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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.
May 16th, 2009
It is incredible that today we face Manchester United in a clash at Old Trafford which could settle the fate of the Premier League title, and that is not my lead story. But then, the events of the shareholders Q&A were somewhat extraordinary, and the fall-out from those tense exchanges continued throughout yesterday, right up until the point that ArsenalTV screened footage from the event at 9pm.
Perhaps I was being naieve, but I was amazed that ArsenalTV went to the Stalin-esque lengths of editing out the most controversial moments of the interrogative session. An hour-long Q&A was reduced to about 35 minutes as the discussions of Silvestre’s geriatricity, Adebayor’s future, and the ability of the likes of Song and Diaby were erased from the club’s own recording of the occasion.
I can understand the logic: the exchanges were unflattering to both Arsene and the fans who affronted him with their all-too-direct questions, but in that case I would have pulled the programme completely. Censoring content that has already been made public by the national media is somewhat futile.
Perhaps I’m being unfair, fuelled by my annoyance at not being able to see something that would clearly have made for an enthralling piece of television. It was an in-house event and the club have a right to edit that in whatever way they choose. We are lucky, however, that we live in a world where their censorship does not deny us a full account of what actually took place, thanks to good sources like this one at ArsenalInsider.
From what I was permitted to see, I gleamed that Arsene is a man very much under pressure. His responses became almost hectoring, as if he felt a need to re-educate his audience on football’s values. And in many cases, his arguments stood up.
Something I feel he was trying to say but never quite managed to capture was that we as a club would benefit from being more insular. We live in a world of media saturation, whereby we are all incluenced by an external perception of the club. When that is negative, it is easy to succumb and feel similarly. Some clubs battle negative perception all the time – I’m thinking of Chelsea, primarily – but their fans can at least point to trophies. Of late we have not had that defence, and that leaves us as fans feeling vulnerable.
In an ideal world, we would not give a toss what the media think. We would not care what the fans of other clubs think. In an ideal world, you could argue, we would not even bother to look at the league table. This club exists only for us, and we exist only for this club. All that should matter is that this club is run to the best of its capacities – the problem being, perhaps, that we are unclear as to what those capacities are. But trophies are transient – as soon as they are won they are given up again. The values of a club – the spirit, the style – are more significant. As Arsene himself mentioned, Liverpool have not won the title for two decades, but they are doubtless a great club. Being true to our culture and our heritage ought to be more significant than any statistic.
I know that reeks of idealism and is a philosophy that is almost entirely alien in results-driven modern football, but I don’t think it’s without merit. Arsene once famously said, “Everyone thinks he has the prettiest wife at home”. At the moment we Arsenal fans are slagging off our missus and lusting after a few voluptuous but ultimately cheap tarts.
And you know what – if we got them, it’d only be a fling. Like Arsene said at the Q&A – if he spent £70m on a player, people would be happy for two months, and then the despair would creep back in with a stronger hold than ever. And everything that he had worked so hard to build would be irretrievably disturbed.
I know many will read this and still insist that trophies are what really count, and I am certainly not advocating a trophyless period as a good thing. But it seems to me that Arsene believes that trophies must be the fruits of a club’s ethos, not the defining factor. It’s a view that I’m inclined to agree with. It’s a view that preserves something of football’s soul at a time when it is draining rapidly away.
We are all disappointed to be trophyless again. But there is still so much to be thankful for. Let’s not let disappointment define us. We are still The Arsenal. One shareholder suggested that the club’s motto ought to take more prominence, and I can’t agree more: Victoria Concordia Crescit – Victory Through Harmony. This is a difficult period for this football club, as we all knew it would be when emabarking upon the Emirates adventure. Arsene is the best man to have at the helm, and we need to rally behind him.
Crikey. So, Manchester United today. A point will hand them the Premier League title, and thus the obvious prize for Arsenal players is to be the party-poopers on their rivals’ big day. A few members of the squad might also have an eye on United’s next game at Hull, knowing that defeat tomorrow would leave United needing to win at The KC Stadium on the final day, with the tantalising possibility of a Hull relegation into the bargain.
Manuel Almunia is still out with an ankle problem, so Lukasz Fabianski will continue in goal (gulp). In defence, I’d imagine Gibbs and Sagna will flank Toure and one of Djourou or Silvestre. Ahead of that it’s hard to guess who’ll start, but Andrey Arshavin is fully fit and raring to go. He gives a frank interview to Martin Samuel and The Daily Mail today which, aside from some somewhat terrifying comments about Arshavin’s adoration of Barcelona, contain some fairly forthright views on the team’s immediate future. He wants to follow the template United have set – starting now:
“Arsenal have not achieved good results in the last few years, but that is easily explained because the team is so young. I believe we are now at a point where it will begin to work for us and enable the team to start scoring and move on as Manchester United did.
A few years ago, they had young players like Wayne Rooney and Ronaldo, who were very promising, but they did not win the league and achieve the right results. Now they are older, they cannot stop winning. Arsenal have been recruiting players for two years, so I do not predict results a long way in the future: I predict them for next season, if we can add some others to our team.
We must buy in the summer. Not more potential, but players who are ready to do it now, players like me. We need two or three. If Arsenal want to win, they have to do it. We are tired of waiting.”
It seems that in the four months he’s been here he’s arrived at what is an undeniable accurate assessment of the team. After his tremendous impact at Anfield, here’s hoping Arshavin can shine on another grand stage today.
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Andrey Arshavin will feature in a pull-out from The Observer tomorrow entitled: ‘Football’s Seven Deadly Sins: Pride’. There is also one with today’s Guardian about ‘Greed’ – featuring, fittingly, the story of Ashley C*le’s departure to Chelsea.
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