On 29th December 2011 when Jack Warner told the world that he got CONCACAF world cup right for $1 quite the bombshell, nepotism at it worst. However the wave it created it passed without much comment. Not exactly the Tsunami we hoped for.

FIFA responded—2 weeks later—by branding Jack Warner a liar. You see Warner claimed those rights were given to him for the years 1998 – 2014, FIFA pointed out that this was totally inaccurate, false even.

Amazingly FIFA isn’t disputing that they gave their vice-president the rights to World Cup media for $1, not at all. They are actually saying it was even earlier than 1998 in fact it was 1986. That a FIFA member stood to personally benefit by controlling the media rights for 7 World Cup competitions is not a problem for FIFA. The problem in their eyes is that Warner insinuates that these rights were given to him in exchange for his support of Blatter.

So as an organization it entirely acceptable that one of your executives has personal control of the Caribbean, Central and North American media rights to your only money maker in exchange for $1.

FIFA’s reasoning is that “Such rights were ceded in order to provide an additional source of revenue for football development in the CFU (Caribbean Football Union),” Um how? How could it provide additional income if they have to buy the rights from their own president?

Wouldn’t it be better to cede those rights to the CFU instead of Jack Warner? What purpose does it serve to sell those rights to your vice president other than to fill his own pockets? FIFA has a very strange sense of integrity.

The CFU benefited so much from FIFA’s conscientiousness so much so, that they couldn’t even elect a new president and executive due to lack of funds.

…more inaccuracies

Vincent Kompany got sent off for a tackle that was both reckless and dangerous—being reckless is usually dangerous, I don’t see the need for both anyway—which sparked much debate around the footballosphere.

The Naysayers—that’s those saying nay to the card—argues that the tackle was not dangerous but maybe a bit reckless, in which case it deserves no more than a yellow. Whilst the yea-sayers argument is that going in two-footed in the air is an automatic Red-card.

Now normally I’d say lunging in with two feet in the air is worthy of a sending off. The question is whether it’s an automatic sending off.

First off all there is nothing in the rules to say that two feet off the ground is a sending off. I said “normally” in the preceding paragraph because most of the time when you go flying into that type of tackle it is usually under great pace which is unnecessary and excessive. Excessive being the operative word.

Whilst it can be argued that Kompany was reckless, and the tackle was dangerous, what is more difficult to argue is that in this case Kompany used “excessive force” and that is the difference between a caution and a sending off.

Not too impressed with our glee some people—who should really know better—pointed out that 2 less teams in the champions League means less money for Arsenal and Chelsea. The next day Matt Scott of the guardian on national radio confirmed this, adding that it may even affect the English coefficient.

Could it really be that the Manchester teams had screwed us by being so shit? I immediately tweeted that @diggermattscott was wrong. Far from reducing our cut, being the only 2 English teams left meant a bigger share of the Market Pool.

Turns out I too was wrong. So lets put this straight. The UEFA Champions league prize money split can be a complicated beast, but bear with us.

Group Stages

That’s the simplest part, prize money is straight forward distributed as follows:

• €7.2m for participation in group stages.
• €800k for a win.
• €400k for a draw

Real Madrid has already scooped €12m in the group stages by winning all their matches, whilst Villarreal did themselves no favours with their performance.

Knockout phase

Also straight forward.

• €3m for Round of 16
• €3.3 at Quaterfinals
• €4.2 Semifinals
• €5.6 Runner up
• €9m winners prize.

So if you win every game your total prize money will be €31.5m which is by no means a figure to sniff at. However considering that  Manchester United got got €29.2m in 2010 just for reaching the quarter finals you can see the real money comes in the form of TV distribution or the Market Pool as UEFA prefers to call it.

This year the market pool is estimated at €341m, which is shared amongs all teams participating in the group stages. How much you get from that pool is based on, in order of importance:

1. The size of your domestic Tv Market
2. Your final position in the previous season’s league.
3. How many games you play in the competition

The English market pool is estimated at €84m but the distribution is skewed in favour of your place in the previous season’s league table. So much so that unless Arsenal go all the way to the finals, league Champions Manchester United can still expect to earn more TV money—estimated €24m—than Arsenal despite being out of the competition.

FIG.1 —2010-11 Champions league prize money. Click to zoom

For comparison in the 2009/2010 Premier League Arsenal was 3rd and Spurs 4th. Although Spurs made it to the quarter finals and Arsenal was knocked out in the round of 16, the Gunners still took home €2m more of the market pool than Tottenham^Fig.1.

The previous year illustrates this sharper. Liverpool who was second in the league did not make it out of the group yet took home €20m of the Market Pool playing 4 less games compared to €16m^fig.2 for Arsenal who made to the quarter finals.

FIG.2 —2009-10 UCL prize money distribution. click to zoom

In conclusion, except for the small amount earned for actual games played TV money is already apportioned, and it has nothing to do with how many teams left in the competition at this stage and everything to do with how well you do in your league.

The assumption is that Vermaelen will partner Mertesacker in the long run, however as far as I am concerned it will be Koscielny in the driver seat with others fighting for a game.

This morning I had intended to write more about Koscielny’s rise from Lique 1 to 1st choice at The Arsenal, however in my feed reader I saw that @dstonearsenal wrote an excellent piece on that topic, so I’m just going to add a few words about the man who according to the esteemed Mr. Redknapp had finally “arrived” in the 3-5 win against Chelsea.

As Darius Stone wrote, the first thing that fans use to judge a player is the nonsensical notion of equating transfer fee to quality. So Koscielny instantly fails in this regard with his £8.4m fee paling in comparison to top class defenders. I find it unbelievable than anyone would think that way.

The fact is the transfer fee has more to do with how much one party is willing to sell at and how mush the other is willing to pay. It has more to do with the particular needs of a club and that of a player. It has more to do with vanity than reality. It has more to do with timing.

It has little to do with quality. Anelka went from £500,000 to £22.3m and everything in between, yet his quality was consistent throughout. What does that say? We’re not comparing different players or positions. The same player was traded for:

• £500,000 —Arsenal —Games per goal(2.83)
• £22,300,000 —Real Madrid —Games per goal(9.5)
• £20,000,000 —PSG —Games per goal(3.9)
• £12,000,000 —Manchester City —Games per goal(2.4)
• £7,000,000 —Fenerbahçe —Games per goal(2.8)
• £8,000,000 —Bolton —Games per goal(2.5)
• £15,000,000 —Chelsea —Games per goal(3.24)

What does this show? Transfer fee is a lottery. The performance of a player has nothing to do with his transfer fee.

More than the transfer fee, the judgement on Koscielny’s quality is gratuitously skewed because of a few relatively high profile errors. No matter that he has kept an untold number of strikers quiet, or he as the best timing of tackles, recovery pace, or positioning. He will always be shit in people’s eyes because of that Carling Cup Final.

That is a classic human failing otherwise known as cognitive biases. In particular a Negativity bias – the tendency to pay more attention and give more weight to negative than positive experiences or other kinds of information.

Another form of cognitive bias that Koscielny suffers from is the Von Restorff effect – the tendency for an item that “stands out like a sore thumb” to be more likely to be remembered than other items.

An all action player who put in 1 or 2 crunching tackles in a game but not much else is held in higher regard than one who times and wins 5 or 6 interceptions. Yet it should be obvious that an interception is more valuable than the type of tackle that is more often than not a foul. Even when it is not a foul you’re hardly in a position to do anything with the ball if you’re lucky enough to win the ball.

