Daily Bits and Bobs

Crisis talks, nasty tackles & Flamini’s contract.

Posted on by rico

Morning all.

With Christmas Day nearly upon us, it’s a busy time for all, so don’t expect a lot from me over the next few days. I’ve brussels to peel, potatoes and parsnips too and unlike most of you who’ll just stick a bird in the oven, I’ve got to work out which veggie alternative will be gracing the lunchtime table in a couple of days time….

Oh, and I’ve got to be sociable, you know, actually talk to people and be nice. That’s the hardest part.

The goings on at other clubs is quite funny isn’t it. Apparently there’s some kind of Spanish revolt going on at Man Utd, led by Herrara and because of it, captain Rooney has had to come to the rescue by initiating ‘crunch talks’, which in itself, I find rather amusing.

Over in West London, Fabregas has been laying the boot in too, literally. One of the younger players, Musonda, who is rated highly at the club and is ready to break into the first team, nutmegged the Spaniard in training which didn’t go down too well apparently. Fabregas got his own back with a ‘crunching tackle’ which upset a few players and sparked a bit of a scuffle.

On the blue side of Manchester, the rumours surrounding Pep and his much expected summer arrival at The Etihad is stirring up all sorts of problems. One of this mornings headlines read:

Pep Guardiola’s shadow already looming at Man City as Manuel Pellegrini’s reign becomes “undermined”.

Whether there’s much truth in the above stories I don’t know but the mere fact the headlines are being written is good for us and good for Arsenal. All the time the other clubs are hitting the headlines, there’s little room for Arsenal, certainly not for negative reasons.

Saying that, we’re still short of a world class striker and a defensive midfielder according to the expects but I wonder how they define world class. My guess is by a players value in the transfer market…..

Mesut Ozil – after just a few months he was labelled as being ‘a waste of £49m’ by those same pundits and a few Arsenal fans too  – look at what they are writing about him now, he’s world class all right..

Alexis Sanchez, is he world class? Oh yes, he certainly is – well imo anyway. Laurent Koscielny? No, not when Arsene Wenger signed him as the general view was he was just another cheapie from a ‘lowly placed French League 1 club’ but look at him now, the best in the league according to many pundits, although Scott Dann is preferred by others.

I doubt any of our remaining players would come near to being ‘world class’ if a survey was carried out but for me, that means very little as the qualities they do have, (when they feel like it 😉 ) can’t be bought. Hard working, fully committed, passion for the game and definitely for the club they play for and that’s the type of player(s) I think we need next month.

Unless the club are going to pay an amount vastly over a players value, which I think they’d have to do if they are to prize away one/two of the top players from their current club, we are really going to struggle to sign a world class player so I’ve written that idea off. Maybe in the summer Wenger will go big but for now, my opinion is that we need a couple more grafters, very good players, but workhorses who will get stuck in and fight tooth and nail for victory.

Not players who will wilt and shirk their responsibility like in years gone by when we’ve been in a great position at Christmas, only to fade away and scrape into forth place….

If Arsene Wenger signs just a solid defensive midfielder this winter, I’ll be happy. Any more and I’ll think it’s Christmas all over again….

Finally, a word for Mathieu Flamini whose contract is up in the summer. He holds a staggering record of never losing a league game at The Emirates. Incredible really and I hope that record remains intact when he departs in the summer for free….

Have a good Wednesday guys. I went on long than expected, sorry, forgive me.

rico

69 thoughts on “Crisis talks, nasty tackles & Flamini’s contract.”

  3. Malaga gooner says:

    Morning rico and the house

    Wishing you all merry Christmas and a happy new year

    Hope we get the signings we need

  4. Iceman says:

    I think we should go all out for Isco. Apparently, he laughed when Rayo went 2-1 up the other day – was seen by one of Rafa’s staff, and told he would not be going on AND he was fined! This boy is talented and deserves much better. Let’s buy him before Manure or Chavs snap him up.

