At the end of the 2008/2009 season as William Gallas was out with his annual end-of-season injury Arsenal played big matches against Man U and Chelsea in both the Champions League and the Premier League and in most cases Arsene Wenger used Mikael Silvestre, despite having a fully fit Johan Djourou to play instead. So why is it that Johan revealed today that Wenger told him he let Kolo go to City that Summer because he thought of Djourou as a direct replacement?
Don’t get me wrong, I like Djourou: he’s tall at 6’3″, decent in the air, and actually has good pace for a big defender (unlike a guy like Hangelaand). The problem isn’t that he’s not physically the kind of defender that Arsenal fans crave, it’s that he’s only 23 years old and more importantly has only played 29 games in the Premier League in the last three years — 13 of which were for Birmingham in 2007/2008.
Thinking back to the few starts he did get last year I remember that his positioning was sometimes questionable and this led to the occasional goal. Remember Keane’s goal against Arsenal when he played for Liverpool? It was a classic example of an experienced striker getting a jump on his young marker and just the kind of thing that only experience teaches you to defend against.
So, it’s a huge surprise to me that at the start of this season Wenger saw this young defender as ready to jump right in and fill Kolo Toure’s impressive boots at the end of a season in which he only made 32 total appearances for both club and country. Not to mention the fact that he was reserved from several important games and Silvestre was used instead.
Maybe he could have been ready, I don’t know. He is just one year younger than Thomas Vermaelen but I would argue that Vermaelen was more ready owing to the fact that he played 58 games in the season just before he came to Arsenal and was playing 25+ in most seasons leading up to that. Not only that, but he was captain of his club. It sounds almost funny to say it but compared to Djourou, Vermaelen was vastly more experienced than Johan.
The silver lining here is that Djourou usually plays on the left side of central defense and Thomas Vermaelen has put a huge stake in claiming that permanently for himself. Which makes Djourou Vermaelen’s backup and at least makes some of what Wenger said to the young player just talking him up.
It also highlights where Arsenal need to buy this Summer; on the right side of central defense. Phillipe Senderos’ Arsenal career is absolutely over as he couldn’t get a game in over the dreadful Silvestre and was shipped off to Everton to sit on their physio’s table. William Gallas is reportedly rejecting a two-year deal at Arsenal because of “lowered pay.” And Sol Campbell is a massive player both physically and emotionally but even if we do re-sign him for one last hurrah, he is hardly fit enough to start 50+ games a season. Oh and Silvestre can head back to Manchester and report job done to his masters. I can guarantee there will be riots in the Emirates if Silvestre is in the squad next year. So, a right-footed center back is an absolute must this Summer, I think. Jack Rodwell anyone?
More worrying than Arsene telling Djourou that he was ready for first team football is the injury saga which he described. According to an interview on the official site Djourou entered the pre-season with his knee swelling regularly after training or playing. Here’s what the dot com’s reporter wrote:
The problem had been causing Djourou concern during the pre-season but Arsenal’s medical team had been keeping on top of the issue.
While the club was “keeping on top of the issue” he played one final friendly against Valencia and headed off to Switzerland where the knee swelled and caused pain. It was then he decided to get an operation and end his season with Arsenal. Here’s how Djourou puts it:
To be fair I had a knee problem already, so that is why the Valencia game was my last game.
It wasn’t something that happened with the Swiss team as has been mentioned – I’d had it for a while. I had been playing with it since the end of the season before so sometimes I had my knee being swollen up after games but it wasn’t that painful.
It got to the point that it was very painful and I just couldn’t do anything so I had to go in. At the time I wasn’t [aware how serious it was] because I thought I had swelling for no reason because I had no pain. I was wondering why so we had to do scans and things like that.
Then, when I heard [the extent of the injury], it was a bit of a shock for me because it was something quite big and you never know what can happen with injuries like this with the knee. It is always difficult to take. [emph. added]
So, the club knew he was having problem with his knee since last year, the medical team was “on top of it” and yet this young man’s footballing career was put back an entire year because somehow Arsenal’s medical team missed a serious problem with his knee which sounds like it was brewing for at least 6 months.
In Arseblog’s coverage of Ivan Gazidis’ chat with the Arsenal Supporter’s Trust, Gazidis reportedly promised a ‘thorough self-examination that would not be blind to where we fell short’ and specifically promised to review the medical team as Arsenal reportedly suffered twice as much injury as Chelsea.
I’d like to suggest that the Djourou injury is the very first that Ivan takes a look at. How they could miss an injury like that until the first few weeks of the season, despite the player having a history of swelling over months is pretty incredible.
