Archive for May, 2009
May 21st, 2009
Arsenal have today unveiled the new away kit for next season, as modelled by off-field pals Cesc Fabregas and Andrey Arshavin.
The press release can be found here, and an assortment of images of the new kit (including some slightly odd photo-shopped efforts like the one below) can be viewed here.
Whilst I remain gutted to be replacing our fantastic yellow strip with a blue monstrosity, this shirt is better than I had feared: it’s a far darker shade than these initial glimpses implied. Anyhow, what’s done is done now – I just hope we retain the yellow shirt as a potential third kit.
Amaury Bischoff has threatened to leave the club. As tumbleweed moments go, I can’t imagine anything more poignant than Amaury Bischoff standing up in the middle of the canteen and declaring his ultimatum: “PLAY ME OR LOSE ME”. Whilst Bischoff’s desire to get his career back on track is admirable, perhaps he ought to consider just what a gamble Arsene took on a player who had not played competetive football for two years.
One man who I’m sure has a greater degree of appreciation for the patience the club have shown with him is Eduardo, who underwent a very minor operation this week to remove some screws that were inserted into the ankle joint in the initial career-saving procedure. All things being well, he ought to be back and raring to go come the start of pre-season.
Finally today, The Evening Standard claim a source inside the club has dismissed the “£13m budget” as mischief-making and suggested we have closer to £25m+sales to spend. Whilst this is as likely to be fabricated as any other story, I thought it worthwhile to provide a bit of balance to the doom and gloom of some reports.
Today we should get some team news for the final game of the season. Do not be surprised if Emmanuel Adebayor is declared ‘injured’…
May 20th, 2009
So, last night Arsene Wenger put any speculation about Real Madrid to bed with hot milk and a lullaby, stating:
“There’s nothing to worry about, it’s not an issue for me. I’m staying here. If that changes I will let you know, but don’t worry about that. It’s not an issue.”
It’s a topsy-turvy world, football. Just days ago there were articles questioning whether Arsene was still the right man to lead this Arsenal side to glory, and now back pages are declaring: “Arsenal’s Genius: I’m Staying!” (Not that he said that, in that manner. I’d like it if he did, though. Imagine him running out of Highbury House, all languid and strangely camp, shouting “I’m staying!!!”).
A similar turnaround appears to have occurred with the fans – admittedly it was a minority who barracked Arsene Wenger at the shareholders’ Q&A, but now REDAction are planning a retaliation in the form of a pro-Wenger demonstration on Sunday.
The AST, meanwhile, are insistent that Arsene must stay:
“Arsene Wenger is one of the greatest managers we have ever had.
In the last few years he has performed his best work by delivering Champions League football within the financial constraints created by the move to Emirates Stadium.
Arsene must stay. Ivan Gazidis understands the importance of providing both the funds and support for the manager in the transfer market so that Arsene can take us back to the top.”
I think that latter part is crucial. If, as seems to be the case, Arsene has been working within significant constraints during recent years, then now is the time to reward him with the funds required to build a competetive side. We have been prudent, and survived – now we must speculate in order to accumulate. Not only do the board need to be less conservative, but Arsene needs to relax his puritanical economism.
On that note, I wasn’t actually going to give the “£13m” stories any coverage at all, but I suppose I ought if only to state that they are not worth the paper they’re printed on, nor the webspace they’re taking up. I would guess that they’re either:
a) The result of yet more negative spin from Usmanov’s ‘Red & White’
b) Released by the board to strengthen our negotiating position in the Summer
c) Completely made up
Option c) really does look the most likely. Perhaps our budget is just £13m. Hell, it may be £1.3m, but I strongly doubt it. The point remains that these stories almost certainly have no base in fact.
Any budget will probably be boosted by the sale of Emmanuel Adebayor, though the striker’s agent is playing his cards close to his chest:
“I have read Berlusconi’s comments, but I can tell you that there is nothing new regarding Milan and Inter. I haven’t been contacted and I still have to talk to Arsene Wenger. There are things to discuss with him and it’s too early to discuss these things.
All I know is that soon I will meet with Wenger to evaluate the situation because Emmanuel is being booed by just a small section of the fans and he has a good relationship with the coach.”
Adebayor is like a man on fire who is trying not to burn any of the many bridges he’s straddling. Whatever the outcome of this particular tale, I hope it is decided early in the Summer so as not to prove too disruptive to our plans for next season.
Finally, it’s adeus e boa sorte to Rui Fonte. Till tomorrow, Gooners.
