I hate the international break so much. From an Arsenal fans perspective, nothing ever good comes out of the players disappearing for national team duty, so I detest it with every fibre of my being. With just cause too, I might add, because I also live on the outskirts of London and so have to get the tube home to Uxbridge via Wembley Park station. On an England evening, when they are playing, may usual commute gets overrun with idiots. Drunken England fans. Now, I like a beer or two (or three), so this isn’t a tale of moaning of football fans and the normal singing you get on the tube. Rather, it is a specific tale about England fans, who I deem worse than club fans. They are worse because their chants are rubbish, have no originality, and are usually led by some sort of moron who can barely string three words together when sober. Yesterday’s commute for me was filled with a carriage full of these idiots, who sat on a commuter, spilled beer on a commuter, then told a few commuters to “fook off” when they voiced their irritation.
That, my friends, is an isolated example of why I hate international football. It turns normal people in to morons. Worse than club football in my opinion.
There’s also the injury problem stuff to contend with, as we’ve already felt the problems this week, so perhaps it is with no real surprise that Arsene has called on Didier Deschamps to rest Kos for the friendly match taking place against the Ivory Coast next week. As Arsene says, he’s played all season long and for the sake of a friendly game, surely some sense needs to be seen by the France national team manager. From an Arsenal perspective, we’re already looking depleted due to injuries, so if you added fatigue back in to that mix, then lord knows what our first XI are going to do at a ground in which we’ve rarely won at the best of times.
At least Mesut is safe, having been rested from pointless friendlies by Jogi Low. We can always count on the Germans to let sense prevail. But the German result was not without is tinge of regret, sadly, as Serge Gnabry made his international debut with a hat trick of goals. It’s such a shame that he’s not an Arsenal player any more, but when you’ve got a guy who won’t sign a deal, what more can you expect other than to let him go. But I can’t help but think he’d be getting a bit more game time right now if he’d have stayed. When you look at how our wide forwards struggled a little bit against the Spuds, and how Iwobi is starting to look like he’s going through a bit of a dip in form, it’s a real regret that we haven’t got the young German on our books.
That one’s going to come back and bite us on the arse, isn’t it? You can just see him rocking up for Bayern in a year or so’s time, then the inevitable match at the Emirates when we play them next and he has an absolute blinder. You’d love to say that we’ve at least got first option on a buyback clause, but I don’t remember hearing anything about him, so I doubt there’s any chance he could return now.
I always thought the guy was a talent and he showed glimpses of it, with players like Arteta and Ozil talking about how good he was, but injury and form never quite allowed him to make his mark and for that we can only be sad, because his style and ability on the ball, as well as his finishing, made him look like a great player in the making. If only Tony Pulis hadn’t hampered a potentially blossoming career for a year, eh?
Still, at least we’ve got the Ox…….right?
As for England versus Scotland, I put it on last night whilst I was cooking dinner, but I only partially paid attention to it. The only interesting part of the game for me was Scotland’s choice of an away kit. We’ve seen plenty of fluorescent kits in club football, but seeing it for international teams is a new one on me, but then again I guess the Scot’s have nothing else to get excited about when it comes to football. So what should we expect?
There wasn’t even any Arsenal influence yesterday, which sometimes draws my attention. Theo was an unused sub and even Jack never got near a look in, so the boring and predictable game panned out as anyone would expect and I carried on with my curry.
Right, well, that’s about it i’m afraid. Off to do a day of chores and possibly a run. In the rain. Jolly good.
You have a good one.
Scotland had no choice on the strip apparently – FIFA dictated to them they had to wear this strip according to the commentators.
As far as Gnarbry is concerned then he was another young player mismanaged by Wenger – after his performance against Swansea 2 or 3 years ago when he scored he was on a roll – then Wenger never touched him again plus an injury – the lads confidence must have been shot and knew the writing was on the wall even then. Once he was loaned to Tony Pullis last season – well that probably sealed the deal.
And what a contrast as well with Iwobi – Wenger fancies him (and rightly so) and then grinds him into the ground. Just seems like Wenger is always one way weak or to strong.
Thanks for the heads up on the Scotland kit John – didn’t know that!