Hello.
A number of Spurs fans have been reported to be, ‘devastated, but stable’ this morning after discovering that Eden Hazard won’t be a Tottenham player in time for Sunday’s game against Stevenage.
“Of course. It’s always more fun when it’s beautiful [the football]. In addition, at Arsenal, there is a coach and French players. And Thomas Vermaelen,”
Hazard confessed to Sport Foot Magazine.
“There are several clubs that interest me in England and Arsenal is really a part. That’s the championship where I think I can express myself better. Where I can learn more, too…”
Arsenal and indeed Chelsea were relentlessly linked with this Adel Taarabt 2.1 for the bulk of last year. Chelsea saying that they had scouted him 20 times. 20 times! What were they waiting for, balloon animals, close up magic or his famous ‘Vera Lynn’ impression?
No, I think Chelsea’s sluggishness was to do with Mata being a superior bet and the lurking specter of the Financial Fair Play regs.
With Arsenal the problem is twofold of course. Aunty Wenger doesn’t like spending Christmas so how quite how he’s going to be coerced into dropping €30m is anyone’s guess.
If this is anything to those of you joining us grown ups late in the game, it’s a gentle introduction to the world of light whoring that is modern football.
‘Milan had a lot of the ball and Tottenham caught them on the break at the end of the game. You never decide when you break, you break when you can. It was a game which was vastly dominated, especially in the second half, by Milan.
‘We will not decide at the start of the game that we will sit in our half if we have to, like Tottenham did… we will try to get out of our own half and try to get up there and play. Spurs won the game when they were dominated, but that’s football today’
– Arsene Wenger
Nice one – talk about set yourself up. Maybe your should’ve paid a little more attention on how we did them in their own back yard and didnt get our backsides handed to us.
On the thing with Prince Boeteng, he was more a dalliance than an ex-player- I said it when we sold him and have said it since – hes the player we really will/should regret letting go. The one ingredient missing from our amazing midfield is a goalscoring powerhouse. Could’ve been our Lampard…
I loved the headline quote before last nights game “I’ve studied the Tottenham game”..Yes you did Arsene..but you didn’t take on board a damned thing! and I just loved the TS phone-in afterwards, hilarious..can’t wait until the Chelsea game!
Just watched a three and a half minute YouTube vid of Hazard. I have a few observations (many of which, I’m sure, have been mentioned by others):
1) The opposing defenders fall for some pretty simple dribbles. In the PL I think they are considerably better at standing their ground and not falling for basic body dekes (“watch the ball, son!”).
2) In the video he took approximately 400 touches*. With these touches, he attempted 6 passes**. Among these there were; 2 backheels, 2 right foot behind the left calf passes (I thought he could use both feet?), 1 lifted chip, and one plain, vanilla, inside of the boot pass. Two of them found their intended target, and the other four they didn’t show.
3) Each clip is around 3-5 seconds long. He looks anywhere between OK (it’s not that hard to get a defender who weighs twice as much as you to over-commit) and pretty good. This leaves me wondering how he looks for the other 89 minutes and fifty seconds of each game. I guess the video editor might be a real fanatic about objectivity, and has chosen clips to present a balanced impression of his general contribution. If they have chosen the sexiest, best little tidbits – and this is as good as it gets – I think those EUR30m might be spent better elsewhere.
Definitely smells a bit like Taarabt MK 2, but much more costly. Especially when you consider that he has (in spite of all his talent and promise) been benched by both the Lille manager and the Belgian manager (at various points, so I’m led to believe) for being a bit lazy at training.
*Disclaimer for the benefit of Raz. This is a
guess. I didn’t actually count.
** This is not a guess. I did count.
Just so I’m not misunderstood. A flattering youtube vid doesn’t mean that you’re a great player. Just as true is that it doesn’t make you a bad player either. All it means is that at least one fan, with a computer and too much time on their hands, likes the player enough to put together a compilation.
If he does end up in Lilywhite, I obviously hope he’s the bull’s bollocks. If he ends up with the competition, let the pony rides begin. If he ends up at Scum, I hope he likes it up the bum from greasy, old, delusional frenchmen (for his own sake. Twentyone isn’t a child, but he’s still in the danger zone).
It’s a little like the Brazilian we’ve taken on loan. Listening to H & J, their South American contact wasn’t impressed whatsoever about him, in fact, pretty much thought he was next to useless as a central defender and isn’t even a regular at Club level or likely to be, let alone International class. When you consider Brazil are preparing to enter the Olympics without any centre backs, it begs the question whether this guy ‘ is all that’? or whether we’ve seen something they haven’t?
What YouTube can never show you is character and in this weird celebrity bubble that football has become it seems to me that it is now so much more important. Ol’ Beetroot Nose has a pretty good record of spotting the right sort and HR values it too (PNB has it in bucket loads, Bentley meanwhile has loads of holes in his bucket). L’Arse last night were the very antithesis of character (or bottle, grit, backbone – whatever you want to call it.) It’s why they implode whenever the going gets tough. Successful teams, in whatever sphere of life, are built around the guys you look at when it hits the fan and think ‘I’m glad he’s on my side’. Young Mr Hazard may or may not have it but I would want to be pretty sure before parting with 30k.
Absolutely. Talent just isn’t enought. Character is absolutely vital to succeed at the top level. It’s a pretty complex thing, though, and there are many ways to get where you ned to go.
You have the fully dedicated professional, gives-110%-at-training, unrelenting type (Roy Keane, PNB, etc.). That’s all well and good, and a great example for up-and-coming youngsters, but you can have character without being that type as well. Just been reading Zlatan’s autobiography. He has a terrible attitude at training, and has fallen out with the majority of his managers at some point. Definite chip on his shoulder, problem with autority, bad attitude, or whatever you want to call it (his opinion og Guardiola is that he is an idiot and a sh*t manager). But you just can’t question his will to win and killer instinct. That’s what you need a bit of when it really matters, what we’ve lacked for so long, and what Le Arse lack now.
I guess what I mean is you need players who HATE TO LOSE (in addition to being very good at football, which usually demands lots of practice, but more for some than others). The rest is about having a blend of personalities that work as a unit (am I the only one who thought it looked like Bellendamy and the oaf Carroll avoided passing to each other against us?).
If you recall Los,Gooner’s were crowing(d’ya,like that?) when they sold Vieira to Juventus. ‘How astute Wenger was getting so much for a clapped out player’ The fact remained that they never replaced him-and allowed Flamini to walk for nothing-how can any manager allow the heartbeat and strength of a side to leave, without having a plan B already in place. Parker has only a limited rime with us, and Sandro needs to be getting enough time to feel wanted, or else we’ll be in the same position, regardless of who’s in charge.
For someone who is hailed as a team-building genius he sure has done lot of stupid things in the transfer market, at over the course of the last several years.
Just spoke to a gooner colleague as I left the office now. He is thinks Arsene is seriously losing touch. I have to agree.
I don’t remember cheatski, Real or Barca showing any interest in Adel.
Will Hazard improve our squad…Yes.
That’s all that matters.
Adel was only linked with them I think in his own mind or the mind of his agent.
Of course Hazard isn’t rubbish, but nor is he free.
:gaehn:
He could well turn out to be another Taraabt
and with any luck someone will up the ante and splurge £30 million to find out.
Not us presumably.
How much would it cost to buy the boy Boateng back?
Don’t forget we could offset the fee with the buy on clause and paying well over the odds for him.
If we had one of course.