I wonder which big club he'll end up at?
Basel.I wonder which big club he'll end up at?
I wonder which big club he'll end up at?
What in the wafflePeople still cannot get their head around the fact that Xhaka's reaction was a result of an accumulation of things. It's bad enough that football is stressful with loads of pressure but he's had to deal with abuse to his family, wife, newborn on social media as well as being constantly scapegoated, jeered on numerous occasions and it all just boiled over last weekend. It was the straw that broke the camels back. He was probably bottling everything up for long that it just exploded in him and for that moment he completely lost it.
But now we've people going "oh well he should have just manned up and got on with it". People have manned up and got on with things while dealing with stress and dark thoughts and it hasn't ended well. People have acted like nothings wrong and not given a hint to anyone that they were struggling until one day it all comes out in the worst possible way. Maybe ask Gary Speed's widow if she was happy that Gary just got on with things and manned up instead of opening up because he knew just like we all know, as evidence in this forum that even now men aren't allowed to open up. They're expect to just take abuse, deal with stress, man up and get on with things regardless of how they're feeling or coping. Maybe it will take another Gary Speed or Enke moment for people to think to themselves "hold on maybe we better start taking footballers mental well being seriously here".
Look we all get passionate about football, but for me a footballers physical and mental well being is the most important thing. **** the results, it's not actually important. Maybe it's about time we started looking at footballers as human beings and just because they're well paid it doesn't mean they're bullet proof, it doesn't mean that stress doesn't get to them, it doesn't mean that they can't get emotional just because they earn a lot of money. I've seen countless examples over the last few years of how money means nothing if you're struggling mentally. Chris Cornell, Avicci, Chester Bennington, Robin Williams. All of those people having a lot of money didn't prevent them from going over the edge.
Like people need to seriously just give it a rest with this whole macho man up BS. It's absolute nonsense and I don't believe people actually believe it, they're just putting on a front thinking it's how they should behave.
What I will say it's getting more and more obvious that most of the abuse comes from people who're envious of footballers or are deeply unhappy with their own lives. Sometimes a mixture of both.
Maybe we'll soon have a manager that knows how to set up a midfield for the first time since 2010.Team will suffer without Xhaka. Rest of the midfielders can’t even keep the ball.
Harder job now for Emery.
The **** in Chief has thrown another player under the bus, this time the captain that he named.
This is quite accurate
To be fair Emery summed up the situation better than most.The **** in Chief has thrown another player under the bus, this time the captain that he named.
This is quite accurate
on how Xhaka is…
He is training normally with the team, he didn't play at Liverpool and he is continuing and above all has remained focused on tomorrow.
on looking after Xhaka…
The first is the person. The human like everyone feels [emotions]. Xhaka’s issues last week is one issue that needs time to recover the normality with him and with us.
on the abuse players have to deal with…
Everybody maybe will have some social media on their phone, on the internet, on the web, but really to use it is only to be intelligent. We can respect the people on social media but also we have to separate how much is real and [whether or not] every supporter is following that. For me, the good response is how the supporters respond in our stadium. We have a lot of supporters around the world and we respect them but the real response is in the stadium. In the stadium sometimes, it is normal when we are not winning that they respond with some criticism. It is normal. To the coach, to the players, but also a lot of players receive that criticism in the stadium and then when you recover and when you come back with a good performance, they forget that and also they applaud the players and the team. This is our objective, and our objective tomorrow is to win, connect with the people and the supporters to respond to us and help us in the 90 minutes. This is our target tomorrow.
on how the players connect with the fans...
The connection is from using our quality, using our energy, to play in our capacity to break Wolves' gameplan. In 90 minutes, we need to be intense and clear with our skills. We also know that this is difficult. We must remember that this year we haven't lost at home and I think we are feeling strong. We are not winning with big results against the opposition but we are winning more than we are not. We drew two matches but we've won all other matches [at home]. Last year, we felt very strong with our supporters in the Emirates and this year we are starting without the same strength with our supporters. We are playing with confidence and imposing our gameplan, and we will build that connection. I am confident with our work in this process and I think tomorrow is a good opportunity, as good as the first opportunity after the last matches to show that. The objective is the three points but also for me it's to play.
on whether Xhaka can redeem himself to the fans...
Okay, I want to finish with that. He said sorry, he gave the apologies to the supporters, to everybody. Now the focus is on tomorrow's match.
C’mon now, Pogbas had online death threats, racist abuse and I assume we’ve all seen the video of the United “fan” telling him to his face he’s not fit to wear she shirt.
This situation isn’t unique to Arsenal in any way.
Shut down the internet I say! (Apart from certain key video sites of course)
has anything been issued officially by the club condemning the abuse? it doesn't seem right that Xhaka gets punished but the trolls are rewardedEven Bellerin had a lot of such calls of "You're not fit to wear our shirt" in an away game few seasons ago (think it was WBA or Palace away). Our away fans even refused to hand him the ball for a throw-in until they finished their calls.
Wenger had commented how this has deeply touched Bellerin and he was withheld for few games.
Every player reacts differently, but to have your captain treated that way is despicable.
Do we know it was Emery? Maybe it was above his head.
Xhakas statement was poorly worded, confusing issues & potentially harmful to the club.
I dont believe the club actually published it directly just a poor quality image. Its a mess all round.