By Myles Palmer
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It’s being said that Cygan may come in for the Birmingham game, with Toure switching to right back.
I can’t see that.
Toure is spinal and you don’t fool around with your spine.
You can muck around with the arms and legs of your team, but not your keeper, your centrebacks, your anchorman, or your centre forward, if you have one.
KOLO TOURE has been immense this season and is hugely popular. And he prefers playing at centreback. He has always seen himself as a centreback.
And Arsene is very happy with what he is doing at centreback.
I would be absolutely gobsmacked if he was switched into Lauren’s position temporarily.
Arsene likes continuity. That is why he has not recalled Volz from Fulham.
If he recalls him to play the four games Lauren will miss, he can’t send Volz back to Fulham. You can’t lend a player twice in the same season to the same club.
Arsene thinks that Volz is a great prospect who is learning a lot at Fulham.
He is a regular and one of their best players.
And if Volz can play a season at Fulham he might then be ready to play for Arsenal.
So I don’t think Arsene will switch Toure and I never expected him to recall Volz.
Justin Hoyte has been pulled from the England Under-20 team, which suggests Arsene will use him at right back.
The midfield might be Edu and Bergkamp, with Kanu pushed up against Upson.
CLASS TOLD IN THE EURO 2004 PLAY-OFFS.
Mark Hughes is an excellent but inexperienced manager who didn’t realise he should have switched it and played Earnshaw from the start.
Wales needed two men chasing the Russian defenders.
Hartson is static and was easily dominated by Onopko, who helped Russia play out from the back against tired opponents who had shot their bolt in Moscow last Saturday.
HOLLAND picked younger players who gave them a newfound fire and drive in midfield.
So they thrashed Scotland 6-0.
Midfield was like a whirlwind. This was what discerning Dutch journalists had wanted Advocaat to do months ago.
Without Kluivert, they improved by 300%.
Kluivert’s boasting, his complacency, his laziness, make me sick.I would not want him within 1000 miles of my football club.
Holland don’t need him. His attitude is appalling.
He should be consigned to the dustbin.
He the most extreme case of too much too soon in modern football.
When it comes to being a complete wally, only Stan Collymore is in Kluivert’s class.
SPAIN thumped Norway 3-0 and they will add a lot to Portugal 2004.
They won’t win it, but Raul, Helguera and Valeron will add a lot to the tournament.
LITTLE LATVIA bounced Turkey out with some fine goals.
The Turks have gone downhill fast since finishing third in the World Cup.
Latvia won 1-0 in Riga but went 2-0 down in Istanbul and came back to draw 2-2 and go through 3-2 on aggregate.
Not bad for country of 2.3 million people.
Igors Stepanovs, we salute you!
THIS WEEK HAS PASSED IN A FLASH, but at least I was able to spend today with my people.
I came out of Euston Square tube at 2p.m. and looked up in the sky for the helicopter and followed it.
Where there is a chopper, there is a demo.
Soon I saw banners and was among 200,000 people and 30,000 banners and placards.
GO HOME SHRUB and George W.ar Crimes and END THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ and TROOPS OUT NOW and BUSH-WORLD’S NO.1 TERRORIST and WARM-HEARTED AMERICAN PEOPLE, CAN’T YOU SEE WHAT YOUR COUNTRY IS DOING?
My favourite banner was very British, but too wordy.
It said DEFEND YOUR BRAIN AGAINST FUNDAMENTALIST, MILITARIST, MISOGYNIST, HOMOPHOBIC,IMPERIALIST BOLLOCKS.
You have to have sense of humour to paint those words on a banner and carry it round all day.
We went past Saint Martins School of Art and down Kingsway where a stocky white-bearded man was wearing an orange boilersuit and a surgical mask and sunglasses.
His hands were tied behind his back and he was dragging a chain with a padlock which clinked and clanked along the road.
He was making a point about Guantanomo Bay, the disgusting camp in Cuba where Bush is holding hundreds of young Moslem men illegally.
In the Strand a chunky black youth in a red Afro wig was standing on the roof of a bus shelter playing bongo drums.
In Trafalgar Square we heard some terrific speakers including Bruce Kent and Adrian Mitchell.
Ron Kovic, a Vietnam veteran, sat in his wheelchair below a 20-foot gold statue of George Bush.
He said, “I have the privilege and honour today to do the countdown and I want you to count down with me – ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five four, three, two, ONE! “
Thousands of voices joined him and they pulled the rope and Bush toppled over and fell face first amid tumultuous applause and cheering.
Then I went home.
I’m glad I spent an inspiring afternoon with my people.
We are sure that another world is possible.
20th November 2003.