Roiling football blather

[hucks]

yeah, i felt particularly bad for jenkinson.

if you look at united's young players - cleverly, welbeck, evans - they've all had at least one year of playing regularly for another premiership team, and it shows when they're up against people like jenkinson, who really got thrown in at the deep end. young players will make mistakes, that's part of football, so really you need to loan these players out and let them make those mistakes elsewhere.

it also doesn't help that there's no leadership from the back. if you have to throw a young centre-back in at the deep end but he's alongside a terry or vidic or ferdinand, they can hold their line against his, and they'll tell him where to be. koscielny was the senior defender in yesterday's back four, and he doesn't seem to communicate at all (see the first goal yesterday, the winner in last year's carling cup final).

This is exactly it. Smalling and Evans have spent time learning off Ferdinand and Vidic. Nani learns from Giggs. Rooney learned off Scholes. The only thing Jenkinson can learn from are his mistakes. I thought it was staggering that Walcott was having to tell him where to position himself. Walcott!

The problem at Arsenal isn't relying on kids per se, it's that the senior pros are so poor. Arshavin has been crap for ages now and spent Sunday trying to get himself sent off. Rosicky was possily worse. On the third goal, when he was in the wall he wasn't even looking at where the ball was going (as Hansen pointed out on MOTD2). He just looked bored. Really, really poor.

That doesn't happen at Man U and that is why Ferguson is such a good manager. The players perform for him, partly because he's an amazing motivator, but partly because he looks for character when he's buying players anyway. Jones seems mature beyond his years, Smalling is very down to earth, Valencia and Park are both wingers who like to work incredibly hard etc etc. Even C Ronaldo, as massive a dick as he was, worked incredibly hard and had an incredible desire to win. Wenger seems not to care about character. It's just technique for him. Arsene the glum aesthete indeed.

 

[IdleRich]

If City can get Hargreaves to come good it will be a massive fuck you to United... hope they did it for better reasons than that though.

 

[baboon2004]

That doesn't happen at Man U and that is why Ferguson is such a good manager. The players perform for him, partly because he's an amazing motivator, but partly because he looks for character when he's buying players anyway. Jones seems mature beyond his years, Smalling is very down to earth, Valencia and Park are both wingers who like to work incredibly hard etc etc. Even C Ronaldo, as massive a dick as he was, worked incredibly hard and had an incredible desire to win. Wenger seems not to care about character. It's just technique for him. Arsene the glum aesthete indeed.

True, true. Arshavin being the planet-sized example, of course. I liked van Persie's insistence on applauding the Arsenal fans on Sunday - good captaincy - but it's worrying that he had to call a few Arsenal players back from the tunnel to do that. if I were him, I'd be extraordinarily pissed off by that. What money on him leaving before the season's over?

 

[baboon2004]

Hargreaves? Goodness. I guess at least Mancini won't have to worry about him competing for a place every week

 

[crackerjack]

If City can get Hargreaves to come good it will be a massive fuck you to United... hope they did it for better reasons than that though.

I can't conceive of any better reason for anything.

 

[tom lea]

This is exactly it. Smalling and Evans have spent time learning off Ferdinand and Vidic. Nani learns from Giggs. Rooney learned off Scholes. The only thing Jenkinson can learn from are his mistakes. I thought it was staggering that Walcott was having to tell him where to position himself. Walcott!

The problem at Arsenal isn't relying on kids per se, it's that the senior pros are so poor.

all true. makes wenger look very foolish for letting pires, gilberto, ljungberg etc go the minute they bordered on past their best, while fergie kept giggs, scholes, neville etc til the end. very good point re: fergie buying good characters, too.

 

[e/y]

yes, the older players at Utd have helped the young ones who were brought in.

the thing is that Pires, Gilberto and Freddy were all pretty crap when they were finally sold. less so with Pires, but I recall everyone shitting themselves when Bert would be warming up on the sidelines to come on as a sub, and Freddy was permanently broken.

Giggs and Scholes have managed to maintain their fitness levels, and the former was able to reinvent himself as a central player after his pace was gone.

Jenkinson does have Sagna (one of the best full backs in the league) to learn from.

 

[IdleRich]

"I can't conceive of any better reason for anything."

I thought that someone might say that - but I mean they need a realistic chance of it happening as well as the idea that it would be good if it did.

 

[crackerjack]

I imagine Utd fans will console themselves with Wes Sneijder.

 

[Sectionfive]

Good piece on 'arry

http://oneinthehole.wordpress.com/2...-no-longer-the-manager-to-take-spurs-forward/

 

[don_quixote]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/aug/29/steve-mcclaren-nottingham-forest

i could cry

 

[crackerjack]

Brighton are buying Vicente. That's a Spanish international, for those who don't know. He may be a knackered Spanish international, but still. That's good enough for me.

 

[Slothrop]

Cockney mafia out!

Erm, gooners look to have done okay today, though...

 

[paolo]

I'm satisfied with Chelsea's transfer window performance. Some decent youngsters in and Raul Meireles is quality. Benayoun and Zhirkov are decent but we've got cover. Will be good for Kakuta and van Aanholt to get some Premiership experience at Bolton and Wigan too

 

[crackerjack]

and Raul Meireles is quality

I don't understand the Meirelese transfer. I know he was holding out for a pay increase (promised under previous owners/manager, I believe), but selling him for £12m, or roughly 60% of Henderson....? Don't get it.

 

[Slothrop]

The pantomime at Newcastle was just fucking ridiculous, I'm really quite angry about the level of dishonesty and incompetence. In an absolute sense it wasn't a particularly bad transfer window, but to fail to pick up any sort of striker despite the fact that a lot of them were flying around at generally sensible prices and that we've known that we're lacking in that department since January and that we allegedly had money set aside to get one is absolutely fucking criminal.

And now apparently we're being told that Pardew will have money to strengthen the squad in the january window. Brilliant.

 

[e/y]

you did sign Dember Ba, though. he's pretty decent. and you got Santon, who I have a feeling will be back to being awesome.

 

[jenks]

Good piece on 'arry

http://oneinthehole.wordpress.com/2...-no-longer-the-manager-to-take-spurs-forward/

Thanks for that - the bloke's mostly spot on - bit forgetful about some cracking CL matches.

In the end the tailing off of form coincided with VdV and Bale going right off the boil and our other three strikers all going goal shy. Still can't work out why Pav is still there.

Will Adebeyor do it for 'Arry - I have my doubts,

 

[IdleRich]

"Will Adebeyor do it for 'Arry - I have my doubts"

I've never understood Adebeyor - as far as I could tell he never quite cuts the mustard but a big club always seems willing to come in for him. OK I guess his career is on the downward trajectory now but I can't see how anyone who watched him play a lot of games for Arsenal could think that he was a top level striker. I think he should count himself lucky for the amount of time he's had at some of the biggest clubs in the world.

 

[crackerjack]

The pantomime at Newcastle was just fucking ridiculous, I'm really quite angry about the level of dishonesty and incompetence. In an absolute sense it wasn't a particularly bad transfer window, but to fail to pick up any sort of striker despite the fact that a lot of them were flying around at generally sensible prices and that we've known that we're lacking in that department since January and that we allegedly had money set aside to get one is absolutely fucking criminal.

And now apparently we're being told that Pardew will have money to strengthen the squad in the january window. Brilliant.

Riiiiight. The impression I get is that Fatlad has no intention of spending a penny more than absolutely necessary to get 11 players on the pitch between now and that glorious day when he finally offloads his white elephant. Hence getting rid of good players like Barton and Nolan for nothing/piss-all simply to lighten the wage bill.