Thommybhoy
Established Member
I was really looking forward to this as did all of other 13 fans that started the trip from Zagreb on Tuesday, unfotunately couldn't go to Austria so 9 of us went to Bad Waltersdorf.
It was really nice to meet all those Gooners in one place in pub in Hungary and on stadium. For me that was a new experience since I never had the opportunity to go to a home game and when Arsenal was in Zagreb I went staight to the game. We also had made in Croatia an official flag that every fan loved it was the biggest and the best
, You probably saw it during the coverage on TV.
Haladas players and fans were really excited about the game and sometimes it went too far. After the game their fans tried to start a riot behind Arsenal stand, but police stopped that. They had their spy on Arsenal stand to know who to attack. After police stopped that, we all headed towards our cars that were mostly parked on the same place near that pub. Our Croatian memebrs from Split had parked on the opposite side. So those "fans" wanted to fight them. Eight of Haladas were walking towards 4 of our Gooners in Arsenal shirts. When they saw they arrived in a car with Croatian licence plate (Split), biggest of them, really big guy, walked towards them and asked them if they were Torcida of Hajduk, when they said "no", he asked what are we thinking being Croats and supporting Arsenal, so he tried and failed to hit them and then called the others. Our boys didn't have other option than to ran towards the stadium got the police to reslove this, police knew who we were talking about, they apperenlty often make problems. Obvoiusly we didn't feel like staying there for much longer so we got the gas and some food and went in direction of Bad Wltersdorf.
We got a really nice hotel nearby stadium.
Youngsters that were in BW are: Randall, Lansbury, Wilshere, Coquelin, Simpson and Gavin Hoyte, others were not. Kolo, Rosi, Eduardo and Cesc were not there for obvious reasons, fighting injuries and sickness (Kolo, Rosi, Eduardo), and given more vacations (Cesc and also Eduardo)
Over there You can only get a pictures with players and autographs after the practice. I can't resist to say I have pictures of me with Jack, Justin, Gael, AW, Boro, Rice, Simpson, Theo, Niclas, Djourou, Phil, Manny and Fabianski. And autographs of all except RvP, Randall and Diaby.
RvP rarely felt like signing autographs or taking photos, same goes for Gallas and Ade, all 3 seemed to have something on thier mind. All three GKs (Manny, Fabi and Don Vito) could sign million autographs and take a million pics every day. They three on and off the pich really clicked and are a good "gang". Also all three are really really good. So we won't see a new GK soon IMO.
Theo Walcott was most friendly one talked to everybody, signed million of autographs and posed for million pictures. Sagna, Clichy, Simpson, Wilshere, occasionally Niclas and all youngsters were always ready to pose for picture and to sign a autograph. Same goes for coaching staff. AW occasionally posed for photos and signed autographs, but he didn't arrive nor leave by coach, he drove there by bike no matter the rain, but we eventually caught him and got our way with him, and by that I mean got his autograph and picture taken.
Samir Nasri and other Euro08 and African players were usually aside. They did play some football and trained some actions, but mainly worked on strength.
What was also noticable in training, Sagna is a MONSTER in the air, unstoppable. It seems like gravity works differently with him.
Similar goes for Niclas, amazing power in heading the ball and amazing jump power, he must the tallest player we had there, it looks he is much taller that others, must be the way he stands and runs.
Adebayor really has fantastic finishing now. Some of his finishes left all of us stunned. Last year in preparation period he couldn't score from anywhere and now his finishing was AMAZING!!
Wilshere always runs with his sholders down so he looks shorter. Coquelin is a beast he seems to adopted fastest.
Lansbury can play defence midfield and attack eaqually well.
What was also interesting to see is that when they were practicing offiside trap Boro Primorac and Pat Rice were signaling offside. They made, I'm sure, intentionally horrible mistakes and when players reacted they just said: "Bad ref, play on". So they are preparing them for that.
Gallas seemed to stuggle with injury and always arrived with the team but didn't leave with them, he stayed inside the stadium.
We had with us two Croatian Gooners from Split, they are absolute fun to be around. They had Cote d'Ivore flag. And two sombreros.
Now the show starts.
