From Nick Daniel: Giroud = Almunia
Hi Myles,
Been a while, hope you are well.
I have been looking back on the season and looking ahead to next season.
Looking back, it is obvious that the season was lost in the first ten games, too many no shows and World Cup hangovers, and a few injuries.
By Christmas the league was well and truly over for us, cue the release of pressure and the consistency/winning streak that followed.
We need to see this streak for what it is, too little to late.
Not to undermine the performances, as there have been some impressive ones, Liverpool and Man City, but what good is gathering the most points in 2015 if you are still only second or third?
I have had time to reflect on the impact of Giroud’s early season injury.
Firstly, we needed another striker (Welbeck is not ready for front role his goals return this season proves that) and second that striker should surely be a higher quality that Giroud and usurp him in the pecking order.
I fear Wenger is turning Giroud into a modern Manuel Almunia, a player who he plucked from less glamourous surroundings and subsequently invested time and faith into and handed an unchallenged first team space.
Spurred by the discoveries of Henry and Vieira and Pires and subsequent faith invested and quickly repaid in all these cases, he still sees himself as a kingmaker.
Looking ahead, Giroud, in my humble opinion, has a ceiling to his talents and that ceiling is that he can only affect a game against a team the likes of Everton and Spurs.Above that he does not have the talent, spark or ingenuity to affect a game.
This fact has been proven on too many occasions to be disputed. Yet Wenger’s faith in him persists and shows no sign of abating.
The Monaco debacle laid bare the limits of Giroud’s talents and lack of ability to cope when pressure is at it’s highest.
I see him as a very good forward who contributes to the squad and mostly brings a good attitude, but for a manager with ambitions of a Premier League title and a deep run in the Champions League he is not the man to lead the line.
A look at where he would be in the pecking order of each of our title rivals tells you he should not be our number 1 choice.Much as I hope it doesn’t occur, I can see Wenger persisting with project Giroud in the hope he can prove he is still able to spot and hone a talent that no one else could have. Almunia was the last time he tried so hard, and look how that turned out.
Myles says:
Wenger is a French patriot who still wants to be a star-maker.
He wants to be known to young footballers all round the world.
He want them to think: If I join the messiah, and touch the hem of his tracksuit, I will improve my game and become rich and famous and live happily ever after.
Wenger will never sign Pogba because he wants to find the next Pogba and develop him for the French national team.
Giroud will never be any better than he is now. I think he played for France before he joined Arsenal but that doesn’t make him a world-beater.
FRANCE DOESN’T PRODUCE No.9s
In the last 100 years France has produced two great centre forwards.
Just Fontaine scored 30 in 21 for France between 1953 and 1960.
I always thought Jean-Pierre Papin would have been a great scrum half.
But he played football for Marseilles and I remember talking to Chris Waddle about him.
Papin scored 30 in 54 for France
However, it’s really unfair to compare Giroud to Almunia, who was clueless.
We had to suffer the monumental impertinence of a manager who told us, “Almunia had no CV before he came to Arsenal.”
THAT CLOWN HAS NO CV NOW.
PS : this piece isn’t displaying as edited…??!!!grrrrr
