Alexandre Hleb: Hit or Miss?

In the summer of 2005 Arsenal announced their first signing, Alexander Hleb, for a total fee of £9.94million.

The Belarus international arrived with a reputation as a skilful and exciting attacking midfielder. At Stuttgart he was employed behind the strikers or in a floating position wide on the left.

With a combination of quick feet, pace and balance he is devastating with the ball at his feet. His game is based on his unpredictable and fantastic dribbling ability.

Initially the playmaker struggled to adapt and he eventually broke his duck six months into his Gunners career by scoring in the 7-0 thrashing of Middlesbrough.

His next goal arrived in March 2006 in the 3-0 victory over Charlton and then in April against West Brom, who were overpowered 3-1 by Arsenal.

His first season ended as a success story as he and Emmanuel Eboue developed an excellent understanding that transformed the Gunners’ right flank into a dangerous outlet.

The north Londoners reached the UEFA Champions League final and most Hleb sceptics had been won over by his work rate, close control and never-say-die attitude.

Now in his second season at Arsenal, Hleb is fully acclimatised to the demands and rigours of the English game.

The classy midfielder was expected to show his true worth this term and to fulfil his potential as an extraordinarily talented footballer.

Instead he has ended up dividing Arsenal fans into two camps; those that vilify him as a thoroughly useless midfielder with a pathological fear of shooting, and those who believe he just needs a bit more time.

Hleb started the campaign with a bang by scoring his first Champions League goal against Porto in a 2-0 victory and then netted his first away goal in an Arsenal shirt as the Gunners taught Reading a lesson at the Madejski Stadium.

His next goal arrived at Blackburn in a 6-2 thumping and Hleb’s Arsenal career was looking promising until he picked up a hamstring injury. The luckless Hleb has failed to rediscover his very best form since recovering from this injury.

In summary, Hleb’s record reads a petty six goals in 82 games for the London giants. At his old club VfB Stuttgart he scored 13 goals in 137 games, which gives him an average return of a goal every ten games or more.

This could be down to the fact that he is not playing in his natural central playmaker role but it is more likely down to his tendency to pass rather than attempt the shot.

This has been the trademark of Arsenal’s style of play in recent seasons and Hleb seems to be suffering from this disease, unlike his more illustrious team-mate Tomas Rosicky, who rarely hesitates to pull the trigger when the opportunity presents itself.

His dearth of goals would not be such a major problem if he was assisting the way he did at Stuttgart where he topped the assists chart with 14 in his last season at the Bundesliga club.

The hapless Hleb has also been below-par in this department with a poor return of three assists in the Premiership. His lack of assists may, however, be down to the fact that he is not playing in his natural role behind the strikers.

Arsene Wenger will have to shoulder the blame for this as his abundance of central midfielders has lead to Hleb learning a new position as a right winger.

Hleb is not the only player to have found himself recast as a wide midfielder, as Abou Diaby, Mathieu Flamini, Rosicky and Cesc Fabregas will testify.

With Denilson and Gilberto also competing for central midfield positions it is understandable why Flamini and Fabrice Muamba are more than eager to jump ship.

A team that lacks natural width will always struggle to break down opposition that are more than happy to defend the whole 90 minutes and unfortunately Hleb and Rosicky have been shoe-horned into wingers at the team’s expense.

Wenger should listen to captain Thierry Henry and sign Frenchman Franck Ribery while Freddie Ljungberg and teenager Theo Walcott are the only recognised natural wide players in the squad.

Wenger’s most successful teams had prolific goalscoring wide midfielders such as Robert Pires and Marc Overmars. The current Arsenal midfield lacks goalscoring ability and Hleb’s inability to find the back of the net from right wing puts even greater pressure on the strikeforce, which is sorely missing Henry and Robin van Persie.

Hleb’s ability and work rate are terrific but it is of little use to the team as he consistently fails to deliver an end product.

If the tricky Hleb cannot drastically improve his performances next season then he should be sold. To say the least he has been a proper disappointment at Arsenal given his fantastic ability and trickery. He has never scored a decisive goal in his Gunners career.

If Wenger is happy with his contribution then the Arsenal fans’ biggest fears are true.

What is this fear I speak of? The fear that Wenger is happy that his beloved Arsenal are not challenging the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United for the Premiership title.

Jorge de la Fuente

The power of RSS

For the past few years I have had an internet connection which has drastically changed my life. I have been a consistent subscriber of certain websites. I would log on to these sites on a daily basis to check out the latest news articles, stories and developments. This is the approach that the majority of online users utilise initially when browsing the internet.

Now with RSS, which stands for real simple syndication, I have discovered and harnessed a new way to get the most content out of the sites I frequently visit. I am obsessed and completely fascinated by this revolutionary approach.

