- Why the world cup and club finances will change, but the question is still “how?”
- Someone is always to blame, yet somehow things are never resolved. But here’s an idea…
By Tony Attwood
Arsenal, we have to admit, are news. Whether that news is truthful or just fantasy, or indeed sort of “may be possibly true”, if it is Arsenal it is news in the way that it is not with many other clubs.
Take injuries for example. ManC can have injuries galore, but when they have got players galore and then another load of players galore, and since the officials who are supposedly looking into the Mancy finances haven’t come back with any comments yet, we presume they can enter the new season without any questions as to their money, past or present.
But with Arsenal, no, it is not like that. There are always questions, and there will always be an injury crisis. Or two.
One of the key things to remember both now and all the way through the pre-season (and quite possibly thereafter) is that there is no direct comparison between one club and the next in pre-season injuries. Arsenal might have six men doubtful – but that probably doesn’t mean anything unless we know a) how long it might take each one to recover and b) if the injured men are covered by other players who are of a similar quality.
And second, we have to ask, is the number of injured or recovering men unusual? Just saying that Arsenal have four players unavailable for the start of the season is not helpful until we know such data as how many men Arsenal have out at this time last year, and how many men other clubs are missing – and how long some of these “outages” will last.
Now we have often struggled with this sort of data, both in getting it in the first place and then comparing it with other clubs, for the simple reasons that a) journalists often don’t quote it and b) most clubs are fairly secretive about giving out such data. After all, if club X wants to sign player Y to cover for position Z that’s all ok, but they might not want Player Y to know that. Although if signed, he is going to be rushed into the team and play the first four matches of the season, there will quickly be every chance he’ll be on the bench.
Of course you might expect his agent tell him, but then if the agent is on 10% of the transfer fee, he might somehow forget that fact, in order to help the transfer along.
Now that would all be not very nice of Arsenal, and maybe they would be much more honest, but even so such things do happen. And the chance of a new player breaking into the team is raised at this moment by the fact that quite a few Arsenal players are returning from WC duty with injuries, suspected injuries, or just plain exhaustion problems.
Part of the issue is that Arsenal had eight players in the squads of the semi-finalas of the WC and we really never know what will happen to them. They return from South America, and then go off on holiday and then return and reveal… well we don’t know.
And if you are a regular reader of my ramblings you’ll know about the changes that unexpectedly (at least for me) happened to Arsenal’s medical team at the end of last season with all those comings and goings. Indeed, we never quite worked out what caused the upheaval, and very few of the media outlets even seemed to know. Although the Telegraph has said that the previous head of medical things at Villa is now the same at Arsenal. And there seems to be a new physio on the scene too. (You might find Arsenal’s Key Backroom Changes: Medical and Coaching if you are interested in this sort ot thing).
Quite why several people left at once at the end of last season we don’t know. Maybe it was because the new men were identified, maybe becauseArtata was fed up with so many injuries… Meanwhile White has had an operation, and may be marked down for a transfer, although with the other injuries he might be needed to stay. Although new medical staff usually means new reviews of the condition of each player, so we wait and see.
Of course the media will also introduce concerns about Gabriel Magalhães, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli, and any players Arsenal are buying. But player, trasnfers, injuries… it just goes with the territory.
However, despite some reports to the contrary, Arsenal are more or less average for injuries – and it is noticeable that most media that write about injuries take individual clubs and always make them sound as if they are the centre of the injury world. Which obviously doesn’t mean we don’t care about David Raya, Martín Zubimendi and Mikel Merino in the Spain squad of the WC finals, it’s more that we don’t actually have good, reliable information. International managers are well known for playing players when they shouldn’t.
Arsenal have a friendly against Girona on 1 August. Maybe we’ll know more then.
