Vieira to Man City

"I wanted to go to the World Cup and I need playing time... What's important for me is to go to Manchester City, to show the coach that I am the same as I was during the period when he was at Inter. All this will help me get into the France team."

- Patrick Vieira, explaining why he'll be playing for City before long

I'm feeling a bit underwhelmed by Vieira moving to City. I understand the reasons behind the move - the chance to play under Domenech in a World Cup is too good to pass up - but I can't help but think that he's moving to the wrong club. It's going to be strange seeing him in a sky-blue shirt.

It's a pity that he's not going to spend the last few years of his career at the Arsenal. We could do with a tough-tackling midfielder who can provide genuine leadership and instil a winning attitude upon our impressionable young naifs. And we could do with one that would retire in a couple of years, and make room for Messrs Coquelin, Frimpong, Eastmond and JET. And we could really do with someone who could cover for Song over January.

Some people would say that he wouldn't fit into the Arsenal because doesn't have the legs for our game anymore. They'd point to the crazy levels of fitness that Wenger demands. They'd point to Vieira injury record. They'd argue that since Wenger judged him too old five years ago, it stands to reason that he'd still be too old to play the Arsenal way.

But I don't know about that. We've a bunch of young whipper-snappers who can run around like crazy and compensate. And a 4-3-3 seems tailor-made for a DM who can't run a lot but who can direct traffic and shield the defence. I'm not expecting the Vieira of old after all. I'm expecting old Vieira - a vastly experienced 33 year old who can do the water-carrying and stiffen our resolve when things get tough.

It's going to be an interesting looking Man City side. Toure, Adebayor, Sylvinho, Taylor, and now Vieira... if the Abu Dhabi sheikhs wanted our players that badly, they should've saved their money and just bought the club.

Oh, and this is a classic from Wenger, about Gallas's great recent form:

"William has been amazing the whole season. He does what you dream of as a manager: he does not talk and he plays well."

Probably the first time in his career that Gallas has been praised for not talking.

Even my nephew can't roll over like the Arsenal

My nephew George learned to roll over last week. It's a big landmark for a baby. It's the very first step towards independent locomotion and freedom. It opens up a bigger world for him; life is no longer the polarising dichotomy of "up" and "down" - there is now a left and a right as well. 

All in all, it's very exciting. 

Watching him roll over the other night made me realise what an incredible tricky thing it is. My sister-in-law lay him on his stomach at first, and propped him up on his arms. Then he started to topple over on his side. He looked like he was doing it easy, but then he got stuck as he lay on his side. He started kicking out a bit to flop over, but couldn't manage it. He looked a bit like a turtle stuck on its back. 

I've been assured that he's rolled over three times already, but it's still obviously a little tricky for him. He hasn't got the knack of twisting his hips with his back muscles. But he's young, and he'll learn in time. Rolling over is natural part of the human condition. And if he needs inspiration with regards to rolling over, he's got the Arsenal as potential role-models. 

Even my nephew can't roll over like the Arsenal. 

We lost again last night. 3-0 to Man City, who comprehensively out-played our youngsters. When you add this to the 1-4 defeat to Chelsea over the weekend, and the 0-1 defeat to Sunderland last week, it's pretty depressing. Nobody rolls overs like the Arsenal on a losing streak. Not only does our first 11 not show up at matches; even our reserve players are starting to not show up. 

Where to from here? 

Well, the glaring deficiencies that were apparent at the start of the season are all still there. We still don't give a fuck about defending. We still don't prepare for set-pieces. We still don't have a strong squad. We still have a lot of young players who fold in pressure situations and who don't have the guidance on the pitch that they deserve. 

What's going to happen to fix the problem?

We're going to get a new striker in January. Other than that, not much. Arsene Wenger believes in developing a squad in a natural way, which to him means not buying the players we need and not coaching defences. So we just let our player develop naturally.

Just like my nephew George, we're going to get a lot of practise rolling over. 

Man City 4, Arsenal 2

"I believe we were defensively a bit shaky today."

- Arsene Wenger, a master of under-statement

Well Goonies, we're fucked.

