World Cup, Barca Still Talking Bol…Cesc, Koscielny & Win! Win! Win!

A World Cup which was expected to burst into life suffered a severe bout of flatulence yesterday. Two moments of Brazilian brilliance shone through on a day of deflated expectations following the tedious draw between Portugal and Ivory Coast. It took Ronaldo 5 minutes, 25 seconds to complete his first dive, 10 minutes to repeat the feat and get an opponent booked. Just what the World Cup needed.

The focus so far has been on avoiding defeat with few teams going outright for the opening win which would set them up for the rest of the competition. In Group G that is understandable with Brazil, Ivory Coast and Portugal all having realistic expectations of qualifying, caution will dominate the matches. But what is the excuse for the rest of them?

Perhaps the second round of fixtures which gets under way tonight with South Africa v Uruguay will provide more openess?

Myong-Guk Ri of North Korea became the latest goalkeeper to fluff his audition for the reportedly vacant position at Arsenal although his claims were not as definitively sunk as others. After all, conceding a goal via a gap at the near post in a big match never did Bob Wilson any harm did it?

The passion of playing for your country shone through Tae-Se Jong’s eyes, a veil of tears and a story to tell his grandchildren of how he almost scored the first of his country’s goals in what would have been their famous draw with Brazil. I wonder if the native media would have proclaimed such as a result as a victory in the same way that New York Post headline writers reflected that the USA! USA! USA! 1-1 draw with England was a win.

On the Arsenal front, despite being told once more by a club spokesman that the captain is not for sale and Gazidis apparently bragging – the term used by the Spanish media – about how once the flats are gone, the club can buy without borrowing money, Laporta still claims that negotiations are ongoing and have an air of ‘tense calm‘, a curious phrase. Possibly the only tension is in his sphincter as he waits for Rosell to run around going, Liar, liar, pants on fire, following their meeting and the subsequent one with Guardiola.

Cesc, meanwhile, spoke about the Spanish World Cup campaign and how he also is not thinking about his own future but took time to acknowledger his debt to Philippe Senderos,

If he hadn’t lent me his Teenage Fanclub CDs, I probably would be stuck listening to Michael Buble. It is only now that I appreciate all that Philippe did for me when I first moved to London.

The Swiss international should be thanked by everyone for that for no man should be trapped in that sort of hell.

Elsewhere, apparently Joe Cole is determined to play Europa League football with Manchester City or Tottenham – you know that they will fall at the first qualifying hurdle. If Wenger is really after signing Joe Cole, perhaps he should consider pulling out all the stops in the same manner that Arsenal did for Aaron Ramsey. I am sure Cole would not mind his holiday being interrupted to watch the World Cup at someone else’s expense…

Laurent Koscielny has decided that the lure of partnering Thomas Vermaelen is too much and has told Lorient that he wants out with £8.3m being just about the best fee they are going to get. His Mr20% has offered to convince Arsenal to include a sell-on clause in the contract. Whilst I am all for helping clubs smooth the way, the inclusion of such a clause at the player’s request hardly smacks of confidence that he will make the grade at The Emirates or shows commitment to the Arsenal cause. Still, if Wenger wants him, the manager’s judgement has to be trusted. After all, it is his neck on the block if things do not work out.

WIN A HOME SHIRT

Arsenal Football Club has kindly donated a new home shirt (to be released on July 29th) to the winner of this question:

Which Arsenal managers have played in the World Cup Finals?

Send your entries, along with your name and address, here or to aclfcomps[AT]btinternet[DOT]com, changing the bits in square brackets, with ‘New Home Shirt‘ in the subject line, to have a chance of winning. Closing date is midnight, Sunday 20th June 2010.

Good Luck to all who enter.

’til Tomorrow.

Arsene To Buy Ajax, Roy Of The Rovers & Win A Home Shirt

A mixed day for the Arsenal contingent in South Africa. Robin van Persie will be happy with his performance and the result, Bendtner mixed emotions and goodness alone knows what is going through Alex Song’s mind, relegated to the bench as another French coach showed that Dick Dastardly was not the only flawed genius.

Quite what was going through Paul Le Guen’s mind in dropping Song and playing Eto’o on the right is unknown. The answer to that question seems likely to be ‘not much at all‘. Perhaps the vuvuzela was distracting him. Interestingly, the broadcasters are blaming the players, coaches and other fans for the complaints about these ‘instruments’ whilst Fifa notes that the only formal moaning about them has come from the broadcasters. Hmmmm….

