Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

2 out at Arsenal but will any be coming in?

1 Reply

See it seems this morning that both Lukas Podolski and Yaya Sanogo are set to leave Arsenal on loan until the end of the season to Inter Milan and Bordeaux respectively. What began as a reply on the She Wore Facebook page has ended up growing into a blog on the matter.

Firstly, I think both would have left in the summer, however the injury to Olivier Giroud (before we signed Welbeck) left us short and both remained. Sanogo was clearly in need of game time and Podolski had been surplus to requirement for some time, having been on the verge of leaving in the summer of 2013.

For one reason or another, neither’s Arsenal career has exactly hit the highs expected of them.

Yaya Sanogo has a lot of natural ability. Anyone who has seen him for France U21s will agree. The problem is he needs game time and to stay injury free.

Even before he joined us, he had injury problems. This led him to admit that he once considered quitting football:

‘I told my mum that because of my injuries I wanted to quit, I told her that I was ready to give up and go and work in the post office.’

Through no fault of his own, he was already starting his Arsenal career on the back foot.

Being part of the colossal mess up of a transfer window that was 2013, where we chased Steven Jovetic, Gonzalo Higuain and Luis Suarez, the signing of a 20 year old French youth international on a free, alongside his post office comment, led to   cruel mocking from Arsenal fans that all we had ended up with was a postman.

I could understand fans frustration’s, but they were targeted at the wrong man. Sanogo did nothing wrong. He was merely signed to the club, but became a scape goat. The anger should have been at Arsene Wenger, who failed to reinforce a sub-par forward line.

Sanogo’s signing should have been under the radar. A talented youth international who, given the right nurturing and time, could become a key squad player, but circumstances beyond his control thrust him into the lime light and onto the pitch when he clearly was not ready. It was not his fault.

If he gets game time and remains injury free  in France, he will score goals. I think he could return as a good squad player, and even if he is not good enough, wish him well. This is a kid who was just the wrong person at the wrong time.

As for Lukas Podolski, it is not really a mystery as to what has happened to him.

When we signed him, many spoke of a big risk, that he had not done it at his previous big club – Bayern Munich. Arsene Wenger probably thought he could bring his international form out of him. Unfortunately, despite showing glimpses, the same criticisms he suffered at Munich reared their ugly head. That he does not affect a game enough.

Podolski was always at his best (for Germany) playing alongside a big man (Klose) but two upfront is no longer in vogue. He is not quick enough, has enough skill, or good enough crossing to play wide left, and does not have the physicality or speed to play up top on his own. His one dimensional game is outdated with current formations. It is the reason why someone as talented as Jermaine Defoe is playing in America rather than the Premier League.

Arsene Wenger has come in for a lot of criticism from fans for ‘ruining’ Lukas Podolski, but I will defend him a bit here. Yes, he could have played him more, but the fact the Podolski has had the same issues at Arsenal as he did at Munich shows it is the player, not the manager.

Imagine an employee who blames his manager for his failings. He joins a new company, stating his under performance was due to poor management at the previous company. When at the new company, he shows the same failings again. Is it managerial issues at the new company? Or is it infact issues with the employee?

It is the later, and Podolski fits into the same bracket.

At Munich, Podolski played 71 league games scoring 15 goals. At Arsenal it is 59 league games and 19 goals.

At Munich he was manager by Omar Hitzfeld, Jurgen Klinsmann and Jupp Heynckes. At Arsenal he has been under Arsene Wenger. These managers have overseen:

16 league titles
12 Domestic Cups
4 Champions Leagues
154 international games

Maybe the reasoning behind Podolski’s failing at Arsenal and Bayern Munich is not the managers, but the player himself?

Of course, you could be petty and blame Arsene Wenger as he was the man who signed Podolski knowing his struggles at Munich. But that is petty and criticism for the sake of criticism.

Podolski has got a lot of love recently, but this is more due to his antics then his footballing ability. His instagram account, his tweets, his celebrations at Spurs. Maybe had he worked as hard on the football pitch to please fans as he did off it, he would have had a better Arsenal career?

I guess what sums up Podolski’s career at Arsenal for me is the away match against Galatasaray. Yes, he scored 2 great goals, but he was playing left wing. He attempted 0 crosses. This supports the analogy that if he is not scoring, he is not doing much else.

Good luck to both, but ultimately neither are Arsenal quality.

The big question is whether either will now get replaced. The answer is probably no.

On one hand, we do not need to bring in like for like. Between them, they have 239 minutes of Premier League football under their belt this season. With the likes of Sanchez, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Campbell and Gnabry in competition with Podolski for a place on the wing, and many of the above mentioned and Welbeck and Giroud competing up top, we are set for attacking players – unless a truly World Class striker is available.

We are still in need in defensive positions. The extra centre back and defensive midfielder. It is here we are likely to strengthen – using the wages saved from Podolski to reinforce. Personally, I would not be too surprised to see us buy a stop gap ‘utility man’ like Loic Perin who can cover right back, centre back and central midfield.

I doubt we will do much in January – we rarely do anything.

One a side note, the BBC have published an alternative league table this morning just for the 2014 calender year. No prizes for guessing where we finished…

Have a good New Years Eve, I am off to Southampton for the night before the game tomorrow. Good luck for 2015!

