Archive for the ‘Thoughts’ Category

Indeed, my friends, the season continues and no matter how disappointed we all are – we have to put the recent final defeat behind us and focus on the games ahead. The recent loss of Walcott & Cesc as well as the even more recent loss of Van Persie has put us into a very precarious position in terms of personnel in the next 3 weeks or so. Our first choice players will have to consist of Bendtner, Arshavin, Rosicky and Chamakh – players who have not performed well at all in the last couple of games (Arshavin aside). I’ve been raving about the difference between last year and this – talking about the players who we will have this season compared to last – but up to the lead up to the game – suddenly we’re dropping like flies.

We need to decide which competitions we want to win and then focus on them. The Carling Cup has been an obvious distraction. It’s meant we’ve used more of the first team that we should have – it’s had counter effects on our league form and also the team we choose for the FA Cup – 2 replays already… and the fatigue and injury is evident for all to see. I’m confused to why we have so many players on loan and also confused to see why we want to go for all trophies with a relatively small squad.

Where we are right now, personally, we need to focus on one competition – unfortunately for us, we have 4 games in the next 10 days ranging all the three competitions… so we’ll see how Arsene prioritises in the next week or so. Focused on the Premiership is the obvious thing, considering Man United’s recent loss to Chelsea. We’re 4 points behind them with a game in hand and it’s essential that we win our games in hand and really give it a go.

Check out the run in for both clubs:

United

Currently on 60 points, with ten games to play.

1. Liverpool (a)
2. Bolton (h)
3. West Ham (a)
4. Fulham (h)
5. Newcastle (a)
6. Everton (h)
7. Arsenal (a)
8. Chelsea (h)
9. Blackburn (a)
10. Blackpool (h)

Arsenal

Currently on 56 points, with eleven games to play.

1. Sunderland (h)
2. West Brom (a)
3. Blackburn (h)
4. Blackpool (a)
5. Liverpool (h)
6. Sp*rs (a)
7. Bolton (a)
8. United (h)
9. Stoke (a)
10. Aston Villa (h)
11. Fulham (a)

Our run in looks relatively easier than United’s but with the number of games we’ve played, the fact that we are the Arsenal and the injuries we have got too – who knows which is the easiest run in? Outside of the Premiership, the next game is Leyton Orient away and it would be nice to win the game – at the same time, United away is the next one if we do win it – one of the hardest games of the season, a game where our first team failed to turn up to…

We’ve got injuries to Song and Koscielny for the game, so it looks like we might just give Miguel another run out… My predicted line up for the game is:

Almunia

Eboue – Squillaci – Miguel – Gibbs

Denilson – Diaby

Bendtner – Rosicky – Arshavin

Chamakh

With a bench of Szcznesy, Sagna, Djourou, Clichy, Wilshere, Nasri and a youth product, perhaps?

All that is left to say, is that we all need to keep the faith, not over-react, back our team and get a win against Leyton Orient!!

Morning All…

First of all, where has this week gone? And can you believe it’s Thursday…

Footballing life as we know it will never be the same with the recent departure of Andy Gray and Richard Keys from Sky Sports… love him or hate him, Andy Gray was definitely a presence on the box – and love his views or hate his views, they were always worth hearing… I know he is a Man United loving individual, who bias was all but plain to see – but I compare him with who else is doing a simple job and actually, there aren’t many better.

Jamie Redknapp is a really really annoying presenter – probably the most anti-Arsenal one out there – he seems to forget what he’s talking about half the time and somehow manage to blabber on about irrelevant topics whilst telling the world how amazing Sp*rs are… Paul Merson, well, he just doesn’t have a clue – and I say that even though he is one of our own…!

