Afternoon all,
Well I got to say there are certain times in your life when you love to be proved wrong, and yesterdays match against Chelsea was one of those moments. My vitriolic rant the previous day was led by a sense of impending doom that Chelsea would use us as a springboard to turn around their on&off-field problems and continue on their title challenge. Boy oh boy was I wrong.
I've waited a day before posting as I actually wanted to see the match before blogging (it was on at 4 in the morning where I currently am) and I'm glad I did. What a performance. We outclassed a Chav side, who despite being on a losing streak, that have munched us in our encounters over the past few seasons. Cesc played at his best, no sign of the mental struggle he's been going through. Song looked dominant providing cover for our defence (as well as grabbing an important gal just before the break) and Walcott showed the form he was on at the beginning of the season before his injury.
It'll be interesting to see over the course of the second half of the season whether Walcott can displace Arshavin from an automatic starting spot. We'll always rotate our starters of course, but I think it'll be interesting to see which one of them will start in the first leg against Barcelona. Arshavin can be a genius when he shows up, but Walcott's pace is a scary scary thing for opposing teams. Especially when coupled with Cesc's eye for the perfect pass.
One thing which the match showed was how long it can take players to recover from bouts of malaria. Drogba had notched up 13 goals in 13 appearances against us before last night's match, however yesterday he looked so out of sorts you could have mistaken him for our diminutive Russian on his days when Andrey can't be bothered to show up. Let's not forget how long it took Toure to recover from his case of malaria when he was with us, lets all hope Drogba continues to suffer this drop in form for a few more months yet!
I'll skip over the transfer dross. Football journalists everywhere are making up reports left, right and centre. I'm always wary when you read the phrase "reports suggest that..." in a transfer article. Let's just wait and see. Hopefully we'll get another central defender, TV5 will take a while to get his match fitness back when he recovers and I'm sure we all hope that'll be in time for the first leg against Barca.
The Afterthought.
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
Sunday, 26 December 2010
Oh crap, We're turning to Diaby to add muscle... - 27/12/2010
Morning All,
Well today see's us playing the Chavs, and in all honesty the portents and premonitions are just about as bad as when Caesar walked to the Senate with an old woman crying out to hi to beware the Ides of March. We are facing one of our title rivals who appear to once again be returning to full strength and although I don't want to appear to be all doom and gloom I've certainly had better feelings before approaching matches.
First off let's look at the matter of Cesc.
"When he comes on, his hamstring is in his head."
That's what Wenger has said about, the now fit again, Cesc. Not exactly inspiring words to reassure us all about our Captain. To summarise a long statement from Arsene. Fabregas is fit again and looking sharp in training, however it appears that the worry about picking up another injury is the biggest block to Cesc. WORRY ABOUT AN INJURY???? The ****** played in and set-up the winning goal in the World Cup final whilst still dealing with a leg crocked by Puyol. Don't get me wrong, I love Cesc, but what the hell is wrong with the boy? Has he finally given up on us? Has he decided that he wants his move to Barca above all else and no longer has the heart to play through the pain for club as he did for country? If a player isn't there mentally then there's no point putting him on the pitch, no matter what his talent level is. If we start the match with a captain, nay a talisman, who is more focused on whether he'll pick up an injury or not than the match at hand, it bodes ill indeed.
Next up is the fact that we may be turning to Diaby to add muscle to our midfield for the match. Don't make me laugh, if we're turning to Abou to add muscle then we may as well ask Theo and Arshavin to be our aerial attack. Plagued by injury and always showing more talent on the training pitch than on matchday, Diaby is another one who's potential has never developed. Had he been English, not French, he'd been quietly sold a la Pennet and Bentley, a long time ago.
Martin Keown has come out saying something that all of us have known for a while, namely that Arshavin's defending and misplaced passes on the edge of our own box cause many a heart-ache for Arsenal. I'm too exasperated to continue with this as it's all been gone over before but Andrey has to learn that in the position he's been asked to play he needs to perform better defensively. 'Nuff said.
And the final ill omen before the match is that Chamakh is apparently suffering from exhaustion. The lad's done fantastically since the start of the season, especially with our other main strikers out for most of that period. Guess it's now put up or shut up time for the Danish self-trumpeter Bendter. Get out there and show your half as good as you think you are son!
