Do you remember Cliff Holton?

September 22, 2016

He was born in Oxford and was a natural sportsman, winning medals for swimming and diving as befitted the son of a Headington boat builder, reared by the river. He was an outstanding school track athlete, played cricket for Essex Seconds for four years, turned down a place as a professional with Middlesex and reserved his penchant for fast-medium bowling in local club cricket.

ch1

Later, he became an outstanding golfer, serving on the board at Hadley Wood, still playing off a seven handicap and working for the Herts Handicap Committee. His father’s view was that professional football was a dead-end job which prompted Cliff to become an apprentice tool-maker with Morris.

He began his football life as a defender, serving Isthmian League Oxford City as a full-back before joining Arsenal in 1947. It was not until 1950, after National Service in the Army, that he was switched to centre-forward and he earned a place in the Gunners’ senior side in the spring of 1951. Imposing, strong and far quicker than was suggested by a rather ungainly, loping gait, Holton adopted a rampaging style which unsettled opponents. He wasn’t a bad passer either, but he was most famous for the thunderous power of his shot with either foot, which accounted for many of his goals.

He was in the Arsenal side to reach the FA Cup Final in 1952 and his19 goals in 21 outings helping to secure the League Championship in 1952-53, and the promising 24-year-old was spoken of as an England international of the future. He continued to figure for Arsenal for another three seasons and on 6 October 1956, he scored four goals in a home match against Manchester City, becoming the first player since Jack Lambert to score more than three in a game at Highbury.

He lost his place to an ageing Tommy Lawton but a year later, having been switched to left-half, Holton was restored to the side and became captain for a spell. But despite doughty service in various roles, he was judged surplus to requirements as the new manager George Swindin sought to revamp a lacklustre team. Holton was sold to Watford for £10,000 in October 1958. After taking a little time to settle at Vicarage Road, he became one of the most revered figures in the Hornets’ history, netting a club record for one term of 48 League and FA Cup goals as he skippered them to promotion from the Fourth Division in 1960.

His departure from Vicarage Road in the late summer of 1961 to Northampton Town caused such a furore; his shadow remained over the club for a decade. Fifteen years later, when Jim Bonser resigned as chairman, he was still trying, to no avail, to justify that transfer, which disillusioned a generation of Vicarage Road regulars. He finally admitted when he stepped down, what everybody had known 15 years earlier: “We got rid of the wrong man”.

At Northampton Town in 1961 – he scored a club record 36 goals in 1961-62, achieving the rare feat of holding the all-time goals in a season record at two different clubs. He went on to play for Crystal Palace, signing in December 1962 and was part of the Palace side which achieved promotion to the second tier in 1964, with 43 appearances that season scoring 20 goals. He then returned to Watford on 6 May 1965, before moving on to Charlton Athletic and subsequently Leyton Orient.

Only four men since the Second World War had scored more goals in English League football than Cliff Holton namely Arthur Rowley, Jimmy Greaves, John Atyeo and John Aldridge, all of whom, unlike Holton, concentrated solely on a striking role. However the big, burly Oxonian never scaled the giddy heights predicted for him as a young Arsenal star during the early 1950

He finally retired in 1968, due in part to a knee injury and left the game completely. A forthright and articulate individual, Holton seemed ideal soccer management material but he preferred instead to concentrate on a precision engineering business, which he ran until 1989 before working part-time in sports marketing.

He died suddenly in 1996 at the age of 67 while on holiday in Almeria, Spain.

His scoring record was –

Goals Games  G.P.G.
Arsenal 83 198   2.39
London XI 3 4   1.33
Watford 84 120   1.43
Northampton Town 62 86   1.39
Crystal Palace 40 101   2.53
Charlton Athletic 7 18   2.57
Leyton Orient 17 41   2.41
Total 296 568   1.92

GunnerN5

 

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Hungry Perez Can Do A Wrighty

September 6, 2016

Cast your mind back to September of 1991. George Graham had just lashed out a club record £2.5 million to sign 28 year old Ian Wright from Crystal Palace.

Here we are in September 2016, and Arsene has just signed 28 year old Lucas Perez (well, he will be 28 in 4 days’ time) for £17 million.

LPPerez has had to work hard to get where he is. Born in Coruña Spain, he travelled Europe with stints in Ukraine and Greece before returning to play for his beloved hometown team, Deportivo. There, he helped his club avoid relegation by way of goals, heart and fight.

