By Myles Palmer
I’d heard that the contract negotiations for Pires and Vieira had been put on hold till the stadium finance was sorted.
And we know that Vieira wants to be an Arsenal legend.
And we can understand that he wants to be a well-rewarded legend.
So when Peter Hill-Wood says PV and Pires must rein in their wage demands to something more realistic, I start to wonder.
I don’t think they will go.
But if Vieira left in 2003 or 2004, Wenger might go at the end of his contract in 2005.
Arsene wants to win the European Cup with Arsenal. But can he imagine winning it without Patrick?
It’s the same argument as before: why should we stay if we dont know if Arsene will be here?
Also, I’d heard that they were only talking about one-year extensions anyway.
AFTERTHOUGHTS on the 3-1 spanking of Chelsea.
JEFFERS made the first goal with his run inside, turning Gallas, who had the most tentative game I’ve seen from him.
He is spiky competitor who needles opponents, as Ian Wright did, as Solskjaer and Scholes do.
The decision to keep Edu, Parlour and Wiltord fresh for Chelsea proved to be a good one.
Edu is a completely different player to Gilberto.
He holds the bal for longer, and often slows the game down, while Gilberto plays it first time and speeds the game up.
So in certain situations Edu is a better player than Gilberto.
As in the Man United Cup tie, a 2-0 win at Old Trafford, the game was won before Henry came off the bench.
I’m told 80% of the Chelsea fans on the CFC chat page freaked out when they saw Ranieri’s team selection.
The fans immediately knew their team wa sin trouble.
The general reaction was : THREE AT THE BACK,AGAINST ARSENAL ?
Many of them want Mark Hughes as manager now.
England v Turkey in Sunderland on Wednesday night?
OK, Turkey have never scored a goal against England.
But they have improved a helluva lot since we last played them in 1993.
The Turks were technically and tactically superior to England in the World Cup on neutral grounds last summer.
Maybe they still have an inferiority complex.
Maybe they will stutter because they have not played for seven months.
But I might stick to my previous prediction.
Which was that Sven’s England will not beat Turkey home or away.
This morning I went to the gym to get away from the war.
The lifeguard told me that one of our former lifeguards is now driving a tank.
He joined the army at 17 and had worked at the club before going to uni.
He is 24 and a reservist, so they pulled him out of uni and sent him to Kuwait
The swimming instructor has just had a letter from him.
He says he has sand burns all over his body and hasn’t had his clothes off for 18 days.
He’s been into Basra a couple of times and been shot at.
Then I walked home and found that Eleanor McEvoy had arrived.
The CD, not the girl I did a phoner with 10 years ago.
We saw her unexpectedly a couple of Sundays back at the Irish Festival on the South Bank.
It’s a fabulous album, Yola, and it might get me through this war.
I know the TV won’t get me through this war.
Football won’t get me through this war.
Even my lovely wife and daughter won’t get me through this war.
But music will get me through this war.
Because music can lift the spirit like nothing else.
28th March 2003.