By Myles Palmer
ARSENE says, “Players need to express themselves. It’s very easy for communication between a manager and a player, or between players for that matter, to be superficial. Players want to learn and if they feel deep down that you are only interested in them as a number in a team or to fit into a tactical system, they won’t be as happy and they may not play as well. And when they feel they have no more to learn from you, that you can’t develop them, that’s when a player is likely to leave.”
I’m reading this on the last page of Champions magazine.
Arsene is a teacher,that’s why I called my book The Professor.
Arsene says, “What I look for in a young player is game intelligence, speed, technique, but even if they have just attitude and technique, you can build on that.What makes you saddest of all is to see talent but no desire to achieve something.”
Champions is the new magazine from UEFA.
It’s a fat, glossy mag which is official, but not bland.
It has excellent features on Ancelotti, Argentinians, Gerhard Aigner, history, stats, a lot of good reading.
It has access to the biggest names in the game and it’s for serious students of the Champions League, for football fans who are gonna watch a lot of games.
Champions is a bi-monthly written by serious people about serious football people for serious soccer junkies like me.
Ancelotti talks about his AC Milan getting a big buzz from victories the first group stage.
“We won at Bayern Munich and 4-0 at Deportivo La Coruna.This gave us a lot of confidence.”
He insists, “The Italian playing style isn’t unattractive. It’s made up of tension, concentration, defence. If a team defends well, it can be attractive to watch.”
This issue is October-November and it has Ronaldo on the cover and it costs £3.95.
Anyway, on Sunday afternoon I was sitting at the bottom of the garden reading the Ronaldo interview.
Then Neela and Anna, her Mum, come round.
Neela and Alex went on the demo at the arms fair in Docklands last week while Caroline and Alice were in Prague.
Alex was whacked by police and my wife Jan is glad Caroline missed that confrontation.
Then Rowenna and Keara phone and they join us. Four 18-year old girls sit on a rug on the lawn making learning aids that they will use when teaching citizenship to young kids.
Anna tell us about her bizarre neighbour and recalls her bruised ribs at the Grunwick dispute, a famous strike at a photo lab near here.
It’s a warm late summer Sunday afternoon and its nice and then about six the phone rings and I go indoors and it’s my best friend Doug, calling from a train near Manchester.
He’s got Champions and he asks if I’ve read the Michael Ballack interview. He says it’s amazing because Ballack is so focussed.
He says Ballack turned down Real Madrid to join Bayern because he wanted to be at the top German club in the years before 2006.
I say, “An English player would not have the nous to think that far ahead. Only Platt, Shearer and Owen think like that.”
That night I read Ballack, who is asked why he still wears the No. 13 shirt.He said it was Rudi Voller’s old number at Leverkusen.
“He ended his playing career to become director of football when I arrived at the club.He asked me to wear his number and that’s why I do it for my club and for the national team.”
ARSENAL did not beat Portsmouth, so I got that one wrong.
But I picked a lot of winners: Milan, Barca, Real, Hanover to win in Berlin.
So I think I’m feeling the pulse of football at the moment and I’m expecting CL wins for Man United, Chelsea and Arsenal.
United can beat Panathinaikos without Keane, Becks and Veron.
Sparta Prague v Chelsea should be entertaining.
The firepower and finesse of Mutu, Duff and Crespo will be decisive. Or JFH, if he plays.
Duff has settled in far quicker than I expected,
I STILL THINK INTER will come for a 0-0 draw and I still think Arsenal will beat them 2-0.
It’s like Dortmund without Rosicki and Amoroso last year. Inter don’t have Vieri and Recoba.
But Martins, the ebullient Nigerian, is a chunky striker who has a lot of bottle.
I love players with bottle and this kid has loads.
Martins could give Lehmann some work and he might give Sol and Toure a hard time.
Why was Sol so shaky in Skopje? He looked as ponderous as a Sumo wrestler. We may never know.
Saturday he was booked for his first tackle and was on a knife-edge after that.
The whole team stunk and Pires cheated by diving to get a point.
Gooners have been telling me for the last three days that Owen and van Nistelrooy and Francis Lee all dived every week.
I know that. But I would rather lose 1-0 than cheat.
I have always hated cheating.I know it’s business now, not sport. But cheating makes me sick.
After the intenationals, Arsenal’s next three games were Portsmouth, Inter Milan and Man United.
The French four were brought home from Slovenia in Danny Fiszman’s private jet but they used Pompey as a training session before the Inter game.
The whole team was rubbish.Arsenal were not up for the game, but they drew 1-1 and are still top.
Now they need to beat Inter and United, to excuse that feeble performance.
Inter have two fantastic players in right back Zanetti and centreback Cannavaro.
JAVIER ZANETTI, a former midfielder, is one of my favourite players.
He is phenomenally strong, skilful and consistent.
A rock solid technician who works hard and always passes accurately.
If I was picking a team to play for my life Zanetti would be in it.
I’d have Thuram or Puyol at right back and Zanetti wide right.
CANNAVARO made his name as a super-agile reader at Parma,where he partnered Thuram.
He is the best at nicking in front of strikers to pinch the ball.
But what Cannavaro does best won’t be needed against Arsenal because there is no centre forward to beat for the ball.
Arsenal don’t put the ball up for grabs very much. They play down the left, and slide it down the side of you
Inter have other useful players, like new Dutch winger Andy van der Meyde, a strong boy with a good shot.
Emre is fiery, tricky Turk, long admired by Arsene.
WHAT DOES THE FORMAT CHANGE MEAN?
I think it means you have to win your group.
If you come second in your group, you could play Juventus or Real Madrid in the knock-out round of the last 16.
So Inter on Wednesday is a must-win game.
OK, logic says that groups are about arithmetic, an accumulation of points.
It doesn’t matter how you get the points, or where you get them,or when you get them. You can get them in the 4th, 5th and 6th games. That is the logic.
And Arsenal can now win away, as they did in Eindhoven and Rome.
Inter lack creativity from midfield. They drew 2-2 and 3-3 in some CL games last year, so their defence is not great.
And the guy who scored most of their CL goals was Crespo,who has been sold.Vieiri was injured in Belgrade last week.
All of that suggests Arsenal will win 2-0.
But Arsenal ARE vulnerable on crosses. We don’t know if Keown will start, we don’t know why Sol is making so many mistakes.
But I’m sure it will be alright on the night. I have complete faith in Jens Lehmann.
If Lehmann has to make three saves or six, he will make them.
16th Septmber 2003