We all know the story with Arsenal this season. Things were going swimmingly until defeat at the hands of Birmingham City in the Carling Cup Final proved to be the impetus that would see them knocked out of three cups in 13 days (Barcelona sending them packing in the Champions League, Manchester United ending their hopes of progressing in the FA Cup). With this turn in fortune has come a turn in fan feeling towards certain players. It has become quite apparent that there are a number of weak links within this Arsenal squad – weak links that must be dealt with if Arsenal are to go on to win the silverware that their fans so desperately crave.
Whilst Arsenal’s first-team XI can challenge just about anybody in world football, as a unit they are remarkably susceptible to picking up injuries. As a result, Arsenal fans have seen a fair amount more than they’d have liked of their squad-players this season and in almost all respects will have been disappointed with what they saw. This article may at first appear remarkably reactionary and in some respects it is. Most of the players I will go on to mention below simply aren’t Arsenal quality.
Let’s start with the strikers. Arsenal still require a decent partner for Robin Van Persie upfront. Nicklas Bendtner, for all his goalscoring ability has an awful first touch, no pace and doesn’t really add anything to Arsenal’s game when he’s not on the ball. Marouane Chamakh has Bendtner’s goalscoring knack but combines it with an excellent ability for ball-retention and generally links up well with the midfield. As such, I wouldn’t be sad to see Nicklas Bendtner move on in the summer.
In the midfield Arsenal have far too much dead-weight. I think most Arsenal fans have come to accept that Diaby and Denilson simply aren’t good enough. With Aaron Ramsey on his way through the ranks and Diaby and Denilson’s combined sense of apathy, I think the time is right that both were moved on. Arsenal already have a number of players who play out on the wings (Arshavin, Nasri, Rosicky) who would thrive in the centre of the park should they be played there.
Many Arsenal fans are also ready to see the back of Andrey Arshavin (too lazy) and Tomas Rosicky (doesn’t score). I’d keep both of them on, at least until January. Rosicky is an experienced player with a good passing ability and a decent tackle. Andrey Arshavin is a game-changer. They both add something to the squad – something Denilson and Diaby fail to do.
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As for the defence, I’d like to see Wenger find a new home for Sebastien Squillaci. The Italian old-boy has been woefully under-par this season. Arsenal desperately need to shake their reputation of being weak at the back and that simply will not happen as long as Squillaci is marshalling the defence. I also wouldn’t shed a tear if Emmanuel Eboue and Gael Clichy were moved on, providing decent replacements were brought in. With Vermaelen and Djourou fit, I’m sure Arsenal’s defence will do away with the tendency towards making costly errors.
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In the goalkeeping position, it’s time for Manuel Almunia to move on. Although I believe the Spaniard to be an excellent shot-stopper, he makes too many poor decisions and has an almost incontrovertibly lost the respect of the fans. Promote Wojciech Szczesney to number one, bring in a decent reserve keeper and drop Lukasz Fabianski to third choice.
With enough tweaks, Arsenal could easily be in the running for more silverware next season. Do you agree with my choices?
Read more of Harry’s articles at the excellent This Is Futbol
Manchester City are the latest team to throw their hat into the ring in the race to land Gary Cahill’s signature, according to reports in the Daily Mirror. Cahill has been a rock in the heart of the Trotters defence this season and with City’s financial prowess, Eastlands could well be his destination this summer.
Cahill was watched by Roberto Mancini and David Platt in Bolton’s 3-0 victory over West Ham on Saturday, where they were no doubt pleased with what they saw. It’s rumoured that Shaun Wright-Phillips and Dedryk Boyata are likely to be potential makeweights to tempt Coyle into sanctioning a deal for the £20 million rated defender.
City will face tough competition for the former Villa man’s services, as Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham and Liverpool are all believed to be weighing up bids.
Cahill is hot property and Owen Coyle is quoted as saying earlier this year “I have always said I am not one for standing in anyone’s way.”
“If it is the right thing for the player and the right thing for the football club, that is something as managers we have to look at.”
What ever happens this summer in the fight for Cahill it seems almost certain the England new boy won’t be at the Reebok next season.
