Untold Arsenal

Last season the excellent magazine Highbury High invited a range of supporters to participate in the prediction game, where the writers nominate the player who would make the breakthrough in the season to come.

The publishers very kindly included me in their list of guest writers and so I duly cheated and put in two players: Song and Vela. I’d give myself 1.5 out of 2 in terms of my predictive ability.

I don’t know if Highbury High will do this again, this year and I am certainly not wishing to steal their thunder, but I thought we could do a preliminary exploration of the possibilities at this stage.

So here’s the possible nominees. It’s a big list - just to cover the ground at this stage. As always, all thoughts welcome. And of course you can read much of this again at Team Talk. (Actually I am on the edge of running a Team Talk story so bizarre, so eccentric and so odd I guarantee you won’t believe it. But first, today’s story…)

Diaby: I thought he might be Vieira II, then there was injury, then there was Turkey when I thought, blimey I don’t know who he is but he sure is good, and then he never maintained that stunning performance. I suspect 2009/10 is the last chance for him - he’s really going to have to put in some great shows, or else, it will be farewells. Story is he has been doing lots of extra training through the summer - how good to find a pro who really cares.

Vela: In the last game of the season he was a different player. All the skills plus more muscle. If that is being continued (and he has had more and more experience with Mexico this summer) he could be ready to make a serious impact. There is a story (there are always stories) that he will head out on loan, but if not, it suggests the Lord Wenger believes he is ready and will use him more. Who knows, in three years time we could have a rotating strike force of Bendtner, Vela and Theo.

Ramsey: When he got a game he was very good most of the time (although only moderate in the away game at Cardiff). He’s one of the players now on a very long term new contract and everyone believes in him totally. The only question is, where does he play? Is he the backup to Cesc?

Wilshere: Another long term contract given in the summer and we all know he’s a genius. But its a crowded midfield - or could he become Bergkamp II. The only question is, is it this year or next that he suddenly explodes on the scene?

Djourou: Injury and injury, always injury - but clearly the Lord Wenger has him down as one of the players for us. He might just become a first team regular in 09/10. And if not this year, then it won’t be long.

Bendtner: There’s a good reason for saying he should not be on this list, for although there was that time when all we could hear was criticism - he wasn’t good enough and he shouldn’t play - now it is all different. It turned around in October last year in West Iceland where he put in one of the most incredible passes of the season - virtually 80% of the length of the pitch, inch perfect to Ade. The pass took out the whole West Ham defence to allow Ade to score. The critics continued, but after that moment, and even during his off-form period he kept going. I would not be surprised to see him playing as the big centreforward - which is why it would not matter too much if Ade goes.

Coquelin: Now we are into the more obscure. I think the first time I saw him was on TV during the pre-season tour a year ago and thought there was something there. The ungainly style has become more gainly and he shone in the reserves. The web site of Arsenal says, “The Frenchman is very much in the Makelele mould with a low centre of gravity and superb reading of the game. With his rugged and aggressive manner, coupled with a fine passing range, Francis is sure to have his eye on a holding midfield berth in the future.” Like a certain full back he came from the depths of the French second division.

Hoyte: I saw him play against Leicester reserves a couple of years back (that being one of the games I always went to before Leicester threw away the notion of reserve team football, what with me being in the midlands) and he was a horribly ungainly full back. Now he is maturing, and highly rated. Probably too soon for him, but I never realised where Gibbs had got to, so maybe.

Lansbury: Yet another midfielder, which means he has a big pecking order above him, so again maybe too soon, but everyone says this guy is special. Been at the club since age of nine, plays at each level for England.

Merida: Cesc II unless you count Ramsey in which case Cesc III. Also nicked from Barca, played in the Spanish Under 17s, then the under 19s and spent much of last season back in Spain on loan with Real Sociedad. Another loan period perhaps, but maybe just maybe….

Gibbs: He was called upon, and performed wonderfully. The only question is, how does he get another game unless Clichy is injured? He seems to have put the slip behind him, and beyond doubt every true supporter felt for him at that moment.

Traore: He played in the first ever game at the Ems I seem to remember, and has been on loan. He looked tremendous when I saw him before the loan - but it doesn’t always happen. And how many left backs can we play at once? Or is he now left side midfield?

Simpson: Out on loan for two years (Millwall for a year and then WBA) - his problem is we have a lot of strikers. The Arsenal web site has six in the first team, because they include Theo as a striker not a midfielder. Is that a sign of the new season? If he is back with us, he’ll be like Bendtner, in recent times, getting the occasional subs appearance.

Murphy: A long shot indeed - I can’t see him getting a sniff in the first team, but he looks a fabulous prospect as a forward to me. If he’s there its worth going to the Diddly Cup games just for that.

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas: You play for Arsenal. You are 16. It is not as if you are not facing competition. And then you are named captain of the under 18s. And you find you can play in any position, so you get more games than anyone else in the academy and reserve teams. I can’t believe this guy won’t make it. Only question is when. This guy is amazingly incredible, stunning, extraordinary, unbelievable.

