When news first broke that Mikael Silvestre had legged it away from City for a medical at Arsenal, United fans had a bit of a chuckle. Whilst a loyal servant for nine years, Silvestre had often been a weak link and was ridiculed by many of our opponents. A useful squad player but a disaster as a starting player in the centre. With Arsenal fans priding themselves on their “attractive football”, it was funny that their manager had actually paid money to take away one of our worst players. Given the fuss Ferguson made over Gabriel Heinze’s possible move to Liverpool, it certainly spoke volumes over what our manager expected Silvestre to achieve.
Still, the Arsenal fans flooded the blog, claiming it was a steal.
“Arsene Wenger can turn a mediocre player like Silvestre into a tremendous player.”
“I’m an Arsenal fan, and I think that its a pretty good signing for us. We need a bit of experience and he’s got that in abundance.”
“First Aaron Ramsey now Mikael Silvestre. WHAT NEXT? The title.”
“Decent signing for us gooners…with our slightly dodgy defence and frequent injuries, experienced cover on the cheap is fairly sensible.”
I know I wasn’t the only one thinking Arsenal fans would have been pissing themselves if this signing had been rumoured a week before it actually happened!
Silvestre has today spoken about the difference between United and Arsenal, although I think he sells United short a bit.
“At United, the squad is built in little stages but always around their pillars, Scholes, Giggs and Neville,” said Silvestre. “They are the club’s identity, their points of reference on the pitch and in the changing room. At Arsenal, it functions more by generations. There has been that of Vieira, Pires, Henry. Now it is that of Fabregas, Walcott, Song, Ramsey. We give responsibility to these youngsters very early and we let them grow together. At Arsenal, youth isn’t just an excuse.”
All you have to do is look at the team Ferguson played in the FA Cup semi-final to see that United also give responsibility to youngsters early on. Aged 17-years-old, Duncan Edwards made his debut for United, as did Ryan Giggs, as did Federico Macheda. It’s deep within the roots of this club to put faith in and play youngsters.
Regardless, with Arsenal travelling to Old Trafford for the first leg of our European Cup semi-final, Silvestre has admitted he will find it strange going to the visitors’ changing room.
“It is going to be weird going into the visitors’ changing room, to see the supporters and all the people who work at the club again,” he added. “It is going to be moving. Nine years at one club, it’s a long time, it is a part of my life. And it isn’t any old club, it is a legendary club. I could have stayed for my 10th year and had my testimonial. It surprised everyone that I moved but I wanted a new challenge. Ferguson did me a favour.”
Here’s hoping for a Silvestre penalty, he owes us one or two!
Man Utd News 24/7
Oh well he may make mistakes, but at least he didn’t put a foot wrong against utd at emirates in November. Perhaps he’ll raise his game again tomorrow night and this article may come back to haunt you!
lulz which arsenal fan said that???? Arsenal fans demand an experienced world class centre back but wenger bought him… the fans took it as a mockery!!
good servant for us tbh, even with him being one of our worst players. i cant recall him complaining about not getting games etc, unlike a certain argentinian..
Secret Agent Silvestre should be on duty come wednesday.
As said above, he was a good player for the club, and committed to us. I wouldn’t ridicule him anymore.
if only wenger had spent almost 17m on nani eh?
“First Aaron Ramsey now Mikael Silvestre. WHAT NEXT? The title.”
Like any good players, you need a run in the side. Unfortunately Silvestre hasnt had that and what you see in his poor play is caused by the lack of confidence. Yes he lacks pace and can generally be outmuscled by someone like Drogba. But there is no shame there.. the likes of Drogba have terrorised the best defences in the world.
All in all, whilst not the signing we were clamouring for, its not bad for us to have someone who has an experience of a top side. I dont think he is selling Utd short and no he does not owe you a penalty either.
I can assure you no Arsenal fan I spoke to or read comments of felt anything than utter disbelief that we should be signing a Man U reject. Especially one who was so patently past his best 9for what that was worth).