If I was being philosophical, I could say it's a long season and anything can happen, that we played well but lost, that ex-players always do well against their former clubs and it's not unexpected, and that since Arsene Wenger isn't worried, we shouldn't be too. All setbacks are just an opportunity to learn. After all, as Bob Dylan once sang, how many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?

If I was being a good loser, I'd say that it's a pleasure that Toure's been made captain of Man City, and it's delightful that Adebayor is playing well and scoring goals. Adebayor has always had great talent and I could say that it's pleasing that he's started to apply himself again. And of course, a defeat of this magnitude is a big learning experience for our young players.

However, I'd rather not be philosophical. Nor a good loser. I'd rather be an obsessive sore loser (i.e. a fan). It's quite frustrating to see a side lose 4-2. It's not exactly a Henny-Penny-sky's-falling-in moment, but it is fairly depressing. I think most of us have accepted that we're not going to win the league this year, and have scaled down our expectations accordingly.

But losing to City hurts.

It's that deep, dark helpless depression of knowing that this side could be so much more than it is, but it isn't because the manager won't spend. How much would it cost to buy Akinfeev, Villa and Mahamadou Diarra? And how much would we gain if we were a genuine contender again? I refuse to believe that the cost is greater than the benefits. As I said in the previous post, I still think we're going to finish 4th, but I don't think there's the will at the Club to progress any further.

And as for how many roads a man must walk down, WikiAnswers (another of the marvels of the internet) kindly provides the answer:

1) As many as it takes. Which is of course a non definitive answer.

2) 42, which is the ultimate answer to the ultimate question (Dixit Douglas Adams in "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"). Which would imply that "How many roads must a man walk down?" is in fact the ultimate question to life, the universe and everything.

3) Just one, the road of life. Which will either make a man a man, or not as the case may be.

Which leaves us with one tantalising thought - isn't 42 million the amount banked by Arsenal after the Toure/Adebayor sales?

Thoughts About Arsenal vs Man City

So this is it. The Big One. A genuine six pointer against our closest league rivals. It's the big face-off between Man City and Arsenal, with the hotly contested prize of 4th place at stake.

Does anyone else feel a bit deflated? Our biggest competition at the moment is from Man City, and the biggest "prize" we can sensibly expect is 4th place and Champions League qualification. It's a bit of a come down from the days when we were duking it out with Man Utd for the Premier League.

Our team isn't looking too bad. We've swapped Toure for Vermaelen, and it looks good so far. Adebayor hasn't been replaced, but the switch to 4-3-3 brings Arshavin and Eduardo closer to goal and (hopefully) we'll be able to replace Adebayor's goals with contributions from our outside forwards. We're playing well, and given the right circumstances we would have three wins from three going into this match.

Man City have spent heavily, as they're flying. Toure, Adebayor, Barry, Tevez, Lescott, Santa Cruz.... have I left anyone out? Adebayor's scored 3 goals in 3 games and is feeling the love from Citeh fans, and Toure's been appointed captain. It seems like Man City's started to click, and that could mean trouble for us.

But I digress.

Myles Palmer mentioned that this match isn't going to decided by big-name signings of the past summer. Instead, it's going to be down to our respective goalkeepers. It's a good point. Given has almost 100 caps for Ireland and has been one of the best Premier League keepers for almost 10 years. Almunia has no international caps and generally gives good performances, but he also makes the occasional mistake. Sometimes Almunia's mistakes come back to haunt us, and sometimes they don't. I'm just crossing my fingers that Almunia pulls in a blinder.

It's a big game for us, but I'm not nervous, or excited. I'm kind of resigned to fate. I foresee a positive start to the season, with our form fading through the winter and then a brief uplift in spring. 4th seems about right, and I don't think we'll budge much from that position. Even if Man City are better than everyone expected, we can still spend our way back into 4th during summer. I don't think the board expects anything more than that, and I don't think Wenger's team can do better than that.

So let's go the Arsenal. I hope we win, but if we don't it's still a long season and anything can happen.... except for us winning the league.

Predictions: 3-1 to the Arsenal, Almunia to start wearing a fake ponytail and 'mo to channel his inner Seamen, and Bendtner to tell Adebayor that "we only sold you because you're shit".

Arsenal vs Man City

"phoenix band, north korea missile launch, Phoenix music, we were soldiers, at t strike, cwa, cwa strike, where is villanova university located, att strike, cwa union..."

