Ever since the game between Ingerland and Slovenia mid-week when the 3 Lions scraped through to the knock out stages by the skin of their teeth, I’ve been a bit hesitant to follow the media coverage through the English media.

I suppose one reason is that I’ve reached saturation point with the sycophancy and vanity that impales the coverage of the fortunes of the England team by the media here in the UK.

By the very nature of the beast that is the World cup (emphasis being on the ’World’), I and many other football lovers around the world want to follow the fortunes of the many teams still in the competition, and would highly appreciate a balanced, objective and impartial media to tell us about the other great teams and the other great players also in the world cup.

But Hey!, I also want my council tax bill reduced but that ain’t gonna happen soon.

There was only one way out from the fever pitch madness and media coverage that led to, let’s face it, the mother of all bitch slaps and humiliations that England has ever faced on the international stage. The only way out for England to justify the hyperbole and narcissism that the media and establishment fuelled before yesterday’s game against the Germans was that England win and that they win comprehensively.

Not even the clutching of the Frank-Lampard’s-goal-was-disallowed-shame-on-FIFA-for-not-introducing-goal-line-technology straw can hide away from the fact that England has had a woeful World cup campaign and the players, management and the FA should hang their heads in shame.

A Dejected And Beaten England Team Leave The Field Following a German Master Class in International Football

I’ve covered most of my reasons why I suggest that England will never win the World cup until they come out of the Stone Age, so I’m not going to go over that ground and suggest that if you haven’t yet, you should read that article to get a sense of where I’m coming from.

It’s not about the disappointment and anti-climax of the so called Golden Generation. It’s not that Fabio Capello is a dictator who has added no value to the fortunes of the national team at a major competition. It’s not that the solution is to get an English manager like Roy Hodgson or Harry Redknapp who can understand the ‘English’ game in a way that a foreign manager cannot.

It’s not that (this one was a funny excuse by Graham Taylor) international competitions take place in the summer after a long hard season and it’s during a period when England players don’t normally play their games and in hot climates – shame on you Mr. Taylor for even uttering those words. It’s not that the team failed to show ’pluck and spirit’ and that good old fashioned English graft, grit and steel that is the cornerstone of the brand of English football that we’re told drives the best league in the world.

The issue here and something that I’ve preached on several times is that the underlying culture and philosophy of English football is rotten and stuck in the Neolithic age. When even Stand Collymore on his radio call in is asking Arsenal fans how England can learn from Arséne Wenger and the way he nurtures talent who are technically gifted and can cope with the way the rest of the world plays, then you know there’s a problem.

I submit to you that until England starts from the grassroots by changing the culture and moving away from the ’kick and rush’ brand of football that Franz Beckenbauer rightfully mentioned and was harangued by the English media for – Team ‘Ingerland’ have the mother of all mountains to climb.

It’s not enough to be a celebrity footballer, or believe the hyperbole about what ability you actually have. There’s a very big difference between being talented on paper as is suggested by all and sundry, and actually producing on grass.

And can we now draw a line under this nonsense of calling certain players world class. Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Terry and Ashley Cole are good and above average players, but let’s not push the envelope. I even agree with Robbie Savage’s (when was it I last agreed with Savage) that a player should only be considered as ’world class’ when they can sit on the same table as Pele, Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Johan Cruyff, George Best and players of that ilk. Leo Messi is the only player currently warranting that badge of world class.

I was having a discussion with some friends yesterday evening as we explored what it is that ails English football (well, aside from the vanity of the media about the perceived capability of the team).

One of the analogies used to describe England in comparison to say Spain, Brazil, Argentina or Germany was that these 4 teams were like a gourmet restaurant that serves the best food and wine you’ll ever get anywhere on this planet, while England were proving yet again that despite the hype, they were just a kebab shop down the high street.

So many times, Arséne Wenger has been vilified by the English media for not having a team that was ‘English’ enough. This naturally came with the accusation that the Arsenal manager is one of the protagonists responsible for harming English football – as if Wenger is responsible for the cultural and philosophical deficiency of an entire footballing establishment.

Wenger famously stated that he won’t pay over the odds for English players whose price tags are inflated for no justifiable reason, yet they can’t deliver. His alternative was to set on a path that would allow Arsenal to develop their own crop of English players who played the Arsenal way.

The problem for Wenger is that visionaries are rarely lauded, let alone acknowledged and appreciated for many people don’t see the virtues of the said vision until long after the seeds are planted and the rewards are being enjoyed.

Take a look at the results of Wenger and Arsenal’s vision within the youth and reserve team setup at London Colney. Arsenal has the best crop of young talented players who are mostly English coming through the ranks. The youth team that won the double of the youth FA cup and the youth league in 2008-2009 had 9 English players in that squad of 15.

They‘re not just young and English, they’ve been brought together in a way of life since the young age of 11 and they have grown up in a culture that promotes the virtues of total football.

These young players are technically gifted and they can work with the ball with both skill and gusto. It’s also plain obvious to see that the issue is not whether all these players eventually make it to the Arsenal’s first team.

Not all of them will, but Arsenal get’s to decide whether they keep the best of the crop. For the rest, they are sprinkled around the football leagues and they get an opportunity to make their careers elsewhere while still reaping the benefits of the Arsenal way.

Those who graduate to the ranks of the first team are already showing the signs that they will be staking their claim to the England shirt come the 2014 world Cup in Brazil and the 2016 Euros in France and beyond.

