Follow @Giggs_Boson on twitter as he tweets a lot about doping and seems quite clued up. Mentioned how Barca in the past have used Bayern's medical facilities in the past and funnily enough how Pep is taking his own medical staff in to help the players recover.

For the authorities though IF the Spanish national side and teams like Barca & R.Madrid caught it would harm the game so they will cover it up. The next world cup FIFA say they will bring in blood testing which should of happened years ago. Will be massive cover up though about the past and the truth will never get out. Serie A has almost been exposed so the authorities are probably in damage limitation mode.

I wonder if Wenger will reveal who he knows has been doping, he is strongly against it and has mentioned the topic of doping a lot in the past.

To be honest, I can understand why Bayern are super-fit. They have a 34 game league, one cup competition and have quality second choice players who have the quality to win them games while many of the first choices are being rested.

But, the Barcelona teams' fitness levels are insane. They press hard, keep moving to receive passes and often outrun their opponents and the same fucking core of players have been doing it playing every game in last five years. Look at Messi, for instance, he just never misses a minute of games!

However, as a counter-point, I think, it would be very very difficult to cover-up something clearly wrong that involves this many people. There are dozens of players going in and out of the clubs mentioned, may of them in acrimonious circumstances, and some information would have gotten out somehow if systematic doping has been going on. It is however possible that specific "trusted" players are being "helped" or the players are not fully aware of what is being fed/injected to them.

According to an article here -

A poll in FourFourTwo recently, which was undertaken by 100 anonymous footballers in Britain, revealed that 13% of those individuals asked knew of players who had taken performance enhancing drugs. Arsene Wenger also spoke this season about his suspicions of doping in football, saying that he believed it was much more widespread than was being reported and that he couldn’t believe FIFA test hundreds of players at World Cups yet find “zero problems”.

JazzG wrote:

I wonder if Wenger will reveal who he knows has been doping, he is strongly against it and has mentioned the topic of doping a lot in the past.

He has already lost out on honours and trophies during his time in Monaco due to match fixing. It'd be sad if we are suffering because of wide-spread doping in other top teams.

I'm proud to have a manager in charge at my club that doesn't allow anything like that to go on. That stands up against it. It must be incredibly frustrating to look around at top footballers and top football clubs and know that they're cheats, that they're giving themselves an unfair advantage, and swallow it as they win all the trophies.

Any incredible physical transformation in an individual player - Ronaldo, Messi, Bale, Nani are ones that immediately spring to mind - or any team that displays a collective fitness level that is clearly superior to everyone else - Barcelona, Spain, Bayern - is almost certainly cheating.

Bias aside is there good reason to believe (aside from rumour and speculatio) that we alone out of the Barca, Madrid, United, Chelsea, City, Bayern are the only club whose players are clean?

I personally believe that Wenger's methods are legal and above board, but I have never suspected wrong doing on the part of United, Chelsea or City as regards doping either.

If anyone in England is doping its Chelsea.

Must say Chelsea are almost always in all competitions (usually make it to semifinals in Europe, finals in FA Cup and have something to play for in the League) during the end of the season and finish strongly every time. Also, they rotate the least among top teams in England. (we don't rotate as well but we clearly look knackered when we play twice in three/four days with the same team)

But, then again - they are so many managers that have managed them. They can't ALL be corrupt or in on this. It is really a fruitless exercise to accuse someone of doping just because of their physical/fitness levels.

Iloveyouarsenewenger wrote:

It is however possible that specific "trusted" players are being "helped" or the players are not fully aware of what is being fed/injected to them.

I think that last example accounts for a lot of the systematic doping. Players are given stuff all the time by the medical staff without being told the full story. Juventus were, contrary to what most people think, never convicted of using illegal substances for instance (although the club doctor was convicted separately). They used legal pharmaceutical products but they used them in a way that produced the same effects as illicit substances. In court, Zidane admitted to taking the muscle growth supplement creatine (which was illegal in France and most of Europe but not in Italy):

"I took creatine, only when I played for Juventus. It was never the case when I played in France and hasn't happened since I've been playing in Spain. It's useful and I need it to play 70 matches a season."

He was also given regular 'vitamin injections'. The club doctor Agricola was found guilty of giving the players EPO (blood doping) between -94 and -98, so Zidane probably had a pretty good idea what he and the others were being pumped full with. But the only thing on record was the creatine for which there was a legitimate excuse on the players' part.

Other players might be around it for such a long time that it doesn't seem like too big a deal. You've got Deschamps for instance who played for and captained the two most disgraced teams of the nineties at their respective peak. He went from a doped up Marseille side to a doped up Juventus. One can only speculate about how much he really knew, but if he was aware that Marseille were giving him illegal substances he wouldn't have found life much different in Italy. According to Jean-Jacques Eydelie everyone at Marseille knew what they were given and only one player refused to take part in it:

"On the day of the [Champions League] Final, Bernard Tapie demanded that all players should take a banned substance. All of us joined in a line, except one player: Rudi Völler. He was enraged and shouted German insults against the entire Marseille staff. He was really outside himself and could barely calm hilmself down."

y va marquer wrote:

I thought he did so to highlight the benefits and massive advantages of having a long winter break?
I didn't think there was any insinuation that players were in peak condition due to doping.
What exactly did he say that made you think that Cannon?

You will have to watch the latest wenger interview (the al jazeera one) to make your own conclusions. In it he is asked the reasons for Bayern's success and he says 'one they were absolutely a level above everyone else' or something to that effect. To me that instantly stuck as a hint at bayern being 'conditioned'. Just my opinion

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

Happy birthday Ricks, getting old young man!

Thanks mate!

I'm starting to feel old!

Iloveyouarsenewenger wrote:

He has already lost out on honours and trophies during his time in Monaco due to match fixing. It'd be sad if we are suffering because of wide-spread doping in other top teams.

Thought it was strongly suggested that the Marseille team were on drugs as well.

qs! wrote:

If anyone in England is doping its Chelsea.

Back on my Arsenal Mania days could never quite understand how their team were able to finish matches so strongly whereas our lot would fade towards the end of the season and matches. Always had suspicions something wasn't quite right.

Iloveyouarsenewenger wrote:

JazzG wrote:

I wonder if Wenger will reveal who he knows has been doping, he is strongly against it and has mentioned the topic of doping a lot in the past.

He has already lost out on honours and trophies during his time in Monaco due to match fixing. It'd be sad if we are suffering because of wide-spread doping in other top teams.

Theres only one kind of dope thats caused us to miss out on trophies.