Grimm Tales And German Optimism A Plenty
Jul 4th, 2010 by 'holic
Good morning ‘holics.
I should have known that the England/Capello backlash would fill most of the available space in the Sundays. For once we are indebted to Manuel Christian Andersen, the little known Spanish descendant of the ‘teller of fairy stories’ for his piece in Marca about Robin van Persie heading to Real Madrid for £42.5 million. Quite a precise sum that, the inventor’s rough and ready translation of 50m euros I would imagine, or rather they imagined!
It was definitely ‘speculate nonsense about Robin day’ yesterday after premature scare stories about a broken arm circulated before his fitness to compete in Holland’s World Cup semi-final against Uruguay on Tuesday was confirmed.
No real new news other than that. Barca say they won’t pay as much as £40 million for Cesc, which is good, because we won’t sell him for as little as that. Perhaps they should be looking at Joe Cole. His people continue to play the field in search of the biggest bucks for their man. I wouldn’t touch any of this England squad with a bargepole, to be honest.
The News of the World report as only they can, that Armand Traore was arrested for ‘doing a Collymore’, and if (notice that word?) this is true then he should find his belongings in a bin bag outside Shenley before pre-season training starts. Even a rag with the reputation of the NotW would have had to double check their facts before going public with something that precise, wouldn’t they? Take care with your comments until it’s confirmed please.
Germans Light Up The World Cup
It would be wrong to say that the young German side were unfancied against Argentina, but I suspect the margin of their demolition of Maradona’s much-vaunted side will have surprised just about everyone. The flavour of the month that is Ozil played second fiddle to the outstanding Schweinsteiger and the consistent Muller as Germany bossed the midfield and were ruthless on the break.
Some have commented on the similarities of this young side and Arsenal, and therein perhaps lies the warning to those now tipping them to go all the way. In the semi-final they will carry momentum into their meeting with the out of sorts Spain.
Be aware though that the tournament will now be won by the team in the best form in this last week just starting, not the last three weeks. Spain may have made hard work of getting to this point, but defensively they are not as naive as the Argentinians, and in Villa they have the outstanding goalscorer of the tournament.
I rather fancy we are looking at a Final between the two best nations never to land the big one before, Spain versus Holland. Few Spanish-backers though would be happier than I if the Germans produce another outstanding matchwinning display on Wednesday. I’m really looking forward to that one.
46 Responses to “Grimm Tales And German Optimism A Plenty”
I was thinking in the lines of Spain going home on Wednesday, that cant be a bad thing at all. Even with Cesc playing yestarday i couldnt bring myself to support them. Heineken please!
Apparently Piquet has been gobbing off about Cesc again. No wonder Spain aren’t playing particularly well, all their players except David Villa (if it hadn’t for him they’d have been nowhere near the semis) seem to be more focused on spouting crap about Cesc all day long than they are on playing football.
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I’ll have an Irish cofee please.
And hope Germany trash the Spaniards 😉
A few too many drinks last night, watching Spain scrape past Paraguay. I think I may be on a last warning from the management!
Last night was actually the first game of the whole tournament that I have actually watched. To say I am underwhelmed by it all would not do justice to the apathy I have. However, do fancy a good Spain – Germany semi, followed by the Dutch beating the Germans in a reverse of the -74 final….
Actually, too many “actually”‘s in that last post. Must proof read.
Do you allow obscenities in the drinks, ‘holic? If yes, can I please let loose on Pique?
Feel free Nicks,
I just try to avoid it on the blog in case my grandsons read it and I can’t tell them off anymore 😉
Good day sir. A pint of plain for that man!
Perhaps Xavi or Pique should be present when Arsene next meets with Cesc- to explain how he feels- how much he really wants to leave Arsenal and sit on the bench at Barcelona and bring them their Sangria etc.
It looks like Germany are going to win this. Are Spain good enough defensively? I think not- they have not met a real class team yet. I am certain that the strong mentality of the Germans allied to their unsurpassed preparation organisation and discipline will overcome the passing technique of the Spanish.