I keep hearing that Laurent is error prone, when the truth is again linked to the Wembley final. An event that sticks out like a sore thumb, and one that is out of the ordinary for the defender. An own goal against Blackburn caused the old error prone line to resurface. Yet the fact that these errors stick out so much should lead one to conclude that he is infact not error prone and these events are extreme cases.

This is the same stick used to beat Arshavin with, using a 4 goal performance at Liverpool as the benchmark. Expecting him to put in that type of performance on a regular basis is foolish, it may never happen again. The benchmark for Arshavin is an assist every other game or a goal every 3-4 games, sadly every time he fails to score 4 it’s another poor performance—madness.

These cognitive biases are present in everyone, the trick is to acknowledge their existence and ask yourself  “am I being biased here?” Obviously as football fans we will have our tinted spectacles on and it’s fine as long as we realise that those specs are indeed on.

We love you Arsenal

Every transfer is a gamble.

The reality is no one can predict how a new player is going to perform at their new club, and no one is exempt. There have been numerous players who were rubbish before moving clubs and suddenly becoming world class, whilst some of the best players in the world can forget to take their talent along with them to a new team.

The art is minimising those risks and or maximising the potential. Instinctively the first step to minimising risk is the buying price, as it’s much easier to write off a million dollar purchase than to have the patience to nurture a £20m flop. Yet no one can deny that at €94m Christiano Ronaldo represents good value for Real Madrid.

While it’s easy to determine the current value of a product or a company, football managers are trying to put a price on a human being, who can stop performing because he doesn’t like the weather, or missing his dog, or food, or language, or anything else that affects a product as fragile as the human being.

Price does not equate to quality

History has taught us that in no way does price determine how good or bad a player can be. The price paid for a player is simply the product of negotiations between the two parties.

Every team would give you a different value for every player, it’s not about market value, I’d go as far as saying there is no such thing as market value for a player. Deals are made between two parties, there is no established trading price for any player only how much one is willing to pay and at what price another is willing to sell.

The difference is in negotiation acumen or style, depth of pockets, and perceived value.

What can you do for me?

The big question is how will a player fit at a club, how will he improve the team. Exactly why Barcelona placed a lower value on Cesc than they did on Villa. While they already had players to fulfil the role Fàbregas would have played in the team, Villa filled avoid on the pitch hence they paid more for Villa than they were willing to pay for Cesc—one big reason why Cesc will be staying at Arsenal.

Off the pitch there is also value in a player’s brand that must also be paid for, demand for Real Madrid’s shirts went up 350% when David Beckham signed. Whilst it is said that they (Real Madrid) sold 1.2 million “Ronaldo 9″ shirts within 6 months of his arrival in Madrid. At €74 that is almost €90m, with hindsight it’s easy to see that €94m was an absolute bargain.

Unfortunately hindsight is not available on the negotiation table, therefore clubs simply have to look at how much they can afford, and take a risk based on how good that player will turn out to be.

So if Liverpool were to sell Henderson for £30m in 2014, and Şahin were to move on for a loss after a year in Spain—like Huntelaar— then the current brouhaha about Henderson will all be forgotten and Dalglish will be hailed a genius. Only time will tell.

At the top is the Über rich, money is no object shopper. Who will simply look at price to determine quality. The type who shops at the top end luxury stores. They have personal shoppers because the have no concept of value, and will accept anything their personal shoppers recommend. And occasionally they buy at I saw you coming, or go to high end auctions outbidding each other in a vulgar display of oppulence.

The Übers depend on a high value resource to fund his spending, and will continue to do so until the resource is depleted or they just get bored of it all.

Sometimes the winner of trophies and fans, but even with their largesse trophies can’t always be guaranteed and frustration ensues, underlings are sacked, assets are written off, and new, more expensive ones are bought in an effort to regain previous adulation. Ultimately, even with all that spending nothing is guaranteed.

Then is the leveraged rich with some sense of value, but willing to risk some to earn more kind of shopper. Those will be in the high end shops but still look for value, whilst not afraid to pop into M&S now and then. Always looking to make shrewd investments but will spoil themselves every now and again.

They live the good life, but under a cloud of uncertainty where a black swan event could ruin them. Outwardly secure but knowing one false move could mean the start of a downward spiral.

Admired by many for being able to stay at the top of the hill for so long, seen as the gold standard by many. The burden of debt accumulated to gain that perch remains a constant source of anxiety.

At the bottom of the top is the value based shopper, the kind who will set a budget and not go past it under any circumstance. Every shopping trip is governed by a strict set of rules, parameters are set and a purchase is made only when all criteria is fulfilled. Let’s call him Mr. Prudent

This type of shopper never spends more than they earn In fact the always spend less than they earn leaving aside some funds for a rainy day. Luxury is not part of their psyche. Never buys anything because it’s the hot item or because we just like it, no it must fulfil a need.

No one likes going to shop with this person, mostly because it takes too long. Going to each shop trying to find that perfect deal, we get exasperated at him, yell at him to just buy something, anything so we can go home.

That’s not to say there’s no risk involved with Mr. Prudent, just a lower level of risk, he is willing to build and nurture so his risks involves buying raw material and building them into the products he needs. Those are handmade products so there are some that fail to meet the standard required, they are discarded with a heavy heart but still at a price that at least covers costs.

The really good ones we get to keep and use to maintain status amongst the elite. Those are coveted by the high end shoppers, sometimes they move on, but usually it’s after serving their purpose and at a price that pays for a few years worth of raw material, and so the process continues.

Mr. Prudent was once at the very top of the pyramid, but knew to be robust in the future capital investment was needed. He built a lovely new home so that when he passes his family will be able to maintain there place without seeking outside help.

He knew that building the new home would significantly reduce his shopping budget for a great many years, but endeavoured to make that sacrifice at the cost of accolades and prizes.

In the years since the new house the Übers moved in, threatening to nudge Mr. Prudent’s family from the elite neighbourhood. Somehow he managed to stay amongst the top, competing for honours failing by small margins. Amongst his family there is discontent, there are those who want to live like the Übers, those who want a trophy at any cost, even those who wishes him out.

However he’s playing the long game, and things are changing. New rules are in place that will prevent the Übers and The Leveraged from unlimited spending, things are going to be a bit more equal. Some of Mr Prudent’s products are at maturity, some under performers will be moved on.

The mortgage on the new house is being reduced, new commercial income is being sourced, this year Mr. Prudent has been closer than ever to winning a prize—an experience strangely more painful than not being close at all—the pieces are falling together, but the family is falling apart.

This shopping window could be Mr. Prudent’s most important, his shopping basket will be closely monitored. The products sold this summer will be of great significance, maybe more so than what he buys.

Next time we look at Prudent’s shopping techniques, how exactly does he determine value in the market. See you then.

As with all things in this media led football administration it seems that the solution for England’s woes are to copy who or what ever is doing well now with no thought for long term strategy. As such the main thrust for Wilshere’s inclusion in the U21 finals is to better prepare him for next year Uefa 2012 competition, this in itself shows some strategic thinking but is it the correct strategy?

If you’re on the starting 11 for a team that is competing for a premier league title, playing champions league football, and your national senior team what can you learn playing in an under 21 tournament? How can you learn—other than, maybe humility—when you’re the best on the pitch?