The Arsenal Young Guns Celebrate In Style

It’s players like Little Jack Willy who has lit up Bolton on his loan spell to the Trotters from Arsenal. It’s players like Jay Emmanuel Thomas who are so versatile and prolific while being technically gifted, you can see him becoming the England midfield general for the next 10 years.

It’s players like Craig Eastmond, a young prospect from Wandsworth in South West London who feels nothing at the prospect of being thrown into a high pressure game for Arsenal and holding his own as a defensive midfielder. It’s prospects like young Kieran Gibbs from Lambeth who is already on his way to becoming one of the world’s best left backs.

Have I mentioned Kyle Bartley and Sanchez Watt? Or Henry Lansbury, Mark Randall or Tom Cruise?

The talent at London Colney is ridiculous and only a fool can’t see that the future is bright in the sleepy village of Shenley that hosts the Arsenal Academy in the heart of the Hertfordshire countryside.

It’s been a hectic week trying to catch up with everything inside and outside work after a long break. Naturally, I wanted to organize myself so that I don’t miss any minute of the race for the Coupe du Monde as the world descended on South Africa.

My strategy of focussing on catch-up until last Friday was not helped by the sheer suffocation I endured from the media as a collective, as everywhere you turned, a story of the World Cup was being shoved down the proverbial throat.

The coverage ranged from the necessary and quality reporting that covered team profiles and objectively looked at the chances of the 32 nations; to the shockingly incompetent, ignorant and lazy-assed views of BBC commentators who kept insisting that the ’Calabash’ (the inspiration in the design of Soccer City) is an African cooking utensil.

In between the two extremes was the customary sycophancy of the English media about the fortunes of Team ’Ingerland’. I suppose a degree of reporting is necessary so that we get to know how the team are doing, but I tell you, these guys are just stopping short of installing cameras in the hotel toilets as they seek to follow and anticipate every move that the England camp make.

It’s this obsessive self indulgence, naval gazing and mutual back slapping in equal measure that makes it harder to deal with the fall out when expectations are not met. I guess it’s easier to get bemused by the post-mortem that unleashes it’s wrath on a single player like Robert Green (bless him) for the mother of all howlers.

However, there is less of an objective questioning of how lacklustre the rest of the England team was. It’s fine making Mr. Green the ’Anti-Christ’, but I’d suggest that the entire team needed to look themselves in the mirror and heave a collective ”shame on me”.

Dare I even say they needed a bit of Theo Walcott in there; but then again, when an out of his depth James Milner and an out of position Sean Wright-Phillips are chosen ahead of a competent and talented Joe Cole, you do wonder what’s happening in the Rustenburg funny farm. Even Aaron Lennon was committing crimes against association football that our Walcott is normally accused of.

I was also bemused by the ITV commentator (can’t remember who it was), who raised the temperature of his commentary every time Rooney touched the ball. If I was in the next room, it was possible to think that Rooney was about to hit the back of the net, and this is the sort of sycophancy and self indulgence that clouds an objective view that most fans around the world would like to hear.

The truth is England were dire, even without Robert Green’s howler. Lampard, Rooney, Lennon, Milner, Wright-Phillips, King, Carragher et al were all passengers. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that Emile Heskey and Glenn Johnson were England’s best players on the day, followed closely perhaps by Gerrard.

Considering that Heskey might have been dying of embarrassment from his fiancées performance on Channel 4’s ’Come Dine With Me’ wags special a few days earlier, the boy done good with an assist and shot on target to add to his name.

I think some of these stars should get some PR advice before unleashing their wives and girlfriends to the public. To tell you the truth, I felt like hiding behind the sofa when Heskey’s fiancé é said she didn’t know who Martin Luther King was, yet she had a portrait of him in her living room….but I digress.

My prediction is that the semi-finals will be contested between Brazil, Spain, Germany and Argentina. There’s nothing I’ve seen so far to suggest that I’m way off base on this one. While Brazil, Spain and Italy are still to play, the 8 games so far have been mostly a guarded affair with teams preferring not to lose as opposed to trying to win the first match.

I enjoyed the Argentina vs Nigeria game, and was interested to listen to the comments of one of the Nigerian defenders who avers that Lionel Messi is getting too much protection from the referee. His view was that you can’t even touch the boy and he’s either on his way down or the referee is heavily breathing down your neck while rustling for his yellow card in his pocket.

I suppose you can understand the clamour to ’protect’ the world’s best player, but you can also understand the fear defenders have, especially since one yellow card could spell the end of your world cup with any simple subsequent mistake – there’s very little room for error.

The Germans were very exciting last night against the Socceroos. I was very interested in the fact that the average age of the German team was 26, and it made me reflect on where Arsenal will be when our team that has been growing together for this long hit their heights in their mid 20s.

Nevertheless, the Germans gave Australia a footballing master class (and where the hell did they get that Brazilian…LOL), immigration is a funny thing I tell you.

Rumour has it that Mark Schwarzer is on his way to Arsenal, and I’ve got to tell you I was a bit worried by him picking the ball 4 times from the back of his net. It was heartening that he at least tried to stop 2 of the goals but the shots were too powerful and went past his attempts, but all the same, it’s not the sort of resume you want to take to a new employer.

Group D with Germany, the Aussies, Serbia and Ghana is a very interesting one since the winners or runners up will meet England. I personally think it will be Germany topping the group and Ghana second, but I’m worried that either of these teams will give England a nightmare.

