Too many cooks?

November 16, 2011

I was speaking to an old friend recently, who is also a fan of the Arsenal, and he was pleading the case for us to sign Gary Cahill in the January window. An idea which he seems to share with many of his fellow Gooners (or so it seems looking at blog world!), and this got me thinking about the current squad and the strengthening options open to Arsène come January 1st.

Personally, I would put my house on Cahill NOT coming to the Emirates! We currently have 3 centre backs battling for 2 starting places with back up offered by Djourou and youngsters coming through in Miquel and Bartley. With the current wage structure and the way that Wenger likes to develop young talent, could we really justify bringing in another first choice CB, and, more importantly, would Cahill want to be at a club where he plays half the games a season with Euro’s coming up? Personally, I think not.

Now, if you look at the rest of our squad with the equation of 2 players for each position and 1 youngster coming through, then it becomes obvious which areas need to be addressed in January.

GK
Szscesny and Fabianksi are clearly first choice with back up through Mannone. Almunia can be sold.

FB
Sagna, Gibbs, Santos and Jenkinson are first choice with emergency back up provided by Djourou and Vermaelen and youngsters coming through.

CB
Koscielny, Vermaelen, Mertersacker, Djourou are first choice with back up through Miquel and Bartley. Squillaci can go.

DM
Song and Coquelin are first choice with Frimpong backing up.

CM
Wilshire, Ramsey, Arteta and Rosicky are first choice with Benayoun and Diaby in reserve.

LW
Gervinho and Arshavin first choice with Ryo as the young talent.

RW
Theo and Oxo as first choice with Benayoun an option if desperate.

CF
RvP and Chamakh first choice with Park and Campbell as cover.

based on that assessment I can only see a couple of areas we could realistically strengthen. Firstly, our CM cover is currently provided by a 30 year old loanee and a lanky Frenchman who we all fear may never get back to his best. If Benayoun is allowed to go back to Chelsea and Denilson and Diaby are released, then we will definitely need another body in there. Will it be a £30m Goetze? I doubt it, but a signing would be required.

Secondly, Arshavin has been under performing ever since that magical first 6 months he had at the club. His wages are huge and could be put to much better use (RvP’s contract!?). Ryo is not ready yet so a gifted winger would be a bonus. Hazard? We can dream.

Lastly, Chamakh is looking like a shadow of his former self of late and has lost all confidence. It would be very easy to get rid and buy someone else, but with a red hot RvP, 2 new signings in Park and Campbell, and only 1 position to fight for, I can’t see Wenger buying any strikers just yet.

There are other arguments to be made, could we trust Coquelin or Frimpong in a big game? Do we have enough full back cover? Is Fabianski cut out for Arsenal?
Only time will tell wether these players have what it takes to become first choice.

Fans are crying out, as always, for Wenger to buy big in January, but looking at the squad right now, I think we could be in for a relatively quiet month come crazy season!

Written by FatGingerGooner

108 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by peachesgÖÖner

Simply the Best. Your Favourite Goals?

November 15, 2011

“A good ball by Dixon finding Smith – onto Thomas charging through the midfield, Thomas – it’s up for grabs now. Thomas , right at the end. An unbelievable end to the season.”  My favourite goal of all time, probably every Arsenal fans favourite goal. There have been plenty  more beautiful (TH v MU 2000) but certainly none more dramatic. Those 15 odd seconds have been replayed in my mind thousands of times – times of stress, times of sorrow and times of hardship but when the muck hits the fan and I need a lift, a quick mental reference to Liverpool on the 26th May 1989, and for a few seconds all is well with the world.

Why bring that up here and now? Well, because we are in the midst of a veritable desert of football,…..and because GIE suggested I write about my favourite goals.

2nd. ” It’s all over I think. Some people are on the pitch, they think it’s all over – It is now.” Geoff Hurst 1966. I was in Switzerland at the time on a school holiday. I had attended the Quarter Finals and was in that wonderful stage of childhood when football is everything – before girls came along and ruined  changed everything. Our hotel was packed with German kids and I wish I could say we were magnanimous in our victory. Sadly, the worst of our jingoism came to the fore…….. Brilliant.  This was THE time to be English – The Beatles, The Stones, Carnaby Street, the Mini (both car and skirt!) WC Winners etc etc. A year later Sargeant Pepper was released which changed my life but nothing came near to the feeling of seeing that rocket shot fly past Tolkowski and seeing The Kaiser’s (Franz Beckenbauer) head drop.

