Thomas Vermaelen believes that being able to call a spade a spade, has had a major impact on the dressing room atmosphere inside the Arsenal camp in the last twelve months.
Claiming that honest appraisal of performances were a bedrock of squad strength last season, the Belgian, who captained Eredivisie giants Ajax before moving to the Emirates, also made clear that off-pitch relationships have helped unite Arsene Wenger’s international roster of merry men.
“I know the Dutch like to be straight with each other and tell people what they think and that is important,” Vermaelen told Arsenal.com.
“If you can tell your team-mate what is going wrong and they accept it, that means something is going well in the team. If he can’t accept it then that is not good. To say what you think to other players is really important.
“If the chemistry is right off the pitch then I think you see that on it too. It is really important that you have a happy dressing room and that the players are always happy to come to the Club and get along with each other.
“It means you will work hard for your team-mate because you get along with each other.”
Appointed vice-captain last summer, and presumably Wenger’s first choice to take over the full duty should Van Persie leave, Vermaelen also touched upon how proud he was to shoulder such responsibility at the Emirates.
“When the boss made me vice-captain it made me proud,” he continued. “I am really happy to be vice-captain of such a big club like Arsenal.
“I feel the responsibility to help the captain in his role as well, and of course that means the Club and the boss give you a lot of confidence.”
In a spirit of openness, I’m sure the Belgian would be the first to admit that his performances in the second half have been somewhat erratic.
While Arseblog News is loathe to make excuses on his behalf, you can’t help but think his willingness to take responsibility for matters above and beyond his call of duty (like scoring goals every fucking game) played a part in him, quite literally, taking his eye off the ball in defence. Let’s hope he returns to his former solidity at the back next term…
Just to warn you, on the facebook preview of this article it says
“Thomas Vermaelen believes that being able to call Diaby a spade…”
I’m sure it’s a mistake but an unfortunate one
Was just thinking that, thought there was a racism row.
Apologies everyone. Cock-up on my part…genuinely had no idea that the term meant what I’ve since been informed it means.
Facebook Arseblog posts tend to be really weird.
Just recently, I read birds were signing (professional contracts with Arsenal?) and that it was just like any other day.
What possible reason was there for “being able to call Diaby a spade a spade”.
Diaby has hardly played and has nothing to do with the article or have I missed something?
Try telling diaby he’s made of glass………a kick up your tempo is what you gon get.
Tommy needs to improve his defensive game….someone needs to be straight with him and Song Billong.
Someone needs to be straight with song and tell him he is shit!!
I’m sure denilson will tell him when he comes back to clear his stuff.
It won’t be any Arsenal player. They know better. What it would need would be a dick.
So 19 people agree that an Arsenal player should tell Song that he is shit?
I said that ARSENAL PLAYERS will NOT go and tell SONG that he is SHIT because they know better than that. Only a dickhead would go and tell Song that he is shit.
Do all the readers of this blog really think Song is shit? I DO NOT.
someone needs to tell you your an idiot.
oh hang on , never mind i just did!
Some needs to be straight with you you know nothing about football Fool
Someone
Vermaelen used to be the rock of Arsenal’s defence, and Song used to be one of the best defensive mids in the PL.
Now Vermaelen is a more wobbly, but scoring goals, and Song has turned into a midfielder who has enough about him to be creative too, sacrificing some of his defensive duties.
Hoping next season will create more balance.
Perhaps loud thinking on my part, let’s pretend in an experimental world that Vermaelen plays the defensive midfield role? Would allow him to get more forward during a game. But then I could see him abandoning all defensive duties a la Song and we’re back to square one.
Has he ever tried playing Defensive Midfield. It might work, as we’d have Koscielny and Mertesacker behind him to hold the line on the occasions when he did forget. He could be good playing there alongside Arteta.
But how about converting him to centre forward. He can shoot, he can head, and he likes to get into the box.
Think Vermaelen is more of a chance-taker than a chance-creator, the way Song has shown these past 2 seasons (even if the season before he was more of a proper DM), Vermaelen for centre-forward please.
I never remember Vermaelen being a rock. We have shipped bucketloads of goals with him in the side and without him. In fact, whatever defenders we use we ship boatloads of goals. *sigh*
The verminator might think it’s goot to be straight but as soon as he says he thinks it’s good to be gay i’m leaving my girlfriend for him immediately….
And I was hoping that nobody would come up with such a genius play of words.
Luis Suarez writing for Arseblog News?
Proofread by John Terry? No wonder it slipped through!
Every player at ARsenal this season has made a few (numerous) mistakes …why is everyone concentrating on Song??
They can spell his name the easiest
Squillaci too
or is it Squilacci ?
