MY transfer policy, Barca masterclass, FIFA shambles

The good of the game? Not a chance

Now the season is well and truly over we have entered the silly season of "transfer gossip" or as I prefer to call it - "make up a story about any name you can find that might fit in to a position where Arsenal need a player and fill a paragraph in the newspaper with it, regardless of whether anyone has heard of them, or even if they might not actually exist." For a couple of years I fell in to the trap of religiously reading all this nonsense day after day, and then getting more and more depressed as we failed to add to the squad. If you want to put yourselves through all of that then please help yourself, but you will find very little comment on transfer gossip on this website. If a particular story looks interesting, or possibly true, then I will give my opinion but, by and large, I'll only have anything to say on a transfer when they actually happen.

I thoroughly enjoyed Barcelona's destruction of Manchester United on Saturday. It was nice to see them doing it to somebody else for a change. When we were dismantled (with only ten men on the field) at the Nou Camp Arsenal were ridiculed in the press for the way Barca toyed with them at the back. All of this was to forget that Nicklas Bendtner missed the chance to knock them out in the last minute. On Saturday we saw them make Manchester United's back line look like amateurs.
When Barcelona play like that I don't see how anyone stops them. It doesn't really come across on telly, but when you watch them live they always seem to have two extra players on the pitch when they have the ball, their movement is uncontrollable. When they don't have the ball, which is usually rare and short-lived, I have never seen a group of players that works so hard to get it back. The fitness levels of the Barcelona players are seemingly on a different level. Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Villa and Pedro sprint everywhere, they never jog.
They also have discipline in their defence. Dani Alves doesn't really play as a full-back, which is just as well as he is awful defensively. To compensate for that you will hardly ever see Busquets, Pique, Puyol (Mascherano on Saturday) and Abidal crossing the halfway-line. They are quite simply the best team I've ever watched. I remember marvelling at Real Madrid in the late 90s when the likes of Redondo were playing in midfield for them, and how they pinged the ball at each other with pace and control. I always felt that if I could see an Arsenal team play like that they would be the best. Between 2001 and 2005 we had just that, and that Arsenal team was the best I had seen, anywhere. But this group at Barcelona has raised the bar again.
Messi won the man of the match on Saturday but Xavi is someone I simply marvel at. He never seems to give the ball away. He is always moving. Pass and move, pass and move, all across the pitch, all being linked by Xavi and/or Iniesta. It is, perhaps, easier now to understand why Fabregas would want to join them. However, brilliant player though Cesc may be, can anyone honestly see him getting a start in that team? I had to laugh when the commentators on Sky claimed that Scholes would have been able to play in this Barca team - if ever you needed an example of how some English people still seem to think they have the best players then that was it in a nutshell. Manchester United were destroyed, and there is no shame in that against this team. Neither should there have been for Arsenal at the Nou Camp, yet the press made out we were humiliated and embarrassed - I haven't seen any apologies.

FIFA are entrusted as the custodians of football. I would suggest that FIFA has to be the most corrupt organisation in the World. It was obvious to me last week that this whole campaign against Mr Bin Hammam was being orchestrated by Sepp Blatter and his cronies. It is no surprise that Bin Hammam and Warner have been suspended while Blatter is "cleared" of any offences.
The whole World Cup bidding process showed that money and pay-offs are at the heart of all of FIFA's decision making. Hardly any of these people making the decisions are what could be called "football people." Platini, whatever most of us think of him, was a top class footballer, which is more than most of football's power-brokers can boast. It is disturbing to me that these people run the World game. These people are the ones who decide on rule changes, which is why we have no serious move towards the introduction of technology in the game. All the time these people are on this gravy train we will see football continue to be held to ransom by such stories of corruption. Lord Triesmann was castigated by the press and ostracised by the FA when he said what he did about the World Cup bidding a couple of years ago. I think some people owe him an apology.
What is required is the disbanding of FIFA. This can only be done in one of two ways. The first is for the FA, and the governing bodies in Scotland, Spain, Germany, Italy and France to break away from them. The loss of the six richest Football Association's in Europe would be catastrophic for UEFA and would put the power in to the hands of the European associations. The rest of the World would have to follow them. The second way is for the top European Club's to withdraw from UEFA. If the top 32 in Europe broke away it would bring UEFA's and FIFA's influence on football in to sharper focus - they would no longer be able to control the players and the Club's. Okay, they would ban those Club's from their formal competitions but this would not last long - money talks, and no competition could afford to lose Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Rangers, Celtic, Inter, AC Milan, Juventus etc. You would have to say that anything that removes the likes of Blatter from a position of authority must be good for football.