May 19th, 2009
Arsenal Chairman Peter Hill-Wood has hit out at some of the shareholders present at the Q&A with Arsene last week, labelling certain questions “disgraceful”:
“Frankly, some of the questions were quite disgraceful. Here you have the most successful manager in our history and two or three of the shareholders made the most negative and somewhat hostile and sarcastic comments, which I think were completely out of order.
I was very upset by the questions, I have to say. Arsene was very diplomatic and honest in his answers and deserves great credit for that but I wouldn’t have been anything like as polite if they had asked me.”
I think we pretty much covered this last week. The whole incident was somewhat unfortunate, but the fall-out from it seems to be what’s fuelling the speculative fires suggesting Arsene is mulling over a switch to Real Madrid.
I remain absolutely certain he won’t go (as do Samir Nasri and Manuel Almunia), but it’s telling that he hasn’t issued a statement affirming his commitment to the club. Perhaps it suits Arsene for there to be an element of doubt, and perhaps some of his detractors, being faced with the chaos that his departure at this stage would inevitably cause, might soften in their stance towards our greatest ever manager.
Armand Traore netted his first league goal last night in Portsmouth’s 3-1 victory over Sunderland. Arsene confirmed last week that Traore will return to Arsenal at the end of the season (Philippe Senderos’ future remains uncertain), but the emergence of Kieran Gibbs means that competition for the left-back spot is going to be pretty intense. Traore has played much of his football for Portsmouth on the left of midfield, and it’s possibly more likely he’ll get a game there, what with Abou Diaby having been shunted wide on several occasions.
There’s not a whole lot of news to report today, so I want to seize the opportunity to congratulate a couple of Arsenal teams who did manage to lift a trophy or two this season.
First of all the women’s side, whose success in recent years has yielded retiring manager Vic Akers an incredible 32 trophies. In scenes reminiscent of Anfield ’89, they travelled to Merseyside (unbeaten Everton, on this occasion) needing a win to clinch the league title and a domestic treble – needless to say, they succeeded. Congratulations to the girls, and especially to Vic on a fantasic career. He will continue in his role with the men’s team as kit man.
Secondly, the U-18s wrapped up the Academy title by beating Spurs in a play-off, with Rhys Murphy grabbing the crucial goal. They now have one particularly big fish left to fry in the form of Liverpool, who stand between the Young Guns and lifting the FA Youth Cup. The first leg of that takes place at the Emirates on Friday evening, and dirty cheap tickets are available from the Arsenal Box Office. Get down there and cheer the kids on.
Till tomorrow.
May 18th, 2009
So, Arsene Wenger calls the management opportunity at Real Madrid “interesting”, and within hours speculative journalists like the reliably incorrect Guillem Balague insist there’s a genuine possibility of him upping sticks to the Bernabeu.
Why would Arsene Wenger walk out on his Arsenal project now? And why, of all clubs, would he want to join Real Madrid?
At Arsenal he is a dictator, presiding over the club to the finest detail.
At Madrid he would meet with interference from Florentino Perez, Jorge Valdano, and possibly Zinedine Zidane.
At Arsenal he is permitted time to build and develop young talent.
At Madrid there is a demand for immediate success.
And lastly, leaving now would require him to break his contract – something to which he has always been opposed.
All the indications are that Arsene turned down the opportunity to manage Bayern Munich a couple of months ago, and why he’d now go back on that reaffirment of his committment to Arsenal is beyond me. Because of the gripes of a few shareholders? I suspect his conviction is somewhat stronger than that.
I’m not sure the same could be said of Emmanuel Adebayor, who looks increasingly likely to depart – perhaps to AC Milan. President Silvio Berlusconi has said:
“There is a good chance that we can get Adebayor.”
Milan certainly have the cash to make selling Adebayor worthwhile, and they also have several players on their staff who could make for intriguing exchanges (Gourcuff, Gattuso, Flamini etc)Â The largest problem we may face is Adebayor’s actions proving detrimental to his value: the now infamous Football Focus interview won’t have helped.
Every boo knocks a little off Adebayor’s price, as he is driven further and further out of the club. With just one home game to go, perhaps we all ought to stage some sort of elaborate charade to convince Milan and others he’s still valued here, and force them to up the bidding. I’m thinking plenty of singing, Adebayor wigs, and African dancing in the stands.
What do you reckon?
Guys?
May 17th, 2009
Man Utd 0 – 0 Arsenal
Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here
After a difficult week, Arsenal needed a performance here from which we could take a degree of pride. We got one, but it was still not enough to prevent United taking the point they needed to retain their Premier League crown.
It’s their third in a row, and there can be no doubt about who are the strongest side in the current Premier League. United are the benchmark, and despite holding them to a draw yesterday, we still have a lot of ground to make up on them.
