Arsenal’s transfer failure, a Manchester City rant and…

Arsenal deserve praise instead of pelters for their approach to the January transfer window. And a Man City fan was wound up by Peterborough.

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

Spurs
Times like this I look longingly at the photo of Christian Eriksen I keep by the bed.

F**k sake.
Jon, Lincoln

Spurs
Jay

Character selection
Great question about signing players with character.

For me, it was the fundamental difference between Arsenal’s George Graham team and Wenger’s 2007/08 team.

That Arsene team should have been champions. Yes, we lost Eduardo to a horrendous injury but that team could have pushed on and won the league without him. But they didn’t and that has a lot to do with the character of the key players. Wenger didn’t sign players for their character. He may have got lucky with the likes of Vieira – but Fabregas, RVP, Gallas – all Arsenal captains and all lacked the character to carry that armband.

Contrast these guys with Graham’s team of the late 1980s and early 1990s. When Arsenal were hoovering up the capital’s best youth talent in
the 1980s, character was a key consideration. And these lads achieved the miracle of Anfield in 1989, won the cup in 1993 due to an Andy Linighan last minute header (he had a broken nose and fingers at the time) and overcame losing their captain to a drink drive conviction to almost go the whole season unbeaten in 1990/91.

So you see character does matter and I’m hopeful Arsenal’s current crop of youngsters look to the likes of Rocky and Thomas as their example over Cesc and RVP.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

Arsenal transfers
There has been a lot made recently about the “failed Arsenal transfer window” around these parts, and I, for one, don’t think it’s been a failure at all. They did a huge amount of business in the summer, and I believe that they were done, and Arteta, quite rightly, identified a possible coup in Vlahovic and tried to entice him. But let’s face it, once Juve became interested, that’s where any player plying their trade in Serie A is going to go to. It always happens. Anyone not coming from one of the CURRENT Serie A giants (sorry AC despite your recent improvements) is always picking Juve. Ut’s a nice country to live in and a league they’re accustomed to and Juve have prestige.

They went for a punt, an unlikely punt but if they pulled it off it would have been huge for them. It didn’t happen, but they went for it.

It doesn’t feel like anybody at Arsenal is actually too upset at the transfer window. Arteta had his squad exactly how he wanted it, there was not much improvement needed as the team is finding their groove, they’re all young, next season they will be even more balanced the way it is. Vlahovic would have been a nice extra. They didn’t need him or anybody else in January even with Auba’s departure, they are perfectly gelling. Signing Vlahovic would have been a coup, but nothing more. They didn’t “need” anyone. In the summer transfer window with likely departures many who will be out of contract particularly in the striker department they would deserve such criticism if they behaved like this, but I don’t think they will.

Everything about Arsenal seems sound at the moment, and now they know that where they are is still not good enough to grab a very much in demand talent. I think in the summer will be more sensible recruitment, and next January they’ll take another punt to see where they are at being attractive propositions to these flavours of the month.
Dave (process truster), Dublin

Every Vlahovic goal is a dagger in my heart ffs. What a player he is.

— evan 》 (@afcevan) February 26, 2022

Ian Watson’s article on five January transfer decisions that already look like mistakes made me put on my reading glasses because it is so short sighted.

First, for those who watch Arsenal we can see that every single player is 100% onboard and committed – they have (over time) fully bought in. Yes we are in a precarious situation where injuries (and more likely suspensions) could derail our season. However, so far, focusing on the tightknit group is working. So to say it is a mistake is ludicrous seeing as since the January transfer window closed Arsenal have won all three games with an xG second only to Liverpool.

More importantly, Arsenal have stuck to the process. Yes we have the money to spend, but more importantly we have a clear vision and direction. To spend the money on a plan B in January means it doesn’t get spent on who we really want/need in the summer.  The shortsighted move (read mistake) would have been to go to panic plan B and be stuck with a plan B for the next 4 years. This is a project, that has moved quicker than expected (most Arsenal fans at the start of the season agreed that a return to Europe meant Europa not Champions League), and so I for one am glad that they are sticking to it.
Steve, AFC, Australia

Fickle football
I know I’m going to get absolute pelters for this but, nonetheless, here goes. It’s the whole ‘minnows’ v ‘giants’ thing that really grinds my gears on two fronts. And The Posh v City game last night is a good example.

Players.

When City dropped 2 divisions, a particular phenomenon soon became apparent.  One that I’m sure supporters of Leeds, Southampton and Sunderland, for example, will readily recognise.  That is, teams in that league that had been playing absolutely pants in the preceding weeks would turn up at Maine Road and suddenly play like Brazil at their peak.

I get it. A team that has an average home crowd 0f 3-5K (I’m being generous) are now in a stadium of 30K. The game may also be on TV so the players are super-pumped but, almost without fail, you can guarantee that the following week, against another third-tier team, they will go back to being pants once again.

