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Hleb Is No Loss To Arsenal
Can I please ask someone to help me understand why there is so much fuss about Hleb leaving? When we signed him 2 years ago I had his name put on the back of my shirt, I have subsequently worn that shirt a handful of times because to be honest the guy has been pretty gash. In his first year, he ran around a lot, gave the ball away and got injured, in his second year he ran around a lot added some fancy footwork to his game, gave the ball away a lot and got injured. This season he's kept himself relatively injury free compared to previous years, scored a couple of goals added a couple of assists, ran around a lot and given the ball away.
Yes he has great footwork and can go past people with some great movement but I have issues with him, maybe wrongly so because he's just not Robert Pires. Hleb gives the ball away too much, refuses to shoot and the number of times in a game he takes the ball down a blind alley with two or more defenders waiting for him is unbelievable, these were not attributes that the amazing bob pires possessed. You could generally predict what would happen if he got the ball in the middle or down the left, either he'd knock it in himself 20+ times a year or set someone else up, Hleb just doesn't do this and if he wants to give us 3million so that he can leave I say we should take it and look at getting someone in who can cross and shoot and doesn't give the ball away!
Darran Hoare
Goodbye And Good Riddance
Hleb is going? Good. Bye bye you non-shooting, ball losing, over rated show pony.
We won't miss him. Replace him with a more direct, goal scoring winger ( Ribery, Young, Ben Arfa etc.. ) and Le Arse will be a better side next season.
Tom ( Not so sure we'd want to lose Ade' though ) Cheshire Gooner
...So Alex Hleb wants to leave, good riddance. I know many gooners will lament another of our first choice midfielders jumping ship and again its another one of our much improved players. But let's remember for these players to be so greatly improved it should highlight how rubbish they were to begin with. For a supposed attacking midfielder Hleb has contributed only 7 goals in 89 games and played well in about 20 of those games. Anyone who follows Arsenal, Football or indeed reads this site will know that he was absolute dung for the first 2 seasons at Arsenal only impressing in the sunshine at the start of this season. Good luck to him in his quest for money and ice cream abroad. Hopefully Wenger makes a bid for Joelen Lescott, not just to tighten the defence but to (more than) replace the goal scoring prowess of Hleb the half season wonder.
Brian "Still trusting Arsene Wenger, Still hating Ashley Cole" McCart, Belfast
...So Hleb doesn't want to play for Arsenal anymore? Let him go then. Any player who goes out for "ice cream" with another club and then lies, moans and gets his agent to spread a load of rumours in the press doesn't deserve to play for Arsenal. As good as he has been this year it's just another case of the "Flamini one season wonder", suddenly he now thinks he's bigger than the club when in fact he's not and will be found out at Inter/Barcelona. I hate to use them but looking at his stats for the past 3 seasons hardly blow you away. Sure he's a key member of our link up play but if Wenger replaces him with someone who can weigh in with 10+ goals a season then he'll be forgotten.
The season's not even over yet and it seems like we're in for another summer of Arsenal in crisis. Just to make some things clear; Adebayor's "demands" are based on nothing quotes and come a day after he pledged his future to the club, Fabregas won't go to Real Madrid, heck he won't go anywhere whilst Wenger stays at the club. We have got the money and the scouting network to replace Hleb and Flamini and those saying we need to spend huge amounts of cash do we really? Another two or three signings in the Sagna/Eduardo "bracket" would do nicely.
And finally, all those "expert pundits", rival fans etc queuing up to chuckle and predict Arsenal's downfall, remember last Summer where most people predicting we'd struggle for the top 4 and Spurs would over take us? Didn't happen and it won't happen next season. Losing Flamini and Hleb doesn't even compare to losing Henry, as long as Wenger stays and we keep Toure, Sagna, Clichy, Fabregas and Adebayor we'll be there or there abouts next season.
Good luck to Flamini, fair play for cashing in. Hleb can f**k off.
Greg (I appear to use " a lot) T
It Could Be Worse
I know this has been a tough week Arsenal fans but at least there is some good news we can rejoice in. Eboue hasn't said he wants to leave.
Oh.
