Tag Archives: She Wore

Aaron Ramsey, Wingers & Max Meyer

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Aaron Ramsey

I am in the positivity train. I got on the moment Arsene Wenger announced he was leaving. The day we announced Unai Emery I got a job as ticket inspector. These days I am so positivity that I am driving the train.

I do however have two negative thoughts circling my head, both surrounding us playing 4231 – the formation preferred by Emery and played in pre-season.

Time and again Aaron Ramsey has shown he can not play in the two.

He is a wonderful football, amongst the best central midfielders in the league. I want him to stay. To sign a new contract. To be captain. But he needs a midfield 3 to get the best out of him.

Ramsey covers a lot of ground, and loves getting forward.

The problem is his lack is positional discipline leaves his midfield partner exposed. We have seen this time and again throughout his career.

If we want to get the best out of the Welshman, we need to play him in a trio alongside Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka. Not partnering just one. But Emery’s preferred formation does not allow for the accommodation of 3 in the middle.

The only way you could accommodate all 3 in a 4231 is by pushing Ramsey even further up, into the number 10, and then playing Mesut Ozil out wide. But then this is a waste of both of their talents.

Ramsey at 10 is too high up the pitch. He then can not make his late runs into the box.

And Mesut Ozil needs the freedom to find the ball. Whether it is is on the left, right or middle.

By playing him on the left you end up with half the pitch having no Ozil. 50% less Ozil is no good.

Wingers

My second concern is the lack of widemen to sufficiently play 2 wide forwards.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan can certainly play wide right. People forget that in 2016 he was named Bundesliga Player of the Year coming in off the right in a similar formation as what Emery is planning.

The problem is the left hand side. Dortmund in 2015/16 had Marco Rues on the left hand side. Arsenal have a choice between Danny Welbeck and Alex Iwobi. Not quite the same is it?

There is an obvious solution to both situation. Sell Aaron Ramsey.

It is not a situation that I am comfortable with, but it is one that makes sense.

You sell Ramsey, and invest that money into a wideman. Someone like Dembele at Barcelona, Leon Bailey, Anthony Martial or Julian Draxler.

Then behind the 3 you have Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira. A much more solid middle of the park, Ozil in his best position and natural widemen.

Max Meyer

Former Football Manager “wunderkid” is about to join Crystal Palace on a free transfer.

For a while, he was top of my list for central midfield options at Arsenal. At a free transfer, it seemed like a no brainer.

Arsenal would get a 22-year old midfielder who would replace Jack Wilshere, cover Aaron Ramsey, as well as back up the 3 behind the striker.

But all was not as seemed.

Linked with Liverpool and AC Milan, as well as Arsenal, Meyer is now joining Crystal Palace. An odd fall from grace.

It transpires that money is Meyer’s motivator. That he (and his agent) priced himself out of a move to a top club by demanding what he felt was his transfer value to be paid as a signing on fee. The problem is those clubs did not see him as worth that much.

By paying Meyer and his representatives a £30million fee, he no longer really becomes a free transfer. He becomes a £30million transfer.

Clearly Arsenal, Liverpool, AC Milan and others felt that £30million could be better spent elsewhere.

Keenos

Government urged to investigate working conditions at Tottenham Hotspur stadium

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The Government are being urged to investigate working conditions on the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, according to an investigation by leading industry publication the Construction News.

It has already been previously reported that the delayed and over budget project has lead to dramatic wage increases for construction workers throughout London – with electricians offered up to £400 a day to work onsite.

The latest findings by the Construction News highlights how much of a disaster it has been.

Construction News has been told by workers on the scheme that many were working long hours as the handover deadline approached, and has also obtained evidence of workers being incentivised to undertake back-to-back 12-hour shifts.

The £800m project, which is being built by Mace, is nearing its completion date in time for the club to play its second home game of the 2018/19 Premier League season.

An email to staff from one subcontractor on the project, seen by CN, offers workers an extra four hours’ pay if they work four 12-hour shifts in a row.

CN has also discovered multiple job adverts, posted by recruitment agencies on a major UK job site, for roles involving 16-hour days and 80-hour weeks.

The posts call for workers who can take on “long hours” as the project “has to be kept to extremely tight deadlines”.

One night labourer advertisement requests workers who can do “80 hours per week”, while another for a handyman role advertises working hours of “8 hours a day to 16 hours”.

Responding to CN’s findings, a spokesperson for Mace said the contractor was “aware of the risks of overworking on such a busy project”, adding that the firm was carrying out random spot checks with subcontractors to make sure staff working longer hours were given breaks and rest periods.

There is no suggestion that Mace was involved in creating or posting the job adverts seen by CN.

A worker who left the project due to the working conditions, and spoke to CN on the condition of anonymity, described how the project’s intensity had increased ahead of a test event at the new ground in late August.

“All our supervisors came and said, ‘It’s crunch time, we need you to do a lot more work’,” they said.

The former worker said conditions on site had become challenging as more and more workers were brought in.