Well that's enough for now, though the odds may seem against us, lets go and beat the Chavs! Be Champions!
The Afterthought.
Well today see's us playing the Chavs, and in all honesty the portents and premonitions are just about as bad as when Caesar walked to the Senate with an old woman crying out to hi to beware the Ides of March. We are facing one of our title rivals who appear to once again be returning to full strength and although I don't want to appear to be all doom and gloom I've certainly had better feelings before approaching matches.
First off let's look at the matter of Cesc.
"When he comes on, his hamstring is in his head."
That's what Wenger has said about, the now fit again, Cesc. Not exactly inspiring words to reassure us all about our Captain. To summarise a long statement from Arsene. Fabregas is fit again and looking sharp in training, however it appears that the worry about picking up another injury is the biggest block to Cesc. WORRY ABOUT AN INJURY???? The ****** played in and set-up the winning goal in the World Cup final whilst still dealing with a leg crocked by Puyol. Don't get me wrong, I love Cesc, but what the hell is wrong with the boy? Has he finally given up on us? Has he decided that he wants his move to Barca above all else and no longer has the heart to play through the pain for club as he did for country? If a player isn't there mentally then there's no point putting him on the pitch, no matter what his talent level is. If we start the match with a captain, nay a talisman, who is more focused on whether he'll pick up an injury or not than the match at hand, it bodes ill indeed.
Next up is the fact that we may be turning to Diaby to add muscle to our midfield for the match. Don't make me laugh, if we're turning to Abou to add muscle then we may as well ask Theo and Arshavin to be our aerial attack. Plagued by injury and always showing more talent on the training pitch than on matchday, Diaby is another one who's potential has never developed. Had he been English, not French, he'd been quietly sold a la Pennet and Bentley, a long time ago.
Martin Keown has come out saying something that all of us have known for a while, namely that Arshavin's defending and misplaced passes on the edge of our own box cause many a heart-ache for Arsenal. I'm too exasperated to continue with this as it's all been gone over before but Andrey has to learn that in the position he's been asked to play he needs to perform better defensively. 'Nuff said.
And the final ill omen before the match is that Chamakh is apparently suffering from exhaustion. The lad's done fantastically since the start of the season, especially with our other main strikers out for most of that period. Guess it's now put up or shut up time for the Danish self-trumpeter Bendter. Get out there and show your half as good as you think you are son!
Well that's enough for now, though the odds may seem against us, lets go and beat the Chavs! Be Champions!
The Afterthought.
Saturday, 25 December 2010
Merry Christmas - 25/12/2010
Evenin' All,
Managed to get Internet in Singapore now so I can continue posting!
Well to start Wenger's come out saying that Monday's clash against Chelsea is a title decider. Piff and tosh is all I can say to that... Whilst it is soooo important that we start to win our matches against the other big teams, the way the season is shaping up I can't see Monday's clash as being a title decider. Smaller teams are taking points off all of us and no matter what happens against Chelsea the title's still up for grabs. To be honest I reckon Chelsea's clash against Manure will affect our title chances just as much as our match against the Chavs, the main thing we need to do is start winning our f*cking home matches!!
Whilst on the subject of our match against Chelsea hopefully we'll have Cesc back for it. Whilst Nasri has been doing an outstanding job standing-in for Fabregas, there's nothing which can replace our indomitable Captain. Plus considering Cesc will most probably be going off to Barca in a year or two (let's not kid ourselves people), we need to make as much use of him whilst we've got him.
Gotta love Nani running his mouth off against us. Considering the minimal impact he had in our last match you would have thought the Portuguese twat would hold his tongue. Face it Nani, you aint 'Ronnie' Ronaldo and you'll never be. Get over it.
Jack Wilshere is looking at being called up for both the under-21's and the main England squad. Arsene's complaining about this, don't really see why. For the senior England squad Jack aint going to be used a lot, and for the under-21's it'll be good experience for him on the international level. It annoys me that so many people go on about Theo being 'burned out' by his inclusion in both squads, his passing was woeful before his injury and aint improved much after. The boy should just be played as a striker, he wants to play striker, LET HIM ARSENE!