Last night, Peterborough stopped the PL champions from scoring for over an hour. Prior to that, apart from beating QPR in the FA Cup, The Posh hadn’t won a game since the 8th of January.

Football players are not, in the main, people who are forced to play to put food on the table for their families because they are unable to find employment elsewhere as trained engineers or doctors (for example). So why don’t they play to their full potential every f**king week? What stops them? THEY’RE not playing three games a week or anything like it. Tell me I’m wrong in drawing a conclusion that they will put in the extra effort only when it suits them.

Fans.

London Road was rammed last night with a capacity of around 15K. Last Saturday, on the other hand, it had a crowd of just over 9.4K including (and I really do stand to be corrected) some 1.800 Hull supporters.

Why is that? It reminds me of any teams reaching play-off finals who suddenly fill half of Wembley with 40K ‘fans’ despite having weekly gates far, far less than that. Where were they with their Wembley-bought scarves and shirts for the previous season?

I’m really not having a pop at The Posh. Rather, I’m using it as an example and, as I type, Middlesbrough, eighteen points of the Championship leaders, have just dumped Spurs out of the same competition.

So, in my rant, I suppose my question is this. Is there any sport more fickle than football?
Mark (MCFC).

Call me a cynic, but…
Coming back to Lewis at Busby Way. I envy your confidence, I really do. I can’t imagine what it’s based on but there it is anyway.

You’re right about the out of contract players, they will leave, but seeing as none of them have played anything like significant minutes this season I don’t think there will be a much urgency to replace them. You mentioned another 7 players from the first team squad who are ‘likely’ to leave. What have you seen in the last 17 years of Glazer stewardship that makes you believe Man United can or will sell, loan, or cut loose that many players in one transfer window?

While thinking on that let me ask you another, if 11 players do leave this summer who replaces them? To just replace half would have to be United’s most successful transfer window ever. That seems unlikely to me. One more, imagine you’re a Glazer, get into their mindset, now read back your own words “£100-£150m per annum”. Does a Glazer see that number and think ‘there’s an opportunity to reshape the team for a new era of dominance’ or ‘an extra £100m in my pocketses’?

Honestly Lewis I am cynical by nature and I’m sure some of that comes through in my mails but I’m afraid I don’t see any evidence of the United you clearly still believe exists. I lost faith a long time ago and only a miracle can change my mind at this point. You keep that faith though, maybe it will help.
Dave, Manchester

The hero Manchester United need
Dear Editor

Having read many opinions regarding United’s downfall and their subsequent required resuscitation, I think it’s quite clear what Man United need to become a force again.

When they were pants in the domestic league what did they do? They went and hired a former Liverpool player as their manager.

When they needed goals what did they do? They went to Liverpool and signed a teenager for a world record fee who became their top goal scorer.

It’s obvious what United need. Or not what, but rather who.

In an ideal world they would come for the king of scousers, Steven Gerrard, to stop their rot.

But in this instance only the prince is available.

United need… Wayne Rooney as their next manager.

Mask on and head between the legs, these are strage days, c’est la vie I say –
Wik, Pretoria, (all tongue in cheek but I think Wazza is doing a decent job, handicapped and all), LFC

The law is an ass
Interested in the comments of ex-referee Keith Hackett regarding the offside law. The current Law 11 is a mess, offsides will always be subjective for VAR when judged against frame rates, picture resolution and thickness of lines used. The trouble with the law is that they have introduced too many elements.

Take Lukaku’s offside on Sunday, his feet position hugely onside, but now the law takes into consideration the body part that can legally play the ball which is closest to the goal-line So with Lukaku’s arm pointing to where he wants the ball played, we hunt for the definition of what part of his arm is legally allowed to score a goal. Law 11 doesn’t cover that, so we have to move to Law 12 Handball, Which states the arm is a legal body part above the armpit (that’s helpful) IFAB have interpreted this as the base of the arm of a t-shirt, (nice!). Such subjectivity will always call into question VAR’s decision making.

The law is a bad law and needs to change, offside will always favour the defender as their movement primarily is one of stepping up while the attacker is looking to use forward motion. This naturally means that a forwards body line will be ahead, so the majority of decisions will go with the defender.

At the very least we should strip back the law to be measured against the forward foot, yes there will still be disagreement, but there are less subjective elements. Fed up of seeing good goals cancelled.

Hackett’s suggestion that offside can only be measured from the 18 yard line and abandoning the active player element will cut down the number of offside calls, will it work? Don’t know, but something needs to change.
P Didi

Apologies
Dear Football365,

The news today that Referees’ Chief Mike Riley has apologised to Frank Lampard’s Everton over some disappointing officiating. This sets a bit of a dangerous precedent. Will he be calling every aggrieved manager? All we want from our referees’ chief apologies is consistency. However, there needs to be a threshold for apologies, otherwise he’ll be apologising ten or twelve times in every game week, there needs to be common sense.
Ed Quoththeraven