Archive for the ‘football’ Category

Arsène Wenger, manager of the English Football Premier League club side Arsenal, has been receiving scathing criticisms by both fans and football analysts alike; and for good reason: the top-flight club has, under his management failed to win any silverware for about six years now, nor has he shown any willingness to procure quality players to fill glaring inadequacies in the club’s squad of players.

In a show of defiance, after the club’s 2-1 win over Udinese earlier in the week to qualify for the European Champions League draws, Wenger denied any “crisis” in the team despite the departure of two key players, former captain and talisman Cesc Fabregas (amid perhaps the longest transfer saga in modern, European footballing times) and Sami Nasri. With about £60 million in proceeds from the sale of these players, his immediate concern was a temporary deal for a 30-year old midfielder valued at about £5 million and a £6 million offer for (£12 million-rated) Bolton’s defender Gary Cahill. Bolton’s manager Owen Coyle referred to the offer as “derisory”.

Mr. Wenger’s business model has been one of self-sustenance, buying very young boys cheaply and then developing them and selling them with good profit a few years later. The club plays very exciting, quick-passing and fast-paced football. However, since the adoption of this model, the club has never won any silverware. To his credit, Wenger has overseen the movement of the club to a new sixty-odd thousand capacity stadium while maintaining the club’s top-four position as well as UEFA Champions League qualification for fifteen consecutive years. In spite of these, the manager and his team were booed off the field by fans after a 1-1 draw at home with North American Soccer League club side, New York Red Bulls in an Emirates Cup encounter just over a fortnight ago.

The draw with Red Bulls was symptomatic of the Arsenal malaise: good, possession football, several missed scoring chances and conceding of cheap goals. In February this year, the club was active in all four major titles – FA Cup, Premier League, UEFA Champions League and Carling Cup – but crashed out of three of them in three weeks, including a last-minute give-away to lowly Birmingham. The team won only three of  its last fourteen matches in that season. During the 2007-2008 season, the club was 5 points clear on the leadership table with 12 matches to the end, but lost the title to Manchester United. Last season, the club led Newcastle United by 3 goals in the first few minutes of a  match only see the match end in a 4-4 draw.

The club’s inadequacies have been mainly in the forward and center-back positions. The main forwards, Robin Van Persie and Theo Walcott are injury-prone and were side-lined for a significant part of the 2010-2011 season. The frenchmen, Marouane Chamakh (forward) and Sebastien Squillaci (center-back) purchased by Wenger to make up the inadequacies have been woeful flops, the latter guilty of give-aways that led to losses. In just a few months, no less than four key players in the club would have a year left in their contracts, and the whole Nasri-Fabregas saga may be replayed fourfold.

Mr Wenger’s business model just has not worked and stubborn adherence to it smacks of false economics. Trophy-less seasons do not generate lucrative club endorsements nor do they attract quality players. Without spending to procure the services of quality players to make up squad deficiencies, the club’s trophy-less seasons would likely endure, especially when competitors such as Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool have all invested substantially in the reinforcement of  their respective squads; and that just may seal Mr. Wenger’s fate while relegating the club to the nether sections of the leadership table.

The football match last Sunday, between the Barclays English Premier League clubs, Arsenal and Manchester City, was always going to be an explosive one: Arsenal, one of the proverbial “big four” (which includes Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool) has been without major silverware for about five years and this has been touted as the year to end such drought; Manchester City, having outspent all clubs in the league with a staggering £125 million (about US$188 million) in the summer’s player-acquisition window, has also been touting this year as the one in which it breaks into the big four.  The potential for fracas was heightened with the announcement that Emmanuel Adebayor (who, along with Kolo Touré had left Arsenal for Manchester City) would be playing. Adebayor was punished by the Football Association for his taunting celebration in front of Arsenal fans, after scoring in a City win over Arsenal last year.

At the end of regulation time, it was a comprehensive three-goal defeat for goalless Manchester City, albeit having played one man short for all but five minutes of the match. The dismissal of City’s defender Dedryck Boyata in the fifth minute for bringing down Arsenal striker Marouane Chamakh would hardly pass for an excuse: the sleek, quick-paced passing and counter-attacking style of Arsenal was always going to be a challenge (as it is for most other teams) for the more physical City side.

For the moment then, the dream still lives for the gunners and their fans.

