Ahmed: There is no Arsenal defence left – We’re screwed!
You all read my thoughts last night, so let’s have a few Guest Posts today. Here is the first from Ahmed…
We’re Screwed
After what was a disappointing second half and the relief that our INVINCIBLE status is no longer under threat I find myself in mixed emotions. Djourou, arguably our best defender, went off with an ankle injury and given his history, I wouldn’t be surprised if he needs surgery to fix something or the other. We also lost Diaby for 3 if not more games for unsportsmanlike behavior and Alex Song is out injured with no news on his recovery time. That leaves Sebastian Angleheart as they call him in FIFA11 and Koschzzz as the only two recognized first team defenders. So basically we are screwed. Squillaci is a worse defender than I am and that’s saying something.
So we went from having 5 CBs (4 in my opinion if you count song as half a defender and Squillaci as half a defender) we went to having 1.5 defenders. With games coming thick and fast I guess Wenger will have to rotate one of them from left center back to right center back and vice versa for the other. Barcelona will be in town in a fortnight and we will get absolutely pummelled!
If Newcastle can get 4 in 45 minutes, albeit with 11 v 10, then Barca can get 6 (8 if Almunia’s in goal) in 90 minutes with 11 v 11. I can see the news conference now. “yes well you lost against a good side, probably the best team in Europe but you must consider that we had bla bla bla players out. I don’t think any team can win this competition with half of their first team injured”.
We could bench all the old players and let all the youth players come through. It might be a more productive use of our time. I mean we’ll probably sell some of the older players with replacements coming from the youth squad, might as well make this season a “rebuilding” season as well.
So I am mentally preparing myself for another barren season, because we seem to choke on the big stage.It wouldn’t surprise me if we lose 2-1 to Birmingham after leading 1-0 for the entirety of the match in the League Cup final.
Call me a pessimist, call me a spuds fan pretending to be an Arsenal fan, or even a fake fan. But if you think about it and be true to yourself you know I’m not far off the mark.
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No 2 ways about it Squillacci is the worst defender I have seen in all my life and we have seen a lot. He makes Silvestre look like a Cannavarro.
Yesterday, they didnot make too many mistakes just the ref was reading from a different play book.
If Diaby goes off, Nolan goes off 5 mins later for shoving our keeper.
the 2 penalties were never penalties and the free kick right at the end well, i didnt know we were playing touch football. Barton got a free kick each time he fell and a pat on the back each time he tackled an arsenal player from behind.
Squillacci was a fault for the last goal, didnt even try to block the ball. i guess he is too good to put his body on the line.
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it will be interesting to see how le prof rotates the squad..in GOD we trust!
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The ref. Scored 2 goals.its difficult to understand why we conceed penalties whenever phil dowd is officiating.remember west brom,spurs and now newcastle.i couldn’t believe a ref can be that biased.these are the officials who make united champions alway.ferguson is not a good manager its the likes of howard and dowd who make him look like a good manager.
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its hard to win such games when the game is already decided off the field rather than on the field
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There ought to be some kind of route where in the blunders by referee gets really addressed. Referees are in the habit of stealing winds and points away from us.
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I hear wht ur sayin ahmed but ur lack of positivity is a shame which is clouding ur judgement as our team r better than u make out to be, and we WILL take the beer cup no doubt, I will give u the biggest problem with arsenal at the moment and that’s the FANS.
Can u c our fans cheering and supporting like newcastles fans if we were 4-0 down, we don’t even have songs to cheer on our team
The biggest boost our youngstas need to perform on the pitch is knowing the fans are behind them and not judging them and I know wenger must have a tuff time raising there spirits after people like u put them down
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OH MY GOD!!!!…..AM SPEECHLESS..ANOTHER TWO POINTS FROM OUR HANDS!!!!
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elboy
You are so right. Why look on the black side. On Saturday morning we would have expected 3 points each for Manure and ourselves. Instead, we gained a point. We do have injuries after the game but we don’t know yet how bad they are so let’s wait and see. It may well be necessary to blood some of the youngsters and so what.The type of result v Newcastle is one that Arsenal have experienced throughout their history. Conversely, I could see an Arsenal makeshift XI beat Barcelona…..that’s the way it has always been. Have faith in the unexpected.
