Morning all.
A bit of a upset took place last night as Wales, without Gareth Bale, lost 1-0 to the Republic of Ireland at home which meant their long wait for World Cup qualification goes on. The good news for Arsenal though is it means Aaron Ramsey will get a long rest this summer. So will Theo Walcott unless by some miracle Gareth Southgate thinks the player has done enough to earn a late call up which right now is looking highly unlikely and considering he’ll be 33 years old by the time the next World Cup comes around, this in reality is his last chance. Ramsey is a little younger, not much though and he too will be into his 30’s in 2022 but perhaps he has a chance of one more go. Not that either country will ever go far in the big international competitions, not unless they start producing better coaches and better players.
Mohammed Elneny and Alex Iwobi have both enjoyed a better fortnight than Ramsey as both Egypt and Nigeria secured their journey to Russia next year. Elneny played the full match which they won 2-1 thanks to a very late penalty, Iwobi though was the hero after his goal secured Nigeria’s World Cup place having come off of the bench.
The last of the group matches take place tonight and there’s a few Arsenal players involved with France taking on Belarus and Portugal playing at home against Switzerland. Then it’s all back to North London to prepare for the short trip to Watford on Saturday evening. Mustafi won’t be fit for that game though after suffering injury whilst playing for Germany which leaves us very short of defensive options. Not that we saw that happening though eh? Selling Gabriel was stupid, but not as stupid as not replacing him. With seven matches over the next twenty two days by my maths, Arsene Wenger is going to have a job on his hands with rotating the defence, especially if Laurent Koscielny continues to struggle with his Achilles. Still, it’s all of his own making.
The official Arsenal site is all about Jack Wilshere this morning which is no surprise really. He’ll be desperate to be involved with England next summer but he’s got a lot of work to do before then. In any case, his priority should be the club which has stood by him through all his ups and downs. To be fair, he probably is focusing more on the club he’s been at since he was eight years old, after all, the thought of being in an England side which contains so many Totts players can hardly be something to get overly excited about.
Jack says his fitness levels have never been as good as they are right now which I guess makes sense because he’s not injured and he’s playing football and it’s been a while since he’s done that. Nearly a year I think after suffering injury whilst on loan with Bournemouth. Like Alexis and Ozil, his contract expires at the end of this current season and there’s been many conflicting reports about his future. Some suggest he’s already turned down the offer of a new contract while others suggest he’s got between now and December to prove he’s worthy of one. A fit Jack is a bonus to any team imo, especially one like ours which doesn’t have many options, certainly not good ones, in midfield. Perhaps Jack’s the closest player to Santi Cazorla when it comes to playing style and with the little Spaniard still far away from a return, having Jack as an option is a good one. But of course, not too much too soon otherwise he’ll soon be joining Santi rather than replacing him.
Talking of contracts, Arsene Wenger has done exactly that and here’s his take on why so many footballers end up in the situation as three of ours are:
There’s a big inflation that means most of the clubs have two situations with players who go to the end of the contract,” Wenger told the Arsenal Magazine.
There are players who do not want to renew and players who expect higher wages so don’t want to sign the contract because they expect huge wages due to the inflation. So that results in more and more players going to the end of their contracts. This year in the Premier League we have 107 players going into the last year of their contracts, that’s the first time we’ve seen that.
There are about 500 players in the Premier League, that means 20 per cent of the players are going into the final year of their contract, for different reasons, for many reasons, but one of them is that the inflation rate is so quick and so high that the expectation level [for wages] is very high.
Call me an old cynic all you like but I think when it comes to players like Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and even Thierry Henry back in his day, the reason they allow their contracts to run down is purely based on not wanting to sign a new one because they want out of the club for footballing reasons. It’s not their fault Arsenal didn’t sell them when they could is it? Mind you, they did Thierry and look what he went on to win with Barca……
Finally, there’s a few rumours going around which suggest Marc Overmars is about to return to Arsenal. A few outlets go as far to suggest the deal has been done and he’ll leave his role as DoF with Ajax at the end of the summer. If this turns out to be true, imo, it’s great news and it further strengthens my belief that Arsene Wenger will depart at the same time the Dutchman arrives. After all, didn’t Wenger once say he’d never work with a Director of Football and only this summer did he ridicule the role in somewhat of an embarrassing fashion….
Fingers crossed on this one, it’ll be great to see our old winger back at the club, especially if his return spells the end of our manager….
Rico, good morning.
It never crossed my mind that if Overmars was/is appointed Wenger might take a hike!
I’ve just crossed all my fingers and toes, in anticipation!
Here’s hoping.
Morning Wavy.
Perhaps I’m adding 2+2 and making 5 but I reckon he’d go if he suddenly had to start answering to someone. Especially one of old players, he’d hate that…
Wenger answering to Overmars Rico, I reckon it’ll be round the other way…
Happy birthday Mr Arsenal…
Probably Lee..
Ah yes, happy birthday Tony Adams..
Morning all.
I reckon Overmars will know exactly what’s happening at the club, and wouldn’t take the job if he were going to be another yes man.
He’d have to know what’s been happening at the club, surely.
