We’ve had some fascinating discussions this week on a variety of themes, most recently the fans’ role in lifting the team over the final hurdle to greatness and the story of our outgoing players in the transfer market. The latter got me thinking, not about those who have gone to pastures new but rather those who have joined us.
The whole vexatious topic of transfers can become a little toxic. I have had to unfollow people on Twitter in January just because they insist on babbling with incoherent breathless prose day after day about this rumour, that target, this price or that wage demand. Was it like this before the window? I wonder if it isn’t more to do with the internet, social networks and blogs and the utter desperation of Sky, Talkspite and the back page print journos to remain relevant in a swiftly changing media environment rather than the effect of the dreaded window itself.
My thoughts are fairly well known and usually proved wrong. I don’t like it when new players come in. It unsettles me, takes me too long to think of them as our own and I believe unsettles the squad and takes too long for new partnerships to become effective on the pitch. It was a whole season before I could really see Sol Campbell as one of our own and not some mercenary Spud in an Arsenal shirt. I cannot begin to tell you how bewildered I was when Bruce Rioch signed the Ice Man for a ridiculously high £7.5 million. It just wasn’t the Arsenal way. International superstars who would in Rioch’s words “..clearly indicate our ambition, intention and determination to compete with any club for the very best players.” were not what we were used to and I, foolish and, let’s not shy from the truth, weird as I was, didn’t like it.
The only mitigation I can offer for my seemingly bizarre antipathy to new arrivals is the close season of 2003. A legend was leaving us. David Seaman, who pulled off what Peter Schmeichel famously dubbed “the best save I’ve ever seen” to see us through to the FA Cup final where he would lift the jug eared old trophy, was retiring. Arsene Wenger had inherited the famous defence and there were some who had wondered what he would do when their creaking old legs and arms were no longer up to the task. Apart from Martin Keown, David Seaman was the last of that exulted old guard and he needed replacing. Who did Le Prof bring in to replace him? An erratic German keeper with a reputation for unreliability, unpredictability and downright madness. He’d failed at A.C. Milan and had just spent an entirely unhappy final season with Dortmund where (according to Wiki) he “currently still holds the record for most red cards for any player of Borussia Dortmund”.
Apart from a couple of unknown Swiss centre backs, some kid on a free from Barca and a young French left back that crazy keeper represented our only big business in the transfer market. My mitigation for not liking too much transfer activity and simultaneously for trusting Arsene Wenger’s judgement over my own is the simple fact that Mad Jens completely failed to play on the losing side in any Premiership match in the following season. We had our most successful ever time at the top after an extremely quiet summer of transfers.
Look, I’m laying all my cards on the table like this because I want you to understand the pathological depths of my transfer psychosis. If anyone can be upset at Dennis Bergkamp coming to play for their club then they need help, right?
Well you’ll be happy to know that help has arrived. A strange thing has been happening this season. I have of course been on edge over all the new faces joining us, trying to imagine them as our own when I’m not even sure how to pronounce their surnames is hard for me. Santi is unquestionably an extraordinary footballer but I don’t know him quite well enough yet. Next year it’ll be fine. I’m warming to Lukas, he works so hard and has a left foot that Thor could use if he ever lost his favourite tool, while Nacho is a surreal creature who just suddenly materialised at left back out of nowhere. But the something I referred to just back there, the something that has happened to me started 88 minutes into our match against The Orcs at the Brittania on August 26th 2012. With the score at nil nil and chances hard to come by, tenacious work on the corner of our box from Alex Oxelaide-Chamberlain and a quick pass forward set our new and largely unknown centre forward loping down the left wing in pursuit. The ever willing Aaron Ramsay was charging up the, middle in support and with the right weight on the pass would have been in a very strong scoring position. But then it happened. Out of absolutely nowhere and without bothering to so much as take a touch never mind think about a pass, Olivier Giroud, still some thirty yards from goal and near the touchline unleashed a terrifying dipping shot which would have snapped the Mordor keeper in half if it had hit him. OK so the shot missed the target by a fraction, Arsene got off the bench and signalled his displeasure, the commentators pointed out how well placed Ramsay was and we came home with a well earned point but no more.