Reckon Fabregas for all his love of Barca is repressed by his respect for his mates- plays out the role of water carrier for Xavi and Iniesta- in truth he has not showed what he is capable of so far in this WC.
I noticed the Traore story in that terrible tabloid as well. IF it is true, I think he’ll go, or be shipped out on load at least. Wenger has shown in the past, with the likes of Jermaine Pennant, that he is not one to keep players who are not focused on their football. He likes model professionals.
And to be honest, I don’t think he would be a big loss. With Clichy and Gibbs on the left, and then Sagna and Eboue on the right, it would take monumental bad luck for us to require him for any serious length of time.
with regards to Traore, i was thinking we should use him to get Sakho anyway, hopefully this will speed up that possibility. With Botelho, Cruise and Evina as well as Clichy & Gibbs thankfully this is an area where we have a lot of cover. That said if Clichy was to leave i would start to feel uncomfortable.
what exactly did collymore do?
Great watching the “young” German side yesterday pulverise the Argies. Messi never was a threat or a menace. That’s the Manager we should be looking at, the German Manager, Joachim Low. For a “young” team, I don’t see the mistakes Arsenal seem to make & are excused for by Wenger. The Germans have desire, drive, graft, a “team” spirit. All accomplished by Low who only see’s the team on occasion through the year. Wenger can’t get those basics right & he see’s the Players everyday. I posted here a month ago asking Holic what was Wenger doing at the WC & not taking care of Arsenal’s transfer business? I have to ask that question again. We haven’t signed a GK, no Defender…zilch. Wenger thinks we’re all mugs. Come the end of August when we’ve lost our 1st 2 away games at Liverpool & Blackburn & the transfer window is closed. What excuse’s will he use then? Wenger will accuse the ref of not protecting Fabainski or some other nonsense related to our weaknesses. I haven’t mentioned Cesc intentionally as he will not be seen in an Arsenal shirt again. Our Main Man doesn’t believe in Le Boss anymore. He wants away despite the obvious “respect” he has for Wenger. Cesc see’s no change & see’s no silverware & obviously doesn’t mind sitting on the bench for awhile at Barca to ultimately achieve his goal. Think about it…HE WOULD RATHER SIT ON BARCA’s BENCH THAN BE AT ARSENAL. Arsene Knows Shit
What worries me the most isn’t that Cesc would rather be a sub with Barca than icon with Arsesnal. What worries me is the constant, consistent difficulties we seem to have attracting first-rate players. The comments being reported that Ozil is only interested in Chelsea and ManU; that YaYa is “overjoyed” at being at City after years of approaches from Arsene being turned down. Acknowledging that Wenger’s youth project “worked” given the constraints disregards that in the miinds o f the world’s top players we are a selling club, not a destination for winners.
Plunkitt – ya ya is overjoyed at his paypacket end of. These guys wouldn’t give Manchester a second glance if there wasn’t a suitcase full of readies.
Ola ‘holic! Cuba Libre por favor Senor.
Couls someone kindly elaborate on the alleged Traore incident, or provide a link.
@bernard: considering many of the players who could potentially become Arsenal players are also at the World Cup I’d say being there is a pretty good idea.
Spain is horrible, just horrible (and I’m sayiing horrible to their standards cause I’m used to their play in Euro 2008, they were ten times more magical than Germany of WC 2010 back then).
Puyol is getting a bit slower and that’s something Podolski and Klose will exploit.
About Villa, I’ve seen Mertesacker and Freidrich handle Rooney and Messi so far, let’s see how they fare against Villa, if they do manage to control him, he has to be in an Arsenal shirt next season.
Doesn’t Pique understand one thing about negotiation? Tough luck he wants to move, it’s not his decision to make.
Perhaps Pique needs a lesson in how to make logical connections cause I think the WC was good for Arsenal cause it made Cesc understand he won’t get the chance at Barca for the next couple of years – Just look at him after the win VS. Portugal.
