A whole bunch of stuff on a day when there really isn't that much stuff

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.

A little stuff and Chelsea analysis

Hello reader(s),

Nothing much new in the Arsenal world today. ArsenalAnalysis has some stuff about Eduardo and how good he feels and how he's set to play for Croatia soon against Belarus after our game against Valencia. Personally I think another game before the season starts will help Eduardo get back to it, especially since I don't think he'll be featuring that much in the first couple of months of the season.

It looks like Pirlo is set to stay at AC Milan, which means that the Cesc to Milan stuff was completely made up, as I'm sure you all know. Hangelaand is cup tied for the Champions League after playing in a Europa League qualifier for Fulham, which makes the likelihood of him coming to Arsenal just about nil. Apparently we've had a bid for a center back from Sevilla turned down, although I can't find anything about it other than on the original Arseblog. It could be total nonsense or we may actually be in for the type of player we actually need. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to sell Senderos and then buy a player that's a bit less rated at 5.3m pounds, as opposed to Senderos' fee, which is upwards of 6. If I were to bet I'd say we won't bring in anybody. I guess we'll see.

Now onto our rivals, firstly Sir Alex has said that Liverpool won't be able to carry on their title bid this season, saying that last season was their best in 20 years and to carry that on won't be easy. You can see why too, they've sold Xabi Alonso to Madrid, who, if they can defend, could be something to be reckoned with. I don't rate their manager as highly as everyone else does and with board room interference I can see that whole situation getting very messy. Alonso was sold for 30m or so, which is a huge price in a crazy market, which has been upset by two massively spending clubs. We could have signed him last summer for less than half of that but Wenger wasn't willing to spend more than 12m. He would have been a terrific signing, but, oh well.

Ferguson goes on to say that Chelsea are his main rivals for the title. And now moving on with our rival analysis we hit the dark side, the evil empire in blue. Chelsea have had a funny couple of years. Mourinho left after loosing to a very well organized Villa and some board room stuff and the players seemed upset. They all loved Mourinho and I suppose you can see why, they had a little fraternity. They were like the assholes from "Animal House", sitting around they’re frat house living room, wearing cardigans and smoking pipes while they reflect on their superiority and mock the guys who aren’t as good. You can just imagine Ballack, Lampard, Terry and Malouda laughing at a little boy in a Chelsea shirt in a wheelchair after they tricked him into thinking they were going to sign his ball.

In stepped Avram Grant. Jaba the Hut’s cousin had no real established European managerial pedigree. I think he came from some board room position, he may even have been the clubs sporting director. He’s obviously an intelligent man and seemed capable of managing the assholes he was in charge of. He took those assholes to the final of the Champions League where they lost on penalties and to within a point of the Premier League title and still he was sacked.

In stepped Big Phil Scolari. A manager of high caliber and reputation. He’d won a world cup, some Brazilian titles and a couple of Copa de Libertadores, the South American version of the Champions League. His eminent arrival was announced in the middle of the European Cup and subsequently Portugal, who he was managing at the time, went from potential tournament winners, having put in some blistering performances in the group stage, to sadly eliminated pre Modonnas.

Big Phil arrived in time for Chelsea’s pre season, where they toured Asia and had some other games. They stormed through their pre season with new singing Deco looking a fantastic buy, particularly as he only cost 8m pounds. They opened their league account in the same way and went over 20 games unbeaten, including their pre season. I can’t remember where it all went wrong for them, I guess a string of losses and draws in games they were supposed to win and when their chances of winning the title looked grim, out went Big Phil Scolari.

In stepped Gus Hiddink, a good friend of Abromovic and a quality international manager. Over the past several years he’s turned countries never known to have anything to do with football into forces at world and European cups. Australia, South Korea, Russia, and of course his good work with The Netherlands. He turned things around for Chelsea who challenged fairly well at the end of last season. It was too late, however, and they didn’t win the league, although they took home the FA Cup, a trophy that we used to win regularly.

Chelsea are hoping that they’ve finally found an answer to Mourinho’s departure with Carlo Ancelotti. He was a hell of a player and is now a savvy tactician, having won one Scudetto, and always going deep in the Champions League, having won it a couple of times.

His squad at AC Milan was getting on and they never looked like they were making progress with a seriously aging back fou…everything, Pato and Kaka being exceptions of course. The move looked good for all parties, as he’s clearly capable of managing high profile players, maybe because he was such a talent himself.

Looking at his squad at Chelsea he has a lot of internationals, most of who are 28 or older. They’ve got some younger guys like Petr Cech and Essien and Ivanovic and some youngerer guys like Kalou and Obi Mikel (who I think is really very good and will give Essien a good fight this season) and some really young guys who I doubt will be anywhere near the first team, except for maybe Mancienne.

