By Myles Palmer
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It’s big news that Arsene has bid £14 million for Robinho.
That fact tells agents and fans a lot.
It confirms that Arsenal are very ambitious. It tells us that they can compete for world class strikers.
It tells us, perhaps, that the manager realises he needs a Brazilian striker after five years of French strikers not getting him to a Champions League semi-final.
To be fair, Arsene probably realised that long ago, but could not afford to buy a Brazilian for £14 million.
Also, not every good Brazilian striker is Arsene’s cup of tea. He likes to get them young before they acquire bad habits.
He loves to mould them by liberating them.
ROBINHO plays for Brazil against Argentina in the Confederations Cups on Wednesday night.
Some background : earlier this month Brazil had two World Cup qualifiers.
They played well against Paraguay in Porto Allegre.
Ronaldinho was a chance-machine, churning out chance after chance with clever passes.
Robinho looked like a gold cobra and the whole attack was bright and fluid and dangerous and they beat Paraguay 4-1.
So Brazil were on a high when they flew down to Buenos Aires.
Maradona went to the airport and gave them a hug and said how much he has always admired Brazilian football.
Hernan Crespo said, “Brazil are champions of America and the world. We used to think their weak points were in goal and in defence. Now, they also have good goalkeepers and defenders. Brazil are the Dream Team. If you look at the names, you will realise they are the top candidates to win the World Cup. Everyone knows that.”
The whole vibe was : What a privilege for us to have the world champions here !
Then the game kicked off and Argentina came roaring out with studs and elbows flying at 150 mph.
Brazil were 2-0 down in 20 minutes and 3-0 down at half-time.
Improved later, but lost 3-1.
Limped home to Rio, realising that they had been conned.
This Confederations final will be closer, since Crespo is absent. Also : Lucio missed the BA game through suspension.
LUCIO is a one-man defence for Brazil at the moment, carrying the inept, clownish Roque Junior.
Four weeks ago Robinho of Santos was probably unknown to most British football fans.
He is now a global name and the subject of bids by Arsenal and Real Madrid.
The boy apparently prefers to join a Brazilian coach, Luxemburgo, at Real Madrid.
At the end of June, Robinho is mentally a better striker than he was in Porto Allegre on June 5th
He is essentially an ensemble player, rather than an Ian Wright-Samuel Eto’o type who just zips through for the pass and shoots
Robinho adds himself to pairs of teammates, so he increases the number of improvisations that can happen. He’ll stand square of Kaka and let him dummy the ball, or dummy and let it run to Kaka. He makes games more interesting to watch.
If you haven’t seen Robinho yet, check out Brazil v Argentina on Channel 5 at 7.45 pm Wednesday night.
ON A BIG NEWS DAY for Arsenal, I heard from my friends at NewsTalk 106FM in Dublin and said a few words on air about Vieira, Robinho and van Persie.
Obviously, I rubbished the Vieira-to-Juventus story.
“I can promise you Patrick Vieira will NEVER play for an Italian club. I will bet my house on that, plus my entire record collection AND my Manchester University Union card signed by Denis Law and Pat Crerand.”
“You’re just name-dropping now, Myles,” said presenter Owen McDevitt.
AFTER THAT Paul phoned for Caroline, who got back from uni on Saturday, and I chatted to him till she got off the mobile.
Paul’s doing music at Manchester, plays piano and guitar, listens to a very wide selection of old and new sounds.
He turns Caroline onto arty stuff like Antony & the Johnsons and I hear that CD in her room and say, “Bryan Ferry did all this 30 years ago.”
But after a while I realise that Antony is better than Bryan Ferry.
Paul and his pals bought wellington boots at Glastonbury and had a great Saturday/Sunday after a wet, cold Friday.
He saw Patti Smith at the Festival Hall, doing things inspired by Blake’s Songs Of Innocence.
“She’s such a good performer, stunning. Yoko Ono was there – and Sinead O’Connor and Marianne Faithfull.”
INTERESTING TO SEE that Rafa Benitez has apparently made Lyon’s Sydney Govou his strike target after not getting Peter Crouch of Southampton or Dirk Kuyt of Feyenoord.
Benitez wants Houllier to swap Govou for Baros.
Lyon chairman Jean-Michel Aulas is the best football exec in France and a master of sell-and-win.
If a player is grumbling, Aulas does not piss about.
He unloads him immediately !!!!
On this occasion the comment by Aulas was somewhat ambiguous, but we know what he means : “After what Sydney has done for the club, he has the right to go.”
HLEB should sign today after a medical.
I wrote my first Hleb story at midnight on June 6 / 7.
The stealthy professor has been tracking Hleb for two years and the deal has taken 21 days to complete.
My best Hleb piece was Goalmaker Alexander Hleb is like Beckham, Solano….. that can be accessed by clicking Home at the bottom of this page.
June 28th 2005.