Instead of taking a deep and long look at the success/failures of others we look at the end result and try to emulate what they are doing currently instead of what they have done in the long term build up to their success.

Germany winning the U21 was a step towards the success of 2010.

Not true. For all the talk of young players in the German World Cup
Squad, the fact remains that only 2 of those U21 players were in the world cup squad, Ozil and Neuer. It’s not like those U21 stars stepped up to the next level because of the tournament. They would have anyway, U21 or not. As did Thomas Muller.

Another convenient omission is that none of those at the U21 championship was an, and this is important, integral part of the senior squad. In fact the only person who had more than one cap at senior level before that tournament was Gonzalo Castro.

In the case of Castro, I would not be surprised if those caps were just to tie the player to Germany before Spain could get their hands on him. He has never featured for the senior squad since

Once moved on to the senior squad none moved back down. Which is exactly the opposite of what the Wilshere-to-U21-tournament-campaigners would have you believe.

Another presented as an example of a player who used the U21 to move up was Iniesta, who famously represented Spain at every level in international football.

How did Iniesta situation compare to Wilshere’s? It does not. Iniesta was nowhere near Jack’s level at 19/20 years old. Iniesta had not represented the seniors before he was 20. And was never asked to revert to U21 once representing the Seniors.

And to exacerbate the delusional thinking of the FA, Stuart Pearce, and some in the media. The idea that playing in the U21 will be good for Jack is based on the assumption that England will win the tournament.

The arrogance of English football knows no bounds, every argument made for Wilshere going to that tournament is accompanied by the experience he will gain when, not if, England wins the tournament

Think about that, Wilshere should play because his development will be hastened when England wins a tournament that they almost failed to qualify for? Remember they had to depend on other results in the last round of matches in order to qualify for second place playoffs in a group that contained powerhouses such as Greece (group winners), Lithuania and Macedonia.

Amazingly no thought is given to what will happen to his development when they get knocked out in the first round.

I just can’t see what is to be gained by the inclusion of Wilshere. The experience can’t be better than playing a full premier league season, it can’t be better than testing yourself against Barcelona, and to say winning it will give him a taste of lifting any trophy hadn’t he done that at U18?

Sending Wilshere cannot be more beneficial to Wilshere than a good rest after a gruelling Premier league campaign, it will be beneficial to England but not to Wilshere, anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional.

For all his genius, one quality that Wenger lacks is the prescience that every man and his dog is blessed with, case in point the current goalkeeping fiasco. Everyone knows that at some point we would have to depend on our third or fourth keeper, so why a so called genuis couldn’t forsee injuries to his starting and backup keepers is beyond comprehension.

What is more unforgivable is that, he had the money to buy a new keeper yet decided against it for no apparent reason than to save a few bucks. Even if we agree that we have one of the best young keepers around in Szczȩsny and a fine backup in Fabiański or vice versa it is important that the third goalkeeper is not a dud. Just look at the depth of the title contenders in the goalkeeping position

• Chelsea – Ross Turnbull
• United – Anders lindgard, Ben Amos
• City – Gunnar Nielsen, Stuart Taylor
• Spurs – Stipe Pletikosa

All are infinitely better than Manuel Almunia and Jens Lehman. It is nothing short of negligence for Arsène to have put The Arsenal in this situation, utter madness. We could have spent £18m on Hugo Lloris who would never make silly mistakes like Almunia, and is especially strong on corners where we let in many goals.

Or £15m on Manuel Neuer who would never get beaten by a long punt again like the Spanish Manuel does so often…

But no, because of the man’s arrogance the title race is now out of our hands, a full five points behind United and with Chelsea now gathering momentum we’d be lucky to finish 2nd. Although we were predicted to drop out of the top 4 contemplating a third place finish is unbearable, it’s just not acceptable for a club as big as Arsenal, especially as our rival neighbours are in the Champions league quarter finals.

We all knew that our keepers would get injured as is always the case year after year, we cannot afford to have just 1 solid backup in such an important position. To win the trophies we deserve we need, at a minimum, 2 world class players in every position on the pitch and 3 world class goalkeepers to cover for injuries.

All good things must come to an end and if Wenger can’t these simple problems then I’m afraid his time at the helm of The Arsenal has come to shuddering halt.

We easily get sucked into the media led illusion that we won’t win anything with our current defence, while blithely ignoring the profligacy we’ve shown time and time again in front of goal. Notwithstanding the poor refereeing, we would have won the game if not for our failure to convert chances.

There have been blunders at the back that have cost us games, even cost us a trophy this season. However it’s no good the defence to shut up shop only for the forwards not to score when the opportunity arises.

The reason why United are top of the league not because of their mighty defence. Do not be fooled they have conceded just as much as the soft underbelly of The Arsenal. The reason why they are up there is because they take their chances.

It’s very much the same as when van Persie is playing. We always look a better side because more often than not Robin van Persie will convert chances into goals. The dutch striker scores roughly 1 in 4 attempts while the rest of the team needs 7 shots to convert 1 goal.

Yesterday I tweeted that United has 5 more goals than us from 36 less shots, if we were as clinical as they were we’d have we’d have 69 goals as opposed to 57. Even if we were not top of the league at least we’d have a superior goal difference.

On Saturday the easy thing to do was to look at the mistakes made by the referee, the offside decision that never was did cost us. That goal would have had us 1 point behind Manchester United today.

I’d like to ask how many of us looked at that decision in real time and thought it was onside? It was so close that the only way the linesman could get that right is if he had been perfectly in line with Arshavin.

Instead of blaming the referee or linesman we should look at our own players. When Chamakh laid that cutback perfectly for Arshavin to score why did he put that it straight to the keeper when it was easier not to? Or why when presented with a clear header did Chamakh go for power over accuracy? Six inches better placed and we’d not be having this conversation.

In football it’s always easy to blame the ref or the manager, but the ones who should shoulder the blame are the individuals who make more mistakes than either manager or referee.

A point closer to the title

Despite my negative tone, I still think that it was a good weekend for The Arsenal. We have Dirk Kuyt and Livepool to thank for that, about time someone show United for the shit team that there are. Always scrapping by, fooling people into thinking that they are such a great team.

Those fuckers are like playing your little brother on FIFA, always gloating when he eeks out a win with some lucky rebound, or just waltzing right through your defender. The minute you start beating him, he chucks away the controller and decides he wants to play something else.—I digress.

Even if we were able to beat Sunderland, United might have beaten Liverpool and we would be 4 points behind instead of 3. In any case we still have to beat United when they visit us at the Emirates.

Tomorrow we face Barcelona and I’m not expecting anything out of this game. I’d be over the moon if we win, but I will not be unduly troubled if we were to lose at the Camp Nou. As long as it’s not a demoralising 5-0 defeat, I’d be happy to concentrate on the Premier League, which is a title that is more winnable.

Nicklas or Marouane, who is going to fill van Persie's shoes

I read an article somewhere recently which sought to statistically prove that Bendtner is the best striker in europe, sadly I can’t find it this morning. I’m not even sure if the point was well made, or accurate, but I do remember revolving around goals per minute goals per minute.

Sure Bendtner is not as good as he thinks he is — although he never did say he is the best in the world, merely that his goal is to be the best in the world. We never do let the facts get in the way, do we? — but he isn’t as bad as some of us make him out to be.

