Comments on: Should Arsenal get Luis Figo or Lorik Cana? And why does nobody want to come to the Emirates?

By: Chun li

Chun li — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:28:42 +0000

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By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 23:02:49 +0000

I love Lorik Cana, my mate summed it up perfectly earlier after watching one of Lorik’s youtube showcases “…he fouled a player and offered to pick him up only to drag him across the ground a la John Sergeant in Strictly Come Dancing”…we need this lunatic at Arsenal and I mean lunatic in an affectionate way of course!!!

By: JCL13

JCL13 — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:55:41 +0000

Oh, how I would love to take my over priced seat at the Emirates tomorrow, then just as I start to take my first bite out of my over priced burger, there is an announcement – “We would like to welcome Arsenal’s new signing to the Emirates” and on walks . . .

. . . Lorik Cana.

This guy is one of THE best DM in the game right now. As said above, we don’t need him to make brilliant runs or to make pythagoras defying passes. We need someone to cover our woeful defence.

This lad was the reason why Portugal drew nil-nil with Albania.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed about tomorrow . . .

By: grabs

grabs — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:50:06 +0000

WC – wise words as always. I’d maybe toss a new winger into that mix and be fairly happy with the state of the midfield.

Andrew is right I’m afraid, and I won’t stand to hear Grabber defended. Him and his YouTube research, eh? Pah! Disgraceful man. You won’t get any of that from me, oh no.

I always feel that at most those compilations can give you a pretty vague idea about a player, providing he’s a striker or attacking midfielder. As in, you can see Ronaldinho score that ridiculous goal he scored against Chelsea and you can tell that he’s got a bit of talent. Or you can watch Henry compilations where he scores an absurd number of fantastic goals against top class teams – and you can’t really argue with his obvious class.

Where it’s (obviously) much more difficult is with defensive players playing in *so-called lesser* leagues – like Cana and Veloso.

I mean, can you imagine what a Gilberto compilation would look like? They’d probably set it to a song by Keane and feature some of his more audacious shieldings of the ball, or him sitting on the half-way line looking intensely disciplined as pires, freddy and co stormed forward, or interceptions, or the odd clearing header – bone-rattlingly exciting stuff.

My oh-so-profound point here is that the game isn’t a highlights reel, nor is it a computer game. You can’t restart it if you lose and you can’t solve all your problems by having a greasy man who does lots of silly stepovers (though Bolton are giving this a go – Denilson must be the worst most expensive player in the world ever, surely?).

By: WC

WC — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:31:27 +0000

Well the thing is we don’t even really need Cana to be Vieira because while it is an asset to dribble and pass we have 9 other outfield players to do that. Gilberto couldn’t dribble or pass to save his life either but he was one of the best at breaking up the play and dispossessing opposition. All we really need in the midfield is someone with the confidence to do this so that Cesc and the others can launch some 5 man attack force on the goal like it was in the good ole days.

By: shkumbini

shkumbini — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:20:24 +0000

mates lorik cana is a great player for us.he is DM and very strong very hard work player,just like viera not with vieras pass and moves but with agresiv way of playing.

By: BergkampIsGod

BergkampIsGod — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:32:51 +0000

Guys, I do think the Figo suggestion was meant to be an ironic mockery of Grabs’ Veron suggestion. At least I very much hope so. So take the hostility down a few notches, Andrew.

On the other hand, I do think judging people via youtube is a waste of time, only one minor step above checking a player’s stats on the latest version of Football Manager. Wenger is never going to go for anything obvious. I imagine the Arshavin deal will probably happen sooner or later, and I hate to say it, but I don’t reckon he’ll do any more business than that.

By: WC

WC — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:05:19 +0000

While Figo was indeed one of the greatest players in his time, his time is gone. He has never been a fast player, relying mostly on his technical ability. I highly doubt he could keep up with the pace of Arsenal’s game since it is expected that you are running for 90 mins. for the passing game. He doesn’t have the legs for that anymore and really he never did because he’s not exactly an able defender or trackbacks enough as we typically demand of our wingers. Yes we need experience, but experience in football today means late 20s very early 30s, not a man who has to take Metamucil everyday. He’s also become very injury-prone in the twilight of his career and the speed and physicality of the English game does not go well with his acclimatized Italian and Spanish football.

On Lorik Cana, I don’t know if it’s this blog but I’ve already thrown his name out there before. He’s definitely the poor man’s Jeremy Toulalan (Whose name I’ve also thrown in the hat). We seem to have some kind of good relationship with Marseille with Bobby and Nasri having come from there. Essentially I could see the likes of Cana, Cheyrou, Zubar, Ben Arfa and Mandanda all coming right into the Arsenal fold from Marseille if we could afford it, but that’s asking alot. Cana has the build, speed and tenacity to fit right into the Prem and I’m surprised Wenger hasn’t made an inquiry seeing as he’s a regular guest pundit for Canal+ on Ligue 1 games.

By: P-Lam

P-Lam — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:01:46 +0000

I was not very familiar with Cana, but he does look class from the videos.

While I like Figo better than JSV, I must ask why you are such a big fan of players from the geriatric age group?

How about a few of your top players under 30 we should target? I would be more interested in seeing those.

By: ecumming

ecumming — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:10:07 +0000

I’m certainly very big.