Everybody thought it was Ireland flag until they explained. They greeted Diaby, Djourou and Eboue with that flag on daily bases and shouted their names. All three remembered them, especially Eboue and greeted them. Eboue really is a funny guy always entertains fans. He didn't allow Ade to shoot on goal after one practice, he didn't want to give him the ball and Ade wnated that one (they were joking), then Eboue was GK and Ade did a great cronaldo impersonation when taking a shot and missing one. We have all that on tape (I'll get that in September, but maybe it will be sooner on Youtube, I'm going on holidays until Sep, so I won't be near PC). Also Clichy took photo of us (really us, well we did have 2 guys with sombreros) and some players with a professional camera that offical photographer brought and Niclas took down his pants. Eboue did a dance and everytime saluted our guys with Cote d'Ivore flag with a military salute.
Vela.
As I said they also had 2 sombreros.
Being from Dalmatia the have dark hair, bit darker skin. So everybody thought they were Mexicans. Even Vela. They sung to him "There is only one Carlos Vela,...." And other songs they invented that were actually good. So everytime Vela did something good in training or just walked by the show started. "Vela Vela, You are God" "One Carlos Vela,...." "Come stas Carlos?",.... They were a hit even among the fans and ladies with that sombreros. It didn't take long until Vela talked to them and the found out they are not Mexicans, but it didn't change much at all. Still we have photos with him and his autograph. They had their sombreros on when taking picture, but he didn't want to mess his hair with sombrero. So they teased him about it that they have better hair. We were told by some team employees that Vela is surely really happy about the reception he got from fans. That he must be surprised it will be like that. And honestly every picture with have with him shows that.
On last training we had a sheet with:
GOOD LUCK
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR
VELA COMO DIOS
Gael had a birthday on Saturday, but there was not training on Saturday, so we got him a greeting card and a birthday cake (pie) with a candle on Friday. He was also very happy about that. Hungarians gave him a bottle of something. And everybody sung him a "Happy Birthday" song.
Those two guys told Almunia he is better than Casillas, and he laughed and said he is not sure about that. When they said to Fabianski he is better than Boruc he just laughed and when they said to Mannone he is better than Buffon he also just laughed.
They tried to call Mannone with shouting "Don Vito", and Senderos who was near said quietly "Corleone".
There was a lot of fans from UK, Norway, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Rep., Italy & Austria.
All in all fantastic time. Lot of beer, lot of signing Arsenal song and lot of time watching Arsenal players train. A full time Arsenal covered week.
Hope You liked reading this.
I appologize for spelling and other errors.
Cheers!
Arsenal fans in Hungary
Front page of Austrian newspapers, we don't know German but I guess it says Karadzic is a Spur !??
Players who didn't play in Hungary in training
Samir Nasri in training
Gallas had some problems and he left the pitch earlier, he didn't always leave the stadium in coach he stayed inside the stadium longer than others
Nic, Bac, Rambo and Theo playing with the ball 1
Nic, Bac, Rambo and Theo playing with the ball 2
Bacary Sagna 1
Bacary Sagna 2
They played a game with no GKs, but with 2 goals for each team (Almunia scored twice and made a good dribble), one goal didn't have the net so they putted a smaller one in it thining no way ball can pass between goalpost of smaller and goalpost of bigger. Traore proved them wrong so a humourous debate took place:"No way it could pass there!"
It could, and Pat Rice solved that by moving the goal back
Robin van Persie
Armand Traore
Henri Lansbury, (There is only one) Carlos Vela and (Homer) Jay Simpson
Emmanuel Eboue
Francis Coquelin
Clichy tooks picture of Rambo and I think Diaby
Clichy takes pictures of fans, namely us
The closest the ran to our stand 1
The closest the ran to our stand 2
Jack Wilshere in a bit strange foot position
Arsène Wenger watches the training
Arsène Wenger on what is IMO good wallpaper photo
Eboue carries Adebayor 1
Eboue carries Adebayor 2
AW explains and players listen
Croatian Gooners' flag in Hungary (stewart took the pic)
Pat Rice
Boro Primorac
Johann Djourou
Philippe Senderos
Robin van Persie
William Gallas
Emmanuel Eboue
Samir Nasri
More pics of that funny debate, no way the ball can fit there 1
More pics of that funny debate, no way the ball can fit there 2
More pics of that funny debate, no way the ball can fit there 3
More pics of that funny debate, well it can after all
Carlos Vela 1
Carlos Vela 2
Arsène Wenger
Carlos Vela 3
Samir Nasri 2
Philippe Senderos 2
Gael Clichy gets a Birthday cake (well pie, actually) and a greeting card from us (CroGooners) and he also got a bag, with what seemed to be a bottle of something in it, from Hungarian Gooners
Arsène Wenger always comes to training on bike, no matter the rain
Samir Nasri 3
Johann Djourou, Emmanue Eboue and his trademark salute
Emmanuel Eboue, always smiling and entertaining fans
