Very interesting how powerful Gary Neville has made himself in the game. He creates headlines for his opinions, and unlike some publications, he’s usually a force for good. (Interview)
It’s interesting how hard the Raheem Sterling story has pivoted to ‘this is just racist.’ My hope is that we’ll have the same come to jesus moment we had with the press and their treatment of the national team. The press treated the England camp a lot different after their shite long lense story this summer. If you apply pressure to them, their narrative changes, because ultimately, your interest keeps them in work.
Arsenal is apparently ramping up interest in 20-year-old number 8, Houssem Aouar. The player has attracted interest from Manchester City who are also chasing down Pepe of Lille. Thing is, how many players can one team buy? When do you start looking at their squad as a player and think… ‘damn, is this worth it?.’
I think there are two clear things going on with Sven M. Firstly, after reading that great interview in Die Ziet the other day, it’s clear he’s looking at players through a far more technical lense than the spreadsheet virgins online. He’s not just looking at pass completion and core stats. He’s looking at things like efficiency of running, positioning and far deeper metrics that point to value.
I’d imagine the club see that they can get far more value from young players around Europe than they can from very expensive players that might still need quite a lot of development to hit the heights at 28-years-old. This young Frenchman looks like the sort of player Mislintat loves. Fast, technically excellent, light on the feet… I’d be very happy to start snapping up the top talent from Ligue 1 again.
Look at Thierry Henry’s death stare to Monaco youngstar Badiashile after he didn’t tuck his chair in when press conference finished. Your legend could never. 😂 pic.twitter.com/3CPQTcvuj6
— Lacazettes (@Lacazettes) December 10, 2018
I don’t know why I love the above video so much, but it’s awesome. Thierry enforcing good manners is something else.
Back to Neville. He had this to say on Torreira.
“I think someone like him leaves his teammates with nowhere to go. If you look at him against Tottenham getting forward into the box he’s almost like this bundle of energy that everyone else in the team responds too, & this team needed that”
Mainline that right into my veins. Torreira has been an exceptional find, and it’s unreal how quickly he’s developed into one of the most important names on the teamsheet.
Alex Iwobi reckons he nearly fucked off the Crystal Palace when he was 16 years old.
“I felt that maybe I wasn’t rated at Arsenal but I always felt at home here, so I signed the scholarship forms,”
“Then it was all about proving people wrong.”
Well, top-level sport is about proving people wrong at every stage of your career. He still has a way to go, but there’s definitely a lot of talent there. He needs to find consistency in his end product. The coach clearly rates him, so he’s off to a winner there, but you wonder how long patience will run if he continues to drop stinkers like he did when he came on at the weekend. We’ll see… jury is out at the minute.
Right, that’s me done, see you on the other side.
Why anyone still engages Victorious is the mystery, i found out he had nothing positive to offer months ago and stopped engaging him.
He only posts on here to get a reaction
Lol raptora is clearly not made of stern stuff.
RH “We are still experimenting different formations There is nothing wrong in having more than one system of play. No self respecting team play only one way, don’t know why this formation thing seems to be a big deal” I am not criticizing Emery. I just pointed out that Emery is still trying to figure out the best way to use his players. Almost every game he has to make early corrections, either to the formation or to the player. You don’t see that with the 4 teams ahead of us in the table. Up to now, we have been… Read more »
Yeah it’s definitely not a positive thing that Emery has to keep making so many changes.
He has to go to 3-4-3 because Kolasinac is shit and our CBs aren’t good enough.
He has to keep changing his AMs because none of them are good enough.
There’s no doubt he is strong tactically, but so many halftime subs point to more of a problem than a tactician doing hiss thing.
Amen to Graham’ s post on Henry. Nailed it and I too hope and pray that he succeeds at Monaco.
CC
Are you a legal practitioner of any sorts?
Not sure Henry will make it at the top level, to be honest. Strikers see the game differently to defensively-minded players. How many former strikers have transitioned into great managers?
Moe
Thanks.