Back to the matches. Japan won their first World Cup finals match on foreign soil as Le Guen decided that having a competitive squad was better than fielding your best team. What is it at international level with French coaches? First we have Domenech, who we knew was certifiably nuts, cocking up France’s opener and now Cameroon lost against their weakest group opponent. Absolute genius.

Robin van Persie will be reasonably happy with his own performance in The Netherlands 2 – 0 win over Denmark, providing the cross which caused confusion in the Danish defence and the opening goal. Poulson was unfortunate to head against Agger’s back but ultimately it was a poor goal to concede. van Persie and the Dutch generally, hinted at better things to come but were well worth their win.

Given that Nicklas Bendtner was an injury doubt before the game, he put in a decent performance although he screwed his one real opening wide. The Danes containment of the Dutch worked in the first half but was undone early in the second. They lacked the penetration that their Golden Generation of 1986 – 92 had and the suspicion is that it will be the difference between qualifying and going home early, surely Cameroon will be fired up for their final encounter, a game which realistically they will have to win and Denmark will need at least a point from.

As for Italy, the less said about their first half performance the better. No, seriously, it was that bad. So bad, Paraguay must have been wondering what they were worried about beforehand. The second 45 minutes was a vast improvement and brought them the draw that they deserved overall.

So to Arsenal. The photoshopping of the new away kit gathers pace this morning with Daily Mail artists getting to work. Not too sure about it being a throwback to the Woolwich Arsenal days, it struck me as a little too Watford on first glance. However, we’ll be a bit generous and allow Nike to say it was inspired by Melchester Rovers all-conquering sides, obviously inverted.

Elsewhere, Arsene has been very impressed by the Dutch qualifying campaign for South Africa is covetously glancing in the direction of the Eredivision. Specifically he is looking at Ajax. More specifically at Stekelenburg, van der Wiel, Suarez and now Vertonghen. That takes care of the defence and attack. Such is his eye for a bargain that he has talked Ivan Gazidis, Kroenke and Usmanov into buying the club rather than separate bids for each of the players. Quite what he will do with Rommendahl is anyone’s guess but Gunnersaurus is looking nervously over his shoulder.

WIN A HOME SHIRT

Arsenal Football Club has kindly donated a new home shirt (to be released on July 29th) to the winner of this question:

Which Arsenal managers have played in the World Cup Finals?

Send your entries, along with your name and address, here or to aclfcomps[AT]btinternet[DOT]com, changing the bits in square brackets, with ‘New Home Shirt‘ in the subject line, to have a chance of winning. Closing date is midnight, Sunday 20th June 2010.

Good Luck to all who enter.

’til Tomorrow.

Almunia’s Not Worried As Goalkeeping Targets Fail Their Auditions

Goalkeepers moved to centre stage in the World Cup this weekend and for all of the wrong reasons. The opening day was uneventful, the concerns over how the ball would move through the air at altitude proved unfounded with only the crowd in any danger so wayward was the shooting.

That all changed in Saturday and Sunday’s games; howlers were found with a regularity that will have had some national team managers brushing up their CVs. Arsene will have been reflecting on the fact that perhaps his current crop of custodians is not as bad as he is regularly told.

Mistakes by Robert Green and Mark Schwarzer will not have fatally wounded any interest in them should Arsene be genuinely looking at either; it will not have done them any good either. Green’s was a lack of concentration and nerves. Schwarzer seriously misjudged a cross that allowed Klose to double Germany’s advantage. Had Almunia committed such a sin in the Premier League, he would no doubt have been tarred and feathered before being hung, drawn and quartered at Traitor’s Gate.

Green though is apparently considering an offer from BP as new CEO. A spokesman for the beleaguered company observed that the West Ham ‘keeper is an expert at spillages and has experience of helping Americans in their time of trouble.

Almunia was reported at the weekend to be relaxed about his Arsenal future, applying Wenger’s beliefs to his situation. I have a contract which I intend to honour is simply re-iterating the stance taken with Barcelona over Fabregas. He will not have been any more reassured with Whimsey’s comments about a bid for the Australian being turned down and indeed, may be unconvinced that his signing is going to improve the competition at the club.

Manuel Neuer of Schalke looked as impressive as his outfield colleagues in Germany’s romp last night. It was a combination of the paucity of the opposition and a decent performance by the Germans. Neuer looked assured in his handling but it is impossible to judge him on one game although inconceivable that he has not been scouted, especially as it is reported that Wenger has shown an interest in Adler, the usual international Number One for Joachim Low.

