Happy Anniversary, Arsene!

I haven’t posted in ages, and probably will not do so for a while more. But today I have to post this short note to wish Arsene a happy 13. He officially becomes Arsenal’s longest serving manager. And if he can win ‘ol Big Ears and the Kids’ Cup, it will take a lot to unseat him as Arsenal’s greatest ever.

ARSENe weNGER = ARSENal maNaGER - he was born for the job!

For all the good years, and the hopefully many more to come…Merci Arsene!

An open letter to Arsene.

Here is a copy of a letter I have sent to Arsene via the Arsenal.com “Submit Query” segment on their Contact Us page. I hope it gets to him:

 

I would really appreciate it if this message was passed on to Arsene Wenger.

 

 

 Dear M. Wenger,

As a gooner of 20+ years, I’m really excited by the coming season. I do believe the pre-season has justified what you have always said, that the talent at the club is over-flowing. As such I’m not writing to suggest purchasing this player or that name, nor even this tactic or that formation. I write merely with this humble request.

Could you field 3 teams this season please? Your first choice, as usual, for the League and Europe. The young ones and select reserves, as usual, for the League Cup. However, for the FA Cup can I propose an all-English team.

Gibbs, Walcott and Wilshere certainly have the quality. Watt, Frimpong and Randall are certainly not far off. Add to that the abundance of quality in the double winning youth team and those who returned from loan like Lansbury, Simpson, Hoyte and Gilbert and it is clear they’re of sufficient calabre and quality to certainly make the semi’s. I personally believe they can even go all the way if the draw is a little kind.

I understand that there will need to be rotation and substitutes as we don’t want to burn them out. But I make this request early so that should any English player be loaned out in the coming months, they go with the stipulation that they cannot be cup-tied for the FA Cup and the loan is only till the start of the FA Cup campaign. Thus there will be sufficient numbers for rotation and substitution.

This will kill the two lies that the press regularly throws out, that you do not develop English players, and that you are devaluing the FA Cup by fielding weak teams. In fact, if they were to use either one they would immediately contradict themselves in the other.

But more importantly, it would allow the young English players a legitimate platform to showcase their phenomenal talent and skills on the most prestigious English stage. It would also give their confidence a massive boost and help them along the way to first team progression. I also envisage that two feats of your predecessors would be emulated. Under Chapman seven Arsenal players played for England. I can see this number being surpassed, especially since Capello will pick the best and not be swayed by the blinkered English media. Similarly, Graham brought through the ranks some truly talented young English players together, you have brought through even more quality and quantity.

Now for the world, and the biased English press to sit up and take note!

Merci,

Ben Thomas

 

 

The A, B, C’s of the new season

A is for Adebayor.

He’s gone. We’ve 25mil. That’s it. Was planning to write more, but I don’t think he’s worth the words. I’ve invested too much emotion in him already. Plus there have been some excellent post-mortems on the usual blogs. My take from it all is he wasted his chance to be one of the world’s greatest forwards through a combination of poor advice and poor attitude. More frustratingly he wasted another forward’s chance to progress last season while we stuck with him expecting him to be at least professional enough to earn his much improved keep. He’ll do better than Anelka when he first left, but will never reach the level that Anelka has. Same sense of wasted potential, but not as frustrating as Anelka’s departure.

B is for Barnet and Barazite.

The traditional curtain-raiser to our pre-season games and hence the herald of upcoming football. Some good reviews on the various sites. I didn’t catch the game so you’d be better off reading the thoughts of those that did. Nacer scored his third consecutive goal against them. He definitely has talent, but he has to make the step-up in consistency. Too often he’s flattered to deceive, but this may be his season. Good to see Tomas back. Thomas on the other hand was part of a defence that conceded two typically Arsenal sloppy goals. I hope it’s merely pre-season cobwebs and not the shape of things to come. Whether a case of old habits dying hard or hardly dying, it is worrying and all the more highlights we still need to find a way to incorporate Philippe and Johann.

