Thomas Vermaelen believes that Arsenal have a bright future ahead if Arsene Wenger can keep the current squad together.
Accepting that continuity in football is tough to come by in this era of money-grabbing agents, huge pay packets and billionaire owners the Belgian stressed his hope that he and his teammates can continue to progress.
Speaking to Arsenal Player as he nurses a calf strain which will keep him sidelined for two weeks, the centre-back remarked:
“If you can stick together for a long time as a group, then you can grow and get better and better, which you have seen over the past few weeks and months. If you can do that for the next few years, that would only be good.
“Nowadays in football it is not easy to keep a group together and be with the same players for the next few years, but I hope we can manage that.”
The Verminator has certainly set a fine example to the likes of Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie by signing a new long-term deal at the club. Let’s hope his icy stare penetrates the hearts and minds of any other players dilly-dallying over their future.
Looks like it worked on Le Coq…
Love that guy VERMY for the head of the EU !!!
Love this article!!!!
Meh, transfer window is here and so of course my pessimism returns. I just can’t see Wenger strengthening this squad and the knock on effect from that is not worth thinking about. I hope I’m wrong.
I suppose you”re one of the few that were sceptical that Arsene would sign in the summer and look what happened there. Granted most of the business was done in the latter stages of the window but you never know, you may be surprised again..
I was yes and if United hadn’t slaughtered us I firmly believe said purchases wouldn’t have been made. I’m not one of those who lays all the blame at Arsene’s feet though as we can’t be sure whether its him or the board holding back.
I sincerely hope I’m wrong but honestly I can only see us making one, maybe two loan signings.
As for TV, a legend and his absence for the next few games will be noticed.
If every one of our players had the attitude of TV then we would be up there with City. I’m looking at you Theo.
Well said
Vermaelen is an absolute legend and an example to the rest of the squad.
“Nowadays in football it is not easy to keep a group together and be with the same players for the next few years, but I hope we can manage that.” If you want to keep a group of players together, and be successful with them, then you have to give them the two things that they most want: money and winner’s medals. By refusing to sign the quality players that we absolutely need to enable to us to win major trophies, and by penny-pinching on salaries, Wenger and the Board have made sure that we have no chance of major… Read more »
Money-pinching salaries?
Seriously cunt?
Did you know just in the 2009 / 2010 season alone, Arsenal’s wages was 110mil, while Man City and Man Utd had 130mil?
Real penny-pinching eh dumbass?
Unlike you, Anon, I won’t resort to personal abuse to get my point over. I’ll just ask a simple question: why didn’t we sign Juan Mata this summer? You know the answer. He went to Chelsea because they were willing to pay him the kind of wage that a top player expects. Arsenal won’t. That’s what I mean by penny-pinching. And that’s also why we’ve lost so many quality players in recent years. We won’t pay big money to big stars. We lost Ashley Cole for the sake of just an extra five grand a week. Yes, I know we… Read more »
FG your protests at personal abuse would be a little more credible if it weren’t for the abuse you heap on Wenger. Just a thought. Also Mata has scored the same number of goals as Gervinho (and played one more game). He has two more assists but has got himself into a shooting position 4 fewer times than the large foreheaded one. In other words there’s not a lot of difference between them in terms of what they’re adding. Is Mata worth all that extra money? In your book, clearly. But why, when his figures suggest his value is around… Read more »
That’s cos the likes of denilson and diaby, ‘youngsters’ and not performing are being paid higher than the youngsters in man utd. if u look at wages by the top 5 stars in the team, arsenal r way behind utd etc
I was going to pull out Mata and Gerv stats but I was tad slow. To put them in numbers:
Mata, Appearances: 23, Goal: 5, Assists: 9
Gervinho Appearances: 24, Goal: 4, Assists: 7
As you can see the stats are very similar if the rumours were correct and we offered Mata less wages and got Gervinho for cheaper (and less transfer fee), then Wenger must be feeling pretty smug right now.
