Divers, respect, and dirty play; the season gets under way

Arsenal are less than 24 hours away from their 12:45 home kickoff against West Bromwich Albion. There’s some good news (Nasri is fit), there’s some OK news (Toure is in the squad despite being “short” in the manager’s words) and then there’s the spate of news about cheating, diving, dirty play, and respecting the refs.

Let me get to the latter in just a second, first, I want to mention that the team seems to have brought back the 3pm Saturday kickoff — well, a little. Last year there were only a handful of Arsenal matches that kicked off at 3pm BST on a Saturday and almost no home matches. This caused a great deal of consternation among yours truly because, well, I didn’t name the site “sometime between 4am and 9am kickoff.com.” I love the 7am kickoff and I know that the British fans loved the 3pm Saturday match just as much. Yes, I know, kickoffs have been shuffled to accommodate television. I don’t care, can’t Arsenal get the 3pm slot? Every time? Is that unreasonable?

Regardless, it’s good to see the traditional home kickoff time being restored for 10 home games this year. Unfortunately, the first one of those doesn’t happen until October 18th against Everton. Can’t wait.

The other news is that, joy of joys, win or lose, relegation be damned, the Premier League season kicks off tomorrow! And what joys do they have in store for us at the corporate office! Huh? Yes, kickers, the boys at the head office have kicked down a new “scheme” they are calling “Get on with the game.”

The big rule change is dissent. Sick of seeing such shameful displays as Ashley Cole turning his back on Mike Riley, the entire Chelsea squad surrounding the referee when they don’t like a call or just want to disrupt play, or John Terry screaming at the ref when a call doesn’t go his way, the Premier League decided to get tough, to really crack down. So, they wrote up a charter, made a flag, designed a new handshake, and got the broadcasters to agree to have some ex-refs in the broadcast studio so that the referee’s point of view could be shown. They have also decided to hit the problem with a with a major — and I mean major — leaflet campaign, and while it’s reeling from that, they’re going to follow up with a whist drive, a car boot sale, some street theatre and possibly even some benefit concerts.

Look, signing compacts, shaking hands, and waving a flag around aren’t going to stop players like Cole and Mascherano from being disrespectful to the referees. Neither is allowing “just” the captain to talk to the ref. It’s silly, it’s a band-aid on the problem. It doesn’t address the issue of when the captain is the problem, and it doesn’t stop the players from being disrespectful.

If you want to fix the problem of dissent, you give one warning, one yellow, a red, and then further sanctions from there. Refuse to leave the pitch (Adebayor!) and get a 1 match ban for every minute the player refuses. You know, serious sanctions — I don’t know, I’m just throwing that out there to show that something could be done. All this scheme will do is make it look like the Premier League is doing something.

And what did they do about the dangerous tackles like the one that nearly ended Eduardo’s career? Nothing. It’ll be business as usual. “Go on get stuck in boys” will be the clarion call of all managers who are unable to teach their boys how to play football. You need look no further than Everton as the model that the middle of the pack teams should emulate. Moyes has craftily put together a team that has the best disciplinary record, is a baby’s breath away from a top four defense, and still scores goals. They are a serious threat to break into the top four because of Moyes and his ability to teach. Not because they go out and break legs to slow down technically superior teams.

Given that the League won’t do anything about dangerous play, is it any wonder that Adebayor is calling for Arsenal to win “dirty?” Ade says what everyone already knew:

Sometimes you have to be dirty to win some games. You need to do that because it is part of football.

I’d rather they didn’t cheat to win, but given Chelsea’s antics in every match and the fact that they get away with it, I’d have to agree with Adebayor. If the league is going to let it happen, well, you’d be a fool not to join them.

Finally, the other big rules change that I wanted to see was an end to the type of diving that 99% of football fans seem not to care about; that “I feel contact I go down (Ronaldo)” type of dive. I know I’m in the minority here, but I can’t stand seeing a 12 stone man writing on the ground in “pain” after some little striker reaches out and pats his cheek. My proposed amendment is even simpler than the respect amendment; if you couldn’t get away with it in a pick-up game, it’s a dive. Thus, a straight red for the “slapper” because, well, you shouldn’t touch another player’s face, dummy. And a yellow card for the guy on the ground for simulation. I’d also allow post match review for diving and retroactive match bans for particularly egregious displays.

And before the few non-Arsenal fans who read this blog get into a frenzy; yes, Cesc Fabregas went down too easily against Everton. So? It’s part of the game, right? You can’t have it both ways. In my “scheme” he would have gotten a yellow. If you really want fair play, you have to be willing to take on your own team, which most fans aren’t. Since no one, not fans, not managers, not owners, and not the League seem willing to take on the really big issues I expect this season will be more of the same, just with better looking banners. I guess I better just take my own advice and “get over it.” Eh?

That’s it for today, I am genuinely excited for the season. After all, it looks like Arsenal are ready to start playing the way everyone else does, there’s going to be a bunch of 3pm Saturday kickoffs, and the boss is promising a new signing. What more could an Arsenal fan want?

Next week, a signing, I pinky promise — Arsene

First a bit of housekeeping; I’m not going to be giving as many “match reports” this season, because, well, frankly?  You’ve already read a bunch by the time you get here and unless I have something interesting to say, I’m not going to trudge out a match report just to fill space.  Last year I tried out “the good, the bad, and the ugly” as a form of brief match reporting and I think I’ll keep with that format this year.  Another thing I’m not doing is giving a match report when I haven’t actually seen a match.  What’s the point?

