Norwich City,England,Spain,Arsene Wenger,Bert Van Marwijk,Robin Van Persie,Frank Lampard,FIFA,Alex Song,Barcelona
Is that the faint glimmer of real football ahead. Yes, just the slightest sight of Arsenal away to Norwich on Saturday lunchtime to bring an end to this long dull interlude.
I’m afraid that I find international football less and less exciting with every passing year. I will probably still watch the tournament itself, but the qualifying stages no longer stir me and friendlies can pass almost unnoticed.
Apparently we beat Spain at some point over the weekend. In fact I did see the goal on the news and Lampard won’t get an easier one in his career.
Attracting far more attention was the massive media fuss over whether or not FIFA would allow England to play with the poppy emblem on their shirt. Given that England have played many internationals at the same time of the year before, without the issue ever being raised, I think that the massive media fest and political posturing says more about how newspapers get sold and how politicians and pundits get themselves on telly than it does about football. So I’ll leave that one to people who blog about politics and such things.
If you share my boredom with the whole business then what you really want to know is whether the various traveling Gunners have picked up an injury or not.
The news appears to be good so far with no stories of hobbling Gunners limping home at all. Some will have a second game to play of course, but so far so good. Most importantly, Robin Van Persie won’t be making a second appearance for the Dutch side. His national coach, Bert Van Marwijk has gone along with some friendly lobbying from Arsene Wenger and agreed to use him just the once. Even better he doesn’t even have to hang around like a spare part and is going home.
There are still fifteen other Arsenal players out there though, hopefully ready to leap over sliding studs and not planning to rupture hamstrings chasing desperate over-hit passes.
That’s about it for Arsenal news though. We could work ourselves into a lather about Alex Song being linked with Barcelona and I could go back and change the headline to a more tarty ‘Star Gunner set to leave for Barcelona’. But there will be plenty more opportunities for such stuff when the transfer window is actually upon us.
So thanks for popping in on this foggy Monday morning. Thoughts on the Norwich game to come.
Have a nice day now!
