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Arsenal Pre-Season 2012/13

July 27th, 2012 | Posted by Patrick Langridge in Arsenal - (0 Comments)

And so another pre-season is upon us. Double training sessions, long flights, prestige friendlies, photo opportunities and signing sessions; just some of the mundane tasks that fill these quiet weeks leading up to the season starting. Arsenal kick off the season at home to Sunderland in nearly 3 weeks time, with much left to be decided. At the forefront of this is one Mr Robin van Persie. Our cap-i-tan took it upon himself to release a statement on his personal website stating that he would not be signing a new contract – fine, no problem with that, most Gooners didn’t expect him to. What irked most fans however, was that Robin went on to criticise the club, the manager and the board for a lack of ambition, and said that he and the club have very different ideas of how the club should be run and what direction to head in. This was what we feared. I was hoping that Robin would keep schtum, see out his final year, play great, score goals, and leave with everyone’s best wishes, but this statement makes his position at the club practically untenable. Wayne Rooney tried something similar and was offered a huge new contract which funnily enough caused him to retract his statement – all of sudden Utd were ambitious again. Arsenal won’t be doing that. The club are very proud of their self sustainable model (even if no-one else, including UEFA, seems to care) and won’t do anything to put that in jeopardy, especially not for a player who let’s face it, has had one great season and a lot of injury ravaged ones. I’m not one of those who thinks he ‘owes’ the club anything, or has a ‘duty’ to stay (it would be nice, right?), but I do think that publicly criticising the club as he did, is unacceptable. Clearly he wants to force through a move, and if he’s to do that without putting in a transfer request then he is entitled to all sorts of bonuses. He’s made his position untenable and is now available to the highest bidder.

To where dos thou go Sir Robin? As far as I’m concerned, the club CAN NOT sell him to another English club, end of story. Man City and Utd are both ‘ahead’ of us already, so to sell them our best player would be madness, and I think we could already wave goodbye to the league title. I’d rather chuck him in the rezzies than ship him up north. People will say that we should take a big fee from City if it comes, or else we could lose him for free next summer – how about we worry about next summer, next summer for once? Let’s think about this season, please. If Wenger told RvP that he’s not going anywhere, sure he’d be disappointed, but I think by Sept/Oct he would see sense and get his head down, work hard and try and win for this club. How does it look to potential suitors if you go on strike and refuse to play? Can’t see it. We’ve strengthened our rivals (particularly City) over the last few summers, and then faffed about with the resulting transfers fees to buy some unconvincing players. If the interest from Juventus is genuine then let’s get him out the door to them ASAP – I’d even take a lower transfer fee just to not have him sold to Manchester. There’s even an Ibrahimovic’d size hole in Milan that needs filling – Silvio?

Transfers have been so far so good to date this year, Podolski – good, and Giroud – sounds good (let’s hope he’s not another Chamakh), we’ve moved Vela out of the club, and Denilson’s robbed another year away on loan, but there’s still a ton of dead wood that needs shifting. Nick Bendtner seems to be linked to a different shit club every day (latest being Celta Vigo), Arshavin’s time is up, Chamakh and Park are both available (but who would buy them?) and there’s still uncertainty surrounding Djourou, Fabianski and Ramsey. If we can get a few of those out, the boss has already confirmed that he’s looking to bring in another one or two. By the sounds of it the M’Vila deal has gone very quiet, if there was ever genuine interest in the first place. One that’s hotting up is Santi Cazorla from cash strapped Malaga, which would be a fantastic signing. Versatile, experienced, quality. Plenty of uncertainty surrounding the club in any case – just another summer at Arsenal then.

@patlangridge | @SolidBackFour

Venues Quiz!

July 20th, 2012 | Posted by Patrick Langridge in Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

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Why England Didn’t Win Euro 2012

June 25th, 2012 | Posted by Patrick Langridge in Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

Last night England made yet another exit from a major international tournament on penalties, this time to Italy. It’s a familiar fate; World Cups 1990, 1998 and 2006, and European Championships in 1996 and 2004. In fact, England have only ever won a single penalty shoot out, against Spain at Wembley in Euro 96.  Is our inability to put the ball in the goal bag from 12 yards the reason we failed to progress to the semi-final?

