Great Respect for a Great Man

There aren't many Arsenal games where the result doesn't matter; basically this one and arguably the Carling Cup, but yesterday wasn't about results, it was about fun and paying respects.

Is there any club that could have done a testimonial in such a classy way? Would Man USA have allowed 3 generations of Bergkamps to kick off a testimonial game? Their equivalent is Keane and surely at least 2 out of the 3 generations of the Keanes are in prison?
From Vieira and Ian WWW to Marco Van Basten and Cruyff; the whole day was spectacular. Bergkamp apparently shelled out for all the t-shirts on the seats and the man was treated like a God and fair play too. It was a truly special day and even some cheeky Ajax gimp scoring the first goal didn't ruin the day.

So, the 'gentleman club' says goodbye to a true legend and gentleman of the game in the classiest and most repectful of fashions. It simply couldn't have happened if it were another club or another player. That shows you how much depth the link between the club and the player has.

Dennis Bergkamp: God of the game.

We've had Dennis Bergkamp!!!

Dennis Bergkamp hangs up the boots tomorrow after the opening event at the new stadium. No-one deserves that more. Whilst it has been Wenger who has juggled transfers in order to compete in competitions and construct our new stadium, he was one of the first world class players to join Arsenal, probably leading to a knock on effect.

I can't really bring myself to write a full on eulogy about Dennis, this site simply doesn't have enough space to write down all his amazing moments. Whilst it is stereotypical, my favourite moments have to be THAT goal against Newcastle, THAT hatrick against Leicester, THAT goal against Argentina for Holland. Others include the last minute winner against Thun where in the Clock End it felt like we won the competition and also the classic Bergy goal against Brom on Bergkamp day: timinig or what?! Notice that every goal was special and there really aren't that many tap ins or close range headers. Maybe the Thun goal is one of five in about 100!

You hear the 'scorer of great goals, not a great goalscorer' statement a lot - well, it belongs to this man and we know that goals weren't even his main asset to the side!! the through balls, the vision, the runs, the chips, the partnership with TH14 were every defender knew how the play would occur but was powerless to stop it, to the double winning link up with Freddie in 2002.

Dennis had it all, even the mean streak that the true greats (Zidane, Maradonna et al) have. He is a sporting god and in my opinion the best player to ever play forArsenal. Not as prolific as certain others for sure, but Christ, was he the best player.

I don't think there can be a bigger compliment than the fact that I'm gonna try and squeeze into my Bergkamp shirt tomorrow. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't a medium boys shirt from 11 years ago!!!

Dennis Bergkamp - we salute you.

Cashley Cole, Stephen Dennis and the sun...

Dear Sirs,

Far be it from me to be a moral/academic judge, but I have reason to believe that the most 'intelligent' of the three of you has the claim of being the man that wrote the book based upon the SERVANT of princess Diana? A lady that was much loved but not of Royal blood. So your career highlight is writing the sooths of a helper who may or may not have been drunk at the time of death of a dodgily wealthy Arab and a rejected English tart?

Wow!! Not only am I humbled by your quest for truth, but I'm relieved that you scribe such hard hitting factual journalism! More than that, I'm much at ease that your clients, such as Mr Cole, believe you to be the pillar of society that you truly are; and not simply the 'I'm a celebrity/big brother/love island/girls aloud/poker face/millionaire/x factor/WAG/Johnny-come-lately/ get me out of HER' that the silly people who don't purchase your 'exclusive' version of events in the murdoch daily sun realise you are!!!!

So Cashley Cole wants to go? For 16 million?! Its a good job you told us those two bits of classified info or we'd have never known!

If Arsenal do get 16 MILLION pounds for a world class left back, good business I say.!!
Ashley Cole is an amazing player, but he is the one player at the club we can replace without really trying. With the Cole-Pires-Henry left-hand triangle dead already due to RP7 leaving, Ash would have become merely a great left back rather than be remembered as the dynamic wing back that defences simply pissed themselves over at Arsenal in previous years.

In Gael Clichy we have someone who is not as good going forward but is a much better defender. In time, along with Flamini, we will benefit from selling Ashley. He's a Gooner, he's local, he's part of the INVINCIBLES, he's English, he'll ALWAYS be a legend but he's also a greedy fuck who has wanted to be with the Russian Pillagers for almost two years.

Whether he stays or goes has nothing to do with me, but remember that whilst we may benefit from a having a world class player in our ranks, he doesnt want to be here and for that, 16 million quid in Wengers hands seems like the bargain of the century!

With players like Yaya, Lilly, Appiah, Carrick, Vieira (pls no!) and Saviola presenting like dogs on heat, replacing the only replacable player in our squad is sound business.

Lets not forget that with the new stadium, we are a business more than ever before and along with the above transfers - like yesterday with the bow down to Kolo - I'd like to give even BIGGER worship to Big Phil. Philling (excuse the pun!) Tony Adams' number 6 shirt is a different kettle of fish to KT having Keowns number 5. Arsene has some faith in you boy! Fair fucking play.

When was the last time we had a 4, 5, and 6 in our squad? Was it when we destroyed United at Old TURD-ford in 2002?

