Tag Archives: She Wore

Arsenal get last laugh as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain ruled out for year

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Some players are just injury prone.

No matter who they play for, what fitness regime they are under, how little or how much they play, their bodies will break down.

Whether it is Jack Wilshere or Abou Diaby, Jamie Redknapp or Daniel Sturridge. Or the original sicknote Darren Anderton.  Some players will just always be out with injuries.

That is why it was no surprise to me when I heard about the news that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain would miss most of the 2018/19 season with injury.

When Arsenal sold him for £40m in the summer of 2017, I was delighted.

It was daylight robbery. We had got a huge transfer fee for a player who was injury prone and inconsistent.

Whilst some would point to “poor coaching”, the reality was this extremely talented individual was not living up to the hype. He was inconsistent who delivered a lot of dross with a little bit of magic occasionally thrown in.

He would beat three men, then run the ball out of play, or over hit his cross. And how often did he play a cross field ball that would whistle over his opposite wingers head and out of play?

He was frustrating.

At Liverpool he did not really improve. Some people decided to get hyped up about him. Those who used him to highlight Arsene Wenger killing players careers. The Liverpool fans who refused to accept their club had wasted £40m. And the Scouse loving media who wanted to paint Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool in a positive light.

Oxlade-Chamberlain did two things for the media. It gave them a reason to criticise Arsenal and Wenger, whilst praising Liverpool and Klopp.

Last season, he started just 14 league games; which highlights his inconsistency that he was not a first team regular for Liverpool. He scored just 3 goals with 7 assists. The year before playing right back for Arsenal he played a similar amount of minutes, scoring 2 goals with 7 assists.

In fact, when you analyse his statistics from the last two years, you can see how little he did actually improve; if at all.

On leaving, he seemed to blame Arsenal for a lot of his failures. A frustration of playing out of position they key one. What he failed to do was take any blame for his lack of improvement.

Players themselves have to be hungry and have the desire to improve. You could have the best teachers in the world, but if the student is lazy and disinterested, there will not be improvements.

Oxlade-Chamberlain thought he was good enough to play regularly in the centre of the park for a top team. He literally thought he was better than what he was. He moved to Liverpool and failed to play regularly in the middle of the park.

Compare him to Aaron Ramsey.

The Welshman is vastly superior, and it was him that was keeping the Englishman out of the Arsenal team.

I always compare Theo Walcott to Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The Ox is clearly the more naturally gifted, technical footballer, but he had very little output. He does not get the goals or assists that his natural talent should bring.

Meanwhile, Walcott is less talented, but his output was incredible.

Oxlade-Chamberlain turns 25 in August, he has just 12 career Premier League goals. Walcott turned 25 in 2014. In the season before he scored 14 goals in the single season.

Even if we remove the debate about his talent, there can be no debate over his awful injury record.

He has missed 600 days out injured since the beginning of the 2012/13 season. That is an incredible amount of time.

By the time he is out injured for the entire 2018/19 season, it will be nearly 1,000 days out injured in 6 years.

At the moment, he is injured about 30% of the time. A year out will take him towards 40% out injured.

There is no debate to be had. If you have 40% of your time off work, out sick, you would be sacked. This is football so it is different, but not being available for 40% of the time is incredible.

History continually repeats himself. A player with a horrendous injury record will not suddenly get better. Oxlade-Chamberlain, like Daniel Sturridge, will always limp from injury to injury.

Arsenal got £40million for an injury prone, inconsistent player 12 months ago. What a deal we got. And we laughed all the way to the bank.

Keenos

What does the future hold for 6 Arsenal youngsters

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Konstantinos Mavropanos

I have seen a lot of people put the 20-year-old Greek centre back into their starting XI’s for next season. This is premature.

Let’s look at it logically. He played 3 Premier League games last season. Was excellent in one (defeat to United), little to do in the second (5-0 win over Burnley) and was sent off after 15 minutes in the 3rd (Leicester).

He looks a strong, talented boy, but there is zero justification to to call for him to start alongside Sokratis against Manchester City.

I saw one fan tweet that “Mavropanos should start to help Sokratis get used to the pace of the Premie League”. But who will then help Mavropanos?

I do expect the Greek man to be involved next year; with Laurent Koscielny out until 2019 he will be battling it out with Rob Holding as 4th choice centre back.

He will get plenty of game time in the first half of the season, with Europa League and League Cup games. Either he or Rob Holding will go out on loan in the second half depending on Koscielny’s return to fitness and the form and fitness of others.

Reiss Nelson

A bit like Mavropanos now, Reiss Nelson suffered from overhyping last season, and did not progress as some fans would have hoped. But this is more due to their high expectations rather than his performances.

It is easy to forget he is still just 18.

I expect Nelson to be evolved more this season.

With our transfer business seemingly over for the summer, it is unlikely we will sign the player to fill the skill gap between Iwobi and Mkhitaryan that I desire. Instead it seems Lucas Perez will be that player, for a season at least.

Like Mavropanos, I expect him to play a big part in the Europa League and League Cup, where he will play alongside Iwobi.

He has a fairly simple to explain task. Over the next 6 months he needs to outperform both Iwobi and Perez in those Europa League games.

That is not to say if he doesn’t he will be written off. This time next year he will still be 19. Just the performances could dictate what happens to him in the second half of the season and what happens to Iwobi and Perez next season.

If Nelson out performs the pair in those early “b-team” games; he might find himself ahead of them in the pecking order for the second half of the season.

If he does not move ahead of them, it would be worthwhile sending him out on loan to a play-off chasing Championship side in the second half of the season. One where he would get 20 or so games.