England and the Yanks should make it through safely, though Slovenia will want to say something about that, and they should be taken seriously for the simple reason that they top the group and have the bragging rights. If England can’t get out of this group, then the players only have themselves to blame.

I think it will be helpful though, if Capello stopped that Gestapo approach of secrecy and named the team early enough so that each player can prepare mentally. It would certainly give the chosen goal keeper time to kill the nerves and minimize any Keystone Cops moments.

It feels like I’ve been away for ages and trying to get back into the groove at the Stone Cold Arsenal Towers is going to be a project in itself. Nevertheless, it was a good break and glad to be back.

I tried a time tested strategy of “staying away from the news” while tending to matters at the reservation; but I fell foul of those little USB things you plug into the side of your laptop and connect to the ether that is cyber space.

In between the hogwash that was Xavi Hernandez’s crusade to get his knees capped because of his bullshit about Cesc, Rapha Benitez getting a cool £6m while on holiday before taking the reins of power at Internazionale, and the English football establishment getting paranoid about England playing some South African Platinum team in a friendly; I did manage to get into the groove of the 2010 World cup.

To tell you the truth, I’m really excited and will be stuck to the telly, radio, web and anything that will give me up to date material on all aspects of the World cup. However, one aspect does sadden me, and that is the role played by the media in the systematic and negative portrayal of Africa as a cess pit.

I read an interesting report last week from Tom Cargill, the head of the Africa Programme at Chattam House, UK’s premier think-tank on International Affairs. IN this report, Cargill points out that the ‘West’ must change its approach to Africa and stop seeing it as a basket case that needs aid and development.

He urges the west to emulate the model taken by the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) who are engaging with Africa as trade partners and stimulating growth and the local economy. Africa has vast resources which the BRIC countries want to tap into, and many more like South Korea are also joining the party.

My belief is that the ‘Aid And Development’ industry (for that’s what it is) is a self serving, patronizing, neo-colonial sector that is run by the self interests of folks who have mortgages to pay, kids to take to school, debts to service – and you know, a livelihood to maintain. Suggesting that they’re in it to ‘alleviate poverty’ is like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas. Without poverty, the industry dies – it’s a self fulfilling prophecy.

The notion that a sector structured on a top down Neolithic approach to interacting with hundreds of millions of people from the continent that they say is “troubled” is a disturbing one.

I don’t know what is more dangerous; the misguided self righteousness of those in the sector who operate with the view that it’s their destiny to “save Africans from themselves”, or that there are people who think that the hopes and dreams of an entire continent lay firmly at the hands of two ageing rock stars in Bono and Bob Geldof.

I digress…but the point I’m trying to make is that I so agree with Tom Cargill in the view that we should move away from patronizing neo-colonialism and treat people like human beings. I mentioned his report because of the parallel I can draw between western governments and aid agencies, and the western media’s portrayal of Africa in general, and more recently, the build up to the first World cup being hosted in Africa.

It can’t be a conspiracy because a conspiracy suggests that there are people with a sinister view who have an agenda that they want to see through and they want to hide it from the rest of us.

The way the media has operated is far from conspiratorial, it’s criminal in itself. Fuelled by a substantive dose of ignorance of the highest order, an engrained culture of always looking for the ‘negative’ in anything to do with Africa, and an almost relentless determination to promote scare mongering and sensationalism.

I was listening to Jacob Zuma yesterday during his press conference, and I tried to recall a previous world cup where a sitting president has taken the pro-active view of “spinning” the country. It was masked as a lot more, but the bottom line is that President Zuma had to “spin” South Africa.

You don’t need to ask yourself why, just pick up any paper or tune into any report about the build up to the games and the usual suspects crop up – security concerns, terrorism threats, ‘African’s are too poor to afford tickets so the world cup is already a failure’, threats to the ‘western’ teams and their fans. You name it, you’ll find it in the most sickening and twisted reporting that should have some authors quartered for the crime of prejudice and ignorance.

I should know better really, but it still get’s to me. It’s not like South East London during the day is any safer than down town Johannesburg. We even have folks in sleepy towns now going ’postal’ because of whatever reason.

Imagine the reporting we’d be subject to if someone in South Africa went ’postal’ a week before the tournament.

The truth is that South Africa is more than capable of hosting a global event – as they’ve shown with their hosting of the Rugby Union and Cricket world cups in previous years. It’s just unfair to suggest that England fans are on their way to a cess pit (for that is the impression they give).

South Africa like many others in Africa is a beautiful country with breath-taking views, a rich culture, and a vibrant and growing economy. Perhaps more focus on the celebration of the football game and the continent will be more productive.

Mainstream media is bad enough in its negative reporting of Africa, and I shudder to think of sports journalists indulging in something they know little of.

I would hope that the reporting and journalism is focussed on what happens on the pitch. I can’t wait for Friday when Carlos Vela and his boys kick off against Bafana Bafana.

Self preservation is a strange bastard. It makes people do or say strange things, and they actually make themselves believe the faecal matter they spew out.

It’s a common known factor that the biggest resistance to change is fear of the unknown. You see it in any aspect of life where the thought of doing things in a different way scares the living shit out of any group of people.

The easier option is to pull out the sandbags, draw down the hatches, and take defensive positions ready to repel any suggestion of progressive thinking that reflects any form of evolution.

Take English football as a prime example. There’s a sad narrative of the English brand of the game that is engrained in the psyche. For too long, the establishment has promoted and supported a certain style or culture of play that leaves a lot to be desired.

