Arsenal Sign Unpronounceable Defender

Yay...I hope he is a fighter, hustler, hangs around TV and not Diaby and Nasri (if you know what i mean) softies.

Now THAT, I can pronounce! ....... I think.

Another spelling nightmare.. where are the Adams' Dixons and Boulds?

Sol's contract has finished so if we haven't renewed it by now it's highly unlikely it would be done in the future. Of course I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

So he's given the famous Arsenal no. 6 shirt... I wonder if it was offered to anyone else, specifically I think Song deserves a single digit number as our first choice DM

Good start, another CB and a good GK (not Schwarzer) and we should be good. No Joe Cole though please. Ta.

you obviously had to go to the piggy bank for him - costliest signing of the season for Arsene.

Nice to see Wenger showing faith in English talent by signing yet another (YET ANOTHER!!!) of his compatriots on the cheap. What a joke. Someone ought to remind him he's managing an ENGLISH club.

What sort of toilets did they build at The Emirates - those French type where you stand and aim your dump down a hole?

I still think that defensive line is too thin. I would prefer if AW were to bring in another CB just to give us a bit more cover and more variation. Couple of injuries and we could be buggered and face a similar problem that we did last season.

From the new video comp thats just hit the blogs he looks f****** fantastic. Finally a vid of his defensive qualities and not his goal scoring ability only. He is defintely aggressive & strong in the tackle and air which our defense and team need. Dare i say he reminds me, and looks to have the better qualities of Ferdinand and Terry in their prime. Yes, i know that sounds disgusting but im talking footballistically here. He hangs back, liking to be the last man, reading the play infront and cutting out the danger or making the last crucial tackle like Ferdi. He was rumored to be damn near perfect in the tackle and i got to say he looks good in the vid. His crisp and intelligent passing stood out too and he's even capable of hitting some through balls and 40 yrders. So long as he adapts okay to the pressures he will command this league and be a great foil to our Vermaelen. Of that i feel confident. But he's risen a huge way in only 1 year so he won't be first choice straight away, but when he is i don't think we'll be disappointed.

"Nice to see Wenger showing faith in English talent by signing yet another (YET ANOTHER!!!) of his compatriots on the cheap. What a joke. Someone ought to remind him he's managing an ENGLISH club." - ***** me! Didn't know Arsene was Polish

yet another non-English player...yep your team should go to france and be called lé arsénál

VAFC, there's every chance we'll go to France this year, depends what the Champions League draw throws up. Not that Villa would be familiar with the Champions League.........

Regarding the unpronounceable name: Not so., and a bit of contact with Eastern Europe languages might sort out all such issues in the future. The word Koscielny shall be easiest pronounced KOS-TIEL-NE for anyone not in the know around Polish pronounciation rules. Koscielny by the way is an adjective with the meaning "church", as in "church-wall". For the record, Tomas Rosicky's surname is pronounced RO-SIT-SKI, as a C with no I after very much resembles a TS sound. These are Polish language rules, and albeit Rosicky is Czech, I am pretty sure the same rules apply; I think it will take a Czech to prove me wrong.

If he's anything like Vermaelen then wenger pulled another rabbit out the hat.Dont bother making song a CB he isnt one.

Dawson is outstanding and, funnily enough, left the WC with his reputation intact because he didn't play. His reputation has been sullied by association. Who does he play for again Wenger'sRocky7yearswithoutatrophy?

Outstanding? Lol, yeah alright, whatever you say sweetcheeks.

What did you expect from the spuds? The general view on vital deluded is Aaron Lemon wasn't s'*t at the world cup and it was johnsons fault for not passing to him?!

The disease is that England refuses to do what Germany did: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/soccer/world-cup-2010/writers/raphael_honigstein/07/01/germany.reinvention/index.html . That article is an excellent summary of what Germany did to confront the decline of quality players and quality football they faced starting at the end of the 90s. Their national team was in serious decline. And--unlike a lot of clueless idiots in England who claim the solution is to enact restrictions against foreign players, the Germans went to the ROOTS of the problem (instead of the SYMPTOMS, the way so moron pundits do in England) and the reliance on foreign players went into decline NATURALLY, ORGANICALLY. No anti-foreigner FA laws were needed. But that would require some comprehensive, far-reaching vision and patience, a refusal to look for easy scapegoats and courage on the part of the FA.

Like i said, the cause of the underlying malaise has deep roots and the practices of your club are a symptom of that problem. What i and many others (your own supporters even) find offensive is the way that your manager, and many others, couldn't give a toss about this and merely looks out for himself without giving a damn about the bigger picture. Seriously, Wenger manages Arsenal as if it were a club anywhere in the world, and yet he's in London at an English club!! This is wrong and no-one else would accept that: can you imagine it happening at Boca, or Barca, or Bayern, or anywhere in Brazil, jaelle? I do hate to say this, but i also have fairly extensive contacts within the French community, and although individually they are lovely people, it's a fact that they have a total disrespect for England because they don't like our ways...fine. What i and many others find totally frustrating is the way that Wenger has turned a profoundly English club into the united nations, and if anybody questions that you get labelled a xenophobe or whatever. Things must change. If Wenger must turn Arsenal into Ajax, why can't he do it with ENGLISH players? It's all wrong.

