My latest info on Rosicky is that he’s had body problems for years.
Many players have body problems : one foot bigger than the other, one leg longer than the other, and so on. It seems that many years of running, and years of playing football, have damaged Rosicky’s body so much that he was told to take a year out. The doctors said : have the operations, take a year off, and that is what has happened. That’s my latest and most trusted information.
From another source, Gallas is going to Marseille, Sebastien Bassong is coming from Newcastle to replace him. Bassong, 22, is French and joined Newcastle from Metz last summer, signing till 2011. Both deals are done.
Personally, I welcome this two-week break, as I’m working long hours on a book, but I naturally wonder how it will impact on Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea. Some of their players will be injured on international duty. That is inevitable.
Gooners are already thinking about next season.
They think : I want to go into next season with a squad capable of challenging for everything. We’ve got to start the season with a really strong squad and a better striker than Adebayor. Somebody who is technically superior to Ade, somebody who can concentrate and stay onside, and keep his nerve in the big moments when a game is in the balance. Arsenal need players who are not flaky. An unbeaten run isn’t good enough. An unbeaten team is a nearly-team. Two draws in the Champions League can put you out as well as put you through – and both Villarreal games could be draws.
For me, football lives on hope, dreams, anticipation, expectancy. If you don’t have hope, it’s all pointless. Arsenal fans hope for more next season. They want to see a team that is clearly good enough to challenge for everything. And that means a team with more experience and more power. Three more kids will not allow Arsenal to challenge for everything. I don’t care how good they are, three more kids will not allow Arsenal to challenge everything in 2009-2010.You can’t grow a team because today’s footballers are ungrateful mercenaries who will always abandon ship. They want to win trophies now and don’t want to babysit kids. A year from now people will agree with me. They’ll say : Flamini and Hleb left and that meant that Arsenal could not win anything last season.
I’m still digesting the events of the last two weekends and thinking : a good winger wins you the title.
A good winger makes a massive difference. Alan Hinton at Derby, Tony Morley at Aston Villa, John Robertson at Forest, Marwood and Limpar at Arsenal, Pires and Ljungberg scoring dozens of goals.
The difference that a productive winger makes is phenomenal.
Did you see Reina boot that ball to Riera last week? It only bounced once and it was planned and it was a great goal.
What happened was this : Gareth Barry took a very bad left-footed free-kick on the right and it floated into the keeper’s hands and Reina ran to the edge of his penalty area and booted it 70 yards and Riera had started to sprint from inside his own half and left Barry for dead and the ball bounced once on the 25-yard line and Riera was three yards inside the penalty area and hit the ball before it bounce again. His half-volley flew high inside the near post and went in off the underside. I love goals like that just as much as I love the Cambiasso goal against Serbia in 2006, the 24-pass classic.
They say that Route 1 goal is a goal you should never concede and it’s bad defending. But there is bad defending every week in every game. As Lee Dixon said, that was the best game Riera has ever played for Liverpool.
One game is not a great player, one game is not a great winger. But if Liverpool win the title, Riera could have a key role. The media rave about Gerrard and Torres but three more performances like that from Riera could prevent Manchester United winning three titles in a row.
Having said that, Arshavin is much better. I’d rather have Arshavin in my team than Riera.