Archive for the ‘News’ Category
This article titled “Arsène Wenger blasts Chelsea for hypocrisy over £75m transfer spree” was written by Dominic Fifield at the Emirates Stadium, for The Guardian on Wednesday 2nd February 2011 00.33 UTC
Arsène Wenger last night accused Chelsea of hypocrisy after questioning the logic of Roman Abramovich’s lavish £76.5m outlay on Fernando Torres and David Luiz despite the Russian owner claiming to support Uefa’s policy of financial fair play.
“Chelsea supported Uefa’s financial fair-play proposals but in the morning they announced a £70m loss and in the afternoon they buy £75m worth of players. Where’s the logic in that?” Wenger said after Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat of Everton. “It’s hard to guess. Officially they vote for financial fair play but they can explain why they have done this much better than I can.”
The Arsenal manager anticipates the Premier League champions will spend heavily again in the summer following their mind-boggling huge outlay on transfer deadline day, with his clear distaste all too evident last night.
Asked whether Chelsea’s decision to spend almost as much money in one day as they have since José Mourinho departed Stamford Bridge in September 2007 was a sign that the champions were concerned at falling behind the other challengers, Wenger said: “He [Abramovich] can tell you why but that’s how you can read it from the outside. If you don’t invest for a while, it looks as if you’re not as involved in it any more. That he doesn’t like it as much. But £75m means more will come.
“Abramovich was a bit in no man’s land where nobody could guess if he wanted to still invest or not. He has been like that for a long time but that has changed. He has decided to put big money in again and that tells you in the summer more will come. He is back to full investment.”
Wenger has been critical of Chelsea under Abramovich in the past, accusing them of “financial doping” during the oligarch’s early tenure at Stamford Bridge when the Russian instigated regular overhauls of the Londoners’ squad. The Arsenal vice-chairman at the time, David Dein, famously claimed Abramovich had “parked his Russian tanks on our lawn and is firing £50 notes at us”. Old wounds appear to have been reopened by the latest bout of spending.
Uefa released a statement yesterday noting the frenzy of transfer activity on deadline day – Chelsea and Liverpool alone spent close to £140m on four players – with a view to the adoption of their fair-play regulations, which will come into place for season 2012-13. “Uefa is aware of the recent transfer activity across Europe,” it read. “It must be noted, however, that the financial fair-play rules do not prevent clubs from spending money on transfers themselves but rather require them to balance their books at the end of the season.
“We have full confidence that the clubs are increasingly aware of the nature of the financial fair-play rules, which aim to encourage clubs to balance their incomes and expenses over a period of time covering four to six transfer windows.”
Wenger’s line-up last night cost £40m to construct, around £10m less than Chelsea have paid for Torres alone. “That’s why I sat back in my armchair on the bench and watched with satisfaction,” the Frenchman said. “Chelsea and Manchester City are obviously special cases. It looks like Chelsea are back on the market, which they weren’t for a while. But they have the financial potential to do this.”
His opposite number, David Moyes, Everton’s manager, spent no more than a nominal fee on the Greece Under-19 forward Apostolos Vellios, signed from Iraklis Thessaloniki, during the window but had his own warning on the ramifications of the deadline day frenzy. “If you were the dad of a young player at one of the clubs who have spent so much, you’d be asking how your son was ever going to get a chance there,” he said.
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This article titled “Cesc Fábregas in Twitter row after Arsenal’s defeat of Huddersfield” was written by David Hytner, for guardian.co.uk on Sunday 30th January 2011 22.36 UTC
Cesc Fábregas has found himself at the centre of another Twitter storm after Huddersfield Town’s Anthony Pilkington accused the Arsenal captain of telling two of the League One side’s players to “fuck off” after they had asked to swap shirts.
Pilkington said on his Twitter site: “2 lads asked him for his shirt and he told them to f*ck off!! Sick player but what a tit!” Pilkington later apologised for his outburst and claimed it was in the heat of the moment before his account was suspended.
