France exit should accelerate Arsenal-Nasri signing

France are out of Euro 2008 and it’s nothing less than they deserve after three truly horrible performances against Romania, the Netherlands and World Cup holders Italy.

Just how Raymond Domenech’s side managed to score just one goal in the tournament with a squad which included Thierry Henry, Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema and Samir Nasri is beyond me, but manage it they did.

In all honesty Domenech put in the one of the worst coaching performances I have witnessed in quite some time at this tournament as he has simply refused to play to his squad’s strengths. It was clear after the scoreless draw against Romania that the midfield pairing of Claude Makelele and Jeremy Toulalan was too defensive but he stuck with them until the bitter end and was duly punished for it.

The successful teams at this tournament have generally found the space to put four creative players on at one time but Domenech rarely found time for three. It robbed the chance for football observers to watch what was, going into the tournament, the best variety of attack players in the tournament.

Regardless, there is some good to take out of France’s early exit from an Arsenal perspective and it is that it should speed up the signing of Samir Nasri. According to reports the young Frenchman signed a pre-contract with the club before Euro 2008 commenced with the fine details to be ironed once France’s participation came to an end. Indeed, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Nasri holding up an Arsenal shirt before tournament concludes.

While the addition of Nasri to Arsenal’s books would give Arsene Wenger’s squad some required depth in attack it seems the manager is not keen to add any names to the club’s defensive department during the off-season, refuting claims that he might sign Hamburg defender Vincent Kompany in the process.

“I have been interested in Vincent Kompany ever since he was 16, but I am not interested in him this year. There is nobody I need for my team’s defensive department.”

Hmmm. If this quote is true then it’s a very uncharacteristic display of openness by Wenger and one which I completely disagree with. Assuming the signing of Nasri goes ahead I still feel Arsenal are two players short of what they require, with a defensive midfielder and a centre-back the priority.

Without signings in these departments I don’t think the Arsenal squad is big or strong enough to fight for both the Premiership and the Champions League and I would be bitterly disappointed if Wenger doesn’t recognise this too.

Update: I forgot to mention the Russia v Sweden match tonight. It should be an excellent contest and I’m just letting you know that I’ve put down a fiver on Guus Hiddink’s side to win and another fiver on Andrei Arshavin to net the first – and perhaps only – goal. Thoughts?

Have your say on Euro 2008, Samir Nasri or Wenger’s reluctance to sign a defender by leaving a comment.

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Comments

  1. I feel Domenech was very worried when Ribery was injured. It’s very sad to see that the likes of Makalele, Titi are now going to watch the rest of the tournament at home! After the injury of Ribery he should have introduced Boumasong so that he pushes Abidal on the left then Evra to cover for the void left by Ribery. Nasri is tallented, pacy, more skillfull with the ball but needs more time to develop for such competitions! With the early exit I’ll be happy to see Nasri in jersey # 8 before the week ends! I watched him for only 10 mins. and he really impressed in one move he made that was almost tearing Italy defence a part.

  2. the coach is just incompetented as you rightly noted , his selection was just too awful and unbelievable…all football lovers and fans are invited to join soccer fan base dot com for the best of football forum discussion and news update

  3. raymond domenech really is useless….
    first of all who the heck is that toulalan fella cos hes a lump of you-know-what. Secondly, why the heck did he bring nasri off just after he came on????? he shud of brought off claude knackered-ele or toulalan. And finally it serves france right for not taking gael and bacary as full back for the tournament as they are miles better than the old men that france played out.

  4. I’ve never EVER liked Domenech. He’s done jack for the French team brimming with talent. How can you not even qualify for the quarters with the likes of Henry, Makelele, Ribery, Gallas, etc.?

    Perfect Domenech: leaves out Sagna AND Clichy who were both better than any of France’s full backs.

  5. you know where I’m going with tonight’s match. Russia V Sweden. Sweden, why yes, I will use the opportunity to talk about Elmander, thank you very much.

    Elmander’s foot is still injured, plus he’s playing on the wing. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

    I think it could go either way, but my heart is all the way behind Sweden. My very tired eyes and sleepless brain tomorrow will have more to say about it too.

  6. Diarra would have been the better option, either alongside Makelele or in place of him! But TBH Im glad he didnt even get a game, good karma for being such a knob and walking out on Arsenal. He would be 1st choice next season if he stuck around.