Now I have to confess my admiration for the lad, I love his gumption. His confidence is something that should be bottled and distributed to some of the other squad members. Yes I’m looking at you Chamakh, you’re just a tad too timid for my liking. Strikers should be arrogant, greedy, and have a supreme belief that they can score at all times. Even if they’ve missed the previous 10 attempts.

This season he has 12 goals from 13 starts which is much better than I imagined before looking it up. Going back further he had 12 goals last season, the same as Arshavin who played 11 games more than Bendtner, second only to Fàbregas both of whom played much more games that the big Dane, maybe he’s not so deluded after all.

There is this peculiar trait most of us have that tend make us dislike braggadocio, we hate the gum chewing, the nonchalance, and the lack of concern he shows when he misses or loses the ball, but if we look past the cosmetic faults we’ll find tangible results.

How many times has he come through for us, snatching a last minute goal when things are dire. He doesn’t just score against minnows like Leyton Orient, he does it against the biggest teams in the world. Who was it that kept us hanging around in the title race when RvP was nursing his ankle?

Now that van Persie is out for the next 4 weeks, I’d much rather turn to Nicklas Bendtner in this time of need than any of the other strikers in the squad. Now is not the time for the meek, now is the time for men to stand up and show some balls and no one in the squad has a bigger set than Super Nicky B.

Barcelona, Real Madrid, Schalke, or Bayern Munich awaits Arsenal

I wrote before that it would be better to avoid Barcelona in the next round without explaining quite why. You see it’s not that I think we can’t beat Barça, it is possible to get past them and if we do it will bode well for the next rounds.

It is more likely, however, that we may fall at that hurdle and if that happens then it will be more than just losing to the “greatest club in the world.” The problem I have with that is twofold. First of all, I hate those hypocritical, preening, bastards. I would much rather lose to Real Madrid than to Barça, much as I dislike Mourinho I’ll even be hoping he would eventually put those pricks out.

The second problem with losing in the round of 16 is money. Unlike some clubs, The Arsenal can’t (or won’t) rely on a sugar daddy to hand over millions of pounds on demand. Income has to be earned by the sweat of our brow, and to that end going out in the first knock-out could cost us a minimum of £12m.

The numbers break down as follows:

£1m performance bonus for making it to the quarter finals, I’m assuming a win and a draw.
£3.3m For taking part in the quarter-finals, this is just appearance fee.
£3.3m gate receipts for one of the quarter finals matches.
£4.6m TV. Market money -

The Tv money is calculated as half the difference between United making it to the quarter finals (£28.8m) and Chelsea who was knocked out in the round of sixteen (£18m). Although this year the total TV pool has been increased, there are 4 English teams instead of 3 the Tv money for each premier league team will be lowered, hence why I used (£4.6m instead of £9.2).

Romantic as it is to go out in a blaze of glory, the financial difference between going out in the round of 16 and losing in the quarter finals is huge. Meeting Barcelona in the Semi finals or losing in the finals could be a £25 million pound difference.

So while it is true that to win the competition you have to beat the big teams, putting off those matches for later rounds makes a huge difference to a team that depends purely on self made income.

Here’s to getting Schalke in the next round.

I suspect that Wenger is using some clever reverse psychology Jedi mind trick to fool opponents into attacking us leaving their own defence open to our impressive attacking options. That, or he simply feels we have enough firepower to score 1 more than the opposition. It works for that lot up the road so why not?

Our defence isn’t as bad as some might want you to think. There’s this impression that once the opposition scores then panic ensues amongst the players, we crumble 1 leads to 2 and the next thing you know we’ve lost. It happened against Shakhtar and we repeated the feat against our neighbours then lost to Braga, since then we’ve been agonising over our defence.

So what? Why should we unduly worry ourselves about our defence? I am more worried about our failure to convert more of the chances we create. It’s simple if we had taken those chances then conversations about the defence would never happen.

We had more than enough chances to score 4 against Sp*rs, had we put away those chances no one would be questioning the defence. Against Fulham we should have been at least 3 up before they scored. Yet we here are tormented over the state of the defence. I do wonder if the panic we talk about on the pitch really exist, or is it just us fans who have no trust in our boys to score that extra goal.

Witness the Villa game, we were 2 nil up when the scored, panic ensues among the fans whilst the guys on the pitch simply go out and score another. At 3-2 fans screaming at players to take it to the corner flag, when the better option was to score another, which we eventually did.

If we think that it’s not possible to improve the defence then the best option is to put on the shooting boots and score as many as we can. No one is questioning the defence of Borussia Dortmund because the simply go out and score as many as they can, forcing the opposition to retreat into their defensive zone in order to prevent Dortmund from scoring too much.

I’m no tactical expert but it seems to me that the Dortmund model can work, even if we lose 1 or 2 games when we can’t find the back of the net. Losing one or two games is better than drawing four games. It may give the impression that you keep it tight and all that, but you can’t win if you don’t score.

Proposed design for the new stdium in Rostov-on-Don

However we must remember that we are not the only ones in this, Russia, Qatar and other countries also have the right to host the World Cup and before jumping on the bandwagon of anti-Fifa conjecture we must ask ourselves did Fifa really make such a bad decision?

Leaving aside the murkiness that is the Fifa Executive Committee voting process, let’s take an honest look at the winning Russian bid and the possible reasons for Fifa’s decision.

The argument that England hasn’t had the World Cup since 1966 and it’s about time the competition revisits English shores is a non starter. The fact is we’ve already had the tournament, yes other countries have hosted it more than once, but some have not yet had the opportunity.

Russia clearly made that point in their presentation, nearly all Western European countries have had a chance yet the World Cup has never been to Eastern Europe. If England were to have it on the basis that it hasn’t had it for a while then Russia’s case — as is Netherlands/Belgiums— is even stronger.

Russia is not a footballing nation, the market for the game in that country is huge and untapped. Taking the game to Russia is

Given the enthusiasm Fifa has for taking the Cup to new markets, then it’s easy to see why Englands bid was disadvantaged from the onset.

The case for Stadia shouldn’t be taken into account, the simple fact is these things will get built by the time the World Cup comes around, if South Africa can do it do we for a minute think that Russia will have any problems construction the most modern of Stadiums? These stadiums are needed and will be used by the proposed cities. Even if they end up being white elephants, the cost can easily be absorbed by Russia, again if South Africa can do it…

The biggest whinge about the Russian Bid is that it is such a vast land mass, and transportation links are primitive. I can’t remember anyone complaining about Brazil being too big. The farthest distance between Stadiums in Russia (Staliningrad to Yekaterinburg) is 1541 miles as the crow flies, to give you an idea of how far this is it’s the same distance as London to Moscow or 10 times London to Manchester. No doubt this is a huge distance, still it’s not as far as Porto Allegre to Manuas in Brazil to which is 25% farther or 13 times London to Manchester.

We think of Brazil as a place of fun and sun but in reality it is a vast country with transport links that are even worse than Russia’s. We can always depend on the Russians to push through public works and get things done, Fifa is confident that Airports, and or Rail links can be built before 2018. Brazil is still dragging their feet, work has yet to start on the infrastructure needed to host the cup, somehow I doubt the Russians with their deep pockets will be as slow as brazil has been.

The point is despite the talk of Stadiums and technical reports and such, in Fifa’s —Sepp Blatter— eyes the most important consideration is taking the World Cup to new frontiers and on that point England was always going to be the loser.

Nasri, Sagna, and Clichy was in that French squad and whilst Clichy didn’t make off the subs bench, Sagna didn’t have much to do in defence against a lacklustre English side. Sagna finished with an assist for the second goal.

