Days before the international breaks go slowly and they’re even worse on the match days because they tend to last for ages. Arsenal fans have become accustomed to seeing free flowing scintillating club football that’s spiced up with goals from the player that craves for goals as if its blood, Count Vampire or the masked superhero simply known as Robin.
However, these games are always a cause for concern for Arsene Wenger and this interlull is no different because Arsenal’s boss has already expressed his fears for the final round of international fixtures in this calendar year. It was at this same period in 2009 where Robin van Persie ruptured his ankle ligaments following a collision with Giorgio Chiellini in a meaningless friendly that sidelined him for five months.
Van Persie was on a hot streak of seven goals in eight games and that layoff paved the way for an emerging Nicklas Bendtner that did pretty well in his absence. This season, van Persie has a player bereft of confidence in the form of Marouane Chamakh and a new settler in the form of Park Chu-Young as his deputies so a long term injury to van Persie could make the fans press the panic button yet again.
Arsene Wenger also had a thing to say about the current unstoppable force in the Premier League called Manchester City. This ‘force’ under the tutelage of Roberto Mancini has used its resources well to build up a team that smashed five past Tottenham in White Hart Lane and opened Old Trafford cinemas to premiere the movie, Six and the City. Le Boss told the media Vultures that Manchester City will be hard to catch:
“Man City had some impressive away results, especially at Tottenham and Man United”
“The potential is there, but we will see on a longer period. If they are still there with that difference in December, then you can say it’ll be difficult to catch them.
“No team has no vulnerability in our league or any other league. Man City have quality. They can score goals and be efficient. They are the ones to catch.”
At the rate that they are going, Manchester City will definitely be a force to be reckoned with in the business end of the season but the skeptics are still saying that its just 11 games gone and there’ll still be time for the shadows to emerge over Eastlands.
Few years before assuming the helm of affairs at Arsenal, Wenger managed a side in the Principality of Monaco that had figureheads like Glenn Hoodle, Youri Djourkaeff, George Opong Weah and Jurgen Klinsmann. The club won the French Cup trophy in 1991 and reached the semifinals of the Champions League a few seasons after.
However, the German goalscoring legend called Jurgen Klinsmann has currently assumed the role of manager of the United States football team after long serving coach Bob Bradley left to manage six-time African champions Egypt. Klinsmann took out some time in his interview with some Yankee vultures to tell the world that Arsene Wenger has been an inspiration to him:
“I had a blast when I played for Monaco, I had two fantastic years with Arsène Wenger. We had a tremendous run in the Champions League when Arsène led us to the semi finals.”
“I learnt a lot from him, especially now for my coaching career, he was an inspiration and I took a lot of what he taught me. I loved experiencing the style of football in France 20 years ago… a very technical and fast-paced game. I loved the technical approach of it. It was a formidable experience and I will never forget it.”
“I am hoping that Arsène will come to the game on Friday and that he will come for a coffee in our hotel before. I got in touch the other day with the Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis, who used to be the vice-president of the MLS. So it’s a small world.”
Well its always good to see when a former pedawan pays homage to his master Jedi. I wish Klinsmann all the best in his new role and I hope that he’ll build an American squad that will be strong enough to surpass the class of 10′ that reached the second round of the World Cup before losing to Africa’s World Cup surprise package, Ghana.
Moving over to transfer gossip, Arsenal has been linked with SL Benfica’s Javi Garcia. I don’t watch the Liga Sagres week in week out but when the name SL Benfica is mentioned, I only know about the Argentine magician Pablo Aimar, the towering Brazilian center back and captain Luisao, the Argentine hobbit Javier Saviola and the dead ball specialist and a player I always buy in Football Manager Oscar Cardozo.
Reports have also emerged that Arsenal has missed out on a 15-year old teenage sensation called Andreas Hoelhebaum Pereira. The youngling from PSV Eindhoven chose Manchester United over Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea. For once, its good to hear that we’ve missed out on a player that’ll win the league in 2035. There’s a league to win in 2012 or 2013 as the case may be so I’m not breaking sweat over such news.
The media Vultures also say that Internazionale are gearing up to bid for Robin van Persie. There is a saying that goes like this,
“You don’t know what you have until you lose it.”
These Italian blokes flushed Samuel Eto’o for big bucks to that Russian outfit and replaced him with a good but aging Diego Forlan and the club that won the Champions League in 2008 is presently swimming on relegation waters. Those at the hierarchy of the club removed Gianpiero Gasperini from his great job at Genoa only to sack him after five league games. Former Chelsea, Juventus and AS Roma boss Claudio Ranieri is the man with the suit there but he hasn’t really helped their cause yet because they’ve been on the end of mixed results.
There are footballer that have the DNAs of their clubs and he pledged to end their careers in those clubs. Francesco Alhaji Totti has worn the AS Roma jersey since the days Yuri Gagarin walked on the Moon and he’ll continue to wear that jersey until his legs give up on him. The First Avenger of the Barcelona Justice League Carles Puyol wore the Barcelona jersey when En Sabar Nur was still in Egypt and he’s still the only player that prefers to wear two arm bands especially in the Champions League.
Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere has pledged to follow suit and he has told everyone that he’s going to be a Gunner for life:
“I’ve been at the club since I was nine and I’ve learned to love it.
“From the (Patrick) Vieira days, to (Dennis) Bergkamp, (Cesc) Fabregas, I’ve watched them come through and move on. But now there’s a crop of new players, (Aaron) Ramsey, myself, Kieran Gibbs, hopefully we can really create something special.
“I love the club and I want to be part of its future.”
Wilshere has also voiced his frustrations on watching Arsenal play from the sidelines:
“I should be back in training by mid-December, then I can crack on and its up to the boss when he picks me,” said Wilshere after seeing a specialist to check his progress this week.
“It’s massively frustrating, especially after last year when we were so close to winning a trophy,” said Wilshere.
“I was looking forward to this season, I really thought we could push on and do something. To get a setback is massively frustrating but Ill be back in December and hopefully we can push on from then.”
This is a player that I really love watching because of his confidence with the ball as well as his overall style of play. A player so confident that he ran a midfield that had opponents like Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi on the 16th of February 2011.
Get well soon Jack.
I hope that you’ll wear the sacred armband someday. 🙂
Sayonara.