Beef Bagel

Dag nam it. Actually, I’ve no right to be frustrated. Based on the performance, a point at Blackburn was a fair result. In fact, it was slightly more fair on us. There’s no way Tugay should have been sent off in the interests of a good game. Yes, technically he was the ‘last man’ but that rule is not there to send off players making honest but mistimed challenges in the box. Surely it should only be in place for keepers in a one on one and when the attacking player is on the break? Fair enough if the striker is brought down under pure cynicism but it’s just all rather frustrating. I don’t have a problem with the referees and the linesmen getting it wrong but the failure to apply common sense is inexcusable. When will one of them stand up for what they believe in?

Tugay was trying to block the shot not dispossess the man. He flew in. He missed and unfortunately for him, there was just enough contact to bring the man down; very slight it was but enough. Penalty fair and square. What about Ghaly’s card? Well, yes we’ve seen those reds before this season and it is very hard to prove intent with those ones. You don’t have to look at your man to know where he is. It’s easy enough to flail your arms and hope to catch a part of him. The Bagel would’ve gone for a yellow but likely, the ref was evening up the situation; a red a piece for each side. Who’d be a referee anyway? Terrible job. The only reason I’d do it would be to enjoy free football and to issue 11 red cards simultaneously to the entire Arsenal side as they walked out onto the pitch. My report would read thus,

‘There was an incident in the tunnel at the start of the game where the whole team insisted on playing for Arsenal. They argued the point. I warned them twice and was finally given no choice in the matter. My punching of Arsene Wenger was purely personal.’

Neither Blackburn or ourselves have done particularly well with two players suspended and only a point each to show for the trouble and predictably both have petitioned the FA to have the cards rescinded. The likelihood of either being a success is about zero. There is no way that one will be removed and not the other and according to the useless letter of the useless law both are acceptable red card offences and the FA will back up the much abused referee’s judgement and so they should really. It’s not really the ref that’s at fault. It’s the manner, in which they are encouraged to enforce the law and really that’s probably down to the pressure from FIFA anyway and I’m sure that’s got something to do with the politicians in Brussels and their EU bananas.

All the rest of the news today seems to be further chapters of stories already started. Sagas continue as previous transfer rumours gather pace and twist and turn like that proverbial twisty turny thing. As January approaches and all too fast if you ask me, our focus is once again drawn to the left wing conundrum and rightly so after yet another narrow looking Lennonless performance at the weekend.

First up it’s Lens’ striker come winger Olivier Thomert. The man’s a Frenchman through and through born in the city of peace, Versailles. He’s 26 years old. Here’s his head…

…trying to look up Mrs. Murphy’s skirt.

He’s 187cm and 80kg, which is well…it’s big. That’s around 6′2″ and built fairly solid and it seems we were after him back in the summer of 2004 (ahhh, those heady days) when Lens countered our £2m offer with a price tag of £9.3m. That’s what you call a small difference of opinion. The question is, what do we think he’s worth? Well, let’s take a look…

…apologies it’s that ridiculous one again. Thomert’s are the second and third goals rather than the Yohan Demont header we looked at last week. Worth a watch again though for the commentator, ‘Connection! Connection’ and his strange singing between the fifth and sixth goals.

Our man certainly looks like he can finish and run so it’s thumbs up from the Roll with the Hole.

Next up is another player in a similar mould and that’s Bagel favourite Luis Boa Morte or ex-favourite anyway. See the problems here are that he’s going to be thirty next year and also he has been absolutely rubbish for my fantasy team all season. It is, of course, going to be harder to shine at Fulham but if he can recapture some of his old form, than he’ll do for a season or two. The deal is likely to be a cash plus Routledge switch and I could probably cope with that. It’s not fantastic as we still don’t really have back up for Lennon. Hmmm, not ideal this one but better than yet another window passing without that hole being plugged.

Now it’s time for Chapter three of Leonardo and don’t blink now because it’s a quick one. After last weeks passport/work permit issues, this is what his agent has to say,

“Leonardo is still thinking about it”

Fascinating. Apparently, he may not move until the summer window, by which time he would be able to play in this country but hopefully by then the position will be filled. What’s more, he may find that Breda have already shipped him off to reclaim as much cash as they can for the out of contract player.

The only truly new transfer story of the day is that of Chinedu Ogbuke and it’s probably the most unlikely to happen. Edu as he’s known, which is an excellent idea seeing as that makes him the third one playing the game at the moment, is wanted by (deep breath) Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and AC Milan, oh yeah, and us. He’s 20, he’s another 6′2″ er and here’s his head…

…doing a Dr.Evil impression.

He’s a Nigerian in Oslo, which isn’t quite as good as an Englishman in New York, he’s a striker and he can do things like this…

… not bad but can he do that in the Premiership? Certainly looks interesting though.
Starting to thing about Thursday. Are you?

Bayer Bagelkusen.

The Bagel.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 3:06 pm and is filed under Transfer News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.