Well, yesterday was certainly a hell of a day in the transfer window. A hell of a day of non-activity. The major movers were to Villa, Everton and Sp*rs, the rivals that sit behind Man City whom sit behind the top four. I sometimes reflect back on the comment that Arsene said when we went unbeaten, that the tide had turned and Arsenal would dominate for years to come. As an Arsenal fan, it was a good comment to hear, but at the same time, something that seems to have haunted us.
Since those words, we have seen the break up of the unbeaten team. During that period, we have also seen the creation of the country’s best stadium and financial security beyond no bounds. If you listen to the media, Arsene Wenger has been hung, tried and quartered for his lack of signings this transfer window, however, a closer look at the squad would allow us to examine the thinking behind Arsene’s decision or indecision in the market.
The question has been raised whether I am happy with just the signing of Thomas Vermaelen this summer – and the honest answer is no. I want success and waiting for success after having so much of it from 1998 – 2005. The way I see us doing better is by signing better players. Personally, I think we can bring in someone better than Bendtner, and someone better than Eboue. But this urge for signings is controlled solely by my rash decision making – my lust for more players, more players, as a route to success.
The business done over the last year is controlled business. We’ve seen Arshavin and Vermaelen come in for Adebayor and Toure – in your honest opinion, do you think Arshavin is better than Adebayor and Vermaelen better than Toure. I do. I definitely do. So, if we look at it from a squad point of view, we have a better 22 this year then we did last year.
The problem we face down at the Emirates is our injury woes – we do seem to have more injury problems than most of the top teams. But this is down to the fact that we have a lot of technical players – technical players are more injury prone. Actually, fast paced, technically gifted and high work rate are the three attributes you’ll see in most of our squad.
So, let’s include the injured players in our squad analysis and what do we have. In the goalkeeping department, we have Almunia, Fabianski and Mannone. Almunia is class – despite the question marks over big games, such as the weekend. He is a good goal keeper and unless we’re willing to spend £££s, we’re not going to get much better elsewhere.
In Sagna, Eboue, Gibbs and Clichy we have very able wing backs who will all excel in our 4-3-3 formation. In the middle, Gallas and Vermaelen have done very well this season, in fact, have been sensational. And if you add in Djourou, Senderos and Silvestre in behind them, then it’s a position I’m not too worried about either. In the middle, we’ve got Cesc, Denilson, Song, Diaby, Ramsey as well as players like Rosicky and Nasri whom I’d expect to play in the middle three. The striking three comprises of Eduardo, Van Persie, Vela, Bendtner, Walcott as well as Arshavin and the likes of Jay Simpson and Sanchez Wattt knocking at the door.
We’ve got enough players to mount a serious challenge and the only real obstacles in our path are the associations that run the game. The FA being ridiculous, apparently charging us with improper conduct for a high yellow card count, despite commiting less fouls than United and getting twice as many cards. As well as the FA, we’ve got to battle it against UEFA who are busy picking on us and picking on us ONLY as they’ve banned Eduardo for two games for a dive whereby the video evidence is inconclusive. The comments have been really saying it all recently – how on earth McGeady and Rooney will escape bans when they actually dived, and Eduardo didn’t dive is beyond me. It’s a focused attack on the Arsenal and it’s beyond belief. The club making a statement today:
The Club is disappointed with Uefa’s decision to suspend Eduardo for two Champions League matches starting with Standard Liege on September 16. We have been informed that we will receive a “reasoned decision” from Uefa by Thursday of this week. Once we receive Uefa’s rationale, we will make a decision on the next steps. We have been deeply frustrated by the perfunctory and apparently arbitrary process that Uefa has followed in this instance. We believe it is imperative that Uefa’s explanation for its decision provides clear and comprehensive standards that will be consistently enforced. It is also critical that Uefa provides specific details of the processes it plans to adopt in reviewing all games under its jurisdiction.
I love the way the statement says “apparently arbitary” as that really means “completely random and not thought about” – it’s ludicrous. Unbelievable. I hope the club fight it as much as possible. The problem with this is that the it’s already derailled our good start. The furore around the Eduardo stuff meant that he didn’t start against United and we went on to lose that game and instead of concentrating on preparing for games, we’re fighting silly UEFA bans! Very frustrating!
Okay, let me just quickly summarise….
Transfer window closed. Squad is good. Arshavin better than Adebayor. Vermaelen better than Toure. All kids one year older. Eduardo & Rosicky back. The FA, SFA and UEFA all hate us. Let’s battle against all of them and win the league… Come on you Gunners.!!!!
