By Myles Palmer
FRIDAY NIGHT.
Just time to write ten lines before watching Have I Got News For You?
It’s now clear that Jeffers has no future at Arsenal.
If Arsene thought he had a future he would have played him at Everton when Henry needed a break.
If he didn’t pick Jeffers then he will never pick him.
Jeffers is a good striker but not an Arsenal player. He has not fitted in.
I would love to hear his side of the story but we may have to wait for that.
Jeffers will be sold in January to raise money for a keeper.
Fans hope for Rustu, who is playing in the Uefa Cup with Fenerbahce.
I made a big mistake two weeks ago when talking about it not being Rooney that beat Arsenal but Slovenia, Slovakia and Macedonia.
I got that wrong. The straw the broke the camel’s back was MALTA.
France flew to Malta and went 3-0 up in 60 minutes.
But Santini left all three Arsenal players on for 90 minutes.
They flew back to Paris at 5 a.m. and then came back to London.
They met up on Friday, had a light training session and went North to Goodison.
It was Malta that killed Henry, Vieira and Wiltord.
But, having said that, a better defence would have got tight on Rooney and made him work for a shooting position. Sol was badly at fault on that goal.
IN HINDSIGHT, Arsene was saving Bergkamp for Fulham.
Without Patrick on Sunday, he knows he needs Dennis, a senior player.
He was always going to need a fit, fresh Dennis.
So far Arsenal v Fulham has been France A versus France B – and France A has been far better.
But Sunday could be interesting.
In Steve Marlet, Tigana has something Arsene doesn’t have : a centre forward.
A rambuctious No.9 who runs in the channels,heads the ball, gets on the end of crosses.
Kanu can’t do that, Henry can’t, Wiltord can’t.
All day I’ve been wondering how I will manage without Angus Deaton and Adam Crozier.
Did panelists Paul Merton and Ian Hislop want Deaton sacked by the BBC after his cocaine/prostitutes misdemeanours?
It’s a vicious world in which somebody at The Daily Mail tells ten reporters : Nail Angus Deaton ! I want hookers,quotes, pictures, the lot.
Myself, I’m not too judgmental about recreational drugs. We’ve all hoovered up a line of Bolivian marching powder to be sociable, haven’t we?
Sting once said that cocaine is God’s way of telling us we’ve got too much money. Others said this long before Sting, or course.
What’s surprising is that Deaton was snorting coke NOW.
In 2002? In 2002, Angus?
It’s so dated, so Seventies – and so stupid.
If you have to snort coke to feel invincible, you’re not really up there, you’re not invincible, you’re faking a high. It’s phoney, the last refuge of the unimaginative.
You’re just a sad little man staying awake all night and using up tomorrow’s energy.
And if Deaton hasn’t realised that by now, he must be a true dimwit who deserves to lose his privileged high-profile role on telly.
On Wednesday at the gym I was on the bike watching BBC Breakfast when I saw Vanessa Feltz say, with relish, that Deaton was finished on mainstream TV and would be banished to satellite forever.
ADAM CROZIER is an obnoxious little Scot who was doing a pretty good job.
Moving the FA’s HQ was good. Hiring Sven was good.A 12-man executive board rather than a 92-man Council was good.
But his manner and ego let him down, so he lost the gig.
Can’t feel sorry for Crozier, any more than I feel sorry for Deaton.
If Crozier was smarter he would have sussed out the Premiership chairmen, handled modernisation more sweetly, and become one of world football’s biggest powerbrokers over the next 20 years.
Young Adam had the world at his feet – and he blew it.
P.S.
Just watched Have I Got News with Paul Merton as chairman. Didn’t miss Angus Deaton at all. Didn’t miss him one bit.
How quickly we forget. It’s only TV. Remember that. It’s only TV.
It’s no big deal, even if the programme has been going for 12 years.
I promise never to mention it again. In fact, I shouldn’t have mentioned it once.
November 1st 2002.