Alhaji Righteous De Ambitious: Dec 24, 2010

Friday, December 24, 2010

World Cup 2010 Blog: Some Like It Hot, Including Arsene Wenger

Some Like It Hot, Including Arsene Wenger

Posted: 23 Dec 2010 09:40 AM PST

Arsenal-Coach-Arsene-Wenger-hT2

Whenever most coaches of a giant club opens their mouth, it’s often with the bent and benefit of their team in mind. It’s just good coaching, and good coaching is a numeric job of 24/7/365.

Arsene Wenger’s no exception. In fact he may be in the top five with Hall of Famers Sir Alex Ferguson – due a lifetime achievement award – and Jose Mourinho, who may replace Fergie in a number of roles one day.

Of course suspicious though it may be, it’s still a decent enough break from the mundane winter transfer news and the rumors of Liverpool fans congregating in vigil outside Rafa’s house.

His statement is an important subject, if for no other reason than the recent rumblings that the World Cup needn’t be played in Month X, or that major leagues must hold true to Schedule X.

“That [the heat in Qatar] is a big problem,” said Wenger. “They have spoken about maybe having the World Cup in the winter. Why not? I'm not against that at all.

“But I think overall, in the whole world, football should be played between February and November, and then you could organise it for winter.”

What exactly does it mean? Just the one season, or the whole system in general? The subject is Qatar, but he’d arguably like nothing more than to field his slick system through June and July, fitting in with the managerial gospel that is cui bono.

Russia’s recently ignored their slight winter chill – well, not entirely, as there will be a significant break – and scheduled their league for the more common European fall-to-spring model, and one thing we’ve learned with the recent World Cup is that as soon as something is spouted in the press, someone else chirps back with ‘Hey, that’s not a terrible idea…’

Well, this is, since it would eliminate the concept of midseason form, but with nothing set in stone anymore, someone is writing this down.