Ally
Active Member
... Out on the pitch, that is.
This boy has been the most divisive Arsenal player Wenger has ever had to deal with. Given the apparent transfer fee (anything between 5 and 10 million depending on who you listen to), you’d expect instant results. After all, a truly great poacher shows you his ability straight away - Wright and Nistelrooy being the best and most emphatic examples. True poachers can operate in any league - the same way as a good keeper is a good keeper no matter where he plays (Antti Niemi went from comfortably shutting out the Kilmarnock frontmen to comfortably shutting out Henry, Wiltord and Vieira without blinking an eye). This shouldn’t have been a problem for ol’ jug ears anyhow. He’d proven himself at Everton beyond any doubt - a goal every two games in a garbage team where he was getting no service at all. This wasn’t the odd strike against Bradford and Coventry either - in his first Mersyside derby he hit the net with a lightning example of how to turn and strike a football in one movement.
Cast your minds back to May 2001. The FA Cup Final was probably the most traumatic day in the last ten years of Arsenal Football Club - sure, the semi final of 1999 runs it close (By the time we blew the title at Leeds, no-one felt any emotion, just numbing disbelief) and maybe the Nayim does too. (Although we should have been getting beat by three or four goals that night if my memory hasn’t died on me, so the impact of that one was reduced slightly ...)
May 8th, 2002. 9:30 PM. There was a tear in my eye, and I’m not ashamed to admit that. But a year earlier, there were very nearly tears of a different sort. I bottled it up, when Owen got that second goal. I turned the TV off and went for a walk without even waiting for the final whistle. It was maybe a day or two later when I realised just how much I had been affected by the result. Myles Palmer called it a “farce”, and he was right. Six months later I spent three pages in an essay trying to explain just what it’s like to go so close, to touch something, to convince yourself you’re there, and what you’ve dreamed of is finally yours...and then it’s brutally snatched away, with no warning, leaving you sitting and not wanting to move because the horrible combination of disbelief, shock and pain is slowly drifting over you...I threw the essay away because, just as the feeling of victory is completely indescribable, what it is like to lose out is equally impossible to put into words.
The reason for all of this emotional torture? The lack of striking options. It’s difficult to credit now, since we all have a pleasant but infuriating habit of romanticising the past, but Arsenal in terms of front-men just weren’t clicking. Sylvain Wiltord had partnered Henry in the cup final - he was too erratic to rely on, and had not yet found his niche on the right wing. Furthermore, he wasn’t happy with how he was being used and, it seems now, was wanting out. Bergkamp, simply, was rubbish. He got three Premiership goals all season and wasn’t exactly the epitome of a flawless creative forward, either. Kanu was Kanu and as such wasn’t a player you would want to stake large amounts of money on to perform immaculately for fifty games every campaign
The we come to Henry. Henry had, finally settled down and was by this time generally seen as the second best sharpshooter in the English game. The arrival of Pires, in retrospect, was the factor which anchored Thierry as a frontman - he now had no obligation to hold the ball up, or drop back and win it in wide positions. The latter became an option rather than an obligation, and ended up becoming an integral part of TH14s’ game - he shares this responsibility with Pires and is allowed pretty much the freedom of the opposing half of the pitch. But (And there always seemed to be a ‘but’, doesn’t there?), he was suffering from the restrictions I’ve already touched on with regard to his strike partner - the debacle at Cardiff was the final straw. Thierry put in the most profligate performance I think I’ve ever seen in a game of football - while he had to take most of the blame, looking back it wasn’t all his fault. He rounded Westerweld three times and three times failed to score. Would there have been three goals as a result of these moves if there had been someone to cut the ball back to? Wiltord was, I seem to recall, not around in any considerable capacity to follow up and score.
Wenger took drastic action. On the request of Henry, and using his suggestions, he considered his options on acquiring a forward who was a proven poacher, left footed, quick, young and English. Jeffers was the only possibility, and the transfer went through along with those of Gio van Bronckhorst, Richard Wright and Sol Campbell. And some Japanese fella, I think.