One of the most topical of this summer’s football transfer stories has been that of Arsenal FC’s Cesc Fabregas. The London side’s captain who is twenty-three years old, has been the target of Spanish champions FC Barcelona. In the days preceding FIFA World Cup Finals in South Africa, speculations were rife about Fabregas’ imminent departure to the Catalan club. It all proved anticlimactic though, as he is set to return to his London side.

Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has conceded that Fabregas would probably not be coming to Nou Camp this summer, even if he  expects that transfer sometime in the near future; and, as if to snuff out any such lingering hopes, Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger in a statement just a few days ago insisted that Fabregas would not be leaving the club this summer.

All parties to the saga admit it has been harrowing. However, Wenger and Fabregas may share most of the blame for that. Wenger, because of his hiring policy (which has been cited by many players who have requested transfers, as their reason for departure); and Fabregas because of his equivocation. Fabregas’ contract with Arsenal expires in 2015. He has not formally requested a transfer; instead, while expressing his longing to return to his club (and country) of origin, he has also extolled the skills of the Arsenal manager (he admits feeling like a son to him) and expressed a desire to win silverware with him. Wenger has now, and quite appropriately so, called on Fabregas to make a categorical statement and put an end to further speculation on his future.

That said, three points are noteworthy here:

First, a return to Barça (as Barcelona is fondly called) for Fabregas could hold a few uncertainties. For example, a place in the “A” team may not be guaranteed. In the midfield where he plays, he would have to contend with such “superheavyweights” as Daniel Alves da Silva (Dani Alves), Xavier Hernández Creus (Xavi), Andrés Iniesta Lujan and Sergi Busquets Burgos (Sergio), arguably four of the best and in their prime; and there is yet Seydou Keita. Confinement to long spells on the bench could prove even more frustrating than the long spell without silverware at the London side.

Secondly, Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva were once considered irreplaceable in the Arsenal midfield; Fabregas, still only twenty-three years old and with 267 appearances and 48 goals for the club, certainly put a lie to that. While Cesc Fabregas is currently the arrowhead of Arsenal’s game-thrust, a crop of young, midfield players is also waiting in the wings. The highly mobile and seemingly indefatigable Sami Nasri, for example, has proved a holding midfield player adept at threading crucially accurate passes and scoring magnificent goals. In addition, Jack Wilshere, like fellow eighteen-year old, Emmanuel Frimpong, has shown a formidable midfield presence, critical to the success of the defensive backfield. Even the England manager, Fabio Capello has them both in his plan for the future. In both, Wenger believes he has a winning pair of defensive midfield players and sees no need for any more. With new signings Marouane Chamakh (striker), Laurent Koscielny (center-back) in addition to possible goalkeeping and center-back additions, Arsenal appear as realistic contenders for the season’s Premiership title.

Finally, Arsenal FC is in much better financial health than FC Barcelona. According to Barcelona’s vice-president for finance, the club recorded (higher-than-previously-reported) losses of US$100 million during the 2009-2010 financial year; net debt currently stands at US$573 million.  Arsenal on the other hand consistently recorded profits over the last few years and is even listed among the world’s ten-richest teams in sports by Forbes. Table 1, for example, shows the world’s most valuable teams in sports.

Arsenal is one of only three football (soccer) clubs on that list; the others being Manchester United and Real Madrid. Barcelona recently forked-out US$50 million for the purchase of the forward David Villa from Valencia and stridently rejected the £40 (US$62) million tag Arsenal placed on Fabregas; the club instead, made a promptly-rebuffed counter-offer of £29 (US$45) million. The implication is that Arsenal can certainly afford to play the waiting game with Barça, much to the latter’s chagrin.

A Fabregas departure, even if unsavory, may not be as damaging to the London side as many may think; especially if it comes later (next summer for example) rather than sooner.

The 2010 edition of FIFA’s world cup which held in South Africa, recently came to a climactic end. The event was historic in the sense that it was the first ever to be held on the African continent. In the days preceding the event, speculations were rife in the media about the capability of an African country to host such a global event.  In various doomsday scenarios, fears were expressed on the adequacy (mainly readiness and quality) of infrastructure, the people’s organizational competence as well as a grossly exaggerated crime rate; factors that were supposed to lead to a botched or at best, a poorly attended FIFA festival, relegating the continent to long-term quarantine.