Nasri was the crux of the French machine, his passing was adroit, his dribbles were bewitching, his movement was dynamic, though not the captain, Nasri was de Facto commandant of the gallic conquerors. In the end only an upright could deny him the goal that would complete an accomplished display.

Whilst on the other side of the field Keiran Gibbs and Walcott struggled to make any impact on the game. Gibbs was short of match practice and it showed, then again he didn’t get any help from the idiot in front of him. Walcott meanwhile continued to keep a stiff upper lip when it’s clear that he is not much liked by some of his team mates —Shame

England was not the only team licking their wounds this morning, Spain suffered another heavy post World Cup™ defeat. This time at the hands of their neighbours. Fábregas played the second half in a 4-0 defeat, the Arsenal captain admitting they were outclassed, apologised to the Spanish fans:

“We’re hurt. It’s been a big scoreline but we have to lift ourselves, we wanted to finish the year well but now we have to wait until February. It’s not been our best game but you also have to know how to lose.
The truth is it’s a match where we can’t take anything positive. They played better than us, they had a lot of desire. Now we need to apologise to the fans and continue forward.”

Continuing the theme of big wins Łukasz Fabiański was in goal for a Polish team who have not had a good run of results recently. Having failed to register a win in their last 8 games which included a 6-0 thrashing at the hands of Spain, the Poles had an emphatic 3–1 victory over Côte d’Ivoire. Emmanuel Eboué came out unscathed after 54 minutes in the game.

Rosický and Djourou and Chamakh played out tame draws, Rosický featuring in the first half against a Bendtnerless Denmark. Whilst Djourou and Chamakh played the full 90 in their games. Djourou against Ukraine with Chamakh taking advantage of a hapless goalkeeper to open the scoring for Morocco.

Another player lasting the full 90 was Andrey Arshavin, how did he do it? We’ll never know, but the Russian was on the losing side in a 0-2 result against Belgium.

…And finally, after all the shenanigans between Wenger and van Marwijk, Robin van Persie played —and finished unhurt— the second half for Netherlands against Turkey. Although he will never admit it, Arsène must be happy that the striker got some game time under his belt.

With the exception of Wilshere and Bendtner all players should be back from their excursions injury free, which is the result we really look forward to during the international break.

Walcott represents one of the experienced players still under 23 years old.

In other circles it’s seen as a sign of squad depth. That a team can make 9 changes from a “big 4 game” yet still field a team that considered almost too strong for the Carling Cup is a testament to the vision of Monsieur Wenger. The fact is Arsenal’s reserve team can only be matched by Manchester City and we all know how much their reserves cost.

While perusing the the comments in a recent Guardian article —an article which decried Arsène for fielding experienced pros like Denilson and Bendtner— I had to laugh when, in comparing Arsenal’s kids to Manchester United’s a poster include 23 year old Daron Gibson as a kid while Denilson (age 22) is described as experienced.

Admittedly the Squad which took the field against Newcastle last night are hardly kids any more, but it is through the faith of Wenger that we can now field players who are young yet full of first team experience. While we were being derided for not taking the league cup seriously, the players were racking up games. Not just any games, games where it mattered, painful losses against Stoke, Burnley and Spurs, the finals against Chelsea. These players were tested and are now much better for these failures.

The following players were included in the starting line-ups of the failures:

Chelsea Feb 08
Gavin Hoyte(17), Armand Traore(17), Theo Walcott(17), Fábregas(20), Denilson(17), Abou Diaby(21).

Burnley 1-2 Dec 08
Lukasz Fabianski(23), Gavin Hoyte(18), Carlos Vela(19), Kieran Gibbs(19), Jack Wilshere(16), Mark Randall(19), Fran Merida(18), Aaron Ramsey(18), Nicklas Bendtner(20), Paul Rodgers(19).

Spurs 5-1 Jan 08
Lukasz Fabianski(23), Justin Hoyte(17), Armand Traore(18), Denilson(19), Theo Walcott(18), Nicklas Bendtner(19)

City 0-3 Dec 09
Lukasz Fabianski(24), Armand Traore(20), Craig Eastmond(19), Fran Merida(19), Aaron Ramsey(19), Jack Wilshere(17), Carlos Vela(19).

Stoke 3-1 Jan 2010
Lukasz Fabianski(23), Francis Coquelin(19), Armand Traore(19), Craig Eastmond(19), Denilson(20), Jay Emmanuel-Thomas(19), Theo Walcott(20), Carlos Vela(20).

As you can see a few of those players have moved on, some still on the fringes of the first team, while others are now considered experienced pros. Notably they’ve played together for a long time, but by and large they are still very young footballers.

The team that dispatched Newcastle, looked to all concerned to be a “strong” team on the basis that most are really amongst the 1st team squad. The exceptions are Szczesny, Vela, and Eastmond. However only Koscienly could be considered a regular starter. In another lifetime that line-up would be called reserves. How many teams could make so many changes yet maintain a line-up that is considered unfairly strong for the Carling cup?.

What Wenger knew is that throwing in Kids for 10 minutes at the end of a rout does nothing for those players. The need to feel the atmosphere and tension of those Carling cup games. As much as those failures hurt, we can be sure that those who make it from the above list did not come through some wishy washy victories, but they have been forged by the fires of defeat. Learnt from the experience of failures, and are hungry to taste the sweet elixir of success.

There remains the problem of the next crop. What do we do with the likes of J.E-T, Afobe and Lansbury, who in the past would have been playing Carling Cup games but are being blocked by senior squad players who need games? That’s a problem for the pros to solve, as it is I’ll simply enjoy the entertainment Arsenal has to offer.

Many people think that it is a legitimate tactic against teams that are technically better, and while it may work some of the time, it’s rather more of an embarrassment to English football. It certainly does nothing to improve the standard of defending when the default position is to stop the man instead of winning the ball.

The following is a former premier league footballer expressing his and his managers’ idea of the game. Take a listen…

This surmises why, instead of castigating Karl Henry when he repeatedly assaulted Joey Barton, the MOTD cast was openly enjoying Henry’s performance. Partly because it shows how they expect the game to be played and partly because the victim was Joey Barton.

If Henry had got the card(s) he deserved maybe he’d not be around to break Zamora’s leg. At the very least he’d think about how he approached tackling in the next game. Then again Cattermole of Sunderland proved that brandishing cards does not necessarily affect a players mindset.

It’s not just the players though. If savage is to be believed then culpability lies with the managers whose tactic against better teams is to instruct their charges to stop the other team in any way they can. What do we expect when you send out players with that mindset?

There will always be injuries in the game, but when players believe that it is acceptable to go in hard, trip people over if they past you, or jump with a leading elbow it increases the risk to fellow professionals, it’s unnecessary and it doesn’t help you win games.

The caller on that clip pointed out that Switzerland, though technically inferior to Spain, played a hard defensive game without resorting to underhand tactics and came out victors. I didn’t see Hercules resorting to cynical football when they beat Barcelona last weekend, nor did Cessena over Milan.

Sky would like us to think that the Premier League is the greatest league in the world, but I know many people outside of England who won’t watch the Premier League because it’s too dirty. These people would rather watch La Liga the Fußball-Bundesliga or Serie A.

Sending your team out to stop the opposition from playing is simply a pre-requisite to injuries, and until the FA, Premier League, Referees, and the media does something about it players and fans we will all suffer the consequences.