  5. potter says:

    Always been the case Rico , It’s not about buying world class to make a team just good quality with the right attitude . Monreal and Gabriel came from Spain to join and fight for a place ,one has done it the other from his reaction at the end of the city match is still happy to keep trying. That’s the standard we should be aiming for to supplement what we already have.

  7. rico says:

    Iceman, can’t see a player like him coming in during a Jan window tbh..

    Agree Potter, but so many pundits etc think it’s world class we lack, yet for me, graft, honesty, attitude and all that kind of stuff is worth it’s weight in gold.. I’d love a couple of ‘Ray Parlours’ added in Jan…

  8. scottfromoz says:

    I did Potter.
    I agree with parts and not others.
    Why must we constantly find at least one player to criticise?
    After a win like that where I thought we were superb, there must be one.
    That’s not aimed at you, as Ramsey has copped a bit from plenty of fans in all corners but why?
    It cheapens the perroemance, IMO.
    We were superb.
    Ramsey was not our best, but was fantastic as its Flaminis role to sit back and cover the back 4, which he did brilliantly.
    If Rambo its two of his chances away, everyone calls him MOTM.
    Ok, he didn’t, but his overall performance would have been the same.

  9. scottfromoz says:

    We have a squad of happy and united players who seemingly want to play for each other.
    Leicester is the same.
    It’s no coincidence, I reckon, but 1-2 more won’t hurt 🙂

  12. rico says:

    Iceman, my thought is purely because of Rafa. I reckon he’ll be gone soon and any new manager would surely want to get Isco back to his best before selling him..

    Mind you, if that’s the case, then maybe we should get in before they do… 😉

    Seriously, I reckon it’ll just be a defensive midfield kind of player next month…

  13. Adam says:

    Morning Rico and all. One thing that seems to stand out is that the injury to Cazorla has meant that our central midfield has a more pragmatic approach now. Wenger has been lucky I reckon as we have copped our usual level of injuries but Flamini has reigned in his general nutter tendencies and adopted a disciplined approach and Ramsey, though still prone to odd moments, looks like he is growing into the role. Arsene should rub his lucky rabbit’s foot and improve the squad I would have thought.

  21. Wath says:

    Me grumpy…………. where did you get that old chestnut from… Must be Kev filling you with disinformation.

    Just cos Ramsey is crap and can’t score you’re all upset and going on the defensive… Lets be honest we’d be better off with Johnny Jensen…! 🙂

  22. Wath says:

    Can’t agree with you on the Ozil fella Rico, He’s actually not to bad, he’s growing on me… Another 2/3 seasons and he may even be quite good..!

  28. potter says:

    We shouldn’t under estimate the Campbell effect either his chasing back and harrying has helped the defensive side and maybe the Alexis effect is getting to Theo too. It’s not so much the players that I am getting at it’s the tactic of surrendering the advanced midfield and dropping back to the 18 yard box . Change the personnel by all means but if you have a system that has served you well for 75 minutes , why change it and give them a chance in the final 20 minutes.?

    And before I get reminded that makes 95 we all know that if one of the favoured clubs are one behind and pressing , the ref will always give them a further few minutes to see if they can get back.

  29. rico says:

    Maybe it’s as simple as the personnel used to make the changes just aren’t up to it, or at the same level, especially defensively, as those they replace. Something I touched on in the match review.

    Chambers and Gibbs are both defenders but neither worked as hard as Theo or Joel.

    But then bring those two on, left us with little outlet when we had the ball and back it came time after time which City loved…

  31. Orfevrerie says:

    As always great sum up post Rico, I guess this to accumulate your maybe 3 to 5 days of perhaps missing posts later.

    I enjoyed your writing and that resilience good players and maybe “cheap” as I posted previously examples of Wanyama for DM and Ighalo for ST.

    Thanks Scott & Rico for your previous post, I was off from work and drive the car at the time.

  32. Bob John says:

    Hi all. Looking forward to Saturday it’s about time Theo and Ox turned it on against their old club. Both of them have shrunk each time we have played them, especially at St Mary land.

  33. Wath says:

    Bob, the problem with Ox he far to busy being busy on social media and forgetting first and foremost he a footballer…!

