The boy who dared Wenger...and won

All goalies are accidents waiting to happen. I say this with all the facts in the world backing me. All goalies commit howlers. They just happen at different stages in their careers. The key to forging a successful career for them is not to commit such bloopers in big, crucial games. Or big crucial moments of a game.


Also all goalies actually become good in their Indian summers. Because naturally, they are notoriously late bloomers.
Dave Seaman, Fabien Barthez, Edwin Van Der Sar, even our own Manuel Almunia are all living examples.I remember quite vividly Almunia making his debut for us in September 2004 at a Carling Cup game against Manchester United at Old Trafford. He allowed a weak David Bellion shot to slip through his nervous hands in the 4th minute for the only goal of the game.
You could see the anguish and recriminations playing out on his face that night as he knew he shouldn’t have done that. Of course he’s gone on to improve very much since then and become our established Number One. With age, he’s gotten better. The funny thing with Almunia though is that he still hasn’t learnt to completely deal with the easy-peasy balls.
A capable shot stopper with strong arms and one of the best penalty experts anywhere in the world. Surprised? Don’t be. His record speaks very loud and proud. It is the routine shots that have embarrassed Almunia all his life and even Wenger acknowledged last season that his Number One often gets jittery in big games. Well, a club the size of Arsenal plays pretty many big games every season and it’s just not good enough having a bag of nerves between the sticks on those occasions.
Back to fumbling goalies.
It surely isn’t an easy job with all the attention and constant focus on you. Especially when goals are conceeded and worse, if your team loses. But it is the life that a goalie is perpetually condemned to. A life of blame, again and again.
Currently, with the convenient excuse of an injured elbow, Arsene Wenger has taken Almunia out ofthe firing line and looks to have installed Fabianski as the Number One for the meantime. It is the way he deals with a crisis. Never one to condemn his players in public, Wenger often chooses to spirit them away from the limelight for a time to enable everyone get off their back and ease all-round tension.
For Almunia though, it is very familiar terrain. It had happened before. The challenge for him now isn’t whatbecomes next of him. It is rather that the opposition doesn’t look up to the task of giving him a fight. Or fright.
Fabianski did well in the game against Partizan and even saved a penalty. Against Chelsea four days later, even though we lost he wasn’t at fault for any of the two goals. For a goalkeeper well-known for more than his fair share of errors, those two games were historic. But a tree does not make a forest. Just as a hood doesn’t make a monk. A couple of decent performances do not rubber stamp his claim to the Number One shirt. Not yet.
Luckily for him though, Wenger is a patient man. Who grants everyone of his players, mistakes and all, chance after fair chance to prove themselves and justify his faith in them. For someone who is famed for frugality before signing a player, it is legendary as well that he doesn’t rush to conclusions about them.
The thing with Wenger also is that to understand how his mind works, listen less to what he says. Rather look closely at what he does.
He did the unusual during the Carling Cup win at White Hart Lane three weeks back when he promoted Wojciech Szczesny to the bench. That arrangement stayed in place as well for the Chelsea game. Literally, considering his love for hierarchy, it meant the young Pole was now officially Number three. It meant he had leapfrogged Italian Vito Mannone who had all along been the third keeper behind Almunia and Fabianski.
This he did, just days after theWest Brom defeat for which Almunia was responsible and roundly blamed for two of their goals and Wojciech had gone onto to launch a very public attack on the goalkeepers ahead of him, as well as on Wenger himself. Promoting him then was very much against Wenger’s character. For someone who is a legend at the club; who is infact the defacto CEO, Wojciech’s attack was suicidal if a player at the club challenged his authority. And so openly too.
But the young Pole did it and it seems to have kickstarted his Arsenal career. He looks and sounds a supremely confident youngman at 22 and curiously that might have been what made up Wenger’s mind for him and led him to disregard the public affront from Wojciech. In one of his interviews last month threatening to walk away from the club, Wojciech cheekily declared that:


“My friends and family all say I must be patient. That breaking into the first team is more of a marathon than a sprint. But what kind of marathon is it when you keep running on the same spot for years?”

