Roma aren’t quite Barcelona
Add comment December 20th, 2008
I don’t know what to talk about today. Because I can’t help but feel my “Liverpool Preview” or what have you ought to be tomorrow. I guess I’ll just run over the tidbits that came out of Arsene’s pre-match press conference yesterday.
After we drew Roma in the Second Round of the Champions League, Arsene called the tie “50:50”:
“Roma are back to form now and maybe are the best team in Italy at the moment. So it will be interesting.
They are a team where you want to defend very well. It would have been a bit the same to have drawn Barcelona, because they play the same type of football as Roma.”
I’m not sure it’s quite the same as drawing Barcelona, and however well Roma are doing we’re probably favourites to progress. Anyway, it’s such a long way off now that Roma’s current form is somewhat of an irrelevence.
Arsene says he will spend any money that’s made available “in a wise way”. Hopefully he means he’ll be nodding sagely and quoting ancient Chinese proverbs (whilst splashing shed-loads of cash).
The manager insists he does not know the reasons for Nina Bracewell-Smith’s departure, but rightly suggests it will have no impact on the team. You can see why he makes the following point:
“What is important in a football club is the directors do not speak about footballing technique and that I do not speak about shares.”
But I’m not sure he’s quite right, particularly in the case of one Ivan Gazidis, who I’m expecting to have a significant impact upon arrival.
That’s all I’ve got for you today. No big four teams play today. West Ham did us a favour at Chelsea last week, though beating Aston Villa today would arguably be more directly helpful.
