I am sure that the Arsenal and France striker Olivier Giroud was just trying to diffuse the situation, perhaps with a typical Gallic shrug of the shoulders, but I am not so sure how well his words will be received by his Arsenal team mates, or by the manager for that matter.
Arsene Wenger has always condemned it when his players have been caught smoking cigarettes in public and claimed that as professional athletes it is not sensible and as role models they should know better. But the boss has also tried to play down the media furores that have surrounded the likes of Jack Wilshere and Wojciech Szczesny in recent years.
So the last thing the Frenchman would have wanted was for one of his own players to go and bring it all back into the open. But that is exactly what Giroud has done by telling the French media that there are a few Gunners that smoke and that there is nothing wrong with it, as revealed in a Metro report.
The centre forward said, “Everyone knows that there are a lot of players who smoke.
“In every team there are four or five. It doesn’t shock me. In rugby, they also smoke. And nobody is shocked.”
I appreciate his honesty but although he says that nobody is shocked by it, the subject is a favourite of the media and could leave Wenger having to defend himself and his players once again, while trying to hide a ‘smoking gun’ behind his back. Should Giroud have said nothing at all?
And if there are “four or five” smokers in every team, who are the other two (or three) at Arsenal?
The House of Rahman and its representatives demands Wenger to leave with immediate effect!!!!
time for a change!!!
Wenger out!!
Would like him to stay Ambassadorially/Board level…..provided the new manager has the requisite control and Arsene doesn’t get any room to step on toes.
But Jurgen Klopp is the man for me, hope he steers Dortmund to safety/normality and we take the opportunity to give him the resources he would do wonders with.
I am genuinely heart broken I’ve never felt so bad about a loss this hurts way more than the 8-2, 6-3 etc. Idk if I should cry and punch holes I’n my walls
Or*
I know how you feel mate.
No sooner we start to look like we are getting somewhere.
Then…. Reality smacks you in the face:/
a major overhaul of the squad is needed…..
at least 10 players have to go….
We definitely need some new players but 10?
I say we go all out for Schneiderlin and cavani.
Not required at all. 2 or 3 quality upgrades tops and our squad is on par with anyone in the league. Biggest change needed is the approach, tactics, dynamism of the team. The players are all but there.
I did read one comment somewhere that made a lot of sense. The person cited that this is our most brilliant squad in many a year, yet the spine of the team could arguably all be upgraded. Juxtaposition of sorts, but pretty accurate at the same time.
Hopefully Gabriel is the CB answer, then in the summer we need a top class DM, definitive answer for B2B, and alternative at ST.
But before any of that I’d love to see Klopp brought on board and a new chapter etched into our history books.
@Hafiz Rahman
No need for major overhaul – Players need to learn Discipline…@ arsenal, players are free to do as they please….a poor performance from Ozil, and Carzola gets subbed…
Wellbeck plays were he feels like – forgets that every1 has there position for a reason.
Many of them are not good enough. A few years ago, we had gallas, denilson,brendnther and co. Even that was a better team than what we have right now.
You can almost tell the names of the smokers by virtue of their performance. Christiano Ronaldo is performing at the highest level simply because of his dedication and professionalism. That guy is in the gym during the summer break when other players are frolicking with groupies in Ibiza.
I agree, arsenal need a major clear out. We need players who can go 90 minutes all season without getting injured all the time.
We are criminally inconsistent, so mentally weak, so unbalanced, so misguided, so carefree, so passionless, so irresponsible, and I’m so ready for a change…
Now I’m actually worried about facing Utd at Old Trafford simply because I have no idea which Arsenal are going to show up… It’s not right what’s going on at our club at present and we’re now embarrassing ourselves not only domestically but in Europe as well. The fans deserve better…
That match reminded me so much of the game against Manure – so many chances on goal wasted, and completely exposing ourselves to the counter attack. We did have a lot more chances than they did, but our defence was non-existent – I’m just speechless that we could repeat the same performance.
Gabriel must start I’n the return leg since were gonna have to go all out and our defense will be exposed once again so we need mobile cb’s
I can tell you who are the other smokers………… the AKB fans that still believe this man will ever again win anything significant for ARSENAL ….whatever they are smoking it’s turning them delusional.
It’s Koscielny, Mesut and Ospina(i think).
I m usually so optimistic on this blog but i can’t see us winning 3-0 or 4-1 at Monaco.
Our whole season started with shambles. Drawing 0-0 looked criminal against Besiktas. This season is full of complaints. Nothing else. We are 12 points of Chelsea. But drawing Lescieter(a), City(h), Spurs(h), Hull(h), Liverpool(a) looked bad. And loosing to Swansea and Southampton away was criminal. That’s 18 points dropped. 18 points.
For Gods sake its a CL game why is the team turning out so drained…that is not fair at all to the fans!
If Falcao were playing for them….we would have gotten mauledl!!!
cant believe same old excuses and performances and fans still buy them…
Well at least they don’t rat out on each other.
Welp…what a crap non performance! Arsenal players sometimes act like entitled brats who probably believe any bs media hype a la some dailymail article stating they’re the dark horses.
Per Mertesacker – He’s had his day in the sun. It’s crazy how Per is still playing? He’s such a liability. I mean, I don’t intend to be player bashing here, and he’s probably an awesome bloke but enough is enough…. I don’t even know how to end this. Arsenal… @#$k!!
Yeah the bloke is too slow to be playing against fast paced strikers and wingers…becomes even more suicidal when trys to play high line.
All players need a kick up the backside. Only about 5 players turned up on the night, with the defence being non-existent.
If they don’t want to play or put the effort in, then they are useless and can go. I couldn’t believe Ozil – he had been looking better, but looked completely disinterested in the game.
As far as smoking goes, it is unprofessional and as bad in the short term as being overweight. They are all in a privileged position, which many of us would give our eye teeth for, and should behave as such. Everybody talks about fine margins in football – well diminishing your lung capacity will be that margin.
Many of us scrape together our last pennies to support the club, and to be rewarded with this shambles is heart breaking.