Things are very flat at Arsenal.

Fans are filled with rage and despair, players are miserable, and today’s morale-boosting team photograph session will  be two photos: one with Fabregas wearing the armband, another with RVP as captain.

How schizophrenic is that?

A poster featuring both those photos, with appropriate graphics, could be sold as a collector’s item. What would the headline of that poster be?  With or Without You ?

Why not get Joey Barton down to train for a couple of  weeks?

Take him to Lisbon on Friday. Play him against Benfica on Saturday

He’s 28 and a helluva footballer.

Joey Barton  is  10 times the footballer Diaby or Denilson will ever be.

I know what you’re thinking : Would a  nutcase fit into the kindergarden we call the Colney Creche? No. But he would liven it up.

Joey  Barton can tackle and pass very well.He has a football brain and  takes the initiative on the pitch. He makes things happen. He’s dynamic and has a good range of passing and he’s a provider as well as a ball-winner.  His crossing is superb and he  takes a far better free-kick than anybody at Arsenal.

Joey  Barton could quickly  learn from Jack Wilshere.

I’m sure that Jack could get Joey into the England team.

Lampard and Gerrard are past it and Capello  realises  his team  needs new blood.

Jack & Joey could be the greatest English combination since Morecambe & Wise, and perhaps, in time,  the finest since gin & tonic.

As you know, Joey is the first Premier League  footballer to be given his P.45 for tweeting.

Understandably, Barton is dismayed at the way Mike Ashley runs Newcastle United.

Newcastle is a shambles.

Barton’s  latest tweet quotes George Orwell:

“In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.”

Well said, young man !

George Orwell,  the visionary novelist who is one of the greatest Englishmen who ever lived, said, “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism as I understand it”

At this rate I can see a rehabilitated Joey Barton writing a column in The Guardian.

His column can’t be any worse than Steve McManaman’s in The Times or Alan Hansen’s in The Daily Telegraph.

 

 

Jack Wilshere playing with Rooney? Could be fun. If it happens.

Ashley Cole was dropped by Fabio Capello for this week’s Hungary game. That could give Arsenal’s left back Kieran Gibbs a chance to impress on Wednesday night.

Always loved Jack Wilshere and agree with Bolton boss Owen Coyle, who said yesterday : “For one so young, he’s brave, tough, mentally strong and destined for greatness. He is a total footballer. He can play wide, he can play in the middle, or he can play as a second striker. Everything he does oozes class.”

 

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Consider this from David Barber at the FA :

Arsenal starlet Jack Wilshere, at 18 years 222 days, will become the tenth youngest England player in history if he plays any part in tomorrow night’s Wembley friendly with Hungary.

Wilshere was capped five times at Under-21 level last season and has now been included in a Senior squad for the first time.

The Top Ten Youngest England Players :

Theo Walcott – 17 years 75 days – v Hungary on 30 May 2006
Rooney – 17 years 111 days – v Australia on 12 Feb 2003
James Prinsep – 17 years 252 days – v Scotland on 5 April 1879
Thurston Rostron – 17 years 311 days – v Wales on 26 Feb 1881
Clement Mitchell – 18 years 23 days – v Wales on 15 March 1880
Michael Owen – 18 years 59 days – v Chile on 11 February 1998
Micah Richards – 18 years 144 days – v Holland on 15 Nov 2006
Duncan Edwards – 18 years 183 days – v Scotland on 2 April 1955
James Brown – 18 years 210 days – v Wales on 26 February 1881
Arthur Brown – 18 years 328 days – v Wales on 29 February 1904

When Walcott made his debut against Hungary he hadn’t played in the Premier League for Arsenal. He replaced Michael Owen after 65 minutes to beat the record set by Rooney three years earlier.

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NO BIG DEAL that Martin O’Neill has resigned five days before Aston Villa’s first game.

He had taken Villa as far as he could. Maybe he quit because he would not get all of the James Milner money to spend. He will say : without more investment, Villa will always be sixth or lower.

But O’Neill’s team was just Leicester with more skill and pace, and his Aston Villa faded away at the end of the last three seasons, so Randy Lerner reckoned it’s time for a change.

Should Bob Bradley take the job? Yes.

 

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