We have so often seen physicality, brute force and insalubrious tactics being employed on the football pitch and being encouraged by the establishment.

We are told that this brand of football should be admired as one that espouses the virtues of valour, commitment and what J, one of SCA readers eloquently puts as ’pluck and spirit’.

There’s nothing wrong with aspiring to those values in any aspect of life, but I draw the line when they are used as substitutes for the inability to play football. For too long, it’s been culturally entrenched that the way to deal with the fact that you’re technically lacking is to apply ’pluck and spirit’ – and to be encouraged to accept that it’s good enough.

This past weekend, we’ve seen yet another example of this cultural deficiency that is so engrained in a huge swathe of the English footballing populous. It defies belief that anyone can defend the dangerous tackle by the Wolves captain Carl Henry on Tomas Rosicky.

To add insult to injury, the usual suspects are closing ranks around the issue and suggesting that firstly, Arsenal players are just plain soft yet again and can’t hack the physicality of a contact sport; and secondly, that it was never a red card and that Arsenal players rounded on the referee to pressurize him to produce the red card.

This is just but one of the symptoms of the Neolithic culture that I’m talking about that ails the English game. There’s a very big difference between a contact sport and a violent sport. The fact that violence is embraced as a virtue in lieu of football is even more sad.

We are told that this is what makes English football ‘English’, and if we don’t like it, we can sod off to the softer continental and South American leagues. We are told this physicality and pluck is what makes the English Premier league what it is.

For one, we’ve argued as to how ‘English’ the English Premier League really is. I submit to you that there’s very little English about it, and if it wasn’t for the foreign influence across all levels of the game and it’s administration, the Premier League wouldn’t be what it was right now.

Furthermore, the longer the establishment continues to press this self preservation button and insist that ’we are who we are so deal with it’, the further into the wilderness the English game will stay.

It’s not a coincidence why England haven’t won anything in the global arena since 1966.

I wasn’t born at the time, but I’m reliably informed that the summer of 1966 was quite a big deal on the British Isles. A World Cup final going into extra time is blood pressure inducing in the first place, but a 4-2 score line sent the Germans packing back home without the Coupe du Monde.

1966 was undoubtedly the greatest single achievement of the English footballing establishment.

What I don’t get though is this. Since 1966, having not won another major trophy, the English establishment also seem to be stuck with that old school vinyl record when football came home, if you will. “

We won it in 66” seems to be a tired old mantra for those clutching onto the straws of success with the members of that squad still living and breathing that success till this day. I guess that until another English team win the World Cup again, the old timers, most of whom are Knights of the Realm can milk that 1966 victory for what it was.

Only, this constant reference back to 1966 is actually mind numbing and well, tiresome and suffocating. Take Germany for example, they lost 4-2 (though they always thought one goal was dodgy – video replays anyone?), they went back home, sorted themselves out and have since won the World cup twice.

England won’t win the 2010 World Cup because they simply aren’t good enough. You see, all the media hyperbole about the so called Golden Age of English players with poster boys like Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerard, Frank Lampard, John “we’re well ‘ard” Terry and Rio Ferdinand has clouded one fundamental issue.

As a collective, the individuals in the team haven’t the technical nous and ability to show creativity and magic with the ball.

If I really think hard, the last England player that really had the technical ability that I’m talking about was Paul Gascoigne. Gazza was magic and it was a joy to watch him. It was a joy to see how he seduced the ball, how it stuck to him like glue as he ghosted around the midfield, how he used the ball and how he linked up with other players.

When Gazza had the ball, there was this feeling in your water that something was going to happen. Glenn Hoddle also had that effect, but in recent times, you’d struggle to find such technically gifted individuals in the England ranks.

The way the media has operated in waxing lyrical about the prospects of the England team, coupled with the bullish declarations of many a faithful England fan simply hides from the fact that the team has issues – issues that are seriously compounded by the prima donna lifestyles of many of its stars.

Celebrity is perhaps a more appropriate discipline for some of the England players, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the first thing they ask for when leaving the training ground is where their bodyguard and chauffeurs are.

There are players around the world who would draw blood for the honour of wearing their national team shirt. Playing for their national team is a duty that they don’t take lightly, and the notion that celebrity and prima donna nonsense would take over is just laughable.

That to me, is the key difference. Other viable teams have talented, technically gifted players who want to play and make football beautiful to watch. England has a bunch of prima donnas who are more interested in celebrity than playing football.

The football certainly isn’t pretty and is reminiscent of the ‘kick, push, shove and sprint to get the ball at all costs’ mentality that is described as good old fashioned English grit and steel that wins the English Premiership.

If that fails, lump it forward to a tall lanky fella and hope that he can hold the ball long enough to bring out the other players.

My fear is that when the time comes at the World cup finals and England meet a ‘proper’ footballing nation, they will be seriously spanked.

The time between now and next summer can be better used to do something about the issues England has in defence and midfield and not to wax lyrical about how the messiah Wayne Rooney is going to lead them to glory.

More importantly, the establishment should start by acknowledging the rot in the game right from the FA board room to the grassroots. Kids aren’t taught how to play football anymore; they’re taught how to ’kick and rush’.

Kids aren’t taught how to tackle any more, they’re taught the virtues of ’pluck and spirit’.

Instead of addressing the core issues that ail the game, and instead of acknowledging where the English game falls short; the establishment is busy in self preservation mode.