3rd.  “Hutchison and now Bould. And it’s Tony Adams put though by Steve Bould. Would you believe it? That sums it all up”. TA Everton 1998. Perhaps my favourite day ever at Highbury. The weather was brilliant, we had a fantastic team, we had won the title, I hadn’t spent too long in the Gunners Pub, I was with all my Arsenal mates – friends with whom I had travelled all over Europe and shared pints, train journeys, thousands of motorway miles,  and all the highs and lows of following OUR team. And Tony was not just Our Leader, he was Mr Arsenal; to see him finish the season like that brought me to tears –  and I am not exaggerating.

This signed picture stands on my desk as I write

4th. “There’s Pires. He’s picked out Bergkamp, It’s Bergkamp with a chance and he’s taken it. Brilliant goal.”  DB10 Newcastle 2002. I could have picked any of DB goals – he scored so many great ones . The hatrick at Leicester  in ’97  was awesome, probably the best I have ever seen, but this goal was something spectacular. The vision, the strength to hold off some Orc, the composure of the turn and the finish, all the mark of a genius of a footballer. I recall when we signed Dennis – I was in shock. At the time we had gone through some of the worst football ever seen at Highbury – winning teams but simply dire football (apart from the best defence ever seen). Suddenly DB arrives and heralds a New Dawn. Mr Wenger came soon after and together they created something very special. Thank you Dennis.

I could go on and on. Thierry scored so many fabulous goals but 3 stand out – MU 2000 scored right in front of me at the Clock End, Spurs when he beat the whole team, and that marvel at the Bernabeu; Ray Kennedy at WHL  ’71, Charlie George at Wembley, Freddie at Cardiff, Wrighty’s lob and volley versus Everton in front of the North Bank, Smudger in Copenhagen,  Liam Brady at WHL, Kanu at the Bridge, Wiltord at OT, RvP v Barca ++++++.

Which are your favourites and why?

Written  by BigRaddy

119 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Erik the Red

The Best Interlull Story of All

November 14, 2011

God this Interlull is boring.

For us supporters, Arsenal news is as vital to our souls as water is to our bodies.

Like a thirsty man crawling through a desert we are on our knees, parched and desperate.

And like that thirsty man we are prone to seeing mirages: images that might be an oasis (or, in our case, a genuine Arsenal news story) but turn out instead to be no more than a trick of the Sun.

 

Recent mirages have included:

• “Andrei Arshavin has had enough of sitting on the bench and will demand a move if not played more often”. Cue much outrage from Arsenal supporters less than impressed by the size of his arse, sorry, contribution so far this season. But of course this story turned out to be only a partial interpretation of his quotes, which also included the admission that he had been playing below par and could not expect a first team berth unless it was merited.

• “Francis Coquelin has had enough of sitting on the bench etc etc”. Cue yet more outrage from some Arsenal supporters, perplexed as to why a little-known French kid named after a popular shellfish snack should expect to be displacing Alex Song in our first team. A story on Arsenal.com quickly put the record straight, with the Cockle eagerly pointing out that he was happy to fight for a place.

• “Arsenal have been trialling a young American lad called Shrek or something (related to Rooney, perhaps?)”. He plays in the MLS (North America’s equivalent of the EPL, but with a playing level closer to the League of Ireland). He could be the next big thing. Or he could be the next big thing to try and sell more shirts in the US. Anyway, if he wasn’t American he would be just another youngster trying out for the Gunners, which would be exactly 0.00001% of a story.

• “Peter Hill Wood says that Prince Robin van Persie used to be a naughty boy at Feyenoord but isn’t now”. Again, cue the outrage of certain Arsenal supporters: how dare that silly Old Fartonian make a disparaging comment about one of our players. In fact, what right has he to make ANY comment about Arsenal? So what if he’s the third generation of his family to be chairman of the club? So what that he has been a serving army officer and a successful banker. Blithering, know-nothing idiot.

• The usual array of “Arsenal to sign Player X in the January window” stories. I started counting the number of players we were going to sign and lost count at 19. No wonder they have extended the medical centre at London Colney.

But if we ignore the mirage stories (the ones that, when you get up close and have a proper look, shimmer away into nothing), then it’s possible to find the one really uplifting story of this Interlull (by the way, well played Arseblog for inventing a word that had truly entered the language. I have even seen “interlull” used on other teams’ blog sites).

The uplifting story I’m thinking of is that the Dutch national coach, Bert van Marwijk, has agreed that Prince Robin does not need to play in the friendly against Germany this week.

With Robin’s injury history and his current importance to Arsenal in this oh-so important season of transition, it is a wise and reasonable gesture on van Marwijk’s part.

He would have been perfectly within his right to insist on Prince Robin playing against his country’s bitterest rivals, but chose not to.