Just to put a fine point on it; Djourou’s last game for Arsenal was May 5th 2009 and he sat on the bench for the remainder of the games. It’s therefore reasonable to assume that he was suffering from knee problems as early as late April of last year which kept him out of the first team. If he had been properly diagnosed and had gotten surgery in say, late May, he could have been back in February or March of this year and at the very least could have spelled Vermaelen for some games. At best Arsenal wouldn’t have been forced to use Silvestre for the run-in.
The run-in in which Arsenal had a chance to win the title.
I don’t think it’s unfair to suggest that not only a top-to-bottom assessment of the medical team is in order, but I would suggest that on the basis of what I’m seeing above, heads should roll.
Arsenal News 24/7
I had the same thoughts regarding Djourou’s comments, Tim. Something is surely amiss within the medical staff to have either missed the severity of the injury altogether or to not have treated it effectively to begin with (thereby avoiding the need for surgery if that was possible).
While many folks took umbrage at Arshavin’s comments regarding the medical staff, maybe he was just the one person who’d state publicly that there really is an issue to be addressed in the physio department.
That means the management tossed away our 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons just to avoid buying players? Thats just unacceptable. I hope Gazdis actually looks in to the matter rather than trying to pacify the supporters.
With 25 players permitted in the squad, do we have even a 50% chance of winning the premier league? We end up having at least 8 to 9 players injured. In that case we dont even have enough to make the bench! I am scared of this scenario.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:41 am
Your comment means you are using hindsight to judge the management.
Also, it’s not like this is a new insight.
If it’s a consistent problem, then we worry, but only if there are not other reasons to buy players over the last two years like,
-inflated prices
-property debt
-clubs don’t want to sell
-players happy where they are
-Arsenal team spirit at risk
The only player I know about that we’ve missed due to a reason other than the above, that I regret, is Xabi Alonso. All b/c AW reportedly wouldn’t pay an additional million pounds.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:07 am
@sort of, An additional 2 million, Benitez wanted 14, we offered 12…. Annoying, better than Denilson.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:16 am
It hurts to think about how good having Cesc, Alonso and Song in midfield would have been. Look at Liverpool since he left….
dnt rate djorou at all.hes an accident waitin 2 happen
May 11th, 2010 at 8:30 am
@anto, I beg to differ. He is really comfortable on the ball, doesnt get flustered, powerful and is no pushover!! Doesn’t mean we dont have to buy a DM this summer but he is good enough to start and retain the place!!
May 11th, 2010 at 8:31 am
@Akash, I meant to say CM not DM.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:33 am
@Akash, Central defender, gosh!!
yes totally agree,very well put,there is defo something wrong there,just two weeks ago between matches we somehow managed to get 3 players injured without even playing a match,rosicky,clichy and diaby how?????,does wenger train them to hard!!!!every season we have a mass injurie crisis in the latar stages,so it can only be wengers fault that we are run on a shoe string of experienced players to cover those injuries when we get them.no doubt the kids all have talent but we cant rely on them to win in the big matches that count,they always switch off or make that vital error and we always get punished for it.
Very good analysis of this particular situation. I can see where a player’s desire to play more often than not trumps the medical staff’s suggestion to not play, but it doesn’t appear to be the case that the medical staff ran the appropriate gamut of tests. Mysterious, inexplicable swelling of Djourou’s knee? Run a damn scan of it? In all fairness, we’d have to hear the medical staff’s explanation of how they treated Djourou, but if they failed to work hard in uncovering what was causing this knee inflamation, then that’s just simply bad. Now, our bad luck probably has as much, if not more to do with our injury situation, but maybe our medical staff are people with just bad karma or bad luck. Maybe it wouldn’t be fair to blame them for all the injuries, but life isn’t fair. Often times when things go bad for a team on the pitch, the manager gets sacked even though it might not be his fault. On the flipside, if the team’s successful on the pitch, it didn’t mean the manager was responsible for it. In these cases, messages have to be sent and in the case of Arsenal’s physios, changes likely have to be made.
As for centre back replacement, Rodwell’s a great prospect, but will he cost too much for how young he is? That being said, if Wenger was going to buy Chris Smalling for 10-12MM, then maybe Rodwell’s worth a peek at 15-20MM.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:12 am
@ArseChicago, I’ll suggest the player I suggested last season. Bremen’s Naldo, “The Ox”. 6’6″. 27. Would jump at the chance of a transfer because he needs it to get into the Brazil squad proper. Cost, may or may not be an issue. Can’t really say. Schaaf rates him highly, but has stated before that he wouldn’t stand in his way if he left to further his Brazil career and Bremen do have good back-ups.