For those of you that are not aware about RSS here is a brief explanation. RSS is a method that delivers content directly to the users. The users subscribe to the RSS feed of their choice and they will then become recipients of that content via a reader. The user can then check these feeds through a reader to see if their is new content and if so they will be able to retrieve it.

I had first heard of the term RSS in early January 2005 but it is only now that I truly understand and respect the power of RSS. It is really simple and basically serves the same job that the traditional newspaper delivery boy does, except in a virtual world. I use the built in Mozilla live bookmark function for my RSS feeds in addition to Google reader to access my latest content. At the moment I am satisfied with the combination of these two tools for all my RSS needs. I now believe that I will know everything about all my topics of choice and I will never miss out on anything. All this without even having to make an effort!

The image below indicates that an RSS feed is available. My blog is now RSS compliant

The south african media device market… or lack of

I am currently in the market for a portable media center (I am looking to spoil myself after all my recent hard work). I want a device that has audio, video and photo playback and it must be able to store any type of data. My criterion is simple and it makes sense. A device that can bridge the physical distance between my home pc and the remote pc’s that I use. A portable mass storage device capable of media playback. This device must also offer a simplistic powerful user interface that allows advanced functionality. A touch screen would do the trick! In addition the device needs to be universally compatible with all computers and all formats (so I can cope and paste with no fuss and play without changing formats). Is such a device out in the market? I think so from my initial research but the real question is whether this device is available in South Africa. I am not so sure about that.

As part of the buying process I have completed step 1 of identifying my need and now I am doing my research to find the right product for me.

Before I discuss what I have found I feel the urge to mention what I am not looking for. The Ipod is exactly what I do not want. An overpriced fashion accessory, with retarded user interface and an even more pathetic firmware that locks the device to one pc. I have had the fortune to test the product as I have friends that own them. I quickly became disgusted with the limitations this product offers. Since I am in the market for a mass storage device I will be needing something a little more sophisticated then a touch wheel to access my data. I have had the frustrating experience of attempting to navigate a large library with a wheel that clearly was not designed with the user in mind. It is completely feeble-minded that you can’t load music from a pc straight onto the ipod without using itunes. If you don’t use itunes then you wont be able to access the files thru the ipod (only through another computer), which means you won’t be able to play the music even though it’s on the ipod! If you want better usability from your ipod then you need to hack the device! What are these apple people thinking? Basically what apple is saying to me is that if you buy our product then you are an entry level user who does not have the intelligence to demand a more sophisticated product and value the (un) fashionable looking device over a more advanced design made with the user in mind. I ask the question why is the device the way it is? I think maybe it is because of strict piracy laws that put the device under a lot of legal pressure since it is potentially a mass piracy device. Well if that’s the case why cant they borrow a trick from the tobacco industry and put a disclaimer on the device saying it is illegal to pirate (similar to a cigarette box disclaimer such as: smoking increases the risk of cancer). Its not like it is actually possible to stop or control piracy, will the anti-piracy companies ever accept they are fighting a losing battle?

Well as part of my research I went to canal walk, which I believe, is the biggest mall in the area that I live in. I spend at least 3 hours looking around at every electronic store trying to find a quality alternative to the ipod. Only one store had a mass storage creative Zen device that I was impressed by. This device offered volume control on the side of the device and the functionality looked more advanced then what the ipod offers. Instead of a touch wheel it had a straight line touch pad that makes a lot of sense. Anyone who has a basic knowledge of mathematics is aware that the quickest route from one point to the next is a straight line (not a round wheel). In my search I ventured into incredible (rip-off) connection and I was told the creative Zen is an overseas product and they do not stock it… They do however stock the apple ipod, which is also an overseas product. I did journey through many stores and I saw the same DVDs and the same music CDs in every shop. I then came to the conclusion that the retail sector in South Africa is pathetic. I thought about it and remembered that every store is pretty much owned by the same group of owners, which basically means competition is not really that important for survival since the market is shared. That seems to be working for them because the average consumers in South Africa are happy with mediocrity and actually buy all this crap. I assume so because of the huge quantities of stock they supply. At the end of my exhausting and tiring experience at canal walk I bought myself a couple of books to convince myself my experience wasn’t a complete waste of time.

One of my favorite local DJ’s – Sibot (from max normal, real estate agents, chromoscience) once told me about his product of choice. It is called the Iriver (check it out @ www.iriver.com). After checking it out I was very impressed by the touch screen control and the general design. This linux based device looks like a proper storage device that meets the criteria I have set out for myself. The fact that is is called an iriver pmp (portable media player) says it all. The main question is, once again, is it available in South Africa? I would be shocked if it is available through retail without having to pay through you arse. If available it would be on the Internet, the home of quality products. I am still looking into more brands in my search for a quality product. Will keep you posted when my search comes to an end!