Fábregas proved to be Arsenal’s match-winner after he came on as a 69th‑minute substitute, shortly after Alan Lee had made the score 1-1. He scored the winner from the penalty spot, his ninth goal of the season, to secure an FA Cup fifth‑round trip to Leyton Orient. But he aggravated Town’s players with his behaviour.
After Jamie McCombe, who looked to be the last man, had conceded the penalty for a foul on Nicklas Bendtner, Fábregas waved an imaginary card at the referee Mark Clattenburg and urged him to brandish a real red one. Moments later, after feeling he had been fouled, Fábregas grabbed the ball and then got into a confrontation with Jack Hunt, the Town full debutant. Hunt pushed Fábregas and the Spaniard went down. Clattenburg booked Fábregas.
Arsenal said last night that Fábregas had two shirts and gave both to Huddersfield players.
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This article titled “Arsenal’s Samir Nasri a doubt for Champions League tie with Barcelona” was written by David Hytner at the Emirates Stadium, for The Guardian on Sunday 30th January 2011 15.55 UTC
Samir Nasri is set to miss the first leg of Arsenal’s Champions League last-16 tie against Barcelona after he injured a hamstring in the 2-1 FA Cup win over Huddersfield Town.
Arsenal’s player of the season was a surprise inclusion in the starting line-up as the manager Arsène Wenger rested most of his first-choice players, but he was forced off in the 33rd minute, when he felt the hamstring tighten in his left leg as he chased a long ball forward.
Nasri will undergo scans but Wenger said that he fears the worst. Even if the damage proves to be a minor tear, the midfielder would still be a doubt for the Barcelona game at Emirates on 16 February. The return leg is on 8 March at Camp Nou.
“Nasri looks [to have] a serious hamstring injury and usually it is three weeks,” Wenger said. “If it is a grade one [tear], it can be two weeks. It is a big blow. How big, I don’t know. The results will tell but it is a big blow. Will he miss Barcelona? Put three weeks on and you will know. I think yes.”
Wenger had wanted to start Tomas Rosicky in the attacking midfield role but the Czech was not fully fit after a virus.
“I have regrets now, yes,” Wenger said. “The plan was to play Rosicky but he was still too weak because he was so sick and so I took a gamble on Nasri. It backfired [but] he could come on and it could have happened because it was after 25-30 minutes. But, of course, we are at the stage where we play so many games and so to lose bodies is very difficult for us.”
Wenger admitted that his team had “looked a little bit tired” and the imperative now is to regroup ahead of Tuesday’s Premier League fixture against Everton at home. They played their fourth round FA Cup tie on Saturday, drawing 1-1 with Chelsea.
“Hopefully, we can recover,” Wenger said. “When you win, you recover more quickly. I have some players who did not play and who will be fresh, but we have only 48 hours.”
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This article titled “Cesc Fábregas seals Arsenal victory over Huddersfield from the spot” was written by David Hytner at Emirates Stadium, for The Guardian on Sunday 30th January 2011 14.50 UTC
The FA Cup demonstrated its enduring flair for romance, as it threatened to make heroes of League One Huddersfield Town and, in particular, the journeyman striker Alan Lee. But when the dust had settled, it was its capacity for cruelty that provided the over-riding emotion.
Lee Clark’s players had covered themselves in glory by stretching Arsenal to the limit and when Lee conjured the equaliser, it was easy to see Town going on to win or, at the very least, holding out for the replay, such was the exuberance of their football. It was Lee’s first goal for the club on his 26th appearance after his £500,000 summer transfer from Crystal Palace. Talk about timing.
Arsenal had been reduced to ten men by the 42nd-minute dismissal of Sébastien Squillaci for a cynical block on the debutant Jack Hunt, who was one of the many to epitomise Town’s fearless approach. Squillaci will be suspended for Tuesday night’s Premier League fixture at home to Everton, although the manager Arsène Wenger said that the setback would not accelerate his search for central defensive cover. He does not expect to make a signing before the transfer deadline.