There are lessons to be learned from the way in which Ferguson reconstructed their side. Whilst he shared Arsene’s focus on vibrant young attacking talent, nurturing Ronaldo and Rooney, he paired that with Premier League experience in the spine of the team brought in at vast expense: I’m thinking principally of Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick.
Whilst I wouldn’t suggest any of our forwards have reached the level of Ronaldo and Rooney, the collective attacking game of Nasri, Arshavin, Fabregas, Van Persie, Walcott & Co is potentially comparable. Where we fall down massively is in that latter element – a spine who both know and are capable of meeting the demands of British football. That is what Arsene must strive to set right this Summer.
Yesterday Arsene picked a side to nullify United’s attacking threat with intelligent possession football. The explosive but erratic Walcott was left on the bench, and Robin van Persie spear-headed a midfield of players all comfortable in possession. Alex Song started at centre-back ahead of Mikael Silvestre, with arseblogger suggesting the former United man could be set to join other formerly-good Frenchmen at PSG.
It was a game of few chances. In the first half, Robin van Persie ought to have done better with a pin-point Arshavin cross, whilst in the second Lukasz Fabianski produced a tackle any defender would have been proud of to deny Carlos Tevez. As the game dragged on, United became visibly nervous about a late sucker-punch, and their fears where almost realised when Cesc Fabregas fired against the post late on.
I thought there were some really strong individual performances from our side. Alex Song coped admirably at centre-half, Bacary Sagna and Kieran Gibbs drove Rooney and Ronaldo back into their own territory, and Denilson had his most efficient game in months. We kept the ball very well, but struggled to break down a United side who knew a point would confirm the title.
The subplot to yesterday’s events centred on Emmanuel Adebayor, who was absent from the squad with what, depending on whether you asked Arsene before or after the game, was either a tight hamstring or a groin problem. One can’t help but wonder if it’s the same kind of injury problem that kept the likes of Sylvain Wiltord and Edu out of the side when they decided to leave on a Bosman.
The situation was exacerbated by this interview given to Football Focus and aired on Saturday morning. I urge you to watch it – as football interviews go, it’s one of the more intriguing character pieces you’ll see. Adebayor is plainly a troubled man. He feels, correctly, that the club’s fans have turned on him, and this is doubtless affecting both his level of both motivation and confidence. We have reached a situation now where Adebayor is booed onto the pitch. Whatever your feelings about him, the only point in such a gesture can be to drive him out of the football club. Consistent booing never ever helped a player regain form.
And yet, watching that interview, one can understand the fans’ ire based on one simple point of principle: Adebayor refuses to acknowledge his fault in the affair. The fans felt betrayed after they backed him so heartily throughout last season, only for him to flirt openly with Barcelona and Milan/Beyonce whenever the opportunity arose. He was telling the television cameras he was desperate to stay, before turning to the printed press and expressing his desire to move on – arseblogger gives a good account of the saga here.
Selling Adebayor last Summer would have made sense financially, but with Flamini and Hleb departing would arguably have been too big a hit on an already depleted squad, so the African’s demands for a pay rise were met and a new deal was signed. I don’t think that in itself was so problematic, but on reflection perhaps Arsene will feel the club could have handled it better. It is the manager’s ethos to stand by his players unconditionally, and he did so with Adebayor, claiming he had been misinterpreted and had never wanted to leave.
This allowed Adebayor to waltz into the new season, kissing the badge and acting as if nothing had happened. But the fans did not forget. Adebayor scored sixteen goals, some of real value, and yet the fans did not forget. And when, demoralised by the lack of support, his work-rate dropped below the level of acceptability, the fans’ anger boiled over into demonstrative booing.
I’m not saying that the following would have made everything hunky-dory, but perhaps it would have been best for Adebayor and Arsene to hold a press conference at the beginning of the season in which the striker apologised for his conduct and expressed a determination to win back the fans, rather than brushing the entire thing under the carpet.
But then, as I said earlier, perhaps Adebayor doesn’t feel he’s comitted any indiscretion. Perhaps Arsene has never made it clear to him that he has. Adebayor may feel he acted simply in his own professional interests, but football has a more complicated etiquette than that. The fans made Adebayor who he is. Now he seems to blame them for who he’s not.
I can only see it ending one way now. It’s gone beyond the point of no return, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Adebayor’s “groin problem” keeps him out of next weekend’s game with Stoke and a potentially embarrassing “lap of honour”.
Still, if it boosts our defence and midfield kitty, it may not be such a bad thing.
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