Wednesday ramblings & snobbery in the game..

Morning all.

Roberto De Zerbi taking the Totts job has baffled me. I thought he’d aim higher than a club flirting with relegation and a group of players who just haven’t played for their manager this season. Thomas Frank is a good and proven manager but he couldn’t get a tune out of them, then Tudor and his expected new manager bounce began with a battering by Arsenal so I’ll be surprised if De Zerbi enjoys much early success. Having moaned about Brighton’s transfer plans publicly, he was sacked by the South Coast club and in his last job, well, he didn’t last very long which was annoying as he’d just taken Ethan Nwaneri under his wing.

The Totts Supporters Trust are against the appointment because of his and Marseille’s association with Mason Greenwood and the comments the Italian made about the ex Man Utd player. Anyway, I hope this job is a disaster for him because I’d love to see them relegated.

I had a little chuckle when I read this from ex Totts keeper Paul Robinson when talking to BBC Sport:

I genuinely think set-pieces could help England win the World Cup. There are no pictures on the World Cup trophy. It doesn’t matter how you win. It’s whether you win or not. We will be talking fine margins at the World Cup. In the latter stages especially, games could be decided by the odd goal, a single incident, a moment. If you have someone who can throw a ball into the box from the halfway line or deliver a perfect, dangerous ball at a set-piece, use them.

Look at the league leaders. Arsenal are famed for using it. Who is delivering those deadly corners and set-pieces for them? Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka. You then look at the aerial quality England possess, the ability and quality they have in those situations, and I’m not sure other countries will be prepared for it.

Oh the irony eh but I do agree with Robinson when he talked about how there is football snobbery because a team didn’t put 64 passes together before scoring a goal.

I share his views. Do you think any England fan will care if a World Cup winning goal came from a corner? No, just as no one in England would care if set-piece goals helped the team throughout the entire competition because like many football clubs, it’s been years since England lifted a trophy. Top managers make the most of their players strengths. Top managers ignore the negative noise coming from outside which is clearly what Mikel Arteta has been doing. Mind you, it seems Thomas Tuchel is too, certainly with his squad selection.

Thankfully, international football is over for the season now. Riccardo Calafiori and his Italian teammates were beaten on penalties by Bosnia-Herzegovina last night so he’ll have the summer off. Denmark suffered the same fate at the hands of the Czech Republic so Christian Norgaard won’t be involved in the World Cup either. Not that he’s guaranteed to still be at Arsenal next season mind you.

Now it’s all about what state our players are in for Saturday’s trip to the south coast. Gabriel Martinelli played around half an hour for Brazil in their friendly match. He came off the bench to score.

Those pesky builders I told you about a week or two ago, well, they are back and they are very likely to be here on Monday too, no doubt wearing their Southampton shirts if things go their way. Well, I’ll be dragging one of my shirts out of the wardrobe if Arsenal win. Two can play that game….

Lastly, and I nearly forgot, good luck to the Arsenal women who play Chelsea tonight in the second leg of their Champions League tie. I’ll be watching that one, it should be a cracker. 

Catch up in the comments.