Tag Archives: She Wore

Why did Arsenal tour Australia and China (and other pre-season stuff)

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Since the 3-0 defeat to Chelsea, the fans which seem to over analyse every single thing the club do, those that act as if they are scouts, coaches, managers, doctors and players, have now over analysed our pre-season tour of Australia and China.

Going to China and Australia

A big question they have asked is Why have Arsenal gone to Australia and China? The simple answer is money.

It is fairly obvious why teams, and not just Arsenal, travel the globe on pre-season tours. Money and to build the global brand.

I am fully on the globalisation of the modern game has ruined it for local fans bandwagon, and I would rather the Chinese stuck to their Super League, Australian’s stuck to cricket, and American’s kept inventing sports that they win at because they do not let anyone else play.

But the modern game is what it is. The elastic has broken. There is no going back. I will not sit and accept it, but I will understand why clubs do what they do.

The actual pounds, shilling and pence sides get from these trips abroad is not grand, but the money flows down from the brand building exercise. The extra shirts sold, the extra fans who start following the club.

It creates a buzz in these countries as well. One look at Twitter to see how excited Sydney based fans were about Arsenal coming to town. These might not be die hard, week in week out fans that are the ‘norm’ but they are fans none the less. They get up at silly o’clock to watch a game. They save the price of a season ticket just to get a flight to the UK to watch us play Stoke.

Sides have even started doing post-season tours (although teams were doing these 2 decades ago as well). And trips to China are not a new thing. In the 90s, Arsenal had an infamous trip to Hong Kong.

And it is not just English sides.

Arsenal played Bayern Munich in China. Manchester United played Real Madrid in America.

I am not a fan of them, but if playing these sides means there is no 39th game, I can support them.

Why Chelsea? Why not Barnet?

When I used to play Football Manager, I used to organise a yearly tour of the UK, where I would pit my awesome Arsenal team against half a dozen non league teams. I would win every game 30-0 with Cherno Samba scoring 50-odd pre season goals. It was a bit of fan. And most importantly, it was a game.

I see Arsenal fans complaining that we are playing Chelsea in China rather than Barnet in Britain.

The simple answer once again is money, and brand building (I actually hate this, we are not a brand, we are a football club, but as I said above, the elastic is broken).

Arsenal v Chelsea was live on ITV on Saturday lunchtime. If Arsenal played Barnet, it would not have been shown anywhere.

Also, surely the more competitive a game, the better, in pre season.

When I used to do a tour of the lower leagues on Football Manager, it did not really matter the games were uncompetitive, as it was just a game.

If Arsenal did the same, players would be unprepared, under cooked. There is simply no value playing a lower league side and spanking them.

When Arsenal used to play the likes of Barnet, the side would often me a couple of senior players who were not yet fully fit, and a lot of youth.

Arsenal’s U23’s are set to play both Borhamwood and Leyton Orient. So Arsenal are not ignoring their local lower league sides, they are merely sending the youths out for games which will sell-out.

I would much rather see the team get a slightly more competitive run out against Bayern Munich and Chelsea, rather then see our senior players playing in Barnet or Leyton.

Why not play Lacazette 90 minutes, every game?

One laughable I comment I saw was a plonker saying “Why hasn’t Alexandre Lacazette played the full 90 minutes”. Well again, it is pre season.

Overplay a player, and he gets injured, the same attention seekers will probably be moaning that he has been over played.

Lacazette played 22 minutes against Sydney in the first pre-season game. He started against New South Wales, before being substituted with the rest of the starting XI after 66 minutes.

On the tour of Australia, every senior player got a full 90 minutes, spread over the two games. In the first the starting XI were taking off after 66 minutes, in the second, every player who didn’t start the first, started, and got subbed after 66 minutes.

Better to ease players in, giving them time split across a few games, then a full 90 minutes one game, then nothing the next. It reduces the chance of them going into the dreaded red zone.

Against Bayern Munich and Chelsea, Lacazette got 45 minutes in each game.

Pre-season is about getting the squad fit and ready, if Lacazette played 90 minutes, every game, like some want, it would mean the likes of Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck would miss out on game time.

It is important to get every player in the squad fit, and limit the injuries.

Why were we jaded?

The excuses came out from Arsene Wenger after the defeat that the players were jaded. This got everyone’s back up and got people demanding “why are we jaded in pre season”. Simple answer really. Training.

Anyone who has ever done any competitive sport to a high level (and I am talking about more than just playing Sunday League football) will understand what it means to truly train for a competition.