Chris Waddle, Stan Collymore and Robbie Savage are simply not with it enough – Waddle doesn’t really know much about how to commentate or present and literally makes mistakes everytime he talks. Collymore – well, he is just a pathetic excuse for a footballer let alone anything to do with football – and Robbie Savage, well, he simply doesn’t know enough about the Premiership clubs, players or coaches to warrant inclusion…

Then you’ve got the BBC’s lot – the Linekers, Hansens, Shearers et al… and are they really the people you want to be listening to on Monday Night Football? Lee Dixon is a massively dark horse, who actually makes sense and despite his years at the Arsenal is quite balanced in his views…

But despite the fallacies of Andy Gray and Richard Keys – for all their sins – I think I will miss them annoying me every week (if that makes sense)… yes, their comments were inappropriate, but is it really a sack-able offence? Who I am to judge anyway…

I’ll leave you with some fighting talk from Jack Wilshere – who was my man of the match earlier this week against Ipswich – a player who is simply sublime, and getting better game by game…

“There is a hunger among the players to win something – it has been so long that we have almost forgotten what it is like. We need to bring that back into the football club – this is a big football club and we need trophies. Any trophy is a trophy and if we can win one in February, it will give us confidence for the rest of the season. Before the game, everyone was saying this was a great opportunity – just get a goal and it’ll open up and it did. ”It would be massive for the Club – any trophy is a trophy and it has been five years since we won our last one. We know that if we win one, hopefully it’ll come along, and then it’ll open up more for us.”

And he also spoke about the last time we won a trophy:

“I was 13,” he recalled. I remember the game – I was sat at home with my family and Vieira scored the last penalty. You could see what it meant to them and we just want to do that again.  Being a member of the team, they [the older players] feel hungry for trophies and it rubs off on you. Even though I have only been here a year, I want to win trophies – that’s what this Club is about and we need to do that. We know we are going to Wembley now and we will see what happens in the other Semi-Final. We know that West Ham or Birmingham will be strong on the day. It’s a cup final and everyone wants to win those. We must look forward to our Premier League games now until then and when it comes along, get ready for that.”

And that team is Birmingham, after they managed to beat West Ham after extra time is a cracker of a game (so I heard) and it will be London vs the Midlands, Arsenal vs Birmingham on Sunday the 27th February… for our first trophy of the season… perhaps…

That’s it from me today… until tomorrow, Adios…

Morning Fellow Gooners,

Today I am writing the blog with the help of “Lady WOA” who is talking to me about aliens and monsters and how they are in a film together. Whilst I maintain some sort of interest, I am actually thinking about the defensive crisis that is imminently looming. I’m not one who goes on about needing new signings and I do have a lot of faith in the current squad – but there are certain times when you need to buy to ensure that a crisis doesn’t happen – i.e. if two of your four centre backs are injured and the remaining two are injury prone and inexperienced.

With Nordtveit having left the club despite being our most promising youngster in summer and Miquel being promoted to the fringes of the first team despite never having played for our first team, we’re simply down to the two centre backs that we’ve seen in action for the last three games…

My main worry is that the two we have – although excellent at times – both have an error up their sleeve – we saw a bit of a shaky performance from Djourou in the last game against West Ham and we also saw a bit of a shaky performance from Koscielny against Leeds. Last season, our defensive mistakes were the undoing of us – we lose confidence and lose swagger. If either Djourou or Koscielny get injured or sent off, we have no other option…

Except the option of breaking our formidable midfield trio of Song – Wilshere – Cesc… “WilshCescSong”… doesn’t have the same ring as TheoNasVanCesc… but the last thing we want to see is Song going back into the defence and seeing Denilson come into midfield. Despite being quite pro-Denilson last season, I’ve done a complete u-turn this season and in light of the fact he has been our worst player this season, the thought of NOT having Song in the midfield and having Denilson in there – when it matters – and having Song in defence – doesn’t appeal to me at all!

We all know that we won’t see Squillaci for three weeks or so and we won’t see Vermaelen for the next 6 weeks – if his operations goes well… a big IF…

Vermaelen admitted yesterday that he is going under the knife…

“I’ll undergo this operation in Sweden. According to the specialist who will operate on me it’s a little tendon situated beside the Achilles tendon which is provoking the irritation.”

Arsene also commenting:

“It’s not a real surgery. It is to take out a little [tendon] next to his [Achilles] tendon. It is to open it a little bit and cut out the [tendon] that has been causing the friction. It is a procedure, that is the right medical term. We are very optimistic that [this will cure the problem]. But of course it is now what you call in football a little bit longer delay of four to six weeks.”

