august 11th
07.39 – Francis Jeffers has apologised for his sending off during yesterday’s game.
“I made a silly reaction in the heat of the moment. I have apologised to the boss and my team-mates.”
AW seemed to be in a forgiving mood saying “Jeffers made a mistake. He is an intelligent boy who will learn from that. He was frustrated and he shouldn’t have done it.”
Not everyone is as forgiving though. Myles on ANR reckons Franny will never be an ‘Arsenal player’ and AW will never sign another scouser. He suggests selling Jeffers and bringing in Darius Vassell.
He’s quite the conundrum though is our Francis. Wenger obviously saw enough talent and potential to sign him for around £8.5m a couple of seasons ago. But so far he’s not produced enough for various reasons.
He’s never really had a good run in the team because of injuries. The never-ending ankle problems, knocks and strains that keep him out for weeks, it’s almost comical. But then you’ve got a striker with a fantastic goalscoring record. He’s equalled Alan Shearer’s record at U-21 level. 13 internationals, 13 goals. I know his strike rate when he starts with Arsenal is quite good too and at Everton it was something like 40 games and 20 goals.
The problem is it’s hard to try and make plans around somebody when you don’t know if they’re going to be injured or not, and when you’ve got alternatives like Wiltord, Kanu and Aliadiere, it makes sense to count on them ahead of the perma-cripple.
I don’t think Arsenal will sell Jeffers before January. I think he’ll get a couple more chances, but if he wants to have a future at Arsenal and he wants to play football at the highest level, he needs to score goals when he gets on the pitch. Nothing more. No fights, no red cards, no diving – just score goals. For now though his card is marked and he’s seriously trying the patience of the fans who have been very supportive with him so far. Time to deliver Francis.
In other exciting news, in case you’ve somehow missed it, we’ve managed to offload Igors Stepanovs. He’ll spend the final year of his Arsenal contract on loan at Belgian feeder club Beveren. Last year we gave them Graham Stack and John Halls, this year we asked them to do us a favour.
Not much else going on this early, but the countdown to the season proper is well and truly underway. Hurrah.