Poignant words indeed. Words and an attitude which might have pricked Wenger and make him go against his better judgement to give the young Pole a chance.
Yesterday, I was watching a rather-grainy internet trailer of the Italy-Belarus U-21 European qualifier played on Tuesday night. Italy lost that game 3-0 and their goalkeeper committed two shocking howlers that gifted the Belarussians two goals. Guess who the goalie was? Vito Mannone!
Wenger wasn’t in Minsk to see that game. He was in Metz watching over Clichy, Diaby and Nasri as they filed out for France against Luxembourg. But surely the video of that game would arrive at his desk promptly and it would not be out of place if he watches it with a smirk on his face. And a knowing nod of the head to suggest that promoting Wojciech over Mannone was justified afterall.
Whether Almunia’s days are numbered or not, it is very premature to say for now but tacitly Wenger thinks highly of Wojciech and his reaction to the youngman’s outburst has clearly made him move to accommodate him. Once again, almost all goalkeepers’ careers are things of twilight. With that in mind, Wenger would be very wary of avoiding the lack of perseverance that made him ditch Alex Manninger in 2001, after the young Austrian had deputised admirably for Seaman - who was on the last legs of a long and brilliant career.
Despite a record eight clean sheets for us in season 1997-98, Manninger committed his fair share of clangers and was promptly shoved aside for Richard Wright in 2001. I recollect very well that he was sent out on loan to Fiorentina, who returned him to us after 24 games and the poor chap was left in limbo, training with us but not registered as a player. Events took a bizarre turn for him when after being sold to Espanyol for £900,000 on a four-year deal in July 2002, he returned to us again after just seven weeks without playing a game!
Eventually, he was snapped up by Torino in January 2003 and eventually bounced around the Serie A for the next four seasons with five clubsides. Though he never became a great goalie, he still did well for himself by donning the Austrian Number One shirt 36 times before retiring in 2009 and is now the main man between the sticks for Juventus. Yet another late bloomer. Not bad ay?
Wenger’s misjudgement on Manninger many, many years ago may be haunting him now. Which may be why he has allowed himself to be armtwisted into giving Wojciech a chance.

Return of the Rambo

  












He's back...Aaron Ramsey, hacked down by Stoke bully Ryan Shawcross in March, is now back to the pitch and doing what he's destined to always do - kick the ball!
At a point, we were never sure we'll live to see these images of him again but there they are.
What miracle! What a moment! What a story for this brave young man!
The pictures as always, tell the story. The day we dreaded is here and the smile is back on everyone's faces.
'Rambo' returns and we all wish him the best of luck.

Blanc’s romance with Le Arsenal



The President's men...Clichy and Nasri (left) arrive for training ahead of last night's Euro 2012 qualifier against Luxembourg in Metz

 Why does Laurent Blanc, French national team manger like the Arsenal boys? Is it a coincidence that Arsenal are the only non-French clubside with the largest number of players in the French national side?
I think it is not. Blanc looks very much a protégé of Arsene Wenger and if the logic can be stretched further, he has the temperament to be a future Arsenal manager when Wenger finally conks out.
With four Arsenal players already nailed-on starters in Blanc’s team, he must have seen things about them that tickled his fancy. Clichy, Nasri, Sagna and Diaby are all integral to Blanc’s team now and have played in almost all of the four French games since the end of the World Cup.
It’s a new team now.
Very different from the squabbling rabble that Raymond Domenech brought to South Africa. Of course, the fallout from the Nicholas Anelka saga very much embarrassed everyone connected to the former World champions but credit must go to the French FA for doing the right thing and dissing Anelka and his cohorts. Unloved, unproductive and unwanted, Anelka managed to divide the team with his mood swings and older players who should have known better like William Gallas and Patrice Evra allowed him to end their international careers prematurely.
Blanc obviously needed a clean slate to start from and he seems to have a good grasp of the job already.
Forget all the talk about international managers having a bit-part job. It is definitely a full-on assignment and one with as much challenges and strain as club management. Ask Fabio Capello for one.
Previous French managers have all built teams of flair and panache that wooed all who saw France play and have established Les Bleus as a team of class for about three decades now. Michel Hidalgo who assembled the trinity of Jean Tigana, Alain Giresse and Luis Fernandez under the captainship of the mercurial Michel Platini, laid the groundwork for subsequent years and years of success. Together, all the four aforementioned players were known as the carre magique – Magic Square – and it was clear why they had that moniker.
From winning the European championship under Hidalgo in 1984, France has remained an ever-present in the pantheon of great sides and adding the 1998 World Cup title under the urbane Aime Jacquet was a well-deserved crowning achievement.
Blessed with a glut of Franco-African talents, France play with flair and possess the sort of expansive game that clumsy England can only dream of.
Before Jacquet however, the duopoly of Henri Michel and Gerrard Houllier oversaw a barren period in French national football. After Jacquet, the taciturn Roger Lemmerre, Jacques Santini and later Domenech took up the mantle with little results but despite that, there was no denying the excitement and verve that French football produces. At least for all the bad press and aggravation he generated, Domenech got to the World Cup finals in 2006, losing only on penalties to Italy.
However, even that achievement was tainted by Domenech’s desperate recall of retiring veterans Claude Makelele, Lilian Thuram and Zinedine Zidane.More than anything else, it showed Domenech as a man lacking confidence both in himself and the players he entrusted with the job. It was a move that undermined his authority for so long and finally exploded in his face in South Africa this summer.
Blanc clearly has learnt from such mistake. Out of the window have gone the likes of Gallas, Eric Abidal and Evra who all possess the seed of rebellion within them. Blanc rightly chose to promote many fringe players like Clichy and Benzema and in that, he has sent a very clear message that this is a team very much in his own image. Affectionately known as ‘The President’ and capped 97 times by France between 1989 and 2000, he understands the demands of donning the national team colours – something which the likes of Anelka had little regard for.
Allied to his quest for control, is his love for flair and invention. Therein lies his affection for the Arsenal way. The mantra of high-speed passing and movement as preached by none other than Wenger.
That apart however is the philosophy that has governed Arsenal this past half-a-decade. The idea that young players nurtured and kept together would develop alongside each other, with complete allegiance to their mentor. This approach often leads to mistakes and stop-start performances as we saw in that defeat in Paris to Belarus last month, and may look like trial-and error.
However like Wenger, Blanc has time on his side to experiment and impose his will on this side. He enjoys the absolute trust and backing of the French FA. Florent Malouda apart who is captain, almost all the players of the current squad owe their appearances to Blanc. Players like Alou Diarra, Steven Mandanda, Karim Benzema, Loic Remy and even Clichy would never have had a look-in under the paranoid Domenech.
Now, the world is at their feet. Better still, le coq sportif is theirs for the taking.
Which goes a long way to explain why Blanc and the Arsenal boys are a very natural fit.