The establishment are busy justifying why their brand of English football needs to stay in the stone age, while all over the world, the game has and continues to evolve.

Coming back to the incident over the weekend that inspired me to write this post, I take the view that it’s not just about Arsenal being hypersensitive about their players’ legs being broken by technically inferior players who resort to violence because they can’t get the ball.

My sense is that the incident is a symptom of the morass in English football, and it needs addressing now. Enough is enough.

What do you all think?

What is good football? What makes a great team? Where in all this does Arsenal currently stand?

The increasing discontent surrounding Arsenal’s “trophy drought” has me pondering this question quite a bit lately.

It has proved a vexingly difficult question, and my personal view is that it boils down to why one was attracted to the game in the first place.

In this column, I share the reasons behind my affection for and beliefs regarding the game by documenting my own introduction to and involvement in football.

Are titles and trophies the sole measure of good football?

No. While honours are something we should aspire toward and strive for, football is far too rich to be evaluated on that basis alone. My own introduction to and interest in football (and it was love at first sight) doesn’t have to do with my local, or family favourite club or country winning honours.

It has to do with a set of foreigners provoking an irrepressible grin in an 8 year old, from a cricket obsessed country, watching football virtually for the first time. And no, they didn’t win that edition of the competition, though my affection for them remains an integral part of my love for the game.

Here are the culprits:

Given such an introduction to the game, it’s no surprise that I swear by quick, attacking, possession football. Some of the teams that epitomised this art in my school days were from the then communist Balkans; Red Star Belgrade and Steaua Bucharest being the most prominent.

At their best they combined technique and a free, even wild spirit that made for exhilarating viewing .

Often though, in a manner all too recognizable to Arsenal fans today, these brilliant teams would lose discipline in defence and succumb, frequently to canny Italian sides that parked the bus and then drove the stiletto in to the hilt at the first available opportunity.

One despaired if it were at all possible to create a team that balanced exuberant flair and pragmatism consistently.

Just when you were resigned to teams, perforce, erring one way or another in their approach, along came Arrigo Sacchi. His AC Milan side epitomised a yet to be bettered blend of power, pragmatism, tactical discipline and style.

Few teams before or since, have inspired such awe in me. With Franco Baresi marshalling the defence, and Frank Rijkaard commanding the middle of the park, Ruud Gullit and Marco Van Basten were let loose on the road kill du jour.

Then, in 1994, came the one game that decisively influenced my view of what makes a great team: The champions’ League final featuring Fabio Capello’s AC Milan & Johann Cryuff’s Barcelona.

Milan’s circumstances in the run up were scarcely propitious. Hell, they could justifiably be regarded as awful: Marco Van Basten was injured; their first choice CB pairing, Franco Baresi and Alessandro Costacurta, were both suspended; and Jean-Pierre Papin and Brian Laudrup had to be dropped to fulfil UEFA restrictions on foreign players.

This, added to the fact that they were up against a supposedly more attacking Barcelona side – numbering Romario de Souza, Hristo Stoichkov, Pep Guardiola, & Ron Koeman, among others – in their pomp, compelled many to write AC Milan off.

Fabio Capello and his side then displayed the one trait, over and above the aforementioned attributes, that I have since regarded as the true hallmark of a great side; Resilience.

It boils down to a simple question; Can you tailor your resources and approach to circumstance and then master it?

This makeshift, and supposedly more defence-minded bunch from AC Milan took the game to Barcelona and tore them to shreds, the game finishing 4-0.

Never has the truism about it not being over till the fat lady sings been better illustrated.

Given that background, where in my view, does the current Arsenal squad stand?

They pass the first hurdle with a bias to attacking football.

With a quality goal keeper, and better, younger understudies to Gallas & Vermaelen, we will be well balanced too. (But for injuries that never allow players to find form, we are richly endowed in the attacking department).

Versatility, though, is something we must develop quite a bit of, and quickly. Perhaps it will come with experience, but till we become a side that can consistently adapt to and prevail over circumstances, we may not be a great side.

As for my hopes for this team – I want them to emulate Louis Van Gaal’s Ajax, young and home grown like our own, that, all the while playing champagne football, won the Champions’ League in 1995 (beating Capello’s Milan). They also finished runners-up, on penalties, to Juventas the following year.

Van Gaal’s Ajax team also thrice topped the domestic league.

Not since that Ajax side, boasting a young Patrick Kluivert, Jari Litmanen, Kanu, Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, Edwin Van der Saar, Marc Overmars and the De Boer brothers, have I seen such a fine collection of young exciting talent maturing together at a club as they currently are at The Arsenal.

I truly hope Arsenal go on to emulate, and then supersede, the achievements of that fine young Ajax side.

The following two video clips features highlights of the entire 1995 Champions’ League campaign of this Ajax team. They provide unfamiliar readers with a better taste of the kind of football Van Gaal’s side served up.

Here’s to similar from This Arsenal side.

Not for the first time, a sporting delegation to a major tournament has turned out to be the prime target for terrorists who are hell bent on making one point or another. Considering that Sport is a universal language that brings people around the world together, it’s not surprising at the least that in today’s age of conflict, an event like the Africa Cup of Nations is a terrorist target.

It happened in Munich in 1972 when Israeli athletes were gunned down at the Olympics, and it happened last spring in Pakistan when the Sri Lankan cricket team was ambushed on the way to a test match. In recent times, security has been a key issue for sports delegations and host countries and sports associations have invested considerable amounts of money to address security concerns. Despite the precautions, it is always a sad day when people lose their lives in this way.