Good, its about bloody time...

The rumour mill kicks into gear...

The rumour mill has began to step up a level now that the over hyped World Cup has finished. I'm not saying the World Cup was awful, but when a team of golden oldies and an insipid but solid Italy team take the Final itself to penalties, it just summed up the tournament perfectly. In some ways it showed the transitional nature of international football right now. There are simply too many domestic superstars not ready to take their form to the international arena. There were no big upsets, not many amazing games and it got worse as it went along. Worth watching, but definately didn't live up to the promise of the first ten days by any means.

In Arsenal news, we're being linked with any large, tough tackling midfielder and without wanting to jump on the bandwagon thats been clocking up miles for years now, its that type of player that will make an impact for us next year. Whilst Saviola look increasingly likely to join, we need to address midfield and defence. Up front we have Henry, Reyes, RvP, Adebayor, Walcott and possible Saviola. Whilst in central defence we've got KT, big Phil, Djourou and Pascal and in central midfield we've got Cesc, Gilberto, Flamini and Song. Quite an imbalance no?

I'd love to see Appiah or Yaya arrive to stiffen the centre of the park and Davies to come to centre back. Davies does seem a good player, but are we judging him on that one good game he had against us? I'm sure many on the net would be screaming bloody murder if £8 million was the fee and he played normally against us. For that reason, I feel Davies would be a good investment but paying Lillian Thurams wages for one or two seasons would be nice as well! KT is an awesome athelete and now defender, but I'm not convinced he should be THE senior centre back just yet. He's one of my favourites and a cult hero but who can say having Thuram as an option would harm our youngsters development.

Thuram, Davies, Appiah/Yaya and Saviola as a luxury would be a good summers shopping...and even if we do sign Javi Saviola first, Wenger isn't stupid enough to not sign in the positions mentioned above...Have patience!!

Oh, and well done to Kolo on his 'promotion' to number 5. Its awesome to see him recognised at last. Anyone think we could see number 10 being retired now? I only see it being given to an uber-signing like Torres but anyone wearing it apart from God simply wouldn't be right.

France v Italy - World Cup Final Preview

This is gonna be a close one. The 2 teams have let in 3 goals between them so its not going to be an open game in the way Brazil/Argentina could have been. Like the rest of the konck out phases, everyone seems a bit scared of doing a 'Beckham 98' and being the one that gets slaughtered for your team going out.

Whisper this quiet but I really want France to win. As Arsenal fans, we get a lot of Jokes about being French but today I'm going to promote it.

Supporting France simply boils down to the fact that to see Henry, Vieira, Thuram and Zidane win 2 World Cups would be phenomenal. And who out there can say that their contribution to football has been significantly less than Marco Materrazzi and Luca Toni?! Whilst its not about who deserves it more, and its simply about who is the better team over the World Cup month, I really will be rooting for the French...except Barthez.

That said, the Italians are just about favourites and rightly so. They've been typically Italian in their defending but in their last match they didn't even dive! Seriously, they are a quality side and would be deserving winners if Zidane et al start to fade in the final quarter as they have done recently.

One more big performance from Zizou and Lilly would be amazing and they really would go doewn as some of the very best players EVER. However, I see a 1-0 Italy but penalties (with these defences) would never be a suprise!

Enough theorising, lets just enjoy something that comes around only once every 4 years and hope its a game to remember!

Allez Les Blues!

Captaincy Issues

Terry or Gerrard? Neville or Jar Jar?

Ok, the last two were a joke and its pretty clear its between the balding pikey and the scouse midfielder. Its also obvious that both men would excel at the job far more than their well meaning but meek Tim Henman-esque predecessor.

For me its got to be Gerrard. John Terry is a natural leader and can hold up 2 consecutive Premiership medals as captain of the Russians as testament to his abilities. However, I don't seem to remember him single handedly turning a 3-0 half time deficit into a penalty win in the second most important match in the World and also dragging an insipid Liverpool team to an FA Cup Final win against West Ham.

Gerrard simply led by example and maybe some of this has to do with his position.
From the back, Terry can survey the match and shout orders and central defenders are almost prime choice for captain. Even our greatest ever captain was a centre half.
Whilst Adams and Terry are great captains to have in a 'backs against the wall' display, a last minute tackle showing the rest of the team how its done type thing, the one thing they can't do is grab a game by the scruff of the neck in an attacking sense that a midfielder can. For me, this position is the place to have your skipper.
Gerrard is in a position to positively influence the game that Terry simply cannot do in his position on the field.

I respect John Terry, even as a Chavski player, but Gerrard for me is not only more important to the England team (we have a lot of great centre backs, but do we have another world class midfielder?), he is more influential in big games as Champions League 05 has shown, but his position allows him to influence the game in a positive sense, not only a 'lets cling on for this 1-0 lead, 0-0 for penalties' way that a centre half can.

If Terry gets it, I'll be relieved that we finally have a real captain and I'm pretty certain he will as its the safe MacSven, sorry, Maclaren option. But Gerrard is the bold and positive choice that could help revamp and restructure a team in desperate need of such an overhaul.