I've read that Kolo Toure has played his last game for Arsenal and has emptied his locker at the training ground.
If this is indeed the case then it is truly a sad day at Arsenal. Kolo Toure is loved by Gooners but it appears his career with Arsenal maybe over.
He has suffered numerous set-backs over the last year and although it will be sad to see him go perhaps now is the best time for both club and player to split.
Perhaps Kolo needs a fresh challenge to give his career a boost. He has become stale in a way and a new challenge maybe just what he needs.
Arsenal will need a replacement and unfortunately I don't expect Arsene Wenger to sign one. Not whilst he can bring Philippe Senderos back anyway.
We all know that Arsene Wenger is prudent with his war-chest and I don't expect this to change for a centre-back.
Senderos hasn't set Milan alight and has rarely featured for the Rossoneri. I'm surprised because I believed that he would do well in Italy and thought that Serie A would really suit his ability's.
I'm not guaranteeing that this will happen or do I have inside information but I wouldn't get excited about possible names like Upson or Chiellini. Not while there is a chance of Senderos coming back.
Keep it Goonerish..........
34 comments:
Shame he is going (if he is) but I don't really care on the playing side to be honest. He is average at best at the moment and I can't see him getting into the team ahead of Gallas or Djourou even if he returned to form and upps his fitness.
Hopefully the 8-10 million quid will help fund our bid for Arshavin - a much needed signing (a wide player)
Unfortunately I think you're probably right Wrighty, I don't see Wenger splashing any cash for a center half and don't see that Senderos is the answer, as this was the reason he was shipped out on loan.
I have a bad feeling about what will go down in the next 4 weeks and our Champions League spot is becoming more and more up-for-grabs.
I want Big Phil back, but not at the expense of King Kolo!
i wish we never signed Gallas as I truly believe that Senderos and Toure would have been our ideal pairing this last 3 seasons. Instead wenger bottled it and continued to play Gallas/Toure even though this partnership never really worked. Even last season our best pairing was senderos paired with either Gallas or Toure. The stats back this up. It is a shame that wenger never persisted with them. I would fuck gallas off and keep toure to play with Djourou with Senderos to come in as a replacement.EIE
The two are not connected.
y the hell dus evry1 want us to blow our budget on arshavin! i understand the guy is a great player n i wud luv 2 see him in an arsenal shirt come the end of the month but the problem is we havnt the money! didnt u guys here wat hill-wood sed. id rather we spend the money on a defensive mid like veloso or de rossi... with arsenal theres never been a problem scoring goals this season... its been preventing them.
plus i wud be devasted if toure left. a true gooner, gave it his all for us most of the time, hes never been the same since the acn last year... our only invincible left
Yea it will be pretty sad if Toure leaves. Been a true servant to the club and always had respect for him! With Senderos I followed him while he was at Milan,he had plenty of set backs. I think he went their with a little injury then he broke his toe(s) and in a game he played he messed up his back when he slipped clearing the ball. It was always going to be difficult to get into Milan's team with all the players they have, they wouldn't give up their spot easily. If we do sell Toure that might help with bringing in a player or 2.
no senderos cant come back 2 arsenal this season, cause there is a fee agreed with milan, though he cant be recalled, n dats better, hope he wont come even next season
Pritpal, I understand your want for a center midfield but if you analyse the games and look at what we really miss, it is the prescence of a player in the wide areas who can create a goal, take a man on and acore a few goals. Denilson has had a sterling season so far and will never become the brilliant center midfielder we hope if we sign somebody like Veloso (who is nowhere near as good as you would think).
The wide areas have been our biggest problem this season.
Kolo has been a real servant for us, and even tho he is the last of the invincibles, we cant afford to get too emotional about him leaving. if he is gonna get more starts and a decent deal somewhere else, so be it. and as long as he dosent sign for the spuds, i will continue to love him.
cutting out the 'dead wood' (no disrespect) is no bad thing. last year we lost hleb and flamini, and they were definitely not dead wood. a small bit of movement in this transfer window is essential if we are to attempt any silverware and at least hold on to our champions league spot. arshavin out wide would be nice, but we need to bolster our defence and mid.
ffs, stephen appiah has just walked off the fucking street into the spuds lockerroom for no money. there are central defenders and defensive midfielders out there.
anyway, up the gunners.
