FIRST VILLA, NEXT FIBREGLASS?

Fabregas may leave Arsenal to join the mighty Barcelona FC. They already got David Villa for £34m. Fabregas is reported to be worth £50m. If he leaves, we wonder how many more years does it take for Arsene Wenger to get the team matured once again to win titles. I think his kind of system of buying young potential players from other people's academies and grooming them to be potential superstars is not sustainable. Many of these groomed players just could not wait for that long and therefore leaves elsewhere for better prospects to earn honours. Patience and loyalty are not sustainable words in the football world today. Money rules football.

I am just trying to visualize the Barca midfield lineup with Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Fabregas. Incredible! Magnificent! It would be very scary! How can any club stop Barcelona? The midfield lineup is enough to make other clubs pee in their pants. I think if Barcelona can get Fabregas as well, I don't know how other teams can stop them next season. They will be a perfect team!

MOURINHO NEEDS TO WIN, UNLIKE WENGER AND RAFA

As always, another controversial statement by Mourinho. Well, to an extent, he is right but we have to compare apple to apple. If you are paid handsomely and given a huge amount of talented players as well as major transfer fees, you are expected to perform straight away. You can look at the other angle and say well it's unfair since your job will be more secured if you are at a situation like Arsenal. You can always use the excuse of time needed to build a young team and not enough budget to buy anything big. Well, let's just see how far Inter Milan can go this season.

Inter Coach Mourinho: I Need To Win Trophies To Keep My Job Unlike Wenger & Rafa Benitez
Inter coach Jose Mourinho talked about the pressure of coaching in Italy and the importance of midfielder Esteban Cambiasso to the team.
Oct 15, 2009 9:08:40 PM

While Inter prepare for a tricky away match against Genoa on Saturday evening, coach Jose Mourinho gave an interview to Inter Channel in which he talked about being called a 'bauscia', Milanese dialect for arrogant, loud-mouthed person, midfielder Esteban Cambiasso, and the transfer market.

"Am I a 'bauscia'? Yes, I know what it means," Mourinho said. "Certainly all the fans know I give everything for the club and also to them. I couldn't work any other way, that's how I am."

On Cambiasso, he said, "I would need two Cambiassos, one playing ten meters further forward and the other ten meters behind."

Asked about who Inter might buy in the near future, the coach preferred not to name any players, "I don't want the newspapers to say Inter will buy this or that player."

On his future as coach of Inter, he said, "[Arsene] Wenger has been Arsenal's coach for 15 years but he hasn't won even a Carling Cup for six years. [Rafa] Benitez hasn't won a league title in six years but he continues to be Liverpool's coach.

"This is not the Italian mentality. To stay here I must continue winning and do well."

Danilo Pochini, Goal.com

ARSENE WENGER IN MALAYSIA

The Professor was in town for a 45-minute coaching clinic for the National Under-10 squad, Harimau Muda, coached by Ong Kim Swee. What he shared about investing in coaches and players are not what Malaysia is interested in. The country has never been very serious or genuine about investing in sports and the last decade of quality decline is a clear indication of how terrible the sports development has become. Singapore already has a sports school while we are still wandering what is wrong with our sports development when it is very clear in black and white what is very wrong when you mix politics with sports.





Educate Coaches And Young Players - Arsene Wenger

KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 (Bernama) -- There is still room and hope for Malaysian football to improve its standard in the world stage, especially through educating quality coaches and young players.

English Premier League Club, Arsenal's team manager Arsene Wenger said it is vital and crucial to produce quality coaches who will then create and produce quality players.

"The raw material is everywhere in the world but it depends on how much had been invested to produce quality coaches.

"In certain countries, if they have money available, its goes straight to the first team instead of channeling it to the development of youth teams," he told reporters after conducting a football clinic at Dataran Merdeka, here Tuesday.

The Frenchmen also stressed that the best ages for development, especially in Asia, was between 8 to 12 years-old.

"If you do not start at that age, players produced after the age of 12, will never have technical quality. Just like when I choose players for Arsenal, they must have quality, talent, intelligence and technical ability because it is not enough just to have physical and motivated players," he added.

Earlier, Wenger who is here as the Castrol global ambassador, conducted three test sessions on the National Under-19 squad (Harimau Muda).

The three tests conducted were for T-Test Run, the vertical jump and the 20-metre sprint as these tests can reveal the real caliber of players in determining how fast a player can chase the ball in a short distance, change direction and determine a footballer's jumping ability.

As for the Harimau Muda players, Wenger said he was very impressed with them because they have versatile techniques and were playing in the Premier League, which is a good base for their development.

He said it will be interesting to see them when they are 23, because that is the most suitable time for them to play in the national team.

Wenger also believes in developing players at a young age and exposing them to important tournaments to help them mature.

"For Arsenal, next season's English Premier League (EPL) will be more interesting as the young players have matured after the experience of playing top level football, including in the European Champions League, reaching the semi-finals, FA cup semi-finals and consistently winning in EPL," he said.

The 60 year-old, who started his career as manager of AS Nancy-Lorraine from 1984-1987, AS Monaco (1987-1994) and Nagoya Grampus Eight (1995-1996) before moving to Arsenal in September 1996, has guided the Gunners to a double in the (1997/98) EPL season by winning the Premier League and FA Cup and repeated the same feat in the 2001/02 season.

Arsenal has since remained as one of the leading clubs in the EPL and finished the 2009 season in fourth place behind Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea.

-- BERNAMA