While all International breaks are a pain in the arse, the first one hurts especially as after the footballing vacuum of summer, it’s sprung on us after only three games. However, the first one usually gives us the opportunity to review new signings and do some tactics bollocks about new formations shit and how things will pan out as a result.

Sadly, while we’ve seen exceedingly promising performances from Xhaka and Holding, we’ve yet to see Mustafi or Perez. For now, however, Mustafi doesn’t matter because we’re discussing Perez.

Like many, youtubing clips are the sum of my knowledge regarding Perez, and while we know the stats, that was Deportivo in Spain, and this is Arsenal. Here, he plays with Mesut.

At this point I must lob in a cautionary note. During the height of the summer’s transfer fever, I scanned newsnow. “A source” had said we’d bid for Vardy, and also explained one of the reasons he had decided to stay in “over land and sea and Leicester” was that he’d had a conversation with Arsene, and he hadn’t liked what he’d heard about his proposed role at Arsenal. To me this implies either he wouldn’t have been guaranteed first choice striker, or far more worryingly, it’d been suggested he play wide.

I’m hoping Perez had no such conversation, and cannot wait to see him play. Then, next international break, we can do tactics and formation bollocks and talk about the New Wrighty.

MickyDidIt89

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Spend, spend , spend …. has the Premier League gone crazy?

September 2, 2016

After just 3 games we have already seen the influence of new managers and the untold wealth they have had at their disposal. The only teams with 100% records are Manchester City managed by Pep Guardiola, Manchester Untied managed by Jose Mourinho and Chelsea managed by Antonio Conte. All three managers are new to their clubs and only Mourhino has Premier League experience – with Chelsea.

They are all competent managers and have managed and been successful in various different countries. Other than their success they all have another thing in common – they have all moved to clubs with seemingly endless cash availability and none of then wasted any time in proving that they are also good at spending.

Conte has already spent 120 million at Chelsea on five new recruits

Michy Batshuayi 33m, David Luiz 33m, N’Golo Kante 30m, Marcos Alonso 20m and Eduardo 4m.

Mourhino wasted no time at Manchester United and has spent 158 million

Paul Pogba 90m, Henrikh Mikhitaryan 36m and Eric Bailly 32m.

Not wishing to be outdone Guardiola has left no doubt about Manchester United’s cash reserves and his willingness to spend by setting a Premier League record in the amount of 181million on nine – yes nine new players

John Stones 47m, Leroy Sane 43m, Gabriel Jesus 27m, Ilkay Gundogan 23m, Claudio Bravo 15m, Nilito 15m, Marlos Moreno 5m, Geronimo Rulli 4m and Oleksander Zinchenko 2m.

Meanwhile at Arsenal Arsene Wenger has spent a club record of 113 million on five new recruits ….

Granit Xhaka 45m, Shkodran Mustafi 41m, Lucas Perez 20m, Takuma Asano 4m and Rob Holding 3m.

So even though we spent over 100million we were still outspent by the big three.

(The transfer amounts are all taken from the Transfermartkt .com)

It has the making of being both one of the most competitive and the most exciting seasons for several years.  Gaining one of the coveted top four positions will be more difficult than ever before. Our purchases have been very impressive but we did not manage to add an out and out super star striker which many of us felt was a must buy. Lucas Perez looks to be a superb player who is fast and tricky he has a good eye for goal plus AW has stated that he is also technically gifted. He may not be the sparkly diamond that we were hoping for but he can most certainly be described as a diamond in the rough.

Personally I’m very excited about the 2016/17 season and feel that we will gain a top four slot but what position we finish is anybodies guess.

Where do you think we will finish?

GunnerN5

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Is The Arsenal Jigsaw Complete? …. place your vote!

August 31, 2016

We’ve spent £100m (give or take)

We’ve brought in players in all the positions that needed reinforcement. We have a top keeper, a world class centre back, a block of solid Granit in front of our defence and a pacey fox in the box striker, whose quick feet should compliment our existing strike force.

We have 4 shiny new players who can walk straight into the first team – 3 in their peak years and one a fantastic young prospect who is already well in advance of his years.

We’ve got rid of (and I hate this phrase) some of the dead wood.

