Has there ever been a more obvious potential ‘Axis of Evil’ than Jose Mourinho and Man United? A team who have had success for decades, who have also built up a cynical side and who’s corporate juggernaut status and commercial emphasis, with the Jack the Ripper of modern day football? 

So it seems that may come to pass, as United shuffled him out of Carrington before the trophy engraver had even finished putting United’s name on the cup. Should we see the Portuguese arrive in Manchester, we can expect a hatred for United that had lay dormant for a few years, rear its ugly head once again. Eugh. It’ll be horrible. 

The only hope is that Mourinho implodes at United as he did at Chelski, but we’ve probably got another two years to wait until that happens. 

Until then, we can but hope that Arsenal and Arsène can finally stick the boot in to that odious character, although I won’t hold my breath. 

The club hastily launched the new kit yesterday and so, much like Xhaka, one of the world’s worst-kept secrets has now been made public. Apparently Arsenal are pretty livid, which I can completely empathise with, which I touched on in a recent previous blog. But overall it’s ok. It’s a kit. I do like the tip of the cap to the 90s though, with the little ‘A’ on the back in the old club crest font. Kudos to Puma for that one. Now we just need to fill it with shiny new players, eh?

As for the existing crop, well, this week is ‘say nice things about Rosicky’ week on the official site and I like that. It’s nice to give an exiting player some ‘props’; he may have been injured for large swathes of his Arsenal career, but when he has played he’s been a fantastic contributor to the team and scored some great goals too. That one against the Spuds at their hovel stands out for me. 

I like the way Arsène describes him too. That’s a really good evaluation of his style I think. Every time I’ve watched Rosicky he’s had an urgency to his game. He picks the ball up and immediately looks for the most direct route forward. I used to love that about him. The energy. He’s always on the move. Often when he used to pick the ball up with his back to goal he’d have a sharp turn about him, followed by a quick release and almost the millisecond he releases the ball he’s moving again and looking for it back or to be part of the build up. 

Undoubtedly his career could have been so much more, had injuries curtailed his career, with 243 appearances for Arsenal over ten years. I think that includes substitute appearances too. A player with his quality should have been looking at more like 350 to 400 appearances by now, so it seems a real shame that we’ve been limited to watching him, because he really could have been a club legend.

I hope he can stay fit enough to get an Indian Summer out of his career, because he seems like such a good guy as well, something that Arsène is quick to point out about in the article I’ve linked to above.

He’s been called up to the Czech Republic Squad for the upcoming Euro’s, so that’s a positive for him, and I can only hope that he has a great summer and doesn’t break down during the competition. For him I suppose it could be construed as a gamble: he’s looking for a club and a long-term injury at an intensive competition like the Euro’s could cause him issues if he breaks down whilst not having found a club. But another way to look at it could be that a good showing gets him a couple of years as a ‘last hurrah’ on his career. What he has in his corner is the fact that he hasn’t played much football this season, so much like our thoughts in terms of the Euro’s being good for Jack, the same can also be said about Tomas. 

Goodbye Little Mozart. Fair thee well and we will see you around.

There’s little else to talk about of any worth today. We know we’re waiting on a signing that will most likely happen at some stage this week, but as I mentioned above, it’s the worst kept secret. So when it happens, most people will already be moving on to the possibility of the next big deal, such is the incessant transfer blood-lust some people have. As for me? I’m going in to work, safe in the knowledge that I’ll be stuck behind a desk for nine hours with no signs of escape. 

Hope you have a good’un.