Monthly Archives: March 2011

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
March 31, 2011 posted by arseblog

News round-up : Rocky remembered

Morning all,

it’s a measure of how quiet it still is that one of the main stories on the official site is Jeremie Aliadiere: my Arsenal career. In terms of capturing one’s interest ahead of a title run-in it’s up there with Jeremie Aliadiere: the top 5 walls I like to watch paint dry on.

There has still been no official update on post-Interlull injuries but according to The Guardian we’re hopeful that van Persie will be fit, along with Abou Diaby and Nicklas Bendnter who injured his ankle in no-man’s land while away with Denmark. So we await to hear how dead Robin’s leg is, all about Nick’s knack and whether or not Diaby can make a triumphant return for two and a half games before he strains something else. I’m sure we’ll get an update today.

Meanwhile, the Jack Wilshere saga rumbles on with suggestions that the player’s enthusiasm to play might put him on ‘collision course’ with Arsene Wenger. Now, whatever about Wenger wanting Jack to rest this summer and his belief that going away with the U21s won’t do him any good at all, the manager’s been in football long enough to know players. And he knows that for the most part – the obvious Bogardes of this world aside – they all want to play as much football as possible.

A player with the natural enthusiasm and passion for the game like Jack will aways want to take part. Whether it’s Arsenal, England or in his back garden against his mates. The manager knows that, and although he clearly has reservations and doubts, he’s not going to fall out with Wilshere over it. It’d be like hating the sky because it was blue or the wind because it was a bit blowy. Wenger’s ire will be reserved entirely for those who he feels are putting their own interests ahead of the player, or those who are in a position to protect him but don’t.

The boss, and Sebastian Squillaci, have been talking about what lies ahead now. The small matter of the final nine games of the season. And it’s hard to think of nine more important games in Arsene’s reign. The feel-good factor of being in four competitions has been fairly splatted into tiny chunks of misery and we’ve got to pick ourselves up and get going again. Wenger believes hauling ourselves back into the West Brom game will be beneficial:

Things can change very quickly, and what is important for us is to get back winning, which is what our squad needs at the moment – the psychological lift of coming back from 2-0 down was vital for our next game against Blackburn.

While Squidward says:

It is a bit of a bad time that we’re having but we have all got to get our chins up and show our mettle against Manchester United for the title. That’s the remaining target now and we’ve got to give everything for the cause. Really, it is a case of keeping going and getting the three points, that’s the most important thing.

It is important that we lift ourselves and I know people will say we’re great at talking without always backing that up but the bottom line is we are in an excellent position. I asked Bob Wilson if he thought the team, in second place with the title in its own hands, had the character for the run-in:

You can’t be in the position you’ve just put them in without having character. It’s up to them now. They have to get right back online on Saturday. It doesn’t matter if they win 1-0 as long as they win it. Even if they’re not playing at their beautiful best it doesn’t matter. 1-0 will do. I think they can do it.

Let’s hope he’s right and remember, you can hear the full interview with Bob on tomorrow’s Arsecast. Saturday’s game against Blackburn needs to be something of a launch pad. There are difficult games coming up and we need to find some form and confidence. The team can raise the crowd, for sure, but there’s no reason why the crowd can’t do the same in return in either. We’re in this together between now and mid-May. Worth remembering.

Some extra reading for you. Tim Stillman’s new column touches on Wilshere, internationals in general and David Rocastle, while those of you who are missing the Arsenal players on Twitter page will be happy to know that it’s back, of a fashion. It’ll show the last three tweets from our players, although depending on how long ago their last message was it may not show. This means there’ll be no jamming up of the entire feed by one player – I’m looking at you Lansbury – and if I’m missing anyone please let me know.

Finally for today, it’s the 10th anniversary of the death of David Rocastle. Others have written longer tributes than I, check out the ‘holic, East Lower and Vital Arsenal, so there’s not much point in me waffling on when they’ve already done the job.

The only thing I will say is that 33 is no age at all and as the others have pointed out it’s a measure of how highly he was regarded that the minute’s silence at Highbury after his death was so impeccably respected by Tottenham fans as well as the home support.

On his day he was a truly fantastic player, one whose career was horribly affected by a knee injury. From title winning Arsenal sides to Leeds, Man City and Chelsea, it was sad, from a football point of view, to see him in other shirts. That’s the game though, we’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again.

What was truly sad was a great person and a great player being taken so young. The club will mark the occasion on Saturday but whether it’s 10 years, 20 or 30, Rocky won’t be forgotten.

