8 Years and We’ve Won Nothing – Season 3

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2007-08
So its two seasons without a trophy going into the 07-08 campaign and as a club we are in transition. We have a new stadium and our invincible players are beginning to move on to pastures new, we are in the process of building a new side and bringing new players in whilst managing to pay for a brand new 60,000 seater stadium.

Bacary Sagna has completed his transfer to Arsenal

Transfer wise this summer of 2007 saw Thierry, Freddie and Jose Reyes all move on to new clubs, we brought in Fabianski, Eduardo and Bacary Sagna. We also signed Lassana Diarra who moved on in January as he wasn’t getting enough games! If only he would have stayed he would have had a big part to play in our team for a good few seasons.

Pre season saw the usual trip to Austria which I actually attended with my brother, a week out in Bad Waltersdorf watching the training sessions and 2 friendly games. I met a lot of good Arsenal guys out there and made friends for life through one of the best gooners I’ve ever met, he happened to be staying in the same B&B as us and couldn’t have wished to meet a better mate. The Emirates Cup and also the Amsterdam Tournament finished off the summer and had us ready for the season.

We had a good start to the season remaining unbeaten in our first 15 games, notably beating Spurs away 3-1, we could only manage two draws in consecutive weeks against Liverpool and United in late October/early November. In fact we only lost once in 30 games, that came away at Middlesbrough in December. Apart from that we had a good November and Xmas period, and on New Years day we were top of the league. Overall it was turning into a very good season and the team were clicking, playing well, scoring goals and remaining consistent.
Then we went to St Andrews to play Birmingham City on the 23rd February. It was a fateful day and our red hot striker Eduardo broke his leg after a shocking challenge from Martin Taylor. They were awarded a last minute penalty after a challenge from Gael Clichy, in my opinion it was never a penalty, he clearly gets his foot to the ball and the ref made the wrong decision. Our skipper Gallas stropped off up the pitch and tried to kick the shit out of an advertising board. He then staged a sit in after the game not moving from the pitch. It was embarrassing to see and although Gallas was a good player for us, I never could call him proper Arsenal, even before this incident.

william%20gallas%20protest.JPG

After this game we went on a run of 3 more draws against Wigan, Villa and Middlesbrough, and a defeat away at Chelsea. By the beginning of April we were 3rd. We lost to Man United at Old Trafford after going 1-0 up with an Adebayor goal but by then we were out of the race and we went on to win our last 4 games finishing 3rd.
I often think about that draw at Birmingham and consider how much of an impact it had on our season. It completely threw us off, put that together with losing your in form striker and I suppose its going to have an effect on the rest of your games. The disappointment of losing 3 points in the last minute of that game coupled with a tragic injury knocked us off track and we never recovered in time.
It was the first season since the FA Cup win that we had been able to challenge for the league and was very close. Leading the way for most of the season only slipping away towards April. United eventually won the title and we finished 4 points off them, 2 points off of Chelsea in 2nd.

Europe was fairly good for us as well, we faced Sparta Prague in the qualifiers and got through with 2 wins. Our group was Sevilla, Steaua Bucharest and Slavia Prague. Our little group of fans went out to the Prague away game to see one of the most boring, wet and cold 0-0 draws you will ever see in your lifetime!
We finished second in the group and the draw paired us with AC Milan. After drawing 0-0 at home we flew out to see the second leg for one of my most memorable and favourite trips. Milan away, the San Siro, and to top it off we beat them 2-0, Cesc and Ade coming up with the goals which had us celebrating high up in the stand. I had the worst headache I’ve ever had coming out of the ground but it was worth it, what a win!

Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas celebrates after scoring against AC Milan during their Champions League first knockout round, second leg soccer match at the San Siro stadium in Milan March 4, 2008. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo

The next round had us facing Liverpool where it finished 1-1 in the home leg. We had a clear penalty shout turned down for a tug back on Hleb by Dirk Kuyt. The second leg at Anfield finished 4-2 and it was quite a game. We went 1-0 up with Diaby before Liverpool scored 2. Adebayor scored in the last 10 minutes after a wonderful run by Theo and pass across the area, this goal had us going through to the Semi Finals but no less than a minute later Liverpool were given a very soft penalty after a supposed foul on Ryan Babel. It was over, they scored the penalty and then scored again as we were pushing for a goal. Ultimately we had a great chance to win the competition this year or at least reach the final. We would have seen Chelsea in the Semi Finals and United in the final.

The FA Cup saw us draw United away in the 5th round where we lost 4-0, it was the game before our Champions League tie with Milan and we rested players which we paid a heavy price for.

Spurs beat us in the Carling Cup Semi Final 2nd leg 5-1 to end our run in that competition. Spurs went on to win the final against Chelsea. Again another competition we could have won, or would have been in with a chance of winning had we reached the finals.

I know I’m writing in “maybe’s” and “what if’s” in these reviews but I wanted to show how close we have been over the last 8 years to winning something. I wanted to prove that we havent just taken a back seat and let time pass us by as others improve and win everything. This season had us competing for the 2 biggest competitions we were in, we put a great show on in the Premier League, staying top for most of the season before we fell away, the Champions League saw us go out in the quarters in the final minutes of the 2nd leg, had we have hung on for a few more minutes we would have been in the Semi Finals and we will never know how well we would have done. We got to the Semi Final’s of the Carling Cup and again could have got to the final.
It’s another season of no silverware but we challenged, we were there and we fought and came close.

