Well we won…St Michael Thomas t-shirt up for grabs..

Good day to all you Gooner’s out there.

Well all I can say is that we won, that’s it, oh and thank feck that FC Twente strikers are about as lethal as a doughnut, not the ones with jam inside, the ones you see in the Sainsbury’s bakery bit with the hundred’s and thousand’s – who buys those? Anyway I digress FC Twente are a poor side when it comes to finishing although they play a great passing game. At times they reminded me of The Arsenal (without the flair) with their quick one-twos and passing in triangles. When I say they remind me of The Arsenal I don’t mean The Arsenal that played last night because they played like Bolton the amount of times the ball was in the air I thought my neck was going to give, I mean The Arsenal we know and love that can play the short passing game. I wont knock our team as we won, I wont say it was convincing but we won. 

One thing I would say is that I think Le Gaffer is papering over the cracks citing that the team was very young, well you know what, it shouldn’t be now should it? I’m not sure how many ‘big’ teams would field a 20 year old and a 17 year old in the middle of the park. I know injuries to key players are partly to blame for fielding these youngsters, however timing and a cheque book could of put a potential disaster completely out of mind. Well as I’ve said we won but there was some woeful performances out there and if anything the game does show how paper thin we are when we lose key players. I mean come on Emmanuel Eboué playing on the left wing? FFS! I know Wenger subscribes to the idea of Totaalvoetbal but I think he’s taking it too far now. Eboué is many things, he is a great athlete, but a a greater actor but he certainly isn’t no left sided player, Abou Diaby must be spinning on his treatment table bed. 

I’ve seen on some sites Gooner’s arguing with each other about spending money and injured players etc. However you can’t legislate for the injuries we’ve got already, no one would of thought The Cesc would be injured or new boy Samir Nasri but I think the clever money would be Abou Diaby not playing more than three games in a row and the less said about Tomáš Rosický the better – he makes Darren Anderton positively seem almost Frank Lampard-like, no I don’t mean a fat kebab eating chav but not missing something like 100+ Premier League games in a row. I know surprising isn’t it that Frank Lumpard has a record like that I think it’s something to do with a bonus of every game played he gets to go the Fat Fuk Chinese on Brompton Road and do the all you can eat menu. 

Anyway Gooner’s joking aside, we were dire – I actually missed the first goal as I was texting my brother Brian and keeping him in the loop as he doesn’t have Setanta and even when we scored I didn’t get overly excited. I’m glad we won, of course I am – I just think we need to seriously address what we have in the middle of the park and not have to rely on two youngsters to get us to a big fat mouthwatering prize worth potentially £10-£15m. Also with Aaron Ramsey we only bought him in the summer when many thought he was going to sign up for Manchester USA, who the hell would play in the middle if we didn’t have him? Another 17 year old, a 16 year old? Could you imagine if we lost or drew that game? The money Wenger thinks he’s saving or more to the point not spending wouldn’t be an issue as there would be huge pressure on us and the worst case scenario would be too horrific to consider. I know one player with experience we wont be getting is Xabi Alonso as the hubcap nicking, shell suit wearing, giro getting Liverpool Scallies USA played him in their 0-0 draw with Belgium champions Standard Liege – so bang goes that signing. But as much as I faith in the kids we need some much needed experience to help them out. We got away with it last night but a better team and yes there will be better will punish us. However I will say – well done boys! And Wenger please get your wallet out before it’s too late.

Adebayor, The Cesc and other stuff..

Seems the only stories doing the rounds right now are the Adebayor to Barcelona stories, not sure if it’s going to happen but it definitely wont be today as some quarters suggests, namely The Metro. But to be honest they are just being right lazy journo’s as they have nicked the story from Spanish toilet paper El Mundo Deportivo which is the equivalent to The Daily Sport. This story will run and run even if we don’t want it to. However, one thing we do know is that Wenger said his biggest challenge and hope this summer is to keep all his players. So unless the shrewd coach has changed his mind or has a trick up his sleeve don’t believe he will be willing to off Adebayor without a fight. Adebayor will definitely not be leaving The Arsenal today and signing for Barcelona that’s for sure. Unless his time in Togo doing his fundraising and football schools was just a rouse and all this time he’s actually been in Spain negotiating, looking at houses and completing a medical. Jeez, some people write utter bollocks. 

