If there’s one part of the football season I hate, it’s the off-season. Not only do I not get to see my beloved Arsenal play, I also have to contend with numerous rumours about our players- from the probable to the absolutely ridiculous. That’s why it’s otherwise known as ‘silly season’. And I absolutely cannot stand it!

You hear from everyone. From the highly informed to the ill-informed, either on Twitter, on blogs, or newspapers. I hate talking about them, and I’m not even going to mention any of them on this post. I never believe that we’ve signed or lost a player, until they officially sign for us or another club.

But one player who we’ve definitely signed is Carl Jenkinson, and you can listen to his first Arsenal interview here, if you’re an Arsenal member or an Arsenal Player (formerly ATVO) subscriber. I think you can even get as day pass for £1.50! Not bad. Dev already talked about Carl here, so you can find out more about him. But yeah, we’ve made our first signing of the season, so at least we’re active. Carl’s 19, and hopefully the next signing we make will be older than him!

I’m already looking forward to next season, and who wouldn’t, given how last season ended?! I’m not one for being harsh, but last season can only be described as a disaster. It says it all, that our best performance of the season- at the Emirates against Barca- was in effect meaningless, as we lost the tie! And the most spectacular match of the season was the 4-4 Newcastle away loss (it was a draw, obviously, but it sure felt like a loss that day!), and that will ofcourse always be remembered for the wrong reasons.

But that’s all in the past, and we can only look forward. We’ve GOT to improve the squad. Or rather, whichever players are on the squad list from the first day of the season had better give us 100%, 100% of the time. At present I can honestly say that I do not care who comes or goes, because you can have the best players in the world on your team, but if they do not want to play for your club, or don’t care about giving 100%, they’re pretty much useless. I’d rather Wenger signed someone who WANTS to play for us, than someone who has a huge price tag. I certainly won’t mind if both were in one and the same person, as that guarantees a squad improvement!

I think one of the most disappointing thing about last season was the fact that at certain times, it seemed like some of the players just didn’t care. We all know how good that team is, but it takes much more than skill to win things. You’ve , got to want it. Not just the type of want you have for ice-cream on a very hot day, but the type of want that says I’ll do ANYTHING, just so I win that trophy. We got that from some of the players last season, but just not from enough players. I’d quite like to see a change next season. I wouldn’t even mind (well, I’ll mind a little!) if we didn’t win anything next season, so long as I get the impression that the players gave it their all. What I’d give to see that!

But yeah, onwards and upwards. Can’t wait to see which 11 line up for our first game of the season. I’m sure there’ll be a few surprises. Hopefully of the good kind!

Oh yeah, if you’ve got football withdrawal symptoms, the U21 euro championships started today, and it’s on Sky Sports. I’m not sure we’ve got any Arsenal representatives, or at least as far as England is concerned, with Theo and Jack (thankfully!) not included in the squad, and with Gibbs pulling out through injury (isn’t Gibbs the most unfortunate player when it comes to injuries? But I guess it’s to be expected. He does play for Arsenal, afterall…). You can find the upcoming fixtures here.

Already counting down to the first pre-season match against Malaysia XI, just over a month away. Hopefully we’ll have signed a non-teenager (or two!) by then.

Have a good weekend, guys.