So, we have to buy…

Arsene, if you’re reading this, then there is no other option. Unless you honestly think the untried, untested and young Miquel is honestly an option, which I don’t think you do! Don’t live in the dreamland that we can make it through and Thomas Vermaelen will be back and fine soon – he hasn’t played since September!

Well… If I am correct, the gaffer did say that there was a chance that he’d be back in less than a month… er… dream land?

“Let’s count the weeks to Barcelona and you will know. I count a minimum of four weeks, maximum six, so it is not an unrealistic target.  But don’t forget as well he is a little bit in the situation of Aaron Ramsey, he has not played since the beginning of September, that means he will need some games to be completely fit.”

But the time is now to buy another centre back!

Squillaci is not good enough at this level, Djourou and Koscielny are good, but they would thrive learning off and playing with someone experienced… Arsene did say if he did buy it would have to be someone with Premiership experience.

Just imagine if we signed Gary Cahill or Phil Jagielka from Bolton or Everton respectively – not the worst touts as signings – but it would send a huge message to our rivals. It would mean that we had backup whilst Vermaelen is out, and a long term replacement for Squillaci and more time to develop the likes of Miquel… Perfect signing, right?

It could just win us the title…

Morning All…

The big news yesterday was the return of Thierry Henry. Yes, the great man is back, but as you may or may not know… yet… he’s back training with us only! The legend of Arsenal’s most recent past will spend the break from the MLS in America training with the Arsenal team.

The website announced yesterday:

The Gunners legend returned to London Colney on Monday to train with Arsène Wenger’s squad. The short-term arrangement will help Henry maintain his fitness ahead of the new MLS campaign, which begins in March.

Henry joined the New York Red Bulls last year and helped them reach the play-offs where they lost on aggregate to San Jose Earthquakes in November.

The former Arsenal captain scored a record 226 goals during a glittering career in north London and was a member of the ‘Invincibles’ squad that completed an unbeaten campaign in 2003/04.

For me, Thierry was one of the greatest at the Arsenal and one of the best players ever to have graced the Premiership. What he brought to the club – other than a phenomenal amount of goals and assists – was a certain swagger, a certain exuberance, a certain standard of excellence - based on sheer class, desire to play the game and desire to win. When Thierry left, he did leave a void in quite a few of those areas – something that we’re just beginning to fill in now.

Thierry coming back to train with us will give the existing players a massive boost – for players like Van Persie, Cesc, Clichy and Walcott will remember the times they trained with Thierry and played with him in games – the rest will remember his legend, what he brought to the club – new players to the team like Wilshere, Chamakh and Koscielny will learn something vital from the great man. The desire to win and the class you can have as a professional footballer.

I will always remember one thing about Thierry – he let his football do the talking. Remember this?

If he can instil some of that style, that panache and the calmness in front of goal in Van Persie, Chamakh, Bendtner and Walcott, then we that will be pretty awesome – and I think all the players are quite excited to have Thierry around for the next month or so!

In other news, our reserve team lost 10-1 to Aston Villa in what was their heaviest defeat as far as I can remember… but they were without a lot of their first teamers (does that make any sense) and were playing with 10 men for the best part of the whole game.

But in slightly more uplifting news… something we found out last week and were of course tweeting about furiously – the fact that Arsene Wenger won the “coach of the decade” award ahead of the likes of Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho. It’s a great tribute to all the hard work he has been doing behind the scenes at Arsenal, the players he has made, the style of football he has created… so from everyone at WOA…

Congratulations Mr. Wenger!

It’s a tribute that rightfully awards the best coach over the last 10 years with recognition. For me, spending vast amounts of Money (like Mourinho) on the likes of Essien and Drogba is one thing, spending £30m on Wayne Rooney (like Ferguson) is another…

But identifying talents from the lower leagues, such as Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey… nuturing talent like Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs – finding players like Van Persie for under £4m, as well as maintaining a standard of football, going through a season unbeaten and doing all of this whilst moving to a 60,000 seater stadium is a remarkable feat.

The tributes came in from some of the existing squad yesterday…

Cesc saying…

Congratulations to Mr Arsene Wenger for being nominated best coach of the decade. What an achievement that is. Proud to be one of his players.