The Cesc Fabregas Show keeps on trucking this time it’s on the international stage. I watched the Spain vs Italy match last night and when The Cesc™ stepped up to take Spain’s fifth penalty I just thought ‘Don’t be the player to f*ck it up’. And the Wonderkid didn’t disappoint, he stuck it straight in. Cue The Cesc’s™ ‘goal face’, I love it when The Cesc™ shows that ‘goal face’ you can see just how much it means to him. I really don’t know why he is on the Spanish bench, but sod it, the less he plays for them the fresher he will be for us. 

I have stuck to my word and haven’t been clicking on Caught offside’s links on NewsNow. It hasn’t been that hard I must admit. It is as if a light has been flicked on and you just know whatever story is hiding behind Caught offside’s ‘Arsenal to bid for striker – this one is really, really good!’ is just a load of old tosh. That not clicking thing goes for Sportingo as well, that is another site which just has headlines for effect without actually telling you anything you didn’t know or read somewhere because the headline was a clandestine one.

On a completely different note fair play to Paul Ince who becomes the first English black manager of a Premier League outfit. So good luck to him, well apart from when Blackburn Rovers play us. 

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven will be revealed this week. So you still have time to get your own opinions in so you can’t bang on about Gus Caesar keeping the likes of Liam Brady or Patrick Vieira out the team. Get your vote on: alltimeeleven@allgoonerdup.com.

Big up Adebayor / Robin on money / Barca again!

Emmanuel Adebayor has gone and followed Cesc Fabregas by saying he aint quitting, thus leaving many a British newspaper / site a bit moody as they wont be able to fill their spaces with crap. That also goes for any Spanish newspapers/sites as apparently Arsenal’s sister club Barcelona made Adebayor their number one target. However The Togonator™ has pissed on their and anyone else’s parade who was after him as well as putting a smile on Gooners faces. The big fella said:

‘I came to Arsenal with a mission to succeed. ‘I’ve assured the gaffer Arsene Wenger I’ll stay because I believe in the team and I want to assure the fans my concentration is here. I have no reason to leave so I’ll stay to ensure that together we’ll win silverware.

‘Mathieu’s a good player but his departure doesn’t mean Arsenal is about to collapse. Our team is a deep well of talent.

‘I am confident we are capable of winning titles and we will return for next season hungrier to be successful.’

So nice one Ade you’ve put many a Gooner’s mind at rest with that statement. Even though Ade missed a shedload last season, he did score 30 goals, he’s still only 24 and can only get better right? It still amazes me after all the goals he scored and not just only against shit teams as some people suggest (he scored against the manc’s and against Liverpool in both the Premier League and Champions League games) that he still gets a lot of flak. Oh well, just no pleasing some people is there?But Ade – well done on coming out with your ‘I’m staying and going to be successful’ rant.

It’s been a couple of days now since his statement, but I didn’t bother write up anything on it but think I will now. What am I on about? Well Robin van Persie who is already raking in more dirty cash in a year than any of us will ever see in a lifetime says The Arsenal should pay more. Now I’m not sure if his comments were taken out of context:

“This group is unique. If a number of them leave it will be different.

“Arsenal have a policy in which they will not go over a specific amount of money when agreeing the salary of a player.

“They won’t pay enormous amounts of money. I think that they should go to a higher level of salary.”

For sake of argument lets say he was quoted correctly, all I would say to young Robin is, sod The Arsenal having to pay more – how about you play more! 

Apart from that good people not much to write about, we’re still waiting for the signing of Samir Nasri or anyone else for that matter. All I can think of is if Barcelona are wanting Alex Hleb is there a player there we could do a swap deal with? There’s got to be one or two, how about Carles Puyol he could do the job of defensive enforcer as he’s a big ugly strong brute.