Ahhh, far too late and far too much Christmas alcohol mean I'll leave it here for now. Let's hope for a good start to the New Year and I'll be back with the all the gossip tomoz before our match on Monday!
The Afterthought.
Managed to get Internet in Singapore now so I can continue posting!
Well to start Wenger's come out saying that Monday's clash against Chelsea is a title decider. Piff and tosh is all I can say to that... Whilst it is soooo important that we start to win our matches against the other big teams, the way the season is shaping up I can't see Monday's clash as being a title decider. Smaller teams are taking points off all of us and no matter what happens against Chelsea the title's still up for grabs. To be honest I reckon Chelsea's clash against Manure will affect our title chances just as much as our match against the Chavs, the main thing we need to do is start winning our f*cking home matches!!
Whilst on the subject of our match against Chelsea hopefully we'll have Cesc back for it. Whilst Nasri has been doing an outstanding job standing-in for Fabregas, there's nothing which can replace our indomitable Captain. Plus considering Cesc will most probably be going off to Barca in a year or two (let's not kid ourselves people), we need to make as much use of him whilst we've got him.
Gotta love Nani running his mouth off against us. Considering the minimal impact he had in our last match you would have thought the Portuguese twat would hold his tongue. Face it Nani, you aint 'Ronnie' Ronaldo and you'll never be. Get over it.
Jack Wilshere is looking at being called up for both the under-21's and the main England squad. Arsene's complaining about this, don't really see why. For the senior England squad Jack aint going to be used a lot, and for the under-21's it'll be good experience for him on the international level. It annoys me that so many people go on about Theo being 'burned out' by his inclusion in both squads, his passing was woeful before his injury and aint improved much after. The boy should just be played as a striker, he wants to play striker, LET HIM ARSENE!
Ahhh, far too late and far too much Christmas alcohol mean I'll leave it here for now. Let's hope for a good start to the New Year and I'll be back with the all the gossip tomoz before our match on Monday!
The Afterthought.
Thursday, 23 December 2010
Retarded Balotelli - 23/12/2010
Morning all,
Many apologies for the lack of posts, been stuck at Heathrow for a day before my flight left! But after a nice(ish) thirteen hour flight, I'm in Singapore and ready to carry on...
So... First off something to create a bit of Christmas cheer. Mario Balotelli won the Golden Boy trophy and in his acceptance speech claimed he didn't know who Jack Wilshere was. Balotelli claims he is the bast footballer on the planet except for Lionel Messi. Judging on Mario's performances for City recently if he really is the best young player about world football's going to be very boring and sh*t for the next decade. I mean really now, seriously folks, has anyone seen a more pathetic recipient of a footballing award recently? With the exception of Qatar winning the right to host the 2022 World Cup that is.
Well it'll be interesting to keep tabs on young Jack for next years award. If he continues developing at the pace he has hopefully he'll be able to stuff the World Player award down Mario's throat in a few years.
Chamakh has said he wants to become a club icon for Arsenal, like Drogba for Chelski or Rooney at Manure. With ten goals already this season I think we all share Maroune's hope. Fabregas will eventually go to Barca at some point in the future and with RVP never able to play more than fifteen games a season we need someone to become an icon for us! He's settling in well now, having hired some Moroccan chefs to cook for him and also the fact that he's a Muslim means that at least we should never have to suffer the embarrassment of seeing the lad stumbling out of a London nightclub drunk as a skunk, a la Ledley King at Sp*rs or Rooney at Manure.
Vermaelen is out for at least another month according to Wenger. We miss TV5 so much in the centre of our defence it now has to be a certainty that Arsene will look to bring in another defender come January. The problem is though Arsene will most probably look to bring in another 17 year old French boy with West African heritage... Please Wenger! All we want for Christmas is one start defender!
On better news Gibbs will apparently be back within a couple of weeks. With Clichy now never looking like he will become the world-class left back we all had hoped for, hopefully Gibbs return will put more pressure on Gael to perform.
The fat Russian (well technically he's an Uzbekistanian...) Uzmanov, is looking to take his share holdings up to the 29.9% limit. Whilst I would hate to see the Arsenal fall into his hands at least I would be able to keep flogging that old joke from Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking barrels, so all is not lost if he does take us over.