Jack Wilshere added

“Congrats to my boss Mr Arsene Wenger, manager of the decade!! [A] pleasure to work with him.”

And just to top it all off, Cesc was quoted yesterday talking about his future at Arsenal:

“Why would I want to leave? It is fantastic here. It would be a dream to lift trophies for Arsenal. It has always been my wish. Afterwards you can always be attracted by something else, like a new objective, or new challenges because, for me, life is all about challenges. But my real challenge as captain of Arsenal is to bring this football club success. This is the biggest dream I can have. I want to end these five years without a trophy and, hopefully, I can do it this season.”

Fighting talk from our captain fantastic… Today’s blog has been quite a pleasant one, hasn’t it?

Til tomorrow, mes amigos…

As the end of the year draws near, it’s time to look ahead to January and look at our squad and speculate on what we need, where we need them and whether or not we’ll get them this January… with the snow enforced winter break – 2 weeks / 14 days without an Arsenal game… we bloggers have a fair amount of time on our hands (outside Christmas shopping) and Shakira concert going (how hot is that woman!)…

Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes, January sales…

So let’s go department by department…

The Goalkeeping Department

So, we’ve finally shift of the number one jersey from Almunia to Fabianski to Szcznesy. Rumours were rife that Szcznesy would start against Stoke had that game not be called off and this means it could be permanent. So, Szcznesy is our new number one, Fabianski is our number two… Almunia would surely be off and Mannone would come back to cover him, right?

Out: Almunia
In: Mannone (back from loan)

Defence

Defence is a conundrum… we are currently playing Squillaci and Koscielny when in reality Vermaelen and Djourou are probably the better defenders. We’re also playing Clichy at left back, and we all know very much that Gibbsy is the better of the two – if only he wasn’t always injured!

Out: None
In: None

Midfield

So, we probably need a better DM than Denilson and a less injury prone CM than Diaby… but we probably aren’t going to get either – with Ramsey and Diaby a month away from being back into first team action, I doubt we’re going to get any midfield re-enforcements. In fact, I know we’re not! I would eat a hat if we did – preferably a chocolate hat!

In: Ramsey back from injury like a new signing… Diaby back from injury like a new signing…
Out: None

Striker / Attacking Wingery

I woke up half dreaming and for some reason thought we had signed Ronaldinho… I thought it was a bit of a weird signing and then search the net and alas, it was all just a dream… well, kind of… remember, we have signed the “New Ronaldinho” in 18 year old Japanese midfielder / cum striker, Ryo Miyaichi…

In the attacking department, we have Robin Van Persie and Niklas Bendtner back to add into our squad, we have Walcott and Rosicky as backup for Nasri and Arshavin – the likelihood of us buying: zero – the only problem is that with Nasri aside, they are all badly off form…

In: Ryo Miyaichi
Out: None

And just in case you thought Arsene was going to surprise us all with a whirlwind signing… he’s not…

“Because we respect our budget. You look at the clubs who lose £100million or £150m and if we do that then we go bust. It’s as simple as that. We pay what we can afford. I’m amazed that people are amazed that we do that. I think what is surprising is that people don’t respect that. If I tell you we can win two more points but we lose £150m, what will you say? Win two more points. But when I ask a second question, where do we get the £150m in? Maybe you don’t have the same answer. The beauty of the competition and this club is to be successful while respecting the balance and the funds of financial balance and all the rest for me doesn’t look normal. People will maybe realise one day that it’s not as easy to stay at the top and as well to cope with financial compulsories that you have at the top. We face rivals who do not respect the financial fair play. Instead, of us being accused, maybe people should look somewhere else.”

Yep, Arsene ain’t going to spend any cash…

Til tomorrow, til tomorrow… is Wednesday too early to start previewing next Monday’s Chelsea clash?

Hello Guys!

What a crazy start to the week – tube strikes, fog, snow… could we squeeze more action into a Monday morning?

