Ryo ready as an Arsenal man prepares to beat Tottenham (again) « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

Poor Tiny Totts.  Leading 2-0 and it all went wrong, and wrong and wrong.  Now they face the might Bolton.  Scare-ey say the Tiny fans with extra bravado.  But they haven’t seen Ryo.

Ryo – who the Daily Telegraph described as a player whose pace makes Gareth Bale resemble a lorry climbing up a hill.”  (I rather like that).

Ryo Miyaichi who can run 100 meters in 10.6 seconds.  A sort of Theo but with an extra gear.

Ryo who has shed the Japanese tendency to be self-effacing and modest but who is positive, clear and forward looking in a very Western way.

He made his reputation at Feyenoord last year, where he was called ‘Ryodinho’ and there is no secret in the fact that he turned their season around.  They were in decline – Ryo arrived – they were on the up, and oh how they wanted to keep him.

This season Ryo played 8 reserve games and scored once and also turned up in a couple of league cup appearances.  Then he went on loan and it all opened up.

He scored a wonder goal in the Cup against Millwall.  Then seven  goalscoring chances and an assist all created by Ryo.   The assist being to create the goal that beat QPR last weekend. (He publicly refused the man of the match award with its obligatory champagne as he is under age when it comes to drinking in Japan.)

In fact his only problem is that he is so fast the rest of the Notlob side haven’t got a clue where he is most of the time.

Back in Japan Ryo is the second biggest player after Keisuke Honda.  Every match he plays is big, big news – front page, back page, every page.  If Arsenal want to conquer the rich Japanese market and earn a fortune in TV rights and shirt sales, Ryo is doing is on his own.

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All those people talking about how Man U conquer the universe in their marketing deals very carefully never talk about Japan, quite simply because Arsenal has Japan.  The Japanese  will pay trillions of Yen just to have Mr Wenger (who speaks Japanese and is himself a superstar in the country for his achievements there with Grampus Eight) say a few words about Ryo.

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So why Notlob?  [That’s a Python joke – don’t worry about it – it is Bolton backwards].  Because Jack played for them 14 teams and suddenly he took off.

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Thus a game Notlob v The Tinies is worth watching.

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And, since we are not playing today let me finish by telling you my best Wenger in Japan joke.  (OK I will come clean – my only Wenger in Japan joke).

When the first season started in Japan Mr Wenger was still not fluent in the language, and the style of play he tried to introduce seemed to be utterly alien to the players, and Grampus 8 did poorly.  Defeat followed defeat.

Eventually and inevitably the owner of Grampus 8 called Mr Wenger in and our boss feared the worse.   He was told the results were poor.  “Yes the results are very poor,” said Mr Wenger.  He was asked if he needed anything else, but said no, he was sure the results would turn around.

“We need to do something about it, because it is not right,” said the owner.  “We need to change the personnel.”

“OK,” said Mr Wenger sadly.  “Do you want me to resign?”

“No!” said the boss, shocked.  “I was thinking we should sack your translator.”

Now that is the kind of club owner that we could do with more of in the UK.