During the international break, these blogs are a true test of a blogger’s endurance: I have to like, literally, just crank something out. So, if you’re looking for something special, that undiscovered bottle of Gigondas in the back of the pantry, chances are it’s not going to happen. Take yesterday’s column. That wasn’t fit for me to wipe my own ass with! But I had to publish something and once I got like an hour into it I just went forward. Reminds me of when I was in grad school and I turned in a 10 page paper that I had written in like 3 hours and I got a 3.6 in the class despite the fact that the professor put “not your best work, 3.6” on my final. Not my best work gets a 3.6??? Wow.
In a sense it’s good because part of the process of writing, any art, is to just keep doing something: keep shooting photos, keep writing, keep painting whatever just keep doing.
That’s what you get today, some of my “do.”
Hm… So, is Steven Gerrard the best player in the world and how exactly would you fellate him if you had a chance? The Times wants to know.
If you go all the way back to the beginning of the season, I picked Liverpool to win the league because, I reasoned, they had the best defense in the EPL and they had added a good goal scorer to the mix in Robbie Keane. Typically, I was wrong about the reason (Robbie Keane didn’t help them in that area) but correct about the diagnosis (they needed more goals) and now that they are scoring more goals, they look a legit title contender again despite the fact that they sold Keane.
Also, I was a bit biased because frankly I don’t care how good a team that Man Unit put out, I’d rather anyone but them win the league. Ok, anyone but them and one of Sam Allardyce’s current/former pack of cunts.
That said, I’m pretty tired of all the news stories fellating Gerrard. Yes, he’s a good player. Yes, he’s won loads of trophies. Yes, he’s crucial to Liverpool’s success. But the best player in the world has been decided and it is Ronaldo (skinny Ronaldo, not fat Ronaldo.)
I can’t stand Ronaldo and I think he disappears in big games, Eboue shuts him down for f*ck’s sake, but he is a huge talent who’s trophy cabinet is already filled with more medals than Gerrard (6 to 5) and he is 5 years younger. There’s a reason Ronaldo won so many individual accolades this year, he’s that good.
Gerrard is objectively not as good, but he does have the one thing that Ronaldo doesn’t, an English passport, and for the British press at the height of International week, that’s all that matters.
What else is going on? Oh yeah, as promised, here’s a story about Gael Clichy going to AC Milan. It’s in French so let me translate:
Blah blah blah 2o million euros blah blah blah escargot blah blah blah Phillipe Senderos and Mathieu Flamini (ouch) blah blah blah “I am not aware,” says Clichy. “I’m very well at Arsenal.” Blah blah blah “But it is true that AC Milan is a great big club and it is gratifying to know that you are followed by such a team.”
Hey, for £20m+ I would totally take the money and run. Finding another wing-back who can’t put in a decent cross can’t be that hard, can it?
Well, there’s your do, enjoy, I’ll be back tomorrow with even more do, do tune in.
I cant agree with you more,
Except 1 thing….
Wenger will take the £20 mil, hand it over to the owners, and he will put Gibbs in the starting line up!
haha… yeah sell clichy put gibbs or traore… then take the money… use some of it, to buy unknown left back youngsters… then the rest of the money give to the club.
Then the next season same old story again and again…
Clichy is great, but if we can get 20M for him, I will take it in a flash.
Best player in the world currently? I don’t like him personally, but talent wise, surely Ronaldo. Messi close second. Most underrated world class player: Ribery. Most overrated player: Ibrahimovic.
at least gibbs can put a good cross in the box and i am yet to see him lose focus during a game which seems to be a constant problem with clichy. although in fairness to clichy, he has improved his defensive focus in recent games. still – 20 mil is a quite a lot of money and i would take it with my eyes closed. i doubt wenger will sell him though. he’s relatively a veteran in our young team.
gerrard is the best player in the world eh? not so sure about that. on current form, i’d have to give that to messi. i’ve seen almost all the barca games this year and i have never seen anybody split open defenses like messi does. he’s a genius on the ball and he makes everybody else around him better as well. i think the only department where cron is better than messi is headers. other than that, the performance that messi puts in week in week out puts cron to shame. actually ribery, iniesta and arshavin are all better than gerrard. i think one of the reasons why gerrard’s been good lately is because of torres. i’ve seen it in a few occassions. defenders try to close down on torres and that frees up gerrard behind him. not trying to take anything away for gerrard. i think he’s a very good player – definitly among the top 10. just not the best in the world. the truly great ones perform both for both club and country IMHO.
