What do you think of the latest Arsenal news?
What news?
There’s been no news since Flamini and Edelman left. If Flamini is replaced, that is news. If Edelman is replaced, that is news too. If Arsene signs a six foot four German centreback, that will be news. The demands of Sky Sports News and the internet mean that “stories” are churned out 24/7 but, when you look at them, none of it is news. Arsene signed Sagna for £7 million, that was news. Out of the blue, with no trailers, no newspaper stories, no agent quotes, he signed Eduardo. That was news.
Adebayor says: Barcelona, come and get me. He reckons he would be very happy to play for Barcelona.
So would I. We have that in common. Ade is a big African athlete and Myles is an old beatnik and neither of us is good enough to play for Barcelona.
Wenger says : lay off Eboue !
I usually just ignore headlines like that. I don’t click on them. Arsene says it’s about balance and adds, “Ray Parlour did not score many goals on the right side of midfield.” Yes, it is about balance and Marc Overmars scored 25 goals in 99 games to balance Parlour. But I would not have asked Overmars to play with Eboue, who is not a right back or a midfielder. He is a temperamental twerp who does not give you goals or assists . His “tackles” on John Terry and Evra were worse than Matt Taylor’s clumsy lunge on the luckless Eduardo.
It’s ridiculous and insulting to mention Eboue in the same breath as Ray Parlour, whose attitude, game for game in 339 games, was the best I’ve ever seen. Romford Ray knew where Dennis Bergkamp wanted him to run. He gave me the most exciting moment I ever had at Highbury when he smacked in that 35-yard thunderbolt against Valencia. That was a very big goal in a very big game and it rocked Highbury to its foundations as 35,000 jumped to their feet and went wild.
George always said, when Parlour was playing for the reserves, that he was the player in that reserve team who would make it. Ray played his first game at Anfield and made a silly tackle in the box on Rosenthal to concede a penalty and Arsenal lost 2-0. Ray was only 18 and he learned and never did that again.
I like Ray and once wrote this paragraph with him : Ray was 20 on March 7th, and grew up going to see West Ham with his Dad. Surprisingly, he can recall the 1980 FA Cup final, when the Hammers, then in Division 2, upset the mighty Arsenal. “I was only seven but I can remember it well – Brooking’s little ‘eader. I was a big Trevor Brooking fan.”
Wenger promises to surprise us with his signings?
Arsene is the greatest spindoctor football has ever seen. But it took me seven years to figure that out. I take note of what he does, not what he says. What he does with his players tells me his true opinion. What he does NOT do tells me his true opinion as well.
But sometimes it’s hard to read between the lines. When he didn’t announce the captaincy till the end of the 2007 summer transfer window, I realised Gilberto would be marginalised.
Vieira says Arsenal should keep Gallas as captain?
I agree with Patrick. If Kolo Toure was the right man for the job he would have been given it in July 2007. Cesc carries a big responsibility already. I wouldn’t give it to him yet. It was OK for 18-year old Ray Wilkins to captain Chelsea but this is not 1975.
Peter Hill-Wood now says Stan Kroenke is a good guy?
I was very surprised by two words in his statement.
Hill-Wood said, “Contrary to what I said before, I now believe he may have a vital contribution to make to the future of this football club. I am not denying I said what I said, but I made those observations before meeting Stan. I have now got to know him and I have changed my opinions.
“When I hadn’t met him, yes, I didn’t think he was the right person to take control of Arsenal Football Club. Now I know him as a man who is very much steeped in sport. He is a sports man. He already has a link through our broadband rights and there is every reason to expect that we shall discuss further how his involvement can be extended.”
Before I met Stan Kroenke, I didn’t think he was the right person to take control of Arsenal Football Club.
Crikey ! Take control? Take control? What can Peter mean by that?
Will you watch the FA Cup Final featuring the Arsenal old boys?
