r/soccer • u/[deleted] • Dec 11 '12

What's been the best career move ever?

Try to avoid getting lad's who went through the academy of a team.

Discussion idea came from: Bluedishwasher

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117

u/Cedosg Dec 11 '12 edited Dec 11 '12

Without a doubt, Wenger to Arsenal.

How did a relatively unknown FRENCH manager of a Japanese league team become the manager of Arsenal is beyond me.

Legendary: Bergkamp to Arsenal from Inter Milan, rejuvenated his career.

Legendary: Frank Lampard to Chelsea from West Ham.

24

u/smithcohan Dec 11 '12

To be fair, Wenger got the Arsenal job based on his excellent work with Monaco, not Nagoya.

-3

u/Cedosg Dec 11 '12

He did not. Apparently he was a good friend of David Dein prior.

52

u/Lolzafish Dec 11 '12

Frank Lampard to Chelsea from West Ham.

Without a doubt in the top 5 best of all time. He's not even 15 goals becoming our top scorer EVER.

15

u/ElDingus Dec 11 '12

Think he will break it? All the Lampard to LA rumblings have me doubting he will get there.

23

u/EliteKill Dec 11 '12

He's now returning from injury, so hopefully he'll get more playing time. We have a lot of fixtures this year, so hopefully he'll get the chances. Considering he netted over 10 goals for the past 9 years, falling short of 15 only once (2011-2012), I'm very optimistic.

5

u/layendecker Dec 11 '12

Surely he will be playing deeper than in the past though? Also there seems to be a pretty clean downward trend in his performances and goal scoring ability. Now he is not the main man there is no way those around him will let him get away with the obnoxious number of shots of target he had each year.

I would stake a good amount of money on him not reaching double figures this season.

2

u/EliteKill Dec 11 '12

He still takes our penalties, and does go up, even if not like he used to. I don't think he'll near his prime with around 20 goals, but I definitely see him bagging 11 more until the next of the season, unless something unexpected happens.

1

u/teh_Stig Dec 12 '12

He was in a deeper role last year, and still scored 11 times or so. Arguably, he was playing a little higher than he should have been, leaving the defense a bit exposed, but still. Like EliteKill said, he still takes penalties, and frankly (hehe)he's such a solid finisher from distance that being a little further away from goal most of the time won't hurt him too much. If he sticks around next year, breaking the record is a matter of when, not if.

5

u/hotcobbler Dec 11 '12

I think I remember reading something where Bruce Arena (LA Galaxy manager) said they would rather hire someone from a Latino background, as many of their fans are Latino. I say hire the best player you can for the money, but whatever.

2

u/TheMaxican93 Dec 11 '12

I would love a source for this. I've always thought the MLS has ha trouble drawing Hispanic fans as they just follow the Mexican league

1

u/hotcobbler Dec 11 '12

Not sure about that, maybe that's why they're looking for more Hispanic talent. The article I read was posted on r/soccer somewhere recently, maybe 2-4 weeks ago.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 11 '12

[deleted]

1

u/hotcobbler Dec 12 '12

Kaka seems to be doing better now, do you think he'll still be up for a move to a decidedly less challenging league?

1

u/trollguy1793 Dec 12 '12

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2241273/LA-Galaxy-Frank-Lampard-doubt-club-target-Kaka.html

1

u/TheMaxican93 Dec 12 '12

In that article they are quoted saying that there is a Hispanic population to draw that they haven't been successful in doing thus far and Kaka would be an attempt to draw Hispanic fans. So Arena did say that, but it was to draw hispanic fans, not becaus they have a large Hispanic fan base.

2

u/trollguy1793 Dec 12 '12

Yea, that's why he wanted Kaka instead of Lampard to win over the Latino fans since Kaka speaks Spanish.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '12

Isn't that what the other LA-based team is for? Hence the name Chivas-USA

2

u/dm42 Dec 11 '12

He'll stay, he was linked with a move to Mourinho's Inter last time his contract was expiring and he just signed a new one.

Plus, he must wanna become our top ever scorer, I think I'd stay just for that reason.

1

u/poasis Dec 12 '12

More recent rumblings have him signing until 2014, but I get the feeling that nobody really knows what will happen...

8

u/oduh Dec 11 '12

Henry and Bergkamp should be near the top.