Wenger confirms that Vermaelen will play at left-back
Posted on
July 12, 2011 by
admin
After Gael Clichy forced his move to Man City by refusing to sign a new contract at Arsenal, Arsene Wenger said that he wouldn’t be buying a replacement as he wanted to promote Kieran Gibbs to the first team.
But today he has also said that Thomas Vermaelen and Armand Traore will also be in contention. His exact words were: “We have Kieran Gibbs, Armand Traore and Thomas Vermaelen who can play at left back so we have what we need,”
This will obviously increase speculation that Wenger is close to signing another centre-back, althoug it was recently claimed by both Blackburn and Bolton that they hadn’t recived bids from Arsenal for eith Samba or Cahill.
Perhaps Scott Danns is the man in the frame?
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no more scott dann rumors. if we promote vermaelen to left back and sign 2/3 cahill,samba and mertesacker along with sagna at right back that’s a solid defence
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just buy mertesacker and pair him with vermalaen and see how gibbs does?
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bull shit news tht ll never happen ..
Wenger will never buy 2 CB’s in one transfer window for sure… he would rather play gibbs on LB n play vermalean n samba/metersacker on CB…
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wenger i beg sign good players lyk gervinho,so i can buy our ticket
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I think a pairing of samba kos with tv5(left) an sagna(right) would be perfect, dont get me wrong samba cahill/mertesacker would be great but we have to be realistic, we’re talking bout wenger here.
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Wenger got Laurent & Squillace in one transfer window last year. But I think he will get in one and he only mentions that Vermaelen can play there not that he will play there. I think he will give gibbs a chance there and play TV5 with another centre back with Kozzer & Squillace as back up.
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Yes, brilliant. if we sign another CB and move TV5 to left back that means that TV5 is replacable when injured (gibbs, traore) also i think koschielny will have a good season, just needed to adapt to the premier league, he was a great CB for lorient in france. Now go buy samba, cahill, or mertesacker Arsene!
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@goonermani I’m sure Wenger bought Koscielny and Squillacci in the same window didn’t he? Although i do doubt he will buy 2 new CB’s we just need one CB and an out n out goalscorer with pace, provided we keep Cesc and Nasri.
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TV is a bloody makeshift LB that is not his bloody role, yes he played a few games there, but he is a bloody CB jesus hell. Gibbs is a injury prone like mad, hbones are made of bloody glass, and traore aI dont evenw ant to start with him.
Wenger really has lost his bloody mind.
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Greetings 2 all gunners faithfull 4 keeping the faith. I am not in surport of the opinion of using traore, gibbs or vermalen in replacement 4 clichy, please wenger we need bain. This experiment might be dagerious. One love
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man bring in cahil & matesaka left bac vem or gib/traore. Juan mata & just a gud striker lyk odewinge
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How stupid is that. Kieran gibbs is so injury prone so as back up we will lose our best centre back by playing him out of position. Id rather we bought a centre back and a real left back. This is the same thing Arsene has been doing since we stopped winning by not replacing players.
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I doubt TV will be put left back. We can survive with a make shift left back. Clichy was pretty torrid himself at most time.
If we wanna promote Gibbs, might as well promote Botelho as well and see how they fair. CB and height is our defensive achilles heel not from a wide position.
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Scott Dann isnt good enough for Arsenal, end of story.
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No, he said that Vermaelen CAN play at left back.
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@tochier
Gervinho is an arsenal player now, and its official. Check it out at afc official website.
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@tochier
If wenger has to buy players for you to buy tickets, then your basically not a proper fan. We need die-hard fans, who will support the team whatever happens. Even if we get relegated.
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I can confirm the general line up for next season…
Nasri RVP Walcott
Wilshere Fabregas
Song
Gibbs Sagna
Mertersacker Vermealen
SCZC
SUBS
1 Gervinho
2 Arshavin
3 Ramsey
4 Djourou
5 Jenkinson
6 Chamakh / Rosicky
7 Fabianski
That is French for VA VA VOOM!
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How can you people have an intelligent opinion when you clearly cannot read
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hi guys dont forget koscielny n’ djourou also song in the centre back position. They also quality player.
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You’ve completely misread. TV will not be COMPETINg for LB, it means he CAN play LB, but guarantee he will be playing CB mostly. Same way William Gallas CAN play LB or Alex song CAN play CB..it just means they have cover for Gibbs.
