Pires back in the EPL

Former Arsenal winger, Robert Pires, will join the Villans this week after being let go by his Spanish side Villarreal earlier this season. The 37 year old winger is clearly on the down slope of his career but can still bring some veteran leadership to the Birmingham side. After having trained with his former side Arsenal he has found himself a new footballing home. A couple of aspects of this move struck me:

• Had Wenger not stuck to his - no long term contract for players over 30 policy - could the Gunners have benefited from the veteran French international the past few seasons? I will say yes. I realize that Pires was not the player that Wenger first brought to north London from OM as a 26 year old. Pires became a vital cog in the Arsenal machine and I will contend that had he not injured a knee in 2002 he would have given Les Bleus great cover for Zidane during the World Cup and Les Bleus would have made a run in South Korea/Japan. Having said that, I also think Arsenal would have benefited from having the veteran for the past 4 seasons. Would he have been an uncontested starter? No. But spot starting and being leveraged off the bench would have given Wenger a valuable, trusted and solid option in the midfield.
• The apparent "snubbing" of the MLS and the Philadelphia Union, is ironic on many levels. First because Pires claims to have turned down the MLS side because the city was not beautiful enough....and now he is going to Birmingham. However who can blame him? Rather than moving to a Tier 2 domestic league (at best) he is heading back to one of the most popular domestic football leagues in the world and playing for a solid team with aspirations for Champions League football and beyond. I realize that players such as Henry and Marquez sought the MLS, but in the case of Titi he clearly wanted to enjoy life in America and specifically New York City. I would doubt that Henry or Marquez made the moves because they wanted to play in a more competitive league than La Liga or the EPL...then again according to Alexi Lalas the MLS would do more than hold their own in the EPL.

I think Houllier will leverage Pires as would have Wenger had he stayed at Arsenal - spot starting duty, option off the bench and selective games off (Carling Cup, early FA Cup games). He will be a welcome return to the EPL, I just wish he had never left.

Benzema does not feel right with Les Bleus...hmmmmmm

So the latest from Madrid is that French star, Karim Benzema, does not feel at ease with Les Bleus. Shocking! Well really not. When you have a manager such as Domenech who is quirky and changes ideas as often as he changes his briefs, it is difficult for players to gain confidence and more importantly understand where they fit in overall system. Let us look at the Domenech and his actions of the past:

• Takes Trezeguet to Germany for the World Cup. But seems to favor Saha as the first striker off the bench. Has to use Trezegol in the finals since Saha was suspended (I believe that the yellow card against Portugal in the semi finals was one of the underlying reasons Les Bleus did not win the WC. Saha would have come in for Les Bleus rather than Trezegeut and I believe that Petit Louis' game would have lent itself to a goal in extra time for France...). We all know that Trez missed his PK, and somehow Domenech appears to have punished him for that post WC. Trezegol then goes into international exile...but gets called up for a match...he did not even have his boots with him since he never expected the call up, and then he is never to be seen from again.
• What about Malouda? He inexplicably fell off Domenech's radar and now is back on. Was it due to Malouda's lack of first team play with Chelsea? Maybe but when he was first ignored he was still getting in some good run with the London Blues.
• How about the keeper situation? I have ranted about this many times but the handling of the keeper situation from day 1 has been HORRENDOUS!!!! Goalkeeper is the one position in footie that needs special attention, they are creatures of habit, need to know the heirarchy and at times need coddling (this is coming from someone who wears the reusch gloves for his club on sundays!). From Barthez to Coupet to Mananda to Frey, Domenech has shown a complete lack of managerial skills when it comes to his keepers.
• Then there is Mexes, who is an absolute star in Italy, but for France looks like a second division hack.
  
• The "old guard" now I am firm believer that a footie manager, whether for the national team or club, needs to be firm when it comes to turning over his club. There needs to be a balance of experience and youth, and the hardest decision at times is when to replace the experience with youth. However a manager needs to do this while still allowing the old guard to save face and to have the recognition it deserves...neither of which Domenech was able to do with the likes of Pires and Giuly.
• Finally the way he handled Makelele, not allowing the veteran to retire from the international game as he had wanted. Rather threatening to fine him and his club if did not accept the France call ups...of course this had the "special one" saying that Domenech was treating Makelele as a "Slave." While Makelele did return to play for Les Bleus, and clearly gave all he had for France. In the end it was all for naught. Maybe Domenech should have looked for a younger player to fill in that spot rather than force an aging star to continue to battle for club and country.

So what to make of Benzema's comments? While I agree that sometimes these players whine and seem too shy away from responsibilty when they are not performing, I also think one only needs to look at the track record of Domenech to see a manager that instead of getting the most out of his talent, appears to some how take talented players and reduce them to average footballers. I have no problem with managers that are not loved by their players, as long as that manager also puts those footballers in a position to be successful. I have yet to see Domenech being able to do that with what is a very talent pool of players, and I fear that he will have wasted the likes of Ribery, Evra, Diarra, Benzema, Nasri, Mandanda, Lloris, Sagna, Clichy, Gallas, etc. Too bad the French FA does not have the brains to do what is right.

Arsenal a shell of the old Gunners

So Arsenal faced cross London rival Chelsea this weekend, in a tie that used to be dominated by the North London side, the match this weekend was a far cry from those days. Chelsea easily left the Emirates with a 4-1 victory. Once again Drogba was a thorn in the side of Wenger's men, and there wasn't even Senderos to blame for this!

Oh well. This game, brutally, demonstrated the work that Arsenal needs to do to in the the transfer season if they every really want to contend for the Premiership title, let alone European glory. As I have mentioned in many prior rants, er I mean postings, Arsenal need to find some steel to their team. Ever since the sale of Pat Vieira there has been no toughness, no edge to the squad. Rather than signing players of that ilk as well as Keown and Parlour style players, Wenger has placed too much emphasis on youth, but youth that resembles itself, players like Cesc, Wolcott, Clichy, etc. All world class players, but all cut from similar cloth - talented but slight of stature players. I realize I have said this in the past, but you cannot allow players such as Pires, Edu, Silva, and Flamini just leave without a replacement. While these players were all on the "wrong" side of 30 (not including Flamini) they all could have and did bring veteran experience as well as steeliness to the team. However since Wenger does not belief in siging over 30 players to any muliyear deals they all walked. Wouldn't a Flamini or even a Silva have looked good doing some of the dirty work in the Arsenal midfield this season??? Also, I realize Henry appeared to be winding down, and I would never argue that he is the Henry that terrorized the Prem, however he would look good in a rotation with Adebayour, Van Persie and Bendtner...he certainly does not seem to be playing too poorly for Barca!

Bottom line, Arsenal will get into the Champions League once again. They will play some beautiful football in England and Europe. They will tease their fans at some point in the season...but short of an FA Cup (we all know that the Carling Cup will be sacrificed in the name of playing the youth) I do not see how Arsenal will grab any silverware in 2010...unless you count the Emirates Cup.....