Morning all,
there’s always one bad apple isn’t there? Someone who’ll stick their pesky little beak in where it’s not wanted. While none of the 19 Premier League teams had any objection to the Andrei Arshavin transfer, Reading manager Steve Coppell has apparently called it a ‘sham‘.
Quite what it has to do with Steve Coppell is beyond me. I suspect, like so many others, he has been footballistically traumatised by Arsenal down the years. Many players carry scars. For example, John Aldridge was commentating on Irish radio when Liverpool beat us in the Champions League at Anfield last season and he was full of mustachioed glee because he felt that result was some kind of revenge for Anfield 89.
He’s actually doing a radio ad here at the moment where he asks people to send in their old mobile phones and printers and the like to help a children’s hospital. ‘What a lazy fucker’, I thought. ‘If he was a real Scouser, and he really wanted to help, he’d just go out and steal them’.
Anyway, the point is that Coppell too has been on the end of an Arsenal induced wound. 1979 it was. Coppell wore number 7 for Man United in the FA Cup final. A game which we led for a long time until two late goals pegged us back late on. Coppell then watched Liam Brady take it from the kick-off, dribble through two United players, pass it to Graham Rix who crossed it to Alan Sunderland who scored the goal which nearly made me wet my little pants with joy and he’s never gotten over it. Never.
So now, 30 years later he still carries the scars. When he goes to sleep at night he sees the Sunderland afro steaming in at the back post to score the winner and he weeps bitter tears. There can be no other explanation for his annoyance at a transfer which isn’t even happening in the division in which he’s managing.
Message to Coppell: 3-2. That is all.
Meanwhile ahead of the North London derby on Sunday we’re still a bit up in the air with regards the team. We know Diaby is out. Eboue might or might not be out and there’s still no word whether or not Arshavin will be involved on Sunday or not.
One man who will be though is Emmanuel Adebayor. He’s struggling for form this season and his workrate seems to have gone the way of his touch in front of goal but he has a truly remarkable record when it comes to Sp*rs. I think he’s got something like 8 or 9 goals against them in his Arsenal career and to have that kind of player, the one where opposition fans think ‘Oh that cunt always scores against us’, is a valuable thing.
However, he knows he’s not playing well, which is a good thing I suppose, and is under no illusions as to the importance of Sunday’s game, saying:
Sp*rs is always a great occasion – nobody has to motivate you, this comes on its own simply because we are playing Sp*rs. I hope to do something good and that we can take the three points. It is always great to do that against Sp*rs, especially for our fans.
And with the memory of the 4-4 at the Grove still fresh in my mind, at least, I’m looking for some kind of payback on Sunday. Any old kind of payback will do provided we come away with the three points. There’ll be more on team news and what have you tomorrow after Arsene talks to the media today.
Quick update: In an interview with Arsenal TV online Eboue has declared himself fit after hobbling out of the West Ham game. No surprise really.
Right then, we might as well get on with the Arsecast. On this week’s show I chat with GilbertoSilver of Gunnerblog about Arshavin, his arrival, his eventual deployment and whether his signing marks a change in Arsene’s thinking about his team. We also look ahead to the Sp*rs game.
As well as that the Man in the Bar has a player history, there’s a Tale of the Unexpected and other stuff too.
You can subscribe to the Arsecast iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too. To download this week’s arsecast directly – click here 22mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.
Happy listening, more tomorrow.