Cretins everywhere you look

No respect, no class

As much as it's nice not having to worry what the outcome of this weeks fixture will be I have to admit that the close season really is the most boring of times - and this is only the first week. Unless you have a bit of transfer activity there is really very little to get excited about. As a result I suppose I should be thanking Puyol and Pique for their latest attempt at winding us up with the whole Fabregas business.
As you can see from the photo at the top of this post they have taken their opportunity to pose with a framed picture of Fabregas at London Colney. Personally I was very much against Arsenal giving use of the our top class facilities to Barcelona. What have Barcelona ever done to help Arsenal? All they do is disrespect our Club by tapping up our players and trying to buy them on the cheap. This latest crass behaviour from their Captain and his over-rated defensive colleague once again underlines the gulf in class between Arsenal Football Club and FC Barcelona. These two idiots, you will remember, were responsible for forcing a Barcelona shirt over the head of Fabregas at the World Cup celebrations last Summer. It is difficult to put in to words quite how disrespectful to Arsenal this latest "prank" is. Arsenal should have made it in to a major incident and demanded an apology from Barcelona, and then they should have kicked them out of the training ground and told them to sod off to Tottenham.

On the subject of cretinous behaviour Stuart Pearce has been having his say on Jack Wilshere and getting himself a dig at Arsene Wenger in the process. As I hinted at the end of Monday's post Jack was left out of the final squad for the U21 tournament. This was done after Jack told Pearce he was not physically strong enough to take part following a long season. Obviously Arsene Wenger's hand was very much on the tiller with this one, and rightly so. Stuart Pearce's motives for wanting Wilshere (and Andy Carroll) in the team are purely self-serving. He believes that a successful campaign would look very good on his CV. When Fabio Capello leaves his job next Summer Pearce will also be on his way out of the FA set-up. Given that he has a less than average record in management he is reliant on some superficial success with England U21's to convince some sap of a Chairman to give him a job in 2012. Pearce is a joker, and the way in which he treated Jack Wilshere leading up to the squad announcement was very poor indeed. I won't go in to details, but suffice to say he was not happy when Wilshere told him he wouldn't be part of the squad - a phrase involving the words "toys" and "pram" springs to mind. Jack shouldn't let it bother him, though, and I'm sure he won't. The fact that Pearce is choosing to abuse Arsene Wenger over the whole thing does him no favours.

For all that I dislike Barcelona and the way they conduct themselves, both on and off the pitch, I want them to hammer Manchester United tomorrow evening. There can be no doubt that Barca are the favourites - their pace and flair is second to none. However, I can see Man Utd beating them. After all, in a one off game, anyone can beat anyone. Arsenal proved in the home leg that there is a way to beat Barcelona. Had it not been for Nicklas Bendtner falling over the ball we would have knocked them out, despite their second-half domination of our ten men at the Nou Camp.
Barca's pressing game is the key to their superiority. I have never seen a team that works so hard and so quickly to regain possession. That is also their downfall, however. When the opposition has the ball you will see three Barcelona players close them down. If the pass is made then a different three close down, and the same again for the next pass. That means that, if you can make four passes then you are behind them. It is far easier said than done, of course, but if you look at our goals in the home leg against them they really were that simple. You have to have sufficient quality to do that, and Man Utd do have that quality.
I'll be tuning in to the match tomorrow night, even though I can't stand the players on either team. Normally it would give me no pleasure to see Barcelona win, but in the circumstances I want them to destroy this Manchester United line-up. Ultimately you have the best team in the World up against the most over-rated United team in twenty years - anything less than a Barca win would be a travesty for good football.

