Morning all.
I watched the below interview on Sky Sports this morning and I’m glad I did.
It’s true, Mikel could have played for England, he wanted to play for England. He wanted to give something back to the country which had given him the opportunity to be the man he is today. He plays the flute, could have been a tennis pro and speaks nearly as many languages as Arsene Wenger.
And that hair of his, his parents simply had good genes.
Enjoy.
More later…
Morning one and all, morning Rico, yeah I watched that last night on You Tube, he is such an engaging guy even the Sky presenter was charmed, you can see how he can persuade people, his players must be totally under his spell, that is unless your name is Matteo or Mesut…
I know I’m tempting fate but there is no doubt that his departure from City has had an effect on how intense they are, whilst it’s the reverse for Arsenal.
I see that Harrison ‘Harry’ Clarke has joining Oldham Athletic until the end of January, he’s a tough hombre and he’s going to have to be as Oldham have a terrible defensive record and are struggling in Division Two, playing every game as if your life depends on it doesn’t suit everybody but I think it’ll suit Harry and accelerate his development.
I don’t want to pile undue pressure onto Thomas Partey but I can’t shake off the image of Patrick Vieira coming on as a sub against Sheffield Wednesday back in 1996 and the impact he had on our team, I think that Thomas could have a similar effect on us…
Tierney has been cleared to play this evening by the English authorities but I can understand the Celtic manager’s bewilderment that his player, who was told to self isolate at the same time as Tierney, has been refused permission to play by the Scottish authorities.
That microcosm sums up the shambles created by the Sturgeon woman and her wish to separate her small country from the United Kingdom.
Morning Kev.
The bit I thought was especially generous of him was his attitude towards English football and England in general.
He certainly must a dream to interview, such a warm gentleman who likes to smile. Confident but not arrogant.
I read a piece by Micah Richards in the Mail. He is extremely impressed with Mikel, especially the way he’s handled problems, keeping things inside the club instead of on the back pages.
Really hope he succeeds at Arsenal and all signs are that he will.
Hey Rick, here’s one from the Southend website:
Southend United are delighted to announce the loan signing of highly-rated Arsenal midfielder James Olayinka.
The 20-year-old bolsters Mark Molesley’s squad, joining from the Premier League side until 27th January, 2021.
Olayinka was involved in a pre-season tour to the United States with the Gunners in 2019, scoring against Colorado Rapids.
He’s also featured for Arsenal in the EFL Trophy in the past three seasons, most recently in a 2-1 win against Crawley Town on Tuesday night, and was on the bench in the North London club’s Community Shield win over Liverpool in August.
Last season the dynamic midfielder spent a brief spell with Northampton Town where he featured alongside Alan McCormack on a handful of occasions prior to the curtailment of the season, including in the Cobblers’ League Two play-off winning run.
Speaking to us about signing Olayinka, which went through on deadline day yesterday but officially got ratified by the EFL this morning, Molesley said: “We’re really pleased to bring James in. He’s been on our shortlist for some time and we’ve had him watched a number of times.
“He’s been well identified to us from our recruitment [team] and comes well recommended from people in and around Arsenal.
“He’s had a very good education at Arsenal and we’re indebted to them for trusting us with one of their young talents.
“I said if we felt we could add value we’d always look to do that and we’ve certainly done that with James.”
On what the midfielder will bring, Molesley added: “The good thing about James is he can play a couple of different positions and that’s because of his physicality and energy.
“Coming out of Arsenal he’s going to be technically good but definitely his work ethic, energy and athleticism stuck out to us straight away. He does a lot of other things good as well so he’s one we’re excited to be working with.
“He had a taste of it with Northampton which got cut short due to Covid but he played in their play-off run.
“I’m really excited to go to work with him over the coming months and I’d like to thank the Chairman for supporting us again to get the deal done.”
Olayinka is unavailable for today’s game against Cheltenham Town and will train with his new teammates on Monday ahead of Tuesday night’s trip to Salford City.
Yeah, I remember when Arteta for England was mooted Rico, I think he was at Arsenal at the time and Almunia was also suggested as a possible England player, it was at a time when we lacked in both the midfield and goalkeeping depts at international level, obviously that scenario has changed and our young players are some of the hottest properties in Europe.
I’m not sure about Almunia for England but Arteta would have been brilliant, I mean it isn’t an issue for the England cricket or rugby teams or any of the Celts for that matter, Diego Costa for Spain and that’s Spain, one of the recent powerhouses of international football. Eduardo for Croatia as well, what a great player we lost there!
Morning all.
Big game today.
We must be a decent chance, I’d have thought.
Almunia for England would have been a disaster Kev but Arteta, in his prime would have been good.
VAR have deserted Liverpool, Rico!! It’s official!! 😂
Calvert-Lewin again… he’s really surprised me, always thought he was crap!!
Rangers beat Celtic.. some day so far 👌 Can’t wait for our game!
Nelson has scored for our U23s… Saliba, ESR, Cedric all playing. 1-1 atm….
Afternoon Rico and the House.
Kev I dont know about you but I just cannot
understand what our BFG is doing with our academy.
At the moment we have just 9 playersin the u23 who are
too old to play for the U18s
In my opnion sending all these players out on loan he has weakend both the
academy sides and left Bould and Gillard with a uphill battle
It really annoys me reading all the insults that they are both getting
from our fans who in all honestly have not got a clue what is going on.