So Gooners, let’s get on it and get this started – happy blogging, lets see what’s on your minds..

The New Zidane / Cesc & Hleb Speak

And so it is nearly over.. word around the web and even from the player himself (speaking on French radio) is that that Samir Nasri has signed for Arsenal. Well thank **** for that. Apparently he is already being given the tag of ‘The new Zidane’ which ex Liverpool muppet Bruno Cheyrou kindly gave back demanding a refund. For the sake of all us Gooners, I hope this tag doesn’t stick, because there is no worse hoodoo than to be given a ‘the next…’ tag. Rarely does a player ever ascend to the greatness of the player he is supposedly going to emulate. 

Which is why I think we need to work on a different form of ‘the next…’ tag line. Why are we always aiming the fortunes of our young players at the games greats. Why not aim a little lower to give them a fighting chance. So with that i’d like to introduce a few of our youngsters: 

- The exciting Carlos “The new Kaba Diawara’ Vela 

- In midfield we can look forward to seeing Jack ‘the next Stefan Malz’ Wilshire. 

- Young determined centre back, and captain of the reserve team, Harvard ‘hopefully better than the previous Gus Caesar’ Nordveit. 

So hopefully Samir Nasri will ignore the hype the press is whipping up, and not aim to become a balding overweight player who likes to headbutt Italian defenders. He would certainly win over the fans quicker if he instead aimed to be Samir ’scored more goals than Alex Hleb and kicked Eboué up in the air at training’ Nasri… 

Other news

Well the saga that is Alex Hleb’s future continues to make news. This tale is getting more like a soap opera now, with a new twist here and there with a shit story line. With everyone believing it’s just a matter of which club Hleb will be off to, the Bell-end-Russian (supposed to resemble Belarussian. OK well it worked in rehearsal dagnamit!) has come out and said:

“I have read that I have said I want to leave, but I do not know who has written it. That is nonsense.

“I have also read that I wanted to move because Arsenal would win nothing, this too is nonsense.”

Well Alex if you were wondering who wrote or said you wanted to leave The Arsenal take one look at your agent who’s been chatting more than Don King on cocaine. Hleb continues wittering on about a load of stuff and nonsense but the main bit is his laughable not knowing who’s been chatting his business. Very strange that. So what’s the next installment in this caper, Hleb sold to Barcelona no doubt. 

Speaking of Barcelona they are once again conducting their transfer policy via the media by announcing they are after Emmanuel Adebayor. I just don’t why Barcelona just don’t be done with and change their name to Barcelona a la Arsenal FC, f*ck it would be a lot easier as they want to be us. 

Cesc ‘The Cesc™’ Fabregas has said he’s staying with The Arsenal. I’m not sure who’s benefit that was for as I personally as well as many Gooners who don’t believe everything TriballFootball, ClubCall or FansFC or even the Daily Mail online say wasn’t under any illusion that he was going to go. The media would just love there to be an exodus so I reckon The Cesc™ made the comments to stop any sillyness kicking off and letting us, the fans, know the coo.

Latest transfer shenanigans doing the rounds is that we’re after Wolves keeper Wayne Hennessey. First time I’ve seen that linkage but who knows it could be a goer. I know Manuel Almunia stepped up to the plate last season but I’m personally not convinced, I have know idea what this Hennessey fella is like, all I know is he’s a bit brute (6′ 4′) and he’s a Welsh international. Given that Le Gaffer Arsène Wenger OBE really fancies Almunia to do the job as was reflected in the Spanaird signing a contract extension before the season was out and heaping praise on Lukasz Fabianski it could be unlikely, i’ll guess we’ll see soon enough.

Other than that Gooners apparently we’re closing in Miguel Veloso who wont come cheap to fill in that void left by Mathuie Flamoney. However Young Gun Johan Djourou says he can do the job for Le Gaffer. It’s not the first time the player has come and out and said this, also he plays that role in the reserves and seems very adept at it too, but once again time will tell. 