(C) Tony Attwood, unaided by anyone at Team Talk. 2009

As we watch it we hate it. Well I do. And so does the guy who sits behind me. The goalkeeper wastes time from the first minute over every goalkick. He puts it on the left of the area, and then, for no apparent reason, picks it up and puts it down on the right.

Throw in’s take forever. Am I taking it? No you. There’s no one to throw to. Edge up the pitch, get warned by the ref, retreat, not far enough, another minutes used up.

Meanwhile players go down with no injury. Birmingham, two years ago, even had signals from the bench meaning “go down injured”.

Yup, Blackburn, Bolton and Birmingham and the rest are in the EPL and playing for the 0-0. In fact something like half the teams n the EPL will play like this in the coming season. They will hope for the breakaway to nick a 1-0, but failing that, 0-0 will do. Even Everton, who supposedly have top four pretensions, came to the Ems last October, nicked the lead and then retreated, defending so far back there were people in row ten who had to give up their seats.

You wonder what makes their fans come to the Ems when for half the match they won’t even see their own team - they’ll all be defending and time wasting down the other end.

So what sort of team do we put out for such games?

This is not an issue of defence, but of the midfield and attack. Somehow we need a tactic to get past these teams. Our left and right back can always run forwards and overlap with the winger - that’s a given. It is what happens elsewhere that is the key.

One such tactic is the Cesc lob - it almost looks like the long ball game except the lob is so perfectly played to someone like VP or Ade or Eduardo who can take such a ball, turn and shoot in one movement with the defence the the wrong place.

It is not a game where the defensive midfielder adds much - because there is little to defend, which is why, in my opinion, Denilson is important here. When the opposition are lumbering half way around their own half trying to move forward but mostly moving sideways, he is the great interceptor, knowing exactly where the ball will be as it is slightly miscontrolled. He breaks up their attempts to hold the ball, and gets us moving again.

Carlos Vela - at least the Carlos Vela that we saw much of the season - doesn’t work in this scenario because he is at his best running onto balls through the defence - and with a midfield and defence of 10 players crammed into a space of about 10 yards deep, he has no where to go. But, at the end of the season Vela looked much more powerful, so maybe he is being beefed up for such a role.

Bendtner did well on the wing as a sub, as we know, particularly if he came on as Theo started to get tired. Theo on form can pull defences ragged, and get the cross in, and that is worth having. If Ade goes Bendtner is the big man in the middle to receive the crosses.

In the old days we used to beat these 11 behind the ball clubs by allowing them to put two or three players on Henry - which gave Pires the chance to meander inside and slip through unmarked. There have been signs that these days the negative teams in the Bolton/Blackburn/Sunderland mould are willing to commit such numbers on Theo. If they do, Theo just needs someone clinical to pass to - and I’d guess Eduardo is the player for that - with Bendtner picking up the higher balls.

And there’s Arshavin, who when he scored that remarkable goal from an angle of about 1 degree against Blackburn in March, proved that he too has the ability to break into the parked team bus, nick the keys, turn on the engine and drive it down the Holloway Road.

(Sorry, my metaphor took on a life of its own, but may I take this pause to say hello to readers of Team Talk. This article first appeared on Untold Arsenal).

Which gives a midfield of Theo, Cesc, Denilson, Arshavin, and that means no Rosicky, Nasri, Ramsey or Wilshere.

And no place for Song. And no breakthrough for Fran Merida

Now of course I know that the Lord Wenger has more football knowledge in his toothbrush than I have in my entire collection of programmes, but maybe just maybe that means that Song (at least for the games against teams like this) will be available for the defence.

Maybe it means that Nasri and Rosicky get games when we are playing against more open teams.

But although as I have just said, I don’t really know nothing, I am sure that we will further see the development of the alternating tactics. One for the “park the team bus in front of the goal” teams, one for the games against teams who will think they have a chance against us, and the finally the five in midfield approach for Europe away, and possibly against Manchester IOU away.

Anyway, only 16 days to Barnet away.

(c) Tony Attwood 2009.
PS: If you comment on this article your comment will also appear on Team Talk - from whom you will undoubtedly get a royalty cheque in due course.

This is the strangest summer break I’ve known. It’s not the transfer or non-transfer stuff - it is this business of who owns the clubs.

This issue has been lurking around for weeks at Southampton, Portsmouth, Newcastle and little Notts County. But what brings it into focus today is that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has issued a report saying that football is at risk from criminals buying clubs, often to facilitate money laundering, tax evasion and other fraud and all that sort of thing.

Some of the tax fraud I know about personally (not because I have done it - I am honest m’lud, I swear I never done it guv) but because players (with the club’s connivance) are using the same routine as used by some authors - and being a writer I know such things.

What you do is sell your rights (copyright, image right, any old rights) to a company in the Virgin Islands, (which you own but nobody knows that as their companies are all secret) and so the club (or the publisher) pays your royalties there. You then seem to earn less in the UK, and so pay less UK tax, but you pick up the rest tax free in the Virgin Islands.

Now consider this. The Virgin Islands scam can be arranged even when everyone knows who’s who and what’s what. But supposing for a moment that no one knows exactly who owns a club. How then are the UK authorities going to trace anything?