  34. Wath says:

    Potter, your 11:50 is spot on, Wenger has over the years had the habit of taking off forwards and putting on extra defenders which as you say just invites the opponents on to us. Defend from the front and give them something to worry about, the defensive mind set changes the whole make up of the side and no one closes down from the front and we lose shape and are all over the place. Gibbs was a shambles when he came on Monday night and Theo and Joel had got through so much work surely to tell Gibbs to do exactly what Joel was doing yet he looked like a little boy running round the playground chasing the ball.

    If it aint broken don’t fix it… when we playing like that bring on the players to carry on doing what the others have done don’t hand the initiative to the opponents when they have caused little to no problems for 70 mins…!

  36. Micko says:

    Must be tough for Gibbs though, Monreal has been ever present for us in the league this season, not bad for a player bought in as a back up, looks like he’s had to settle for the odd 20 minutes when Arsene thinks it’s time to shut up shop, better than the alternative.

  37. Joaquim Moreira says:

    Isco is a good player but not defend. Is one of the reason he not play in Real.
    We need different players in my opinion. “workers” players and not so expensive.
    What’s happen with Debuchy?
    If everybody his fit, completely fit, the team on Saturday could be the same; but on monday, any less two days, we must replace players.

  38. HenryB says:

    Enjoyable Post, Rico, and you did not run on too long – no need for an apology. 😀

    Interesting and exciting times – trying to avoid jinxing things by beginning to hope – and anyway I am scared of Wath and his curly toed pixie shoes if I make things go pear shaped. 🙂

  43. Wavy says:

    RIP Don Howe.

    Slightly ironic in that we were sort of talking about him only a few days ago. Good footballer and a supremely good/great coach, not such a successful manager but what a career he had in football. He was a bit of a mould breaker. However, his name will always be revered by the Arsenal faith for the trophies we won under his control and innovative coaching methods. Sounds a bit of a Wenger forerunner!

  46. rico says:

    LvG stormed out of his interview today after being questioned over the sack and Mourinho… The press really are a bunch of gits… Lol

  47. potter says:

    It’s an article in Bild from the chief Bayern Munich reporter , he states that Guardiola is in talks with The Arsenal and that Wenger is leading the negotiations.

  49. potter says:

    Thus far all the talk has been of Pep Guardiola replacing Manuel Pellegrini at Man City next season. He’s definitely leaving Bayern Munich and the Etihad seemed sure to be his destination.

    There was some talk of Man United perhaps trying to gazump their local foes, but Louis van Gaal is still in a job, and in any case, Jose Mourinho is seen as his most likely successor.

    Now Bild’s chief Bayern Munich reporter Christian Falk – who broke the story that Carlo Ancelotti would be replacing the outgoing Guardiola – reports that Arsenal have entered the race to secure the Catalan.
    It seems that rather than the former Barcelona man being seen as a threat to Arsene Wenger, it is actually the current Gunners boss who is instigating contact with Guardiola.

    The Frenchman is as aware as anyone that he is entering the winter of his Emirates reign, and is eager to secure Guardiola as the inheritor of his legacy.

    In many ways it would make a lot of sense. Guardiola has previously expressed his fondness for London as a city, and his footballing ethos would complement that of Wenger.

  50. rico says:

    The Mail ran the ‘Pep to Arsenal’ story a few days ago as well. Could be the same story doing the rounds..

    2+2 make 4 with this story imo…

  57. Lee says:

    He’s fine thanks….. we got to the bottom of his stomach issues!!

    He’d eaten several Christmas tree decorations!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  64. rico says:

    Rico

    ‘Thank you for your continued support of
    Arsenal Football Club.

    From all the Directors, Players and Staff at
    Arsenal Football Club’.

    How nice of them….. 🙂

  67. HenryB says:

    Morning , Rico, and all the regulars on HH. 🙂

    Too much turkey or Xmas decorations woofed down can certainly make the bottom fall out of any self respecting dog. Glad all is well with the dogs now. 🙂

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