Stop The Bitching And Get Behind Almunia Already
ByI was quite bemused earlier on today when listening to my morning dose of sports news. To be honest, I don’t know what I expected considering that Arsenal was allegedly plunged into meltdown after the transfer deadline handed Almunia the Arsenal No.1 shirt by default.
“How stupid is Arséne Wenger? Can he not see that the fans want a decent keeper? Why does he not listen to the pundits?”, asked a comically exasperated Mr. Alan Brazil.
Even my cornflakes cringed on hearing Brazil demand that Wenger listen to the pundits.
You have to wonder though, whether the Samaritans were intentionally forwarding calls from so called Arsenal fans to Talk Shite radio. Someone has to have a word with the bosses at the Samaritans for gross dereliction of duty. These Arsenal fans are hurting and desperate – and they need proper counselling, they don’t need to be sent to a bunch of Anti-Arsenal retards who have perfected the art form of xenophobia.
For the record, my position is that the Arsenal coaching staff have the responsibility to ensure that we’re best equipped for the new campaign. Perhaps the mass hysteria misses the trick here in not identifying the issues that Arsenal has to address to defend better as a unit.
So far, I think they’ve done that job satisfactorily with the personnel changes made and the application of a more coherent defensive strategy. The misguided and and somewhat amplified perception that Almunia is the problem to Arsenal’s trophy drought is a red-herring of the highest order.
I’m amazed that the anti-Arsenal brigade and the punks in the media didn’t notice the 2 fingers Wenger stuck up right in their faces. Almunia was the match day captain every single time he was on the pitch, and deputized for Fabregas when the Spaniard had finished his shift at Ewood park. If there was ever an implicit vote of confidence, then what better way than doing something that obvious.
“But Wenger made a bid for Schwarzer. Doesn’t that show that he wanted to change things?”, I hear the heckling of the depressed and crazed fans with blood shot eyes holding the “Wenger Must Go!” placard on Holloway Road.
In between the chants of “Bring me the head of Arséne Wenger”, they summarily accuse the club of lacking ambition and failing to listen to pundits who clearly have the answer.
Yes, Wenger dipped his toe in the goal keeping transfer market, and many will accuse him of not trying hard enough.
What’s to say the Arsenal manager wasn’t lighting the mother of all bonfires under Manuel Almunia’s ass to make sure the Spaniard keeps on his toes? It’s worked so far, hasn’t it?
Wenger has an M.O that is impossible to ignore. He always signs essential players in the first week of July. These are the players who are identified as being critical to the season, changes that need to be made immediately. Koscielny, Nasri, Rosicky, Sagna, Chamakh et al, all came within a week of the transfer season opening.
If Wenger really wanted a new keeper, Arsenal would have got a new keeper. Schwarzer would have been nice to have around, but more importantly, Almunia was never on a transfer list. Fine, he might have left on his own volition, but Wenger never said he wants him out.
The best thing that has happened is that the transfer window has been nailed shut and boarded up. Enough of the Arsenal needs a new keeper madness.
It’s time to get behind Manuel Almunia and show him the love. There is no excuse in my view for not supporting him once he crosses that white line.
And by the way, I thought Almunia’s performance against Blackburn was stellar. If that had been Cech or Van Der Sar, everyone would be waxing lyrical about the performance and the reason why Chelsea and United are ‘Champions material’.
The rest of the team didn’t do badly for themselves either. So far, so good.
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Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund
Exactly,
We need to now work with what we have! And maybe with our support and without our critics, our GKs can give better performances and help us!
So some on all faithful gooners, let’s get behind our Goalkeepers and support them with all we have! Enough of blaberring! Come on MLWV (Manuel, Lukasz, Wosnesj and Vito!!!)…
I agree about the hysteria but to say that if Wenger wanted a keeper he would have got one is stretching credibility. He did bid for schwartzer and he has, by doing so, undermined Almunia’s confidence. Unless it was some complex mind-game designed to make him try harder it seems clear that he did in fact want a new keeper. Arsene doesn’t throw money around for effect.
