Why We Really Hate Alexander Hleb…

It all started before last season even ended just before a massive Champions League encounter with AC Milan. Hleb and his agent met with Inter Milan, reportedly for ‘ice cream’ in one of the most pathetic cover-ups in football.

And in a complete act of cowardice, he stupidly punched Graeme Murty and got a 3 game ban, missing the last 3 games of the season.

Then the poor soul told us how much of a burden it is living in London, and how it’s too busy and chaotic. Can someone pass me the Kleenex?

Since then he’s successfully manufactured a move away from Arsenal and signed for Barcelona for £11.9 million.

And only a retard would think life in Barcelona would be quieter than at Arsenal! But that’s neither here nor there, because unfortunately the idiot doesn’t stop there does he?

Within hours of officially joining Barcelona, he declares how much Cesc Fabregas loves the catalan club and could move over someday. We all know this, but Hleb felt it necessary to publicly announce it and get the press all over it.

But are these the real reasons we hate Alexander Hleb?

Sure, he’s a complete cunt and yes he never shoots. But he was quality player.

I think the thing that really pisses me off is that the smug little bastard has joined a top quality club. Arsenal fans talk about players leaving Arsenal and never reaching the same level of success but you can’t honestly say that about Hleb or Flamini can you? After all, they never won anything with us and they are reaching their peak.

Only a bitter fan would say Hleb’s career is over – the guy is playing for one of the biggest clubs in Spain. And Flamini might be in the UEFA Cup next season but AC Milan are too good not to be in the Champions League in the next few years, especially if they can afford to bank roll players like Kaka and Ronaldinho.

And that’s the real problem.

It’s what he represents.

Which is we’re just not losing players who are 30 plus anymore and given their best years to the club. Petit, Vieira, Overmars, Henry, Lehmann, Gilberto, Freddie, Bobby and the others were over the hill, but players like Adebayor who are looking for leave are not.

Hell, I’ll say it. Ashley Cole was a fantastic player for us until the Chelsea debacle. And he left us at only 25. We’re not offloading players to lesser sides, they’re leaving for the likes of AC Milan, Barcelona and Chelsea.

Sure, we’re not the only club to do this, but at least when Beckham left United they got £25 million for him, and when Robben left Chelsea they got £24 million. For Cole, Hleb and Flamini we got £16.9 million and a cry baby.

Great business.

 

42 thoughts on “Why We Really Hate Alexander Hleb…

  1. My fear is that Wenger is not assessing the situation properly. There’s no point stockpiling kids because they are “reliable” if they are going to leave a few years down the line anyway. For me, the balance is all wrong. The youth needs experience around it otherwise the composure to win big things is missing, every year there is less composure and more kids, while the big players get fed-up waiting.

     
  2. As I see it, its not that players leave when they’ve reached their peak, but its the fact they never hold the same standard of play after they leave. Viera was a decent example, he didnt exactly take a step down club-wise, but he never looked that good again. Same for Ashley, sure he’s done fair, but not like when he was a gooner. And I seriously doubt Hleb will succeed to a greater extent, at barca than he did in london.

     
  3. Yes we have lost some young players, 3 in 3 years now that are good enough to play first team. But in reality that is not so much a trend as this blog implies. Helb never fitted in, on the playing side or off the pitch. The simple truth is that I’m happy he’s gone, we will be a more potent attacking and counter attacking threat now that he is not there to run down blind alleyways and lose the ball. I always felt, even during the times he played well (which over his 3 year spell wasn’t often) that he held up counter attacks and never released the ball early. He was so frustrating. The likelihood is that Nasri could be a much better player and that Barca will have taken a big time under performer off our hands. As for Ashley Cole, well he is a special kind of prick. Again I think he’s replacement, Clichy is better now. He is also a lot younger and has his best years ahead of him. Losing Flamini a a blow however. Not least because his emergence last season limited opportunities for Diarra, who subsequently left the club. From what I’ve seen of him he is the better player too. However the holding midfield role is one that can be filled reliably, those types of players are less likely to blow hot and cold. As long as Wenger doesn’t do it on the cheap for the sake of being cheap and brilliant we should get someone in to plug the gap nicely.
    But I digress… my point is that while we have lost a few players in the last 3 years, it is not nearly so big a deal as some are making out. Every club loses players they would rather have kept from time to time. The important thing is that the supply lines are good and the finances are there. Pessimism seems to be the default state of mind for Gooners these days but I think we have turned the corner last year and we’ll win trophies this time around. At no stage last year did I believe that, I didn’t think they’d sustain the early season form and I was right. Another year on and players like Fabregas, Clichy, Bendnter, Walcott, Ade, Diaby, and Denilson are all coming into their own and are more men than kids. We’ll have Fran Merida and Carlos Vela to add to the list and of course we can surely hope that RVP and Rosicky stay injury free for a season. One or two additions to this squad and you are talking about a serious group of players who’ve been together for years and are now ready to win everything. For the first time in years I will be have a flutter at Arsenal to win the league in the bookies. It’s our time gooners!