We've got problems all over the pitch. Arshavin would solve some problems, but Senderos would create others.
I think for the few seasons Kolo has not been at his best.Last season was a disaster after coming back from the ANC.In deed I think he was to a certain extent responsible for Arsenal's elimination from the cl at Anfield.
Well I really hope that if Senderos were to come back he would not have any more repeat performances against McCarthy and Torres.
I for one would welcome Senderos back because he was great with Toure. If one goes for the other coming in then I would prefer Senderos only because he can work with both Gallas and JD. But I would rather Gallas go insteads of Toure. Gallas is at the root of most of the current problems.
We don't need defenders or midfielders as much as we need a wide player.
Appiah is not as good as Denilson. Why can't Arsenal fans get that through their skulls? Denilson has been fantastic this season, why pull him out of the team now by signing a defensive midfielder who could fail miserably.
Fair enough, a defender would be great, but who would he replace? Galals and Djourou are starting to play well together.
A creative winger and a creative central midfielder are our priorities.
I hope the majority of Arsenal fans stop getting caught up in Media bull shit.
Its the right time for Toure to move on. He has been a weak link in the last 2 seasons, very poor in the air and awful distribution. He has heart but quality was lacking and he certainly won't get better. Senderos may return and whatever anyone says - Toure has made many many more mistakes than Big Phil.
Djourou's the present & the future. Song looks good as a CB too and the two of them playing together were an outstanding combination in carling cup in the last two seasons.
i hear Man City are or were interested in King Kolo, why doesnt wenger try and execute a deal that involves Richards or Ireland..i mean the balls in our court...plus Richards has said before he is an arsenal fan...he mayb off form but he is young and english...which is summin or spine is missing
It very annoyed with Arsenal fans sometimes.
"Toure is great! Gallas is a twat who should be sold because he argues with everyone!"
Open your eyes and allow new information to enter your brain. Toure has declined over the last four years, not just because of the Malaria virus, but because he has an over-dependence on his pace. Now he is older (28 in March) the lack of pace is more costly.
I'm afraid Kolo seems to be bulging at the seams these days. Not sure what the hell he's been eating, Toffee Apples, Nougat or something!!
NOOOOOOOOO say it isnt so????? toure is one of my favourite players and in my opinion one of our most consistant players and is much much much better then 50p head (senderos) ive thought about this for a while and perhaps a new challenge for toure could solve our main problem. i'd quiet like to see him play a DM role. what do you think?
He would be a terrible defensive midfielder. You cannot use pace to recover from your poor mistakes in midfield.
I would not be too dissapointed if Senderos came back. I would be dissapointed to see Kolo go what a servant to the club an outstanding defender and the last of the invincables at the club but Djourou and Gallas does look the best partnership and if we get Ireland in return I would not complain. The reason I would not mind seeing big phil back is he is very good pals with Cesc. Cesc looks lost and a close mate back in the ranks would I think settle him down and get him back to his best form. Also I still think senderos could turn into our big dominant defender he has it in him he just needs to find the confidence. Also when Kolo was away at the African Cup Senderos and Gallas were outstanding.
im slighty superstitious, i believe that the fact that kolo is the last remaining member of the invincables, the moment he goes, the new era of invincables must be this bunch. hopfully thats the case.
Haha
Toure has deteriorated over the past two seasons, but he can still do a job in the squad. In my opinion he is our most likeable player, always gives his best and the last of the invincibles. Why people would want him to leave is beyond me. We DO NOT need to reduce the size of our squad. If Wenger sells Toure for 8 odd million he is unlikely to spend it on a replacement. The money will prob just go the Board of Directors. People saying get toure off the wage bill are clowns. He's one of our most experienced players. GALLAS seems to be the root of the majority of our problems, the bloke needs a new PR team because he always comes accross as an absolute CUNT!!
