There were tabloid tales that Sir Pat Rice was quitting the Royal Arsenal at the end of the season and they may be hogwash and indeed bunkum but it is worth exploring the possibility I suppose.
Arsenal man and boy, Rice is very much old school and maybe a new face in and around the first team would freshen things up. I am not privy to the inner workings of the training schedules etc but have, of course, seen Pat warm up the players before games but you can gain no insight from this formulaic practice.
Pezza Groves was on the radio yesterday suggesting that perhaps it was time for Steve Bould to replace Pat. To my mind it is a decent shout and, as the Ginger genius pointed out, who better to give our back four a bit more structure?
Of course, he is an Arsenal man – which counts a great deal for me – having been brought to the club with Lee Dixon from Stoke by George Graham and has for the past few years been working with the youth set-up and been getting rave reviews for his work. Food for thought.
Wigan at home tonight in the cup that has developed a value since we realised that we must add at least some silverware to the dusty cabinets at the Emirates and, without tempting fate, surely there has never been a better chance to progress to the semis.
AW is said to be drafting in players such as RVP, Bendy and Carlos Vela to give them a run and we must hope they have enough desire to prove their worth and put Roberto Martinez and his side to the sword. Bleedin’ hope so anyway. That’s if the game goes on what with all this white stuff falling from the sky…
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