Former Arsenal legend and centre back Martin Keown has revealed his disappointment at Alexander Hleb’s recent quotes stating that he wants to play elsewhere.
Hleb, 27, is likely to leave the club this summer after announcing publicly his displeasure with life in London mentionning the “chaotic streets (of London)” one of the reasons for his rumoured departure to Spanish champions Barcelona.
Keown told 4thegame:
“From what I can see – from an outside perspective, I’m not involved with the club – Alex is trying to wriggle his way out of the club, instead of just coming out and saying that he wants to leave.
“It’s disappointing because I don’t remember him having won a trophy and I think players in the past, like Henry, Vieira, Pires and Anelka, they all left with trophies under their belt.
The ex-Gunners’ hardman admitted he’d be for Hleb staying at the Emirates, but understands nothing can be down about his imminent departure to Spain.
“I’d like Hleb to stay a little bit longer and win a trophy, then he can deserve the right to go and make his money somewhere else, because there is a lot left in him as a player, as there is in Adebayor.
“But as an ex-player, you can feel sure that Arsene Wenger will make the right decision for Arsenal Football Club.”
The right-winger joined Arsenal in 2005, signing a four-year contract, after the club paid £10.2m for his services.
Tags: Adebayor, arsenal, Barcelona, Contract, hleb, keown, Wenger
July 15, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Hmmm, interesting article.
I’d like to see Hleb stay as well.
July 15, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Hleb is certainly a talent but I feel several players are capable of stepping up and replacing him.
July 15, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Agreed George, good comment.
July 15, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Yep, I agree George. Nasri, Walcott etc are all capable of replacing Hleb. I will miss some of the stuff he has in his locker though, the fantastic feint’s, skills, some great moments.
July 15, 2008 at 7:13 pm
I for one won’t be disappointed to see the back of him. Take a look at his goals scored and assists in the past 3 seasons and see if you don’t agree. He has been undoubtably very nice to watch a few times over the time he has been there, but compare him to say Pires, or going further back Magic Merson and there is no comparison.
Lets just hope Nasri has more effect in both creating and scoring goals, as I’m sure Theo will.
July 15, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Goals and assists aside apart from Fabregas he was the essential aspect of Arsenal playing the football they did last season. Close control and dribbling ability probably the best in the premiership.
I would love for him to stay and have Nasri on one side with Hleb on the other.
July 15, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Hleb cost £10.2m. €15m is £11.2m TODAY, but Hleb was purchased in 2005, so you’re suppose to use the exchange rates of July 2005, not today.
July 15, 2008 at 7:30 pm
The information is from BBC Football which I trust as a reliable source. Edited..
July 15, 2008 at 7:31 pm
I feel I’m repeating myself but.. Hleb is a player who can be replaced, actually almost every player is. But I’m worried, the boss has been talking about keeping the squad together and adding maybe two or even three experienced players.
And where are we now? Hleb surely leaving, Flamster already gone, Gilberto going or the worst of all, maybe even Adebayor going. And new faces.. Nasri, Rambo and Vela. So is it all going by the plan the gaffer had? Is it going like the boss told us fans?
Do I or do you accept if we’re once again lose the title or whatever cause we’re having just NOT enough experience in the squad?
July 15, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Look, Arsene obviously knows but Hleb was always very one footed and for a player described as an attacking midfielder there are simply no excuses for his weak stats on both goals and assists. Personally, I will never forget the fact that he gave away the needless free kick on the edge of the box that allowed Alex to score for PSV and kick us out the Champo league….when all we needed to do was hang on for 0-0 another 5 mins. F-him. He’s a one footed twat who will not go down in the history of the club with the greats and who cares….Arsene knows…..
July 15, 2008 at 8:30 pm
At this stage I’ll be more cut up to see Gilberto leave than Phleb Gil rarely spoke bad of Wenger when left on the bench. Which must have been hard given the fact he was captain of Brazil and an invincible. Then you get wankstain going ”oh no he shoots too much” ” oh big cities scare me”. Now I’m not a professor of Geography, but i always knew London is a big city, so why move there in 2005.Fucking greedy mits me thinks, now he’s going to cash up and move to a relatively big city, back to school or get a better excuse, twat.
July 15, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Martin Keown – legend?
Hmmm
July 15, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Walcott can do Hlebs job, he’s coming in to his own now. The latter part of last season we were seeing a more consistant player and making progressing and improving game after game. We’ll see more of Walcott this season being rotated with Nasri and also Nasri to cover for Rosicky and i expect him (Walcott) to have a huge impact. My only concern is DM. I think Wenger will use both Song (also cover at centre half) and Djourou (centre half cover too) for DM role unless we buy someone else!!! This is purely based on an injury free season which isn’t going to happen. We needed 3 maybe four players at the end of last season as our squad was way too skinny, we’ve acquired 2 players, lost one and might just lose another 2 which puts us further back than at the end of last season…..
July 15, 2008 at 8:53 pm
dan the man – I cant believe people keep going on about his foul against PSV. I mean he didn’t give away a penalty like Kolo Toure did against Liverpool, but I never hear anyone critize Toure for that. You probably think Rosicky is the better player (even though he never plays) and that Adebayor is a quality striker.
I’m with Gooner 14 – would love to see Hleb on the right and a quality midfielder on the left, which is something we didn’t have all season. Too much ended up going through Hleb and our play became predictable. So long Hleb and thanks for all the possession…
July 15, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I’ll miss Gilberto too. His performance against Spurs in the Carling Cup was awsome – and didn’t he play against Man Utd in the FA cup? Nine goals conceeded through the invisible wall.