DMAN, your a tool. Try convincing Benitez and Ferge that absolute bollocks. This team needs some changes. Bendtner, Song, Diaby, Denilson, Almunia, fabianski, Senderos, gallas. Need replacing with experience. Then we can bring through the players with real talent like vela, ramsey, wilshire, walcott. The most important thing with any new signing is that they have the correct attitude imo!! No more mercenary wankers
An attitude that includes handing in a transfer request?
For God sake, Arsenal fans annoy me. The majority of them are stupid, naive and do not apply logic when making a decision.
how can you lot say do not get emotional over this. Kolo is our only link left to the Invincibles (clichy does not really count). He has been a loyal servant to the club and always had a positive thing to say for his team mates. He never wavered in his loyalty to The Arsenal even as all around him players were leaving and being sold off. Kolo in my opinion brings a lot more to the table than just being another defender. Gallas has been playing better than Kolo (since Kolo's malaria stricken return) but there is no doubt that Gallas seems to have a problem with just about everyone in the locker room. That fact alone seems to dwarf any abilities he brings to the field. Anyways, I guess Arsene knows best, long live Kolo The King.
why does everyone keep saying toure is the last invincible? Clichy played 12 games and won a medal.
It's time for changes, buy or bye bye cl. Gallas, Senderos, Toure, Bendtner can all GO.
Did someone say Denilson is better than Appiah? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Like many AFC fans, you like to learn the hard way. Denilson is a good little player, efficient, but he can never win a game like Appiah. We need experience now to help us up the table, Denilson has not been helping in this regard in case you haven't noticed. Appiah would be perfect for us, too bad wenger has only eyes for players he can later sell for profit. Teams like villa who are built to win today, not in five years will trouble us more than we care to recognise.
So the same Appiah, who has been a free agent for four months, is better than Denilson purely because he is experienced? How could you come to this conclusion?
He is signing for Spurs, that proves how crap he is.
I'm not sure where this worship of Appiah has come from.
The guy hasn't played for months, had a serious injury and hasn't exactly been scaring people before that, he was playing in a crap league.
Denilson is a way better player. We would do well to realise this and not always assume the grass is greener.
Arsene Wenger has given - in my opinion - the biggest indication that he is attempting to sign Andrei Arshavin from Zenit St Petersburg, with some rather candid comments on the official website about Champions League ineligibility not being a concern. The manager did not specifically mention the Russian but the following statement definitely suggest to me that a move for Arshavin is being negotiated. Observe:
“If the right player comes in, even if he is not available for the Champions League, his class is more important for me. At the moment I feel that if we do add somebody, we need to add somebody who has a special class because we have good players.”
In my eyes this comment directly refers to Arshavin and am a firm supporter of most people’s notion that he is a player with the class to improve our squad. In terms of ready-to-play creative midfielders we have Cesc Fabregas, Tomas Rosicky, Abou Diaby and Samir Nasri and considering the first two are injured we’re in dire need of reinforcements. I think Arshavin can provide something that we lack - namely intelligence and confidence in front of goal - and as I said yesterday I’d love to see this move eventuate.
One move I would not see eventuate though is that of Kolo Toure leaving the club. However, various reports in the media suggest he is on his way to Manchester City with some even insisting that Stephen Ireland might come our way in return. While I would not like to see Toure go I’m even more uncertain about the impact that Ireland would have on our team having watched very little of City this season. It’s definitely and interesting situation though.
