With the final 23 man squads being announced yesterday for the World Cup, we now know which Arsenal players will travel to South Africa:
FRANCE:
Abou Diaby
William Gallas
Gaël Clichy
Bacary Sagna
NETHERLANDS:
Robin van Persie
IVORY COAST:
Emmanuel Eboué
DENMARK:
Nicklas Bendtner
CAMEROON:
Alexandre Song
SPAIN:
Cesc Fàbregas
MEXICO:
Carlos Vela
SWITZERLAND:
Philippe Senderos
Of those eleven players, it’s all but certain that Senderos won’t be with us next season. His contract expires at the end of the month. He’s only back on our books as his loan period at Everton has expired and nobody’s made a concrete offer to take him off our hands yet. There are also serious doubts whether we’ll see Big Bad Bill Gallas and Cesc Fàbregas in our colours again. I also think Carlos Vela might look for a move, especially if he has a half-decent World Cup, after failing to make much impact last season. I’d say Gallas is all but gone as his contract expires at the end of the month. I’d also say the odds are against us keeping Cesc, although we and Barça are a LONG way apart on a transfer fee – like £50 million apart. That gap isn’t going to be easy to breach.
In many, many ways I’m an admirer of FC Barcelona as an institution. Their tendency to tap up players is incredibly irritating however. Let’s not be too holier than though – all clubs do it, including us. Barcelona is just more blatant. Yet it’s a very difficult “crime” to prove. I DON’T want Cesc to go, but if he is going to sling his hook then he’ll just have to be a grown-up and accept that there is a price to be paid for signing his contract extension which costs us over £6 million a year. He might end up having to pay that price literally if he really wants to go home to Catalonia, by accepting a reduction in salary to free up cash for a beefed up transfer fee. I’m sure he could struggle past on £70-80k a week if he really wants the move to happen. He can’t expect us to take anything less than absolutely top dollar. If Barça won’t play at a price that suits us, he’ll just have to shut up and soldier on at Arsenal. His salary of around £110k a week will be some small consolation.
Of the Arsenal players now packing their buckets and spades rather than their boots, Johan Djourou was the victim of his season-long injury and thus lack of playing time. Samir Nasri’s exclusion from the French squad was far more of a surprise. I wasn’t surprised at Theo Walcott’s exclusion. He failed to assert his claims neither in any of the England friendlies, nor in his form for us last season.
I now have grave doubts about whether Theo has the “right stuff” to make it at the very top level. His blinding pace is undoubted, but he couldn’t cross a pools coupon which makes him ill-equipped to play on the wing. His football brain hasn’t developed either. He has slightly more devil in him than he used to have, but he still lacks that steely determination that the very top players all have. Next season will be crucial for him.
There are suggestions that England manager Fabio Capello dropped Walcott because he didn’t follow his instructions to go round players on the outside in the friendly matches. I’ve no idea whether this is true, but Capello is definitely a “my way or the highway” sort of manager. As a Welshman I think Capello is the best England manager since Sir Alf Ramsey who similarly had an iron will. There have been decent England managers since him, notably Ron Greenwood, Bobby Robson and Terry Venables, but Capello is an absolutely outstanding manager. If anybody can mould England into a winning unit it’s him.
England’s problem is a lack of depth. A credible starting eleven is fairly easy to field. Much as I detest him as a man, Wayne Rooney is genuinely world-class. There’s not a bad supporting cast but two-three injuries and/or suspensions to top players and England will struggle for quality in key positions.
I have a sneaking feeling that Spain might just not come up to expectations. I heard an interesting debate on the radio last week about how much of a role tradition and history plays in World Cup success. I think there’s something to this. Brazil and Argentina remain the only two nations to have won the game’s biggest prize outside of their own continent. Argentina’s second success came in Mexico in 1986. Despite Mexico being in North America it shares the same language and Latin affinity with Argentina, although they’re very different culturally and climatically. Playing in Mexico City at altitude in the northern summer is very different to playing in Buenos Aires in the southern winter where their previous triumph came as hosts in 1978.
Brazil has triumphed in the World Cup in Sweden (1958), the USA (1994) and Japan (2002). They also reached the final in France in 1998. Germany reached the final in 2002 in Japan despite not having a great side. Only seven nations have ever won the World Cup – Uruguay (twice), Italy (four), West Germany/Germany (three), Brazil (five), Argentina (twice), England and France (one each, both as hosts). A further four – Hungary (1954), Sweden (as hosts in 1958), Czechoslovakia (1962), and the Netherlands (1974 and 1978) have finished runners-up. All the other runners-up have also won the World Cup.
Uruguay’s two wins stand in out in the history of the game. Ondino Viera, Uruguay’s manager in the 1966 World Cup famously said, “Other countries have their history. We have our football.” For a country of 3.3 million people of 187,000 square kilometres slightly larger in land mass than England at 130,000 square kilometres but smaller than Great Britain at 229,000, that’s an amazing feat. True, like Hungary and Austria in Europe, their heyday appears to have passed. Unlike Hungary and Austria however, Uruguay continues to produce class players. Although Uruguay just snuck into this World Cup via a play-off with Costa Rica from North and Central America after finishing fifth in the South American qualifying group, I’m tipping them for at least one big shock in South Africa. If they can peak at the right time they might just be the surprise package of this tournament.
This could be an all-time worst performance for the host nation, although that was being said about Mexico in 1970 and the home advantage saw them qualify from the group stage. South Africa will have a difficult task qualifying from a group that includes France, Uruguay and Mexico.
Of the other African nations I think the Ivory Coast look best equipped to go furthest, along with Ghana. Nigeria is a persistent under-achiever given the players they have to call on. The chaos and corruption of Africa’s most populous country seems to constantly hold back their football development. Cameroon usually turns out a decent side. Algeria look the second weakest African qualifier after hosts South Africa, having just crept in via a play-off in neutral Sudan with Egypt – a much better side in my opinion – having finished equal in their group on points, goal difference and goals scored.
The traditional “group of death” has the Ivory Coast in with Brazil, North Korea and Portugal. Stunningly in the second decade of the 21st century North Korea arrive nearly as unknown as they arrived the last time they qualified in England in 1966. The Stalinist hermit republic doesn’t “do” openness.
I’m not going to stick my neck out and make any predictions but I’m really looking forward to a feast of matches over the coming weeks. Wall to wall football. Love it!
Keep the faith!
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