Fulham 2 - 2 Arsenal - all done

My good friend Mr Kidd and his bride Rosanna

Do you remember when Birmingham scored the winner at the Carling Cup Final? Do you remember how Barry Ferguson chose to mock Laurent Koscielny by slapping him on the back of the head as he sat distraught on the Wembley pitch? I wrote the following day that I hoped Birmingham City would be relegated as some kind of payback for that moment. I always say that what goes around, comes around. Yesterday it came around for Barry Ferguson, Birmingham City and their odious supporters. Good riddance to them, they won't be missed. I just wish Wolves had gone too and we still had the delightful Blackpool team to enjoy next season. C'est la vie.

Apart from Arsenal's end of season result it was a good weekend for me. I went to the wedding of one of my great friends on Saturday. It was a truly magnificent day and a pleasure to share in James and Rosanna's special occasion. I gave up the booze in September but made an exception on Saturday (I was probably owed it after spending a stag weekend sober.) I was a little bit fragile come yesterday morning - not too bad, just a bit wobbly. I followed up yesterday with a day on the cricket pitch which ended in defeat, but a bit of a return to form for me, so not all bad.

As a result of playing cricket yesterday I have only seen Sky's extended highlights so I'm not going to say too much about what happened in the game. We all know that highlights are usually the least accurate representation of what has actually gone on in any game. The thing I noticed most from the highlights was how much Tony Gale seems to dislike Arsenal. He has a particular downer on Johan Djourou (who I'm assured continued his recent poor form yesterday) and he also seems to have taken a dislike to Wojciech Szczesny. Gale took issue with the Pole going after Gera after he tried to do Thomas Vermaelen. Personally I like to see one of our players getting involved in these situations as it shows a bit of gumption and spirit. I notice nobody in the media was getting on at Vidic and Ferdinand last week when they ran 50 yards to ensure the award of a penalty by getting in the face of the linesman at Blackburn. Perhaps if all the Arsenal players backed each other up like that we might get somewhere.
I was intrigued by the team selection yesterday. I am going to assume that Samir Nasri has agreed a deal to stay at Arsenal, hence his very much unexpected return to the side. Meanwhile we finally got our 4-4-2. Unfortunately it meant Aaron Ramsey inexplicably being shifted to the wing, despite him and Wilshere dominating midfield for the past few weeks. Instead of that we had another Lazarus-like return from Diaby - why? It was almost as though Wenger wanted to play 4-4-2 with the wrong players in some attempt to prove himself right about the 4-5-1 (it is certainly not 4-3-3 with the way we play it).
The game itself was seemingly a bit of a lacklustre affair, with Arsenal defending badly but scoring two very fine goals. Robin Van Persie has been outstanding since he came back and that's reflected in the result of the latest poll on this site where 56% of you felt he is the player they would least like to see leave the Club. The problem next season is going to be that, if and when Cesc goes, RVP will expect to be made Captain. Sadly, I don't think he should be as I don't like strikers as skipper, and I don't believe he is a leader - just like Fabregas. Vermaelen should be Arsenal Captain, but it could seriously upset the balance of Van Persie's mind. Bridges to be crossed for the Manager, but that's all a long way off.
The Arsenal fans made their feelings clear towards the end of the game - the chant of "spend some f***ing money" was clearly heard. I was annoyed to hear Wenger's interview after the game where he dismissed the fans by saying how we won't be signing any £50m players. Of course we won't, and no fan seriously thinks we would, or even should. Why did he come out with such a comment? What we want is proper investment in the squad to address the obvious areas of weakness. That is going to cost money, of course, but it certainly won't require ridiculous Torres-like transfer fees. A change of policy from constantly developing young players who might be good, back to signing some experienced quality - that's what is required.

