I find it odd that at this stage of the season it’s so quiet in general but maybe it’s a good thing. The team are doing their training and just getting on with things.
They turn up in the morning, do their laps, with perhaps Pat Rice barking out the instructions as they jog along. “1, left arm down, 2, right arm down, 3, both arms down, 4, up for a header, 5, jog backwards, 6, back men to the front, 7, front men to the back”. Ahh, the joys of football training. It used to drive me mad, even as a kid. I always hated running just for the sake of running.
“Any chance we can play some football during this football training?”, I might ask.
“Football? FOOTBALL? Sure yiz’ll play football when yiz have a match. Dis is about geddin’ fid!”
And it seems fitness is a recurring theme this morning. Theodore Walcott says he’s feeling as fit as ever, which is hardly a surprise because he can hardly be feeling the rigours of a long and intense season. He wasn’t picked in the England U21 squad, which means something about something, but maybe, just maybe, if he can avoid injury he can have a good end to the season. As the defenders he faces slow down after they have played more than 67 minutes since August maybe that can be his secret weapon. It’s not quite as good a secret weapon as laser eyes but we’ll take what we can get.
He also says everyone is smiling because we’re 6 points behind the leaders and that’s just where you need to be to win a title. I see.
Another man back from a spell out through injury is football’s Muhammed Ali, Nicklas Bendnter. He floats like a zeppelin and stinks like a bee, or something, and despite all that he is the greatest. His self confidence is something the manager doesn’t mind, saying:
He is quite confident, I must say. But that’s not a bad thing for a striker. There’s nothing wrong with it as long as you’re able to prove your confidence on the pitch. He can improve a lot but how much he can improve is down to how hard he will work.
Nick himself is determined to put his goals where his mouth is, and is keen to repay the manager’s faith in him saying:
That faith is very important and all I have to do now is show him he made the right choice. I am sure he has and I have to show that on the pitch. I have been ready to carry the fans’ hopes for some time – it is nothing new to me.
Now, I’m not so sure there’s a great deal of faith. There’s more a huge dollop of necessity. There’s no van Persie, no Eduardo, no Arshavin while Carlos Vela remains very much on the fringes. You might argue that not signing a striker this January was a sign of AW’s belief in Bendnter though and if he does stay injury free then he’s got a real chance to show what he can do in his favourite position. He scored against Sunderland, not exactly a wonder goal but the kind of poachy strikers goals that maybe we’ve been missing. His physical presence is important too. He wins headers meaning Almunia’s kick-outs aren’t quite as useless as they were launched in the direction of Russian’s favourite oompa-loompa.
You do worry about his reaction times and his poor control but he is only 21 and it’s not down to him that so much responsibility rests on his shoulders right now. He’s a fair way from the finished article but even so I think he gives the team better shape and structure and if he can poke home a few more like he did on Saturday then all well and good.
Yesterday Stan Collymore wrote an article in the Mirror about Theo Walcott. Check out the comment from Arsebloggerer Chambo, pure gold.
The Mail has an interview with Jens Lehmann. Apparently he’s writing a book! How awesome the book is going to be remains to be seen. He says:
I have a decision: if I never, ever want to work in football again, I can write a great book. But, just in case I want to stay in the game, I can soften it. The decision hasn’t been made. Arsene Wenger doesn’t need to fear anything. He already knows I’m angry because he didn’t pick me in my last year — but only on a professional basis.
Heh, classic. I suspect the lure of football will be too strong though and he’ll leave some things out but can you imagine if he went Full Lehmann? I suspect a certain sunken-eyed Spaniard wouldn’t enjoy it too much. The rest of us, I’m sure, rather would.
And on that literary note we shall leave it be for today. Have a good one, more tomorrow.