Stepping back and looking at England’s tournament as a whole, we’ve gone out at the quarter final stage and only Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal have progressed further. Are those four sides all ahead of us at the moment? Probably yes, and despite underachieving you’d probably add Holland, France and possibly Russia to that list too, so a quarter final finish is probably just about right. How do we take that step to be a semi final side? We’ve been really disappointing in possession during the Euros, and our inability to keep the ball has once again been the major problem for me. We were dominated against the French, Italy and Ukraine, the Sweden game was a bit of a pinball one-off but we still weren’t great in possession. We give the ball away far too cheaply and just don’t seem to have the technical quality to play those little patient triangles that most other countries do. It would sure be nice to be able to stick away 5/6 penalties in a row in a World Cup quarter final, but it would be nicer if we could actually control (or god forbid, dominate!) games so that it never goes that far. Anyone who saw the game last night knows we were battered by Italy, and somehow managed to rob a clean sheet from them, and we need to find another way of playing to compete with the European elite.

I don’t want to come down too hard on Roy Hodgson, I actually think he was the right appointment and he’s done a good job so far. I’ve agreed with most of his calls so far and he’s made us hard to beat which we haven’t been in years gone past – we’ve actually been eliminated without losing a game! I would though like to see us play with 3 central midfielders as the best sides in world tend to. I’d push Rooney forward to play right up top, and bring in either a Wilshere/Lampard into centre mid, or Oxlade-Chamberlain/Walcott and maybe move Ashley Young to centre mid. However we cut it, it needs to be a real central 3 and not one playing off or with a striker. Possession is the key to being successful at international level – when you have the ball, the other team doesn’t! You create more chances, tire the opposition, and you’ll win more games. Only 2 years until the World Cup…

@patlangridge | @SolidBackFour

Euro 2012 Preview | Part Two (Groups C and D)

June 7th, 2012 | Posted by Patrick Langridge in Euro 2012 - (0 Comments)

Group C

Reining World and European champions Spain headline Group C, and will be the ones to beat once again. David Villa and Carles Puyol are both missing this time around, but the emergence of Javi Martinez, David Silva and Fernando Lorente in the last year mean that Spain won’t be any weaker. The Italians come into this tournament not really being fancied by anyone, in fact the only mention of the Azzuri lately has been another match fixing scandal. That being said, looking at the quality of players that they’re bringing along, it would be a major surprise if they failed to progress beyond the group stage. Ireland and Croatia will be looking to pounce should Italy fail to put things together, Ireland with their experienced manager and solid look to them might just squeeze through. The games will be tight, and they might have to beat Croatia, nick a draw against Italy and not lose by too many to Spain to reach the quarters.

To go through: Spain and Ireland

Group D

England’s build up to Euro 2012 has been made up uninspiring 1-0 win’s against Norway and Belgium (yes I know, wins none-the-less), and injuries. Ruddy, Barry, Lampard and Cahill have all had to drop out of the squad, and instead of Carrick, Richards and Ferdinand replacing them, we’ve got Jagielka, Henderson and Kelly. Two points to be made here; if any player refuses a call up/to go on standby, then they can piss off altogether as far as I’m concerned, I don’t buy this picking and choosing when to play for England thing. Secondly, we should be calling up experienced and adequate replacements, and for me Henderson and Kelly are not good enough. Neither are going to start and neither are going to be the guys you turn to make an impact off the bench (I hope not, at least). That being said, we’ve got who we’ve got and let’s crack on with. Next Monday’s game has got to be ‘operation don’t lose’ for me, if we can win it then that would be fantastic, but being realistic let’s try and get through the game unscathed (injury wise too) and look to beat Sweden and Ukraine. France have another talented group of players and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they get on - quelle France will turn up this time? I don’t expect much from Ukraine or Sweden, but if there is a winner from that game which is in the opening round of fixtures, they’ll give themselves a real chance of causing a surprise.