- the Top 10 hottest Google search terms for 4/4/09, in a bid to get more traffic to this blog. I'm surprised there's nothing about sex, porn or Britney Spears.  

It looks like a lazy spring afternoon in London - the stands are full, the grass is green and the Arsenal are dominating. Beautiful stuff and it makes me wish I was there. In fact, we're going so well we look a bit nonchalant. About ten minutes ago, some dude (Cesc?) crossed it in from the right, Adebayor headed it in. He wasn't marked and didn't even bother jumping for it.

1-0 to the Arsenal.

21st minute, and Toure just drove in from the right, skinned two Man City players and hammered the ball right into the 'keeper's chest. We're playing really, really Arsenalesque at the moment; brilliant football with no goals and a shakey defence. I hope we can get that second goal, I really do.

24th minute. Nice little through ball by Walcott to Adebayor. Adebayor hits it at the keeper, the ball rebounds to Arshavin, who has an open goal.... and Adebayor's called for being offside. I wonder how many games it'll take for Arshavin to get so pissed off at Adebayor that he'll try to headbutt him in the groin?

31st minute, and we're defending like crap. Some bald Man City dude was unmarked on the edge of the penalty area and hit the post. I know Gallas and Toure aren't on speaking terms, but couldn't they at least pay attention to each other on the pitch? It's not enough for them to say "I'll defend my half and you defend yours."

It's almost halftime, and we need that second goal. Man City's brought Elano on the pitch to take advantage of our crappy, slack, and lazy defending. If it wasn't for Almunia and the woodwork, we'd be in a bad, bad place right about now.

48th minute. Adebayor. Second goal. Yay. A hint of offside, a nice little side-step and a calm finish. But still, can't get excited about Adebayor's goals. I wonder why?

2-0 to the Arsenal.

62nd minute, and they've really got to find a way to protect Arshavin. Just got mowed down by Richards(?). The Owl gets hacked up every game he plays, and I'm starting to worry about how he'll take season after season of this treatment. He's only a slight fellow.

70th minute, and Bendnter's coming on for Adebayor, and Eboue coming on for Walcott. Wenger loves bring on these two on the 70th minute. It's traditional. Arsenal's steeped in traditions like that.

78th and Cesc is off for Ramsey. Good performance by Cesc today, especially after three months off. And the 4-2-3-1 worked well with Cesc, Theo and the Owl. It's something we should persevere with.

And we've won. I think 92 minute, and there can't be much left. Nice performance by the boys.

2-0 to the Arsenal.

Man City and Cardiff Castle

“As a Chelsea fan. I envy you. I know what it's like to suffer years of hope with nothing to show for it. But a couple of weeks before the January transfer window the speculation about which players you will sign will go ballistic and, to be honest, it's a great feeling to have the world's top players linked with your club. The thrill wears off after a couple of years so enjoy it while it's fresh.”

- SuperDad, bbc.co.uk/606, a comment from The Times

I've just come over from Cardiff Castle. I'd passed by it on the bus a few times yesterday, and I thought it looked interesting. It is, and it isn't. There's a 12th century castle on a motte in the middle, but the high walls and the Gothic clock tower are 18th century recreations by the 3rd Marquis of Bute. Being one of the richest men in the world wasn't satisfying, obviously.

He wanted to live in a castle.

I did the tour, and it turned my stomach. It's done up in a faux Gothic style, and it's so elaborately decorated (gilded, painted, carved, and highly polished oak panelling) that it looks a bit garish. It's looks a bit like the Cuckoo restaurant up in the Dandelong Ranges.

Please be patient, I do have a point.

There are a lot of billionaires in football at the moment. From Silvio Berlusconi to Roman Abramovich, and now to shady types like Thaksin Shinawatra and our own Alistar Usmanov, football's the trendiest acquisition for the man who can buy medium-sized African countries. They tend to buy an obscure club, inflate it with lots of cash, and then stock it with a lot of fancy players (and their accompanying bling). With Man City, Robinho's just the start. They also want Torres, Ronaldo and our own Cesc Fabregas.

The Greeks had a saying - nothing in excess. Too much of anything is bad taste. Even if you're buying the best, it starts to look a bit unnatural.

