Morning all.
Arsenal can brag about having many great players in it’s squad and many have performed superbly at certain stages of our season.
Alexis hit the ground running, Ozil has learned how to tackle, Ollie just loves to score these days and Danny Welbeck has added something different to the team. He may not be scoring but his work rate cannot be questioned.
Tomas looks like a 25 year old when he plays and Santi, well this season has been awesome for him. There are others too who with a run in the team have improved no end, Nacho Monreal being one and when called on to fill in in central defence, he hardly let himself down, nor his team-mates…
But perhaps the biggest surprise this season has been the emergence of 20 year old Hector Bellerin. I don’t mean that in terms of his ability alone but once Arsene Wenger signed Mathieu Debuchy and Calum Chambers, Bellerin must have thought his playing time would be very limited….
However, Debuchy suffered some rotten luck with injuries, Calum Chambers struggled in his place and was subsequently rested so up stepped the young Spaniard…..
And my goodness, hasn’t he done well? Many a report suggest he’s signed a two year contract extension which if true, is great news.
Hector has been talking about why he chose to leave his home town for London:
Wherever you are, you have to work hard but if I had stayed in Barcelona I don’t know if I would have got to the top, the elite. We’ll never know.
I have worked as hard as I could and always with the mentality of going as far and as high as possible. Wherever I was I would have done the same.
It’s great to play ‘at home’ and have everything where you’ve grown up, but sometimes you’ve got to get out of your comfort zone and discover new challenges.
There must be many folk at Barcelona who look on and wonder why they didn’t give Bellerin more assurances over his future… But that’s not what they really do with their younger players is it?
Like Real Madrid, they want big players, big names and big results in order to appease the fans, they don’t want to, or choose not to, take a chance on one of their own….
Does he love life in London?
The atmosphere here is incredible. At Watford, in the Championship, we played in front of 40,000 people at Leeds. Spanish players miss turning up at a ground and it being full.
Many people in Spain watch the Premier League and know about what a spectacle it is. It would be crazy to say that it’s not among the best leagues in the world.
The inevitable question about the English teams being knocked out of the Champions League was put to him:
La Liga is at a great level with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico. In England we should have done better. It’s our fault. It’s not a question of which league is better or worse, they’re all at a high level.
Maybe next season we’ll do better, a lot better in the Champions League but for me, the Premier League title would be the priority. The Champions League is all about luck of the draw and if even a club gets a bit of good fortune as we did when Monaco came out of the pot, it doesn’t always mean you’ll win and who’d have thought PSG would have beaten Chelsea?
Well it’s the 31st March so there’s only one note to end today’s post on.
David ‘Rocky’ Rocastle, who fourteen years ago left his wife, family and all Arsenal fans broken hearted when Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma stole his life at just 33 years old….
Remembering you today Rocky, remembering you always…
Have a good Tuesday folks, England play tonight, honest……
The good die young; as they say. RIP Rocky!
good read rico
Thanks Ts, Rocky was certainly both……
Morning All,
Nice one Rico,
“Our” Rocky, always remembered and always in our hearts….! Forever will be…!
Morning Wath, thanks…
He sure will be……
Another superb Post, Rico, you really are a whizz. 🙂
Good Morning to The Lady of the House and all fellow Gooners in residence.
RIP Rocky, gone but not forgotten.
And you are very cheeky Henry… 😉
Morning Cg….
Guys, what’s the criteria to play for the under 21 national side, just wondering why Jack Wilshere could play for England, yet he’s 23 years old……… 😮
A couple of days ago I looked up the coaching stats because we were having a chat about the FA coaching numbers compared with Spain and Germany etc.
Because WordPress ate my comment up, and it did not appear, I hope you do not mind if I repeat it now?
English FA Coaching levels and numbers:
Level 1 coaches: — No. of coaches -240,000
Level 2 coaches: — No. of coaches – 40,000
Uefa B Licences: — No. of coaches – 5,000
Uefa A Licence: — No. of coaches – 1,100
Uefa Pro Licence: — No. of coaches – 200
Goalkeeping A Licence: — No. of coaches – 100
Goalkeeping B Licence : — No. of coaches – 200
FA Youth Award Mod (1): — No. of coaches – 17,000
FA Youth Award Mod (2): — No. of coaches – 23,000
FA Youth Award Mod (3): No. of coaches — 3,301
The figures need to be taken with a pinch of salt as it was difficult to get up-to-date figures, but as a rough estimate it gives a ball park figure.
