UNTOLD ARSENAL: The stories no one else covers
03/06/2008 by Tony Attwood.
In a story that has circulated in most journals today, Nic Anelka has admitted that his career has taken a series of downward spirals since he left Arsenal, and that if he had his time again he would stay at Arsenal throughout.
Anelka is not the only player to find things go wrong in leaving Arsenal – Flamini is the latest, discovering within days of his decision to leave that he would not be playing in the Euro Cup next year and that he was dropped from the French team for the Euro Champs this summer (although he later was granted a place in the reserves after Vieira dropped out through injury.)
Which reminds us of yet another player who suffered on leaving Arsenal – although at the time pundits generally said that the leaving of Vieira was the end of Arsenal – as was the leaving of Henry.
All of which are elements of the Curse of Arsenal. This season’s most noteable Curse Exhibits came at Birmingham, where following the injury to Eduardo Birmingham City FC had their offices raided by the police, had their two top people arrested by the police, and then were relegated. Not a bad version of the Curse.
Let all players and clubs be aware: you mess with Arsenal at your peril.
02/06/2008 by Tony Attwood.
1. Get a list of the Arsenal first team. This can be difficult between the drinking and sleeping, but there is one on the Arsenal web site – if you can find that.
2. Get a list of top European clubs. This is harder, but here’s a tip – there are a couple in Milan, one in Madrid, one in Barca. If you want to look sophisticated throw in a German side from Bavaria.
3. Put the two lists next to each other. for this you will need to clear the bottles and glasses off the table. Wiping the table can help but is not essential.
4. Move the two lists up and down and then at random read across the lists – so you might have Almunia next to Real Madrid, and you can then write “Arsenal shot stopper to Real???” It is important only to use language that no one else would ever use – words like “ace” and “linchpin”.
5. In the article you say that whoever it is, is “set to” move to where ever it is. “Set to” is a meaningless phrase, but it is important to say it.
6. Now comes the tough bit – you have to get a list of players from France, plus a handful from the rest of Europe and South America. It is important that none of them is famous in the UK. Then you say, “Peruvian wonderkid to sign for Gunners” or if you work for the Sun “We’re Gunner Get You”.
7. It doesn’t matter that no one has heard of the player – or that the player even exists. You just write it.
Simple isn’t it? Even more amazing is the fact that the newspaper might well pay you for all this drivel.
31/05/2008 by Tony Attwood.
There’s an Arsenal web site that is currently running a yes/no question along the lines – should Arsenal sign another striker?
The majority have said yes.
Which is fine – except we are getting a bit overloaded. We have
Adebayor – scored the same number of goals in Season 3 as Theirry Henry, which is not bad.
Van Persie – two bad seasons with injuries and surely he is due an injury free time soon.
Carlos Vela – two seasons in Spain and he is scoring – “just like Eduardo” said Wenger, and that is good enough for me.
Nicklas Bendtner – not expected to achieve anything last season but he came through and scored some vital goals for us. Never forget Tottenham.
Eduardo – due back in August according to reports – but even if not that early he should be ready to play by September or October. Before being attacked he was brilliant. Remember the goal at Everton?
Theo Walcott – I counted him as the half. He will become a brilliant striker for us, but I think this coming season he would be best on the wing doing a Pires to Ade’s Henry.
So – if we buy someone else, then what. OK, let’s assume we get injuries like we have suffered for the past two years – even so, that would only take two of the players out. Worst scenario – Van Persie is done again playing for Holland, and Eduardo doesn’t get match fit until October. We have Ade playing up front with Nicklas Bendtner and Theo on the wing drifting in ready to pounce. On the bench, Vela.
Ade gets injured, but then Eduardo comes back and Theo is still an option for moving inside. Carlos Vela starts getting games.
The point is of course that we might not get these injuries – so just how are we going to keep all these players happy. Yes, Wenger can do it because of the Cup games, the extra Euro games for qualifying, and the fact that Eduardo will be reintroduced very slowly indeed, and Vela won’t expect to get too much.
But remember, Vela was playing every game for his side in Spain this last year, and with the Mexico squad this summer. He won’t wait forever.
So for me, another striker, no – because to do that we would have to sell someone, and there is no one I want to sell.
Tell you what though, I really want to be there when Eduardo comes onto the pitch for the first time.
31/05/2008 by Tony Attwood.
Uefa has produced its alternative to the wild scheme of FIFA – which goes completely against EU law.
The UEFA proposal, which the EU has indicated it could well accept avoids the issue of the nationality of players and instead requires that clubs playing in the European competitions should include in the 25 man squad eight “home produced” players.
There are two vital points here. The first is the definition of “home produced.” This has nothing to do with accident of birth, or the birth of the parents or grandparents, but rather looks at where the players were trained between 15 and 21.
To qualify for a club playing in England the players would have to have spent 3 years in England during that period, which makes players such as Denilson, van Persie, Fabregas, Clichy and the like, all “English”. Indeed these players would continue to be English if they chose to move from Arsenal to another club.
Secondly, it must be noted that this has nothing at all to do with the EPL, and clubs would remain free to play anyone that they could get a registration for. EU citizens would have an open door as now, and those from outside the EU would have the chance of going to Spain or Belgium to get their registration within two years.
This is great news for Arsenal because it vindicates the Wenger model of world-wide scouting, bringing in younger players – as opposed to the Chelsea model of bringing in the “finished” article at the age of 25 or more.
30/05/2008 by Tony Attwood.
“We were at the crossroad between the interests of clubs and national teams, and the congress of Fifa has given very clear indications of where we have to go,” said Sepp Blatter as he pushed through his infamous rule about home grown players.
The crossroads is exactly where FIFA is. Its position has been undermined both by the legal cases bought against it (remember the judge who proclaimed “Fifa lied and lied and lied”) and the crazy antics of its leader (remember his comments about women appearing in shorter shorts).
But now it is trying a final desparate move – a move to make international football dominant over club football.
As a regular at Arsenal, I get into a lot of conversations about this that and everything else to do with football, and I hear a majority of people in and outside the ground talking up club football, and talking down internationals.
The argument against internationals is well known – players get injured, they are abused by managers who play them when they shouldn’t, and there is no proper compensation for the clubs who pay their salaries. The internationals are often meaningless (see this week’s England games) and they are often imbalanced in terms of the ability of the two sides (England v San Marino anyone?)
Now, however there is a chance to fight back – because the international is based on the same premise as Blatters 6+5 rule – that you can discriminate against an individual on the basis of his place of birth (or his parents, or his grandparents).
Here’s how it works. International associations are edging towards paying players for international games. So the international associations are the employers. But they employ on the basis of selecting by place of birth – illegal under EU law. So out go internationals.
Now that is something worth looking into.
28/05/2008 by Tony Attwood.
Poor sad Flamini. He leaves Arsenal, which is bad enough in itself, and then the Arsenal Curse begins to hit – just as it did on Birmingham City FC after the attack on Eduardo.
First, he finds that he is not going to play in the Champions League. Then he finds that he is not playing for France.
Of course he might now think his troubles are over, but if he looks at what happened to Birmingham City after the attack on Eduardo – the raid on the club by the police, the arrest of senior figures in the club, and relegation.
So what next for the poor deluded Flamini? Who knows – but it won’t be good.