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Bendtner’s fury, McLintock not impressed and International roundup

Another Saturday without Arsenal football can be likened to a bloke eating some slices of bread without butter, jam or mayonnaise as the case may be. It’s plain and at times…boring.

Every footballer has a nationality that he dreams of playing for but its not every player that can make the dream become a reality.

Arsene Wenger’s squad is blessed with ambassadors representing almost every continent but it’s not every player in his team that has gotten the honor of wearing the colors of his fatherland.

If Manuel Almunia kept up with the form he showed in the 2006/07 and 2007/08 season, he would have earned an English cap from Steve McClaren but his career has gone downhill after of high-profile match errors.

There are other players in Arsenal that must represent their nations whether they’re half fit or not. Yossi Benayoun falls into that class.

17 Gunners have been invited by their nations to take part in qualifiers and friendlies that have been scheduled for this weekend and the mid-week but some Gunners were in action yesterday.

Here’s a full list of the Gunners that took onto the pitch yesterday night.

Robin van Persie

Arsenal’s number one playing citizen was as hot as supernova when Holland gazumped minnows San Marino in Eindhoven with 11 unreplied goals. RVP scored four goals in that game to almost come close to breaking Marco van Basten’s record that stood at five.

Park Chu-Young

The man that has inherited the haunted No. 9 jersey from Suker, Jeffers, Reyes, Baptista and Eduardo gave Chamakh and the gooners something to think about when he scored a hattrick in Korea Republic’s 6-0 drubbing of Lebanon.

With Park banging three and RVP smashing in four, Swansea’s Brendan Rodgers will be a very concerned manager because Arsenal’s strikers are on the prowl and are most likely to take out their frustrations on Swansea following the 8-2 mutilation by Manchester United.

Aaron Ramsey

Rambo led his country by example after scoring the match winner against Montenegro from a pass from the World’s best left-footed Chimpanzee, Gareth Bale. The tie ended at 2-1.

Rambo and his Welsh dragons will take a trip to Wembley on Tuesday to play England in a crucial Euro 2012 qualifier. The game will also be a landmark for Ramsey because he captained Wales for the first time in a game against England.

Per Mertesacker

Arsenal’s beanpole defender enjoyed the view of Schalke’s Gelsenkirchen from the dugout when Germany twacked Austria in a 6-2 score line. The highlight of the game was a hattrick by the Turkish German, Mesut Ozil.

Mertesacker will travel with the rest of Joachim Loew’s squad to Poland on Tuesday in a friendly.

Theo Walcott

The speedy one played a considerable chunk of the match between England and Bulgaria that ended in a 3-0 victory. He was substituted with eight minutes to spare.

He will also be available for selection when England hosts Wales on Tuesday.

Laurent Koscielny

Kos was still waiting for a chance to get his French debut when he watched from the bench as France defeated Albania by 2-1. He might get his chance when France visits Romania on Tuesday.

Andrey Arshavin

Arshavin led Russia out to a disappointing 1-1 draw against Macedonia. The nation will have another chance to prove their mettle when they host the tall Leprechaun’s from Ireland on Tuesday.

Wojciech Szczesny

Szczesny was on the bench for the entire game when Poland drew 1-1 with Mexico but he’s odds on to start when Poland hosts Germany.

Thomas Vermaelen

The Verminator wasn’t available for selection when Belgium shared the spoils with Azerbaijan in a 1-1 draw but reports are emerging that he might be available for selection when Belgium hosts USA on Tuesday.

Yossi Benayoun

The Isreali played for the entire game when his nation lost by a solitary goal to Greece. Benayoun and his fellow Jews will make a trip to Zagreb to take on Croatia.

Tomas Rosicky

Tomas was called up by Czech Republic’s manager to lead his army when they play Scotland today before playing Ukraine in a friendly match.

Alex Song

Song was called up to play for his nation when Cameroon takes on Mauritius today.

Gervinho

Mr. Kouassi will have the chance to show his talents when Ivory Coast takes on Rwanda. The Elephants will have to be without their inspirational captain, Didier Drogba, who is still recuperating after his collision with Norwich’s goalie.

Johan Djourou

Djourou will be present in the Swiss squad that will play Bugaria on Wednesday.

It’s also heartwarming to know to that the Gunners in action went through the first phase of friendlies and qualifiers unscathed. The final phase takes place in mid-week and the gooners will be hopeful that no bones will be broken and every testicle will still be intact.

When I wrote a post about Arsenal’s transfer activity this summer, many gooners shared their comments.

StevePalmer1 wrote:

“Very good signings, very late in the day but Wenger has made more signings than most Supporters would ever believe.

Supporters will still not be happy, and will moan about all the players that we havn’t brought, Arsenal supporters don’t realise just how lucky they are to have Wenger, they have been used to playing in all the top competitions as if its their right.

Well i’m sorry its not, Hard work by the Arsenal manager and his team will once again make us competetive, if we can shake the football authorities off our back, and not have anymore suspensions, we may well win the league.

Wenger has been watching all these new signings for a long time , he has left it as late as posible to aquire their services for as little as possible, doing just what a good manager does, sell high and buy low, that is why we are in good hands and will be for the forseeable future”

Kiran wrote:

“So, at last, arsenal’s transfer concluded with chamberlein being the top transfer worth 12 million.!!!

Its shame AW n the board to reject the top quality players like Hazard n m’vila because of money, even if we have enough funds. Board should be sacked for doing just business with transfer, and not the passion.We the fans must protest..”

Cehz wrote:

“Good buys after all even though it was very late. i wonder if prof wenger would have bought players if we weren’t trashed by man united.. i say thanks to man u for making the arsenal stingy board see reasons to sign.