To go through: England and France

@patlangridge | @SolidBackFour

Euro 2012 Preview | Part One (Groups A and B)

June 6th, 2012 | Posted by Patrick Langridge in Euro 2012 - (0 Comments)

Group A

This Friday sees the kick off of Euro 2012, with Poland meeting Greece in a (not) mouth watering opener. Co-hosts Poland will be hoping to take advantage of being drawn in a  pretty kind group (Russia and Czech Republic make up the numbers), combined with obvious home advantage. They’ll be hoping that Robert Lewandowski keeps up his Borussia Dortmund form in front of goal, if they’ve any chance to progress. Greece? No chance, not again. The Russians impressed in the last European Championships in 2008, Andrei Arshavin really burst onto the scene back then but that was probably the best we’ve ever seen of him. Having won the Russian title with Zenit in his short loan spell, the little Russian will again be hoping to inspire his nation to a deep run in this year’s finals. The Czech’s have some talented players (including captain and Gooner Tomas Rosicky) and always seem to make the big summer tournements, but also always seem to leave little or no impression on proceedings.

To go through: Poland and Russia

Group B

The Dutch and the Germans seem to be the big favourites outside of the Spanish, so it’s hard to make a case for either Portugal or Denmark to cause what we big a huge upset, and get out of this tough group. Holland were runners-up at the World Cup two years ago, and with the emergence of Robin Van Persie as a goal scoring leader, that only makes them stronger. They could well line up with a team that has Van Der Vaart, Affelay and Huntelaar all on the bench – scary. I expect to see Germany join them in the last 8, impressive in the World Cup (and just about every major tournament) showing a mix talented ball players (I think I love Mesut Ozil) and old fashioned German-ness, this current crop will be very tough to beat. Portugal have Ronaldo but not a lot else, and Denmark have Bendtner (so nothing, right?), I can’t see them stopping either Holland or Germany.

To go through: Holland and Germany

Part Two of my preview arrives tomorrow!

@patlangridge | @SolidBackFour

Robin Van Persie | To Be Or Not To Be?

May 24th, 2012 | Posted by Patrick Langridge in Arsenal - (1 Comments)

Are Arsenal fans EVER going to have a relaxing summer? Robin Van Persie’s delicately poised contract situation means not, for the summer of 2012 at least. The handling of last summer’s ins and outs was frankly nothing short of a disgrace, and alarm bells are ringing yet again. We knew Cesc was going, we knew Nasri was going, so why didn’t we facilitate getting them out the door quicker, thus giving us enough time to recruit top quality replacements? Cesc ended up leaving 16 days before the transfer window closed, Nasri just 9 days later. I’m not here to knock the likes of Arteta, Mertesacker and Santos (in fact I think they’re all decent players, Arteta especially) but they’re not in the same league as the 2 best players we had at our football club. During last summer, the club will have no doubt noticed that our next best player’s contract had just 2 years left to run. Did they decide to get Robin and his agent into the boardroom and effectively offer him a blank cheque? No, they decided to let things play out, and here we are 12 months later in a pretty sticky situation (not to mention the same sticky situation with Theo Walcott).

At 28, Robin knows that this will be the last big contract of his career, and he’s rightly thinking long and hard about whether he wants to commit to Arsenal or go elsewhere. Some on Twitter have suggested that he ‘owes’ the club in some way, and that because the club stood by him through his injury problems he should in some way ‘repay’ the club. Anyone who still believes that this is how the world works is deluded. You can see that Robin loves this club, I think he actually WANTS to stay, but doesn’t see enough reasons to do so (whether that’s money, signings, ambition, trophies or all four). Wenger has made it clear that he intends to keep Van Persie next year regardless of whether the Dutchman signs a new contract, a move which I’d agree with. Plenty before me have eloquently emphasised how crucial the man is to the team, it’s quite obvious we’d be up shite creek if he leaves the club. But his on pitch performances aren’t the only reason why I’d like to see Robin stay. If Man City or Real Madrid come in with a £30 million bid which we decided to take (on paper not bad business for a guy who will be 29 in August and has 1 year left on his deal, right?), I’d have absolutely zero confidence that we would spend that money on an adequate replacement(s). Just look at what we did last summer.

