By Billy “The Dog” McGraw.
IN GOAL
Petr Cech (Chelsea)
Luiz Felipe Scolari accused Čech and others of getting him sacking because a group at Chelsea “did not accept my training methods or my demands”. Scolari said this was because Čech insisted on being given a personal coach. Čech said he merely wanted a better car.
Arsene Wenger believes he lacks an authoritative ‘number one’. What does that mean? I really don’t know. But Cech is fancied by Ashley Cole, or better put Ashley Cole’s employer, Roma.
And Chelsea, who have a partnership with Besiktas, might sell him to be gobbled up in Turkey.
He is regarded as a potential long-term replacement for Per Mertesacker.
CENTRE BACK
Neven Subotić (Borussia Dortmund)
He played for the USA, but then their coach Rongen, said Subotić, was guilty of “not accelerating to the point where we feel he belongs on the [U.S.] team.”
Subotić was also eligible to play for the Serbia, Croatia, Germany, or Bosnia and Herzegovina although amazingly it was claimed the media made some of these up!
Subotić then said, “Rongen certainly said some discouraging and false things about me. Never in my life have I heard that a high level coach publicly criticizes a player. Professional coaches do that one-on-one with the player. I find this disappointing, because a few months later after Rongen said I was not good enough for the U-20s, I played a very good season and started getting calls from various countries [U.S. included] for the full men’s team. I still don’t know what he saw in the other players, and what he didn’t see in me.”
He is regarded as a potential long-term replacement for Per Mertesacker.
CENTRE BACK
Chris Smalling (Manchester United)
A month after signing for Middlesbrough, Smalling had his contract with the club terminated because he was home sick. He then signed for Fulham.
Arsene Wenger tried to sign Smalling and flog Thomas Vermaelen to Man U but Man U spotted that Vermaelen was injured and wouldn’t play until April
He is regarded as a potential long-term replacement for Per Mertesacker.
CENTRAL OR DEFENSIVE MIDFIELD
Lars Bender (Bayer Leverkusen)
He is the twin brother of Sven Bender, who currently plays for Borussia Dortmund and they often pretend to be each other.
Arsenal tried to sign Bender in 2013 and, after he had been out with a thigh injury.
He is regarded as a potential long-term replacement for Per Mertesacker.
ATTACKING MIDFIELD or STRIKER
Reus (Borussia Dortmund)
Reus’ contract with Gladbach is set to expire in 2015 and reportedly had a buy-out clause of €18 million. He said at the time that his role model was Arsenal and Czech national teammidfielder Tomáš Rosický
Uncertainty over Theo Walcott, Lukas Podolski and Joel Campbell could make a deal feasible this summer. But On 10 February 2015, Reus signed a contract extension with Borussia, keeping him at the club until 2019.
He is regarded as a potential long-term replacement for Per Mertesacker.
MIDFIELD
Morgan Schneiderlin (Southampton)
On 25 February 2013, Schneiderlin signed a new contract extension to keep him at Southampton until the summer of 2017.At the end of the season, Schneiderlin was credited for the most tackles, interceptions and highest work rate in the Premier League, which will make his playing for Arsenal difficult, as officially all our players are lazy.
Under Article 8.1, Regulations Governing The Application Of The Statutes, FIFA Statutes, Schneiderlin is only eligible to represent France at international level as he has played at various age-levels in UEFA competitions prior to gaining British citizenship
He is regarded as a potential long-term replacement for Per Mertesacker.
DEFENSIVE MIDFIELD
Christoph Kramer (Borussia Monchengladbach)
On 9 November, away to Borussia Dortmund, he scored an own goal from inside the centre circle which gave his opponents a 1–0 victory.
He is regarded as a potential long-term replacement for Per Mertesacker.
STRIKER
Luiz Adriano
He is with Shakhtar Donetsk and his contract runs until December and he says, “it will be difficult to stay in Ukraine”.
On 20 November 2012, playing against Danish team FC Nordsjælland in the Champions League, a Nordsjælland player was injured and there was a dropped-ball, Shakhtar played it back, but Luiz Adriano rounded the goalkeeper and finished into an empty net. UEFA banned him for one game for unsporting behaviour.
He is regarded as a potential long-term replacement for Per Mertesacker.
The books
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal
I really hope that’s true about the Benders, someone needs to sign the both of them and see if the average referee can tell the difference.
I wish people would stop talking about Reus as a potential target because the mere notion of him playing in a front 4 with Sanchez/Giroud/Ozil, along with possibly Santi in midfield, makes me feel giddy.
I sit here at home on a Friday evening, Negroni in hand, and thank heavens for the inspired articles on UA. Great way to start the weekend. Keep up the good work.
Friday night and a meaningless match v Lithuania for next year’s EU title. England will qualify of course and founder long before the play-offs (as usual).
Meanwhile we hope that Arsenal’s current momentum in the EPL won’t have come to a halt due to injuries sustained on mainland Europe, in other qualifiers.
Billy (widely regarded as a long term replacement for Per Mertesacker).