     
  4. Well said,

    I have been making this point on a couple of other blogs for a while now. I see the Flamini transfer as a turning point in our recent transfer history. Before we used to get rid of players but now they choose to leave. We had let many players go on a free Bob, Edu, Sol – even under contract to name a few so Flam was a disaster waiting to happen. Our lack of a commercial approach and complacent and stingy nature when it comes to contracts has cost us badly and will continue to do so. The board I am looking at you you bunch of out of out-of-step, stingy *****

     
  5. i dont hate hleb an iv been goin to arsenal matches for 24 years an had a season ticket for twelve,i just think every year were just two weak to win the league,but how do we improve,well the players who decide to leave make that decision for us,thanks hleb,hopefully nasri will score maybe double figures a season in a year or so

     
  6. losing Flam for free was a mistake that wenger will admit when he retires. selling Hleb and replacing with Nasri was not – we will improve on the wing I am sure of that. swapping Cole and Gallas was making the best of a bad situation. I dont think we did quite as well out of that as we’d hoped we had at the time. Had we already had a sol campbell type defender and Gallas was to link up with him then I think we would have got the better but having Toure and Gallas simply is not as strong. For years Toure went on about how important it was for him to be next to a player like Sol and we just thought that it was the sort of thing teammates say about each other, but it turns out he meant it. Toure never says the same thing about Gallas – though clearly would never criticise Gallas either.
    I know wenger is after a midfielder, but I still beleive its the cenrtre of defence where we are weak. sure we have numbers but we need a solid quality pair and we dont yet have it.

     
  7. Speak for yourself mate, we don’t hate Hleb. He’s one of the best players we’ve ever had, my favourite player, and we’ve just lost him. Looks like he will be desperately missed, only when we find next season that we’re not creating any chances or playing any nice football, might the fans, might, begin to appreciate what Hleb brought to the team. No doubt they will paint it instead as us missing Flamini, and Cesc isn’t able to play the football he used to without his protector, … bollocks, Cesc’s job was to play the ball simply to Hleb as much as he could, now he has no-one to give it to, he’ll struggle. We’re going to be passing back and forth across the middle constantly, for the fans their heads will be going back and forth like watching a match at Wimbledon. The only cunts as far as I’m concerned are our supporters.

     
  8. it’s none sense. why don’t you hate Ade? i have to say you simply don’t know how important Hleb is to ARSENAL or to Fabregas. i can’t see any hope from these young gooners if there are not more better recruits. if not, Champions League position at most this season i would say.

     
  9. Good post Hboy. Arsenal fans are so stupid that I don’t begrudge Hleb the move. Why the hell he should he slave his ass off making plays for others when the fans still treated him with contempt most of the time.

    People think that Barca fans will give him hell. I disagree, They will love his style of play- especially if they have a few converters in their side- and take to him. The spanish fans have more patience, it’s in their culture, so they will see the method to Hleb. Unlike the manic english culture, where everyone wants everything now. That’s why they can’t appreciate players like Hleb. They can only relate to Gerrard types in the main. Nice, direct and with a quintessentially ‘english’ style of play.