He’s now my favourite ‘Burt’, overtaking the Burts Bacharach and Reynolds (and don’t go throwing Mr Mee at me – he was always very definitely a BertIE, not a Burt).

Anyway, contrast Bert’s approach to that taken by successive England managers (and by Stuart Pearce at Under 21 level).

As a brief moment of sanity in a sport corrupted by out-of-control egos and pointless willy-waving, that decision makes it the story of the Interlull for me. What’s yours?

RockyLives

83 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by RockyLives

The Spirit of 1990

November 13, 2011

Ok in the height of the interlull (or is that the bleak midwinter of it?) a trip down memory lane as requested by the Raven Haired Warrior Princess.

Watch from about ten seconds in to see the brawl that resulted in a 2 point deduction for us and a one point deduction for the Mancs. You will see Winterburn receiving an almighty kick in from McClair and then the melee starts. What most of us realise is that as much as this is the darker side of football we would all want to have played in that side, teammates alongside that will stand up and be counted when you’re in danger….no questions asked.

The reason we lost two points was as a result of a brawl in 1989 where a wholly innocent Smudger was turned upon by most of the Norwich team as we took a 4-3 lead, Arsenal players were celebrating on the half way line and suddenly you see Adams turn to his mates as they realise what’s going on with their mate Smudger and return to the scene and a 21 man brawl ensued, only Lukic was not involved.

After those two points were taken we went on to win the league in no small part due to the players chat with George Graham. He lined them up and explained how everyone was against us….the rest is history.

Are we starting to see this spirit re emerge in the current squad, there seems to be a lot more togetherness than in recent times, also like that team of 90 our current squad is not full of the most gifted players, but we all know what that 1990 team went on to achieve.

Let’s hope we continue to see the spirit of 90 on to this current squad.

Written by Gooner in Exile

43 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by peachesgÖÖner

FIFA, UEFA, FA: time for a change to the Internationals set-up

November 12, 2011

Arsène Wenger in our Official Arsenal Magazine:

“The lack of quality in some [international] games has been wiped out by the national pride of people supporting their countries. But in the longer run, that doesn’t work.

“People want quality, and we saw some games in the last round of internationals – Bulgaria v Wales for example – there were just 1,000 people there. That makes a mockery of international football. So we have to look at that quickly, because it creates a new problem.

“I think it will get worse and worse because we are facing an economic crisis too. That will have direct consequences for the attendances. It’s more and more difficult to sell out games – even in a big country like France. Not one home game there was a sell-out. Not one. That shows you that there’s something happening that is a deeper problem.”

Something has gone wrong.
We should all be drooling at the prospect of Europe’s best national teams competing against each other during yet another Interlull. On Saturday England ‘take on’ Spain at Wembley: the world’s best national team comes to the holy ground of football to play England, and yet nobody is really excited about it. Furthermore, next week Tuesday two of the fiercest European rivals, Germany and Holland, meet for a ‘friendly’. The finalist and semi-finalist of the 2010 World Cup don’t really do friendlies, but even this game is unlikely to put the world on fire.

There is a time and place for international games and it is not in the middle of the National and European club competitions.

Club football and national football are both great to watch, but they do not mix very well. Clubs are far too worried their players will get injured, and quite rightly so – Arsenal has suffered disproportionately from players returning with bad injuries over recent years. As a result, players often get withdrawn before an international game under the pretence of an injury – or players (and their national managers) get told to take it easy, avoid risks and only play for 45 minutes. During friendlies, this usually results in a ludicrous number of substitutions which often totally destroys the flow and tactics of a particular game. It is fair to say, the quality of international qualification games, and friendlies as well, has decreased significantly over recent years.

Too often the difference in quality between the nations within a football qualification group is far too big, leading to dreary, insipid games most of us do not manage to watch till the end. Friendlies are often even worse: the opposition might be stronger, but the aforementioned restrictions put onto players by their clubs, very often lead to lacklustre performances of which the only beneficiaries are those that suffer from severe insomnia.

Arsene is right in saying that this lack of ‘quality’ – his favourite word at the moment, it seems – is creating a problem.

Furthermore, most fans do not like international football during the league-season, regardless of the quality on display. Most of us get deeply enthralled into our clubs’ doings, on and off the pitch, and the international games take us rudely out of our tribal, cosy footie-cocoons.

Yet, the European and World Championships are fantastic tournaments. I especially like the European Championship as everybody who starts in it has a chance, and it so often has a surprise winner (Denmark, Greece spring to mind). The quality of the football on show is often very high too (Greece does not spring to mind this time). The World Cup is a great tournament as well and a fantastic opportunity to see the world best players on display. However, they are both summer tournaments. That is where they belong: in between the club football league seasons.