So Gooners we’ve made a signing in Samir Nasri, how about getting that centre back Wenger was on about?

Win that ‘Let’s talk about Cesc baby’ t-shirt

OK folks to keep the boredom at bay and keep the ball rolling (excuse the pun) Allgoonerdup is running another win a t-shirt contest. And due to the avalanche of entries in the ‘Let’s talk about Cesc Baby!’ t-shirt entries I am putting that t-shirt back in the shop window. So in order to win this bit of clobber simply tell us, how old was Cesc Fabregas when he made his Arsenal debut?

Send your answers, name and postal address plus your choice of t-shirt, colour and size to:

iwannafreebie@allgoonerdup.com

Competition closes Monday 16 June.

Good luck Gooners.

Have a great day blogging good people, tell your mates about the comments section and lets get this party started right… jump on and enjoy

 

Clichy wants to be a leg-end, another star linked, Wenger defends Eboué and other bits doing the rounds…

Candidate for Arsenal Player of the Season, Gael ‘Force’ Clichy is close to signing a new deal with The Arsenal. Much to the dismay of the media and sites as they can’t keep up with their ‘Arsenal facing mass exodus’ shenanigans. Clichy who has made the left back spot his own after a ton a injuries and C*ntley C*nt taking the money and running to CSKA Chelsea. This is a massive boost to The Arsenal, although I was never in doubt that Clichy wasn’t going to stay at London’s finest. I met Clichy last year and it he seems a right good guy, very down to earth, loyal and grounded, can’t say that about many footballers. 

 

Unlike a certain Belorussian player, who will remain nameless, Alex Hleb, Gael “The Best left back in Europe™”Clichy has come out and say he wants to stay a Gunner.

“Everything’s going well because my intention is clear: I want to stay at Arsenal.

“I would love to have a career here like Patrick Vieira or Thierry Henry, to stay many years at Arsenal and leave my mark on the club.”

So no danger that The Arsenal will be have to look for another quality left back any time soon. But you can be sure extension or not that the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan and Inter will be sniffing about. But we’re used to that though are we Gooners. 

What with Mathieu Flamoney doing one the media are still falling over themselves linking us with just about every defensive midfield player who can kick a ball (so that rules out spurs players then, boom boom!). The latest, although a player who was linked to The Arsenal even when Flamini was still an Arsenal player is Portugeezer Miguel Veloso who plies his trade for Sporting. I as well as many a Gooner am still not sure what Arsène Wenger intends to do with the defensive midfield role. Will he recruit from within? The likes of Denilson, Abou Diaby and a resurgent Alex Song have all been mentioned and lets not forget Gilberto could still be around next season. But how do you readers see it? Would you be happy with the ‘homegrown’ players stepping up or would you prefer a ready made replacement. How different this saga would of been if The Arsenal didn’t let that Lassana Diarra go after only four months. But there you go. 

So Veloso is another name added to the hat. A position not on Wenger’s radar is a striker (apparently) as he has confirmed Mexican loanee Carlos Vela will be used in the first team next season. The club have applied for Vela’s work permit which means if it’s successful he’ll at least get a run out in the Carling Cup. Wenger has already confirmed that he will use Vela as a fourth striker, so looks like we’ll be relaying on youth and inexperience again, I can hear the groans from here. It seems that no one actually knows how much money The Arsenal have got to spend this summer it’s anything from £25m – £75m? Who knows? Does Arsene? I’m not sure if we need to go and buy a striker but if you have someone like David Villa who has already issued a ‘come and get me’ plea then I would definitely get him. Could you imagine Villa in our team? Well I think that’s about all we’re going to be able to do – imagine. A striker who has been linked to us via the media is an Argentine forward who hasn’t as far as I know been compared to coked up dwarf and the leg-end that is Diego ‘Hand of God’ Maradonna. The former Birmingham City loanee Mauro Zárate is being priced at £20m. Not sure why the papers/sites thinks Wenger would spend that much on a player when he clearly has a bit of ‘Scottishness’ to him in the money department, 

Wenger having a laugh: Le Gaffer Arsène Wenger OBE has defended his decision to keep playing diving,cheating, no scoring Emmanuel Eboué at right wing. Just why Wenger keeps playing the bambi on ice player makes a many a Gooner scratch their heads. Anyway Wenger’s explanation will no doubt leave you scratching your head a bit more. I must admit that Wenger can explain as much as he wants, I’m not backing him on this one, Eboué is a joke. He’s good for a back up right back but lets himself down with all his shenanigans….. 