At least Arsene has admitted now that he may bring in a new face or two in January. Like I've said before, we desperately need more cover at centreback. Arsene said:
"...the problem is people want me to develop young players. They want me to develop Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Theo Walcott and to also buy players. But the two do not go well together."
Arsene, old son, your missing the point here. YES we want you to develop players, but none of those you have mentioned is a central defender or goalkeeper. Develop all you want with the rest of the squad but for f*cks sake GET SOMEONE TO HELP US OUT IN DEFENCE. 'Nuff said.
Well I'll leave it there for now as jet-lag is rapidly turning my ability to type to mush. Remeber people (to rip off Special 1 TV), Be Champions!
The Afterthought
Many apologies for the lack of posts, been stuck at Heathrow for a day before my flight left! But after a nice(ish) thirteen hour flight, I'm in Singapore and ready to carry on...
So... First off something to create a bit of Christmas cheer. Mario Balotelli won the Golden Boy trophy and in his acceptance speech claimed he didn't know who Jack Wilshere was. Balotelli claims he is the bast footballer on the planet except for Lionel Messi. Judging on Mario's performances for City recently if he really is the best young player about world football's going to be very boring and sh*t for the next decade. I mean really now, seriously folks, has anyone seen a more pathetic recipient of a footballing award recently? With the exception of Qatar winning the right to host the 2022 World Cup that is.
Well it'll be interesting to keep tabs on young Jack for next years award. If he continues developing at the pace he has hopefully he'll be able to stuff the World Player award down Mario's throat in a few years.
Chamakh has said he wants to become a club icon for Arsenal, like Drogba for Chelski or Rooney at Manure. With ten goals already this season I think we all share Maroune's hope. Fabregas will eventually go to Barca at some point in the future and with RVP never able to play more than fifteen games a season we need someone to become an icon for us! He's settling in well now, having hired some Moroccan chefs to cook for him and also the fact that he's a Muslim means that at least we should never have to suffer the embarrassment of seeing the lad stumbling out of a London nightclub drunk as a skunk, a la Ledley King at Sp*rs or Rooney at Manure.
Vermaelen is out for at least another month according to Wenger. We miss TV5 so much in the centre of our defence it now has to be a certainty that Arsene will look to bring in another defender come January. The problem is though Arsene will most probably look to bring in another 17 year old French boy with West African heritage... Please Wenger! All we want for Christmas is one start defender!
On better news Gibbs will apparently be back within a couple of weeks. With Clichy now never looking like he will become the world-class left back we all had hoped for, hopefully Gibbs return will put more pressure on Gael to perform.
The fat Russian (well technically he's an Uzbekistanian...) Uzmanov, is looking to take his share holdings up to the 29.9% limit. Whilst I would hate to see the Arsenal fall into his hands at least I would be able to keep flogging that old joke from Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking barrels, so all is not lost if he does take us over.
At least Arsene has admitted now that he may bring in a new face or two in January. Like I've said before, we desperately need more cover at centreback. Arsene said:
"...the problem is people want me to develop young players. They want me to develop Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Theo Walcott and to also buy players. But the two do not go well together."
Arsene, old son, your missing the point here. YES we want you to develop players, but none of those you have mentioned is a central defender or goalkeeper. Develop all you want with the rest of the squad but for f*cks sake GET SOMEONE TO HELP US OUT IN DEFENCE. 'Nuff said.
Well I'll leave it there for now as jet-lag is rapidly turning my ability to type to mush. Remeber people (to rip off Special 1 TV), Be Champions!
The Afterthought
Monday, 20 December 2010
Captain questions bottle & Szcznesy's 'armless - 20/12/2010
Afternoon all,
As the cold and snow continue to grip England it looks like we'll have more match's cancelled over Christmas. These postponed match's will need to be caught up with at some point and predictably it'll mean those clubs (including us of course) with European commitments will find a hectic schedule come the new year. The upside for us is that with a large squad we should be able to rotate players and still compete for matches but it does mean some of our second-string players will seriously need to up their game.
First up is the fact that Fabregas has come out saying that our team is scared of losing.
"... we seem scared of losing big games. We don't really go for it and we're tempted to drop back and see what the opposition will do."
