Hot on the heels of yesterday's mysteriously out-of-favour Premier League players, here are five players who are being regularly picked for reasons best known to their managers. 1. Gervinho Where do you start? Arsenal splashed out £10.8million on Gervinho and have seen very little return. Arsene Wenger persists with the enigmatic Ivorian, presumably on the [.
Hello everyone and good day to you. The clock is ticking furiously away and we're now 40 hours
from the end of the transfer window (as I type this). Surprisingly, we were not linked with any new
names yesterday. There were no rumours. Absolutely zero. One hopes that this is the calm before the
storm but with Arsenal, it is hard to make a guess either way.
After watching his side succumb to a second straight goalless draw, Arsenal manager Arsene
Wenger rubbished claims that they'll struggle to cope with the departure of talisman Robin van
Persie.
The Gunners' leading goalscorer from last season completed a shocking move to Manchester United
earlier this month, and while Arsenal fired yet another blank the Dutchman was on the scoresheet at
Old Trafford.
You could almost hear the scream of frustration from Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini afterÂ
Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi said he is staying at Roma.
Despite signing a new contract last season that tied him to the Giallorossi until 2017, De
Rossi's agent was reported to have flown out for talks with City officials last week.
Van Persie and Song may be gone but Arsenal have cause for optimism - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
The inevitable questions over who will now score the goals for Arsenal were particularly
pertinent in the aftermath of a 0-0 draw with Sunderland which suggested they were already missing
their Dutch talisman.
The earlier pre-season friendlies didn't quite excite me as much. Maybe it was the fact that
many first choice players were missing that necessitated the inclusion of many youngsters who
clearly weren't going to play a major part in Arsenal's season. These issues also made is pointless
to look at the tactics of the team or indulge in any sort of detailed discussion of the events of
the games.
Before the start of Euro2012, many England fans were pessimistic about their chances of having a
successful tournament after being decimated by player injuries and with a new manager who had
hardly got his feet under the table. Yesterday's 3-2 win over Sweden in their Group D matchup,
certainly gave us all hope that maybe, just maybe, this tournament might be different.
Johan Djourou's agent Flavio Ferraria has hinted that his client is on the wish
list of several European clubs, including Italian outfit Napoli.
The 25-year-old centre-half is currently on a long-term deal at Arsenal but is not considered an
integral part of the club's first team squad any more, with Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny and
Per Mertesacker ahead of him in the pecking order.
Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis has said that the club is not putting
any pressure on Robin van Persie to resolve his contract situation as soon as
possible and insisted that the club understands that their talisman needs to concentrate on the
upcoming European Championship.
Not too dissimilar from Swansea, Norwich have gone from nailed-on mid-table battlers to relegation
favourites in the space of week. Both teams have lost managers instrumental to their success and
Norwich have suffered extra ignominy – losing their top scorer and cult-favourite talisman, Grant
Holt.
There is no need to repeat the details but it seems safe to say most, if not all, Arsenal fans
were seething with disappointment, anger, or worse after the way events transpired last summer. Â
Of the millions of words written on the transfer business and the subsequent season, few have
covered the fact that Arsene Wenger had a massive tactical challenge in front of him after the
departure of his talisman and captain, the player who could have taken his place in midfield, and
that of a very hardworking and reliable defender who even though popular opinion was to the
contrary remains one of the best at his job in the League.
There is no need to repeat the details but it seems safe to say most, if not all, Arsenal fans
were seething with disappointment, anger, or worse after the way events transpired last summer. Â
Of the millions of words written on the transfer business and the subsequent season, few have
covered the fact that Arsene Wenger had a massive tactical challenge in front of him after the
departure of his talisman and captain, the player who could have taken his place in midfield, and
that of a very hardworking and reliable defender who even though popular opinion was to the
contrary remains one of the best at his job in the League.
So unfortunately for Bolton Wanderers there status in the Premier League has come down to this,
a match at the Britannia stadium in which they need to pick up 3 points, bound to be a tall order
for a side that has struggled for consistency in the league.
Stoke City have nothing to play for in this match, so at least thats one positive for Owen
Coyle's Bolton side, so they may have thoughts elsewhere perhaps on there pre-season holidays.
FC Basel defender Aleksandar Dragovic has claimed that a
number of big European clubs, including Arsenal FC, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund
and Olympique de Marseille want to sign him in the summer transfer window.
"No Japanese player has ever made a lasting impact in the Premier League, but everyone is
excited about Miyaichi. Our young high flyer seems to have become a house hold name back in his
native Japan.
