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Why Fergie Is Better Than Wenger
Wenger has a whole bunch of talented kids. In the Carling Cup he plays them all at once in the same team who steamroll a couple of teams, get cocky, then get bundled out of the cup. They show a lot of potential but ultimately lose they chance to prove themselves worthy of the first team and find their chances restricted for the rest of the season.
Fergie has a whole bunch of talented kids. In the Carling Cup he plays a few of them alongside some established and experienced first teamers. They progress to the semi -finals and get the opportunity for another two games of experience building at a higher level of pressure and prestige (the semi and potentially the final). Their development is accelerated and they improve and get more opportunities to play in the first team.
Mandatory third paragraph.
Dave )hoping we don't get Burnley in the semi( NZ
Raging At Nani And Neville
Tevez was in glorious form Wednesday night, and has now made his claim for a starting position. However I will not further that debate this time.
All I want to do is rant at Nani and Neville. How sh*t is Nani, and how is Neville still playing consistently for United?
Let's not be deceived by Nani's goal, it was a lovely goal to score but then he goes and tw*ts around with his celebration as if he should be regarded as the new Henry.
But then what else did he do that whole match? His first shot was the harbinger of how the rest of his match turned out - shooting wildly, never on target bar that once, blasting the ball into opposition players' legs and some-such, never passing, and worst of all not celebrating with his teammates after scoring. Maybe there's something with him, some innate gift that Fergie can see in him that we don't.
Then the wondrous waste of space these days that is Neville - cap'n my ar*e - he should just retire at the end of this season or maybe pursue his coaching badges if he wants to stay in football. He was at fault for virtually all the goals we conceded - all of them soft by the way, but trust Fergie to turn a blind eye when it's his darling making all these blunders. Anyone else would have long suffered the bench.
Anyway, on a brighter note, how magnificent was Tevez - that's how you handle a ball in the box and not get sent off. A hand in all five goals. Couldn't we give him a second match ball for the sake of it (Hand in all the goals + Man-Of-The-Match + Hat-Trick Hero). Do not be surprised when Fergie throws him back on the bench at the weekend.
In the immortal words of that Looney tunes character - that's all folks.
Herbert Crispus
Will Tevezgate Never End?
You know, if Tevez had been banned in his West Ham days, Man U probably wouldn't have bought him and he wouldn't have been able to score four against Blackburn last night. Since Sheff Utd think football works retrospectively, I therefore propose Blackburn sue West Ham and Man U so they can get reinstated into the Carling Cup.
John, Edinburgh
Will He Get A Chance Though?
Nice to see Fergie giving his untried youngsters a chance last night. Wonder if that Tevez kid will ever get in the first team?
Andy Bull
Liverpool Should Buy Duff
I got to thinking about the recent debate on Liverpool's scoring problems and came up with this proposal. I'm not saying it would definitely work but it should at least provoke debate(debate you say? in the F365 mailbox? never.). I think Liverpool should buy Duff in the January transfer window. It will allow Babel to be deployed in a more central striker role as back-up to the oft substituted Robbie Keane. It will also give Liverpool two left-footed, left wingers i.e cover for every position. The reason for this is that a friendly face could help Keane relax a bit more and also maybe even allow Keane to dovetail with Babel in the one-behind-one striker role. He should also be a relatively inexpensive option with Champions League and Premier League winning experience. The guy still has it and is a genuine old school sideline-huggin', gettin'-to-the-byline crosser of the ball. He will provide natural width on the relatively small Anfield pitch. He can cross with both feet and has played with Keane on the international stage from youth level through until now.
The glaring question then to be asked is where does Steven Gerrard play. Well, drop him back in to his favoured centre mid role alongside Xabi Alonso or Javier Mascherano. Play two from three every game depending on the situation. Mascherano and Alonso provide too much cover when playing against less-fancied teams at home when Mascherano could do the job on his tobler.
Discuss.
JB, Dublin, LFC (Does 'Discuss' count as a third paragraph?)
N'Defending N'Donkey
I think it's a bit early to write off N'Gog already. He's only been with us since the summer and given time and decent coaching he might turn into a useful player. Football fans are all too quick to write off players that they've seen on TV, for the grand total of 25 minutes or maybe ones that the had on Football Manager that were s**t. N'Gog is a legend already, apparently he has to tuck it into his sock y'know.
Mike 'man flu', Liverpool fan
Blame Birmingham For Bendtner
As a Birmingham City fan who rather enjoyed the splendid talents of Nicklas Bendtner on loan two seasons ago, I must admit feeling a little saddened by both his current plight and also those who are lining up to fire volleys of reactionary ignorance. I can surmise that the likes of Pete Andersen doesn't watch very much football, or at least watch football outside of the narcoleptics convention they call The Emirates, because the Bendtner he bemoans in ten steps is as far a cry from the one we saw at St. Andrew's as William Gallas is from being a high-functioning adult male of the species.
