Good morning from the tail end of a blogless week. My main dilemma these last seven days has been: Barbeque – gas or charcoal? I’m leaning towards the former for ease of use but to the latter for guaranteeing the proper whiff.
I did, however, crank up the phone for the annual jamboree that is the Champions League draw.
Cup draws have certainly taken on a new ‘importance’ since the FA Cup draws of my youth, when someone would be glued to their radio in double maths on a Monday morning, but I know which kind I prefer. What purpose does all the farting about serve? It’s monumentally dull, even if it does give the country’s media the excuse they need to crank up the live text coverage.
This year’s draw gives us a relatively benign group – again. From a footballing perspective there are some interesting ties against teams we have not got a lot of previous with, and I’m all for playing new teams. But in terms of avoiding one of Europe’s heavyweights, we’ve done it again. We drew Inter Milan in the 2003-4 group stage (heh – remember the away leg!). Since then, we’ve had Porto and Seville and a host of tricky away ties, but no group of death as far as I remember. This is, I suppose, what seeding does. Seeding might make the bigger clubs happy, but does it make the competition more interesting?
So Partizan, Braga and Donetsk it is. I must say, I’ve always fancied a far-flung Champions League journey and Donetsk would fit that bill. Hmmm… how am I going to get this one past Control?
A look at the group stages from the Guardian here and Telegraph here.
Elsewhere, the news is good on the squad strengthening front, with the arrival of the ‘ancient’ Sebestien Squillaci. It appears the Squillster has got himself a three-year deal and cost a much more plausible fee of £3.3m.
And come on, let’s be honest – the relaxing of the over-30 rule is long overdue. Letting Pires go because he had hit 30 seems as nonsensical today as it did back in 2006. A defender at 30 is nothing – look at Sol Campbell.
“He is a real defender and is good in the one-against-one, good in the air, and can score goals on set-pieces as well. I believe he will be suited to the English game. He will train with us tomorrow morning, but will not be involved on Saturday [against Blackburn Rovers].”
Now just the one position left to fill, by my reckoning – and it’s D-Day -4.
Reckon it’ll still happen?
Right, that’s me tuning out for a few more days.
Gas or charcoal, gas or charcoal. Hmm.
Tags: champions league, over-30s, squillaci
Arsenal have been around almost 125 years now. I’ve been a season ticket holder for the last sixteen of those. In terms of success, I could hardly have chosen a better sixteen years in the club’s history. What Wenger has done for Arsenal is comparable to what Chapman achieved in the 1930s – of that, there is no doubt.
It’s going to be tougher than ever for him to add to that medal haul though. Gone are the days of the late 1990s and early 2000s when Arsenal and Man Utd were the only shows in town. This coming season, there are at least six sides who will fancy their chances of squeezing into the top four.
Clearly, we have been active in the transfer market this summer with two very promising players coming in. But we’ve also let a lot of defensive experience go.
Wenger has no intention of splurging tens of millions on players, preferring to see the current crop improve sufficiently to make the next step – to win us the title.
As mentioned in my last post, Alex Song is the template here – a much derided rough diamond whose development in 2009 and 2010 has been explosive.
For this squad to be the title-winning squad Wenger wants it to be, we need to see similar comings-of-age for players like Diaby, Denilson, Walcott, Vela and Djourou.
Which of these five will we be hailing come May 2011?
Home routines
Lucky pants, new shirts, old watering holes, familiar journeys – the first home game of the new season brings back all the little tics of being a football fan. I absolutely love it.
Unfortunately, my home debut is going to have to wait though. I can’t make the game on Saturday and I’m not sure how near to my laptop I’ll get in the days proceeding it.
Here’s to a thumping home win though.
Before then – may I point towards the Arsecast. My voice is on it this week.
Back in a few days…
The Arsenal goalkeeping mystery
It’s not often I quote old Shakey, mainly because I’m not the brightest bulb in the room, but here goes:
“If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly”.
For the goalkeeping situation to have gone on this long unresolved is really very odd if you ask me. It’s clearly now affecting Manuel Almunia, our current number one, who can no doubt see the writing on the wall.
