Monthly Archives: June 2012

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
June 30, 2012 posted by arseblog

Saturday round-up: Benayoun says thanks and Italian keeper linked

Saturday round-up: Benayoun says thanks and Italian keeper linked

There was a time when seeing the world pre-7am on a Saturday meant a very good Friday night. Now it’s just waking up time and the dog has it sorted, let me tell you. Gets up, goes out the back for his morning ablutions, and then straight back to his bed where he’s now snoring like Jens Lehmann. No, I don’t understand what I mean there either. It’s too early to make sense.

It will be a pretty short Saturday round-up for you, mostly because there’s bugger all happening and the Euros are drawing to a close so there’s no filler there either. I think they should have a 3rd and 4th place play-off, and a 5th and 6th place play-off, simply to provide me with something to talk about. Or maybe a novelty game featuring 11 a side with highly trained bears but with one or two Joey Barton bears on each team so it could kick off into a frenzy of fearsome bear swipes and bottom lips sticking out when bears do that scary warning thing they do.

In fact that’d probably be more entertaining that most of the games we’ve seen since the group stages. Note to Platini: less referees, more technology, and increase the goddam bear count. Ireland’s bears would still be crap though, preferring to drink bear ale to, you know, training and stuff. Still, the ultra violence would make up for it.

Away from bears and the like, Yossi Benayoun – probably the least bearlike player in our squad last year, he’s more of a chilled out lemur – more or less confirmed that he wouldn’t be continuing with us next season. Via Twitter he said:

My loan spell with arsenal will be officially over tomorrow. I want to say again a big thanks to the fans and the club.

For the opportunity and the great support and I wish this club all the very best!

Which was jolly nice of him and I have to say that while I’m generally a bit dubious about loan deals in general (not loaning players out, there’s a good reason why we do that), this one was pretty much a success. There was a period when he seemed to lose the trust of the manager, he sat on the bench during those painful cup defeats in Milan and on Sunderland’s ploughed field, but when it came to the crunch Arsene used him very well.

It was something of a surprise to see him start against Sp*rs but it proved something of a masterstroke. In the big game against City he started again and his goals towards the end of the season proved very valuable indeed. In fact, his goal against West Brom on the final day is the second time he’s contributed to Sp*rs missing out on the Champions League. On the day of the lasagne, the final time we played at Highbury, it was Benayoun who scored the winner for West Ham after Teddy Sheringham had rather conveniently missed a penalty against his old team.

It might have been last minute but it was a decent piece of business and he’ll have made a lot of friends amongst the Arsenal support. He’s a good, experienced professional who worked hard and got his reward in the end. I hope some took note of that. He goes back to Chelsea now, of course, and it’s hard not to think he deserves better than that. He spoke earlier in the season about dropping down a bit to play more regularly for a mid-table team, and whoever picks him up will have fine player on their hands. Good luck and thanks to him for what he brought to the side last season.

As today is June 30th, Manuel Almunia officially leaves the club, and with the futures of both Lukas Fabianski and Vito Mannone in doubt, it’s no surprise we’ve been linked with a new keeper. Italian international Emiliano Viviano is being touted in the Italian press as a possible candidate, and at 26 years of age would fit the bill as both understudy to Wojciech Szczesny and somebody who can provide him with the necessary competition for his place.

He’s not the first keeper we’ve been linked with either. In May there were reports we were scouting Norwegian Kenneth Udjus. What’s clear is that Fabianski wants to leave. In almost every interview he gives now he reiterates his stance that his footballing future lies away from Arsenal, while Mannone is also keen on first team football and, with all due respect, probably not at the level required for us anyway. So, with all that in mind, the signing of a goalkeeper who has some experience is an absolute necessity. There are high hopes for youngster Damian Martinez, but it just strikes me as too risky to go into the season without more established back-up.

Anyway, it’s an area to keep an eye on as the transfer window literally explodes into life tomorrow. It may not literally explode. In fact, it’ll probably be like a damp firework going ‘ppppffffft’ but there you go.

