Resurrecting Ali?

The final international friendlies take place tonight. Across the country, club managers and supporters alike will have crossing every extremity possible, praying to every deity imaginable, in an attempt to ensure that players are returned with all limbs intact and in working order. That is, unless your players are those who will be engaged in Champions League activity next week and are therefore excused participating what is, by the Football Association's tacit admission, a meaningless friendly. I'm speaking, here, of tonight's England match against Ghana.

On the subject of the Football Association and tacit admissions, it would have been really great for us- us being Arsenal- to get a tacit admission of just how instrumental Phil Dowd's decision making was in Arsenal's stunning collapse at "Mike Ashley Is The Man" St James' Park, or whatever it's called, a few weeks back. I mean, no one was expecting a public apology from the organisation that deems the referee's word sacrosanct and therefore final- except when it suits them. But Paul, what form would that "tacit admission" take? Well, quite simply, not having to suffer the sight of Mr Dowd anywhere near the Arsenal team for the rest of the season; the rest of his career is not realistic unless he retires or- a fate I would prefer- is dropped to the lower leagues never to be seen again. But no, as Untold Arsenal tell us, it is Mr Dowd who will be in charge when Blackburn Rovers step onto our pitch on Saturday night. It is Mr Dowd, it seems probable to suggest, who will give every 50/50 the other way, Mr Dowd who will manufacture a penalty from somewhere should the occasion demand it.

What's next, Massimo Busacca in charge of our next Champions League elimination match?

Reading the article on Untold Arsenal, it did seem, well... a tad paranoid, but then I think of how Dowd dismissed Diaby- not a decision I had a huge problem with, but allowed Barton and Nolan to do, pretty much, as they pleased during that Newcastle match. I think of the non existent free kicks given against Tomas Rosicky which led to decisive goals for Newcastle and, before that Spurs. Is it paranoid to trust the evidence of your own eyes? Or stupid to ignore it? Anyway, we can't do anything about Dowd now, we have to hope the team is good enough to overcome what is likely to be 12 men on Saturday. And that Arsène decides not to let Tomas Rosicky anywhere near the match. There should be little need for him really.

I don't feel particularly safe saying that with 5 days and 1 international match to go before this game, but there you go.

Speaking of old friends, which we kind of were, two of our former strikers are back on the Arsenal horizon again. Thierry Henry because Sky Sports News broadcast an hour long interview with him yesterday afternoon. I've not had the chance to watch it yet, but judging from what I have read about it and the comments on Twitter, the interview has gone down well with the Arsenal faithful. Something to look forward to, then. If that is something to look forward to, then I'm not really sure what to make of the return to the club of the hottest prospect to come out of France's celebrated Clarefontaine academy.

Yes folks, having left Middlesbrough last summer, Jeremie Aliádíère returned to Arsenal last month in an attempt to find fitness and a new club. He will, according to the Young Guns blog, feature for the reserves at Wigan this afternoon. Speaking to the Arsenal Magazine, the striker, still only 27 said,

"Deep down in my heart, my ambition is to convince the boss that I can still do good things for Arsenal if he is looking for a forward for next season. He knows me. He knows what I am capable of. I love this club. It's my home, my soul."

Clearly Aliádíère has made it past chapter one of "How to win friends and influence people". But the question remains how a player once considered the best striking prospect in France, now deemed surplus to requirements by Middlesbrough, can prove that he still has something to offer Arsenal. And how he does so, bearing in mind that a reserve team match at Wigan is a very small window of opportunity when compared to 8 fruitless years at the club. The sentimentalist in me, the me who remembers the electrifying goals he scored against Wolves in the Carling Cup, would like to think he has a chance to succeed. The fact is, though, that Aliádíère is probably now remembered more for the goals he scored against us- including a very important opener in 2008- than for anything he did as an Arsenal player.

Well, that and the fact that he was always injured and flattered to deceive on the majority of his "proper" first team appearances. Have things changed that much since then? I doubt it.

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