Proper, full-on footie fans, know the difference between an even and uneven year: the former treats us to great international games in the summer, and the latter leaves us fully exposed to a cruel and seemingly never-ending, free for all, transfer window endurance-course (and Arsenal fans will not want to go through another one of those ever again).

Now, I do not remember much about my maths lessons: let’s just say there were far more alluring distractions during those vital learning years of puberty and beyond. I do remember though that if you add up two negatives it will result in a larger negative outcome, but if you multiply two negatives you actually get a positive outcome. And that is exactly what I am proposing to do with regard to the internationals.

Here is my proposal to the likes of FIFA, UEFA and the FA:

No more national qualification games and no more friendlies during the club league football seasons: all qualification and friendly games should be played in the summers of the uneven years.

What does it mean?

  1. The league seasons will become shorter allowing sufficient time for all international games to be played in May/June. The international games take up four to five weeks of the football season, and by taking these out, the season would normally end between 8-15 April, after which the FA cup final and CL final can be played.
  2. From the beginning of May till 10 June two friendlies and 8-10 qualification games shall be played, leaving four weeks of holiday, after which the players return for pre-season preparations, and the PL and other Leagues shall normally start again around 10 August.
  3. The club/league football season will be played without any interruption of international games, allowing everyone who loves club football to get fully engrossed in it.
  4. The clubs will be far more happy with letting their players go, as if and when they would get injured, there is the rest of the summer to allow for recuperation, which would considerably reduce the impact to the clubs.
  5. The players will be more up for it, now being able to fully concentrate and dedicate themselves to the international games.
  6. The fans will show significantly more interest, as there is nothing else to do, and the high intensity of international games every three to four days in May and June – with qualification for a major tournament at stake – will be a far more attractive formula than the current one (spread out over two seasons).
  7. The FA could save itself a few million pounds as it does not need a full-time manager anymore: maybe, it can even convince Fergie and Arsene to work together in May and June for a small bonus.
  8. Wembley would be unused for a big part of the year, but the FA could offer those with small stadiums to play some of their home games there (and we all know who those are!).

Now, a lose-lose situation (two negatives added up) turn into a win-win situation (two negatives are multiplied with each other): no more international distractions during the club footie seasons, fully dedicated players who want to give it their all for their national teams, and the fans will also be fully focussed to give their full support to England. All in all, I can only see benefits. I am sure the devil is well hidden in the detail, but the British are champions at iterative problem solving, so I am urging the FA to take the lead and get this party started by putting in a proposal to UEFA/FIFA. It is about time the official football bodies make a paradigm-jump in order to rescue the beauty and splendour of the internationals.

Written by TotalArsenal.

67 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by peachesgÖÖner

What Do Points Win?

November 11, 2011

That little table on the right shows we are still one point behind last seasons cumulative total, one problem with that table (other than the lack of progression in 2010/11 from game 27 onwards) is that it does not take into account the opponents played. On Saturday we made a big step forward, like for like games compared to last season we are now 3 points up.

In one respect this makes the second half at Ewood, the unfortunate event in N17 and the late goals against Liverpool more costly. If we had gone like for like in those games we would now be up seven points on last season. Unfortunately one of those games occurred in the wake of the most turbulent pre seasons this club has ever seen, one in the early days of rebuilding, and one caused by the once in a lifetime goal immediately preceding disappearance to football obscurity.

Since those games we have been on a run which has seen us turnaround a number of disastrous results from last season, including perhaps most impressively and key to the change to a more cheerful Emirates faithful the victory over the Chavs down the Kings Road.

Whilst football seasons don’t go to exactly to history the majority of games go with form and expectation, especially where the top clubs are concerned. With that in mind I have looked at our nearest rivals using the same like for like basis to see if they have started the season as well as the current table suggests.

For the sake of this exercise West Ham were replaced by Norwich, Blackpool by Swansea, and Birmingham by QPR.

This is the result:

What does this tell us?

In my opinion it shows us that at United appear to be standing still, Chavs performing worse whilst Dippers, Shitty and Spuds have shown big gains.

Depending how you interpret this swing and how you extrapolate it gives various outcomes.

If you assume the remaining games will go as they did last season the final table will end up something like this:

Clearly that shows United retaining their championship and the rest of the top 4 being the same as last season. Whilst that will satisfy us after our poor start should we really be looking at the swing compared to the points gained last year, and then extrapolate that swing over the remaining games (and points achieved)? If so that would give the following:

Whilst all of this is playing with numbers it is important to show that despite our recent form and surpassing our points total from the same games last year we are not out of the woods yet. This could turn into one of the most exciting races for the Champions League ever, with not just two teams chasing the final spot, but four or five teams chasing three spots, plus a Championship to win.

