Life after Vieira...

So it has been a few days now since Patrick has taken his talents, leadership and fire to northern Italy to play for one of the most storied clubs in the world. What does this mean for Arsenal?

• Midfield - I think that the midfield still contains a world of talent - Cesc, Ljunberg, Pires, Flamini, etc are all solid players. However, they lose a lot of intangibles with the loss of Vieira. Beyond being the captain he was the catalyst for the midfield, bridging defense with offense, and throwing in a crucial goal here and there.
• The strikers remain solid, but getting Baptista, if possible, would make it down right scarey. With the "beast" teamed up with Henry, having Reyes, Van Persie (assuming he does not end up in prison) and Berkhamp would make this a lethal stike force. Arsenal have always needed a stiker that is a penalty box presence to compliment Henry (which is what the French national team has with Trezeguet, unfortunately that duo has struggled in international play, but I digress)
• Defense, the emergence of Senderoos will allow the arsenal back 4 to stabilize. I have also read that Arsenal is giving former French international Christanval a trial. Christanval was a highly touted central defender, a few years ago it was thought he would be the natural replacement for Desailly anchoring the central defense of the French National team. But injuries have hampered his developement. This move only has upside for Arsenal, if he can regain his form Arsenal will have found themselves a solid if not international quality central defender who is still young - 26
  
• Intangibles, getting Bentley back from his season long loan at Norwich is an overlooked "acquisition" Whenever I watched Norwich matches last season it was clear that Bentley was the best player for the team. Being able to play a full season wearing the number "10" and running the team will give bentley the experience and confidence to do some great things with Arsenal. I think he will play a major role for Arsenal this season.
• Future transfers - the latest rumor is that Arsene is looking at Olivier Dacourt from AS Roma. Dacourt is a poor mans version of Vieira. He would be a solid replacement. He too is a French international usually lining up along side Vieira for les bleus. He has experience playing in england, having played at Leeds and Everton. He would be a good replacement, but more in the mold of Gilberto and Makelele. A defensive/holding midfielder. But unlike Vieira has limited offensive abilities.

The season officially kicks off in a 3 weeks...still lots of movements to come I am sure. If arsene can get Baptista and Dacourt, Arsenal might be able to give their London rivals and the red devils a real run for the Premiership title

Good luck Pat

Good luck in Italy Vieira, we will miss you in the Red and White of Arsenal...I hope that Wenger can find the proper replacements for Vieira.

Vieira to Juventus

Arsenal and French captain Patrick Vieira is rumored to be headed off to Italy...and doing so very soon. If this is the case it will be crucial for Wenger to turn around and sign 1-2 high profile players immediately. Could Arsenal get into the Essien running or will they target Essien's Lyon teammate Diarra? While I think that getting Essien will be a long shot, due to Chelsea's interest and deep pockets and Diarra just re-upped his contract, it is crucial that Wenger finds a top notch defensive/holding midfielder.

I would personally be sad to see Pat leave, especially after getting a brand new Arsenal jersey, emblazened with #4 on the back. I think that this will be a big blow in short term for Arsenal, but Wenger has added a lot of young talent in his midfield the past few years Cesc, Flamini etc. But Patrick is the glue that has kept Arsenal's midfield and team going and I am not sure that the young gunners can assume the entire load of running the midfield. If Patrick does leave it will be a hard day for Arsenal Fans, especially those with new Vieira Arsenal kits, but it may lesson the expectations for Arsenal and that may give the young gunners a chance to play with less pressure. Something that could actually make them more dangerous.

But my heart tells me...Patrick don't go!

Rumors Rumors Rumors

If you believe some of the press, Vieira and Pires will be playing for "la vieille dame" of Juventus. Essien and SWrightPhillips will be making the move to Chelsea. This will be a major midfield moves.