     
  10. I don’t get this, the guy meets Inter Milan illegally, moans about life in London (he didn’t have a problem for the last 3 seasons) and forces his way out (despite signing a long contract) and there are still people who like this guy?!

    Jesus Christ.

     
  11. And begrudge Hleb a move Rozza? Why doesn’t the fucking idiot hand in a transfer request then? Oh yeah, I forgot, I loses his ‘loyalty’ bonus if he does that.

    You sir are one of the most fucking stupid people I have ever seen.

     
  12. I’m neutral on him. Don’t like or dislike. All I know is loads of fans called him shit for three years do why the fuck he should consider what they think when a leading club is after him?

    I suppose you are one of the morons shouting shoot every five seconds at the emirates.

     
  13. I don’t hate Hleb but just wish his transfer was conducted with a bit more decorum. I don’t think any Gooners would begrudge Hleb if he came out and said he’d had 3 fantastic years at Arsenal but wanted to experience playing in Spain, just as Edu did when he left us. His agent can take a lot of the blame for that but then most agents seem to be cunts. As for ‘only’ getting £16.9m + Gallas for Cole, Hleb and Flamini, remember that we made huge profits from selling other players in the past – Anelka, Overmars, Petit.

     
  14. So you simply assume I called him shite for 3 years did you? I actually rated Hleb, and was a fan – but that isn’t relevant anyway, because his behavior this summer (and with Inter Milan especially) was truly disgraceful. Fan’s don’t want much, just some respect shown the club. They get paid well and have a responsibility to honour the contracts they sign. As I said earlier, if he wants to leave then just put in a transfer request. The problem was he didn’t have the balls to.

    Did anyone get pissed off when Henry left? No, because he wasn’t touting himself to every club in Europe. First it was Inter, then Real, then AC, then Barcelona… And if I recall Henry didn’t meet with clubs behind Arsene’s back.

    It’s not the fans he should be considering, it’s the club. And if you can’t even see that he disrespected the club and acted inappropriately then you are an idiot.

     
  15. That was directed at Rozza by the way.

    And Russ, those transfers were almost 10 years ago now. When did Wenger last make a major profit?

     
  16. Tapping up happens all the time. Hleb still insists he was merely passing tickets on to his agent’s son.

    I’m sure Hleb would have chosen Barca over Inter anyway.

    For me it doesn’t matter how he leaves and I don’t think he has conducted himself badly at all, and most would come to a similar conclusion if they excluded all the hyperbole nonsense that the media stew.

    It doesn’t matter what way Hleb would have conducted the transfer or what he said to justify it. Most fans would still call him a cunt anyway.

     
  17. I can’t believe how many proper Gooners have been mesmerised by Hleb’s quick feet that they cannot objectively assess his contribution to our game as a hole. The statistics show from last season that we were more likely to score and more likely to win when Hleb was not on the pitch. In reality, he slowed down attacks, over complicated the play and squandered countless chances in front of goal. Hleb killed off the kind of pinball passing that meant we were more likely to score from the oppositions corner than our own. On many occasions hos team-mates did not know what he would do next and his mental block against shooting seemed to infect other players around him. The actually stepped up to the mark in the latter half of the season and took games by the scruff of the neck and ran at defenders towards the goal (not away from it Hleb) – witness his magnificent run against Liverpool. Hlebs leaving is not a problem – Flamini however is another story.

     
  18. arsenal actually scored more goals and created more chances last season when hleb didnt play,so as far as i can see he wont be missed.and how many goals and assists did he have last season,ye not very much.

     
  19. i dont know wat the whole flamini debate is,were overating him, cesc was much physically stronger this season an gilberto turned into a peg leg,no disrespect,these facts played their part in making flam look better than he was, we didnt see one crunching tackle all season,the amount of kicks we recieved an flam didnt enforce no revenge,we need a proper enforcer not flam

     
  20. we need a midfield tough guy who makes bad men think twice before putting their studs on theo or robin this season

     
  21. some of us arsenal fans miss the point about hleb/flam leaving this summer. wenger’s not replaceing like for like. Both had prem/CL experience, wenger replaces them with youths. Ok his struggling with the notion that we may need some exp, but seems to not readly see that.