So, the season is over. Thank God for that. Since February it's been painful, though if it has forced a change in the policy of the Manager it might just have been worth it. If we get off to a bad start next season, and players have not been signed (and others not shown the door) then Wenger will find himself on short time with the fans. We need a busy Summer in the transfer market, and we need it to happen quickly. The Club can not let things drift this Summer.

In terms of the blog I have plenty of stuff lined up to fill some of the empty days ahead. Pre-season begins in July so it will soon come around. I hope you find the posts entertaining as we move through the next couple of months - hopefully there will be plenty of real Arsenal stuff upon which to pass comment. The England U21 squad is named later today - there might yet be a pleasant surprise for us Arsenal fans if what I have heard is anything to go by...

"Rocked" by Denilson, Fulham (a) preview

Bye

The Sun must be really struggling for Arsenal transfer news. I couldn't believe it today when they chose to run a major article about Denilson wanting to leave us. Apparently Arsenal have been "rocked" by this decision from our midfield maestro. I have to say I'm devastated...or maybe not. I don't believe Denilson is as bad a player as many would have you believe. I always felt he was a reasonable footballer when in possession, but one that certainly hadn't gone beyond his early promise. The thing that has come to annoy me with Denilson over the past two years has been his "work" when we don't have the ball. Numerous times we have seen him jogging gently after the marauding opposition forwards as we concede another goal - the most famous being against Manchester United at home a couple of years back (the worst for me, though, was in the FA Cup at Stoke last season). He has become known as "deckchair" by certain sections of the fans and this has been, perhaps, not an unfair moniker. Any idea that Denilson moving on is bad news for Arsenal is complete nonsense. I would suggest that there would be many more howls of derision had he announced he was going nowhere. Arsene Wenger spoke yesterday about the need to keep quality players - he has told Denilson he can go. Enough said.

The season will finally end on Sunday at Fulham. I don't really expect to see Nasri, Fabregas or Clichy making an appearance. The mysterious thigh injury that is always picked up by players who are leaving/failing to sign a new contract has afflicted all three and has ended their season, if not their Arsenal careers. There is talk of Rosicky having a fitness test, but there is always hope that he will fail it - he's another one I hope has played his last game and is joining Denilson at the exit door.
I can't see many changes being made from the side that lost to Villa. Arshavin might well be dropped which will mean an "opportunity" for Nicklas Bentner on the left, or maybe something really radical like two up front with Bendtner or Chamakh alongside Robin Van Persie. I can see Eboue possibly getting a run out in place of a tired Bacary Sagna (hopefully another farewell appearance, but I fear the comedic one will be haunting us again come August). Something tells me Squillaci will not get to say goodbye so a return for Djourou, or a step up for Miquel appear likely. Jack Wilshere has been named in the U21 party for the Summer, so a minor calf injury would do nicely for him on Sunday, thus giving him the necessary rest until pre-season begins - we can but hope.
Fulham have once again done pretty well this year. They possess good forward players - I think Clint Dempsey is particularly good. Andy Johnson will always finish given the chance, while Bobby Zamora is big and physical enough to do us serious damage. At the back they have the towering Hangeland, but Van Persie should have enough to destroy him with his footwork - Hangeland is pretty average against tricky strikers, though at set-pieces he could prove our undoing again.
All in all I'll be glad when 6pm comes around on Sunday as it will all be over. It's been a slow death since February and a few weeks away from it will do us all good, from the Manager and the players right down to the fans. Our season has been a failure on most levels, but if Birmingham City end up relegated come Sunday evening then we will know that there is a God, and he deals in a very fine form of natural justice - let's hope Blackpool can perform themselves a miracle at Old Trafford too.

Until Monday...