Japanese writer Mori Masatoshi wrote that He is only second to Kiesuke Honda in Japan.
A few weeks ago, while covering Arsenal on tour, Futbolita spoke to the lovely Mikel
Arteta about Arsenal's upcoming season, his newborn son Daniel, life in the Premiership,
the tough preseason and his dreams of playing for Spain. Arteta is one of those rare players you
could absolutely stop on the pitch and do a "high-five" while yelling "manana,
OK tipo?
Our summers are nothing if not dramatic. I've been largely ignoring it for the past few weeks
ever since van Persie's original statement I've felt a little jaded by the whole thing, and haven't
had the desire to track it, or write about it, on a daily basis. Kudos to those who manage to blog
without a break goodness knows I needed one.
Thierry Henry wants current Arsenal captain Robin van
Persie to extend his contract with the club but says that the Gunners will be fine even if
the Dutchman is sold this summer.
The Chievo Verona midfielder joins AS Roma on a three year transfer said to cost $4.6 million.
He will keep company with club talisman Daniele De Rossi, Miraljem Panic, and Simone Perotta in the
midfield.
Roma is owned by Thomas DiBenedetto, an American businessman and one of the partners at Fenway
Sporting Group, who own the Boston Red Sox as well as Liverpool.
Steven Gerrard has played down any fears about his own fitness after playing just a half for
England in their friendly with Norway.
The Liverpool skipper has endured a stop-start season both for club and country mainly because of a
hamstring injury and in Saturday's international match, the midfield talisman played just 45
minutes of the 1-0 win in Oslo.
Psychology can be a very peculiar science. Last week I wrote about my increasing impression that
Arsenal were crawling over the finishing line in the manner of a man searching limply for water in
the desert. The game at Stoke did little to stymie that suspicion. Then the boss admitted, rather
candidly, that we were almost totally relying on van Persie to nudge us over the line (Because he
clearly hasn't contributed enough already this season).
Reina was a steady influence from the back. Did well to come out and
collect crosses that his defense allowed to slip past. However, he undid all of his hard work but
when he lost his cool in second-half and was sent off for violent conduct for appearing to headbutt
James Perch, he should of never put himself into this position.
TweetPortugal crashed out of Euro 2012 after a 4-2 penalty shoot-out defeat to Spain with talisman
Cristiano Ronaldo bizarrely not even taking one. What happened? Admittedly, without their captain,
Portugal may not have even reached the last four so superb was Ronaldo's performance in overcoming
the Netherlands in the Group of Death, before easing past [.
Cristiano Ronaldo's impressive performances at Euro 2012 have led some people placing a bet on La
Liga to suggest that he is now the undisputed best player in the world.
While he still may be slightly behind Argentinian genius, Lionel Messi, in that category, there can
be no argument that Portugal's talisman is gaining ground and, when at his best, is simply
unplayable.
In the last of my series of views that have come out of Munich ahead of this one, I want to focus
on one of their main men, Franck Ribery.
You'd imagine that the likes of Gomez, Robben and Ribery will be under enormous pressure to deliver
on the night but by the sounds of it, Franck Ribery like the Manager and the Talisman has admitted
how hard it will be to beat us.
"Today's attendance is 19,575... thank you fans"Getting casual fans to watch TFC
matches when times were good... well at least fun.... was a challenge. Now, as yet another season
enters the "playing for next year" phase, even getting the most ardent supporters interested grows
harder. For those of you who know they are addicted to this club and will be back next year despite
2012, finding a reason to watch a futile string of matches may be frustrating.
It's David & Goliath time in another cracker of a quarter and this tie is tastier than a plate
of Sauerkraut & Hummus with the economic climate adding to the drama, the run-down Greeks will
really want to get one over on their richly talented opponents.
An extremely interesting article has been published in the FT, written by a journalist, Henk Spaan,
who reportedly knows RVP well, it highlights several of the key issues surrounding the future of
our Dutch talisman. Â The big question is how much to read into this piece? Â I would say the
general theme is worth our attention but some of the smaller details may well be just the author's
The image is less fuzzy than the logic behind the sign.
The return of our heroic and legendary goalscorer should have inspired the New York fanbase last
night at Red Bull Arena, and that enthusiasm should have, in turn, inspired the players to perform
their best for their beloved fans.
John Terry's ribs cracked after they were used to make Eve
John Terry revealed he had a terrible time breathing in the Benfica return leg at Stamford
Bridge having suffered what he thought were cracked ribs sustained in the first leg. He was subbed
off after an hour and is to undergo a scan.