Columnists
March 30, 2011 posted by Tim Stillman

The Tim Stillman column : Internationals, run-in and Rocky

Tim Stillman column - Arseblog

So, the blindfolds are whipped off and we emerge from the cellar of the interlull, parched, unshaven, our eyes squinting as the light of football that people actually give a shit about glints on the horizon. The shivering and sweating is decreasing with each passing day and I’ve begun to adopt a slightly more erect posture having spent ten days cowering in a corner with only a tartan blanket for company. I’ve even begun to think about cleaning out the slop bucket and opening the curtains.

Meanwhile at London Colney, the medical team are left to their golf visas and adding machines as we count the injury cost. Like a highly tuned sports car, Robin van Persie’s wheels are king of the road when working, but all too often find themselves pulled over into a lay-by with smoke billowing out of the engine. As I write there is no further update on the affliction that caused him to hobble out of the Holland game on Tuesday evening. The Dutch coach seems philosophical, informing us “With luck he should be able to play for Arsenal on Saturday.”

“With luck.” What a lovely little qualifier. “With luck” I will get a lap dance from Milla Jovovich this weekend. (Not whilst I’m at the game though, eh dear). The Dutch medical team have been known to pull arms and legs out of aeroplane wreckages and declare them fit “in a matter of days.” They’re probably the only diagnosticians on earth that cause the Arsenal medical team to create mocking JPEGs in derision.

wilshere_england

Wilshere set to play for England U45s this summer

I think Bayern Munich considered suing them last season for their “treatment” of Robben. Still, best replenish the stocks of unicorn piss and rhino jizz for RvP’s treatment. It’s fair to say losing van Persie at this point – having just nursed Cesc back to health – would be far from ideal at the crunch stage of the season. But I don’t think any of us will exactly be wearing our big surprised faces if his contribution will be minimal for the run in now. Fingers crossed he makes another Lazarus-like recovery.

Speaking of international football, and what a cunting nuisance it is, it looks like a summer at loggerheads with Stuart Pearce – a place many a right winger found himself in the early 90s. Jack Wilshere will be conscripted to play for the U-21s in another meaningless tournament which was memorably won by, err, who won it last time? Wilshere affirms a desire to play, which is understandable given that he’s a young, enthusiastic guy. Plus, the press would probably put dog shit in his exhaust pipe if he dared take a rain check. Or else they’d compare him to David Bentley. Nobody wants to be compared to David Bentley.

I can see what Stuart Pearce would get out of calling Jack up, but I’m struggling to work out what anyone else gets. His club and his full national side – of which he is now a first choice member – get a burned out, tired player who, if Walcott’s case is instructive, will spend most of next season keeping van Persie company in the treatment room. I don’t even think this boils down to a club versus country, because obviously the best thing for his club would be to jack in the useless circus of international football altogether.

I think what we are asking is what would be best for the player. A lot has been said about the German U-21 side that won the tournament in 2009 that bore some fruit for their exciting 2010 World Cup squad. The difference being that four of the five players that appeared in both tournaments for Germany were uncapped at senior level at the time and none of them went into the U-21 tournament on the back of 40 plus games of a gruelling domestic season. Unfortunately, we are in the hands of Stuart Pearce here. He strikes me as a decent enough guy, but he also strikes me as possessing the intellect of festering pig shit. I’ve said it many times before elsewhere and I’ll repeat the paradigm here for your consumption. Internationals are football’s answer to the royal family. They plunder, they take and they contribute nothing of their own. Once their jewel encrusted cocks have had their wicked way with you, you’re supposed to consider it some kind of unspeakable honour. Rubbish.

Anyways, now we enter the home straight and we are very much in contention for the league title. Though I do have to keep checking we are indeed second in the table and not second bottom given the negativity that appears to be floating around. But it really is an exercise in futility flaunting any of that until June, we’re going for a worthy cause and well, we’ve got the squad we’ve got and we can’t do a thing until July 1st, so channel your energy in getting the team over the finishing line first. Blackburn is the first of 9 Cup Finals now, with United playing at lunchtime at Upton Park, whatever their result, the pressure is on us.

Given our pre-Interlull form, the Blackburn match becomes more than just mathematics. Even if United were to lose, our failure to beat a side that haven’t won away for 5 months and are finding points harder to come by than rocking horse shit … you rather feel it would be a blow we would be unlikely to recover from. In the spirit of motivation for the final furlong, full credit to the guys that put this video together. It looks as though we will have Song, Cesc and Walcott back and I think we’ve missed all three of those players- the qualities they bring to the side aren’t easily replicated. Let’s hope the down time has left them fresh and fighting fit for the run in.