Silly season is upon us, Adebayor loves it

Much talk has been made of striker Emmanuel Adebayor’s comments regarding being flattered by interest coming from Barcelona, most of all by the Spanish press trying to shit stir. Well unlike a certain Alex Hleb, Adebayor has smashed the rumours that he is more than ‘flattered’ by the interest and would consider a move to Barca. The Togonator has stopped the Spanish printing press in thier tracks and thus probably stopped production for the next few weeks allowing them to have a longer siesta by stating: 

“I don’t know why people want to put words in my mouth. As I said on Friday, I love Arsenal and I will be here next season. I am off to Togo tomorrow but will return to Arsenal for pre-season training in July.” 

So there you go Gooners, end of story. I’m sure the Spanish press will no doubt find something else to make up and go with. Oh and as if by magic here we go look out for Puyol in swap deal with Cesc Fabregas. Put money on that one showing up.

Other news today we have that mouthy dwarf Lassana Diarra having a dig a Arsène Wenger saying if his man-management skills were better he would still be at the club, This guy just can’t keep his trap shut and obviously he’s spouting off as Portsmouth have reached the F.A. Cup Final so he probably thinks there’s some vindication leaving The Arsenal to join up with ’stepping stone’ club Pompey. How the south coasters fans must of love him when he called his move a ’stepping stone’ obviously Diarra needs to work on his PR. 

So that brings us nicely to the transfer rumours table, here’s who we’ve been linked with but it’s anyones guess who will be signed up. It could be someone not even on the radar – remember Eduardo last summer? 

 

 

Adebayor flattered, Yaya wants in, Hleb wants out (yawn..) Paddy and other bits

Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor fresh from refuting claims he wanted a massive pay hike after his agent said The Togonator wanted £80K a week has said he is flattered by interest coming from Barcelona and AC Milan. What cracks me up or winds me up more to the point is the way the media are reporting this by adding that the player is flattered with the links and he is happy at The Arsenal…. for now! They can’t leave it alone can they? They have  to be mischievous don’t they with adding the ‘for now’ for added emphasis, twats. But then again what do you expect from the media anything to give a story an added twist. Adebayor says he’s happy, fair play, end of story. I don’t see him leaving especially not to Barcelona, I mean we had another striker go there recently who’s a much better player and it isn’t exactly working out for him is it?

The annual Yaya Touré to Arsenal stories have cropped up again, I think he is linked to The Arsenal more often than Obafemi Martins. Touré the younger who some think will be offloaded by Barcelona in the summer wants to play alongside his brother and said that it would be great. Now what with Mathieu Flamini taking the money and running, Yaya Touré would be a good bet to play that defensive midfield position. But given that Wenger could of had Touré the Younger for next to nothing from former Belgian feeder club K.S.K. Beveren a few years back I think it would be a massive surprise if Le Gaffer would break out and dust down the chequebook for Côte d’Ivoire international. We’ll see, but be sure to wait for the next installment when Kolo Touré comes out and tells Wenger to buy his brother, again! Having seen Yaya play I reckon he would be a great signing for us, but we’ll see what happens there. 