They are well stocked in pretty much every position with four center backs that would all likely be first choice at Arsenal. They’ve got Drogba and Anelka and if they let Kalou go they’ll be a little light up front with only youngsters like new signing Daniel Sturridge to cover, although I suppose that Shevchenko can come good, but I doubt it. (A real shame what happened to him, he used to be one of my favorite players.) They do have a slight problem in midfield however, with an overstock of central midfielders without a lot of width. They’ve brought over Yuri Zhirkov who’ll help with that, it’ll be interesting to see what formation they choose to play.

Chelsea’s major problem for the last few season, for me, has been that balance in the middle. Essien is deployed as a holding mid, when he’s much more useful given license to run from box to box, an all action player, Patrick Vieira in his hay day but with more pace and goals and less height of course. Obi Mikel is a much more natural holding mid and he’s very good at it. He surrenders possession a bit too often but does very well to stifle the opposition. They’ll surely be competing this season. Ballack and Lampard are essentially the same player, except that Ballack is good in the air and a total, complete and utter despicable piece of shit, perhaps the worst in football, although Drogba gives him a good run for his money. Playing Ballack and Lampard together will never win you the league, although I suppose it has come close. Deco was supposed to be the last piece of the Chelsea puzzle, a skillful player capable of individually getting the team into positions they may not otherwise be able to collectively. He turned out to be a flop and his lengthy injury has basically ended his time as an impact player at the club I think.

Malouda seemed to come good towards the end of last season, but he isn’t a natural winger, like Joe Cole, he’ll never really give you that defense splitting width, he’s more likely to wonder in field.

Their players are quality even if they are total cunts and if Ancelotti can get the correct balance in midfield and Anelka and Drogba can continue to work together well and stay injury free then the depth at the back will do the rest. They’ll be a very scary prospect that way, but this isn’t Serie A or the Champions League. English teams need more than tactics and well executed game plans, they need that something extra, that something special that comes from camaraderie and spirit, that comes when you’re up against it and need to work together to get out. Like movies where aliens take over the world and previously warring countries have to come together to fight and save the world. That’s something I don’t see Chelsea having and certainly something I can’t see Ancelotti instilling. His style is slow and boring and he likes to grind out games, which I suppose will suit Chelsea but I don’t think it’ll give them what it takes. To be honest I quite like the appointment the more I think about it. Chelsea playing snoozers all season and getting bad press will make me feel better when we give up a 2 goal lead in the last three minutes of a game.

My concern in head to head battles with Chelsea is that if we play a similar 4 3 3 as we have been, as they do, they will have the edge in physicality and when there is a man for man marking situation it’ll count for that much more. Should we play a 4 4 2 and really expose them down the wings with our awesome wingers and if our skillful forwards can wriggle free of Alex and Terry to finish we can beat them well and good, not the way we did last season with a sub par performance and an offsides goal, although it did make up for the one that Robin scored against them a few years back that shouldn't have been disallowed, but with a real performance, an attractive display, a spirited display. They'll be the Aliens, we'll be the world.

I guess I just don’t see Song and Denilson being able to take on Ballack, Lampard and Essien. Diaby is capable but has never shown any signs of materializing and he’s fucking injured again! And of course, either way, we’ll have to see if Vermaelen and Co can deal with Drogba, who on his day can be near unplayable, he’s so strong and good in the air.

We won’t play until November and by then the league will be shaping up nicely and both teams will have established their formation and style of play and we’ll have a much better idea of what we are and what we’ll be dealing with.

Highbury86

Blog # 12

Well, Vieira is linked with a move back home, I’d bet my house this won’t happen. Eboue looks set to leave, which is a bad idea. We’re strongly connected with Matuide or whatever his name is. I’ve never seen him play, I’ve done no research on him and I doubt we’ll sign him anyway. I doubt we’ll be signing anyone else this summer. We’ve done good business the other way, having made a 16m pound player profit this year.

Nothing else doing really, my girl is planning her birthday out on the computer, I played some casino poker last night and am feeling the filth this morning, as I’m covered in cigarette smoke and old man burps.

I’ve been reading different Arsenal blogs lately, without much to else to do, and I read on ArsenalAnalysis.blogspot.com that our old boy Edu has recovered from a series of injuries, which limited him to 44 appearances in 4 years at Valencia after they took him on a Bosman, to sign for his old club Corinthians on a 2 year deal. I’m super happy for him and wish him all the best. He left after an improved deal was offered too late and he no longer felt wanted at the club. Aries over at ArsenalAnalysis goes on to write:

“If only Edu was convinced by Arsene Wenger to sign a new contract instead of going to Spain’s Valencia. I believe Arsenal would have gone on to dominate the Premier League for years to come.”