The result in the Barcelona election will no doubt bring intensified pressure in the Spanish media for Fabregas to be signed, Martin Keown may just be given the Freedom of Catalunya for his comments last week, gleefully seized upon by El Mundo Deportivo. Laporta’s exit is on the 30th of this month and with his preferred heir being roundly thrashed by Rosell, he will not be keen to allow his nemesis to have any glory in the pursuit of the Arsenal captain.

That’s it for today, Robin van Persie has his chance to shine against Denmark, for whom Nicklas Bendtner is fighting a losing fitness battle whilst Alex Song is likely to be on the bench for Cameroon.

’til Tomorrow.

England Huff And Puff, Cesc & Loads In

England ventured onto the World Cup stage last night and produced an emminently forgettable performance. Plenty of endeavour but few succeed without natural talent to supplement it. Perhaps Fabio Capello will  but a point will have disappointed a man who exists only to win.

Robert Green is taking the brickbats which is entirely understandable, a workmanlike USA! USA! USA! deserved their point, not least for exposing the limitations of the squad. Capello’s decision to bring on Shaun Wright-Phillips for Milner brought no ingenuity to the left, Joe Cole may well have been more incisive as he is used to that position.

Aaron Lennon showed in bursts that he can provide width but the dangerous crosses came from Johnson and Gerrard. Would Walcott have done any better? Perhaps not but I am sure he would have taken the shot on in a similar position to that which Lennon found himself in the first half, the decision to cross showed his natural winger’s instinct rather than a forward’s selfishness.

Defensively, the central pairing of Terry with King / Carragher was not uncomfortable but not authoratative either. In short, a nervy performance with few showing the class that we are reportedly told every week that they possess. It isn’t the end of the world nor was it a signal of intent. It was a typical opening game, the top of the group still beckons and that is all that matters at this stage.

Onto Arsenal. Arsene is in South Africa and told the media that They can do one:

There is nothing to say, Cesc Fabregas is Arsenal and has a contract. We are not interested at all in breaking it.

Definitive and today’s election should not change that. Laporta stays in office until the 30th of this month and no doubt will try again. His sidekicks noted on Friday that there are three parties at the negotiating table and Barcelona have not been invited. Which sums Them up rather nicely: unwelcomed gatecrashers. Still, they have not even got in the building yet so ner-ne-ner-ne-ner.

Joe Cole is apparently going to sign a contract for £135k per week which will no doubt send Fabregas’ agent into Arsene’s office for a new contract. And why not? If he is going to commit to Arsenal and publicly declare he does not want to go to Barcelona for the duration of his deal, let him have parity. Give it to van Persie as well for the same terms. But for God’s Sake not a deal where bonuses are paid up front, akin to the one Henry signed.

Apparently Wenger is trying to annoy the Spaniards by nicking Gregory van der Weil, who wants Robin van Persie to put in a good word with Wenger for him. Do it! Mind you, he did the same for van der Vaart and look where that got him.

It seems that the £30m Arsene has spent a decade building up is burning a hole in his pocket. He’s got Cole, wants van der Weil and is intent on signing Schwarzer, Jagielka, Koscielny and Peinaar. A whole new team in one summer it feels like.

’til Tomorrow

Diaby Delights Whilst Vela Disappoints, Transfer Gossip & Win A Home Shirt

No wins for any of the Arsenal contingent in yesterday’s opening World Cup games, no defeats either. Carlos Vela had departed the field when Marques salvaged a draw for the Mexicans who seemed intent on avoiding victory. They started brightly and dominated the South Africans, spurning chances which suggests that progress through this group is going to be a struggle for them with a cynical Uruguay and unfathomable French side to face.

Vela will not be overly pleased with his performance. The offside decision which rightly denied him the tournaments opening goal was entirely avoidable. The Mexican had a perfect view of the defenders and goalkeeper, could see who was where and how to stay onside but failed to display the positional awareness which would have allowed him to break the deadlock. Nerves or the sense of occasion must have clouded his judgement.

He was not the only culprit, former West Ham striker Franco spurned more opportunities, some of them criminally. Credit to South Africa for weathering the storm and Tshabalala found the perfect finish to a slick counter-attack. The hosts might, and perhaps should, have won the match at the end, the woodwork denying them the opportunity to top the group.

Vela though was infuriating in his inability to assert himself on the South African defence, despite a bright start. His link up play as the Mexicans set about getting an early goal hinted at what is to come later in his career. He was lively in the penalty area and was at times only an interception away from giving his country a deserved first half lead.

