Arsenal’s Arsène Wenger: Olivier Giroud’s recovery ahead of schedule
Giroud broke his tibia in the 2-2 draw with Everton at Goodison Park back in August and had been expected to miss at least four months of the season. However Wenger is hopeful that the 28-year-old could be back sooner after undergoing a successful operation and is confident that he can play in the same team as England striker Danny Welbeck.
“Olivier Giroud is recovering very well. I believe he is ahead of schedule in terms of rehabilitation. The operation went perfectly,” Wenger told French television channel beIN Sports.
“Welbeck and him can play together in the centre or separately. Welbeck also played on one side to Manchester United. Welbeck played in the same team with Rooney and van Persie. He can play down the sides.”
Wenger also insisted he made the correct decision not to re-sign Cesc Fàbregas in the summer and believes his side can still overhaul Chelsea in the race for the Premier League title.
Fàbregas moved to Stamford Bridge from Barcelona in the summer for £30m after Wenger decided against taking up an option to re-sign the Spain midfielder, who spent eight years in north London.
Yet despite last week’s 2-0 defeat to José Mourinho’s side which left Arsenal nine points behind the early pace-setters, Wenger has no regrets over allowing his former captain to join a rival club and is confident they can bounce back from a slow start to the season.
“I don’t regret not taking Cesc because we already had a lot of creative players in our midfield,” Wenger said.
“Chelsea will also have a difficult period [in the season]. Our schedule was extremely difficult and I have the belief that we can close the gap to them.”
Barcelona star Dani Alves, who has been linked with a move Manchester United, Chelsea, as well as Manchester City, has demanded a huge £250,000-a-week salary if he is to accept a move to the Premier League, Daily Star reports.
Despite the Brazilian international able to join one of the many interested clubs on a free transfer, the wage he is asking for is being overlooked as the potential move could be under jeopardy.
The Said and Done section in The Observer is always an enlightening and entertaining read on football at its most corrupt, hypocritical and absurd. The latest updates on managerial sackings and the bizarre goings-on in South America – the wild west of football – can always be trusted upon to induce laughter, while Sepp Blatter and his Fifa cronies are near-constant objects of lampooning.
One of the more eye-opening segments of the weekly column deals with racism in football, and last week’s entries made for particularly sobering reading. We learnt that Fifa’s stance on Russia’s record with racism when inspectors were assessing their World Cup bid in 2010 was that it was “not an operational matter” and therefore “not a factor” in the process, despite the fact that fans of Russian clubs have been seen flying flags emblazoned with slogans such as ‘Happy Holocaust’ and ‘Monkey go home’; in Bulgaria, meanwhile, there was news of Levski Sofia fans unveiling a banner decorated with the Uefa logo and the words ‘Say Yes to Racism’, while Rapid Bucharest coach Marian Rada had the following to say after Rapid fans aimed racist chants and threw a banana at Concordia Chianjna’s Wellington, which reduced the player to tears:
“Was he crying? Maybe Wellington should have cried because he didn’t score … Maybe a banana just slipped out of someone’s hand in the stands.”
Pretty depressing stuff then, and evidence – as if it were really needed – that football is stuck in the dark ages and that its problems with racism remain significant and unresolved.
Or is it? Jose Mourinho begs to differ. When questioned on the possible introduction of the Rooney Rule in English football – the successful NFL statute which requires teams to interview at least one candidate from an ethnic minority background for roles in head coaching – the Chelsea boss argued that there is “no racism in football”, that “if you are good, you prove that you deserve the job” and that “football is not stupid to close the doors to top people. If you are top, you are top”.
The point that Mourinho was trying to get across – that managers should be appointed on merit, not on the colour of their skin – may have been lost in translation. However, his claim that there is no racism in football was striking, irresponsible (given his position as the manager of a leading Premier League club) and more than anything, wildly inaccurate.
The anti-racism Kick It Out campaign, though far from perfect, already faces significant challenges to getting its voice heard in English football. Its headquarters are in a fourth-floor office above a pizza shop in Clerkenwell, and in the multi-billion pound Premier League industry, it receives funding of less than £300,000 a year. It could therefore do without men like Mourinho – whose soundbites are pounced upon by the media – undermining its cause by saying that racism is not an issue in the game, when it clearly is.
Perhaps we are being unfair on Mourinho. He may have been shirking from the uncomfortable truth that his club captain John Terry was found guilty of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand three years ago, or he may, as has already been noted, have merely chosen the wrong words, and that what he really meant was that merit, not skin colour, is the only thing that employers care about. To an extent, Mourinho is right – in an ideal world, merit should be the sole factor in determining the suitability of a candidate to a managerial role. However the world of football is far from ideal, and there is an undeniable and visible lack of black managers in the English game compared to the number of black players. Implementation of a footballing equivalent of the Rooney Rule would not harm the chances of other candidates nor the values of meritocracy; it would simply ensure that aspiring coaches from minority backgrounds are at least given consideration.
Football has a long way to go in its war against racism, and compared to the attitudes of certain fans and individuals in other countries, English football is a progressive utopia of racial harmony. Nevertheless, the game needs prominent figures such as Mourinho to highlight, not downplay the issue, otherwise we may find ourselves fighting a losing battle.
Arsenal news and transfers: £30m Mesut Ozil to Bayern
Munich to open door for Sami Khedira?
The Gunners are heavily linked with the Real Madrid man and if their flopping midfielder Ozil is let go, it would open up the space in the team to sign him
Arturo Vidal to Manchester United switch could happen
if Juan Mata goes Turin - reports
The Red Devils have been pursuing the Chilean international for over six months now but might finally get their man if they sent Juventus a replacement
Manchester United could finally land long-term target Arturo Vidal if Juan Mata goes in the other direction.
Chilean star Vidal is reported to be unsettled at Juventus and was fined just short of £80,000 for an altercation on a night out prior to the Biaconeri's top-of-the-table clash with Roma last week.
Juan Mata would be the ideal replacement for Vidal, according to Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport.
The Spaniard has found himself down the pecking order at Old Trafford after a host of big money attacking arrivals to United alongside Louis van Gaal's arrival.
Angel Di Maria, Radamel Falcao and Ander Herrera have all been brought in to help bolster the Red Devils' front line, while Mata has only got his opportunity in the team through Wayne Rooney's suspension.
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