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Arsenal needs a defender to mostly command and stop set-pieces. From stats, Samba, Mertesacker and Jagielka fit the bill. Any one of those and a change of formation to 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 with Sagna/Eboue and Traore/Gibbs as Wingbacks will suffice.
Hmm…
Sczcesny –
Kos Samba Tv5 -
Sagna Song Gibbs
Ramsey Wilshere -
Gervinho/Walcott
RvP/chamakh.
Fab4 n Nasri be sold off and let sumone else justify their worth.
Wow I can be such a fantastic Fifa11 Manager!!
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plz arsene vvenger should buy samba pair him up with koscienlny play tv5 @ left back sagna right back song wilshere and freepong in da midle cesc nasri rvp i bet u we will o beta
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Hitler > Blatter > Wenger > They are all dictators. Wenger is a dictator as far i’m concerned, he is trying to feign being blind to the truth, when all his players are screaming for topclass signings. Wenger wants to give Vemaelen a bad name, he has shown that he is good at centre back, while trying another experiment when we should be looking for an all and out Left Back. All i can say is that things will only change when Wenger departs because his pride is killing him greatly.
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Wenger wont buy any one, he is going to say that TV is like a new signing besides what do you do with 5 centre backs. The T/fer window is going to close then he will say we were close to signing but then the window closed.
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Guys, I think you’re forgetting how great djourou did last season when he stepped up into vermaelens place. I think a back four of SAGNA – DJOUROU – VERMAELEN – GIBBS .. would be our best bet if wenger chokes again and doesnt buy or buys a CB like Squid .. but id prefer to see Cahill in instead of Samba as he is less vulnerable to mistakes or even better if we can get him Mertesacker – Forget about British grit .. we need an ice cold German defender that has a lot of experience.
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I’m worried that he’s not going to buy any new centre backs now, it seems he hasn’t made a bid on anyone yet and I wonder how long it is before we hear the usual guff about how many players he already has who can play there and how he doesn’t want to stifle the youth. The fact is none of them can cope with the aerial threat posed by a lot of premier league teams and we need someone who can. Only a few weeks ago wenger himself acknowledged this fact so why he has changed his mind is beyond belief. For the sake of 3 or 4 million more than he wants to spend we could concede maybe 10 less goals over the season. That could amount to the difference between winning the league and finishing 6th. Is there a more stubborn, short sighted fool managing a top team team than Wenger? I know this is pre judging him a little as the window isn’t shut yet but what the hell is he waiting for?
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Am tire of rumours. Arsene pls buy experience player. How dare u want 2 put gibbs and vermalem 2 left side as replacement 2 clichy.why wenge? I luv dis club. Up gunners
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He will Keep Sqauallci i can bet you on it
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@Raid- wat quality that wenger keeps stressing on n on n on is Squillaci…. im sure that considering him the second buy for 4m last season is just a waste.. rather v could have used miquel or bartley …
hence koscienly is a decent pick from wenger.. in times to come, he will mature but squillaci i doubt it….
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per mertesacker
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TV5 is hardly a makeshift LB, he plays international football at LB and he played most of his games for Ajax at LB. I do agree that he is probably better at CB but for a team that struggles at set-pieces playing an extra player who is good in the air might be a neat trick. The key to building a successful team is eliminating any weakness because the best managers will exploit them. Rarely has a top team had such an obvious weakness as Arsenal had last season at set-pieces. If we reduced the goals conceeded at set-pieces to the amount conceeded by the rest of the top three i wouldn’t be surprised if we’d have finished up Champions at the end.
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Dont think there is any problem playing TV at left back but i see that if wenger can jst buy two more players say a strong defensive midfielder lik essien and a central defender lik samba or cahil this team can do unbiten again.
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and one more thing. The last team that i remember playing a CB at LB for an entire season was Chelsea with Gallas. They ended that season conceeding a record low 15 goals !!
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Don’t believe everything you read…….Wenger has a plan,hes always been secretive in transfer market (doesn’t want to get in bidding war)!!
Plus Selling Nasri for 20k and Fab 35k is joke if downing is 18k, keep hold of them this is our year have faith ppl.
