february 17th
After coming in for criticism from former player Paul Merson and our old chum at the PFA, Gordon Taylor, Arsene Wenger has received support from some unlikely sources after Arsenal’s all-foreign 16 caused controversy in possibly the slowest news week of all time. Those backing the manager for his team selections were Boro boss Steve McLaren, Birmingham chairman David Gold and Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock who, ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup game, says “I think we should hold our hands up and say a big ‘thank you’ to him for what he has brought since he came to the country. Arsene Wenger has brought so much to Arsenal football club and this country. I think he has extended professional footballers’ careers by two or three years by bringing in dieticians, nutritionists, the technology he has brought with him and how thorough he is for matches.”
Nice stuff from Warnock who has been an irritant in the past and no doubt will be on Saturday again but in the meantime we’d buy him a pint. Of shandy. Maybe. Elsewhere Alan Smith is on the side of the manager and not his former team-mate talking about the rules that only allow academies to take young players from within a 90 minute radius of the club. Maybe we’d just slip Warnock and Smith a tenner and let them have a pint themselves.
Anyway, the bottom line is that Arsenal don’t have the money, at the moment, to spend on English players when they can get a player of the same quality abroad for much less. It’s like people who get cheap flights to Spain to buy cheap cigarettes – it’s cheaper for them to fly here, buy as many cartons of fags as they’re allowed, then fly back home to England than it is to buy the same amount of cigarettes in the shops. It might be a bit more hassle when when a Spanish newsagent phones up your carton of Benson and Hedges and pretends to be El Corte Inglés and offers your carton a prime spot on the shelf in the classy department store but those are the risks you take.
In other news Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester Utd PLC (still for sale to highest bidder) could overtake Real Madrid as the richest club in the universe according to a report. Roy Keane says players should wear anti-diving wristbands after seeing Ashley Cole’s triple-salko with a twist against United the other week and we’re being linked with yet another goalkeeper – this time it’s Mallorca’s Miguel Ángel Moya. With a goalkeeping purchase on the cards for the summer expect us to be linked with every stopper that’s playing the game right now.
[WITTY/DISMISSIVE LAST LINE TO BE INSERTED HERE]