First, I think that Lyon will end up selling Essien. He has made it clear he wants to move to the Premiership. Lyon has already developed a back up plan by bringing in French international Pedretti into the fold. He would take over the role of defensive midfielder. Diarra has resigned at Lyon until 2009, so the midfield should remain solid. With Essien, I believe that Lyon can make a strong run in Europe. Having added young defender Monsoreau from Sochaux to settle the back line and adding Norwegian international Carew up front, I think that Lyon has added without losing anything from the 4 time Ligue 1 champions. However, all this changes if Essien leaves. He resembles a younger Vieira, a midfield player that can defend and score, a player that can dictate the pace of the game. I have watched him play a few times but from all the press he is the next Keane, Vieira combined...no wonder Chelesea are after him. Partnering him and Makelele at Chelsea would be a formidable defending - holding midfield combo. Lyon will still be odds on favorite to win another Ligue 1 title, and might make a deeper run in Europe.

Second, I think that Arsenal might want to seriously consider the attention Juventus is giving their two french international midfielders. While I think Arsenal should not part ways with Vieira...even though his value might never be greater...I think Pires should be sold. I think that Pires, while always a top goal scorer, has run his course at Arsenal. The big teams know how to play him and how to contain his game. I do not see who on the horizon Arsenal can purchase to replace either midfielder, it might make the right business sense to maximize their returns on these two players. Maybe if they did so they could turn around and look to get into the Essien bidding....now that would be interesting.

London - terror rears its ugly head

I wanted to state my prayers and thoughts to all those in London and across the world that have suffered due to the cowardly acts that transpired this morning. Being Parisian I was a little let down when London defeated Paris for the 2012 Olympics, however after seeing what occured this morning is sobering to all of us. The cowards that struck innocent commuters this morning will only unify the resolve of those nations that allow freedoms to their populations. The irony is that the Olympics are a great venue where nation states send atheletes to represent them in a sporting venue allowing countries ranging in all sizes and history to compete on the same field. Too bad these cowards rather act barbarically rather than allow their people to compete and strive on the sporting field. Rather than looking for victory on the track, the pool, the veledrome, etc these people rather spread their ideas with cowardly bombs in subways....London and the rest of the world will survive this last act of barbarism. 2012 will allow London to showcase itself and demonstrate to those that struck today that they cannot win.

Transfer market moves

So PSG gets their man from AC Milan - French international Dhorasso: http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/20050705_094006Dev.html, I think this is a great move for the Parisian club. Teaming Dhorasso with Rothen in the midfield will give PSG one of the stronger midfields in Ligue 1. With the world cup approaching, this will also motivate both international players to focus on carving out greater roles for the French national team (granted this assumes they qualify....far from assured)

Speaking of AC Milan they added Vieri to their strike force, interesting move for both parties. Vieri will have trouble getting regular playing time, and this will hinder his ability to secure a spot on the Italian team for the WC. I think a move to the Premiership and Arsenal, Chelsea or Tottenham would have done Vieri more good than changing stripes in Milan...

Confederation Cup

After the tragedy that occured 4 years ago in France, this confederation cup was well worth your viewing. To recap, Brazil went out and demolished Argentina yesterday to win the "Cup." Seeing the starting line ups that both teams put out there, this was no exhibition, this was the real deal for both teams. The third place game saw a 7 goal explosion from Germany and Mexico. A couple of observations:

Greece - What a disappointment from the reigning Euro champion. Granted they lost to Brazil but exiting the tournament in such a manner was terrible. After they demonstrated some better play during the WC qualifiers, this tournament makes us all scratch our heads as to how they won in Portugal.

Germany - Is the great futballing power of central europe back to their traditional ways? With the emergence of Podoloski, his goal yesterday was a thing of beauty, Germany look to have some solid attacking players - Podoloski, Ballack, Kuranyi, et al. But the Germany that won 3 World Cups were not built on strikers (granted they had some great ones, Mueller, Rummineger etc) but rather built on a solid defense, midfield and goalkeeping. This teams defense is adequete at times and shakey most of the time, and the goalkeeping is still up in the air. Klinnsman seems to have lost faith in Kahn and those of us who watch Arsenal realize that Lehmann is no Toni Schmacher. Mexico, a solid soccer power but not a first tier power, was resilient in their match and kept coming back on the score until finally succombing to a MBallack free kick (Mexico almost leveled it again a few minutes later however). I have mixed feelings about Germany's chances at the next World Cup. granted they are hosting, but if you look at their run in the prior major tournaments they have not shined.

