Dusty quill/England/English/other stuff

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Time to write something, I think – if only because, as with a car, if you don’t turn the engine over sufficiently frequently, then when you really need it to work it won’t start.

So England survive another few days, not that I saw it coming. It’s lucky in the extreme. Even if we do qualify, I’m hoping for a little feet-on-ground realism from the nation, and indeed, from the press. For some peculiar reason large swathes of people expect England to win every competition they enter, even if history dictates otherwise: with the exception of two semi-final appearances in the last forty years, England are a quarter-final side. The sooner we all realise this and adjust our expectations, the better.

By the sound of it, Walcott was on the verge of a call-up to the senior squad after a sparkling recent performance full of what can only be described as metal. Something to do with grappling and penalties. As you can probably gather, I didn’t watch it.

And news of another Englishman (that’s our two taken up in this entry), Justin Hoyte has vowed to fight for his position at the club. I hope he can be accommodated as he improved immeasurably last season, but the trouble is Sagna has come in and stormed the right-back position, so what to do? I admire Hoyte’s decision to “knuckle down”, but he’s only played three games this season – one in the Champions and two in the Milk – and at this rate he’s going to get nowhere near his 29 starts and 7 sub appearances of last season. We shall see, but clearly, he’d benefit from more games.

And my final point: would Arsenal sell promising players to the Spuds? Players moving between the two clubs are rare indeed, with the last one, Campbell, coming only because he wound his contract down (and was allowed to). I just think this whole Traore/Denilson thing is a complete non-story. It’d never happen. There’s little precedent and why would we strengthen a rival at our own expense?

Next stop Wednesday. Can the super-prolific Eduardo score again? And why can he not translate his international form to his club side? Plenty of time for him to come good yet, methinks.

Ta-ra then.

Jim

Arsenal since about 1979. Thick, thin and all that.