Arn’t all Gooners fed up of articles like this. People who are just happy to settle for second best like Wenger is now. Failure to sign a goalkeeper gives us little or no chance of winning the league. Its not just about Almunia but also what happens when he gets injured (as he does every season) and then flapper has to come in. Its also the effect it has on players like Cesc. What is the point of convincing him to stay, telling him this is going to be our year and the not reinforcing in a position that is obvious even to my 10 year old son. Watch for Fabregas’s reaction when Almunia next lets in a sloppy goal.
Wenger spots about ambition and how we will challange but you tell me any team that has won the league with a second rate goalkeeper. We should have a recognised international goalkeeper in our team. Money is tight, but not that tight, our spend is modest to say the least compared with other clubs, and just what does happen to the money i spend every season, a new shirt alone costing £60 and £40 for a 10 year old.
Is mis management of the highest order and I for one am fed up of all these people who try to stop people voicing their opinion.
Wengers race is run, we need a new thoroughbred who runs without the blinkers that wenger is currently using.
Exactly mate stop your btiching and get behind your player
BE an Arsenal fan or go support spurs
It doesn’t matter how much we fans support Almunia or Fabianski, now that they know they have no new goalie coming in they can still mess up and by what I’ve seen of Almunia so far this new season, his performances aren’t going to improve and when we come up against Man U and Chelsea there players will put him under immense pressure and then see how many goals we concede. But hopefully come the January transfer window Wenger might see sense and realise that he can’t keep on defending our present goalies and perhaps put an offer in for Loris or another goalie who actually knows how to keep a clean sheet. So come on Mr Wenger do the right thing by us fans.
Ultimately the proof is in the pudding. I am one of those who will continue to back Wenger and Almunia, but if there are clear instances where dropped points are down to Almunia where a replacement wouldn’t have made the same mistake, then there’s no excusing Wenger’s decision, given our vast cash resources.
I will be backing the team, and I assume Wenger has method in the madness. I just hope that the fans will be fair in recognising when a goal is Almunia’s fault and when it’s not. Will they be fair? I don’t think so.
yes Almunia is our Man…
Lets support our team…
our players need support during bad times,,,,,
IF we cant support our team wen thers a blip, then why proclaim yourselves as loya fans…
we got our team spirits back after Gallas offlead to Spuds…
Now get Behind and Support Arsenal…
Come on Almunia-we r behind You….
he replaced Jens Lehmann who replaced Olive Kahn…
Almunia is our man
Bring on the Chelskis and MAnures
Good morning Darius et al.
The hysterical knee jerk response (from those bloggers who masquerade as Arsenal fans) at the non-signing of a new goalkeeper was completely unsurprising, but disappointing all the same.
I suspect that many of them don’t even love or like the game of football, and it’s now very clear that even if Arsenal were to win the quadruple, they’d still find something to moan about.
Football just happens to be their vehicle of choice to enable them to express the ugly & immature sides of who they are. C’est la vie.
Alumunia had a good game against Blackburn? You must have been watching a different game. Balls punted up from the halfway line bouncing 8yards or so from his goal line.
A fair shot stopper maybe – but when it comes to crosses & high balls the least commanding keeper in the whole of the EPL. That’s put massive pressure on our defenders – we won’t win it with him – no way. If he gets injured & we get Flappy in goal for any length of time we won;t even get 4th.
was angry as hell that he did not managed to sign a new keeper.
have calmed down a bit and looking on the bright side, almunia can be a good keeper as well. His form in 2008 showed that. He just needs to get his confidence back.
Some people dont get it this isnt a popularity contest and it isnt a vendetta against our keepers its fact we have second rate keepers(not they’re fault)probably the most important position on the pitch and the whole footballing world knows it and when people come on these sites and say any different then they should take their head out of they’re ass’s and take a realistic look at our opponents keepers and some video footage of every season since lehmann left. Sad to say but i envy the spuds goalkeeping situation.
in reply to ‘Robbo’ – of course it is annoying all arsenal fans to settle for second best, but this is what we have, we will sign a keeper in january, but until then lets make the most of a bad situation.
