Showing posts with label Thierry Henry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thierry Henry. Show all posts
Weekend Notes
 |
| Pre-season Grinds On |
Before we get to the reason for the post, I'll also take a moment to bask in the excitement of the incredible weekend in Philadelphia sports. The Phillies (baseball for those who aren't into the American sports) started the weekend with the best record in baseball. The Eagles (American football) one-upped the Phillies by acquiring a ton of defensive talent as the season gets ready to start which firmly entrenches them as one of the top contenders for the Super Bowl title. The Phillies, not to be outdone, also made a strong acquisition to fill one of the few gaps in their line-up as they prepare for their playoffs in October. Oh, and on the field the Phillies have won both of their games thus far this weekend. Good weekend to be a Philly sports fan.
So, aside from writing and basking in the glow of being a Philly sports fan in 2011, I also got to watch a decent amount of pre-season action. For those who had better things to do with their time, here are some observations from the Emirates Cup and a few Manchester United pre-season friendlies.
Emirates Cup
I just threw up in my mouth a little bit
A piece of me just dies every time I look at this.
Thierry Henry was (is?) the player. The player we wanted to watch. The player we had to have in our fantasy teams. The player that could do the impossible and make it look easy.
If I Were Running Things
Well, it would appear that we have reached the end of the Thierry Henry era at Arsenal. Really a sad day. First Vieira, then Highbury and Bergkamp, and now Henry (and rumors of Wenger to follow). Quite a sad day to be a Gooner but time to brush aside the sentiment and start thinking about what they should do to ensure that while some of the names have changed, the legacy continues to live on. In that vein, here's what I'd do if I were Arsene Wenger...
1) Get on with the business of selling off the rest of the spare parts...the combination of Reyes, Ljungberg, and Hleb probably drives the total influx of cash to £30M. Get those deals done!
2) Exercise that buy-out clause in Obafemi Martins' contract and bring him to London rumor has that price tag at £13M...
3) Throw £8M to £10M at West Brom for Curtis Davies.
4) Finish the job by pipping Chelsea and Liverpool to Malouda for about £14M.
That's a total of approximately £35M of which £30M would be coming from the sale of existing players. It would probably make sense to acquire at least one additional striker to make up for the fact that both Martins and Adebayor will be out for the African Nations Cup. Maybe the displaced Javier Saviola who is looking for a home.
1) Get on with the business of selling off the rest of the spare parts...the combination of Reyes, Ljungberg, and Hleb probably drives the total influx of cash to £30M. Get those deals done!
2) Exercise that buy-out clause in Obafemi Martins' contract and bring him to London rumor has that price tag at £13M...
3) Throw £8M to £10M at West Brom for Curtis Davies.
4) Finish the job by pipping Chelsea and Liverpool to Malouda for about £14M.
That's a total of approximately £35M of which £30M would be coming from the sale of existing players. It would probably make sense to acquire at least one additional striker to make up for the fact that both Martins and Adebayor will be out for the African Nations Cup. Maybe the displaced Javier Saviola who is looking for a home.
Adios?
Is she pointing to the exit?
Barcelona are in talks with Arsenal with a view to signing Thierry Henry, BBC Sport understands.Officials for the Spanish club are in London negotiating with the Gunners over a reported £16m transfer fee.
Barcelona hope to close the deal by next week for Arsenal's record goalscorer who has long been linked with a move to the Nou Camp.
Update: First Impressions
[11:48] JSpitzberg: http://fantasyepl.blogspot.com/2007/06/adios.html[11:49] Neal J Thurman: so, who is next?
[11:50] JSpitzberg: well, that's you're job
[11:50] JSpitzberg: your
[11:50] Neal J Thurman: lol
[11:50] Neal J Thurman: oba
[11:50] Neal J Thurman: oba
[11:50] Neal J Thurman: obafemi
[11:51] JSpitzberg: oba/rvp?
[11:51] Neal J Thurman: interesting
[11:52] JSpitzberg: i'm already excited for the Oba era at Arsenal
[11:52] JSpitzberg: 1. it's fun to say
[11:52] JSpitzberg: "oba era at arsenal"
[11:52] JSpitzberg: and 2. he's going to score a TON of goals
[11:52] Neal J Thurman: definitely fun
Aliadiere joins Middlesbrough
"'Who are two players who won't be at Arsenal next season?' Alex."