Unemployed no more!

Today on Monday 29th of January I would be celebrating my 2nd week of full-time employment. This news is personally a great relief to friends, family and myself. I am now a taxpayer and one step closer to becoming fully independent. My employed status brings new exciting opportunities to my life. The 1st of these opportunities is that I get to work at an exciting company with a talented network of peers that can only help me progress and sharpen my skills. The 2nd opportunity is that for the first time in my life I have significant disposable income. I am now in a position where I can make things happen as oppose to watching things happen around me.

In other news… Today also signals the start of my corporate soccer league career against the out of sorts’ go2africa. This match would be meaningless if it was not for the fact that my brother Erick and founder of team evil, Marco play for this team. I am anticipating a good competitive match and may the best team win. With that in mind I leave you with this Dilbert comic to show you just what the working environment can be about!

Arsenal hit Blackburn for six!

The debate whether english football should take a break during the winter Christmas period is a debate that will continue to exist while the premiership continues to offer an action packed schedule for clubs and fan alike. Firstly I would like to point out that I agree with the commentator of the arsenal Blackburn game who explained how people want to be entertained during the holidays and that the football during this period provides thrilling action. From a fans perspective the Christmas period provides quality entertainment and gives fans something to look forward to during the holiday period. On the flipside the clubs find themselves with an extremely difficult period where squad depth, injuries and suspensions separate the men from the boys. On the continent England are amongst the minority that plays football during this period while countries on the continent opt to recharge their batteries. Recent Uefa results (past 5 years) show that spanish La Liga teams are the most dominating in European competition. Could this be a direct result of the benefits that a midseason break provides? To answer your question no clubs in La Liga are complaining about having a midseason break.

On a fine Saturday 23rd of December Arsenal faced Blackburn and produced an attacking performance that will surely send manager and fans home delighted. Arsenal recorded a devastating 6-2 win while close rivals Manchester united provided a 3-0 away victory and Chelsea scoring in the last minute to secure maximum points. Given that Arsenal have beaten Liverpool 3-0, Won at Old Trafford and held Chelsea to a 1-1 draw at Stamford bridge you could be forgiven for thinking Arsenal are a team that is challenging for the league. They should be but thanks to inconsistency, poor defending and concentration lapses Arsenal find themselves fighting to secure Uefa champions league qualification rather than League glory. The question then arises whether Arsenal is good enough to win a league title? The answer lies in the future as this youthful side develops and matures into a well oiled machine.

Arsenal can probably improve in every department but their lack of goalkeeping cover makes this a position that requires immediate improvement. The likes of Almunia and Poom are not good enough cover for Jens Lehmann. Arsenal would do well to snatch up a keeper who is good enough to hold his position if thrown into the team and who would have a future at the club.

In defence the gunners look solid and have a good mix of athletic and physical defenders. Kolo Toure has really come into his own lately and is perhaps one of the 1st names on the team sheet. William Gallas has proven his class for Chelsea and France and should provide the backbone for the side along with Toure and Gilberto. With Djourou and Senderos as cover in the centre back positions Arsenal possess two very talented albeit inexperienced defenders that are learning their trade and improving steadily. Djourou looks like a player who could go on to become a great defender in a couple of years once he reaches full manhood. Senderos provides Arsenal with an aerial tower of strength and a commanding influence at the heart of the defence. Emmanuel Eboue has come into the team and made the position of right back his very own. His high work rate and stamina are impressive enough to make all Gunners fans forget about Lauren. Justin Hoyte provides decent cover and his athletic play along with his youth might give him a future at Arsenal. At left back Gael Clichy looks like a prospect who is more than capable of filling in Cashley Cole’s departed shoes. Mathieu Flamini generally looks tidy, tenacious and intelligent when he plays and because of this he is able to slot in into both fullback positions and central midfield with a great amount of ease. Arsene Wenger with a good set of defenders at his disposal has all the essential ingredients for a solid backline once these players fully mature.

In midfield the new stand in captain Gilberto Silva leads by example and provides the youngsters in the team with a cool head to lead the inexperienced and raw talents at the emirates stadium. Cesc Fabregas (pictured) continues to excel in midfield and any future Arsenal team will surely be built around his vision, creativity and exceptional passing ability. If the ever reliable Gilberto is not around then Arsenal possess one of the brightest prospects in South American football. The captain of the Brazil under 19 side Denilson has been tipped to go on and do great things. Only time will tell if this 18 year old kid has what it takes to dominate in the english premiership. Flamini, Denilson and Alex Song provide cover for the defensive midfield position although Song looks like his future lies in the championship. In the midfield playmaker position Tomas Rosicky looks like excellent cover for the young Fabregas and could perhaps deliver his best performances in this position. It is worth mentioning his presence anywhere in midfield is welcomed news to fans and pundits alike. Rosicky is set to become a key component of a midfield that could go on to dominate in england and on the continent. Aliaksandr Hlebs performances this season have gone a long way to improve the fortune of the gunners and Arsenal will continue to look for inspiration from the talented and skillful Belarusian. Fred Ljungberg and Theo Walcott provide cover down the flanks. While Ljungberg is approaching his final days for the Gunners Walcott looks like a star in the making whose explosive pace is destined to make him a future star. Capable of operating down both flanks and in a striker role it is surely only a short matter of time until he will be considered too good to be left out the starting lineup