Jack Rodwell does not play cb..
May 11th, 2010 at 9:37 am
@murial, Exactly. He’s a MF. CB don’t score the goals he’s scored playing CB.
i still feel one of wengers “players that slipped through the fingers” was not beating villa to richard dunns signiture,the guy would of been mustard playing along side vermealan,id say go for micah richards or gary cahill.we should also go for wright phillips which would allow walcott to play as a striker,and bring in yaya toure awsome compliment to fabrigas,and obviosley a new keeper but feel almunia would still make a good number 2!!for me has to be joe hart the mans an octopus and will still get even better.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:42 am
Where would we play Micah Richards? Certainly not at CB. He is way too short and has not shown the required tactical awareness. He plays RB for City and we certainly don’t need one to supplant Sagna and Eboue.
May 11th, 2010 at 9:39 am
@gazza goona, Richard Dunne scored the most og’s (?6) this season. We would not tolerate that just like we can’t tolerate Fabianski calamitous goalkeeping.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:11 am
regardless of own goals he still a quality defender who like vermealan likes to get forward and score,he unlucky thats all,any one can score own goals.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:25 am
@gazza goona, wright-phillips is dirt and if he was any good he’d still be at chelsea.
Djourou can also play in the DM position. Infact he thinks he a is a more of a DM than CM. Should we buy a Central Defender then I think we have an automatic backup for the Song position.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:46 am
I have always thought that Djourou would be an excellent DM. The problem is whether Arsene sees him as one or not. You have to remember that Arsene said Song was not suited for DM because he lacked the stamina and only gave Song the chance when Denilson was injured. Prior to Denilson’s injury, Song had not played at DM for that entire pre-season and start of the regular season.
May 11th, 2010 at 9:00 am
@Caribkid69, I think AW did say the lack of stamina thing regarding Kolo. Actually AW said a couple of weeks ago that Song still lacks tactical nous to play CB.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:57 am
just by buying someone like yaya toure would mean that song could cover in dc wich he has proven to be solid,and yaya toure is a proven dm so got cover there.all is then needed is 1 centre back like gary cahill,and a new keeper,so 3 players would make the world of diffrence,and as i said above getting in someone like wright phillips would free walcott to play his prefered striker roll.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:14 am
@gazza goona, Yaya will not be coming.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:18 am
maybe not who knows but i did say someone like!
Couple of items here:
1) Rodwell is a MF not a CB. He ultimately may end up as a DM. Love the lad, but I don’t see Everton letting him go unless it’s for big money.
2) Djourou is actually right footed, and only played on the left because Senderos and Kolo were not comfortable with the left CB position. He is similar to Gallas, who also is right footed but played at LB for Chelsea and At right CB for us when he was paired with Kolo or Senderos.
3) Djourou is just one of the many Arsenal players who have been medically mis-diagnosed and suffered because of that. Rosicky is another prime example. I have been saying for the past three years that they need to upgrade their medical staff as we suffer way too many non-contact injuries.
A Physiotherapist tends to treat the aftermath of an injury and\or surgery rather than prevent them. Yet, we have a young Physio in Lewin heading our medical staff. We need to be aligned to a state of the art sports clinic where players are sent for testing and observation pre and post injuries.
We have a state of the art training facility, probably the best game pitch, heated seating in our locker rooms, A one canteen services for providing balanced meals and dietary supplements, but we clearly don’t have a first class medical team.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:51 am
@Caribkid69,
1) Rodwell is listed on every site as a defender because Moyes sees him long term as a center half and everyone else sees him long term as a center half. I suspect that the reason he’s playing in midfield is because Moyes wants to get him as many games as possible and there is no way he’s starting over their center backs this season. As you know, a great place to learn about defense is in the defensive midfield position. Here’s Smudger’s assessment of the young guy: http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/everton-fc/everton-fc-news/2009/06/12/everton-star-jack-rodwell-hailed-as-the-new-rio-ferdinand-92534-23852061/
2) Can you show me where you get his footedness from? I can’t find player footedness anywhere.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:27 am
@Tim, 2) you watch them play mate!!!
May 11th, 2010 at 10:45 am
@Tim,
Didn’t Djourou play Right Back for Birmingham? I think he is versatile enough to adapt to any role (RCB,LCB,RB,DM) and was looking good towards the end of the 08-09 season.
