While I write this post Euro 2012 co-hosts Poland take on France in an international friendly with Arsenal’s Szczesny as the custodian of their goal. It’s good to know that he has displaced the likes of Boruc and Kuszszszsz. He has also displaced Fabianski who had the Poland No. 1 spot as one of his dreams. A few seasons back Fabianski told the World that he had 2 dreams as a player; to have the Number 1 jersey in both club and country. Almunia’s low confidence and incompetence paved the way for Fabianski so the Pole reignited his fading Arsenal career with that penalty save against Partizan in Serbia. Fabianski put up a decent show from September to January but injury paved the way for Wojciech Szczesny.
Szczesny’s performances were very consistent and solid but AW will have the final say who Arsenal’s No. 1 will be next season. We certainly know that it won’t be Reina, Schwarzer, Buffon or any other goalie from the Milky Way. We have laid our goalkeeping eggs in a Polish basket.
Kieran Gibbs is one player that has a knack for getting injured and he has gotten injured again, weeks before the Under-21 European Championships in Denmark. Stuart Pearce goes into that tourney without Gibbs, Wilshere and Carroll but he still has the likes of the impressive Daniel Sturridge and Liverpool’s £20m boy Jordan Henderson. King Kenny Dalglish sure knows where to put his money where his Scottish mouth is. In January, he used Torres’ £50m to acquire Suarez and Carroll. Suarez cost £10m less than the young Englishman but he was more impressive in his Liverpool start than the £35m man.
Kieran Gibbs is a player that hasn’t really stepped up to the challenge thereby causing a little mix-up in the minds of the Arsenal faithful. Some Arsenal fans want Gibbs to be loaned to another side to get that much needed match fitness and a good run of games while others want him to be sold off thereby forcing AW to make a replacement. Clichy’s future is still uncertain in Arsenal but if the Frenchman decides to depart the club for greener pastures after his amazing years of service, another left back has to be bought because I won’t be very comfortable if Kieran Gibbs becomes Arsenal’s number 1 left back next season. When Arsenal visited Old Trafford in that FA Cup quarter final that saw Arsenal lose against 7 defenders, Gibbs didn’t impress me at left back. I’ll still say that he had a hand in Fabio’s goal because of his poor positioning but at the age of 21, Kieran still has a lot to learn.
Leighton Baines is a player that we have been linked with in recent times but if I was AW, I would loan Gibbs out then buy Baines so that he and Clichy will be on their toes. There are a lot of players in the team that were complacent last season because their places were not under threat so that trend has to stop. Song was a very good player for us last season but there were some games that he was misplacing passes and getting frustrated easily but he was still an important player for us because he had no real natural replacement. Denilson is more or less an escort-in-chief while Diaby isn’t too comfortable as a holding midfielder because he prefers to be attacking the ball not stopping play.
Injuries don’t just happen; they are caused by different circumstances. When Arsenal played Stoke Rugby FC on the 27th of February, Ramsey didn’t run to the pitch to intentionally break his leg, it was broken by a dimwitted oaf whose manager said that he couldn’t hurt a frigging fly. The tackle by Shawcross on Ramsey was caused by the Englishman’s carelessness. The same type of carelessness that Martin Taylor showed when he tackled Eduardo. It’s unfortunate to know that some players go all out for a tackle without thinking of the repercussion. Robin van Persie is one player whose career has been blighted by injuries. 2 seasons ago, he suffered a long layoff that saw him stay out for 5 months after a tackle from Chiellini that saw him rupture his ankle ligaments. The Dutch FA deceived everyone and said that rVp would be back after weeks but it was not to be. The horse placenta trick didn’t even work. The most annoying thing about rVp’s injury in that game was that it was an international friendly with nothing at stake. Both countries had already booked their tickets to South Africa; Italy bowed out in the group stages while Holland went all the way to the final only to lose to that Planet Catalunya infested country. rVp was part of the Holland squad that played Uruguay in a friendly but Diego Lugano didn’t have the friendly tag on his head when he lounged at Arsenal’s striker. That tackle was a disgrace to the beautiful game. I won’t advise this but you can see it for yourself here. I just hope that rVp’s glass bones are still intact.
The story of Phil Jones is now old news because we all know that he has completed a £16m move to Man Utd but the media Vultures say that AW has set his sights on Gary Cahill and Chris Samba at the same time. Cahill is valued at £17m while Samba is valued around £10m or so but I don’t know if it’s right getting both players at the club because with the exclusion of Squillaci there are still 3 other defenders that are good enough to be in any other top side. Vermaelen is more or less the star defender but Djourou and Koscielny showed last season that they can be dependable even if they had their fair share of mistakes. Koscielny would want to forget the game against Birmingham while Djourou would definitely clear the memory of the Stoke game from his head.
I love Samba because of his attributes. He’s big, strong, scary looking and jumps like an athlete that’s holding the pole for the pole vault event. He also has attacking prowess that can be exploited late in games. When Big Sam was still at the helm of affairs in Blackburn, there were games that Samba was deployed as the centre forward as he did well to get on the score sheet in some games. Samba has vast Premier League experience and could be a very good signing for Arsenal FC. Samba might not play week in week out for us but he’ll be important in those away ties against sides that use Route 1 football such as Stoke Rugby FC and Blackburn. Samba will also be a good target for corner kicks and attacking free kicks so I’ll be happy if AW gets the Congolese. Cahill is just one overhyped Englishman that hasn’t really impressed me yet and I won’t count £17m to give Bolton for such a player just because he’s English.
I do not hate Cahill as a player, don’t get me wrong. I’m just pissed that Bolton has made him available for such an exorbitant price but you wouldn’t blame them, football is now a full blown business so everyone wants to make profit.
In other news, Omar Almasri wrote a post about 10 possible defensive targets for AW. It’s worth a read.
That’s all for today.
There’ll be no blog post tomorrow because Carlo Ancelotti will be celebrating his birthday and the last time I checked, I and Carlo were birthday mates. While his basking in Italy with his family and friends, I’ll be chilling with my own family and friends in Abuja.
I’d really appreciate birthday wishes from my Goonerific family so you could send your wishes through the blog’s Twitter account @goonerdaily or my personal account @enigma106.
If Facebook is your thing, you can send your wishes through the blog’s Facebook page or my personal Facebook account Toni Okike.
Thanks for reading Gooner Daily.
Sayonara