@optajean noted that Arsenal have never won in Ukraine (3 defeats, 1 draw), Portugal (2 defeats, 3 draws) and Serbia (1 defeat).

Arsenal will face SC Braga, Shakhtar Donetsk, and FK Partizan in the Champions league group stages

The best way to summarize our group is not too hard but not easy. There is the distinct possibility of losing points, but the quality amongst the other teams are such that they will also take points off each other. Winning all home games is the key to qualifying for the knock-out stages.

Shakhtar Donetsk, Champions of Ukraine.

Our history against Shakhtar has not been that great. We all remember what happened the last time we visited them, and a 3-2 win at Highbury wasn’t that convincing either.

The return of Eduardo was the first thing on our minds when they were drawn in our group, but you just know the croziallian is going to score against us. Eduardo has already netted twice in his 3 games so far for the coalminers of Donetsk and a return to form looks imminent.

Eduardo is just 1 of a group of Brazilians at the club, infact with the exception of Srna their midfield is entirely Brazilian and short (the tallest being 5’9″).

Braga the Little Arsenal.

I love Braga, I think it’s the stadium. Estádio Municipal de Braga is cut into a granite mountain and only have two stands cut into a hillside, there’s only two stands, Behind the goal at one end are the rock walls of the quarry and at the other is an open view over the city sprawling in the distance.

Not only do they have a lovely stadium, but they love Arsenal. They wear the same colours, they are called Arsenal do Minho, their youth team is Arsenal do Braga and the fans are known as Arsenalistas.

No one gave Braga a chance against Sevilla, and it would be remiss of us not to give them a chance in the group stages.

FK Partizan Champions of Serbia.

For the last 3 years they’ve been the champions of Serbian football, that though has not translated into success in the champions league. The last time the made it to the group stages of the champions league was 2003/2004 where they won 1 of their 10 matches.

This year is the they had to rely on penalty kicks to get past Anderlecht. While playing away in Serbia is always a challenge, it is not insurmountable at all.

The draw has been kind to us.

Arsenal signs Squillaci.

The days of Arsène springing a surprise on us during the transfer window seems to be long over. Arsenal.com has finally announced the signing of Sébastien Squilacci, the worst kept secret in this transfer window.

The player said

“This is an exciting move for me. Arsène Wenger is a highly respected coach who I am very much looking forward to working with and of course, I know some of the Arsenal players through the national team. Arsenal is recognised as a side that not only plays beautiful football but one that challenges for trophies at the highest level and I am very excited to be joining such a fantastic club.”

hopefully he will turn out to be a Vermaelen type signing as opposed to a Silvèstre one.

See you all next time.

Mats hummels would make an excellent addition to Arsenal's squad.

Having spent a season on loan at Borrussia Dortmund, the club was so impressed decided to sign him permanently. Leaving Bayern Munich’s assistant coach Hermann Gerland to lament that FC Hollywood made a mistake in letting go of the promising defender.

“I’ve always known that Mats had the potential to become a class defender. We should never have let him go on a permanent basis,”

According to those who follow the German league, this may be just the man Arsenal needs to shore up the defence. The timing of his tackles is impeccable. He has also shown an excellent ability to read the game for one so young and at 6 foot 3 inches he has proved a useful weapon at defending and attacking set-pieces, with 5 goals to his name.

OK so I’ve totally made that up, but most of what you read in the papers are made up and this is much more believable.

Instead of all the hullabullo about Mark Schwarzer, the real need is at centre back. Wenger has on been harping on about it for months. Yet all we keep hearing about is a damn goalkeeper.

We could buy the best goalkeeper in the world, but that won’t help us much if we allow as many 1 on 1 situations as we did last season. We’ve lost Gallas, Campbell, Silvestre and Senderos —yes I know that the last 2 aren’t really losses but you know what I mean— and the only replacement we’ve brought in is Koscielny.

There is a clear and present need to get another body in that position, at the moment we only have 3 recognized centre backs and with Djourou injured (again) that leaves us to open the season with Håvard Nordtveit as backup. As far as I can tell Nordtveit only played at right-back during the pre-season, which shows that Wenger does not regard him as a centre back.

We all know that Arsène is stubborn, but to not buy another centre back could be viewed as negligence and dereliction of duty.

So for all those who say that they are worried about the goalkeeping situation, I fear that those misgivings are entirely misplaced. What the gooner nation should really be worried about is the centre back position.

Forget about the goalkeepers, because anyone who looks at last season objectively will realise that the defence has put the goalkeepers in terribly compromising situations much too often. Van der Saar, and Cech hardly had has many saves to make as our keepers.

Once we sort out the defenders, then we can think about winning the title. Otherwise I’m afraid that we’ll have to forget about defence and just make sure we score more than the opposition.

Please note arsenal has not signed Mats Hummels, this is just to illustrate where the focus should be.

While it is by no means the only solution to our defensive woes, a change of personnel would be the most obvious change to satisfy our needs. With that in mind let’s take a look at where we stand in terms of defensive players, more precisely let’s start with goalkeepers.

First off Szczęsny looks like he will be Arsenal’s main custodian some time in the future, Arsène has said as much. He could be sent out on loan again this season, although Wojciech himself says he’d rather stay and fight for the No.1 jersey he’d be better off getting as much playing time under his belt as possible.

Mannone is the forgotten man in the goalkeeping set-up. It seems that he is in no man’s land. That is not to say that he isn’t highly regarded, but when Fabiański was brought in it was on the back of championship winning form an being goalkeeper of the year albeit in the Polish League.

So it’s fair to say that Fabiański is ahead of Mannone in the pecking order, however as a backup to the backup and looking at the 3rd choice of other teams Mannone is one of the best around. He certainly did not let us down when called upon last season.

Which brings us to the problem called Fabiański. Brought to Arsenal as the next big thing and rightly so. Arsène bought a player who was battling Artur Boruc for the Polish #1 jersey, suffice to say Fabiański ended up looking nowhere the goalkeeper he was expected to be. Yet unless Wenger buys a new keeper —something which looks increasingly unlikely— we are going to be stuck with Łukasz.

In defence of the Pole, his mistakes have all come in high profile important matches. What this says of his ability to play under pressure? We don’t know. He certainly talks the talk, but even I can admit that he does not instil confidence in those around him. The problem is he may turn out to be just what we needed, however it’s hard to see him learning his craft at a club that has ambitions of winning the league.

It is always possible that Fabiański can hit a run of form, or confidence that will make all our postulation count for nought. Players can always improve, it sometimes takes only 1 thing to click and turn you into a world beater. There are countless examples of sportsmen who were written off only to become great in their field. So don’t rule out Fabiański just yet.

The calls for Wenger to buy a new keeper is growing louder as we get closer to the end of the transfer window. The desperation has even lead to spurious reports of Mark Schwarzer handing in a transfer request, so great is his desire to join Arsenal. Other players being foisted on Arsenal includes any of the 2 at Manchester City, knowing that none of Given or Hart would be willing to sit on the bench at the eastlands it is easy to say we’ll take any.

The question is will any of those improve our goals against figure?

There are arguments to say we would be better off with either of the afore mentioned 3, there are equally strong arguments to say they won’t improve the team. The accusation is that, Almunia whilst no doubt a very good goalkeeper will cost us more points than he will win us. That accusation can also be levelled Given, Schwarzer and Hart. All have made mistakes that are worse than what we’ve seen from Almunia.