Truer words have not been spoken for quite a while by an Arsenal Captain. Our game against Manure was painful to watch during the first half. We gave the ball away far too easily and struggled to produce any of the beautiful flowing football for which we're supposed to be well know for. The answer? Some f*cking experienced players! Players who are already used to pressure to grab our youngsters by the scruff of the neck and tell them to pull their act together. What we really need is a 'scary screamer', a la Vieira. Someone who preferably knows the French for "concentrate you c**t". Still we aint got one, and either someone needs to pick up the mantle or Fabregas needs to find a more soft-spoken way of pulling the team together. He's the Captain, he needs to act like it. What doesn't help is the fact we all know our captain would prefer to be plying his trade in Spain so on this point we're buggered.
Young Wilshere has said he'd like to take the Captain's armband for Arsenal at some point in the future. Now HE fits the bill for what I've been asking for in the last paragraph. Strong, mean and willing to break someones leg if they f*ck about. Unfortunately for us he's probably around five years away from being able to do the job. Shame they've banned steroids or else we could have pumped him up and gotten him into the mold a bit quicker.
Word from some of the papers is that Steve McClaren at Wolfsburg is looking at bringing in Denilson which allegedly would allow us to bid for Joleon Lescott. I'm unsure as to his top-class ability but at the moment needs must as the devil drives and I'd happily welcome him to the Emirates as it would provide some cover for our centre of defence. Unfortunately McClaren is on his last legs at the Wolfsburg job and it's possible the German board wouldn't want to splash out the cash before getting a new manager.
On more transfer news, us and the Scousers are looking at youngster Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from Southampton. Alex has been labeled 'the new Theo Walcott', now as much as I love Theo I have to admit I'm perturbed at the thought at someone being compared to a player who is still very much a work in progress himself. But have a look at some of Alex's clips on Youtube and he seems a decent player. For £10 million though I think we'd be better concentrating on developing the youngsters we've already got and spend the money on getting some experience into the first team.
Lastly Samir Nasri continues to pitch for his own chat-show. He's come out taunting United that they wouldn't have won at Stamford Bridge anyway if the match against Chelsea had been cancelled. Samir my old mucker, let's keep your mouth shut until we start winning match's eh? At the moment you sound like the kid who's been beaten up by the school bully and whilst lying on the ground with a bleeding nose yelling out "My brother's going to get you" at the bully's back.
Well that's it for today, final news is that Ramsey's loan spell at Forest might be extended by another month. This would be helpful to the young lad I reckon, he'd only at best warm up our bench at the moment and the more match practise he gets now, hopefully the better he'll be when he comes back!
The Afterthought.
As the cold and snow continue to grip England it looks like we'll have more match's cancelled over Christmas. These postponed match's will need to be caught up with at some point and predictably it'll mean those clubs (including us of course) with European commitments will find a hectic schedule come the new year. The upside for us is that with a large squad we should be able to rotate players and still compete for matches but it does mean some of our second-string players will seriously need to up their game.
First up is the fact that Fabregas has come out saying that our team is scared of losing.
"... we seem scared of losing big games. We don't really go for it and we're tempted to drop back and see what the opposition will do."
Truer words have not been spoken for quite a while by an Arsenal Captain. Our game against Manure was painful to watch during the first half. We gave the ball away far too easily and struggled to produce any of the beautiful flowing football for which we're supposed to be well know for. The answer? Some f*cking experienced players! Players who are already used to pressure to grab our youngsters by the scruff of the neck and tell them to pull their act together. What we really need is a 'scary screamer', a la Vieira. Someone who preferably knows the French for "concentrate you c**t". Still we aint got one, and either someone needs to pick up the mantle or Fabregas needs to find a more soft-spoken way of pulling the team together. He's the Captain, he needs to act like it. What doesn't help is the fact we all know our captain would prefer to be plying his trade in Spain so on this point we're buggered.
Young Wilshere has said he'd like to take the Captain's armband for Arsenal at some point in the future. Now HE fits the bill for what I've been asking for in the last paragraph. Strong, mean and willing to break someones leg if they f*ck about. Unfortunately for us he's probably around five years away from being able to do the job. Shame they've banned steroids or else we could have pumped him up and gotten him into the mold a bit quicker.