I suppose we could do a swap deal with Alex Hleb going the other way as his agent seems hell bent on getting his 10% cut. Hleb’s agent, something ending in ’ski’ no doubt just can’t keep his trap shut and revealed Hleb wont buy out his contract. However the agent seems to do be doing all the things to ease his client out of his Arsenal contract. Hleb himself has jumped on board the ‘I want to get away but can’t put in a transfer request as I will lose money from my signing on fee’ bandwagon as he revealed ‘He is not a big city man’. Where the hell did Hleb think London was when he signed from VfB Stuttgart? So does that mean Hleb will soon be playing for the likes of Plymouth or even Leicester City? Or would Hleb consider those big cities? I think a line needs to be drawn under this, basically Wenger needs to tell Hleb he is under contract, so honour it and tell Inter, Barcelona et al that there is a £20m price tag on the Belorussian’s head, put up or shut up, simple. I’m bored of this saga already. However with Hleb not exactly saying he wants to stay at The Arsenal I’m sure there will be more comments from him or his agent, yawn.

Arsenal old boy and leg-end Patrick Vieira is showing his love for The Arsenal as he is a bit concerned with the players leaving for more moolah. It’s no secret that we have a strict pay structure, however not sure about you but getting £35K a week isn’t exactly ’strict’ in my book. I agree with Paddy that we do lose players or even lose out on players because of dirty cash, but where will it stop? Is Flamini really worth more than the £55K a week we were offering?

Allgoonerdup awards and St Michael t-shirt: The end of season Allgoonerdup awards is coming your way. Next week as there will be nothing but speculation and more rumours so I’ll shall be doing the awards type shenanigans so remember to check in for that. 

Also later this week I shall be showing off the special limited edition St Michael t-shirt which will be available in the Allgoonerdup Shop, just n time for St Michael’s day, which is nice. 

Jump on board good people and getting posting… see you in the comments section.

Last orders / chequebook to come out? / Jenas having a laugh

So apparently Milan is the place to be seen this season. Not content with high fashion and convenience to the Alps, AC Milan have decided they need a hard running scruffy midfielder to pep up the city. And of course not to be outdone, it seems Inter are going to do their best to spruce up things in the community and throw an Alex Hleb into the mix to match their piazzas

and slick locals on Mopeds. Now, Flamini I can see wandering the streets of Milan.. he looks like he has a fashionable Italian somewhere in his gene pool – but Alex Hleb? Have you ever seen someone with a more communist hair cut? 

Now last week I got a bit negative.. and my local loyal column readers took umbrage… so i’ve upped my dose of lithium and i’m going to now investigate the bright side of this seasons rumour milling.

We can already expect Flamini to leave. Yes he was a brilliant runner, tough tackler and all round good team player… but lets look at this sensibly. He was only as good as Edu, Petit, Patrick Vieira and a smidgen better than Alberto Mendez…. well.. erm.. whatever. Point is, if there is one thing Arsene seems to do well, it’s fine good central midfielder’s. I’ve read a lot this week about how few decent ball winning midfielder’s are available at the moment, but seriously, hands up if you would have put Flamini’s name in that list this time last year? So obviously Arsene has a bit of a clue… or at least some sort of laboratory where he can design midfielder’s. I’ve always felt Arsene had the mad scientist about him.. it certainly explains Jens Lehmann.. surely nobody is that strange unless they are the victim of a horrible experiment?

So although I’m disappointed to see Mathieu leave, but I’m sure we can replace him. I’m sure there is a 19yr old half Icelandic half Botswanan golfer who doesn’t realise he is ready to be converted into the next Patrick Vieira… And of course there is Fran Merida to come into the team next season.

Alex Hleb is also off to a place that sells marginally better gelato than Avenell Rd… but hopefully we’re going to get someone who likes Hula Hoops and Polo mints.. and bangs in goals for fun from the wing rather than weaseling his way passes 5 defenders into the box only to fake a shot and cut the ball back to his own goalkeeper. 

I was never convinced by Hleb I have to say. At his peak for us he had a bit of the Bergkamp’s about him, but at his worst he was more Jan Kronkamp. He has lacked an end product for 3 seasons now and for all he provides, we really miss a player like Bob Pires. Besides, Alex Hleb I’m told can’t even grow facial hair. 

And of course there is Gilberto (I hear the creaks in his legs from here in Sydney) and Senderos (poor lad’s gone mental). So really… the only way is up.

