In a world full of highly-paid and ungrateful footballers it is refreshing to know that people like Philippe Senderos still exist.
Fresh from his loan move from Arsenal to Everton the Swiss defender produced these comments about his former club:
“They gave me a fair chance. But at big clubs you have a lot of players and two or three games a week and, if they come in and do well, they will take your place. That’s what happened to me. I don’t think I’ve been unfairly treated apart from the last few months but even then the players in the team were doing well and staying in.”
“I am not bitter at leaving. Arsenal are a big club who gave me a lot and I owe a lot to them. They took me from Switzerland when I was 18 and I got to play in a Champions League final and to win the FA Cup. I am proud to say I was an Arsenal player but I couldn’t go on not playing every week. I needed to move. I didn’t just move to Everton for opportunities, I’ve moved to Everton because it’s a massive club and I can see myself growing as a player and as a man here.”
We heard endless stories from Arsene Wenger and other members of the Arsenal Football Club about the class and intelligence of Senderos right from the day he joined the club at age 18. He was touted as the future of the Arsenal defence and a potential captain and although it hasn’t worked out it’s great to see he has still maintained a good relationship with the manager and the club.
To see him go out with such dignity – reflecting on his own ability to accept the challenges he faced rather than blaming everyone else – is hugely refreshing. It’s clear that he is grateful for the chance that Wenger and the club took when they signed him and a little disappointed that he wasn’t able to pay them back with his performances on the pitch.
After reading these comments there wouldn’t be an Arsenal support out there who doesn’t wish Philippe all the best in his future endeavours. At 24 he still has the world ahead of him and a club like Everton could turn out to be the perfect place for him to kick-start a career that undoubtedly stalled at Arsenal with the likes of Johan Djourou progressing more quickly and Thomas Vermaelen adapting remarkably well.
So I say good luck to Philippe at his new club as well as thank-you for remaining humble and dignified in his departure.
Have your say on Philippe Senderos by leaving a comment.
Couldn’t agree more! good luck philippe
Good luck Big Phil!
Good luck on are boy, i am sure he will get plenty of game time. Also i believe that defenders peak at there 30’s apart from vermeleon. At 24 he need to learn more and grow as a footballer.
Just watched the stoke game for the first time. I have to say fabianski and traore totally fucked that game up. Ricardo and Sadibi were running rings on the left side. Coqueilin didnt see anything special. jay emanuel did anybody see him touch the ball. I dont know does players i mentioned are 3rd tier players.
Elite: Cesc,Arshavin,Gallas,Vermeleon,RVP
First Tier: Clichy,almunia,sagna,song,denilson,eduardo, bendtner
Second Tier: Ramsey,Vela, Walcott,Gibbs,Eboue
Third Tier: The rest
Someone might argue that we needed to rest cause the next 5 games are crucial. Your rite but dont you wanna win trophies. Second tier player would be good of the bench the rest are all rubbish
Good luck Phil….
Great guy, as always. I hope he really does well for them.
Bendtners back!!!!! thank god Im a huge fan of super nick hope he can kick on and continue with the good form he was showing before he got injured… but he’s a notoriously slow starter : S
Good luck Phil, they just dont come any more humble and classier than him
Philippe Sendoros has the potential and attributes to be a defender at another club. Unfortunately for him at the Arsenal Wenger demands a little more.
Our centre back’s must have the technical ability to be, the first line of attack, to pass, and to play a high line, most importantly to press the opposition in the middle third of the pitch.
Philippe has neither the pace nor footballing intelligence to play that game.
Camp him on his own 18 yard line and tell him to stop anything that moves (with the exception of Drogba) and you’ve got yourself a player.
Its no coincidence that Philippe played his best football for the club in the 2005-06 season when he had an experienced defensive midfielder, code name Invisible Wall playing in front of him.
Under George Graham he’d have had a long and successful career with the Arsenal. That’s assuming he could force his way past Andy Linighan of course. Good Luck Philippe.
now that is class. i love seeing that in a footballer…especially after having people like ade who got to play all the time and had a bad attitude…its great to see there are some good guys out there
and @Teddi the bear, how is alex song not on your elite list? he has been as dominant on defense as fabregas has on mid and attacking
He was a great player.we all wish him the best.
@Teddi
You’ve left off Nasri altogether mate. Surely he’s in the first tier at least, the lad’s a killer.
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Thank you ,Phil & good luck
Best wishes!