In the evening match, France blundered their way to a goalless draw against Uruguay. Apparently, there hasn’t been a goal in a fixture between the two nations for over twenty years and it wasn’t hard to see why with a French attack that was extraordinarily blunt after an initial burst of life. Sidney Govou was once perennially linked with Arsenal; on that performance, no-one should question Arsene’s decision not to sign him.

Not that he was the only culprit. Ribery did nothing to suggest that he would have altered the outcome of the Champions League final had he been available whilst Anelka’s most telling contribution was to intercept Diaby’s pass to Govou and deny his colleague a clear run on goal.

Gorcuff started well, had a couple of interesting attempts on goal from set pieces but then became like the annoying kid at school, his mantra seemed to be, ‘I nearly scored with one so every time there’s a freekick, I’m going to shoot‘, which would drive any club manager beyond distraction and into the welcoming bosom of despair. Despite that, you have to say that he possesses an accuracy that will give Robin van Persie some ideas for next season.

So to Bacary Sagna and Abou Diaby. The full back had a good evening, solid defensively and supportive of the attack. In short, nothing less than we have come to expect from him on a weekly basis. I think it is three yellow cards and you miss the next game, so Gael Clichy is one third of the way to getting a runout in at least one match with Patrice Evra’s booking. It’s either that or injury which is going to give him the left back berth because the French captain did little wrong otherwise.

Diaby played how you want him to do so every week for Arsenal. He does sometimes but lacks the consistency of performance although like everyone last season’s midfield merry-go-round helps little. Running from deep he was able to pull the Uruguayan midfield all over the place and his link-up play was excellent. Defensively he has learned from his mistakes at club level and to be honest, if he can produce this sort of display on a regular basis, the bout of Diaby-bashing may well come to an end. A shame Dunga did not pick Denilson and perhaps we could have knocked it all on the head in one summer.

The World Cup though really kicks off today with England taking on the USA! USA! USA! Media memories of 1950 are rehashed, the subsequent victories ignored, the 1976 win over NASLs finest erased from the record books. Fair play and all that for it was the only competitive match between the two nations in this sport.

It is not hard to see why USA! USA! USA! fancy their chances against the seemingly disjointed England squad but having qualified with relative ease for this tournament, Capello is not going to let anyone stand in his way as England head towards a quarter final exit. Potential opponents at that stage are Argentina and they have a tricky encounter with Nigeria this afternoon although history is against the Africans, two defeats in 1994 and 2002 whilst in the past, do not give comfort.

Quite what the world will make of Emile Heskey is anyone’s guess but he is likely to start alongside Rooney with Lampard and Gerrard seeking to make their usual hash of things in midfield. Still, if we think we’ve got it bad at least our hopes don’t rest on Clint Dempsey or the manager’s son.

Arsene will take a break from Eurosport’s awful Soccer City programme to watch Joe Cole with as much interest as he paid to Steven Pienaar. No wonder Blatter was keen to twit… wait, no, that is what he is. Sorry tweet that he met the player soon to be signed by Wenger according to reports. If only those pesky Catalans would nick our best player…

He could be joined by a nearly England international in the shape of Phil Jagielka as Arsene seeks to solve his defensive riddles with Campbell seemingly on his way to The Jungle. Perhaps a cheeky £20m bid for Vidic would be more acceptable to Old Red Nose than seeing his prize defender nip over to the Other Side?

WIN A HOME SHIRT

Arsenal Football Club has kindly donated a new home shirt (to be released on July 29th) to the winner of this question:

Which Arsenal managers have played in the World Cup Finals?

Send your entries, along with your name and address, here or to aclfcomps[AT]btinternet[DOT]com, changing the bits in square brackets, with ‘New Home Shirt‘ in the subject line, to have a chance of winning. Closing date is midnight, Sunday 20th June 2010.

Good Luck to all who enter.

’til Tomorrow.

Arsenal At The World Cup #10: Sol Campbell v Sweden 2002

What? Did you seriously think I would let this opportunity pass? The eve of England’s first game? And yes, I live in eternal hope…Oh, and Seaman pops up with a couple of good saves in 1998 & 2002 whilst there was some familiar faces in the 1998. Yes, OK, I know that Sol wasn’t an Arsenal player in ’98 but that doesn’t lessen the sense of injustice.

Sol Campbell was robbed in 1998…

…and made up for it in 2o02 when he had turned his back on the dark side…

Cole, Cesc, World Cup Glory Boys And Win A Home Shirt

The media snowball has grown into an avalanche over Joe Cole to Arsenal. Nothing confirmed but all of the press are convinced that he will sign for Arsenal in early July after England make their quarter-final exit in South Africa, a few days after his contract expires. The usual domestic suspects have been joined in the chase by Lazio and AC Milan whilst Real Madrid will no doubt be linked very soon.

