Kolo makes some comments regarding "lack of leadership" at the club and how that was the reason (along with "not strengthening" the squad) for leaving (nope £100k pw and a tiff with Gallas had nothing to do with it). He's going to strike a chord with some (or many) Arsenal fans with those statements but saying them indicates two things to me. He wants to shy away from the real reasons and justify (without offending the Arsenal fans he left behind) the move to the "project" that is Manchester "Abu Dhabi" City. It seems that players have to make some sort of comment for no real reason other than it's expected these days. The media need a sound bite, the agent suggests it's good for the player and the player (or most of them) love the sound of their own voice.

Well let's look at the "lack of leadership" issue and, in particular, Toure's role in that - he was a senior player and had it in him to take a leadership role whether he was captain or not. With Fabregas as a young captain he could have a taken the opportunity to help from the back, ensuring the back four was always talking and organised. Now whether his feud with Gallas stopped that or not it strikes me that as one of the elder statesmen in a young side it had to be his role (nee duty) to step in and help the younger players.

Having said all that I'm not going to castigate Kolo too much, he's made points that have a certain ring of truth (even if he has, as all players will do, ignored some other aspects) and his criticism cannot be seen as whining in the way we saw from ye olde mercanary, Adebayor.

I think that there is something seriously wrong with football being played in temperatures of 30 deg+ or when you're just settling down to watch the first test of an Ashes series. I can understand the Swiss not really being preoccupied with cricket but the Tour is only in its second week and the temperature is far too hot for football. It certainly didn't do my local team, FC Basel, any favours as they managed to lose their first game away to newly promoted St Gallen. One thing they still have out here is the good old "football special". I saw the Basel one on Sunday as I was cycling home from a ride and the fans had the beer cases, the scarves and just did not realise their first game optimism was seriously misplaced!

Meanwhile I've just seen two Man City stories, the first regarding an alleged interest in Adebayor and the second, more recent, that they have signed Tevez. If the second is confirmed then I guess the first rumour is probably false as they can't keep on buying every forward around can they? It seems a shame from one perspective as Adebayor and City are made for each other with their love of cash and lots of it.

That's roughly the length of the close season, the summer or as it's more widely called, The Transfer Speculation Window (not to be confused with the actual transfer window which ends 2 weeks after). August 16th is the start of the new season (and I will get round to that review of last season once I've sorted out my Gooner Survey!) and it's a long way off. So what can we expect this summer:

1. Man City to be buying anyone who you've heard of, not heard of, whose agent fancies a few quid or players who are desperate to move to a club with "ambtion... it's nothing to do with the money". This weeks examples are Gareth "I want Champions League football when I leave Villa" Barry and now Ze Roberto ("City are top of my list" - subtext, who will pay me millions!.
2. Ronaldo will, won't, will, won't oh zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz you know the rest.
3. Chelsea will attempt to be run like a normal football club and live within their means (no it's true Peter Kenyon said Chelsea would break even by 2010!).
4. Adebayor will stay at Arsenal ("the club I've always wanted to play for") after Barcelona and Milan actually watch the videos of any games he played last year.
5. and finally, Newspapers and internet sites will print millions of lines of absolute rubbish throughout the summer!!

I could write a piece in relation to my title that concentrates on the whole Arsene Wenger and the fans Q&A but I think that would be rather harsh on the manager. Most of the time he sees the players as his primary focus and so any criticism (however well meant) will be met with a proper, good, old English forward defensive stroke. With that in mind it seems rather interesting to hear his comments regarding Adebayor. Whatever his stregths are (sorry - were) it seems that his opinion of himself is far higher than the reality of life and getting rid (to whoever at the best price) seems a decent option.

I think, to be honest, the title today is more a reflection of me at the moment. I've just realised that I have absolutely no idea when the game this weekend takes place and, in all honesty, I'm not even that bothered. I think I've mentally got my flip flops on and am heading for the beach just like many a professional footballer at this stage of the season!

With the news about Cesc and the suspension of Adebayor, the old Arsenal would have turned up at Aston Villa on Boxing Day, rolled their sleeves up and showed the rest of the league what they are made of. This team will most likely wallow in self pity, miss their captain, think about leaving in January and moan about the referee!

That's the significant difference with these young players and the teams of the past. You can't blame the youth of the team because players like Adams, Rocastle and Merson showed the right attitude from an early age. Oh well as I sit down for the start of the holidays at the mother in law we can but hope...

Merry Christmas to you all

p.s.   Blogs may become more incoherent and alochol induced over the festive period!

After watching the rather Liverpool centric highlights on Match of the Day last night (that's of course my Arsenal centric perspective anyway!) I was struck by two things regarding the refereeing decisions made during the game. Firstly looking at the two tackles made by Adebayor that Webb deemed both to be yellow cards. If you take each on their own a referee could just about make a case for a booking (putting all our own bias aside) with the first tackle more of a case. However, no football fan or manager would ever think that they warranted together a red card. Referees apply the rules, in my opinion, rather too religiously some times and then, for no apparent reason, in other matches they ignore them completely.

The second point was Alan Hansen's comment regarding Robbie Keane's lunge on Clichy. Hansen said that as Keane got the ball it couldn't be a yellow card. Well listen Mr Hansen maybe you should look up the rules of football since if in the act of getting the ball you endanger the opposition player then it's a foul and, if serious enough, it can be considered a booking. See page 33 ( and below )of the rules of the game here..

"A direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any of the following seven offences in a manner considered by the referee to be careless, reckless or using excessive force:

• kicks or attempts to kick an opponent
• trips or attempts to trip an opponent
• jumps at an opponent
• charges an opponent
• strikes or attempts to strike an opponent
• pushes an opponent
• tackles an opponent"

That last line Mr Hansen tells you all you need to know but why should a well paid pundit actually know the laws of the game.

