Tag Archives: Matteo Guendouzi.

Fake news filling the void of the international break

2 Replies

This international break seems to have gone on forever. They always do. There really has not been much going on, so there has been little to write about.

Some have filled the void by spreading fake news about Arsene Wenger in talks to return to Arsenal. How a 15-year-old from India who runs one of those Twitter accounts that copy and pastes News Now headlines has inside knowledge on Arsenal I will never know.

Fact is the account in question does not have inside knowledge on Arsenal, and is merely making stuff up for RTs during the dull international break.

There has been plenty to fill the time during the break. Mainly cricket and F1. Add in Peaky Blinders and Mindhunter and there has been enough to keep myself occupied. Even used the free time to de weed my driveway.

There has been some Arsenal-related stuff going on over the last week.

We had Eddie Nketiah and Riess Nelson performing well for England U21s. Both are clearly too good for that level. But probably not quite good enough to play regular Premier League football.

Eddie has done well on loan at Leeds and, worst case scenario, Arsenal should be able to get a fee north of ยฃ20million next summer if they decide to cash in.

He is a pure finisher and needs to work on his link up play. Around the world, the top strikers are no longer just goal scorers. The likes of Sergio Aguero, Firminho, Lionel Messi and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang also get involved in the build up play. Eddie needs to add that to his game.

On the worlds best strikers, FIFA announced their โ€œBestโ€ list last week. Auabameyang failed to make the list. It was not a surprise as he failed to win anything. However when you consider only 4 of the players outscored him on the list, you start to fill these things are a waste of time.

The fact that Mauricio Pochettino was named alongside Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola as one of the best 3 managers last season sums it up. His Spurs side nearly lost as many games as they won.

Other stuff going on includes Grant Xhaka and paternity leave.

It is a story that has been blown out of proportion as people look to fill the international void.

His baby is due mid-October during the international break.

Xhaka’s Swiss team-mate Haris Seferovic has taken the same steps this week, leaving the squad early after becoming a father.

And Xhaka said: “There are more special things in life than football. For example, when you become a father.

“With Haris it was agreed that he gives everything against Ireland and then travels home.

“And with me, it would probably fall on that time when we play.”

He is not taking time away from Arsenal, but taking time away from the Swiss national team. There really is not much to complain about.

Tonight France play Andorra and it should see Matteo Guendouzi make his debut.

Fair play to the lad.

18 months ago he was playing in the French League 2, and now he is an Arsenal 1st team regular and about to play for his country. He has kicked on from last season and as long as he continues to progress, he could make it to the very top.

Real football returns at the weekend but before then we have more cricket!

Keenos

The Fabric of Football | The Arsenal: This is Home

Leave a reply

โ€œWhen you start supporting a football club, you donโ€™t support it because of the trophies, or a player, or history, you support it because you found yourself somewhere there; found a place where you belong.โ€ –ย Dennis Bergkamp

There are many different routes to becoming an Arsenal fan. Whether you were born into it or they were your local club. Whether it was because of Kanu or Thierry Henry. Or whether one day you were watching the 1991 FA Cup Semi Final on TV and decided to support the loser.

Regardless of how you become an Arsenal fan, what is important is that you found a place where you belong. You found a home.

As part of the new Arsenal kit launch, Adidas have produced a short film giving an in-depth look at the identity, community and values that make the club so unique.

Fabric of Football: This is Home calls on the experiences and insights of club legends, current male & female stars, hopefuls of the future, as well as fans to explore what makes The Arsenal a global club with local community at its heart.

The film โ€“ the second in the Fabric of Football series, following a similar look at the values of Real Madrid CFย  โ€“ celebrates the progressive and inclusive mentality of Arsenal, with club legend Ian Wright speaking with typical candour and passion about the role of the club in his experience growing up in London.

As well as Wright, Mesut Ozil, Alex Iwobi, Mattรฉo Guendouzi, Vivianne Miedema, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Leah Williamson, Jordan Nobbs & Per Mertesacker, all reflect with pride on their own journeys with the club so far.

This is that film

SheWore

Would Bergkamp or Henry have survived the โ€œTwitter eraโ€

Leave a reply

Yesterday I wrote about โ€œThe mystifying criticism of Matteo Guendouziโ€.

