Author Archives: Michael Roberts

Winning Is Everything: The Curse Of Success…

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Is Winning A Curse?

Last night I dug out an Arsenal DVD and watched with immense pleasure – it was a nostalgic experience. Winning the league at White Hart Lane, going through a Premiership season unbeaten and witnessing some of the best football I have ever seen.

But this of course was only 2 years ago.

As I watched the title celebrations we would see Vieira, Campbell, Bergkamp, Pires, Cole, Reyes, Parlour, Kanu and the other players who have left (and will soon depart) and you can see that as long as your winning there are no problems.

When things are great, everything is perfect.

But unless you can keep up this level of success then you will find cracks appearing. How the hell can you top an unbeaten Premiership season?

And it only took one season of not winning the league for the real personalities of our players to come through.

Cole went and talked to Chelski, Vieira ‘didn’t feel loved anymore’, Reyes got hoaxed by a Spanish Radio Station and Pires wanted a two-year deal but didn’t get one.

Even Henry needed a season to decide whether his future was with Arsenal.

But now Arsene has assembled a new squad with young, hungry players that have something to prove and will want to build on the success in the Champions League.

Cesc looks like he has improved on last season, Hleb & Adebayor will be better for having a season under their belts, Rosicky will add to our team and Titi will have a clearer mind now he has committed his future with Arsenal.

Manchester United have suffered after their success in the 90’s and Liverpool finally look like top-level contenders after dominating the 80’s. Chelski are having the best of it at the moment but let’s hope that Arsenal don’t wait ten years before getting back on top!

I wonder if Chelsea will see any cracks appearing this season…

Henry Loves Arsenal, Ade Hates Reyes, Jens Rants…

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No Regrets…

Thierry Henry has spoken out and said he is happy with his decision to stay at Arsenal and to lead the team into a new era at the Emirates.

He also said that although Chelski are linked to huge amounts of money, they have won back to back titles because they are a good team.

Well it depends on what you call a good team. The Chelski fans obviously don’t think so because they have tickets on General Sale for their first home game and first game of their title defence against Manchester City!

If they don’t want to watch them why does anyone else!

And Adebayor has hit out at Reyes telling him “We don’t want you anyway”.

And he also pointed out that Henry is a perfect example of how to deal with interest from other clubs like Real Madrid and AC Milan – that we should just say no.

Jens Lehmann has been quoted as saying that Chelsea are not a big club, and that only Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal are.

Well Crazy Jens might have a point with the fact Chelsea can’t even sellout a 43,000 seater stadium when they’re Champions!

Chelsea Play The Waiting Game With Arsenal

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Just A Question Of When…

Ashley Cole will not be wearing an Arsenal shirt this season. That is clear.

He has publically slagged off the club that raised him, he illegally met with Chelsea representatives and he wasn’t in this years official team photograph.

So why isn’t Cashley at Chelsea yet?

It’s because Chelsea are making Arsenal sweat. Flexing their proverbial muscle if you will.

Don’t be fooled – they’re going to go ahead with the Cole signing, and they’re going to stump up the £25 million Arsenal want.

They’re just taking their time.

Why? Because they can.

When you spend as much money as Chelsea do on transfers you can do what you want. You control how things are done.

Why give Arsenal £25 million in July when they can hand it over in late August?

You don’t want to give a team like Arsenal a substantial amount of money early on in the summer – with Wenger’s eye for a bargain he could buy 3 or 4 brilliant players for that cash.

And William Gallas?

When you have the financial needs of Chelsea you can easily afford to let the guy rot in the reserves if he doesn’t play by the rules.

At any other club in the world, any player can engineer a move away from his club.

But not at Chelsea.

Here you are just another name on the list. You don’t want to play for us? Then you can see out the rest of your contract in the reserves. It doesn’t matter how big a player or how good you are – Chelsea can bring in 3 or 4 players of equal ability and reputation.

Don’t like it? That’s tough!

Dropping Beckham Signals Danger For England?

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Deserves To Be Dropped?

Don’t get me wrong, I was one of the many that said Beckham should be dropped once in a while – if anything a guaranteed first team place can bring about complacency. And there is no doubt that Beckham had a poor World Cup.

But dropping him from the entire 25-man squad?

If I had to pick the best 25 English players available then Beckham would probably make the first 15 without any problems. Partly because of the lack of English talent, but also because when Beckham puts on an England shirt he gives nothing but 110% – when some of his colleagues don’t.

The thing I worry about is why McClaren dropped Beckham.

The press and most of the country wanted Becks dropped and he has now just followed public opinion and done exactly that.

Is McClaren doing the best for the team, or just trying to get a public vote?

Of course, Beckham is not at his peak any longer but can still do a job for England. But are you telling me Phil Neville and Stuart Downing are more worthy of England places than Beckham?

And yes, Beckham had a poor World Cup.

But so did everyone else!

I just hope the public and the press don’t turn against Wayne Rooney otherwise McClaren might just drop him as well and we’d be in real trouble if that happened!