THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi II

[maro]

Left back.

[maro]

Oh, sorry, I see my post was ambiguous: had we bought Juan, but not sold Chivu and so had them both to turn to - and so had been able to play Chivu at left back when Tonetto as injured.

And, personally, I think Clichy's worth quite a lot more than Riise. Riise's an honest soldier; Clichy's a gifted fullback. Di Livio's reservations are important and cogent, though.

[arthurfonzarelli]

[maro]

I think Arsewipe are a selling club and I think Wenger backs himself to bring through good left-backs. So the latter,then. 5 mil reflects his contract situation as well, I believe - I think a little like Nasri he's only got one year left on his contract and it's known he's unsettled at the club. 5 mil would be less than his 'absolute value' if it makes sense to conceive of such a thing.

[arthurfonzarelli]

Does Lee Dixon know his football, maro? I actually don't know if he does but this is what he had to say about Clichy:

from: http://www.thegunninghawk.com/2011/06/1 ... mportance/

"Gael Clichy is a bit of a sad tale. He’s the last remaining Invincible, he’s often been talked about in recent years as one of the best left-backs in the world. And yet, Dixon was 100% correct when he said Clichy has tailed off in recent year. How many mistakes have we seen him make the past few years? It seems like every year, Clichy looks less and less settled in the Arsenal defence."

The guy sounds like a gamble. A big one. And Wenger wants like a gadjillion dollars for him. A guy who's got one year left on his contract.

[maro]

Yes, Lee Dixon knows football - and knows fullbacks in particular, having been a very good one himself.

[maro]

His comments there are very indecisive, though, no? I've not seen enough of Clichy over the past two seasons to comment properly on his supposed decline; I suspect that people are trying to pin collective failings on individual weaknesses, though, and I'm not convinced that Clichy's strengths wouldn't shine in the right set-up.

[arthurfonzarelli]

[maro]

Of course we also continue to be linked with Santon and Montoya etc. etc. - which suggests, if nothing else, that Sabatini wants to keep other options in play because he's not prepared to pay over the odds for Clichy. I'm just saying I think he'd be an upgrade on what we have and potentially quite an exciting signing. As I've said before, fullbacks are a curious breed because they're central to the way a team works and, at the same time, very dependent on the way the team as a whole is working. If the team mechanism were working, Clichy would be the most gifted left back we've had at the club since Candela in his pomp. If things aren't working, I wouldn't expect him to show the balls of Riise in holding himself and the rest of the team together.

[arthurfonzarelli]

[maro]

I think we're just trying to sign Shaqira as a way of getting Pique across, no?

[p_maldini_3]

i watch arsenal consistently, and i can tell you straight up that clichy played better 2-3 seasons back than he did now.

[arthurfonzarelli]

[maro]

Relatively speaking, he's been absolutely worse.

[p_maldini_3]

only a sith deals in absolute.

i think he's been getting worse. then again, he's progressively played with poorer centerbacks as each season passes.

[ASR1927]

So having signed Bojan and Borriello Roma have already spent 20m Euros! With the mercato only just begining I wonder just how big our transfer budget is??

[maro]

Well, Borriello's going on somewhere else to get that 10 and maybe another 5 back, I should think, Goffredo.

[ASR1927]

[arthurfonzarelli]

[arthurfonzarelli]