As you are probably all aware, Arsenal signed some (dodgy) Japanese midfielder last week for 4 million. 4 million is a lot for a 21 year old reserve who probably wouldn't figure in our team but if you click on Arsenals official web site there is the following link: http://asia.arsenal.com/inamoto/ which is of course in Japanese and has a nice link to the Arsenal club shop - with a picture of Inamoto holding the number 19 shirt. I wonder how long before I start seeing them all over the place. 4 million? What a bargain. That fee will be paid off by Christmas. A very smart move Mr. Wenger.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Answers

It's a very cynical way of working. You seem to be suggesting that arsenal have bought the player to sell shirts. Once this player has sold all the shirts he's really going to sell, they can sell him on. Like I say, this is a very cynical tactic. It's bad enough that clubs are run as businesses first and football teams second. This would be TEAMS run as businesses first and teams second. Slippery slope.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

He's a decent player - he may figure in their squad and play meaningless games Coca-cola, last 5 mins of games etc but are their many unproven 21 year olds that you would spend 4 million on? Didn't think so.

Football is a business, whether we like it or not.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

True, true. And I kind of agree that Newcastle could benefit from these tactics. I just think that it's not in the best interests of the game.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Good points. We've had similar discussions on the subject of Far East tours.

My own view is that you have to play the game (any game - the game of life) within the rules in force at present. You can campaign for change of those rules but it is important that you don't cut your nose off to spite your face as it were. Personally, I'd like to find a way to put the genie back in the bottle (less TV would be a great benefit to the game), but whether this is achievable or not, NUFC must remain aware that football and commercial success go hand in hand in the current environment. The Far East market is massive and we cannot ignore it and hope to succeed. A pity that football clubs have to think in this way but those who don't will fall further behind.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Just about ANY defensive midfielder would get into your team right now (Rob lee & Elliot are the only players you have who can play that holding roll, and unless you havent noticed, they are both shite)

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

I'd like us to go out and get the best Japanese/chinese/Korean players that there are , The club would make a fortune from merchandise. A rich club could then compete with MAn U for the signatures of the worlds best.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

We could make a good start by setting up a decent official website in English, and then progress to Japanese - possibly by the turn of the next millenium!

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Ya Rik, we should have signed Nakata before he went to Parma. Now when the WC is in Korea/Japan a asian player is worth his weight in gold.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

The official webs*ite might as well be in Japanese for all the sense it makes a lot of the time!

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Robbie is wonderful, or did you mean Shaun ?

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

LOL, Steph, that's just what I was thinking. :-)

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

To follow on. From the Mainichi News online addition - written by a Japanese guy.

I wished young Japan duo Shinji Ono and Junichi Inamoto the very best with their respective European clubs in my last installment. Then came the news that Akinori Nishizawa and Shoji Jo, who flopped spectacularly during their undistinguished loan spells in Spain, with Espanyol and Real Valladolid respectively, will try their luck abroad again. On Monday, Nishizawa signed with Bolton Wanderers, which just won promotion to the English Premier League, on a 12-month loan with an option for a permanent move. Jo's proposed move to Spanish Primera Liga side Real Zaragoza is said to be a similar one. "He's a proven goal scorer with a great track record. I saw him play while he was in Spain with Espanyol and I've watched lots of videos of him in action," Bolton manager Sam Allardyce said on the club's website. It's a feat in itself that Allardyce had managed to see Nishizawa in action in Spain, because he was usually not even on the bench during his miserable goalless 7-month spell in which he played only six times. And then there's the videos. Videos presented by agents naturally only show the good sides of their clients and are notorious for their unreliability. I'm sure those videos include a lot of goals the striker scored in the first stage of the 2000 J.League season -- the only time Nishizawa managed to hit the target with any regularity. His achievements would not have happened without the presence of his striking partner, Hiroaki Morishima, whose unselfishness compensated for Nishizawa's awful off-the-ball play. But surely Allardyce is aware of the dangers of judging a player on the strength of video evidence alone. Do Bolton really have confidence in the striker's goal-scoring talent? The answer, unfortunately, looks like no, because if they have, they would've signed him on a permanent contract straight away like Feyenoord did with Ono. The fact that Bolton, who were once rumored to be interested in adding Japanese goalie Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi to their squad, are a club yo-yoing between the Premiership and the First Division might explain the rather surprise signing -- they need the money. The Greater Manchester outfit has been relegated twice from the top division in the past five years, and won promotion back for the third time at the end of last season. They want to cling on to their place this time around but to do that, they need money. Nishizawa, it seems, is the answer. Former West Ham manager Harry Redknapp was once quoted as saying on his prospective Japanese signing, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, "It's going to be massive. We've done all the figures (on commercial spin-offs in Japan) and looked at it all and it could really be big." The Bolton manger sounded like he is aware of the financial aspect of the Nishizawa signing when he said, "This is a very exciting deal for the Wanderers. He'll become the first Japanese footballer to play in the Premiership." Signing a player on loan usually means either he is supposed to be a stopgap or is considered too risky to make a firm offer. I hope I'm proven wrong, but offers made to Nishizawa and Jo gave me the impression that they were financially driven and not much else. It can be argued that their experiences from their sojourns in Europe will benefit Japanese football whatever happens, but having somewhere to fall back to if they fail to establish themselves (again), will only weaken their drive. In order to be a successful athlete abroad you have to have mental strength as much as ability. Former Japan greats Yasuhiko Okudera and Yahiro Kazama, who made names in the German Bundesliga in the 1980's, had that strength. So did Kazuyoshi Miura, who quit high school at age 15 and went to Brazil to fulfill his dream. Then there's Hidetoshi Nakata, probably Japan's best export. Nishizawa and Jo don't look like they possess what it takes to follow in these stars' footsteps. I hope they prove me wrong, but can't see it happening.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2001