Franny was given the number 9 shirt - not ,though, any guarantee of regular first team football, as Davor Suker will probably testify to. The plan was to integrate Jeffers into the Arsenal style of play as painlessly as possible, to minimise the number of chances that were being wasted at Highbury and become the perfect foil to play off Henry - on paper, both could be given license to play wherever they liked, swapping around with one playing deeper than the other and one taking up positions for the other to come inside and utilise the cut back. This was something Kanu liked to do, so the indication was that the Nigerian was being slowly phased out in favour of a prospect who could adjust fully into the Premiership game. Harsh realities and all, but everything was about to change.
The first game of the season at the Riverside saw Bergkamp come on as a late substitute to hold the ball up and secure our 1-0 lead. In the space of two minutes right at the death, the Dutchman had produced two top quality goals completely out of the blue to turn an edgy win into a rout. Given seventeen minutes, he had nearly equalled his total for the whole of the previous League period.
In the next game, Wiltord netted with a totally sublime diving header. In the third against Leicester, Kanu entered affairs late on to set up a goal for Henry and claim one himself. Wiltord had also been world class, against admittedly awful opposition, but there were problems here already - three strikers who had previously been pencilled in to play second fiddles to the new arrival were looking like they were all on top of their collective game.
It was six matches before Jeffers made a full start for Arsenal - beforehand he had been limited to bit part cameos where nobody had seen an awful lot of what he could do - and this was pretty run of the mill, the only memorable incident being an infamous failure to score from half a yard from a perfect cross at the far post. People started to grumble (well, murmur), quietly. Jeffers was taken off, and was completely shown up by his replacement, Bergkamp again, who scored a majestic third goal with virtually the last kick of the game. This had been set up by Sylvain Wiltord.
On 22nd September, things took a turn for the better. Bolton, on a Ricketts-inspired surge to the top of the table (No matter how temporary) refused to budge at Highbury with ten men - Pires put the chance on a plate for Franny who converted his first Arsenal goal from four yards with no fuss. In the ensuing celebrations, Jeffers collided with Pires. It was probably a sign of what was to come.
I don’t intend to go into any great detail about the remainder of the season. Franny-wise, everything was shambolic, with repeated operations on a mysterious ankle problem that stubbornly refused to go away. Ten appearances, seven of which were off the bench, hardly struck the fear of Wright into the hearts of defenders everywhere. Then, Arsenal decided to run some tests on the injury. They showed a problem all right...but in a completely different place to where Everton had diagnosed it and had spent much of the previous season operating on. That such an aberration could occur in this age of sport is scarcely believable, but occur it did, and the mystical injury jinx was swiftly put to bed, it seems now for good. This was of course too late to ensure any sort of participation in the championship run-in, but Franny did return against his old club in the title party on 11th May. Thierry Henry gave up his hat-trick to give Franny a lay-off...who hit the post on a completely open goal. He did eventually score with a close range flick, but in truth nobody was left convinced.
Any scepticism was flooded with all the celebrations, anyway. People accepted that Jeffers should be given a clean slate for the next campaign. His strike rate wasn’t bad at all, in terms of his goals-to-starts ratio - if he could carry this on and into a considerably longer space of time, the investment made by Wenger could yet prove to be very shrewd.
Couldn’t it?
Over the summer, after the World Cup and in between the arrival of Cygan, Gilberto and the Carini fiasco, Jeffers was generally being touted around as one to watch. Either that, or the fan literati were ripping him to shreds for his spectacularly unimpressive debut season, characteristic of the stone wall division in opinion when it comes to the Fox - at the time you either liked him or loathed him. There were very few who were willing to sit on the fence, not launch into long-winded rants about obscene transfer fees and give a fit Jeffers time to show his worth.
Even they would have had their patience severely tested, though. Our start to the campaign was just about immaculate, Sylvain Wiltord playing the integral role, and Jeffers hardly featured. He now looked like a Danilevicius, but nine times more expensive; one of Wenger’s follies that he makes now and again, only never on this scale. Picture a team with a midfield of Mendez, Boa Morte, Malz and Inamoto and a strike force of Wreh and Caballero...oh, wait. Jeffers. Not Caballero, Jeffers. Scary thought.
His third Arsenal goal and first of the season came against Sunderland reserves in the Worthless Cup, and therefore was generally not counted. I recall the biggest outburst amongst the fans occurring after one of the greatest team performances in Premiership history at Elland Road - the ‘Jeffers out’ lobby started to gain considerable momentum. Again, there were complications, this time in the form of Kanu who went on a valuable scoring run, also chipping in an outstanding showing in Auxerre. Jeffers had little or no chance of getting a game in that climate, and the situation remained the same until boxing day.
