Tag: France

Could Wenger be managing France at the next World Cup?

Wenger on France’s radar?

Since the end of the season Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, has been quite coy on the speculation surrounding his future at the club. Although many fans had wanted Le Prof out of Arsenal last season, it seems the majority have again warmed to him since the signing of Granit Xhaka.

When speculation surrounding his future was at it’s highest point, Wenger did comment to say that he isn’t sure of how much longer his managerial association with Arsenal will last, with as early as the end of next season being a possibly departure date for the Frenchman. With his contract up at the end of next season and there yet to be any committal to a new deal, it starts to spread rumours that next year could be his last.

Wenger has been linked with many many clubs during his twenty year reign over the Gunners, including the likes of Real Madrid and AC Milan. However, Le Prof has remained loyal to Arsenal through the toughest of transition periods for the club, which just shows the respect that he should rightful gain from fans and players alike. But now media reports in his native homeland France, could suggest that he is lining up a position with the international team.

Wenger said: “I am getting a bit old now to make long term plans. For the moment I am a club manager, we shall see what happens.”

Wenger has left a sense of ambiguity around the subject, and it raises the question could Wenger be leading France out at the 2018 World Cup?

To sign a deal with the French national team would make sense in a way of ending his managerial career, because like he said, he isn’t getting any younger and is fully expected to move away from the professional game in the coming seasons. It is a fact that managing a national team is a lot less stressful and takes much less of your time that club managership, so you could see the appeal for Wenger as he gets older and weaker. However I would much prefer if Wenger was to move upstairs at Arsenal after his managerial position comes to an end. This is because I am sure that there is a position on the the board just waiting for him. Wenger has a wealth of knowledge that can help this club continue to improve, especially in finances and for the long-term future.

This is why the opinion of some is that his knowledge is more directed towards business rather than football tactics nowadays, and so he could definitely have a board role set up for him in the near future. But the reason question is will Wenger choose to finish his career on the international stage instead?

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Great bets to give Arsenal fans interest in the Euros

With no Arsenal games for the next few months, we can at least console ourselves by watching some of our best players performing at the Euro2016 tournament in France this summer. I have been looking around at some good bets to give us an interest in the competition while keeping an eye on the form of our Gunners.

A lot of Gooners in the UK will be looking for Jack Wilshere to regain his earlier Arsenal form in the qualifying Group where he won the Man of the Match for England in 5 out of 6 games. The Lions are 8/1 fourth favourites to win the competition, and if you think Our Jack can be the man to galvanize them to victory it may be worth backing Wilshere at 66/1 with Betfred to win the Player of the tournament, or if you are feeling very lucky try Aaron Ramsey at 150/1.

Okay enough of the fantasies, let’s look at some realistic bets from Betfred that could actually win us some money. I personally don’t think that England can win it, but the 11/2 that Betfred offer on the Lions to win all three Group games seems very reasonable. And a fair Ramsey bet is for Wales to reach the QuarterFinals at 4/1. These are Betfred specials but if you sign up using this Betfred promotion code 2016 they will also give you £30 in free bets to play with!

Arsenal have other players at the Euros though, and with Giroud and Koscielny playing for the favourites France and Mesut Ozil appearing for the World Cup winners Germany, we can expect one of those to go all the way to the Final. My favourite longshot is for Germany to win it and Muller to be top scorer at 16/1. If Ozil continues providing chances that could be a very good bet. Also I’ll do Ozil to be named Player of the tournament at 20/1. I can see both those bets winning me money!

If you think that Giroud’s hat-trick in our last game shows that the Frenchman is coming back to form, it may be worth having a saver on France to win the competition and Giroud to be top scorer at a very tasty 28/1. I’m going to do all of these wagers and I’m pretty sure I’ll still have some interest going on all the way through to the Final.

What do you think is the best bet out of that lot?

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If the combination between the two Arsenal players Olivier Giroud and Mesut Ozil had carried on the way it had been going in the first half of the season, there is a very good chance that the Gunners would still be on course for three FA cup trophy wins in a row and we would not be sitting 11 points behind Leicester City and six behind Tottenham in the Premier League table.

I am not blaming Giroud entirely because you would have thought that our other forwards would have chipped in a lot more, but you cannot get away from the fact that the French forward’s goal drought has coincided with the team’s own troubles on the pitch.

Arsenal are not ready to give up on the title yet, though, but it would be a huge help if we had an in form Giroud again to finish all those chances that Ozil and the other creative players in the side keep providing. So to see Giroud play well and score a good goal with some fine finishing last night, as France beat Holland 3-2 in Amsterdam, was just what us fans wanted to see.

