Sturminated / GPS and what it does / Match review

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1st half line up:

Fabianski, Nordtveit, Vermaelen, Djourou, Traore, Nasri, Wilshere, Frimpong, Walcott, Arshavin, Chamakh

Fabianski started in goal and as a punishment for last seasons poor form, he was forced to wear a pink goalkeeper shirt. That’ll learn him…

Arsenal were in my favourite away kit of the last ten years, very stylish, so much so, I’m considering buying one for once!

Frimpong had another chance to show his value to the team by hopefully demonstrating his potential could outshine Denilson and his A-list stats. Nordveit was hoping to impress in the right back role again and Chamakh was hoping health and safety could pass a method statement for his highly flammable gel laden hair…

Samir Nasri looked like he’d taken time out this summer to hit the tread mill and JD was aiming to prove that he could complete two consecutive games. Would Jack Wilshere ease the pain of losing out on Joe ‘Liverpool are the best team in the country… seriously’ Cole? Only time would tell!

First good move of the match came when Nasri put Arshavin through on goal, the Russian just short of the required pace to reach the ball first.

Chamakh bagged his first assist of the pre-season when he cleverly managed to get tackled outside the box, knowing Nasri was following in to bury it low and hard past the Graz keeper from 20 yards.

1-0 to the boys in mustard and red currant.

Traore pulled off a super bit of skill, lifting the ball away from his full back winning a corner. Chamakh nearly finished the corner leaping as high as the jumping keepers hands were! We are now a genuine threat from corners. That’s exciting to know.

Frimpong was ticking over in the centre of the park, linking in well with Jack Wilshere who had a solid yet quiet game by his standards.

We were mostly in control of a slightly flat game, but the defence looked shaky and allowed the tiny Sturm striker through on goal forcing a good at the feet of Fabianski. The resultant corner led to a free header from two yards. Same old Arsenal when it came to defending this evening. Regardless of how early it is in our pre-season, we weren’t looking sharp at the back…

Jack Wilshere won a freekick after turning his man on the edge of the Sturm box. Nasri stepped up and dinked the freekick into the top corner. A superb goal. I thought it was funny that the commentary team mentioned the Frenchman’s hunger… you don’t need to tell us guys!

2nd Half team:

Koscielny, Gibbs, Eastmond, Lansbury, Rosicky (c), JET on for Vermaelen, Traore, Frimpong, Nasri, Arshavin, Chamakh

Koz came on for the second half, I was hoping for some heroic show of manliness top prove he had Lucio type strength. I wasn’t holding my breath. Geoff informed me he is in fact 6ft2 according to the Arsenal magazine. It’s a shame there are under 16′s with more muscle mass… the dinner lady at Colney wants to be putting extra meat on his plate this season! How he’s expected to deal with Drogba / Adebayor types I don’t know!

Chesney got his first full half and chose the pink kit because he felt it complimented his light complexion. He made a good save early on which must have eased his nerves.

We bagged our third after JET cut the ball back to Lansbury who dummied before chipping past the keeper.

I like Lansbury, a technically gifted box to box player… sadly, he struggles to impress whenever he plays for us. If he wants to shine in this group of kids, he’s going to have to up his game. His goal and a fizzing 30 yard shot went some way to him staking a claim for a squad number this year.

JET has a similar languid playing style to Bendtner. I can see that irritating fans because he can look lazy at times… however, the kid has dazzling feet, power and productivity. I really hope he realises his potential with us. That will require a lot of hard work… something the English boys have lacked in years gone by.

Theo continued to disappoint with a typical performance. He has very little skill going round players and he’s not very instinctive. I’m struggling to see how a full pre-season is going to change fundamental flaws in his game… but I’ll reserve judgement until October.

The game concluded with a clean sheet and a victory.

What did we learn? Well… we learnt that Arsenal have the same problems they had last year. We attack well and knock the ball round impressively… but we can’t defend. Graz were an extremely weak team and they opened us up on numerous occasion. If we’re to challenge next year, we need a proper keeper and a proper centre back pairing. If we don’t address those issues, I’m struggling to see what’s changed this summer?

