Invisiblewall.net: Gilberto Silva News

Source 1, Source 2

Here is what Gilberto said yesterday after playing in Arsenal’s 0-0 bore-draw at Slavia Prague:

The rumours about me falling out with Wenger are not true. If I have said something to Arsène it would never come out in the papers. I would go to him and speak to him face-to-face; we have great respect for each other.

The only thing I can say is this is not true. Everyone knows I’m not 100 per cent happy to be on the bench, that’s normal. But I’m being professional and doing my job. I respect everybody in the squad, I respect him and I respect his decision. It’s the only thing I can do.

I am not thinking about leaving now. I’ve said that I’m happy at the Club. Of course my situation is not very comfortable on the bench. But I’m still not thinking about leaving the Club. I prefer to think that I have the condition to get back in the team. I will do my job, do my best to achieve that. This is what I have in mind.

I don’t know if I will extend my contract in 18 months time. That’s not just down to me. It would be great if I could extend my contract with the Club and finish my career here. But I need to see if the Club has the same feeling and it wants the same thing as I want.

Then he talked about how important the 0-0 draw was to the Arsenal youngsters:

We expected a difficult game. From the first game against them it was a great result for us but not for them, so we knew they were going to be up for the game.

We faced a lot of difficulties, but it was important for us to get through to the next stage [the draw was enough to send Arsenal through to the next round].

Of course it was a great experience for them. In their career they will face a lot of difficulties and an experience like that for them will be very important for the future.

Step-by-step they are having their opportunity to show their quality and they are showing the quality they have got.

And it is great for the team because apart from the first XI we have players on the bench that can make a difference.

You can also see Gilberto talking about the game here: Link to Sky Sports video (nice one, Sky Sports)

And about Arsenal’s games next year:

Everybody knows January is very hard. But it is important for us to maintain the way we are playing. It doesn’t matter who plays. If we go on in the competition maybe we will face some problems like we faced in the last few seasons, where there are people injured or suspended. And the players who come in must play at the same level as the team is playing at the moment.

Boo-yah.