Bergkamp was missing and Franny was finally handed another start for Arsenal, having waited for well over a year. This time, there could be no excuses of any sort, as WBA took the lead after two minutes and the contribution of the two frontmen suddenly became vital if anything was to be sneaked away from the Hawthornes. Arsenal mounted an onslaught with Henry playing his ‘culprit’ role, missing several good chances - until at the best possible time, right at the start of the second half, he delivered a perfect low inswinging cross straight into the path of Franny, who waited for the ball to roll into the position he wanted, steadied himself and scored, exhibiting flawless adjustment and balance - the ball had been slightly deflected on it’s way in, and Jeffers had shown the instinct of a natural finisher to check his run in a split second and easily had the composure to beat Russell Hoult.
In my humble opinion, the incident that was the turning point was when Wenger offered Jeffers on loan to Rangers. An apparently crass transfer rumour which has now been largely forgotten was in reality very true, and was the most direct message possible from a manager to a player without a word being said. Wenger had picked the one team in Britain who weren’t going to accept his offer (The pool of strikers available to the Glasgow club was Shota Arveladze, Ronald de Boer, Peter Lovenkrands, Claudio Caniggia and Stephen Thompson - there was no way another attacker was needed) and deliberately made everything public. It might have looked messy (And there’s always the possibility that what I’m describing happened in a different way - but something tells me that’s not the case) but as a clear, unequivocal kick up the arse it worked, and it worked straight away.
Bergkamp was generally favoured, showing exactly why at Anfield in January, but a titanic FA Cup draw was about to hand FJ9 the stage he wanted, and needed, to start a new phase in his career at Highbury. Two goals against Farnborough in Round 4 were the very least that could have been expected, however the subsequent tie picked out for the fifth stage was of course at Old Trafford. Jeffers was thrust into the biggest game so far as an Arsenal player - as he had done with Richard Wright previously, Wenger had opted to select Franny in every FA Cup game (I presume up until the final, unless he firmly establishes himself ahead of the competition before then...Yes, yes, touch wood....) and as such was assigned to start the game with Sylvain Wiltord.
I remember commenting as the news broke that “We were out of the FA Cup.” You see, if you brace yourself for a fall, it’s generally not so bad as it might otherwise have been. (Go back to the 2001 FA Cup final again for a precise example of completely the opposite...) But there was no fall. Jeffers showed a side of his game no-one had ever suspected was there - he acted as the engine for our front four, popping up all over the pitch to win the ball, running tirelessly and brushing aside anything the Mancs threw at him without a second thought. Don’t get me wrong, the game wasn’t won because of him (It was won because of the cohesion between Edu, Vieira, Sol and Keown), but his contribution under such pressure pointed to a player who had matured beyond all recognition. He still retains an effervescence that I think is crucial for a young player to develop - just look at his celebration when Edu scored. His naiveté is generally all good, and that’s rare.
This evolution in his style of play was later confirmed - he scored against Charlton, showing that him and Thierry had found each other’s wavelength, and recently, the two games against Chelsea saw the best performances yet. I don’t intend to rewrite my match reports for those games here (you can always read them separately) but his movement off the ball was as good as anything in that category in the Premiership just now.
I said at the start that true poachers will show their ability straight away. Why didn’t Franny? Simple. Because he isn’t a true poacher. Perhaps Trading Standards should take a look at Everton, but when we invested in a multi-million pound ‘goal hanger’, we got something more. Far, far more.
While they are two players at opposite ends of the striking spectrum, and while I’ll probably be jumped on because genius is irreplaceable, when it has an off day, as it has recently...Jeffers plays. Instead of Bergkamp. And that’s nothing to do with criticising the most graceful player ever to wear an Arsenal shirt. It’s the highest possible compliment I could pay to the new kid on the block. Bergkamp on this form would work brilliantly coming off the bench. However, this is about the future. The future’s bright. The future’s got big ears. And that’s why Jeffers should be out on the field for us, now.
Ally Winford
Think pace, think power, think anticipation, think positioning, think balance and think instinct. And think what that list will expand to given time ...
