Most Arsenal fans would expect our great French manager Arsene Wenger to be tipping France to win the Euros this summer, especially as they are the favourites, they are playing in their home country, and they have the unstoppable Olivier Giroud scoring goals for fun in the warmups!
But no, Le Prof thinks that this Euros is far more open than usual, and today he has given his opinions on who could be going all the way to the Final in Paris.
“I’m looking forward to it because it’s in my country, and for the first time I can watch a big competition without travelling too much,” he said on the official Arsenal website. “So from a personal point of view it’s quite interesting for me, but especially on the football side.
“It’s more difficult to predict maybe who is the super favourite. Spain before were the super favourites, but they were not as convincing at the World Cup – will they get back to the level they were at before?
“Will Germany be the natural leader of the favourites because they won the World Cup? It looks like they struggled a little bit in the qualifiers.
“It’s maybe more open, and you have teams coming up with top-level young players like England and France. For me it’s interesting to see who will catch form and the right balance. Who will have the mental strength and confidence to be a major asset in this European Championship.
“The surprise package could be Turkey, who only just qualified, but in the end could have an impact. Then you have Slovakia and the Czech Republic, who could be a surprise too, you never know.
“But one team, above all – who nobody speaks about – who has the internal quality to be a major favourite, is Croatia. When you look at the players they have – Kovacic, Rakitic, Modric, Lovren, Vrsaljko, Srna, and I forget so many – but you think ‘oh’.
“When you look at the names you think there is something there, so why should they not be favourite? For me, they could be the surprise package.”
That’s an interesting tip, especially as Arsenal has 8 players over there with their countries, but none of them are Coatian! Who do you think could be the surprise team at the Euros?
My money is on Italy to bore there way to the title.
Wenger couldn’t Tip ‘?’ Out of a paper bag! ?
By the way, we are getting slaughtered on tweeter!
Aubameyang to City, Morata to Chelsea and Vardy needs to think about ,joining Arsenal. ?
As for the Euro’s, the home nation normally puts in a good show, but I doubt that France will win it, Now that Michel platini isn’t around to rigg it up for them. ?
Spain and Germany have won it the most ( 3 each) .
Belgium have a decent squad and if they would of had a decent manager, they would have been tearing everyone a new one!
If I had to pick an outsider to win this competition, I would have to go for Poland, with Lewandowski nabbing the Golden Boot award.
while arsenal are waiting till mid-July for Vardy to potentially reject leaving Leicester.
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Liverpool that have Sturridge are signing Higuain.
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Chelsea that alrdy have Costa are signing Morata
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Man.United that have Martial are adding Zlatan.
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ManCity with AGUERO are adding Aubameyang.
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and we dnt even have one good enough to warm d bench of these clubs n we wanna win d leaguea
Maybe we can nab Kelechi from City? ?
Offer them Jack Wheelchair and two new tyres! ?
@Wilshegz
Signing big players does not guarantee trophies. Signing rightful players, mental strenght and balance of the team set up do: Leicester City.
I think the reason for our sluggish and and amateurish way of conducting transfer is the board fault… until we get someone who’s great as dein on transfers all transfer activities should be handled solely by wenger because gazidis and may be very astute businessmen but when it comes to sport and football in particular they’ve prove time and time again that they are novices.
Croatia are a good side to watch, I always liked their style. Talented players, but maybe missing that special striker up top, which certain other countries do have a couple of. Id say this is why they never win big. But it’s a good shout for a dark horse all the same. Nobody enjoys picking the favorites, am going for Belgium myself, not a dark horse, but a slight outsider.
He mentioned mental strength…
i don,t understand people making comments,criticizing the way we do business .taking what they read in the papers/internet as the gospel truth,when in fact only a handful of people really know what,s going on,who is to say we didn,t go for aubeymang and if we didn,t why?nobody takes into account things like the player,s desire to play for a certain club or manager etc….also we might have others targets who knows i wish people were a bit more positive at least this window we,re seeing some activities!!
Tissiam, you are correct, there is a lot of criticism of the way we go about things when in fact we do not actually know how we go about things. Arsenal are so secretive about these things and probably rightly so, we have no idea what is going on.
I think the criticism comes from the perceived poor results of our transfer activity. We have needed a top striker since rvp left and one has not arrived and no-one is coming through. A few seasons ago, at the beginning of the transfer window gazidis announces that we can afford top players, raises expectations and nothing happens. Last transfer window Cech arrives, expectations raised, nothing more happens.
I do not think there is a problem with the way we go about negotiating transfers, the problem lies in what we are aiming to achieve. Us fans want to win the PL and are looking for transfers to achieve this. Kroenke has told us that he is not “involved” to win championships. Jack wiltshire on arsenal.com has told us that the aim of the club is top four in PL. Look at our transfer dealings from this perspective and the actions of the club makes more sense, namely minimum spend to achieve top four.