No Pressure on The OX Please

Top of the morning to y’all

First for some Arsenal related injury news and Tomas Rosciky will miss Czech Republic’s final warm up game for the Euros this weekend but national team coach Michal Bilek has confirmed that he would resume full training with the squad on Monday and would be fit for the country’s first game of the tournament against Russia on June 8. That's all the injury news on Arsenal players anyway.

Bacary Sagna believes the Ox can be England's joker at the Euros saying he can make the same impact Wayne Rooney made at the 2004 Euros. He says
Alex Chamberlain came from a smaller team and I didn't know him that well but he has been amazing.

“He plays the game his way and he can be the joker in the pack for England. I'm looking forward to seeing him start some games.”

Yes we all know that The Ox is a talented player with immense abilities and qualities. His pace, power, shooting and dribbling can definitely give defenders nightmares but the pressure of expectation can seriously weigh down on a player and in a bid to impress and live up to hype can affect a player’s performance negatively.

Theo Walcott is a prime example of this. I strongly believe that Sven Goran Erickson taking him to the world cup in 2006 as a 16 year old was a big mistake. Unfortunately it was not his mistake. Maybe Rooney’s success at the Euros 2 years before overshadowed his better judgement but we will never know but the pressure on Walcott to do well ever since has been immense as he was put on a national spotlight at such a tender age and truth be told he couldn’t have done more at the time. At that time, his footballing education wasn’t ripe enough to handle the expectations of a whole nation going to a major tournament such as the world cup. He had not even played a single premier league game for us when he was selected. 

For The Ox, I believe he has what it takes to make a good showing at the Euros but expectations of him should be kept at a minimum. Arsenal fans at the Emirates are also guilty of expecting too much from the lad as several times, calls such as ‘bring on The Ox’ rung through the stands. Things like this will make him feel like he must impress at every time he comes on the pitch which is not to be so.

Arsene Wenger has several times claimed that he is still learning and he would not rush him. That is the approach that we should take with promising youngsters. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad that he was selected for the Euros but I believe that young players especially play better without pressure. Let them exhibit their youthful exuberance, while keeping expectations at a minimum. Let him develop his game at his own pace, make his mistakes (as he will definitely make them) and learn from them. After all he is only 18years old and has his whole career ahead of him.

A perfect example to illustrate my point was the game against Milan at the Emirates. We had nothing to play for but pride he was thrust in an unfamiliar position and against some of the most experienced midfielders in the game, he ran the show.

Till Monday when I bring you another one, God bless the Arsenal, Iree o