C is for Citeh, Chelsea, City (Lincoln) and Columbia.

I wish Manchester City well. There are no dubious doubts over their owners’ wealth. Their fans deserve their chance of a return to the big-time for years of passionate loyalty. Remember when they dropped to the third tier not so long ago, Maine Rd was  still drawing crowds of 30,000. That is commitment. I don’t think the Emirates would witness such crowds if we, God forbid, went down even one division. Chelsea have had a decent team some 10 years prior to Abramovich, finishing consistently top six since 1997. The crowds were anything but. They have had some truly decent fans, but the rest were anything but. Still, I’ve never begrudged Chelsea their bought status. I certainly will not begrudge Citeh. In fact I quite welcome it. Many clubs have tried to buy success, and many have failed. I do hope they break the top four. It certainly will not be us if we play our cards right. We are comfortably placed for years to come, we just have to ensure we’re winning the league too. Which brings me to the final point. We played a team of teenagers against Lincoln City because the main team have gone off to play Columbia in Austria. This City finished 13th in the same league that Barnet finished 17th. Yet they were generally outplayed by our youngsters who were able to go one better and score the winning third goal. It seems that the young guns play better when completely devoid of first-teamers. Maybe it is pressure and nerves, who knows. But I really think it is time to give the youngsters a more prominent role this season. Every league game should have a couple on the bench at least. The first team’s win bonus should only be paid out if they achieve a three-goal lead to allow at least one youngster to come on for a quarter of an hour. These youngsters are our future and, to be honest, have hardly let the club down in the last five years, which can hardly be said of some of their more illustrious seniors. If we can find he right balance, this will be the start of a very good season.

Predictions for Next Season 2009-2010

I was going to wait till the end of the transfer window or at least till the start of the season to do this. But Tevez has moved to Man City and Alex Ferguson says that they are not adding anyone else. Hence I think, ceteris paribas, I might as well stick my head out. I’m assuming Man City will get Terry because Hughes knows they really need him to have a title-shot. Here goes:

1st – Arsenal

2nd – Man City (with Terry)

3rd – Liverpool (without Alonso but with Mascherano)

4th – Man U

5th – Chelsea

I know I have made a lot of assumptions, but if Terry stays, Chelsea will be third and Man City fifth. If Liverpool lose both those players, they will drop out of the top four. If they lose Mascherano, they’ll just about make fourth at best. If they keep him but lose Alonso, second is still possible depending who they sign.

Why do I think that Man U will drop out of the top three? One man. And No! It’s not the over-sized baby with the 80m pound ego, balletboy Ronaldo.

Carlos Tevez.

I believe the reason Fergie was so willing to let balletboy go was he over-estimated his own persuavsive powers over Tevez. I’m really glad Tevez has left for a whole host of reasons that I might discuss some other time. But chiefly it dilutes the opposition, and that’s why I’m sure we’ll win it. Or should I say we are the best placed and strongest. Even if Adebayor goes and we don’t sign anyone else now. I’d like to think we can get Huntelaar, if only from preventing Man U signing him. But to be honest, Jan might be better when the price is more sensible for either him or Chamakh. Unless we can get Chamakh now for the original 7m pounds. I’d like to see a recognised establised midfielder, but Yaya Toure is staying and Felipe Melo prefers Juve. Paddy would fit the bill perfectly and a pay-as-you-play would be perfect for us and him. I can’t believe he is considering Spurs. But to be honest, I’m surprised Man U haven’t gone in like they did for Owen. I’d rather he go to Spurs than Man U.

Man U without Ronaldo but with Tevez would really have been favourites, especially if Tevez was starting every game. Berbatov will not raise his game and he doesn’t have balletboy and Carlos to make him look good. Rooney cannot do it on his own, so if they don’t sign Huntelaar or anyone else, they are screwed. I think Fergie is throwing a smokescreen about not signing anymore simply because he doesn’t want inflated prices, or anyone to snatch a potential signing. But they do need someone to stay in the top three.