As much as i love kolo toure, and as much as everyone else loves kolo toure, a weak toure that is no longer able to fulfill his maximum potential is no longer a player that should be part of the starting line-up or of the squad for that matter. djourou this season has been extremely solid and impressive in my eyes. in games like the chelsea one where we would of inevitably conceded a last minute goal, the defence was extremely solid, winning all the challenges and all the headers. if we have injury problems and toure has to fill in, it is very likely that he will concede into some very simple mistakes and cost us the match, as shown in the losses to fulham and stoke, where on both occasions either lost his marker or competed weakly in the air against the opposition. i believe that a partner ship of djourou and gallas plus someone like senderos as back up should be more than enough for us to be much less volnurable in defense, resulting in us winning the games that we should of one instead of lossing or drawing. as a defensive mid, i believe that diaby has got the potential to be the next vieira, never have two players been so similar. it will not be long untill he masters balancing out his defensive duties with his magical runs that we have seen, and once he does that, diaby, denilson and fabregas will be one of the most formidable central midfield trio in europe. if i was wenger the only player i would sign would be lorik cana, captin of marseilles, a very tough midfielder also gifted with technical skills, able to control many of those matches we seem to always fade out of, also equally as good in defensive as in midfield.
Some very very valid points from untioldarsenal:
“In the end that is what is seems to come down to. Is Wenger, as I believe, not just a genius manager, but one who is able to adapt to changing circumstances BEFORE they happen, or is he exactly the opposite: a man so transfixed with his own vision that he can’t change.
The negative case is the easier one to pitch: Arsenal had year after year ending up either first or second in the EPL - plus a selection of cup wins. Players could come and go, and yet the succcess rolled on. Wenger could kick out Ian Wright without even letting him touch the ball in a cup final, and yet still find better and better players. Anelka goes, in comes Henry - the never ending chain. Then, suddenly he lost it, and now we probably won’t get into Europe next season.
The positive case is more subtle - and thus harder to pitch. Wenger’s most staggering invention (world-wide scouting) was copied widely, while billionaire owners came along able to by-pass the hard work because there were willing to spend anything on anyone, just to try and put a winning team together. After months of hard work Arsenal could discover player X, only to find someone else coming in at the last minute with an insane bid.
Against such tactics Arsenal could not compete. Yes the brilliant players still came through, but they were harder to find, and had to be purloined at a younger and younger age. Even then, the late night prowlers from the KGB in Fulham, and more recently Sheik Yermoney’s men in Manchester, could always outbid anything Arsenal did.
To counteract this Wenger came up with a new twist - building a youth team that incorporated the best players in the world at their age, signed in a way that other clubs couldn’t match. By giving these players an early chance in the team (he argued) he would then become known as the manager who gives youth its chance - making the players more likely to come to Arsenal than go anywhere else.
The benefit of course is that we can attract these wonderful young players (Theo, Ramsey, to name but two). The downside is that they are still young, and so can make errors.
But there is an upside which most followers of the negative approach don’t recognise. It is this: young players are generally much better at changing their style and approach than older players. Take someone like Cesc - playing alongside a Gilberto or Denilson he plays in one way. Playing alongside Flamini, he does it differently.
Because fans generally like players who push forward and shoot, the Cesc next to Flamini is considered “good” while the most defensive Cesc next to Denilson is considered “negative” or “a restriction on his talent”. “He’s forced to play further back,” is the common complaint, forgetting that Denilson on the other hand is playing more forward than Flamini.
But to me the argument in the end is about sustainability. The billionaire model (KGB Fulham, Sheik Yermoney Manchester, Aston “hold your head if you go down” Villa, West Iceland United), just like the “buy the club with its own money” approach that has been used at Manchester B and Liverpool I, cannot and will not be sustained. One instance: we still don’t know how Liverpool are going to refinance - and they have to do it this month, or the banks take over. West Ham are desparately looking for money and can’t find it anywhere.
Arsenal have none of these problems and yet many supporters refuse to believe that the likes of Manchester and Liverpool could fall apart. Perhaps it is just us old farts who believe it, because we saw Manchester Bankrupt and the tiny totts in the second division, and can remember Liverpool and KGB Fulham as nothingness clubs.
The uniqueness of Arsenal is that it keeps reforming itself and coming back for more. My father went to Highbury and watched one of the greatest teams in the world in the 1930s. I have done the same since Wenger arrived.
Sustainability - which means at the moment the youth policy and waiting for success - means that Arsenal will be around, at the top, for the rest of my life. I doubt that this will be true of Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, West Ham United, Chelsea or Aston Villa.”
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