Saturday 9 May 2009

Still laughing, the gulf, arrivals and departures

I am currently listening to some fairly wise words from Charlie Nicholas on Sky's Saturday news program and I found myself agreeing with a fair amount he said. He pointed out our lack of experience and leaders, something we have to address this summer if we are to challenge next season, while I am starting to agree that we need to ship out a quantity of players this summer, we need to clear out some dead wood. There is a definite gulf now between ourselves and Manu, a bigger gulf than has been present for many seasons and we need to act quickly to prevent this gulf widening. Our lack of power and experience in comparison to United was obvious on Tuesday, while their work rate and organisation also appeared worryingly superior. Their solid defence has been the foundation for their success, something we could learn from I feel.

Arsene spoke after the game and rightly didn't want to blame individuals. He has commented on the gap between ourselves and the mancs, while he has openly stated his support for our young internationals such as Diaby, Bendtner and Walcott; his comments on the summer transfer situation indicate that it will be experience coming in, hallelujah. On a tangent Mr Bendtner has been fined for being out late, not for exposing his rather fashionable pants apparently. Certainly 'magic money' is no miracle cure. It remains obvious to many of us though that we need more experience, more power and more aggression in certain areas of the pitch.

Although Arsene thinks we are well off as regards strikers, I hope that a certain Emmanuel Adebayor f*cks off this summer. This is no knee jerk comment. His behaviour in the summer was a disgrace, while he continues to pimp himself openly in the media. He seems to have a rather high opinion of himself, calling himself one of the 'biggest strikers' in the world. Certainly he is large, so is Peter Crouch, but objectively he's had one good season in his career and that does not make one a 'great striker'. His goal scoring record other than last season is nothing more than mediocre. The point I'm trying to make is that you cannot be successful without every single one of your players being 100% committed to the cause, otherwise a rot sets in, for this reason anyone who frequently can't be arsed to put the effort in, no matter how talented, can f*ck off elsewhere to ply their trade.

It's great news that Theo has signed a new four year deal, he was a tad anonymous against United but you can't fault his desire or commitment, I'm very glad he's going to be with us for the next few years. I'm sure there will be plenty more debate over the next few weeks about who should come and who should go, irrelevant to this it will be vitally important to retain our best players, RVP is one of these and he always puts in his all, we really need to secure his future at the club this summer.

I still can't help laughing at Chelsea, Wednesday's events just summed up what a disgrace they are as a club and as a group of supporters. The players were bad enough, however combine that with the death threats from the Chelsea fans and the way in which the club sank to the level of a biased tabloid newspaper in its reaction, then you have a case study of the completely class-less football club. Amazingly Chelsea won't be disciplining Drogba for his post match antics, what a fine example they set, an apology is apparently enough for this sad excuse for a football club. It's rather poetic that part of the reason for Chelsea's failure has been Drogba's correct reputation for being a cheat, he makes Adebayor look like a model pro, mind you at least he appears to care whether he wins or loses.

Our chances of catching Chelsea are slim, but I feel we have something to prove on Sunday, we need to show that we are not that far off the pace, another limp performance is not what the doctor orders. Arshavin is a doubt with the flu, hopefully it's that mild swine variety and not something more serious like a blocked nose. Hopefully Ade will get a rest and we'll have a bit of effort and movement up front, I wonder whether the Nasri holdin role experiment will continue, hopefully not. Either way let's give Didier a warm welcome on Sunday, here's a quick Chelsea gag for you:

"Just one thing...if the book does get thrown at Chelsea, how many of the players will immediately dive onto the ground and roll around feigning injury?"

4 comments:

Jeff said...

I'm looking forward to maybe seeing Ramsey and Vela get a game on Sunday.

Marlon said...

Chelsea were robbed Wednesday night.

John Terry's mum denies any involvement.

Rhinogooner said...

Back from holiday. I didn't see the matches against Portsmouth or Man U. Only highlights, so no comments from me other than to convey my obvious disappointment - not just in being knocked out of the Champions League or at our seemingly innocuous performance, but disappointment in our season.

I did not have high hopes at the start of the season so I am perhaps not as deflated as some Arsenal supporters, but I did allow enough delusion into my head to hope we might achieve something.

It's halftime now v. Chelsea and I decided to visit to leave a comment on what I've seen so far and how it relates to some of our failings this season and for the past few seasons.

I see some of our players playing so casually today. 2-0 down and there is no fervor, no sense of shame from some of the players for their lack of effort. I can see the Chelscum supporters giving it large to our supporters and it hurts. I feel so badly for our fans who have to sit there and take it because there is no reply they can make that could hurt the Chelscum supporters as evenly.

The thought that I wanted to convey occurred to me while purposely watching Diaby. I have been one of his defenders, but I am not seeing any improvement in him this season. In fact, he may have regressed. But I was noticing how little he seems to care that we are losing to our London rivals. And I was thinking of the comparisons to Vieira. I wonder if a young Vieira were to come into this squad if he wouldn't have the same apathy?

So here is my opinion on part of the cause [flameproof suit on]. Lack of British in our squad. Yep, that's what I think. I was never one that really subscribed to that argument. I always wanted British players and I always saw the value in the grit and power that most British players bring. But I always thought they were overpriced and the talent we were bringing in would prove to be superior. I was wrong.

I think Vieira developed such passion and determination because he understood what it meant to the fans and what it meant to play for Arsenal. He had players around him to make that perfectly clear to him like Adams, Parlour, Keown, Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, etc. And that's a factor in difference between the development of Diaby and Vieira. And I think some of our other foreign players have a similar attitude, though not all. Perhaps Diaby would have developed the same attitude and ability as Vieira if he had players like that around him.

How many of the players in our squad really understand what it means to play for the Arsenal? How many have the taste for battle? And how many are just there to play pretty football and pick up a fat check but have no interest when the match becomes a scrap?

Ted said...

I agree Rhino, but not for the same reasons.

Players like Kieran Dyer, Jermain Defoe and David Bentley show that the average British player is just as money grabbing and lazy as their foreign counterparts.

But I agree 100% its the attitude of Keown and Parlour etc that we miss. I would put Toure, and maybe Song, in that category now from the current squad, but I am otherwise struggling.

We are a bunch of lightweight pansies.