Like Wenger, I’m not one who thinks that spending is always the answer, but I do think that the club have severly mis-managed transfer and contract negotiations of late. Far too much time and money is spent on tieing poor to average players down on ‘long term contracts’, rather than rewarding those who deserve it, and clearing out those who don’t. For instance, we’re currently paying Bentdner £52,000 a week, and he’s out on loan at another club. Squallici is on 80k, Vela on 40k, Almunia on 60k – the list goes on and on and doesn’t make for pretty reading. We desperatley need to clear out the dead wood that is rotting our great club, and replenish with real quality that will, I’m afraid to say Arsene, cost money. Let’s hope that our captain is there to greet a fresh, hungry and talented squad come pre-season.

@patlangridge | @SolidBackFour

My Euro 2012 England Squad

May 15th, 2012 | Posted by Patrick Langridge in England - (0 Comments)

This time tomorrow the new England manager Roy Hodgson will be preparing to announce his England squad for Euro 2012. It’s not clear from the FA statement if this will be the final 23-man squad, or a larger list of players that Roy will take to the Spanish training camp and subsequent friendlies, to take a look at up close before trimming to a final 23. I’ve gone for the final 23 that I’d take to Poland and Ukraine, thoughts/screaming at me is very welcome!

Goalkeepers:

Hart
Foster
Ruddy

It’s really a case of Joe Hart plus two others. I don’t think it really matters who the two others are (it could have been Green, Robinson, Carson) because realistically neither will get a game, we just have to hope that Hart doesn’t get injured or suspended. John Ruddy has impressed enough this season to earn a seat on the plane, and it’s been another solid season for Ben Foster at West Brom. Foster did miss the final game of the season (to which us Arsenal fans were very happy about, Martin Fulop gratefully gifted us 3 goals!) through injury, but if he’s fit then his recently departed club boss will surely pick him in his new job as England manager.

Defenders:

Richards
Walker
Cole
Gibbs
Terry
Ferdinand
Jones
Cahill

Assuming that Kyle Walker’s injury is indeed ‘a knock’ as Harry Redknapp has put it, I would say that the right back berths pick themselves. I’m not a Glen Johnson fan, let’s put it that way. Ashley Cole will continue as first choice at left back and my Arsenal bias would put Kieran Gibbs forward as his understudy. Gibbs still has work to do to become as complete a defender as Cole, but his last ditch tackle late on against West Brom shows that he is gradually getting there. Leighton Baines just doesn’t have the quality for me. At centre back I would still go with Terry and Ferdinand for another tournament at least, the other choices being Cahill (assuming he’s fit, is better than Lescott) and Jones (good footballer and versitile).

Midfielders:

Walcott
Downing
Lampard
Gerrard
Barry
Parker
Scholes
Young

I’d probably line up Walcott right and Downing left in the opening game, with Lampard, Barry and Gerrard as a middle 3. Parker is an injury doubt but if he’s okay I’d bring him and Young along, and if Paul Scholes can be talked around I’d say we have to find a place for him.

Strikers:

Rooney
Holt
Welbeck
Defoe

Rooney despite his 2 game ban is obvs, Welbeck has done well enough this year for me, and Defoe keeps proving what a good finisher he is, and more importantly, that he’s happy to do it from the bench if needs be. I’ve gone for Grant Holt ahead of Carroll/Crouch as I think he’s earnt a shot after scoring so many goals this season. Both Carroll and Crouch have had their moments, but Holt has been a consistent threat all year.

Departure Lounge:

Green
Lescott
Baines
G.Johnson
Milner
Carrick
A.Johnson
Lennon
Carroll
Crouch

Injury permitting I would keep the above group on their toes, there’s bound to be some kind of crisis in the next couple of weeks! It’s England, right?

@patlangridge | @SolidBackFour

The Weekend Review – 1 Game to Go

May 8th, 2012 | Posted by Patrick Langridge in Weekend Review - (0 Comments)

Title

Advantage Citeh. What a week it’s been for Manchester ‘Moneybags’ City, with massive results against Utd and Newcastle. ‘All’ they need to do now is beat QPR on Sunday to secure their first Premier League title, and potentially start a new era in British football. Standing in their way will be ex-manager Mark Hughes who was widely regarded as being unfairly sacked and badly treated by his superiors while at City, and despite me believing Hughes to be a bully and out of his depth at this level, deserves credit for picking up Vincent Kompany for £6million if nothing else. Shaun Wright Philips, Nedum Onuha and Joey Barton are other familiar faces who will be keen to spoil the party, but you have to expect that City will hold up their end of the bargin and get the job done. Utd travel to Sunderland knowing that a win is all they can do to keep the pressure on City, and an early Utd goal would make the afternoon pretty entertaining for the neutrals.