Yeah lets get behind a keeper who is shit.Lets just sit back and watch him make the mistakes that will cost us the title.Arsenal football club should have a world class keeper not the 50th best Spanish keeper
The lack of signing a top class keeper is an admission that we have excepted 2nd best and they will are not going to compete with Chelsea and Man Utd.enger used to be a great manager but has now just lost the plot.Almunia is just a joke and it the opposition fans who are laughing.After Birmingham last season i said even Wenger will come to his senses and bomb him out in the summer.But no.Its crazy
Stop the whining! If Wenger really would have wanted a new keepper he´d got one. Why bring in Scwarzer, he´s not better than Almunia. It´s not just Almunia´s fault everytime we concede a goal, the defenders has a job to do aswell.
If Wenger do decide to go for a new keeper, in january, I hope he will take a close look at Viviano in Bologna. That´s an interesting keeper tall, big and good reflexes
What annoys me isn’t the fact that some bitch ass ‘fans’ want a new keeper. It’s the fact that they feel Schwarzer’s the exact cure to our goalkeeping woes. The guy was worse than Almunia in the last match of last season & also in the world cup. This is a player who has spent most of career conceding over three goals per match & for some to say Almunia was woeful against B’burn I wonder what a good performance would be.To all those who still think Almunia is shit; I’ll rephrase the title of this script “STOP THE BITCHING AND GET BEHIND ALMUNIA ALREADY.”
That would be Gomez, who covered himself in glory at the Emirates or Cudducini excelling for the Wigan goal on Saturday, I take it?
Agree 100% Darius but why oh why do you listen to Talk-Shite?
By today’s standard we have a top goalkeeper at least on a par with all but maybe 3 or 4 of our competitors in the PL. We have a backup ‘keeper, who ideally, needs to go on loan to get some confidence, because that is what he is missing, a third choice, who did ok but needs a bit more time, plus a 19 year old, who appears to have all the credentials to be just what we are looking for but it is perhaps too soon to risk him.
My guess is that the Schwarzer business was about a straight fight with him & MA as first choice with Fabianski sent on loan. That didn’t happen so we are where we are.
Now what people are calling for is a top top ‘keeper, but they can never name him or if they do the nominees have certainly never been flawless.
Finally – you cannot win the league without a great goalkeeper?
- I give you Valdez, Sprake, Lukic, later Seaman, Lehmann, Flying Pig Lawrence, Boulton, Rimmer & many many more- all not necessarily bad ‘keepers just not extra exceptional but there have been very few of those.
and so gordon, we come to the crux of it…”other fans are laughing at us”…are the big bad chelsea and united fans laughing at you? oh no! what a horrible situation! oh you poor poor little thing, what stinky other fans they are, if only wenger could spunk 20 mil on a player then you could laugh at them, and that would feel good wouldnt it? oh you poor poor boy, come on, lets protest, lets get you some ammunition in the form of big name signings.
or maybe that wouldnt help, maybe you are picked on purely because you are a snivelling little shit who bitches and moans and is the human equivalent of a weeping sore. why dont you sod of and keep your negativity on le moan
It amazes me that every ‘fan’ and pundit seems to know exactly what AW thinks and does. Do they really think that transfers just happen by wanting a certain player and seeing how much we want to pay for him. It is obvious that AW was in negotiations with several clubs for different players, but the deals were never made for various reasons.
A couple of things seem obvious to me. Firstly, City were never going to sell or loan Given to a close rival, so he wasnt an option. Secondly, Hughes hates AW with a passion and shafted him over Schwarzer. I dont think he would have sold him at all and certainly not for less than double his value.
I do agree that keepers from other leagues could probably have been bought if we had tried harder, but they wouldnt come cheap and there isnt many that we would want that either would move or be affordable.
As you say, lets support our glorious team and make them want to perform better for us. Look what Eboue did last term and lets make the Spanish Waiter a legend.
Whats the alternative, spend match days swearing and booing? Support someone else? Pffffftt. Get real. AAAAAAAAAAAARRRSSSSSEEEEEENNNNNNAAAAALLLLLL!!!!!!! are by FAR the greatest team the world have ever seen.