Word from some of the papers is that Steve McClaren at Wolfsburg is looking at bringing in Denilson which allegedly would allow us to bid for Joleon Lescott. I'm unsure as to his top-class ability but at the moment needs must as the devil drives and I'd happily welcome him to the Emirates as it would provide some cover for our centre of defence. Unfortunately McClaren is on his last legs at the Wolfsburg job and it's possible the German board wouldn't want to splash out the cash before getting a new manager.
On more transfer news, us and the Scousers are looking at youngster Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from Southampton. Alex has been labeled 'the new Theo Walcott', now as much as I love Theo I have to admit I'm perturbed at the thought at someone being compared to a player who is still very much a work in progress himself. But have a look at some of Alex's clips on Youtube and he seems a decent player. For £10 million though I think we'd be better concentrating on developing the youngsters we've already got and spend the money on getting some experience into the first team.
Lastly Samir Nasri continues to pitch for his own chat-show. He's come out taunting United that they wouldn't have won at Stamford Bridge anyway if the match against Chelsea had been cancelled. Samir my old mucker, let's keep your mouth shut until we start winning match's eh? At the moment you sound like the kid who's been beaten up by the school bully and whilst lying on the ground with a bleeding nose yelling out "My brother's going to get you" at the bully's back.
Well that's it for today, final news is that Ramsey's loan spell at Forest might be extended by another month. This would be helpful to the young lad I reckon, he'd only at best warm up our bench at the moment and the more match practise he gets now, hopefully the better he'll be when he comes back!
The Afterthought.
Sunday, 19 December 2010
RVP's wishes granted * Snow delays Stoke meeting - 19/12/2010
Afternoon all,
Apologies for the lack of updates over the past few days. Internet problems again but fortunately it's been a quiet few days so I'll catch you all up with the most important news.
New signing coming! Japanese youngster Ryo Miyaichi will sign with us in January right after he finishes playing in the All Japan High School tournament. He's yet another player who's been touted as a 'new Cristiano Ronaldo', the lad does seem to have good on the ball skills and an attacking frame of mind. There's a few clips of him on Youtube which are worth checking out. Time will tell if he can produce these types of displays in the Premier League and in all honesty we'll probably have to wait a few years for the lad to mature physically before we see the best of him.
Saturday's match against Stoke was postponed. All of you who live in England will know why and for all of you who live elsewhere, we've had over a foot of snow causing most of this weekend's football matches to be postponed.
RVP and others in our team got their wish and we've been drawn against Barcelona in the first-knock out round of the Champions League. Whilst the players may have been saying publicly that they wanted Barca in the draw, in reality I bet they were like the rest of us and were hoping for a trip to Germany to play Schalke. Well since we've drawn Barca I do hope our boys live up to their boasts. I know that they've been itching for a chance to redress the balance against Barca after the pasting they inflicted on us last year, but we will really need to up our game if we hope to beat them.
The worst thing for me about drawing Barca is the fact we've got to go through the whole bollocks of Pique, Iniesta and co chirping on about Cesc's Barcelona DNA and how he should come play with them. Be prepared for months of this nonsense folks.
Staying with Barca news, allegedly they are lining up a £85 million swoop for Cesc and Torres. Considering Torres will cost them at least £50 million from Liverpool it looks like they're staying with their valuation of Cesc of around £30/35 million. Since that didn't work last time I wonder if it'll be anymore effective this summer. Personally I can't see it being effective if Cesc doesn't put in the transfer request that Barca have been desperately wanting him to put in. Also if we consider Barca's losses for last season and even figuring in the injection of cash they received from the Qatari's I can't imagine they can afford the transfer fees being bandied about. For years they have been running at a loss, despite winning competition after competition. If they spend all of that cash in one massive binge this summer their financial backers can't keep backing them. Barca need to learn how to be more financially stable, especially considering the state of the Spanish economy at the moment. Lets hope those Claret and Blue f*cks go bankrupt soon.
Well that's pretty much it for the major news. I'll be back tomorrow to keep you all informed!
The Afterthought.
Apologies for the lack of updates over the past few days. Internet problems again but fortunately it's been a quiet few days so I'll catch you all up with the most important news.