Europe

Arsenal’s 3-3 draw at home to Norwich looked like a really poor result on Saturday evening, but just 24 hours later it was a pretty decent point. Both Newcastle and Spurs failed to capitalise on Arsenal’s slip up and the Gooners still have 3rd place in their own hands going into their trip to the Hawthorns on Sunday. I thought we were shocking against Norwich to be fair, we were lucky not to concede a couple of penalties (we should have had one of our own, too) and should probably have lost the game due to some frankly laughable defending. Somehow we’ve been given another chance to clinch automatic Champions League football next season, let’s not screw it up again please. It’s encouraging to see that we have Lucas Podolski locked in for next season, and all the noises are saying that Yann M’Vila will shortly be joining him. I’m expecting a few in’s and out’s this summer, take a peek at my predictions from last month’s blog.

Relegation

Blackburn (and presumably Steve Kean too?) were finally put out of their misery last night with a 1-0 defeat to the resurgent Wigan, they’ll join Wolves in the Championship next season. Either Bolton or QPR will be the third and final team to make that depressing journey to Barnsley away next season, QPR have the aforementioned intimidating trip to Eastlands, while Bolton go to Stoke. I have a feeling and a hope that QPR’s euphoria following *that* Cisse goal on Sunday will turn to nightmares this weekend, as I’ve got a feeling that Bolton will sneak a win up at the Britannia. It’s all up for grabs now.

@patlangridge | @SolidBackFour

Robin Van Perfect

April 24th, 2012 | Posted by Patrick Langridge in Uncategorized - (1 Comments)

Robin Van Persie was today crowned the Football Writers Player of the Year to mark an impressive personal double, following the PFA Player of the Year award he picked up on Sunday. Trophy drought my arse.

We’re lucky to have him and who knows what this season would have been like without him – Chamakh up front on his own is a scary thought. Robin describes himself as a number ’9 and a half’, someone who can play that lead striker role but also likes to drop deep and join in with the link up play. Some said (and still say) that he’s not a natural striker and couldn’t lead the line, but he’s proved those doubters wrong by scoring like a billion goals. Fitness had been the issue in years gone by, he never stayed on the pitch long enough to show his undoubted ability and class, but this year he’s finally been clear of injury. Cesc’s departure in the summer left Van Persie as the obvious choice to step forward into the captaincy, and he has lead terrifically by example this year. Particular highlights (of which there are many) would be the goals at Chelsea, Liverpool and at home against Dortmund and Everton. He doesn’t often score tap-ins. Had his chip against Milan gone in we might have been watching Arsenal in tonight’s Champions League semi-final, but I’m willing to cut him a little slack.

This gushing praise however is tinged with uncertainty and worry that we as Gooners may be watching Van Persie’s last days at the club. His contract is expiring at the end of next season and the long awaited sit down with Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis is due to take place before Robin shoots off to the Euros. Assuming we make the top 4 (which is by no means assured) I think he’ll stay, I really do. If we don’t make it, I think there’s a real possibility that he’ll want to leave, and in that case the club will have an almighty decision to make with regards to next season. Robin is 28 now so this is probably the last chance he will have to make that mammoth move to Italy or Spain which I’m sure he has been tempted to do. As with the Nasri situation, the club could decide to sell him for a good price now and reinvest that money in the squad (reinvest, fat chance), or they could make him stay (potentially against his will) for another year with the likelihood that he would leave for nothing in June 2013. Unlike the Nasri situation, I don’t feel that we can afford to lose Robin, he has to stay next year under any circumstances. If he wanted to leave, once the season gets going he’d get his head down and play, score goals and win us matches, he wouldn’t fuck off to Argentina for 3 months. Hopefully though we won’t need to cross that bridge, and the lad will put pen to paper in the next month or so. You know it makes sense.