The only excuse I can give in Wenger’s defence is he must have been trying and failing to sign someone else and Silvestre was a last ditch replacement for Senderos who’d already left for AC Milan.
If he starts tomorrow we’ll go out of the Champions League before we even get to Emirates. That is my view and one which i wont enjoy being proved correct on. Djourou HAS to start even if not fully match fit.
As an Arsenal fan I am still full of admiration for Man Utd and the way they play. But football is largely about money and no discussion of the relative merits of the top teams should fail to take this into account. Put simply, Arsenal are simply not in the same league as Man Utd, Chelsea or even Liverpool when it comes to spending money. Fergie is the best manager in the world for spending other peoples money and he has the silverware to back it up. Perhaps in a few years Arsenal will be able to compete at a higher level than now but at this moment they have decided to put their money into a new stadium instead. Personally, I think that Wenger has done an amazing job considering that he has only spent £3.5 million net over the past 4 years while Chelsea have spent about £150 million over the same period. If Wenger had spent close to £70 million on Hargreaves, Carrick, Anderson and Nani Arsenal would be broke now. Man Utd merely put it on the slate to be repaid at some later date. So come on Man U fans, we know you have a great team but give Arsenal just a little credit for trying to live within their means.
I dont know where you found those comments. Its not what was being said around the emirates either at the time, or since.
He was a ‘cheap’ squad player to back up the defence in case of injuries (like recently) and has done just that.
He has had some excellent games, but as many disasters. All in all, as expected.
There is a shortage of good defenders in the EPL and even top players like Vidic and Ferdinand have had some stinkers this season.
I think this semi is going to be a classic struggle, and I wouldnt want to call it.
Arse fans live on ROM..even when it isnt an arse related story……on this thread cue the 1000 messages that are inevitably going to come.
Ex players always love to play well against their old teams….hope that isnt the case.
Right arse fans..comment away
@Rog
Yeah your right we are not in the same league as United, Chelsea and Liverpool but don’t think the size of a club is determined by the amount of cash you flash.
Man United and Liverpool ARE big big clubs, Chelsea have spent money trying to be a big club and they compete at a high level but they are not as big as us in terms of fanbase and history. Historically(and probably still now in terms of fans) Spurs are probably still a bigger club.
As for Sylvester…. I always wondered how he played for Man Utd anf France for so long whilst seemingly not being that good. I hoped when we signed him that he would bring some experience to our young side however he hasn’t been good and you could say he is up there with Igor Stepanovs and Pascal Cygan as being a liability. We alwasy seem to have a scapegoat centre half on the books at Arsenal and no sooner to we ship off Sendoros to Milan we get Sylvester!!!!
I’m hoping he is out of the game tomorrow, but if he plays I stand by my prediction of him scoring an own goal on his return to OT.
Syl o Syl, hope u remember Costas message last week or so…u did well against Torres…but please remember ur bad oldself tomorrow!!!!! Your share of the Medals will surely meet when we return from Rome
firstly i think you lot have got it twisted,heinz beans was different he wanted to leave an fergie wanted him to stay,he was tryin to be sneaky, sylvestre gave his best for united an united decided that they would repay him with a last payday by lettin him move with minimum fuss for a fee which covered a few medical bills that would also allow a decent contract be given to the player, heinz was more of an im leaving and fuck you fergie type of deal, lets not get silly now,sylvestre is a united legend lmaooo
im glad we got sylvestre because of the injury to gallas an recently djourou, he wouldnt have been my first choice as a signing no way but im glad he is there,fucking 4ft head 2ft body man
Heinze was only sold because Fergie wanted to sell him. He wanted to go to Liverpool but was made to go to Real, not an awful move after United but it was all on bad terms.
Fergie only sells players he wants to sell, otherwise Ronaldo would have gone to Barcelona in the summer, instead there was the threat of leaving him in the stands, which he never would have done, but it was said to prove a point.