The situation after Lee’s goal compelled Wenger to bring on Cesc Fábregas and, not for the first time, the captain dug his team out of a hole. Only four minutes remained when Nicklas Bendtner got the wrong side of Jamie McCombe inside the area and he went down when the defender put an arm around him.
The penalty award felt slightly soft but Clark had no complaints. “As soon as I saw Bendtner go down, I thought it was a penalty,” he said.
Fábregas stepped up and, after a stuttering run, he sent the goalkeeper Ian Bennett the wrong way. He had scored Arsenal’s last-minute equaliser from the spot as a substitute in the previous round against Leeds United to force the replay and his team once again made heavy weather of opposition from Yorkshire.
The Spaniard won himself no friends by gesturing for McCombe to be sent off – the defender, who was the last man, escaped with a yellow card – and, moments later, Fábregas was booked himself for ungentlemanly conduct. He can sometimes blot his copybook by becoming embroiled in petty spats.
“Cesc thought it was a red card [for McCombe],” Wenger said. “We had a player sent off so the same punishment should occur, although in the box, I am personally more lenient than outside.”
Arsenal had started brightly, creating plenty of chances, and they fashioned the opening goal midway through the first-half. It was not without good fortune. Bendtner was still stewing about miscuing a volley moments earlier and being ridiculed by the Town support when he fastened on to a through ball from Marouane Chamakh. He struck a low shot that was heading wide but a deflection off the Town captain Peter Clarke brought it back inside the far corner.
It had to go down as an own goal but Bendtner nevertheless opted to get his own back on the 5,000 travelling fans by running in front of them and cupping his hand to his ear. It was not the classiest thing to do.
Clark could be proud of the football that his team played. They established a foothold and they began to create chances, none better than the free header for Anthony Pilkington in the 39th minute that he glanced wide. Arsenal were unconvincing at the back.
The red card followed further positive Town play. The right-back Jack Hunt surged past the disappointing Kieran Gibbs and inside Laurent Koscielny and he might have got past the last man Squillaci, too, if it were not for the body check. Wenger claimed that the decision was “harsh” but it was difficult to agree with him.
The second-half was golden for Town and the equaliser had been advertised. Andrey Arshavin needed to make a last-ditch tackle on Gary Roberts; McCombe glanced inches wide and Lee’s header forced Manuel Almunia into a flying finger-tip save. From the ensuing corner, the excellent Joey Gudjonsson shot just past the post.
Arsenal were clinging on. There did not seem to be two divisions between the clubs and Town’s moment came when Lee tussled with Abou Diaby at a corner before getting up to thump a header past Almunia.
Yet Arsenal would rally and the penalty broke Town hearts. They surely deserved better.
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This article titled “Huddersfield’s Lee Clark puts Arsène Wenger’s philosophy to acid test” was written by Louise Taylor, for The Guardian on Saturday 29th January 2011 09.00 UTC
Lee Clark closes the laptop on his impressively tidy desk and concedes he has changed. “In the past I didn’t know if I’d be able to get on with new technology,” says the Huddersfield Town manager. “But I’m always using it now. I’ve got all the computer programmes, I’ve tried to embrace it.”
At one time many people would have been astonished to see Clark choreographing both a League One promotion campaign and an FA Cup adventure with Arsenal from the manager’s office at the Galpharm Stadium.
The former Newcastle United, Sunderland and Fulham midfielder was, unfairly as it transpires, widely deemed a daft Geordie lad who, whisper it, did not seem the sharpest tool in the box. If such theories gained currency when his stint at Sunderland came to an abrupt end after he was pictured attending the 1999 Newcastle v Manchester United FA Cup final wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “Sad Mackem Bastards”, they have been thoroughly undermined in West Yorkshire.
These days Clark is regarded as a potential high-flyer whose insistence on Huddersfield playing a smooth, thoughtful, passing game has persuaded Arsène Wenger to loan him Arsenal’s England youth international striker Benik Afobe.
While Afobe will not feature at the Emirates tomorrow Clark, also missing his injured leading scorer, Jordan Rhodes, can expect a warm greeting from the sometimes sniffy Wenger.
