From Martin: Iwobi
Morning Myles,
In the team on merit.
First impressions are that he has an intelligence and moves well into spaces and also with the ball. He has a fluidity that belies his size which is tall and muscular but lithe, not heavy.
Wenger has benched his recent under-performers in Giroud and, particularly, Walcott who needs to just shut up talking a good game and do some talking on the pitch with some performances.
His biggest failing is he saw himself as a striker and has wasted the last few years clamouring for that position where he should have been honing the role of a wide player who can come in off the flanks.
If Walcott has accepted his best position was never a striker, particularly in a team that usually have 70% possession and where his pace is nullified completely and where his lack of box awareness and physicality are exposed, and dedicated himself to being the best wide man he could be, then maybe he would have a career to look back on with some pride?
He fortunately is only 26, so he has his prime years to make up some ground but he needs a long hard rethink in the summer about accepting he will never be a striker and dedicating himself playing out wide.
Blame Walcott, and whoever advises him, for this, and Wenger too for entertaining the idea. Pretty much 0% of us who watch Arsenal, who know football, have stated many times he is not and never will be a striker.
Back to Iwobi, and yes it’s the next 400 games that make a player and not the first few. Alan Shearer burst on scene against ourselves and scored a few more in next few games, but then never scored in next 12 and was dropped.
Dedication to be the best, and a true love for the game, and winning, separate the good from the elite. You only have to look at the front three of Barcelona to confirm that. We have a couple of good results and everyone relaxes and feels like they have made it, you see it in performances.
You watch the front three at Barcelona and it’s like watching them on their debuts. That’s what Iwobi and Rashford should aspire to. You have never made it till your career is over and the record books say you did.
Myles says:
Slaven Bilic could make Iwobi a top player in six months or less.
Slav is a decisive, pragmatic manager would have sold Walcott six years ago
Wenger is a businessman in a tracksuit who does what he likes, and says what he likes, and insists that criticism of him is a farce.
On transfers he often dithers, then decides, then changes his mind.
Walcott has risen without trace.
He’s a nearly-man who would not have lasted 18 months at West Ham or Chelsea or Liverpool.
Insiders at Arsenal told me in 1986-7 that Theo Foley begged George Graham to sign the teenage Alan Shearer the lad scored a hat-trick against Arsenal.
When Robbie Fowler first joined up with England, and the forwards had shooting practice together, Fowler clocked the very high % of shots Shearer hit on target and thought, “Fucking hell! I’ve got to improve my shooting!”