I love that I have a surrogate team for international competitions. I am proud that I’ve got a little bit of German heritage in me and that when all else fails, usually, I can at least trust on that little bit of Deutsch in mein blut to keep international tournaments interesting through the years.
Not today.
Today I get to lean in to the three quarters of me that is English and that is a nice feeling I must say. I have repeatedly – and will probably once again – said how much I can’t stand international football. It detracts from The Arsenal, is usually more hassle than it’s worth, brings out the worst kind of ‘Engerland fans’ who don’t really watch the games, or really know what’s going on half the time, but use it for a little bit of unsavoury nationalism. So usually I shy away from going over the top with a sense of national pride.
Not today.
Today I can say that I’m writing about England feeling pride, happiness, as well as a smile as I head in to central London for an all-morning meeting session. Last night a Bukayo Saka inspired England (yep, totally working the Arsenal narrative, of course. What else did you expect?) overcame a legacy that has haunted the England National team and seen us not beat them in a finals match since 2000. That’s 21 year’s in which broadly speaking, they’ve got the better of the England Team and I’ll admit to not really expecting much else yesterday.
But records are meant to be broken and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the England performance last night. There were of course moments in which Germany had their chances – that was always going to happen with two teams as good as these two sides are – but as well as riding their ;uck the England players also did the business at both ends of the pitch. It was a cagey game but looking at it in the cold light of day and with my Captain Hindsight specs on, I can’t help but think back to the control of the ball that England had and how Germany relied on the counter with Havertz and Werner looking to sucker punch.
And they nearly did straight after Sterling had put England ahead. His gaff nearly gave Muller his chance but the experienced German fluffed his lines and at that moment, deep down, I must admit to thinking that this would be England’s night. It was, Kane – anonymous for most of the game – finished it off and England advance to play Ukraine, who went through at the expense of Sweden. Now that will be a fascinating game. Ukraine have never advanced beyond the Round of 16 and they looked like they were in a proper battle royale with Sweden last night, but once again this tournament produced a moment of extreme drama with the Ukrainians winning in in the last second of extra time.
Magical for them, but of course I just hope that their magic goes no further. This Saturday we will find out and I have to say I’m genuinely looking forward to that one. Fancy that!
In terms of Arsenal stuff, again, there isn’t really a lot going on, although Fabrizio Romano reported that Nuno Tavares’ potential deal to Arsenal is ‘done’ at €8million. That’s an eminently sensible fee for a supposedly exciting player and at a young enough age that it’ll work with him acting as understudy to Kieran Tierney. It’ll be interesting to see just how many games he gets next season though. You can probably at least count on one League Cup game and given our lower league position we drop in to the third round of the competition, so you’d hope we’d get a weaker side from lower down the footballing pyramid. That will give Arteta at least one game to bed some players in rotation, probably two, but then you’re probably not looking until January for more games unless we advance in the League Cup.
I guess the ‘sell’ to Tavares is a bigger club, tougher league, opportunity to play more because KT has his injury problems, but with just one game a week for most of next season, you’d hope the Scotsman stays fit.
The other news also came from Fabrizio, who I think said on a podcast that ESR is away on holiday but a deal for the player to extend his contract is basically done, at least as far as a ‘verbal agreement’ has been made. I always find that statement funny, because it makes me think of people in car parks spitting on their hands to seal an agreement for an old used motor or something like that, but I suppose in this context it’s that everyone has made some agreements, but the legal paperwork of a contract is yet to be drawn up, or still has to be proof read by the solicitors, or something like that. But the news in itself is good and many Arsenal fans – me included – will be breathing a huge sigh of relief if/when it gets announces, because my thinking was that there was no smoke without fire when it comes to a club bidding twice for a player.
Let’s hope we see Emile in the Arsenal team for the next ten year’s tearing up the Premier League and hopefully European competitions too.
That’s pretty much it from me for today. I’m going to do something rather unusual I think….I’m going to bask in the glow of an impressive England win.
Catch you all tomorrow.
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