Morning All,
It was a good evening yesterday as we had a dose of football and had the opportunity to see our beloved Theo play. Personally I thought he had a really good game. He was severely marked, sometimes having 2 or even 3 defenders on him, but his pace and trickery gave him some very good positions and he did well in the build up to most of the goals as well as taking players away from other players. I was also impressed by Wayne Rooney who seems like a demon possessed and Ashley Young had a good cameo – with the England team showing some strength and depth, a really good omen as the World Cup draws closer and closer. And WOA will be travelling to South Africa and setting up base in Johannsburg, so if you’re going to be there, so make sure you contact us and let us know – we’ll be organising a few Arsenal events and meeting up for games and all the shannigans that goes on before and after games.
Theo’s performance, albeit against a minnow, does show what a threat he can be – his hat-trick against Croatia in the same qualifying campaign again shows he can play as an out an out winger or in a front three. This season saw the player dogged by a few injuries but as he grows up, he is growing into one hell of a player. Well done Theo and I’ll be following you as you travel to Sweden next week for the England Under 21 tournament (not literally, I won’t be following you to Sweden!)…
News broke earlier, that many years ago, we, Arsenal, had potentially offered Alex Ferguson a chance to join us back in 1986 and instead we hastily appointed George Graham. Many people say that it was a bad thing for Arsenal that we didn’t sign Fergie up – but in reality I am quite glad – as George Graham – at the time led us to many a league and cup win and at the time was more highly rated. Of course the recent sucess that Ferguson has had implies our long term fortunes may have been different, but personally, I am very glad that the course of events meant that we ended up bringing Arsene to the club instead 10 years later.
Former United goalkeeper, Jim Leighton said:
“We were in Santa Fe before we went to Mexico and Fergie was offered the Arsenal job at the time and George Graham would have been his assistant. But he wanted to wait until the World Cup was finished before it was getting announced and Arsenal said that they wanted it straightaway. So he refused it and George Graham got the job. Who knows what could have happened to Arsenal and Man United if that had been the case and went ahead.He wanted to announce it when he got back to Aberdeen, to do it the right way. So credit to him, he wanted to do it the right way and not from a press conference in America.”
Hindsight / foresight are beatiful things but in the real world we don’t possess the latter – but I don’t think Ferguson could have done what Arsene has done in the way he has done it. Don’t get me wrong, I am not critising Fergie at all, I do believe his a good coach – but I do think he has had better resources and was blessed with a group of kids coming through at the same time. He’s had the luxury of spending more than any other club in the league during his reign as United manager and no matter how good you are, that’s an attribute that can only contribute to success.
Arsene, however, has helped facilitate the move from Highbury to the Emirates in a very expensive real estate city, London, as well as play some of the most attractive football in years all within a very agressive budget. He’s also continually been finding the best young potential and turning them into house hold names. The move, the budgets, the type of football and the long term success has all be guarenteed by Arsene and he’s more than a football coach, he’s a professor of the modern game.
And finally, browsing the papers, we’ve been linked with another 10 players today and it’s probably all speculation – but the highly probable transfer is still the Vermaelen deal as all parties involved, except for Arsenal have pretty much confirmed it’s happening – the interesting rumours today is that Gallas may be off to either Milan or Juventus – I don’t know how much truth there is in that, but if you asked me mid season, I wanted the Frenchman out – but at the end of the season, having been replaced as captain, he’s actually been our best defender.
Have a good one… Til later…
