The Summer of 2007 saw Thierry Henry leave Arsenal in a protracted affair. The Summer starts with hope, but fades into reality. We’ve had ground-hog day every year since, with last season being extremely painful with the departures of Nasri & Cesc and last minute shopping. The latest and to the minute signing, Arteta, proving the most important of them all.
Most of us thought that this Summer would be different – and in honesty, we did get onto a great start with the signings of Podolski and Giroud… but then the momentum halted and we’re now into the new season with a few headaches to iron out. We’ve had the bold declaration from Van Persie that he wants to leave – but he’s still around and still down at training. Theo Walcott has failed to renew his contract and he’s back tomorrow – another unknown issue – will he be sold, will he be kept? Who knows?
Chamakh, Bendtner, Park and Squillaci are still picking up £10m a year between them, and despite global interest in one or some of them, none of them are off the books yet. The season ended in May, it’s now July… how long does it really take to sell someone? We all know that these players are all pretty rubbish and therefore, no-one actually wants to buy them.
Can you imagine any manager in their right mind? Oh, that Chamakh – the one who plays for Arsenal, he looks like a great buy – he’ll knock them in for fun, and only £60k a week? Oh that Park, he’s great, he’s the new Ronaldo, sign him up! Oh that Squillaci, he’s exactly what we need to sure up our leaky defence.
Now, where we are, we really really really need to get things sorted – it would be awesome to have these issues resolved, all the players and all the other players in and we were starting the season with the full squad that we were going to use throughout the season. But instead we have a mismash of people who some will leave and some will come (we hope)… it’s just an average Arsenal summer…
New signing Podolski spoke about the forthcoming season:
I’m looking at a different championship in England now and I hope we’ll be competing towards the top of the table. I don’t know if it will be enough for the title but I want to have a successful season. I’m raring to go and get started on July 21st and I hope I will have four great and successful years in London.
Now, although there are some positives to be taken out of the quote – quite a worrying sign is that he’s not sure if we can challenge for the title. I don’t know how much of that is Arsene or the team, but I want all the team – the team full of Internationals, to believe that they are good enough to challenge for the title. If you believe you will finish fourth, then you will finished 7th – 3rd… but if you believe you can win the title, then you will challenge. I really hope we get a winning mentality back at the Arsenal, it hurts me to hear players talk about not winning the title before the season has even started…
Hmmm… But… here is something to cheer you up…
Did you see all 18 New York Red Bull fans celebrate?
Til tomorrow…
