A new home, a new prospect of a fulfilling season ahead of them, the news of their captain staying, August really didn’t look a bad month at all for the Arsenal faithful. Now as we draw to the end of this current year it seems that the optimism at outset of the season has been severely dented. From lacklustre performances in the premiership, to a manager who refuses to criticise his team and exalts how well they play even when the fans realise it was a below par performance, to a manager who gets riled when another manager celebrates his team scoring.

A team sitting in third position at this stage should probably be happy but if Arsenal fans are honest with themselves they must be feeling frustrated. Ten points behind Chelsea and fifteen behind runaway leaders United has to leave a bitter taste in their mouths. It just seems that the Gunners have been outclassed this season and except for a victory over bitter rivals Spurs they have had little to smile about.
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Real Salt Lake that is (are there many Spanish speakers in Salt Lake City or Utah in general which would validate the “Real” Salt Lake name?) DC United are trying to keep the move sweet by thanking Freddy for his great contribution to their cause over the past few seasons but when we break down the young (or not so young depending on which rumours you believe) attacker’s stats, they aren’t all that impressive.

87 appearances with only 11 goals to show for it really isn’t the kind of return I would be expecting from a player described by his new coach at Salt Lake John Ellinger as “an exceptional talent”. In the less than competitive environment of the MLS I’d expect an “exceptional” young striker to be hitting at the very least a goal every two games and have no doubt that if truly exceptional attacking players like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho or even Wayne Rooney had been introduced to the same league at the same age as Adu they would have been scoring closer to a goal a game, even from withdrawn roles.

I can’t help but think that the whole “Freddy Adu Experience” is nothing more than Nike and MLS marketing hype to try and find a figurehead for young America to rally behind and really get into football in a way they haven’t before. A move to Salt Lake City, even if it is because he opposed his DC United coach’s ideas about where to play him, is a step backwards, regardless of whether Sir Alex Ferguson moves for him as an experiment in the summer or not.

Let me get the usual fawning out of the way early before I continue this piece: in his time at Spurs Paul Gascoigne grew from a podgy potentially good midfielder into one of the world’s finest midfield players of his generation.

That’s where the fawning ends. Since his infamous career threatening injury in the 1991 FA Cup Final Paul Gascoigne has been nothing but trouble to himself, those who know him and those who have previously cared for him.
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I hate to make my first contribution to this website to be a criticism of someone who has taken the time to write an interesting and fully comprehensive analysis of an important and debatable subject regarding the football world. I mean, I have absolutely no fear of writing debatable comments and bringing up contentious issues, yet I don?t want to start out by making enemies. Despite this I feel that I have to strongly disagree with Kieran Haines? (19/09/2006) piece on the prospects of a European Super League. I read the report with interest, yet also with dismay at the thought that anyone would seriously advocate the formation of such a league. I actually read the column hoping that at the end Mr. Haines would remark that all the above was tongue-in-cheek and that a European Super League would be a terrible idea, but alas this anecdote was never to come.
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Each day brings more and more nails to hammer into the coffins of the West Ham careers of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano and today is no exception with their national coach Alfio Basile telling the two players to get out of the club as soon as they possibly can.

Basile, who took over from Jose Pekerman as Argentina coach following the World Cup, has even went so far as to advise Mascherano to move to Juventus even if they are in Serie B as it would still be a step up from playing for West Ham United.

The former Boca Juniors coach says that both Tevez and Mascherano look “half-hearted and I’m really worried. They play as if they’re unenthusiastic. I hope both of them leave that club as soon as possible.”

With the great West Ham Argentina Experiment dying swiftly on it’s arse, just who is to blame for the greatest coup of recent years turning to complete farce after only half a dozen games?
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With the allocation of four Champions League spots to English Premiership Clubs, it is perhaps not a surprise to see the gradual emergence of the “top four”, as seen facing off together on Sky Sports Super Sunday yesterday. With the rest of the league largely forgotten most of England (and perhaps the world if TV statistics are to be believed) spent the afternoon watching Chelsea grind out a result against sorry Liverpool and Arsenal surprising an inform Manchester United.

English football is witnessing the formation of its own G-4. The party may be gate crashed from occasionally, not so long ago by Leeds United, Newcastle United and Everton yet these challenges were not sustained and future forays by teams such as Tottenham, Blackburn and Bolton are also likely to become One Season Wonders. Quite simply (we’ll call them the G-4) now have the financial strength to muscle all other teams out of the reckoning. The 04/05 Champions League saw 430million euros spread between the 32 group participants alone the winners Liverpool raking in 30million euros. Finish fifth and you may as well be last when it comes to significant financial benefits from UEFA.

