Almunia has no plans to leave Arsenal
The Spaniard Manuel Almunia has dropped to third-choice goalkeeper at Arsenal, but in a rare interview he has stated that he is simply keeping to his contract and has had no thoughts of leaving, in fact he hasn’t even spoken to Arsene Wenger about his position at the club!
The two Poles, Wojciech Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski, have both moved above him in the rankings at Arsenal, but Almunia says that he will only consider his future if Wenger brings in another shot-stopper.
Almunia said: “To be honest, it is so difficult to concentrate because Arsenal is a big club and speculation is always in the news and everywhere. The only thing I can do is keep working because I have a contract here and I have to do what the manager wants from me.
“I have not spoken to him. If somebody comes in, I will have to talk about my future at Arsenal. That is it. I cannot talk now, because the talking would be for nothing.”
Hmm we know he has difficulty concentrating, and we know he doesn’t like talking much, but you would have thought he would prefer to go and be a first-choice keeper somewhere else at his age?
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Of course I would do it if i were him. How much does he earn? 30k 40k a week? Not even West Ham wants him.
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Out of tune?. Like or Dislike:
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I bet he couldn’t believe his luck when Wenger gave him such a big and long term contract. Another one of those players not good enough that Wenger was to stubborn to admit to earlier. Like others (such as Bendtner, Denilson, Squillaci, etc. etc.) how many points has this clown cost us over the years?
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In the GK department, there will be big changes in the summer I suspect.
Szczesny – becomes a senior part of the squad (registered for PL Homegrown)
Fabianski – May consider his future due to the fact he is competing directly with a fellow countrymen for the #1 jersey. There was talk that he may go out on loan to try and confirm his place in Polish squad.
Almunia – Experienced but on big wages for doing nothing. He’s not the Shay Given to Joe Hart back-up Man City had last season so his days are numbered at the club. There are a lot of young talented GKs and maybe an old head would be good to have around. I have rather Bob Wilson come in from time to time and mentor them or watch footage of David Seaman.
Mannone – Good young GK. The CL game really didn’t do him any favours. He may move on to try and get back into contention for international football.
Shea – His loan move did not work out but he is battling with Martinez for Reserves #1 jersey and could feature more on the bench for first team depending on replacements for Almunia/Mannone/Fabianski.
Martinez – Looks a big talent and looking to cement that Reserves #1 jersey and then push on into the first team squad. He may get some CC games next season.
Looking at the players (up to ’93 age group)there will be 1 GK each season that will need to be registered per PL rules. Szczesny (90 – 12/13), Shea (91 – 13/14), Martinez (92 – 14/15), McDermott (93 – 15/16). And there are more (1 each season) but will just name these guys as they have played at least Reserve football for the club.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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Stp payn him his salary! He’ll leave automatically. Simple no rocket science needed!
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Unfortunately you cannot just stop paying him because he has a contract.
In other words he has AFC by the balls.
Just think
Squid, Almunia, Djourou, probably cost us around 150k a week that’s 7.8 million a year for doing nothing.
Lucky AW has an eye for talent otherwise god only knows what crap we would have on the payroll.
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Why on earth would he want to leave? He’s never gonna play for Spain and nobody wants him. He’s getting paid way more than anyone else would pay him. So why would he want to leave? It’s like Wayne Bridge at Man City.
Szczesny is our #1 and will be for a long time. We have some very good young (have to laugh at that since Szczesny isn’t even 23 yet) in Shea and Martinez and Mannone is better than some give him credit for. Fabianski and Almunia both need to move on.
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what a w&%$r Wenger is saying he wants to ban loan deals for over 21 years old but he loaned Almunia to West Ham he just keeps making stupid statments what a total pri-k
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wushhhhhhh dat guys is a time bomb … we will all do without him on our bus… TU
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I’m sorry but I actually like almunia
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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omg my faith 4 AW is like 55:45
COMON MAN just sell the fkin players tht r useless like tht guy above ( almunia ) , shavin , squid , chamakh
u said u want to win cups….;if u stick with them ull get nothin
and if u sell RVP……. ur gonna be the dumbest manager in arsenal history ……
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Out of tune?. Like or Dislike:
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like i said yesterday – why would these surplus to requirements personnel move
1. no other team wants them – at any price
2. they are happy to just keep getting 30 – 40 – 50k a week
smiling all the way to the bank – most have signed 4 year deals….dosen’t take an o’ level
4 years @ £2+ million a year….no worries
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Actually the problem is no one wants to take him..!