Giroud should get another chance to shine on Tuesday against Russia and if he does come back to Arsenal with renewed belief, could it make the difference in the EPL title race?

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Arsenal to seal surprise transfer of Varane from Real Madrid?

A year or so ago you would not have given Arsenal FC a snowball’s chance in hell of being able to sign the young centre back Rafael Varane from his current club, as the French international was a regular starter for Real and was drawing rave reviews for his performances in Spain and around Europe.

For some reason, though, Varane has dropped down the pecking order under first Rafa Benitez and now Zinedine Zidane, with Sergio Ramos and Pepe the preferred central defensive pairing and with Nacho starting to get more game time. At 22-years old and with his national team France about to host the Euro 2016 tournament this is hardly ideal for the talented young defender and there are growing reports that he could be moving on in the summer.

Varane himself has even hinted, as reported by The Mirror, that he is not really sure what his future holds and that makes me think that Arsenal should definitely be on the alert about the possible transfer of this player.

Varane said, “I would like to play every game. The coach knows what I want, but it’s up to him to make the decisions.

“I’ve spent five years playing with the best and I’ve never lost heart. without strength of character it’s impossible to stay at Real Madrid.

“It’s pointless making long-term plans in football. I’m happy in Madrid. I want to keep improving to go to the next level. We’ll see how my situation develops, but I’m not having any headaches over it anyway.”

So if Varane does decide he needs to move on, and with Madrid likely to spend big again they might well be willing to sell, Arsenal have reason to believe we could win the race to sign him. With Per Mertesacker’s place coming under pressure and with Varane’s international team mate Laurent Koscielny the first choice centre back, a move to Arsenal could be good for Varane and his international career.

How about it Wenger?

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AWESOME striker skills have Arsenal fans buzzing

Arsenal fans might start to remember that it was not too long ago we were all purring about the skills of our French international striker Olivier Giroud, after he became the third fastest player in the club’s long and distinguished history to reach 50 goals.

He was also on course to fire Arsenal to the Premier League title but the two goals he scored in the 3-3 draw with Liverpool were the last we saw for some time. Hopefully Giroud will have a good international break with France and come back firing on all cylinders and if the video below showing him in training this week is anything to go by, we should be hearing the strains of his song being sung around the Emirates stadium again very soon.

Okay Arsenal have options up front with the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Danny Welbeck and now Alex Iwobi but Giroud is still by far the top scorer this season with 21 goals and we really need him back in form to stand any chance of catching Tottenham and Leicester and making sure this Premier League title challenge does not fizzle out and disappear.

Come on Olly, keep banging them in like that and come back to London ready to prove your doubters wrong again.

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Southampton star talks up Arsenal move

The Southampton midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin, who has been the subject of many Arsenal rumours in the last few weeks, has revealed that he is now keen to move on to a club playing in the Champions League (18 years and counting!) but insists that the South Coast club must agree to the deal first.

He said: “For my progress and my visibility, it would be better to play for a club who play in the Champions League.

“I know there is a lot of speculation, but I still have three years on my contract, it does not depend on me. We’ll see in the coming weeks.”

Schneiderlin, who is currently with the French national team in Clairefontaine, has been the top holding midfielder in the Premier League this season and would be the perfect successor to the ageing Mikel Arteta. I sincerely hope that Wenger pulls out all the stops to get him this summer.

Who agrees?

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New Arsenal striker wins World Cup

Arsenal new boy Yaya Sanogo has won the Under 20’s World Cup tournament with his national side of France. Impressing throughout, Sanogo was one of the key players in the entire set up and was France’s highest goal scorer on 4 goals over the course of the tournament.

Although not winning the best player award, which went to former Manchester United and current Juventus midfield maestro Paul Pogba, nor the top goal scorer award, which went to Ghana’s Ebenezer Assifuah, Sanogo’s efforts will not go unnoticed and he has been one of the many outstanding talents on show this summer.

Many fans were sceptical at his signing and I’ll be honest in saying that, although I was disappointed we were announcing the signature of a free agent from France, rather than the world class Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain, I still wasn’t overly disappointed about the purchase we had made.

The 20 year old’s injuries worried me and I originally thought we’d just end up with another injury prone player amongst our ranks, and this wasn’t helped by the fact he picked up an injury 5 days after he was officially announced as our first signing on the club website.