I feel dirty reading someone else’s report (who could have gotten the report off someone else, ad nauseum, until we find out that all match reports are actually written by some Australian bloke named “Mitch”) and then regurgitating that report here.

So, no match report today.  Even though I was needlessly wringing my hands over it yesterday, the boys won 2-0 with Gallas and Adebayor getting goals and Walcott the assist.  Good for them.

That left me sitting here today wondering what I was going to write about when out of the blue Arsene provided.  Ask and ye shall receive, eh?

After the match, the boss said that the club is “certainly” signing someone before the replay against FC Twente in a fortnight.  Now, I know that just yesterday I went on record saying that I had serious doubts that the team would buy someone and so, on the surface Wenger seems to be thumbing his nose at all us naysayers.  But this is the same Arsene Wenger who said that two signings were only a week away — back in May.  This is the same Wenger who claimed that Arsenal were signing a Premier League player to boot.  That the signings would be “big players” on and on.  Sure, if you parse out those statements, you will find everything he said to be 100% accurate.  He’s the master of the qualifying statement.  Which is why his latest quote should be taken with a grain of salt.

Will something be done ahead of the second leg? Certainly yes, but before Saturday, no.

“Something” will be done, certainly!  “Oh, you thought that meant a signing?  I meant the transfer of Justin Hoyte would be done, that’s “something” isn’t it?”

I’m not 100% cynical, I’d bet that the boss has a transfer target in mind, but given all the qualified statements I’ve seen this summer you’ll just have to pardon me if I’m a little reserved about the likelihood of the deal getting done.

And who will this transfer in be?  All the news reports think it’s Inler, so I bet it’s some 17 year old who’s been playing sand-lot football for the past 7 years.  We know who it won’t be: it won’t be Alonso because he’s cup-tied having played for Liverpool in their lucky 0-0 draw yesterday.  It also won’t be Veloso because Sporting are on record saying they want the princely sum of £24m and Wenger isn’t paying £24m for anything or anyone.  No, it’ll probably be someone like Danny Haynes.  Sure, he’s a striker and that is absolutely NOT a position that Arsenal need but he’s rated at £3m, Hoyte went out for £3m, eh?  EH?

Feel free to speculate in the comments below, you all know more than the reporters who are linking Haynes to the club.

All right, see you lot tomorrow.  (Patiently waiting for a signing)

The future is now

Just 2 months ago, Aaron Ramsey was being pursued by Man U, Arsenal, and Everton and being hailed by all three clubs as “one for the future.”  In the end, it was his choice to join Arsenal and it was something that Arsene Wenger said to him at a private meeting on neutral ground that convinced the young man that Arsenal would be the club for him.  The boy came away from the meeting convinced that he would be given every opportunity to succeed at Arsenal and said something that not many gave much thrift to at the time

Arsenal is a club which always gives young players an opportunity at the highest level of the game and I am going to work my hardest to be part of future successes here.

Tonight, he gets his opportunity. Wenger gave a tepid review of Ramsey’s progress, saying that the kid needs to work on his technique, and so I doubt that Ramsey would have been any where near consideration for a starting spot if everyone was healthy.  But needs must is the devil’s playground, or something like that, and the lad gets his shot.  After my initial response, I am excited for him and really wish I could watch the match, but it’s not being broadcast here in the States and so I’ll have to either do the Beeb’s scrolling update or find some way to do a peer to peer thing.  So, here’s to you lad, break a leg, erm… no, wait, don’t do that.  Don’t break any legs, yours or anyone else’s, please?

As I said yesterday, I’m now on the record with a sense of dis-ease with the lack of midfield signings and constant midfield injuries.  First, to the injuries, it turns out that Cesc and Senderos both picked up a Hammy because the boss overworked them in training. Here’s Wenger’s mea culpa:

But it is always tricky when you have players coming back late. You always try to rush the fitness a little bit. When you play a qualifier you are a bit more pushy with players who come back late and that’s when you get injuries. That is what happened with Fabregas.

Note to Arsene Wenger; Cesc Fabregas is the most important player in the club, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t kill him in training in your haste to get him fully fit.  Thanks.  I mean, what’s done is done, and I fully back Wenger as manager, but for the love of god, why?  Why couldn’t the manager and physios, with all that’s at their disposal, ensure the fitness of their most important player?

As for the signing, all summer I’ve maintained a healthy skepticism that Wenger will sign the big name player that so many of us supporters are slavering over.  As much as I would love to see Xabi Alonso in the proper shade of red, I honestly don’t think the club has the resources to do the deal.  Well, they sort of have the resources, but I think they’d have to borrow money to do it.  Maybe the sale of Justin Hoyte, if they accept Middlesboro’s bid, will help grease the skids a bit here but again I remain doubtful.  Every quote I read from every person, from the board to the boss, seems to be setting us up for one of those classic “well, we had a couple of targets, but the price wasn’t right” justifications for not filling out the team.  The part that they admit is that they need a body, but then Wenger will say that he may or may not buy, depending on the value.  Like I said a few days back, if you have a flat tire and you’re on a road trip, you don’t wait for the repair shop to have a fire sale; you fix the damn flat.

I’m resigned to the notion, though, that Arsenal aren’t buying anyone, not Inler, not Alonso, not Bale, and not Annan or whoever else the press can fabricate as being linked to the club.  That way, if the deal does suddenly happen for Alonso I can be double-plus happy.

Anyway, the boys take on FC Twente in a few hours.  Here’s to a rousing win and superb performance by all and especially the ones who have been thrown into the breech.

Unless Arsenal sign Alonso… tomorrow.