Before Friday, not many people would have pointed to Cabinda on a map, and many questions are now being asked as to why the Togo national team was ambushed on their way to their camp in Cabinda where their group matches are being played. These questions have to be asked though, however difficult they are.

Firstly, the Togolese Football Federation have to explain what their national team was doing travelling by road through to Cabinda from their training camp in Congo Brazzaville. The organizing committee of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations were crystal clear to all 16 national teams that no team was to travel by road to a host city.

Teams were expected to fly into the Angolan capital Luanda before being escorted with adequate security arrangements to the 4 host cities including Cabinda. Was it a case of naivety and sheer incompetence in risk management by the Togolese footballing administration, or was it a case of employing reckless short cuts to cut costs? Either way, there was enough military intelligence to suggest that travelling to Cabinda by road from Congo was insanity of the highest order and should have never been an option.

Suggesting that there were nominal security arrangements was naive at best and incompetent at worst. The truth is that the tragedy could have been avoided, and the minute the Togolese delegation decided to travel by road, they became a prime target of the highest order. By the time they left their training camp in Congo Brazzaville for the Angolan border, their convoy was the worst kept secret in the region.

I think it’s worth understanding a bit of the political context in the area at the moment.

Cabinda, where the Togo group matches are being played, is a resource rich province producing over half of Angola’s oil reserves, second only to Nigeria on the continent. China for example, is Angola’s biggest importer of oil on the African continent, and the country is also strategically important to developed countries in the west scavenging the world for energy resources. Since the 27 year civil war in the country ended 8 years ago, most of the reconstruction and rebuilding efforts have been funded and supported by Asian and western governments that have a strategic interest in Angola’s oil reserves.

Spend a week in and around the Angolan capital Luanda and you will quickly find out how much ass kissing foreign governments interested in Angola’s resources are indulging in. For a country that has been decimated by civil war, the strategic importance of such relationships and the ability to leverage its natural resources is paramount for the development of the country and the rebuilding of its infrastructure.

It’s for this reason that Cabinda was chosen as a host city. Many may question why this is so considering the volatility of the area and the specific activities of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), who have claimed responsibility for the attack.

The answer is simple. There was no way in the world the Africa Cup of Nations would be held in Angola without matches being played in Cabinda. The separate province is too strategic and too important for the Angolan government primarily because of its oil resources. ‘Gifting’ Cabinda host city status was a deliberate strategy to include the province as part of Angola and to show the world that Angola is in total control of the region.

It’s fair to say that the Angolan national forces have pretty much wiped out the core of the FLEC separatist rebels, but a few (said to be in the hundreds) still exist and are hell bent on making a point about their existence. Cabinda itself, as with the other host cities including the capital Luanda, are relatively safe havens and there’s no inherent risk of an attack like Friday’s being repeated. In fact, I’ll go as far as suggesting that most of the actual host cities are safer than South East London or North East Washington DC during any time of day or night. The same can’t be said about the areas in and around the border where FLEC rebels still hide out and where they’re are likely to have an influence. It’s for this reason why I say that the decision for Togo to travel in this area by road was insanity beyond belief, especially when the organizing committee specifically advised that delegations should fly into host cities and not travel by road. Furthermore, not being aware of Togo’s movements makes it that much more difficult to provide impromptu security arrangements that would have staved off such an attack. With the openly available information about the existence of the Togo National team convoy, I must say such an attack by the FLEC was inevitable.

I am supportive of the fact that the tournament is going ahead. It would be a travesty for the handful of separatist rebels to gain the initiative by derailing such an important and strategic sporting event for the continent. The government of Angola is obligated to step up security and use all means necessary to ensure the security for the rest of the tournament, and reports already indicate that Angola’s military forces are already playing a role in this.

While it’s easy to understand the motivation of the Angolan government to include Cabinda in the mix of the ACN, the attack on the Togo national team is an embarrassment to the political agenda of the tournament. However, it is totally understandable that the Togo national team has pulled out. Not only are the delegation traumatized by the attack, it is unfair to expect them to play competently considering the events 10 Km from the Angolan border. Going home is the right thing to do and the players and delegation need to be given time to grieve for their 3 colleagues who lost their lives, and for them to get some counselling. The remaining 15 teams should show solidarity and determination by seeing the tournament through and not letting rebels and terrorists get their own way.

The events in Angola though, have started murmurings and misguided comparisons with perceived and imaginary security threats being concocted with respect to the World Cup in South Africa.

Allow me to be blunt and say how much I detest this double standard bull shit of the highest order from mainly the western media who are hell bent on trying to create a crisis where one does not exist. Firstly, Cabinda is thousands of miles away from South Africa and there’s absolutely no parallel that can be drawn with South Africa politically, economically and socially, save for the fact that they’re both in the same continent. Secondly, to suggest that there’s now a real and present danger for the world cup in South Africa is irresponsibility of the highest order and is eternally patronizing.

When the railway network was blown up by terrorists in Spain, no one suggested that we shouldn’t go to Germany for the World Cup. When London was blown up in July of 2005, no one suggested that London was too dangerous to host the 2012 Olympics. I’ve had it to the neck with lazy and irresponsible journalism that is more interested in concocting sensationalism than being realistic and balanced. Some of the reporting of the link between what has happened in Angola and the imagined risk in South Africa is outright offensive.