If he has a solid season, at Arsenal or on loan, Iwobi and Perez should be worried about their futures.

Jeff Reine-Adelaide

The young Frenchman has not built on a promising early start to his Arsenal career.

He joined the club 3 years ago and you do not feel he has progressed too much in that time.

He suffered an injury in early 2017 which ruled him out for 12 months which has hampered his progress.

Jeff’s big issue is Nelson has moved ahead of him in the pecking order. The young Englishman is 2 years his junior.

Nelson already looks better than his elder team mate, so you have to think Jeff will be sent on loan for the entire season.

Eddie Nketiah

Another to suffer from a lot of hype after two goals against Norwich last season.

Still just 19-years-old, you have to wonder where he will get game time next season.

Arsenal are likely to play one upfront. That will leave Nketiah behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Danny Welbeck.

Some will say he should be ahead of Welbeck, those people are idiots. The England international might not be everyone’s cup of tea but he is better than young-Eddie.

With Welbeck’s contract set to expire next season, I would like to see Nketiah sent on loan to a top end Championship side. His task will be to show that next season, when Welbeck leaves, he is ready to be 3rd choice Arsenal striker.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles

He is going nowhere.

28 games last season, I expect a similar amount of game time this season. Only difference is this season he will be a central midfielder rather than a utility man.

I am excited for his future.

Emile Smith Rowe

17-year-old Emile Smith Rowe looks to be this summer’s break through youth player after he was added to the experienced squad for the game against Boreham Wood.

Smith Rowe was Arsenal’s standout performer in their run to the FA Youth Cup final, although he was part of the side that fell 7-1 on aggregate to Chelsea. The attacking midfielder won the Under-17 World Cup with England last summer.

He has described as a mixture of Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain due to his ability to unlock defences with his passing and ability to drive forward with the ball.

Next season will see him hopefully train full time with the first team. Hew is unlikely to go on loan as Arsenal will wish to continue his development training and learning from the likes of Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

A move out on loan will be pencilled in for 2019/20.

Keenos

Who could Arsenal draw in the EFL Trophy?

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Who could Arsenal draw in the EFL Trophy?The Checkatrade John Stones EFL Paint Trophy (or whatever it is called these days) was a terrific little competition for those clubs in League One and League Two.

A cup competition without the big boys that could result with a trip to Wembley.

The 1988 Final saw 80,841 turn up for the m match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley at Wembley. Just a year ago, 74,434 went to Wembley for the 2017 final between Coventry City and Oxford United.

The year that Coventry lifted the trophy, the English Football League revamped the trophy, inviting 16 under-21 sides from Premier League and EFL Championship clubs to take part.

The hope was that by letting youth team players participate, it would eventually improve the English team. What it resulted in was a big two fingers up to those lower league clubs.

Instead of embracing the opportunity to beat a top side, the decision to introduce academy teams lead to widespread boycotts.

In 2016/17, just 274 fans West Bromwich Albion academy team’s 2-0 defeat at home to Gillingham as fans stayed away.

Arsenal opted out of entering the competition for the first two years of the revamp. Deciding instead to have their players concentrate on youth-European games as well as the League Cup. This season, however, we have entered the competition.

I am not a fan of Premier League sides entering the EFL Trophy.

It has wronged the lower league clubs, with the potential of robbing them of a trip to Wembley. The last two season, the academy sides have failed to make the final, but what happens in the future if those sides start to dominate the later stages?

The result will be that the lower league sides give up on the competition. They will start putting out their young players, and the competition will become no more than another version of the FA Youth Cup.

Last season Chelsea visited MK Dons. There team contained 35-year-old goal keeper Eduardo. He is capped 36 times for Portugal.

Under the rules, your academy side could contain over age players. By playing Eduardo, Chelsea destroyed the integrity of the competition.

Scoring in that game was Michy Batshuayi, the Belgium international. Chelsea had used the game to help Batshuayi maintain his fitness whilst not in the first team.

A €40 million international striker playing in an academy team in a competition that was revamped to give young English a chance of senior football.

Belgium Charly Musonda and Brazilian full-back Kenedy also played in that game for Chelsea. In fact, their side contained just 5 English players.

So what benefit to English football was there for Chelsea to be in the competition?

And it is not just Chelsea. Rules are that sides

Leicester City fielded an Under-21 side with six senior players, three internationals and transfer fees worth around £45m in their 2-1 Checkatrade Trophy second-round win at Scunthorpe.

The rules of the competition dictate that teams may play four overage players, although I have seen some reports claim that you can have up to 5. Leicester’s 6 included Kelechi Iheanacho who was under 21 at the time.

I am not happy Arsenal entering the competition. If the club wants to see how young players get on against senior professionals, send them out on loan. In the mean time, Premier League Clubs have already have busy youth team calendars, with the Premier League 2, FA Youth Cup and various different European competitions.

Taking into account players currently injured (Laurent Koscielny) and those senior players who might be in need of first team football come the 3rd round in early January, Arsenal could put out the following XI:

Martinez

Lichtsteiner Koscielny Mavropanos Maitland-Niles

Zelalem  Guendouzi Reine-Adélaïde

Pérez Nelson

Welbeck

Just the two English lads who are under the age of 21. One of which (Ainsley Maitland-Niles) would quite possibly have played over 50 senior games by then.

The way the FA and Football League continually mess about with their competitions is a disgrace. There are constant complaints of their competitions dying, but all the authorities are doing is poising them to kill them quicker.

Today is the day that Arsenal will find out which group they will be in.

So everyone up for a trip to Wembley in April then?

Keenos