Nineties Arsenal cult hero John Jensen is back at Arsenal – as Scandinavian scout.
His legendary non-goalscoring exploits spawned the T-shirt “I saw John Jensen score”. The radio commentary in the QPR match in 1994 was also very entertaining.
One of life’s ironies is that the midfielder, known for not scoring goals will be remembered for two famous goals – the other being a right foot screamer in the 1992 European championships final – which defeated Germany.
The 54-year old told Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet: “Initially, I need to find talents for the club’s academy, but in the long term I hope to contribute with scouting players to the Premier League squad. After more than 20 years as a coach, I feel that I have my finger on the pulse of the football industry.
“Since I stopped in Fremad Amager, I have worked a little for an agent company in the USA, where I have scouted players in Europe and especially Scandinavia. It has been extremely exciting. Now I continue in the same track with a focus on the young talents. There is a new trend where the clubs pick up the young talents very early today. They do it so they can shape themselves.”
With Freddie Ljungberg in the first team coaching set-up it adds both a very strong Nordic and European flavour.
Robin van Persie adds to the Arsenal contingent in the media joining BT Sport for next season. Can only be a good thing – as they can exert some pressure on the Arsenal hierarchy.
Some mixed reporting on the prize money for winning next season’s Europa League. The Mirror says £15m – pointing out the Champions League winners are set for more than £80m. But that is without the coefficient shares.
Other outlets put it more at £35m and include the 30% of the prize fund – £525m – dished out according to each club’s record in Europe over the last 10 years. United are sixth, Arsenal ninth, Liverpool 12th, City 14th and Spurs 21st.
In transfer tittle tattle – a negative news day for anyone taking it seriously. But all these little bits of negative news do add up somewhere down the line.
Bournemouth will let Fraser go for free next season if they keep him for this one; Palace reject Arsenal’s three player proposed swap; Leicester ahead of Arsenal on Praet etc;
Arsenal chasing the signature of Southampton defender Cedric Soares on £65,000/week has a chime of reality about it.
Thoughtful article in the Independent by Will Magee suggesting that many of Wenger’s values – responsibility, sustainability, a sense of duty to the club – seem to have disappeared with him – using the Koscielny situation, as an example.
He adds: “the Koscielny situation serves as a concise metaphor for a club in turmoil, it also sends a wretched message to Koscielny’s team-mates. Reliability, self-sacrifice, a sense of duty: these are yesterday’s values, not only among young players, also among the old.”
He posits that Arsenal fans may forgive a player who has fought back from a bad Achilles injury.
Koscielny has fallen between two stools: victim of Arsenal not qualifying for the Champions League and finance for an improved contract and not being allowed to move to France for free, because Arsenal can’t afford it or a replacement given glaring gaps in other positions.
Which is symbolic of the situation the Kroenke-Wenger regime left the club in.