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Earlier this month, Rory McIlroy gave us all an unbelievable example of what can happen in sport when your confidence goes. One minute he can’t miss a shot and is romping away with the Masters, the next he’s missing putts from two feet. His technique wasn’t the problem because that hadn’t changed, but his nerve had gone and when that happens you’re screwed. There’s nothing you can do about it. It was excruciating to see … and I feel the same when I’m watching Fernando Torres.
Now, every goalscorer will have phases where nothing goes in. I remember I lost it once – and those 20 minutes were the worst of my career. But I’ve never seen a goalscorer having such a bad time over such a prolonged period as Torres. The worst thing is he doesn’t even look like scoring.
It seems to me his problems, just like McIlroy’s, set in when he started thinking about things too much. When you’re doing something naturally, you’re carefree and away you go, but the minute you start thinking about it you’re b******d! That’s true in any profession, not just sport, and there’s only one answer for Torres – somewhere down the line, he has to get to a point where he really doesn’t care any more. When he lets go of his feelings it will all come back. One will go in off his backside and you’ll be amazed by what follows.
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Javier Hernandez at Manchester United is a perfect example of that. He’s scoring for fun and that’s why the goals keep flying in. He’s playing on instinct alone, although it will be interesting to see how he copes when he goes through a bad spell of his own which, I guarantee, he will. I like the look of the boy, though. His pal, Wayne Rooney, is a forward who scores goals – and one of the best in the world, no doubt about that – but Hernandez is an out-and-out predator. His prime objective in life is to score, when being a goal-poacher is something of a forgotten art these days.
I put a lot of that down to the ’70s, when coaches all went the same way. They decided their sole desire was to see a player run around for 90 minutes. Unless you ran you weren’t a good player and, while I was fortunate, there were many – including Tony Currie, Frank Worthington and Stan Bowles – who suffered. Hard to believe, but the art of goalscoring has never been truly appreciated by some managers.There were times I’d come in from a game having hit the winner for Spurs and you could tell by the look on Bill Nick’s face he was unhappy it was me.
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I’d have done what he thought was next to nothing for 90 minutes and been the hero, when he’d probably had 10 others doing exactly what he’d spent the week asking them to do and for no credit. All that said, there’s still probably a timeline of goal-poachers which travels from me through Kenny Dalglish, Gary Lineker, Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen to Hernandez and, you have to say Torres, too, when he’s scoring.
The one who intrigues me now is Dimitar Berbatov at United – top scorer in the Premier League, but far from an automatic first choice. I can’t work that out, but I’m not going to question the game’s greatest manager. I’ve got every confidence Sir Alex Ferguson knows what he’s doing.
Mark Hughes believes Fulham deserve a top-10 finish after the Cottagers routed Sunderland 3-0 at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.Simon Davies nabbed a brace and Gael Kakuta added another for Fulham, who took full advantage of Sunderland’s injury-ravaged line-up to record just their second away win of the season.
The Cottagers are ninth on the table with 45 points with games against Liverpool, Birmingham City and Arsenal to come, a terrific position given the club were considered dark horses for relegation earlier this year.
Hughes believes his club deserves to stay in the top 10 on their recent form, calling on his players to ensure they take a full nine points in the run-in.
“We have still got games and we will try and do our best in each of them,” Hughes told Sky Sports.
“If we get maximum points out of those games we should be very much in that top 10, which is where we think we deserve to be.”
Sunderland struggled for chances all game without a single recognised striker, with winger Stephane Sessegnon filling in up front for injured trio Asamoah Gyan, Danny Welbeck and Fraizer Campbell.
But Hughes said he expected Fulham would have taken three points regardless of Sunderland’s fitness woes.
“It was difficult for Sunderland, obviously they have got injuries and are struggling for strikers themselves,” he said.
“But even so, the way we played today, certainly in the second half, we would have gone away with the win.”
Black Cats boss Steve Bruce was less convinced, saying he expected any club in the English Premier League would struggle with an injury list as long as his.
“Everybody who knows what has happened to Sunderland knows the problems we have had,” he said.
“They have been horrific and today it was shown. I don’t think there are many Premier League teams without a striker, and even the young ones we had in the reserves and the youth team got injured in midweek so it compounded the problem.”
