Lehmann was 38 and making mistakes, Almunia was 30 and not making as many.

Jens still played at the top level for a further two years meanwhile the clown stumbled from antic to hilarious antic.

Rewriting history. It may be hard for those who weren't paying attention at the time to believe, but Almunia was consistently one of our best in 08-09.

Burnwinter™ wrote:

Rewriting history. It may be hard for those who weren't paying attention at the time to believe, but Almunia was consistently one of our best in 08-09.

I was paying attention I assure you, and I thought we were talking about the period 07/08 when Jens was originally dropped by that fecking eejit for that other fecking eejit.

In 07/08 Almunia was horrible. I believe that was a period Lehmann came back and did well.

Didn't Almunia come third in our player of the season poll once? We must have had some really dire outfield players that season

He did. He wasn't any worse than Lehmann in 07-08 either. The truly dodgy years were later.

He definitely got worse, went from average to unconvincing to outright clownshoes.

I didn't have a problem with Wenger giving Almunia preference over Lehmann. He persisted with him too long though, even after it was clear he was average and had regressed. 

I don't know about that. For me it was clear he was bullshit at the start when he had that horrid match against United at Highbury where we lost 4-2. Then he came on in Paris and the rest is history.

there was a point where every shot at the near post was a goal.

otfgoon wrote:

Didn't Almunia come third in our player of the season poll once? We must have had some really dire outfield players that season

Didn't he win it once? 08/09 maybe.

Shady Shakes wrote:

otfgoon wrote:

Didn't Almunia come third in our player of the season poll once? We must have had some really dire outfield players that season

Didn't he win it once? 08/09 maybe.

Yup. On AM at the very least. 

Shady Shakes wrote:

otfgoon wrote:

Didn't Almunia come third in our player of the season poll once? We must have had some really dire outfield players that season

Didn't he win it once? 08/09 maybe.

That was indeed our nadir as regards player talent, Van Persie and Rosicky and Diaby must have been laid up for most of it as usual, Ade and Nasri were always unpopular can't remember what Fabregrease was doing (probably on the phone to Pique) so his only competitors would have been Ankles Denilson Dribbly McNoscore or Swiss Tony.

08/09 let's see...

Hleb and Flamini had gone.
Fabregas missed 3-4 months through injury.
RvP was RvP, missed even more games.
Eduardo's leg was still in thousands of pieces.
Adebayor was thinking about Milan and Beyonce.
Nasri was in his first season and still a blunt cock.
Toure and Gallas were both on the decline.

The rest of the team was pretty dire, so yeah Almunia was the top dog

Burnwinter™ wrote:

Almunia was pretty good for a bit there. That's how it happened.

Lehmann wasn't a "dickhead" in footballing terms, despite clearly being an eccentric personality. His aggression and obsessive training were vital qualities for us. Without a keeper that neurotic about not conceding and not losing, I doubt the unbeaten season would have happened.

Lehmann didn't really prove his worth until the FA Cup final and then the following 2005/06 season when he was one of the best keepers in the world, albeit costing us the Champions League whilst he was at it. 

It's just rich of him to have been so demanding and wanting perfection when there were 9/10 better players on the pitch than him.

Lehmann didn't cost us the CL final.
It's obvious you've never played in goal in your life and know nothing about it.

With the Monaco game coming up...

One of my favourite ever UCL nights that.  :opti: