Daily Bits and Bobs

Arsenal good for England and Academy fails.

Posted on by rico

Morning All,

Well England had a comfy win last night and there were lots of Arsenal players in the line up.

Does this do us any favours or is it just a recipe for the media to jump on the bandwagon and slag off our players even more..? I like the fact it gives them more playing time together and it’s another manager with different ideas and formations. We get to see how another manager uses a certain player and is a different position more suited for them to possibly play that way in an Arsenal side.

The obvious downside is more games means more chance of injury and yes we all know what our lot are like with injuries…..

A player has a bad game and then as said the media frenzy is huge that they are rubbish for England shouldn’t get picked etc etc…. The pundits have their 2 penneth worth and the player gets ripped to bits. Not my idea of doing their confidence any good.

Talking of injuries Arsene has said that Arsenal will decide how long Ozil is out for and not the German FA…. I can see a war of words there shortly…! We also heard yesterday that Koscielny was sent home from the French camp to rest his achilles injury.

If no one has seen it before there is an interview with Andries Jonker our Head of Youth Academy in the dutch magazine Voetebal where some of his quotes are extremely interesting :

“It’s important Wenger and I work closely together. I have a very good feeling about the way Wenger and I are working together.”

“The scouting must be restructured all over again, so we can bring in the absolute best talents from abroad and England”

“Gazidis wants Arsenal to be the best academy in the world. He realises it will cost money and time, but that is his ambition.”

“Players have hardly been developing properly. This is why they wanted me.

Does this highlight the fact that the Academy has been run poorly for the last how ever many years…? Why has no one at the club addressed these issue previously or have they just “hoped” the problems would resolve themselves..?

Am sure there are a few on here with a lot to say about this and a few of you have posted many good points previously about this very subject.

When we look at the money invested in the academy over the years and the players that have actually made it through to the first team the return isn’t really rather poor. Lets hope Jonker is given the tools he needs to do what’s necessary.

Have a good day.

rico

89 thoughts on “Arsenal good for England and Academy fails.”

  2. Wath says:

    Thought this was an interesting comment from Jonker….

    “It is important that Wenger and I work closely together. What I do see is that everybody at the club has the feeling that they need to have the green light from Wenger before they do anything. But maybe that is not the case.”

  5. allezkev says:

    Yep, the Press used to dig out Wenger for his lack of English players.

    But I don’t read any of them criticising Mourinho for the same ‘offence’…

    Nor Looie Van Gaal or Pelligrini…

    Suppose it doesn’t suit ‘their’ agenda…

    Instead the focus will switch to criticising Arsenal players in the England team…

    Morning Adam

  7. scottfromoz says:

    Morning guys.
    Some interesting comments from the Dutchman…..
    It just adds to the mystique of Arsenal FC.

  13. Rich says:

    I think that, overall, a large amount of players in England team is very good news for us from the media perspective.

    Think it was the biggest tactical error of Wenger’s career not to ensure he had one or two England players * around after Cole and Cambell left.

    This took the sense of other- foreign coach, alien mentality (despite his professed love of the English game, he has never looked to assimilate, nor to ingratiate himself with the journalistic community), foreign players- to the maximum, and that makes hating and sticking the boot in a whole lot easier.

    Your typical sportswriter is above all else someone who wants to cover his back, not tbe caught out too obviously for hypocrisy or bad calls, and not jeopardise any good streams of stories; in both cases it is a bad idea to be too savage on individual English players. Some of the coverage of Wilshere, and other past internationals, may seem to strongly contradict this, but in most cases even where there is criticism there will be some who offer a defence (seem to remember Olllie Holt ** praising Wilshere and Walcott’s character a number of times) and, unlike with Arsenal you suspect, there are actually a lot in the media who want England to do well.

    Adrian Durham may well be the most virulently anti-Arsenal chump in the press, but it was noticeable that the only time the toxicity eased off, and dramatically, was after an interview with Gibbs.

    And, boy, if England actually start playing well with a number of our players in the team…

    * Mind, more important than an English player per se, is an English bastard, i.e someone whose first thought after a challenge like Cahill’s would not be ‘I’ll wait to get him back’ but, because of the asymmetry with attackers and defenders (defenders rarely put themselves in a position where their focus is solely on controlling the ball, allowing someone an open shot to maim them), ‘I’ll have to hit one of their precious little gems in like manner as soon as possible’. That is what an English bastard (or Italian, Dutch, Serbian, whatever) would do and, unless you’ve literally got the best collection of pure footballers in the world, I’m pretty sure you need at least one of them around.

  14. rogerbij says:

    Excellent little read there Rich, cheers for that. Just to add, what people sometimes forget when they say to buy a few more top quality English players is that there is just not so many of them. Sorry, The truth spilt out!

    But its also a relative truth – I mean its obvious – you have a pool of European and international players from around the world to choose from, vs those from only one country. How many English players could we call ‘top quality’ on the international stage? 10? 20? Less than the total of one premier league squad. Furthermore, top teams dont want to sell top English players for the quota reason, and furthermore, those that are sold go for a premium. Is it any wonder that the top teams go for foreign talent? There is more of it, and if you have to buy it, its cheaper!

  15. Rich says:

    Agree with you about the quality, rogerbij, and when asked to put money where mouth is and name some of these England players he should have bought it might take me…a while.

    Wait…wait..no, I’ll have to think a bit longer on that one!

    I’m thinking Gerrard, Rooney, Ferdinand and- thwphh- Terry (though maybe I’m taking it too far there) types/quality to be honest, and none of them were ever viable, nor are there too many about of that calibre.

  16. potter says:

    I think the club realised that a few years back.The problem is that it takes a long time to gbring them through. We spoke yesterday of Lansbury who because of a few reasons never got a chance and even now although we potentially could have 7players in England’s set up,only Wilshere came through Hale End .

  17. scottfromoz says:

    Morning all.
    Very quiet at this ridiculous time of year.
    Roger, I’ve asked/joked before about this……why is the best two current British players are Welsh?
    (I did say it when Aaron was in sublime form)
    Something is very, very wrong with the youth system there.

  22. Adam says:

    Morning BT. I was going to clean the car this morning but it’s a drizzly old day so I might lay down on the sofa instead. 🙂
    Welcome back Rico.

  24. Bt62 Gooner says:

    Adam, it is not to bad here, there is something resembling the sun in the sky.
    I hope you were going to use the two bucket routine on the car.

  26. Adam says:

    Actually the sun has appeared. BT, you are talking to a dedicated car detailer. I am going to snow foam, after a citrus pre wash, two bucket shampoo, clay bar and then carnauba the whole thing.
    Rico. I know what you mean. 🙂

  27. rico says:

    Bt, Wath has kindly given me a day off today, so back in the groove tomorrow… 😉

    Adam, I just love the seaside too much. One day…

    Goodness knows how Wath has survived this week, such depressing Arsenal news everywhere…

  28. Adam says:

    I love candy floss and always wear a kiss-me-quick hat when I am on Southend Pier Rico. I am relieved we haven’t got a game today actually. Not sure I could rouse myself to give Kroenke any more money.

  29. Bt62 Gooner says:

    Adam, as a bit of detailer myself, what products are you using and are you not polishing between claying and waxing?

  32. Bt62 Gooner says:

    Rico,that will give you time to go through your planner.
    As for The Arsenal, it’s one sad story after another….

  34. Adam says:

    BT. Now there’s a story. Dodo juice, Citrus cleaner, snow foam, clay bar or mitt then a thorough drying off. Lately I have been using a two stage acrylic polish and sealer from Werkstat. If you want to chat we could swap mails through Rico before we bore everyone to tears? 🙂

  36. Adam says:

    Just to let you know that our friend Wath is experiencing internet weirdness so today’s post will be a little late. Thank you for your indulgence.

  37. Adam says:

    BT. Rico will forward you my mail when she returns from her journey. My car colour is known as Estoril Blue but the acrylic product was left over from my last car which was white. Rico, cruelly, described it as a hairdresser’s car. Or was that Brudder Lee?

  46. potter says:

    In my shop before I retired we were selling Meguire’s , it took off well as a seller but soon slowed down. It depends if you want beading when it rains , if you do then a silicon resin polish will do that for you for a quarter of the price and effort.

    I know it’s old hat but Simoniz used to do a polish called Liquid Diamond , it was an easy on easy off polish that gave great results however in the wisdom of the great marketing departments it was withdrawn from sale and replaced when Simoniz and Turtle wax distribution in England was handled by the same sales agency about 8 years ago. I bought the last case of 12 from a wholesaler and after my family have all raided the box I ran out in the spring. I tried Their Max wax polish which I have to say gave a great result but didn’t last long although living on the Norfolk Broads and careering round country lanes , very little does.

    All totally bored now.