Silvestre was a decent enough player for us at the time, but it shows how our standards have grown since then when you look at the players bought in since. I think we let him go on good terms as he was a loyal servant to us, a decent person and not one to moan when he wasn’t first choice every week.
The main reason we sold him to one of our main title rivals is that there’s going to be no big side effect from us losing him and you gaining him. He could’ve disappeared off the face of the planet and Arsenal and United would be no worse or better off.
He won because he got a decent wage from it, United won as they no longer had to pay a player who does nowt and Arsenal won as they needed a big, dopey French utility man at the back
id agree with that,ideally a couple arsenal players could have learnt how to clear a ball with intent off the big head and at most he may have played a couple league games against the hulls and the man citys, wenger probably wishes he splashed the cash now looking at the games sylvestre is being asked to perform in
and i dont think fergie really wanted to sell heinz,i just think heinz didnt wanna sit on the bench
Heinze couldn’t face the fact that Evra had overshadowed him.Instead of trying to regain his place, he chose to bitch and complain.That’s not an attitude that Fergie or Wenger would tolerate but apparently Benitez liked it.Goes to show…
SIlevestre was a good servant but he is an Arsenal player now.I hope we win,simple as that.He will do what he has to to help his club.
i think Djourou will star anyway,possibly even with sylvestre even at left back instead of gibbs
still don’t understand the decision to send Cenderos to Milan.
anyway it is all their problems.
senderos had to go to milan just so that wenger wouldnt feel the desire to pick him lol, he was unlucky in the sense any mistake meant arsenal concede, even titus bramble never got punished so bad on every slip or short pass
testimonial? hahaha
Testimonial’s are not only for players who played in the first team for 10 years but also players who were actually very good for the club. Silvestre was not the latter
arsene wenger
Senderos was quite good on many matches. i nthe games against us as well.
completely agry with your point ) but you’ve got Sily. ) That’s Wenger’s choice so be it )
“First Aaron Ramsey now Mikael Silvestre. WHAT NEXT? The title.”
cause silly and ramsey = how to win a title
silvestre & toure was shite against the dippers.Fergie had sold pique earlier in the summer & would have definitely kept silvestre as back up, but Fergie realised silves was not good enough & sold him.
I don’t think Fergie wanted to sell Heinze originally, he didn’t buy the guy thinking he’ll have to get rid of him but the fact that he wanted to go to Liverpool instead of fight like a man for his place was beyond belief!
We loved Heinze to start with, we sang Argentina!! every time he played. In the end, it was best for everyone that we sold Heinze. We had somebody better than him in Patrice Evra, where as with Ronaldo he’s a one off kind of player who nobody else could really replace.
It was quite strange to see Wenger sell Hleb and Flamini and until buying Arshavin, replacing them with nobody who could make a difference in games instantly.
Game should be good tomorrow… hopefully United won’t defend like they did against Spurs and Villa!
I used to cringe in fear everytime lightbulb head got anywhere near the ball for United… sure, he paid his dues as a squad player, but I couldn’t be happier that he is playing on the opposition, I will not jump in anticipation any time he is near the ball, knowing full well that the likes of Rooney or CR will expose him for the pleb he is.
I think well of Silvestre, really. After all he was our player for 9 years. But I won’t be arguing over his qualities, either. Let’s hope he has an off day.
I was always against signing Sly. I think its one of Wenger’s worst signings, i hope he is nowhere nere OT tomorrow.
I used to laugh at my manc mates back in the day for having Sly in their team. Karma is a b*tch!
He cost 750 000.00 pounds, i think Wenger new what he was getting and i think Alex new what he was selling.
AW has always talked about being worried of stifling the growth of young players. I think AW was buying knowledge rather than perfromance, more so that he had become injury prone. AW is very clever and he is capable of identifying real problems and applying the right solutions.
