Morning all,
no doubt you’ve seen yesterday’s announcement but to answer a number of questions that have cropped up since:
1 – Yes, it will be available to purchase online, via this very website.
2 – Yes, I will ship it to [insert your country name here]
3 – Yes, there will be an eBook version
4 – Yes, it’s 99% certain there will be a wider-release paperback edition in the new year because of the fact this first print run is very limited and therefore a bit of a collector’s item.
I hope that covers everything and I have to say the response so far has been absolutely fantastic. The launch night is open to everyone to come along, buy a book, have a beer, shoot the Arsenal breeze and enjoy a good night. Sure, it’s a school night but you have to be a bit naughty every now and again, don’t you? If you do have any further questions use the contact form above to get in touch, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Right then, onto football things and, well, as you’ll have guessed there isn’t a great deal going on. Andrei Arshavin gave an interview in Russian yesterday and said various things about his situation at Arsenal. Some of the things he said included:
- Jack Wilshere is addicted to Twitter
- He only passed his driving test because his second driving instructor had a Russian girlfriend
- Wenger has more faith in Walcott and Gervinho than him at the moment
- He’s not thinking about leaving but will think about leaving if the situation continues
- English players lurk on the diagonal when it comes to their fertile uterus
Some stuff Google translate does wonders for – others, well, I think the technology still has some way to go. The point about Gervinho and Walcott is well made, however, and he’s intelligent enough to know why he’s not in the team. The frustration, I suppose, is that he doesn’t always (in fact, hardly ever) seem willing to do much about it.
For gifted read lazy, for mercurial read lethargic, and while he is definitely one of the few players in this squad who can produce a ‘moment’ in a football game, too often the games pass him by. For all that, I really like him, I genuinely have a soft spot but I’m not blind to the fact that this is a guy capable of a lot more than we’ve seen from him. I don’t buy excuses about him needing to play behind a striker or to have a free role, he pretty much has that anyway. The reason we get so excited by an Arshavin track back and tackle is because they happen so rarely.
This season he has 2 goals from 17 appearances and if you go back to last season that stat becomes 2 in 27, which for a player who has real quality is quite disappointing. It’s all well and good to talk about what you might do if you don’t get back into the team but unless you’ve given it a real go and tried your hardest to give the manager something to think about then it’s a bit hollow. Gervinho (nominated for African Football of the Year) will be off to the ACN in January. That will provide Arshavin with a real chance to give the manager a problem when the Ivorian returns, let’s hope he’s up for it.
Another player unhappy with his lot is Francis Coquelin. Speaking to France Football he expressed his frustration at not playing more this season (via @ASCFR):
I thought I had a chance so I stayed at Arsenal, I played many games at first, even big games, but since the players injured came back I disappeared. The idea of leaving next January is in my head.
Again, it’s easy to understand a young guy who has played regular first team football finding it frustrating to be sitting on the sidelines. It’s hard to have an issue with a player who is unhappy at not playing, far better him than the guy content to sit on the bench, in my opinion. I don’t think he’s got ideas above his station, nor suggesting he should be a first team regular ahead of Song, for example, he just wants to play football.
All the same, Coquelin must surely look at the situation the club has been in and realise that to pull through it, to get beyond the terrible start to the season, there had to be a reliance on experience and, let’s face it, greater quality than he possesses at this moment in time. I think he looks a very tidy footballer, for me the year on loan at Lorient means he’s a better option than Frimpong who, for all his power, is just too raw for this level at the moment. He would certainly benefit from a loan move (which has been mooted in recent days) and Coquelin would be the understudy to Song in that case.
Of course it’s hard to tell a young man to be patient, especially if he feels he can go somewhere else and play most weeks, but I hope that somebody sits him down and explains that just a bit of patience is required sometimes. He’ll get his chances and to me it seems clear he’s a guy who will do his utmost to take them. I can’t see him being allowed leave in January anyway, especially if Frimpong does go on loan, so let’s see how this one plays out.
Right, that’ll have to do for today, lots to get on with, more tomorrow, but it is likely to be Arsecast-less due to the Interlull. Another thing to blame FIFA for.
Till then.