Spurs fan here, why do fans (including ours) think that our clubs have this divine right to just go out and get a player- for instance who coudl We@ger have got in as goalkeeper to actually improve your team? Do you think other clubs woudl just be willing to let thier 1stchoice goalkeeper leave? Unless you are Man City and can through tens of millions at the problem then the answer is no. We have the same problem with our striker situation- we desperatley need a decent striker (and a couple of defenders!) but seriously who would we go and sign to improve on what we have got? The player woudl firstly have to be availabel and if that was the case woudl he really be that good anyway? Or we have to pay over the odds to tempt the club to sell- and i dont want to end up like the next Leeds, Portsmouth etc
Flint, I hold my head in shame about the Talk Shite thing – it was on in the kitchen…LOL
finally a positive article… le grove and couple of others a ripping him a new one, bastards…
this article summed it up exactly, ‘why doesnt he listen to the fans and pundits on what he needs’…
i hope we shove it up these ‘pundits of all walks’ at the end of season even more than Spuds…
u are the only blog that have said something meaningful live with what u have and stop all his your schwarzer nonsense allow alumni to concentrate it is these silly blog that encourage fans to go and distract their own players on the field
Darius Stone, you are tha man.
great article finally something positive 4 a change. i agree we need 2 get behind man al and stop bitchn bout wether aw or our keepers. transfer windows shut now and its time to start supporting our team and players through the season.
We can’t be forced to support someone by default. That’s rubbish. We needed a new goal keeper and thats the bottom line. This guy has cost us and is still showing disturbing signs of weakness. He needed M.S for a year or two to get him in the right mind set. That was allegedly what the deal was about. M.S was coming as a coach/player which would have benefited Coco in the long run. At the end he is our keeper but it doesn’t mean we have to like it
I am sick to death of these so called supporters. I hate Stoke but as least they have proper supporters.I hear nothing but moans from the so called fans but what the hell do they offer the team , where do they play a part. Do they make a lot of noise on match day, no they dont . Do they support the team and make noise when we conceed a goal, no the dont. Would an increase level of noise positively affect the team and deter the visiting team , yes it would. So my point is rather the moaning about Arsene none spending we need to look first at our own contribution.How do we make our ground unomfortable for visiting teams. Ok we have won nothing for five years but in the time we have qualified for the champions league , we now have a stadium that is the envy of many.
When I look at Arsenal I see a bigger picture , I see a team that is on track, yes we could have done with a new keeper but for me the main problem is our inability to defend as a team from the front and making intellegent fouls higher up the pitch to slow up the other team and finaly and more importantly we need to start understanding that being a supporter is about turning up and making sufficient nosie to affect the game. Arsenal 4 ever
Sometimes I think we should have a transfer window for fans. Ship them off to the Chavs and Mancs when we’ve reached a point where they stop being supporters and become customers.
some people are deluded. the more we jeer him, the more detrimental it is to us. we should rally behind him at least until the next window.
he is no fool. he knows and if we try to get behind him, he will only improve. anyway i will support him 100%.
I told you Wenger has lost it. Not signing a quality keeper after having had THREE MONTHS to do so, is indefensible. It’s nothing short of a disgraceful situation.
There have been a number of keepers who he could have signed – some of whom actually WANTED to come to us. Hell, if he was really THAT KEEN on getting Schwarzer in, then why quibble over a million quid or so ? That amount is not going to break the bank. If he had genuinely wanted ANYBODY he could have done it – the money IS there for him.
I suspect the reason he didn’t, was because his ego wants him to be proven right and that he “believes” Almunia is good enough.The man is deluded, and should be charged with criminal neglect of the team. And he gets four more years for this incompetence ? Give us a break !
“In Arsene we rust.”
Flint
Last summer (or the summer before) a certain Shay Given was available at £8million and was snapped up by Man City.
He is better than what we had at the time and what we have now, and for £8 million we would have won the league last year (maybe even the year before) so its time we all asked why we are not spending. I have always said that Arsene is the best manager we could have but if he cant see that a keeper is needed then maybe we need to ask serious questions is it lack of money or lack of judgement either way until it is addressed top 4 is all we can hope 4 and that will be at the expense of the FA and carling cups, we wont win the league or Champions league until we get a great goalkeeper, and Almunia is only a good goalkeeper
“Sometimes I think we should have a transfer window for fans. Ship them off to the Chavs and Mancs when we’ve reached a point where they stop being supporters and become customers.”
