Juan Mata is an efficient 23-year old footballer with a 27-year old face.
He looks a bit craggy, as if he’s had a hard life.
He was fantastic in the recent Under-21 tournament.
He’s a killer in the front third, very surgical and accurate, a guy who slices through defences with deft precision.
Mata is fast, technical, modern and intelligent.
His style will allow him to fit in quickly to the way Arsenal want to play.
Mata can make goals and score goals. And Gervinho can score them and make them, I hope.
Both are stiletto players, neither will stick to one part of the pitch, both will thrive on passes from Wilshere & Ramsey.
Playing with Mata, Ramsey will score goals.
Being a man who has always put his balls on the rails, I’m willing to say that before those two have played together.
Phil Jagielka came down in January and agreed personal terms.
But David Moyes refused to sell in January.
Ricardo Teixeira won\’t talk to English media because he says we are corrupt.
This week Alex Abreu Gontijo sent a Brazilian magazine article to Rob Hughes, and Rob forwarded the link to me.
As you know, Alex sometimes writes for ANR.
A female reporter, Daniela Pinheiro, spent about a month with Teixeira in Zurich and elsewhere.
The boss of the Brazilian FA opened up to Daniela in a remarkable and revealing way.
One important fact about Teixeira : he married and divorced Havelange\’s daughter.
The translation by Flora Thomson-DeVeaux is nuanced and sophisticated. Thanks, Flora.
The article confirms everything Rob\’s told me over the last 16 years.
It seems to be one in a series entitled The Faces of Football and the piece is called The President.
Perhaps someone can tell us a bit about this particular magazine. Is it monthly or weekly? What does it cover? How long has it been going? What are its sales figures?
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