David Rocastle

Rocky

Finally, there’s no other note to end on than to acknowledge the 10th anniversary of David Rocastle’s passing on 31st March. Rocky is one of the main reasons I support Arsenal. I began supporting the club in 1990 when I was 6. I had carved myself a niche in the school playground as a tricky winger and Arsenal boasted the likes of Rocky, Merson and Limpar in their artillery. It made it an easy choice for me given the only other choice in my family would have been to be a Spurs fan! Rocky meant the world to me as a player and almost every tribute you hear from those that knew him remark what an affable person he was too.

The minute’s silence inside Highbury on the day of his death is probably my most pertinent memory of the old ground. My season ticket seat at Highbury was housed within touching distance of the away fans and the way Spurs fans observed the silence in tandem was very touching. Rocky was genuinely one of the players I pretended to be in the playground and losing him so early in my footballing dotage was a real shock. He was one of my earliest links to this club and grew up very close to where I did – which was terribly important to me at that age. Our thoughts extended to his son, his daughters, wife and family on this day. Rocky touched us all in a way that should make them very proud. LD.

Follow me on twitter @LittleDutchVA

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
March 30, 2011 posted by arseblog

Interlull over – RVP scare – Bob Wilson on Jens

So that’s it. The final Interlull of the season is done and dusted and now we just wait to make sure that the players who went away are in good enough shape to take part this weekend.

As per usual there was a scare over Robin van Persie. He was the victim of a heavy challenge from a Hungarian and taken off at half-time, but according to Dutch coach Berk van Narwahl:

He got kneed in his thigh. But he can play with Arsenal again this weekend.

Which is what he would say so that when it turns out to be a lot more serious than that he can then turn around and say ‘Well, it wasn’t like that when we sent him back. He must have collided with a drinks trolley on the plane. Or something’.

Obviously we’ll wait and see what the club’s assessment of the injury is. It sounds like a dead leg which can be painful but manageable. It all depends how dead it is. It could be as dead as 2 Unlimited were that time everyone thought they were dead. Or it could be Francis Jeffers career dead. Fingers crossed it’s not the latter, bearing in mind the Dutch told us last season Robin would be out for a matter of weeks when his ankle ligaments kept him out for most of the season.

Robin aside I didn’t see any panicked Tweets so I’m assuming there was nothing else to worry about. It won’t take long for us to find out if there is and the players return to the club today for assessment. After that the manager’s got a couple of days to get them focused and prepared for the weekend’s game against Blackburn.

In the Mirror a story about how France want to extend the season with some international friendlies, and speculation that Arsene won’t be happy about the involvement of our French contingent. Which is understandable but there’s precious little we can do about it. It does seem a shame though that in the one summer without an international tournament the national federations can’t just back off and give players the rest they need and deserve.

Andrei Arshavin returns with yet more criticism ringing in his ears, hopefully he can sort his club form out to silence the detractors, while Jack Wilshere’s star continues to rise. He played longer than most of us would have liked against Ghana last night. Sadly Capello doesn’t show the same consideration to all clubs regarding their players as he did to those from Chelsea and United. Are their games more important than ours, or clubs with players battling for Europe/against relegation? Thankfully Jack seemed to come through without bother and I guess it says a lot that a 19 year old is all over the press this morning defending an experienced manager like the Italian.

Jens Lehmann played for the reserves yesterday in a 2-1 defeat to Wigan. Depending on who you read he was assured or he was all flappy, like a neurotic seagull. Having not seen any of it myself I can’t possibly say, only to suggest that a reserve game, on a dodgy pitch, after a few months out of the game, is not suited for passing definitive judgement on a player. It was about getting a bit of match sharpness should he be required during the run in, and not much more than that.

There’s still lot of speculation about whether or not he’ll play at the weekend. Yesterday, I spoke to Bob Wilson for this week’s Arsecast and asked him if he thought Jens was there to provide back up or if he was genuinely in contention for the first team. Bob said:

I would say he’s there as back-up and to give experience in the dressing room. It has to be cover. Although, he’s only been out of the game for 6-7 months, since he played his last game at the top level. He’s not going to lose anything in that time. He’ll have huge experience.

However, I don’t see it unless Manuel had a real attack of nerves or was unable to overcome what was really a very poor decision against West Brom.

So it would be a big surprise if there was any change in the pecking order for this weekend. You can hear the full interview with Bob Wilson on Friday’s Arsecast, and in the meantime please check out Bob Wilson’s Soccer Cycle for details on his upcoming event in which he’s going to cycle to every Premier League ground to raise funds for the Willow Foundation.

