Thanks to Steww, Cbob and Big Al for holding the fort with their wise words and time whilst I – and I quote directly from Al - take a well-earned holiday. I like the cut of your jib, sir.
The transfer window increases stress levels unnecessarily in some people. As I write this, according to the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL), still one day, sixteen fifteen hours and twelve ten minutes to go for incomings and outgoings during the Summer 2012 Trolley Dash. It ought to be obligatory for everyone to spend the last fortnight of the transfer window on the Iberian peninsula, take in some of the mañana attitude. Even the cockerels here are laid back, starting their morning call around 8am local time and certainly those around here, are somewhat half-hearted in their application: cock-a-doodle-meh. Mind you, I want some of whatever Julio Cesar has been smoking if his dreams include QPR winning the Premier League.
This morning sees Theo Walcott occupy prime position once more. Yesterday saw the player accused of greed, etc, on the basis that, well, there was no conclusive basis. Nobody really knows what is going on with his contract talks save for the facts that (1) there were some last year which broke down because the player wanted to wait until this Summer before making a decision on his future, and, (2) there are talks ongoing at the moment.
Beyond that, we don’t know what is offer, what is demanded. His agents and the club have been very coy about briefing the press to this point. There was talk of £100k per week some time ago and some use this yardstick to judge whether Walcott is worth it or not. It is an interesting theory; how do you judge whether or not a player is worth a certain wage when you do not know the structure or confines within which the salary level is operating? Paper talk is exactly that, the player (or his agent) briefing the press will embellish his salary with all bonuses included, giving the appearance of a hefty wage packet. The club will do the opposite, presenting themselves as financially responsible. It is only when egos or lost payslips come into play, that you find out what is actually earned.
Still it doesn’t matter since he is not leaving. Arsène sought him out at the training ground apparently and they had clear the air talks which will no doubt spawn a hastily constructed website statement outlining how the player sees the club’s direction as being opposite to that which he wants to take, alongside a eulogy for Brendan Rodgers and that he is a manager for whom the player has long held admiration.
And no, Mr Henry, we do not want Andy Carroll although if your club is struggling for strikers, can we interest you in Chamakh or Park. In fact that would be a way to either firm up a club’s interest in Walcott or put them off entirely. Yes, he can go but only if he takes Chamakh, Park and Squillaci with him. They are the best of friends you see and we couldn’t possibly dream of splitting them up…
But what role will Walcott occupy at Arsenal. He has long held the desire to play centrally and has shown on occasion, the necessary calmness and finishing to be highly successful but I am not convinced that he can play there permanently, at the moment at least. Walcott is often berated for running into blind alleys, shunted and buffetted by defenders into positions of no progress; lacking a footballing brain, the abuse from former professionals not noted for their intelligence. Yet this belies his tally of assists and goals last season from wide positions.
There is merit in the argument about providing van Persie with opportunities being easy and it is that kind of movement up front that Theo has to strive for. Moreover, it is too easy to forget that Walcott is still relatively young although I wonder if he is too old to be retrained as a centre forward? I could see, I think, Walcott working as part of a strike pair but I am not enamoured with the idea of the England international as leading the line. I have yet to see those qualities shine through, there is a lack of guile at times, something streetwise not there, the spark of nastiness is absent.
Despite his publicly held desire to have all the work done well before the end of the transfer window, it seems that Arsène is going to be a busy man. There are still outgoings to resolve although Nicklas Bendtner’s options became more limited with Milan’s signing of Bojan. Surely the penny is dropping with himself or Team Bendtner that there is a perception gap between his view of his abilities and that held by others? Perhaps not. Still the best laugh came with the observation that Park’s agent claiming that Arsenal wouldn’t sell the Korean until January because of the lack of goals in the opening two Premier League games.
More important than all of this though is the Champions League draw in Monaco this evening. Arsenal’s consistency in qualifying for the group stage and beyond is rewarded by another appearance in Pot One, the seeded teams. Of that octet, Arsenal are the only ones never to have triumphed in the Champions League or its forebear. Indeed, the other seven teams have won it this century, Porto’s victory over Monaco still remains, I think, the best opportunity that Arsenal had of winning the trophy. The home defeat to Chelsea still irks as much as the missed opportunities by Henry in Paris.
Looking at the seedings, there is a Group of Death awaiting with Dortmund, Juventus and Zenit awaiting someone. Quite how Manchester City ranked in the second pot is questionable, presumably an unfortunate by-product of the consistency of the English clubs in this tournament. The easier path to the knockout phase is Braga, Olympiacos and BATE; that’s Manchester United’s group sorted out for them. Beyond that, there is tricky opposition in each of the seedings and with countries having four entrants, that will not change. Indeed, the emergence of money at clubs such as PSG mean that Platini’s egalitarian desires are going to be consumed as the same competitors swap pots each season. Another reorganisation is coming and a proper League is the only option beyond returning to three cup competitions.