Bendter was superb for Blues, the best player in the division by a long stretch. He had outstanding one-touch control, was great both on the floor and in the air, could shoot with both feet, manipulated the ball like mercury and possessed a weight of pass not incomparable with a young Denis Bergkamp. He's an arrogant son-of-a-gun, and he did alienate our support onoccasion with his attitude. If you possess the emotional maturity not to be offended by the moronic posturing of young multi-millionaires, however, and judge them purely on their ability to play the game, then it was clear that Bendtner improved our team by roughly 407%.
What's happened between then and now I'm not sure. Perhaps we at Birmingham have bred all of this goodness out of him by transplanting him from the'hole' in which he seemed most comfortable, putting him back-to-goal and making him pluck impossible balls out of the air for 80-odd minutes a week. Perhaps we've misled Arsenal into thinking that he's merely a piece of meat with eyes to win those flick-ons so despised by their acolytes, rather than a player with the kind of nascent ability to find space that can't really be taught.
Perhaps enduring a season's worth of turgid hoofball has stunted his growth irreparably. Either way, Gooners will rejoice as one (raising the mutest of whispers) to learn that they can blame those scoundrels at St.Andrew's for ruining their season once again.
Mean, nasty Birmingham.
But I digress. I'll admit that some of the accusations levelled at him do ring true. No, he doesn't have a trace of confidence right now. He can be selfish, although this is a characteristic often desirable in a forward. His pink boots are, quite frankly, embarrassing. But he more than any other appears to be both scapegoat for and embodiment of Arsenal's stuttering run, and is nothing like the talentless hod-carrier that some of their spoilt support appear to have mistaken him for. If Wenger can make a footballer out of the lump of clay which became Emmanuel Adebayor, then there's no reason to discard Bendtner so soon.
Unless it's to us, of course, in which case go right ahead. January is fine by me.
Karim Adab, Manchester
Backing Bendtner
Not for the first time as a Gooner I was embarrassed by the utter s***e spewed out by a supposed fellow fan of The Arsenal. This time by Pete Andersen and his vitriolic attack on Nicholas Bendtner. He probably thinks he's being funny by some of his 'observations' and stating that anyone who chooses to support Bendtner is a Spuds fan, but we could do without people like this claiming to support the team.
Firstly, if he feels Bendtner has zero confidence then it's probably because a section of Arsenal fans, like Pete, are getting on the boy's back and in some cases actually booing him. I recall this happening to Nicholas Anelka in the season after Ian Wright left, something he has since claimed made him want to leave. What kind of effort can you expect from a player who gets booed for the crime of not being Dennis Bergkamp?
He also claims that Bendtner has no awareness, but I could have sworn I saw him first put through Mark Randall with a mid-air flick reminiscent of Kanu then accurately flicking a ball on to Vela, who proceeded to miss a one-on-one. And lets not forget his cross-field pass to set up Adebayor at West Ham. The bits about believing you have a better first touch and not wanting Arsenal to beat Dynamo Kiev just mark you out as the tosser you clearly are.
I accept that the jury is still out on Bendtner. If he continues to miss opportunities like those presented to him at Burnley then he could find himself way down the pecking order once Eduardo returns, but whatever happens, while he is wearing the Arsenal shirt then he gets my full support, as he will from all true Gooners.
Si Gray
...What an absolute, unqualified ball bag Pete Andersen seems to be (10 Things I Hate About Bendtner).
I've got the nerve to defend Bendtner. Your comments were so poorly thought out, it doesn't take a lot to challenge you. Firstly, point 1, do you think that maybe he has no confidence because of people like you who go to such extraordinary lengths to criticise him? I take it you were one of the dim wits who booed him against Kiev? Were you also one of the people who celebrated his winning goal against Kiev? From your blinkered tirade I'd suggest you got caught up in counter-productive jeering that has lad to people overlooking his tireless contribution in the United and Kiev games.
There have been many articles in this Mailbox lamenting the fact that some Arsenal 'fans' are quick to get on their players' backs and what we really need is more proper supporters who will actually support the players. If you want to sit in with your equally dozy friend thinking up ways you can make yourself feel more important by slogging of a decent young striker then do it, just don't subject the rest of us to your ill-judged, cretinous and not even amusing e-mails.
Bendtner isn't Bergkamp or Henry and he can be lazy but he does have a job to do. Remember last season when he scored the winner v Tottenham. What about his winner v Kiev? Let's just get behind him. Regardless of your opinion, at least we didn't spend £20m on rescuing him from those mugs up the road.
Ben Smith
...I like Nicky Bendtner. I like him because he is unpleasant. I like his aggression and desire for the ball, even if it doesn't often come off. I like that, when he loses the ball, he would rather go in with studs than pout, strop, shrug or whinge. I like that he doesn't care what people think. I like that he celebrates his goals by ripping his shirt off and pounding his chest rather than with some carefully rehearsed dance. He makes me both understand what Chelsea fans see in John Terry and remember what we used to see in Ian Wright.
