Asian Chronicles 2

Top of the morning to y’all

At about 2:30pm yesterday, I got the team line up alert on my phone from one of the members of my BBM gunners group. I was so much engrossed with work that I had completely forgotten about the match. There was no way I could make the game if I stayed and its been so long I saw the lads play. There was only one course of action to take and that's to drop an excuse of nuclear bomb calibre, one that could rival those of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on my boss. So I braced myself, marched into his office and dropped it. Boom. It worked and I was flying out of my office minutes afterwards. 2-1 the game ended with the Malaysians taking the lead with the last kick of the first half with a well taken shot that had a poorly positioned Mannone stranded.

A different team came out for the second half and with time running out it was Thomas Eisfeld that brought us level after good work from Nico Yennaris while chuks Aneke scored the winner with a deflected shot. 

Sensei said after the game:

We played two sides and I felt both did well. The first half was played at a high pace and overall it was a good workout for us against a good Malaysian team. We had to be patient to win the game. But the result was less important than the workout. 

The Malaysian side gave the lads a very good run and I was really impresses with their organisation in defence and swift counter attacking but unfortunately they couldn’t maintain that level of concentration throughout the game and that was the difference between the sides yesterday.

In the first half, I was particularly impressed with Andre Santos. He showed his versatility as he impressed while playing in the right side of attack and making very intelligent runs into the box which saw him have two clear one on one chances. Diaby was another player that impressed in the first half. Keeping the ball well and trying to dictate play. Overall it was a good performance by all the players and it was really good to see them play again after such a long time. While Alex Song was his usual imposing self in the second half. 

The team bade their Malaysian fans farewell after the game and jet off to China where they would play Man City at the popular Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing on Friday.

In some other good news, solid centre back Laurent Koscielny signeda new long term contract with the club yesterday and it was greeted to rounds of applause all round Arsenaldom and wishing that some leaders led by example. It obviously shows that the club are learning from the events of the past two years and tying important players into long term deals while they had time on their current ones. Alex Song should be next up please otherwise we will definitely have a repeat of the Van Persie situation next season when one remembers that he is represented by David Dein's son Darren who also engineered Fabregas's move away from the club. 

Methinks agents are the major cause of some of Arsenal’s player problems though one cant rule out the greediness of players of players such as Na$ri, and Cashley but with van Persie, I think we are suffering from his agent Kees Voss.

The santi Carzola deal looks be getting closer to being done more and more every day with some sources claiming that the two clubs have agreed a fee in the region of £15million and personal terms have been agreed between the club and player as we attempt to take an advantage of the financial crisis in the Spanish club. A great addition he will be to the squad if he signs. Not only will he add depth to the squad, he will also keep players like Theo Walcott and Gervinho on their toes.

Thierry Henry has reiterated his desire to return to Arsenal after hangs his boots.

Eventually I’d like to go back to Arsenal. I would go back to England, for sure with Arsenal. Coaching does interest me but I really don’t think about it right now.

In what capacity I don’t know but on this issue, I am a student of the school of thought of the legendary Edson Arantes De Nascimento who is widely regarded as the greatest player ever to play the round leather game when he said that a great player does not necessarily make a great coach.  A claim that was proven by another football legend Maradona at the World Cup in South Africa when his team crashed out woefully to Germany despite having a host of world class players in their line up including the current best footballer on the planet.

Coming back to Henry, I am a bit sceptical about how good a coach he will be. Instead, I will rather have him in an administrative capacity or better still unearthing the next generation of world stars for the club.

A quick look at the best coaches in Europe at the moment will further stress this point. Wenger, ferguson, Mourinho, Guardiola, Lippi, etc were not considered great players in their playing days but are great coaches while a look at the so called great players such as Shearer, Maradona, Tony Adams, etc have not really lit up the world with their abilities as managers.

Finally for today, this blog post is a little milestone for me as it marks my 50^th blogpost since I started blogging in January this year. I will like to use this opportunity to thank everyone that has been reading my blog since I started out. You guys are my motivation for if y’all don’t read, I will have no reason to write. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to y’all.

Be right back on Friday with another one.

God bless the Arsenal. Iree o