By Myles Palmer
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SOL CAMPBELL “had words” with Arsene when told on the Friday that he would not be playing in Cardiff.
He was rusty and Senderos is the future.
Big Sol is injury-prone.
He played for England in Chicago last night and twisted his ankle in the second minute and played on till half-time.
Zat Knight replaced him for the second half. England won 2-1.
I WILL NOT speculate on who Arsene will sign or should sign.
Hundreds of websites do that already.
Arsene knows what he is doing.
He needs a 25-year old international striker, and I hope he signs one, but he’s said it will be in the £5 million range.
For me, Arsenal need the finished article, not a prospect.
But we know that Arsene Wenger is a star-maker, not a star-collector.
I don’t envisage a summer of spectacular deals.
That has gone. A new climate prevails.
Managers will re-shuffle their packs : lots of £5 million players will move around.
I LIKE EXPLANATIONS, not mysteries, so I’m grateful to Rob Hughes for the inside story from Istanbul.
Rob has confirmed what I guessed soon after writing my last piece here.
Why did Benitez drop Didi Hamann?
At Valencia he was always solid, with Baraja and Albelda, two workmanlike holding players.
His Valencia was a shape team.
At this level you are often playing against gifted attacking midfielders who can kill you in 2 seconds.
In Istanbul he would be facing Kaka, the most skilful attacking midfielder in world football, a young guy can slice you to ribbons with gliding acceleration and surgical assists.
BUT HE DROPS HAMANN?
The resilent anchorman whose game is stopping playmakers like Kaka ?
WHY ?
Because his captain Steven Gerrard insisted on playing in central midfield, not as an attacker.
Rob got Rafa in a corridor and looked into his eyes and asked him if Gerrard had been moaning and groaning all week about not wanting to play off Baros.
Rafa didn’t reply. But he didn’t deny it.
So while Arsene stood up to Sol, and made the right decision, Rafa succumbed to emotional blackmail by his captain.
Rafa will never do that again!
Different circumstances. Rafa has only been there 10 months, while Arsene has been there nine years.
Stevie G wanted to leave and win trophies.
So by insisting on playing in central midfield, Gerrard put his team 3-0 down – and he knew it.
So he had to go and turn the game round, which he did by breaking forward at pace, as the South Korean did in the semi.
The irrepressibly energetic Park Ji-Sung scared Milan and scored the first goal in that 3-1 drama in Eindhoven, when a late strike put ACM through on away goals.
Ambrosini headed in a Kaka cross.
Second half, what Gerrard did was similar to Park.
He turned the game upside down by heading the first goal to make it 3-1 and winning a penalty for 3-3
Gerrard was pushing onto Pirlo. Liverpool’s strongest player was pushing onto Milan’s weakest player.
Pirlo disappeared. Pirlo disappears a lot, folks, as you may have noticed.
Cafu, Stam and Maldini are too old now.
Big respect was shown by Maldini, a very classy man, to Gerrard.
Maldini might become manager, might sign Stevie G.
Milan can offer Stevie a new experience.
Chelsea can’t do that.
I really, really like Stevie G as a bloke.
He played in three positions on the night in Istanbul and I’d play him roaming from wide left for England – or instead of Beckham.
But, having said that, he is the most over-rated player in England.
He has to improve his game.
Maybe Benitez can improve him as much as Ranieri improved Lampard, as much as Mourinho improved Joe Cole.
RECENTLY, I received a book from Hamburg.
It’s a beautifully-produced softback with an orange & black cover : Don’t Believe The Hype, by Sky Nonhoff.
Sky asked France Football’s London correspondent Philippe Auclair to write a review for a compendium of short essays demolishing the 100 most over-rated rock albums of all time.
So Philippe suggested that Sky ask me to write a mini-chapter too.
I’m so naive : did not realise the book would be printed in German.
I would have loved to read the reviews by Philippe, Nick Tosches, Toby Litt and others.
Philippe (aka Louis Philippe) did Parachutes by Coldplay.
I did Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits.
May 29th 2005.