Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Quotes Of The Day (Feeling Bad For AKS And Nikhil Edition)

Oh, dear.
It would be a dream to be able to play for Barcelona, but for the moment I'm very happy at Arsenal. I've decided to stay and now I'm focused on winning something. We'll see next year.

And:
Every week I chat to Alex Hleb on the phone because he's the guy I most miss at Arsenal. He's a friend and I also loved playing with him.

I mean, I guess we can find space for him in the midfield somewhere.

By the way, thanks for playing, guys. This was fun. We should do it again some time.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

He'd be a natural successor to Xavi but yeah, he'd easily be played ahead of dudes like Keita, Toure, and his buddy Hleb.

I say this season and next; if he doesn't win anything he's off.

AKS said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AKS said...

I've never had any doubts that he would join Barca but next season may be too early. I expect him to leave in 2011 when Wenger's contract expires, but you never know.

Not that his departure matters, because according to the Welsh national coach Arsenal's 16 year old (Welsh) wunderkid Aaron Ramsey is bound to be as good as Fabregas. And of course Wales are bound to be as good as Spain!

JJY said...

choot, may the plague be upon you.

and yes, 2011 is the earliest he'll leave.

Ahsan said...

I know we've discussed this before and even I was relatively certain of the 2011 date, but why are you guys wedded to the idea that his departure date can't change? I mean, 2011 was the consensus view, but that was *before* he started saying all these things (two days in a row, by the way, not just one off-handish comment).

Anonymous said...

He's been with us for five-six years and I think his relationship with
wenger means a lot to him. If we don't win anything this year, I can see
him putting serious pressure on wenger to buy at least a couple of
ready-to-win-now players before giving him any sort of ultimatum. Also,
I think he wants to captain arsenal; he will be the captain next year,
if not by january (that header against sunderland perfectly exemplifies
why he should be captain NOW).
Lastly, do you think that Xavi-Iniesta-Fabregas would be a good midfield
in a 4-3-3 setup? I mean, wouldn't you need a yaya toure or kieta to
play a more defensive / midfield enforcer role?

I can see him replacing xavi in 3-4 years, but not before. Maybe it's
more hoping than seeing.

And while wenger's contract runs out in 2011, I don't see why that would
necessarily mean that he's done - he'll only be 61 then. Again, refer to
fragment re: hoping above.

Either way, can we just please stop talking about this?

Ahsan said...

Nikhil:

A few things about what Barca's midfield might look like if/when Cesc hops over. First, because of the sheer volume of football played, both in Europe and La Liga, it's not a big deal that some players play in each other's positions. Second, it's an eminently good problem to have, especially considering all the guys you mentioned are good team-oriented guys (incidentally, all are home-grown talent too). Third, because Iniesta is perhaps the most versatile player I've ever seen (he really can play anywhere other than the back four, and really, even that is probably possible), it should be an even smaller problem than the previous points suggest.

But yes, we can stop talking about this.