This boy has been the most divisive Arsenal player Wenger has ever had to deal with. Given the apparent transfer fee (anything between 5 and 10 million depending on who you listen to), you’d expect instant results. After all, a truly great poacher shows you his ability straight away - Wright and Nistelrooy being the best and most emphatic examples. True poachers can operate in any league - the same way as a good keeper is a good keeper no matter where he plays (Antti Niemi went from comfortably shutting out the Kilmarnock frontmen to comfortably shutting out Henry, Wiltord and Vieira without blinking an eye). This shouldn’t have been a problem for ol’ jug ears anyhow. He’d proven himself at Everton beyond any doubt - a goal every two games in a garbage team where he was getting no service at all. This wasn’t the odd strike against Bradford and Coventry either - in his first Mersyside derby he hit the net with a lightning example of how to turn and strike a football in one movement.
Cast your minds back to May 2001. The FA Cup Final was probably the most traumatic day in the last ten years of Arsenal Football Club - sure, the semi final of 1999 runs it close (By the time we blew the title at Leeds, no-one felt any emotion, just numbing disbelief) and maybe the Nayim does too. (Although we should have been getting beat by three or four goals that night if my memory hasn’t died on me, so the impact of that one was reduced slightly ...)
May 8th, 2002. 9:30 PM. There was a tear in my eye, and I’m not ashamed to admit that. But a year earlier, there were very nearly tears of a different sort. I bottled it up, when Owen got that second goal. I turned the TV off and went for a walk without even waiting for the final whistle. It was maybe a day or two later when I realised just how much I had been affected by the result. Myles Palmer called it a “farce”, and he was right. Six months later I spent three pages in an essay trying to explain just what it’s like to go so close, to touch something, to convince yourself you’re there, and what you’ve dreamed of is finally yours...and then it’s brutally snatched away, with no warning, leaving you sitting and not wanting to move because the horrible combination of disbelief, shock and pain is slowly drifting over you...I threw the essay away because, just as the feeling of victory is completely indescribable, what it is like to lose out is equally impossible to put into words.
The reason for all of this emotional torture? The lack of striking options. It’s difficult to credit now, since we all have a pleasant but infuriating habit of romanticising the past, but Arsenal in terms of front-men just weren’t clicking. Sylvain Wiltord had partnered Henry in the cup final - he was too erratic to rely on, and had not yet found his niche on the right wing. Furthermore, he wasn’t happy with how he was being used and, it seems now, was wanting out. Bergkamp, simply, was rubbish. He got three Premiership goals all season and wasn’t exactly the epitome of a flawless creative forward, either. Kanu was Kanu and as such wasn’t a player you would want to stake large amounts of money on to perform immaculately for fifty games every campaign
The we come to Henry. Henry had, finally settled down and was by this time generally seen as the second best sharpshooter in the English game. The arrival of Pires, in retrospect, was the factor which anchored Thierry as a frontman - he now had no obligation to hold the ball up, or drop back and win it in wide positions. The latter became an option rather than an obligation, and ended up becoming an integral part of TH14s’ game - he shares this responsibility with Pires and is allowed pretty much the freedom of the opposing half of the pitch. But (And there always seemed to be a ‘but’, doesn’t there?), he was suffering from the restrictions I’ve already touched on with regard to his strike partner - the debacle at Cardiff was the final straw. Thierry put in the most profligate performance I think I’ve ever seen in a game of football - while he had to take most of the blame, looking back it wasn’t all his fault. He rounded Westerweld three times and three times failed to score. Would there have been three goals as a result of these moves if there had been someone to cut the ball back to? Wiltord was, I seem to recall, not around in any considerable capacity to follow up and score.
Wenger took drastic action. On the request of Henry, and using his suggestions, he considered his options on acquiring a forward who was a proven poacher, left footed, quick, young and English. Jeffers was the only possibility, and the transfer went through along with those of Gio van Bronckhorst, Richard Wright and Sol Campbell. And some Japanese fella, I think.