I brought up the Gerrard issue with some friends of mine and really we typically agree that if Liverpool fail to win anything this season, Gerrard can kiss any PotY accolade goodbye. I think we’ve come to almost accept that no mater how good you are, if you are on a team that does not win a major trophy (or two or three) in a season then you may get nominated but you were never going to win. Ronaldo right now isn’t even the best player in the world. He was definitely last year’s, which is what he got an award for but at the end of 2009, his nomiation may be there but he won’t be receiving an award for it. Even if Mancs win the league and CL, Ronaldo is still mediocre this season. The problem with him is he set the bar far too high last season and people are all about comparisons and perceptions. Man Utd is playing garbage compared to last season and I think alot of people in the know have picked up on that, despite Fergie saying this is the best team he’s ever assembled. Quite honestly I can’t really see past Messi simply because Barca have been in the news so much lately. They look set to win La Liga and are a compatitive team in the CL.
As for Clichy, I’m indifferent since we have Traore on loan and looking good and Gibbs is alot better defensively if you ask me. Clichy is faster, but Gibbs can actually tackle better and can go forward just as well. If Milan want a package deal I’ll throw in Adebayor for a cool 13-15M. That’s a good 30M+ that we can go buy David Villa with, who can actually score 20 goals a season on a proper team or even Huntelaar who can just score for the fun of it and we’d probably have change left over for other reinforcements.
I was wondering when someone would mention David Villa, he’s like the holy grail for some football fans. Sorry, but I’m not impressed.
He’ll never play for Arsenal: we couldn’t pay him the salary he wants, he’d be getting tackled left and right, his scoring average would go way down, he’d be an average sized fish in the Arsenal pond, the weather, the food, etc etc. I could give a 1000 reasons before I even got to the fact that Arsenal aren’t paying £30m for anything.
Besides, we’ve got Vela if we need an undersized striker to get lumped off the ball by EPL thugs.
And Huntelaar?
Hmm… I was excited about him last year, then he started asking for £30m and made huge salary demands and then he turned into a dick and I took a step back. Let’s face it, he’s a poacher and this team already has a world class poacher named Eduardo.
We don’t need another #9.
And we don’t need to be selling Adebayor, who pretty much saved Arsenal from 5th place last year.
Sell Clichy, buy Alonso, and pay them whatever they want.
i just dont see us buying a CM this summer given how much denilson, song and diaby have developed. and even if we did, barry would have to be bought from villa for liverpool to part with alonso – who will most probably prefer a transfer to juve. too many variables there so as much as i’d love to see alonso in an arsenal shirt, i dont see it happening.
i think villa would do just fine in the epl. yes he will get hacked, but he’s no pushover. he gets hacked enough in spain but the sheer quality of his goals is amazing. but you are right – there is no way we will be able to afford his wages even if we were somehow able to buy him for 30mil.
Tim, the fat ronaldo is still the best, never have i seen messi or thin ronaldo score the goals the fat one has – from nothing. the fat one is a true genius. As for xabi, i would have hoped for him to come in as well, but i think rafa views him as too valuable and won’t lover the asking price, and if pool win it this year, he’ll probably stay even if they do bring in barry. I think wenger is still just rolling the dice in midfield and we could use a xabi type, perhaps an alonso/toughie type. Having recorded the newcastle game, i watched the first half again, and we were very vulnterable at times, in the end we ran away with it but it could have ended in a draw easily, glichy came to the rescue at crucial moments, i wouldn’t sell him.
In fact we cannot sell, we must buy, if the boss’s plan to become world beaters in three years is to remain intact, the team must remain intact and we build on it, not dismantle it. I think we’re probably two to three players away from an incredible squad, we have leadership and dm issues and should focus on correcting these issues this summer, but we don’t need the cash so selling would be a mistake in my view.
I disagree Tim on both Villa and huntelaar. The same could be said of CRonaldo as villa, that the thugs would be out in full force and they might just be, but after a while you learn to play around them or use their brute force against them to win penalties, free-kicks or earn them cards. The reason Villa is mentioned so much is that even on a mediocre side like Valencia has been for the past few years, he’s still finding the back of the net consistently. He’s a very good all round player: quick, decent air game, good free kick taker and takes his chances when presented. He’s not the end all, be all of strikers but really when you’re looking for a striker who can do just about everything you have to consider Villa or Eto’o and Villa’s name comes up simply because of Valencia’s huge debt and likeliness to sell big players in order to cover that debt.