I’ve heard that we’re out there making enquiries for top class players this summer (I’m talking £40mill worth of talent in the two positions I heard), but I can’t help but feel we’re going to go into the Emirates cup disappointed again. Wenger hasn’t done his shopping early as promised and we’re once again the proud owners of a transfer window cash surplus. It smacks of doing it on the cheap again and it lacks ambition considering we’re a club looking to sell £14,000 corporate hospitality tickets.

I know there is plenty of time left until the transfer window shuts but I can’t help but get that deja vu feeling… is it time for the ‘I’m satisfied with my squad’ press conference?

I hope not…

Other News

Eduardo left as I predicted earlier in the summer. Reading  some of the Gooners in blog land go on about him, like some sort of war hero had just passed away, was a touch vom inducing… jeez, get a grip people! He broke his leg and earned a full footballers salary throughout his recovery, probably watched Jeremy Kyle and loose women everyday and received the best treatment available.

Honestly, you’d have thought Dennis Bergkamp had lost his leg in his prime they way some people have been eulogizing… I thought he was a good player but for me, he lacked pace and involvement in the game. We gave him our full support after he was assaulted, he recovered, now he’s off to make a success of himself at one of the richest clubs in Europe. Good luck son!

Arsenal seem to be very keen to publicise the fact they are using GPS technology, the commentators were asking whether the boxes on the players backs were so Wenger could remotely control the players. Well, just to clarify that isn’t true, here is the run down of what it does…

It measures…

  1. Distance (broken down into time and % of time in zones).
  2. Speed (max, average, minimum – total in zones)
  3. Heart rate (max, average, minimum – total in zones)
  4. Impacts/body load – the ability to view the musculoskeletal stress
  5. Meters/min – a key variable of intensity.
    • This the one of the key variables used by our clients to monitor and manage the total “WorkLoad” of each player.

Basically, the tech will tell Arsenal how hard the players have trained/played, how fatigued they are and how close they are to injury. A massive boost for our medical team and our fitness staff.

For more info on the product, click here. I know that that GPS sports supply the devices, however, what I’m not sure of is whether they manage sport scientists and the implementations. I’m on the case though…

Sol Campbell is rumoured to be signing back on with the club. I’m pleased about that, but I’m still incredibly nervous about the state of our backline. We’ve got 3 defenders that are untested in the Premier League and another who can’t manage more than one game a week. Hardly confidence inspiring is it? I’d like a centre back, a defensive midfielder and a keeper… that’d put us in the frame for sure.

2 games, 7 goals, 2 clean sheets… still a long way to go if we want to be competing for Champions League and Premiership honours this season. Standing still squad wise is not an acceptable outcome this summer, we need to progress… keep the faith Grovers, that rabbit we’ve been praying Wenger will pull out of his hat is probably dead now, three years is a long time to go without sustenance, however, I’ve still got faith he’s been feeding it behind out backs and this is the summer he’ll pull it out and reveal something a bit special!

Come on Arsene, show us the rabbit!

819 Responses to “Sturminated / GPS and what it does / Match review”

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  2. incesc

    “if we were to buy sketlenburg, de jong and zapata and no one else, do you guys think we’d have a solid chance at challenging this year?”

    yup

    but id swap stekelenberg for reina, and we’d need to keep campbell to pass on knowledge in training and to play everynow and then

  4. choy

    Lol..

    Hleb going for 3 mill

    Flamini for 6 mill!

    :mrgreen:

    I think we need to spend 10 mill and bring them both back!

  6. G STAR

    I’M BEING SERIOUS, I PROMISE YOU THIS IS COMPLETELY TRUE.

    PS

    I REPEAT THIS IS 100% TRUE

    PS

    THIS IS A FACT AND NOT A LIE

  19. Ray in SF

    treze13 says:
    July 22, 2010 at 22:11

    if we were to buy stekelenburg, de jong and zapata and no one else, do you guys think we’d have a solid chance at challenging this year?

    —–

    Absolutely, though we’d still need Sol & Keown around to coach the defense and generally to ‘inspire’ a winning attitude

    sad that players earning 10 pounds a second need an external stimulus to be competitive!!

  21. TheGooner

    Milner £30 million? LMAO

    In that case, Cesc is worth about £200 million.

    30 fucking Million for Milner. Fuck right off Villa.