We’ve done the decent thing and allowed young players who need time on the pitch to gain experience elsewhere.

All in all, I’m very happy with our transfer activity this summer.

There are eminent bloggers on this site who will say that had we concluded our business earlier we might not be 5 points behind the league leaders, or that we should have splashed out £60m on a worldie striker – I can’t argue against these points, we will know if these criticisms are justified at the end of the season.

Personally, I am optimistic and looking forward to the coming season with real hope that we can achieve something special. How do you view Arsenal’s transfer business? … have your say and vote in the poll below ….

Rasp

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Will the atmosphere at The Emirates become poisonous?

August 18, 2016

When I lived in England I estimate that I watched over 800 games live at Highbury. Back in the early days the crowd consisted mainly of working class men hardened by the events of WW2 – typically they wore heavy leather soled boots and cheese cutter hats. At 3:00pm on Saturdays there was only thing on my family’s mind and that was, of course, going to watch and support the Arsenal.

People squeezed into the ground and pushed and shoved to get into their regular spots, ours was at the clock end and as many as 30 of our family were usually in attendance.

There was only one thing on our minds and that was to cheer on our side and barrack the referee for every perceived injustice. There was no separation of supporters so we intermingled with the away supporters; that only caused an issue when we were playing Tottenham – but even then there was rarely any serious trouble.

Very few supporters had any deep football knowledge of the game and it was rare to hear talk of things like – tactics, formations, transfers or club ownership. Instead the talk surrounded the game we had just watched and the player’s individual contributions. Media coverage was limited to newspapers, radio and early TV.

During the 60’s media coverage got more intense and fans began to read, hear and see more details about their own team and football in general. We began to see interviews with players and managers and heard about potential transfers and started to learn more about transfers and tactic’s – all of which was positive.

Fast forwarding to the current situation and we have intense 24/7 world wide instant media coverage and are inundated with the “expert” opinions of pundits who are usually ex players who dissect every aspect of the game. In order for these media outlets to survive and prosper they have to attract and grow audiences – one method they use is to pull in readers/viewers by creating self fulfilling headlines and show previews. This has both positive and negative consequences; some see through the thin veneer of fact and form their own opinions while others believe it as though it were the gospel.

While I have not set foot inside the Emirates stadium I’ve watched every single game on TV and as the years without winning either the PL or CL has grown so has the chorus of discontent. Our away supporters continue to be behind our team and show an amazing level of support, while our home fans are far less accepting and they make their negative feelings known.

My headline is intended to invite open dialogue on the positive or negative influence that our home support has on our players and therefore our results?

GunnerN5

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Arsenal’s Precise Swiss Timepiece

August 4, 2016

I think it was Arsene Wenger who said that our Swiss recruit, Granit Xhaka, would “set the tempo” for Arsenal. Last night I watched a short youtube piece on his contribution in the MLS game, and I think see what Arsene was on about.

GXOver the last ten years or so, I’d say there are three players who I feel we missed out on big time, in that they were the rare type of player that would make a huge difference to OUR style of play. Top of that list is Alonso.

You can’t say that he is the best of anything, whether tackler, dribbler, passer, interceptor, leader, headerer (ok you get my drift), but he always was a superb “timepiece”. Everything he did was perfectly timed. Whether at Liverpool, Real Madrid or at Bayern, he would “set the tempo” of the whole side.

I think Granit has the same qualities. The movement into space, the pass, the tackle, everything perfectly synchronized to the needs of the team at any one precise moment. Cool and highly efficient.

As far back as Gilberto, we have lacked smooth lubricating oil at the heart of the machine.

The Chinese make cheap, shitty little timepieces that do the job but fall apart when asked the big questions. The Swiss make timeless quality pieces. I think Granit will make a massive contribution to the heartbeat of the side this season.

MickDidIt89

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Pay Da Money …

July 27, 2016

From the last 10 year’s experience of Arsenal’s transfer activity, we know that this is how it works ….

Most of the stories linking us to players or claiming we are interested in a particular player are either from web sites/journalists trying to garner hits, or from agents trying to manipulate the market = lies.

Often, when we are actually interested in a player, it becomes quite obvious from an early stage =  Nasri, Holding, Xhaka.