I’ll be very quick as I think Kieran D is blogging a little later today…

In the meantime, Arsene has been talking about the team tomorrow and says it will be strong…

“We will play with a strong team. But don’t forget that we have played every three days for one and a half months so I have to see how we recover and who I rest [on] Tuesday. But we will play with a strong team. You will see regular players. Van Persie? I don’t know. Do I get him a week of work or do I play him? I have to speak with him frankly to see how he feels. We will see [on] Monday.”

There will be a proper pre-match preview tomorrow, but with players such as Theo Walcott, Robin Van Persie and Nikki Bendtner – and of course, Carlos Vela – in need of games, will we see a four prong attack – Arsene needs more out of those four players and tomorrow’s game could really help us get them some match time.

We’ve got Leeds in the FA Cup, which will be on Saturday 8th January at the Emirates, and hopefully we’ll score a lot and do them over – nobody likes Leeds, do they?

And one more snippet – tonight is El Grand Classico – Barcelona vs Real Madrid at the Nou Camp… it should be a cracker as we’ve got the whole lot fit and raring to go – from Messi, Xavi and Villa to Ozil, Ronaldo and Kaka… and Higuain and… wow, this should be a feast…!!!

Let’s hope for a great spectacle tonight… speak to you later…!

November is the one month of the year that I simply hate – the lesser number of fixtures, the better – down at Arsenal, it’s a bogey month – a month where we lose games that we wouldn’t expect to lose and a month when any form we previously had goes straight out of the window. A 6-0 win against Braga at the Emirates turns into a 2-0 defeat over there – with virtually the same team, give or take a little.

Many people thought that we’d get a massive reaction out of the team after the collapse against Sp*rs and personally, I don’t believe we did. I don’t believe we saw the fight that we want to see from the team. The collective spirit was missing, and worst of all, our actual ability to play football has deteriorated. Many people say Arsenal lack a “plan B”… but what exactly is our plan A? Pass it sideways? When shooting is possible, pass the buck to another player in worse position? What exactly is going to win us this league or any competition?

These players have only one target – that’s the Carling Cup. Djourou has been in the press talking about our desire to win a trophy – well, based on the last 3 defeats in the league and 2 defeats in the Champions League, we’re not ready to win either of those trophies.

“We want to win a trophy. That is the main focus of the team. We have the quality and luckily we are not too far from the top. I feel we can definitely win a trophy this season. It has been a difficult week, we have had two straight defeats but now we have to bounce back. And what better place than Villa? We have the quality to do it. Now it is how much we want it. We are big enough to stand up for ourselves and be ready for Villa. The lucky thing in football is that you can always do better in the next game.”

The only problem with Djourou’s statement is that we did have the opportunity to play better and qualify for the Champions League against Braga after the abysmal result against Sp*rs. The other unlucky thing, in the same manner, is that we can always do worse in our next game.

I don’t want to put a downer on the season, or rid us of all ambition, but if we are going to get anywhere this season, then something has to change.

News is that Cesc Fabregas is out for 2 weeks, so he’ll miss Villa, Wigan (in the Carling Cup), Fulham (at home) and Partizan (at home) in the Champions League – he should be back for the Manchester United game, so that’s good news – also good news to hear Aaron Ramsey coming through 45 minutes of the reserve game. He’ll still be a month or so away from a competitive game, but progress is progress. On the bad news front though, Eboue is out for a month now. I’ve kind of missed him in recent games – I was looking forward to seeing more of him – at least both of these players have a forced Winter break.

Arsene spoke on Cesc:

“It is a big blow because it will question how cautious we have to be in the future with him. Cesc has played 50 games a year since a young age. We may have to be more cautious with him, especially in the next two months.”

As long as we don’t rush anyone back, we should have some fresh players for the second half of this crazy season, and they could last the distance… the last thing we want to do is turn Cesc into a 15 games a season (RvP style) player…

I’ll be back tomorrow, hopefully more enthused, more excited and with a big Aston Villa preview… til then…

Having just got back from a freezing night at Wembley, it’s time to reflect on what was a very strange night of football. Now whether you’re an Arsenal fan or an England or neither, then one thing that was evident, is that the players and tactics from the England first half display was completely abject. With my England hat on, I really have to question the set up – Barry and Henderson were completely useless in the middle and when you play a decent side and you have no middle, you’ll never get hold of the game – and that’s exactly what happened. We played a 4-4-2 with Gerrard up front and it didn’t work. The midfield was found out and that was one of the sole reasons why we lost the game.

