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Arsenal at the weekend.

A whole squad of foreigners.

Am I correct?

Has this happened before?

Almost every week under Wenger. ;)

Happens quite a lot with Arsenal, we don't have too many English people to put in the squad.   There's only Theo and Justin Hoyte that's likely to get a game in the whole team set up these days.

Hoyte was in the squad.

A couple of times this season we have put out a team with eleven different nationalities.

NO.

Anyway what difference does it make, we beat the league leaders after going a goal down, we also play arguably the best football in the league.

I know I am sad but did anyone realise that Arsenal broke the record for the most players from one team to wear gloves last week with 7 of them 'a bit cold'.

As opposed to the blades whose entire team and management wear knucle-dusters  ;nemesis;

honest guv, we izz misunderstood.

Serious question for the goons here .... Looking back to the days of Adams, Keown,Dixon, Wright, Seaman etc etc etc... Didnt you feel more close to your team then than you do now ?

I know you have been succesfull (spit violently and wash mouth out with soap moment) under @rsehole Bender, but does the fact that you dont have anyone to relate to in the side mean that you lose a bit of passion in your support ?

I know i would hate Spurs to lose their English Identity, and although I would love some success on the pitch, I wouldnt want it at the cost of the clubs heritage.

Kev, i can see your point and this is an honest answer from my personal point of view.

I really dont care about the fact we have no English players in our 1st XI. Of course the likes of Adams, Keown, Dixon, Winterburn and Wright are legends and go down in the clubs history. |On the same token Bergkamp, Vieria, Henry Pires, and Fabregas will.

Unlike alot of clubs most of our foreign players have been at the club many years and it is things like that, that make you feel close to your team.

Also, it is not as though we went from having 11 Englishmen in the 1st XI to none it has been a gradual process of many years. For me i would rather have the loyalty and commitment of Henry, Bergkamp etc than Ashley Cole. When Cole 1st came into the squad we had a great left back in Silvinho who at the time had just got the left back postion from Carlos in the Brazil side. Wenger realised what potential Cole had and sold Silvinho. Although Cole is a great player an d wenger made him what he is he showed no loyalty to the club and left because we offered him £55k instead 0f £60k.

Anyway loyalty in football is a totally different discussion altogether, going back to the original question/statement from Kev. yes i do feel i can relate to the team as much now as in the past. it is great to watch the likes of Fabregas progressing into one of the best players in Europe, its been great watching Thierry Henry for the last 7 years.

Obviously it would be great to see a few more Englishmen in the squad but i would rather have foreigners if they are better players. I think if we had more money then we would probably have more English players in our squad. English players for some reason are the most overpriced players in the world. It is ridiculous than Man Utd are going to pay £20m for Hargreaves and paid £16.8m for Carrick. Chelsea pay £21m for SWP and Ashley Young is going to Villa for nearly £10m after playing only 5 months in the top flight, and yes we paid massive for Walcott.

Having alot of foreigners in our club has not distanced me away from the club in the slightest infact it has distanced me from the English national team who i now have no interest in whatsoever. Now here is the contraversal bit that i will probably be slated for, I dont care if the england team lose every game infact I actually laughed when i saw the Croatia game. I just cant cheer on a team full of Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Toottenham players when every week i want them to do badly and hate them.

Thats actually quite sad.

In answer to Kev:

It honestly does not bother me at all whether we have English players in the team or not. As far as I am concerned the culture which Arsene Wenger has created at the club transcends nationality. The brand of football has become their nationality.All our players play with such commitment and passion, not to mention a team-spirit which is as good if not better than anywhere else. 

I am actually quite proud of the fact that we can field a side of eleven different nationalities who play like they have grown up together. I loved the old sides too but in a different way. Wenger has been an education in football for me.

Long may it continue.

why is it sad?? because i dont agree with what you believe??

"I dont care if the England team lose every game"

Ya damn right we disagree on that.

Good posts Dan and Karabiner but what about a link to the local culture?

so why is it sad?? i still dont understand.

Not caring for your national team because the players play football for a club that you dont support is to me quite sad,

 

I have always supported club rather than country, ALWAYS. I pay my money for my season ticket each season and pay my money each week to go and watch the club i support, I have NEVER been to watch england and never will. The question was can i relate to my team, Arsenal ,because they have not got many english players YES I CAN but i do not relate to the english team because they have no arsenal players.

Like i said i go most weeks to watch my team , i do not go at all to watch england so why should i support them.

I think its quite sad that you support Man Utd but that is your choice, like mine is not to support the England team.

Fair enough.

i think that means we agree to disagree.  :respect:

 ;D

I'm with Dan and Karab on this too, I'm more an Arsenal fan than an England fan, not that I don't want England to win, but my God they are poor to watch and usually disapoint.  I'd be disapointed if I'd paid to see most England games.

Dont you bloody start......... ;)

 ;whistle;

Just saw this thread - as the rest of the Gooners said i definitely do not feel any less attached to having a team of foreigners now compared to say under Graham.

Times have changed and as long as they give 100% thats all i care about.

Also i have also become bored of the English yob culture.  You open up a paper and its Ashley Cole in the 3am girls or bizarre section, or its terry and lampard in a casino or rooney in a fight.

Yes we had one incident with Van Persie but other than that there are no issues with our squad.  Our captain is an exemplary professional who is a shining example to every young fan and player.

I remember going to Tony Adam's game for the reserves on his release from prison when 20,000 (yes 20,000) turned up for a reserve match.  We all loved the fact that we had bad boys but either i have grown up or times have changed but i get more stisfaction from the fact that we have model professionals playing now rather than overpaid English yobs.

Without wanting to sound like I'm stirring what about the amount of red cards ON the field?

how many in the last 3/4 seasons.

the red card count is one of the most loaded statistic in football.

All you here is "arsenal's 50th/60th red card under wenger" what they dont say is that he is the 2nd longest serving manager in the premiership.

Ok let me rephrase, is 60 odd red cards in ten seasons too much?

Personally it wouldn't bother me if my team was successful, but a friend of mine who is in his 40's is a huge Arsenal fan and he a) hates the fact you have no foreign players and b) dislikes your disciplinary record.

The amount of red cards don't change what a great team Arsenal have been over the years. Give me that record and their success in that spell over, for instance the Liverpool team of spice boys that couldnt tackle a rice pudding and still thought they were a great team.

If that stat is correct then 6 sending offs a season is not too bad after all.

As I said, if Liverpool were successful and had an awful record I wouldn't care one bit. Just wondered if you boys did?

Actually Baron, Ive just realised you are a Liverpool fan, my use of them was just to make a point and not meant as a dig. I'm unique  In that I dont hate any footy teams at all, in fact Ive been known to pop down to Hillsboro and cheer on the Wednesday now and again.....but don't tell anyone. ;tracet;

I've been to see the MK Dons! Shhh!

We all have our guilty pleasures! ;)

eeeeeek!!

Baron the red card stat is of the past.

As Dan said, how many in the last 3/4 years?  Post Vieira / keown we have definitely lost that aggresive ill-disciplined streak and one criticism i have is that we have not been tough enough the last 2-3 years.

In fact you need to check your stats again as i think Arsenal hve been top of the fair play league the last 2 seasons so if your mate doesnt like our ill discipline then he must be living in the past.

Yes we are sore losers but so are Man Utd.  Give me a sore loser every day in any sport.  It shows they care and hate losing and thats why Man Utd and Arsenal have been at the top for so long.

The stat I gave was correct.

I agree about the sore losers though. If LFC ALL had the fight our captain has we'd been infinately better.