Oh and one more thing how many times a game does Steven Gerrard dive in the penalty box to try and win penalties..

There's always been something about the Liverpool games that makes me dread them. Firstly there was the period in the late 70s/early 80s when you were never likely to win and they would play pass back to the keeper all day before Rush scored a winner. More recently they have played dull football and yet we never seem to beat them as often as we would like and the Liverpool centric pundits would always harp on about how it's good for the game if Liverpool challenge for the title. So I've never really enjoyed these games and today was no exception.

We took the lead in a fairly scrappy and hectic first half, saw Keane lunge in on Clichy (which could have seen him sent off but being Liverpool there was no chance of that), defended badly to concede and then saw Adebayor sent off for two innocuous challenges. However, since Liverpool looked the more likely victors when we had 11 men on the field it was good to see the passion and commitment (so often missing this season) when we were reduced to 10. I'd love too think it will galvanise us for the Villa game but I'm not holding my breath!

Let's now wait and see what ex-Liverpool players such as Hansen and Lawrenson say about the sending off on MOTD!

From comments on 606 (podcast) to Arseblogger via MOTD it has all been about the rights and wrongs of booing Eboué yesterday and very little has been said about the actual game itself. I can only comment from what I saw on MOTD so I've no real idea of how bad he played or how hard he tried (certainly Arseblogger was not impressed by his attitude).

Firstly I think there have always been fans who boo or get on the backs of their own players/managers/board or anyone else connected with their club and there are others who don't. I will moan about players in the pub or on this blog but I wouldn't boo them during a game, it's a personal thing and I'm not saying it's the moral "right thing to do". However, the effect of the booing on players as far as I've ever seen is vary rarely  likely to include a massive transformation in his performance. The other aspect is the effect on the other Arsenal players because as much as us supporters might dislike a player or his performance if he's popular in the dressing room (and apparently Eboué is the "joker" in that arena) then the abuse of one player can have a rather bad effect on the rest. Whether it should is another matter but many of these players live in a world beyond our comprehension and feel they are beyond reproach.

It will be interesting to see how many stories come out from Adebayor and Toure (in particular) that show support for their fellow African and professional. That's not to say we can't or shouldn't criticise but the fall out from yesterday could prove harmful for some good and some wrong reasons.

Ho Hum..

I've just read the latest comments from Arsene Wenger regarding the game at Stoke and, as is often the case, there is a just argument in there somewhere but it will always get lost in the British media because of the point of the attack. As with other statements he's made in the past (often after a Bolton game!!) the attack will be perceived as an unjust and vile attempt by this foreign manager (who's bloody French for Christ's sake) to get rid of the blood and guts of the good old English game (see this blog for the typical reaction).

In fact I'm convinced he makes these comments for two reasons, one is the pure frustration of losing a game and the fact he lingers over the defeat (these comments are often made 2 or 3 days after the event). The second and more just complaint is that certain players, he believes, make rash and unjustifiable physical challenges on Arsenal players. The problem with this second and valid point is that of proving it to a public who have brainwashed by the media with the "look at how many red cards his teams have" and "he never sees anything when it's his player" campaigns that may have started with rumour but are now perceived as fact. I once delved through the records to look at our red card record and over his first 10 years Arsenal had about the 6th or 7th BEST disciplinary record but the the press never let facts get in the way of a story. On the other point he makes it easy for the media because he does come out with some ludicrous excuses sometimes and, as a result, his good points are missed, never heard or ignored.

Let's just take the challenge on Adebayor on Saturday, the Stoke player did him with a studs up slide on his ankle OFF THE F##KING PITCH and didn't even concede a foul (the ball had long gone out for a throw) never mind a booking, yet neither this challenge or the one on Walcott were discussed on MOTD. Yet in the same game the petulance of Van Persie (and it was f##king stupid) is given a red card. Now I'm not excusing the Dutchman but where's the justice in that.

What I would like Arsene to do is to come to a press conference in a less emotional state of mind and categorically state that he has no problem with sides being physical (a la Bolton /Stoke) within the LAWS of the game but he would just like refs to actually punish (or maybe the FA on video evidence) clear and deliberate fouling (aka Kevin Nolan's "it's all right to give Walcott a kick" comments). 

The other galling point is that he's the most friendly to the media of most of the managers, he always makes himself available (unlike Old fergie) to the press, will answer any question thrown at him, give his opinion and won't eff and blind at reporters when they say the wrong thing (oh that's you again fergie) to him. Of course he makes stupid comments, of course he defends his players when they shouldn't be defended and of course he makes excuses sometimes but then which manager doesn't.

Time is a great healer....

That's what someone once said and maybe, in some cases, it's true but in relation to the events of Wednesday night it doesn't seem to be the case. This seems due, in part, to the plethora of stories coming out in the media that seem to drop into two main camps. Firstly the Arsenal stories all seem to be of infighting and imaginary injuries whilst the stories in the media regarding the lillyshites is all sweetness and light (blurghhhhhh!).

Of course most of this just goes to illustrate that the media, as is its want, will regurgitate any pile of crap if it feels it will sell papers or generate interest. It's a shame some of our players (yes Adebayor I'm looking at you)can't realise this and just keep their mouths shut and concentrate on their football. Perhaps if they did that they would have the energy and wit to survive the last five minutes of a game without losing 2 goals....

I've just realised it's nearly turned into another rant so I'm going to shut up and head for the alcohol as it's Friday and well that's it really...