It comes down to a simple numbers game, take all the points saved though excellent goalkeeping and remove from that all the points lost by shoddy work, whoever has the most points is the better goalie. I don’t have those numbers but I am sure they are available to Wenger. I’ll put my hands up and say I was wrong, but until someone shows me those figures I will argue that Almunia is not worse than any of our “targets”. Everything else is conjecture and bias.

I would conclude that the best goalkeepers out there, the kind that can really make a difference to our title aspirations, are not available at the kind of figures Arsenal is willing to work with. If we cannot get the best of the best, then it’s no use spending on players that are at best marginally better than the incumbents.

According to the premier league website the home grown rule is as follows:

clubs will be required to have a squad named of up to 25 players, of which no more than 17 can be over the age of 21 and not home grown.

The definition of home grown is trained for three years under the age of 21 by somebody in the English and Welsh professional system.

So in effect you can only have 17 players who are not homegrown in your squad, you can have any amount of under 21 players irrespective of his nationality, but once that player is 21 the homegrown rule must be observed.

The premier league also defines under-21 for the 2010/11 campaign as players born on or after 1st January 1989.

There are 22 current Arsenal Squad Members Over 21

• Almunia
• Fabianski
• Mannone
• Sagna
• Eboue
• Vermaelen
• Djourou
• Clichy
• Song
• Denilson
• Diaby

• Fabregas
• Rosicky
• Arshavin
• Nasri
• van Persie
• Eduardo
• Bendtner
• Chamakh
• Koscielny
• Campbell
• Simpson

From the above list 9 players —Mannone, Djourou, Clichy, Song, Denilson, Fabregas, Bendtner, Campbell and Simpson are all homegrown which leaves us with 13 “foreign” players

• Almunia
• Fabianski
• Sagna
• Eboue
• Vermaelen
• Diaby
• Rosicky
• Arshavin
• Nasri
• van Persie
• Eduardo Gone to Shaktar
• Chamakh
• Koscielny

So as it stands Arsenal can only afford to add 3 4 more “old” players to the squad and still meet the requirements of the Premier league rules.

I’ve left out Gallas and Silvestre and retained Campbell as per Wenger’s comments on the official site.

While I can see the thinking behind the homegrown rule, it basically means that a player must prove himself by the age of 21 otherwise the club will have to let him go to free up space for other players. This is exactly the situation with Jay Simpson who at the age of 21 now finds himself in the unenviable position of being surplus to requirements.

Simpson can still be retained, but only just. Unless Wenger decides to promote Bartley or another youngster to the Centre Back position he will have to bring in a new player add to that the possibility of a Goalie and a Defensive Midfielder then you can see how close it is for Simpson. Yet Simpson can develop to be a good premier league player, and owing to Arsenal’s style of play he could easily score as much as Darren Bent with the scoring chances we create as a team.

Unfortunately these rules are essentially forcing management to make a decision on Simpson instead of allowing him a chance to mature. There a players that make their mark at a young age, but the vast majority are not ready at 21. Players like Xavi, Drogba, and Henri could have easily been written off at that age.

It is worth it to note that you don’t have to name 8 home grown players in fact you don’t need to have 25 players either. The only criteria you have to meet is not exceeding 17 foreign players in your squad. Will this rule improve English football? will more British players come through? It remains to be seen.

Sadly there is a dearth of unbiased in depth, well researched pieces in the mainstream media. The best pieces I’ve read in the past few months are from independent bloggers, and a few journos put out quality content. If those pieces were from a single publication I’d pay for access. What I won’t pay for is the refined techniques papers use to disguise their bullshit as newsworthy.

Whenever you see phrases like “sources close to” or “reports claim” it’s bullshit.

They know that “sources” are protected so they can hide behind that, besides no one will really call them out on it.

Another of those is the word “could”. Of course anything can happen, Cesc could go to Barca or he could go to man City, he could also stay at Arsenal score 20 goals and he could win The premier league, FA cup, and the Champions league. As unlikely as anything is, anything could still happen.

There had been speculation that the roles of Pearce, the England Under-21 manager and assistant to Capello, and the goalkeeping coach Clemence could be under threat as the Italian looked to reorganise in the wake of the summer debacle. —guardian

In one sentence the Guardian is saying

while we don’t even know if Capello is going to reorganize his setup, we can speculate that is he is going to. If he does reorganise then Pearce and Clemences’s positions may or may not be under threat. The truth is we don’t know shit, we’re just writing what we would like to think might happen

The most blatant escape phrase is “rumours”, why in this day and age a newspaper is allowed to spread rumours. They clearly state in the article that it’s rumour, knowing full well that the story will be accepted as fact by the readers as opposed to what it really is —A rumour.

At least I can easily steer clear of these when they are put are in a section clearly marked rumours.

http://bit.ly/dyfxO7

In the odd case where the papers produce quotes that can be directly attributed to a known person the quotes are usually edited to make it more aligned to the tone of the article.

The Cesc to Barca saga really kicked off when in an interview Cesc said

“If I leave Arsenal, it is to play at Barca, before the World Cup I want to know my future”

Anyone can easily take this quote to mean that Cesc is not sure about his future, but is sure about where he wants to go. Until you realise what Cesc actually said was

“If I leave Arsenal, it is to play at Barca, I do not know when it will happen, I am very happy at Arsenal and I have no hurry to leave.”

the “future sorted part” was in response to another question. Dropping the I’m happy at Arsenal and replacing it with I want to know my future adds an entirely different complexion to the quotes printed which although correct was totally wrong.

However the media editors are professionals whose job it is to sell papers, and these people have had to accept that most of the media is consumed via the internet. In this age of 24hrs rolling news and and easy publishing platform for everyone makes difficult for papers, but there’s really no need to put out 600 articles a day just to compete.

I’d willingly pay £2 a week, hell I’ll even pay more I’d pay £5, but only on the condition that I’m not subject to the rubbish content that is currently being put out there. Give me good quality journalism and I’ll give you my cash, but don’t expect me to pay for the same old same old. The times have moved to a paid system yet the quality improved things are same as before and that is not acceptable.

There are good football writers around, and many good articles are printed, sadly they are completely buried under the weight of speculative stories, transfer rumours and noise. Leave the noise and nonsense to the red tops, get the good guys together and give them a platform to publish good quality material and I’d gladly pay for it.

Faux —insert foreign language here— pronunciation

I don’t mind commentators and pundits pronouncing words in the foreign tongue, but if you’re going to do it do it properly. First make sure that you have the correct pronunciation not an approximation or just what you think it should be.

Example: Dayvid Veeyar English firstname Spanish surname. It’s not that hard to say Dahvid, that’s usually the same people that have no problem saying Edgar Dahvids. It’s not hard to find out the correct way to say the name, if it’s too hard just pronounce it as an English word. Don’t pick and choose when to use Spanish or English pronunciations.

By the way the new Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny is not to pronounce, luh-RAW(NG) Cosh-chel-neh

There must be an English angle

No it doesn’t we don’t need to compare everything to the English, It’s embarrassing. England got knocked out get over it.

I’m so not looking forward to the finals, I’m willing to bet it’s going to be commentary on Webb’s performance more than the 2 teams vying for the title.

The same people lauding him now was the same that had so much negative to say about him during the season.

We should follow the German system

Every tournament when England goes out there’s a universal outcry to copy the system of the current team in vogue.