Huntelaar is very different from Eduardo if you ask me. Huntelaar is more of the Van Nistelrooy mold, but slightly less lazy – a penalty box striker who may move around. Eduardo can be that player but he also does much more outside of the box as he does inside. Eduardo can bring other players into the play like he did with the 1 touch play with Vela for his goal at Burnley. Huntelaar can sit in the box and pretty much pick anything coming his way and put it past the keeper. Arsenal have been criticized a long time now for their inability to have a “Plan B”. Adebayor was supposed to be that route 1 football plan B forward. When in doubt hoof it to the box and hope that something happens. The reason we’re so against Adebayor now is simply that he seems uninterested in the prospect of playing for Arsenal. Since his stellar single season, he looks like he wants to cash in on this newfound fame for high wages and a big transfer fee. Let’s admit it, we’re not exactly dishing out CRonaldo salaries at The Emirates. Huntelaar is what we expect Bendtner to be – a striker who can put away anything that comes his way. Nicky isn’t there yet, his positional play is exceptional but his ability to put a size 5 ball into a 10 foot goalmouth is below our expectations right now.
I honestly don’t see where Alonso fits anymore. He is a less athletic Cesc, why do we need another one? Cesc already showed he can flourish if you give him freedom. He’s had very little of that when he’s played because of Denilson’s “development”, but put a top class CM beside Cesc and just tell him to go make goals and we’ll be banging them in frequently. Lorik Cana has been wanting a big move from Marseille for some time, though at this point in time Marseille may absolutely hate us for the mini-sagas we’ve had with Flamini and Nasri in the past.
tim, wc, unlike the fat one, henry, zlatan, torres very few strikers are picture perfect(termperament, composure, technique, size, speed and power), all of our strikers are good but they also have deficiencies(bendtner poor technique, ade again technique, eduardo size, speed, rvp speed, etc for the others), what we need is the complete package striker, but that will mean coughing up cash, something we dont do, we develop it and basically wait and hope.
WC, the xabi, mascherano pairing is becoming such a force i don’t think it can be broken up, so it probably amounts to wishful thinking and nothing more for the time being. But what we’re currently missing in cm is toughness and the ability which xabi has and that is creating instant offense, lightning fast counter attacks achieved from incisive long range passing out of the back. Xabi can spray the ball with the same accuracy from 5 yards to fifty yards and unleash the attack before opponents can react. But again, xabi is just wishful thinking, we should focus on another.
since we are into wishful thinking, I think if there is ONE player you want for Arsenal to become absolutely unbeatable, it is Essien. I mean, if you had to pick just one player who could come to Arsenal, and have the hugest impact given our strengths & weaknesses. It’s not a striker, or Alonso, or anybody else. Of course that will not happen for approximately 100 different reasons.
unless we lose CMs next year, which we probably wont because i dont see cesc going anywhere and i dont see any teams wanting the rest of our CMs, its probably safe to say that wanting any new CM is wishful thinking. however, i do think that there is a good chance ade will leave which may bring a new striker (aka jay simpson from west brom). there is also a good chance of either toure or gallas leaving, which means we would probably end up getting a new defender. i would like to see hangeland come in. he is young but he is technically good and tough – and not just tough but premier league tough. he deserves to be a in a better team.
Hangeland is also intelligent with great positional sense, unlike essien, he’s a possibility as well. i’m off.
I agree about Gallas leaving. He would leave on good terms too and Wenger would make sure he got to a decent team in smoky ole France.
cant agree more with the fact of selling CLichy. He is fast, but cant cross a ball if his life depended on him. take 20 mil. put in gibbs, and by a dominant center defensive midfielder. get rid of diaby or denilson,or song (2 of them only), and we should be good. I think our defense is ok, just need to balance the mid to def area. Sell ade as well.. bendtner sucks, but hes got the vision, sell him to if possible. RVP, Eduardo, Vela is a great trio. Use 20 mil to buuy Benzema, and 20 for YaYA, and we break even, while triming the squad down a lil bit, and keeping our quality players..with the likes of ramsey and wilsher upcomming, with jay simpson on loan..we have an intact solid team for 4-5 years then.
Love David Villa. Like smooth dark chocolate smothered in ice-cream and tomato sauce.
clichy is a world class defender,we cant afford to loose him now ,no,not any time soon.introducing gibbs will be quite tricky coz he still lacks experience,i presume.we cherish him so much,wenger opt to know that we cant afford to loose any player lest we want to face the same humiliation we faced the past seasons.i believe we are developing a strong team for next season.lets focuss on champions league and the fa cup.it would be remourseful if we dont secure a trophy this season again coz we might face another exodus of players next season.
I agree world class name have been said and talked about, but, with eduardo, bentner, and vela are just enough, who new one adebayor would be what he is to day though i dont believe in him. And, with ashivin,fabs, ramsey wilsher denlison, song, diaby whe dont need alonsos. Just give denlison time you wont regret.
And, finally i cant sell clirchy, until gibbs is macure anough. And the centre back, thier is no reason why i dont sell gallas and the bring in new defander.
My friends this is not the right time to sell.