The shake down is a long way off but the teams performances between now and January are crucial in achieving Champions League qualification.

Out of interest, to still be three points ahead come New Year’s Day we have to win every game but one (which will need to be a draw). That is the task that lays ahead of the manager and players to stay ahead of last years performance.

Written by Gooner In Exile

78 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Rasp

Geordie would have shown them how.

November 10, 2011

George “Geordie” Armstrong died of a brain haemorrhage after collapsing on the training field 11 years ago on the first of this month. He was a year younger than me and joined the club as a 17-year-old, two years after I had first claimed my permanent place on the terraces as a 15-year-old. He was my first footballing idol and was to be associated with the club on and off for 39 years.

I mention this because a new young full back has been thrown in at the deep end for us in recent weeks just as Geordie was and by and large has risen to the challenge.  Carl Jenkinson is 19 years old and in his first year with the club having been transferred from Charlton Athletic in June.

AA boasts a number of good judges of a footballer and this young man has caught their attention. The strength of character he has shown after surviving that 8 goal pounding at the hands of the Mancs, his work rate, application and determination as he joined the fight to recover from our disastrous start, all bode well for the years ahead.

On the other side we have another new summer arrival, this one more senior and a Brazilian international to boot. Andre Santos arrived having, we are told, supplanted  Roberto Carlos, he of the 35 Metre free kick, as his Turkish clubs first choice full back, but wanting to play in England. He signed for us primarily, he said, as we played his kind of football.

Both Carl and Andre were elevated to the first team far quicker than anticipated as both Kieran Gibbs and Bacary Sagna our first team fullbacks, were as is the Arsenal way, to suffer long-term injuries.

So the squad now has 4 speedy  fullbacks ready, when fit, to combine with our Flying Wingers, Theo and Gervinho, to form an attacking force capable of getting behind the oppositions defence and crossing the ball into the right areas.

But this is where the similarity ends, Geordie played in his early days in heavy leather boots on muddy, waterlogged, energy sapping bogs of pitches, yet would still run up and down that wing for ninety minutes, virtually non stop. At the same time, evading, receiving and accepting as part of the game, sliding tackles that would see the offender banned Sine Die, if he did such a thing on today’s croquet lawns. On top of which he was using a leather ball that grew heavier as the game went on and the water soaked through the dubbined Tee panel monster with its leather lace that was, pre ‘the valve’ the premier ball of its day.

Yet, and here’s the strange thing, what with all these disadvantages was Geordies main claim to fame? He could hit that ball on the run or from a corner and put it straight into the danger zone and on the head of the likes of Joe Baker, Raddy, Kennedy and even in later years the elegant stroller Graham. Count the amount of headed goals that came from Geordies crosses, watch us win the league at WHL as Ray thumps a header past Big Pat Jennings from a Geordie cross. Pure magic created with skill and constant practice, and regularly displayed by the little man with a heart of a lion.

So what’s your point you may ask, well I have a question for the modern footballer. If Geordie could do all that, under conditions that would probably make you guys refuse play, why can’t you on our manicured pitches, with lightweight footwear and a ball my gran would have kicked straight out of the garden. Why do you lot struggle, not just on the run, but from corners and free kicks as well, to even clear the first man, for Christ sake!!!!!?

Written by dandan

108 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by dandan

Arsene Wenger – The best there is, the best there was and the best there will ever be

November 9, 2011

Written by Double 98

Sir Alex Ferguson choked back the tears when the Manchester United people unveiled a stand in his name. It was a fitting tribute to a legend of the game and so much more pertinent to honour the man while he is still alive and running the club. Club allegiance aside, hats off to the man – 25 years at the helm of the biggest club in world football and enjoying unparalleled success in trophies and medals deserves mention and accolade.

Down the road in North London, Arsenal were beating a team that they should beat easily enough by 3 goals. That Arsenal beat West Brom 3-0, is not remarkable in a normal context but in November 2011 it is monumental. 12 – 18 weeks before in the close season, Arsène Wenger was confronted with a crisis in his club – in his own words half the dressing room wanted to leave. He moved quickly to clear some of the deader wood and tried desperately to get his world class players to stay.