Sometimes we do a last minute deal = Park, Ozil

I believe we made an offer for La Cazette about a month ago. West Ham subsequently offered more but reportedly (that word means probably a lie), La Caz wants CL football. He’s good, he’s an alternative to Giroud, he knows where the goal is, he’s French 🙂  …. what’s not to like?

‘Reportedly’ Lyon want £40m. So if that is the case, just pay the *&^%ing money and get on with finding us a top CB to fill the vacuum in our defence please Ivan/Arsene.

Don’t tell me it’s not that easy – I know it isn’t but other clubs are securing targets, we need to pull our fingers out and do the business.

Rasp ….. T In C

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Arsenal’s “What if Scenario’s”

July 19, 2016

I am AA’s 2nd oldest contributor (behind JC who is our non writing elder statesman). I’m also an eternal optimist and I see more good than bad in our team, management and club.

Arsene and Arsenal come under a lot of criticism; the Red Tops compete for readership with their fictitious and often outrageous headlines about our club, management and our players. These headlines are fodder for the more gullible supporters who in turn repeat the “stories” they have read and they get repeated so often that they become “Red Top” folk lore.

It’s a seemingly endless cycle and now we are into reading and hearing all of the pre-season doom that is being spouted about our lack of transfers etc – even though we are only 18 days into a 63 day transfer period.

So I thought about a few what if scenario’s.

  1. What if we sign no more players in this window?
  2. What if we sign players late in the window?
  3. What if we go a season with no injuries?
  4. What if Arsene extends his contract?
  5. What if Arsene does not extend his contract?
  6. What if we only finish in the top four?
  7. What if we finish outside the top four?
  8. What if we only win the FA Cup?
  9. What if we win nothing?
  10. What if we change ownership?

I will offer my opinions during the day.

GunnerN5

 

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Does Arsène need to make changes to the First team Squad?

July 13, 2016

Here is the 2016/17 squad as listed on Arsenal.com

 

Attack                                                             Age

1          Chuba  –           Akpom           –            20

2          Joel      –           Campbell       –            24

3          Olivier –           Giroud            –            29

4          Serge   –           Gnabry          –            21

5          Alex    –           Iwobi              –            20

6          Alexis –           Sanchez           –            27

7          Yaya    –           Sanogo            –           23

8          Theo    –           Walcott           –           27

9          Danny –           Welbeck         –             25

Average age of Attackers                             = 24.0

 

Defence

1          Gabriel –           Armando de Abreu-      25

2          Hector –           Bellerin            –           21

3          Calum  –           Chambers        –           21

4          Mathieu –         Debuchy          –           30

5          Kieran –           Gibbs              –            26

6          Carl     –           Jenkinson        –           24

7          Laurent-          Koscielny        –             30

8          Per       –           Mertesacker     –           31

9          Nacho  –           Monreal           –           30

Average age of Defenders                            = 26.4

 

Goalkeepers

1          Petr      –           Cech               –          34

2          Emiliano –        Martinez         –            23

3          David  –           Ospina            –            27

4          Wojciech-        Szczesny        –             26

Average age of Goalkeepers                          =27.5

 

Mid-Fielders

1          Santiago-         Cazorla Gonzalez –       31

2          Francis –           Coquelin          –          25

3          Mohamad-       Elneny          –              24

4          Alex    –           Oxlade-Chamberlain-    22

5          Mesut  –           Ozil                –            27

6          Aaron  –           Ramsey           –           25

7          Jack     –           Wilshere          –           24

8          Granit  –           Xhaka             –            23

 

Average age of Midfielders                             = 25.1

Here are my thoughts…………..

 

OFFENCE.

From an attacking standpoint we obviously lack a cutting edge and if we are to have any chance at all of winning the PL that is a situation that cannot be ignored.

Both Walcott and Welbeck are injury prone and we cannot continue to wish and hope that they will suddenly be injury free and become our saviours. Theo Walcott has had ample opportunities to show his worth but constant injuries have delayed his growth or he simply does not have the overall skill set required. Danny Welbeck has shown tantalizing glimpses of his ability (especially for England) but can we afford to constantly hope that he will become injury free?

Giroud and Sanchez are both top class internationals and while neither had a stellar 2015/16 both should and will remain as an integral part of our squad.

We have five younger players in Akpom, Campbell, Gnabry, Iwobi and Sanogo; while they all show good potential only Campbell and Iwobi have made an impact in the first team.