They’ll state of course that South Africa has a high crime rate. Maybe they should try walking in South east London. Besides, I find it hard to believe that you’ll encounter a group of masked, machine gun wielding separatist rebels in South Africa hoping for a jackpot.

I’m going to side step the mass hysteria about Arsenal’s misfortunes that have dominated the news cycles this week. Unnecessary overkill is a state of affairs that comes to mind.

What was hard to avoid in the last 24 hours though, was the circus surrounding the draw for the FIFA 2010 World cup. For some reason, I don’t recall the draws in 2005 and 2001 being so overwhelming – to the point where I question whether the circus justified the result.

I’m one of those who takes the view that it really doesn’t matter who is playing who in the group stages – if you’re going to win the greatest show on earth, then you’ll have to beat the best teams on the way to collecting the world cup. Does it then really matter at what stage you beat or eliminate your opposition?

I’m actually considering writing to the BBC to ask them to clarify how many journalists from different TV and radio stations they sent to South Africa for this half hour event – and to justify the cost of it. We can do that, right?

Anyway, in mid October, I wrote the article Why England won’t win the 2010 World Cup. Yesterday’s draw pitting England against the US of A, Algeria and Slovenia is an appropriate illustration of my argument. Most of the journalists commenting during the draw were praying and hoping for either an easy ride or a convenient venue (whatever convenient is). With some of these journalists like Mike Ingam from BBC radio 5 lite – openly showing the tension and desire to avoid floating threats like Portugal and France.

One of the monumentally stupid things any team can do is write off a national team that has fought through qualification over the last 2 years and has reached the World cup final. They are there on merit (though English journalists – and not necessarily Irish ones – will argue and over blow the assertion that France are not worthy participants). The US and Algeria are certainly not shifty teams that will roll over and die when confronted by England’s very own golden generation – far from that. Slovenia is also not a walk over as England well know – they only beat them 2-1 in a friendly.

I think though, that what was more disturbing to me was the air of celebrity hanging all around the convention centre. The actress Chalize Theron looked so out of place and totally clueless it was just embarrassing. I would personally have preferred to see the mother or a representative of Eudy Simelane, the late Banyana Banyana star who had retired from active football and was aspiring to be one of the more prominent female referees in the game. For those who don’t know, the 31 year old South African star was brutally gang raped and murdered simply for being a lesbian.

Eudy wasn’t there to witness the monumental beginning of the first World cup held in her home country – it would have been more befitting to have someone represent her memory (both in footballing terms and for the crimes against women) than to have clueless celebrities bouncing up and down the convention centre to make things look pretty.

And for all the hype around David Beckham’s involvement in this event as well as the 2018 England world cup bid, his contribution to the proceedings was so underwhelming it was almost annoying. All he could muster was to say “England has a good group draw though no team is easy – we’re humbled to be taking part”….FFS, he could have said that on the phone from his house in LA.

And so the countdown begins to the opening match in Cape Town between Bufana Bufana and Carlos Vela’s Mehico.

And Ireland are going to be the 33rd team in the World cup (*wink wink*) playing friendlies against any team that wants to have some good practice before the tournament.

For those who don’t already know- I’d also like to draw your attention to a weekly Friday column that I write at A Cultured Left Foot. Here are my last 2 articles in the column:

• Stone Cold Friday: Unite and win, Divide and fail
• Stone Cold Friday: Examining the gap between Arsenal and Chelsea

Last night’s game between Les Bleus and Ireland was one of the most interesting games I’ve watched so far. Not necessarily because of the football, but more to do with the drama that came with it.

It was always going to be a tense match with the stakes raised by the possibility of an away goal win. But without a doubt, the entire population in Ireland is probably plotting what to do to our beloved Thierry Henry. Voodoo and witchcraft? Maybe. Public lynching? An option worth contemplating. There’s no denying that the emotion is raw.

Sometimes, football is a cruel game. The Irish players and their supporters are waking up today to an almighty hangover (or something) just to realise that last night was no dream. They were in fact robbed in front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses.

Unlike Diego Maradona who provoked the ire of an entire English nation 23 years ago (no one has forgotten the hand of God), Henry didn’t have the luxury of redeeming himself by ghosting past the entire Ireland team from one length of the pitch to the other to score a spectacular goal. Maradona set aside his antics with the ‘hand of God’ incident by reminding folks why he is considered by some to be one of the best players that ever lived on this planet. His solo goal was the most spectacular you’ll see anywhere and dwarfed any grief he would have got for his earlier transgressions.

Henry could only assume a low profile for the act of robbery he had just committed that ensured Ireland were kicked into touch.

As usual, the media hacks are suggesting that this single incident will blight his legacy. Sensationalism comes to mind with that claim there, but you can understand why Henry pissed off an entire nation.

But what could he do? Own up? The referee can’t give what he didn’t see – and it’s irrelevant to cite the use of replays on TV. Referees don’t have that luxury in that split second. Besides, hands up (no pun intended) anyone who wouldn’t do what Henry did if they could get away with it.

The Irish would have done it if it got them to South Africa.

Last year, despite some high profile disappointments in the semi-finals of the FA cup and the Champions league, the biggest revelation for me was the emergence of Kieran Gibbs. This soft spoken teenager from south London was thrust into the limelight and forced to sink or swim following the injury of our first choice left back Gael Clichy.

I sometimes feel it’s very unfair as most sensationalists in the media and football establishment frequently choose to highlight his trip that led to Man United’s first goal in the 2nd leg of the Champions league semi-final. However, an honest and level headed assessment will conclude that Gibbs embraced and took on the responsibility he was given and performed admirably.