But I was captivated by that moment. The audacity, the confidence, the technique. Name three other attributes you want more in your centre forward. Go on. Name them. As it turned out that wouldn’t be the first time Olivier (or Larry as he should surely be known) missed by a scintilla or fluffed his lines in front of goal and the anti Arsenal press had their all too predictable field day making negative comparisons with his predecessor and labelling him a flop and generally trying to turn us against the new boy and thus rob him of our vocal or written support. I think his Arsenal career would have started very differently and brought many more if different pressures had that goal gone in. I think he’d have settled more quickly and people would have forgiven him for not being Thierry/Denis/Persie all rolled into one.
But of course the goals started to come. He opened his account against Coventry in the widdley diddley cup and gave us this fantastic quote “This goal has taken the pressure off me. It’s done, I have my first goal. But it has to be the start of a beautiful adventure.” And I started to love him just a little bit. “But it has to be the start of a beautiful adventure.” Perfect. I’ve been accused of being a bit of a romantic where football is concerned and maybe that is true but like Larry I believe a player’s career and relationship with us should be just that. Wasn’t Thierry’s Arsenal career a beautiful adventure? How else would you describe it? I like that bit of poetry in Giroud’s make up. It complements his physical prowess rather neatly.
After scoring in the prem in October he put away four in November. The Fulham game was a high water mark in his burgeoning Arsenal career, not just the goals but his all round play started making us sit up and take notice, and it is his assists as much as his goals that excites me. As I suggested earlier it takes time for partnerships to form and for players to get to know each other. We have seen Olivier play deft passes for others to run on to but more than that we’ve seen him play mind bogglingly accurate audacious flicks over defenders and into the path of the on-running Arsenal player. It takes time for those around him to even realise those passes are possible never mind likely to come. It takes a while for the all round aspect of his game to be picked up on by his team mates. I’ve noticed lately Theo and Lukas seem more aware of where to be when he goes up for a header and to keep running when he receives the ball, back to goal, expecting the pass to come. I think he’ll score plenty for us. But more than that I think Theo and Lukas will score more because of him.
I also have to confess that for the first time ever I have taken to a bought in transfer window player. A man who should have taken a season to win me round had me in that one sparkling moment of near brilliance back in August. There’s just something very Arsenal about him.
Positively Arsenal 
Nice one Stew; always good to see Black on the blog.
Great post yesterday from Varun, excellent stuff.
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Steww, I agree. We are sort of only just discovering the meaning of “multi-dimensional striker” in Olivier (sorry, I can’t bring myself to Larry-ise him). He has a 25-metre shot. He has a 5-metre shot. He has a left foot. He has a right foot. He has some exquisite and composed one-two passing around the box. He has a lob, and a dink. He thinks faster than he runs. He heads incredibly well, and accurately. He has the best lay-off I’ve seen in some time, head or foot, and usually keeps ball with a defender harrassing him. He’s not afraid, he has a striker’s mind. He’s at Arsenal. He looks every inch a team guy. His understanding with Theo and Lukas is almost visible. We are scoring more, together, than the van Misery the “maestro”. And he’s just getting settled in.
Fact is, I think his range of skill is motivating Theo and Lukas and raising their level.
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This may irk a few, but Giroud reminds me, in his playing days, of … oh hell, help, memory loss, the Scot at Liverpool who shielded the ball so well, turned and shot with such power, hopeless manager though, needed a translator with his accent, thought waving his arms about to get the crowd going was ” A1 football management”.
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That was a very lovely article. Thanks.
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Good piece Stew – I like Giroud
He looks like a centre forward, he plays like a centre forward, he has that swagger that a centre forward should have + he works his nuts off.
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Nice one Steww.
I’ve been really impressed with le handsome chap since his arrival, and was convinced the goals would eventually flow. He also rejected the Chavs to secure an Arsenal move. He knows. Class.
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Olivier is Striking Royalty, Lord or not.
One day his remains will be found under a car park somewhere.