Anon, please don’t call people mean, hurtful names. Not only is it impolite, but it’s also against the rules. I suggest for your blatant breaking of the rules, you start a self inflicted 1 week ban from commenting. Thanks.
No way can you call our salaries penny-pinching.
In fact, I think some of our recent problems have come from paying players way above what they’re actually worth.
Well to a degree but I think our large salary bill is largely due to having a fucking mahoosive squad more than paying inflated rates to top players which is i think what is being conflated here but it’s not so long ago that wenger was being castigated by all and sundry for giving our third choice keeper (prem appearances: 0) an extended contract and massive payrise to £30K a week. Anyone know what happened to him? i think the board love wenger for his ability to produce talent the club sells on profitably year in year out (I’m talking… Read more »
Indeed ! It is incredible and a disgrace that our wage bill is within 10% of Man Utd.s. Are our results and trophy haul ?
I think we all know the answer. Wenger and Gazedis should pay according to performance not according how they hope people might perform at some point in the future.
If Utd do it there’s no reason we can’t.
Oh yes and Spurs age bill is £40 million p/a less than ours. Just think about that !
Always so full of optimism aren’t we Fatty… Maybe if we signed CAHILL you’d be happier…
Fatgooner is rite. We pay shitty players to much, and thus can’t pay studs like rvp what they want/deserve.
Meridithadam, you sir, are banned from arseblog news for three days for being the first cunt to say “Cahill”. The ban starts now, as per frog.
I do agree in part with what Fatgooner says, but he’s so depressing sometimes. You only have to think of Theo stalling over new contracts and report of 85k/wk,
And I was joking about Cahill…
With some jokes, nobody wins. The ban stands. Good day sir.
is there a ban for banning jokes, too? oh wait, you guys are being serious…ha. that again IS funny…and a tiny bit ridiculous..
Bang on fg.
I love TV…
don’t love his injury problems though….
If only they would all just be fit then they can stick together, fight for their places and improve.
It would be great to keep a lot of the best of the current crop together but we can’t then we need to at least replace them. Something which Wenger did so well early on. Replacing Anelka with Henry and Overmars with Pires for example.
I wouldn’t be worried too much if Theo left and we managed to replace him with someone with a better goal scoring record. RVP would be a huge blow though. He does sound very committed to the club and himself and his family are very happy in London so fingers crossed.
I think AW hopes he has already bought Walcott’s replacement: Oxlade-Chamberlain.
My opinion is that Wenger always intended for the “fantastic four” (Viera, Ljunberg, Pires, Bergkamp) to be replaced with Fabregas, Hleb, Flamini and Rosicky. Unfortunately, injuries/contract woes etc screwed that plan over and we know the rest from there.
I hope to see AOC given a free role eventually – whether it’s centrally or drifting inside from the wing. For me, he has the technique that Walcott doesn’t have to become occupy a playmaker type role.
Champions League Appearances:
Eboue:52
Tottenham:12
Just saying..
Another statistic….
Eboue – Legend
Sp*$s – Scum
If we want to be a top club here is who should be in our first team, who should be a squad playerand who should be out from the current team; Starting 11 Shazza, Sagna, Kos, TV, Santos, Song, RVP first teamers, with Jack coming back, we need three top class players for the first teame. Other squad player should be Fab, Mannone, Per, JD Gibbs, Jenks, Miguel, Bartly…. Le Coq, Arteta, Ramsey, Diaby, Pong, Lansbury…. Theo, Gervinho, Ox, Ryo… Afobe, Vela and two back up strikers. As for players out, Almunia, Squiliaci, Arshavin, Rosicky, Park and Chamakh, would be… Read more »
Arsenal tried to sell Squilacci over the summer but no clubs were interested LOL
I still don’t get why do people chose Jack over Rambo? Rambo is one of the best play makers in prem behind only Gerard, Silva, Mata(still give him 2 years and he’ll be better than Mata). But all 3 are handicapped when defending where Rambo is not. And if you check the stats he’s done more than Jack in 20 matches.