Looking at the Arsenal players…. let’s take a look at each one, one by one…

Kieran Gibbs

For me, young Gibbsy had a decent game. He was quiet throughout the game and played quite a disciplined left back role. He didn’t have much protection from Milner as the young Man City midfielder moved inside in search of the ball. Gibbs hasn’t played too much in recent times, and the lack of match practice showed a little. In the first half, he didn’t go forward much at all, but did so much more in the second half and showed glimpses of his attacking abilities with a few good crosses and good movement before he was substituted.

Result: Good overall performance, did well in difficult circumstances.

Theo Walcott

Theo would be the first to admit that this wasn’t his best performance in an England shirt. In fact, for him, it was pretty much a non-event – I was quite disappointed with his overall performance. But in one way, it felt like he didn’t know what position he was playing in. He wasn’t playing in a 4-4-2 and he wasn’t playing in a 4-3-3. In a way, for me, it looked like he was playing like the old Theo Walcott, not the 2010 version. He didn’t protect Jagielka in the first half and really didn’t make an impression going forward. I hate to say it, but not a great performance at all.

Result: A night to forget

Bacary Sagna

The French right back was in magnificent form and was solid throughout the game. He got the assist on the second French goal and it was a great run and cross – generally, his crossing was very good. I feel that he is coming back to some of his best form and he kept Milner, Young, and anyone else who dared enter his area on the pitch very much at bay.

Result: Solid performance

Samir Nasri

Samir has shown this season for Arsenal that he has the bit between his teeth and he is very much in control of his own destiny. He was scored seven goals for us this season and his general build up play has been excellent. For France, he showed a similar form – his combination with Gourcuff was sensational, both players interchanging with such fluency. Nasri continually ran against the England defence and had them on the back foot all night.

Result: Bossed the game and showed a good level of maturity

A few of the other Arsenal players were playing last night, with Arshavin playing the full game as his side lost 2-0 at home to Belgium, Cesc and RvP both getting 45 minutes and Maroune Chamakh playing around 70 minutes and scoring a goal too. Djourou, Fabianski and Rosicky also in action – and at the time of writing, I am hearing that there are no new injuries!

Finally, on a non-Arsenal note – well done to Andy Carroll. I know he’s not the role model player, but he was the best England player on the pitch. With Heskey retired and the likes of Kevin Davies not the type of player I’d like to see play for England, suddenly Andy Carroll has put himself in the frame.

Good-day to you, wherever you are in the world of Arsenal. Dev has asked me to blog in his absence and as always it is my pleasure to do so. Unfortunately there is a good chance I will be without internet access this weekend so here’s hoping Dev can take a ‘break’ from the beach to give you an update.

The weekend before last I was fortunate enough to have a chat with the legendary Bob Wilson and it was interesting and exciting to hear some of the things he had to say. Of Theo Walcott he said he has been in the gym all summer to build some muscle. This is great because you have to feel that at times Theo was nudged off the ball too often. His pace normally compensated for this but with some upper-body strength I am optimistic he will become a more ‘complete’ package.

This week everybody has been talking about the young Jack Wilshere. At just 16 years of age it is far too early to place ANY expectations on him. However, Bob Wilson was very excited about what the future holds. He said he is going to be a big player for Arsenal, to which I responded ‘big like Pennant or Bentley were predicted to be?’. He said no, Jack Wilshere is going to be an Arsenal and England superstar. Promising stuff, but as I said, let’s give him the time he needs.

The draw for the Champions League third qualifying round was made today, and we will face FC Twente of the Netherlands. What makes this draw interesting is that Steve McLaren is their manager. I hope he gets the abuse he deserves when they come to the Emirates! Seriously though, we should be fine even if they did beat Ajax for the qualifying spot. Thank goodness we avoided teams like Atletico Madrid and Galatasastab.