You have peaks and troughs in training. Times when you are training hard, other times when you take the foot off the pedal. You end up tapering for a certain competition.

For someone like Adam Peaty, the world record breaking British swimmer, he would have tapered his training and peaked for the weekends gold medal attempt.

Had he has the world’s at the weekend, but also been asked to compete a month ago, he would have said that he was tired, not fully prepared. And this is because he would have been at the height of his training.

At the minute, Arsenal are trying to get prepared for the new season. There is no point peaking for a pre-season game against Chelsea. The side would have been doing intensive double training sessions to get ready for the first game of the season. The players will be tired. Their muscles still filled with lactic acid from last nights training session.

A team like Arsenal do not want to peak for the first game of the season. They want to be peaking in about March, when hopefully we are in the title race still, the players will be in peak condition ready to run away with it. In theory.

In the past, the likes of David Moyes at Everton and numerous managers at Spurs got their teams to peak from the first day of the season. This meant that they accumulated a lot of points pre-Christmas, but ran out of steam at the business end of the season.

You also see a lot of the lower clubs aim to peak earlier in the season, to get the points on the board so that they are ahead of the relegation battle curve.

I have no issue with Arsenal being tired at the weekend, as it just means that they are training hard.

Why take youngsters?

Finally we come on to the youngsters who are out on tour.

The likes of Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Connor Bramall at times looked out of their depth against Chelsea. This lead many critics to moan that they should have been left at home with the U23s where they belong.

Well this is another key point. It is pre-season. It is a chance to take a handful of youngster to see if they are good enough, close to being ready, to perform with the first team.

People (probably the same people) moan that youngsters do not get the chance, then they moan that they should not be given that chance. Pre-season is the perfect time to blood a handful of youngsters into the first team squad.

With Arsenal set to have Europa League and League Cup games in the first half of the season, getting an early look at some of these youngsters is important.

Reiss Nelson looked good, looked sharp. He was a positive. And highlighted exactly why you take these young players in tour.

3 weeks ago, Reiss Nelson was just another Arsenal youngster. Now everyone is exited to see how he will develop in the lesser competitions. And this would not have happened if he did not get his chance at pre-season.

It is very easy to read too much into pre-season results, but the important thing is not the results, but that we are prepared. Not prepared for the Emirates Cup, or even the Community Shield, but prepared for Leicester at home on Friday 11th August.

Stop moaning.

Keenos

What is the truth behind the Lucas Perez situation?

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I wrote a blog back in May about the unfortunate case of Lucas Perez. Unfortunately I have managed to delete it. So here is the short version of what happened with the Spanish striker.

1. He was signed to cover the injured Danny Welbeck back and the not-fully-fit Olivier Giroud

2. Whilst he settled, Alexis Sanchez was given a run upfront

3. Alexis Sanchez scored 30 goals

4. Perez was also competition for Theo Walcott on the right wing

5. Walcott scored 19 goals

6. He scored a hat trick v Basel. Well done

7. In the game before Basel, Sanchez scored a hattrick

8. The game after Basel, Walcott scored and got an assist

9. Perez failed to boot out either of the inform Walcott or Sanchez from the team

10. You’re an idiot if you think he should have started ahead of either

11. Olivier Giroud returned from injury

12. Danny Welbeck returned from injury

13. Perez was basically 4th choice striker

14. Perez got injured

15. Arsenal changed formation

Was Perez given a fair chance? No. But not everyone deserves a fair chance. I never got a fair chance to play for Arsenal. Neither did you.
Sometimes the truth is that there were simply better players ahead of you who maintained their form.
Keenos

Arsenal need to spend big – but not waste money like Man City

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For Arsenal, this summer is turning into a case of deja vu.

An early positive signing, followed by stalling on other targets caused by a lack of conviction or certainty. Meanwhile top players want to leave, or seemingly want to leave, and it all becomes a big spiral of negativity.

Whilst I am one of the first to shout “spend some f**king money” and become as frustrated as any other Arsenal fan with our incompetence in the transfer market over the last decade or so, I am also a realist.

I want the money spent, but it must be spent on quality. Players who improve the first team. Players who are better than what we have.

Sead Kolasinac and Alexandre Lacazette certainly full into this category. As does Thomas Lemar of Monaco. But there have been some big money players we have been linked with that are just not worth our time. The likes of Alvaro Morata would not have been an improvement on Olivier Giroud. I would not touch Kylian Mbappe at the reported £120m. And for the tenth year in a row, we have been linked with William Carvalho.