“The reason why our season got off to a wonderful start is that for six months there was a resilience and we didn’t give much away.”
“But our defending today with the change in personnel was not good enough at this level and we got punished.”
“When you give away bad goals like that, you expect frustrating days like today.”
His team has secured a Champions League place, but manager Roberto Mancini believes Manchester City must be content with fourth this season.The Blues ensured their place in at least the qualifying stages for next season’s Champions League courtesy of Spurs striker Peter Crouch’s own goal in the 29th minute, but are just two points adrift of third-placed Arsenal on the English Premier League table with two games remaining.
However, having given up all three points in last Saturday’s trip to Everton and with an even bigger assignment to come this weekend at Wembley against Stoke in the FA Cup final, Mancini is not too concerned about the chance to snatch third.
“If we didn’t throw three points out of the window against Everton last Saturday, we could probably finish third,” Mancini said.
“I don’t know how we lost this game. Now it is difficult. We have two games left but now it is very important to think about the FA Cup final.”
Having been set the target of finishing at least fourth in the league, Mancini was pleased for both himself and the club’s fans to have achieved the goal.
“When you have a target and get it, it is very important for your job,” he said.
“But I am happy for the supporters and the club first of all.”
“We deserve to be in the Champions League because we were between first and fourth position all season.”
Spurs boss Harry Redknapp lamented the absence of Welsh winger Gareth Bale through injury and revealed that a long campaign had caught up with Dutchman Rafael van der Vaart.
But he remains proud of the club’s achievements, despite failing to again finish top four.
“The biggest problems in this run where we have fallen out of the top four are that we lost Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart has suddenly become a bit jaded due to the World Cup and not having a pre-season,” said Redknapp, whose side are sixth with two games remaining.
“When they were in top form, we were killing teams off as well as playing good football.”
“Not too many teams play better than we do. That means a lot to me.”
“I enjoy watching us play. I would rather that than us play awful football and keep lumping the ball.”
“I want to enjoy the last few years I have got in football.”
O’Neill leaves under a cloud – The timing of Martin O’Neill’s departure was hardly ideal with the Ulsterman leaving on the eve of the Premier League’s first weekend of fixtures, but his exit cannot be said to be unexpected. His clashes over a tightening of the purse strings at Villa Park all but ruined his once harmonious relationship with Villa Chairman Randy Lerner. The sale of James Milner to Man City, a move that O’Neill didn’t sanction, proved to be the straw that broke the camels back and he left the club after 4 largely successful seasons of steady progress at the helm. O’Neill wanted investment to push the club on after repeatedly banging his head against the top six glass ceiling, whereas Lerner argued, rather sensibly may I add, that O’Neill had failed to make enough of the money granted to him previously. With no middle ground to be found and the club’s star player sold for the second successive summer, O’Neill departed under a cloud and it all pointed towards testing times ahead.
European adventure alludes them once more – A tame exit at the hands of Rapid Vienna for the second season in succession wasn’t the best way to start a campaign, but may have been a blessing in disguise after all, what with the mid-season selection crisis under Houllier and an already threadbare squad stretched to breaking point. Villa, or more pertinently, Martin O’Neill often showed a degree of disdain towards Europe and it appears as if Villa simply aren’t cut out another for another European escapade at present.
A change of tack – Under former manager Martin O’Neill, Villa were often derided in some quarters (ahem, Arsene Wenger) as being a long-ball outfit. By my estimations, this was always a misrepresentation of the sides talents – sure, they were direct and the basis of their game was all about getting balls in early into the box, but they were capable of playing some lovely stuff on the deck too. This season, firstly under caretaker manager Kevin McDonald and then latterly under current manager Gerard Houllier, we’ve seen a noticeable, yet subtle shift to a more fluid, passing game from this Villa outfit. With Ashley Young often used as a floating forward and the emergence of the likes of Barry Bannan and Marc Albrighton, Villa are beginning to return to their footballing roots with a more attractive style.
