Pre-season 2012-13 Thread

by Sri Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:22 am

The players who weren't involved in the Euros have returned for pre-season training on July 9, 2012. The likes of Song, Santos and Arteta should be in training now.

The list of pre-season games are as follows(All in UK time):

14 Jul vs Anderlecht and Southampton 18:45

Markus Liebherr Memorial Cup at Southampton's St Mary's Stadium.

Round-robin tournament of three 45-minute games:

1. Southampton vs Anderlecht at 1715 hours.

->The opening match followed by a procession of the Olympic torch around the stadium.

2. Arsenal vs Anderlecht at 1845 hours.

3. Arsenal vs Southampton at 2000 hours.

24 Jul vs Malaysia XI 14:45 ESPN
National Stadium Bukit Jalil, Malaysia

27 Jul vs Manchester City 13:00 ESPN
Beijing National Stadium, China

29 Jul vs Kitchee FC 10:00 ESPN
Hong Kong Stadium

12 Aug FC Cologne 16:00 ESPN
Rhein Energie Stadion, Köln, Deutschland
(We also played here last season, and I had written up a report when I returned from the game. We are visiting again this year, as a part of the deal signed with FC Köln for Podolski.)

I will try to keep the thread updated as and when available. Here is hoping for a good pre-season without any injuries and with some good chemistry developing between the players!

by Sri Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:27 am

Wenger - Chinese fans are so knowledgable

Arsène Wenger is relishing his return trip to China and a chance to be reunited with some of the most knowledgable Arsenal fans in the world.

The manager will take his squad on a tour of Asia later this month, kicking off with a friendly in Malaysia before further matches in China and Hong Kong.

Wenger is no stranger to the continent having spent two years with Japan’s Nagoya Grampus before he moved to England - but even he was taken aback by the reception for Arsenal last summer.

"The first shock in China was how quickly the country has developed," reflected Wenger.

"But the second thing for me was how much people know about our club. When we are in China it was unbelievable. I had a press conference at Hangzhou and people in the room knew more about Arsenal than I did!

"Another surprise is how passionate people are about sport over there. The mystery remains for me that, in a big country with such a big passion, why do China not have a fantastic football team?"

Wenger thinks the gateway to a successful China national side lies in education.

"My advice would be more to educate players," he said. "Why? Because if you are a developed country it means you have manager material in your country.

"To lead a company or to manage a football team requires the same qualities, apart from the technical side. You have that in China, but what you do not have is the quality of the players. Why in a country of 1.5 billion people is there no Messi or no Ronaldo? That is the real problem and that is just down to education and grassroots football.

"My advice to Chinese football is more to structure the coaching system between five and 12 years old because football is a technical sport and you need to have access to technique at a very early age.

"After 12 years of age if you have no technique then you will never have it. That is very important and that goes through the schools and the football clubs."

by RealGunner Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:47 am

only 4 proper pre season friendlies this time. The club should have replaced the nigeria tour with 1 friendly with a lower league club imo.

by Sri Tue Jul 10, 2012 1:11 am

RealGunner wrote:only 4 proper pre season friendlies this time. The club should have replaced the nigeria tour with 1 friendly with a lower league club imo.

Lesser games are good in a way RG.. Means lesser time spent outside, and more time for AW to thrash out in-club issues with Ivan Gazidis and Dick Law. That is probably more important right now.

The games do offer a small revenue stream and a possible fan base expansion opportunity. However, I agree that another game in England, probably at the Emirates itself, would be a good idea.

by Jay29 Tue Jul 10, 2012 1:45 am

I think there would be more games if we weren't touring Asia. They're travelling to Malaysia, then to China and then to Hong Kong in the space of fives days - that's a lot of travelling in a short space of time, and I imagine that's the reason why the trip to Nigeria was called off.

There's a two week break between the Kitchee and Koln games. I think they need that time to do some serious work, because they're not going to able to do it between preparing for the matches in Asia, travelling, and doing all the PR stuff that comes with the tour.

Also, I reckon there would be another game between the Liebherr Cup and the game against the Malaysian XI if we weren't missing seven or eight players because of the Euros.

by Emaharg Tue Jul 10, 2012 3:27 am

Hope they do the Arsenal TV thing where you pay like 2 pounds for all the friendlies.

by TalkingReckless Tue Jul 10, 2012 4:05 am

Emaharg wrote:Hope they do the Arsenal TV thing where you pay like 2 pounds for all the friendlies.

i think it's 2 pounds per day not all friendlies

by Sri Tue Jul 10, 2012 4:06 am

Emaharg wrote:Hope they do the Arsenal TV thing where you pay like 2 pounds for all the friendlies.

Four of the friendlies are being telecast by ESPN anyway.. There are bound to be some live streams as well in that case.. I remember watching the friendlies (except Köln ofcourse) on live streams last summer..

by Sri Tue Jul 10, 2012 7:20 am

Ashburton Grove :

Pre-season training got underway yesterday and it was a nice hard double session to get the players back in the swing of things. It's lucky Andrey Arshavin wasn't involved. He doesn't like training for more than 90 minutes, let alone four hours.

Lol