Who knows, perhaps it will even be a rerun of Allen / Sansom with Barcelona getting Joe Cole and then passing him onto Arsenal with Yaya Toure for Cesc. Certainly Toure’s Mr20% believes that deal is not dead but he is probably the only one.

Wenger made it clear that he rates both Cole and Cesc. His contradicted the Spanish media belief that Cesc has been told by the manager that he can go:

What is important is that Cesc has a great World Cup and that he comes back to Arsenal with a great desire to do well for the club. We want to keep our best players – that’s my huge determination – I built this team for years from 16 and 17 years of age with most of the players.

We want to continue to work with them because we feel we are very close, and strengthen the team in a very strong way.

Hardly the ‘Wenger is going to help Cesc move to the DNA Sampling Centre‘ that we have been frequently told is going to happen. More a case of ‘He leaves over my dead body‘. And quite rightly so. As a supporter, you want players who are committed to the club but equally,  Cesc at 95% commitment is better than a lot of players who are 100% focussed.

The suggestion is that he will be here for one more year. Well, let’s get through this summer first. Of course, there is a way to go and with transfers out still to happen, FC Broke might be able to rustle up a few more euros for a proper bid which could change things.

Of Cole, Wenger said:

I like him (Joe Cole) as a player because when he played against us he always did a lot of damage. He can create impact through his creative play. He can dribble, he can pass, he can score goals.

The suggestion has been that Arsenal has too many similar players to Cole to warrant signing him. Firstly, a lot of those players have suffered injuries in the past whilst Cole, last season aside, has been relatively injury free. Quantity with their quality can never be detrimental to a squad unless dissatisfaction seeps in.

Elsewhere, Wenger is back in for Koscielny, £8.2m this time. If he and Cole are ‘Transfer Linked’, maybe a reverse hex works on mulitple inclusions and they then are freed into genuine targets? On the way out is apparently Eduardo who is considering his future.

World Cup Group A

The Greatest Show On Earth gets under way this afternoon with an immediate Arsenal interest in both of today’s fixtures. Carlos Vela gets the ball rolling in the opening game which sees Mexico take on hosts South Africa. Opening matches are typically uninspiring but have in recent tournaments provided surprising – and occasionally shock – results. This one might not live up to that expectation.

The group is a tricky one to decide who will qualify. France are undeserving favourites; their results have been indifferent at best, their only win in 2010 was against Costa Rica whilst they have failed to beat Tunisia and China. Yet they have the talent to make the last 16. The camp is apparently divided with some not wanting Henry there which just goes to show how ungrateful they are, for if he had not intervened, it might be Ireland we are talking of now. Likewise there is a clique who want Diaby to start ahead of Gorcuff but it would not be the World Cup without one of the ‘big’ footballing nations riven by strife.

Of the Arsenal quartet in their squad, only Sagna and Gallas are likely to be starters for France. Gael Clichy’s chances of usurping Evra were severely dented when the United player was made captain whilst Diaby’s supporters are probably going to find, for the first game at least, that he is on the bench.

Mexico, Uruguay and South Africa are all in reasonable form, winning where expected and losing just the same. The matches are key to progression: the winner of France v Uruguay will harbour realistic ambitions of topping the group so it will probably end in a draw. Mexico and South Africa will have identified this as a ‘must win‘ match, three points necessary and hope to pick up another two or three along the way.

Carlos Vela has a big opportunity to impress, to show a growing maturity in his play. If the ball is as true as its makers claim, forwards will have a field day and Frank Lampard probably score ten deflected goals. Vela ought to look to capitalise on that. He had enough opportunities against England to have forced a draw and his goal against Italy will boost his confidence, his first in nine appearances for his country. Before that barren run, he was averaging a goal every other game. A good World Cup for him personally would set him fair to challenge for a regular first team spot at Arsenal. I don’t think his country will do so well this time around with the Round of 16 being successful.

WIN A HOME SHIRT

Arsenal Football Club has kindly donated a new home shirt (to be released on July 29th) to the winner of this question:

Which Arsenal managers have played in the World Cup Finals?

Send your entries, along with your name and address, here or to aclfcomps[AT]btinternet[DOT]com, changing the bits in square brackets, with ‘New Home Shirt‘ in the subject line, to have a chance of winning. Closing date is midnight, Sunday 20th June 2010.

Good Luck to all who enter.

’til Tomorrow.