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i find it hard reading such tosh like ahmed, yes we had a poor second half yes we, had a very poor referee, but one bad half don’t make us unable to win anything, we second in the league we in a cup final which makes me laugh how every one on here puts it down,yet many off you will go to the final all the same and celebrate as if we’d won the treble afterwards in the pub,just a fews moths ago you all saying arsenal need to win the league cup to get us on track,well we in the final and you already slagging the boys off and saying we’ll lose 2.1? no wonder our team wins nothing.
with fans like ours spoilt moaning always looking on the down side,expecting the team to win every game,never giving credit where credit due, like newcastle who in the second half played like tigers to get back into the game albeit with the help off a very poor ref who second penalty he gave was so unbelieveable, i doubt even he knows why he gave it.
like ELBOY said the newcastle fans never gave up chanting and encourageing the team on nor did ipswich or huddersfield or leeds, yet our fans just critisice and boo our team on, at home it like a morgue thankgod we get away fans t”3.0 up and you still don’t sing” this our big problem, if a player makes a bad pass or has a poor game you lot are on him like a pack of wolves.
i’ve supported arsenal 40 years this season and i never seen such spoilt whinging fans in me life,every one quick to jump on squillachi but not one off you have said, what a great 30 minutes we had,or have said that van persie goal should’t been disallowed, remenber in the fa rules and fifa’s the attacking player must have the advantage, but the lines man put up his flag when no way could he been 100%certain that rvp was off side.
stop whinging every time arsenal drop points, every team does. i not seeing man utd fans calling for fergies head becos his top off the table team lost to bottom off the table wolves, they disappointed like we are but they still be cheering man utd on and making a noise at man city next week, where arsenal fans will be sitting quietly eating thier meat pies waiting for us to do something wrong so that you can start whinging, oh and btw why do you lot always turn up late to games,against ipswich i had too keep getting up so that late comers can get to thier seats 10 minutes after kick off, then with ten minutes leave’t start going home ? what great supporters we have we should be so proud off our selfs.
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Dear gunners
There are two or three culprits in this postmortem. the primary one is Abou Diaby, he is the one i would take to a construction firm to mix concrete as a porter till the beginning of next season (Rem N. korea world cup players) i would do just that. .We all know Abou just returned from injury got from yet another bad tackle he received on his first day on the pitch while returning from a lengthy lay off, so you could say his frustration had reached its maxima. However he knew better than me what the consequence of his unprofessional behaviour would be. it takes time for a team to build belief but that belief can crumple in seconds that is what exactly happened yesterday.
The second culprit was the referee. This guy was & is against Arsenal and i hope the FA in the near future will come up with new giudelines on how to allocate referees to games based on their past officiation game statistics. The first penalty was rubbish because the new Castle player was not even in position to score let a lone the tackle against him, our defender had intention of snipping the ball away the referee was baited and he took the bait and awarded a penalty. The second penalty i don’t know on what basis it was awarded. it looked to me a referee need to be crazy to point to the spot
The third but not least culprit was the whole team on the pitch after the sending off of Diaby. With due respect to newcastle they should not have leveled but arsenal crumpled mentally at once and allowed them to come back.
Well you will say after all Man U lost as well this is nonsensical because the objective is to overtake your opponent. I don’t think an athlete will stop to console an opponent in 100M race when he or she trips but to take the chance to win the race. Lets put it this way Arsenal would have been a whopping seven points a drift had Man won yesterday.
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For now in God i trust. Maybe Squilacci can stop da Barca attack, he’s played em b4, he is experienced. But ydays game wasnt bad. U guys shud know somtin, wen we played in da 1st half, we were unstoppable, we lookd lyk barca in da EPL until da unfortunate incident. Dis draw is a lesson 4 em. Jus keep da faith. Who knew da barcodes cud equalise all 4goals. Against barca anitin can hapn we cud have 4 penalties puyol being sent off or even they cud hav injuries as well or our players wud play barca lyk dey are west ham. No mata wat hapns let pray 4 tins to become beta. Up The GUNNERS!
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god i glade you lot don’t support a team like wigan or west ham lol they have real reason to moan you spoilt whingers get a life.
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It sounds ridiculous but I think we need to take the positives out of yesterdays game…
Why? At 2:59 yesterday did we honestly expect to be closer to united by 7?
But please, allow me to elaborate. I hate to put games like these down to officials, having not seen the game yesterday I was ranting about how a team should NEVER give up a four goal lead…enter Phil Doud…
Where to start…how about Joey Barton with his ‘honest and committed’ tackles! In the first half he went straight through arsharvin from behind, mr douds (on a side note, typing douds on predictive text gives you SPUDS-the iphone knows!!!!) reaction…
…
…
…
I should stop now, I could go on forever!