Right, that’s more than enough from me. Have a good Saturday, back tomorrow.

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
June 29, 2012 posted by arseblog

Italy end Arsenal interest in Euros + new commercial partner announced

Italy end Arsenal interest in Euros + new commercial partner announced

Good morning to you. It’s Friday. The sun is shining and I didn’t drink nearly as much wine as I did the night before. That’s because I drank gimlets instead, but who’s going to be pedantic at this time of the morning? You, wise guy? Didn’t think so.

So, last night at the Euros Italy went through to the final, beating Germany 2-1 with two goals from Mario Balotelli, the kind of player who would make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window. The first was a header which he planted past Neuer, but also showed how much the Germans missed Mertesacker. There’s no chance that ball would have gone over his head. He would simply have had to stand up straight and let it bounce off his ear.

The second, for me anyway, was the goal of the tournament thus far. From a Germany corner, Italy broke, Montolivo (who had earlier spurned the kind of chance that would make an archbishop punch his way through the door of a nunnery) played a beautiful ball for Balotelli to run on to. He took it, then absolutely thundered it past Neuer to make it 2-0.

You often hear people say ‘The keeper never even moved’, and so it was on this occasion. Neuer could have had the reflexes of Superman crossed with a nuclear powered cat and he still wouldn’t have got anywhere near it. And there really is something quite primal about seeing someone thump a ball as hard as they can and it ending up in the back of the net. In true Balotelli fashion he couldn’t avoid doing something silly, taking his shirt off and getting a booking into the process. I’m not sure about his muscle-man posing either, lacked muscles.

Germany tried to change things at half-time, bringing on Reus and Klose (Podolski being one of the men to make way), and although Buffon made a fantastic save from a free kick, the Italians always looked more like scoring. In fact, they had a number of chances to put the game out of reach, di Natale in particular missed one that would make a cardinal kick a hole in a martyr’s tomb. I was disappointed with the Germans, I have to say. I thought they’d be far more positive but they seemed a bit overawed and lacklustre. A late penalty added some rather undeserved respectability to the score but changed nothing.

Lukas Podolski had a disappointing game, and a disappointing tournament, you have to say. He wasn’t alone in that, on either count, and Germany’s approach didn’t make anyone look particularly good last night. Being hauled off at half-time will hurt, I’m sure, but I’m not worried about it, nor do I think there’s cause for concern from an Arsenal point of view. If you were looking at this tournament as a measure of player ability then we’d be looking to offload van Persie asap while offering a bumper new deal to Nicklas Bendtner. I know it’s common sense but the time to make any real assessment of Podolski is when he’s played for us. He’ll now go off on holidays, hopefully come back refreshed and ready to make a start at his new club.

Germany’s exit means there’s no real Arsenal interest left in the tournament and Sunday’s final is a repeat of the group game which finished 1-1. I guess we can talk a bit more about that after the fact. I have a sneaky feeling about Italy though. And just a quick word about Andrea Pirlo – is it just me or is it really odd to hear people talk about him as if he’s just bloomed at this tournament? He’s been a fantastic player throughout his career, but he’s the flavour of the month with the kind of pundits who can’t help but wonder if he could do it on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke. Which says a lot about them, I guess.

In terms of Arsenal news, well, it’s quiet. How quiet? So quiet you wouldn’t hear a priest kick a hole in a … ahh whatever … it’s quiet. There’s a story about how PSG are interested in Robin van Persie but this is the kind of tittle-tattle that emerges when there’s nothing else to talk about. Club with lots and lots of money interested in a player with a contract situation that makes it relatively credible to suggest a link. There’s about as much chance of him going there as there is of Mark Lawrenson not sounding like a catty hairdresser.

