By Ian Grant
PLAYERS
Arsenal trio Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry and Robert Pires are among the 50 nominees for the 2001 European Footballer of the Year award. The winner will be announced before Christmas.
Justin Hoyte, a product of Arsenal’s youth policy scored a sensational overhead kick that found the top corner settling the England u-19 match with Hungary An England won 3-1.
According to the Sunday Times, regulars at Arsenal think Arsene Wenger should be giving Jermaine Pennant chances in the Arsenal first team.
Bookmakers have stopped taking bets on what injury will keep Sol Campbell out of the Spurs match.
Besides the minute of contempt planned by Spurs fans, fans involved in the fanzine, ‘One Flew Over Seaman’s Head’ have ordered 4,000 balloons, with the word ‘Judas’ printed on them. Also watch out for paper money floating around.
Gio van Bronckhurst said:”I spoke to Sol about the game and he is looking forward to going there. The reception might even inspire him. Sometimes it can affect players when they get a bit of stick. Sometimes it can give you a little bit extra to perform.”
Gio told the Scottish press that if his new born son had been born three weeks earlier, he would have been eligible to play for Scotland.
Apparently, Freddie Ljungberg buys his clothes from a shop called Vertice in London’s South Moulton Street, owned by Giovanni Bolandrini, who has become a good friend.
Lauren said:”Patrick [Vieira] has asked me continually about Madrid, the club, the Spanish La Liga and Spanish football in general. He has also asked what it is like playing in Spain and about life in general in the country.”
WENGER
Arsene Wenger said:”Managing a national team is too easy. It is a job for a retired person, not a young man.”
TEAM
Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd received a total of £56.3m between them last season in the form of domestic television receipts.
At time of writing, Manchester United’s Premier League clash against Arsenal could be the first major live televised game to be hit by the strike action threatened by the Professional Footballers Association (PFA).
Or it could be the Arsenal-Aston Villa clash on 9 December.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Oleg Luzhny has been suspended for the next four Champions League matches following his red card in the 3-1 defeat by Schalke in Gelsenkirchen two weeks ago.
He will miss Arsenal’s second phase matches against Deportivo La Coruna on Wednesday, Juventus a week later and then two meetings with Bayer Leverkusen in March.
According to the Liverpool Echo, the Champions League winners will almost certainly be one of seven clubs – as it happens, richest: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Liverpool, Man Utd, Porto and Real Madrid.
Since the inception of the Champions League, every single winner of the competition has come from the secretive group of elite European clubs known as the G14.
There have been 31 European Cup/ Champions League finals since 1971 and 25 of them have been won by a G14 member club.
Only once in the past five years has more than one G14 member club been knocked out of the last 16.
INTERNATIONALS
David Trezeuguet thinks Roger Lemerre will use only one striker for matches in the World Cup. “The problem for me is that since Thierry Henry has gone to Arsenal he plays a different game compared with when we were at Monaco. Then I was the main striker and he played in a withdrawn, wide position.
Arsenal have changed Thierry into a central striker – which is my preferred position.”
Robert Pires thinks Harry Kewell is better than David Beckham. “Kewell is something special. For me, in a game, he’s much better than Beckham. Kewell can do everything. On the pitch, he’s a more overall and consistent performer. He is young, he’s quick, he dribbles and he scores goals. He is technically brilliant.”
Australia defender Kevin Muscat said Pires spat in his face during their international match that ended in a 1-1 draw on Sunday.
Australian manager Frank Farina said:”He (Pires) is a very good player but maybe he should look in the mirror himself. He should understand he has a responsibility as a champion of the world. It’s not a good message to be sending out.”
Junichi Inamoto starred in the 1-1 draw with Italy. He laid on the Japanese goal.
TRANSFERS/RUMOURS
According to one paper, Arsenal are looking to continue the rebuilding of their defence by signing Ivory Coast international Kolo Habib, 20, who plays for his country’s champions ASEC Abidjan.
According to the Mirror, Arsene Wenger, is keeping close tabs on Stefan Effenberg , after he was linked with Spurs and Fulham.
Arsenal have been checking out Derby’s versatile defender and midfielder Paul Boertien, says another paper.
Another organ reckons Arsenal are trying to sign Australia’s Brett Emerton – but they have been hit by Feyenoord’s £15m valuation. But Feyenoord will have to lower their asking price for a deal to go through. Some foreign papers say Leeds are hot favourites to land him, because of Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka, fellow Australians.
In the past, Emerton said he wanted to play for Man U.
MISCELLANEOUS
Osama bin Laden, is an Arsenal fan, according to some week-end papers. During the mid-1990s he spent some time in Britain, according to a book about to be published. During his stay he watched the Gunners and was impressed with the atmosphere, buying a replica shirt for one of his sons.
One Arsenal fan in my office was singing this week: Os..a..ma, Os..a..ma…. he supports the Ar..sen..al, and lives quite near Ka..bul, Os..a..m..a…
“The English premier League will not give in to the demands of players over television money, ” Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein said on Saturday.
Prince Charles said:”My son Harry supports Arsenal and William supports Aston Villa. I really don’t know why,” when asked by Derby goalkeeper Mart Poom which team he supports.
The Official Arsenal website came 11th in a recognition survey by Taylor Nelson Sofres. AOL came top.