I don't bother with every single one, but merely include them in order to suggest his particularly French idiosyncracy, whereby le Gaffer gives himself some thinking time as he considers his response. They aren't nearly so obvious when you listen to him speak, but when I play back the tape, they stand out that much more and it appears to be evident exactly how carefully Arsene chooses his words. So that unlike some managers who are guilty of wearing their heart on their sleeves, if Arsene is speaking about anything emotive his words take a moment to come from the heart, on a slightly longer journey via his brain before being blurted out of his mouth. Whereas there are many other managers who end up being fined on several occasions, until they realise that they can't afford to let their thoughts take a more direct route out of their gobs. They end up coughing up a tidy sum for their heat of the moment responses before they learn to let their comments take a more circuitous route including a stop-off amongst their usually limited number of brain cells :-)
I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that someone as erudite as Arsene has learned from his own reprehensible and downright repugnant experience with the media on his arrival in this country and from all the other examples he has seen where other managers have made the mistake of giving the unscrupulous media the bullets with which they've been shot, that he needs to maintain the same levels of concentration in the press room as he asks of his players out on the pitch. Mind you I've been present when the tabloid hacks have tried to their somewhat feeble methods of entrapment with Arsene, trying to coax a quote out of him that they can blow up into a story but AW is certainly nobody's fool and always spots these naive and nefarious tactics from a distance. If it was a boxing contest between AW and the journos, he could cope with nearly all of them with his eyes shut and both hands tied behind his back!
Q. Arsene another win, but were you slightly concerned in the second-half that you looked a bit careless and could have let City back into the game?
AW. Yes...err we dropped in the second-half. I felt that we had good possession, good passing in the first-half, looked very err.....mobile, comfortable on the ball....didn't kill the game off and err....I feel that in the second-half it became a little bit more....difficult for us to get our passing going and err....in the end you always rely on...on a mistake at the back, on a long ball or....I thought we would get some openings with twenty minutes to go but it never happened and....Man CIty played a cup game today and they played a part of err....they shown a side of their game that I didn't know because they were really err....ninety minutes err....tenacious defenders and err....they kept always a certain caution, a certain respect for us and err....they never opened it up completely, even in the end. They went for the long ball but they didn't open the game up at all and err...that's why....I personally feel that err....we had an outstanding Lehmann in the air....who in my opinion doesn't get enough protection as well....and err...he has got a reputation now in the country that err....he's easy....easy err....to upset. But I think err,,,,it's a little bit....it goes a little bit overboard and err....some players do not try at all to play the ball around him and that's not as well err....that's as well very unfair
(if I didn't know any different, I would have said that AW came into this press conference with an agenda, in as much as his keenness to raise the topic of the protection afforded to Lehmann without any prompting suggested that he was trying to ensure that these particular comments were reported in the hope of planting a seed in the minds of any officials who might read them so that perhaps the next time Jens is facing a corner, they might just focus on the argy-bargy in the box?)
Q. Killing sides off, you did that last season fantastically well at times but there have been times like last week against Bolton, you didn't kill the game off properly, today you didn't kill the game off properly, is that a slight worry for you?
AW. Yes because ideally you would always want...want to win three nil, we are a little bit err....couldn't find the second goal or the third goal today but err.... you know as well err....I have to be realistic. I know when you start the season, when you win three four in every game it will not last like that and that's why I'm happy as well that the game...the team can show they can win one nil....I can go along with that, especially today
Q. Ashley Cole took his goal very well?
AW. I'm not surprised that he was there but the way he took is surprising because it's err....like a striker. He kept a cool head and err....he's taken me by surprise as well because the way he took the goal was real surprising
Q. Do you think this game took that much more out of them, the fact that they were one nil up for long, with Wednesday's game in mind?
AW. I felt we dropped physically in the second half yes....and err....we at the moment were a little bit less sharp than we used to be at the start of the season but err....you have periods like that, it will come back quickly and err....it's a little bit cycles you know where you have this...physically a little bit err,,,,a fraction at our first...we miss a little bit but err....I feel that is normal that....and as well that Man City played physically a very good game today
Q. Do you think Lehmann should get more protection?
AW. I think yes. He should get more protection. If you look well at every ball he played today on set pieces....if you think that....I don't....I've nothing against people err....trying to play the ball with him, I've nothing against people err....jumping in to get the ball, but I'm personally against people who stand around him just to make obstruction to his game. They do not even worry about the ball. They never want to play the ball, they want to play Jens! And err...that's foul! I like err....that people go in to play the ball in the air against him that's fanta....that's normal. But you have people around him, they never try to play the ball
Q. He has started putting one of his team mates between him and the opposition?
AW. Yeh but today you had err....we have only one player and today you have er....we have err....sometimes two, sometimes three players around him who just try to stop him coming for the cross. But if they do it in a normal way, that they go for the ball it's OK, but they don't even try to play the ball. It's like on the last err...on the last ball...on this last (sounds like "trown"? I assume he was refering to the last corner?) the guy never tried to play the ball. When he hit him he was already..had the ball in his hands already! (quite agitated by AW's unruffled standards)
Q. How did you think Sol did today?
AW. For the first game he was OK. It was err....his first game I think since Portugal....at that level of course. He had a reserve team game but err....he had two good....clients today no? With Anelka and Macken they are hard working types and Anelka err....fought very hard and did very well....and Macken as well. So I....for me for a first game he did very well