I always feel that when it comes to the transfer market, some fans are more concerned with what we spend, rather than who we buy. And some clubs also follow this philosophy.

This summer, Manchester City are set to break the £200m mark in players signed.

Of that £200m+, over £130m is set to be spent on full backs. I look at who they have signed , and it just feels like a case of spending a lot of money, and not getting a single decent player for it.

Firstly in was Bernardo Silva for £42.5m. A good player, but seems like a lot of money who was not even the best attacking midfielder in his team.

Whilst Bernardo Silva might be a decent player, I look at Manchester City’s options out in the 3 positions in behind a lone striker.

They already have Kevin de Bruyne, David Silva, Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling and Samir Nasri. Bernardo Silva is better than Nasri, but is he any better than the other 4? Probably not. The fact that he is their best signing, and best value signing, is worrying for what is to come.

We then come to their full backs. £133m on full backs. A crazy amount.

In has come in Kyle Walker. Do their scouts just play FIFA? Beast on there, inconsistent in real life. Can’t cross, can’t tackle, positionally awful. Let’s spend £50m on him.

It is like they did not learn their lesson from John Stones last season.

Then to back him up, they are have splashed £26m on Real Madrid flop Danilo. £76m on two right backs, who are not as good as Hector Bellerin. At 3 at the back, I would rather Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain ahead of them too.

When you think they had Pablo Zabeletta and Bacary Sagna last season, they have gone from two right backs who can defend, to two right backs who can not defend.

I do not see anyone at Tottenham or Madrid upset that they have lost their respective right backs. And that sums it all up.

At left back, they are set to sign Mendy for £52m. Another incredible fee.

Mendy is a decent player, but again, last season Manchester City had the choice between Gael Clichy and Alex Kolarov. Mendy feels like a step back. No where near as good as Clichy at his peak. It certainly stinks of desperation.

Meanwhile Arsenal signed the best left back in the Bundesliga in Sead Kolasinac. At £52m less than Mendy, and as a superior player, it is clear which side have got the better deal.

We then come to goal keeper Ederson. 12 months ago, no one knew who he was. A Brazilian goal keeper (who is uncapped by Brazil), who had only just been promoted from the Benfica B side.

12 months and with less than 40 league appearances in his gloves for Benfica, City splash £34m on him. Baffling when they spent big on Claudio Bravo last year, and are happy to loan out Joe Hart to West Ham.

Lastly we come to the £10m youth signing.

A bloke called Douglas Luiz from Vasco da Gama. A 19 year old midfielder. It shows how silly the transfer market is at the moment that some no mark who has barely played costs £10m. Has he even got a work permit?

It certainly feels this summer that Manchester City are spending a lot of money on some very average players. But of course, no one will comment, because they will look at the £200m spent, not what it has been spent on.

It is like spending £1m on a flat in Central London ,and ending up with a garage. You boast to your mates it’s worth £1m, but essential it is a load of crap.

Another side set to break through the £200m mark are newly rich AC Milan. And like Manchester City, I am baffled how they have managed to breach that figure with what they have signed.

Leonardo Bonucci is a world class defender, and Ricardo Rodriguez is a player I was desperate for Arsenal to sign last year. £50m on the pair of them combined is good dealings. But the rest of their signings are a little meh.

Fabio Borini, Mateo Musacchio, Andre Silva, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Przemysław Bargiel, Andrea Conti, Antonio Donnarumma, Lucas Biglia and Franck Kessié have all come in for around £130m between them.

£145m for a bunch of players who, at best, are squad players, second string. None would be good enough to start for Arsenal, let alone Juventus.

When you see media outlets describe Fabio Borini as “the naturally gifted Italian” you have to laugh, This bloke scored 7 goals in his last two years.

£400m spent between Manchester City and AC Milan. And if you combined the 16 players they have signed, you would struggle to build a squad that would finish mid-table.

I want Arsenal to spend, and spend big, but it must be big on the right players. Not chucking £133m at 3 full backs, or £145m at a bunch of squad players.

Keenos

Note: Before some say maybe if Arsenal spent like City, they would win things, in the last 3 years, Arsenal have won 2 FA Cups against Man City’s 1 League Cup, and gained just 2 less league points over that period. Of course, Arsenal do not win a trophy for gaining 2 less points than City over a 3 year period, but likewise City won nothing for it either.