Arsene should move Tommy to midfield and get a more solid defender to replace him at the back. He’ll do better in the midfield and things will be a lot better for Arsenal after all.
Tommy got stuck cleaning up so many of Songs messes this season and took a lot of flack for it. You watch, the second we have a proper covering midfielder we will see the Verm back to his best.
Its not really Song’s fault though, as bloggs said the other day, he’s not a defensive midfielder just our most defensive minded midfielder.
I think you’re misappropriating some of the blame. While Song made more mistakes down the stretch, its important to note that most of those incidents occurred when Arteta was injured and Ramsey was playing his role. Ramsey’s constant giving away of the ball made everyone look bad.
Guys, I swear I can score goals and defend poorly too!
But Vermaelen scores more of his goals against the opposition than for them… just about 😉
Gays, it’s cold and dark in this cave, please let me out.
the answer is still No Squil and for the last time shut the fuck up!!!
Quiet squid or we’ll send Frimmers in to sort you out!
Santos is very disappointed by this title
I’m sure Thomas has been straight with Santos and all the other gays
Ohhh, OK. I at first thought the headline meant Verm was talking about how it’s good to be heterosexual. Maybe that’s purely an American connotation. Anyway, thanks to Thomas for taking his eye off the defense against Newcastle, so I didn’t end up flying to North London to see a 1-1. I owe you one. Back to defense next season, though.
Vermaelen: It’s good to be straight? Gays, you’ve got to be careful with your headlines!
Fucking hell guys, that’s the whole joke behind it. Not getting dry humour, maybe that’s an American thing.
The Suns headline after seeing yours
“Vermaelen bashes gays and blacks”
If RVP leaves then maybe they should make Squillaci captain.
Then maybe he’ll fuck off next
An interesting theory, but what if it inspired him and turned him into the new Tony Adams instead? Then who would we pick as our default worst central defender and the butt of all our jokes? We can’t pick Vermaelen as he always tries so hard and scores goals. We can’t pick Koscielny because he’s our best central defender. We can’t pick Djourou because he’s such a nice young bloke. We can’t pick any of our younger central defenders because they are still developing and it could ruin their careers. We can’t pick Mertesacker because he’s a Big Fucking German… Read more »
Uh oh, this could cause tension between him and Andre Santos, because we know how much Andre enjoys the company of all the gays.
Daily Mail headline tomorrow will be: “Arsenal FC in racism and homophobia scandal!”
Vermaelen comes clean about his position and reveals his close bond with Van Persie, Allegedly telling the media he likes to remain as close as possible to Rvp off and on the field 🙁
Think vermaelen is a player who could play anywhere down the middle, he can shoot, he can defend and he’s not too bad at passing. I do think however that he has his best games when there is a player be it arteta, song or hopefully wilshere who is willing to drop back and defend when he runs forward. I don’t blame him for his wandering forward this season I just think that as he is coming into his prime he can use his experience to know when to run forward and when to sit back
thomas has no idea of the crude double meaning of the word spade.I am sure being part a dressing full of many different colours and creeds he would be horrified to think he would be associated with such bigotry
Guys, you have really got to change the preview in the facebook post. I’m sure it was a mistake but the wording is unacceptable.
Better late than never Alex.
So, since i last left you guys my journey home was fairly average. I slept for precisely 13 minutes on the bus, and awoke just in time to get off at my stop. The hot weather made me extra sleepy. If any of you are ever on the 134 bus in London, i am the guy with the peacock feathers sewn into his hat. Please say hello if you see me, and you may even be lucky enough to receive one of the matchstick planes if i so happen to have one on my person. For dinner i went round… Read more »
Since when was Kevin Turvey a Gooner?
Ever thought of selling your matchstick planes on line? You’d make a fortune!
Refreeze the prawns and send them to Spurs along with a recipe for prawn lasagne.
Lol love the headline, dont wanna sound like a kissass but this is by far the best Arsenal blog out there, it makes my fridays worthwhile, ill be getting ready for work and mybwife is like wtf are u listening to (refering to internet Joe R.I.P.) Im working on getting tickets for next season and fly to London then, anyone wann hook up and show me the scene and have a couple drinks lemme know
Nice sense of style, peacock feather hat, power rangers t shirt and hot pants…can I have a matchstick plane now?
Fucking gay jokes ey………..aaah numbnuts! I got nothing.
11 Verminators, thats all we need…sigh!
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So when i go out i never take my i.d so the bouncer says ok mate what year was you born, drunk or not i say the same thing, 1986 100 years after arsenal was created dur?
Daily Mail’s headline after reading this article:
“WENGER SWOOPS FOR UNDERNEATH WARCHEST BUT ABOVE TRANSFER WINDOW WITH PARTING SHOT AND SLAMS THE GAYS