From today onwards, The Perfect Pitch will only be about Arsenal (and football) related stuff. I’ve decided to separate the non football stuff into another blog, on my main website Digital Digest. I will have to remove some posts here, and change the categories around a bit, but all of the non football posts are already duplicated on the new blog.
More later…
So Henry has left. I think there are plenty of places that have already commented on it, so I won’t go into it too much, suffice to say I think the way Henry is leaving has not done him any credit and the fact that a lot of people are angry at him, even when he has done so much for Arsenal, backs up this point. The letter to The Sun, in particularly, was not a great piece of PR.
I’ve previously commented on Dein before, and from what I’ve heard, Dein had a hand in the Henry transfer as well, and if you ever wonder why the transfer fee was so low, well … Even Stan Kroenke may no longer interested in working with Dein having seen what he is capable of, and looks to be forging a working relationship with the existing board instead of trying to go behind their backs. Don’t know if the takeover is still on, but I doubt the board would budge (and rightly so), so perhaps Stan will have to rethink his plans.
So what to do now? If we didn’t need to buy before, we definitely need to now. We’ve since been linked with pretty much every strikers out there: Tevez, Martins, Owen, Anelka, Huntelaar (first every scorer at our new stadium!), Babel and still Eto’o (although seems unlikely to me). Anelka is the one that is most likely (too much smoke for there not to be a fire), but I feel we still need one more from that list, or elsewhere. I don’t like Owen and his injury record, and Babel seems more potential than finished product for now (maybe one to buy for the future, the potential link-up with Van Persie is tasty). Tevez and Eto’o may be out of our price range, one linked with a 30m move to Real Madrid, the other 25m (if Eto’o were to come, surely it would have been discussed during the Henry transfer). Martins has a buy out clause, and financially, that’s the most likely.
But we would have too many forwards in the team if we were to buy two more strikers - don’t forget about Van Persie, Bendtner and Walcott, all of whom will be eager to prove themselves now that Henry is gone. Adebayor gives us something different, and we would always need a player like that. Eto’o makes the most sense, if we only buy him, I think we will be okay up front (especially if we buy Babel too, for the future).
And we still need wingers.
So The Times has an article about Wenger saying he will stay for another season. Anybody who knows a bit about Wenger should have already known this - he has never broken a contract in his life, even when the other party allows him to (like in the case just before Wenger was to come to Arsenal, when he was still in Japan and was allowed to leave by the Japanese club to start his new season with Arsenal, only for Wenger to stay until the end of his contract like he promised and missing the start of the Arsenal season as a result).
If you understand Wenger the man, you should also know about his integrity, in that he would never leave Arsenal without ensuring the club is in good hands. So it is highly unlikely that Wenger will leave after next season, since he is not irresponsible enough to leave at the end of the next season and leave Arsenal in a spot of bother. Besides, his youth project is still uncompletely, and he won’t leave until it is. If Wenger is to leave, then it will have to be the club sacking him, and there is no chance of this happening.
There is a lot of negative energy surrounding the club right now, from takeover talks, to everyone leaving. I for one would still happily go into the season supporting Arsenal even if we don’t buy a single player between now and then (maybe a little bit of doubt, perhaps we would only win the league by 5 points, instead of 15), but I do understand that there are those who think the club is in the biggest crisis it has ever been in, well, at least since the last one (which, coincidentally, was this time last year).
I think the best way for the club/Wenger to deal with all this negative energy is to go out and spend big on a player. A winger, perhaps. Spending big will appease those fans that want a takeover because they think the new owner will provide funds (which he won’t, not after spending all his money trying to buy Arsenal shares and putting the club in huge debt). It will also reassure some of our players and other supporters, who are getting a little bit worried about our short term ambitions. And lastly, it will actually allow us to get a good player that the team needs, and perhaps give us a psychological boost for the next season.
Let’s buy all the players that Wenger wants (most likely cheap unknown ones, based on Wenger’s purchase history), and then buy that big player or players that maybe Wenger wouldn’t have considered, but would still be glad to have in the team. I know the board prides itself on not interfering with Wenger on footballing issues, but I think in this case, the board needs to force the issue a bit. It’s all about making a statement of intent. Sure, we would end up with a few players too many, but with our injury record, there is no such thing as having too many players.
On means “I like being wanted by Milan, but I’ve told you so many times recently that I’m an Arsenal player and I’m going nowhere, so stop with the same fucking question all the fucking time!”. The other means “I like being wanted by Milan, and as I’ve told you many times recently, that for the moment, I’m still an Arsenal player, but who knows what will happen tomorrow *wink* *wink*”.
As usual, believe what you want to believe.
We still haven’t signed anyone yet. The Malouda speculation is the closest thing we have to a transfer at the moment, although Liverpool could still get the player. I would prefer we sign a right sided winger to replace/compete with Hleb, especially if Ljungberg is leaving for Newcastle/Celtic, but there aren’t really that many obvious choices around (Quaresma?). I like what Rosicky brings to our left hand side, it’s just a shame that he’s injured most of the time.
Edit: And the bit about Henry and Dein, well I think everybody associated with Arsenal was shocked and disappointed that Dein left. Shocked at the extent of Dein’s treachery, and disappointed that the board chickened out of a public hanging or something. I’m sure Henry is just getting over this …
A predictable end to a very annoying season. Once again, we didn’t take our chances and we paid for it - had we won, we would have been third - not a huge difference, but a different nonetheless. One of these days, I’m going to go through all our games, one by one, and see which one we should have won and didn’t simply because we couldn’t finish the (relatively easy) chances we were given.