Jeremie Aliadiere has joined Middlesbrough from Arsenal on a three-year deal for £1.5 million, according to his agent.This was only a matter of time. Arsenal needed to unload Aliadiere who hasn't proved that he can score with any regularity at any level -- be it the top level of English or Scottish football, or the lower competion of the Championship and the Carling Cup. Assuming everyone else gets healthy and stays at Arsenal, you have a selection of Henry, van Persie, K2, and Bendtner. The last more successful at Birmingham than Aliadiere ever was at Wolves.The 24-year old former France Under-21 striker had been linked with a move to the Riverside since the January transfer window of 2007, with a proposed move vetoed by Arsene Wenger due to injuries suffered by fellow Arsenal strikers Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie.
But, following Mark Viduka's departure to Newcastle and the release of squad players Massimo Maccarone and Malcolm Christie, Boro boss Gareth Southgate has moved to reinforce the striking ranks in Teesside with the player,who will partner Yakubu Aiyegbeni and, if the transfer is completed as proposed, Turkey star Tuncay.
On the other end of the deal, it's not quite clear what Boro are doing. Should the rumours pan out, they're looking at a choice amongst Beattie (big, lumbering, and 2-years removed from any semblance of form), Smith (small, lumbering, and 2-years removed from any semblance of form), Tuncay (an unknown, untried in the Premiership), and Aliadiere who has yet to impress at any level.
No Yak. No BFMV. No creativity in midfield. Another year-long series of poor deliveries from the left flank as their only plan. I would expect to see Boro, along with Fulham, Wigan, Bolton, and Derby mired at the bottom of the table next season.
Is it time to sell?
I wrote Wednesday about what I thought the reality behind the Henry-to-Barca rumors was. I decided today to follow that up with what I thought Arsenal SHOULD do.
So, here are the facts...
Strikers whose game is based primarily on speed like Henry generally decline rapidly the second their bodies start to betray them. Henry isn't reliant ONLY on his speed but it is the thing that sets his skills apart from guys like Berbatov who are deft and skilled but not blindingly fast. Henry certainly isn't going to get better in his 30s, the question is how quickly will he degrade?
I have to admit, the first thing that struck me this morning as I was reading the gossip columns (a favorite passtime of mine) was that selling Henry to Barca and spending some of the money on David Villa, Fernando Torres, or Darren Bent would make a LOT of sense. None of them are likely to adequately replace the Henry of the early 2000s but guess what, the current edition of Henry isn't likely to do that either. The aforementioned gentlemen have proven to be high class finishers as well as being young and in possession of a little thing I like to call upside.
You could easily see them quickly growing with Hoyte, Clichy, Djourou, Toure, Eboue (as a right wing), Fabregas, Diaby, Walcott (as a left wing), van Persie, and Adebayor to form the core of a squad that has a great chance to challenge for actual honors in 2008-2009. Throw in one or two more strategic acquisitions and the maturation of guys like Denilson and Bendtner and you might really have something.
To stand pat is to maximize the number of points the club will achieve this coming year but it will ultimately minimize the chances that Arsenal will regain a spot atop the Premier League standings.
The only reason I'm holding out hope that all of the above is wrong is that there is a small chance that the only reason that Henry was so ineffective last season was due to being over-worked between Arsenal's heavy 2005-06 schedule followed by the World Cup over the summer. If a summer off has rejuvinated the Frenchman, then maybe Arsenal can challenge ManYoo and Chelsea but unless Arsenal management is certain that is the case, they should serious think about divesting themselves of Henry now before that particular asset has lost its value.
So, here are the facts...
- Arsenal have not gained ground on ManYoo and Chelsea so far this summer - in fact, they've lost ground on both.
- Arsenal's most likely high-profile transfer target - Ribery - has already made his way to Bayern Munich.
- Henry has been a constant distraction over the last 15 months or so with his constant whinging about how much he admires this club or that club.
- Henry is going to turn 30 about the time the new season begins (August 17).
- Henry only managed 16 starts in the Premier League last campaign.
- Henry's goal against ManYoo on January 21st was his only goal against a team that qualified for European competition next season.
- The "Young Gunners" are probably another year away from being the core of a team that contends for a Premier League or Champions League title
- The recent "high profile" acquisitions - that's you Rosicky and Hleb - aren't doing the job and don't really seem to fit the system.
Strikers whose game is based primarily on speed like Henry generally decline rapidly the second their bodies start to betray them. Henry isn't reliant ONLY on his speed but it is the thing that sets his skills apart from guys like Berbatov who are deft and skilled but not blindingly fast. Henry certainly isn't going to get better in his 30s, the question is how quickly will he degrade?
I have to admit, the first thing that struck me this morning as I was reading the gossip columns (a favorite passtime of mine) was that selling Henry to Barca and spending some of the money on David Villa, Fernando Torres, or Darren Bent would make a LOT of sense. None of them are likely to adequately replace the Henry of the early 2000s but guess what, the current edition of Henry isn't likely to do that either. The aforementioned gentlemen have proven to be high class finishers as well as being young and in possession of a little thing I like to call upside.
