Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

Lukas Podolski
Welcome to Lukas Podolski. Especially welcome in what I hope is a statement of intent from Arsenal that this summer is going different to last year. That there might even be a plan. OK, so we were thoroughly screwed over by Barcelona, but the club’s collective management drifted through the summer with no obvious attempt to control events.

Wrapping up the Podolski deal now is hopefully a sign of a more assertive style. Much of course still hinges on coming third, or fourth at a pinch. Third place means that more early transfer business becomes easier and both will be needed to guarantee Robin Van Persie is with us next season. But a good start has been made with a proven international striker to share the load up front.

Man City
There are plenty of permutations to come this season, but City’s win last night is marginally in our favour. It gives them the strongest incentive to take out Newcastle at the weekend. And that comes after Newcastle’s trip to Stamford Bridge. The game itself wasn’t that exciting. Mancini finished it off the way you would expect from a traditional Italian manager defending a one nil advantage, with five defenders and three holding players.

Roy Hodgson
This season Roy Hodgson has taken a group of mid-range players, pulled them together as a team and guided them to a position where they are punching above their weight. He did the same thing at Fulham. Now it seems he has the same task again. So maybe the Club England committee just decided to get real.

Personally I think that he is as good a choice as any who would take it. It all went horribly wrong at Liverpool, but it’s debatable how much that wad down to Roy Hodgson. Look at all his replacement King Kenny has achieved, with the budget for massive spending on Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and Charlie Adam and wonder. Raul Meireles, who Hodgson took to Liverpool and King Kenny sold to Chelsea is playing regularly and scoring crucial goals.

Of course being England manager is a thankless task that requires a healthy dose of luck. The media have been laying into the decision, calling it a shock and astonishing. But this is mainly to cover up their embarrassing discovery that it wasn’t their decision to make. They crowned their mate Harry and said he was the only possible choice.

There’s something about Harry
To be fair to Harry, he has handled the announcement of Hodgson’s appointment with a lot of good grace, saying that he is very fortunate in life. And so he is, a very well paid job with some good players, nice house, car etc and a talented dog as well.

I wouldn’t have grumbled of he had got the England job but there is something about him that makes you think twice. Don’t know quite how to define it, but the FA obviously think so too.

The best media excuse is that it came down to some row with Trevor Brooking over West Ham. I doubt it. I think that England have made a pragmatic long-term choice. The long-term bit may be a bit optimistic because I think that the trend to club before country will continue and may even go further to the clubs’ advantage. But good luck to Roy.

Arsenal don’t play tomorrow but it’s a big day with our three rivals all playing their catch-up games. Then it’s just two to go for each. Eyes down for a tight finish.

Our main rivals have played match 33 and sit two and four points behind us. Tonight we have the chance to make that five and seven. Wolves lie six points from safety. Do they still believe or have they given up? Either way, Arsenal’s biggest threat tonight is complacency. Hopefully the QPR game had driven out any chance of that.

As for the team we will see at least two changes tonight. Gibbs’ groin is apparently fatigued and Koscielny is suspended for the next two games. Gervinho is also out. So Squillaci and Park join the squad. Clearly Santos will play at leftback, but who will pair up with Vermaelen? I think that Arsene Wenger will stick with the obvious and put in Djourou.

That leaves the question of who plays out wide left? Wenger pulled a bit of a surprise on Sunday and played Benayoun with excellent results. But I don’t believe that he will start two in a row so it’s going to be Ramsey or Oxlade-Chamberlain. I hope that it’s the latter. He’s due a start this is surely a good game to do it. One antidote to complacency is a player with a desire to prove himself.

So I expect to see:
______ Szczesny ______
Sag _ DJ _ Verm _ Santos
________ Song _______
__ Arteta ___ Rosicky __
Walcott __ RVP __ AOC

Meanwhile I’m still fuming over the spineless Football Association for all the good it will do. They are hiding behind FIFA now. Nobody believes you guys, they see other football associations acting and you doing nothing. Victory to the leg-breakers and your fault.

Last night Liverpool scraped a 3:2 win over struggling Blackburn despite going 2:0 up in the first fifteen minutes. Kenny Dalglish still manager. Flanagan was hopeless but he’s just young and cost Kenny nothing. Henderson was laughable and cost millions. Hard to believe now that his capture by Liverpool was held up at the time as another example of what Wenger couldn’t achieve!

The English Football Association has decided that Mario Balotelli cannot be punished for his high, studs first challenge on Alex Song during the match on Sunday. Their ‘defence’ is that referee Martin Atkinson saw the incident and so they are powerless to act.

You are not powerless guys, you are in charge. What you have effectively done is created a leg-breakers charter. Is what you saw in that review what you actually want to see happen on football pitches in England? Since you have refused to punish Balotelli, we have to assume that it is. Pathetic.

Remember, you are the ruling body for football in England. You are in charge. You are the body entrusted with defining how football is played in England. You could stop this type of challenge if you wanted to. You haven’t. So what are we supposed to think of you?

England are not out the World Cup yet.  A win on Wednesday against Slovenia should see them through.  They need to keep calm heads, decide what they can do differently and then go out and play like it matters to them.

So how are they doing with that?

Somebody thought, I know, let’s get John to head up the presser on on Sunday.  John?  Yes, you know, the deposed captain from the club where public player rants have become the norm since Jose left.  Stunning idea.  That will calm things down.

So out comes John Terry to set the record straight about who is to blame, with the backing of all the senior players.  Except that now perhaps we find they might not all have agreed with his plan.  If it was a plan rather than just car crash telly.

Then another bright spark thinks, if this goes pear-shaped were going to look like dorks for doing an extended deal for Capello the other day.  Tell you what, let’s leak out the word that if England fail to reach the next stage, we expect Capello to resign.  That will cover our backs and stop everyone thinking that the FA is a complete shambles.  So they did.  And then a few hours later started to downplay the whole story.

Anyone out there think the FA isn’t a complete shambles?  Everything a lot calmer in the England camp now?  Thought not!

England probably need to do something different.  What they have tried to do so far hasn’t worked.  But they need to work it out by talking to each other.

The FA, the England set up, need to learn a lesson from the politicians (yes I know that sounds mad but bear with me for a moment).  The lesson is this: the media are not listening to you because they are your friends.  They are there to earn a living.  It’s a bit like with your agent only you don’t pay the fee. They understand media manipulation better than you.  Just like the politicians, this doesn’t make you saints in comparison.  But you don’t have be so &@”*ing naive either.

Stick to thinking about the football guys.  A) because it’s supposed to be the bit you know most about and  B) because the media verdict will be determined by what happens in the 90 minutes on Wednesday regardless of any media stunts pulled before.

Come on England.