The transfer season is nearly upon us. I will have to write a list about who we should be buying and another list of who we will end up buying (two very different lists, I fear), and another list of players who should be going.
The last game of the season is finally here. Not much left to play for, still hoping for 3rd place, but don’t bet on it. Looks like my earlier prediction was a bit off - with AC Milan looking likely to win the Champions League, and us finishing fourth (and Chelsea possibly picking up the FA Cup), and Tottenham finishing higher than 7th. So basically I was completely wrong! (but if we do the impossible and manage to get 3rd tomorrow, then maybe it’s worth putting some money on my predictions after all)
No Adebayor, no Rosicky, and so unfortunately it looks like no goals either. Now that Bendtner is back with us, perhaps it’s worth giving him a game. We might still manage to win it, but unless Liverpool drop points (again Charlton? no chance), 4th is where we might stay.
We’ve also signed a new goalkeeper, Åukasz (pronounced Woo-kash) FabiaÅ„ski. The 22 year old Pole, currently second choice for Poland, looks like a good buy - good height, attitude, and a perfect understudy for Lehmann, all the while giving the German some competition to worry about. Hopefully it won’t be our only signing of the summer - we need at least 2 wingers and another striker after we part ways with Baptista, Ljungberg and Aliadiere.
Not a great performance by Arsenal, actually it was probably one of our worst. Despite what Wenger says, we lacked focus and drive, and were at times content to just pass the ball around without creating too much. And the chances we did create were often wasted. Story of the season then.
The way we kept on making backward passes, sometimes all the way to Lehmann, shows that we still lack the drive and confidence to take teams on, especially after dominating and not scoring for parts of the match. We really should have beaten Chelsea and beaten them convincingly.
The season is nearly at an end and the transfer season is about to begin. We really need to buy a few players since we have obvious weaknesses in several areas (wingers, or the lack of - we played 2 central midfielders on the wings yesterday; and strikers who can score goals) and the board/Wenger can use some spending to placate those fans that are favouring a takeover because it will bring us lots of money to spend on transfers (but it won’t).
Our last big game of the season (no disrespect to Portsmouth). If we win this one, my earlier prediction will be a step closer to reality (and it did take a huge step towards becoming true, now that it’s an AC Milan v Liverpool final).
Our beloved friend Ashley “I nearly swerved off the road” Cole might be back. He might get a convenient injury just before the game to miss out, but that would be too obvious. If he plays, make the crowd can chat “£ 55,000″, and maybe he will swerve off the pitch. Could this also be Mourinho’s last game in charge against us? If so, we must win, since we haven’t done it yet and might not get a chance again in the future.
I hope Rosicky is fit - he makes a difference on the pitch. Otherwise we’ll start Baptista, and he owes us a “Beast” like performance before he is probably sent back to Spain at the end of the season.
2-0 to the Arse.
0 to 10th minute: Good football, it’s easy to see why Fulham are down at the bottom. Deserved goal. Should have been 3-0 up.
11th to 77th minute: Lazy, complacent, half-hearted play (except for Adebayor, he never stopped giving 100%), mixed with some good stuff and chances that should have been put away. If we continue to play like this, we’ll concede and waste all the good effort we’ve put in already (all 10 minutes of it).
78th minute: They equalise. What a surprise. Wrong decision by Lehmann- he’s been doing a lot of that recently.
79th to 90th minute: We finally start playing some football again, and guess what, we score 2 goals. Now wouldn’t it have been nicer to have scored 3 and then become lazy/complacent/half-hearted, rather than the other way around. If we have scored more goals a bit earlier, at least the “fans” that left around the 82nd minute could have enjoyed a couple of more goals.
A good 3 points, but we really should have finished them off in the first half, or at least earlier in the second half. This whole lazy/complacent/half-hearted, mixed with “the fear” (of being the one to give away the ball, and to cause us to concede, and hence to play well within oneself and not try anything too difficult), meant that we always makes it harder on ourselves. Some players also let their heads drop after missing a few chances - the old Arsenal team used to miss tons of chances as well, but they would never stopped trying just because they feel sorry for themselves. Plus the lack of noise really doesn’t help things either.
The end of the season is near, we’ll take points off Chelsea next week and end their title hopes. My other predictions includes us getting 3rd, Liverpool winning the Champions League, Chelsea winning nothing from now on, and Tottenham getting 7th place. It’s not what I want (apart from us finishing 3rd), but that’s my prediction anyway. Don’t ask me now how I came up with this prediction, but I might tell you about my prediction system if I’m right.
Ljungberg and Rosicky are out (aren’t they always) for our game against Fulham. We need the 3 points, but probably not as much as Fulham, who are still not safe against relegation. Manchester United and Chelsea play Everton and Bolton a day before us, and if the top 2 teams win as expected, then 4th place is guaranteed before we even kick a ball this week.
Diaby will probably come in, hopefully he will play in the middle where he is most effective, although I’m not sure who will play on the wings (Hleb and somebody else? Denilson?). It just goes to show we need more wingers.
Anyway, I think we’ll win. 3-0 is the score that I predict.