I was sad when he left and I don’t doubt that he would have gone on to do very well for us, but I don’t know about dominating the league for years to come. The very next season Viera and Gilberto were our first choice in the middle and between the injuries to them both a teenage Fabregas was asked to step in and take over. He was 16 or maybe 17, the season before that he became the youngest ever Arsenal player to score a senior goal when he came on as a sub (I think) and scored against … don’t remember now, maybe Derby, they were lower league and in white on the night. He was very much part of the reserves and was moved up to the senior squad and then thrust into the team. He came through and we now have the world class player you see today.

Had Edu stayed it would have given Wenger the left footed/right footed central midfield combo he had with Petit and Viera, a near identical pairing, arguably not quite as good, but you certainly weren’t loosing all that much. Fabregas’ chances to make it into the first team would have been more limited and perhaps we wouldn’t have the captain we have now. But who knows.

Bye Bye King Kolo

King Kolo is out and I’m not at all happy. You can say what you will about the remarkable piece of business Wenger has done the club as Kolo has brought us a title, 2 FA Cups and helped us to a few good long runs in the champions league, including the final in 2006. He stood up and replaced Keown and Adams when nobody else could, he stood up and continued when Campbell left and he’s our longest serving player, he’s our only connection to the invincibles. In a squad with so much youth and such little tradition and leadership, letting go of one of our most experienced leaders, the only player who can carry on the Arsenal tradition left over by the likes of Adams, Keown, Parlour and Bergkamp, is in my mind a mistake. I’m very upset about this transaction and don’t have it in me to write much more. Arseblog said that this is football and players come and go but under our circumstances I don’t think it’s right.

Alright, that was bit dramatic, my heads on straight now but I’m still pissed off. 16million is a lot of money, more than we’ve ever spent on a player and Wenger does know when to let go, particularly when it comes to players around Toure’s age. Overmars, Petit, Vieira, Hleb, Campbell, Edu (I have a bit about him you’ll see later) all left between the ages of 27 and 30 (I think) and have all gone on to less prestige and glamour in their post Arsenal careers. You might say they became slightly useless even. Speaking of Hleb, he was part of the deal that saw Ibrahimovic go to Barca as he was loaned out to Inter for a season with an option of a 10m Euro buy at the end of the season. He couldn’t get a game at Barca, who don’t have a lot of midfielders, going to Inter who have about 900,000 midfielders won’t do his career much good. I doubt we’ll be hearing about Hleb for a long time.

Having said all that, that money better go into the team and we better not let Eboue go. I understand that Eboue, Toure and Adebayor were all great friends and perhaps this will be playing on Eboue’s mind in his decision to leave and it seems that Fiorentina are in talks with him over a move said to be somewhere in the 10m range, which again is very good money.

We’ve spent 25m since January, on Arshavin and Vermaelen and have made that back with the sale of Adebayor. We’ve got another 16m for Toure coming in, which really ought to be enough money to sign a quality center mid like Sissoko. Even if it costs more, I have to imagine that we had money in the kitty without selling Adebayor, there must be something to spend. We obviously won’t replace Kolo, I’m sure we’ll keep Phil the Swiss and probably Silvestre. This is beyond me, I’ve said that I like Senderos and that I see the value that Silvestre can bring but keeping these guys over Toure just sucks.

We’ve signed Vermaelen to be a starter, I don’t think Wenger would have paid that money for a sub. Kolo and Gallas and Djourou would have been scrapping it out to play alongside him and maybe Toure just didn’t have the fight in him. That doesn’t seem right though, Toure has tons of fight doesn’t he? So maybe it was the money. Maybe the excitement of a new project, maybe a chance to join up with his buddy Adebayor and make some new buddies in the process. Or maybe it’s the money. I’m sad to see him go and I thank him for his work with Arsenal but there’s a bad taste in my mouth and I don’t suppose I’ll ever know where it’s coming from.




Highbury86

More Adebayor, Eboue and first rival analysis

Hello everyone, or no one as the case may be.  Adebayor has been trying to convince Mark Hughes to go in for King Kolo.  What a fuck head.  This is the last straw, like Arseblog said, any affection for Adebayor, any soft feelings for him being a dopy sports star manipulated by agents is off and he can fall off a cliff and get eaten by seagulls for all I care.  I hope we kick the shit out of Man City next season and that Adebayor gets a career ending injury trying to tackle Nik Bentner.  

Eboue off to Fiorentina for 10m Euros, I guess fair business in trade but I don't want to see him go unless it's in an exchange for Momo Sissoko.  I think he's a good right back and a fair utility man.  He's the same age as I am and I know in the last year I've done some serious growing up and I think after his poor fan treatment last year all the malarky will stop and he'll be more professional, I hope we keep him.  Apparently negotiations are underway and if he wants to leave we all know what the outcome will be.  