Scott, Overmars should just read a fan forum like this for a week, tell him everything he needs to know, LOL!
If Wenger goes, there won’t be an issue…
That’s true, Andrew 🙂 🙂
Maybe he does Andrew… lol
Actually, it’d scare him off lol
Having seen how inept England’s midfield is, I would imagine that a fit Jack Wilshere could walk into it, I mean, ffs, he can actually pass the ball and find a team mate…
Doesn’t it also show how useless the coaching and scouting of England is when they can allow Alex Iwobi to slip through their fingers!
I’m not sure about Southgate, ok he’s had a favourable group, but that hasn’t prevented England mucking up before, just as the Dutch have this time.
Goalscoring has been an issue for England for some time, but defensively the 3 goals England conceded in qualifying is the best, alongside Spain, in the whole of the European groups.
Maybe Southgate can bore and grind his way to the latter stages?
Germany are peerless, I cannot see past them for the World Cup and tbh they play the best football, I really enjoy watching the Jerries.
I’ll tell you how are even worse than England-Australia.
We are currently bloody struggling to break down Fekken Syria!!
Pathetic.
Timmy Cahill nods one in to save us again.
We rely on a 38 year old, bless him 🙂
Agree re Jack Kev – England are so boring and lack creativity..
Morning Rico. I can’t remember the last time I watched an England game.
Afternoon Adam, same here, certainly for 90 mins…
Scott, if you think that’s bad, Crouch is heavily tipped for a world club place….
Lol Rico,
We both have, ahem, “plenty” to look forward to 🙂
Our boys still have to get past a Central American side to qualify.
We’ve really stagnated, the last few years.
Don’t laugh, but us trying to break down the powerhouse that is Syria was like watching Arsenal breaking down a Stoke or Crystal Palace.
When we needed quick and direct ball movement, we went backwards or sideways.
Is there any real point maintaining possession at all costs if that possession is negative, and you take certain risks at times in keeping it?
Surely it has to be better to play it safe and long at certain times.
What a snoozefest!
Cahill can still leap and score off his head, though.
Later guys-have fun.
Interesting scenario the Ovmars malarkey. However, personally I think that Wenger winning his top 4 trophy, or failing to do so , is more likely to decide his fate regarding does he go or does he stay. Wenger’s appearing on BT at present doing a silly add in which he looks rather satanic to promote the Watford game on Saturday. The yawn inducing International fixture games will no doubt be used for an excuse should Wenger fail to beat Watford. I have no idea how many players Watford had playing in them but it’s more than likely that we have had more doing so than they have. So the old a lack of sharpness will be trotted out if things go wrong by Wenger . He is never short of an excuse and he is himself never to blame! Realistically it should be 3 points for us and it’s the games against the other top 6 sides that will determine who wins the top 4 places with all of the top 6 posting similar results against the lesser lights. So far Wenger has faced two top 6 sides losing 4-0 away to struggling Liverpool and scraping a 0-0 draw away to Chelsea.So just one point on the board in the top 6 table the Prem with 4 goals conceded and nil scored .The Prem is now a two tier one with 6 sides fighting for the 4 CL places and the rest fighting to avoid relegation or to play in the Ropey Cup. Two top 6 contenders end up in it by default.A win at Watford will be used by Wenger to help perpetrate the illusion that he is mounting a title challenge . The real test though will come against the top sides and all of the evidence so far suggests that Wenger is going to have to do much better than he has done so far to win those games.
And to think you suggested Scott, that we English want effort over style…… 😉
Monreal is with Spain too
Cazorla maybe…
Kos will be an unknown. An injury to the Achilles tendon may take a month, three months, a year … or it may appear to be cured and suddenly return again.
So, sold Gabriel was a good idea. Not replaced him, even better.
Is Krystian Bielik still with us or on loan?
Bielik is with us but injured.
If England hadn’t scored injury time goals in the qualifiers we’d not be going to Russia…
It’ be funny if England draw Iceland again… 🙂
Rico, ive said for years that’s also the problem with Australian Football.
Well, that and youth coaches coaching to win games and not worrying about player development.
Evening all and thanks Rico.
Talkng about Engerland, I have watched the U17`s and other age groups and we dont do too badly, infact our Engerland youth teams are much better than the adults.
Watching them the other day, it was like watching Barca or Mansour City currently, probably that the Engerland youth teams have a lot of Mansour City players, so maybe Pep is grooming our future national stars without knowing it !…………….thanks Pep !
🙂
As is Poch according to the pundits Lc… Wenger isn’t though….
Night guys.
Djouriou scored for Portugal
Morning all.
Latest recycled rumour is Ozil will not be going anywhere as no one wants to meet his wage demands…………….fine by me !
He is rumoured to want £350kpw…………………………..would Moronho want to pay that for a lazy bastard ? ( I`m going with the flow on here, as I dont really think he is a lazy bastard………………………just because he cant tackle doesn`t mean he`s a lazy bastard ! 🙂
)
Morning all.
Lc, I don’t think we should pay him that amount either. He’s certainly not worth it… imo
New post up now