Donal Moriarty
The Curse Of Arsene
As media reports suggest Alex Hleb will be following Mathieu Flamini through the Arsenal exit door, both of them might like to beware the curse of Arsene. Most of the players who leave Mr Wenger's team don't exactly flourish do they? Theirry Henry has hardly had the season of his life and now the manager who brought him to Barca has lost his job. One year after Patrick Vieira joined Juventus, the match-fixing scandal broke and he had to move again to Inter, where his career has not exactly gone from strength to strength. Robert Pires and Pascal Cygan did pretty well in their first year at Villarreal but this season has been less successful. Whatever happened to Edu? Overmars, Petit and Anelka all watched their fame and fortune go on the slide after walking out of our marble halls for the last time.
So Alex, enjoy yourself at Inter. I'm sure the Italian fans will have a lot of patience with your refusal to shoot when faced with an open goal and consider three goals a season a worthwhile return on however many thousands of Euros a week they pay you. But keep an eye over your shoulder because the curse of Arsene will not be far behind you.
Carolyn, (hacked off with players who think they are bigger than our club), South London Gooner
No, Curse Arsene
It's completely Wenger's fault for insisting on only buying cut-price Johnny Foreigner ... and yet again they've showed their loyalty ... why are Man Yoo and Chelsea dominating at the moment? ... because of a spine of British players who don't look to use the club or the league as a spring board.
And Hleb was 8 million plus and sh**e for 2 years...a few million more and we could have bought someone truly world-class or British born, and who wouldn't be looking to do the off at first opportunity .
Wenger dismantled The Unvincibles to put in place this foreign youth policy and little summer spending, and how he should hang his head. 4 seasons off the pace. 3 seasons without a sniff of honours. And next season looking to be just as frustrating, passionless, over-rated and weak as the previous years.
But while the shareholders keep earning record profits, are they going to get rid of him?
Only when the stadium is half-full perhaps?
Lee Bullen
Could Spurs Really Sign Eto'o As Berbatov's Replacement?
My fellow Spurs fans who have been claiming that losing Berbatov is not an issue because he is lazy, not interested etc.. are, admirably, very much trying to look on the bright side. His omission from the kit launch and Ramos' words yesterday are damning indictments that he is on his way. I for one think this is devastating news, not just because he is the only world class player we have and more importantly one of the only players we have who would get into the top 4 teams but because he is the absolute focus of all that is good about our attacking play.
If the ever growing number of rumours of Eto'o interesting Spurs are true this will mean that a complete change of style will be required as Eto'o is such a different player. As an avid viewer of Spanish football too I can confirm to those Spurs fans who may be judging him on the explosive performances from Barca's CL winning season that he is far from that player following his return from a very long term injury. His explosive style of both pace and shot were his trademark and he certainly was one of the best strikers in the world at that time. Unfortunately, like a lot of strikers who rely on pace, injuries have hampered him of late and like Michael Owen there is a real concern in Spain that he may never truly re-capture the form and pace that made him so feared.
This does all throw up a lot of questions:
Would Etoo go to Spurs?
If so, is this indicative that the bigger European clubs don't want him?
What will his attitude be like, playing for a non-CL side?
Which other players would Juande fit around Etoo and which formation would he play?
Will Berba (please!!!) go abroad or (oh god, no!) go to one of the big 4?
I personally trust Juande's judgement and believe he will build a side for next year that will be much better than this. Looking at the side he built at Sevilla, which were a truly superb footballing unit, he did this by attaining players like Fredi, Fabiano, Poulsen, Keita and others who were certainly not big stars but gelled together to still have a chance of the championship on the final day last season against the might of Barca and Real.
This was also after selling big stars to them such as Baptista, Sergio Ramos, Reyes etc.. over the years. I'd settle for that.
Stephen Marshall, THFC
How Much?!
Peter Crouch for £15m?! Is this some new scheme, like buying flooring, of paying by the metre?
What a joke. No wonder managers turn abroad for new players.
Tom (probably worth £11m if that's the case) Drew
...Why don't Pompey buy a telegraph pole for £10, stick a blue shirt on it and nail it to a skate board. That would save them £14,999,990.
