Surprise Kroenke has banned him from the Emirates lol
If you Bl1nk, youâll miss em
I was so hyped when we signed him
Thought he had it all
Signed an attacking midfielder and played him as our 4th choice striker.
Never really got the Wenger obsession with signing CAMs and playing them everywhere but their actual position lol
I reckon if his body wasnât so shit heâd have had a much much better career than he did. He always ended up injured anytime he started to look good
Right on cue!
I had a bit of a agenda against Baptista because I was big Jose Antonio Reyes fan back then. It a strange swap loan deal with Baptista. Bar the league cups games against both Liverpool and Tottenham . Baptista was shocking for us. Funny enough Reyes did not start, much at Madrid . But always played well in the chances he got for them and he often edged out RaĂșl or Beckham in the starting eleven. Reyes scored the goals in the final La Liga game to win Madrid the Title. By the way people forgot how good Reyes was at the start of the 04/05 season till !That cunt Gary Neville tried to break his legs. Wasnât the same since that game where we lost the unbeaten run. Rest in peace Reyes.
I was a huge Reyes fan and I remember desperately wanting us to sign Baptista when he was at Sevilla. The issue was Wenger never used him correctly so we ended up getting a version of him that was useless. Donât think he even started many league games for us he was predominantly a sub
Notice his best performance came against Liverpool when he was dropping deep and playing and starting attacks from the traditional CAM role (even though I believe he was deployed as a striker)
Personally I wish we got to see the best of Reyes but I think he hated living in England and hated the treatment he got from opposition teams like United. Wasnât mentally strong enough and I also think the issue with Aragones racial abuse of Henry didnât really help either and probably created some tension in the team too
What did Aragones say? I donât remember the specifics
Called Henry âblack shitâ then said afterwards it wasnât racist lol
True. No wonder the Arsenal fans labelled him Craptista lol. He did have a good game against ManUre away in 06/07 too, tbf.
Iâm with @SRCJJ on the Reyes thing. Fabulous player. Just didnât like England. I still donât think he was mentally âbrokenâ per se. He was still coming up with goals in 04/05 and in 05/06 you could have played either him or Pires at the toss of a coin.
That week where we beat liverpool twice including Baptistaâs 6-3, was one of my favorite weeks as an arsenal fan. I donât know why. It just sticks out in my memory.
That 6-3 game was unbelievable btw, Baptista scoring four, Alladiere running rings round Liverpool, then Drogba ruined it all in Cardiff
Canât like the post for the Baptista slander lol but agree with the second half.
I remember thinking Aliadiere has finally come of age after that run in the LC
Funnily enough, Terry the racist bastard got injured and it seemed to affect us more than them.
Weird-ass team we had then.
We had a team of absolute pussys back then. They would fall apart at the slightest sign of adversity
If Reyes couldâve stayed, it wouldâve made our transition from Highbury to Emirates a bit more easier as well.
And it was such a shame because remnants of that seeped into 07/08, too.
Cost us the league.
(All 4 trophies, and the route to winning them, were tough that season, though. If we got past Man Utd in the FA Cup weâd have won that)