In the end, South Africa 2010, was a “winner”; instead, relegating skeptics to red-faced silence. With a total attendance of 3.18 million fans according to FIFA, it was the third-highest in FIFA world cup history, behind Germany (3.36 million in 2006) and the United States (3.59 million in 1994).  According to Danny Jordan, head of the Local Organizing Committee for FIFA 2010, “…we have succeeded in re-branding and repositioning this country”. Indeed, interest in the country’s magnificent tourism industry (replete with breathtakingly scenic, historic and wildlife resorts) has been reportedly aroused and about 2.2 million additional tourists are expected over the next five years, 1.5 million of them being from overseas; with a handful of world-class stadia and other infrastructure, international conferences and sporting events have already been scheduled over the next few months, and even the 2020 Olympics, broached. In addition, class and racial tensions (in a country with a sad history of such) were jettisoned for a winsome display of national unity. For example, dueling Afrikaner and African nationalisms seemed to vanish in the township of Soweto, as both celebrated, partied and comingled freely under the South African banner.

South Africa 2010 was a month-long carnival which featured among others, the Columbian singer Shakira in collaboration with the South African band, Freshlyground. The group electrified audiences in opening and closing ceremonies with a pop-Latin rendition of an old Makossa song {Zamina mina (Zangalewa)} from Africa. In all, South Africa received a reputational boost and even bequeathed to the world, the “trademark” vuvuzelas, which were noticeably present in last week’s Tour de France stages and likely to be in many a sporting event to come.

On the field of play, there were issues with FIFA’s Jabulani balls, (Jabulani is a South African word meaning “to celebrate”) which were used during the games. Strikers and goalkeepers alike remonstrated on the balls’ erratic flight path; but according to FIFA, the aerodynamically redesigned balls are perfectly round, much more accurate than any before and have earned the governing body’s highest rating. The England goalkeeper Robert Green’s blooper and many of others’, may be attributable more to player error than to any ball whammy.

The games proper, witnessed the early exit of powerhouses such as Brazil, England, Argentina, France and erstwhile champions Italy. Spain, the eventual winners paraded arguably the greatest number of in-form, star-players and were expected to dazzle; but they lost their opening match to “un-fancied” Switzerland and seemingly struggled through just about all their other matches. They however rewrote a vital statistic: no team, having lost an opening match has gone on to win the competition. That was until Spain came along. They also ensured that all five of Europe’s FIFA World Cup winners (which include Italy, Germany, England and France) have lifted their titles at the end of their first Final.

Finally, just a few statistics of interest from FIFA:

• The Finals have witnessed a successive dip in goals tally since the change to a 64-game format twelve years ago: France 1998 – 171; Korea/Japan 2002 – 161; Germany 2006 – 147; South Africa 2010 – 145. Compared to Germany 2006, the ball whammy argument as an excuse for low goals tally in South Africa 2010, does seem untenable.

• A total of fourteen red and yellow cards were issued in the final game between Spain and the Netherlands, surpassing the previous record of just six between Argentina and  Germany in 1986.

• Spain’s David Villa (17 in 7 games, 5 goals) had the highest number of shots on target with the quartet of Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan (5 games, 3 goals), Uruguay’s Diego Forlán (7 games, 5 goals), Argentina’s Lionel Messi (5 games, 0 goals) and another Uruguayan, Luis Suarez (6 games, 3 goals) in close second (15).

• Ghana fielded the youngest team with an average age of just under 24 years, which players were mostly home-bred as was the case with Germany’s team.

• New Zealand remained the only unbeaten team in the competition.

• The inclusion of three brothers (Jerry, Jhony and Wilson Palacios)  in a national team (Honduras) was a FIFA World Cup Final first.

• The highest goal scorers were Thomas Mueller (Germany), David Villa (Spain), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands) and Diego Forlán (Uruguay), each with 5 goals.

Notable players on the Arsenal’s injury list include Gael Clichy, Theo Walcott, Nicklas Bendtner, Robin van Persie, Kieran Gibbs as well as those on and off the list. (The team’s mainstay, Cesc Fabrègas about two weeks ago had to come off the bench at the cost of an aggravated injury, for a two-goal, twenty-odd minute stint that ensured a win over Aston Villa.) Emmanuel Eboué and Alex Song are also away on Nations Cup duty in Angola.