    Domenech has been crap since he took over france, i dont even think it was him that got to the WC final (it was Zidane).

    Best thing about this Tournament is Rockin Robin Van Persie is coming back to full strength, hopefully he can stay injury free, have a nice holiday and come back to Arsenal ready to tear EPL apart

  7. did you see domenech proposed to his girlfriend after the game.

    she’s a sports journalist and younger and much hotter than domenech and completely out of his league.

    his selections and subs throughout have been heavily criticised. last night was particularly bad – taking off nasri and bringing on a defender when you already have two holding midfielders AND you need two goals??

    for mine, this proposal is the final nail in the coffin in concluding what a complete and utter waste of space he is.

    1) it surely shows his girlfriend that he knows she’s only with him ’cause of his powerful and important position in french sport as he’s using what will surely be his last moment in the spotlight to try and secure her because once sacked she’s out of his league and he’s got nothing left to offer.

    2) his subs throughout the game would already have left him open to criticism but now he’s just going to look like a right selfish goose to all french sports fans ’cause the obvious implication is that for the duration of the game he was thinking about his proposal instead of thinking about the match.

    off with his head!

  8. It worries me greatly to see reports that wenger feels his defence is strong enough. It is not!!. We need a big and strong central defender who is going to command the defence when defending against set pieces, somone like Tony Adams, or john Terry, it is a no brainer, get rid of Senderous..
    With regard to our attack , if Ade does go it is not the end of the world. He missed 50% of the chances that were laid on for him and still managed to score as many goals as Torres of Liverpool. With a proper striker in there the conversion rate would be higher (more goals). Villa would be the best choice as he would convert 25% more ofthe chances created by Cesc and co. The only slight downside is that he isnt as big as Ade , so he wouldnt win the ball in the air as much, but he would make up for it scoring 40 goals a season.

  9. i cant say song is not good enough i have seen him play that mush and dijouro might do well too. i dont think our defence is that bad infact i feel is very good expext with set plays, i feel wenger is wright to keep faith with team, remember we all felt when henry left we would be in big trouble but the young players steped up, and they are getting more muture and as a team. we have around 8 defensive players. hoyte song ahve both signed new contracts so there are going nowere. i feel will play song and dijouro alot more this season and gilberto will leave either this summer or next.

    i feel where are very short is our wingers and we need a keeper better than amunia. we only have risisky sick note, wilcat and maybe troure.

    half the reason we have fell short is that amunia is good keeper he does not command huge amount confidence to defenders, evon when seaman was in his dencline he made so very few mistakes if any, and had such great stacture, thats would we need a keeper that commands which confidence from defence and makes match winning saves. amunia has made some crucial mistakes that have cost use.

    i think the reason we didnot win the title was not our defence it was lake numbers aloung our flanks and we did not score enough goals due to missing edwardo, rvp and risisky

  10. Must be a sour note to end a lot of international careers. Italy are, by their standards, a poor side – I was mystified how they won the World Cup – and with the talent that France have individually they should have qualified at a canter.

    Zidane and Vieira were sorely missed and I don’t think Domenech knows how to assemble a squad without them. It was the same uninsired performances that make you groan every time you watch England in a competition.

    Ah well, next time out. New manager and a younger team.

    Great to see Robin hitting form at the right time. Roll on next season.

  11. john

    i have to sat i was cobed spacked sanga clichy did not evon get the squad, france are spent force, they have big names but you could see they lacked any desira. and your quite wright italy wornt very impressive, if they are going to beet spain they are going have raise there perforance but this happens to every team,they need rebuild, new players nad new coach.

  12. regarding Kompany, Wengers’ statement kind of contradicts what he said earlier in the summer about needing a defender who can deal with direct/long ball situations.. Kompany certainly fits the bill. I lived in Brussels for years and used to watch him boss Anderlecht when he was 17. AW must have other plans, Maybe he changed his mind about Kompany now that Song has extended his contract. I know u like him SF, but a few good performances recenlt hasnt changed my mind yet..

    Domenesch is incompetent at best.. HIs team selection was horrible. I mean, Sagnol and Thuram didnt event want to play against Italy.. u think Sagna would say that!?!? laughable..

