By Myles Palmer
THE ARSENAL players will train this morning and then go to their hotel, where the lads can have an afternoon nap, or relax in the luxury health club.
As a place to kill a few hours before a big game, the club is a perfect chill-out zone.
The entrance is spacious, the young receptionists are friendly and glad to see you, glad to see anybody, because the exclusive club is not too busy in the afternoons.
It costs £1,500 to join and £200 a month.
The changing room has a heated floor and nice wooden lockers.
A plastic card, buzzed over a red electronic eye, clicks yourlocker shut. It will only re-open with that card, although each card can be used on any locker.
When I walked in and looked around I said,”Oscar Wilde was right: give me the luxuries of life and I can do without the necessities!”
The gym is small but classy. The bikes face big TV sets with BBC, CNN, MTV and Sky News. A huge window has a river view of small yellow speedboats, a few passenger ferries. The staff are young, well-groomed and on the ball.
You go upstairs to the pool, where the sense of spaciousness is enhanced by a design that combines the most amount of light with the maximum of privacy.
The pool is not the longest but it’s wide and feels big because of the glass walls and bright natural light. On the left, outside the wall,is an interior courtyard with a lawn where you can sit in summer.
The other side overlooks the river, so the space is airy, light,very quiet. No kids, no idiots , just a few twentysomethingsgoing through their routines.
The customers here are wealthy and careful and want to live long enough to enjoy their money.
The steam in the steam room is very dense, you can hardly see.Unlike my gym, the steam room is unisex.To cool down you can splash yourself with a rubber hose .
There are several hydrotherapy pools.
One has powerful jets of bubbles behind you, playing against your lower back as you sit on an underwater bench. Another has three big downpouring jets of different intensity, which can massage your neck and shoulders.
The pools are closed and drained at at 10.30 every night and scrubbed by the cleaners. Bacteria would struggle to survive here. Maybe that’s why Arsene likes the place.
Overall, it’s a wonderful chill-out venue. After three hours I had floated away from reality, lost track of the day, month, year,forgotten my name and address.
So that’s where the lads will be this afternoon. I imagine Martin and Gilberto asleep in their rooms, Dennis watching TV, Thierry and Ashley fooling around under the water jets….
My Arsenal match previews are often subjective assessments based on fleeting impressions rather than facts. Intuitive guesswork rather than analysis.
So for a change I decided to study Ajax’s first round group.They were up against Inter Milan, Rosenborg and Lyon.
Inter and Ajax qualified.
Ajax create low-scoring games.
In the 6 games involving Ajax there were only 11 goals.
In the 6 other matches there were 23 goals.
Lyons and Inter drew 3-3!
Lyon beat Rosenborg 5-0.
So my take on Ajax is this : if they did not play any 3-3s or 5-0sin the first group they are not going to be involved in any goalfests in a Valencia-Arsenal- Roma group.
Because the second mini-league is tougher and tighter.
Basically, Ajax are a promising bunch of kids and Arsenal are an experienced team of men.
Three years ago I picked Chivu in my Euro 2002 team of the tournament. Two other Romanians, Mutu and Galca, were also included.
So I’m very interested to see Chivu now.
Ditto Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the 21-year old Swede I rate highly.
This kid is a helluva player. He’s a more exciting centre forward than Trezeguet.He can make his own goals by dribbling in the box.
He lacks consistency, lacks experience. But he is explosive. A flair player with tons of skill and bottle. He can beat people, he can shoot, he can head the ball.
I’ve only just realised why I like Zlatan so much. He reminds mea bit,stylistically, of Shevchenko.
It will be fascinating to see what he can do against a team as strong as Arsenal.
Verdict? Men will beat boys.
But,without Freddie, it could be tight because Ajax are always clever tactically.
Ronald Koeman was a great player who won the European Cup with PSV and with Barcelona.
I remember watching Koeman and Stoichkov practicing free-kicks at Wembley on a sunny evening at Wembley, the night before they played Sampdoria.
They were fooling around, miskicking them high over the track and into the stand.On the Wednesday night Koeman scored the winner with a free-kick and we had a ,lovely chjat with Cruyff.
Beating Arsenal at Highbury would be a big scalp, a good line on his CV. He is a good guy, intelligent, frank in that Dutch manner. Still owns a house in Barcelona, could be there soon.
Man United against Juventus?
A key moment for both clubs. United have just lost. And Juventus have just gone top of Serie A .And Juve want revenge for 1999.
And Lippi knows that a win could break United’s season.
Juventus are very forceful, powerful and aggressive. And Di Vaio is everything that Michael Owen is supposed to be.
Monday’s news from Old Trafford?
Sir Alex knows he blew it against Arsenal.He was outsmarted.
Arsene put himself in a win-win situation. He started without Dennis, Thierry, Gilbert (and Freddie).
If he won, great.
If he lost, he could say Ajax was far more important.
But Sir Alex picked his strongest team and said whoever lost
would be damaged psychologically !
Then Arsenal win 2-0.
In the dressing room Fergie kicks a boot which hits Beckham’s face and cuts his eyebrow.
Was it spontaneous fury? Or was Fergie losing his temper for effect? As he does.
Realistically, Man United need to rebuild. If Juventus spank
them on Wednesaday night, it could be the end of a team.
Maybe United need two seasons without a trophy.One season
is only a blip, two seasons will force Kenyon to look at it
seriously.
It’s hard when you have been in the same job for 17 years. It’s even harder when your two core values are winning and
loyalty.
Fergie’s midfielders have all run into a brick wall together.
For a long time Giggs was the best dribbler,Scholes was the best midfield goalscorer, Keane was the best tackler and captain,Beckham was the best crosser and free-kick taker.
The four together were awesome. Collectively, they were like
five players, not four.
But now Keane can’t run and Giggs is seriously off form.Fergie wants to be loyal but he also wants to win.
Next United manager?
If Sven is a success with England, he will stay with England. If Sven fails with England, he will not get the Man United job.
Is Martin O’Neill is on a rolling contract at Celtic so that he can roll into Old Trafford when the time is right?
PS
We should always remember that pundits are not that important.
Theodore Roosevelt said that 100 years ago.
In this age of media, we sometimes forget that pundits like yours truly are ten a penny.
Way back in 1894, the wise Roosevelt said,“Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger.”
I’m sure Lippi, Fergie and Arsene would agree with that.
February 18th 2003.