These signings have increased great depth in our midfield. at least every one will start jostling for starting shirt especially somebody like arshavin and chamakh..dats if they are willing to play this season. Good riddance of bendtner”

Emeka wrote:

“If he had signed maybe two matured players last season, Arsenal would ‘ve won something & Fabregas, Nasri would ‘ve stayed.

Did he expect me to be dancing because he swallowed his vampire’s pride & signed some couple of players?

If you juxtapose these four comments you would know that a fraction of the gooners (me included) are delighted with the deadline day signings while another fraction are still disappointed with Arsene Wenger.

Arsenal great Frank McLintock, falls into the latter class. He believes the club’s transfer policy is poor and although he wants the players to succeed he feels they could be in for a tough season.

He told the media Vultures that he was not impressed with Arsenal’s latest signings.

He said a lot of stuffs but I’m going to take my pick from the pack:

“I’m not impressed with the names, I hope they do very well. I’m not going to be out there looking to criticise, I want to give them all the support I can.

“I think we got about £70million in transfers from players leaving the club and yet again we seem to be after the second best players nearly all of the time. It’s a reaction rather than being already prepared.

“I can’t understand why, if we’ve got two billionaires on the board, they couldn’t just put in some money, buy three players in preparation so we’re not scrambling around at the last minute. I’m really disappointed.”

On Andre Santos:

“I’m not wishing them any bad at all and I’m hoping they have a great, successful time at Arsenal but if you look at Santos for instance, we know very little about him, he is a Brazilian, evidently he’s just come to the fore in the last three years.

On Mikel Arteta:

“Two seasons ago, if we signed Mikel Arteta, I would have said great, I thought Arteta was a wonderful player who would have been perfect for Arsenal football club the way they play but since he’s been injured and he was injured for most of last season as well.”

On Per Mertesacker:

“I would have bought two centre-halves for definite, I would have bought [Gary] Cahill as well as Mertesacker.”

On Park Chu-Young:

“Can Park make the jump from the France to our division because the two men that came from there last season, one did very well while the other couldn’t cope”

On the transfer policy:

“We’ve bought Alex Oxlade-chamberlain in and please god the boy is going to be a wonderful player but it might be like Theo Walcott where it takes three or four years before he comes through and we can’t even find a centre-half at the moment and we’re spending £12million and eventually up to £15million.

“It just does not make any sense. Where is the planning going on here, we were supposed to be bringing youngsters through, hardly any of them are left now. When players realise that Arsenal aren’t going to go and buy players, real big superstars, they want to move.”

In summary:

“If it doesn’t work out in the first few months this year you can bet your boots [Robin] Van Persie will be the next one who wants to move.

“I think realistically if they get in the top four that would be their best target. I can’t see them ever overtaking Manchester United with this team and I can’t see them overtaking Manchester City who just seem to be putting the jigsaw in place. Every time you open the paper they’ve just got another outstanding player.

“I think it’s going to be really, really tough this year for Arsenal. I don’t think Arsenal fans are going to be too kind this season as they’ve been for the last four or five seasons.

“I think they’ve just got a little bit fed up with all the promises and everything else that has been going on at Arsenal for the past six years and because of the expense of going to the club.”

I’m pretty sure that Frank McLintock has spoken for some gooners but pessimism will not do anything to help the present situation at the club.

For starters, Arsenal is 17th on the log so it needs its fans to get behind the team to push on for the rest of the season because there are so many more games that are to be played.

Is it just me or are some of the fans acting as if this is the January transfer window?

We just finished WEEK 3 of the Premier League and some fans have already condemned the squad to damnation.

Nicklas Bendtner was a player that has bags of potential in him and it was shown in his Birmingham City days but as the seasons went by, he became better and better only to hit a brick wall last season.

Bendtner deputized well for the injured RVP in the 2009/10 season and scored many vital goals for the club but Marouane Chamakh’s early season form as well as RVP’s late blistering season form limited Bendtner to meager appearances on the right wing.

He openly spoke about his dissatisfaction in that role but Wenger kept playing him there so he joined the massive exodus away from Arsenal this summer to see himself at Sunderland despite claims that top European clubs like Dortmund, Sporting CP and Besiktas were after him.

Just like the way Nasri hit out at Arsenal shortly after leaving the club, Bendtner has told the media Vultures that he’ll never play for Arsenal again.

With age still on the side of van Persie, Park CY and Chamakh and the youthful exuberance of Vela still available, Bendtner can feel free to walk to the edge of a cliff and do a Jimmy Jatt jump off.

If that doesn’t work out, he can go to Egypt, search for the cobra that killed Cleopatra and give it a French kiss.

If that doesn’t still work out, he can go to an African market in England, buy some garri, pick up a bowl, scoop some out and start counting it grain by grain.

I really don’t know who Nicklas Bendtner thinks he is. I know that he has age on his side but biting the fingers that fed you for so long won’t do enough to appease the gods.

I really liked Bendtner because of his confidence and technique but if doesn’t want to wear the Red and White anymore, he should be my guest.

Arsenal was Arsenal before he arrived at the club and Arsenal will still be Arsenal after he’s long gone.

In other Arsenal related news, the Chambered Ox has said that he’s happy with his England Under-21 outing and he’s hell bent on impressing Arsene Wenger.

At the age of 18, he cost a whooping £12m so he has a lot of impressing to do.

Heaven knows that I cannot spend £12m on Chamberlain in Football Manager, not to even talk about reality.

I want to express my gratitude to everyone that took place in the voting sequence for my awards for August.

The winners and the percentages will be published in tomorrow’s post and new pictures of the winners will be uploaded on the blog’s sidebar.

I dunno about you,

But I’m delighted with our newest signings.

Sayonara.

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