Upfront the question is who will partner club captain and top scorer in the clubs history, Thierry Henry. The once indespensible captain now finds himself temporarily out of action and is forced to watch his team mates improve the teams form without his influence under the guidance of stand in captain Gilberto Silva. Many fans including myself are believers that the captain’s armband is viewed as an extra burden on Henry’s main responsibility of scoring goals. Advocates of this theory are under the opinion that Gilberto Silva should be captain since he possesses more of the abilities found in good classic captains. Attributes such as composure, work rate, determination and team work make Gilberto the leading candidate to replace Henry should Wenger or Thierry himself decide it is in the team’s best interest.

The positive spin-off of having such an established player unavailable for selection is that it allows less established and experienced players a chance to stake a claim for a regular starting berth. With newly added competition for places from the likes of Adebayor and Julio Baptista, Van persie is no longer the automatic candidate to partner Thierry Henry in attack. Sheyi Adebayor (pictured) is finally showing his transfer value by putting in some excellent performances lately. Adebayor possesses an armory that includes talents such as strength, pace, aerial ability from the physical point of view and an excellent first touch, skillful feet and an eye for goal from the technical point of view. Julio Baptista on loan from Real Madrid has not yet shown his best form in an Arsenal shirt. Injuries have played a part in slowing down his introduction to english football. The man nicknamed “La Bestia” (The Beast) is a player who possesses tremendous power and strength. With a canon of a right foot it is only a brief amount of time until he persuades Arsene Wenger to agree a permanent deal with his club Real Madrid. Julio Baptista’s presence on the bench is sure to keep Van Persie and Adebayor on their toes as they know complacency and wasteful finishing could result in them losing their place to the beast. Reyes a player labeled as being too lightweight for the premiership will surely be deemed surplus to requirements at the end of his loan spell and could find himself out of the club along with Ljungberg at the end of the season. In Robin van Persie Arsenal possess one of the brightest talents in world football. Boasting a superior technical ability in his set pieces (corners and free kicks) shooting and dribbling he is destined to terrify premiership defenders for years to come. His ability to create for team mates and to finish off goals spectacularly makes him a player who could go on to achieve greatness. His delivery from corners and his ability to beat keepers and walls alike from free kicks makes him a constant danger to the opposition. Nicklas Bendtner on loan at Birmingham is another very exciting prospect at Arsenal. Topping the scoring charts in the championship and already in the Denmark international squad, He could go on to have a bright future for the Gunners.

With the January transfer window opening soon the question of whether Arsenal should sign players resurfaces. With exciting prospects such as Armand Traore, Kerrea Gilbert, Francisco Merida, Abou Diaby, Fabrice Muamba, Carlos Vela all in the gunners books Arsene Wenger may not need to sign in any position except for goalkeeping. There’s only a certain amount of players a club can have if they are to keep a happy squad and the addition of new faces may unsettle players who are establishing themselves in the team. With this thought in mind Arsenal should first sell before purchasing. Should Wenger decide to sell Ljungberg then Franck Ribery would make an excellent replacement for the swede. Ribery at struggling Marseille should be eager to join the french contingent at the Emirates stadium.

So can Arsenal achieve league title victory in the foreseeable future? I believe they can once a few changes are made. Firstly appointing Gilberto Silva as captain would be a wise move that could benefit Thierry Henry, Gilberto and Arsenal. The next step would be to sign a quality keeper who can displace Lehmann when he lets the team down with poor form and offer the team a more commanding presence when defending set pieces. Once Arsenal improves in set piece defending and on keeping clean sheets they should start punishing all the weak teams in the Premiership. Once Arsenal can do this on a consistent basis they will then be able to challenge for the league title! Arsenal already has the possession game mastered and they have the big match temperament to compete with the very best… Adebayor thinks Arsenal are the future of the premiership. I agree. Their Time is coming…

Welcome to Jorge’s blog

The time is 1:29 in the morning and the date is december 19th 2006. It is at this fine hour that I have decided to start my very own blog. I will be using this blog to voice opinions, thoughts, ideas and observations about a wide range of topics. Stay tuned…