Mornin' Mornin',
There isn't a whole lot going on with us at the minute, us as in Arsenal, although not a whole lot going on with me and the brother either. In fact, I haven't heard from him in a week and he hasn't written a post in a couple. I think he's probably off in Santa Barbera boozing and womanizing, as you should when you're that age. Hopefully he's alive and will contribute soon.
Anyway, I was looking back at a couple of past blogs and saw that I've made a couple of mistakes. Mistakes in opinion and mistakes in fact, there are tons of writing errors but I won't be addressing those. I had said that Eboue and I are the same age and that I feel that I've matured a great deal this past year and am maturing even now as I type. I had written that this is a sign that Eboue may do the same and will be more of a disciplined footballer this season. Turns out that Eboue is over 2 years older than me at 26 and is well over due. This could mean that he isn't going to mature at all, that he's missed his window, but it could also mean that he'll make up for lost time and start acting like a 26 year old professional, (think Xabi Alonso last year or Kolo Toure a couple of years ago).
Moving on, I also got our proposed formation wrong when I did the Liverpool analysis and head to head battle. I didn't pay too much attention to the fact that we had played a 4 3 3 in a couple of friendlies at the time, now it seems obvious that we'll likely be playing the 4 3 3 most of this coming season. I also didn't take into account squad depth and how that'll make a huge difference. I will discuss squad depth in a coming blog, but I do feel that ours probably pips theirs. In the attacking department it's no question. In the area that we're the lightest (central midfield) they do have a good depth of players, with their acquisition of Acquilani, who I don't rate as highly as most, (he's certainly not the answer to the void left by Alonso), Mascherano, that Brazilian troll Lucas, old Arsenal target Plessi (I think he was anyway) who I watched play against Oslo yesterday looks a good prospect (like a slightly better Alex Song) and of course Gerrard can always drop back and play his natural role.
OK, that's done and dusted, and in totally unrelated news, in fact it's not related to English football at all, and I guess it's not really news either, I read an article about Sebastian Deisler, the former Bayern Munich man who retired at 27 because of the depression that the pressures of the modern game gave him. I admit to having suffered a bit of depression here and there myself, quite heavily at times. I had a difficult time turning it around but with perseverance and a life that is ultimately too good to be depressed about, I overcame. I still get it here and there, as I'm sure a lot of us do, and I tell you what, the one all curing thing that would help me to never be depressed again would be the offer of a professional contract and a call up to play for England, so I'm a little perplexed at how football caused the guy to get so down as to retire and to be honest after reading some quotes by Deisler, I'd like to go to Germany and kick him. He said something like, (not direct quote) "I looked outside my house in Berlin where I had a Mercedes in the drive way and thought to myself, 'Is this it? Is this what it's all about'." Go fuck yourself.
Alright, that's off my chest and now to stuff a little more Arsenal. Atletico Madrid say that Eboue is their "dream signing" and that they'll be making efforts to take him to Madrid. We turned down a wealthy Fiorentina side and are likely to do the same to a skint Atletico. Speaking of Atletico, what's the big deal about Sergio Aguerro? I've watched him half a dozen times and he's never done anything.
Rosicky is said to be out for 6 weeks with a hamstring injury he suffered in training. I'm not sure that it's true (remember the confusion over Eduardo) and I'm not all that surprised. If it is true it sucks for all parties involved, Arsenal, Tomas, Czech Republic and the fans, but it's not the end of the world. It'll mean his recovery will be a month behind and we'll see him in action more towards the middle of the season. Nasri will be back around the same time and will probably be playing regularly before Rosicky and will help supplement that area. And there's always Fran Merida and our 97,000 forwards. And if it's not true, harra!, the status is quo.
Speaking of forwards there is more news about Chamack and that we've apparently upped our bid to 7.5m. I can't imagine l'Boss paying more than that if this offer gets turned down. Zidane said that we had made a 17m pound bid for Huntelaar before he went to AC Milan for 22m. If this is true it means that we're definitely in the market for a forward and will likely sign one before the season starts. With no new news on Kalou our striker is likely to be Chamack. The chairman has a bit to say about this revealing that Wenger has money to spend on one or two players, so long as it's not ridiculous. I'm not sure how to scope that, is ridiculous 14m for Xabi Alonso, or is it 30m for De Rossi. (The De Rossi speculation is just that and I don't like him anyway, I'm just saying.) Judging by our reported bid for Huntelaar, (if Zidane really did say that and if we really did make that bid), I suppose the scope is broader and it may mean that Wenger is finally willing to spend a bit extra in the market.
A forward that is actually at the club is saying that he'd love to see Patrick Vieira back. RVP talked in a press conference during a charity event at a childrens' hospital about what a good captain and leader Vieira was and how he helped Robin during the one year they played together. It seems that more and more people are getting behind the signing of Vieira and I'm sorry to say that I'm not one of them. I loved Vieira, he was remarkable, perhaps the best in the world at his position in his day, he's a legend and I think we should leave it at that. We should let him keep his legacy, which I'd say is worth more to him and Arsenal than any more time he can spend in our shirt. I doubt he has the legs left anyway, playing an average of something close to 20 games a season for Inter the past three years won't have helped him. Mourinho said that no contact has been made and so I don't think it'll be happening anyway. Besides, I still want Sissoko.
Lastly and leastly, the draw for the Champions' League qualifier is tomorrow. We'll be playing one of 5 teams: Atletico Madrid, Celtic, Anderlecht, Fiorentina or FC Timisoara. I'd say we're easily the best team in the group and will be the most feared, but I'd still prefer to avoid Madrid and Fiorentina. Celtic shouldn't be a difficult prospect as any team managed by Tony Mobray is fucked all over, Anderlecht I think are easily beatable but as you may have guessed, everyone's preferred opponent is of course Timisoara, who haven't won a European game since 1990.
Hasta Manana,
Highbury86
PS. Wasn't it sad and a bit funny at the same time to see Kolo Toure jump up and down with flailing arms in frustration at Rangers' winning goal in Man City's friendly yesterday.
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