Hello there.
A very quick Saturday round-up for you.
And there you go. Thanks for stopping by.
It is a bit like that, really. Very little in the way of Arsenal news. Last night the teams too terrible qualify for Euro 2012 had at it and it worked out pretty well for Ireland, by all accounts. I didn’t see any of it but taking a 4-0 lead into the second leg pretty much assures qualification for the tournament. Next summer Poland will be inundated with Irish. Hah, how the tables have turned. See how you like it, Polish people. The shoe is very much on the other foot now, eh?! There’ll be Irishki Skleps everywhere by the end of the first week.
There have been no reports of injuries from last night’s games. From a kindly Tweeter I got the news that van Persie did 90 minutes for Holland last night and won’t play in the game on Tuesday, which is good to hear, but beyond that I know little other than nobody appears to be in despair about a new victim guest for the sparkling new medical centre. So far, so good. Of course there’s still the midweek games but the Interlull has gotten off to a better start than our season anyway.
England play Spain today and there’s a bit of Theo on Cesc action, if that floats your boat, but it doesn’t do much for me, I have to say. I mean, how can he say the Barcelona shirt suits Cesc better when the Barcelona shirt, this season, is particularly horrid? How can the classic red and white look worse than those insipid stripes and that Times New Logo? Silly Theo.
The only bit of vaguely interesting Arsenal news I can find is that Aaron Ramsey is supposedly at loggerheads with the Welsh FA over ‘Team GB’ who are all set to take part in the Olympics next summer. The Welsh FA aren’t keen on their players being involved by Ramsey isn’t swayed by that. He says:
My view hasn’t changed. If it doesn’t affect Wales’ identity then I still want to play. I haven’t sought any advice from the PFA yet. It’s something I may do.
What’s interesting to me is that this is being portrayed in such a way that what the Welsh FA wants is important in any way. It’s not. If Aaron is going to be at loggerheads with any organisation then it’ll be the one which pays his wages every week. From what I can gather from the Olympics website the football tournament takes place from July 25th – August 11th. I assume there’d be some kind of training camp before that, get the team together etc.
Arsenal report back for pre-season training in early July, minus the players who have been taking part in Euro 2012. August 11th strikes me as pretty close to the date when the new Premier League season kicks off. Ramsey is emerging as an important part of our team and I’m almost certain that Arsene Wenger will not want him taking part in a football tournament which is as stupid as it is meaningless. It is a shameless, commercial exercise with absolutely no sporting value whatsoever.
What it boils down to, in very simple terms, is this: the Olympics is not a FIFA sanctioned event, therefore Arsenal are under no obligation to release any players for it. Even if they really, really want to play, they need to be told to shut up and get their priorities in order. As David Rocastle famously once said, ‘Remember who you are, what you are and who you represent’. And I’m pretty sure he added, ‘It’s sure as shit not some Adidas sponsored team managed by English football’s most lipless twat, Stuart Pearce’.
As much as I dislike it, I get why players want to play international football and represent their country. But this? Nah. There should be no time for this kind of nonsense whatsoever. Get some amateur players out there, give them a chance to do something on a bigger stage than they’re used to, but sponsors trying to brow-beat and tempt professional players, who should know better, into this tournament is pretty crass. But then that’s what sponsors do, I guess.
And sadly that’s about that for this morning. Shorter than usual, I know, but you know who to blame? Yeah, Robbie Keane, that’s who.
Till tomorrow.