Ok, this last statement may not be somewhat of an exaggeration and should a Russian millionaire take a fancy to a particular football club then the G-4 may be in for a shake-up. The possible take over of West Ham United by MSI for example one to watch out for. Yet I can’t help feeling that the polarisation of the English top flight is inevitable. On a regular jaunt around London Town I often believe I should be seeing a plethora of local club teams represented. Crystal Palace, Millwall, Leyton Orient, Charlton, Queens Park Ranges are all conspicuous by their absence instead replaced by Chelsea, Arsenal and even Liverpool and Manchester United. My two young cousins from Swindon Town, about 5-6 years of age, support Liverpool or Chelsea. How can the County Ground hope to capture the imagination of the local children such as them? Certainly not with Rocky the Robin.
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This week’s second major topic of conversation in international football circles has centred around the calls for minor nations (wherever they may be deemed to be cut off in the FIFA rankings) to pre-qualify before they are given the privelige of competing against the major nations in qualification for major tournaments.

Forcing so-called “minor” nations to play a pre-qualifying tournament only serves to ease the fixture congestion on the big boys and in doing so further guarantees their place at the top of the footballing tree. We’ve seen how a similar system along with my pet hate of seedings has ruined the Champion’s League (sic) as a competition where real outsiders (and let’s be honest folks, a major club like FC Porto are not minnows or unfashionable underdogs) have no chance of progressing due to a virtually rigged system of pre-qualifying rounds, group stages and return legs.

If the small nations don’t play anyone but each other then where does the romanticism of taking on the big boys on your own patch and giving them a scare go? As a Northern Irishman I’m intensely proud of our country of only 1.5m people having qualified for three World Cups and given a fine showing at them all. Our recent victory over England at Windsor Park highlights the necessity for all countries to be treated equally when it comes to inclusion in qualifying groups, despite what the self elected big guns may say.
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Some football fans are never happy. During the summer I doubt there was a single football following Englishman who would have turned down nine goals in two games as their country strolled to two wins, one against the European Champions and the other in a competitive qualifier, but for some reason there have been more complaints than plaudits this week as the second emphatic victory result came in.

Of course we’ve got the usual media circus proclaiming Steve McLaren’s England side as the reborn heirs of Brazil 1970 and certain European Champions in 2008 just as a precursor to World Cup glory in South Africa in 2010 (when will they ever learn?) but beneath the gallant flag waving and hope raising there are two more serious issues coming up for discussion: should we have international breaks and should there be pre-qualifying for the qualifying for smaller teams. First up: international breaks.

I read an interesting letter on another (unnamed) football website’s letters page comparing the international break in football to county cricket which carries on regardless of it’s top players being called away on test match duty or not. Counties are made to fill the gaps in their squad wherever they may find players and, to keep disruption to a minimum, they are restricted to only two foreign players in their squad. I won’t get into the foreign player debate today but isn’t the Premiership’s problem, and one of the main reasons it has to shut down completely for internationals, because it is chock full of other nationalities who will also be away on international duty, leaving clubs first team squads decimated over this period.

I’m assuming in cricket that with an England test squad of around 15/16 players (feel free to correct this, I don’t follow cricket that closely) the loss to counties is much more spread out whereas if all internationals left the Premiership for their respective countries there wouldn’t be anyone left. Is the international break for two weeks at this time of the season purely to help the England squad prepare and compete better to qualify for major competitions or is it more grounded in the Premiership reality of no players left if they kept the games running? I know how the FA spin the subject but I want real answers. My breath, as usual, is not being held.

The Europe-wide summer transfer window slammed shut at midnight last night, with plenty of moves to talk about. The Ashley Cole/William Gallas transfer saga, which felt like it had been going on for about twelve years, finally reached a conclusion, while the eye-catching coup of the day went to West Ham who signed Argentine duo Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano from Corinthians.

However it was a quiet day for Manchester United, who allowed Liam Miller and Chris Eagles to leave but didn?t sign anyone, while Merseyside was also quiet as Liverpool and Everton both failed to sign anyone. Martin O?Neill will have to wait until January to continue his Aston Villa revolution after the window shut without him adding to the signing of Stilian Petrov.

As expected, Harry Redknapp had a busy day, making three signings, while Martin Jol added two new faces to his already quite large squad at White Hart Lane. Mark Hughes signed another striker for Blackburn while Fulham and Man City will hope to have solved their left-sided problems with loan deals. Gareth Southgate tried to address the defensive problems at Middlesbrough but also signed a forward, as did Newcastle. Wigan moved late but secured the signatures of three new players, while the three promoted clubs only signed two players between them, Steve Coppell?s Reading being the side who didn?t make a signing.
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Chelsea were back to winning ways at Ewood Park on Sunday defeating Mark Hughes? Blackburn Rovers side 2-0. A Frank Lampard penalty and outstanding goal by second half substitute Didier Drogba gave Jose Mourinho?s men just their third away win in twelve games on the road.

After the midweek defeat to Middlesborough it was a much needed victory for the Blues after Manchester United kept their 100% record going against Watford on Saturday afternoon.

New signing Khalid Boulahrouz made his first start at right back whilst Petr Cech and Michael Ballack returned from injury.
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