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Big changes will happen in the summer.
Almunia contract is up in the summer. We wont give him another one.
Fabianski has stated he wants to be number 1 but it wont happen at Schenzhy has secured his place. His contract is also up in the summer and will not sign on.
Mannone keeps going on loan every season and wants to be the number 1 but is not going to be. His contract also expires in the summer and well he will not sign on.
Thats 3 goalkeeprs out so at least 1 has to come in and then pick up 1 or 2 from the reserves as backups.
1 goalkeeper that will be better then Mannone,Fabianski,Alumnia and a good realiable back up to Schenzhy.
I doubt wenger will not buy a goalkeeper if all 3 leave. Look for a keeper for around 6M
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Show him the Door the guy is a Flapper.You could not give him away who the hell would want him.He is getting money for old rope that why he won’t leave. Make him help the groundsman to earn some of his money.
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Does anyone know when his contract runs out?
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i think Almunia is a good keeper…way better than Fabiansky by miles !! i rather have him as back up than having Flap-iansky !!
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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If you think our squad is crap now, look at some of the signings Arsene Wenger has made since he came to the club!
Rami SHAABAN
Richard WRIGHT
Mikael SILVESTRE
Igor STEPANOVS
Pascal CYGAN
Phillipe SENDEROS
Amaury BISCHOFF
Alberto MENDEZ
Francis JEFFERS
Kaba DIAWARA
And STILL Arsenal players!
Manuel ALMUNIA
Sebastian Squillaci
DENILSON
Marouane CHAMAKH
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He earns 72k-74k a week…FACT and denilson 60, diaby 65, chamakh 85…arshavin 90…time people wake up
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@Jack
Agree. Wenger either is losing it, or has lost it. What a stupid and hypocritical thing to say. I’m over Wenger. His best years are behind him.time for a new manager. The question is who? That I do not know.
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the answer is dennis
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If you want Douglas at arsenal then thumbs up if not thumbs down
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heskey would be better in goal then almunia
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If mannone doesnt want to become no.2 and challenge szcesney then he should join fabianski and almunia in the.goalkeeper departure lounge . if all 3 leave then we should sign another more experienced keeper however if mannone stays then leave.it at that. shea and martinez.can share 3/4 choice.keeper duty may be taking it in turns for a 4 month loan. dont forget there is also ireland youth keeper mcdermoo as well as cook and vickers coming through. i think 7 keepers for 3 teams is plenty we dont need 9! if we just off loaded flaps and manuel we could raise 3m and save a further 7m in wages.
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we should let him go anywhere who will pay him on a free just to get him off the wage budget, same as diaby and same as denilson and to an extent ashavin and chamakh if we cant sell them.
Once they are off the wage budget (presumably someone will take them if we don’t demand a fee) there is 350-400K a week to spend.
If we budget that over 2 years thats £26M to spend as a fee and 150K a week in wages on one palyer to replace all of them bringing in a few younger players to fill the enormous gaps left by this pile of shit
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Problem with his contract is that it was signed when nothing was sure about the poles, now they have confirmed, I am pretty sure Almunia has contact with other clubs but no one wants to offer him the same wages, looks like he doesn’t car about football anymore, just get the cash and once contract is finished, retire
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I’m sorry but can’t they just release him?
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@diablo I agree, I would feel safer with Almunia than Flappy-handski as 2nd choice. Almunia was having a great run just before he was about to get his British citizenship. He was even being considered to represent in the English squad. Something happened, I think it was an injury, and when he came back it looked like he lacked confidence. He still looks safer than when Flappyhandski. My nerves go on end when he gets the ball!
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Forget about dead-woods, watch Eurosport, Gervinho’s playing!!
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haha he wont leave cos no one wants him…
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we will help him don’t worry….
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I think he is stil relevant ,in case of goalkeeping crises or emergencies he is better than Mannone.