In other news David Bentley has been talking about Arsenal (not for the first time). He is looking forward to playing against us for Sp*rs. And we are looking forward to watching you lose against Arsenal, David. Having joined Sp*rs he has confirmed what we already knew about him. I will let you come up with the appropriate terms to describe him.

Arsene has said he is looking to find one more player for central midfield, and Gokhan Inler has been linked with us this morning. The 24 year old Switzerland international is a highly regarding midfielder, currently playing for Udinese. However, all of the quotes all come from the player’s agent. In agents we cannot trust. We’ll have to wait and see who this new signing will be. Anyone have any ideas?

Have a good weekend.

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Good day to you all.

Some interesting news coming from Arsene’s pre-match press conference yesterday. Alex Hleb is not for sale, and Mattie Flamini’s deadline has been extended to Monday due to ‘negotiation problems’. For me that basically means Arsenal are, as I suggested yesterday, succumbing to the threat of him leaving on a free and are trying to convince him otherwise by revising their original offer. Who knows – we’ll have to wait and see.

Good to hear that Alex Hleb is not for sale, although I very much doubt that this statement will stop the press making up stories about him going to Inter, Juve etc etc. Indeed we are linked with Niko Kranjcar of Portsmouth, whose father says Wenger ‘has been tracking for some time’ (if you say so, Mr Kranjcar senior), and that he would be the perfect replacement for Hleb.

It is something we Gooners have come to live with in recent summers. ‘Cesc is off to Barca’, ‘Hleb to Italy’, ‘Adebayor to Italy’. We know it is coming, but the bottom line is all these players are contracted to the club, and cannot go unless Arsenal is willing to sell. As the boss said yesterday, the only player free to leave the club is Flamini, although we’re all hopeful that won’t be the case come Monday.

It is, in my opinion, crucial that this team sticks together. All the progress we have made in recent seasons is down to the fact that the core players have remained with the club. We really don’t want an exodus of players this summer because it will mean we have to start again from scratch, which is not an option. If the team continues to improve at the same rate then we will be champions next season, but we do need this group to stick together in order for that to be possible.

Everton Team News

Everton tomorrow is our penultimate game of the season, and last home game. Team news sees the squad remaining more or less the same as against Derby, with Robin Van Persie being rested as a precautionary measure (thigh) and Flamini possibly returning to a place on the bench. I must say that RVP’s injury situation is of great concern. He is such a classy player but you can only be incredibly frustrated with his injury problems in recent seasons. If he had been fully fit all season perhaps we would be parading the league trophy tomorrow at the Emirates. RVP and Rosicky – we need them fit and strong next season, but if they cannot meet this requirement then we really need to think about replacing them with players who are more reliable in terms of fitness.

I think we can expect Fabianski to retain his place in goal, and with RVP not playing it seems likely that Ade and Bendtner will play up front. Theo should get another start alongside Eboue, Cesc and Denilson in midfield. The back four of Toure, Gallas, Song and Clichy will no doubt stay the same, although the Boss may well decide to give big Phil Senderos another chance after having not played since that miserable night at Anfield.

This game is not an easy one to predict. We pretty much have nothing to play for if Man Utd win against West Ham today, which is expected if we’re being honest with ourselves. However Everton are 3 points ahead of Villa in 5^th, but with an inferior goal difference. With 5^th place offering the only UEFA Cup spot this season Everton will be giving everything to take something from the game. If we are going to reach our target of 83 points this season we will need to be fully focussed and committed tomorrow or we will be punished. The game up at Goodison was one of my favourite away games attended this season, in spite of the fact that my car had been broken into when I returned to it after the game! Here’s a tip to those of you who go to the away games – use the travel club for the Liverpool matches!

Everton will be without Cahill and Arteta and this could be decisive in terms of the result. I fancy us to nick it, what do you reckon?

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With Dev deciding to leave rain-soaked Britain for sunny Cataluna (what were you thinking Dev?) I have been given the privilege of blogging on WOA in his absence. Greetings to you wherever you are in the world.

I woke up this morning with a horrid thought. There is only one more afternoon to be spent at the Emirates, and only two more games left overall this season. What am I going to do at 3p.m. on Saturdays until August? Granted, we do have the Euros in June, but that will only last for 3 weeks, and England won’t even be there!