Another quick thing before I start the analysis is that I don't think I gave Sissoko enough justice yesterday.  I watched some highlights videos and did some research on him and he comes from a serious football family.  His brother looks like he's on his way to England from some French team and he's being well touted, while his cousin Keita scored a great goal against us for Sevilla in the champions league last year and is now Yaya Toure's back up at Barcelona.  His uncle was African footballer of the year some years back.  It's in his blood and you can tell when you watch him.  He is a fierce tackler, a serious athlete.  He drives attackers crazy and is fast and can get forward.  

One last quick thing: Vieira to Spurs??  Fuck off, I don't think he'll risk his legacy at Arsenal to play for Tottenham.  

Anyway, here we go:

I’ll start our rival analysis with the team I’d like to see us rival the most, the way we used to, Man. United. 

 

Ferguson has said that they’re done making signings.  He said that last week when they signed that French kid, Oberten or Obertin or something like that but he’s made one more.  Obertan, I think is 22 and a winger.  He wasn’t a huge hit at Bordeaux where he was loaned out twice, but I don’t doubt that Sir Alex knows what he’s doing.  Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic looked a pair of bumbling morons when they were first signed, but by the end of the season turned out to be the terrific signings we see them as now. 

 

They’re new boy is a dude from Senegal who plays in Norway.  He cost something like 5.7 million dollars.  His name is Diouf and he’s 22 and will be loaned back to his club immediately until January.  They also signed Valencia from Wigan, a seeming like for like replacement for Christiano Ronaldo, who of course went to Madrid for a staggering 130 million bones.  With Man. U’s debt quite large, although clearly manageable, much of that 80m pounds will go towards managing it, while 16m went to Wigan for Valencia. 

 

They’ve brought in Michael Owen on a free from Newcastle, shocking to be honest, but it may not be so bad in the end, we’ll see.  His scoring record, even through all the injuries, has always been good, he’s a poacher and a finisher, no doubt about that, in his hay day something like a potential Fernando Torres.  Unfortunately for him it never came to be and after he left Liverpool nothing went right for the guy.  He was way down the pecking order at Madrid and didn’t often play, but managed to score something like 13 goals, which made him the best minute for goal striker in Europe.  After that he suffered injury after injury, failing one comeback after another. You feel for the guy really.  We’ll see if he can work out under Fergie at Man U, I suppose he’ll be 3^rd choice striker, although Danny Welbeck and Kiko Macheda looked good prospects at the end of last season.  Ferguson said: 

 

"We weren't intending on signing anyone else after last week - we feel we have a full squad ..."

 

With their 4 signings, a slew of youngsters coming good, including Brazilian right back dynamo Rafael and his twin Paolo who plays on the left side, plus the returning and versatile Owen Hargreaves, it’s hard to argue with him, with or without the best player in the world, and that hideous Argentine.  I shouldn’t disrespect Tevez though, if we all worked as hard as he does, the world would be a better place.  But you have to say that it is funny that he wouldn’t sign for Liverpool because he respects Man U too much and then went on to sign for Man City. 

 

Even without Ronaldo and Tevez they’ll be dangerous with Rooney and Berba, but with an injury prone Michael Owen, a 17 year old Italian and a 19 year old Danny Welbeck as cover, perhaps those absences will be as devastating as we all hope.  With Scholes and Giggs on their last legs they’ll have to share time and with some youngsters and other squad members and won’t have the influence they had last year. 

 

Carrick and Fletcher formed a good partnership in midfield last season and with Anderson and Hargreaves coming off the bench they’ll be difficult to penetrate down the middle so we’ll have to come at them from the outside, and with the pace and quality of our boys on the outside we should be able to hurt them this way, particularly if the likes of Park, Valencia, Nani and Rafael and Evra get caught up the park.  The trouble with that will be having men in the middle to finish off the good wing play against Vidic and Ferdinand and they’re able replacements.  They have a very good keeper in Van Der Saar, who seems incapable of making a mistake and so they’ll be difficult to score against but with their possession limited by the absence of Ronaldo it may be a bit easier to build something up against them, like with our second goal against them in our first league game at The Grove. 

 

For all this talk and analysis, we can beat Man U four times next season, I just can’t see us winning a trophy without signing a center mid, perhaps we should have signed Carrick from West Ham when we had the chance after they were relegated some years ago.  Or payed the extra million pounds for Xabi Alonso or forked out the cash for Melo before he signed for Juventus, or offered Edu a contract in time to see him stay, or done the same with Flamini, or kept Diarra, or fucking Gilberto, or done anything other than the things we did with our central midfielders!  Goddamit!!!

Highbury86