Which brings us to the diaby sending off, I’ve looked at the tackle, I’ve looked at it again and again, a player who is deemed not to be in control of their body when making a challenge is considered to be acting in a dangerous manner, which is in turn is serious foul play, which in turn is a red card! Diabys leg achieved a range if movement not appropriate to for any human limb! I don’t condone his reaction but with the previous injury history he has I can see where it stems from (but Abu if your going to do it, do it right! There are many in the football community and population in general who would give their right leg to land one square on that fellas chin-anyhow I digress)!
So yes diaby should go, but Barton should be sharing the tunnel with him!
No complaints about the award if the first pen, however when you’ve picked the ball out of your net and your placed into a headlock and pushed to the ground your expecting some sort of reaction from the referee right?! If course you are, and Dowd didn’t disappoint…there you go son, have a yellow card (you seriously can’t make this stuff up!!!)
With the crowd behind them Newcastle pushed on, fair play to them, second goal can generate no complaints! But now we’re 4-2 up with 10 minutes left, if we work hard and defend with our lives we can get the result we so desperately crave! WRONG!
Enter Dowd stage left! How on gods earth can he possibly justify the award of the second penalty? Three players jump together for an overhit ball…I’d elaborate but there is no way of elaborating…no wait let me give it a go…
As the sun retracted, and night closed in…heading towards the 5th hour of a somewhat mild winters afternoon, three players jumped together for an overhit ball…
Cue Dowd! You must be shi**ing me! If that’s a penalty Cairo isgoing to win tourist destination of the year! It wasn’t even questionably questionable!
Phil, take a bow, return to your mark, turn, bow again, and leave stage right!
Is there an agenda with particular refs? I’d really like to think that wasn’t the case, honestly and truthfully I would! Does the past 7 days strengthen my belief?
Of course (dramatic irony….I thankyou!)
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why was my origanal reply to ahmed taken off? was it to near the point?or is this blog here only to knock arsenal.
(LOL no it had to be moderated as you are a new commenter! Its been approved now! – ADMIN)
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ARSENE WENGER . I HATE HIM .HE’S SO STUBBORN . when z he gona learn .ths z exactly wat happend last season . i can more loses n draws ahead .hate or love !!
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IT is amazing it never happen in the world a team lost thier lead of 4 goals even if they are 9 men usee teams keep thier lead of i goal while they are one man down but every arsenal fan knows the problem was not daiby it was Squillacci who even does now how to tickle one man with the ball plz l dont want to see sebstain in the imprtant game leave us alone we can have song in centre back
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Robert
Can’t agree with you about Diaby. He had a great first half and his name would be near the top of the list if I was selecting any Arsenal side. After the appalling catalogue of injuries he has suffered of late (largely ignored by referees) no wonder he lost control. With thug Barton (who really shouldn’t be on any football field in the land) the latest culprit against him, a yellow at worst should have been levied.
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I have followed the debate that ensued shortly after the debacle of st james’s park and wish say that the referee at the center of the game had the outcome of the game already determined even before the kick off. At a point, when the score line read Arsenal 4-0 Newcastle, he must have been worried stiff, as to how he was ever going to get the result to reflect what he had agreed with his pay masters.
The FA must investigate the conduct of Phil Dowd by allowing it’s technical committee to view the match video over and over again. I strongly believe a syndicate is at work trying to determine the outcome of some of the premier league matches. Last week, during the Man Utd game against Blackpool, Rafael blatantly pushed down a black pool player right in front of the match referee, but to my surprise it was waved off. This incident happened at a time when Black pool was leading Man Utd by two goals. It was as if the match referee did not want Black Pool to ever win the match. There are a few outcomes of matches that i can refer to this season. The FA must act quickly before the referees bring the beautiful English game into disrepute.
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May I just add…at the risk of the wrath of many…
Would going out of the champions league to barca (in a respectable fashion) be such a blot on our copy book? Conversely it could strengthen our push for the title! Statistically champions league teams results are worse on the preceding premiership weekend following a midweek encounter! United and Chelsea would both have the CL to contend with aswel as the PL!
This is only an informed observation of course, but let’s not put the barca game on too high a pedestal!
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my rant:
squaliacci is actually shit, i tried to stick by him but ffs wtf is he doing
daby sending off, wtf, yeah he reacted but wtf was joey barton doing, that tackle was only going bak to an arsenal player so i was pointless.
officials, wtf!
newcastle fought back? they got 2 fricken penalties and we had a player sent off
my praise: we had 3 goals scored before 10 mins
team played very well before they get cheated
man u lost – 1 point closer
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WENGER SHOULDA SPENT SOME $$$
bleh… My trophy cabinet will stay empty this year… I mean its only 6 years right?