Big Al is back tomorrow with his usual Friday column. Hasta mañana.
goerge
thank fuck for that then..hes told someone he wants to stay
great, a gentlemans agreement?
if only all contracts were this simple..its only taken best part of two years for him to not sign a new contract..
it turns out saying it is the new doing it..
paul, i havent been to a game for 2-3 years..apart from the CC final..
ive got a couple of shares as well that are just waiting to be bought by usmanov..i could use the money, it would make financial sence to sell at this point..would you agree?
Sick as I am of the endless transfer speculation, and afflicted as I am by an obsessive compulsive disorder, I’ve spent the last couple of hours analysing the CL draw.
Using the UEFA coefficients, the eight groups ranked by average coefficient are;
Group G: Barcelona, Benfica, Spartak Moscow, Celtic (80.93)
Group F: Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lille, BATE Borisov (72.84)
Group E: Chelsea, Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, FC Nordsjaelland (68.73)
Group D: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund (68.71)
Group B: Arsenal, Schalke, Olympiakos, Montpellier (66.29)
Group H: Manchester United, Braga, Galatasaray, CFR Cluj (65.51)
Group C: AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, Malaga (58.59)
Group A: Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Paris St Germain, Dinamo Zagreb (57.68)
The average coefficient represents the total quality of the group.
If we take out the seeded team’s coefficient we can see how easy or difficult it should be for that team to qualify. Here the average coefficient represents the strength of the seeded team’s opposition.
Barcelona – Benfica, Spartak Moscow, Celtic (55.29)
Bayern Munich – Valencia, Lille, BATE Borisov (52.77)
Real Madrid – Manchester City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund (51.01)
Arsenal – Schalke, Olympiakos, Montpellier (50.43)
AC Milan Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, Malaga (48.13)
Chelsea – Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, FC Nordsjaelland (46.34)
Porto – Dynamo Kiev, Paris St Germain, Dinamo Zagreb (44.211)
Manchester United – Braga, Galatasaray, CFR Cluj (40.05)
So we can see that Yogi was correct in his prediction that Man Utd would face the easiest route to the group stages, although he only guessed one of the three opposition teams correctly.
Other points to note: Man City’s opposition averages 70.33, the average coefficient for the whole cohort is 67.41, and for the purposes of my mania I had to calculate the Malaga coefficient myself (16.835) as they’re not listed by UEFA.
In summary, the real group of death is the highest quality group : Group G. Chelsea have easier opposition to see off than we do, and Man Utd are in the third worst group in terms of quality and have the easiest route to qualification of all 32 teams.
JJ, i would play Cazorla on the right with Chamberlain/Rosicky in midfield along side Diaby and Arterta till Wilshere recovers from injury. As for transfers i have little to no idea, Sinclair is off to city, Sturridge is Robben 2.0 and every other Right winger i know is either shit or unavailable.
cazorla on the right is a waste..
he’ll have to track back and shuttle run up and down the pitch and in our system he’ll be the next arshavin if we play him there all the time..
id rather keep him central and play le ox out there..
i agree, sinclairs shite but sturridge scores goals and is available so i say it..
otherwise i could have said sell theo and replace him with messi but then id sound like a wally..
we could use ryo but hes gone on loan and joels the next vela
theres always bendtner chamakh or park??
JJ .You really do chat proper shit from time to timr .And this is one of those times.
Do you actually believe you have found the answers that elude Arsene and Ivan?
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next gen highlights
no i dont have the answers..
i want the answers though…
but at least you admit that something eludes arsene and ivan..
Squillaci, Bendther, Chamakh, Park and Arsenal in the same sentence sends shivers through my body and i don’t know about Messi, he is too one footed, he may not be able to ‘get stuck in’ and withstand those ‘meaty tackles’ from real men like Shawcross.
And Cazorla played on the right for Malaga, Wenger stated that we lacked quality in the final third, i just feel taking off one striker and adding more creativity would increase our ability to score goals.
Cazorla – Giroud – Podolski.
I hope these Tiote rumours aren’t true. Good player but not what we need, Arteta has shown that you don’t have to be a big bloke with a reputation for hard tackling to be brilliant defensively in the midfield. Apparently we’ve asked after Essien too – seems insane that we’d sell a 24 year old injury repellent Song then buy a 29 year old Essien who’s had the past few years disrupted by injury and has lost his edge, hopefully this won’t happen, I’d rather wait.
No JJ .I feel that those two understand exactly what to do and when to do it .
You ,with perhaps 2% of the information that they have ,think you can draw the correct conclusions.