Wenger has been understandably cagey when pressed, but one thing he hasn’t done is come out in full support of any of the current keepers at the club.
But he has, presumably, known all summer we need a new keeper – so what’s the hold-up? Why wait this long? With all due respect, how can it take so long to sign a 37-year-old keeper from Fulham? Is there something else cooking?
The uncertainty is doing nobody any good.
In the cold light of day…
As I sit here two days on, I must admit my views on the opening game at Anfield have changed slightly. At the time, I was frustrated at missing a big opportunity – being ten men up for a whole half as we were – and at not hurting them anything like as much as we should have given the possession we had.
But I’m often guilty of thinking only of where Arsenal went wrong and not making enough allowances for the opposition playing well. Neither side had many chances but Liverpool did play and defend well. And anyway, since when has Anfield ever been an easy place to go? I think it was a very decent result. We do need to add more variation to our game at times, when we are struggling to get through massed defensive ranks, but the lack of Fabregas, Song, van Persie (for most of the game) and Bendtner are worth a mention.
You’re alright, Jack
Given he is 18 and was making his first ever start for his club, away at Anfield, I think Wilshere did very well. What I love about him is his ability to scan the pitch, slow things down, and make a pass, all in a split second. He’s always looking for the forward pass.
It’s completely unrealistic to expect him to morph into the finished article this soon though. Anyone remember Parlour’s debut at Anfield, or how Adams was in his earlier days? They made mistakes but turned out alright, if I recall.
Blooding players like him is a long process, and one that will entail good games, bad games and a lot of patience. But it’s crucial to Arsenal’s future that young English players do get a chance – and to Wenger’s credit they are increasingly getting them – so we have to accept that it will take time for them to learn and adapt.
18 is an incredibly young age to break into a top football side.
Even at 21 a player is only still learning his trade. Is it fair to write someone like Walcott off, and to dismiss him as having no football brain, on the basis that he has been at Arsenal four years already? How much of that decision-making comes with age and experience? Injury has curtailed his career to just 75 starts in that time – only 15 of which were in the last year.
What age did Song suddenly go from being a hopeless lolloping bumbler to a fine holding midfielder? When we lost badly to Man City in November 2008 in my fury I marked him (and Denilson) down as our worst midfield of all time – yet he had only just turned 21.
A mere 18 months later he was named third in our player of the season poll after Cesc Fabregas and Thomas Vermaelen.
Maybe with some teams spunking cash hither and thither as if it was small change, the patient development of players is harder to do, but coupled with a sensible approach to bringing in experience, it’s got to be the right approach.
Tags: almunia, denilson, goalkeeper, patience, schwarzer, song, walcott, wilshere
Back into the blogging fray, then out of action again. Back again, out again. Back again – and I’ll be out again, no doubt. Just like the players. Sympathy blogging.
Anyway, I’ve been wondering how to preview the forthcoming season. There are and no doubt will be plenty of excellent previews dotted around Blogland, so while I am going to assess the state of play, I’m going to come at it from a slightly different angle.
At the Wiganish end of last season, there were plenty of things to vex me, but three things in particular are worth revisiting: Injuries, poor defending and an occasional lack of drive/urgency.
So I’m going to look at those three things and see what, if anything, has changed.
Injuries
Ha! Here we go! As last season ground to an end, we had the most absurd injury list. It was as long as Mr Tickle’s arm, but not remotely as capable of inducing laughter.
There’s no doubt that the injuries we suffered last term hit us very hard. Remember Arshavin ploughing his lone furrow up front? Well there was nobody else. Remember Mmm Mannone playing in goal? At the time there was nobody else (no additional jokes required). It really was atrocious. Fabregas, Nasri, van Persie, Gallas, Vermaelen, Djourou, Denilson, Walcott, Ramsey, Bendtner, Vela, Arshavin – I could go on, but need I bother?