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i m completely agree with LANNON,,,,it was a hell of refreeing,,,,so they played with 12 players on the pitch against our 10,,,,n the main thing they have got “THE JUDGE”(devil referee) with them,,,,shamefull,,,,i hv faith in arsene and god
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This match result was nothing to do with strength of squad or fouls by Koscielny (which actually did not foul on both occasions). The score is a consequence of bad refereeing. So, kemp, asif and ahmed can stop writing a rubbish about Arsenal!
With proper refereeing the final result would have been 4:3 or 4:2 or even 5:2 to Arsenal. Neither of two penalties was deserved. Why majority of referee’s mistakes go against Arsenal? One in Everton game, 4 (two penalties and not sending off Nolan and showing at least yellow card to barton) in Newcastle. Can anyone answer this question? Or someone was correct in the tunnel?
Why so many people who write here are against arsenal players and manager? Go supporting Newcastle, Birmingham, or Stoke. These are “proper” teams: one season in premiership another in championship, criminals and leg breakers in the team (e.g. JB and MT).
Anyway, it was good game from Arsenal! Unfortunately, referee has ruined it…
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sometimes i wonder, where had all the fans from the highbury days ran off to? the only chants i heard these days are “Booooo”, “Aaaaaaaaaaa”, and “Come on Arsenal”.
but to be frank, barton and nolan are football thugs. especially nolan. hope newcastle will get relegated again with their 35 million pounds. ceh
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Get that tight bas#ard Wenger out!! he should have bought!! Now were fu#ked again!!
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The tackle from behind on Arshavin in the first half was equally horrendous as the one on Diaby. Arshavin didnt react whereas Diaby did- His behavior cost us the game.
The moral of the story is to stay down after a seemingly bad tackle…
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kos was a sloppy trying to tackle through the players leg. for 1st penalty. 2nd 1 the ref jus took this piss.
And yeh good write. Ahmed
to truegunner its not about what we winning and how we compare to other teams. The Guy is stating we have no defence LOL.
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sorry admin lol i apologise deep red face now lol
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i think the problem is because of wenger’s reluctance to spend and the lack of quality we have (mainly in defence), we always have a scapegoat to blame our poor results on. whereas if you look at Man U, the wolves games was a defeat which was unexpected but wolves played well and because sir alex has spent money in his squad over the years and bought quality, the only logical reason for defeat is the fact they lost to a better side. im unhappy like everyone else that wenger didn’t buy a quality centre half in the summer instead of squid,and injuries are starting to take there toll, but in the end wenger will have no one to blame but himself for not purchasing quality. but lets be positive and hope for the best, i emphasise the word hope because realistically speaking we have got tricky games coming up and injuries are beginning to mount,but lets keep the faith
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Dear Ahmed, great post man !!!
Some scums who are basically AW lickers would call us in different names & abuses, but that doesn’t absolve them with the incredulity that they strive in…
What I liked in yr article is the courage to call ” a spade a spade ” … I’m also pre-empting such horrid comments from these AW lickers … ” Oh the referee was at fault ” ( which though genuine can go both ways ), ” That we were playing with 10 men “, ( so what !!! teams even win with 10 men & we were 4-0 up & against a side named New castle who are 12th/13th in pole psoition & are not Man U or Barca or Real Madrid class ), ” Man U also lost to Wolves, which means Arsenal’s draw is ok ” ( bullshit, had we taken advantage y’day, we would have been breathing Man U’s nostrils & with tough games coming in their way, who knows that We could have surged ahead of them in Feb itself…
And now what !!! The psychologtical impact from this Newcastlke game would haunt us ( even AW admitted that ) … and yet we have just no back-up CBs… ( I don’t consideer Squi as a CB in Arsenal calibre, sorry my friends )
So what does that leave us with ???? Utter frustration…
Hope Song & Djkoriu gets well fast, real fast…
AW – wake up from yr slumber…if this season goes w/o the pl, with MAn U & Chelsea being so erratic – as a Manager, u hv to take the blame squarely…and then no excuses please ….
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Another Arsenal doomsdayer. Where do you guys come from?
So you’d rather insanely assume JD20 is going to have to be put down than think he might be available in 10 days or so? Why? Even I have to wait until someone tells me something.
But a few corrections.
Djourou isn’t arguably our best defender he’s categorically our best defender until TV5 shows us he’s otherwise.