Q. How will Pires be for Rosenborg?
AW. Pires err...we have a sli....a small chance that he will play
Q. Foot injury?
AW. Foot injury, kick on err....the inside of the foot
Q. Gilberto?
AW. Gilberto is out
Press officer (my "good pal" Amanda Docherty!). OK thank you
AW. Thank you
I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that someone as erudite as Arsene has learned from his own reprehensible and downright repugnant experience with the media on his arrival in this country and from all the other examples he has seen where other managers have made the mistake of giving the unscrupulous media the bullets with which they've been shot, that he needs to maintain the same levels of concentration in the press room as he asks of his players out on the pitch. Mind you I've been present when the tabloid hacks have tried to their somewhat feeble methods of entrapment with Arsene, trying to coax a quote out of him that they can blow up into a story but AW is certainly nobody's fool and always spots these naive and nefarious tactics from a distance. If it was a boxing contest between AW and the journos, he could cope with nearly all of them with his eyes shut and both hands tied behind his back!
Q. Arsene another win, but were you slightly concerned in the second-half that you looked a bit careless and could have let City back into the game?
AW. Yes...err we dropped in the second-half. I felt that we had good possession, good passing in the first-half, looked very err.....mobile, comfortable on the ball....didn't kill the game off and err....I feel that in the second-half it became a little bit more....difficult for us to get our passing going and err....in the end you always rely on...on a mistake at the back, on a long ball or....I thought we would get some openings with twenty minutes to go but it never happened and....Man CIty played a cup game today and they played a part of err....they shown a side of their game that I didn't know because they were really err....ninety minutes err....tenacious defenders and err....they kept always a certain caution, a certain respect for us and err....they never opened it up completely, even in the end. They went for the long ball but they didn't open the game up at all and err...that's why....I personally feel that err....we had an outstanding Lehmann in the air....who in my opinion doesn't get enough protection as well....and err...he has got a reputation now in the country that err....he's easy....easy err....to upset. But I think err,,,,it's a little bit....it goes a little bit overboard and err....some players do not try at all to play the ball around him and that's not as well err....that's as well very unfair
(if I didn't know any different, I would have said that AW came into this press conference with an agenda, in as much as his keenness to raise the topic of the protection afforded to Lehmann without any prompting suggested that he was trying to ensure that these particular comments were reported in the hope of planting a seed in the minds of any officials who might read them so that perhaps the next time Jens is facing a corner, they might just focus on the argy-bargy in the box?)
Q. Killing sides off, you did that last season fantastically well at times but there have been times like last week against Bolton, you didn't kill the game off properly, today you didn't kill the game off properly, is that a slight worry for you?
AW. Yes because ideally you would always want...want to win three nil, we are a little bit err....couldn't find the second goal or the third goal today but err.... you know as well err....I have to be realistic. I know when you start the season, when you win three four in every game it will not last like that and that's why I'm happy as well that the game...the team can show they can win one nil....I can go along with that, especially today
Q. Ashley Cole took his goal very well?
AW. I'm not surprised that he was there but the way he took is surprising because it's err....like a striker. He kept a cool head and err....he's taken me by surprise as well because the way he took the goal was real surprising
Q. Do you think this game took that much more out of them, the fact that they were one nil up for long, with Wednesday's game in mind?
AW. I felt we dropped physically in the second half yes....and err....we at the moment were a little bit less sharp than we used to be at the start of the season but err....you have periods like that, it will come back quickly and err....it's a little bit cycles you know where you have this...physically a little bit err,,,,a fraction at our first...we miss a little bit but err....I feel that is normal that....and as well that Man City played physically a very good game today
Q. Do you think Lehmann should get more protection?
AW. I think yes. He should get more protection. If you look well at every ball he played today on set pieces....if you think that....I don't....I've nothing against people err....trying to play the ball with him, I've nothing against people err....jumping in to get the ball, but I'm personally against people who stand around him just to make obstruction to his game. They do not even worry about the ball. They never want to play the ball, they want to play Jens! And err...that's foul! I like err....that people go in to play the ball in the air against him that's fanta....that's normal. But you have people around him, they never try to play the ball
Q. He has started putting one of his team mates between him and the opposition?
AW. Yeh but today you had err....we have only one player and today you have er....we have err....sometimes two, sometimes three players around him who just try to stop him coming for the cross. But if they do it in a normal way, that they go for the ball it's OK, but they don't even try to play the ball. It's like on the last err...on the last ball...on this last (sounds like "trown"? I assume he was refering to the last corner?) the guy never tried to play the ball. When he hit him he was already..had the ball in his hands already! (quite agitated by AW's unruffled standards)
Q. How did you think Sol did today?
AW. For the first game he was OK. It was err....his first game I think since Portugal....at that level of course. He had a reserve team game but err....he had two good....clients today no? With Anelka and Macken they are hard working types and Anelka err....fought very hard and did very well....and Macken as well. So I....for me for a first game he did very well
Q. How will Pires be for Rosenborg?
AW. Pires err...we have a sli....a small chance that he will play
Q. Foot injury?
AW. Foot injury, kick on err....the inside of the foot
Q. Gilberto?
AW. Gilberto is out
Press officer (my "good pal" Amanda Docherty!). OK thank you
AW. Thank you