In non-football related Arsenal stuff, the club announced a commercial tie-up with mobile phone company Airtel. They’re an Indian company and this deal focuses on their African market, so it’s a multi-continental thingy. Airtel have a similar link with Manchester United (but in a different market), and it shows that the commercial side of the club is working to try and make up some of the income shortfall we have due to our long-term sponsorship deals with Emirates and Nike.

Again, I don’t have any real issue with those deals. They were necessary at the time and we used the money to help finance the stadium with the full knowledge we’d be leaving ourselves short in the future. I don’t see the point in complaining about them now. It simply means that the commercial side of the club has had to be improved and work better to try and bring in more income to cover that, and we’re seeing the fruits of that now. We have something like 8 commercial partners, other clubs have many more brands associated with them and I imagine we’ll see more deals like this in the next couple of years. At which point we can renegotiate, or find new, kit and sponsorship income.

And that’s about that for today. If there’s anything happening during the day you can find it over on Arseblog News. I’ll be back tomorrow with the usual round-up. Until then.

 

 

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
June 28, 2012 posted by Tim Stillman

Handsome devil

Handsome devil

The American satirist H.L. Mencken once wrote that “a cynic is somebody that smells flowers and immediately looks for a coffin.” It was a line that came back to me this week. No sooner had we Gooners received a dreamy, masculine bouquet in the shape of Olivier Giroud (those arms, they’d make you feel so safe), than a couple of spurious tweets from a journo had us scenting out the carcass of Robin van Persie. I’m not saying I definitely think van Persie will stay. But the calculation that Giroud in automatically means van Persie is off is slightly rudimentary for me.

Whilst I don’t doubt we’re contingency planning for the worst case scenario, Giroud (those eyes, you could drown in them) looks every inch a replacement for Chamakh. You only have to compare the identikit statements Arsene made about Chamakh’s attributes compared to those which he cooed about Giroud (and with a chiselled jaw like that, you’d coo over Giroud too).

Simply, I think Giroud (that barrel chest, oh to nuzzle oneself against those pectorals on a cold winter’s eve) has been bought to do what Chamakh ultimately couldn’t. Not only did our reliance on van Persie last season overly burden the Dutchman, but it made the team tactically inflexible, marrying them to the 4-3-3 at all times. I think the plan for last season was for a 4-4-2 formation to be a kind of “break glass in case of emergency” Plan B for the manager when a goal was required. We saw him flirt with the formation from time to time, but I don’t recall it making an appearance after Christmas.

In the final game of 2010-11 at Fulham, Arsene opted for the system with van Persie playing alongside Chamakh, which hinted that the thought had passed his cranium. The set up was also trialled in the laboratory of the Carling Cup this season. I haven’t seen enough of Giroud to judge him on anything other than his smouldering good looks. (Those abs, I bet they could crush bricks). But the suggestion from those in the know is that he provides intelligent link up play to the wide players and thrives on good service into the area.

Bacary Sagna’s delivery used to be his biggest defect, but through hard work on the training ground, he has now cultivated a fine curving delivery. Had Chamakh not become totally allergic to the penalty area in the last 18 months, it was the sort of delivery upon which he would surely have thrived. The point is that, whether van Persie stays or not, we have the flexibility to play two strikers and surround them with complimentary service.

In the shape of Jenkinson, Sagna, Gibbs and Santos, Arsenal are now in a position to provide good service from deeper wide areas for Giroud. Meanwhile, van Persie or indeed Podolski, tend to enjoy slightly more grounded service from the flanks. The wingers are able to provide this. Walcott and Gervinho are good at getting in behind full backs and cutting back into the area from the touchline. I watched the season review DVD back earlier this week and it was striking the amount of times Gervinho jinked his way to the by line to create chances. That was of course until he slipped into the coma commonly known as the African Cup of Nations.

The acquisition of Giroud continues a trend towards slightly more direct (and ruggedly handsome) players and the intention seems to be to make our threat more varied. In Arteta and Song, we probably have a couple of central midfielders with varied enough skill sets to play in a 4-4-2 in the event that we are chasing a goal. Lack of midfield cover for the defence has been too much of an issue to make the system viable on a long term basis in my opinion.

