Tag Archives: She Wore

World Cup of the Underdogs

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This World Cup has been brilliant so far.

The “traditional” top sides are not actually that good, whilst those the level below are a lot better.

It is probably actually misleading to call the likes of Uruguay, Switzerland, Belgium and Croatia “underdogs”.

With the globalisation of football, the majority of their players play for some of the best teams across Europe.

Regulars who perform week in week out for Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Manchester United, Manchester City, Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan, PSG, Liverpool, Monaco, Chelsea and Napoli are amongst the players in the squads of those 3 countries.

They have La Liga winners, Premier League winners, Ligue 1 winners, Serie A winners, Champions League and Europa League winners in their line ups.

Both domestic and European club football has become predictable and ruined due to money.

The same teams dominating and running away with domestic leagues: the same teams always in the later stages of the Champions League.

You will never get a club side from Croatia or Belgium competing in Europe. The best players from those nations just get bought by the same rich sides dominating domestic foot all. The World Cup is refreshing. It is about talent and tactics rather than money.

It is just a pity that FIFA are trying to ruin the international game with Qatar 2022.

With how domestic football is deteriorating, international football could have become king again. It could have built on this exciting tournament.

Instead we will have a World Cup in a sandpit soulless nation with horrendous human rights record. A winter World Cup just because the Sheikhs of Qatar were able to offer the biggest bribes.

Enjoy this World Cup, as like domestic football, the future is all about money.

Keenos

Arsenal’s pursuit of Kylian Mbappe

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Kylian Mbappe. Great player. Great performance at the weekend.

It led to a few Arsenal fans saying “we should have signed him last summer”.

Well we tried. And we went big.

We were rumoured to have offered £80m to Monaco last year. A huge sum for an 18 year old. The deal never went through and he joined PSG on loan for a year with an agreement that they will pay over twice that this summer – £166m.

Instead Arsenal signed Alexandre Lacazette and in January Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

The pair cost Arsenal a combined fee of just over £100m.

So the money was there to go higher than £80m for Mbappe, but Arsenal didn’t.

Personally, I am more than happy in having Lacazette and Aubameyang instead.

Mbappe might turn out to be better than the pair (he arguably is already better than Lacazette, but not yet on Aubameyang’s level). But we got two instead of one, adding real depth to our striker force.

I honestly think that with the two of them, and Danny Welbeck as 3rd choice striker, Arsenal have the most strength in depth up top in the Premier League.

What a lot of people seem to forget with Mbappe is last summer was not the year we could have got him for a few hundred thousand. That was the year before when he was just 17 years old.

In the summer of 2016 we were very close to signing him. Arsene Wenger even met with his parents. In the end he decided to stay with Monaco – signing a new contract with the French club.

It reminds me a lot of the Ivan Rakitic to Arsenal story that broke recently.

At 16 years old, Rakitic has a trial with Arsenal. He also had interest from Juventus and Chelsea. He decided to remain with Basel as he did not want to be just another young talented kid at a high profile club.

Two years on and he joined Schalke, turning down offers from Barcelona and AC Milan. Again, his decision was based on playing first team football.

Mbappe has already broken into the Monaco first team. In 2016 he decided to stay with the club and play week in week out with them rather than join Arsenal.

At the time had he joined Arsenal he would have been behind Alexis Sanchez in the pecking order.

Role on a year and Arsenal had the £80m interest in him once more. A year older, Wenger now saw him as a Sanchez replacement; rather than a you player with potential.

Sanchez did not leave and Mbappe joined PSG on loan with a huge transfer set to be completed this summer.

“But he is a striker and better than Olivier Giroud” some moan.

You are wrong.

For Monaco he played outwide with Falco in the middle as a focal point. For France he players one side of Giroud (with Antoine Griezmann the other side) and for PSG he plays wide of Edison Cavani.

Mbappe would have come to Arsenal to replace Sanchez, not to play down the middle.

It should also be remembered that Mbappe is a Parisian. A PSG fan born in the French capital.

There is talk this summer that PSG might pull out of a deal to sign Mbappe. I would be very surprised as he is their future.

There will be yearly speculation about Neymar to Real Madrid. In Mbappe they have a Paris born player; the future of France.

If PSG do pull, I think it will be a battle of the Spanish clubs for his signature.

Barcelona need someone having missed out on Griezmann, and Real Madrid need a marque signing if they fail to land Neymar or Eden Hazard.

Mbappe is going to be a brilliant player – he reminds me a lot of Michael Owen’s break through in 1998.

Let’s focus on who we are buying this summer, not who we could have signed 2 years ago.

The future is bright at Arsenal. Let’s embrace it.

Keenos

Goodbye Jack Wilshere

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We wake up this morning with Arsenal being a very different place from yesterday.

For the first time in 17 years, we have an Arsenal without Jack Wilshere.

Having joined the academy in 2001 at the age of 9, he made his debut 10 years ago – becoming Arsenal’s youngest ever league debutant at just 16 years and 256 days.

If back then you would have said that he would have played just 125 league games for Arsenal; I would have laughed.

By now, he really should have been captain. The heart beat of the team. Both The Arsenal and England.

Instead he had found himself at home rather than in Russia, and no longer an Arsenal player.

I think it is the snub by England that has led him to leave Arsenal.

Having missed Euro 2012 through injury, played just 2 games at the 2014 World Cup, and missed Euro 2016 through injury once again, he had got himself fit and ready to go to Russia. Gareth Southgate decided a lack of first team football and his injury record meant he missed the flight.

That means Wilshere has started just 1 game – a dead rubber against Costa Rica – in international tournament football. He made his debut at just 18.

Wilshere has not left Arsenal due to money. He has not even done it to win trophies. He has left Arsenal in attempt to make something of his career before it is over.

At 26, he already has more money than he could dream of. He and his new wife and 3 children are already set up for life.

For Wilshere, he wants recognition. He wants to play regularly. To perform for club and perhaps now more importantly, country.

He wants first team football. The problem is, at Arsenal, we could not guarantee that. And nor should we. I imagine this is what Unai Emery told him.

Wilshere knew full well he would not get first team football, week in week out at Arsenal. He also knows he will not achieve this at the 5 sides above him. That means he will have to look down.

The likes of West Ham, Crystal Palace, Wolves and Southampton have already been linked. It might be harsh, but this is probably his level to be playing week in week out. There is even speculation over a move to Turkey, with novibet.co.uk installing Fenerbache as 1/5 favourites for his signature.

Southgate has shown by selecting the likes of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Harry Maguire and Jake Livermore that it is important to be playing and performing in the Premier League, regardless of who you play for.

The easy option would have been for him to stay at Arsenal, sign a new deal, remain in his comfort zone. 20-30 games a season. But he still has a burning desire to perform, to play week in week out, to get to the top.

I imagine in his mind he is focusing on the next two years. Euro 2020.

He leaves Arsenal having given the fans many memories- most notably a performance against Barcelona and that goal against Norwich.

But these were from 2011 & 2013. The reality is there have not been enough similar performances since that goal against Norwich.

I hope he gets what he wants, what he deserves. And in 2020 I hope I will be cheering him on in and England shirt.

Jack Wilshere, you are proper Arsenal.

Keenos