Take the Marquis of Bute's fairy-tale castle - each article is beautifully made. But with too much elaboration, it becomes gaudy. If you stockpile a room with gilded ceiling paintings, wooden vaults, oak panelling with acorns and monkeys, stained glass windows.... it looks too flashy. If he'd been a bit more restrained, and kept one feature piece in each room, it would've looked alright. But too much bling (even high-quality bling) is tacky.

The (long-suffering) Mrs Marquis of Bute slept in a separate bedroom with a separate drawing room. My tour group poked around her quarters, and they're spartan by comparison - pale green walls, a couple of wall-lamps, a carpet. I'd imagine her developing an acute visual headache in the main Gothic rooms, and then fleeing back to the calmness of her sensible Edwardian(?) drawing room.

Likewise, too many top, top players can get a bit much. Remember how we salivated when Nasri arrived? Now imagine how it would've been if we'd got Essien, Silva and Villa in the transfer window as well. Nice, hey? What about Akinfeev and Benzema in January? And Ronaldo, Vidic and Ramos after that?

Don't know about you, but if that happened, I'd be running out the room like much Mrs Marquis of Bute did in the 1700s.

Superdad (the source of my quote), has a point. Football speculation is like a fizzy soft drink. There's only so much carbon dioxide in each can. You can open it and sip, and enjoy the fizziness for the entire can. Or you can shake it up and have it escape in one enormously pleasing spurt. But if you do that, the rest of our drink is flat and boring.

That said, Wenger really should've bought a defensive midfielder. At Arsenal we like restraint, but it's not nice to live in a prison cell.

No player, no cry

So no, woman, no cry;
No, woman, no cry.
I seh, O little - O little darlin', don't shed no tears;
No, woman, no cry, eh.

- Bob Marley, "No woman, no cry"

So we didn't get anyone on transfer eve. We were good boys and girls for all the transfer window, we left out cookies and milk, and still Wenger Claus didn't arrive. It makes you wonder whether we should believe in make-believe characters who slides down chimneys and spends mega-bucks on players.

Sadly, those characters do exist, but only in Russia and the Middle East.

Man City bought Robinho. Which is funny, more than anything. Man City are building a second Roman Empire up there in the north, and Robinho is the foundation stone. The new owners have already handed a shopping list to Mark Hughes. Already, they've been ordered to get a top 4 spot, and a Champions League title in the near future. Hughes must be a little bit perturbed. Shades of Ranieri are in in the offing, and I bet the new owners want to throw big wads of cash at unsuspecting world-class managers (i.e. Guus Hiddink).

Whatever the case, I've got a feeling that, despite our paucity in midfield, it's Liverpool that's going to have to look over their shoulder. We're not a bad side, despite the weakness in midfield. We really, really need someone to do the donkey work. But Cesc is fit enough that he won't miss that many games. We will drop embarassing games like Fulham, because we're too thin to be consistent. But we're okay. We're not going to win anything, but we're not going drop out of the top 4, either.

Moreover, I think talks of a European Superleague is premature. The way things are turning out, all the best players are going to get sucked into the Premier League, so that'll be a de facto Superleague. Which, according to my friend in London, is what's happening with everything else worthwhile as well. Most of everything is relocating to London. It's hip.

And the Arsenal are there. Everyone wants to be close to the Arsenal.

I'm in Cardiff now, in Wales. Spent the past couple of days in Bath - really pretty city. It's like a Georgian-period theme park. It's situated on a bend of the river Avon, and it's ringed by hills. The whole thing's made out of sandstone and set out in grand terraced streets. The Germans bombed the hell out of it in WW2, so only a third of the original city's left, but it's still grand.

I stayed in an Italianate mansion up on Bathwick Hill, and when I walked up it at night, you could see the whole city glittering below. Bath Abbey's half made up of glass, so it lights up like a lantern. Really, really pretty city. Can't emphasize that enough.

Cardiff looks pretty ugly in comparison. It's a seaport, and has a stack of dour-looking houses in the surburbs where I'm staying. It's a new capital (so to speak) and the city centre is a construction site at the moment. And it's raining, which doesn't help.I should've spent more time in Bath, but I've got itchy feet. Now I've got to figure out what to do for 4 days here.