Jack Panic + Bacary’s Bac, alright!

January 27, 2012

Amid the swirl of the 24/7 interweb news cyclone it’s often hard to know what’s fact and what’s fable as stories and rumours have a habit of getting themselves jumbled up and both can disappear as quickly as they arrived.

It’s annoying as a dispassionate observer, all the more so if you’re trying to write a blog first thing in the morning and you’re waiting for confirmation of a story. And if the story/rumour is unspeakably bad news it’s a downright miserable way to the start the day. Welcome to my Friday.

The news/rumour on Twitter this morning is that Jack Wilshere has had a setback in training and could be out either for an additional three weeks or possibly until the end of time depending on how hysterical the Twitterer. Of course it’s hard to comment on a story that could well turn out to be hogwash but needless to say, if even partially true this could be a massive kick in the balls for our already fairly rubbish season.

Even if not true it just goes to show how dangerous it is rely wholly on the return of a single player. If he hasn’t had a setback now he could have a setback next week. Or the following week. Or on his return game. And with our recent luck with injuries you could hardly call it a surprise. It’s something that we should plan for.

I’m not going to get into the ins and outs of this any further because at the moment there’s just no way of knowing for sure. There’s nothing from the club as yet but the boss will give his pre-Villa press conference this morning and no doubt we’ll hear about it there. Keep everything crossed.

In other actual bonafide news which I can safely comment on, Robin Van Persie has issued his latest inspirational rallying cry, this time opting to do so via a statement on Facebook. Seems a bit of an odd way to rally the troops to me. Usually anything written on Facebook just annoys me as it tends to be some sort of a backdoor brag. ‘Forced to go to another one of these A-list celeb parties tonight for work. Yawners! Just want to sleep!’. The only thing they inspire me to do is write abuse on the offender’s wall. Let’s hope Robin has more luck:

There are plenty of games still left, we have recovered from reverses like this before and we will win again, so anybody writing us off is making a mistake,” he said.

This could still be a good season for us. We have the FA Cup to look forward to and the Champions League.

We will all be giving 100% to make sure we bring one of those trophies home, hopefully both of them.

Let’s all stick together and fight.

The Marble Halls, Theo Walcott and 360,000 others like this.

In other social media based news Bacary Sagna announced on his Twitter yesterday that he was back in full training. Great news. We’ve missed him massively. The only downside is that since he made the announcement I can’t get that Backstreet Boys song out of my head. The one that, to me at least, goes ‘Bacary’s back, alright!’. The most irritating thing about this is that it’s the only line of the song I know. That and the bit that goes ‘Oh my God he’s back again’. So for the last twelve hours my head has just replayed those two lines over and over again and I can’t get it to stop.

If I go on some sort of killing spree later today my hope is that this confession can be used in court as a mitigating circumstance.

If you fancy a fairly long read about Theo and his state of mind I suggest a look at this interview with The Telegraph. There’s not a lot new there. He admits to a lack of current form but is working on it and for the umpteenth time talks about how he sees himself as a striker not a winger.

Playing central might not happen just yet. It depends on the manager. I have put it out there. We will see if it ever happens.

I will play anywhere to be in this team but people do forget that I am a striker. Hopefully one day I will show what I can do up front.

 

It strikes me that if he wants the opportunity to prove himself as a striker he could start by showing he has the ability to make better runs into the box. There’s no reason for him to be stapled to that touchline. In fact the system requires him to make late diagonal runs into the central areas and provide a target for passes from midfield. It’s something that Pires and Ljungberg in particular managed from that wide position and there’s no reason why Theo shouldn’t be doing the same.

Think about how many goals Thierry Henry scored by picking the ball up on the flanks and drifting inwards to place the ball in the far corner of the net. If Theo could do more of that then maybe he’d be more likely to get his wish of playing up front. Mind you, if he could do that then maybe he wouldn’t need to anymore. As it stands he’s going to have to do a lot more than talk to prove he has what it takes to dislodge RVP from that position.

Incidentally, Theo was talking at the Premier League Reading Stars event to encourage young football fans to put down their Xbox controllers and pick up a book. Each player had to name their favourite adults book and favourite kids book. Theo went for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling and TJ and the Hat-Trick by…Theo Walcott. I mean, good for him and all for taking part but if your favourite adults book is a kids book and your favourite kids book is one you presumably had ghost written and you’re just using the opportunity to sell a few more copies then maybe you’re not the best choice of role model for young readers.

Oh that reminds me, I’ve been asked to vote for my favourite internet blog.

There’s this brilliant one called The Marble Halls…

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