“It’s a big boost to me that we’ve had players loaned here from not just Arsenal but Liverpool and Manchester United too,” he says in his soft Tyneside accent. “It’s very complimentary that top Premier League managers want their players to come to Hudderfield. It’s important for me to win games and get out of this league but I intend to do it playing the way I want, with a good passing ethos.”
Kevin Kilbane, the much travelled Ireland international, recently arrived on loan from Hull and believes few managers do more assiduous homework. “Lee’s attention to detail and analysis are unbelievable,” Kilbane says. “He’s also a very good coach; I can certainly see him going higher up the management ladder.”
For the moment all Clark can think about is the most glamorous game of his two years at Huddersfield. “Trying to get out of this league and into the Championship is the biggest test,” he says. “But playing at Arsenal is my toughest and most exciting challenge. The style Arsenal play is what I aspire to. My dream as a manager is to get to that level, to have a team like that. As a club and a manager Arsenal and Arsène Wenger are a yardstick.”
A chat Clark enjoyed with Wenger at a coaching seminar remains a treasured memory. “I remember our conversation word for word and I keep going back to it,” he says. “Those type of things are worth their weight in gold to young managers like me.”
At 38, he remains relatively inexperienced but benefits from having served under an eclectic assortment of managerial mentors including Ossie Ardíles, Kevin Keegan, Peter Reid, Jean Tigana and Graeme Souness. “I’ve been lucky in that I’ve enjoyed working for all of them so I don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and ask for their advice,” he says.
An epiphany came when he played for Wenger’s compatriot Tigana at Fulham and suddenly appreciated that an apparent fixation with players’ fitness and diet “enabled you to sell your wares better”. By then realisation had also dawned that there really was life outside Geordieland. “Leaving the north-east was tough at first,” Clark says. “But within a month I knew I’d made the right decision. Once I’d settled in to life down south I loved it. The lifestyle my family and I had living in Surrey was great; we had a magnificent time.”
Nonetheless, Newcastle still exerted a powerful pull and, not long after returning to St James’ Park in a junior coaching capacity that involved helping develop Andy Carroll’s academy skills, Clark was confronted with another big choice.
This time Glenn Roeder called, offering the post of assistant manager at Norwich. “I didn’t want to leave Newcastle, it was where I wanted to be,” he says. “But I knew if I was going to make my mark in management Norwich was an offer I couldn’t turn down.”
The decision to listen to his head rather than his heart was vindicated a year later when Huddersfield made him manager after hearing through the grapevine that Roeder had hired one of the brightest young talents in England’s coaching pool. His seemingly natural, attention-grabbing poise and authority in a tracksuit were not acquired overnight, however.
“I got my first coaching badge at 23,” says Clark who, early in his playing career, helped coach Walker Central boys club where Newcastle’s Shola Ameobi was harbouring hopes of turning professional. “It gives me a lot of pride that I had a little bit of impact on Shola and Andy Carroll. But I always knew I wanted to be a manager. I didn’t just want to be a coach, I wanted to be the one making the decisions.”
Although he is doing precisely that at the club Bill Shankly managed before taking charge at Liverpool, Huddersfield has lately been regarded more as a poisoned chalice than a stepping stone. After all the 1922 FA Cup winners and three-times League champions have not resided in English football’s top two tiers for 10 years now. Clark is their seventh manager in 12 seasons.
Yet with the team third in League One and anxious to atone for last spring’s play-off defeat against Millwall, there is cautious optimism that his partnership with the club’s wealthy new owner, the greetings card magnate Dean Hoyle, will finally end an era of instability.
It is not merely Clark’s habit of artfully knotting a blue and white scarf around his neck on matchdays that has earned him the “Roberto Mancini of League One” sobriquet, but a perception that Huddersfield are, à la Mancini’s Manchester City, now capable of financially outmuscling their divisional rivals.
“This is a huge club,” says an increasingly suavely groomed and smartly dressed manager who does not care to contemplate “what my Geordie mates might say” about that now hallmark scarf.
