Thanks Roman for reminding us of all that we are and all you are not « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal
Untold Arsenal on Facebook here
By Walter Broeckx
I wonder how Roman Abromavich is feeling right now. Having spent all those pounds in the transfer window and with the astonishing result of 2 games played and 1 point won. And it could have been worse. It could have been 0 points. If only Fulham had scored that last second penalty. But they didn’t so they got away with that.
Another one who got away with something in that game was Gudjohnsen. He has spend some time at Stoke and this was very visible yesterday. I always rated him as a good footballer but now he has learnt a new trick at Stoke. The two footed frontal tackle. Well executed with both feet from the ground and jumping in from a distance. As I don’t like limbs hanging in strange angles I felt very much relieved that Malouda didn’t have his feet stuck in the ground. And so Malouda was sent in the air without injury. But to my astonishment and I think to the astonishment of all the spectators in the stadium and around the world ref Dean didn’t blow the whistle to stop the game.
No he did nothing at all. He just let the game continue and allowed Fulham to start a counter. And please don’t come anyone saying that Gudjohnsen did touched the ball somewhere in that tackle. So what? He surely got all the legs Malouda has and luckily still has in one piece.
Now from my point of view as Arsenal supporter I loved the fact that Chelsea dropped points but I don’t want any of their players been cut in two. But ref Dean who was at the crime scene in Birmingham as the ref in charge when we lost Eduardo a few years ago hasn’t learned anything since then. He still cannot recognise a dangerous tackle when he sees one. I think this is a scary thought. And the thought of this ref doing the Carling cup final next week sends shivers down my spine.
How can the FA send Dean to a game between Birmingham and Arsenal almost on the same day that we lost Eduardo? And how can he still be useless when it comes to not seeing dangerous tackles? I really don’t feel good about this.
But in fact this wasn’t supposed to be about the ref. No this was about spending money. Spending enormous amounts of money. Spending insane amounts of money to secure a place in the Champions league. I will not talk about the title because being 12 points behind in 5th place with 12 games to play, well I think not even the most optimistic Chelsea fan will be dreaming of adding a title this year. And who can remember the pundits going wild after some 4 or 5 games after the start of the season, declaring that Chelsea was going to win the title? The pundits will have forgotten that already or hope we have forgotten it.
Now we can laugh with the fact that Torres doesn’t seem to make a big impact on Chelsea. The only impact being that since his first start they couldn’t score a goal. So yes this is something to smile about. But Torres will start scoring again. I suspect it will be when they play United in the next weeks.
But if there is one lesson that can be learned from this it is the fact that whatever the player has done for his previous club, there is absolutely no guarantee he just will continue to do this with a new club. Even for a world class striker (which he still is) like Torres who has played in the EPL for a few years now it isn’t that easy to go to another club and shine. Buying a player is always a risk. Will he bring what he promises? You just never know.
And as a result we can see a player like Drogba sitting on the bench at Chelsea. I think he will like being there (sarcastic mode). Just imagine that you have been the best striker (even maybe in their history) and suddenly it is you that is sitting on the bench because the boss has bought a new toy. How would you feel? Bad? Mad? That is the way Drogba will feel I think.
So it wouldn’t surprise me at all that there will be some big conflicts between the Chelsea players coming our way. Big egos (and most strikers have very big egos) don’t like being second best and certainly not when like Drogba you have given some titles to your club.
And to think that in the last games before Torres they won 0-4 at Bolton and 2-4 at Sunderland. And since the £50M man came on the field they scored 0 (zero) goals in 2 games. Yeah what a nice investment one could say.
And what a contrast with the way Arsenal is doing their business. The way we are bringing our own young players to the big stage. No pressure from a big money price tag hanging around their neck. No just enjoying all those mostly young and unknown players we bought for around the same price for our whole team compared to what Torres costs. And those young players which we bought as young kids and nurtured them. And the even more younger ones like Wilshere who have been playing for us for centuries, well almost centuries.
I think our whole squad (not starting11) almost cost the same as the winter buys of Chelsea. So they can keep Torres and Drogba. I will sit back and enjoy Theo and Van Persie. And Samir and Arshavin. I will look with open mouth and admire Cesc and Jack. I will applaud Song and our defenders for doing the dirty work. I will enjoy a great young goalkeeper for years to come in our colours.
The way we are bringing in young players and make them better is something that is not very easy to do. It needs a great manager to get the best out of the players. Any manager can make a player look bad, our manager can make players become better year after year. He can spot raw talent and polish it in to shining diamonds. Apart from maybe Arshavin and Nasri (for a bit) who had heard about our players before Wenger brought them in?
So I would like to thank Abramovich for reminding me that Arsenal is such a different club compared to the rest. We do it our way. The difficult way. The take the long road. The long road with some setbacks along the way. There will always be setbacks. It is part of football. But with our players coming of age and with the big talents still on their way you can only admire what we are seeing in front of our eyes: the building of a golden generation. A golden generation for years to come.