New signing coming! Japanese youngster Ryo Miyaichi will sign with us in January right after he finishes playing in the All Japan High School tournament. He's yet another player who's been touted as a 'new Cristiano Ronaldo', the lad does seem to have good on the ball skills and an attacking frame of mind. There's a few clips of him on Youtube which are worth checking out. Time will tell if he can produce these types of displays in the Premier League and in all honesty we'll probably have to wait a few years for the lad to mature physically before we see the best of him.
Saturday's match against Stoke was postponed. All of you who live in England will know why and for all of you who live elsewhere, we've had over a foot of snow causing most of this weekend's football matches to be postponed.
RVP and others in our team got their wish and we've been drawn against Barcelona in the first-knock out round of the Champions League. Whilst the players may have been saying publicly that they wanted Barca in the draw, in reality I bet they were like the rest of us and were hoping for a trip to Germany to play Schalke. Well since we've drawn Barca I do hope our boys live up to their boasts. I know that they've been itching for a chance to redress the balance against Barca after the pasting they inflicted on us last year, but we will really need to up our game if we hope to beat them.
The worst thing for me about drawing Barca is the fact we've got to go through the whole bollocks of Pique, Iniesta and co chirping on about Cesc's Barcelona DNA and how he should come play with them. Be prepared for months of this nonsense folks.
Staying with Barca news, allegedly they are lining up a £85 million swoop for Cesc and Torres. Considering Torres will cost them at least £50 million from Liverpool it looks like they're staying with their valuation of Cesc of around £30/35 million. Since that didn't work last time I wonder if it'll be anymore effective this summer. Personally I can't see it being effective if Cesc doesn't put in the transfer request that Barca have been desperately wanting him to put in. Also if we consider Barca's losses for last season and even figuring in the injection of cash they received from the Qatari's I can't imagine they can afford the transfer fees being bandied about. For years they have been running at a loss, despite winning competition after competition. If they spend all of that cash in one massive binge this summer their financial backers can't keep backing them. Barca need to learn how to be more financially stable, especially considering the state of the Spanish economy at the moment. Lets hope those Claret and Blue f*cks go bankrupt soon.
Well that's pretty much it for the major news. I'll be back tomorrow to keep you all informed!
The Afterthought.
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Nasri & Gallas may marry & Will Almunia leave? - 16/12/2010
Afternoon all,
Apologies for toady's post being very late. Problems with my O2 connection again...
Anyway, moving swiftly onto the Arsenal...
The big story of the day is Almunia's future. Despite Arsene's insistence that Coco will remain at Arsenal during the January transfer window there are a miriad of reports suggesting Almunia's future lies elsewhere than the Emirates Stadium. In reality the Spaniard has fallen to third in the 'keeper pecking order with Fabianski now having to fight of a claim from his younger Polish comrade for the top spot.
"I have my thoughts, but I don't want to talk about them,"
Not exactly the words of someone who wants to stay at a club to fight for his place. Almunia's never exactly been a favourite with Arsenl fans. Even though there was initial excitement when he replaced big Jens "I reckon I'm a Panzer" Lehmann, this slowly faded away. We all tried to convince ourselves that he was the man to replace the aging German, even though he had a reputation of being gaff-prone. In the end he never managed to grow out of the error-prone tag.
What worries me is that Fabianski seems to be following in his exact footsteps. Errors in Fabianski's earlier matches, whilst Almunia was still number 1, have not been forgotten and do any of us really have faith in Fabianski to grow into this supposed 'world-class' keeper Arsene keeps claiming he will be? Granted, all keepers have bad days. Even David Seaman, Peter Schmeichel and Iker Casillas have had their bad days. But the difference is that they never let it bother them and carried on to produce excellent performances in subsequent matches. We've yet to see Fabianski look composed and assured to five matches in a row since his promotion. I stick by my call that we should give Szcznesy a run of games. Either the young man will thrive or if he doesn't and Coco moves on in either in January or at the end of the season, we can spend a bit of cash and bring in someone to allow Szcznesy a few more years in which to grow.
Nasri and Gallas are continuing their war of words. Nasri has said he didn't even say hello to Gallas for a year and doesn't see why he should shake Gallas' hand. The whole situation is funny/pathetic in equal measures. Seriously now, last time I saw two people consistently wind each other up so much they got married a year later.... Now THAT brings up an interesting possibility. Are Nasri and Gallas just hopelessly in love with each other and just unable to admit it? Did their disagreements start in an after-match bath game of 'Spot the submarine'? Well I hope not. If so they aint going to be allowed to Qatar for the World Cup in 2022, or at least if they do they'd better follow Blatter's farcical advice and not share a room....
