Young Guns

Well friends, we are only into the second day of the “work week” and there is another Arsenal match today to help us through. The Gunners travel to the Hawthorns to take on West Brom in the Carling Cup. Even though this is a tournament that doesn’t carry the weight it once did as the League Cup, Wenger still says he would like to win the trophy as it is one of the few he hasn’t gotten. Of course, this is more rhetoric than actual desire as he is following his usual formula of putting in the reserve players in the early rounds of the tournament. This tournament gives the younger players a chance to experience being a part of the First XI and what it is like against a non-reserve side. West Brom are a recently relelgated side, so they still have players of Prem quality and will be looking to move back up. But that desire to move up may be an advantage for the young Gunners as the Baggies will probably put in their reserves as well so they can save their starters for the League. Hot off the Arsenal.com press is the list of the Carling Cup squad.

Manuel Almunia
Mart Poom
Philippe Senderos
Johan Djourou
Joe O’Cearuill
Matthew Connolly
Gael Clichy
Armand Traore
Mathieu Flamini
Alexandre Song
Denilson
Mark Randall
Jay Simpson
Theo Walcott
Emmanuel Adebayor
Jeremie Aliadiere

I’m looking forward to seeing Big Phil back in action and hope to see some of the younger leaders like Connolly for the first time. I’d imagine that Walcott will get the nod to start and hope he gets to play in a striker role. It may be Ade and Aliadiere up front, though Jeremie is as fragile as a snowflake so he might not make it through the whole match. Let’s hope I’m wrong and the kid can stay healthy for more than a few weeks.

In other football arenas, big-ego Becks is stating he might actually like to come back to Manchester United and doesn’t think Fergie is a big meanie like he used to. Beckham has been relegated to the bench lately by gaffer Fabio Capello and as a result, Real Madrid are actually winning some matches! They just beat Barcelona over the weekend 2-0. I’m not saying the Becks was the downfall of RM recently, but it seems the new manager is more interested in putting out a squad that can win matches rather than one that showcases the “galaticos” as was done by previous managers. The lack of playing time has put a wrinkle in David’s sarong and he hasn’t signed a new contract offered to him by the club. He does say that he is working hard to get back into the starting XI. We’ll see. It seems to me that he has been touted as a star for so long he doesn’t realize he isn’t world class like he thinks he is. Now, he isn’t a bad player, but neither is he one of the best in the world. Beckham is at the end of his contract and can leave on a free at the end of the season. Some think he’ll be going back to England but I seriously doubt United will have him nor would any of the top clubs, and his ego couldn’t take playing for a Bolton or Pompey. My opinion is that he’ll start talking to some American clubs (either Red Bull New York or the L.A. Galaxy) in January and make a move to the States. Over here he would be like a Pele (in name recognition only) to many young soccer fans, could garner a large wage, and would be one of the biggest stars. All of that would serve his need for $’s and attention well. I could be wrong (it has happened once before, though we don’t’ bring it up) but I expect to see him in the US come summer.

Finally, I can’t wait until the election season is over and we can be done with the insanity of political races. They really seem to be heating up all across the country and some of the mud slinging is getting crazy. One of the more annoying themes here in Texas is that all the Republican candidates use the term “Liberal Democrat” in a highly negative connotation. Some ads say that certain Democrat candidates aren’t conservative enough for Texas. I’m not a huge politico and although I do lean a bit more left, I’m no bleeding heart liberal by any stretch. But there are some conservatives here in the state that scare the crap out of me. Therefore, I think I might vote for every one of the so-called “Liberal Democrats” just out of spite to the crazy negative ads. Not really a sound voting policy, but there aren’t too many good candidates to chose from. Oh well, there is my political rant of the year, or at least until something else annoys the crap out of me.

Adios.