Jens to stay? JET better off at Arsenal

Jens - might not be leaving

Skytext is carrying quotes from Jens Lehmann about his future. The key point made by Lehmann is that he wants to complete his coaching qualifications and then take a job in England. Given the fact that all of our goalkeepers (and I include Szczesny) seem to be afflicted by the same problems I would suggest that a job at Arsenal might not be out of the question. As well as the long-term plans of the German legend he makes the point that he might not yet be finished as a player as he "...can do it still. It is not forgotten." The quotes come from an interview with German newspaper Bild.
Jens is 41, but I don't see a problem with him being put on a player/coach contract and being engaged as the third choice goalkeeper at Arsenal. I think we all know that Almunia and Mannone are not up to it. I would add Fabianski to that pair also, and it is unlikely that the older Pole would be willing to hang around as understudy to his compatriot. I would be quite happy to see all three shipped out and an experienced, good quality keeper brought in to act as the immediate cover for (or to compete with) Szczesny.

I watched Cardiff City v Reading last night. I wasn't disappointed to see Reading win 3-0, and would be very happy if the Royals got promoted back to the Premier League. Reading's ground is a nice place to watch football, and very easy to get to from my part of the World.
Cardiff had much of the early play, without much goal threat, and most of that pressure stemmed from their left, where Arsenal's Jay Emmanuel-Thomas was stationed. In recent weeks JET had spent a little too much time on the bench, but he has started both play-off matches. Trailing 2-0 at half-time Cardiff had to really go for it in the second-half, but no real onslaught ensued. However, they did have two chances, both of which fell to Emmanuel-Thomas. Unfortunately he was guilty of at least one bad miss, though why Dave Jones chose to substitute him I really can't understand. When Jay went off Cardiff created nothing further for the rest of the game. Reading cruised through the remainder of the match following his departure from the field.
I have often wondered how much use a loan spell in the lower divisions is for our better prospects. I would suggest it's no coincidence that Jack Wilshere went to a Premier League side for the last part of his education before making it in to the Arsenal team. Cardiff's treatment of JET makes me think that the lad would have been far better off back at Arsenal, or at another Premier League team. I would make the same comment about Henri Lansbury, who spent the last six weeks on Norwich's bench. Whenever these boys play they look so much better at football than everyone else on the pitch, so why have them at a level below their ability?

Another loanee, Benik Afobe, should be in action for Huddersfield tonight, so good luck to him - the game is live on Sky.

Problems in the camp?

Szczesny tells it how it is

I read some interesting quotes from Wojciech Szczesny yesterday and they lead me to believe that all is not harmonious in the Arsenal squad. The young Pole is a confident boy and certainly doesn't seem afraid to give an interview at any time. At some point this will get him in to bother, with the wrong thing said to the wrong kind of journalist. Given that could be the case I am surprised that none of the tabloid muppets picked up on what he said with regards to his colleagues. The quotes were with regard to the Carling Cup Final and the effect it had on the team - Wojciech stated that he got over it straight away and looked ahead (I have no doubt that is the case) but that "I don't know about some of the other players." This is really a quite cutting comment and dangerously honest. It was clear to us that a number of the players have been badly affected by what happened at Wembley, and it had a huge bearing on the rest of the season, but I'm amazed that Wenger has allowed one of his players to offer the same opinion to the masses.
I feel there is a divide in the squad, and Vermaelen has followed up with his own critical comments based on what he's seen happen this season, as well as the debacle on Sunday. Szczesny too has stated that their was a "lack of focus" from certain of his teammates against Aston Villa. It is almost unheard of for players under Wenger to be making such critical comments of one another in public. The now famous squad meeting in early 1998 when Petit and Vieira were given what-for by the experienced English defenders was not known about until long after the event. I now see a situation where the genuine quality players in the squad, who genuinely work hard all of the time, are sick of the slackness that is prevalent in others. Let's be honest, can you really see the likes of Vermaelen, Sagna, Lehmann and Wilshere not getting seriously upset by people like Diaby, Arshavin and Denilson? Personally, I would see it as no bad thing to hear that there had been some trouble in the dressing room, or on the training ground, with one or two full and frank discussions taking place. Maybe then we might start to weed out the crap.

