Sport1.de-news: Arsenal London's Coach Arsene Wenger is fed up with the numerous dates in international soccer. That's why the French is threatening with founding an own league by G14. The French explained in a newspaper interview: "The G14 meanwhile has 18 members and with 18 teams we could organise a new league if uninteresting competitions like the Confederations Cup are not abandoned." The missing breaks for recovery after the season are making Wenger angry: "The club will go so far to refuse allowing players to take part". -------------------------- Even as clear Euro-League supporter for the future: with 18 teams they won't succeed. They can't simply play 34 games and that's it - they'd need a much higher number of games (at least 60) to keep their financial power. The main message of Wenger is clear though: less unimportant competitions, a better standardized international schedule is inevitable. His threat to refuse a request to send a player to a national game will happen soon though, Bayern Munich has the same ideas.
This guy is such a whiner. If he doesn't want national team caliber players on his team then he should go coach in the second division. The downfall of coaching such a good team is that the number of games played increases dramatically, both through club competitions and international commitments of individual players. Every other coach realizes this and deals with the issue appropriately. Leave it to ARSEne Wenger to threaten childishly about "taking his ball and going home."
Perfectly said, Andy. Spot on... I recall a few years ago during the Gold Cup (may have been in '98, IIRC), when he was referring to that as something of an "unimportant tournament" (paraphrasing here) that shouldn't be occurring during the middle of the Premiership season when key teams would be losing key players of CONCACAF countries... and it wasn't even HIS team that was put at risk!! Arsene Whinger-- I'm sorry, Wenger-- whinges for the sake of whinging sometimes. And now he's done it on the subject of the Confederations Cup, yet again. http://www.sportal.com.au/soccer.asp?i=news&id=34106 What Wenger has to realize is that dynamic and revolutionary competitions such as the Confederations Cup exist to benefit countries outside of Europe as well as European players and teams. There is a world of soccer outside of Europe, after all-- and like you said, Andy, he should know what obstacles are in place, and he should do whatever possible to prepare his team to overcome them. I cannot possibly defend what he's going on about. Not one bit... Cheers, William
What you mention is the matter of a standardized international schedule. I see the argument that clubs know about the difficulties when signing non-European players, but OTOH the clubs pay the players and legally they are absolutely able to deny a request of an association (unless the players got a contractual guarantee, which would be very uncommon). An European basketball or hockey player also would never ever be allowed to leave his NBA or NHL team for a national game during the season; and afterwards they still need a special permit and they got to prove to have a good insurance.
I am not opposed to a standardized international schedule. Nor am I opposed to a clubs right to withhold their players from non-essential friendlies. I do think that Wenger's idea of secession is ludicrous and I think that his assumption that the Confederations Cup is "uninteresting" to the rest of the world is fairly arrogant. Something does need to be done to bring all the leagues and the international schedule into a more sensible alignment, but Wenger's proposal only divides the world football community at a time when we need to be unifying.
Really though, just what is the point of the confederations cup? The world cup is to decide who is the best team in the world. The European Championships/Copa America etc decide who is the best in each continent. The confederations cup is pointless. It's just a collection of invited teams playing for a cup of no value at all. Maybe the rest of the world thinks it's a great thing and it's only Europe that doesn't want it. In that case don't invite European countries to compete in it.
Arsenal now claim there is no threat of them leaving the EPL despite their coaches remarks. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=253869&cc=5901 You would think that a little two week tournament would do something to keep the players in shape and help them maintain a certain level of fitness and touch on the ball. It is good to see that Arsenal have no intentions of leaving the EPL and a little bit of common sense.
you people are getting it all wrong. Wenger has a job to do, to win titles for arsenal. Put yourself in his shoes having your players play worthless tournaments and not getting the break they need to be fully prepared and rested for the next premiership season. IT HURTS ARSENAL "I think that his assumption that the Confederations Cup is "uninteresting" to the rest of the world is fairly arrogant. " it is, just admit it.