Wenger said:
“[The effect] was massive. At the beginning of March we were in touch and had the same chance as everyone to win. But when you go into the final games and you do not have your players it’s too difficult, it’s impossible. [We had] four, five, six key players not in the squad, not available. You need to be a magician then to win the Premier League if everybody else has their players.”
So it’s a little disheartening to say the least that this season looks set to start on an injured note. For our opening game we have Song, Djourou and Bendtner out, with Denilson and Diaby doubtful. Cesc and van Persie are short of fitness. None of these, I hope, are long-term (though Bendtner has suffered from his injury since before the World Cup).
So injuries? The jury is out. Wenger is right though – it was impossible for this squad to win the league with the injuries we had last year.
It will be impossible if it happens again.
Poor defending
This is like sitting on a shrink’s couch isn’t it?
Last season, we let in 41 league goals, nine more than the eventual champions. Why was this? I suppose it was a mixture of many things – poor goalkeeping, individual errors, collectively lax defending and, of course, injuries.
Again, Wenger has sought to address this in the summer. A quartet of central defenders have left the club – Campbell, Gallas, Silvestre and Senderos, and we’ve been linked all summer with a new goalkeeper.
Replacing these four players are Koscielny and Djourou, leaving us short in numbers by one. Wenger knows this and has said it all summer. But to date, nobody has arrived to plug the numbers, leaving us with just Vermaelen and Koscielny fit for the opener at Anfield, backed up by Nordtveit. It’s not ideal is it?
Between the sticks has been the farce of the summer though. It’s the one position that everyone has been fretting over in particular, with peals of anxiety ringing out across the net. Hardly unreasonable though is it? Both Almunia and Fabianski made far too many individual errors last season, both have a poor command of their box. It makes for a jittery defence.
Again, Wenger has acknowledged this, albeit guardedly. We’ve been linked all summer with Mark Schwarzer (firmly) and a bunch of others (more tenuously). But nothing yet has happened. I do wonder why – for a man who professed to wanting his summer business done and dusted before the World Cup, to leave this one bubbling until this late is mysterious.
As for Schwarzer himself, I think he’d be a big improvement. Fulham fans I know rate him very highly and there’s no doubt he’s far less skittish than the two we have now. So what if it’s a short-term deal? It’s all about fixing the now.
So the jury is still out for me on whether we will defend better this season. We will need to wait until the 31st August before judgement. But even if two more players come in, collectively we need to defend a lot better. This is particularly true from set pieces.
Lack of drive/urgency
And yes, Wigan game, I am thinking of you. But I’m not thinking only of you.
There’s nothing more galling than seeing a player lollop around, not bothering to stretch his every sinew for the cause. It’s the bare minimum expected. And last season at times we appeared to lack drive at certain times, especially when the ‘fighters’ like Fabregas were absent. I’m looking at you Diaby. But not only you.
Wenger has talked about this too, about the need for ‘fighters’. And his players have certainly talked the talk pre-season. Listen to what Sagna said only a few days ago:
“If you remember what happened last year against Wigan, we need to keep playing. Maybe we stopped playing because we thought the game was too easy, but that is football now. We let Celtic back in because we stopped playing. We need to talk more on the pitch and stay together.”
Walcott too:
“I am 21 now and it is time for me to push on. I am looking forward to the next step. I have just had a very good pre-season, I am happy to be back playing football now and I want to show everybody what I can do this season.”
Nasri was stung by his World Cup omission, and appears to have got the bit between his teeth.
Both Chamakh and Koscielny seem to have the right kind of spirit – I’ve been impressed by both. And with Wilshere and Frimpong now in the first team fray, there’s more competition for places. That should sharpen things a bit as well.
So overall, I do detect a stomach for the fight and some steely determination.
Right, my time has run out. The Schwarzer rumours are hotting up, the season is round the corner. Excited yet?
Giddy!
The good news this morning is that it seems certain that Cesc Fabregas is staying at Arsenal. He pitched up at Member’s Day yesterday, and he apparently had a chat with Wenger during which he confirmed that for the next season at least, he’s going nowhere.
Great news, in fact. He’s a once-in-a-generation footballer. He’s that good.
But honestly, when football becomes a soap opera I despair.