Alan Rutherford
Someone Expects F365 To Do A Lot Of Work
Now, I know this might take some time and considerable effort (things most of us, and journalists especially, have in short supply) but how about an article on which papers/journos were first to pick up the large transfer rumours which did turn out to be true? I read the transfer gossip every day but it's only F365's irreverent pinch of salt that accompanies this summarisation that keeps me coming back. It would be interesting to see which ones (amongst the 99.9% of rumours created by players agents and various other 'hangers on') did actually come to be true and who broke the story. Maybe we would then have an idea on which sources were more likely to be credible. By the same logic it would also be interesting to do a run down of the rumours which turned out to be most spectacularly false. Just a thought...
Graham, Aberdeen
Staying United
In response to Matt Newsome's gripes about Manchester United being referred to as just 'United', I'm in allmost complete agreement. Speaking as a Man City fan, it's fairly obvious that Manchester United is not an accurate name as the city is anything but united in footballing terms. Even more galling is when I hear a lot of foreign commentary teams refer to them simple as 'Manchester'. Fair enough, they're a bigger splash than we are at the moment and certainly abroad, their profile is notably higher but it still needles me.
However, irrespective of whether Sheffield United started using the 'United' suffix first or not, the same rule applies to your own city. Sheffield Wednesday would probably suggest that again, Sheffield United is not representative of their chunk of the city.
The likes of Leeds and particularly Newcastle have a far stronger case for their use of the 'United' suffix.
Billers (guilty of regularly referring to my team as 'City')
What Nice Fellas
Thank you for printing those letters from John Cosgrove and Mark Stevens yesterday.
As a neutral I has no real preference about which team won the the CL final or Premiership, just wanted some good games.
The arrogance of their contributions has me now hoping for a nice 1-1 at the JJB. Heskey with a 90th minute equaliser? I also think I would be quite happy with a 1-0 Chelsea win in Moscow. Possibly with a missed pen from Ronaldo.
Paul (teams always raise their game when they come to the County Ground :)) White
ManYoo Won't Feel The Pressure
So, now we have Carvalho trying to crank up the pressure on Man United for Sunday. Do I sense a bit of desperation on Chelsea's part?
At the end of the day (or even sooner) this is the last game of the season and one in which, if United don't win, the title could be thrown away. I seem to remember a similar situation in '99, when United beat Spurs after going behind to the luckiest of lucky Les Ferdinand strikes (although fair credit for getting to the ball first and lifting it over Schmeichel) and still coming out on top. True we have different players this time round and they will have to rise to the occasion but Spurs were better opponents at that time than Wigan are now.
I don't think that any bleating on Chelsea's part will change the mindset of United's players. Still, I suppose someone (or several people) had to pick up the baton after Mourinho left, it would take a few of them to reach the same level of whininess.
Paul Milton - Man Utd
What A Weekend Ahead...
This weekend could go one of two ways for me. Fulham beat Pompey and Reading are relegated, Pompey don't win the handicap league and I miss out on 160 big ones as I watch my team go down, Man Utd win the league and for the second season running I'm surrounded by hundreds of plastic fans singing crap songs all night at Butlins.
On the other hand Pompey win, I win 160 big ones on the handicap, Reading stay up, Chelsea win the league and it's the best weekend since we won the Championship!
Even if we do go down it's been a great couple of years and I'm confident we would bounce straight back given the fact nearly all of this years transfer budget can be added to next years and everyone except Shorey has a long term contract. However my optimistic money is on Defoe and Lita both netting on the day and Fulham going down. Bullard is on the back of my shirt next year!
Martyn, Loyal Royal whatever happens
Travel Advice For Moscow
Having been to Moscow and conquered the intricacies of Russian Visas may I offer some advice for the fans travelling?
1) Be polite and mind your manners. Communism may have ended but the bureaucracy still exists. Don't fight it.
2) Get your visa sorted. So they say your ticket will be your visa? Uh-huh. Anybody else thinks Ivan the immigration officer isn't going to take away the ticket of some obnoxious pissed up fan (see 1!) for 'examination' and then 'lose' it and deny fan entry? Ivan will be seen touting that ticket outside the ground.
3) Bring a chin strap of some kind. In all my travels I have never been in a metropolis that has such a high % of jaw dropping beautiful women. Rush hour on the metro is a Godsend.
