Rodrigo Palacio for £15 million ?
A Boca Juniors striker, he’s 25 but looks a bit lightweight to me. He is behind Crespo, Messi and Tevez in the pecking order of the national team. The scout who brought Fabregas to Arsenal has been running the rule over Palacio, I gather.
But if Palacio is that good, why is he still playing in Argentina at the age of 25? I’ll believe Palacio when it happens, if it happens.
Meanwhile, Eduardo looks razor-sharp in training.
Did you see that Sky Sports News interview after Arsenal beat Barnet 2-0?
The grey-haired professor had such big black bags under his eyes.
He didn’t look well.
This wasn’t the relaxed Arsene Wenger we’ve seen in the last ten summers. He was articulate and jokey, as ever, but he looked tired and stressed, after a summer of doing David Dein’s job as well as his own.
Last season I said there was far too much weight on the shoulders of one man, who has been working seven days a week for eleven years, and whose agitation on the touchline got him into trouble with the FA three times in a few months, which he had never done before, And that was after a summer when David Dein did 80% of the negotiations, leaving the manager to concentrate on how he wanted his team to play.
However, it’s ridiculous to say Arsene was coy about his future. It’s very bad journalism to say he was coy about his future in that interview.
Some friends, who don’t know each other, went to Barnet. All said that Adebayor was useless, that van Persie was a bit rusty, that new Norwegian kid Havard Nordveit was terrific at centreback.
THE NEXT MONTH is all about training. Running work, gym work, practice games, pre-season games, it’s all training till Sunday August 12, when Arsenal play Fulham for three points.
I’m not worried about the Arsenal team, as I reckon they will beat Fulham 3-1 and finish comfortably in the top four. But I reserve the right to change that prediction just before the game.
Liverpool are spending big but Rafa is unproven as a Premiership manager and if he rotates they will lack the fluency of Arsenal, who last year played the last 11 games without a striker and almost finished third. A very late goal by Harry Kewell, 20 seconds from time in the last game, gave Liverpool a better goal difference.
As I say, it’s all training. Summer is about holidays, barbecues and training. And my philosophy has always been that, just as rehearsals are for groups, pre-season is for managers. I keep an eye on it but I don’t really get into it because I’m giving the players time to find their feet and pick up their rhythms and get into gear for the challenges ahead. The next 27 days will pass very quickly and they’ll be punctuated by six matches to warm the team up for Fulham on Sunday August 12.
Jose Mourinho has to win the European Cup to set up his next job. Let’s hope his behaviour is not as horrible as it was last season. He was spoiling the sport, lowering the tone of English life with his paranoid tantrums, and not just at Reading. Whatever Mourinho says now, next season will be his last at Chelsea.
NEWS of Thierry Henry’s divorce from Nicole made the Sunday papers, I’m told. I haven’t read any stories about that. I knew about it two weeks ago.
ROBERTO AYALA made two shocking mistakes in the Copa America final, backing off Baptista to allow him a dipping shot with his stronger foot for the first goal, and whacking in a world class own-goal for 2-0 from a cross by Dani Alves, who had come on as sub for Elano.Then Vagner Love played in Alves to make it 3-0.
Delighted for Gilberto, one of the nicest guys in football, baffled by the inexplicable form of three-goal Baptista.
In truth, there was only one team in it. Brazil had more power, more width, much better defenders, far superior finishing, with Robinho playing a role slightly similar to that of Bebeto, the human hummingbird who made the ’94 team tick. That team had Romario, who was 50 times better than Vagner Love but this side won the Copa America by making Argentina look feeble.
THE SEASON is intense and very long, so it’s nice that summer is a more relaxed time, although I’m getting fit for the season too. And I’m getting less disorganised.
Tackling a task only slightly smaller than raising the Titanic, I’ve tidied up my office by chucking out 5 kilos of obsolete paperwork and I’ve re-discovered some very interesting material. But I haven’t yet found my Sonny Sharrock CD, which is almost impossible to buy. Amazon couldn’t find Ask The Ages in six months and I eventually requested that they stopped trying. I picked it up second-hand in Boulder but then it got lost in my office.
Still, I’ve found the dust-jacket of a Does Anybody Have A Problem With That? a book made from sketches by Bill Maher on his Politically Incorrect TV show. Haven’t found the book, just the dust-jacket, which has a quote from Bill on the back :
“Conservatives know what they want and never forget it. Except for the time Reagan went to the Vietnam Memorial and shouted ‘Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall !’ “