year. If everyone's worst nightmare comes true and he moves to City, he'll get far less chances as those chances will be more evenly disturbed across their attack and there issues of lack of width and Barry being a bit of weakness might not be addressed. We will be significantly stronger while City won't be that much stronger. This is dependant ofcourse on Wenger been giving the freedom to make spend money and him making the right decisions.

You'll all be amused to hear I have an avatar bet on another forum than Giroud will outscore Andy Carroll this year, he's not even a Liverpool fan, he just thinks Wenger can't pick strikers and Giroud will be another Chamakh. I'm excited for this new season, I have a feeling we could shock everyone next year
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I'm enjoying pointing it out to the gooners that they laughed when they signed Campbell. Not even one gooner that I spoke to even years after Campbell moved will accept that he did anything wrong! I really don't see the difference in what Van Persie is doing. But if anything, Campbell was far worse as he claimed to be a lifelong Spurs fan and Van Persie is giving Arsenal the option of selling him and getting something back for him, Campbell never gave us that choice. Then he went to our most hated rival.
 
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