There’s a lot wrong with English football culture, but to my mind the biggest problem is that everyone talks but no one does anything about it.

I’m willing to bet that there’s going to be another inquiry, another report, but no action taken.

Vuvuzela

I admit it was annoying at the start, but once you get used to it you hardly notice until someone brings it up. If it’s really that bad turn down the volume on your telly. It’s not like you’re missing anything.

It’s South Africa, that’s how they do it. Europeans sing, South Americans bang drums, each to their own.

That’s my lot for today, I’m sure there’s more, let us know what irritated our about the world cup.

Beard protest —Cesc plans to keep the beard until he signs for Barca

We all understand that it’s summer and you pretty much have to expect a protracted transfer, and being Arsenal fans we recognize that it will involve the captain of our team. This summer though there are two things that really makes my blood boil.

The first is the utter arrogance of the Barça which I’ll address in my next post. Today I want to take on the myth that once a player wants to leave then the club has no choice in the matter. Every time I hear that phrase I think why? I cannot for the life of me understand why this is held as gospel. It’s just another case of if you repeat it enough then it becomes the truth.

It’s easy to understand a lower league throwing a strop, going on strike, or just not playing well. At the top level of football that’s something you’ll never see. There have been many cases of players angling for a move, but that has never stopped them from performing to the best of their abilities. Let’s look at recent examples.

Christiano Ronaldo wanted to go to Madrid since the summer of 2007, he didn’t get his wish until 2009. What did he do in those 2 years? Every game his face showed how much he’d rather be in sunny Spain, yet he won 2 trophies and world player of the year. Not a bad return for an unhappy git.

Gareth Barry had his best season for Aston Villa after publicly saying we wants to leave Villa for Liverpool —something that Cesc has not done, even if the media would have you believe otherwise.

Didier Drogba last summer told France Football Magazine “I want to leave Chelsea.” He then went on to lead Chelsea to their first double ever, scoring 37 goals his highest season tally. Ask Chelsea if it was worth keeping an unhappy player.

Franck Ribery again last summer said “I have made up my mind, I want to leave,It will be Real or nothing.” to which Bayern replied, “We don’t need their money, and we will keep Franck come hell or high water.” sound familiar? Although his season was plagued by injuries, his unhappiness did not prevent him from helping the German club reach the champions league finals.

As I see it, far from being detrimental to the team, keeping an unhappy player may just prove to be the key to a great season. These players are professional sportsmen at the top of their games, once they step out on the pitch all they want to do is be better than the opposition. It’s no longer about the club, but about putting in the best performance you can.

None of the top sportsmen in the world wouldn’t be where they are if not for their will to be the best. A major part of their psyche is the ability to block out the world and concentrate on the field of play.

I am sure that the same would apply to Cesc, after all this whose will to win is so great that he played on against Barça after breaking his fibula. Does anyone think Cesc will sabotage Arsenal if he doesn’t go to Catalonia?

Credit crunch, taxation, financial doping, and greed has increased player costs.

It is uncharacteristic of Wenger to show his hand in transfer dealings, but this time he has said plainly that he is going to make additions to the squad, most importantly he wants to do so before the World Cup.

The boss has already said that the striker position has already been filled. Which means there’s still the problem of a backup to Song, central defence and goalkeeping– I don’t think he will get a new keeper, but that’s another story.

Buying kind of player that can really add to the quality of the squad is’s not as simple as we think. Wenger to buy the right player at the right price. No sense blowing £40m on a big name that may or may not produce the goods, likewise shopping in the sales department may prove to be no bargain.

The problem is that, every club wants to make a killing when they sell. To make matters worse the current trend is to negotiate wages net of tax, which really adds to the clubs’ outgoings.

I get the feeling that because of Wenger’s record of getting amazing players for next to nothing, we have been spoiled to the point where we expect it to happen every summer. The fact is the scouting of other teams has been catching up, couple that with the spending power of the competition and you can see the difficulty Wenger and Arsenal faces.

One other mitigating factor is that the “real” cost of players has significantly increased over the past 5 years. The increased value of the Euro, the increase in Income tax, and the inflation created by “new money” means that the calibre of player that used to cost £30.6m in transfer and wages now costs a minimum of £50m. Ironically English players are now cheaper by comparison.

Factor in the socialist payment system which is in place at Arsenal, and the conclusion is that Arsenal may have no choice but to continue with the present policy of looking for rough gems while nurturing the youth. More of the same means players that others passed on (Sagna or Vermaelen), a free transfer (Chamakh?), maybe a player who might not have fulfilled their potential elsewhere (Henry, Vieira), someone to come up from the reserves (Eastmond, Bartely).

One thing is for certain, the players we get will not be any of those names you see on fans wishlists or in the back pages. We can only trust the judgment of Wenger and his team, to get the best possible player within the constrains placed on the club. They’ve done the job before, there is no doubt that they’ll do it again.

Losing at Spurs shattered Arsenal's title dreams, but things are looking up.

I’m not angry that it was against Spurs in particular, what galls me is the insipid display of the whole team except for one or two. In my last post I mention the lack of urgency in our general approach to games and last night epitomised that trait. You’d be forgiven if you thought that it was Arsenal who played 120 minutes on the weekend while Spurs had a week’s rest.

However that’s not the tone of this post, there are lots of other places to vent this morning.

Looking at the big picture we’ve done well to be where we are, and with 4 games left we still have a chance albeit a very slim one. However we have a hurdle to overcome, and while we came close this season —yes, past tense, as far as I am concerned the season is over, we’ve been resurrected a few times already this season, there won’t be any more.— we still have not been able to jump that hurdle from potential to winners.

If anything, the rash of injuries we’ve suffered has given the boss an opportunity to take a good look at the second string players. They have been the ones in the spotlight and it has given them the opportunity to show that they deserve to be part of an Arsenal squad that will go on to dominate football in the near future. I am intrigued to see who has made the cut and who’s been cut.

I’ve looked to our friends in Catalonia for comparison you know they spent 5 years without winning a thing. Their wilderness years came between 99 and 05, years when being 2nd in the league was an achievement. Years when Champions league was but a dream, when Iniesta was a child and Xavi was their Denilson. Valdes was in Barca B, Messi was a baby and Guardiola was at the twilight of his career.

Could it be possible that we follow the same path as Barça, there are similarities. Our youth program is bearing fruit, we have a strong first eleven, and we just need one or two more to complete the squad. I doubt we are going to suffer a similar amount of traumatic injuries as we’ve had this season. Here’s what going to happen next season.

In Van Persie, Chamakh, and Bendtner we will have a lot more options upfront to deal with unforeseen circumstances. Van Persie in particular will be the lynchpin for everything, just imagine a fully fit RVP with a fully fit Fabregas working together for a full season.

There is no way that we won’t strengthen at the back. I am willing to bet on a new goalie, retention of Campbell, a fit Djourou, and a new CB. We can also look forward to the blooding of Bartley and maybe one other from the reserves.

The midfield is where I think we have big decisions to make, we have too many players of similar ilk. There’s need for another player like Song, but I’m afraid that Arsene will look to the reserves instead of buying a readymade solution. Unfortunately I don’t see anyone in the youth system that fits the bill.

I know it’s a cop out to blame injuries, but if we just have a little more luck in that department with the addition of reinforcements Arsenal can finally make that step up and become the dominant force in English football for years to come.