Djourou and Koscielny will come good just need 1 more with experience and we will hve a cracking bck 4.
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Or another unknown french player!
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Buy: Given £4m, Cahill £17m, Enrique £5m, Parker £10m, Benzema £27m, Gervinho already brought £10m. Total buys: £73m
Sell: Almunia £1, Squillaci £1m, Traore £2m, Denilson £4m, Diaby £8 Rosicky £3, Nasri £20m, Bendtner £9m, Vela £5m. Total sell: £53m
Total net spend: £20m
If Wenger does this Arsenal will win the Premier League next year and one of the cups too!
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Starting line up for first game v Newcastle: (4-4-2 formation) Given; Sagna, Cahill, Vermaelen, Enrique; Walcott, Fabregas, Parker, Arshavin/Gervinho; Benzema, Van Persie; SUBS: Szczesny, Eboue, Djourou, Song, Wilshere, Arshavin/Gervinho, Chamakh
WHAT A TEAM!!!
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One Word Wayne Bridge!!!!
Sell Vermelen, Fab, Nasri, Song, Arshavin and Van Persie.
Must Buy;
Green, Samba, Dann, Bridge, Parker, Barton, Crouch, Doyle
Starting line up
Green, Sagna, Samba,Dann, Bridge, Parker, Barton, Whilshire, Walcott, Crouch, Doyle.
IF none of these come then Wenger Out!!!!!
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Frankly, I think Cahill would solve our defensive issues outright, but Djourou could do very well with vermaelen as a partner. If they can both stay fit, then we could have a very sold partnership with kozzer as back up.
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Hey Sina hope you’re not talking about Gervinho because if you rate him as an unknown you just don’t know anyone outside England. John 3:16 funnily enough i find myself agreeing with someone for a change. I like Mata but i can’t see him coming as well as Gervinho and Benzema would be a signing of the same standard, both are top quality. Funny how you’ve got Mata as a player that Cesc might like to see at the club and Benzema as another Algerian Frenchman that Nasri might like. So, given the choice would you go for Nasri and Benzema or Cesc and Mata ?
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Scott you’re such a joker. I hope
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Still no talks of new goal keeper???
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what a f… we need a top class LB!!! TV5 isn’t fast and don’t make good crosses…he’s a CB if you remember!!!!!
We need a LB NOW!! So please sign BAINES!!!!!
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metersaker is 6ft 6 wich is good but he is way way to slow to play in the premier league we need samba and cahil and vermaleen left back they are all proven in the prem that defence cant go wrong plus with nasri and fabergas now set to stay we could be much much stronger title contenders also with gervinho and van persie upfront.
……………..schezny……………..
sagna….samba……….cahil..vermaleen
walcott….fabergas..whilshere…nasri
……….Gervinho..Van Persie……….
or swap gervinho and walcott
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and vermaleen isnt a cb for ajax and belguim he plays lb and we dont need him to cross we got sagna for that also vermaleen has got a amazing shot he can play direct
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I wonder why Wenger do not attempt to sign Cissokho from Lyon or Baines from Everton. But I read some where seems that both club do not want to sell their left back and at the same time we are not a club that use every player until the cleaning lady to ask other player to join us.
This could be dangerous to us as all our opponent will launch their attack from the right. Not sure about you all but I am not even close to convince that Gibbs and Traore are ready for the job.
Vermaleen to play as left back? First of all, is he willing to do so sincerely? If yes, then we need two good center back. We saw what happened last season when we used Koscielny, Djourou and Squilacci. We need at least 2/3 from metersacker, Garry Cahill and Samba.
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THIS IS GOOD NWES FOR GUNS, BUT WE STILL NEED STRONG DEFENDING MIDFIELDER. I THINK WENGER KNOWS WHAT I MEAN. WE WANT TO WIN TROPHIES, DONT MAKE FUNS LOSE HOPE, WE ALWAYS HOPE AGAINST HOPE! WHY? WENGER MUST CHANGE AND COMPETE FOR SOMETHING TOUCHABLE, I JOIN RVP’s COMMENTS
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@Scott
That line-up would get us relegated.
