Wayne Rooney - the most criminally overrated player since Beckham

[John]

Well said Bound, very well said. The British media have been in adulation of Rooney ever since he started to perform at Everton, the media just can't get enough of Rooney..perhaps the penny has finally dropped with Fergie who I kind of think is hoping to offload Rooney but I don't think many (if any) clubs will pay £40 million and £200,000 a week for the guy. Incidentally, do you remember Rooney saying "Once a Blue, always a Blue" and then doing the offski to Utd. That is very poor form imo.

RVP going to Utd is sickening. Again, we a have a professional footballer (average of 6 goals per season in his first 6 seasons at Arsenal!) who turns in a great season just before his contract is up. He was on MOD kissing the badge for the club every other game last season, saying he loves the club, but it seems just not enough to jump ship at his most opportune moment to earn a bit of extra cash.

It's also annoying that Wenger allows this to happen season after season. I read an interesting fact in that the 11 "big name" players that we have sold to our competitors in recent seasons had now amassed 44 winners medals, whilst at Arsenal, we have gotten none. It's a shocking stat but displays with clarity that you wont win anything if you keep selling your best players to clubs that compete directly with you in your league!

[boundngag]

John, do you remember him threatening to leave Man Utd and everyone saying that they wouldn't be able to challenge for trophies without him? Maybe the penny has finally dropped for Ferguson, but I agree with you, who would pay that amount of money for Rooney? Maybe Man City or PSG?

Arsenal selling their best players is frustrating, but I think Wenger gets a kick out of not spending money on wages. As I have said on here before (probably to a sickeningly frequent extent), I don't believe Wenger has ever liked spending money (maybe something to do with a degree in economics) and the new stadium and financial fair play initiatives were very convenient for him. I do also wonder how much he had to do with getting Kroenke on to the Arsenal board (also doesn't like spending money) and not Usmanov (willing to spend money). It seems like a bit of a coincidence to me.

I'm also disappointed by Song's departure. He was one of our better players last season and an effective defensive midfielder, stumbled upon in that role by chance by Wenger. I'd much rather that he had sold Walcott instead. Who's going to play defensive midfield now? Diaby has so far, but he is more of a naturally attacking player, while Frimpong and Coquelin aren't really proven over a whole season.

What do you make of our new signings? Cazorla looks like a good player. Podolski should be a good player, judging by how well he usually performs for Germany (at international level, he performs - unlike a certain Wayne Rooney!). I'm not sure about Giroud though. I've not seen a lot of him before he signed for us and he's missed quite a few chances already.

I'm also quite looking forward to Wilshere coming back, hopefully next month. However, that could potentially be disappointing, as Ramsey, Eduardo and Diaby have never really hit the same levels of performance since returning from long term injuries. Do you think Wilshere will fall into the same category?