“There were so many people there when you were walking round the corner you’d nearly be being hit in the face by stuff. Compared to other jobs it just seemed very rushed.

“One of my colleagues – an experienced electrician – said he felt he should go to the Health and Safety Executive, he’d never worked on a site like that.

“He reckoned it was overcrowded and there were too many trades. There was an accident waiting to happen.”

The current total workforce on site is just over 3,800 people, CN understands, with around 100 staff being given a full health, safety and wellbeing induction on the project each day.

In May, Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy wrote an open letter to supporters which included an update on the stadium, saying “contractors with a workforce approaching 3,000 are working around the clock” as it battled to get the stadium completed for the start of the 2018/19 season.

In response to CN’s investigation, Labour’s shadow minister for labour Justin Madders called on the government to act to ensure those working on the project were doing so safely.

“Terms and conditions that put the welfare of workers at risk are unacceptable and the source of these adverts must be thoroughly investigated as a matter of urgency,” he said

“This is a high-profile project which should be founded on a gold standard of health and safety. A tight timeframe is no excuse for working conditions that can put people at risk.

“The government must act immediately to ensure all those working on Tottenham’s stadium are doing so safely and are not being forced to work dangerously long hours.”

A Mace spokesperson said the business would continue to work with Tottenham Hotspur to identify areas of improvement around health and safety as the project entered its final phase

They said: “As [is] normal with a project of this size, which is comparable to projects like the Olympic Park or Heathrow Terminal 5, during the final phases of construction activity ramps up.

“This will come as no surprise to anyone with experience in our industry.

“The health, safety and wellbeing of everyone working on our projects is our highest priority, and we are committed to making sure that everyone on our projects goes home safely at the end of each day.

“As with any project, there is always room for improvement, and we are constantly working with our client, supply chain and operatives to identify areas where we need to do better.”

A Tottenham Hotspur Football Club spokesperson said: “Our stadium construction partners Mace are in control of the stadium site and we expect them to uphold the requisite welfare rights of all contractors.

“They have assured us that they supply the appropriate level of welfare facilities, in line with industry standards for a site of this size, and reiterated that the health and safety of all those on site is of paramount importance to them.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “The UK has some of the most robust protections for employees and safest workplaces in the world.

“Employees with concerns can raise a complaint through the Health and Safety Executive for safety issues and get support on workplace disputes from the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.”

Recent reports are that a failure to secure naming rights for the project is set to cause the North London club financial difficulty.

Keenos

Aaron Ramsey closing in on new deal

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I think he is looking at what the likes of Mesut Ozil is getting, and what other’s in the Premier League are on, and feels that £150,000 is less than what he is worth

That was the response from someone during a discussion over what is happening with Aaron Ramsey’s contract. And it is very hard to disagree with it.

Aaron Ramsey is one of the best central midfielders in the Premier League – I find it very odd the way some fans still criticise him.

At 27-years old, he is coming into the peak of his career. There are not too many all round midfielders better than him.

He covers the ground in the middle of the park – usually number one for KM covered for Arsenal. He can pass (85% pass completion),he can defend and he can attack – he averaged 1 goal or assist every 3 games in the Premier League throughout his entire career.

If you take penalties out of it, is influence in terms of goals and assists per game is not too far off Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard – and they both also took free kicks and corners.

The two Englishmen are superior to Ramsey, but it is hard to name too many other Premier League central midfielders who, over the last decade, have been as consistent and influential as Aaron Ramsey.

He does have his injury problems, and has failed to play over 25 league games in the last two years, but fans were more than happy to ignore the injury records of jack Wilshere and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain when is came to contract renewal time.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is one of the players Ramsey is probably looking at,

Arsenal were reportedly willing to offer The Ox £180,000 a week. Ramsey is a much better player, there is no debate.

As well as Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey is probably looking at what players at other clubs are getting. The likes of Raheem Sterling, Fernandinho, Cesc Fabregas and David Silva. All of which are in the £160k-£200k bracket. He is in the same box as these guys when it comes to influence and talent.

He is probably also looking at Paul Pogba on £290k a week.

Pogba has the name and reputation, but he often flatters to deceive due to his high price tag and wages. Is Ramsey on Pogba’s level? The statistics would indicate yes.

Paul Pogba is overpaid on £290k a week. Would Ramsey be underpaid on £150k a week?

As Arsenal fans, we have moaned in recent years that not enough of our players would get into the first XIs of those above us.

Ramsey would start for every Premier League side bar Manchester City. And even City would want him as a squad player – he would still probably start 30 games across all competitions for them.

My feeling is Aaron Ramsey will sign a new deal, maybe even this week. I am certain he will not go to Chelsea or elsewhere over the next 10 days.

If he does not sign this week, he is playing the Ozil card, waiting as long as possibly to sign to push those wages up. In that case, we will see him agree a new deal in December or January.

Ramsey is key to our present. Hopefully the deal is tied up this week.

Keenos