Welcome to another week and it remains quiet.
So much so that I watched some of Georgia v Ireland last night. It seems almost decadent to watch football in the comfort of one’s own home that could easily be found in the local park on a Sunday morning, but needs must. In the end Ireland won with a rather sweet goal by Everton’s Aidan McGeady and then RTE played out the show with a version of ‘Georgia on my mind’.
I think it’s clear that somebody in there has Georgia issues as this news story from a few years back illustrates:
This is not the Georgia you are looking for.
England play Switzerland tonight and there could be up to four Arsenal players involved. Well, three and a half. Danny Welbeck won’t be considered a real Arsenal player until Arsene Wenger says something publicly about him. Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Calum Chambers are all in the squad as Roy Hodgson looks to get England’s qualifying campaign off to a good start.
Of course the fact that the finals will be a 24 team tournament more or less takes any of the vague fun out of the qualifiers. All the big teams will make it through. Ireland have Gibraltar in their group, for goodness sake – and their first foray into international football didn’t go particularly well.
This ‘overhaul’ means we could get a few lads together, declare independence, and probably have a decent chance of qualifying ourselves. If only I wasn’t so old. And crap. Sean Ingle writes about this in Guardian, and on the Football Weekly podcast Iain Macintosh reckons that if England qualify they could get out of the group stages without even winning a game as two teams go through from each group as well as the the four best third place teams.
It’s like one of those schools who decides that sports day should be about taking part and every kid gets a medal regardless of where they finish. No Little Jimmy, you didn’t come last because you’re athletically incompetent and too fat and slow and useless, you’re the 17th winner! Have a lollipop. Just the one, tubs.
Imagine having people in charge of football whose first priority was to improve the game from a sporting point of view rather than a financial or commercial one. A smaller tournament decreases the chances of participation but demands a higher standard throughout the qualifiers. Sport thrives on genuine competition, so making it easy for teams will only increase the likelihood of a tedious tournament and nothing games on the way there.
But there’s no chance with Platini and Blatter blunderbussing their way through common sense and popular opinion to ensure they nab more blue-chip sponsorship deals and TV rights and there’s no cloud hanging over their decisions to award tournaments that countries that shouldn’t be hosting them. None at all.
Meanwhile, there was no Mesut Ozil for Germany last night as they scraped past Scotland 2-1. That’s a worry for us because if he’s not fit enough to play for them then his participation in Saturday’s game against Man City must surely be in doubt.
Given the length of time he spent on the sideline at Leicester, clutching his ankle and grimacing, I suspect he’d have been taken off under other circumstances. As it was we’d just used our final two substitutes and we were looking for a winning goal, so he had to come back on. Obviously we’ll have to wait and see what the update is when he gets back, but it’s hard not to worry.
It could be a case that Germany are being ultra-cautious but that’s not usually the way national team managers operate. If there’s any chance that their best players can play – even if they are carrying a knock – they usually do and the clubs are left to pick up the pieces. I guess we’ll find out in due course, but when you’re about to face a team as good as Man City it’d be a real blow if he didn’t make it.
Not a lot else happening this morning so we’ll leave it there. However, to help fill the Interlull … er … lull … we’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you at some point later today. As always, if you have questions you can fire them to @gunnerblog and @arseblog on Twitter using the hashtag #arsecastextra.
Until then.