Rant over.
This morning the U18s lost at home to Brighton 5-0.
As I write the U21 are drawing with Man U 1-1
Its a real Reiss goal direct from a free kick’
( only 3of todays team played against Crawley in mid week)
Goals flying 2nd half.
We were 3-1 down but 2goals by Bologan males it 3-3
Hehas got his mojo back Kev .I wonder why ???
10 to g0 .
Down to 10 Kirk Red Card
Should have been playing for U18
Finished 3-3
Saliba got yellow played full game.
Willock Nelson Cedric allso played full game.
Warming up for next thurs ( maybe)
Man City XI: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Ake, Cancelo, Rodrigo, Mahrez, Foden, Bernardo, Sterling, Aguero
Arsenal XI: Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Saka, Xhaka, Ceballos, Willian, Aubameyang, Pepe
0-5 U18s?
with this line up, aren’t we too exposed?
Afternoon Rick, all.
Long may it stay that way Sue..
Gutted for Holding, injured in the warmup.
Like the front three with Aubameyang central.
Why are Arsenal wearing fecking blue shirts???
No booking?
Should that have been a penalty? VAR not even looking at it. Ridiculous!!
Disappointed that boot into Pepe’s head wasn’t reviewed..
Bloody Ederson!
We’ve maybe got away with a couple of iffy decisions in earlier games but I just knew that when it happened in a big game that we’d get the bums rush and so it proved as the referee bottled it and VAR didn’t wanna know.
It’s a very frustrating game as I think that we could take this mob if we go for them and maybe we will when Big Tom makes his appearance?
VAR is selective. Needed looking at
I struggled to find a decent stream so missed most of the game.
Commentators suggest we could’ve been a little more positive towards the end?
I reckon Riley was working VAR today.
I thought we were ok barring free kicks and corners. Our attacking play was a bit slow. Our play in general seemed slow to me and too much mucking around at the back.
You didn’t miss much, Scott!
Waited 2 weeks for that… I feel frustrated and disappointed…
William up front in middle just didn’t work,not sure why it took so long to change it, then Laca pretty sluggish. All too slow, only Saka who was fouled many times, looked lively. Then when we finally get a corner in stoppage time ….. ref gives goal kick.
Refereeing was suspect City were rotating their fouls which stopped our midfield . We were never outclassed but lacked urgency . We have to find a way to inject some pace from back to front and the 5 passes to get out the area doesn’t help .
I have to say that I am finding it hard to enthuse about football at the moment. It seems to be played in a distant bubble . There’s no atmosphere
Guardiola has added some seriously big, robust and bordering on Stoke like defenders, they all love a stud down your achilles but they can all play a bit. Walker again escaped despite a litany of fouls, he really is a dirty shit. We are getting better at that side of the game but we need to learn how to moan at the referee, rotational moaning and then crowding the referee like when Gabriel got a boot in his mush, where was VAR? We are getting more cynical but we’re still too nice for my liking.
I don’t want to pick on players because it was only 1-0 and that was an improvement on what’s gone before, but we should have got something from that game. If we play like that at Chelsea and Tottenham and Man Utd we’ll lose because the officials will give us feck all in those games, you have to go and take those games.
I don’t think Willian is working and that’s a worry because he’s on serious money, it’s still early days but I’ve not seen anything to make me think that he’s better than Nelson, in fact I’ve not seen anything from Pepe to make me think that he’s better than Nelson either.
We’ve got a lot of money tied up in those two and the return has been pretty sparse so far…
One good game from Pepe was from the left, perhaps that’s the position where he would benefit from a run of games. Willian through the middle confused me, I think it confused him too.
It didn’t confuse Man City…
Yeah I agree Rico, try Pepe on the left.
Looking at it dispassionately I keep coming back to a lack of drive through the middle. We don’t make chances enough to compensate for our ability to not convert them. Auba Had 1 and Saka 2 , free kicks not on target. Pepe and Willian anonymous .We are not pressuring opponents enough.
I know that when he came in the defence was in need of work . Arteta has developed a system that has rectified much of that now the next stage is to improve the offence
Rick, I agree, I see Steve Bould in particular getting a lot of criticism on other blogs, but it can’t be easy for him or Gillard with so many of our best young players out on loan, but that’s the point isn’t it, developing our young players, what’s the point of winning the reserve league or the youth league if those players don’t come through into the 1st team squad?
Our young players will learn more and grow as players whilst on loan at clubs where points mean life or death to those clubs, performing under pressure with team mates who need and expect you to do a man’s job instead of cruising in the Stiffs.
It’s disappointing when our reserves and juniors lose, but that’s not the end game, the end game is finding the next Bakayo Saka, the next Gabriel Martinelli, the next Jack Wilshere.
I think it was Thomas’s first tackle in the Premiership and he got booked. He’s going to be a marked man as far as Mike Riley’s little muppets are concerned.
Interesting that having examined the Mane incident MOTD ignored the penalty claim and the lack of var.
Has there been a rule change saying Man Utd must be awarded a penalty in every game ?
Who bets an Arsenal player is sent off too, when we play them – Luiz favourite,then Xhaka, maybe Partey, someone else..
Thing is, we’ve a good chance of winning that game.
Morning all
New post up now