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Cazorla and Arshavin: similarities and differences

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Morning all,

No blogging yesterday on account of all the supercalifragilisticexpiidocious hype over the ‘will he/won’t he/had medical/flying to London’ discussions that were going on yesterday. Plus (and probably the main reason) I had a couple of jars of the amber nectar the night before and then went into London in the morning to watch the latest Batman movie. Which was quality by the way, thanks for asking.

So today’s blog, given all of the noises made about the Cazorla signing yesterday from reliable sources that are not usually known for their unwavering desire for Twitter fame as an ‘ITK’, will almost inevitably also talk a little about our impending signing. After all, if/when it is announced we’ll all be so blasé about it that nobody will want to talk/read about it by then.

Hopefully my thoughts today put a different perspective on the signing though.

Last night I was thinking about the similarities between the Santi Cazorla situation and a similar player we all eagerly anticipated the arrival of a few years ago: Andrei Arshavin.

In the December of 2008 the Arsenal team was looking in trouble. We were fighting desperately just to get into the Champions League spots (I know – sounds familiar) and needed a spark to drive us forward. Everyone – the fans, the team, the whole club, needed a boost of some energy and life injected in to us. Arsene saw this and duly acted with the clinching of Andrei Arshavin for around £16million.

What did we get with him? A short, technically gifted, excellent close controlled dribbler with an eye for a goal. He had starred in the previous summers Euro 2008 and we were ready for him to show he could do it in the Premier League. And he did at first. He lifted us that extra percentage for us to cross the Champions League qualification line.

Unfortunately we all know the rest of the story as well. The mercurial Russian, not gifted with the greatest of pace, could never quite reach that initial ‘BANG!’ impact he had and subsequent seasons has seen his influence slowly dwindle. First the goals dried up, then the effort and application also seemed to dry up too. And when that happened many of the fans turned on him. Finally, after a prolonged period of what seemed to be a lack of desire on the players part, Arsene Wenger, the most patient of all (just ask Abou Diaby) also lost confidence and Andrei was sent packing back to Russia for the remainder of last season.

So why am I bringing this history lesson back to life now? Well, I can see a lot of similarities with Cazorla. Hear me out before you hit the ‘back’ button or the little ‘x’ in the top right hand comer of your screen.

Arshavin was signed for around £16million. He was billed as a small, technically gifted player with not a lot of skill but a bag of tricks. I heard journos speaking of how he could operate behind the front men or either side of them in an attacking formation. He was an international with a big European country. He was the right age, at his ‘peak’ if you will, and so he could compliment the young side we had with his experience in the dressing room.

Does all of that sound familiar? That is what we are getting with Santi Cazorla. He literally ticks all of the above boxes. Yes, there are some differences, like comparing Russia with Spain, or the fact that we are possibly getting a £20-£25million footballer for a knocked down price by taking advantage of Malaga’s current financial plight, but I could see real links between the two types of players.

What does this mean though? Does this mean I’m assuming we’re going to get a good player who will fade away after half a season and spend the next three years never quite living up to the hype? Or that we’re going to get a player that will look like he’s not trying half the time?

Of course not. The two players have different styles, different abilities and will therefore have a different impact on the way that Arsenal play. All that I really want to is to try to do my bit to manage everyone’s expectations – including my own at the same time. Because I too am really excited to see what Cazorla can do. But I just feel like the constant protracted saga’s of signings like Cazorla seems to elevate the player to a mythical level of footballer that is suddenly expected to pull Excalibur from the stone. Then if a player, for what ever reason doesn’t sign for Arsenal, they become this amazing player that we’ve missed out on. Ricky Alvarez was the player last year, who subsequently went on to Inter and I can’t remember seeing too much of since – although admittedly I don’t watch too much Italian football.

The signing of Cazorla will be a good one for the club. It will help us to push forward, improve the whole squad, as well as injecting even more enthusiasm for the new season from the fans. But we need to be patient with all new signings and not expect the uprooting of trees from each. Just ask Gervhino.

Until tomorrow.

Arteta excited, Santos back, and Transfer nonsense

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Hello hello online gooners.

Feeling a bit under the weather today, so if I start drifting off or making even less sense than I usually do, please forgive my poor prose.

Anyway, the spill over from the Newcastle game has taken a couple of days to die down, with various Newcastle players obviously backing their own team mate, whilst trying hard not to loosen their own halo’s, for they do not have anybody who has not been in controversy before. Least of all their manager. Oh no. thankfully

Not wanting to dwell on that too much more, our next game is away to Everton, and one player relishing a return to Goodison is Mikel Arteta. He spoke to the official site argue week and said that it would feel weird sitting in the away teams dressing room, having the Everton fans against him and also spoke of his love for the club. Everton seem a lot like Arsenal in that respect. Players usually always leave the club talking about how great a place it is, how well they are treated and what a great manager Moyes is. He’s now hit ten years at the club and definitely deserves credit for that. Before his arrival, Everton were one of the teams that might occasional cause us an upset, but more often than not we’d be able to do the business. I don’t know whether it’s a combination of the fact that from 1998 until 2004 we had one of the best two top teams (possibly in Europe) in the division will have had just as big an impact on our pre-Moyes results at Goodison, as well has his arrival to build good Everton teams on a shoestring, but I’ve always been a little more nervous that we would pick up defeats at Goodison Park under Moyes than before he began his reign.

The other couple of Arsenal bits knocking around today appear, rather unsurprisingly, to be most transfer related. Goal.com is reporting that Arsenal are after Dembele from Fulham and the Daily Mail is talking up the possibility of an £8million move for 30 year old Peter Odemwingie from West Brom. Dembele has looked good for Fulham every time I have seen him. He is technically very good and his ball retention is also impressive. However he doesn’t get enough goals (four since he joined Fulham in 2010) and what we need from our attacking midfielders is a goal threat. That is why I would have preferred us to be linked with any Fulham player, it would be Clint Dempsey, who is regularly on the scoresheet for the Cottagers. As for Odemwingie, how on earth are we still linked with him? He has spurts of goals followed by droughts that, in an Arsenal side, would see him quickly moved into the Eduardo and Chamakh bracket. He’s also 30. Wenger might have gambled once or twice on signing players over thirty, but it hasn’t worked out (Silvestre and Squillaci) and it certainly hasn’t been at the sort of price the Daily Mail are quoting. I’d be stunned if that happened.

Finally, rounding up today’s gooner related topics, last night the reserves beat West Brom 3-0 with Park and Aneke getting on the scoresheet. We’re starting to hear more and more about Aneke of late, and I’d love for him to break through into the Carling Cup side next year to see what he’s got and if he has got it, when he’s going to give it to the first team. The game also saw the return of Andre Santos, which is great news to hear as it means it gives us options. Slightly frustratingly though, it appears we are getting close to a full strength squad as the season draws to its conclusion and we’re out of all competitions. But never mind, there’s always pre-season next year for us to pick up a mass of injuries!

Have a happy Thursday all.