It would be nice that Man U had strengthened, Chelsea and Man City had done so as well, and WE COULD STILL be favourites and contending for the title. Alas those days are gone. The silly money out there means Arsene’s model is the way forward and we have to wait for our chances to compete when the competition is diluted. We may never win back-to-back league titles ever again, but if we stay on this route we will win one league title every decade. This may not be enough for some, but I’d prefer this than a flash in the pan succes ala Blackburn and soon-to-be Chelsea. Man U may even go that way, but I think Fergie has clued on and is trying to do it the Wenger way.

Hence even if we don’t sign anyone, I’m confident about the next season and those to come. Eduardo up front with Andrei and Robin. Cesc, Tomas, Theo, Samir providing the creativity in the middle while Alex and Denilson provide the bite. I bet Vermaelen may be even be groomed to perform a dual Petit role as well. At the back Vermalen, Gallas, Johann, Kolo, Philipe, Gael, Bacary, Gibbsy and ‘Enigma’ Eboue give us plenty of cover. And there are others I haven’t even mentioned. Arsene’s biggest problem next season would be finding the right combi for each game and each competition without disrupting team dynamics and rhythm.

And by “others”, I’m not even talking about the “Young Guns“. Check this excellent page out. It has a great preview on our double winning youngsters. From that list alone I’m confident Bouldy could guarantee a mid-table premiership finish, but it would not be fair to their bodies to put them through such demanding rigour week-in-week-out till they fully mature physically. We could even field a regular all-English 11 without even including Gibbsy or Theo. I really hope Arsene does what I suggested in a previous post about playing 3 teams for next season. Youth for the league cup and all-English for the FA cup.

Anyway, I’m really excited by next season and the future. It’s bright and it’s Red!(…or is it blue with pinstripes?)

Come on you Gunners!

Good Reads

Never expected to write this much pre-season, but I suppose it isn’t such a bad thing. For those of you who are bored stiff without the football, here are two great reads I can recommend. The first is Arseblog’s exclusive interview with Ivan Gazidis. I don’t know how he does it. Good on you Arseblogger! The next is Myles Palmer’s ANR. Ok, ok, hear me out before you start swearing at me. The ANR archives have been uploaded on the ANR site and it is really a good read. They go all the way back to 1995, so lot’s to re-live. My favourite was the earliest available post by Ian Grant pre-season 1995. Bergkamp had just signed and, get this, Alan Sugar labels him a mercenary who wouldn’t stay long after he got a few kicks, and wouldn’t be as great as Klinsmann! Yes, it did make me laugh! Oh the joys of hindsight! Another was a match review of our first ever game against Mourinho’s Chelsea. We were missing key players but we still managed to outplay them and draw 2-2. I remember watching the game live in a small Karen village called Mae Lai. I remember thinking our stand-in midfield partnership had out-played theirs. It was Fab and Flam. Remember this was almost 5 years ago!

Ugly Kit Jo(k)e.

My first ever attempt at a witty headline, and it’ll probably be my last.

Now I’m not a big fan of any of our three kits – what with the white-less sleeves and non-traditional away colours – but my grouses are largely due to my perception that we should stick to our traditional colours.

However, as kits go, they are pretty decent and presentable. Unlike some of the others that I have just seen. “Get your kits out…” courtesy of sport.co.uk have revealed some truly hideous and laughable kits.

All three of Spurs and ManU’re’s are vile. Traditional colours they may be, but they are some of the foulest I’ve seen for a while. And they are not the worst.

Next season looks to be one of the worst seasons in terms of rubbish kits. What an eyesore many games will be, but Bolton vs Sunderland will be really interesting for all the wrong reasons. And thank goodness Newcastle won’t be coming to town.

“We’ve lost our hair, we’ve lost our hair…”

“…we’re the Arsenal, we’ve lost our hair! How we lost it, we don’t know. How we lost it, we don’t care. All we know is we have lost our hair!”

