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LoginLehmann blasts Arsenal pair Wenger & Almunia
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Lehmann blasts Arsenal pair
ARSENAL outcast Jens Lehmann has launched a furious attack on Arsene Wenger and rival keeper Manuel Almunia. The German veteran has spent most of the season on the bench after losing his place to Almunia.
Lehmann, 38, has blasted the Spaniard for his late rise in football and has also hit out at Wenger for dropping him. He said: "I don't find it very funny being forced to sit on the bench for a man who didn't start playing until he was 30. I am very angry.
"I stayed to win the Champions League and I saw a good chance of being able to play. "The fact that I didn't made me extremely angry. "If the manager had told me before the season started what was going to happen, then I could have decided whether or not I wanted to sit on the bench."
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Well, maybe Lehmann could employ one of his mind tricks to unsettle Gerrard just before he took the penalty... These type of experience keeper know a little more than the young keepers... You saw how VDS unsettled Daniele De Rossi just before he took his penalty?
De Rossi, who had scored in Italy's World Cup final shoot out, made a complete mess of his spot kick, ballooning the ball high over Edwin van der Sar's goal to roll Z...
Lehmann is also good at this...
Edited by zocoss 10 Apr `08, 8:40PM
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Bitter Lehmann: 'I Could Have Kept Arsenal In Europe.
Lehmann, showing his finger to someone...
Jens Lehmann claims he could have prevented Arsenal from going out of the Champions League, if only he had been given a chance. The 38-year-old goalkeeper spoke of his anger at being consigned to the bench and attacked both manager Arsene Wenger and the man who is keeping him out of the side, Manuel Almunia, in an interview with Germany's Kicker magazine.
"I stayed here to win the Champions League and I saw good chances to play, but I have not had these (chances) and that makes me very angry," he said. The Germany number one was left to seething as he saw his European dream ended following the Gunners' 4-2 defeat at Liverpool in Tuesday's quarter-final second leg.
"For me personally, it is a tragedy, particularly since I did not have a chance to prevent it," he said. "I have had such thoughts (about being able to prevent defeats) ever since the coach took me out of the team following the 0-0 against Milan."
Lehmann turned down the chance to move to Borussia Dortmund during the winter break and pledged he would fight to regain his place in the Arsenal team. In doing so, he may have compromised his chances of remaining first choice for Germany at Euro 2008, and Lehmann cannot believe the gamble has not paid off, with Almunia still standing ahead of him in the Arsenal goal.
"To be sitting on the bench behind somebody who only started to play when he was 30 is not funny," he added. "I am very angry." Furthermore, Lehmann feels he has been treated badly by Wenger, claiming he has not been given a fair chance. He said: "If the coach had spoken to me before the start of the season then I would have been able to decide if I wanted to sit on the bench. "He has a different opinion and I don't really believe he can be happy with it."
But Lehmann does not feel he will be able to prove Wenger wrong by shining at Euro 2008 with Germany, claiming his manager would probably not even notice he is there. "If he has not seen it yet then he won't see it at the European Championships either if I perform well," said a bitter Lehmann.
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Originally posted by mortified:
stupid lehmann..that time can go off but wants to stay with arsenal..now complain like girl..
agree, the most basic a professional should have is respect for the boss & the team.
Soccer is still a team game. If you can't play within the team, and with your boss, you should go.
Credit to him, I do believe these comments are quoted out of context and I hope for his sake, it is.
Else, it is a great shame for him to even mention such things.
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Almunia hit back at the latest round of verbals fired in his direction by Jens Lehmann, revealing the full extent of the rift between him and the German at Arsenal. Following a start to the season characterised by less than assured goalkeeping displays, Lehmann found himself usurped as Arsene Wenger's first choice between the posts at Emirates Stadium.
Almunia's form in his team-mate's absence has seen him justify his selection as the club's recognised number one, but an outspoken Lehmann has failed to concur - often on record - with his manager's decision. Lehmann's infamous spat on the international scene with Oliver Kahn has often made the headlines back in Germany, but this season his ire has been targeted a little closer to home; with Almunia regularly berated by his team-mate's candid comments.
This week Lehmann expressed his disdain at 'sitting on the bench behind somebody who only started to play when he was 30', and while Almunia has in the past has maintained a dignified silence, it would his patience has now run thin. Almunia has spoke of his disappointment that Lehmann feels the need to so openly, and so regularly, voice his criticism.
"I'm an easy-going person," he said. "I like to treat everyone with respect and I see everyone as equals. I treat people the way I would like to be treated myself. "To have someone here who hates me is just amazing. I know he hates me.
"Every morning I wake up I know it is going to be the same. I've had to put up with it every day since he was out of the team and even before then. I wake up and I know what it is going to be like. "But I don't care about him any more. He can say what he likes. I come into training and I work with Lukasz Fabianski and Vito Mannone. They are better goalkeepers than him anyway."
While Almunia admits he has often felt exasperated by the situation, he is not prepared to engage in any kind of talks with his 38-year-old colleague, as he feels reconciliation is not now an option. "It's his problem, not mine, and I don't see why I should try to talk to him about it. The truth is I don't want to talk to him. I came into training this morning and one of the press officers told me he had been saying bad things about me in the newspapers again. It didn't surprise me.
"The truth is I have got used to reading these things from him. If he was someone important to me, I would try to talk to him and see what the problem is. But he's not. So we don't talk. "I've never been in a situation like this before in my career. Normally we goalkeepers have so much respect for each other. "Why he doesn't respect me, I don't know. But I don't want any relationship with him. I try not to let what he says enter my mind because it's not important to me what he says or what he thinks"
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