Isn’t Arsene Wenger going to rush out and put an offer on Wellington Silva (widely regarded as a long term replacement for Per Mertesacker)?
Off topic but bad news, Danny Welbeck off injured and out of the Italy game next week. No information given as to what the injury is. He was also made man of the match.
Very wary of Smalling, on and off the field, but if Wenger knows something else and really does sign him, who am I to argue. As for Chelsea’s goalie, Just cannot see Jose selling us a top keeper.
Concerned about Theo and Szcz, players I rate highly…..is it as appears,,they are being encouraged out? Or are they being challenged?
Off topic, bad news, Scudamore getting even more power as the head of the EPL, good news, one of his right hand colleagues, in place to keep him honest is an Arsenal season ticket holder. I hope Claudia Arney makes sure we get a fair, proper and more level playing field than in the past
Thanks Mick (widely regarded as a long term replacement for Per Mertesacker).
While doing other things, I’ve been trying to find news about Danny (widely regarded as a long term replacement for Per Mertesacker). And I found a hint.
Danny has some kind of knee injury, but the English team apparently feels he may still be able to play against Italy.
Hodgson (widely regarded as a long term replacement for the trash container in your kitchen), go to hell! You already let off two Liverpool players. Send Danny home, it is only a friendly next week. We have better physio’s than you do.
Sorry, forgot the link for Scudamore, Claudia Arney I referred to above
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3013521/Richard-Scudamore-Premier-League-reign-extra-time-increased-powerbase.html
My reading (between the lines) of the things in the news today involving Scudamore, is that Scudamore thinks that he should get a large part of this 1 billion meant to help the EPL and FA. After all, if it wasn’t for him, there would not have been the 5+ billion deal. In a universe populated by Seth Bladder, he probably deserves at least 10% for his retirement fund.
It’s now clear there’s a direct correlation between being an Arsenal player and playing for England; Danny Welbeck was man of the match last night but the press can’t stop talking about harry kane. Hodgson was criticised for starting with Welbeck and you’d think after that performance they’d be admitting they were wrong and Hodgson was right. Sterling was quiet all first half but no criticism of him. Same with Barkley. I’m sure if Danny moved to west ham he’ll start getting all the plaudits he deserves again. There’s a disease in this country.
Personally I’d like it if being an Arsenal player meant you could never play for your country.
OK a few soft heads might not sign for us, but the saving in terms of broken players would be enormous.
Al,
I think we must be careful not to get too paranoid about the perceived anti-Arsenal attitude by the media (and match officials).
Unless or until we have evidence to that effect, we can only speculate.
Better by far to soldier on and show our critics that we can still prosper in spite of them.
Tony
I too would be more than happy to see none of our players playing for England, but it’s just the lack of appreciation they get from the media when playing for the national team translates to how they’re treated by referees at club level.
Nicky
I wouldn’t call it paranoia, there’s a whole debate out there right now about thi, see the two links below. In the standard article the reporter somehow thinks that Welbeck should be the one to make way for harry kane and not sturridge, even though the stats he uses show Welbeck has better stats than sturridge for both club and country. What logic is he using? I don’t mind Welbeck not playing for England, not at all as our players tend to pick up injuries on international duty, it’s the lack of respect that irks me.
http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2015/03/28/arsenal-fans-react-on-twitter-to-welbeck-display-disappointed-wi/
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenals-danny-welbeck-beware-tottenham-star-harry-kane-is-gunning-for-your-spot-in-englands-euro-2016-squad-10119821.html
Tony,
Your 8.32 surprised me.
Virtually all our grievous injuries sustained over the years were caused in League games.
Surely, for safety’s sake we should maintain a squad earmarked to play only in International matches. 😉
The Suns Mark Irwin.
Player ratings:
Welbeck 8 MOTM
“….Was looking over his shoulder at Harry Kane so had to raise his game”
Sterling 6
Where as Stirling obviously has no such worries !
Honestly these people are a joke.
Jambug
My take, is that Welbeck has had an influence that Sterling hasn’t, Alexis Sanchez. Alexis by nature, chases back, which raises the bar to other players. Podolski wasn’t taking the hint, and that is in part some of the reason why he ended up going to Italy. But, it looks like even that has had no influence on him, as he is getting almost no game time. What happens when he comes back here at the end of the season?
I hope Alexis has a good game tomorrow.
Gord
Going by what’s happened so far I just hope he doesn’t get injured !
Before Alexis was doing the defensive aspect of game, Giroud was already doing it for two seasons. Why no one but Untold talk about it? Now with Welbeck, AW has top three of quality in attack and in defense. How many teams can boast that? I think if Walcott don’t improve, AW will cash him in end of the season. Just saying… The trinity of Ozil, Cazorla and Coquelin are in-form, so Ramsey, Ox and Wilshere gotta raise their game cause Flamini, Arteta and Rocisky are still around. I think the defense is stable now with addition of Gabriel. Can’t wait for injuries-free 2015-2016