A Tale of Two clubs and Many Yanks

What all the brouhaha at Liverpool, resulting in this week’s court case by Tom Hicks and George Gillett to stop the sale of the club for £300m, means is a simple case of businessmen wanting value for money spent on their investment.

When Hicks and Gillett, who clearly are now seen in a very bad light everywhere on Merseyside bought Liverpool in February 2007 for £218.9m, they, like all good businessmen, believed they could build up its value and later sell it on for two-three times that amount. That was almost four years ago.
Global market crash, club under-performance and fans’ unrest later, up pops another American John W. Henry ready to put £300m on the table and take the club off Hicks and Gillett’s wrinkly hands. Exasperated and pressurised by the Bank of Scotland who lent Hicks and Gillett over £200m, the club’s board now deeply divided are quite happy to take Henry’s money and end the era of the bad Yanks.
Obviously unhappy to let go and believing they can flog the club for £500-£600m, at least to pocket some profit on their initial outlay, Hicks and Gillett headed to the courts this week to block the sale. Knowing fully well that the success of the deal will see almost all the money going to bankers, while they will be left with next to nothing. Three years of investment surely couldn’t be allowed to go so lamely down the drain.
It would have made such a fine script for a melodrama if it wasn’t happening to an institution such as Liverpool FC.
If only the men at the helm who sold off the club in 2007 had paused awhile to consider their actions before pawning it away to Hick and Gillett. If only they had bothered to look across the country at another club sharing similar history and prestige with Liverpool and learning a couple of things from them.
For the past five years or thereabout, Liverpool and Arsenal have effectively been bridesmaids to Manchester United and Chelsea in what has gloriously come to be known as the Big Four of the Premier League. Neither of them finished the last five seasons better than third as the Chavs and Mancunians have swapped the league title between themselves.
Liverpool made an exception in 2009 when they ran Man Utd close until they finally succumbed to second place. Their performance that year was actually the result of millions and millions of pounds poured into expensive and often-dodgy player purchases in a desperate attempt to win the league and erase that blot from the club’s history. For Rafa Benitez their erstwhile coach and the board of the club however, ending the season behind Man Utd was a case of so far, so impossible. Their subsequent body language clearly suggested that despite never having won the premier league title, the inability to win it in 2009 was a rubicon they would never cross. At least in the near future.
After one more season, Rafa and his tired tactics was booted out as the club realised he was actually taking them backwards with even Champions League qualification proving beyond them.
It was to be the end of the Big Four, as we had known it for almost a decade.
Liverpool’s story runs slightly parallel to Arsenal in that for five years now, the Gunners haven’t won a trophy and have remained perpetually like second-class citizens where Man Utd and Chelsea are mentioned. Where the parallel ends is the patience and understanding demonstrated by the Gunners’ board in persevering with Arsene Wenger’s youth project, as the club relocated to a new stadium; rebuilt its playing staff and dealt wisely with the albatross of bank debts before they became dragons.

While Liverpool sought success in a hurry, Arsenal adopted the softly-softly approach – preferring to endure years of trophy-barreness and avoiding a wholesale flogging of the club to some beady-eyed sugar-daddy. Today, Stan Kroenke (yet-another American) and Uzbek, Alisher Usmanov have emerged as leading investors in the club but cannot lay claim to total ownership to it. The club has truly fallen behind on the pitch but its coffers are being swelled daily with stadium revenue and a well-crafted property investment. Whoever dreamed up the property idea in the most-attractive city in the world, London, deserves a knighthood.
While Liverpool lurches between bad Yanks and the Henry-led New England Sports Venture now seen as good Yanks, the one thing that lay behind that 2007 sale to the Hicks and Gilberts – success on the pitch – is very, very far from being achieved.
I’m quite certain two-three years ago no one in their right mind would have associated Liverpool FC with words such as ‘administration’ and being ‘ducked nine points’. Such scenarios belonged to the Portsmouths and Southamptons of this world. How quickly the tables can turn.
The refusal of Arsenal to toe the line and sell its soul like almost every other club in the league has done, is now being proven as conventional wisdom. Better still, a masterstroke. By 2012 when Uefa’s book-balancing policy for all clubsides goes into force, even Man Utd and Chelsea will have to curb their spending and live within their means.
By 2012, Arsenal’s penny wise ways would even make Kroenke look like the best Yank of them all.
Therein lies the lesson that Liverpool and the rest of them all missed so glaringly.