What "is"? The arrogance or the interest? As long as you answer both then we're okay. Being from the US, I do have some interest in the cup since we will be playing some of the world's best teams, but I don't expect the rest of the world will get too excited about it. Well, you are right, it does hurt Arsenal, but it also hurts any other club team with foreign internationals on the roster. And you know what, I don't hear their coaches promoting secession from the league. If Arsenal want to be number one every single year then they will have to suffer through losing players to these tournaments, unless they can convince these same players to not play for their national team. Besides, are you suggesting that these players sit around and do nothing during their entire off-season. I would think that would make them worse off at the beginning of the season than practicing with their national team and competing in one tournament during their multiple month off-season.
"Besides, are you suggesting that these players sit around and do nothing during their entire off-season. I would think that would make them worse off at the beginning of the season than practicing with their national team and competing in one tournament during their multiple month off-season." you are talking like if this were the nfl. They dont play 16 games a season, they are playing 80 plus a year! wenger is not the only one to complain (viera, zidane, plus many others) dont forget the injury factor, you saw what so many games did to the star power of the wc.
[sarchasm]I know that Arsene Wenger likes to vent against matters which do not benefit Arsenal, French soccer and European soccer in general, [/sarchasm]but going back to Olaf's original post, in all seriousness, what does Wenger mean by "uninteresting competitions"? I'm sure most soccer fans and those with a truly global view would find competitions such as the Confederations Cup very intriguing... And what of it, if it hurts Arsenal? Tough cookies, Arsene-- you know of the obstacles your club has to face in modern times in order to be at or near the top, so just overcome them... Just my two cents here. Cheers, William
I think a main aspect is FIFA or at least UEFA determining a clear off-season without games. This WC had injury and exhaustion consequences as never before. Leverkusen's WC players were two weeks in training after the WC before the season started. Seven weeks off after a tournament should be a minimum - three for vacation, four for pre-season. On the other hand the Coaches could save some of their mourning by better coaching: I claim that a well trained pro player must be able to play three games a week. The problem is that Coaches learn how to prepare a team for one game a week and then don't know how to switch their training schedule for a higher strain - co-operation with experts on sports medicine would help them a lot. Also, most Coaches give great excuses for their players. Most warn because of the UI-Cup, say that it's not fitting in the pre-season, that the team would collapse in November because of exhaustion - and then all this of course is happening. Same with Bayer Leverkusen this year: already in the pre-season they said 'we can't be in good shape before the end of August'; when it was late August they moved the date to the end of September, then to October and then to the winter break - of course the players took the invitation and just did what was expected of them. Contrary example: Stuttgart's Coach Magath said "UI-Cup is great, perfect season preparation for us, nothing could be better" - result: making the UEFA-Cup, no collapse in the league (a very surprising rank 5), surviving in the UEFA Cup over the winter.
how does Wenger have a say as to weather Arsenal plays in a Euro League or not he's the coach of the team shouldn't the owner(s) of the club have the final say
I thought the same thing as I saw this thread. He can talk all he wants, it doesn't really make a difference unless the people at the team who are in the position to make such a decision actually agree with it.
He doesn't, and I already posted the article with Arsenal's response, which came pretty quickly after Wenger's words were issued. lond2345- I am not suggesting that these players continue a rigorous schedule all throughout the off-season, but I do think it would be detrimental for them to not touch a ball again until training camps start. A mid-summer tournament gives the players time off before and after the tournament. Part of having a standardized international schedule, I believe, would include games over the course off the off-season. Would it be more beneficial for the players/coach to have international fixtures during the season thus missing games, or during the off-season, negating an extended period of rest? It is a tough decision to make, but an easier answer would be to just eliminate international competition all together. I am sure that would thrill Arsene Wenger, but it wouldn't make the fans of the game very happy.
Exactly. The problem is that the top players are no longer getting any "down" time. The Confederations Cup is simply a tournament too far. As RichardL points out, it's really a "nothing'" tournament: the World Cup decides the best team in the world, confederation championships decide the best team in each confederation, the Confederations Cup decides precisely nothing. Hopefully it will just quietly die after this year.
Good question, Andy. I really don't get why the Coordinated Calendar has the international games in spots, one or two games at a time. I would prefer that an "international block" of games would be at least two weeks, four potential matchdates, but a national team wouldn't have to play in all of them (unless it's a qualifier).