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I expect.
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I remember the shot well steww. I remember thinking, “Fuck me pass you idiot!”. Then when I saw Wenger up having a go my stance changed immediately to “Sit down Arsene. Let him have a pop now and then, the lad just wants to make an impression.”.
LOL
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Fun and games on TalkSpite this morning as a guest co-presenter slot from Ray Stubbs has turned them into something worth listening to for once. As the usual numpties endeavoured to misrepresent Lord Olivier’s recent remarks regarding the comparison between his first six months at Arsenal and RvP’s, Stubbs insisted the usual presenting morons looked beyond the headlines suggesting Giroud has claimed he’s better than RvP, and see what he actually said.
I imagine the whole tawdry station has gone into collective shock.
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Stuck behind a nasty vehicle fire on the A10 at the moment just reading the comments and thought I’d better clarify my opening comment at the top – one of Stew’s many excellent jingles on his Tuesday night radio show is: “Stew Black on the Radio? Form an orderly queue ladies” which never fails to get a smile from my other half.
So my remark “… Black on the blog” was intended to echo that but if you are one of the few poor unfortunates never to have listened to The Slow & Dirty Train on a Tuesday night, you might be forgiven for assuming a very different interpretation.
They say you should never have to explain a joke …
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Look beyond the headlines!? You think they have all day to read about sport Andrew? Maybe if it was their job I would understand…
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Blow-Wow. Top, Top quality. Steww – you are a Man among Men (and Women). I am sold on Larry. Actually i have been long sold. Yes I remember that long distance pop at the Orcs and I remember saying to myself, you are trying too hard Larry. Easy man, the goals will come. So have the assists.
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I think a bigger issue will be the manner in which reliance on a single striker and finding him with the ball has been radically transformed, in just over half a season. Olivier is a huge part of that, and Lukas and Theo especially have played their part. Theo, on the right, starts to encompass moves akin to a central striker, rather than purely a winger. Lukas does the same. Gervinho was given a striker role, for a bit, I think precisely to motivate him in this direction. Theo and Ox swap sides from time to time. Olivier becomes not just “give me the ball so I can shoot” but a forward point for the lay-off and through ball, Santi or Jack just behind for another type of lay-off. The results of this are coming quickly, partly the “spread” of goals and assists, and partly watching the attack evolve. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s “unprecedented”, in EPL, but some interesting technical innovations are taking place.
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nice one stew ! let the music play…
i was checking the new website..has anyone read that wenger interview about messi, individual awards etc etc ? his intelligence goes beyond football…i bet he could handle world political and financial affairs and humiliate many….
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“I remember the shot well steww. I remember thinking, “Fuck me pass you idiot!”. ” Ha – Markus that’s one of the reasons it sticks in my mind. That’s probably what I should’ve thought but didn’t.
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Great write up Stew,and Shotta has it bang on when he says OG is only guilty of trying to hard,he’s our main man up front now and he genuinely is getting better with every game, in that game against stoke and again on Saturday he proved he’s no pushover for centre halfs, because of my job I listen to just about every podcast there is about football not just the Arsenal ones and in a recent Arse2mouse one yankeegunner kept saying how shit OG was, like arse or brain once said some of these blokes should be done under trade descriptions for having anything “arsenal” related in their twitter names, my point is people jump to conclusions about new players far to quickly, Olivier will be just fine.
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Great blog Stew. Glad I’m not the only one who feels uneasy at the thought of transfers in and out causing mayhem on the training ground and the pitch. Really feel like we’ve purchased some very good and very likable players in recent windows. For me, this team is already starting to gel, but the potential is there for all to see. It’s great to watch this team improve before our very eyes.
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What a fantastic piece, steww and even I tried I couldn’t agree more. OG has just something special about him, his quality so obvious, it’s like his personal stalker. He seems to be probably the first “complete” forward we have had in a long, long time. And as someone already mentioned, he choose us over Chelsea (who had won the CL, after all). And compared to that striker Chelsea got this winter, I am quietly confident that we have gotten the much,much better player.