“Are you a legal practitioner of any sorts?“
No, why’s it relevant?
CC, what industry do you work in?
Charlie is Arsene Wengers butler.
Thiery Henry is our greatest player off all time, He also is an arrogant Bastard , He is a total egotistical piece of shit, He wasted no time in bolting out the door to Barca when the opportunity arose and wasted no time in coming back when it suited him, It is all about him, Always has been, So he is chastising a kid about replacing a chair yet he cheated a nation out of a World Cup with his Hand Ball , Nice, A Proper Cunt but as I said , Our greatest player of all time.
Henry’s perspective/demeanor as a player needed some healthy arrogance and narcissism to get to the heights he attained. He needed to believe that he was the best and no one could stop him. I work in a cut-throat field and can relate. Now, I don’t condone showing up other players on the pitch but how often did he do that…..cmon now. Freaking Ozil with zero output does that pretty much every match. Now that Henry is a manager, he must have an entirely different philosophy on players, opponents etc. If anyone can’t reconcile those two, then it says more about… Read more »
Gambon, bringing levels to the comments 😂😂😂
Henry was a great player, he could still become a decent manager. I want him to succeed at Monaco, but what he did in the video, was sort of unnecessary and pretentious. I’m sure henry as a player never put the chair back in.
Paul McDaid
“He wasted no time in bolting out the door to Barca”
Are you for real?
Laughable.
George Graham’s demeanour as a player and a manager were complete polar opposites.
Really nothing happening for people to get this excited over Henry’s actions in a press conference.
gonsterous
You can say that with certainty?
No, you can’t.
Just don’t get why some posters are criticising TH. Every good player is \was arrogant.
He did right by his actions. Most go through worst situations @ workplaces in the hands of bosses.
Henry will succeed as a manager either with Monaco or any team he tends to.
Most fans now have grown to accept that player need to be cuddled.
With TH all day
“Every good player is \was arrogant.”
Henry has a huge amount to be arrogant about.
Wasn’t that how he was in his last season (06/07) – that intense gaze and exasperation look on his face. Then when we were competing for the title in 07/08 one of the narratives on the improvement of our squad back then is due to him gone akin to a weight finally lifted off the shoulders of young players.
Henry will get it right at Monaco
At least he has the balls to actually manage unlike the generation of ex-footballers who are too happy to be pundits.
With Alone on this.
Pedders
Tend to keep my job out the firing line, I’m basically a Samurai though.
Stick to numbers Gumbo..
That move from Henry was a little self indulgent but my word people like making a mountain out of a molehill. The kid was careless and old enough to know how to tuck his chair in as a matter of respect, and for 2 seconds of silence from his boss he learnt a lesson he will never forget. Did Henry need to do it that way? No. But does it matter? No. It was hardly him trash talking his staff or blaming them for his team’s failures. He literally just said nothing to make a point that the kid should… Read more »
Graham
You can say that with certainty?
I can say with certainty that he didn’t do it all the time. Hell even I forget to put the chair back occasionally. Doesn’t mean I’m disrespectful to the other person.
And yeah talk of Henry being an arrogant player is hilarious. He was arrogant. You’re damn right he was. The guy was the best goal scorer we’ve ever had. Widely regarded as one of the top few players to every grace English football. He won everything that mattered in world football. He scored worldies like we eat buttered toast and he did it week in week out. Was he overly hard on Reyes and hleb? Yep. But after all he did for us and the manner in which he did it I wouldn’t give the guy an ounce of criticism… Read more »
Graham,
What’s laughable is that you did not read or chose to ignore the full statement.
Seriously, the players Henry berated were total softies for all their talents and their careers failed accordingly
There are very few such players dominating at the top echelons of football and any elite talent playing alongside them is sure to lose their patience when they can see how costly it is
Reyes couldn’t even handle a bit of rain. Hleb had some of the most gifted close control in world football but was entirely terrified of taking any responsibility and shooting
Those guys both had the talent but failed because they didn’t man up
New post.