The Secret Footballer is back with another blog post, and this time he's had a chat with an Arsenal scout who has pinpointed what is going wrong at Chelsea, as well as explaining how Arsene Wenger could have had two big players sign for Arsenal if he wasn't so indecisive.
According to the scout, who like the secret footballer is unnamed, Chelsea are going into meltdown thanks to in-fighting with Cesc Fabregas being the worst culprit, and both Morgan Schneiderlin and Heung-Min Son could have been playing for Arsenal this season.
Most likely an amalgamation of a number of former or current pro footballers, the secret footballer revealed:
I met up with my friend, an Arsenal scout, last week.
We talked through players and clubs and he noted that Chelsea’s problems are all being caused by in-house feuding among the players, who are all pointing fingers at one another.
The worst, he told me, is Cesc Fabregas.
I pointed out that Tottenham Hotspur’s summer recruit, Son Heung-min, is one of the most impressive players I’ve seen at White Hart Lane since Gareth Bale.
Immediately, the scout took his phone out of his pocket and showed me a scouting report from last season. This is how it read …
* Scares the life out of defences. Feet are scarily quick, can turn in any direction.
* Keeps his shape, good discipline, counters quickly, carries the ball a long way up the pitch, aware of team-mates in better positions.
* Scores goals from great positions in the box that others don’t take up (Ljungberg). Hard to pick up and track.
* Fit, doesn’t stop working.
* Different to anything that we have in the building.
* CAN PLAY FOR US ALL DAY LONG!!
That was one of several reports he showed me that got better and better.
Arsenal watched Son almost 30 times last season, with all the scouts in agreement that the player would be a fantastic addition.
So what happened?
“It’s Arsene [Wenger],” the scout said. “He’s so indecisive it’s frightening. We had [Morgan] Schneiderlin done and dusted last January and, by the summer, the gaffer had changed his mind. Son was 100 per cent perfect for us.”
Of course, it has to be taken with a pinch of salt as it is coming from an anonymous source, but it does make for interesting reading and as both Schneiderlin and Son are two players who you would have to imagine would fit in very well at The Emirates.
It will be interesting to see if anything more comes out on this, but if it's true it makes the fact that Arsenal only signed goalkeeper Petr Cech this summer even more puzzling.
You can read the rest of The Secret Footballer's diary entry here.