There are about 300,000 coaches there.
The reason that many do not make a move up the ranks might be because it costs about £700 to get the Level 1 badge, and rises to about £3,000 for the UEFA A Licence and the UEFA Pro Licence.
If anyone tried to get all the relevant licences it would cost them a fortune — without any guarantee that they would get a job. I would not do it! 🙂
Rico,
Me ‘cheeky’ what for? 🙂 A ‘whizz’ is a contraction of wizard, someone who is very clever at Posts and things!
Rico – Bellerin has come a long way and promises to be a great player.
Meanwhile Carl Jenkinson has earned rave reviews for his recent game with England. With Carl returning at the end of the season?, Debuchy soon to return to fitness and young Calum yet to given a good run of games; Arsene will have a bit of a dilemma of choice at left back.
It will be interesting to see what, if anything, transpires during the summer.
Henry – A wiz is one thing, but a whizz is quite another.
£3,000 for a job which could reap such rewards isn’t much to pay though is it?
An Arsenal season ticket costs half of that….. 😉
Henry, just pulling your leg…. lol
Cg – I can see Carl Jenkinson staying with West Ham. He won’t want to return to the Arsenal bench. Shame though as you say, he’s doing really well with Sam…
Good post rico, morning all. Certainly highlights the best of our season 😉
Still have my Rocastle shirt in the wardrobe where it stays (shame I cant get into it now!!!)
Yes Bellerin has emerged into a fantastic right back,although l believe Mathieu Debuchy is the obvious choice,maybe in another year or so Chambers will begin to blossom.
But on this special day let’s not forget to give our fondest thought’s to David Rocky Rocastlte, & his
family!!!!!
Rico – It’s hard to say if Carl will stay at West Ham. Some are saying that West Ham want him, but can’t afford him. His price certainly wont drop if he maintains his current level of play.
Morning Andrew, thanks..
🙂 re your Rocky shirt, I suspect you are not alone re it not fitting… lol
Welcome Paul. It’ll be hard for AW to choose between the two I think. Chambers for me is a right back if/when we are desperate. His place is central imo..
Morning All,
Right backs,all of a sudden with have loads,
on top of Bellerin,Dubuchy and Chambers,
we have Kosser,Gabrial,Ramsey,The Coq,all have
played right back at some stage.
Have we all given up on Jenks,
I replied to a question on here about
6 months ago.
That when given a run of games at the top level,
you would have a lot better idea if a young player
had a chance of making it.
The question at the time was about Jenks,
my answer to that was,at that time.
Jenks only real game time at a decent level,
was the U/21’s.
He was man of the match in nearly
all the games that I watched,
He was man of the match again last night.
So is Jenks just not good enough,has he stood still
has he no future now,with us.
Not sure if the U/21’s is near top level,
but germans think it is.
I’d rather he stayed with us Cg….
Excellent post Rico.
I wonder if half of our current players would cry if they were sold?
Sorry, CG, I did not see your erudite correction of my use of ‘whiz’ until now.
Sadly, the Oxford English Dictionary, and the Merriam Webster Dictionary do not agree with you.
Word: whizz
It can be used as a verb — this was not the case in the sentence I used.
as a noun:
1.
a whistling or buzzing sound made by something moving fast through the air.
2.
a person who is extremely clever at something.
“a computer whizz” — or an excellent Post writer.
Hope that helps.
Hi Fred, agree re Jenks. He got better the more he played and now he’s number one at West Ham and playing every week, he just gets better and better. He had a good game for the under 21’s last night..
Rico,
Any suggestion I was referring to you as [1] ‘something moving fast thru the air’ is completely erroneous. 😀
Thanks Adam.
Lee, none I’d say.
Rico,
All the rumours are pointing to Jenks being sold to Wham for about £5m — and as he is a committed sooner is great shame, but I would be disappointed but not surprised if he goes. 🙁
sooner = Gooner — bugger! 🙂
I read £9 million Henry…
Rico,
Regarding the coaching badges — the ordinary guy would come in a Level 1 and pay £700 to be taught and pass his exam.