    For wenger to say that we lost two, but gained two and puts 17yr old ramsey in that equation, tells me why we have not won anything for a while. For all the wenger knows brigade, think for one minute, what have we won since wenger/arsenal embarked on this youth policy. I’ll tell you, NOTHING!

     
  22. Sorry about the typos in the last post (I’m not a scummer in disguise!) Horse agrees with me re: Hlebs effect on team performance. Obviously only time will tell, but I confidently predict that we will be more potent and direct in our attacking play next season and that Hleb will increasingly be relegated to the bench for Barca when they discover what kind of a player they have acquired.

     
  23. I’m not a member of the ‘Wenger knows’ brigade – far from it. He seems to have a blind spot when it comes to central defenders (Cygan, Stepanovs, Senderos). I think he would populate the entire team with clever, creative diminuitive midfielders if he could. Eduardo was the first real goal-scoring centre forward since Ian Wright – yes I know Henri was exceptional, but players like him don’t come round that often and certainly Adebayor isn’t fit to tie his laces. What has astounded me about Wenger this summer has been the number of ridiculous and contradictory statements/comments he has issued. I am not including the anti-arsenal slant that the press always puts on his comments. For a highly intelligent man, it was not very clever to announce that he had an open chequebook at the euros only to state that he couldn’t afford anybody a few days later. His early astatement that he wasn’t going to buy any defenders was a huge disappointment to many fans – what will he do if ‘Billy the sulker’ goes to PSG – promote Djourou who couldn’t even get in the Swiss side?

     
  24. everyones missing the point im sure we will get maximium points against the usual wiping boys in the league.it’s when we’er up against a top six team is when we have a chance of being found out with kids.I don’t want to sound like everyone else calling for players like villa,it’s not realistic.But we do need to strenghen this squard.Im still hurting from from last season,Besides if the girlfriend see’s me spend another season mopping about ,it’ll probably break us.In arsene we trust hopefully!

     
  25. I, like most people here, am a big fan of AW but he can get on my tits at times. The previous poster was right, he does have a mental block about CD’s – when in the Prem you need to be solid at the back, otherwise you get loser teams getting easy goals against you and you can’t hold a lead against the big teams. Sound familiar??? I was watching AW on ATVO today and he is getting annoying with the mystical answers he gives to everything. Of course he can’t say who he is targetting, but the vague and illusive answers he is giving, followed by the smirk is starting to wear thin. He says there is a month left in the window but we need people in now, and not just one, at least three, so that we can get them settled in to our style of play asap. Maybe he has a master plan up his sleeve and I hope he does but sometimes I think he is just stubborn, like at xmas when he didn’t bring cover in.

    I am beginning to fear that we will struggle for goals this year, certainly early in the season until we get the balance right, so it’s even more imperative we have two solid CD’s. With Kolo possibly out for the first few weeks that makes it even worse and now means Ponderous will be in and he always sucks early in the campaign….even more than he usually does. We could be struggling after a few games with ground to make up. I hope I am completely wrong and am waiting to see how the more serious friendlies go for more confidence, but I am worried. Is anyone else? Last year, the team had the motivation to show that they could survive TH14’s departure….this year you would wonder where the spirit and motivation is going to come from. there seems to be a lot of negativity in the air, mostly drummed by those tossers in the press but it’s there nonetheless.

    Plus, unless we build a stronger central defence and get someone in a defensive midfield role, I think Cesc might get fucked off with wasting his talents on making a champions league place. He’s won a Euro now so he’ll want to win things at club level. What do you guys think?

     
  26. I agree with Irishgooner, Wenger is beginning to lose some of the fans. The debate about whether playing fantastic entertaining football is better than winning trophies will go on and on. Certainly fans of other teams are all too happy to praise our beautiful football because they know that we will always give lesser teams a chance and are just making up the numbers in the top four. Fergie is not even bothering to wind up Wenger, concentrating on Liverpool and Chelsea because I don’t think he sees us as a serious threat for next season. And I’d like to know why, when the wage structure is so important, are we wasting wages on players like J Hoyte and Djourou who really will never be good enough for a first team place. A good powerful midfield ball-winner like Yaya Toure is what we need and an experienced centre back to give our beautifully creative players the freedom to weave their magic and entertain the footballing community.