Yesterday everyone was hanging on his gestures, his smiles, who he was training with. Twitter was abuzz. I’m pretty sure there was a tweet from somewhere supposedly reputable saying he hadn’t shown up for the team photo, only for him to show up for the team photo.
We were hanging on his every word.
Except hold on, because he hasn’t said any words, has he? He’s said a big fat nada all summer in public. He clearly has his reasons for keeping mum but the problem with that is it’s turned everyone into frenzied lunatics. I doubt I am the only one who is desperate for him put this whole fandango to bed by simply opening his mouth. Personally, I think he needs to. “Yes, I admit I was keen to move to Barcelona. But it’s not happening, I’m staying and I’m committed”. That would do me.
There are those who think he doesn’t need to say anything but I think now is the time to do just that. Firstly it would be a fillip – as it was when Torres publicly stated he was staying at Liverpool. And secondly, it might just – heaven forbid – put an end to the drip-drip Cesc-to-Barca stories that quite frankly are driving me insane.
You see, as if by magic there’s another one this morning saying the Catalan club are reportedly coming back with an improved €42m offer.
Thirdly, and most importantly, it’s time for the focus to shift to the team, the preparation, the season ahead, and nothing else.
UPDATE, 2pm:
And that’s exactly what Cesc has done with this statement, and not a moment too soon. An honest admission that his head was turned, but a commitment to give it his all this season. Saga over (until next time, eh…)
Tags: fabregas
Despite somewhat stop-start viewing – I watched the first half of yesterday’s game on my phone and the second half late last night – the Grove Cup was, as ever, enjoyable. It’s the first proper chance as fans to see new signings and other returning players, to parade the excellent new home shirt, and unless your name is Almunia or Fabianski, it’s almost entirely pressure-free.
But it doesn’t tell us much really, with players missing and others not yet match fit.
It’s perhaps not surprising at the tail end of a summer in which England flopped, but a lot of the headlines this morning go to Jack Wilshere, man of the match yesterday. Despite generally cautious praise from Wenger, he did not rule out Wilshere being called up for England.
“In 2012 he will be 20, so why not. You cannot rule it out, but it is down to performances.”
Personally, I’d rather he got more club experience before England even considered him, but if he continues to improve as he is doing, the call will come sooner rather than later. There’s no doubt he’s a very bright talent, an Englishman who likes to both win and keep the ball, and with an eye for pass. Very exciting for Arsenal fans.
Wenger was quick to lump Frimpong (aka ‘The Frimster‘ – now lodged in my mind, thanks for that blogger) in with the same praise too, and he was certainly the pleasant surprise of the tournament.
Walcott and Gibbs both looked hungry too, giving us more genuine British options this season than we’ve had for many a year. If Ramsey comes back in late autumn (and we’re all desperate for him to), then we will have four British players good enough to nail down first team places, with some exciting reserves (Jet, Frimpong, Eastmond etc). The bottom line is that if they are good enough, Wenger will play them, and this lot are our best crop of local youngsters for a long time.
This week we get Fabregas and van Persie back, and with Wenger challenging Cesc to break radio silence, the focus will be on him once more – not that it ever wasn’t. But we need it to stop, one way or another, because a) it’s a boring pantomime and b) we need it to be ‘behind us’. Sorry.
Other than that, the boss admits we need “at least one” centre back and that as far as keepers go, “we have two more weeks to decide what I will do”.
So no change there then…
Scattering my eyes across the Sundays and the general theme hasn’t changed much: there’s the rustle of keeper talk and a persisting link to Everton’s Phil Jagielka. The latter story has been lingering long enough that the fee is now being quoted at a very un-Arsenal-like £15m. At that price, I can’t see us getting involved.
As for the keeper talk, well it appears to be a case of ABA – Anyone But Almunia. Akinfeev? Stekelenburg? James? You can never second-guess Wenger but I think we might still shop within the Premier League, on the basis that we cannot afford a costly bedding-in process. On that basis, do all roads still lead to Schwarzer?