If he moved to Level 2, and Level 3 he would have to go thru the same process and cough up £700 each time, and so on up the ladder.
In addition, for the UEFA Licence B and Licence A, if he ever got that far, he would have to get a professional club to teach him and the chances of that are didilly squat. [Competition for places from all the ex-players (Thierry, Sol etc) wanting to be managers].
Of course a wealthy land owner such as you would not find the costs too high!! 😀
That’s the things with rumours, Rico, the £9m could be right, but Wham are unlikely to go that high, and would probably look to buy someone cheaper from abroad.
Hopefully he comes back to us.
Afternoon All
Great post Rico, interesting situation with Bellerin.
I wonder what will happen if and when Barcalona start tapping him and his agent up?
Henry – I wish. Just a mere two up, two down for me… 😉
Some things in life cost money and if people want to get to the top where they’d earn mega bucks, it would have been worth it….
Hi Kev, thanks.
That’s the big concern re Bellerin, will he do another Fabregas or not… I sure hope not….
Diaby, has by all accounts, returned to full training….
If Bellerin can get in the first team at Barce thats thats.
no ifs or buts.
Most pro clubs put the youth players that are not consided
good enough through to level 2 badge,
then send them out into the community to coach,
been going for years now.
Level 2 is all you really need to get into a club,
if good enough the club pays the rest.
USA level 1 gets you in on
maybe £25,000 a year.
It used to a few years ago.
Give it a couple of years and he’d get in their first team I bet Fred, and that’s when they’ll start putting pressure on him, especially if/when he gets into the Spain senior side…
And the way things are going for him, that day won’t be too far away…
It seems that Reading are struggling to sell their allocation of tickets for the FACup S/F…
Meaning that the usual beneficiaries of FA ticket allocation chaos will be our old mates, the ticket touts…
Kev,
Old Stan Flashman must be turning in his grave.
Hi Fred, yeah mate, despite the weasel words of football authorities and law enforcement agencies, we still see the same old familiar faces outside Arsenal Underground, dealing tickets….
It’s a joke!
Anyway Fred, I got my seat for the S/F sorted ages ago…
In front of my cousins TV, with a few beers and a Chinese takeaway, to boot…
Slogging it all the way up to Wembley isn’t on my agenda mate..,
Afternoon Rico and the House
A great post Rico and like so many of the House I have so many good memories of a great player
RIP Rocky you will never be forgotten.
This morning behined closed doors Arsenal beat Brentford 4-0.
Aretta, JW Debucy Flaminy and Diaby all played 45mins
I wonder if any one of them will be in the squad on saxt
https://arsenalyouth.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/wilshere-and-crowley-star-as-arsenal-xi-thrash-brentford/?
Rico rules are, A player born on or after 1st Jan 1992 is elgible to play in the 2015 u21 compition
Thoes born before 1st Jan 1992 are not.
As for Jack he was born on 1st Jan 1992 so I will leave it to my peers to work out how Jack can play
Rick, it seems that Jack could play then…!
And AOC at a push…
Eduardo, that kind of line-up is very reminiscent of an old style Football Combination team…
I bet the Arsenal youngsters really enjoyed and learned a lot, playing alongside the likes of Arteta and Diaby, in a match situation.,,
Nor mine Kev , I wouldn’t cross the road to spit as they say , same old faces all the time. I was at the Albert Hall for a Clapton concert and guess who were there too, Same old faces. This isn’t a cottage industry It’s big business with probably a few backhanders on the way.
Rick, you forgot to add king Diaby starting today.. 😉
The big Come-back.
I was joking Rick…
Lol… Diaby now a winger… I thought he would be a goalie by now… 🙂
There are rumours that Diaby is the hidden hand pulling AW’s strings. 😛 Micko and BT might know.
Potter, distributing FACup tickets hasn’t suddenly happened, it been going on for over 100 years, and those buffoons at Lancaster Gate, Soho Square and latterly Wenbley, just replicate the same old balls up, year in year out…
To me it shows their utter contempt of us football fans…
And the major reason why I won’t be putting anymore of my money into their coffers…
Feck ’em
Rick, do you know why Kamara did not play? Or is he on international duty?
