Friday, April 25, 2008

Do we need to sign from other countries?

I was wondering today whether we need to sign some players from other countries of origin, after realising how every season, we are linked to a Frenchman, or an African. Countries seem to have a certain style, German is attacking, Brazilian is free flowing, ect. When it comes to Arsenal, we all seen to have players from one counrty. Almost 90% of our club is either French or African, and I wonder if that makes our style a bit, well, pradictable. When you look at Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool, they all have bought players from diferent places, and they are more successfull in carrying out game plans. We seem to be restricted in that manner. Its almost like the law that states if you want total controll over a team, you bring them in from all over the place, that way they have no way of relating to one another, and it is easier to teach. If we buy from all over, then would it become easier to maintain game plans, easier to get good team chemistry, easier to fool other teams, easier to win titles. Do I have a fair point? I would be interested to hear on this, so if you havent posted a comment yet, maybe now is the time to get your opinion out there! I'll look forward to your thoughts!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

great blog ollie, looks the business!

Anonymous said...

i dunno ollie, as an Irish man supporting an English club, country of origin does not factor into my opinion,
i think AW assembles the quality he expects at the price he is accustom to whether enforced of not,
if passport suggested quality i'd be picking the Brazilians boys with Italian defenses etc etc

Anonymous said...

Ollie, I have read your blog for a while now and I often find that I have a lot of problems with your posts.
You say Arsenal "have players from one counrty. Almost 90% of our club is either French or African".
Firstly Africa is not a country so do not compare it to France - maybe instead compare Africans to Europeans. Secondly why should that make us predictable, surely every player is an induvidual and adapts differently. For starters players all play different positions, so are likely to be different, i.e. Flamini vs. Henry (both French).

Looking at our squad we have:
French: 5
Spanish: 2
Ivory Coast: 2
Swiss: 2
Brazilian: 2
English: 2
Czech: 1
Croat: 1
Dutch: 1
Belarussian: 1
Cameroonian: 1
Polish: 1
Togo: 1
Denmark: 1
German: 1
Total: 24
Nationalities = 15

We seem to have a diverse range of nationalities here.

You say: "If we buy from all over, then would it become easier to maintain game plans, easier to get good team chemistry, easier to fool other teams, easier to win titles"
BUT surely we have all of this already - except for this team the title. Therefore your theory is incorrect.

Also we aren't linked to just French and African players.

Wenger works on a meritocratic basis and signs players who can do the job. Football has no borders, we won the title with a similar mixture of players a few years ago and we can do so with our current squad (plus a few additions), no matter the nationalities.

Ollie said...

Sorry Jamesgillesp, I obviously had that wrong, cheers for pointing that out! (Im trying to learn on the job lol, I'll take critisism!!)
But you cant deny that we are linked to a Frenchman every season, but whether we sign them or not is another matter. Last transfer we signed 2 french, one Croat and one Polish, but then Diarra left...
Going through the team list it seemed like we had a significant amount of french (Past and present, remembering Henry and Diarra both left) and I was rolling all the African countries together.
Chris, cheers for getting back! And Cheers for the complement, lol :)
Ok, so it seems that we don't need to buy abroad, but we do need to build, 24 people is too small, and when we need to build up, we are being linked to both Benzema and Ben Arfa (Both really great players i would love to have) and they are both french. Im not sure if you go back to 06-07 we would be linked to a frenchman, or if we signed one, but you get my drift, 2 french last TP, two rench this TP... Can you see where I'm coming from?
But Cheers both of you getting back to me, now I know how to improve!!

Anonymous said...

I'd agree there is an association between Arsenal and French players, but we had more in the past, and still won things.
I don't exactly understand what you mean, that we should sign more players who aren't from France or Africa??
I don't understand the problem, many of our best players are french or African and you have said you would really love to get Benezema and Ben Arfa??
Sorry man, I just don't see what you're getting at.

Ollie said...

James, there isn't really a probem, I was just wondering what people thought about the fact that we seem to be linked to Fr and Afr alot, and I was wondering if people thought we should bring in some other nationalities. If people are happy, thats fine, but I was curious if others had noticed the link to those two places, and if we needed to look in other places.

greatwonders said...

I like the courtesy and style of all the comments and posts. Nice to know people can present their views in a polite way. As far as buying players go, I am old enough to remember when teams in sports really had to come from their own district, country, or whatever. When people's skills are bought and sold the credit belongs to the buyer rather than the player. Or is this so? I suppose it makes for interesting spectatorship, but just what we are cheering for I do not know. It could nmake an interesting thesis for someone.

Ollie said...

GW, We need an update on the other one (site)...


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