  24. Yon

    APPARENTLY… we are the 8th most valuable SPORTS (not football) franchise in the world. 3rd Football club just behind United and Real. That makes us more valuable than Bayern, Barca, AC Milan, Inter, Liverpool, Chelsea, Juve etc. This is quite an achievement considering we have spent no money on signings, have won nothing since 2005 and zero marketing/promotional skills. If we actually won something once in a while, signed marketable players, had a proper marketing team that arranged tours instead of training in seclusion in the middle of some Austrian wind farm…. we just might…. just might go up even further up that table along the NY Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, and Man Utd.

  26. incesc

    yeah its a great vid, so sad what happened to his career. Lets hope he turns it around.

    Probably score a hatrick vs us in the champions league

  28. timao

    milner probly is worth 30m to man city because he is english – their squad seems to have well over the regulation 17non english players at the moment

  31. LeProf

    @GSTAR:
    Man City are set to launch a huge clearout:
    Wayne Bridge – 6m
    Nedum Onuoha – 4m
    Pablo Zabaleta – 5m
    Michael Johnson – 5m
    Stephen Ireland – 8m
    Shaun Wright–Phillips – 10m
    Roque Santa Cruz – 10m
    Javier Garrido – 4m
    Jo – Birmingham – 9m
    Joleon Lescott – 8m
    Felipe Caicedo – 3.5m
    Joe Hart – 8m
    Kelvin Etuhu – 1m
    Shaulem Logan – 500k
    Javan Vidal – 200k
    Craig Bellamy – 3.5m
    Vladimir Weiss – 4m
    Greg Cunningham – 800k
    Alex Nimley – 150k
    Adebayor – 14m
    Gareth Barry – 10m
    De Jong – 12m

    Really Joe Hart available for 8m??? From that list (fantasy buy btw) it gotta be: Bellamy (Edu replacement) and Hart. Michael Johnson would be a bargain and as defensive cover. De Jong also automatically kick Denilson out. Stephen Ireland meanwhile means Diaby’s certain farewell.

    The only fear is that what IF Spuds take Ade and turn him as hatred goal machine? It’s like Anakin lured to the Dark Side huh!

  33. Geoff

    Morning Ray, did you do me the stats on the success of George Graham against Arsene Wenger, in the years they were in tenure? Year for year?

  35. gnarleygeorge9

    This piece of quality jouranlism is from “The beautiful Groan” He is bang on here. Enjoy

    Just a few short months ago, Barcelona could do no wrong. Relentless in La Liga, the press were fawning over Messi’s brilliance, the hatfuls of goals they scored every weekend, and how entertainment was winning out over pragmatism. That they were heated rivals with Real Madrid, whose stock had fallen with the resurrection of the Galacticos, only enhanced their reputation in the eyes of the neutral.

    No more. Their quest to retain the Champions League was brutally exposed by Mourinho’s Inter, Busquets committed one of the worst acts of simulation in the same game to tarnish their puritan status, and even Messi’s stock fell after a disappointing World Cup. Then, of course, they fluttered their eyelashes in Cesc’s direction.

    Fast forward to today, and most neutrals want Cesc to stay in England, if only to prove to Barcelona that their ugly and relentless tapping up can be resisted. The way they have systematically gone about destabilising him at Arsenal has been reckless to the point where even the previously admiring media have turned on them.

    One thing is for certain – if our captain does return to Spain this summer there will be widespread calls for a tapping up investigation. In theory, it should be an open and shut case – Barcelona have shown zero regard for Arsenal, the player or his contract, and have conducted their business in public despite calls from Arsenal to cease.

    Unfortunately, while their approach seems scattergun, it is actually more calculated, and as such a tapping up enquiry may not result in the punishment they clearly deserve. The footballing authorities have only acted in a few instances (notably, those given high coverage in the press), and then only when club officials have been the worst offenders.

    While the saga is certainly getting enough media coverage to force a cursory look from the authorities, the issue becomes cloudier when you analyse who is saying what. There is no doubt that Joan Laporta was guilty in the extreme, but he is no longer tied to Barcelona and as such his words are likely to be ignored. Rosell, since being elected president, has been more circumspect – most of his comments have been along the lines of ‘we want him, but have to talk to Arsenal’, which is no different from the ‘I admire him, but he is unavailable’ angle you hear from all managers, week in week out.