You’ll never win anything with kids – One pleasing aspect of the Jekyll and Hyde performances coaxed out of the side by caretaker manager and coach Kevin McDonald was his preference for blooding in young talent into the first-team. A long-held critique of O’Neill’s tenure at the club was his refusal to trust the less experienced members of his squad while simultaneously persisting in using the same tired old legs week-in, week-out. Marc Albrighton looks to be the pick of the bunch and his 27 appearances have rendered a healthy return of 5 assists and 4 goals after some lively displays on the wing. Ciaran Clark performed ably in a number of roles and Barry Bannan’s skill also caught the eye on occasion. The future looks bright for this ramshackle bunch.
On A Wing and a Prayer – Villa’s two standout performers this campaign have undoubtedly been Stewart Downing and Ashley Young – one for his consistency, the other for his ability to do the unexpected. Downing quite rightly ended this season as the club’s Player of the Year and he has subsequently attracted strong interest from Liverpool among others. With a maturity now added to his play, he finished the campaign with 9 assists and 7 goals in the league, an exceptional return by anyone’s standards. Ashley Young may have just played his last game for the club and while he’s blown hot and cold at times this campaign, when he’s been good, he’s been very good indeed and he ends the season with 7 goals and 11 assists and has become an England regular to boot in the process. It looks doubtful that Villa will be able to hold onto both players going into next term with both keenly coveted. To lose one would be a huge setback, to lose both would be nothing short of catastrophic – they represent the very heart and sole of this new attacking Villa side and without them both, the West Midlands outfit will be a whole lot easier to play against next season.
Slackness at the back – The club’s 6th place finish last season and run to the FA Cup Final were built upon solid foundations at the back, sadly this season for Villa fans, they’ve simply not been there this term. Whereas last term the club could boast the fourth best defensive record in the league after conceding just 39 goals with 15 clean sheets thrown into the bargain, this term Villa have leaked goals almost at will at times. This season they’ve conceded a staggering 59 goals, the sixth worst in the league, and have kept a paltry 7 clean sheets. The demotion of Stephen Warnock to the club’s third-choice left back remains an ongoing mystery and the once solid partnership of Richard Dunne and James Collins simply haven’t hit the heady heights of last season’s excellence. The side’s more expansive style of play could partly be to blame for leaving the back line somewhat exposed at times but they have to do better next term to make sure this season become a blip rather than the norm.
Continued on Page TWO
Mutually beneficial deal fails to transpire – There are very few such cases where a transfer deal can be interpreted as mutually beneficial, however, the James Milner/Stephen Ireland swap deal (plus the little matter of £18m on top of that) in the summer looked to be one of them. Villa were getting a player of skill and trickery, capable of unlocking even the tightest defence, whereas City were getting England’s go-to 12th man, the player for all occasions and positions, James Milner. If one side of the deal had failed to work out, well, that could be forgiven, but for both parties it’s been an unmitigated disaster. Milner has failed to breakthrough into Mancini’s first-team and Stephen Ireland was so bad that he was loaned out mid-season to Newcastle and looks unlikely to pull on a Villa shirt ever again. Milner has been sorely missed by Villa this season and his industry in the middle of the park was of such high importance that the imbalance was re-addressed in January with the arrival of Jean Makoun from Lyon.
Bent at the double – It became clear right throughout O’Neill’s spell at the club that the one thing truly holding the club back was the lack of a top-class striker. Interestingly, Lerner allowed Houllier to dig deep into the club’s apparent sparse transfer resources and funded a deal which in all honesty probably went an awful long way to ensuring the club’s Premier League survival. Bent will always have his detractors, namely blinkered Spurs fans, yet he’s a pure, unadulterated goalscorer of the highest class. He may not always be pretty, he may not always play well, but he’s a constant danger to the opposition and a return of 9 goals in 16 appearances is exactly what the doctor ordered. Many questioned Bent’s wisdom in signing for a club in the relegation zone when Sunderland were riding high in 6th place and many questioned the significant outlay of the deal – but Villa managed to finish one place above Sunderland in the league despite being poles apart on completion of the deal and Sunderland went on a barren run that dragged them right into the relegation dogfight with a sequence of 8 defeats in the 9 games immediately after Bent’s departure. If you take out the goals that Bent has scored since his arrival, ones which have had a direct and quantifiable effect on the end result of a match, then Villa would have 6 points fewer and would have gone into their final game of the season against Liverpool at the weekend needing a victory to ensure their Premier League status; this is not to mention the noticeably positive effect that he’s had on the team’s performances aside from his goals. With the costs of dropping out of the top flight now large than ever, the £24m spent on Bent in January must now represent one of the bargains of the season.