Plunkitt – I don’t care who we bring in as long as he’s a good player, I don’t need his name to be a bigshot – i.e Ibrahimovic at Barca was shit compared to E’too and Mourinho was questioned when he brought Milito from Genoa and the guy scored almost every time he had the ball!
I found this link on twitter about Armand Traore: http://goo.gl/fb/iFjCN
We must remember that van Persie was also arrested in Holland and kept in a police cell for a number of hours after being accused of rape.
Being arrested does not mean there will be a charge forthcoming.
Traore has had trouble with the law before. Remember he was caught at White Hart Lane with a knuckle duster.
Innocent until proven guilty.
Thanks Matt.
@Lars, if these players are in the semi’s at the World Cup, they’re immediately out of our price range. Only City, Chelsea & Man Utd could afford the Ozil’s, Sneijder’s, Van Der Vaart’s, De Jong’s that are possibly available after the WC. Our big signing tomorrow is a bloke that was playing in the French 2nd Division less than 18 months ago. He scour’s the basement bargains not the penthouse’s, that’s why being at the WC serves no purpose. I’d love to be proven wrong like when he signed Silva after the 2002 WC but we all know how Arsene operates. It’s why he’s LOSING his Captain & protegee.
I think you are all being most unfair to Ya Ya Toure. His move is nothing to do with money at all.
He says quite clearly that it has ALWAYS BEEN HIS DREAM – most overused phrase in sport – TO PLAY WITH HIS BROTHER.
Well, at least he didn’t say “to play for Man Citeh”.
Bernard – I know it is nice to see world names at Arsenal, but it’s even nicer to see them become world names at Arsenal.
Can’t think of any huge names who have arrived at Arsenal, but plenty have left – and so far, only after their best years were gone.
How many huge names did Germany have in the side before the WC began?
How many mega-money deals have really been worth it, anywhere?
Would you have replaced Vermaelen at the start of last season because no-one had heard of him?
Trev – you seem to be assuming that Bernard operates on logical thinking.
I think there Is still a shock in this world cup ‘Holic. The average last week but world beaters this week Germans could be on the end of it
Evening Lord,
I think you are bang on there, but as I already have money on the Iberian chancers I shall not be venturing any more hard-earned in their direction.
They are so lucky. Came in as favourites, played shite, now only need to win two games to take the whole damn thing.
Germany were only ‘average’ after the group stage in the eyes of the rather daft English tabloids – but it is true in major tournaments that being raved about is often the kiss of death for a team. Plus the tortoise tends to beat the hare in recent World Cups.
Sell Cesc. Let him sit on the bench at Barca. Buy the German midfield with the dosh. Beat Barca in the Champs League Final. Then laugh at Cesc, Pique etc. Job done. Easy peasy.
Keep the faith.
my god i had a horrible dream in which i saw us playing the first pl match and chamakh wasn’t playing,silvestre started…sol was the referee and galls ran naked on the pitch shouting wenger u wanker why didn’t u sign anybody else!! then cesc arrived wearing a barca shirt sitting on top of pique…..please please god dont let this be true!!!
sorry usama Domenech look at the star for me and say everything you say will come true…And Cygan is coming back as Sol replacement
my arsenal better buy someone soon or im gonna go mad………
Greetings All.
I think this WC is too close to call, Germany as always are a well orgainised team, I couldn’t believe how quickly the English media and the so called expert pundits wrote them off. Haven’t they ever watched football before? NEVER underestimate ze Germans.
Spain haven’t done too bad considering they’ve played most of their games with 10 men, why Del Bosque (an older looking Rene from Allo Allo) continues to pick him is beyond me. Listen very carefully I shall say this only once…… Torres is not performing!
Uraguay have done well, but may find it hard to keep a clean sheet in the next match now that their keeper, Suarez, will be missing due to suspension.
If v Maarwijk can keep the Dutch players grounded, over confidence has been a deadly factor in pevious compititions, then I think that my adopted homeland are in with a good chance. I would love to see Oranje do it, would be great for business and a nice celebration to be part of.
Just an Orange Juice for me please ‘holic, sir, I’m taking it easy untill Tuesday.