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I can understand people wanting vermaelen to remain at CB but to those who say that ‘he is not a LB’ or ‘putting hin at LB is playing him out of position’, how wrong could you be? you people do realise that we are the only team that has ever played him primarily as a CB. He played LB for ajax and plays at LB for the belgian national team which he is captain of. Get your facts right people. Personally I think that it would be interesting to see how vermaelen does at LB providing we find a solid CB to take his old position. It would be nice to see a SOLID LB at arsenal for a change
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why tv5 this was wat happend to ashavin dat made him lost is tourches u have de money why put us through hard time sign a lb like baines not gibbs alone he his always having injuries
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traore is the worst left back i’ve seen at arsenal when he had that run of games @ arsenal he got done EVERY time!
gibbs is good but injury prone and who knows vermaelen might be to
F**k cahill we need samba someone that CAN defend a set-piece
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scott your an idiot stop putting your stupid line-up on here every player you mention plays for a team from the bottom half of the table!!
spaz
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guess wenger takes the transfer fee home may be to invest in real estates… so stingy. he has refused to sign quality and can even sit comfortably to watch an arsenal game like the likes of mourinho, pep, sir alex and so on.
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Hi,gunners waldwide.Le’prof i knw cant buy 2 CB dis season.pls hav mercy on us and buy quality.we hav suferd enof.
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oh good god, mertesacker has been living in this forum for ages. stop it and give us a clue
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the key to a good defence is to have several defenders that can play rite across the back four, then if injuries do strike(and they will) you have allot more options.
The fact that tv5 can play left back is a bonus. i think we need to be more open minded about defence as a whole. big players for physical games quick sharp players when up against quality. we need more defenders like tv5 that can move across the back four to suit the situation.
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your team will finish 7th or 8th @ Thierry
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why they called it take over
i see the same $hit,we gonna lose on cahill now that chelsea want him,why the f*ck didn’t he sign him there n then..yes fans have to be loyal n support the team through thick n thin but its frustrating to see the same muafuckaz making the same mistakes year after year,we need to spend heavy on our backline,we know we can score against any team on the planet,defence defence,defence lol
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This is the best team
Sczesny
Sagna-Djourou-Mertesacker-Vermaelen
Fabregas-Song-Wilshere
Gervinho/Walcott-RVP-Nasri/Miyaichi
BANG
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Gibbs no 1 Traore no 2 and Vermaalen as back up is what Wenger means..it does not mean he will definitely sign a centre back
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hello my lovely gunners,i heard some people talking shit abt the second best CD IN EPL after vidic that is vmel;the man kosceiny is still as good as cahil then if u ask me what we need now is a CD who is playing in EPL olready cahill or samba and this will be the best squad we can use to gety back to our glory / …………..schezny……………..
sagna samba verm Enrique s gervinho song fabri nasri s benzema RVM
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@ Aaron FYI Most of them is what we have been linked too and both Samba and Cahill play for bottom half clubs u mug.
Personally I would go for
GK Neuer, CB Kompany, DM L.Diarra ST ETO but it is never going to happen.
Fuk cahill and samba – both are shit
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HELLO MR wenger plz,get thes players out our team Almunia £1, Squillaci £1m, Traore £2m, Denilson £4m, Diaby £8 Rosicky £3, Bendtner £9m, plz plz nna and just get samba benzema and Enrique 12m+27m+5m=total exp =44 it will not mean sin to arsenal
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Lest we forget this team is brittle and injury prone and the footballer earmarked for Clichy’s LB position has suffered his share of late. Personally, I’m tired of the excuses from Wenger, don’t be surprised after months of double speak from him, he’ll have signed only one footballer of note during this summer transfer window.
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Hi everyone of us, gunners ‘ll continue to rule in my world. Wenger should not kill my dreams for me, he should with immidiate effect make use of all the cash given onto him to spend. Mr stan kreonke ‘if i am not mistaken’ the club owner gave Wenger £80m to equip or strainghten the squard this coming season. He ‘ll only go free if he use that money wisely in solit player that can withstand preasure & equally give us good result by winning trophies every seasons just like Manchester united
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Dis is pure torture frm wenger n d board..Gibbs is far frm it cos he’s injury prone + inexperinced n traore shldnt b mentioned @ all..we need a Gud LB with pace n can make crosses…2 tall,solid CB’s,one more prolific,injury free striker,gud defensive midfielder n an end to nasri n fabregas’s speculation..Really tired of wenger n his tricks..we need quality signings b4 d end of d window..