I say ,whats the chances of that?
playing on the right for malaga means shit..
like arshavin playing left for russia
different systems where both teams use holding players so the attackers dont have to defend as much as they attack
we dont play that way, everyone bombs forward and then everyone has to bomb back for 90minutes..
id play him on the wing all day long but i wouldnt make that his only position for the year and to be honest id play him on the left so he can cut inside and shoot because thats what we need but we have about 40 players who are auditioning for that role..
we need more for the other side
and id play with holding mids but we need to buy some first..
FFS, i thought the use of coefficient in the draws was based on the success of teams in the Ecl during past years. For example Arsenal and Porto remain in Pot 1 of the draw because both clubs have qualified for the past 14 thousand years. Anyway, Group D looks the toughest to the naked eye but i see what you’re getting at.
thats not what you said a minute ago..
i think you dont know what your arguement is anymore george..
youve chased your own tail on this one and got yourself in a daze..
Bendtner to Juventus is in motions now.
1 down…4 to go…
? I was being facetious when I said there was something you had seen that had eluded them .FFS JJ up your meds.
Zinc, agreed, i like new players but some transfers are just stupid, we don’t need a player like Tiote, what is he going to offer a team that attacks 70% of the time – I want a DM/Holding midfielder but a ball playing one like Song/Arterta.
JJ, keep your pants on, how does playing on the right for malaga mean shit? He has more defensive awareness than Arshavin which is why he has also played in the DM role, so him playing will not be a problem defensively for us.
I definately agree with you on transfers, at least a Dm/holding midfielder(fuck off Tiote) and another Attacker, at LEAST.
now your just trying to bamboozle me with impressive words.
JJ ,I have Jonny as a facebook friend .He feeds me the fancy vocabulary.I have no idea what those words mean.
khalifha
so if he played a DM as well then malaga didnt use him as a winger like theo did they?
hes a midfielder, a free role player..so play him in the free role and let him roam the pitch and dont restrict him to one position which is what would happen if he played on the right..
i dont see us being after tiote, the guy was injured in newcastles first game and he hasnt played since..could be a transfer, could be just becuase hes still injured.
but we’ll find out tomorrow..
maybe we’ll see the suprise that ivan promised george over candle lit dinner..
Lol
neither do i but they have a certain authority about them..
i was going to ask if you’ve been spending time with jonny..
Err, JJ, PG, That lil exchange was really funny, from big words to wagging of tail.
anyway.
now all thats out of the system, regarding the recent results..
if we dont concede we cant lose and while we are waiting for the attack to gel the nil nils could keep us in this until it happens..
we need to start banging them in soon though..we dont want to be anoher 15 points behind everyone before we start to click..
and we could do with another player or two tomorrow..
Eh JJ, with our newly found defensive solidity i see us doing well in the cup competitions, as for goals they’re definately going to come, we ALWAYS score under Wenger.
Goodnight man.
This transfer stuff is piss easy if your listening Ivan, Arsene or Rawley just go and get a 25 year old Fernando Redondo. Bish bash bosh champions elect.
@Khalifha
FFS, i thought the use of coefficient in the draws was based on the success of teams in the Ecl during past years. For example Arsenal and Porto remain in Pot 1 of the draw because both clubs have qualified for the past 14 thousand years.
It is based upon success in Europe, not qualification. Arsenal are ranked sixth (coefficient of113.88) in Europe because we consistently reach the last 16 of the CL. Celtic qualify to participate nearly every year but rarely reach the group stages. That’s why they’re ranked 63rd with a coefficient of 32.73.
Don’t pay attention to the source, still a very good read.
http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2012/08/29/3338255/honigstein-practice-should-make-perfect-for-podolski-at
Okay, now am off.
As Im going out drinking tommorrow night my fellow left footers happy f5ing to you one and all as the countdown to 11 o clock approaches.
DKGooner (4.34pm) – sorry, you asked about Akpom’s performance in the NexGen match; think I was still reeling from being called a kid!!
Yes, he looked good and stood out in a team of stand out players to be honest. But what struck me the most was the all round ability of pretty much the whole team; they made their opponents look very ordinary.
For me, though, Gnabry is the one to keep an eye on (and I’m well aware I’m by no means the first to say that). I didn’t see Rooney (or Pele!) up close at that age but I imagine the similar gulf in class, size and confidence that Serge is currently displaying.
But yes, Akpom’s definitly worth watching, too.
Andrew ,that Martin Angha look very good on the highlights .Is he ? I mean “stand out good”?
I have just noticed that we have drawn Coventry in the CC.
http://www.aclfarsenal.co.uk/?p=9388
It’s Friday or should it be re-christened, Alday?
Yes, that little bombshell slipped beneath everyone’s notie, andy.
Too much adrenalin spent discussing ‘the window’ and ‘VAT’.