“Not so long ago Huddersfield were in administration but we’ve just bought land to build a training facility which will be of Premier League quality,” says Clark.
“The owner wants to see this club competing at the highest level and my ambition is to get us there. Reaching the Premier League is a dream but teams like Wigan and Hull have shown it is an achievable dream.
“Sunday at Arsenal will whet the appetite. We’re massive underdogs but I’ve got some gifted young players … and the FA Cup is all about shocks.”
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This article titled “Arsène Wenger backs Fabio Capello’s England plan for Jack Wilshere” was written by Paul Doyle, for The Guardian on Friday 28th January 2011 22.15 UTC
Arsène Wenger has approved Fabio Capello’s plan to give Jack Wilshere the anchorman role in England’s midfield, starting with the friendly in Denmark on 9 February.
Capello has been criticised for seemingly ignoring Wilshere’s encouraging form for Arsenal this season by restricting his senior international experience to seven minutes in a friendly against Hungary in August. However, the Italian indicated this week that he has finally been convinced of the 19-year-old’s talent and, with Gareth Barry badly off the boil and Owen Hargreaves’s career in doubt because of injury, he plans to make Wilshere the linchpin of England’s midfield, starting in Copenhagen.
Wilshere will be deployed in a deep-lying midfield role, where it is hoped that his technique, vision and dynamism will give England the control and creativity they lacked at the World Cup. Wenger believes that, despite his tender years, Wilshere has the skill set required to fulfil those expectations.
“He can play any position in midfield because he is tactically intelligent,” said the Arsenal manager, who believes Wilshere corresponds to his ideal of the complete midfield player. “For me a midfielder is not exclusively someone who can do one position, it’s a guy who can defend when his team doesn’t have the ball and attack when his team does have it. I never play with a midfielder who does just one thing because that’s what I hate the most.”
One young player who has already supplanted more senior counterparts is Wojciech Szczesny who, Wenger confirmed, will remain first-choice goalkeeper at Arsenal despite the return to fitness of Manuel Almunia. After more than three months out of action, first with an injured elbow and then a damaged ankle, the Spaniard has been included in Arsenal’s squad for Sunday’s FA Cup tie against Huddersfield Town and may even start. However, he has been left in no doubt that the manager now views him as a subordinate to the 20-year-old Pole. “In this position at the moment Wojciech is the No1. He has done nothing for me to take him out, it is down to the others to challenge him.”
Wenger also confirmed that Arsenal are still pursuing the Southampton winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. With several other clubs, including Manchester United and Liverpool, also interested in the 17-year-old, Southampton have indicated that their preferred choice of destination for the player would be Arsenal because of Wenger’s record of developing young players. “We are following his case, he is a player we really like,” he said.
Arsenal have also been seeking a centre-back this month to cover for Thomas Vermaelen, who has been sidelined since September after suffering an achilles injury and is not expected to be fit for at least another six weeks. Wenger reiterated, however, that he is only looking to bring in a defender on loan because making a permanent signing would be economic folly. So far this January he has failed to find a player that meets his criteria.
“We didn’t find any reasonable solutions,” he said. “If we can get a defender on loan until the end of the season, it is an ideal solution for us. It would not get us into a position where we have to pay five defenders for four years and it would cover the season. If we find that opportunity we will do it. We believe in the quality of the defenders we have, but we are a bit short in numbers.”
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This article titled “Nicklas Bendtner clears Arsenal’s path to Wembley as Ipswich crumble” was written by Kevin McCarra at Emirates Stadium, for The Guardian on Tuesday 25th January 2011 23.41 UTC
A win over visitors from a lower division ought to have met with no more than a nod of recognition for a simple task undertaken competently. The mood at the Emirates was nothing at all like that. It is far too late, with six years gone by since the last trophy, for Arsenal to do anything than revel in a result that sends them to Wembley for a Carling Cup final with Birmingham City or West Ham United.