Alright, alright, we do know how it happened, but why let that little triffle get in the way of a good song eh? Anyway, we did gooners the world over proud. It was a great day, and we got some air-time – http://www.razortv.com.sg/site/servlet/segment/main/news/local/razortop5/32686.html

Now to try and meet my target of getting $500. Please go to this link and feel free to make an online pledge – http://www.ccf.org.sg/hfh/webApp/shaveeBIO.php?shaveeId=789

Or help some of the other gooners here, leave a message of support at least - http://www.ccf.org.sg/hfh/webApp/listShavees.php?group=1

More photos of gooners giving their hair – http://picasaweb.google.com/matchz/090705HairForHope#

Definitely doing it next year! Will try and convince the panther cub as well.

Myles Palmer, Arsene Wenger, Vile Karma and Leopold Mendacious.

Just read a brilliant post by “Arsene Wenger” on Arsenal Vision, which was a parody of a post by Myles Palmer on ANR (on my links). Felt I had to make a quick post about it.

It amazes me how so many people get so worked up by Myles. Love him or hate him, he gives an alternate perspective which is quite refreshing. Most readers are never neutral about him, and that says something. If he were really rubbish no one would bother.

It’s just like Spurs. Yeah, all Gooners do hate them, but do we really care when they aren’t anywhere near us. But we do really “hate” the Mancs. That’s my point. If Myles wasn’t doing something right, why are so many people getting worked up?

Anyway, read both, and if you liked it look out for Vile Karma on Arsenal Vision and Leopold Mendacious on Arseblog. Live and let live Gooners!

Victoria Concordia Cresit!

Be A Gooner, Be A Giver!

My first “Not Strictly Arsenal” post in ages! Anyway, it’s for a good cause.

A group of us from the Supporter’s Club in S’pore will be shaving our heads for charity. Would appreciate if any gooners out there left a message on our page. You could also make a pledge.

Here’s the link:  http://www.ccf.org.sg/hfh/webApp/listShavees.php?group=1

Where it all went wrong.

First proper post in a while so I’ll try and make it a good one.

Was reading various reports, blogs and articles regarding Gilberto recommending Arsenal to Melo and vice-versa. The quality and magnanimity of our former captain left me thinking I really wanted this Brazilian enforcer at the club – Gilberto that is, not Melo. It made me recall a very recent conversation I had with a fellow gooner about the one thing that had led to the current sorry state of the team. Ok, it probably wasn’t just one thing, and 4th is not really that bad, but you get my drift. Anyway, here’s my take.

I think Wenger’s biggest mistake was not making Gilberto Silva captain after Brazil’s Copa America win. I’m not even talking about the shambolic way he had to find out about it. I’m also not having a go at Gallas’ leadership. I’m just saying Arsene over-complicated the matter by deducing that just because he wouldn’t be playing regularly, Berty couldn’t be a good captain.

For one, it would have given Gilberto the impetus to get back quickly into contention knowing he had to lead from the pitch. For another, it would have given stand-in “capi” Gallas a little more push in the role, and more importantly, a more experienced and calm soul to turn to when the chips were down. I’m convinced the season wouldn’t have imploded if there had been the two of them to share the load. I’m further convinced that Berty would have been content to stay, even on a year-to-year basis, with the captain’s arm-band to wear. Who knows, Flamini might even have changed his mind if he saw how loyalty and industry were rewarded. Yes, I know it’s a long shot,  but look at the alternative picture he actually saw. “Play your heart out and you still might not be rewarded”.

Most importantly, we lost a potentially great captain. I think he would have been on par with Adams in terms of influence. I’m not even gonna get into the “he was past it” argument, because his recent performance for Brazil suggest otherwise. But more importantly I’m talking about his leadership qualities, off the pitch and on it. I know Cesc has the potential, but I think Berty to Cesc would have been the right transition, and Cesc could have grown comfortably into that role with Berty and Gallas to help.

His was and is a true gent, and I for one hope to see him back at the Emirates in some shape or form.

All true Gooners salute you, Gilberto Silva!