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This week has seen the return of Rudolf Skacel and Dmitry Sytchev to full training following their injuries sustained in pre-season. Tomorrow’s game against Guingamp is probably a bit too soon for the pair of them, but they’re in my thoughts for the midweek Champions League qualifier in Bosnia.
I’ve spoken to Sytchev this week about the imminent arrival of Robinho, and how it will effect his status in our squad. He really has to raise his game now to show me that he’s worth keeping, otherwise I’ll sell him in the January transfer window. I wasn’t quite as blunt as that when I spoke to him, but I think he knows what I expect of him.
In other news, 19 year old midfielder Mathieu Flamini has completed his loan move to Toulon for the rest of the season with a view to a permanent move.
09-11-2004, 10:36 PM
Let's try not to bribe our way to victory this time, eh? Post #62
Updates will probably be weekly rather than daily from now on because I start a new job tomorrow and won't have as much free time. Hopefully it won't spoil your enjoyment too much
Marseille v Guingamp Stade Velodrome
French First League
The league schedulers have been kind to us with the start they’ve given us, but today’s game against Guingamp was the last of our run of games against the so-called weaker teams in the league. After this, we have the second leg of our Champions League qualifier at Leotar before we face some tough games against Monaco, Bordeaux and Metz over the next couple of weeks. Therefore, it was crucial that we took full points from today’s game in case we slip up later on.
It looked like the players realised the importance of today’s match because we went about our business well today: we were first to loose balls, our passing was crisp and we were going forward as though it really mattered.
Mido was especially impressive, as he has been in most games this season. He’s very strong and he holds the ball up well before laying it off to onrushing midfielders. He’s an important cog in our team and he is making us tick just now. His partnership with Drogba is also looking good and they linked twice for our goals today.
Mido’s two headed goals brought his tally for the season to four in six games; a good return for any striker.
Leotar v Marseille Gradski Stadion
Champions League Third Qualifying Round, 2nd Leg
When you go to a country like Bosnia, you might expect an intimidating atmosphere to greet you, but the people here have been very welcoming and they have been no problems at all. Our hotel was good and, perhaps most importantly, quiet. Another regular concern is the state of the pitch and although it was heavy, the one in the Gradski Stadion was as good as most you’ll see in most top European leagues. The players did tire a bit at the end of today’s game, but I think that was more to do with the travelling and the fact that we’ve just played Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday. When that happens you have to be careful because the players can easily lose concentration. In fact that often occurs the weekend after European ties, so we’ll have to be careful this weekend, especially with such a big game away to Monaco. Hopefully it won’t be a problem.
I thought that today’s game was going to be a tricky encounter having watched Leotar destroy Kaunas in Bosnia in the last round. I felt that it was important not to lose an early goal, and that that would keep the crowd quiet. The stadium only holds 10000 people, but the Leotar fans have a lot of passion and make a lot of noise. I felt that if we could keep them quiet and manage to get a goal ourselves I thought their heads would go down and we’d run out easy winners. Thankfully, it went exactly to plan.
We defended well when they came at us early on, before gradually imposing ourselves on the game. Then, on 34 minutes Khrapkovskiy scored the goal we needed to kill the tie off. Kallstrom swung in a corner and the big Belarusian rose above everyone to power a header home.
We could have scored more in the second half, but in the end it didn’t really matter. I’m just delighted to have reached the group stages. The draw is tomorrow; hopefully it will be kind to us.
I took the familiar road to Monte Carlo for three reasons today. Firstly, to see the draw for the Champion League group stages, and secondly because we play Monaco on Sunday and I thought I may as well stay here until then. Finally, it will also give me a chance to take in tomorrow’s European Super Cup clash between Porto and Milan. Hopefully the pitch will hold up to two games in 48 hours.
The chairman is very pleased that we’ve reached the group stages of the Champions League, because it means a lot of money for the club. We get €4m just for qualifying, and with money on top of that for winning and drawing games; it’s a veritable pot of gold. Each group has two top seeds, one second, and one third. We were named as one of the second seed teams. The first seeds included the likes of Juventus, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Milan and Arsenal.
In the end we were drawn with FC Bayern of Germany, Besiktas of Turkey and Dinamo of Croatia. I obviously would have preferred to avoid Bayern as they are one of the strongest teams in the tournament, but I think we have a real chance of qualifying from the group. I’m sure all the teams feel that way though.
Meanwhile, with Fabien Laurenti moving to PSG, UEFA have allowed me to register one more player to be eligible to play in the Champions League. I’ve added young goalkeeper Jeremy Gavanon who will act as backup if one of our other keepers picks up an injury.
10-16-2004, 08:59 PM
Let's try not to bribe our way to victory this time, eh? Post #66
Monaco v Marseille Stade Louis II
French First League
Thankfully Monaco’s pitch hadn’t suffered too much after Friday night’s Super Cup match (which Milan won on penalties after a 1-1 draw), so we could play our usual passing game in today’s encounter.
Nine of our players received a boost before the game when the international squads were announced. Mexes, Ghioane, Khrapkovskiy, Vachousek, Skacel, Kallstrom, Runje and Sytchev have all been called up for their respective countries with Arteta called into the Spanish under 21 side.
