Getting up bad, coffee good.
Quiet enough as the squad and the fans head for Prague for tomorrow night’s game. Slavia will be looking to save a bit of face after the spanking they got in London so despite the 7-0 scoreline last time you can expect a more committed performance from them this time around. There’ll be fuller team news tomorrow but the boss is hinting at rotation in certain areas. You would suspect that means midfield where we have more options than Elton John has ridiculous spectacles. Diarra and Gilberto could get a start and you’d have to think we’ll go 4-4-2 so Eduardo could start alongside Adebayor or indeed Bendtner. A fuller preview in tomorrow’s blog.
Demento, whose comments about Howard Webb are to be investigated by the FA then dismissed without charge probably, has had another little pop at Arsenal regarding the amount of foreign players. He supports Septic Bladder’s proposal to limit the amount of foreign players a team can have, saying:
It would be a problem for a club like Arsenal. That’s why they’ll protest loudest.
Strikes me it would be a problem for United too. Ferdinand and Rooney are the only top class ‘home-grown’ players they have of a decent age. Giggs, Neville, Scholes etc are heading towards the finish line of their careers and if Ferguson thinks the likes of O’Shea, Eagles and Fletcher have what it takes to win titles then he’s dreaming. And besides Rooney where has he spent his money in the last few years? Ronaldo, Tevez, Saha, Vidic, Evra, Nani, Anderson – good old fashioned English players …oh.
Anyway, it’s kind of comforting to have that red-nosed old cunt after us again. It’s not that I’ve missed him but you realise how much more fun it is to be battling with Ferguson at the top of the table than worrying what a potato-headed Dutch cunt is saying about 4th place. Long may it last.
Speaking of cunts, David Dein has been talking about the influx of foreign owners and he reckons that two or three clubs will succumb to foreign ownership in the next 12 months. We currently have United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Villa, West Ham, Man City and Portsmouth under foreign ownership with ‘investors’ looking at Birmingham and Blackburn. Dein, pointedly, has called opposition to foreign ownership ‘xenophobic’ and says:
I have not come across one who is in the game for anything other than the love of the sport. They are not there to rape the clubs. They are investors.
Hilarious really. Obviously trying to soften the image of the foreigner he brought to our door he neglects to mention that Usmanov the Investor has in his short time as a part owner of Arsenal threatened legal action against Arsenal websites and other indivduals, called for dividends to be paid and suggested he’d use his power to block motions that the club wish to pass. Once he hired a very expensive PR firm that changed. Not because that’s what he really thinks but because that’s what the PR firm is telling him to say.
To be honest, the likes of FIFA and the FA should be concentrating less on the issue of foreign players and more on the foreign owners whose only interest is to make money from football clubs. Their interests are short-term, the money they make won’t go back into clubs and it will damage the game in England over the coming years. I’m not suggesting this is true for all of them but they need to keep a closer eye on things.
As for opposition to Usmanov being ‘xenophobic’ I’d call it common sense. Opposition is not based on his nationality, it’s based on his intentions, his past, his present and the fact that he’s an embarrassment to our club. And it’s easy for David Dein to call people names when he’s got £75m in his back-pocket.
Justin Hoyte is being linked with a January move to Everton. The right back hasn’t played too much this season with the signing of Bacary Sagna but for me he remains a better back-up in that position than the defensively suspect Eboue.
Freddie hammered at Upton Park.
Not much else to tell you. Don’t forget you can win yourself a fantastic Savile Rogue scarf by listening to this week’s Arsecast and answering the question contained within. You’ve got till Thursday night to get your entries in. Arseblog is the blog that just keeps on giving.
Till tomorrow.