Hup Holland Hup!
Cheers.
@Charlie & Trevor…are you able to read? I was addressing a point raised by Lars about buying Players at the WC. My logic says we cannot afford anyone playing at the WC right now, how does that translate into buying “world names”? Read the posts properly.
You say ‘Arsene knows shit’ amidst your ranting – that’s pretty much the point my eyes glaze over and I ignore what you have to say.
oh almost forgot to wish my fellow American holics a happy Fourth of July weekend = ]
“Doing a Collymore?” Talking endless shit on TalkSport?
I’m just dying to know why Holland has been so “boring, and unconvincing” and Spain have been so “great, organised enough to overcome and break the opponents’ defenses…”
Why can’t the pundits out there slam Spain but they slam Holland. Holland haven’t been their usual convincing team (performance wise- not result wise) but Spain too are just awful yet they get plaudits where Holland gets slammed !!
I wish the Spain would lose to the Germans, but unfortunately Paul the octopus already decided on Spain…:\
So it turns out that Cesc may be crocked for the semi-final. The new comes after Bendy’s admission he may not recover in time for the start of the season.
The bright news is that the new Barca prez is giving up on Cesc. Rosell told a Spanish radio station: “We will never pay 50 or 60 million euros (£41m or £49m) for Cesc. The whole world knows he wants to come and that we want to sign him. It’s a topic that has become so public and that’s the worst thing you can do with a transfer, because it makes the selling club raise their expectations and you end up paying over the odds.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8793269.stm
Go Germany Go!
@Snir: bad news… Octopus oracle Paul is predicting Germany will be defeated by Spain at the World Cup semifinal 🙁
Bernard @34 – yes I can read thanks, and part of understanding any piece of written language is “interpretation”.
I understand that you would like us to sign a player “like Silva after the 2002 WC” – well the guy had just won the WC so it would be fair to refer to him as a “world name” i think.
You seem to imply that all these bargain basement signings are the reason we don’t win anything, and why Cesc is now wanting away.
Well here are a few bargain basement signings for you – Vieira, Henry, Petit, Lauren, Toure, Edu, shall we continue? – and they won a bit.
Who was it who signed Cesc as a 16 year old in the first place – he was a bit of a bargain too.
It may well be that Cesc wants to return to Barcelona for other reasons than a lack of big money signings.
Reasons like family, girlfriend, friends, lifestyle and, my personal favourite, fear of being the 4th Arsenal player in his time at the club to have his leg broken in half.
As Charlie says, if you want your posts treated with more respect, maybe you should treat those you refer to with a bit more respect too.
Wenger has done an incredible job for a long time with extremely limited resources. “Arsene knows shit”, is hardly the way to get yourself taken seriously.
Catalan – you’ll no doubt have noted today’s news that Bendtner has a recurrence of last year’s groin problem.
Can’t jump to any conclusions but it would have been more surprising if that hadn’t happened.
And he hasn’t even started pre-season yet!
A large Tonic please ‘Holic, and fingers crossed for RVP tonight.
Evening Trev…. what a surprise heh? Still, maybe that revolutionary therapy “rest” rather than a world cup and cortisone might have been the way to go. Don’t want to be too alternative or anything!
Just a water please barman… feeling a weird health kick (post over indulgence) coming on…
PS…. at least Rossel seems to be a little bit realistic about finances!
Rossel… whatever. Let’s just call her Sandra.
Robin looked v sharp tonight on absolutely no service.
If I was a betting man I would say we will have two to three signings announced together the week after the WC. Just about the time we go off to Austria. After that there will be a few confirmed as leaving.
I am hanging on to my hope that Arsene this time brings in one or two much needed leaders. That block Gilberto from Brazil looks as if he could do a good job for a young side.
Second thoughts – Vermaelen, Rosicky, Clichy, RVP even Arshavin could all step up to the plate. Yep – Song too. And obvioulsy Cesc if he stays. Oh, if only we had bought Alonso.
We need leaders not followers.
A depth charge please barman.
for block read bloke.