Franny was given the number 9 shirt - not ,though, any guarantee of regular first team football, as Davor Suker will probably testify to. The plan was to integrate Jeffers into the Arsenal style of play as painlessly as possible, to minimise the number of chances that were being wasted at Highbury and become the perfect foil to play off Henry - on paper, both could be given license to play wherever they liked, swapping around with one playing deeper than the other and one taking up positions for the other to come inside and utilise the cut back. This was something Kanu liked to do, so the indication was that the Nigerian was being slowly phased out in favour of a prospect who could adjust fully into the Premiership game. Harsh realities and all, but everything was about to change.
The first game of the season at the Riverside saw Bergkamp come on as a late substitute to hold the ball up and secure our 1-0 lead. In the space of two minutes right at the death, the Dutchman had produced two top quality goals completely out of the blue to turn an edgy win into a rout. Given seventeen minutes, he had nearly equalled his total for the whole of the previous League period.
In the next game, Wiltord netted with a totally sublime diving header. In the third against Leicester, Kanu entered affairs late on to set up a goal for Henry and claim one himself. Wiltord had also been world class, against admittedly awful opposition, but there were problems here already - three strikers who had previously been pencilled in to play second fiddles to the new arrival were looking like they were all on top of their collective game.
It was six matches before Jeffers made a full start for Arsenal - beforehand he had been limited to bit part cameos where nobody had seen an awful lot of what he could do - and this was pretty run of the mill, the only memorable incident being an infamous failure to score from half a yard from a perfect cross at the far post. People started to grumble (well, murmur), quietly. Jeffers was taken off, and was completely shown up by his replacement, Bergkamp again, who scored a majestic third goal with virtually the last kick of the game. This had been set up by Sylvain Wiltord.
On 22nd September, things took a turn for the better. Bolton, on a Ricketts-inspired surge to the top of the table (No matter how temporary) refused to budge at Highbury with ten men - Pires put the chance on a plate for Franny who converted his first Arsenal goal from four yards with no fuss. In the ensuing celebrations, Jeffers collided with Pires. It was probably a sign of what was to come.
I don’t intend to go into any great detail about the remainder of the season. Franny-wise, everything was shambolic, with repeated operations on a mysterious ankle problem that stubbornly refused to go away. Ten appearances, seven of which were off the bench, hardly struck the fear of Wright into the hearts of defenders everywhere. Then, Arsenal decided to run some tests on the injury. They showed a problem all right...but in a completely different place to where Everton had diagnosed it and had spent much of the previous season operating on. That such an aberration could occur in this age of sport is scarcely believable, but occur it did, and the mystical injury jinx was swiftly put to bed, it seems now for good. This was of course too late to ensure any sort of participation in the championship run-in, but Franny did return against his old club in the title party on 11th May. Thierry Henry gave up his hat-trick to give Franny a lay-off...who hit the post on a completely open goal. He did eventually score with a close range flick, but in truth nobody was left convinced.
Any scepticism was flooded with all the celebrations, anyway. People accepted that Jeffers should be given a clean slate for the next campaign. His strike rate wasn’t bad at all, in terms of his goals-to-starts ratio - if he could carry this on and into a considerably longer space of time, the investment made by Wenger could yet prove to be very shrewd.
Couldn’t it?
Over the summer, after the World Cup and in between the arrival of Cygan, Gilberto and the Carini fiasco, Jeffers was generally being touted around as one to watch. Either that, or the fan literati were ripping him to shreds for his spectacularly unimpressive debut season, characteristic of the stone wall division in opinion when it comes to the Fox - at the time you either liked him or loathed him. There were very few who were willing to sit on the fence, not launch into long-winded rants about obscene transfer fees and give a fit Jeffers time to show his worth.
Even they would have had their patience severely tested, though. Our start to the campaign was just about immaculate, Sylvain Wiltord playing the integral role, and Jeffers hardly featured. He now looked like a Danilevicius, but nine times more expensive; one of Wenger’s follies that he makes now and again, only never on this scale. Picture a team with a midfield of Mendez, Boa Morte, Malz and Inamoto and a strike force of Wreh and Caballero...oh, wait. Jeffers. Not Caballero, Jeffers. Scary thought.
His third Arsenal goal and first of the season came against Sunderland reserves in the Worthless Cup, and therefore was generally not counted. I recall the biggest outburst amongst the fans occurring after one of the greatest team performances in Premiership history at Elland Road - the ‘Jeffers out’ lobby started to gain considerable momentum. Again, there were complications, this time in the form of Kanu who went on a valuable scoring run, also chipping in an outstanding showing in Auxerre. Jeffers had little or no chance of getting a game in that climate, and the situation remained the same until boxing day.