  13. I thank you for this upportunity, and I want to contribute about Arsene Wengers refusal to do something about his defence. It is a plain thruth that Arsenal is very weak in defence. Kolo Tore and Galas are weak and tired. We should not expect anything better than what they have offered the club. As for Sendrose. the least talked about him the better. If the manager is refusing to at least add one stronger defender to the squad something he should have done 2 years ago but did not do, then, I will suggest that all Arsenal fans should forget about everything next season. We should rather pray and commit our hopes in the next manager who will take over from Arsene. May be he will listen, and it is then that Arseal will put on a new cloth of success, and beging to win cups.

    I thank you.

  14. What became abundetly clear from this match is that France without Zidane are not a good team. There was no player to feed the ball to the strikers. Benzema was fairly useless. Their passing game was all over the place. The manager was insanely stupid to take Nasri off just after he came on…what a waste of a substitute. He should have played Viera.

    Netherlands to win the tournament.

  15. almunia is a good keeper and the main reason we lost last year was sagna being injured and players being out of position like toure on the rb, chelscum and manure scored from the right side through toure. Why wasn’t eboue rb and walcott rm? toure and gallas cb’s? It still bewilders me that happened as eboue is a great 2nd rb after the main man sagna and nashri will be our rm this year for certain as he didn’t up his price like d.villa who I’m still hoping for but it will be interesting to see what vela’s like.

  16. Watching Domenech talk in an interview about how he wouldn’t play a Leo with a Taurus at the back because astrology says they didn’t get on was so strange I thought this can only be one thing, he’s read Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” and is trying to make his unbeliveably strong side look really weak so that his enemies start relaxing and he can storm them. Little did I know he was actually serious….about using star signs as a squad selection strategy, did we just travel 400 years back in time or soemthing?

    I was wrong, he really is a loony and undeserving of a place in the QF. France were poor all the way through and got what they deserved. Total humilitation. Not so cocky now eh?

  17. joseph i completly disagree i you look manu the why they won the title is because of there abiulity to score goals, if take rilando would out the team they have not have scord that many goals. at time of ore decline was when edwardo got injured and rvp was no where nere readyso it all up adeboua to score, there was no riskisky chip in and half time wilcat was sub. and when you cant score it puts added presure on the defence,arsenal only lost 3 games but drew to many usualy 1-1 or 0-0 so its not that we conceding huge amount goals. senderos has a few bad games no one playing against liverpool then he becaomes the worst defender ever.

  18. wenger is great that why refuse to take more defenders.there are a lot of things we need look out rather than to judge the qualities of players. no doubt gallas and tour are great players.there is no point to sign the new players while u have one who is better .the arsenal defensive department started to shake at the last quarter of season.and it looked better afer song introduced.remember we have johan djourou who missed last season and hovard nordtveit from second team they need chance.

  19. I am inviting all arsenal fans and football lovers in general to join soccerfanbase.com today for the best of football news update and discussion ( Spanish Fry I hope I am not seeing as a spam I am not please )

  20. dijouro,sanga,rvp,edwardo and risisky that is alot of injuries to key players thats what cost use

  21. this is what happens when you leave out the premiership fullbacks of the season out of your france squad

  22. tobi i will never undertstand that,you dontleave out defenders as good clitchy and sanga,i could if they werent in the first team but leave them out of the squad, they are world class players that can attack along the flanks,very powerful and quick.henry looks does not look the same after leaving use. although i am not happy flamini leaving use how not evon have him in the squad that crazy,thuram is old needs to retire. i think the coach is gon icant see him staying, he has made very odd decistions to say the least

  23. Comment by LEON on June 18, 2008 @ 8:10 pm

    this guy needs;

    a. a brain

    b. a spelling lesson

    c. to join a team like spurs as he knows shit all

  24. well jl everyone is entitled to there opinion. maybe i competly wrong but just feel panic buying ever works, just because arsenal droped a few points means that who should go looking to buy your out of trouble, yes we arsenal have a bit weak when it comes to dealing with set plays,but does not mean because a player has a three or four bad games you should just sell him on.

    people are forgetting that manu also went three years without winning the title. i have huge amount faith in wenger

    yes arsenal have been at bit freal at the back but i feal that has been due to the lack of attcking options, i dont care if you have best defence in the world if you cant score goals it will put huge amount presure on your defence.

    i just think blowing out 10-15 milion on adefender and spending more money on a holding midfieler when have song and dijouro makes any sence. i feel taht the money would better spent a keeper, more wingers and maybe holding midfielder that cover at back and handle set plays. arsenal have very strong squad and just needs a bit tinkering with not major surgery