  48. Bt62 Gooner says:

    Adam, the black one is an Astra Gtc, The Techno Violet is an E36 Bmw 328i sport and no to the drifting, except after other recreational activities…lol

  49. scottfromoz says:

    We have a spray on wax which is simple to use, and bloody effective, or so my wife says.
    I didn’t get married to wash and polish cars 🙂

  56. potter says:

    Unlike most of the cleaning products Meguire’s stepped out of the retail advertising mags into the independent accessory shop market and lost their street cred with petrol heads. Many of the companies pay for their advertising slots and gain a niche following but once they have gone 360 degrees they fade and die and another one jumps up and takes it’s place. The steady old plodders remain because they continue to offer deals and are very mainstream . Car Plan , Turtle for example will give 6 months extended credit in February with a spring deal to tie you in and strangely round about September come back with another deal for winter product.Which is why shops are saturated with mainstream product and the fringe ones rarely get a good look in. Autoglym tried to keep a kind of exclusivity selling through van sales and maintaining a price level , but they have cracked and started to supply supermarkets and their sales in the shops is dropping as you can’t insist that Tesco will honour a retail price agreement. The shops will go elsewhere.
    Where do you get your stuff ? on line or from a shop ? If it’s the latter it is possible that I have supplied them at some time having patrolled the south east of England selling car spares for the best part of 40 years.

  59. potter says:

    Scott are you talking about ” Carmagic ” from Cairns ,? they tried to crack the English market about 4 years ago but it never took off. They advertised in the wrong way and tried to do it mail order but I think the post and packaging bit did for them . People do not realise just how much they pay for packaging and distribution. It’s in a pretty box , attracts the eye, gets purchased and then unwrapped and about 15% of the cost goes into landfill.

  61. potter says:

    And that’s the problem Bt :- One day you will need a sump washer or something a little off centre and that helpful guy in the parts shop won’t be there. Then it’s main dealer and pay £ 2 for a grommet.

  66. Adam says:

    Back for a bit. I get most of my stuff online too. Polished Bliss in Scotland are friendly people. I like the Swissvax gear but the prices are sheer lunacy. Everyday stuff I get from Halfords on the North Circular. I know the whole thing is a bit anal but it keeps me from moaning about Arsenal to my mates or to you guys on here.

  67. Wavy says:

    I’m an Autoglm man myself, I ve been a user for the last 20 years and have always managed to achieve a high…….level of sheen, most satisfying! However, whilst clearing out my garage in order to return to the use it was designed for vis garage get a car or two, I came across an old tin of Turtle wax, still in a useable condition. I polished the ‘new’ car with the old product, and what a result! I have only had to rinse and dry the car since its first rubbing and the wax is still sicking to the arctis silver paintwork. The old ones are still the best!

  69. Bt62 Gooner says:

    Potter, i use the internet mostly for my detailing stuff as for parts and the like, it’s mainly motor factor shops. I like personal interaction were possible, especially for bartering and information gathering.

  71. potter says:

    Waterless never really caught on in the country areas , too much mud I suppose. Wavy
    the original carnuba waxes can be revitalised bu putting the tin in hot water for 15 minutes . When I was with Car Plan the old bodywork garages used to boil the polish over a flame to get it nice and runny before they applied it.

  72. Bt62 Gooner says:

    Adam, Swissvax, bloody hell even their empty containers cost money. Have you ever ventured onto the Mitchell & King site?

  74. Adam says:

    Having been in the back of Kev’s cab on many occasions I love the way he drives in the bus/cab lane before swinging a physics defying U turn in front of the oncoming traffic while listening to Bridge Of Sighs at colossal volume. All with a demonic grin on his face.

  76. Adam says:

    Mitchell and King? Oh yes. I love the idea of such lunatics. I use Collonite wax too though not on white cars. I got a lovely shine on my Reliant Robin with it. That car was a real babe-magnet. 🙂

  78. Bt62 Gooner says:

    Adam, i’ve been trying to get hold of Collonite 476, without success it appears to have been superseded by 476s. M&K detailing products, Adam, not to be confused with the lunatic duo.

  80. potter says:

    Bt They are in Kings Lynn , give them a ring they might have some old stock or even know a dealer that is sitting on some . As I said Polish manufacturers always change their products about every 3 years it’s to keep the market moving.

  81. potter says:

    That should be polish not Polish , I have no idea if they even clean their cars in Poland. Most of their ones I see in Great Yarmouth haven’t seen a sponge for a year or two.

  82. Adam says:

    Potter. 🙂
    I still haven’t mustered the enthusiasm to break out the detailing gear as yet.
    Tomorrow perhaps.

  88. Wath says:

    Afternoon you lot…..

    Shall I even bother with a post or just let you carry on talking polishes and waxes…. I’ve heard Lee goes for a wax once a week….!

    You lot have lost me… I put the keys in the ignition and away we go and that’s it… As for washing the thing it’s a hose pipe…. Job done…!

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