Bergkamp was missing and Franny was finally handed another start for Arsenal, having waited for well over a year. This time, there could be no excuses of any sort, as WBA took the lead after two minutes and the contribution of the two frontmen suddenly became vital if anything was to be sneaked away from the Hawthornes. Arsenal mounted an onslaught with Henry playing his ‘culprit’ role, missing several good chances - until at the best possible time, right at the start of the second half, he delivered a perfect low inswinging cross straight into the path of Franny, who waited for the ball to roll into the position he wanted, steadied himself and scored, exhibiting flawless adjustment and balance - the ball had been slightly deflected on it’s way in, and Jeffers had shown the instinct of a natural finisher to check his run in a split second and easily had the composure to beat Russell Hoult.
In my humble opinion, the incident that was the turning point was when Wenger offered Jeffers on loan to Rangers. An apparently crass transfer rumour which has now been largely forgotten was in reality very true, and was the most direct message possible from a manager to a player without a word being said. Wenger had picked the one team in Britain who weren’t going to accept his offer (The pool of strikers available to the Glasgow club was Shota Arveladze, Ronald de Boer, Peter Lovenkrands, Claudio Caniggia and Stephen Thompson - there was no way another attacker was needed) and deliberately made everything public. It might have looked messy (And there’s always the possibility that what I’m describing happened in a different way - but something tells me that’s not the case) but as a clear, unequivocal kick up the arse it worked, and it worked straight away.
Bergkamp was generally favoured, showing exactly why at Anfield in January, but a titanic FA Cup draw was about to hand FJ9 the stage he wanted, and needed, to start a new phase in his career at Highbury. Two goals against Farnborough in Round 4 were the very least that could have been expected, however the subsequent tie picked out for the fifth stage was of course at Old Trafford. Jeffers was thrust into the biggest game so far as an Arsenal player - as he had done with Richard Wright previously, Wenger had opted to select Franny in every FA Cup game (I presume up until the final, unless he firmly establishes himself ahead of the competition before then...Yes, yes, touch wood....) and as such was assigned to start the game with Sylvain Wiltord.
I remember commenting as the news broke that “We were out of the FA Cup.” You see, if you brace yourself for a fall, it’s generally not so bad as it might otherwise have been. (Go back to the 2001 FA Cup final again for a precise example of completely the opposite...) But there was no fall. Jeffers showed a side of his game no-one had ever suspected was there - he acted as the engine for our front four, popping up all over the pitch to win the ball, running tirelessly and brushing aside anything the Mancs threw at him without a second thought. Don’t get me wrong, the game wasn’t won because of him (It was won because of the cohesion between Edu, Vieira, Sol and Keown), but his contribution under such pressure pointed to a player who had matured beyond all recognition. He still retains an effervescence that I think is crucial for a young player to develop - just look at his celebration when Edu scored. His naiveté is generally all good, and that’s rare.
This evolution in his style of play was later confirmed - he scored against Charlton, showing that him and Thierry had found each other’s wavelength, and recently, the two games against Chelsea saw the best performances yet. I don’t intend to rewrite my match reports for those games here (you can always read them separately) but his movement off the ball was as good as anything in that category in the Premiership just now.
I said at the start that true poachers will show their ability straight away. Why didn’t Franny? Simple. Because he isn’t a true poacher. Perhaps Trading Standards should take a look at Everton, but when we invested in a multi-million pound ‘goal hanger’, we got something more. Far, far more.
While they are two players at opposite ends of the striking spectrum, and while I’ll probably be jumped on because genius is irreplaceable, when it has an off day, as it has recently...Jeffers plays. Instead of Bergkamp. And that’s nothing to do with criticising the most graceful player ever to wear an Arsenal shirt. It’s the highest possible compliment I could pay to the new kid on the block. Bergkamp on this form would work brilliantly coming off the bench. However, this is about the future. The future’s bright. The future’s got big ears. And that’s why Jeffers should be out on the field for us, now.
Ally Winford
Think pace, think power, think anticipation, think positioning, think balance and think instinct. And think what that list will expand to given time ...