Why should we be surprised?

The last we'll see of these two?

When I saw the Arsenal substitutes yesterday I knew what we were in for. A bench that included Eboue, Denilson, Miquel and Henderson told me that the Manager clearly didn't see the game as a match that absolutely had to be won. With that kind of message to those starting the game how could we possibly expect them to finally drag themselves from the malaise that has engulfed Arsenal since the Carling Cup Final? It was no surprise, really, to be two goals down after quarter of an hour. The defending for both goals was amateurish, but that's pretty much what we've come to expect. Quite why Arsene Wenger felt Arsenal would be okay to pair two centre-halves who haven't played recently only he could answer. With a goalscorer like Darren Bent up against them it was a recipe for disaster.
The players seemed to up their game a little once we were two behind but we didn't test Friedel at any time in the first-half. Our first shot came after twenty-plus minutes, and that was only because Thomas Vermaelen took matters in to his own hands. We had Theo Walcott on the right, as usual, but he did not touch the ball until the twenty-sixth minute of the match. I sat behind the goal yesterday, downstairs by the away fans. It was noticeable from there that Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere do not stop running throughout the game. It was also noticeable that our defensive midfielder, Alex Song, seemed to be taking it upon himself to play the Cesc Fabregas role for most of the first-half. With that in mind, is it any wonder that our rusty cetral defenders were left so exposed?
I've read that Dunne's challenge on Ramsey was a stick-on penalty before half-time. As I said, I was right behind that goal and I didn't think it was a penalty. From my position Dunne seemed to make a very good tackle, and most of those around me seemed to be of the same opinion. It seems that the TV cameras must have provided a somewhat better view of the incident. Apart from that the referee was awful again. Somehow Petrov stayed on the field, and the disallowed goal was a complete joke. However, it was a sign of how bad Arsenal were that the referee didn't get the stick he deserved from the crowd. It was also a sign of how the season has fallen apart that the ire of the fans was directed at the players and Manager.
Our form since the Carling Cup failure has been largely relegation standard. We are unlikely to finish in the top three now which will mean a qualifying round, from an unseeded draw, for the European Cup. Perhaps a failure to qualify for the big one would finally bring the problems we face in to sharp focus. The big problem with finishing outside the top three, however, is that without the guaranteed money of the Champions League the transfer funds will not be known until it is too late.
Regardless of where we finish I now think there will be some changes to the playing staff. Fabregas, Nasri and Clichy have all developed "injuries" in the past few weeks. I find it unlikely that any of them will be with Arsenal next season - we've seen it happen with Flamini, Wiltord and Edu in other years. Andrey Arshavin would clearly rather be somewhere else, but it might be more difficult to offload the Russian. Then we have the dead wood to consider. Nicklas Bendtner is not going to hang around for the chance to play on the wing from time to time, while Denilson, Eboue, Rosicky, Diaby, Vela and Squillaci should all be shown the exit door. They won't be, of course, but I think at least four of them will be gone. Their role in the squad is easily replaced by returning loanees like Lansbury, Emmanuel-Thomas, Bartley and the promising Miyaichi. I'll be writing a piece about the loan players in the weeks to follow. The more high-profile departures, though, must be replaced by top class signings. As well as that there is the need to spend good money on quality players to address the weaknesses we already have in the side.
I'm not going to hold my breath on any of that happening because it would require such a change in the philosophy of Arsene Wenger. We must hope that the Board direct the Manager to make changes - they're certainly not going to sack him. With Manchester City likely to get better and better, and Torres likely to find his form we have probably missed our best chance of regaining the Premier League Title. Without investment in the team we face the prospect of following Liverpool in to mid-table obscurity. That is something that does not bear thinking about.

Now, where did I put that season-ticket renewal form? I feel privileged to pay a 6.5% increase, honest.