But you have to believe the opposition will be wiser to Song’s lofted through balls which bore so much fruit last year. He will find himself closed down with greater ferocity, but that of course potentially frees up space in other areas of the pitch. We typically face heavily manned defences, so being able to service from deep will be a valuable weapon. In theory, I think Giroud’s presence is intended to make this more possible.

Like I say, this was the mission Chamakh had been assigned for and it was a task he was unable to undertake. The typically resigned quote in his season review on the official website rather sums his lack of application up. His first six months at the club showed he had the ability to be an asset. Of course he was always going to be behind van Persie in the pecking order, but he didn’t exactly bust a gut to at least make himself a trustworthy option from the bench or to give the captain a breather for the odd league game.

Few will cry any tears when the curtain is brought down on the Moroccan’s Arsenal career and nor should they. That said, I don’t follow the logic that some of our recent signings from Ligue 1 should make us cautious about Giroud. Every new signing is a gamble. But if we’re to maintain routine scepticism towards recruits from Ligue 1, then we should harbour similar doubts about Chelsea’s signing of Eden Hazard. The likes of Cabaye, Ben Arfa, Koscielny have all adapted to the Premier League just fine of late.

It would make about as much sense to be wary over Podolski because Amaury Bischoff and Stefan Malz came from the Bundesliga. We sign more players from France so our sample is more likely to be mixed. Besides which, your cynicism, along with any Premiership defender’s resistance, will be melted by one gaze at Olivier’s apotheosis of hunkiness. One flash of blue steel from our Olivier and even your average Stoke defender will be too busy daydreaming about slow motion running across the beach front in Speedos to concentrate on marking him.

With Euro 2012 now winding down I’m very much hoping for Germany to win the tournament. Not only am I a raging teutophile, but Germany are the only squad with Arsenal involvement and there are potential benefits for us there. Giroud swans gracefully and handsomely into London Colney having just won a league title, if Mertesacker and Podolski can likewise get their mitts on some silver, then we’re immediately boosting the quota of “winners” in our squad.

Guys that have played big games and finals and have been triumphant. We’ve had winners in our squad over the last few years, but too few. This has led to them either being overburdened as others shrink in their shadow; (Fabregas, Henry’s last two seasons, van Persie) or else totally frustrated with others not matching the standards they set for themselves (Gallas, Jens). We have a more mature, psychologically together squad to handle these sorts of players and channel their influence properly now. Adding to the medals count can only enhance the strength of the squad. Till next time. LD.

Follow me on Twitter @LittleDutchVA

Arseblog, the arsenal blog
June 28, 2012 posted by arseblog

A little wine, some pelanties and a new reserve coach?

A little wine, some pelanties and a new reserve coach?

Morning to you and today starts with a little touch of *boilk*

Perhaps it was the unseasonably warm day here yesterday (don’t panic, it’s lashing rain again as normal now), perhaps it was the football which would, in all fairness, drive anyone to drink, but it seemed to me that just one more glass of delicious wine was in order. Then another one. And another one.

It did help with the football as we were treated to another game in which very little happened. Portugal worked really hard to deny Spain the time and space they like so much and it was pretty effective. Spain started with the usual 10 and just to make it a bit more of a challenge stuck the kitman’s assistant up front. As expected he never got a touch until he was replaced by Cesc at some point in the second half.

With Fernando Torres chomping at the bit, del Bosque continued on his one-man crusade to make strikers extinct by throwing on Jesus of Nazareth and then Pedro who doesn’t have a last name and was raised in the storm drains of Barcelona. Torres looked like he might cry. Ronaldo had a great chance in the final minute of normal time. A Portugal break fell to him from a position where you’d expect him to trouble the keeper at least, but he lashed a left footed shot high over the bar. I laughed. Then drank more wine.