They crashed out of the last two European cups, got demolished by Croatia at France '98, made the finals in 2002 but did not look convincing, drawing the USA and South Korean on their way to playing Brazil. It could be argued that they should have lost the 1/4 final game against USA...they still have major defensive issues and will not play in any competitive games the rest of the year to truly fix those problems. Maybe the home field advantage will stimulate the defense to play like the Beckenbauer teams of old....

Argentina - Until they got demolished by Brazil, they looked very strong. Especially considering they defeated Brazil 3-1 in WC qualifying. I still think they will be a team to contend with in a year. They have already qualified so they can start expirementing with different players and combinations to truly determine the best team they can bring to Germany next year. They have the talent and the drive to go very far in Germany.

Brazil - What can you say when a team can put Ronaldiho, Robinhno, Kaka, Adriano, and Ronaldo (who missed the Confed Cup) all on the pitch together, you can get a 4-1 demolishine of a world class team such as Argentina. Does this mean we hand Brazil a 6th WC title? I will say, no, by far. Brazil still did not convince me that they can defend, much like Germany. In addition, with all this talent , I still see Brazil struggling at times figuring out what system to implement and who needs to be on the bench and who needs to be on the pitch. You can never count out Brazil, but the Mexicans showed that you can beat them, as well as Argentina a few weeks ago.

Mexico - I think they looked very good coming out of this tournament. They defeated Brazil in the first round, played Argentina very tough only to lose in a shoot out, and they lost to host Germany after playing them even for most of the match. They have a sense of team and of working together that comes from a team where the majority plays in the domestic league. They are virtually guaranteed to qualify. I think they have a chance of going further than the 1986 Hugo Sanchez led team that lost to Germany in the quarterfinals of the Mexican World Cup (after penalties).

Overall I think this tournament was a success, lots of goals, great finals, some great upsets. The one factor that is of concern is the number of fans that were allowed to run out onto the pitch, something that will have to be resolved prior to the WC. A warning to Brazil, the last time the defending WC champion won the Confederation Cup in the next WC host nation they ended up crashing out of the WC....that was my beloved French National Team that won the Confederation Cup in 2001 in Japan, only to score zero goals in the World Cup (before you say that can never happen to Brazil don't forget that France went into that WC with Henry, leading score in the Premier League, Trezeguet, leading scored in Serie A, and Cisse leading score in Ligue 1...with a Zidane that had just won the champions league with Real Madrid - france left with 2 losses, 1 draw...zero goals scored, 3 goals conceded)

Chelsea's transfer woes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/4627135.stm

After reading this article we should all start weeping for Chelsea and Roman's billions! All kidding aside, it is amazing that Chelsea did what they did last season with out a world class striker up front. I consider Robbens a winger, and Drogba fell far short of expectations (then again he had a career year the prior season with Marseilles). But why is it that Chelsea cannot leverage the money Roman can throw into the ring to parlay that into a world class striker?

The point made in the BBC article also makes tremendous sense, all the strikers they are pursuing play for established European clubs, who themselves have European aspirations every season -

Adriano - Inter Milan
Eto - Barca
Trezeguet - Juventus
Shevchenko - AC Milan

One player that seems has not been mentioned is Vieri of Inter Milan. While he is getting up there in age, he is still a proven striker and one that would fit into the Chelsea style. Granted he is also playing for a big named club, but he is second fiddle to Adriano. He is a big striker that is not afraid to clog the middle of the opponent's penalty box but can also carry the ball up the field. He is the type of striker that would fit in well with either a Chelsea or an Arsenal. But he would thrive in the Premieship and would flourish for Chelsea. Someone tell Roman and Mourinho to start looking at Vieri if they want that world class striker.