Silvestre is not a good defender but that doesn’t mean he can’t show the one ones how to defend, especially set pieces which was our problem last season and at the beginning of the season. Morinho never played top flight football but nobody can question his abilities in teaching others how to play well.
I wouldn’t want him to play tomorrow though.
arsene wenger – Heinze left because he wasn’t prepared to fight for his place and Fergie doesn’t stand lack of drive/fight. Fergie said he could go for £X which is when the whole Liverpool malarky started. The argument was that Heinze had it in writing that he could go for £X but when liverpool offered exactly that amount Fergie still said no because it was the dippers.
Fergie knew what he was doing and didn’t want a player who was not prepared to fight for his place – he was up against a £5m Evra, not a £50m star signing he had no chance against. Pathetic in my opinion and Fergie was of the same opinion…. ergo Fergie WANTED rid, not the other way around… and good riddance imho
I actually don’t think it is right slagging Mikael. After all he was with us for 9 years and in that time he did actually have some good games and got some important goals ie the dippers!
chelski have been watching uniteds video of how to defend against barca
if united can beat arsenal
they can beat barca
they are the same freekin team
lot of work put in
trying to find that bit of magic
if it comes it comes
if it doesnt it just doesnt no real plan b
Barca have not changed a bit from last year.Still trying to walk the ball into the back of the net.If we go to the final i don’t want to face Chelsea again.Sick and tired of closing our season against them.
Wonder if this will make the news??!! If we’re going to contest things this vehemently I would say this was a pretty obvious one to shout about, this being the CL semi final and all!! Now lets all say Chelsea bought the ref shall we? I thought not!
http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/1b/fullj.9ac766f0af9f6eab22de338ab2ca162a/9ac766f0af9f6eab22de338ab2ca162a-getty-fbl-eur-c1-barcelona-chelsea.jpg
The point being, if we really looked for stuff, we would find ‘turning points’ more often than not – its just plain silly that, and exposes the ABU hypocrisy.
Ballack should have also been sent off.
Ballack is a thug, and he looks it too. I’m glad we failed to sign him.
He’s an experienced, short term squad player. The fact he plays is down to bad luck for Gallas and Djourou lacking fitness. Our young CBs like Djourou, Nordtveit and Bartley, and Senderos when/if he returns, will push him out of contention before too long.
yes, Chelsea played dirty kind of football yesterday. We played cautious football against Barca last year as well but a different kind of attitude i think. Ugly match.
i dont like this article. terrible or not, he served united for 9 years, gave us what he could, and he never left in bad taste. why are we slagging him off again?
Rog, as eloquently as you wrote your post about Arsenal not having the spending power of Utd, that old argument doesn’t wash with me. You imply that you are on a different level to Utd when it comes to transfers. That is rubbish and a poor excuse for Wenger’s reluctance to spend the money. You are not exactly on your uppers. Arsenal are and have always been one of the wealthiest clubs in the world. Granted you built the Emirates and have to pay for it but big money transfers will have been factored into the equation when the stadium was financed over the long term. Don’t know if you still do it but your club used to announce gate receipts when the attendance went up on the scoreboard when the Emirates first opened the gates. Arsenal also used to have a massive portfolio of property investments in London, many of them bought decades ago. Perhaps if these had been sold when the property boom was at it’s peak more money would have been available. You have a massive following in Ireland, Italy and also the Far East, another lucrative source of income. As a fan, be well aware that the ‘Emirates needs to be paid for’ excuse won’t last forever.Many clubs have built new stadia albeit not on the scale of the Emirates and have still competed on a proportional level in the transfer market.Rog you have a terrific young team but I believe Wenger’s lack of activity in the transfer market will not provide the older more experienced players to complement the youth. You can compete financially, your club are minted. Wenger has set the standard with the young players, your board have become too comfortable with this arrangement and don’t want to spend. Big difference to not having the money.