NST Online: Sports

Gunners planning for life without Fabregas

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 09:37 AM PDT

(Back row, from left) Arsenal's Thomas Vermaelen, Jack Wilshere, Wojciech Szczesny and Alex Song with the winners of the Gunners Challenge KL indoor tournament in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. — Picture by Fariz Iswadi Ismail

CESC Fabregas received a ringing endorsement of his value to Arsenal from his teammates yesterday in perhaps a belated bid to convince their captain his future lies with the Gunners.

Spaniard Fabregas, who did not join Arsenal on the club's visit to Kuala Lumpur owing to a muscle strain, is a target of European champions Barcelona, his boyhood Spanish club.

Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere said Fabregas' value to the club goes beyond his presence on the pitch.

"As a leader, he has to show not just leadership during games but also in the team. He's the best player in the team and you don't get a leader like that from a player who just walks in and out," said Wilshere in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Even if Fabregas does leave, England international Wilshere believes the club's future is secured given the number of talented players coming through the ranks.

"The future looks good not just for Arsenal but England as well. We've got Kieran Gibbs coming at left-back whose coming up and Theo (Walcott) and I are already in the England team.

"We hope to get a few more players in. I know we haven't won a trophy in a while, but if you win one, more players will come," said Wilshere, 19, who at the age of 16 years and 256 days in September 2008, became Arsenal's youngest-ever league debutant, a record previously held by Fabregas.

Walcott concurred: "Look at Jack, he's done fantastic for us and the club give younger players a chance to really develop. It's great for confidence, and in four years' time, more and more players will be coming through."

Wilshere and Walcott spoke before joining teammates Alex Song and Wojciech Szczesny in a kick-about with the tournament's finalists at the Mid-Valley Megamall.

Arsenal begin their build-up to the 2011-12 English Premier League season today when they meet the national team at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.

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McLaren mishaps leave them straggling

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 06:55 AM PDT

LONDON: A weekend of blunders at the British Grand Prix has left McLaren bosses red-faced, with their hopes of catching Red Bull in the Formula One championship all but gone.

The mishaps began on Saturday when Lewis Hamilton qualified in 10th after being given the wrong tyres in qualifying and pessimistic team principal Martin Whitmarsh publicly acknowledged that their car is just not fast enough.

While Hamilton defied that gloomy forecast to weave his way through the field up to a podium position at one stage, a fuel shortage forced him to slow down and finish in fourth.

Jenson Button fared even worse, with a botched pit-stop leading to his retirement 12 laps from the end.

In perhaps the understatement of the weekend, Whitmarsh said Button and Hamilton were "in some ways a little bit handicapped in the race and that's a shame."

It left McLaren 110 points adrift of Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship and Hamilton fourth in the drivers' standings, 95 points behind leader Sebastian Vettel.

"We all make mistakes, and you always hope they won't happen," Button said. "But this is even more disappointing as it's in front of my home crowd."

The Briton was released from his pit stop by a mechanic who didn't notice that a wheelnut had not been fully secured to the front right wheel.

While leaving the pit lane, the wheel began to wobble and Button pulled off the track in despair -- maintaining an unenviable record of having never finished on the podium at his home race.

The team principal tried to avoid making anyone the fall-guy for the bungling.

In the end, it could be Whitmarsh who pays the price for the mistakes in front of a record 122,000 Silverstone crowd.

"I am confident I will stay in my job," he said. "I answer to the board -- not just (group chairman) Ron (Dennis) -- and they seem happy with the job I am doing -- certainly for now." -- AP

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Selasa, 12 Julai 2011

NST Online: Sports

NST Online: Sports

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