I agree with that 100%. But is there an app for that?!
Great post Darius 100% in agreement.
I have previously mentioned the potential mind games Wenger is playing with Al.
Almunia is a great keeper imo i’m more than happy to give him another try. It’s the Arsenal way after all. Anyone remember Eboue, Bendtner, Diaby and Walcott yeah that’s right they all came good didn’t they.
Darius, – The trouble with Arsenal is that the Club is unfortunate to have fans who are seriously Anti-Arsenal. They want everything without a modicum of support. It has been said of old “Some never appreciate what they have until they loose it.”
So all these distraught, life is not worth living, must have a GREAT goalkeeper can come up with is Shay Given.
Now I think Shay has been a very good ‘keeper over a number of years, a particularly brilliant reaction shot stopper but that hasn’t stopped the teams he has played for from shipping on average over 50 goals per season, over the last 4. He is 6’0, compared to MA 6’4, & to my knowledge conceded at least 2 goals from our pal Delap’s back stretchers, last season. So just what we needed to pay a minimum of £8m for in a contest with pay anything M City.
I know MA had more rickets than usual last season but the only game he clearly cost us points was Tottenham away = 2 points, which was more than got back with the penalty save against West Ham, & of course we only remember the gaffs & not the saves. The Brum away effort was not his primary error & the type that may or may not have been saved on another day by him or anyone else.
Our biggest problem is typified by the goal conceded on Saturday – a CB having to defend too much space in a one on one. All teams including Chelsea have problems with a well placed ball into the box. It is the opportunity to put it there that needs to be kept to the minimum.
Ok i have read the post and the comments here and I think that we are being hard on the fans that are negative, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and like myself when we play good and beat teams i watch the game over and over, when we draw and i see the errors i talk abt it over and over and when we lose I get pissed for the whole week….I love Arsenal to death and Im very emotional about them, I must admit I do share the sentiment that Wenger should have gotten a new Keeper cuz MA was ONE of two reasons we lost the title but some fans and the pundits believe that is MA’s fault only and what they fail to realize that if our defense was stronger then we could have stood a better chance
1- We suck at Set pieces (Stoke jus to name one), just as the players probably have no confidence in MA he probably doesnt have confidence in his defence either……
Look at Chelsea and Man U they have strong defenses and when you ACTUALLY break down their defense and you shoot their keeper saves it or it scores but what im saying is that by the time you break down the defense you cant even get a good shot on cuz your play is disrupted, sometimes a little luck plays a part….
I for one think that as much defenders we let go we should have replaced with the same amount, Koscielny had an ok Pre-Season but his weakness was exposed against Blackburn and I hope he bulks up and works extremely hard cuz players like Drogba< Rooney will eat him up….
SO the blame should be squarly on the defense and the keeper…..BUT the window has closed and we have NO OTHER CHOICE but to give 100% support to the team even though we know they are 2nd best or worse lol…..
Hi mate,
I may have something to interest you. I am in the process of creating a feed of all the Arsenal blogs I can find in the world, so the fans can check out the posts from every Arsenal site in the one place. I intend to only have sites from real fans, so there will be NO SkySports, Goal, Clubcall, The Sun, Mail, etc or all that “news” and rumours crap.
I have been working on it for a while now, and already have 50 Arsenal Blogs on board. It is not a list of blogs but a feed of all the various posts on each blog. I am going to contact every Arsenal blog around that I can find to ask for permission to add them as well.
All it has is a couple of lines of your post, and the headline will go straight to your website, so each post will link directly to you. You will also have a link to your home page on the contributors blogroll.
If you would like your site added, please send me your feedburner or RSS feed url and I will get it added straight away.
All I ask in return is a simple text link to “Just Arsenal Blogs” somewhere on your homepage or you can have my 120 x 40 button if you prefer?
You can have a look at the site (and the button) here:
http://justarsenalblogs.com
Let me know if you want to join….
Regards
Pat
Darius, What happened mate? I haven’t read from you since September 1st. Is everything okay? When are you going to put up another post? I missed your perspective.