International Break

Well, it’s international week. Usually, this will be the time when the most interesting/funny player interviews come out. Let me just summarize a few in this post.

Fabregas(courtesy of Gunnerblog.)

When I came to England I always thought about returning to Spain one day. But the truth is that I keep liking it more and more; I love the city, the people, the club. Every day I know more people, I feel more identified with the fans and team. I will tell you the truth: the desire to stay here a long time, my whole career, keeps getting stronger.

At the moment you have better stats than Gerrard and Lampard, who play in the midfield at Liverpool and Chelsea: you have more goals and more assists. Are you aware? Do you like to look at these details?

There are statistics that fool you. It is important to know how one got these numbers. At times it is best to score the first goal in a game than to score four in an other, or to be consistent in your play rather than stand out only in less important games. I value enormously having been there in moments when the team needed a goal or a pass.

Speaking of this: you scored the first goal against Manchester United and also the tie against Liverpool.
I am very happy. Luis Aragonés always told me that the most beautiful in football, the most important, are goals. And I responded: “Yes mister, but I like assists, the pass.” And now I now that I am doing both I realize that Luis was right. People think you are better if you score a lot. They say now that, “He is much improved,” but I don’t think so. I play the same, I feel the same, but I just score more goals.

Thierry Henry sent you a message through a football program on Sky Sports in which he told you not to obsess about goals. What was he talking about?

Last year I felt, perhaps not obsessed, but weighed down, because I saw that I had a ton of chances and in the end it never went in: sometimes it hit the post, others the goalkeeper made great saves…or I didn’t hit it well. I thought that I didn’t have time, that I had to hit is as quickly as possible. Wenger told me: “you have more time than you think.” I played nervously and now, look at the goal against United: I controlled, looked and put the ball where nobody could get to it. The truth is that I am contradicting what I said earlier. Yes I have improved.

This type of comment by Wenger is typical: a simple bit of advice that a player can apply to his game.

Listening to Wenger one learns a lot and training with Henry one also does: his body language, his precision, his patience. He will certainly triumph in Barcelona, especially now that they are beginning to understand his game.

I am very happy. Luis Aragonés always told me that the most beautiful things in football, the most important, are goals. And I responded: “Yes sir, but I like assists – the pass.” And now I now that I am doing both I realise that Luis was right. People think you are better if you score a lot. They say now that – “He is much improved” – but I don’t think so. I play the same, I feel the same, but I just score more goals.

As always Cesc never ceases to amaze us on his ability to give honest, insightful interviews. He is without a doubt, Arsenal’s star player.

We now step into the crazy debate that is the foreign players quota. Arsene has always been critised for not fielding English players. He is protected as under the EU law(Out of The Treaty of Rome and the EEC), the market is open for all EU nations to work anywhere in the EU.

Gerrard

If something isn’t done, there will be more and more foreigners and they will take over and that is worrying.

I think there’s a concern that talent will eventually stop coming through if foreigners do take over our league.

Erm….George Gillett and Tom Hicks are not exactly homegrown.

Plenty of other comments made by Ferguson, Coppell, Platini and Mourinho. Can’t be arsed to look them up now. They have some valid points on English players not being good enough though. England’s tactic of pumping the ball from defense to forward is legendary and the reason why others scoff at the lack of technique. Yet players, press and coaches pride themselves with the 3 lions 100% commitment to the cause, not shirking tackles, getting physical and turning a blind eye to the quality of football.

I will just leave the Wenger comment here

I have only been here since 1996 but between 1966 and 1996 you [England] had 30 years without foreign players and you didn’t win any more competitions in that time.You have done much better since 1996 in the major tournaments, when sometimes you were unlucky.

Which is especially true when you look at the record in the European Cup, which is the source of all this debate. England have not managed to go past the first round since the inception of the cup from 1960 to 1992. In ’96 they made the semis. The comment from Wenger is a rebuke to comments that his actions in not choosing any English players in his Arsenal teams have proved detrimental to the overall England squad.

Speaking from an Arsenal fans perspective however; the most important thing is the quality. Let’s say that you are in the market buying some peppers. If a green pepper costs 50 cents and a yellow pepper costs 10 cents and they taste the same. Which would you buy?

Ferdinand – 30 million pounds
Carrick – 14 to 18 million pounds
Rooney – 25 to 30 million pounds

Toure – 150 K pounds
Hleb – 8 to 10 million pounds
Van Persie – 3 million pounds

This is also part of the reason why Arsenal have not been suffering from post new stadium financial difficulties at all which have been predicted to happen by analysts and in my FM game. The media always likes to pinpoint the big and easy targets like Wenger and the foreign legion.