I reckon the mainstream media have got the Arshavin story all wrong.
In case you missed it, Arshavin has warned Arsenal he could leave if he remains “glued to the bench” by the manager.
He said that Wenger’s “unique philosophy’ means that players are substituted regardless of how well they\re playing.
Arshavin said, “Right now I don’t think about changing clubs. If I will be benched for a very long time, then such an issue might be relevant. I still want to play for 90 minutes, but now I am glued to the bench. I wouldn’t like to play for a Russian club other than Zenit , and there were no contacts with Anzhi Makhachkala.”
In public, Arshavin is saying he might leave if he’s glued to the bench.
But I think the opposite is true : Wenger’s not starting him because Arshavin wants to go.
His agents are looking for another club and Wenger knows that.The Russian wants to leave. He’s had enough.
Wenger killed Arshavin by dropping him for the Chelsea semi-final. Broke his heart. Damaged him badly.
That was the only competition Arsenal could win in 2009 but the manager chucked it right there when he played Denilson, Diaby et al ahead of a guy who was the finest footballer in Euro 2008 nine month previously. With that decision, Wenger cheated thousands of Arsenal fans who each paid hundreds of pounds for tickets and expected Arshavin to play.
When Guus Hiddink’s Chelsea started to get on top at 1-1, he took off Van Persie and put Arshavin for the last 15minutes. Too late !
Teams on that Saturday, April 18, 2009 :
ARSENAL: Fabianski, Eboue, Toure, Silvestre, Gibbs, Walcott, Fabregas, Diaby, Denilson, Van Persie, Adebayor.
Subs: Mannone, Nasri, Vela, Ramsey, Song, Arshavin, Bendtner.
CHELSEA : Cech, Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Lampard, Essien, Malouda, Anelka, Drogba.
Subs: Hilario, Carvalho, Di Santo, Mikel, Kalou, Belletti, Mancienne.
Walcott had scored early, Malouda made it 1-1 with a shot Flapianksi should have saved, Chelsea terrified Gooners by hoofing long balls which Toure and Sylvestre struggled to clear, Arsenal wobbled into the second half and after 75 Wenger brought on Arshavin for Van Persie and then Drogba got onto another long ball and ridiculed Sylvestre and went round the idiotic Flapianski.to make it 2-1.
On Tuesday night I watched the first Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali fight on ESPN.
I knew they would screen something on the day we heard that Smokin’ Joe had died of cancer at the age of 67.
Ali had refused the draft, saying, “Ain’t no Vietcong ever called me nigger.”
The Louisville Lip was stripped of his title, banned from the ring for three years, and only had two fights before he came back in 1971 to fight heavyweight champion Joe Frazier in a phenomenal battle that lasted 15 rounds at Madison Square Garden,
Watching it again, I remembered how small Joe Frazier was, how impossibly brave he was, how he used to go back to his corner and punch himself in the face, and what a weapon his left hook was.
The late, great Joe Frazier was one of the biggest stars in a golden era of boxing.
But Muhammad Ali had the biggest heart of any heavyweight, the best chin of any heavyweight, the best legs of any heavyweight -and he was a better wrestler than any boxer I’ve seen.bHis ringcraft was phenomenal and that’s why the only knockdown in this 15-round fight came early in the final round.
A high-velocity left hook flattened Ali and it was absolutely astounding to see any human get up from a thunderous punch that he never saw coming. He was surprised and poleaxed but he still got up at the count of two and went the distance.
Ali was 29 in 1971 and this was his first defeat in his 32nd fight.
Joe Frazier lost four of his 37 fights but he only lost to Ali and George Foreman, who later said that Frazier’s left hook “was like a bullet going past your ear.”
Real boxing finished a long time ago. There are no boxers worth watching these days, so we’ll never see a great fight again, let alone a great heavyweight fight. There was more action in any round of any Ali-Frazier fight than there was in the entire 12 rounds between those clowns Haye and Klitchko.
And here we are again in autumn, a season I used to love so much.
Darker evenings, brisk Saturdays going out to football. Millions of golden leaves tumbling down onto damp streets and windswept parks.Putting on coats and scarves, even gloves. But this autumn I’m wondering, not for the first time, what kind of country I’m living in.
Sir Jimmy Savile’s gold-coloured coffin was carried into a cathedral by Royal Marines in Leeds. He was only a DJ, folks! Catholic monks at Ealing Abbey are guilty in 21 cases of child abuse. What a surprise! Being celibate is unnatural! Why can’t everybody see that? The Home Secretary has claimed she didn’t know that thousands of criminals were coming into the UK and blamed senior civil servant Brodie Clark. The MoD is preparing for war on Iran. That’s so logical, isn’t it? We’ve lost an unwinnable war in Afghanistan, so let’s bomb another country which hasn’t attacked us. Another war will make more money for the rich, who have already raped us all.
Talking of Russians, I saw a report on Russia Today that said Roman Abramovich’s legal fees, for the Boris Berezovsky case, will be $16 million. Roman denies that Boris was ever his business partner. Payments made to Boris were “krysha”, the Russian word for roof, meaning protection from violent criminals or political interference.This case in the Commercial Court will continue into 2012.
Last night I saw a re-run of my favourite cop show, The Sweeney.
Jack Regan meets up with one of his trusted contacts, a tall, smooth public schoolboy, who says, “You should know, Jack, that in my class there’s more basic dishonesty than all the other classes put together. It’s just that we have more style and panache. There were two boys at Eton with me who had criminal IQs at the genius level….they’re both bankers now.”
Trevor Preston wasn’t just a superb TV writer in 1975. He was a prophet.