Wenger doesn’t want Schwarzer hard enough.
Quite unbelievable, isn’t it?
But that I’m sure, is the “gospel truth”.
I mean why would he come back three months after the first offer was turned down, with the same £2million price tag? In view of his penny-pinching reputation, this one just takes the biscuit.
Reading all the reactions and fallouts from this latest rejection by Fulham, you must feel for poor Mark.
He looked like he had burnt his bridges at the Cottage; refusing to lace boots (or gloves in this case) after handing in a transfer request in the belief that his path to Emirates was all but assured.
Now, apparently, it doesn’t look like Wenger wants him so badly. Or else what is a couple more millions to Le Professor, if he really, really wants to get his man?
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| Stewart Robson: At home both in surroundings and writings |
Which all takes my mind back to comments I read a week back by ex-Gunner and ex-captain Stewart Robson about the whole goalkeeping conundrum.
Stewart is a dyed-in-the-wool Gunner having signed on at 16years of age and eventually went on to play between 1981 and 1986.
Last week, he categorically wrote that: "I don't see that Schwarzer, the player that everybody's talking about, is a better goalkeeper than Almunia," he told Sky Sports. "I think Almunia's a better goalkeeper than Schwarzer”.
Also on the Man City wantaway Given, he had this to say:
“Shay Given is a very good shot-stopper, but most of the criticism of Arsenal's goalkeepers is that they don't come for crosses or haven't been dominant in the air. Shay Given's not that goalkeeper. He's a very good goalkeeper, we all know that, but he's more of a shot-stopper than someone who's going to dominate his penalty area."
For someone who played the game long before the Sky transformed it into a glamourous, prima-donna infested Premier League, he ought to know what he’s saying. And I think he does.
More crucial is that I think Wenger is taking such comments seriously.
To get a better sense of what Stewart is saying, it is essential to know who the hell he is.
Stewart joined Arsenal as a 16year-old and debuted as the youngest player in the club’s history two years later. He played in the senior team from 1981 till 1986 when due to injuries, he was sold to London side, West Ham and later Coventry City. At all of these three clubs, he was named player of the year – which isn’t something to sniff at. Mention must be made as well that he captained England U-21s as well as Arsenal, when the likes of Tony Adams, Steve Bould were still in the reserves.
Currently, Stewart is a professional journalist who write football for notable publications such as the Sunday Telegraph and host of blogs. He is a regular face in the crowd at the Emirates and also runs coaching training workshops for various clubsides across England.
To be frank, I didn’t know about Stewart until some ten days ago. But the more I researched about him, his past and career, the more impressed I was. Not many ex-footballers would be able to combine writing and coaching with such effortless ease. Yes, so many take up media work and actually do well on the soap box. But that is the paparazzi part of journalism. The bread and butter bit.
Very few venture into writing, analysis and actually do well at it. Yes, Ian Wright, Alan Hansen have done well. Who else?
Now back to Stewart, Wenger and the goalkeeping merry-go-round.
It just strikes me that Wenger rates Almunia good enough not to think someone like Schwarzer can do any better. Which can only explain why he doesn’t believe the Aussie commands any cent above £2million.
The master of double-speak that he is, Wenger would never come out and condemn any of his players. He prefers to keep his opinions to himself, or behind locked, locker rooms.
Which also makes me want to go along with Stewart and give Almunia some benefit of the doubt. Yes, he has his hairy moments, but which goalkeeper doesn’t? Fans sometimes are a fickle lot. So soon, we all seem to have forgotten how Almunia stood between Manchester Utd and a goalfeast at Old Trafford in the first leg of the Champions League semifinal, April 2009. Even though all the good work eventually came undone in the second leg when Christiano Ronaldo led a 3-1 slaughter, Almunia got loads of deserved praise for the slim1-0 scoreline from the first leg.
Quite recently as well, we all seem to have forgotten how Almunia again stood between Barcelona and a basket of goals at Emirates in yet another Champions League showdown in March this year. That we cane back to tie the game 2-2 was due largely to Almunia’s heroic resistance in the first half.
Rather than keep hammering Manuel, Stewart identifies what he thinks is the real problem.
He opines: “Arsenal….need to improve a couple of defensive frailties that they've got. One is when balls get played over the top and they play too high an offside line - and the other is when they're defending set plays. That's where they've let goals in over the last three or four years and I see in pre-season that they're still doing those same things”.
Well said Stewart. Just that, where does it all leave poor Schwarzer now?
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