An issue of this nature arose with Leeds United and was debated in the Guernsey court recently. There was some debate over who the ultimate owners of some shares in Leeds actually is, and as far as I know, this has not been resolved. (One might say, XXX Holdings owns 75% of a club, but that tells us nothing. Who owns XXX? that’s the question. Who is the ultimate beneficiary?)

I don’t mean to suggest Leeds has done anything wrong - nor that any of the other clubs I mention here have either. Rather I am thinking through the implications of the report in relation to current events.

At this moment there are several clubs lurking around where ownership is unclear. Southampton - perhaps on the edge of the cliff, Portsmouth - whose fit and proper person test seems to have wandered off into outer space, Newcastle where there is an owner, but he wants another mug to join the show, and Notts County.

You’ll be familiar with the issues of the first three, so let’s take a look at Notts County. Again, I am not saying I have inside knowledge - I am just reporting what I have picked up from people who are silly enough to talk to me. And on that basis anyone can write in and tell me where I have gone wrong (although just telling me I am an idiot, I am wrong, and I am related to a rotary engine, as happens sometimes, doesn’t really help much.)

I saw Arsenal win 4-0 at Notts County sometime in the 80s I think when Notts had a year or so in the First Division. I went there again to see a jolly 4th division game a couple of years back. The oldest league club in the world, nice ground, you feel for these sorts of clubs.

Then they were bought out by the fans who owned 60% or so in a supporters trust, and that seemed to stabilise everything. A club owned by the fans - good news all round.

But now the Trust seems to have given (yes given - at least that is how it reads to me) their shares to a middle eastern company of whom no one really seems to know anything (or if they do, they are not telling me).

At one level I want to say, “What are you thinking about guys? Have you not looked at Portsmouth where the money hasn’t turned up?” (and yes I know it might turn up, but it hasn’t yet and no one knows why). And besides, has all the money in the world helped QPR? Seems not.

So, as I read it, the majority of people who owned the Notts County Trust shares have GIVEN their shares to Munto Finance Ltd.

Now let’s write down everything we know about Munto Finance Ltd apart from the fact that they have just taken over the oldest league club in the world.

” ”

Yes, well, of course, maybe I am not very good at this, and maybe the answer is staring me in the face, but at the moment apart from the fact that Munto is some sort of Middle Eastern finance organisation, that’s it.

So why did Notts County sell its soul to Munto? It seems on the promise of Championship and then EPL status in the years to come. A bit like, well, Southampton, or Leeds, or Portsmouth…

I am so bemused by the notion that Notts County have given their shares away without revealing exactly who owns Munto, and what these people have done in the past, that I can’t really go much further.

I am also bemused as to why no one else is asking this question. (I really am worrying that the information is out there big time, and I am the only one stupid enough not to see it - after all why is no one else covering this story?)

None of this suggests that Munto are involved in money laundering - even I am not stupid enough to suggest that. But I do want to suggest that selling your club to an unknown buyer, as Southampton, Newcastle, Portsmouth and Notts County are doing, might be (just might, nothing more than might - and I’ll even reduce that to maybe) fraught with difficulties.

So please, someone, tell me who owns Munto.

(c) Tony Attwood 2009
Parts of this article will turn up at random on Team Talk.

Yesterday the BBC chose to put tennis on TV, and the same match on BBC Radio 5, relegating the European U21 final to 5 live Sports Extra - a digital channel.
I can’t get digital radio in my car, and as I was on the way to a gig (not a very big gig, but a [...]

So it looks like Liverpool are being further financed by Royal Bank of Scotland (who own Nat West) despite protests from Liverpool’s own supporters.
And Mr Usmanov has (according to the Guardian and the Times today) suggested that there should be a £100m rights issue at the Arsenal. The Times says, “Red & White believes [...]

Henry James Redknapp is round about the same age as me, although I think I am better looking.
He is a darling of the media and almost always gets a good press.
But what is his career and his brush with the law? Given that he now resides at the other end of Seven [...]

Just as I was thinking we’d had enough of hoaxes on this site for a while, a post turned up claiming that “Wenger is London’s least popular Premier League manager in the eyes of his club’s own supporters with Roy Hodgson, Guus Hiddink, Gianfranco Zola and Harry Redknapp all polling higher marks for last season”
The [...]

Anthony Kastrinakis. the man behind the Sun’s famous Fábregas-to-Madrid hoax has been arrested by police.
Kastrinakis’ article which claimed that Fábregas was ready to play for Real Madrid was picked up by Arsenal blogs and national newspapers, making it the most successful football hoax in the history of football journalism.
The Sun had for some time been [...]

A hoax mistranslation of an interview given by Cesc Fábregas in Spanish in relation to Spain’s Confed Cup defeat has been repeated as fact by newspapers and blogs alike around the world.
The Sun was the first paper in the UK to run the story, and from there it spread very rapidly indeed.
The original interview is [...]

According to reports on Team Talk today, the Bank of England has lost the pound, sending Arsenal FC into chaos. Numerous players – most notably Andre Adebayor, Armand Almunia and Amaury Arshavin – have demanded an immediate renegotiation of their contracts.
“I had no idea that the pound could be lost,” said the Russian ringmaster, [...]