Well our start to the season hasn’t exactly gone to plan has it?
After the opening day horror show at Wolves was followed by an unlucky defeat to Spurs, statistically speaking our season was taken to new depths of despair after Saturday’s defeat to the Premier League champions. Statistics can be misleading though.
Clearly not one single Stokie is happy with our current league position. After watching Saturday’s game in the pub (I didn’t go because I was boycotting Chelsea’s ticket prices) I was pleasantly surprised by the levelheaded acknowledgement of just what an encouraging display the Potters had put on.
For me, Saturday was everything I have come to expect from Stoke City. We looked solid, worked really hard and created some good chances against the best in the land. After looking on the Internet forums it would appear that many Stokies agree with me.
It was great to see Kenwyne Jones back after his opening day injury. While clearly not fully fit he showed that when the ball is played up to him, it sticks and we will be able to play off him. Despite being nowhere near 100%, KJ certainly gave John Terry a good work out and he will certainly be better for the minutes he got under his belt at Stamford Bridge.
We now have two weeks to get everyone fully fit and bed in any new players that TP manages to bring in before the window slams shut. I imagine there won’t be much work done in the Potteries on Tuesday as Stokies desperately try and find out any news and scour the net when the boss isn’t looking!
As we all know the one thing that our team is crying out for is creativity. Our midfield is functional but not a great lot else. The lads in the middle of the park have served Stoke really well but if we want to progress there will have to be casualties in that department.
As I write this we are currently being linked to Eidur Gudjohnsen. Clearly he is an incredibly talented footballer who could provide us with a great creative spark. I haven’t yet worked out how we would fit him into the team but we’ll worry about that later. His pedigree is top class and he would represent a superb bit of business if we manage to recruit him.
In other news it appears that the Arsenal manager still has it in for us with his ridiculous and un-called for attack this week. Clearly Mr. Wenger knew the impact of his words prior to his team’s victory at Ewood Park on Saturday but it was still totally out of order. What baffles me is that people like Wenger truly believe their own self-importance. No club or individual is any more vital than any of the associate members of our football pyramid. English football is such a fantastic institution because of all the great clubs throughout all the tiers of our game. To that end Arsenal are no more important than say Barnet, who currently occupy the bottom spot in the whole league.
What Mr. Wenger needs to realise is that football in England was just fine before his arrival and it will continue to flourish in all its many and varied forms long after he departs. He is not responsible for managing our game and his views have become increasingly irritating and condescending to the average football fan.
What angered many Stokies about his recent comments was the fact that despite completely fabricating an alleged incident between Ryan Shawcross and Heurelho Gomes it appears no action will be taken against him. It is totally wrong for a manager to discuss players at other clubs, especially when they are attempting to create some sort of personal gain out of the comments.
Perhaps Mr. Wenger’s comments shouldn’t come as a surprise with the total lack of class he showed when asked about the fantastic career that Paul Scholes has enjoyed. Who else when discussing such a great player would feel it right and proper to include such negative views?
Mr. Wenger may be the manager at a very rich and powerful club but it appears the old saying about you not being able to “buy class” holds true in this instance as well.