    Instead, the blatant disrespect has come from the Spanish media (or at least, those under Barca’s control) and particularly the players themselves. But here is the key point – the players are not club officials. Technically, they could be found guilty of tapping up on an individual basis, but Barcelona are not liable for their words. And individual charges are exceptionally unlikely.

    All of this makes it very difficult for FIFA to justify charging Barcelona as a club. Of course, common sense should allow them to see the bigger picture, witness how the media and the players have become the club’s mouthpiece and bring them to rights. But common sense doesn’t sit well with FIFA – they removed every referee’s option of applying it long ago and the goal-line technology farce proved how little they have of their own.

    The good news is that Barcelona are finally being exposed – after years of forcing the availability of targets and driving their price down with underhand tactics, the wider world has seen them for what they are – a disrespecting playground bully whose off-field antics are the antithesis of their on-field aesthetic.

    But negative exposure will change nothing – their tactic works. If it fails this summer, it will be the exception made possible only by Cesc’s refusal to behave in the antagonistic way they desire. With punishment so unlikely to come their way, they have no reason to give in.

  37. sixx pac

    Xavi wasn’t tapping Fabregas up

    Thu Jul 22 01:45PM

    Transfer sagas are often said to have ‘twists and turns’ but normally they follow a simple, boring storyline:

    Club B wants Club A’s player.

    Club B make a tentative offer while simultaneously making its interest very public.

    Club A tells Club B to rack off, prompting more public stirring from presidents, managers, future team-mates and finally the player himself.

    Eventually Club A gives in, lets the player go and gets a big wad of cash.

    The whole process can take years, and it almost always plays out the same way.

    Everybody knows Cesc Fabregas will join Barcelona. Whether he does it this summer, next summer or the summer after is almost immaterial. He is a Barca player in waiting.

    In fact, you could say he is only on loan at Arsenal.

    That’s what Xavi said, prompting howls of protests from Gooners enraged by an extraordinary public campaign from Barcelona attempting to bring Fabregas to the Camp Nou.

    Xavi said: “Arsenal need to understand they are only delaying the inevitable. If we don’t manage to get his signature this season then Arsenal only really have him on loan for a year because there is nothing they can do to stop him joining next summer.”

    The quote, delivered to FIFA.com of all places, was widely interpreted as a bare-faced piece of tapping-up.

    It followed recent comments from Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Pedro and Sergio Busquets saying Fabregas should join Barca.

    And of course there was the famous ambush after Spain’s World Cup win, when Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol pulled a red and blue shirt over the unsuspecting Cesc’s head.

    In fact, there is hardly a Barcelona player who has not made some attempt to lure him to Catalonia.

    So why doesn’t FIFA crack down on this shameful contravention of the laws?

    How about this: Because it isn’t tapping-up.

    First of all, Xavi is a Barcelona player (as are the rest). A player. He is not the coach, not the president, not the technical director and not the press officer. He does not control the transfer policy and he is not an official mouthpiece. He was expressing a personal view.

    Footballers’ quotes are boring enough in this media-managed age. How much more sterile would they be if every time a player opened his mouth he was considered the voice of his employers?

    But the most convincing argument that players cannot be guilty of tapping up is this: Cesc Fabregas has just spent an entire World Cup with eight Barcelona players in the Spain squad.

    And, over the course of the past six weeks or so, you can bet your bottom dollar they have been chipping away at him incessantly, trying to persuade him to move.

    You might not like it, but there’s absolutely no way you can stop it, short of forbidding players in the same World Cup squad from speaking to each other. (Actually, that may have been one of Fabio Capello’s more draconian regulations.)

    Is Fabregas even allowed to be friends with the Barcelona players? Surely enjoying Pique’s company represents a subtle form of tapping-up? Can he sit next to him on the team bus? Shouldn’t Andrei Arshavin be there just to provide some balance?

    Even if you ban the public come-and-join-us pleas, you cannot do anything about the private ones.

    - – -
    Perhaps we are getting ahead of ourselves. What does the law on tapping-up actually say?

    The FIFA statute (article 18, clause 3) is a little vague:

    “A club intending to conclude a contract with a professional must inform the player’s current club in writing before entering into negotiations with him. A professional shall only be free to conclude a contract with another club if his contract with his present club has expired or is due to expire within six months. Any breach of this provision shall be subject to appropriate sanctions.”

    Basically what it means is this – a player who is still in contract cannot sign for another club unless appropriate compensation (i.e. a transfer fee) has first been agreed.

