The End.

Only joking... I'll start with the madness which we call Jose Mourinho! He's been in the press today discussing the inexperience of the Arsenal team... even if he isn't managing Chelsea, it looks like he simply cannot resist the temptation of having a dig at Arsenal.

“I saw Arsenal play in the Amsterdam Tournament. They have a good squad, but there are too few experienced players. The side is full of inexperienced lads. They certainly have talent but not the necessary experience to win the league.”

Actually, the quote isn’t that bad. Experience is needed at vital moments, like at Anfield last season. Our back line of Almunia, Clichy, Gallas, Toure and Sagna hasn’t changed, and we’ve got experience in abundance especially after last season. Our front two of Ade and VP are also quite experienced indeed. Cesc is one of our most experienced players and players such as Rosicky, Walcott and Nasri are exciting and talented. Are we too inexperienced? What position do we fill to become “experienced”…

Will buying Gareth Barry do the trick? A player who has never finished in the top four, let alone won the league. I don’t think so. Albeit, a big name signing would appease some fans. In reality the best man for the job should be the player brought in. Is Inler the answer? Over to you Arsene.

The injury curse has hit young Abou Diaby yet again and after last week’s suggestion from Arsene that we will be the long term partner for Cescy and also is better suited to the role than the Flamster, it’s a case of foot in mouth as we hear Diaby could be about for a month!

“Diaby will not be available for the start of the season. So we will have to work on some things which I saw on Friday night. It worked well with Denilson and Fabregas. You cannot say after just one match, you need a run of games to see if it will work, but I am confident it will.”

So, against Twente this Wednesday, I’d expect to see the two central midfield positions occupied by Denilson and Cesc. Diaby and Bischoff are injured and unfit respectively. Song is at the Olympics, Coquelin I believe is injured, and potentially too young for a first team debut and Inler isn’t signed (yet)…

A Twente preview tomorrow, no doubt.

So let’s take a look at Arsene. He’s definitely in for a midfielder. He’s talked about it and he’s all talked about being too busy to make a signing. We’ve been linked with Udinese’s Inler. It looks like Arsene is looking around for a replacement for “Flambertoiarra”, the three players who’ve recently departed.

Just in case, you weren’t 100% sure, a Barcelona spokes-person has commented on Yaya Toure:

“Yaya Toure will not be leaving. He is an important player for the team and it does not enter our plans to sell him.”

Okay, it’s clear now… let’s see what happens with Inler in the next few days…

Tomorrow, our youth youth reserve reserve squad are going to take on Boreham Wood. With some of the regular youngsters involved in the first team recently, players like Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs weren’t named in the squad. The game is on AVTO and Setanta as usual… The squad is:

1. Vito Mannone, 2. Paul Rodgers, 3. Gavin Hoyte, 4. Håvard Nordtveit, 5. Rene Steer, 6. James Dunne, 7. Fran Mérida, 8. Kyle Bartley, 9. Nacer Barazite, 10. Rui Fonte, 11. Abu Ogogo, 12. Henri Lansbury, 13. Wojciech Szczesny, 14. Jay Simpson, 15. Emmanuel Frimpong, 16. Rhys Murphy and 17. Sanchez Watt

P.S. Thierry Henry will not be playing for Man U next season – really silly story!

Adios for now, speak soon…]]>

This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 6:32 pm and is filed under Arsenal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.