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nobody would take this guy,after lehman if we had a decent keeper we probably wud have won something by now…
ONLY DECENT KEEPER WE GOT AT MOMENT IS SECENY AND I THINK WE SHOULD HAVE SOMEBODY LIKE FRIEDEL FOR COUPLE OV SEASONS AND SECENY COULD HAVE LEARNT FROM HIM,DONT GET WRONG HE WILL BE A TOP KEEPER BUT AT MOMENT IS STILL MAKING MISTAKES…
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What happened to football? Now 3rd string backup keepers get paid 2.5 million a year for nothing. Atleast 10 times more than ER doctors that save countless lives each year. Are prices for players going to keep inflating like this?
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BREAKING NEWS!!!! Heard the rumour…..Hazard deal will be solved in 48 hours….It is something out of mind but the source was said to be coming from Ian Wright who tweet from an insider news.
The reports suggest that Lille agreed with 25 million transfer fee and the credibility of the source are still unknown.
We wait and see…………
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we should all get together and protest against the board for the lack of funds
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Well, we have to accept that not everyone has the talent, experience and luck to sign only good players. Some might turn out to be flops.
But the sad thing is we know Rosicky is a flop and yet we still consider offering him a new contract instead of accepting a bid of 3 million from Fulham. Further more, we set the decision date on 15 Feb (a date after the Jan transfer window), again, it shows how slow and how efficient we are when dealing with transfer activity. Please tell me that there is a long holiday in England from now until 14 Feb. Or some people can only make decision base on his mood after his valentine day celebration?
And we know among Bendtner, Vela, Park, Arshavin, Rosicky, Denilson, Diably, Squilacci, Jenkinson, Gibbs, Almunia, Fabianski, Vito Manone etc. which some of these players cannot even make it to the bench of MU, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, MC, Real, Barca, AC Milan, Inter, Bayern etc. not to mention their first XI and yet we continue to keep them, continue to pay them and continue to lie to ourselves that we have a squad which on our good day, we can defeat anyone on this planet.
This is not our only problem, we also have management who blindly believe we can be successful with youth policy alone and thought our youth development programme is much better than Barca’s one. These people care about their own wallet, bank account and their own comfortable seat in the stadium + the meeting room than the club success.
While other people came and grab our best players like Fabregas, Nasri, Adebayor etc. today I read that we were asking for Hugo Rodelega who is in a team waiting to be relegated. Where is our ambition? Or our ambition is to become a school to supply the best product for other teams.
Wenger, let me help you in your comment on the loanee which you made lately. The better version of that should be anyone who buy players from a club, those players cannot play against their previous club for the coming 5 years. Now, you stand a better chance to win if we continue to be a players supplier. Just supply 5 players to MC and we can play against MC’s B team.
Everyone makes mistake, the question is how fast you realize it, how fast you learn from it and how fast you recover from it. For me, the way Arsenal do things today emphasize on how good we ignore our mistake, how long we can deny that it is our fault and how fast we can hide the mistake.
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From what I hear, he is a real top bloke off the field. I feel sorry for him because as a shot stopper he is quality and has shown that in the past. However, with every other aspect of keeping – decision making, handling, kicking – he is not at Premier League standard. He seems to do his worst work when he has time to think about the ball coming in; crosses, long range shooting, free kicks. That’s what lets him down more than anything. A poor defensive line doesn’t help his cause either.
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One thing is certain: most of you didn’t even bother to check when his contract expires. It’s at the end of this season. THIS season. Now, if he says he’s not thinking of leaving, this means either that he wants some easy money for the next holiday break, or that there’s simply no real offer for him. I think it’s the former more than the latter. And what can you do? He has a contract.
As for the other keepers: unless Fabianski leaves now, before 31st, nothing is certain as to his future. What he wants is to make the starting XI of the Polish squad for the upcoming Euros in Poland and Ukraine; this he can only do while at a different club. After this transfer window, it will become useless for him to look for any kind of a quick solution, but who knows what he wants? I think Mannone is likely to leave now or be released in the summer, and it’s likely Wenger will acquire another keeper (to add to Shea or Martinez).
As for Wenger’s transfer failures: can any one of you name a manager who did not have any transfer fail? You think Fergie didn’t?
Obertan
Taibi
Forlan
Veron
Hargreaves
Kleberson
plus a host of overpriced players, like Anderson.
The list goes on and on.
(Incidentally, Senderos wasn’t a failure at all.)
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fergie has made worse signings than wenger and spent much more
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WHY…?
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