By Myles Palmer
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THE SUNDAY TABLOIDS suggest Arsenal have outbid Real Madrid for £14 million Robinho.
And that Chelsea will pay Man City £18 million for Shaun Wright-Phillips.
What’s my instant Sunday morning reaction to those stories?
Well, if Real Madrid want Robinho that indicates that Michael Owen is not skilful enough to play for them, which is what I always believed anyway.
I hoped Arsenal would NOT buy Owen, a deal often touted by the papers and one which would be welcomed by several of my expert friends.
I don’t think Owen could comfortably participate in Arsenals high-speed passing moves.
He does not have the skill to play at that pace.
The moves would keep breaking down on him.
If Owen had that skill he would have started more games for Real Madrid.
CAN ARSENAL afford a £14 million striker?
Yes, definitely.
Is Robinho ready for the Premiership?
That’s the $64,000 question. Is any 21 year old foreigner ready for the Premiership?
I LIKE ROBINHO because he plays in 60% of the pitch.
He pops up wide, deep, in the centre circle, in the box, at the far post.
Robinho is Mr Perpetual Motion.
I would love to see his Pro-Zone stats because he is everywhere.
Small, but hard to kick because he is exceptionally nimble and quick.
He would thrive playing in front of Fabregas,Vieira and Pires.
He would particularly LOVE playing with Pires. I think I’ve written that here before.
Yes, Robinho’s shooting has been immature in the Confederations Cup.
But he is super-skilful and super-energetic and he has a good character.
And he is improving with every game in Germany.
Robinho would enjoy the way Arsenal play. Owen would not.
SHAUN WRIGHT-PHILLIPS ?
Shaun is not the finished article.
I admire his balance, his pace, his trickery, his bravery, his audacity, his wonder-goals.
We all do.
SWP is the second most exciting English player, after Rooney.
Lampard is the best English player, but he’s not exciting.
Shaun missed six weeks last season with a cartilage problem.
They washed out his knee and he came back and in the next four games he was way below average.
SWP, the human meteorite, was not anywhere near as potent as he had been before.
So when the season ended Shaun’s value had dipped.
He was not playing as well as he had been and he was not 100% match fit and he did not feature on the England tour of the USA.
So his value went down.
SWP’s price would be £25 million if he had not missed those six weeks.
Since I’ve always believed Shaun had his heart set on playing for Arsenal, I would hate to see him join Chelsea.
But if he does, good luck to him.
SVEN was too dull and conservative to take Shaun to Portugal in 2004, where he would have challenged his darling Beckham and been invaluable when Rooney was injured by Andrade.
If you are an England fan, you will believe that Jose Mourinho can improve Shaun as much as he improved Joe Cole and that might give England an edge in the World Cup quarters and semis.
June 26th 2005.