So Gervinho is a better player than Juan Mata? Don’t make me laugh. The nonsense posted above just demonstrates that the old saying is true: you can prove anything with statistics.
Chelsea are having a rubbish season. Even from here it’s obvious that some of the Old Guard need to be replaced. Mata is a good player playing in a bad team. If he was playing in the same position either Walcott or “can’t-hit-a-barn-door-with-a-banjo” Gervinho then the Spaniard would have probably scored a dozen goals by now. And made twice as many assists.
Have to say I agree with Fatgooner(hell is freezing over as I write that) on this one. Statistics can be very misleading when it comes to the quality of a footballer, for instance, Frank Lampard has about 100 more goals and 100 more career assists than Xavi(in about the same number of appearances), but is there really any doubt in anybody’s mind who the better footballer is? In relation to Mata and Gervinho, who I love by the way, it is plain to see that Mata’s finishing, decision making around the box, and final ball are of higher quality than… Read more »
we should have signed Mata as a replacement for Fabregas after the Gervinho signing. I have no complaints about Arteta signing!
Mata and Gervinho wouldn’t even fight for the same place. Wenger was recruiting Mata to play in the Cesc role. While it’s easy to see that Mata has a cooler head in the box and is a better finisher Gervinho still scares the piss out of a defense and definitely creates more chances.
Fatgooner, you’re complaining that Arsenal aren’t as good a team as they could be because they don’t sign players like Mata Then, in dissing statistics that suggest otherwise, you make the assertion that if Mata played in a better team (like, er, Arsenal, the team with Walcott and Gervinho) then Mata would have scored a dozen goals, not the 4 he’s scored for a shit team like Chelsea. An assertion that is both evidence-free and contradicts your earlier idea that Arsenal aren’t good enough and need a player like Mata. If you think Mata is a better player than Gervinho… Read more »
I think that you have managed to confuse yourself there, Sammy!
Mata is a better player than Gervinho (whom I like, by the way). He’s better in just about every department.
Fact.
The Verminator is one of the worlds best. Player Loyalty does exsist in football unlike that na$ri cunt
I’ve said on here before we pay great wages to all our players that why we find it hard to offload the average ones. We don’t pay top money for players like rvp. That’s where the problems lies. You can debate all day if anyone is worth 150lk a week but is bentner worth 50 is almunia worth 30+ etc etc no one else seems to think so wich is we are stuck with so much dross.
I’m right with you Tommy.
This guy is a fucking legend, his spirit and loyalty know no bounds.
Long live the Verminater!
Theo Walcott…..a footballer (?) who has actually got worse with experience if Wenger hands him a new contract,he should be sacked with immediate effect. He cannot cross,shoot or tackle and if he were to lose a yard of pace would not get a game for Orient.
TV a loyal legend
TV5 is so bloody important to this team. His steel and resilience were badly missed in that 2nd half of the Fulham game. That 2nd half of that game was agonizingly too reminiscent of the fold over and die or shoot yourself in the foot side of last season. Having no natural fullbacks offsets the improving Kos and addition of Per so without TV5, our back line is no better than last year. I mean Squillaci had to come in FFS! Easy target I know, but I’m getting that uneasy Sylvester type feeling about this guy. Anyway, speedy recovery for… Read more »
I just love everything ARSENAL FC, especially we the FANS.
Thank you all for being Gunners!!!
Your welcome.
i can only imagine arsenal with fabregas playing alongside arteta or xabi alonso.seriously fuck denilson and diaby however talented the may be they ain’t good enough for us.sometimes the manager has to listen to fans once in a while.because there a millions of fans who watch the team play and create an opinion about the style and the type of players we need. if i recollect we all were shouting for mertesacker one or two seasons ago when he would have made a difference in title race.now we are here trying to replace people.fans do have intiution sometimes.now you might… Read more »
Hope its not too late to comment. I believe part of the reason Wenger got younger players from abroad like Denilson,Diaby,etc because
a. English players were technically not good back then and were overpaid despite that
b. Foreign younger players always need that extra incentive to move from their home country possibly with some or their entire family members.