5 days to go and no signings. Apparently he can’t find anyone good enough to play for Arsenal! I find that rather bizarre. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever heard a manager make a statement like it before. ‘I haven’t bought a player because there’s no one good enough to buy.’ These weren’t his exact words but it’s a fair approximation. What he’s quoted on the official site as saying is:
“If I don’t find better than what we have then I will not buy. At the moment we have not found that.
You can take players, they’re on the market but it’s a different thing to find good players that will, let’s say, strengthen our squad.”
So, if, at the end of the season, we’ve won nothing and people say ‘Why didn’t you buy some players and strengthen your squad?’ Arsene will say – ‘We didn’t find anybody good enough.’?? You see what I’m saying? It doesn’t make sense.
Meanwhile as everyone knows, manure have snapped up the lad Smalling from Fulham, who is supposed to be a great prospect and Arsenal were also supposed to be interested in him. That must have been the easiest bidding war fergus -scum has ever been involved in.
ferg: ‘I bid 8 million.’
Arsene: ‘Alright then, you can have him.’
People who know my posts, hopefully know that I am a Wenger-ist without reservation. But this obstinate refusal of his to spend money may well cost us trophies yet again this season. Look at the FA Cup team he put out. I hope, of course, that I’m wrong.
There is a difference between there being no one who is good enough to play for Arsenal and there being no one who will strengthen Arsenal. I think Wenger only wants someone who will bring something new to the squad, rather than just bring more of what we already have.
big phil, i wish u success n pray that u turn out to be the player that we all wanted u to be.
All the best to Sen and thank you for all you’ve done for the Club as well as all the time when you’ve been with us. I’ll miss you so much.
good luck son! once a gooner always a gooner!!!
I always liked Phil. He’s a good lad and he was coming along nicely as a player until that day he played against Drogba. He hasn’t been the same player since that day (damn you drogba!).
Anyway good luck to him, maybe if he impresses at Everton he’ll given another chance at Arsenal, but I doubt it.
Class act.
People will always remember the bad times, but the vast majority of his games were very good. A number of times he’d come into the side and spark a long run of excellent defensive displays from the side.
In a couple of years I think he’ll be a top defender. I dont think he lacks anything technically that a defender needs, he just needs to be a little more calm at vital moments. That will come with experience.
Best of luck to him.
well done phil – thanks for your past efforts and good luck at everton. cannot understand why any arsenal fan should be bitter at your leaving
may be back mature (earlier in age than Campbell).
Liquorice, I don’t agree with you regarding Phil’s passing ability. It was quite excellent and he was good at moving the ball out of defense. His main problem was the he was too slow to play the very high line we play was made to pay for it in a few very high-profile situations. Adding on that, our dumb-ass fans seem to have damaged his confidence.
Phil wouldn’t have been in if he couldn’t play with the ball.
The big problem was – like Phil said – he didn’t take his chances. He had some good moments but on the whole probably never produced the football that he was truly capable of and has now been overtaken by Djourou and the others.
A shame, really.
@ Royal Arsenal – Song is a great player this year he has turned out to be the find of the year. Not in elite status anyway. Yes hes good but does he have the overall package such as essien or old makalele.
@ Nasri – Sorry i forgot about him he definetly in the first tier. He has great technical skill level but he is young needs to get better. I personally highly rate him.
I heard that AW is signing Loic Remy. Apparently he is in the national team and plays for nice. He is worth 7m – 14m.
The guy that said that AW aint signing new players. First we need strikers who can play in CL, so that would eliminate most top class players. Second they need to have proper chemistry so they can play in arsenal without much problems. Third you would know by now AW dont buy according to market value he always buy below the value. most clubs dont like that.
Big Phil i am sure will do well, although i wished he would have went for AC milan. Plenty of game time there, Nesta, Onyuwe are injured. Plus he can play in CL
Good Luck Sen
good luck senderos. have a great career in football.
Well I wouldn’t really say Djourou has progressed that much. He is a good player but he is always injured it seems so he is not much use to us. Can’t even think of a point in time where he has put together a string of 3-5 games in the first team!
Senderos demise was his own doing. He couldn’t deal with the psychological pressure of playing football at the absolute highest level.
I think we would be best off getting a new centreback. Smalling would be perfect. Unfortunately it seems Manure beat us to him….
Such a different attitude to Hleb and Flamini (oh, where are they now by the way!).
Sen seems a decent lad and I wish him all the best.
Teddi The Bear:
Don’t quite agree with you there..