@patlangridge | @SolidBackFour

Liverpool FC – Losing the Respect of the Game

April 11th, 2012 | Posted by Patrick Langridge in Liverpool - (0 Comments)

I’ve always admired and respected Liverpool Football Club. They were until recently the most successful English club when it comes to domestic league titles, and still hold that honour when measuring European glory. Their history is peppered with fantastic players, dominant teams, decorated managers and passionate fans, and I can’t be the only non-Liverpool fan who has had a bit of a soft spot for them in the past. Some of this warmth undoubtedly (and sadly) comes from the Hillsborough tragedy which sees its 23 year anniversary pass this Sunday. Despite having no affiliation to Liverpool, Forest or Sheffield, reading and watching anything regarding the disaster greatly affects me, and I have nothing but sympathy for the families who lost loved ones that day. I think it was 2009, the 20th anniversary, when the BBC ran a brilliant live show from Anfield, there was an incredible piece by Alan Hansen who was playing that day. I’m paraphrasing here, but something he said has stayed with me ever since: “Fans started invading the pitch, so I approached one and said to him, ‘get off the pitch, you’re going to get this great club into trouble,’ and he just responded with, ‘Al, there are people dead in there’, and the magnitude of the situation all of sudden became real.”

Football has changed dramatically since the days of the late 80s, no more than at Liverpool FC. Gone are days of domestic domination, and despite a European Cup triumph in extraordinary circumstances, success has been hard to come by for the Reds. ‘But you’re an Arsenal fan, you’ve not won a trophy in 7 years!’, yes that’s true, but Liverpool haven’t even come close to a league title since they last won one in 1990, 22 years ago. This season has been particularly frustrating for Liverpool fans who saw a positive start ruined by poor home form and a recent collapse in the league of 6 defeats, 2 draws and just 2 wins in this calendar year.

Off the pitch a lot of the mutual ‘good will’ and respect surrounding the club (Utd and Everton fans accepted) has all but disappeared. Luis Suarez admitted to and was found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra, but was still supported by his club bullishly throughout. The t-shirts worn by the players during the warm-up at the Wigan game were distasteful, and some of the statements coming from Kenny Dalglish and other LFC legends were pretty ludicrous. The manager hasn’t found it easy dealing with the press(ure) since his return to management, which culminated in him telling a Sky reporter that he was ‘bang out of order’ for asking a perfectly reasonable question. Arsene Wenger often gets accused of being short with the press and gets ridiculed when claiming he ‘didn’t see it’, but Kenny is in a different league. A little humility, understanding and appreciation that the press WILL ask you questions would go a bloody long way, as would not attacking every referee’s integrity. Suarez could do with toning down his scandalous antics too – the diving I can just about stomach but the hypocrisy of his incessant handball appeals is astounding.

The fans shouldn’t escape blame neither, two really nasty incidents made them drop significantly in my and a lot of people estimations. Firstly booing Patrice Evra for the heinous crime of being racially abused – I wouldn’t exactly call Evra my favourite player in the world but to boo him for reporting racial abuse which Suarez ADMITTED to, is quite staggering. The other, Oldham player Tom Adeyemi being brought to tears on the Anfield pitch following an alleged racist comment from a Liverpool fan. Now, I can’t prove that Adeyemi was racially abused by a Liverpool fan, but I can prove that when it became apparent that he was implying racial abuse and becoming upset about it, the Kop began to sing ‘There’s only one Luis Suarez, one Luis Suarez…’. They might as well have thrown bananas at him.

The sensitivities surrounding the upcoming Hillsborough anniversary have meant that the Liverpool v Everton FA Cup semi-final be moved from Sunday 15th to Saturday 14th, so not to clash with a day of mourning on Merseyside. That’s fair enough right? Comedian (and Gooner, incidentally) Alan Davies made a frankly throwaway comment asking why the game needed to be moved? I don’t agree with Davies, it was an insensitive and inflammatory thing to say, and I think it’s a good thing that the football authorities take into account these kind of social and cultural sensitivities, but I also don’t agree with death threats. That’s what Davies has been receiving in the last 24 hours, just check out his Twitter timeline where he’s been retweeting a ‘colourful’ selection. Support a racist but threaten the life of Johnathan Creek? Stay classy, Liverpool.

@SolidBackFour | @patlangridge