I read Mavididi is still being used as a part of the double pivot…
Maitland-Niles instead of mavididi…
Afternoon Rick, thanks re the post and the under 21 ruling. What a daft rule it is too. A player is either under 21 when the competition starts or he’s not…
OC was in the list of who ‘should’ play too Kev…
How rude of me, afternoon all….
I hope with all the players returning, AW doesn’t make to many changes for the Dipper game….
Hi Rico…
I wonder where the Azzurri loving Dev and goonster are…
Nice post whizz-kid !
Jack getting demoted to the U21’s, never gonna happen in a million years.
Hi Ts – quite a few regs missing these days, a big shame…
🙂 thanks Micko, agree, no Jack or AOC….
http://highbury-house.com/2011/03/31/the-great-david-rocastle-what-being-homegrown-really-means/
Take that Greg!!
That is the post that made me love HH…
The regs will be back when proper footie resumes. 😉
Really Ts, I didn’t know that…
I hope so but there’s so many missing who before the new HH were here very often…..
Blimey. Reading that post and the comments was interesting. 🙂
It brought a tear to my eye Adam….
Rico. I can imagine.
Same here rico, didn’t think we’d see Diaby again this season.
From the heart Adam…
Micko, still don’t think we will, not for the first team but you never know… Just hope AW doesn’t get tempted with a new contract… Lol
With 10 games to go, think there’s a good chance we’ll see him, I swear I’ll strangle the first person who says he deserves one more chance !!!
Ginge that was the post that made me an Houser, and feel very humble,
Trouble was it took me a very long time to pluck up courage to post
Ha ha Micko, I’ll be right behind you… Maybe he’ll play the last ten minutes of our final game at home. Then he can be waved off and wished all the best…..
Glad you found the courage Rick….
I don’t remember being on HH 4 years ago myself.
But you were Adam 🙂
Apparently so Rico. 🙂
I think diaby should get another 5 year contract I’ll go find a very tight tie. 😉
Diaby really deserves one more chance…
Rico, it was interesting to see some of the names, that were regulars, but who we don’t see anymore….
Olivers disappearance was a mystery?
Always enjoyed his match reports…
Whatever happened to Romford Pele?
Agree Kev. And Kt and Erick have gone too. Real shame about Olivier, his match reports were so precise…. Funny old life eh….
🙂 Joe..
Good to see Walcott and Gibbs are getting a run out tonight they need the time on the pitch.
Also will the media give us a break one Harry Kane for the love of god.
From one Harry….
Same here Rick.
I didn’t want to say Rico you are the man like 1 New poster said.
Azzurri without Pirlo… Is like Micko,’s team without Diaby…
I miss JW from Norwich…
Old gent and his ticker.
Aw out use to send his heart racing…
Glad for Theo Joe…
I forgave him Ts, my name doesn’t help me sometimes 😉
Too easy for the Azzurri.
Watching Clyne makes me realise how good Bellerrin is.
Dev. Your views on Conte’s formation
How was that not a penalty on Kane?
Amazing how Italy’s worst team in 3 decades is out thinking us.
Ditto above Rick.
Clyne is good but this level is a tard above his experience imo
I wouldn’t judge Clyne on one performance myself, he’s been good all season… Anyway, the England game makes Eastenders sound exciting sonic off to watch…
Night all….
Be safe up there Rocky, be at peace…..
Night Rico
rico, rest assured, I’m sure Rocky will be having a kick-a-bout with some of the Arsenal Greats above the hallowed turf of Highbury tonite !
tsgh, rewind back to 1997, England needing a draw in Rome to qualify for the World Cup in France, Wrighty rounds the keeper in the last minute and hits the post, game ends in a 0-0 draw, England win the group, Wrighty balling his eyes out at the end, seems like yesterday !
Excellent memory Micko
tsgh, not taking anything away from Townsend but Buffon did turn 86 on his last birthday, nite matey.
Up the Gooners.
Townshend scores and goes into a kiss and cuddle with Kane , Walker and Mason . Made me feel sick.
As Diaby has been unfit for the last 7-8 years does that mean now he’s able to complete 45 minutes undamaged he will be awarded another contract………to take him up to his 35th birthday? By God he owes us! And he should play for free! He’ll still be quids in. Is he about to become the ‘new Zidane’?
Pinch punch and all that….
Morning Lee and all..
Pinch and a kick and all that jazz… 😉
New post up now….