To no avail, In Fabregas he lost a player that his third great team was entirely build around – an attacking quarterback with unbelievable passing ability, incredible panoramic vision and a ludicrously fast footballing brain. In Nasri he lost plan B, Nasri was spiky and mercurial, while not an exact match for Fabregas, he was a player that Arsene Wenger could have built a team around quite quickly. Over the summer along with the heart being ripped out of the club, and the replacement heart looted by the Dubai heart collectors we also had the periphery annihilated – among them Clichy – our one time class act at left back and Bendtner, precocious and arrogant, he always seem destined to be (in eddie vedder’s words) a “sun in somebody else’s sky..”.

So Wenger stood 2 days before the transfer deadline, with a half a team, 1 point from 3 games and having just taken a hiding from Manchester United the likes of which no Arsenal Manager has ever taken from anyone. The crowd had turned, the mumbling voice of the disaffected had grown to a howling, crescendo of hate and rejection. It would have been easy to do two things – leave or abandon his self sustainability model and buy some over priced class.

He did neither, he looked around the club and noticed the last diamond at his disposal – a diamond so fragile and unreliable that even in the form of his life had not attracted any serious interest from those that have plagued our club for the last 10 years – he ran a cloth over Robin van Persie and saw a resolve where others saw a fracture and thought – I can rebuild an empire around this fellow. From what I can tell he sent his team of negotiators out each with a players name, a bottomline value and a maximum weekly wage. Most of the people his team negotiated with laughed at the offers, or the agents laughed at the wages but the bottomline was hard.

At the close of the deadline, the news was confirmed that we had signed Arteta, Santos, Park,  the BFG and on loan Yossi Benayoun to go with the earlier captures of Gervinho and Jenkinson. Each of them had a point to prove, and a hunger to fill – each of them could have earned more money elsewhere or at their old club. Wenger looked at his gem cabinet and found Walcott, Koscielny and especially Rosicky, looking under used and brimming with unfulfilled potential. He shined them up and went to work binding them together into a cohesive unit. It wasn’t easy – he was two months behind in preparation and already 8 points off the lead.

Since deadline day (and the Old Trafford humiliation) Arsenal’s premier league results are W 6 D 0 L 2 while in all competitions it reads W 10 D 2 L 2. In amongst that statistic was the away wins in Marseille and a thumping of bogey team Chelsea. Whatever way you look at this form it is, if not title winning then title contending form. Have some of the wins been fortunate – yes, has some of the defending been shocking of course but you know what? It has been exponentially better week on week even the boo’s have stopped and it appears that the crisis is averted.

The media have stopped their feeding frenzy – even to the point where MOTD gave no analysis of our game against WBA. As little as a month before they had analysed every defensive mistake, gesture and position as forensically as a crime scene in an attempt to convince us all that Arsène Wenger had lost the plot, the crowd and his dressing room.

So where does this all bring us? Well as the accolades quite rightly come in for Sir Alex, all his achievement is, for me, second to the real world achievement of Arsène Wenger – in 12 weeks he has had his heart ripped from his chest, he has been humiliated and beaten to within a inch of his life by his biggest foe, he has had to sit and endure the cacophony of boos and jeers from his own supporters, he has had to endure former Arsenal players telling him on tv that his time is up, he has had to stay quiet while players that never had the talent to play for him (Savage) tell the world that he hasn’t a clue, former managers telling us that he needs a defensive coach, he has had to look Robin van Persie in the eye every day and tell him not to waver in his faith, he has had to take old dogs like Arteta and teach them new tricks (well in Arteta he just converted him back to the Pepe Guardiola defensive fulcrum type player that he started out as).

He has not veered from his philosophy and now in our traditional black month of November – we the supporters of the greatest and most rewarding club, while maybe not seeing the promised land, no longer see the threatened land and I for one can’t wait til Manchester United come to town in late January. We might not win by 6 but we will demonstrate that the circle is turned and I expect to win.

Ferguson has never, ever had to endure even half of what Wenger has this season. Sir Alex may be the Knight of Manchester but Arsene is the King of Arsenal – Long live the King – We should buy our way out of the naming rights and call the Grove the Arsène Wenger Stadium and ensure that his legacy is indelible with the future of the club.

180 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by peachesgÖÖner

Arsène Wenger’s Got a Headache

November 8, 2011

The criticism of Arsène for trying to force square pegs into round holes has frequently been levelled over recent seasons. Bendtner, Eboue and Arshavin in particular have all been deployed in areas that would not be their first choice let alone the Championship Managers among us. The reason for this has generally been a lack of depth in the squad exacerbated by the perennial injury problems that have depleted us so cruelly at vital times.