Cheers for reading.

Norby

*You can read part 2 here

Who is Andries Jonker?

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This morning Arsenal announced the appointment of Andries Jonker as Academy manager. He is a name that is fairly unknown in football, and any blogger who pretends to know anything about him is clearly making it up. On his appointment, my first comments were:

“I know nothing about him, but it is an interesting move and clearly highlights the globalisation of our academy as we have gone for a multilingual, well travelled appointment.”

Further exploration (ie Wikipedia) shows that he is an appointment that we could potentially be getting excited over, even if we all know nothing about him.

What will jump out to most people is his time at Barcelona, arguably the best academy in football over the last 10 years. This should be ignored. His tenure at Barcelona was short. One trophyless season alongside Louis Van Gaal.

Much in the same way, his tenure at Bayern Munich (firstly as assistant to Van Gaal, then as caretaker manager, finally taking a role as their reserve team manager in 2011) should be written off as well. The Bayern youth project was well under way at this point, and being an assistant manager is very different to be manager of a youth academy.

Where we are to get excited is his work for the Dutch FA. He spent 2 spells working for them – 1990-97 & 2000-03. Using Wikipedia (and other research) it is not completely clear, however, according to our site, his time in Holland was spent

“Developing and implementing youth coaching reforms for the KNVB (Dutch FA), in Haarlem and Amsterdam, and two seasons working as a senior coach in the youth setup of the Dutch Federation.”

Reportedly, our academy is in a state of disrepair. As revealed on shewore.com, the academy nearly lost its status with Liam Brady taking a lot of criticism by the FA for his running of it. We have bought in someone who, reading between the lines, reformed and re-organised the Dutch youth system. He is clearly experienced to do the job at Arsenal.

What is also exciting is the period’s of which he worked for the Dutch FA. In the last 20 years, the Dutch have had 2 strong teams. The side in 2000 should have won the European Championship, and the 2008 generation made the World Cup Final.

When you look at that 2000 squad and the names in it, the majority of the players (Stam, Davids, Seedorf, Overmars, van Bronckhorst, Zenden, etc) came to prominence in the early 90s, coinciding with Jonker’s tenure with Holland. Whilst this also coincides with a period in time of a brilliant Ajax academy, you have to think Jonker must have some credit for this – especially as his remit seems to be that of the Amsterdam region.

The second team was that of 2008. It contained the last generation of truly great Dutch players (Van Persie, Huntelaar, Van Der Vaart, Sniejder, Robben, Babel) all at some point or another being part of the Dutch youth set up between 2000-03.

What can not be a coincidence is that the last 2 great Dutch teams have been on his watch, and since he left his post with the KNVB, the Netherlands have failed to produce a truly top class footballer.

Finally, Andries Jonker  has worked closely with Louis van Gaal throughout his career. A man who Dennis Bergkamp holds highly. Whilst Jonker might not have been mentioned in Bergkamp’s autobiography, what is for certain is that he will have the same values and methods of van Gaal, who Bergkamp compares a lot to Arsene Wenger.

Is Jonker a good appointment? Who knows. But his CV and experience seems to suit Arsenal’s needs at the moment.

And a Dutchman on the coaching staff could be the first step in employing another Dutchman who used to play for us in the 90s (not Glen Helder…)

Keenos

Complacency creeping in to both players and fans

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There was a weird atmosphere in the ground on Saturday. It was one that I have no experienced since the glory days at Highbury. It felt like I was at the theatre. Sitting there. Waiting to be entertained.

I noticed the atmosphere in the Twelve Pins before the game, it was fairly subdued. On the walk to the stadium, there was no electricity in the air. Sitting down in the Emirates before the game, there was a bit of chatter but very little excitement. And then throughout the first half, there was barely a whimper.

The atmosphere over the last 18-24 months (probably starting off back at the AC Milan home game) has been vastly improving, but this was back to the bad old days. The only logical explanation is this.

Arsenal fan’s expected to win. We sat their and waited for the team to win. Waited for them to score. There wasn’t any nervous energy. It was a case of ‘go on lads, this should be a routine victory.’ We as fans were complacent.

The complacency also went through the team. After blistering first 5 minutes, where we really should have gone 1-0 up, the team seemed to take their foot off the gas. Like the fans sitting their expecting 3 points with little effort, the team did similar. They clearly believed they could score at any time. Open up Fulham’s defence with little effort. However this is the Premier League, and no matter who you play, you have to put in 100%.

The complacency creeping into both players and fans is worrying. We are only 1 point clear at the top of the table. The league is not wrapped up. The Premier League has been full of surprises this season. Anyone can beat anyone. The players need to ensure they are giving 100% every games. The fans need to as well.

Up next is Coventry on Friday night. An FA Cup tie will always generate a bit of extra atmosphere. But for the next league game (I can be arsed to look who it is), ensure you give 100%. Do not expect victory, cheers your team to victory. And let the players know that anything less than 100% is unacceptable.

Keenos