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Travel Sickness – In all honesty, the overly competitive nature of this year’s league hasn’t left any side with an overly exceptional away record, yet amidst all the mediocrity, Villa’s is still the worst of any of last season’s top 8. Last term they collected 32 points on their travels and had the third best away record in the division. This campaign though, Villa have garnered just 17 points away from Villa Park, have shipped a whopping 40 goals and have the sixth worst record in the league. Back to basics next season then.
Turning a Corner – Famed for this quite frankly laughable estimation every time Liverpool had a decent result during his last spell on these shores, Gerard Houllier’s appointment was met with lukewarm support to say the least. Is he simply a case of the right man at the wrong time for the club? He‘s also made a string horrendous faux pas‘ too, most notably the now infamous gaffe after a defeat to his former club Liverpool back in December when he stated; “I prefer to lose 3-0 to them because I like Liverpool” which hardly would have helped endear him to the club‘s faithful, nor did a dismal run of just 2 wins in his first 12 games. To his credit though, with significant backing it has to be said, Houllier has managed to drag the club out of a relegation scrap (of his own making) at the bottom into a relatively secure, if slightly false final league position of 9th this term. Another heart scare provides Randy Lerner with the perfect excuse (as crass as that sounds) to move the Frenchman on in the summer and start afresh next term under a new managerial team. The ill-feeling between the club’s support and it’s players towards Houllier et al has dogged the club all season. Houllier is anything but universally popular around Villa Park and for the club to truly turn the corner, they need a new man at the helm.
Arbitrary marks out of ten – 4/10 – Villa simply haven’t performed for large swatches of the campaign. Their form has been inconsistent all season and while the arrival and successful integration of Darren Bent does offer a glimmer of hope for the future, the club may have to prepare for another long summer of transfer upheaval with Downing and Young right at the top of many rival club’s shopping lists. After finishing 6th for three successive seasons, this has been a turbulent campaign by contrast, with undesired off-the-field bust-ups and a succession of poor performances on the pitch dominating the headlines for all the wrong reasons. If Aston Villa were a kid at school, their end of term report card would read simply – ‘must do better’. Sage words for the club to ponder going into what promises to be a truly pivotal campaign next season.
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Jonathan Woodgate and Patrick Vieira were among several high-profile English Premier League players listed for free transfers on Thursday.Tottenham Hotspur have opted to cut loose injury-plagued centre-back Woodgate, while Manchester City have decided not renew the contract of 34-year-old midfielder Vieira.
Former West Ham midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker has parted company with manager-less Aston Villa, as has veteran Frenchman Robert Pires and Norwegian striker John Carew.
As expected, there were a host of departures from the relegated teams, with Birmingham City releasing Lee Bowyer, Sebastian Larsson, James McFadden and Kevin Phillips.
England international Matthew Upson, together with Jonathan Spector and Danny Gabbidon, left West Ham.
And Blackpool granted free transfers to David Carney, Marlon Harewood, Andy Reid and Richard Kingson.
Some long-term servants called time on their careers at champions Manchester United, with Edwin Van Der Sar, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville formally released following their retirements.
They were joined by midfielder Owen Hargreaves, who has featured in less than 30 matches since arriving at Old Trafford for 17 million pounds in May 2007.
Stoke City released Eidur Gudjohnsen, Abdoulaye Faye and Ibrahima Sonko.
Fulham let go Zoltan Gera, Diomansy Kamara and John Pantsil.
Boudewijn Zenden left Sunderland, Abdoulaye Meite departed West Brom and Wolverhampton Wanderers released Marcus Hahnemann.
And after committing his future to Wigan Athletic, Roberto Martinez brought the axe down on his squad, cutting adrift eight players, including Steven Caldwell, Daniel De Ridder, Jason Koumas and Mike Pollitt.
Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes has stated that he hopes Samir Nasri will join the Premier League champions from rivals Arsenal. The France international is in the last year of his contract, and is reluctant to extend due to the failure to win silverware at his time in North London; United and local rivals City have been linked with a move for the ex-Marseille man.
The recently retired 36-year-old also bemoaned Arsenal’s lack of success, despite playing attacking football and feels the club’s best players will leave this summer.
“They just flatter to deceive,” the ex-England international told Sky Sports.
“They may play the prettiest football, but it doesn’t always produce the results they need. It doesn’t irritate me that people say they’re the best footballing team because while they are doing that, we (United) are winning games. They do play the best football to watch at times, but what is the point of that if you are not winning anything? I don’t think our manager would allow this club to go six years without a trophy,” he continued.
Nasri is not the only key player on his way out of the Emirates, as Gael Clichy has completed a move to Premier League rivals Manchester City and Cesc Fabregas is subject of a bid from European champions Barcelona. This could be a telling blow according to Scholes.
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“Not only that, they are potentially going to lose their best players in (Cesc) Fabregas, (Samir) Nasri and (Gael) Clichy,” he concluded.
China were among the nations to progress in the Asian Football Confederation’s World Cup qualifiers after thumping Laos on Wednesday.After a 7-2 first-leg victory of the tie, China were in little doubt of makng to the third round of qualifying for the 2014 tournament in Brazil.
But they again turned in a dominant performance to assure their progression, winning 6-1 at the New Laos National Stadium.
Experienced striker Qu Bo opened the scoring after 23 minutes and China’s lead was doubled by Yu Hanchao as the Asian powerhouse claimed control of the match.
Visay Phapouvanin managed a consolation strike just two minutes into the second half but China responded impressively, netting four goals in the last 25 minutes of play.
Midfielder Deng Zhuoxiang helped himself to a double while Yu grabbed his second and Yang Xu joined him on the scoresheet, sealing a 13-3 thumping on aggregate.
Uzbekistan also won on the road, with their 3-0 triumph in Kyrgyzstan handed them a 7-0 aggregate victory.
All three goals came in the second half as veteran midfielder Victor Karpenko and substitute striker Bakhodir Nasimov (two) finished off a polished performance.
Indonesia progressed to the third round with a 5-4 aggregate victory over Turkmenistan, although it did not come without a scare as their opponents netted three times in the last 20 minutes in Jakarta to force a thrilling finale.
Qatar won through to the next stage 4-2 despite a 2-1 defeat in Vietnam, while other aggregate scores saw Saudi Arabia defeat Hong Kong 8-0, Syria beat Tajikistan 4-0, Kuwait prove too strong for the Philippines 5-1 and Lebanon edge Bangladesh 4-2.
Oman cruised past Myanmar 4-0 and Jordan thumped Nepal 10-1.
Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has confirmed unsettled winger Charles N’Zogbia will not join the team on their pre-season trip to Austria.Frenchman N’Zogbia is reportedly agitating for a move away from the DW Stadium and his exclusion from the training camp appears to be a further indication of his likely departure.
The 25-year-old, who joined Wigan from Newcastle United in 2009, was close to joining Birmingham City last season, but failed to agree personal terms with the club.
“The team have gone to Austria today but ‘Zoggy’ (N’Zogbia) hasn’t gone,” Whelan told Sky Sports News.
“He is a great lad to have around the club. If we do lose him, and we may well do because he has expressed a desire to move on, we will miss him enormously.”
“But he is a great asset for any football club who wants him.”
Aston Villa, who sold winger Stewart Downing to Liverpool for a reported fee of 20 million pounds earlier this month, are rumoured to be one of the clubs in the hunt for N’Zogbia’s signature.
And Whelan believes the price Liverpool paid for Downing makes one of Wigan’s prized assets inexpensive by comparison.
“I have always said for 10 million pounds he is an absolute snip, if Stewart Downing can change hands for 20 million pounds I don’t know what Charles is worth,” Whelan said.
“He is the fastest, most direct wide player in the Premier League and I have always asked for 10 million pounds and hopefully we will get it and he will move on and be happy.”