Now it would appear that Arsène has a headache of a different kind. The summer purchases coupled with the progression of quality players through the youth system has created a problem, a good problem to have but a problem nonetheless. As far as Sagna and Wilshere are concerned the problem is months away but in light of the coming 2 weeks of nail biting over the potential for injuries playing in meaningless internationals, I thought it would be interesting to ponder the alternatives.

Who are our best players in every position?
Well I think the answer at the top and tail of the team is obvious – RvP and Szczesny give Arsenal about the best polar opposites in the league. But elsewhere it is not so simple.

Centreback Partnership
Some supporters had been crying out for a tall physical presence at the back and then along came Per Mertesacker the 6ft 5in answer to our vulnerability from set pieces. Don’t get me wrong, I think the BFG is an excellent addition to the squad and has helped us keep in touch through this early critical period, but I think most would agree that his height is not the main attribute he possesses. No, it’s his positional play, reading of the game, timing of the tackle cool head and experience – but I wouldn’t mind betting that Kozzer has won more headers in the box when playing alongside Mert. The return of Vermaelen has been a huge shot in the arm and has reminded us all that he is a world class defender and our captain of the defence. For me the best CB pairing is TV and Koz but have your say by placing your vote below.



Wingbacks
Now this is where it really does get difficult. Most Arsenal supporters would say that last season Sagna was the best right back in the league. He didn’t start this season so well and looked a yard or two off the pace, but a 90% Sagna is still better than most RBs and it seemed like an early hammer blow to our season when he was ruled out with a fractured leg.

But then there was the introduction of Carl Jenkinson to the first team. He was one of our early summer signings who at 19 was inexperienced to say the least having been on loan at a non league club previously. For me he has been a revelation. Like Jack, he’s an Arsenal supporter. He has amazing energy going forward and uncharacteristically for an Arsenal player, he can cross the ball. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not in the same class defensively as Sagna at this stage, but he is improving every game and has won the hearts of the supporters already. Sagna has to be my first choice RB for the big games, but Jenks is a real find and offers us more offensively so in a couple of years time who knows?


Gibbs or Santos? – now that is a much closer call. Gibbs has been threatening to become the new Cashley for a couple of seasons. His progress has been hampered by a worrying propensity to pick up injuries that hasn’t ever really let us see him have a decent run of games.

Santos is already dividing opinion. He’s all Brazillian, surging forward with gay abandon, super control spiced with clever tricks and finished with a sweet left foot and cool head in front of goal. He loves to go forward, its the gaping holes that he leaves behind that worry many. West Brom were poor on Saturday and Santos never really looked troubled but against stiffer opposition he may be undone. The hope is that he will adjust his game to put slightly more emphasis on the defensive side of his play, but I for one would not wish him to sacrifice his natural attacking game. Santos would be my first choice for LB.

The Midfield
Since The Boy Wonder’s place is not in question I shall consider the midfield to be the ‘5’ in a 4:5:1 formation – but you can call it 4:3:3 if it makes you happy. I have no hesitation on current form in saying that wide midfielders places are not in question, Theo and Gervinho have been excellent and are clearly Arsène’s first choice, but we still have very good options in Arshavin, the Ox and possibly Ryo in time.

The current best centre midfield 3 would appear to be Song, Ramsey and Arteta – but what happens when Jack is fit again?

It would appear that Song’s place in the side is safe so who would give way to accommodate our rising star? I actually think that Arteta has been more influential in the side recently than Song as he quietly gets on with his business and keeps the Wengerball machine running smoothly whereas Song is often noticed when he somehow magically manages to hold off multiple players and still emerge with the ball but I sometimes think he should not be in that position in the first place. Once again we are blessed with midfield options and squad rotation of the midfield 3 would help us stave off the customary end of season fatigue.

Which players would you prefer to see as our centre midfield three?

The Subs
I have made the presumption that everyone would agree that these are the only candidates for first choice in their positions but many would disagree. Is Arshavin more effective than Gervinho on the left? The Ox worth a try in place of Theo? Rosicky more reliable than Ramsey? Benny more attacking than Song? Diaby waiting in the wings to finally realise his potential? Coquelin worth a try for some games? – they may well all have to play their part in a typically long season. With the possible exception of strikers, we can now boast two quality players for every position on the pitch.

One thing is for sure, our new strength in depth makes us better equipped than for many years and the removal of large egos and homesick heroes from the dressing room should mean that rotation and competition for places makes us a stronger and more resilient squad this season.

You can see how opinion is divided in the polls by clicking on ‘View Results’ on the bottom left of each poll box.