Beyond that not much happening this morning. I know a few people are having some issues with the Mailing List and we’re trying to get to the bottom of that. And since the move to the new server there are people who still can’t view the site but that’s entirely down to your ISP and their DNS servers. Not much help, I know, especially as they can’t even read this but there you go. Time heals all wounds and makes all websites available sooner or later.

Hopefully as the day progresses we’ll get more Arsenal news and tomorrow’s blog can be fuller, richer and more engaging. In the meantime, to get you through, here’s a video of Dennis Bergkamp scoring lots of goals. Godporn.

Till tomorrow.

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
March 29, 2011 posted by arseblog

Interlull: Ok, enough now

As I sit here drinking coffee made all the more delicious by my *boilk* mug, I am now utterly tired of the Interlull.

For all the fear and trepidation, the under performing, and the forthcoming and entirely inevitable collapse which sees us somehow finish 6th, I’d rather that than any more international football nonsense. There are some players involved in European Championship qualifiers, Rosicky for the Czech Republic and van Persie for Holland as far as I can make out, but the rest of our players will be taking part in utterly meaningless friendlies.

The only reason these friendlies exist is to make money for the respective national associations. Tonight England are playing Ghana and there are accusations of ‘disrespect’ being thrown around because Capello isn’t playing his best XI. Why would he? I’m bothered that he’ll probably play Wilshere for 90 minutes, and I’m bothered that he let players like Lampard, Rooney and Terry go, but why on earth would he choose the same team that beat Wales?

At this stage of the season if an international match is not competitive then clubs should be able to nix their players involvement on the basis that it’s fucking stupid for them to be playing when they could be at their club, training, uninjured. The international coaches don’t need a friendly to check out new players or anything, there’s no summer tournament which provides that pressing need. Tonight club managers across Europe will be holding their breath, hoping that important players don’t get injured in half-empty stadiums playing in games on crappy pitches that nobody cares about.

I mean, look at Russia going to Qatar. If running 30 yards down the wing tires Arshavin out, what the hell is a trip to the middle-east going to do? Sure, the Russian federation’s coffers will be fuller, but it’s hard to think of a fixture more worthless and pointless. Unless Qatar are going to use the game to try out their artificial clouds or something. Even then … pfff. And speaking of Arshavin, his star is fading even at a national level.

That said, at the end of last week’s Arsecast, after the recording had stopped, we spoke briefly about how ‘the hero’ might be and despite acknowledging the lack of fitness and effort and the plumpness of belly, a couple of us fingered Arshavin. If you get me. In terms of talent and ability, he’s got it, whether he’s physically capable of doing it is another matter entirely. Anyway, we shall see.

I suppose the one good thing is that the games are on a Tuesday night now which gives the club a bit more time with the players when they do come back. At this stage of the season the games are so important the more preparation we have the better. And given the importance of our final nine the sooner we get everyone back together and focused on what’s to come, the better.

Not much going on in the world of Arsenal really. There’s that reserve game today in which Jens Lehmann is expected to play, but that’s something we’ve gone over a fair bit in the last few days. As well as that Jeremie Aliadiere will play up front for us. He’s been training with the club for a month or so and according to Young Guns hopes to do enough to convince the manager to keep him for next season.

Erm, didn’t he have almost 10 years at the club to do that? I do think it’s nice that we allow former players to come back and get fit, it’s very Arsenal of us, but I’m struggling to see the benefit to us of him playing for the reserves. I know most of the young forwards are out on loan and all, but still. Knowing our luck, after tonight’s internationals, he’ll be our only fit striker.

Some transfer nonsense in the Daily Mail about us tracking German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. Firstly, haven’t we had enough goalkeepers called Manuel? And secondly, they talk about him providing competition for Wojscez©® with a price tag of €22m. The idea that we might spend that much money is ludicrous in itself, but to spend that much for a second choice keeper is more stupid than Jamie Redknapp’s pants.

For something to wile away a little time today, Thierry Henry was interview by Sky Sports News and broadcast last night. I didn’t see it yet but you can find it in four different parts on the video page or on YouTube – 1 -2 – 3 – 4.

Stuart Pearce talks about the summer and the U21 European Championships and makes it fairly clear that he’s going to select Jack Wilshere. I think we’re just going to have to accept the inevitable with this one and manage Jack properly when he gets back to Arsenal. Yet another international football annoyance.

Finally for today, thanks to everyone who emailed/tweeted me this video. Whatever you think about our ability to do what Pacino says, it’s really well put together.

And that’s about that. Have a good one, here’s to a clean bill of health and the return of proper football.