Not surprisingly, much more is expected of this young man, both for club and country. I’ve always felt that if he can get a solid run in the Arsenal team, then he will be well placed to claim a seat on England’s charter flight to South Africa next summer purely on merit. He already has his opportunity as the capable understudy to Gael who is out injured and his efforts are not going unnoticed by Fabio Capello and Stuart Pearce.

This far, all of Gibbs’s international outings have been for the England under 21 side, but this weekend the under 21’s coach ’Psycho’, decided that he wants Gibbs to play as a central midfielder. Gibbs did this against Portugal this past Saturday and ’Psycho wants more of Gibbs in this position when they play Lithuania tomorrow as he feels that the young lad can excel as a defensive midfielder.

One thing that jumps out following this scenario is how ridiculously talented the Arsenal squad is. Not only is Gibbs a formidable left back in his age category who is capable of holding his own in the Arsenal first team, he is clearly seen as a possible answer to England’s under 21 problems in the centre of the park.

While it would be more useful to employ Gibbs as left back since this is the preferred position that Arsene Wenger wants him in, his surprise inclusion in the centre of the park makes you wonder whether it will be good experience for him to bring back to his club position out left. Gibbs has played in midfield before and his attacking prowess is as encouraging as his defensive work.

So long as his outings with the England under 21 team builds on and develops his experience, I think Arsenal will benefit greatly. I can’t help but think though – What a talented and versatile squad Arsenal has, and I’ll be most definitely routing for Kieran to grab his seat on that charter flight down south.

A thought does jump out though – could Gibbs be a candidate to fill in for Alex Song when the Cameroonian briefly leaves us in January for Africa cup of nations duty? Not an obvious choice you would think, But more bizarre things have happened.

Trick question: How do you know that November is here?
Answer: Arsenal start accumulating injuries in a conspiracy to make November our worst month.

Whether it’s Gael Clichy and Niclas Bendtner being cheated by the spirits of Halloween and getting their injuries on 31st October; or whether it’s Diaby picking up a knock right at the stage where he’s gathering momentum; or whether it’s RVP being taken out by insalubrious forces – we know we’re in November when you see the sensationalist and panic ridden headlines about Arsenal being out of the title race.

If you had a scanner or some techy device that could pick up the mood of Arsenal fans around the world last night, you would have heard a collective and resounding ‘Foxtrot Yankee’ from all fans to, Uhm! Let me see – Giorgio Chiellini and his kith and kin, Sepp Blatter and his pack of corrupt FIFA punks, the Dutch FA for taking unnecessary risks by playing irrelevant friendlies, the staff nurse at the local hospital RVP was taken to for not tweeting the extent of the injuries and keeping us guessing. Take your pick, but Arsenal fans were eternally pissed off last night, and they probably will be for the rest of the season.

Looking at the video again, it’s hard to tell whether it’s the dangerous tackle that pisses me off more, or whether it’s the fact that Chiellini is being hi-fived by his team mates. That scene smirks of the disdain and impunity that Liam Ridgwell and his fellow thugs at Birmingham City showed after he took out Theo Walcott in a dangerous tackle hailed by the English establishment as ‘fit and proper’. If there was any evidence that the tackle on Walcott was dangerous, then the fact that he’s needlessly out of action for weeks on end speaks for itself.

As the cold light of day passes, I think Arsenal fans around the world will still be monumentally pissed off especially because RVP will miss a chunk of this season right when he has hit the form of his life because of a meaningless friendly match.

I would suggest that focussing on where he got the injury is a red herring. Players run the risk of getting injured when they step on the pitch. The more pertinent issue for me is that fans must and should have faith that we have a talented and technically astute squad that will adjust to playing without RVP.

No one will deny that at the moment, RVP is probably the most in-form and lethal striker in the world, especially because of his overall playmaking and contribution to the game. He recently pointed this out by suggesting he’s not an out and out conventional striker and he is playing well as a playmaker extraodinre, making our team more potent. We will no doubt miss what RVP brings to the team and his leadership and talent up front.

However, it would be unfair and premature to suggest that others won’t be able to step up to the plate and deliver. Of course the punditry and establishment will suggest that we’ll fall apart, but if there’s one thing we have that many other teams don’t have, it’s options, options, options. Not long ago (the beginning of the season really), most people wrote off RVP as not being able to perform the role of a lead striker. I think that conversation died its natural death. Equally, The team will find a way of getting the best out of the players assigned to step in and any conversation about RVP’s replacements struggling will also die a natural death and be buried in the Punditry cemetery right next to the first claim about RVP’s inability to shine.

The most obvious choice is Eduardo Da Silva who has played impeccably as a lead striker before for his country and previous club. Eduardo is as lethal a playmaker as he is an assassin in front of goal and there’s no question in my mind that the team will adjust sharpish to take advantage of Eduardo’s strengths.

We can only hope that the path to recovery for RVP is a short one. There’s no point speculating about how long it will take him to return until Colin and his medical team confirm this officially tomorrow. I’m sure Arsenal will spare no expense in providing RVP with the best medical care and rehabilitation in the world – but for now, we must and should have faith that Arsenal is not a one man team and the squad will stand up and be counted.

RVP can make himself useful meanwhile by spending some quality time with his young daughter Dina Layla, changing diapers, and occasionally massaging Bouchra’s feet.