Written by Rasp

192 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Rasp

What Silent Stan REALLY Wants

November 7, 2011

Stan Kroenke is going to have to think about changing his nickname. He has been blabbing so much lately that the ‘Silent’ tag is starting to feel a tad ironic, a bit like ‘Little’ John (Robin Hood’s giant buddy) or ‘Curly’ from the Three Stooges (he was bald) or John ‘Not At All Racist’ Terry. After talking to the media in the States, then speaking at the Arsenal AGM, our majority shareholder spilled his guts again to a group of reporters recently.


It was a long interiew, filled with interesting observations about all sorts of things – from the way the Glazers run Manchester United (just fine and dandy according to Stan) to the astonishing fact that it is possible to have interesting discourse with Chelsea fans.But when I read the transcript of the interview, I noticed that a certain motif cropped up repeatedly. It gave me an insight into what Stan thinks about himself and, by extension, what he values in others.

The key concept is ‘intelligence’ (or ‘smartness’, in more colloquial terms).
Look at the examples:
Asked about how he defined success (and how long he felt it was reasonable to wait for trophies) our yakety Yank said: “We (meaning him and his team) have a broader experience than anybody in sports,” adding that he was “smart enough” to know that you can’t win silverware every year.

He was emphasising that the ‘smart’ approach was in taking the long view and not being a slave to instant gratification.

When the questions inevitably led on to whether Arsenal could compete financially with the likes of Manchester City, with their bottomless well of murky oil money, Stan was clear about the way he would like to achieve success: “I would be much more proud if all our leagues were developed with the idea that you are competing on the basis of intellect and work and effort instead of just simply, ‘I am going to throw dollars against the wall.’ Anybody who is a sportsman would rather compete on the basis of intellect, cleverness.”

On one level, the subtext here is that none of us should expect Stan to start splashing money like a chav in a chip shop. But also that he is ambitious – it’s just that his ambition is to win clever, not win broke. And when waxing lyrical about the success of the NFL (the professional organisation for American Football in the States) he pointed out that success was “all about how smart are you in selecting personnel.”

Moving on to baseball, he mentioned the new Brad Pitt movie Moneyball, which tells the story of Billy Beane, a baseball coach for an unfashionable and relatively poor team who achieved success through outsmarting his richer opponents: “Moneyball is all about being smart in sports, specifically baseball. There’s a wave in the US now of statistical evaluation – this whole science of sport goes a long way. There’s some very smart people – we employ some of them – who are analysing every stat and who are connecting every bit of data and trying to make sense of it. But that really started with Billy Beane, who is the guy in Moneyball. And Billy Beane’s hero truly is Arsene Wenger. He loves Arsene.”

Even on the subject of Samir Na$ri’s controversial move to Man City in the summer, Stan was at pains to focus on intelligence: “That’s where being smart and not being smart comes in. You’ve got one year left on a player’s contract. You’ve got a large sum of money being offered. Can you employ those resources better than you could had you not taken the money, taken a chance on losing the guy for nothing in a year or perhaps overpaying for him now and having less resources later?”

And on Manchester United under the Glazers: “I think it’s time maybe for everybody to think a little bit. They ought to think a little bit about who invests in these clubs.” In summary, in the course of just one interview, there are more than 10 examples of words like “smart”, “clever” and “intellect”. This is a man speaking off the cuff to journalists, not reading a prepared speech. A psychologist would suggest that these key words, used so liberally, are evidence of what’s really at the forefront of the speaker’s mind.

To me that means that Stan Kroenke is a man who values intelligence above all other qualities. Yes he likes courage and he likes the idea of making money and not spending it unnecessarily and he likes learning about football (there are references to all these in the interview), but his overriding obsession comes through loud and clear.

He sees himself, above all, as a SMART sports business owner. One who is not swayed by the daily rise and fall of fan disgruntlement or media muck-stirring, but who has a long-term vision and strategy. In that case it’s hardly surprising that he seems so comfortable with Arsene Wenger – the thinking man’s football coach if ever there was one. He clearly values Arsene’s analytical and professorial approach to the job over, say, the passion of a Ferguson or the duck-and-dive slipperyness of a Redknapp. I think it’s a good thing.

It should mean he will empower and enable Arsene to do his thing as well as he possibly can do it. And at a time when Arsene and Arsenal get far too little credit for the “smart” way in which the club has been run in recent years, it’s a refreshing vote of support for values that we supporters can also all be proud of. Man City may well win the league this year, but ask yourself: would you rather be a City fan or an Arsenal fan? You know the answer, and so do I.

Keep the faith Gunners: what we have is worth more than anything anyone else can possibly offer, however endless their supply of petro-dollars.

RockyLives
　

204 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by RockyLives

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »