Hleb In Bizzare 'I Want To Leave' Claim

Everybody thats ever watched Hleb play know he doesn't ******* shot! Why do players ALWAYS go to the press with their problems?

Hleb very much looks like a Barca man already - by washing his dirty laundry in public. And what's that disagreement with Arsene about? Did Arsene tell him he should shoot more and he didn't think so? Or did he think he should be playing as an AM / 2nd striker in the hole, and Arsene pushed him out wide most of the time? If it's about the position, haha, wish him good luck fighting for that role at Barca.

Rocky I thought it's awkward too when I saw the "selfish" bit. But I also think he's been told to "be more selfish in front of goal, shoot more". The guy doesn't speak perfect English and I actually think he meant well about Cesc. He probably just intended to say that Cesc was "much more able to be selfish than I am." There I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. But to speak about his favoured move to Barca and his own weaknesses publicly is unnecessary or disrespectful or stupid or all of the above.

I just really hope it gets sorted out asap (i.e. Nasri to come in asap) and for good enough money to sign Nasri and say half a DM. Otherwise I really can't be bothered where Hleb's going now.

And on the non-shooting note, I think it'd be even funnier to see the Barca fans throw all kinds of insults at him when he doesn't shoot at the Camp Nou. I can imagine some white handkerchiefs being waved like mad already. Good luck to him on trying to replace Deco hehe.. :P

I kinda feel sorry for him .... he doesn't seem like the brightest fella in the world. Maybe he's never heard of these things called "goals" before ... lol

Really STUPID, CHILDISH words from Hleb if he infact said them! How can Fabregas be selfish when he had the most assists in the league last season??

I think a 'slant' has been put on his words in order to sensationalise the story. He is not saying anything we don't already know. He prefers to play behind the striker, but he does not score enough goals to justify that position. I wish him luck in Barcelona because he will not be playing in that position there either and the Barca fans will not be as accepting of his short-comings. As for the selfish comment, given that English is his third language, I'm sure he did not mean it in a negative way. We all know that good goal scorers have to be a bit selfish in order to shoot when an opportunity arises, but given the number of assists Cesc also makes, no one can accuse him of going for personal glory and shooting when a pass would be a better option.

This seems as ridiculous as the Ljungberg quotes a while back... hopefully it's fabricated. How DARE Cesc shoot!!

This is nothing. English is not even my first language, but even I can easily read this like the only problem is that Wenger uses Hleb slightly different from how Hleb himself feels he should play. But it is the same for Mozart. They were both nurtured in previous clubs in the "Dennis role", and with Wenger they are mainly wingers. For the rest he even ASKS us to ASK Wenger so that his comments are not misinterpretations (and we all know Wenger will say he would like to keep Hleb, but when a player wants to move... We have heard it all before). The unselfish-comment is Hleb praising Cesc and criticising HIMSELF. It is obvious. I, as always, BLAME The Sun. Good luck in Barcelona Hleb - I will in fact miss your dribbling, but not your (lack of) shooting :)

He's given us good service over the past 3 years, I've always rated Hleb highly and I am disappointed to see him go. Bring on Nasri :).

Smells like Journo nonsense to me! If true, what a *****! See you!

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It's a shame because Hleb was one of my favorite players to watch, I don't think I've ever seen a player who can manipulate the ball like he can!!

Rather than lies, we can probably put this down to Hleb's ineffective command of the English language. He may have meant it as a compliment to Cesc, or being self-critical. In either case, I dont think we should turn on him for these quotes. After all, he needs some excuse to leave, and being played out of position sounds a lot better than the noisiness of London.

This break-up of the 'fantastic four' in midfield is completely bewildering to me.... Flamini and Hleb both seem so happy when talked to about aresenal, both have good characters, yet have both abandoned the team. I wish this team would just stay together.

I agree I don't think that Hleb said those things about Cesc, certainly not in that context. But via his agent, he's said some pretty dumb things. Claiming that London is too noisy and then professing a preference for a move to Barcelona is idiotic at best. Meeting with Inter the night before a Champions' League game is damn near unforgivable. I loved Hleb as a player and grew weary defending him to the people who sit around me. However, he's not irreplaceable. Fabregas is the only player in our team I would really afford that terminology to.

Ouch! I cannot see him playing again for Arsenal after these quotes....even Ronaldo hasnt done anything this disrespectful yet!!!

Again it's all about looking behind the words for the motives. Obviously he feels the move is'nt happening fast enough for him (or me) and when whining to his pimp was told 'OK you want this to move faster Alex? then theres two people you should have a pop at to guarantee the process speeding up!' Wenger and Fabregas are the two Arsenal lynchpins and you take a pop at either and you're guaranteed a swift exit. Cheers for everything Alex it was a pleasure watching your mazy dribbly thing with sod all end product. But in the immortal words of Kajagoogoo "You're too shot shy, hush hush, byesy bye".

"Cesc [Fabregas] and I understand each other very well on the field. And it is very, very pleasurable for me to play with him. He's a very pleasant guy both in life and as a footballer. He is just more egoistic in goal-scoring opportunities, if he had a chance to score, he always used it, unlike me." His actual quotes read a little bit different than the above "When we get scoring opportunities, Fabregas is much more selfish than me". If anything he is saying that he fails to convert chances he should

just get him out already! am tired of all this b/s!

The comments can be taken two ways. First things first, Hleb has never slaughtered the club. Dont get me wrong he hasn't exactly been showering it with praise recently either. But he wasn't calling Cesc greedy in a bad way he was merely describing the way he plays. Thats how I read it, but the usual hysterical over reaction from (unfortunatly) all too many gooners is to take the worst view. Don't you think with the press rehashing old stories ("wenger I have to sell for 17 years etc" Which he never said incidentally!) that there is enough negativity without taking comments, probably meant in a good way, badly????

Extraordinary that people would believe this nonsense. Hleb is a good friend of Cesc's, he'd never say such a thing. Hleb has in the past criticized his own failure to shoot in front of goal, this is just a repeat of that self-criticism. Hleb has always praised AW, his comments about playing out of position are just honest expressions of disappointment that he couldn't play where he wanted to. PLEASE everyone be leery of articles that are rush translations from non-English sources. The UK press is notorously unreliable with these translations, they twist things deliberately to make everyone look bad. Didn't we learn anything from the twisted mistranslation of Gallas' comments to France Football some time in March or April? The interview took place just before the England-France friendly and Gallas was asked if he had any friends in the England squad. He answered that his closest the only ones in the squad were the players from Chelsea, and that he wasn't friends with any of the others in the England squad. The English press twisted this into him saying he has no friends at Arsenal, his only friends are at Chelsea.