He was not a replacement for Toure, he would just get more games. Not sure how you translated that into taking over a starting role from Toure. Vermaelen and Gallas were the starting pair and that was decided before the extent of Djourou’s injury was discovered.
Medical staff is a big concern and a lot of people have commented on it but AW and Gazidis seem to be blind to it.
May 11th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Moyes sees him as a CB in the long term. However, he currently plays in MF and has done so for a long time. we don’t need anymore long term speculation if someone may be able to play in an unaccustomed role. Plus, we also have Bartley, Nordveidt and Botellho coming through the ranks who are versatile enough to play both CB and DM and have actually done so in their short careers.
90 + percent Gallas or Djourou gets to kick the ball they do so with the right. Hence, that’s their preferred foot.
An unyielding Wenger wont be forced to buy any player by Ivan, let’s not get too joyful there. Djourou won’t play consistently due to being injury-prone. Once Gallas leaves, AW will buy one replacement, and Campbell;in short the we may still not have enough for next season due to injuries… Perhaps both Sagna and Song should practise/play being CBs more often? Djourou, if fit should also slot into both CB and DM positions…he was converted from DM anyway.
The new FA rule is a curse to the EPL…time will prove it!VERSATILITY is the operative watch word for next season if we want to even challenge…but AW doesnt sound broken and sober enough to effect the needed changes that will affect the medical staff which also obviously needs fresh hands…but Wenger knows, right?
May 11th, 2010 at 10:17 am
@Steven, I agree on the Sagna thing. Eboue is never injured, so can cover there. And Sagna seems like a converted CB anyway, he has that CB demeanour (probably why his crossing is so poor =))
May 11th, 2010 at 10:40 am
@Joe, Funny thing about Eboue is when he was the first choice RB (before Sagna) he would get injured every so often. Now he seems to have brushed off that malady (even though he ends up playing in every game).
I’d like to see Rodwell arrive as quality DM cover for Song, but whilst also being able to sit back at CB when required. It’s been well rumoured that Wenger admires him but as someone up there in the comments already said, will he be deliberately overpriced by Everton to keep sticky hands off? We wait and see, more in hope than expectation, sadly.
Agree with Carib re: Djorou being the latest example. What about cesc’s “bruised bone” in the Birmingham match, previous to Puyol finishing the job? Surely that didnt look as a bone breaking foul. Gallas’ misterious calf? RVP doing his rehab in Holland? Heads should roll, and balls should be chopped.
On another note, Arseblog linked to a story about AW pulling out of an Akinfev deal at the last minute. Non confirmed though.
I agree about the medical team. As far as I remember, none of the other top clubs had their entire first team missing for big parts of the season. We had Almunia and Fabianski not available to play at the same time (although that actually sounds pretty good at the moment), we inevitably lost Gallas for a third of the season, Vermaelen couldn’t last playing all the 147 games this season, Clichy out (as well as Gibbs), Nasri missing the first part of the season through a leg broken by Abou, Rosicky was Injuricky, Diaby and Denilson kept injuring themselves tying their shoes before practice every third game, Bendie wanted to spend some time banging some Royal Danish, RVP reserved his VIP booth at the Arsenal hospital at the beginning of the season, Fabregas missing when needed the most….Gosh!!! As far as I remember, only Sagna was fit to start most of the season, not considering the normal one or two games that a player misses during the season, and this hardly sounds good. I know this is an old topic, but this one bugs me the most because of the What if moment in it.
May 11th, 2010 at 9:29 am
@Teampossible, LOL @ injuricky, but certainly you’re putting all injuries in the same bag. Bendtner, RVP, Nasri were due to circumstances of the game. Djorou, Gallas were more suspect. I dunno about diaby, rosicky. Cesc was given a green light when he wasnt ready. Also gallas was hurried back.
May 11th, 2010 at 11:33 am
@Yan, I know there were different reasons for our injuries, but still the number of players missing was devastating, no matter what the cause. The thing is, apart from Song, maybe Vermaelen and possibly Bendtner, I would say that stating that our players are injury prone is like saying a bull in a corrida is sword-prone – it is bound to happen. Like a friend of mine that works in TV said when he had the opportunity to interview some of the players from Barcelona, specifically Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. He said: Jeez, if I didn’t know who they were, based on their appearances, I wouldn’t have even picked them on my backyard football team. And the thing is, our Arsenal is physically just the same: a team of Bambi-looking talents, about to get injured when the wind blows too hard. My bet is that Barcelona would have serious difficulty playing their style in England, but the thing is – they are not playing in England against the Ryan’s and Taylor’s, and we are. So something has to change.