As for our attacking options, it was noteworthy that Wenger said we wouldn’t be replacing the departed Eduardo. If this is true, then we will essentially have three central strikers (van Persie, Bendtner, Chamakh) and a substantial array of wide or deep attack-minded players to back them up (Arshavin, Rosicky, Nasri, Walcott, Vela, Wilshere).
I can see why he thinks that might be enough, especially allied to the goalscoring prowess of Fabregas. But if that is to be our lot, it’s worth returning to a theme I picked up at the tail end of last season – the need for more goals from those wide men.
We all know that van Persie has a good 20 goals in him, and Bendtner at least 15, but Chamakh, at least until we can judge him, remains an unknown quantity. Given the injury records of the first two of those, we need more from elsewhere.
Arshavin is exempt from the criticism about to come. With 12 goals scored despite playing up front on his own at times last season, we know he can pack a goal or two.
But look at the record of the others: Rosicky, Nasri, Walcott and Vela scored just 14 goals between them, of which only nine came in the league.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect better contributions from all four of those. For the two younger players, Walcott and Vela, they at the right age and cannot now hide behind the excuse of youth. They will also have Wilshere breathing down their necks (and both Diaby and Eboue can play wide too).
Nasri – ditto Walcott – should be hungry following their World Cup snubs and Rosicky will be fighting for his future.
To them all I say: More goals, chaps.
Tags: arshavin, bendtner, chamakh, goals, nasri, rosicky, van Persie, vela, walcott, width, wilshere, wingers
With Eduardo now officially the fifth Arsenal departure of the summer, the squad evolution continues apace. We’ve now lost two attackers (gaining one), three defenders (gaining one) and have gained one midfielder (Wilshere).
So in terms of snipping the squad’s deadheads, the work carries on.
And unfortunately, a deadhead is what Eduardo had become. You’ll appreciate that I don’t mean that vindictively but it was clear last season that poor old Eduardo’s injury has robbed him of the pace, confidence and sharpness that marked him out as a lethal Arsenal number nine. He was a pale shadow of his former self.
I feel desperately sorry for him, but I do think a fee of £6m, if true, is a good deal for Arsenal and that a fresh start in a new league is the right move for Eduardo. There’s simply no room for sentimentality.
But there can be no doubt that the position many Arsenal fans are worried most about is the one that has not yet been addressed – goalkeeper.
We all know that Wenger has a masterful way with words. But as well as the memorable one-liner he has a politician’s ability, when quizzed, to neither confirm nor deny, and to reveal something at the same time as giving nothing away. That’s why, despite being quizzed on his plans for the goalkeeping position earlier this week, he was as evasive as ever.
Were we still interested in Fulham’s Mark Schwarzer, he was asked. “Not really”. That’s not a yes, of course, but nor was it definitely a no.
“At the moment, in pre-season, there is no No.1 – you have to give a chance to everyone to show how good he is. You cannot decide that today.”
Classic Wenger, defending his players, keen to keep his plans under wraps.
But seeing that Almunia has had ample chance to show us how good he is, Fabianski has on ample occasions showed us how good he is, and Szczesny has never played a Premier League game, you’d think a deal for a new number one will happen at some point between now and the end of August.
I would agree with those who say Schwarzer is still the likeliest deal.
Last night saw a 3-0 win against Sturm Graz and the word on the tweet is that Samir Nasri was the pick of the bunch. I’ve not been following the tour that closely yet – I opted to save up for a pint at the Emirates rather than shell out the £3 for the first 3 pre-season games – and besides, pre-season is still so young that it’s impossible to draw any real conclusions.
But phew, it’s nice to have some Arsenal to talk about after a summer largely bereft of it.
Tags: eduardo, goalkeeper, wenger
14 July – quick poll
12 July – old post
How nice is it to be able to crane the old neck away from the World Cup, and back in the other direction, towards the league, and towards Arsenal. I was getting a crick.
Looking back, it’s very clear that I’ve barely troubled my laptop for blog updates. It’s really not had much of a workout at all since the end of the season – since the blind shock of the Wigan debacle – and has gained a little girth around the space bar as a result. That’ll have to come off.