But watching him recover, play 90 minutes and score a goal, only a few days after he sustained the injury made me realise what a true talent we had signed. He won’t be our main striker that’s for sure and if in some ridiculous circumstances he turns out to be our main striker on a regular basis then something is either seriously wrong with the club and management mind-set or he is ridiculously talented to the highest level.

Dependent on any other strikers we will sign this summer, at the current moment Sanogo probably has a place on the bench nailed down, however I would expect him to only really feature in the FA Cup and Capital One Cup this season, as well as the odd Champions League and Premier League game, but it shouldn’t be anything more than that because let’s face it, we can’t be really resting all our laurels on this 20 year old unknown striker. What we do want to see is some rapid progress from Sanogo, and he is certainly at the right club for that.

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Arsenal’s young gem Sanogo needs a lot of polishing

I am sure that lots of Arsenal fans tuned in to watch the new signing Yaya Sanogo play for France last night in the under 20s World Cup game against the hosts Turkey. I don’t know about anybody else, but I wasn’t exactly blown away by the 20-year old striker, even though he did score a goal as France won 4-1 and went into the quarter-finals.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to see an accomplished and finished article, because Arsenal would not have been able to sign him on a free transfer with no competition if he had been setting the world alight. One of the commentators said last night that Arsene Wenger likes a project, and that pretty much hits the nail right on the head.

Sanogo is a rough diamond that needs a lot of polishing. But, he also has the attributes to be a very expensive and sought after diamond if Wenger can work his magic. We should remember that Sanogo has already had to miss quite a bit of his progression due to injury, and he played last season in the French second division. Having said that, he showed last night that he has pace, power and can finish. At times he showed a delicate touch and awareness of the players around him, but not often enough.

He needs work, basically, but he is coming to the right club to improve. The cool way he took his goal was very encouraging, and that makes three from four games in the tournament. We will get at least one more chance to watch him at the weekend in the quarter-finals. If France get through that, they will have two more games, so hopefully they will. Just don’t expect him to be like Thierry Henry just yet.

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Arsenal will challenge for Premier League title says Giroud

Olivier Giroud came through his first season as an Arsenal player relatively unscathed. Despite a tough start when his nerves were getting the better of him and a few bad misses in front of goal had knocked his confidence, causing the Arsenal fans to start thinking we had another flop from France on our hands, he improved and showed signs that we could actually have a great player.

His figures of 17 goals in all competitions is not bad, especially for a debut season in the Premier League, but it is not fantastic either. The big Frenchman is very optimistic about the approaching season, for himself, his country and also for Arsenal. He will need to play well to hold down a regular first team place, with Arsene Wenger expected to buy at least one top quality striker this summer. He will need to be playing regular football as well, to make sure he keeps his place in the France national side.

Giroud explained, “It is a massively important season with a lot of challenges. I will become a dad for the first time, which will be a n enormous change.

“I also really want to establish myself with Arsenal and to make a name for myself here. Finally, I dream of playing at the world cup in Brazil next summer as well. I played in the last Euros, but this would be even more amazing. I am really excited about the season to come.

“If we start better than we did this season, I know that we can compete for the title, because we are used to playing together now. We have improved as a team but also as individuals throughout the season, especially the newcomers like Santi, Lukas and me.”

Giroud brings a lot to the team, not just goals. Some of his flicks as a hold up player were sublime, while his strength and aerial ability allows the wide men and midfielders to get forwards and attack. He also showed that he can finish well. If he can just do it more often, and I think he will, he could become an Arsenal great, but he must do better next season. With Podolski also having his debut season under his belt, Wilshere fully fit and some quality additions, Arsenal could be on the road to something special.

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Samir Nasri shows he’s a good loser (NOT!) with four-letter rant!

The ex-Arsenal traitor Samir Nasri has shown the world that he still hasn’t grown up despite being saying at the end of last season: “I’ve matured, I’m now a champion in England and can handle these pressure situations,”

Nasri became a figure of hate for Arsenal fans after he forced Arsene Wenger to sell him to Man City and then followed it up by many anti-Arsenal comments during the season.

He proved he was still a pain in the a*se when he was asked for his post-match reactions after France’s defeat to Spain last night. He was reported as responding that “you journalists are always looking for s—,” while also shouting at the media crowd to “go f— yourselves, you sons of b—-es; now you can go write that I was poorly raised.”

Well I don’t know about being poorly raised, but I do know he is an overpaid idiot with an over-inflated ego who will never get a job as a diplomat!

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