Yes, but I’ve not read one article about it. Tony Adams, Sol, Lauren, Kanu, Diarra and company should beat Cardiff. Is Kranjcar, an elegant, technical playmaker, in a comfort zone there? Is Cardiff midfielder Aaron Ramsey really a kid Arsenal are considering? Ramsey is 17 and rated at £5m.There are a few angles to the game. Let’s hope it’s a good final and not a walkover. May the best team win.
What have you heard today?
Nothing too juicy. Gael Clichy and his mate were at Stanstead on Monday afternoon catching a Ryan Air flight to Carcassonne, a town between Toulouse and Montpellier. I’m told the Mail reports that Hleb’s wife has cancelled membership of her gym in Swiss Cottage.
Why have you done a Q & A ?
We’ll, everybody does them these days. Arsene did one, Ken Friar did another
What did you think of Ken Friar’s Q & A?
Typical Ken, gave nothing away. He is a very cautious character who has always feared relegation and debt. He talks as if his job now to is to help Arsene avoid relegation from the top four.
About 90% of Arsenal fans don’t realise that the history of the club is a history of two Secretaries, Bob Wall and Ken Friar.
Arsenal was not run like other football clubs. The directors did their thing in the city during the week and Bob Wall ran the club and they came in on Saturdays for drinks with visiting directors. It was more of a social thing for them. Bob Wall found Ken Friar kicking a ball in the street outside Highbury and brought him in as a part-time runner circa 1948. Ken worked his way up to become wages clerk and stuffed £20 notes in envelopes and gave the envelopes to George Graham, Bob Wilson, Frank McLintock, Peter Storey and Charlie George.
Then Ken became Assistant Secretary and then Secretary and then MD.
English football has had two great administrators since 1945 : Peter Robinson at Liverpool and Ken Friar. But Liverpool were far more ambitious than Arsenal and paid the wages great players demanded and built great teams and won loads of titles and European Cups.
Ken is a phenomenal politician who, over the years, has tried to dampen down the dissent of a few smart, knowledgeable fans who believe that he allowed Arsenal to stagnate for far too long. The club won nothing for 16 years while Spurs won almost everything. That was a heartbreaking period for Gooners who had watched Joe Baker, an electric striker who never played in an Arsenal side that was good enough to win a trophy. Joe Baker was a lot better than John Radford or Ian Wright. He was also better than Batistuta or Ian Rush. But Joe Baker never won anything with Arsenal. How sad is that?
Arsenal won the double in 1971 but Bertie Mee broke up that team far too soon. That was a very serious strategic error because Arsenal would not be champions again till 1989.
When yuppie trader David Dein arrived in 1983, Arsenal was, incredibly, still a gentleman’s club run by Ken, the working class hero. You would never find two more different animals than David Dein and Ken Friar, one a schmoozer, the other a safe pair of hands who was always polite, always talked, always said nothing, always protected the club. There was an executive vacuum and Dein galvanised Arsenal, modernised it, devoted his life to the club, got up every day with one message branded in his brain: GET A WINNING TEAM !
Early on Dein socialised with players, took Rix, Sansom and Nicholas to see Frank Sinatra at the Albert Hall, did many immature things like that. He was friends with Spurs chairman Irving Scholar, who would later make some serious mistakes. One day Dein was talking to Peter Hill-Wood about Scholar’s planned innovations at Tottenham and said “Irving’s a pioneer.” Hill-Wood said, “We don’t want to be pioneers ! Pioneers get bloody shot !”
Obviously, bankers are conservative and preserve their reputations very carefully. If a banker’s reputation wobbles, people take their money out and he has no bank and no job.
In 1986 they interviewed Bobby Robson, Graham Taylor and George Graham, hired George, he won six trophies, Dein became one of movers and shakers of European football. Dein wanted to bring Arsene in 1995 and the board said no. In 1996 they sacked Bruce Rioch and hired Arsene. Ken stayed on past retirement age to help Danny and Keith to build Ashburton Grove, a colossal task whose scale is little appreciated, even now.
The rest you know.