I felt that today’s game would be our first real test of the season, even though Monaco have struggled up until now in the league. Before the game they were lying in 11th, but I knew they had the players that could hurt us. I was glad that this game was moved back a day to Sunday, because it gave us an extra days rest that I think we needed. So far this season I’ve only made changes because of injuries, but if we can get past the next couple of matches unscathed, then I might start to mix things up a bit.
The main difference between today’s game and the previous ones was that we didn’t have as much possession. Other teams have been quite happy to let us have the ball, but Monaco kept the ball for long spells of the game. Thankfully, it was what I would call “safe” possession; most of it was in their own half where they couldn’t really hurt us. Unfortunately, for the fans anyway, it didn’t make for a very entertaining game.
In fact it took almost half an hour before the game’s first real chance arrived. Edson Araujo intercepted a pass on the halfway line and played in Mido with a beautifully lofted pass. The big Egyptian took a touch, but then couldn’t keep the ball on target with his shot.He really should have done better.
Just over ten minutes later, we went ahead. Edson Araujo picked up the ball wide on the right, midway inside the Monaco half. Instead of heading for the byline, he cut inside his marker and struck a powerful shot into the top left hand corner of the net which left the keeper with no chance.
Getting a goal just before halftime always sets you up well for the second half, and today was no different. We had a lot of possession in the opening stages of the second period and I knew it would only be a matter of time before we broke them down again.
Ten minutes in, Arteta played in Mido one on one with the goalkeeper and, despite having his first effort saved, he managed to squeeze the ball in from a tight angle at the second attempt to put us two ahead.
After that, we did what we’ve being doing well all season; we kept the ball and ran the clock down. When we didn’t have the ball, we worked hard to make sure that Monaco didn’t create anything. However, with seven minutes of the game left, we conceded our first league goal of the season.
Khrapkovskiy must have been daydreaming as he was caught under a long ball and Monaco striker Sheyi Emmanuel Adebayor got in behind him to place a low shot past Runje. Luckily, we weren’t punished further and we held out for our 6th straight victory.
Thanks, GoT. I was seriously considering giving up on this because I don't get home much to update it, but I struggle on, just for you
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Monday 1st September 2003
With the first month of the season gone, I think we can be very proud of the way we’ve performed. I knew that it was important to get off to a good start, but to have won all our games and, crucially, to have reached the Champions League group stages, I’m over the moon. On top of that, to have conceded just one goal in the league is phenomenal, especially when you consider that our defenders hadn’t even met each other a couple of months ago! As you can see from the table below, we are sitting pretty at the top of the league. There’s still a long way to go and a lot of tough games to contend with, but confidence is high just now and the players feel unbeatable just now.
Yesterday signalled the end of the transfer window until January, but things were pretty quiet here. My scouts have been recommending players to me almost constantly, but I feel as though the players we’ve brought in this season are bonding well with the rest of the squad so it wouldn’t be wise to bring anyone else in just now.
I doubt that I’ll even try to add to the squad in January either. We have decent cover for all positions now and, with Robinho and Trabelsi due to arrive in the window as well, I want to concentrate analysing the players in our youth squad to see if I can bring any of them through. Unfortunately some of them won’t have a future here, but there are already signs from a couple of them that there are going to be very, very good players. I’ll try to keep you posted on their progress.
11-12-2004, 08:38 PM
Let's try not to bribe our way to victory this time, eh? Post #69
We didn’t have a game today because of the international fixtures this week, so I took the opportunity to watch the French under 21 side take on Cyprus under 21s in Paris. We don’t have anyone in the under 21 squad, but that’s something I’d like to change. I’m a firm believer that nurturing young talent is the way ahead, and ideally those players will be French. Naturally, I wouldn’t mind where they come from as long as they have talent, but it’s nice for teams to have a national identity.
In the end, the game was very one sided as the French cruised to a 5-0 victory. A few of the players impressed me, but the guys that are in the under 21s usually cost an arm and a leg, and even then there’s still no guarantee that they’ll make it to the very top. Take Lionel Mathis of Auxerre for example. He is a great technical player, and fast too, but his preferred position is in defensive midfield; a position where you need to be strong. Mathis, however, is pretty lightweight so will he reach the very top? I doubt it. To further illustrate my point; because he has played in the Auxerre first team for a couple of seasons now and is a regular in the under 21 side, I don’t think we’d get much change out of €10m for him. We could pay that at a push, but I don’t think he’d be worth the risk. I’m more focused on signing youngsters before they reach 18 or so. For starters they’ll be a lot cheaper, but it also gives us more of a chance to mould them into the sort of player we want.
11-13-2004, 06:54 PM
Let's try not to bribe our way to victory this time, eh? Post #70
After Saturday’s win over Cyprus, the full national team beat Slovenia yesterday to move to the top of their group for qualification for the European Championships in Portugal next year. After the dismal display in the 2002 World Cup there is a lot of pressure on the team to do well in Portugal. The players seem to be responding well to the criticism of them and are on track for qualification.
Philippe Mexes will be hoping to make it to Portugal with the squad. He came off the bench against Cyprus, but didn’t feature at all in Slovenia, so it’s clear that Jacques Santini (the French coach) sees him as a bit part player just now. Hopefully a good season with us will push him further into the manager’s plans.
We had a bit of a roll call this morning for the players returning from international duty. We’ve been lucky, with no injuries reported we can now look forward to Saturday’s game against Bordeaux.
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