Diaby hopefully will be fit for Saturday's match against Stoke. Diaby apparently is the best player at Arsenal during the mini 5-a-side games during training. F*cking wish he could show that form in a Premier League match...
Lastly Eboue is rumoured to be a transfer target for Roma. A lot of Gooners I know can't stand him but personally I like the Ebouesaurus Rex. I view him as a sort of lucky charm. Or at least the same type of lucky charm that sailors in the olden days had, ie. the most useless member of the crew was considered a lucky charm and IF the ship ever got into a really really bad storm they'd throw that person overboard as a sacrifice to the sea-gods. Trust me guys and girls, come the end of the season and we desperately need a win on the last day to take the crown, you'll all be applauding my foresight as we sacrifice Eboue to the Footballing gods and are rewarded by the title....
Take care all, see you tomorrow
The Afterthought
Apologies for toady's post being very late. Problems with my O2 connection again...
Anyway, moving swiftly onto the Arsenal...
The big story of the day is Almunia's future. Despite Arsene's insistence that Coco will remain at Arsenal during the January transfer window there are a miriad of reports suggesting Almunia's future lies elsewhere than the Emirates Stadium. In reality the Spaniard has fallen to third in the 'keeper pecking order with Fabianski now having to fight of a claim from his younger Polish comrade for the top spot.
"I have my thoughts, but I don't want to talk about them,"
Not exactly the words of someone who wants to stay at a club to fight for his place. Almunia's never exactly been a favourite with Arsenl fans. Even though there was initial excitement when he replaced big Jens "I reckon I'm a Panzer" Lehmann, this slowly faded away. We all tried to convince ourselves that he was the man to replace the aging German, even though he had a reputation of being gaff-prone. In the end he never managed to grow out of the error-prone tag.
What worries me is that Fabianski seems to be following in his exact footsteps. Errors in Fabianski's earlier matches, whilst Almunia was still number 1, have not been forgotten and do any of us really have faith in Fabianski to grow into this supposed 'world-class' keeper Arsene keeps claiming he will be? Granted, all keepers have bad days. Even David Seaman, Peter Schmeichel and Iker Casillas have had their bad days. But the difference is that they never let it bother them and carried on to produce excellent performances in subsequent matches. We've yet to see Fabianski look composed and assured to five matches in a row since his promotion. I stick by my call that we should give Szcznesy a run of games. Either the young man will thrive or if he doesn't and Coco moves on in either in January or at the end of the season, we can spend a bit of cash and bring in someone to allow Szcznesy a few more years in which to grow.
Nasri and Gallas are continuing their war of words. Nasri has said he didn't even say hello to Gallas for a year and doesn't see why he should shake Gallas' hand. The whole situation is funny/pathetic in equal measures. Seriously now, last time I saw two people consistently wind each other up so much they got married a year later.... Now THAT brings up an interesting possibility. Are Nasri and Gallas just hopelessly in love with each other and just unable to admit it? Did their disagreements start in an after-match bath game of 'Spot the submarine'? Well I hope not. If so they aint going to be allowed to Qatar for the World Cup in 2022, or at least if they do they'd better follow Blatter's farcical advice and not share a room....
Diaby hopefully will be fit for Saturday's match against Stoke. Diaby apparently is the best player at Arsenal during the mini 5-a-side games during training. F*cking wish he could show that form in a Premier League match...
Lastly Eboue is rumoured to be a transfer target for Roma. A lot of Gooners I know can't stand him but personally I like the Ebouesaurus Rex. I view him as a sort of lucky charm. Or at least the same type of lucky charm that sailors in the olden days had, ie. the most useless member of the crew was considered a lucky charm and IF the ship ever got into a really really bad storm they'd throw that person overboard as a sacrifice to the sea-gods. Trust me guys and girls, come the end of the season and we desperately need a win on the last day to take the crown, you'll all be applauding my foresight as we sacrifice Eboue to the Footballing gods and are rewarded by the title....
Take care all, see you tomorrow
The Afterthought
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