We have 4 first team centrebacks not 5. TV5, JD20, Koscielny, and Squillaci. If we need to we can play Song who, by being better than Squillaci, has to be deemed a full centreback (on countback) not a half. Plus we’ve got Ignasi Miquel, who while being a bit young is still an official full-integer centreback.
Alex Song has a dead leg. The standard time for a dead leg to recover is a few days.
And no, Squillaci isn’t a worse defender than you are … unless you’ve played over 20 times for France*
You can’t have half a defender. Defenders by law must be represented by whole integers. Or digits. Or people. Erwin Schrödinger tried something like what you’re suggesting and now look.
Newcastle got 4 goals in 19 minutes (1st goal 68, last goal 87) not 45. Indicating we’d actually kept a clean sheet (before and after the spree) for 23 + 9 (96-87) = 32 minutes of the second half. Ish.
Which brings me to your numerical extrapolation from Newcastle to Barcelona. Firstly, Newcastle can’t get 4 in 19 as a norm. They can only get it during some kind of anti-Arsenal perfect storm jamboree. Secondly, you already seem to know much about the first leg at the Ems. You’re even singling out Almunia for special consideration (and slagging him off to boot). Thirdly, what’s with your reference/quote to half our first team being injured? Right now Nasri and TV5 are out for the B*rca first leg. Djourou, Denilson, and Song are all unknowns – though Song should be alright and Denilson … Zzzzzzzzz. That just leaves Djourou. So, O wise one … what is it? Is it the same knee as before? Is it the same injury even? How long will he be out for? Could he be back for the second leg like Nasri should? Or should I wait until someone actually tells me something.
So, you’re mentally preparing yourself for losing the Carling Cup final? I think that, by definition, this makes you a Birmingham supporter.
Lastly. I don’t need to think that you’re a pessimist. It’s glaringly obvious. And having thought about it, and knowing something about how the standard model of the universe works, you’re not only far off the mark, but so much so we can no longer measure the distance even in astronomical terms.
The thing is you can’t support a club on iffy maths, persistent presupposing, and Cassandra-like groans of woe alone. You need something else. And I’m not even sure you know what that means.
*It was under Domenech. (Does that count?)
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I must be the only gooner who kept sayin since last three years that we need change in managers post,regardless what arsene has achieved over the years I personally think under him we not goin forwards…teams knows hw to play against wengerstottal team..we need manager who knows how win games…wud u imagine after goin 4 up in
first half sir alex or maurinho or benitez wud let 4 goals in second half??I agree we lost player but still I ant see utd or Chelsea wud let slip dat lead..only wengerstottal managment knows…we need change,it hurts me to say that…but as club we not goin forwards..not movin…even utd lost yday I think they will walk over to title..squilacki…??club spend 6m on him he the hell,my son cud defend better than him…we need change..there’s no winning mentality under wenger..kept sayin our kids kids..how long?they are man now..so no excuse
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i’m really sorry that my article doesn’t appeal to the always positive side of the gooners but i prefer not to be looking at arsenal with a two-way murphy blinds on. never said we had a shit team, never said we had a shit manager. i’m saying that the managers stubbornness to fix a problem even a football illiterate can see is disheartening.
if i were a wigan or westham supporter then i’d have a different mentality but i’m somewhat of a spoiled arsenal supporter because i grew up watching henry and co destroying teams. the referee cost us the newcastle game but I don’t agree with people on this blog who say both penalties were unjust. the first one was a legit penalty. hope song and djourou gets back sooner rather than later
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PERFECT SUMMARY:
No one was laughing in the Arsenal camp, though. While criticism of referee Phil Dowd was somewhat just, with both penalties being questionable, there still was no excuse for a meltdown of this proportion.
Wenger, never the most gracious acceptor of failure, tried to deflect attention by focusing on the poor decisions, but no one was buying it.
The real reason why his team fell apart was because of the precise shortcomings that have been pointed out for so long.
There’s no strong, influential and experienced leader. No world-class central defender. No proven top-level goalkeeper.
With Chelsea and others spending heavily around him Wenger has stuck steadfastly to his developmental approach of building from within.
The principle is admirable, but his refusal to sanction a handful of key acquisitions in critical areas has damaged his team and its prospects.
There are deficits in the squad and a shortage of character.
Just a day earlier, defender Gael Clichy told the Daily Telegraph: “We are not soft anymore. We are not young anymore. We can play hard.”
But they are soft, remarkably so for a team that has, or had, real ambitions at claiming silverware.
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