Okay, where was I? Today I'd like to congratulate Mr Arsenal himself, Tony Adams, who was appointed permanent manager of Portsmouth. Tony's been like an apprentice working his way up the leagues starting with Wycombe Wanderers before becoming Dirty 'Arry's right hand man at Pompey. Of course, as 'Arry has deflected to the dark side, I will now have to start hating the [insert swear word here]. Whilst Tony Adams continues his apprenticeship at a Premier League club. And one of the main reasons I'm so chuffed is that I went to Uni with Tony a few years back when he did his sports science degree and it's a pretty amazing path he's taken
Arsene spoke about Tony's appointment and said:
“It makes me very happy. I believe it is a good opportunity for him and we wish him of course well. He is at the age now where you have to start in this job. For the rest I believe he has a good squad and he has worked a lot now in this job and I think he is ready. Tony has now much more experience because he has been abroad and has been at Portsmouth as an assistant. I believe he has the qualities and that is why I am very positive about it. I believe in life when you go wrong you can always, with intelligence and character, turn things right and that is what he did. He came out and said he had a drinking problem when he was a player and he showed enough strength and character to change that. I believed in him because everybody deserves a chance when he really wants to change his life. That basically didn’t come from me, it came from him.”
When you look back at Tony’s career with us, what he acheived when the sticks were down, you have to say that it’s commendable where he is today.
Anyway, congratulations Tony!
From one previous captain to our current captain, WIlliam De La Gallas. If you look at both of these players, then it’s clear to see that they’re at different ends of the passion and desire spectrum, actually different ends of many spectrums.
Hear me out on this one (I know many of you are Gallas fans!)
I’ve been thinking about our problems and in reality, I honestly feel that Gallas is a major part of our problems. His attitude is not what’s required from a player in such an influential position on the pitch. His mistakes are testimony to how vital it is to get it right when it counts. Gallas has always excelled when next to a bigger, stronger, more ball attacking defender. When Gallas played along side Terry in the Chelsea defence or even Djourou or Senderos, you could see that his best skill was probably his pace rather than he jumping ability. Playing along side Toure has proved difficult for both players as they’re similar. I personally think Toure is a better defender and when he played along side Sol Campbell and Philippe Senderos, he really excelled. Toure will always dive in front of the ball no matter what, he’ll away put Arsenal first, similar to Tony Adams.
Many believe that our best centre back pairing is Toure and Djourou and I would have to agree based alone on the attitude of the player. Gallas doesn’t play with the same level of intensity as he’s previously done and that’s because he’s guranteed his place in the team. Even if he wasn’t captain, he has always been guarenteed a place in our team, so mentally he is too relaxed. When he was at Chelsea he had to play well every game to stay or get into the team.
So where does it leave us? Well, it’s a tough one. Arsenal without Gallas, in my opinion, is a better Arsenal. But we’re in a tricky situation. If we drop him, he may threaten to score an own goal. If we drop him, as captain, we will have a problem. How can you drop your captain? So what do we do? Put up with it? Keep accepting the mistakes? “Rotate” him more often?
What do you think? I, for one, just don’t know…
Arsenal vs Sp*rs preview tomorrow…]]>