  25. well jl everyone is entitled to there opinion. maybe i competly wrong but just feel panic buying ever works, just because arsenal droped a few points means that who should go looking to buy your out of trouble, yes we arsenal have a bit weak when it comes to dealing with set plays,but does not mean because a player has a three or four bad games you should just sell him on.

    people are forgetting that manu also went three years without winning the title. i have huge amount faith in wenger

    yes arsenal have been at bit freal at the back but i feal that has been due to the lack of attcking options, i dont care if you have best defence in the world if you cant score goals it will put huge amount presure on your defence.

    i just think blowing out 10-15 milion on adefender and spending more money on a holding midfieler when have song and dijouro makes any sence. i feel taht the money would better spent a keeper, more wingers and maybe holding midfielder that cover at back and handle set plays. arsenal have very strong squad and just needs a bit tinkering with not major surgery

    no djourou isnt good enough yet and nor is song and 5 years is to long for a title mate

  26. no i think your very wroung there just because they have not first team football yet doe not mean there not good enough,they inexperiened but hugely talneted wenger just needs bring abit more experience

  27. Oooh, so close with that bet with Arshavin grabbing the second. Fair play to Russia, they were quite good this morning and unlike the Swedes attacked at every chance.

    A really nice quarter-final lineup:

    Portugal v Germany
    Croatia v Turkey
    Netherlands v Russia
    Spain v Italy

    Every one of them an excellent game. So, who’s going to win???

  28. port will have to play counter attcking game, germ far to powerful for in the air,i gor for port,nev and spain but i would put any money on it.

  29. Domenech has gone for experience rather than youth and it didn’t work He should’ve picked Sagna Clichy and the other 2 that left us I would hate to mention their name again anyway Govou crap Toulalan Crap and the other player CLeg or something like that all crap they had one player that was running the show for them and that is Ribery once he got injured they colapsed.
    The Sweden deffenders were an imbarassement I have never seen a team so negative they needed a point so they sat back right from the word go. When you normally sit back you defend they didn’t they allowed Russia a mediocre team in my opinion to look like Brazil.Arshavin is a very good player and they allowed him so much space.
    SF you are right priority is a defensive midfielder and a centre-back I think Wenger is looking to use Song and promote one of the young players that is why he is not buying. My concren is even Gallas looked really awful in this tournament and very low on confidence.

  30. i think wenger is looking stregthen are attacking options,last season when edwardo got injured i think we scord 4 goals in five games.we the only players that could score goals was adebouro, bretna and wincat.were as manu had runie,tevas,gigs scoals,nani,anderson plus renaldo. we drew four home games and only condeded 5 goals in that time.i think wenger will be looking bring one two more wingers that can score. arsenal just found it very hard to score and just put extre presure on the defence. but i do thinkit would wise a more experiened holding midfielder i dont think got idiea through song in the deep end

  31. Portugal v Germany
    Croatia v Turkey
    Netherlands v Russia
    Spain v Italy

    I think the teams that should win will win, Portgual over Germany, Croatia over Turkey, Netherlands will self distruct just not yet so i expect them to get past Russia. And as for Italia, we hae always been slow starters in every tournament. Im glad we are underdogs which leaves us no pressure, and for being world champs no pressure is good. I remember last Euros Spain was knocked out by France this round so im pickin them to choke again and my Azzurri to knock them out. Not saying they will. But if we do beat Spain its just proof that Italia got off to a slow start (like always) and should win it all, beating Spain is a big IF tho.

  32. * I mean when they face France quarter finals of the World Cup 2002. I just have that feeling as an Italian and fan of the Azzurri.. Spain being favorites on a big stage.. they will choke!

  33. How funny is it how Domenche doesn’t play players cause of their star signs bahahahahhahaha

    this guy is a joke to management

    only reason france were so great at the World Cup was cause of the great ZuZu

  34. @ LEON – I don’t mean to offend, but if you could type your comments in with better spelling and grammar they’d be much easier to understand. If English is not your first language then fair enough but I think people would value your opinion more if you could use better English.

    Cheers.

  35. ye sorry fry

    my spelling is pretty bad, i am of the opinion that arsenal have very defence, what cost them the title was the in-ability to score score realy cost them. they that had rvp,edwardo and risisky all have the ability to score at least 15 goals a season.

    i think if arsenal can buy a few more wingers,maybe a holding midfielder and abetter goal keeper they may have a chance but the title race will evon closer next season

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