You could easily see them quickly growing with Hoyte, Clichy, Djourou, Toure, Eboue (as a right wing), Fabregas, Diaby, Walcott (as a left wing), van Persie, and Adebayor to form the core of a squad that has a great chance to challenge for actual honors in 2008-2009. Throw in one or two more strategic acquisitions and the maturation of guys like Denilson and Bendtner and you might really have something.
To stand pat is to maximize the number of points the club will achieve this coming year but it will ultimately minimize the chances that Arsenal will regain a spot atop the Premier League standings.
The only reason I'm holding out hope that all of the above is wrong is that there is a small chance that the only reason that Henry was so ineffective last season was due to being over-worked between Arsenal's heavy 2005-06 schedule followed by the World Cup over the summer. If a summer off has rejuvinated the Frenchman, then maybe Arsenal can challenge ManYoo and Chelsea but unless Arsenal management is certain that is the case, they should serious think about divesting themselves of Henry now before that particular asset has lost its value.
Henry?
Since one of the people commenting on Jeremy's last post asked, about the latest round of rumors surrounding Henry, I figured I'd put my two cents into the mix. My first comment is that I'm stunned at the ability of people to read things into every single comment that is made for the sake of spinning a headline grabbing story that might sell a few extra papers or generate a few extra clicks. As an example, once I read the comments related to David Dein's departure, I had a hard time figuring out where all the headlines came from. Who WOULDN'T be flattered if the current European Champions mentioned them as a target? To say anything else would be dishonest at best.
My second comment is that we seem to see these sorts of rumors every year around the top players in the Premier League. Lampard is going to Barca...Gerrard is going to Chelsea...Drogba wants to play in another country at some point if Chelsea don't "meet his ambition"....the list goes on and on. Mostly this is idle media speculation that tends to flare up when there aren't actual matches to report on - instead of proliferating rumors of this nature for the 18th time with a slightly different spin, maybe some of these reporters should try actually watching some of the U21 Euro Championship matches so that they can intelligently report on what the players that are featured can actually do (i.e., what positions they play, how they might fit when they reach the big time) - it continues to shock me that there is very little commentary of this nature when players are transferred.
Finally, am I dismissing the possibility that TH might leave the Emirates? Not at all, he might very well go and force Arsenal to really develop a new team capable of scoring on their own rather than doing everything else and then counting on Henry to bail them out on the scoresheet. I'm guessing he'll be back but I'm only about 60% confident of that outcome. If he isn't, the guess is that Arsenal are a UEFA Cup team but not a Champions League team unless they can find a high-profile replacement as well as a winger who can score about 10 goals.
In other developments, Villa seem to be the new Everton (from a couple years back) in that they are having a hard time getting anyone to take their money...No de Jong, no Sneidjer, no Barton, no Parker, and no Reo-Coker (yet). To answer Jeremy's query on Reading and Halford, I read that they have extended de la Cruz. Guess that made Halford surplus to requirements.
That's about it for today - hopefully, things will start happening soon. Once one or two dominos fall, there will likely be a flurry of activity.
My second comment is that we seem to see these sorts of rumors every year around the top players in the Premier League. Lampard is going to Barca...Gerrard is going to Chelsea...Drogba wants to play in another country at some point if Chelsea don't "meet his ambition"....the list goes on and on. Mostly this is idle media speculation that tends to flare up when there aren't actual matches to report on - instead of proliferating rumors of this nature for the 18th time with a slightly different spin, maybe some of these reporters should try actually watching some of the U21 Euro Championship matches so that they can intelligently report on what the players that are featured can actually do (i.e., what positions they play, how they might fit when they reach the big time) - it continues to shock me that there is very little commentary of this nature when players are transferred.
Finally, am I dismissing the possibility that TH might leave the Emirates? Not at all, he might very well go and force Arsenal to really develop a new team capable of scoring on their own rather than doing everything else and then counting on Henry to bail them out on the scoresheet. I'm guessing he'll be back but I'm only about 60% confident of that outcome. If he isn't, the guess is that Arsenal are a UEFA Cup team but not a Champions League team unless they can find a high-profile replacement as well as a winger who can score about 10 goals.
In other developments, Villa seem to be the new Everton (from a couple years back) in that they are having a hard time getting anyone to take their money...No de Jong, no Sneidjer, no Barton, no Parker, and no Reo-Coker (yet). To answer Jeremy's query on Reading and Halford, I read that they have extended de la Cruz. Guess that made Halford surplus to requirements.
That's about it for today - hopefully, things will start happening soon. Once one or two dominos fall, there will likely be a flurry of activity.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)