The season is coming to an end and, naturally, transfer speculation is hotting-up. Names are being thrown left, right and centre but I, for one, try not to pay too much attention to these rumours. Let me ask you a question: How often does media transfer speculation actually materialise with Arsenal??

Think of Sagna, Eduardo, Adebayor, Rosicky, Hleb, Flamini (to name a few out of many). Until the day their transfers were confirmed, nobody had a clue that these players would be joining the Gunners. So, my advice for this summer is not to get carried away with the rumours you read/hear about. Chances are they are untrue, and normally they are generated by agents trying to promote the names of their clients. Personally, I am never convinced of a transfer until I read it as confirmed on the official website.

Who will be joining us this summer?

It is great having names like David Villa strongly linked with a move to Arsenal. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, we know le Boss is not going to splash out a casual £20-25m on any player. In fact, I was talking to Dev recently about our financial situation. Through various sources we were able to work out that the amount of disposable money Arsenal has to spend on transfers is not £70m, as is commonly quoted in the papers, but more like £25m. We have to remember a few factors when it comes to transfers and Arsenal:

1.     Arsenal only spends disposable money on transfers. It will not take out a loan to cover the costs of an excessive transfer fee as is often seen with clubs like Chelsea, Man Utd etc. This is a GOOD thing because it ensures the club does not go into debt and it helps to safeguard long-term financial stability (note that there is a separate fund for the stadium, the debt of which will be comfortably returned over the next 20-25 years, according to the directors of the club).

2.     The transfer kitty also has to take into account wages and other aspects of a player’s contract. Essentially a new player’s wages will form a major consideration in deciding what would be a reasonable transfer fee.

3.     Le Boss is not prepared to spend £20m on a player when he can find an equivalent for half the price. This partially explains why he does not buy English and/or other established players, often preferring to go for players of Eastern European or African origin (or indeed young prospects).

From the above points I reckon we can assume that there will be 2-3 new signings this summer costing in the region of £8-15m each, depending on the number of players signed. This is also on the assumption that we will be retaining most of the current squad. (Can we assume Matty Flamini is on his way? I’m still holding out and hoping that he is using the interest from Italy as leverage to get Arsenal to offer a better remuneration package, even though technically Arsene gave him a deadline of this past Wednesday).

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have players like Villa and Robinho at Arsenal, but it is important to remember that the motives behind limiting transfer expenditure are genuine and worthy of praise. These are just my thoughts. I know many an Arsenal fan that would happily see us spending hefty amounts of money on big names on the assumption that it would reap instant reward.

It is easy to slip into the ‘dark side’ in this respect. But it will be so much sweeter when we win trophies as a result of this current philosophy. Man Utd and Chelsea can buy all the trophies they want. We’re going to win them having spent a slither of the money they have. We will be in PROFIT after having done so. And we will be the REAL achievers. At the current rate of progress, we won’t have to wait much longer – our time is coming.

King Thierry coming home?

Having watched the interview on football focus last weekend with Thierry, I am sure that the words of Kolo Toure echo the thoughts of all Gooners:

‘I think he’ll come back to play in England, at Arsenal, because he did so much for the club and I know that the fans still have him in their heart.’

 

Thierry is my hero, but I don’t see him coming back unless the deal is significantly cheaper than the one that sent him out to Spain. Perhaps Dev can take a few moments of his time to pop into TH’s villa and have a few words…

Thank you Keith Edelman

One final note about MD Keith Edelman, who tendered his resignation yesterday. No doubt the media will milk this for all it’s worth. I genuinely believe this decision was a personal one, and not because of ‘boardroom unrest’ etc etc. It is with regret that he has decided to leave as he has clearly contributed very positively to the welfare of the club. We supporters really do not know what goes on behind the scenes, and I truly admire the tremendous efforts of Mr Edelman and his colleagues in bringing us to the Emirates. I’m sure I am not alone when I say I am very grateful for what he has done for Arsenal Football Club.

More thoughts and team news ahead of Everton to come tomorrow. Here’s to an awesome bank holiday weekend!

Your comments, as always, are welcome…

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