As the international break approaches and with it a final chance for international managers to try something before naming their World Cup squads, we can all have a stab at working out who is or might be going to the uniquely calendared World Cup this winter.
But we crave certainty, and thus we move away from those ‘could be… if this happens’ or wondering whether a player is ‘on the plane’ or ‘in the departure lounge’ or ‘stuck in a non-EU Passport queue’ or whatever the terminology is these days. We want to know definites, and that means who’s not going. And that means players whose countries aren’t going to the World Cup. We’re not interested in who almost certainly isn’t going or who might be ruled out by injury. We deal here in absolutes.
Purely and specifically to mock us, Ecuador have managed to throw a spanner into even those simplest of works this week but we’ve cracked on regardless like absolute troopers…
Arsenal – Martin Odegaard
When thinking about one-per-club ideas I must confess to being a simple creature. “Is there an obvious one for Arsenal?” I think to myself, correctly insisting as I always do that Bournemouth’s AFC-based shenanigans do nothing to promote them up the alphabetical list of Premier League clubs. If there is indeed an obvious one for Arsenal, then on we go. This sort of gung-ho failure to consider whether the other 19 clubs, most of whom it shouldn’t be too controversial to note are lower-profile than the Gunners, will fall so easily from the sky has traditionally come back to bite on the arse in what is known round here as The Burnley Trap.
Luckily, we no longer have to worry about them, and so here we are merrily into the breach once more with the very good but very Norwegian and therefore very not-World Cup-bound Martin Odegaard, who spares us the usual necessity of picking One Per Club legend Mo Elneny here. Forgotten men. Needs a move. Found down back of sofa. Surprise package. Unsung hero. Stuck until January. He has been them all and more. Which makes me think of a nauseatingly self-indulgent and cringily meta One Per Club feature of One Per Club legends. I mean, we’ve got Arsenal sorted and that’s all we need to dive in.
Aston Villa – John McGinn
Going to be a few Scots in here. At Villa, you could make a case for Jamaica’s Leon Bailey rather than McGinn but it’s all much of a muchness. Nobody really feels like Villa’s best player at the moment. It seems…
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