Ipswich Town, 1-0 winners of the first leg, did much to contribute to the feeling of achievement in the ranks of Arsène Wenger’s side. There are exceptions in players such as Gaël Clichy, Cesc Fábregas and Robin van Persie but this is largely a squad still wondering what success with Arsenal would feel like. That is an asset if it means that they meet Carling Cup games with more than a yawn.
The one gesture towards nonchalance by Wenger was eye-catching. Samir Nasri, the outstanding performer in both Arsenal’s ranks and perhaps those of the entire Premier League, was not involved in this tie until the 85th minute last night but there had been a tell-tale adjustment. While he was on the bench this time, there had been no place for him at all in the earlier game.
The emergency that would have warranted his early introduction at the Emirates never occurred. There is no blame in that regard for Ipswich. They resisted with both steel and calm. Their new manager, Paul Jewell, could have asked for little more from his team. This side had survived 151 minutes of the tie before they were breached at last. Robin van Persie, with half-a-dozen goals in his past three appearances, was stifled in this return leg.
Ipswich were broken entirely at the Emirates only when Andrey Arshavin put Cesc Fábregas through for the third goal in the 77th minute but the team seldom lost the accuracy or, tellingly, the tempo of its passing. The influence of Jack Wilshere’s distribution was also notable and few 19-year-olds can have participated to such an extent over the course of a campaign without looking depleted. He was at work here because his presence matters, particularly when Wenger deemed that it was Nasri who had to be protected.
Any degree of difficulty was increased by early vexation for Arsenal. Gareth McAuley, the visitors’ centre-half, went unpunished by the referee, Mark Halsey, in the 10th minute when the official declined to give a penalty for a shove on Fábregas.
There was a different type of blow to Arsenal when the goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny collided with Bacary Sagna while defending a free-kick. The right-back soon had to be replaced by Emmanuel Eboué. That sort of distraction could not stop Arsenal from mounting attacks but they did not always have the effortless poise of the usual showings at the Emirates.
Ipswich somehow did better for a long time here than most of the Premier League visitors. That, of course, did not mean they were at ease. Since the defeat of Arsenal in the first leg Jewell has enjoyed two wins in the Championship. His side is not remotely comparable to Wenger’s in talent but they had a morale in the tie that would be a match for anyone.
Glaring opportunities were not as common for Arsenal as anticipated. The most tempting before half-time came in the 35th minute as Wilshere found Fábregas but the midfielder’s finish went wide. A mood of contentment remained in the crowd, although the jollity that lay in the news that Manchester United were behind to Blackpool in the Premier League was not to last as Sir Alex Ferguson’s team resolved the problems at Bloomfield Road.
Arsenal fans will still realise that Wenger, in contrast to all other managers in England, retains an interest in four tournaments, from the Carling Cup to the Champions League. That is no accident and he has a splendid collection of footballers, yet there is also a gnawing question about their ruthlessness. It was as pertinent as ever while Ipswich maintained their morale.
Arsenal were still losing a tie that was three-quarters of the way to its conclusion but they did bring it under control in the end. Sheer talent made the difference after 61 minutes. Wilshere’s excellent pass found Nicklas Bendtner on the left and he cut inside Carlos Edwards before placing a right-footed shot into the far corner of the net.
The tempo as much as the talent was taking its toll of Ipswich. Three minutes later the goalkeeper Marton Fulop could not cope with an Arshavin corner and the centre-half Laurent Koscielny headed home. If that sort of method is not usually associated with Arsenal, it will please Wenger to know that his men had come up with a way of polishing off a dauntless Ipswich.
“For us it is the perfect night,” said Wenger. “Our season depends on our performances, our results and our consistency. We do not have to focus on Manchester United or anybody else. We are a team that have taken off a while ago and are consistent now.”
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Arsenal will take park in the Platinum One Challenge at Shamrock Rovers’ Tallaght Stadium later this month – a triangular tournament also featuring hosts Rovers and Manchester United.
Neil Banfield’s reserve squad will face Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United reserves on Thursday, August 19, before completing the tournament against a Shamrock Rovers XI on Sunday, August 22.
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