It was really nice to meet all those Gooners in one place in pub in Hungary and on stadium. For me that was a new experience since I never had the opportunity to go to a home game and when Arsenal was in Zagreb I went staight to the game. We also had made in Croatia an official flag that every fan loved it was the biggest and the best
, You probably saw it during the coverage on TV.Haladas players and fans were really excited about the game and sometimes it went too far. After the game their fans tried to start a riot behind Arsenal stand, but police stopped that. They had their spy on Arsenal stand to know who to attack. After police stopped that, we all headed towards our cars that were mostly parked on the same place near that pub. Our Croatian memebrs from Split had parked on the opposite side. So those "fans" wanted to fight them. Eight of Haladas were walking towards 4 of our Gooners in Arsenal shirts. When they saw they arrived in a car with Croatian licence plate (Split), biggest of them, really big guy, walked towards them and asked them if they were Torcida of Hajduk, when they said "no", he asked what are we thinking being Croats and supporting Arsenal, so he tried and failed to hit them and then called the others. Our boys didn't have other option than to ran towards the stadium got the police to reslove this, police knew who we were talking about, they apperenlty often make problems. Obvoiusly we didn't feel like staying there for much longer so we got the gas and some food and went in direction of Bad Wltersdorf.
We got a really nice hotel nearby stadium.
Youngsters that were in BW are: Randall, Lansbury, Wilshere, Coquelin, Simpson and Gavin Hoyte, others were not. Kolo, Rosi, Eduardo and Cesc were not there for obvious reasons, fighting injuries and sickness (Kolo, Rosi, Eduardo), and given more vacations (Cesc and also Eduardo)
Over there You can only get a pictures with players and autographs after the practice. I can't resist to say I have pictures of me with Jack, Justin, Gael, AW, Boro, Rice, Simpson, Theo, Niclas, Djourou, Phil, Manny and Fabianski. And autographs of all except RvP, Randall and Diaby.
RvP rarely felt like signing autographs or taking photos, same goes for Gallas and Ade, all 3 seemed to have something on thier mind. All three GKs (Manny, Fabi and Don Vito) could sign million autographs and take a million pics every day. They three on and off the pich really clicked and are a good "gang". Also all three are really really good. So we won't see a new GK soon IMO.
Theo Walcott was most friendly one talked to everybody, signed million of autographs and posed for million pictures. Sagna, Clichy, Simpson, Wilshere, occasionally Niclas and all youngsters were always ready to pose for picture and to sign a autograph. Same goes for coaching staff. AW occasionally posed for photos and signed autographs, but he didn't arrive nor leave by coach, he drove there by bike no matter the rain, but we eventually caught him and got our way with him, and by that I mean got his autograph and picture taken.
Samir Nasri and other Euro08 and African players were usually aside. They did play some football and trained some actions, but mainly worked on strength.
What was also noticable in training, Sagna is a MONSTER in the air, unstoppable. It seems like gravity works differently with him.
Similar goes for Niclas, amazing power in heading the ball and amazing jump power, he must the tallest player we had there, it looks he is much taller that others, must be the way he stands and runs.
Adebayor really has fantastic finishing now. Some of his finishes left all of us stunned. Last year in preparation period he couldn't score from anywhere and now his finishing was AMAZING!!
Wilshere always runs with his sholders down so he looks shorter. Coquelin is a beast he seems to adopted fastest.
Lansbury can play defence midfield and attack eaqually well.
What was also interesting to see is that when they were practicing offiside trap Boro Primorac and Pat Rice were signaling offside. They made, I'm sure, intentionally horrible mistakes and when players reacted they just said: "Bad ref, play on". So they are preparing them for that.
Gallas seemed to stuggle with injury and always arrived with the team but didn't leave with them, he stayed inside the stadium.
We had with us two Croatian Gooners from Split, they are absolute fun to be around. They had Cote d'Ivore flag. And two sombreros.
Now the show starts.
Everybody thought it was Ireland flag until they explained. They greeted Diaby, Djourou and Eboue with that flag on daily bases and shouted their names. All three remembered them, especially Eboue and greeted them. Eboue really is a funny guy always entertains fans. He didn't allow Ade to shoot on goal after one practice, he didn't want to give him the ball and Ade wnated that one (they were joking), then Eboue was GK and Ade did a great cronaldo impersonation when taking a shot and missing one. We have all that on tape (I'll get that in September, but maybe it will be sooner on Youtube, I'm going on holidays until Sep, so I won't be near PC). Also Clichy took photo of us (really us, well we did have 2 guys with sombreros) and some players with a professional camera that offical photographer brought and Niclas took down his pants. Eboue did a dance and everytime saluted our guys with Cote d'Ivore flag with a military salute.
