Thursday 17 April 2008

Jens Lehmann-good bye or good riddance?

Saturday's match against Reading could be Jens Lehmann's final game in an Arsenal shirt at the Emirates.

Mad Jens (as he is dearly known by us Gooner's) is certain to leave us in the summer and I wonder what the reaction will be from my fellow Gooner's when he walks out the door?

It took a big man to step into David Seaman's boots when he left for pastures new at Manchester City. Jens was that man.

His character and confidence eased him into the Arsenal goal and in his first season we went unbeaten in the Premiership.

He has made us laugh and made us cry over the year's. His antics since joining us have made him the most spoken about keeper in the Premiership.

The ref's certainly know him. I've never seen, and doubt I will ever see again, a goalie who gets booked so much! It make's you laugh at times.

There are times when I've thought "Jens, u fuckin' idiot!" and there are times when I've pissed myself laughing with his antics.

I still feel he should have been number one this season. I can't knock Almunia for his efforts in the sticks, but I just felt more confident with Lehmann playing.

I won't miss his bitter outburst's at not playing. At time's I've felt he is bang out of order. But when has the big German ever kept his mouth shut? Never!

I will miss his character and when he shove's an opponent or shout's at them for getting to close too him. That made me laugh.

Lets not forget that he was, and is a bloody good goalkeeper, who stepped into a legend's shadow and earned our respect. It can't have been easy for anyone, but Jens had the self-belief to do it. And do it he did.

I'd like to say to Jens good luck for the future. We had more good times than bad. I wish you could have controlled your bitterness but i'll forget that. You did a great job at Arsenal and was a character.

I hope we give him a great send off and I'm sure we will. So sod off u bitter git! But good luck mate.

Keep it Goonerish.....

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good piece wrighty. Good luck jens.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Jens for everything that you've done for us.

Should've been number 1 so teams would be scared that they have to beat him... not laugh and cheer when they know they need 1 shot to beat Almunia.

Good luck in the future Jens.

Anonymous said...

i STILL think we would have gone father with him in goal.

almunia is consistant but he does have that amazing shot stopping ability

Anonymous said...

Anyone who thinks Jens wasnt a good keeper for us doesnt know anything about football. Lehmann was WORLD CLASS for us and was a complete steal at 1.5m.

I know people will remember his saves/antics/cards but what stood out was his brilliant cross-taking. He was never afraid to come out and collect crosses which relieved pressure from our centre backs. He was also a character and a leader in a team that maybe lacks those qualities. Loved him to bits, and wish him all the best in the future.

stonroy said...

Great post. It was clearly obvious after last weekends game who the better goalkeeper was. Jens makes the big saves that you wouldn't fault him on if he missed them. If he was between the sticks I think our season possibly could be different, game against Chelsea comes to mind. He is crazy, no doubt, because he bloody hates to loose. Did you see him when Man U struck that free kick, he was pissed. I think we need more of that at Arsenal, I wish he would stay another year, but alas the damage is done. Let's show crazy Jens the respect he deserves this weekend. Send him off with a rowzing ovation

Anonymous said...

Well I think a lot of people are giving Jens too much credit. I feel in our CL Final season he really was an amazing keeper, truly fantastic, but besides that year when he basically did everything right all year, he's been full of crap the entire time. His kicking is shocking and always has been. He has an amazing throw but is too stupid to use it. He unsettled the defense so often at set pieces it's untrue. It's pretty damn hard to concentrate with him collapsing in fake agony and getting the ref involve every time the opposition is about to take a set piece.

He gets the most stupid bookings, like at Utd where Ronaldo scored and was forced to re-take it but somehow he couldn't accept that the ref gave the RIGHT decision which went in his favour, said something stupid and got booked. I mean come on Jens.

He's made a lot of really great saves, but besides in the CL Final year he's also given away a lot of stupid goals too. I seem to remember away to Panathanaikos and Chelsea in the CL (possibly even in the same year) he gifted the opposition stupid goals.

Some people will cite being in the Invincibles team as proof of his greatness, but let's face it, with the 11 players in front of him he had a world class defense and probably the best attack in the world, so his shit was unlikely to be anything like as costly.

Lastly, yeah he's normally a very good shot stopper. But well, he gets paid a ridiculous amount of money to be a good shot stopper. I'm pretty sure in his contract it doesn't say his job description is to make a fuss over the smallest things, dive and cheat, complain constantly, insult his fellow goalkeeper Almunia who has only been respectful to him and the manager who has frankly given Lehmann countless more chances than he has earned after so many ridiculous things from him.

Big Jens sure was a character and I must admit I will miss that and I really do appreciate how good he was at his best- but that was only really one season and a guy paid that much who has fucked around so much really doesn't deserve a brilliant send off. I think he got a lot more out of Arsenal than we got out of him.

Well good luck Jens. It's been interesting...

stonroy said...

anon02:01 I will respectfully have to disagree with you about the Yellow card on the weekend. I think it was a truly smart one, he grabbed the ball and wouldn't give it up, his idea was to get underneath the skin of Ronaldo, didn't work but the right idea. Are you telling me that Almunia is a better number one?

Anonymous said...

He's a good goalie, sure no doubts about that. But what i dont like about him is his 'un-professionalism' that drives even the most passive of person in Manuel Almunia up the wall. His constant ranting didnt help the gunner's cause either.

Still, he has the right qualities like commanding his area and his no-nonsense attitude towards his opponents. Just the usual eccentricity he could do without as this is something that usually make or break a game, but then again, if he's not eccentric then his certainly not Lehmann right?

All in all, i would say that though his a good goalie with the right qualities, i can certainly find the same attributes in other keeper elsewhere. So best of luck Lehmann. I hope you find yourself a good club and hopefully, end your career on a high.

P.S Almunia would do better as a gunner no.2. His commanding of his area is something that is lacking ever since Lehmann was replace at the start of the season.

Anonymous said...

jens is a bloody good goalkeeper ...i dont complain about jens gettin incensed at being left out after time and again we see almunia poor efforts in front of the goal....jens should have started for all champions league games...it was he who took us there in 2005-06 with outstanding efforts against the likes of real,villareal..sometimes i feel really sad for jens when fellow gunners dont give him the respect he deserves....good bye jens though i would like to see you for one more year

Anonymous said...

whether he's a good 'keeper or not is beside the point.. he's an absolute b*stard and all of you know it.. (blah blah blah, what would you know you're only a Spurs fan)...it's the truth..

so to answer your question Wrighty...good riddance..

Anonymous said...

he's been good, he's been bad - now he's going. i liked him but i'm not bothered. we'd have two more points in the bag right now without his soft hands at ewood park last year. any normal person would keep his big mouth shut after that clanger. but jens ain't normal and that's why we love him or hate him. or don't give a toss what he does. sceszny is the boy i want to see in goal for the 1st team asap.

Anonymous said...

Alumnia should be a Gooner Alumni: he's rubbish.

Will miss you Jens--your mad!