Euro 2008 Gets Underway

Despite the non inclusion of England, I found myself fairly excited about the summer’s international tournament which I can go into as a neutral. I was left dissapointed after a series of dull fixtures reminded me just how dull international football can be. And then came the Dutch.

Pre tournament Holland were not among the favorites – not up there with the Italians, the Spanish and the French because, despite some attacking firepower, they boast a lackluster defense. Yesterday they put on the best showing of the tournament so far. Holland are great to watch, which was what I was thinking before they even opened the scoring against World Cup winners Italy. Their passing was great, the technique of the players far better than any other European national outfit. Holland won me over immediately, albeit supporting a team with Ruud Van Big Nose in it is a hard task.

Throw in Arjen Robben at a later date and a sharper Robin Van Persie, who made a late cameo appearence and you have a very serious candidate for winners of the tournament.

Jens Lehmann aims parting shot at Gunners? Not quite. Being substitute annoyed him, he claims, but of course it did. Let’s just the ignore the part of his comments where he says “Arsenal will remain a beautiful experience in my life. Both on a sporting and personal level, I reached the top there,” which I think is a good note to leave on.

Arsenal have a new home kit and though not revolutionary, I like.

Alex Song, now more of a central defender, has signed a long term contract with the club. The player, who has been the subject of criticism in the past, proved at the end of last season that he had something to offer, when given the chance to play in the team ahead of Philippe Senderos in the last few games of the season. Premiership new boys West Brow are said to be interested in bringing him in on loan, which is something I wouldn’t rule out. Wenger looks likely to sign a new center back this summer and that means someone out of Senderos, Song and Djourou is likely to be on their way, whether that be on a tempoary or permanent basis. A season’s experience of regular football at center back could do Song a world of good.

Bayern are said to have joined the hunt for Alexiander Hleb cue talk that we might enter the race for Ribery in a swap deal of some kind, though we would surely have to offer some money in addition to Hleb. The whole swap thing’s just a theory though and unlikely to happen.

Patrick Vieira could be returning to the Premier League as part of the Arsenal retirement home at Portsmouth, which would be cool but he’s nowhere near as good a player as he used to be, which is probably why new boss Mourinho would let him leave Inter.

Finally, Gary Lewin has decided to become England physio on a full time basis. Best of luck to him though I would imagine this means that we will now finish below Tottenham in the Premier League next season. Shit!

Edit: That Welsh kid, Aaron Ramsey of Cardiff City, is said to have noted Arsenal as his preferred destination. I haven’t seen much of him myself. He is 17 and broke into Cardiff City’s first team last season, resulting in a late cameo appearence in the FA Cup final against Portsmouth. I’m fairly happy about this given that Man Utd had prematurely announced their bid had been accepted and were obviosly confident about getting their man. The stumbling block could be that Arsenal don’t want to loan Ramsey to Cardiff for next season while Man Utd are prepared to do that.