July 15, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Its a team sport Hainault, theres such thing as being match rusty it’d be hard to put in match winning performances when you get a few cup games here and there, and in one of those games he was senior to everyone by some way and Fabianski captained I know it wasn’t against spurs or manu bit it must’ve affected him don’t you think.
July 15, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I for one i am not bothered…..if he lives i am happy, if he stay i dont mind.I know that the le-boss knows.I just wanna take this opportunity though to thank helb for the wonderful work he has done for us over the past three years as an arsenal player.His dribbling skills,his ball control were up there with the best!!I salute you mr Helb,but stop lying that its the noise in london that is causing you to run.
I belive u are thinking about the money as u are approaching the big 3 and 0………Another reason i think why helb is runig away is because of what happened to eduardo……he thinks all teams come to injure arsenal players.may be am wrong! some one can correct me.
July 15, 2008 at 9:35 pm
its a fair point jrock about him getting injured i never thought like that. I’m the same i loved what he did on the pitch for us he was definitely a big factor of how we were in contention last year’ i just think what he’s doing with the press is less than desirable. I think also people who say about his lack of goals don’t know football as well as they think they do.He’s a midfielder thus should be judged on assists and general build up play which has to be said was as good and in some respects better than Ronaldo.
July 15, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I rate Hleb so highly. He made our attacks so pleasant to the eyes. Yes he did not score that many goals but he helped split the opposition defence with such devastating effect. I for one would love to see him & Nasri in our midfield. What a mouth watering prospect that would be. Entertainment & grace personified!!!!
July 15, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Never liked Hleb. Leaving without any medals says something – the going is getting tough and he’s running away. Gutless heartless spineless pleb (with half a brain at best).
His only talent is to hang on to the ball for about ten seconds, often when he should have released it earlier. When he did release it, he gad about a 50-50 chance of finding a teammate. Few if any goals or assists, no tackling ability, and a bad attitude when asked to play on the wing. Goodbye already, pleb. (Still not gone? Sh1t!)
This season, Walcott, Nasri, Vela and Rosicky should provide ample coverage in the wide positions, so that area (where we were short last year) is at least sorted.
If we can bring in Yaya and either keep Ade or get a decent replacement (Villa or Huntelaar or someone), then all will be well barring major injuries.
In an ideal world, it would be nice to see Micah Richards and Scott Carson come in also, but who knows? (You are going to tell me that’s a certain someone who believes Eboue to be worth something. I suppose stranger things have happened…)
July 15, 2008 at 10:51 pm
And it’s sad to see Gilberto go – proper man, proper legend.
July 15, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Hleb is good. But against a robust team???? There is a big ? on him. Why Arsenal loses against Chelsea and Man Utd when the only result we need is a win? My answer is, 1) poor finishing by Adebayor which see him unable to score considered the chances he had, 2) Hleb just not in the game. As a supporting striker he didn’t create enough chances for himself and he didn’t score enough considering his position last season as a supporting striker. 3) Gallas unable thinking clearly. He just out of form from Birmingham draw (where he kick the ad) until we completely out from all comp. 4) Flamini mistime tackle near the box cost many goal from free kick (Hargreaves goal is one of them)
July 16, 2008 at 5:51 am
You people are morons , what is all this shit about arsene knows and all? Yes the man is good but he needs quality material to win cups. Look at the 2003/2004 squad and compare it with what we have now ,we are miles behind manu and chelsea ,dont be fooled by last years over achievements cause it wont happen again! WE NEED PLAYERS NOT THE FRENCH UNDER 23.
July 16, 2008 at 6:28 am
not really i believe injuries have stopped us from winning trophies in the last 2 years i think man u were lucky once again because even chelsea had problems with drogba terry lamps czech and arsenal with v persie rosiky sagna gallas i remember wen we had no walcott rosicky eboue diaby and had to play with toure as right mid 1 player is no issue but wen u have 5 and 6 then ur fucked take ferdinand ronaldo rooney and vidic see wat happens
July 16, 2008 at 7:24 am
some of you are either blind or idiots. hleb created so many chances only for adebayoretard to miss it all. (notably at old trafford) plus a few crucial penalties earned and dont forget those wrongly not given! he is a class player who is tired of stupid strikers wasting his created chances.
but im not worried, cos nasri , ramsey and vela look REALLY READY to explode.
adebayoretard, please, fiak off n dont look back.
July 16, 2008 at 11:37 am
10 goals in a 130 games…. whos gonna miss that?
July 16, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Hleb is one of the most intelligent attacking midfielders out there. But, if his heart is not with the gunners then he is welcome to regret his decision while warming the Barcelona bench, alongside Henry, because his style of play fitted perfectly with the gunners game. He was my favourite lost season.
July 16, 2008 at 7:35 pm
what really frustrates me is that we are [...] that close to having a good enough squad to compete next year… Gareth Barry (to help translate Ramsey’s local dialect!) and Arshavin (I’ve checked and it means “Arsenal player” in Russian!) would do us fine and maybe a central defender (Gilberto would have been ample cover but now he’s off to bubbleland so someone else is needed)… yet i spend every evening sharing despair with Arseblog (oops!) and others over whether we’ll end up so short of a squad to challenge for the PL and CL for another year… that it would be the equivalent of Michael Corleone “coming out of the can with just his d*ck in his hands” in my humble opinion… come on Arsene, do the right thing, you know it makes sense….