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The best part is that Giroud has been in England for a little over six months. I can’t even imagine what he’ll will do once he is fully acclimated to the English game.
Mel, some people still say Theo is shit despite being a starter for England and for one of the top clubs, in one of the hardest leagues on the planet.
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Guardian
A study commissioned by the European Commission has recommended reform of the transfer system to correct what it describes as abuses. The recommendations include limiting “inflated” transfer fees and a fair play levy on fees rising above a certain amount to ensure football remains competitive and to stop the rocketing cost of buying players.
Its findings claim that valuations of “superstar” players are leading European football towards a “de facto system of closed leagues at elite level” and “an increasing competitive imbalance in both national and European competitions”, with less than 2% of the money from transfer fees filtering down to smaller clubs or the amateur game. There are also concerns over criminality in the transfer market.
Proposals include
• Capping transfer fees after contract extension “at 70% of the gross salary owed to the player for the entire period of his contract” to ensure a fairer price.
• The regulation of buy-out clauses “to prevent abusive practices”.
• The establishment of a “fair play levy” on transfer fees beyond a certain amount to fund redistribution from rich to less wealthy clubs to restore some competitive balance.
• Better publicising of the movement of players to ensure that solidarity compensations are paid to clubs and that the latter are aware of their rights.
• The establishment of a limit on the number of players per club.
• The regulation of the loan transfer system.
• Addressing of third-party ownership.
• Support for the implementation of financial fair play.
Since the Bosman ruling of 1995, which allowed players free movement within the European Union once their contract had expired, the report says football clubs’ annual transfer spend has increased from €403m during the following season to €3bn in 2010-11, a rise of 744%. In this same period the number of deals has more than tripled, from 5,735 to 18,037. The spending is concentrated on a small number of clubs which have the largest revenues or are backed by “very wealthy investors”.
The key stakeholders consulted for the study include Fifa, Uefa and the European Club Association, which replaced the G-14 group in 2008 as the pan-continental body that representatives clubs. While there is no will to dismantle the current system there are varying degrees of recognition among these bodies regarding the need to reform, although the ECA is particularly cautious that any changes might cause further problems.
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Interesting stuff ZimPaul; always hard to tell whether proposals are worth the paper they are written on. Certainly we’ve been consistently told that Financial Fair Play is a waste of space although I still remain optimistic that progress will be made on this front. Hard to believe the Bosman ruling is now almost 20 years old …
On another note, it’s been pleasing to see both Jack and Theo get the recognition both rightly deserve for their performances last night in the England v Brazil encounter. When the likes of those who are normally critical of Arsenal players – motivated by spite as much as anything else – are finally acknowledging the talent and contribution of both these young stars, you know they must be doing something right.
It also contrasts with a player Theo is often compared with – Aaron Lennon who made his England U21 debut back in 2005 and has singularly failed to develop his game all that much beyond the raw pace he offered back then. Aside from being a Spud I don’t have strong feelings about the player either way but I often wonder how far he could have gone had he, like Theo, spent his formative years under the wings of one of the world’s greatest coaches.
I guess we’ll never know.
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The figure that jumped out was 3 billion euro transfer spend 2010-2011.
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Yes, a pre-FFF spike …
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Great job, Stew. It’s funny how “the flop” now plays like a player who should have cost double what we got him for. I’m so impressed with his game. Like you, it’s all happening a bit fast for me but in this kind of whirlwind romance, sometimes we have to throw caution to the wind. Larry will be good to us.
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while i always try and offer my opinion i feel somewhat inadequete when someone puts such fantastic stats in reply to such a great post well done stew and zimpaul.
i feel the same about transfers and would much rather see lads coming through the youth teams to create a team with an ARSENAL feel, I believe chelski have still never experienced this feeling, unfortunatly many of our instant supporters want instant sucess and will never forgive youngsters coming into the team their early mistakes.
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Excellent yet again!!
I remember that strike against Stoke also. It may not have been the right decision but what a shot, and he made it look so easy.
