Robert Pires and Gilberto Silva believe Jens Lehmann will be a positive influence in the Arsenal dressing room.
Arsene Wenger recently confirmed that the former Germany international has joined his first team staff and will help Steve Bould and Boro Primorac on a day-to-day basis.
Having played alongside Lehmann for three seasons at Highbury, during which the club went unbeaten in the Premier League, won the FA Cup and reached the Champions League final, Pires says the 47-year-old will bring his ‘own rules’ to London Colney.
“It is good news,” Pires told Sky Sports. “I’m very pleased for Jens, he’s a good guy and a good professional. He can help the goalkeepers but not only them, the rest of the squad as well.
“You need to have a competitive side and Jens has always had that. He’s a great professional. He’s a German too, so he has his own rules. Sometimes he is very strict, but you need to have discipline in the dressing room and Jens is the man to bring that.”
Gilberto, who spent five seasons at Arsenal with the German, was similarly enthusiastic about Lehmann’s return.
“I am very pleased for Jens and for the club,” he said. “He is a very professional person and a guy who is passionate for the game.
“I am sure it will be very important for the club to have him around because he is the kind of person who pushes the other guys when he sees something that is not right. The way he does things is in a very positive way.
“Maybe sometimes people saw him do things in the past and had a different interpretation of things but the way he was with us, sometimes we laughed. But in the end, we knew he was doing it for the benefit of the team. Sometimes you must have someone like this.”
For years, Per Mertesacker has been the disciplinarian in the Arsenal dressing room…you get the feeling that Jens may be about to introduce a new fine jar to shake things up.
In a few years time, I believe the aquirement of Lehmann will prove to be one of the most important signings in a long time.
Hopefully he can help get rid of some of the occasional complacency we struggle with.
Occassional aka when things go against us, he will have his hands full here, perfect character for mitigating that indeed.
They’re only saying that because they’re scared of our mad German haha.
In all seriousness we’ve been crying out for someone of his ilk, he’ll say it how it is but with an underlying desire to win things. Win win.
Good words to Jens. But am worried about our new season. All our top 4 competetors have invested so much in quality players. Apart from Lacazette, we are far behind Man City, Chelsea and Man U. Am a bit worried
Signing the best left back in the Bundesliga seems to me bringing in quality.
God, I hate articles that have the word back(s) in the title … with a fucking vengeance. I hate it with other articles about other clubs and now I hate it here. Not just because it’s inevitably one ((ex-)team)mate saying something nice about another ((ex-)team)mate, but because it’s fucking pointless. Far better would be “Arsenal legends think Lehmann wont go nuts every time …” or some such thing. On the other hand if the article were titled, for example: Pires and Gilberto don’t back Lehmann ‘cos they think he ended his therapy too early” … well, that would be a… Read more »
Yea, some people are very old fashioned like that. I think tomorrow the main article should be one of the following:
1) 7 reasons why mourinho is a dick
2) top 10 reasons why sp**s are always shit
Feel free to write your own – give it one of your snazzy titles and every fan will be flocking to your site like you’re a footballing pied piper.
What have you been smoking?
A bit of (controlled) madness is good.
The thing is though. Lehmann came into a team who still had guys like keown and parlour (adams and wrighty before them) who knew what it meant to put on the cannon and they made sure they conveyed that message to the flair guys like Henry and Pires. There’s that lovely story about Pires waiting for everyone to sit down for lunch before he got a seat because even though he was a World Cup winner, that meant jack shit to the old guard who accepted nothing but respect and your full effort. The point I’m trying to make is… Read more »
I don’t think this deserves quite as many downvotes but a lack of ‘soul’ is just part of the modern, elite-level game. The Premier League looks more like the NFL now than the old Football League first division it replaced in 1992. We’re still watching and talking about it though, eh?
Weird that pires talks about players being competitive, shouldn’t all of them be?
Bring Gilberto and Bobby back
I always wanted Viera back and Bergkamp as no. 2 🙂
Why do I get the feeling that the canine elements of Bobby’s and Gilberto’s families are just being let out of doggy hostage?
lehmann is definitely a very good addition to us. he’s like per x 10! i wonder what gilberto is up to these days..
Bought yourself a Lehman brand hairdryer eh Wenger?Tired of the travel version Fergie gave you as his parting gift?
😀
The linked article about Arsenal player fines is one of the funniest things ever on this site. Congrats.
Fully expect Jens to make fists in his pocket when the players aren’t performing like when he watched Almunia play for the first team instead of him.