4) Russian police have been known for tapping up tourists. NEVER hand over your passport to these guys. Carry a photocopy of your passport with a copy of your visa on you. Leave your passport in the hotel safe. If you do hand over your passport you will not get it back unless you pay a hefty 'fine' following a trip to the station.
5) Enjoy it if you can, it's a lovely city get some culture too. Kremlin, metro, ballet, muscova cruise etc..
Brian Clancy, Spurs, Vancouver
...According to 'Rough Guide', "Moscow is the barometer and nucleus of the changes sweeping through Russia. Nowhere are Russia's contrasts more apparent than here - ancient monasteries and ultra-modern monoliths stand side by side, and 'New Russian' millionaires and poverty-stricken pensioners walk the same streets."
As a frequent business traveller to Moscow I confirm the above comments to be entirely true. On my first trip in 2004 I remember being shown to my room at the Kempinski and being presented with a breathtaking panoramic view of the Kremlin from my window. On the same evening I took a lift down to the bar and as the doors opened, an Octogenarian businessman was helped inside by his 18 year old date...I can't believe for one minute that it was their room on the 8th floor where I heard the unmistakable sounds of a frenzied female orgasm in the early hours.
The next day, while walking through Red Square I gave a few coins to beggars and was surprised when they started shouting after me as I made my way to Lenin's resting place. Amazingly, I had dropped my wallet and they were simply calling after me to let me know. A little later, when placing one foot over a low chain link fence to get the best possible photograph of a monastery, I was mortified to see two policemen walking toward me. Their dress and demeanour was the same as I had witnessed on endless propaganda news reports during the Cold War period...but there was a subtle difference - these were not the strapping soldiers I had grown up with, they gave the impression of being civilians in fancy dress.
"Passport", was there first demand -always carry it - which I fortunately retrieved from my inside pocket. "You in big trouble", one of them said in broken English, but it came across as a well rehearsed phrase in the same way that Brits might learn to say, "two pints of lager please." Then his accomplice started playing the good guy and explained to me in word perfect English that I could either spend a few nights in prison or part with the equivalent of £20. I was later to learn that this equated to a month's wages for these guys.
(Hang on, didn't the fella above say not to take your passport out with you? Sounds like if you value £20 that might be the best course of action. In the Mailbox Compiler's experience, carrying a photocopy of your passport isn't a bad idea)
Right now, these same security police will be rubbing their hands at the prospect of 60,000 English football fans traveling to Moscow for the European Cup Final. Beware...always carry your passport and some cash; don't impersonate Russian discipline within earshot of security staff, and don't, whatever you do get drunk in one of the gentlemen's clubs which litter the Russian capital.
If you behave, Moscow is a brilliant experience.
Stuart (I remember when Ken Leek scored for Leicester at White Hart lane) Weston
The Mailbox's Quote Of The Day
Dear Mailbox Compiler/Junior Mailbox Compiler/Ed,
Bored of the usual drivel spouted by footballers in 'Quotes of the week', may I be the first to suggest a 'F365 quote of the week', voted for by your beloved readership. My favourite quote this week was so good it actually made me come up with this (silly) idea, and comes from the ever excellent Tim Stannard's Spanish Thing column:
"It had been a truly wretched week in the life of Rijkaard even before Wednesday's Bernabeu embarrassment, with setbacks coming like Cristiano Ronaldo - thick and fast."
Sheer genius. Possibly unintended. That is all.
Andy (The filth daddy) Suggitt
The Slacking Section Of The Mailbox
Is there a way that you could post the mailbox in a text-only format? I'm getting tired of cutting and pasting it to myself in an e-mail or word document so I can slack at work and read the letters while pretending to look busy.
(You should print this so that slackers everywhere can read your great site at work, if they haven't found their own method.)
Mike (Slacker) Garcia, Toronto
...Anyone else think that Dave from Ireland knew all along he didn't need a visa for the Champs League Final and, assuming his boss reads F365, has just carried out one of the most elaborate attempts at justifying a morning lie-in?
Truly admirable.
M (How many packs of chewing gum does Sir get through a season?) Latif