The buying of OG has opened my eyes to many of the experts (as George calls them). Those who think they know better than the manager and all that. Most of them did not see OG coming good, and that with their unlimited wealth of football knowledge. My point is this, if they claim to know everything how comes they could not see that the young man was class? they had to wait to see it, but you could just tell the guy had it in him.
What a player, what a team!
He is going to kill it next season.
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Excellent work steww – I agree that he is a top class forward and it was evident from the first match to those with an open mind. It’s interesting that the official website also has an article on him today, suggesting that these admirable traits you highlight here actually makes him the perfect Arsenal forward.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/features/giroud-and-walcott
ZimPaul
February 7, 2013 at 8:51 am
I think you mean Dalglish – he was a good striker in his day. Olivier has a lot of his qualities but also a lot more. I don’t recall Dalglish having the same impact in regards to assists of the standard we have already seen.
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Gnabry’ goal from Sat. morning.
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Dalglish was a class apart from anyone in the league .A genuine world class player.Years ahead in terms of vision and technique.
Larry is great ,but Dalglish great? Not for me.
Horrible that he played for Liverpool though.
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He’s already better than Dalgleish because he plays for us. Come on George.
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A good looking goal that Fins – thanks for posting, not seen it previously.
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*mute*
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Well he means more to me Stew.
But I do like to think I can be honest ,and not disregard another teams player.
No ,hes not a better player .He would be in the class of Bergkamp were he better than Kenny.
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*mute*
My guess is that Chamberlain will start on the right on Sat.
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Growing up in the 70/80s dagleish was the best forward I saw play against the Arsenal, horrible bastard he was as well, he had that side to his game which is interesting when you come forward to today-anyone else think Rooney has bone backwards a little since “managing his anger” recently?
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Either that of his rug has had an adverse effect Mel.
Long may it continue.He is a horrible example of a human being.
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Chamberlain skill. I should credit these clips but I’m too lazy.
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Mel, no idea. Some of his problems might be with fitness?
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On OG, I don’t have much to add. There has been a good song for him from early on.
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I think you misunderstand me George, I didn’t mean to imply that OG was better than Dalglish. The latter was a top striker in his day, but OG has other strings to his bow, such as his outstanding heading and the quality and variety of his short passing, which enables him to make almost as many goals for others as he scores for himself. I just don’t recall Dalglish having those sides to his game.
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I remember it different Passenal.I remember him being first rate at holding people off with that fat arse of his (as Brian Clough famously called it),and playing in mid field runners.
He was not as strong in the air though.
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Read the post but couldn’t post a comment all day.
I fell in love wit OG since the first time I watch him play for the ARSENAL. He’s got a very good movement in and around the box. I often call him the complete striker. Good in the air and with his feet. Scores a lot of goals and create as many. I hope he stays fit till the end of the season and I’ll bet he’ll score more goals than the traitor over the course of the season.
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Yep, gotta agree with George, Kenny was world class-the other player I rated as world class of that era and I’ll check the windows are closed and no-one can hear and we’ll keep it to ourselves and I’ll have a shower straight away was, we’ll still be mates right?…….hoddle.
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Taxi for Mel.
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Mel
You can’t be far wrong. Even Arsene agreed with that.
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I’ve got a feeling I could be the first casualty of positively arsenal!- hoddle was some player though Andrew, he’s also of course a LWC and a bellend of a human being.
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Yep, I forgot that dups,I suppose wenger and me have the same vision, it should also be pointed out he recorded diamond lights with Chris Waddle.
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Fortunately although I remember them recording a ‘song’ together I cannot remember the song.
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Your lucky you don’t remember it dups, maybe stew will play it on his radio show,then again…..
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Happy to be too young to remember Dalglish or Hoddle.
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Olivier has some similarities to Dalglish, such as holding the ball on the edge of the box and looking for the right through ball or pass; Dalglish had the best 180 degree turn and shoot I have ever seen and a ferocious shot (I’ve seen Lukas do it similar though); he was also THE great penalty taker and goal poacher. But I think Passenal is right, Olivier looks more multi-dimensional to me. Hard to say where Dalglish would be in this “technical football” day and age.
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