Up the Arsenal!

Keenos

 

Arsenal Review: 2014

Leave a reply

So what a roller coaster of a year 2014 has been then.

After being the form team of 2013, with just 5 league defeats in the calendar year, we entered 2014 top of the league and with out 1st realistic chance of winning the league since 2007/08.

After winning the first 3 games of 2014, Arsenal then went on a run of just 3 wins in 11 league games. The league title was thrown away.

A heavy defeat at Liverpool where we were 4-0 down after 20 minutes was closely followed by a 6-0 defeat to Chelsea were we again conceded 4 in the first half.

The low point was against Everton at Goddison Park where we did not get in the game and were comprehensively played off the park. When Mikel Arteta put the ball into his own net, the fire exit doors were kicked off their hinges and fans exited on mass. It was only 61 minutes gone.

At that point, we had gone from title contenders to top 4 being no longer in our hands. It was not good enough.

We managed to rally ourselves for the last 5 games of the season, gaining 15 from 15 and only conceding one goal, taking full advantage of Everton cracking under the pressure to finish 7 points ahead of the Toffee’s. A final league position of 4th meant we had once more qualified for the Champions League (Qualifiers).

The Champions League was very much ‘same again’. Punished for finishing 2nd with a draw against Bayern Munich saw us exit at the Round of 16 stage. Missed penalties, sending off’s and an injury to Ozil made it a campaign to forget.

Throughout the heartache of the league, Arsenal were ticking over nicely in the FA Cup.

Four home ties in a row led us to the Semi-Final, meaning we had the potential to win the Cup without ever leaving London.

We made it hard for ourselves in the Semi-Final against Wigan, needing an 82nd minute equalizer. The match went to penalties, where January signing Kim ‘Broken Back’ Kallstrom made his only significant contribution in an Arsenal shirt.

The FA Cup Final weekend was a thing of greatness. From hitting the White Swann on Highbury Corner at 11am, the high of walking up Wembley Way to the low finding ourselves 2-0 down within 8 minutes.

The roar that came with Santi Cazorla’s sublime free-kick was repeated with Koscielny’s equalizer taking the game into extra time.

The 108th minute is one engraved into every fans mind. That is the moment Aaron Ramsey won the cup. The Arsenal crowd went mental, 10 years of hurt over.

The party went on until late Sunday evening, where many fans would have found themselves in Highbury, wearing the same clothes as the day before, trying to work out what had happened in the last 36 hours.

It was a thrilling end to what had up to that point been a disappointing calendar year.

At some point (I forget when) the club informed the fans that they would be rising ticket prices by 3%. This mystified many, with hundreds of millions in the bank untouched, did they really need another £3 million?

The rise went through with very little protest – we as fans let ourselves down – and it was only later when a company owned by Stan Kroenke was paid £3 million for consultancy services that all became clear. Greed reared its ugly head once more and is quickly killing our great club.

During the World Cup, Arsene Wenger came in for a lot of criticism for being out in Brazil commentating rather than trying to improve his squad. But being out in Brazil seemed to be the right decision. Where else would you be able to sit down for dinner with the worlds best players and their agents?

In duty free, Wenger picked up Alexis Sanchez, Mathieu Debuchy and David Ospina. With Calum Chambers following, was this the light at the end of the tunnel? Arsenal winning trophies and spending money. The future was bright. Right?

Wrong. What should have been the beginning of a transfer window was also practically the end. With just Danny Welbeck joining on the last day, it left us short of a centre back and defensive midfielder.

With Thomas Vermaelen leaving for Barcelona (good deal) the promised centre back replacement never materialised, and boy did we end up paying.

The second half of the calendar year has been very much like the 1st. A couple of wins, a couple of draws, a couple of defeats. No real substantial run. Out of the title race in October, no victories against other top sides and disappointing results against the worst Tottenham and Manchester United sides seen in decades.

Injuries hampered the sides progress, but we only had ourselves, or Wenger, to blame, for leaving the squad dangerously thin.

Two 1st choice Centre backs, a 19 year old right back and a useless left back was our cover in the middle. And the world and his oyster could have predicted we would suffer injuries at the back, and low and behold, we did, and it has killed our season before it even really began.

In the Champions League, another season finishing second in the group actually worked out OK, with a tie against Monaco on the horizon.

Anger peaked in December with Wenger feeling the rath of fans anger at Stoke Train Station. This could be a sneak preview into what 2015 brings.

The fans split more than ever, many having more animosity to the manager and board than ever and people basically just not enjoying going to football anymore.

I feel we are only ever 1 defeat away from mass protests.

2014 could have been the year we saw change. unfortunately we failed to build on an FA Cup win and a good start to the transfer window, and it has left a bitter taste in many fans memory.

What will 2015 bring? Well with the title race over, out of the League Cup, and winning the Champions League unlikely, an FA Cup run and finishing 4th is all we really have to look forward too. Great!

Have a good one guys, and hopefully 2015 we see changes at the club!

Up The Arsenal

Keenos

 

Merry Christmas from all at She Wore

1 Reply

If you are up and about this Christmas morning, we at She Wore would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Whether you are on our page on Facebook, follow us on twitter, or log on daily to read our blogs  Happy Christmas to all.

Merry Christmas