Should we sell some of these players and then replace them with players who can convert the chances that our midfield presents them with? Or do we continue to wait and wish and hope that things improve?

We desperately need to solve this dilemma.

 

DEFENCE.

Looking at our defence I see two issues one is of age and the other being coverage. We have four players Debuchy, Koscielny, Mertesacker and Monreal who are 30 plus while this is not very old for their positions they will undoubtedly need to be replaced in the not so distant future. With both Debuchy and Jenkinson on loan last season we were left with only seven players to cover four positions and that minimized the opportunities for rotation.

Our main pairings in 2015/16 were Koscielny and Gabriel at CB with Bellerin and Monreal as our FB’s – that left us with just Chambers, Mertesacker and Gibbs as our back ups for the four positions.

This leaves several questions:

  • Should Debuchy and Jenkinson remain on our squad?
  • Will Chambers fulfill his potential?
  • Is this Mertesacker’s final season?
  • Do we need to have eight defensemen on our squad?

 

GOAL.

This is one area where it appears we are in good “hands” with Cech as our number one and Ospina, Szczesny and Martinez as our current and future coverage.

 

MID-FIELD.

Injuries continue to plague the careers of Wilshere, Ramsey and Oxlade and last season

Sanchez, Cazorla and Coquelin were also out for extended periods. Elneny had an impressive first season in the PL and we have an unknown quantity in our new signing Granit Xhaka.

Take away the injuries and we look to be in a strong position especially with the additions of Elneny and Xhaka.

1) Should injury prone players be replaced?

2) Are we force fitting players into the wrong position?

3) We have 17 players to cover only 6 positions – are there too many?

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

Premier league squad rules prevail in the selection of a team and to the best of my knowledge these are the rules that apply.

Premier League squad rules

  1. A club cannot have more than 17 foreign players who don’t fall under the ‘Home Grown Player’ status.
  2. A club can name as many U-21s as they like, even over and above the limit of 25 players.
  3. To qualify as a home-grown player, a player must have been registered with any club tied to the Football Association or Football Association of Wales for at least three whole seasons or 36 months, all before they turn 21. However, it does not have to have been in one continuous stretch.

GunnerN5          

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Team Beats Talent …. are you getting the message Arsene?

July 5, 2016

Leicester City, Athletico Madrid, Iceland, Wales, Hungary, even Italy …. what do they all have in common?

Their collective determination has driven them to beat teams packed with world class talent – and not just on the odd occasion, but consistently.

What is it about this particular period in football history that has brought about a mini revolution that has seen honest endeavour triumph over cosseted complacence?

The current success of these teams is a breath of fresh air. They are what punk rock was to the over produced posturing music of the early seventies.

The fundamental difference is that teams with this ethos are greater than the sum of their parts and the teams they beat are less. They concentrate on the basics and perform them very well.

Moreover, in most cases the fact that they have a smaller pool of talent means that the team is settled and far fewer changes are made and that can only be good for the understanding between players. Hodgson’s 6 changes for the Slovakia game and Arsenal’s 6 changes in the Champion’s league last season were both failed experiments that should not have been risked.

So the conclusion at the moment from what we are seeing at club and international level is that the team is far more important than the individual talent it comprises.

Of course we want/need gifted players, but let’s look at Aaron Ramsey as a case in hand. He has been magnificent for Wales. He’s outshone the ‘world class Bale’. He’s been a more influential player for his country than his club.

Why?

Two reasons. He’s playing in a position that allows the best outlet for his talent, and he’s playing in a team where every other player shares his desire. A team with a manager who has engendered that team spirit and devised a clearly defined strategy and style of play that all the players buy into.

Can that ethos be engendered into the Arsenal team next season?

Arsene has often said that team spirit is good. I don’t think he’s lying, I just think he is referring to the fact that the players are great friends who are relaxed and happy in training. What I want to see is them being very unhappy when we don’t play to our potential. I want to see them perform acts of bravery and desire on the pitch that whip the Emirates crowd into a frenzy of  support.

I want to see 11 players press as a team and to instinctively know when to drop back and defend as a unit. Second nature; first nature; everything about the team has to revolve around a single ethos, this is what we are seeing succeed ….. are you getting the message Arsene?

Rasp

 

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