    However, FIFA’s wording (specifically the word ‘inform’) seems to allow for the following chain of events:

    1-Barcelona inform Arsenal in writing that they are entering negotiations with Fabregas.

    2-Without agreeing a transfer fee, and without Arsenal’s consent, Barcelona are allowed to informally agree terms with Fabregas.

    3-Arsenal eventually accept a transfer fee, but only after Barca have quite legally dangled a massive contract in front of him.

    4-Fabregas signs a contract with Barcelona and moves for the agreed fee.

    The usual interpretation says a fee must be agreed before Barcelona can even speak to Fabregas, but the FIFA statute suggests otherwise.

    It seems Barcelona need only tell Arsenal they are opening negotiations with Fabregas – the only requirement is that a fee is agreed before he signs a contract.

    - – -
    In any case, the argument is now moot. Fabregas knows Barcelona want to sign him, and Barcelona know Fabregas wants to join. That’s all tapping-up can ever achieve.

    Fabregas is not an impressionable 16-year-old (as he was when the Gunners lured him from Barcelona to Highbury in 2003), he is one of the best players in Europe, and would surely realise he was in high demand whether or not he had international colleagues

    As the midfielder has four years left on his contract, it is still in Arsenal’s hands. If they do not accept an offer, he stays. Until January…

  38. gnarleygeorge9

    6pac

    I don’t give a XXXX about whether that greasy spanish w*og Xavi has been tapping up or not. The fact of the matter is Barcalonely is just a pac of bankrupt has beens that bully others to get what, as we are now finding, they can’t afford.

  39. gnarleygeorge9

    If Arsene Wenger caves in with this Cesc/barca situation, then WTF. Wengers position @ The Club will be untenable IMO. I am sick & tired of the constant stream of top quality players leaving The Club over the past 5 years. Is it any coincidence that The Club has not won a Cup in 5 years. Its not fair on the fans who want to see their Club stand up to best in the world, on & off the pitch.

  41. angeausarsenal

    6pac, I agree with you, but whats the difference if Cesc leaves now or in jan. If we get more money for him thats fine, if not why would we sell then? Unless he spits the dummy and plays shit this year.
    That Xavi is the dopiest cunt of all, if anyone is going to be put out of that Cuntsalona side it’ll be him Cesc is on par if not better than him already.
    That other prick Busquets has already seen the writing on the wall, he has stated that he’s not that fussed whether Cesc moves.
    Afternoon Gnarley!

  42. sixx pac

    I agree Gnarley. I think it would be pathetic on Wenger’s part to let Cesc go. But if he hands in a transfer request,what can he do

  43. sixx pac

    Cesc is definitely better than Xavi and Iniesta but lets not kid ourselves. Hes not gonna relegate either of them to the bench. These guys are barca legends. Pep wants to turn fab into a DM. I think that role is being revolutionized by the likes of Xabi Alonso and I think Cesc would thrive in that role.

  45. gnarleygeorge9

    The only deal that should be made is that Cesc is sold for squillions to Barca after Rambo & Jacky Boy have had time to fine tune their craft from having Cesc around. In otherwords, a deal between The Arsenal & Barcalonely must be skewed totally Arsenal’s way. End of.

  48. tonyadamsisgod

    Go on Thierry!! He’ll always love to stick one past the spuds!! Shame the rest of his team are shit!

    Morning all…..

  53. GARY C

    So. Sulezeer could be staying. I’m surprised AW hasn’t asked Jeff Blockley or Ian Ure if they fancy a few games.

  54. gnarleygeorge9

    The new boy obviously doesn’t understand that big bucks must change hands before he can kiss Cesc after a goal. But not having much cash, barca really are looking like pathetic beggers :lol:

  59. dennisdamenace

    Maybe it’s about time that shit stabber Platini put his money wher his stinking mouth is, clubs for instance like Barca can only buy a player when they can actually pay the asking price. Hey i know, a bit like buying a house, the money (in full) must be transferred into the seller’s account before the keys & deeds are released…….

    Otherwise tell them fucking gypo beggers to fuck off, and come back when they are solvent….

  62. kingsley

    schwarzer and campbell…koz and cham? is that it? i think ivan has got the transfer list mixed up with west hams! what a joke.

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