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blah blah blah blah. cahill, mertesacker. blah blah twat blah. gervinho. blah blah twat blah twat. blah blah arsenal!!!
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is it not funny, wenger promises new signings, to date mothing spectacular has emerged, again showing that arsenal are not wanting to win trophies, secondly so many players have spoke out about having new signings why? because they know that the team we have is not good enough, thirdly, when we go bak to the words of the arsenal board that their was money in the kitty for transfers, lets look sold clichy, and bought an unproven striker from france, so all he has spent is 3 million, and yet their is further players leaving so another season again shows the lack of committment in the arsenal board and again wenger in his stupid belief in philosophy, which has proven has no basis, all we get from arsenal football club is empty words with many broken promises, and if nasri and fabregas go, no top player will want to come to arsenal why? because they lack the winning mentality, hence it comes through the team, everybody know key to sucess is to invest when you invest that is when you start making the bucks unfourtunately we have an american in charge, if he was interested in success for the club then he should stick his money where his mouth is and prove it or stop giving the arsenal supporters empty words or promises of signings,
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This page is full of idiots, learn to read. Wenger is saying Gibbs and Traore will compete for the vacant LB position and Vermaelen CAN play there if they both get injured. RB is fine with Sagna starting and Jenkinson/Eboue in reserve, ergo he will sign one solid tall CB to solve our set-piece problems and partner Vermaelen, with two of Djourou/Koscielny/Squillaci in reserve, one will be sold, but in all honesty I haven’t got a clue which one, personally I’d prefer Squillaci to leave.
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you must read what AW said, Gibbs and Traore are set for LB, so there will be no new CB signed, Vermaelen is third choice for LB, so he is set to be CB together with Djourou and Koscielny, there will be no big signing, AW will never change his style, we still wait for an experienced DM, he will not come, because as we have seen in the last 3 years, we play without a real defence but with a bunch of attacking midfielders
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The fact that he has mentioned Vermaelen has a possible left back, means that he has the intention of buying a CB…
It is needed and the next obvious purchase… We have conceded 42 goals which is totally unacceptable for a club that want to challenge for the big prizes…
I have the feeling that Gervinho will be our only recruit…
I just don’t know how he intends to keep Nasri and Fabregas…!!! No ambition is showed, none!!!
Fabregas has still 3/4 years left and Nasri one year… So he will ask them to honour their contract… if it is the case, we cannot expect much from those 2.
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pls mr wenger, sign cahil he is a premiarship player who noes evrythings about english football he need no time to adapt pls and the pertnership of TV5 and cahill would be great gunners for life
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wenger has to use vermalen as a CB that am sure,he just need to buy Samba to make a formidable defence,with sagna at RB and Gibbs at LB that incredible,however guys remember Gibbs is never reliable coz of injuries,so wenger need to buy a natural LB and stop a habbit of shifting vermalean to LB coz thats gambling.we have so many games to play EPL,Carling cup,FA,Champions league,adding a few new players is strengthening a team thus avoiding fatigue and tiredness amongst players. “gunners for good or worse &forever
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Do u thnk we av prb @ d CD compare 2 DM. Guys we need a DM like Parker dt wl asist song n Cahil or Samba then we can go ahead 2win titles
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please buy defender !!!…..not buy after sell
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STOP SLATING GIBBS AND TRAORE. THEY ARE INNOCENT KIDS WHO ARE TALENTED PLAYING MIDFIELD BUT YOU PROFFESOR WANTS EXPERIMENTING AND HE IS PLAYING THEM LEFT BACK WHERE HE DOES NOT EVEN SPEND TIME TEACHING THEM HOE TO DEFEND. GIBBS IS NOT A DEFENDER SO HE WILL ALWAYS BE EXPOSED.
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if Wenger said he don’t need left back again he said he have Vermaelen Gibbs and Armand Traore, who will replace Vermaelen at centre back. this man Wenger has started his magic again he will end up not buying centre back in EPL now you just can manage team invest and of cause wisely.
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sagna,miguel,troare,varmaelen,Gibbs,koscilie will do everything but not squiallac
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@goonermani wenger will never buy 2 CB in 1 transfer window?
he did last season mate, check your facts
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