The jist of the article was simple.

19-year-old Matteo Guendouzi ran the game against Newcastle. No play had more touches, no player played more passes, and only Aaron Ramsey had a great pass accuracy. Despite this, and Arsenal winning 2-0, some fans went on Twitter to criticise him immediately after the final whistle.

https://twitter.com/OscarLindblad/status/1112807063787397121

https://twitter.com/GrimandiTweets_/status/1112821791133786125

Two responses to the Guendouzi blog got me thinking.

It is frustrating about how kick we get on the back of youngsters who are still making their way in the world. They are given no time to develop, to establish themselves in the first team. People, and mainly Arsenal fans, expect every teenager to already be as good as Cesc Fabregas. It is a high bar.

I can not think of any teenage midfielder to have been good as Cesc Fabregas when he first came through. And there will probably never be one. If we are using his ability as the bar to what is good enough, we are setting unrealistic expectations of these young lads coming through.

One of the reasons why fans get on these young lads backs quickly is Twitter.

https://twitter.com/gunnerrich/status/1113347102808125440

Again, absolutely spot on.

Twitter has changed the way fans view game. It has provided a platform of instant response, which in turn leads to an increase in expectation.

Every poor performance is Tweeted about thousands of times. Fans on the players backs the second the final whistle has blown.

Twitter, social media and 24 rolling news has put us in a “fast food era”. Everything has to be immediate, now, perfect. There is no room to develop, no room to progress, no time for someone to have a poor game.

It makes me wonder whether Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry would have survived the Twitter era.

Bergkamp joined Arsenal in 1995 on the back of a poor campaign with Inter Milan for a club record ยฃ7.5million. Inter Milan shipped him out, happy to get rid. Nearly 25-years-later, people would be moaning on Twitter that we had spent a club record on another sides reject. A flop.

The media were on Bergkamp’s back from the day he signed, with Alan Sugar quoted as saying โ€œIf Bergkamp thinks he’s gonna set the world alight he can forget it.โ€

The start of his Arsenal career would have gotten even more people on his back in the current era, as he failed to score in his 1st 6 games of the club.

At this point fans would have been all over social media calling him an expensive flop. Media outlets would be running stories of “the worst signing in the history of the game” and Sky would have spent an hour discussing his poor acquisition on the Sunday Supplement,

Bergkamp went on to become an Arsenal legend and is one of the greatest players to grace the English game.

Then we have Thierry Henry.

Like Bergkamp, Henry arrived from Italy after a poor season. This time for Juventus.

He only spent a year at Juventus, who dumped him after just 3 goals in his 19 appearances. Pace to burn, he struggled to defensively disciplined teams in Serie A.

He joined Arsenal for a club record fee (like Bergkamp).

If we bring his transfer into the modern era, fans would have been on Twitter moaning that we had spent a club record fee on an ineffectual winger. At 22-years-old, he certainly was not a youngster. What a waste of money, fans would have said.

And imagine the outrage when it transpired that Arsene Wenger was planning to use this average winger as a striker, as a replacement for Nicolas Anelka – the most exciting teenage striker on the planet.

And mirroring Bergkamp, he struggled in his opening games.

In 1999 blogging was a new thing. The internet was a new concept. But even back then there were Arsenal blogs. And I recall one slating Henry and Wenger. Bemoaning the fact that Arsenal had gone big on a failed winger and were not playing him upfront.

Had this happened in 2019 rather than 1999, this complaining would have been many times louder, many times more viscous. You would have had people offering to drive him back to France.

Henry’s first 8 games went by with 2 yellow cards and no goals. He finally broke his drought against Southampton – also the side that Bergkamp scored his first goal against.

Imagine in the current era, Arsenal spending a club record fee on a winger who had flopped in Italy, converting him to a striker and then watching him struggle to score in his first 8 games. There would be uproar.

Henry went on to become Arsenal’s record goal scorer and one of the greatest players the world has seen.

Both Bergkamp and Henry arrived at Arsenal having flopped in Italy. Both for club record fees. Both endured tough starts to their Arsenal career. I doubt either of them would have been given the chance to shine, to become the legends they are, if they were signed now.

Fans would have been on their back before they had even kicked a ball.

Keenos