Yeah I feel that midfield of 2007/08 could’ve developed into something lethal given time. Such a shame that Hleb left us when he did 
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I would say Aleksandr Hleb is by far the most underrated loss of talent I’ve seen as an Arsenal fan (that’s only 16-17 years so maybe not saying a great deal).
The fact that he became absolutely nothing since then is just bewildering to me. Whatever personal problems and poor relations he had with Guardiola, plus the injuries he picked up after ditching us totally fucked him. He’s a prime example of a player that threw it all away on his own. I suppose his main downfall in his prime was the fact he was a pretty shit human being. By the time he realised his stupidity it was already too late. Lost his quickness, his pace, his elusiveness and couldn’t fit in anywhere other than Arsene’s Wengerball.
As a player for us he was too technical for the average Joe to understand. All people could think about was the fact that he wouldn’t take enough shots, rather than his remarkable creative, dribbling and retention abilities. I couldn’t think of anyone in the second half of Wenger’s tenure I would rather have playing RW for us right now if we could pluck him out of 2007/08 into the present time through a time machine.
Such a unique wide playmaker. We’ll rarely see that kind of streamlined left-footed player nowadays.
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Several players look like they’ll be shown the door over the Summer, seems fitting therefore to bump this.
It feels like there’s been too many players at Arsenal in recent years that didn’t live up to the potential or hype in the way that they should’ve.
Jack Wilshere for example surely going to go down as one that really could’ve done so much more here. But being so damn inury ridden really damahed his development, missing two full seasons and then loaned off to Bournemouth last season, just wasn’t the vision any of us could’ve possibly imagined, when he was bossing things against Barcelona in 2011.
I think what really has limited players is Wenger himself. I don’t know if he has been told by the board to be harsher with nonperformers (look at how well the players performed at the end of the season) maybe you will find more focused players this season. There are a lot of players that talk about the title and wanting to win it but in reality, dont put enough effort in and Wenger is a big part of the problem. Most managers would sell slackers or bench them but not Wenger the players them constantly and they have fuck all pressure on them to perform at a high level. Hopefully, the powers that be will tell some of them to piss off now, Walcott etc can do one sick of the twat jogging around the pitch looking like a constipated t-rex!
Ah I wondered why Cristo liked a post of mine from September lol. Thought Cristo was either bored af going through old threads or someone bumped the thread.
So he was bossing Barca at the age of 9?
Impressive! 
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https://www.arsenal.com/news/tomas-rosickys-message-arsenal-fans
Absolutely love this guy to bits… so sad injuries really blighted his career with us.
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Many of our players should take notice from him on how to love the club.
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We use to have something similar on our old site. Think its worth going with this again. Basically give an opinion on any player who you think could have performed better at The Arsenal over the years.
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Anelka for me and it was really down to himself and his brothers. Had all the talent in the world and if he would have stayed under when Wenger was Wenger, could have been a top 3 striker in the world.
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Jose Antonio Reyes. I thought this kid was going to be special but he just didn’t really kick on after a really strong start and eventually ended up melting mentally and going back home. He basically drifted between decent/good clubs like Atleti, Benfica and Sevilla and last I checked he was in China.
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Carlos Vela
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Woj Szcescny
Could have been huge, shame it didn’t work out.
Serge Gnabry
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I know he has become a figure of ridicule now but I really thought Theo was going to work out. So many bad habits were allowed to develop in his game and coupled with a poor attitude it was painful downward spiral for him.
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Jack Wilshere looked set for stardom, or does his injury problems make him exempt from such discussion ?
Rosicky is another one i’ll add if Jack counts, beautiful footballer but his body simply wouldn’t allow him to be as good as we’d have liked.
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For me Roscicky yeah. Jack not so much as I think he didnt give himself the best chance of recovering or show enough consistency between injury.
Fairly big list
Andrey Arshavin
Julio Baptista
Jose Antonio Reyes
Carlos Vela
Louis Boa Morte
Christopher Wreh
Matthew upson
Silvinho
Jermain Pennant
Eduardo
There’s loads, really when you sit down and look at it
Edit: Aliardiere is another we all had high hopes for at the time too.
Edit 2 : The more I sit and think the more names pop into my head.
Justin Hoyte
David Bentley
Quincy Owusu Abeye
Arturo Lupoli
Håvard Nordtveit (the next big thing)
Fabrice Muamba
Anthony Stokes
Abiu Diaby
Kerrea Gilbert
Armand Traore
Fran Merida
Nacer Barazite
Jay emannuelle Thomas
Ignasi Miguel
Gilles Sunu (the next Henry)
I could do this all day 
Edit 3 :
Joel Campbell
Ryo Miyaichi (The schoolboy who was the next big thing out of Japan)
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Rosicky, definitely. Had the potential to be better than Modric.
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William Gallas.
We had fallen so much, from INVINCIBLES to the beginning of the mediocrity that we are presently, just in the space of 2 years.
Chelsea had taken the Premier League by storm and Gallas was instrumental for them, he was so good and influential. He was 29 when we took him, so everyone thought we were getting this mature, experienced, excellent defender who was going to be so important for the development of the likes of Djourou and Senderos,
The rest is history…
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Francis Jeffers
In fairness to Gallas he was a huge part of our defence that only conceded 31 goals in 2007/2008, to put that in perspective we’ve already conceded that many this year.
I’ll admit he wasn’t near his Chelsea level, but I think he gets extra hate for the way he carries on etc whilst at Arsenal.
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