That’s not to say I’ve not enjoyed the World Cup – I absolutely have. What’s not to enjoy, other than, as an Englishman, watching my team floundering around miserably? Even that enabled the country to let off a bit of steam with a good old moan and a navel gaze. There’ll be a post mortem, and much huffing and puffing, but will anything really change? Don’t Gordon Banks on it.
Respeck? What respeck?
The final was pretty dismal, if eventful.
[rant: begin]
There are plenty of disheartening things in football, many of which are not easy to address on a global level. Money tends to be at the heart of them – at owner, player and fan level (making money, making money and paying money respectively) – but there are some things that could be done to clean the game up on the pitch, but which never, ever get properly addressed.
One such is the total lack of respect shown to match officials – especially when you compare it to other sports. Watching the World Cup final on Sunday, it struck me how impossible it must be to referee. Sure, our very own Mr Webb did not help himself by failing to correctly punish several atrocious early tackles, but players haranguing referees, trying to con them and pressure them is far too common a sight in football the world over. And not just players – managers do it too. Without proper rule changes – zero tolerance – refereeing will remain the impossible job.
How hard would it be to tell players that they simply cannot dispute a referee’s decision? Or to look back, after a game, at any incidences where players have tried to deceive, persuade or cajole a referee and punish them retrospectively? And to do it fairly?
Of course, the referees need to improve too, but making their job a little easier would be a good start, and it’s totally achievable.
The simple fact is that footballers will try something if they are confident they will get away with it. And in football, it’s too easy to get away with it.
[rant: over]
Underhill, around the corner
The best and most important thing of all is we can now concentrate on Arsenal. We’ve got Barnet on Saturday, squad movement still to come – plenty of sticky rumours on that front but little by way of certainty – and we’re only a month or so from the big kick off.
Really, it’s only a month. If I tell Mrs Lower that, she will throw plates at me.
Take cover!
And finally, Laurent Koscielny has signed for the Arsenal. His free Arsenal.com video is a brilliant mix of new signing intro and new shirt promotion.
“We bought this! Now buy these!”
Luckily, both new shirts are ace.
We have laughed many a time in the past about how Wenger pulls signings from nowhere and presents them to us – but with both Chamakh and now Koscielny, there’s been very little surprise, other than how long the dotted line has taken to sign. It’s been all over the web for a while. I blame modern electronicalish communications.
It means that Wenger’s first two forays into the transfer market this summer are both from the country he knows best – France. They are the latest in a long line of predominantly excellent imports – a line that started with the best of them all, Remi Garde. (There was a bloke from Senegal too I think who was quite good).
More importantly, Koscielny forms the first piece in the new defensive jigsaw. It’s a jigsaw that will hopefully include at least a new keeper – with some people’s money currently being on Fulham’s Schwarzer.
Wenger pinpointed our porous back line as a priority for investment back in May – let’s be honest, he wasn’t alone in that conclusion – so it’s hardly a surprise to see a defensive addition coming in. Not least because sailing off over the horizon in the other direction are William Gallas, Micky Silver, and possibly also Sol Campbell.
I do expect him to be first choice though – at the price we have paid, it can be no other way, regardless of the fact he was playing in the French second division the season before last.
If Sol stays, that’s your lot in that department – but if he goes (and he must be pondering exactly how many games he will get), then there’s a vacancy for a fourth centre-half. Could it be Nordveit? Or Bartley? How much experience does a fourth-choice centre-half need? And who of experience would sign knowing they were that far down the pecking order?
Sol staying would be the best solution for me, but he is free to do what he will and is taking his time.
We all know this is a big, big season for Wenger, and for my money – the Cesc stuff aside – the close season is going well. We’ve got two hungry, young but not inexperienced players signed, both of whom have a big part to play next season.
Forget the fact that Man City have spent £75m and could spend another £75m – there’s nothing we or any other club can do about that.
The main thing is the gaps are being plugged.
I’m looking forward to seeing him play now. Bienvenue to you, Laurent, and all that and stuff.