As far as status and pure football talent this is how I would put them
Elite: Cesc,Arshavin,Gallas,Vermaelen, RVP, Sagna
First Tier: Clichy, Gibbs, Song, Eduardo, Nasri, Bendtner, Ramsey
Second Tier: Almunia, Denilson, Vela, Walcott, Eboue,
Sagna is the best rightback in the PL. One of the best in the world and the no 1 choice rightback for club and country.
If I could I would have liked to put Song just in the between Elite and First Tier because he is such an amazing player.
Bendtner I would say the other way around. He looks to be the real deal but has not fully delivered on the highest level.
Same thing with Ramsey but given the pure football talent that he has I would pick him above limited players like Denilson every day of the week!
And ah! The case of Denilson.. Denilson is as far as I’m concerned a great squad player. He can come in and fill up the cracks. Because let’s face it, he isn’t all that great at anything really. I think his best attribute would be his stamina. First of all he lacks pace, he is not very strong, he can’t dribble to save his life, he does not have a powerful shot (although he has a willingness to shoot which I have to praise him for), his defensive positioning is contrary to what Wenger would have us believe quite average. His long range passing is not anywhere near Diaby, Fabregas, Ramsey, Nasri, Rosicky or even Song.
Oops now this looks like a total anti-Denilson rant but really I appreciate him as he always works hard for the Arsenal and I think he has a place here, just like Eboue, as a utility player!
Once being a gunner, you are a gunner forever.
Throughout the period you stay here, all the fans can feel you love for the club.
I will love you and support you forever, I think all the gooners will do.
Thank you very much! Do visit Emirates often!!!
most of the comments have been complimentary to phil and rightly so imagine the frustration of sitting on the bench and watching silvestre playing instead!!i will always remember him for commitment and his parting words show that he was a true professional
All the very best to big Phil. Something happened that maybe we’ll never know about because it was obvious towards the ned thatmy cat stood more chance of selection than he did. He’s moved on with great dignity and I wish there more like him in the game. Hope he gets his World Cup place.
Class act – all the best Phil
Fantastic attitude from Senderos and he certainly deserves a break with another club. I was sorry to see the way he was treated in the last few months at The Arsenal but he shows marvelous maturity in the way he has handled himself and in his comments on leaving.
Good Luck Phil’ just don’t do anything good against us.
What a bloke. We didn’t call him Swiss Tony for nothing. Best of luck, Phil. I think we’ll miss you
Bst of luck sendy.
b/w in that list that you guys made,where is rosciky?If not for injuries he too is a class act.
We need tall, strong defensive cover and I don’t believe that, for all his faults, Senderos was so bad that it was worth drafting in the late Sol Campbell.
Good luck to you Phil – had massive potential when you joined and playing first team football at Arsenal so young is a massive achievement. Shame that Drogba man handled you and as was said in and earlier post you never looked the same player.
Lets hope some first team football and maybe some training ground time with Timmy Cahill can get you back on track to being the player that prompted Arsene to give you your start.
As for whether Arsene will bring in players or not????? it would be a big call to say there is many if anyone going around in World football that could come into such a tight and well drilled squad and add something at this stage.
Players that would be capable of doing this would cost a pretty penny and most likely would be cup tied not to mention the chance of upsetting the dynamics of our current squad that after loser AdebayWHORE is by far the best in the EPL and a large part of why we are a great chance to lift a major trophy this season.
Phil is a gr8 player n I wish him success. That should be an example to Adebayor
the best of luck to you big phil. (except when you play us of course) always wished it worked out better for the lad and these comments just make me respect him even more
When does P.S.’s contract with Arsenal end?
Go with our good graces Phil! We’ll miss ya
thanks phil.:-) u ve actually gone in peace. May God bless u with Everton.
As a fan of over 50 years ,thanks for all your effort for the team , it’s certainly appreciated . I always thought when Big Phill was given a run of games he looked a good player. He only looked out of his depth when up against Drogba , but most of the Premier defenders are guilty of that. Good luck Phill, and always remember Martin Keown he went Everton and returned to be “TOP GOONER”.
Good luck dudes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!And good graces to Phil! we all will gon amiss you very much from core of our hearts
Arsenal are a love, just like a girlfriend or a wife. You cannot fix things you don’t like by moaning about her. But believe me, Arsenal are one stunning girlfriend. Arsenal were, and still are, my team. I am an Arsenal fan and have been since I was a child. I loved Thierry Henry because he was a genius player. Once a gunner always a gunner.
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