I forgive him his naivety both on and off the pitch, because he is 20 years old. He is not as good as Adebayor, because Adebayor is 25 years old and has had hundreds of games at the top level. That naivety, though, doesn't extend to headbutting team-mates, sitting down during a game or humiliatingly bad diving. When he gets caught by an opponent, he just gets up again instead of needing a kiss-it-better from the physio. He, alone in the squad, has the toughness, courage and aggression that English football demands.
I particularly like him because, when we were creaking at home to Spurs last season, the score 1-1 and them having just missed a penalty, he came on for a corner and then proceeded to shove man-beast Tom Huddlestone away, leap in the air and bullet the ball into the Spurs net. The winning goal in the North London derby with his first touch of the game, while still a teenager. I suppose, Pete Andersen, that you'd rather we'd drawn that game as well?
James Syme, Highbury, London
When Is A Chant An Anti-Islam Chant?
I appreciate that everyone is probably somewhat bored of what is now becoming an overly political debate but I feel the need to get this off my chest.
Mido's comments (if they are to be taken as verbatim) about the chants being 'directed at Islam' are the type of inflammatory suggestions that are causing so many problems in the world today.
To avoid any confusion, I don't think that, in a well-adjusted society, these chants are particularly savoury but in no way should they offend Islam as a religion.
As has already been stated, it is merely because he shares similar characteristics of a well-known terrorist. The fact that both are Islamic is a co-incidence.
I happen to think that Roy Keane is cultivating a rather Gerry Adams-esque beard.
Am I to be considered racist/bigoted/anti-Catholic etc for pointing out this quirky anomaly?
Or does it only count when it's in verse?
Daniel (Rangers fan, must make me bigoted) MacAskill
Do Middlesbrough Exist?
I'm a Spurs fan but two of my colleagues are Smoggies (yes, in KL. Fill in your own 'more fans there than they manage for home games' gag here) and so I've been watching a few of their games recently. Not that you'd know they were playing from the coverage (on ESPN-Star Sports but they get it from Sky).
Firstly, the previews of the game, even when half an hour long, like against the Bar Codes on the weekend, seem to break down: 20 minutes for the opposition, 5 minutes smug banter about nothing in particular, then onto the teams and almost as soon as the Boro side appears, then - whoosh - it's cut to ad break before the action. One time they didn't even manage to find the 60 seconds it takes Steve McMahon to illustrate their line-up on the snazzy digitalised tactics board, despite showing extended highlights of their opposition's prior matches.
The situation reached ridiculous proportions however on Saturday when Afonso Alves scored a peach of a drive from twenty yards, which was ruled out for offside. Or at least we think it was. The directors of the coverage declined to show any replay of this incident. In real time it looked onside, but we were denied the right to see just how tight the call was. Imagine a game involving the Big Four (or Arsenal, tee hee) not showing any replays of a disallowed goal.
Even the FA seem to deny their existence if it is indeed true that they are not to take action against the recent Geordie racism (unless they have taken the almost understandable view that if you banned the cranially-challenged from supporting Newcastle it would leave them with slim pickings).
So, please can someone put my mind at rest and confirm that Middlesbrough do actually exist?
Otherwise, we'll have back those three points we lost on the first day of the season, 'kay?
Matt Bellotti, Kuala Lumpur
Praise For The Keane Story
"I get up. She comes at me. I kiss her, hard. On the cheek. The cheek was there (I think). "Take that," I think to myself.
"Take what?" she asks. I go out of the house.
Quite possibly the finest football comedy ever written. Sensational stuff.
Thomas Slim
The XI From Bottom XI Ting
Following on from Gregorys bottom XI I thought I would stick my twopenneth in...
GK: Sorensen
RB: Chimbonda
LB: Konchesky
CB: Nelsen
CB: Coloccini
CM: Modric
CM: Parker
LM: Valencia
RM: Greening
ST: Robinho
ST: Tuncay
I think you'll find that quite unbeatable!
Will, Brighton
...Following on from Greg's stolen idea here are my XI
GK - Gordon
RB - Hutton
CB - Wheater and Upson
LB - Bassong
LM - Robinho
CM - Delap and Bullard
RM - Valencia
CF - Miller and Santa Cruz
Only included Delap as Santa Cruz would gobble that sh*t up.
James (give me my idea back) Le Beak
...not a bad bottom XI, Gregory...except that you included a player from a team in 9th (Bolton - Nolan) and none from Sunderland, who are 19th.
For a laugh, I'm going to swap in Cissé for Kitson up front and so you get your Stoke man in, bring in Delap in CM for Nolan...
Andy, Gooner (capable of perspective and everything) in Colchester