Vela.
As I said they also had 2 sombreros.
Being from Dalmatia the have dark hair, bit darker skin. So everybody thought they were Mexicans. Even Vela. They sung to him "There is only one Carlos Vela,...." And other songs they invented that were actually good. So everytime Vela did something good in training or just walked by the show started. "Vela Vela, You are God" "One Carlos Vela,...." "Come stas Carlos?",.... They were a hit even among the fans and ladies with that sombreros. It didn't take long until Vela talked to them and the found out they are not Mexicans, but it didn't change much at all. Still we have photos with him and his autograph. They had their sombreros on when taking picture, but he didn't want to mess his hair with sombrero. So they teased him about it that they have better hair. We were told by some team employees that Vela is surely really happy about the reception he got from fans. That he must be surprised it will be like that. And honestly every picture with have with him shows that.
On last training we had a sheet with:
GOOD LUCK
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR
VELA COMO DIOS
Gael had a birthday on Saturday, but there was not training on Saturday, so we got him a greeting card and a birthday cake (pie) with a candle on Friday. He was also very happy about that. Hungarians gave him a bottle of something. And everybody sung him a "Happy Birthday" song.
Those two guys told Almunia he is better than Casillas, and he laughed and said he is not sure about that. When they said to Fabianski he is better than Boruc he just laughed and when they said to Mannone he is better than Buffon he also just laughed.
They tried to call Mannone with shouting "Don Vito", and Senderos who was near said quietly "Corleone".
There was a lot of fans from UK, Norway, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Rep., Italy & Austria.
All in all fantastic time. Lot of beer, lot of signing Arsenal song and lot of time watching Arsenal players train. A full time Arsenal covered week.
Hope You liked reading this.
I appologize for spelling and other errors.
Cheers!
Arsenal fans in Hungary
Front page of Austrian newspapers, we don't know German but I guess it says Karadzic is a Spur !??
Players who didn't play in Hungary in training
Samir Nasri in training
Gallas had some problems and he left the pitch earlier, he didn't always leave the stadium in coach he stayed inside the stadium longer than others
Nic, Bac, Rambo and Theo playing with the ball 1
Nic, Bac, Rambo and Theo playing with the ball 2
Bacary Sagna 1
Bacary Sagna 2
They played a game with no GKs, but with 2 goals for each team (Almunia scored twice and made a good dribble), one goal didn't have the net so they putted a smaller one in it thining no way ball can pass between goalpost of smaller and goalpost of bigger. Traore proved them wrong so a humourous debate took place:"No way it could pass there!"
It could, and Pat Rice solved that by moving the goal back
Robin van Persie
Armand Traore
Henri Lansbury, (There is only one) Carlos Vela and (Homer) Jay Simpson
Emmanuel Eboue
Francis Coquelin
Clichy tooks picture of Rambo and I think Diaby
Clichy takes pictures of fans, namely us
The closest the ran to our stand 1
The closest the ran to our stand 2
Jack Wilshere in a bit strange foot position
Arsène Wenger watches the training
Arsène Wenger on what is IMO good wallpaper photo
Eboue carries Adebayor 1
Eboue carries Adebayor 2
AW explains and players listen
Croatian Gooners' flag in Hungary (stewart took the pic)
Pat Rice
Boro Primorac
Johann Djourou
Philippe Senderos
Robin van Persie
William Gallas
Emmanuel Eboue
Samir Nasri
More pics of that funny debate, no way the ball can fit there 1
More pics of that funny debate, no way the ball can fit there 2
More pics of that funny debate, no way the ball can fit there 3
More pics of that funny debate, well it can after all
Carlos Vela 1
Carlos Vela 2
Arsène Wenger
Carlos Vela 3
Samir Nasri 2
Philippe Senderos 2
Gael Clichy gets a Birthday cake (well pie, actually) and a greeting card from us (CroGooners) and he also got a bag, with what seemed to be a bottle of something in it, from Hungarian Gooners
Arsène Wenger always comes to training on bike, no matter the rain
Samir Nasri 3
Johann Djourou, Emmanue Eboue and his trademark salute
Emmanuel Eboue, always smiling and entertaining fans