     
  27. ive been dealing with digesting flamini’s transfer like any gunner, but do we not realise that the board had a chance on three occasions where flaminis reps had agreed principally contracts with arsenal, only for the board to shelve it each time…… lets be fair, each time>> he was not a priority player, he had outstanding qualities which shone through last season, but he was and will never be as great a player as we almost make out with our bemoaning his departure…….. we will have a great season this year as i felt we would last year…. an tho it did not finish like we hoped, it was certainly better than anyone else gave us credit after titi’s departure

     
  28. Being a great team is all about chemistry and sometimes managers just get lucky through injury to players etc and they are forced into experimenting with rs and it all falls into place. Unfortunately Wenger, like all great managers has a bit of an ego problem. Actually, the best midfield player to complete Arsenals line-up is the player he let go – Diarra, but we all know that there is no way he would admit he made a mistake in selling him when Flamini was soon to be out of contract. I really rate Diarra – he is better than Flam, a bit like Makalele but with better vision and ball skills and he would be the perfect partner for Cesc.

     
  29. Hleb didn’t choose to leave because the fans were on his back!! He chose to leave because someone else wanted to pay him more money also as the most divinely creative player, who held the ball up for the longest of time he was a target for the thug like players in the best league in the world to mash his legs at the earliest opportunity. Why would you want to go to work to be beaten up on a regular basis. He was wonderful to watch, yes it was frustrating that he didn’t shoot but what he added in creativity made the best entertainment. Man U have the trophy but we won the league without any doubt for the way we played. Hold your heads up Gooners we play the best football around. Arsene knows.

     
  30. Rasputin, stop wingeing about Diarra – hes gone! You talk about team chemistry and what we know is, that if Gilberto had been fit to start the season the Fab/Flam partnership might never have got off the ground so I agree that there is an element of luck that managers are often able to ride. Also at the start of last season almost everything worked for us and the goals were created and scored giving us a fantastic opportunity to gain ground on the chasers. We must be stronger in defence and this could be Senderos’ season. The stats show that when he played alongside Toure or Gallas we were better than the Toure/Gallas partnership. Let Gallas go. Come on Phillipe

     
  31. Wenger’s not stupid, he love statistics and Hleb’s departure obviously isn’t that much of a problem for him. Not sure if the people saying we made more chances without Hleb are true, but would make sense considering the situation around his departure. Wenger could have reported Inter and the other teams to UEFA/FIFA but let Hleb and his agent play all these games. That tells me he wasn’t bothered with him leaving.

    The crazy thing for me is that Arsenal will always score goals. It’s a completely obvious statement, and all we need is a solid defence. We are capable of scoring at least 1 or 2 goals per game so if we could keep clean sheets then we wouldn’t be a million miles away from winning things.

    Sagna and Clichy are awesome, but the Gallas/Toure partnership keeps getting exposed time and time again. We didn’t falter last season because we couldn’t score, it’s because we gave away stupid goals.

    We need Keown and Adams as defensive coaches so we can defend like the Arsenal of old.

    Just imagine we had a defence like Chelsea or Uniteds. We’d win the league.

     
  32. ALIAKSANDR HLEB YOU ARE A BACK STABBING LITTLE SHIT. I continued to give him the benefit of the doubt during the ice-cream fiasco, and I accepted his complaint about life in London and the lack of a christmas break in the EPL. Arsenal brought him out of obscurity and filled his wallet with enough quid to live a cosy life in Hampstead Heath. When it was confirmed he was off to Barca I was dissapointed but I could understand the move.

    What I can’t understand is why he would continue to try and destabalise OUR club (I’ve been a paying member for 5 years despite living on the other side of the world). Arsenal did Alex a favour, they let him go for less than he was worth- we should have at least recouped what we paid for Nasri- at a time when Arsenal really needed to show some solidarity in order to keep the squad together, he owes Arsenal alot. And the scrawny little turd knifes us in the back again.