I think you should also remember that Djourou was supposed to be back in February / March, back when they decided to operate. Second, you should also remember the original forecasts of when Rosicky was supposed to recover in 2008/9. These have led to holes in our squad for the past two seasons. The whole training and recovery systems need examination. The medical staff are just one aspect.
However at the end of the day it may be just bad luck. We are due a season with below average injury levels.
I’ve been complaining about this medical/physio staff for years and I’m now a permanent shade of blue.
isn’t Rodwell 19 or something? I’d prefer someone a bit older and more experienced, particularly if Gallas goes. He’ll end up at Chelsea for some ridiculous price.
And about the injuries, i think Wenger is not without blame here. We’ve all seen how the team tends to dominate in the last 10-15 minutes of a game, largely because they can still run then and the opponents can’t. Certainly some of it is due to the oppos having to chase the ball all game long, but could Wenger not be pushing them just a bit too hard in training in order to get that fitness level up, resulting in stress injuries?
May 11th, 2010 at 10:19 am
@b, Good point.
Good points Tim. The only thing that confuses me is that isn’t the medical team Colin has with him the same one as Gary had or did Gary take a bunch of the medical staff with him? and wasn’t Colin Gary’s understudy for many years? If that’s the case why would there be a drop in the level of service?
May 11th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
@nycgunner, The $64k ?
Interesting comments about the medical team at Arsenal.
I’ll probably get slaughtered for this but I’m really not a big fan of Djourou. I remember seeing him play for Birmingham on MOTD and a couple of live games and he was a disaster waiting to happen. He gave away pens, free kicks on the edge of the box, sloppy passes, clumsy tackles. I also remember him playing for Arsenal v West Brom 1st game of last season. He looked for a ridiculous offside decision which nearly cost us 2 points as we scraped a 1-0 win. Now we’ve seen what a fantastic player Vermaelen is, there are vastly better defenders than Djourou out there.
How can you discredit Arsenal for choosing to promote Djourou on one hand and then propose Jack Rodwell as the answer to our defensive problems on the other? To me, both Rodwell and Djourou are promising prospects whose fundamental shortcoming is the same thing – experience.
Hey tim who won the 7am kick off espn fantasy game and who came last. I can’t remember now but doesn’t the person who finishes first and last get a prize
Hey Tim who won the espn 7am kickoff fantasy game and who came last. Didn’t you say who comes First and last gets a prize.
any signing would be welcome at the minute,anythings better than buying knowone,in wenger im affraid we all have to trust!!not alot we can do about it,cos he clearly doesnt listen to us if anything it makes him more stubbern,but i have to say he does attract players,theres lots of players that like cesc wouldnt be here if not for him,thats why in some ways he has to stay,i think were be fine next season,watch us fly.
@Royal, Yeah! Where is Travis? I want to say that
I stuck to the “guideline” of no big 4 nor sp*rs players, resulting in a disastrous season, LOL.
is everybody completely mad?? Why do you blame the medical staff for injuries??? Do you blame ambulance men for crashes on the motorway??? the training/preparation/strength & Conditioning needs to be properly looked at!! The medical team, to my knowledge, is vastly experienced and also have a very respected doctor who has been on tour with the Lions Rugby. The physio has worked under Arsene for years and years. THIS WAS A FREAK SEASON> IT WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN. The medical staff should be congratulated for not killing themselves after what they have seen this year……..
May 11th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
@love vermaelen, I blame the medical staff for “being on top of” a chronic injury to one of our players which ultimately required surgery and yet took them 4 months to suss out.
That is unacceptable.
Djourou is a back up at best, you can see in a football players face an awful lot of things. You can tell passion, alertness etc.
You can see when you watch Vermalen or Sol Campbell, how alert and how switched on they are to sniff out danger and react quickly, Gallas and Alex Song are the same.
However Djourou, in the same way as Senderos and Toure was before him, is an accident prone DOPE. A typical wenger style defender, looks the part but has a panic attack the minute any trouble comes knocking! I think he will make mistakes in the same way those too do, have you seen Toure this season, he looks stoned or something, gets caught out every 5 minutes.
We need to keep Sol, Buy Gary Cahill and buy Kjaer, and let Djourou play a carling cup/emergency service role, i dont trust johan one bit!
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May 11th, 2010 at 5:49 pm
@yan, The final standings on the fantasy league.
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