In extra-time Spain seemed to realise that it’d be a good thing to score and upped their game, the best chance falling to Andres Iniesta. With just whoever the Portuguese goalkeeper is to beat he scuffed his shot, allowing whoever the Portuguese goalkeeper is to save it. They had some corners too but scoring from corners is too ugly for Spain and one of them, with just a few seconds to go, ended up back with Casillas inside 3 seconds. Seriously.

So, a pelanty shoot-in ensued, Spain went first and Xabi Alonso, the man with the gingerest beard outside of Ireland, had his kick saved. Now this is where I think Portugal went wrong. They sent up some bloke who decided he’d run on the spot for about 30 seconds before kicking it, at which point he was too knackered to do anything but dribble one that Casillas grabbed as easily as taking candy from Eboue. To my mind, Ronaldo should have taken the first one for them.

I know they were probably gambling on the technical efficiency of Spain, thus meaning his penalty (the 5th we assume), would have been a super-pressure spot kick but also quite possibly one of ultimate glory which would suit Ronaldo down to the ground as his obvious ambition is to be the most famous man alive. Ever. Instead, after Sergio Ramos did a kind of Pirlo, Bruno Alves, on loan from Monsters Inc for the duration of the tournament, smacked his shot against the bar.

And lo it all came down to former Arsenal man Cesc Fabregas and I would say there was a half a second where his heart was well and truly in his mouth and a little turtle’s tail did appear as the ball struck the post … then rattled in the side of the net on the opposite side of the goal. It was a big penalty but I’d say when you’ve scored one with a broken leg this was no bother at all. Spain went through, and as John Terry cavorted with his new team, Ronaldo stood there aghast that once again the fates had stolen from him the chance to be even more famous and to display his outrageously hideous neck in triumph.

But, you know, that’s what happens when you try and milk the glory instead of setting the example as the captain and the best penalty taker on your team. You step up first, show the way, infuse your teammates with confidence and belief, not stand their preening like a peacock with an outrageously hideous neck. If he’d gone first and scored they’d have had the advantage and might very well be in Sunday’s final. As it is, they’re not, and while I understand people are a bit tired of Spain’s style, I’d much rather they were happy than Ronaldo who had to taste his own tears of unfathomable sadness.

We’ll find out tonight who they meet when Germany meet Italy and surely this tournament owes us a game at this stage. We’ve suffered four quarter-finals so bad it’s like they were sung to us by Phil Collins using an acoustic guitar at 2am in a party in a student bedsit, and one semi-final which left a lot to be desired. Come on football gods, give us a belter of a game tonight. We deserve it. If only Germany and Italy had some kind of history to spice things up. Oh well.

Right, onto matters Arsenal and there’s very little happening. Olivier Giroud says he turned down Chelsea because he wasn’t sure Roberto di Matteo knew who he was. Which is very polite because we all know it’s because he couldn’t spend the duration of his contract working with a man who looks like a turtle who lost his shell at a service station somewhere. He also said he’s here to work with Robin van Persie rather than replace him, which is kinda what he has to say really, and I wouldn’t read too much into it.

The club confirmed that their opponents for the pre-season game in Nigeria on August 5th would be … er … Nigeria. Which makes a lot of sense. Obviously we’ve got a massive amount of support in Africa and in Nigeria the old Kanu connection must make us very popular indeed. Here’s to a successful trip and a great chance for fans to see the team in the flesh.

This morning’s Independent suggests that Terry Burton is in line to become the reserve team manager in the wake of the promotion of Neil Banfield to the first team set-up. He’s a very well regarded coach with huge experience, and as well as bringing all that knowledge to the youngsters he’ll be working with, he might also be the man to bridge the gap at a coaching level too, imparting his wisdom to potential successors.

Finally, a youngster who hasn’t made it at the club, Alban Bunjaku (he really should have become a doctor, no?), has left the club to join Sevilla. It’s quite unusual for a young English player to go abroad so best of luck to him down there.

And that’s as much as I’ve got. Time for an omelette sandwich and more coffee. Till tomorrow.