    ALEX YOU ARE A DISRESPECTFUL DISGRACE OF A WORM AND I HOPE EVERY PHOTO OF YOU IN A ARSENAL SHIRT IS BURNT AND THE FLAMES ARE DOUSED WITH YID MANURE.

     
  33. Sorry the above was in reference to Hlebs comments that Cesc and Ade should go to Barca, and that Arsenal “doesn’t want to keep this team” or some shit along those lines

     
  34. Yes; Wenger is a genius, yes; I wouldn’t swap him for any other manager, but you can’t deny he has blind spots and a stubborn nature that sometimes get in the way of making bold decisions. You could view the appointment of Gallas as captain as a rather obvious attempt to keep a potential troublemaker on side. I am sure that Fergie would not have tolerated the Birmingham fiasco. IfToure is not to be the next captain by virtue of his length of service then it has to be Cesc. The measured statements he has issued lately prove him to be head and shoulders above any other candidate in his grasp of dealing with the media and his on-field leadership is there for all to see. So come on Mr Wenger – show you’ve got some nuts and appoint Cesc the next captain.

     
  35. I am going to tell you all of the only player that really interests me in the market right now and we NEED to sign him before anyone else does, his name is Sebastian Giovinco. This kid is going to be the worlds number one player for years to come injury and mentality permitting. I seriously have not seen a talent like this for years, forget C.Ronaldo who uses nothing but pace to beat players, this boy has real skill, the kind of skill, vision and understanding associated with legends like Maradona and Zidane, yes he is small but unlike Reyes he has real heart and is not affraid of being kicked a bit.
    Giovinco is my favourite player at the moment and probably will be for a long time because I believe that talent like this is seen only 5 -6 times in a supporters life span, and I mean that.
    Arsene please drop everything else until you sign this kid who’s agent has already suggested would be interested in a move to The Arsenal, this kid would’nt have to ask for a pay rise, after one season with us we’d give him whatever was required to stay.

     
  36. Great call Billy, have looked at Giovinco and he is really special – but where would that leave Aaron Ramsay I wonder? We all seem to agree that Hleb is a weaner, didn’t have the power to kick the ball more than 30 yards and is a pathetic excuse for a man who hides behind press statements rather than give an honest interview lest he lose his loyalty bonus.

    I accept peachesgooner’s challenge re Senderos. He is a lovely bloke and really wants to be an Arsenal player – but unortunately god hasn’t given him the necessary equipment. He may be able to speak multiple languages but he doesn’t have the footballing nous to read dangerous situations and snuff out a threat like messrs Adams, Campbell etc. He is too slow physically and mentally and has an uncanny knack of finding the oppositions midfield with his defensive headers. For a big bloke he is often muscled off the ball and can be bullied by ball-holding strikers. The poor guy was in bits after the CL game against Liverpool because he knew he hadn’t been good enough. With him in the defence we are still vulnerable to the long ball over the top. The only odd thing that the stats show is that a defensive partnership with him and either Toure or Gallas was less likely to concede a goal than T & G together – can’t explain that one?

     
  37. Forget Hleb – we all agree he’s no great loss, just a few glimpses of Carlos Vela/Jack Wilshere should be all it takes to remind us of what an attacking midfielder should be like! And don’t waste your time hating the Cheshunt Chav David Bentley. I used to cringe evry time I heard him being interviewed – he has a vocabulary only rivalled by Cashley. Instead, let us all rejoice in a sudden and natural chemistry that has blossomed between Vela and Bendtner. I wasn’t a fan of Bentners last season, but after watching Ade’s lamentable lack of a first touch in the game against PSV compared to Bendtners assured finish in the second half, the only problem I have is ‘will Wenger have the balls to play the players in form (the aforementioned) or return to the patchy formula of last season?

     
  38. Because Arse-fans are so deeply degenerate and niggerized that once they see a creative, brilliant midfielder who is also not a nigger-fellating Brit fag you are completely at sea. Good for Hleb that he left the monkey-lands! Arsenal fans are the bottom shit of the barrel.

     

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