Morning all. My first blog in a while. The first, in fact, since I was quoted in a respected national newspaper – which you can read here, if you haven’t already. :-). Of course, less said about the result of that game the better.
Anyway, first thing to do is pay my own tribute to Freddie, who’s been one of my favourite players over the last ten years. I know about all the practicalities of the situation with his wages and his loss of form over the past few seasons, and I know he said some rather uncomplimentary things about the club the other day, but Freddie truly is a legend and I really believe some of the things he said are out of sadness at leaving the club; this would’ve been his tenth season and people don’t hang around that long unless they have some real feeling for the place and I think he showed that on the pitch any number of times. I’ve said it over on the forums and Blogger said it yesterday but it’s worth reiterating – he won us the double in 2002 and I for one won’t ever forget that, or his song. His goals in the run in were vital, and to cap it off he scored a great goal in the Cup Final. Plus, of course, his greatest contribution was to give this website its tagline in his comments to Sky Sports, live on camera after the game. He summed up how we all felt. It has indeed been fuckin’ excellent, Freddie. Thanks for everything.
So, nostalgia over, back to the news of the day. The Boss has insisted his youth policy is the way to go. Quoted in the Daily Mail he said:
“It’s unbelievable how much money has been spent. There’s a lot of money out there and I’m just looking to develop the players we have here.
Just in central midfield we have Abou Diaby, Denilson, Cesc Fabregas, Mathieu Flamini and Gilberto. On the wings we can play Aleksandr Hleb, Theo Walcott, Tomas Rosicky and Emmanuel Aboue. So we have plenty.
All these players are on the way up, getting better and better. They are not over the hill. Their level is still rising. And it is not necessarily the case that because a club spends £50m they are any better.”
Not sure I’d agree with all of that; £50m spent on it usually tends to improve a team significantly (unless you’re Newcastle), but it’s interesting to hear him put Eboue in the frame for a place on the wing which might help explain why he’s bought a right back, and he is right – a team can only play 11 players at once. A couple of injuries, though, and we’re looking pretty threadbare; a full scale injury crisis and we’d be in serious trouble. I think whatever he says in public, he still needs to spend before the window closes, and like Blogger, I think with Freddie to the Whammers a done deal, and Reyes hopefully going somewhere – anywhere! – the chequebook might come out again (which isn’t anything against Reyes; I’m sorry he never made it for us, but it’s just not going to happen). We’ll see, no doubt, and if anything happens it’ll probably be a complete surprise as usual.
According to reports in the “British press” (which means The Mirror as far as I can tell), via Channel 4, Juventus are planning a £3m bid for Phil Senderos. I know a lot of people think Phil’s prone to mistakes, but I’d rather lose Gallas than him. Remember we pretty much got to the Champions’ League Final with him and Kolo at the back, and I think they make a better partnership than Kolo and Gallas, who in my opinion are too similar – they should be great in theory but it just doesn’t seem to work. Phil might not have brilliant distribution but he’s a proper defender who just wants to keep the ball away from the goal. Gallas can play left back as well as centre back, of course, but Gallas has other baggage. In that he’s a bit of a cunt as far as I can tell. Which is why he’d fit in well at Juve.
Once again, several sources (mostly bullshit ones that I’m not going to embarrass myself by clickying) are linking us with Stephen Appiah. He was supposed to be coming last season, then again at Christmas, and he’s a good player, but I’m not sure where he’d fit in. Can’t see how he’d be anything other than cover for central midfield. First choice has got to be Cesc and Gilberto (then probably Diaby as first choice backup). Is Appiah going to be happy with that?
Yeah, maybe the directors will approach you. But I hope they don’t, and if you approach them, they respond by attacking you with an axe, you weird looking cunt.
And on a completely unrelated note, apparently Rafael Benitez is “baffled” that United won’t sell him Gabriel Heinze. Is he? Is he really? Can he really not understand why Liverpool’s biggest rivals (besides the obvious more local exception) won’t sell him one of their most experienced players?
Anyway, that’s enough from me for today. Have a good day people.