*Anyone

TRH, there's so much ignorance in your diatribe, it's breathtaking. Let's start with this: "This is wrong and no-one else would accept that: can you imagine it happening at Boca, or Barca, or Bayern, or anywhere in Brazil, jaelle?" -- you don't see the distinction between those clubs and Eng clubs, do you? There happen to be many foreign players in Brazil and Argentina, but not as many as in the PL. Reason? Because there's a MUCH LARGER POOL OF TALENT TO CHOOSE FROM! Brazilian managers don't have to go begging outside Brazilian borders lkg for talent. Why can't you see that the POOL OF TALENT is pathetically limited in England to choose from??? As for Bayern, you didn't read the article did you? Of course not. If you had, you would've learned that German clubs had reached a point at which there were TOO MANY FOREIGN PLAYERS -- as much as 60% of the entire Bundesliga were foreign. That, for a time, included Bayern! Why? BECAUSE THE POOL OF YOUNG GERMAN TALENT WASN'T THERE! Read the fkg article to see how the Germans handled that situation, twit. They confronted the problem, while England refuses to. Then there's this bit of hypocrisy (a particular specialty of yours, TRH) and bigotry: "I do hate to say this, but i also have fairly extensive contacts within the French community, and although individually they are lovely people, it's a fact that they have a total disrespect for England because they don't like our ways...fine." -- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! An Englishman trashing the French for not respecting English ways, you can't make it up! POT-KETTLE-BLACK, TRH. Look in the fkg mirror! Having lived in England and having listened for yrs to English pundits, writers, ordinary people, the French can say the exact same thing about the English, you massive chauvinistic hypocrite. Francophobia is rampant in English culture, hypocrite. You and your spud tribe come over here all the time making disgusting, insulting francophobic remarks. You spuds are rampant with disrespect for the French.

The funny thing is with the troll is that, though he doesn't realise it, people with his sorts of views are exactly the sorts of view impeding the very problem he's whingeing about. Confront the problem and do something about it, or just whinge and point at the foreigners. Most of the people in the F.A and the media have been doing the latter for eons. The problem has persisted. Comme ci comme ca.

English players are getting a rum deal because they are being pushed aside for some fcking starlet from whereveristan and that is totally WRONG. THERE ARE ENGLISH LADS CAPABLE OF DOING THE JOB AND THEY GET OVERLOOKED TIME AFTER TIME AFTER TIME, AND I'M FCKING SICK OF IT. IF THEY'RE CRAP, IS IT ANY WONDER? THEY GET ***** ALL INPUT AFTER A CERTAIN AGE, THEY JUST GET DUMPED. Glenn Hoddle has rescued many of these boys and given them a fresh start and new hope. You simply don't know what you're talking about.

Wow, who knew Richard Littlejohn had a Vital account. It's amusing that you come here trolling on the wind up, because your life is obviously that interesting, then it's you who gets all wound up. It's like watching a little Jack Russell gnawing its tail. Here, fetch boy.

P.S I bet you haven't got eleven posts on Vital Spurs.

On the issue of Wenger it's time to debunk a few other myths, particularily the one about Arsenal playing 'good football', blah, blah, etc etc. OK, HAVE YOU GOT YOUR SEAT- BELT ON? THEY DON'T!!! THEY TEACH KIDS TO PASS THE BALL AROUND IN TRIANGLES, THAT'S ALL. GOOD FOOTBALL IS WINNING FOOTBALL AND SINCE WENGER CHANGED THE STYLE AFTER THEIR FA CUP WIN 2005 THEY HAVE WON ***** ALL!!!!!

TRH, if you want to talk about that subject, go to the forum and start a thread and people that want to talk about it can engage with you. But your point has nothing to do with the article at hand and serves only to detract from the people that DO want to discuss Koscielny as our new signing. Any further posts from you that aren't on the topic of the article will be deleted. Go to the forum and start a discussion there, here you're just ruining this thread.

LD, my apologies for responding to TRH. It really is a futile exercise.

"Do you really know the provenance of your own club?" -- do you really know who the hell you're talking to? I do in fact know the provenance about Arsenal, I started following the club during the GG era. I was very well taught by gooners about our history. And who's lecturing you about your principles? What a hilarious, total nonsequitur! Touchy, aren't we? One of your lot comes on here lecturing and scolding US and we don't have the right to respond? Why do you guys never expect us to respond when you insist on coming over here to insult us? Grow up. No one here's lecturing you spuddies, it's you spuddies forever lecturing US. In fact, I was criticizing the FA for not confronting the very serious and REAL issue of lack of football talent in England -- talent that's good enuf to form a viable national team. I used the German analogy as an example of a country that did have the vision and determination to confront the decline of German talent in the late 90s and into the 2000s. (that's a problem Brazil is confronting right now, with our lack of top class midfielders and forwards). The Germans attacked the root of the problem. England refuses to do so.

If you know the provenance OF your club, and started following them despite GG, then you are the ultimate pragmatist. As a brazilian, going to Highbury must have been like attending an AA meeting with a bottle of absinthe in your coat pocket. I do realise like most freemason based enterprises, an A**e site should be a closed shop, for admirers only, but I scour all sites for nonsense, so it is only natural that I respond to yours, although not exclusively. 'Good enuf' Oh look, I'm down with the kiddies.

Deltafarce- And I thought there was no humour on this site. That was ersatz Beckett.

Now you're talking Ionesco...bravo!

KO-SHEN-LY

The empty can rattles the loudest.

******** ****

Ah, Jaelle! Really missed your posts; and especially your swash buckling, shoot- from-the-hips, no nonsense Gringo style. Lol!

Welcome back.

its good hes a fighter hopefully you will avoid relegation with captain kirk wenger

Right after we signed the Verminator most people pronounced it VermAYlen but Arsene set the record straight and its pronounced VermARlen. I suspect we will see the same Koscielny.