So lets all sit back, not get sucked in.. and await the start of next season. And be nice to the chubby bus driver, the old lady in line at the supermarket..cos we all know how Arsene works and they could be the unexpected next star of our wonderful team

And if that’s not true at least the locals here won’t be giving me as much grief until next week.

Wenger to dust down the chequebook? Le Gaffer seems to turning a corner and looks to be breaking out The Arsenal chequebook which seems to have gone the same way as Robbie Williams singing career – missing. The big boss man says he is ‘eyeing two huge players’ to add to the squad. So by ‘huge’ lets hope he doesn’t mean he wants to buy circus freak 8″ 10″ Liverpool striker Peter Crouch. It could be an interesting summer Gooners – lets hope so. On the same lines Samir Nasri has been linked to London’s finest and being young French that’s a given really…

Jenas having a laugh: N17 chav player Jermaine Jenas is either having a laugh who been having a pull on a big spliff as he reckons spurs will go above The Arsenal next season. That would be the same spurs team who have NEVER finished in the top four and who are losing Dimitar Berbatov…

 

Wenger hints at targets

Le Gaffer Arsène Wenger OBE has hinted that the players he is after in the summer are a centre back and a creative midfield player. Now this poses two questions, does this mean the end of Philippe Senderos and Alex Hleb or does this mean two new additions independent of what may or may not happen to those two? I like the fact that Wenger is being open on where he sees we need improving, Obviously I don’t expect him to name the players on his wanted list as the vultures will be out and the players price tags would suddenly go through the roof. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out The Arsenal have a soft underbelly and ship really basic goals and at times during the last few games the defence looked like they were going for the record of who could equalise against us after we had scored. For the record it’s about 30 seconds and that was Liverpool in that heartbreaking game in the Champions League. And yup it still hurts.

So let the rumour mill commence, I’m surprised the media haven’t jumped all over this story and lining up players from all four corners of the world, there’s still time I guess. I think many a Gooner would say we needed either quality back up or a replacement centre back. Personally I don’t think the Touré-Gallas partnership works. It should do, both the players are quality. On paper the partnership should be one of the best in the Premier League but in reality it doesn’t work. In my opinion Kolo Touré and Billy Gallas are too similar to be a world class partnership. They are both good on the ball, fast as a steroid induced Olympian but both are quiet short (for a centre back) and aren’t commanding in the air against big strong tall strikers. Senderos should of been the answer, however I think Swiss Tony’s ship has passed. I’m not sure what has happened to the boy, as at one point he was keeping an excellent Sol Campbell out the team. But Senderos hasn’t pushed on and his hasn’t developed into the world class centre back we all hoped. OK, Drogba gave him the complete runaround and since that first meeting he hasn’t been the same. I thought he would of come back stronger but it hasn’t happened. Senderos has had good games, I’m not saying all his games have been below average but I don’t think it’s good enough when everyone knows in every game there is a mistake in Senderos – guaranteed. He’s only 23, sure he can improve but you would of thought he would be way up there especially after the 2005 season. It just hasn’t happened. So a new centre back. Anyone out there with any names they think Arsène Wenger should go for? I’m not sure about availability but in my opinion we need a big dirty ugly Argentinean or Serbian to take of business. A no nonsense, stop you in your tracks big f**king brute –  a bit like Martin Keown. He doesn’t have to be able to play the ball out on par with the likes of your Ferdinand’s and co. I want this brute to defend and be able to head the ball and clear the attacker all in one go. But would such a player that we are crying out for be suited to Monsieur Wenger, that’s only a question Le Gaffer can answer.

On the subject of a creative midfield player, that’s a whole other kettle of fish. He wont come cheap that’s for sure. If Le Gaffer wants a decent, experience player I don’t think he’ll find him in the bargain bins, he’ll need to spend some cash, which apparently we have or haven’t got, it’s dependent on which paper/site you subscribe to. There’s plenty of names out there who would suit our play. What’s for sure is that they have to be able to score goals from midfield as the four goals from Alex Hleb this season isn’t good enough, Rosicknote has got seven but then again he plays less in a season than Boris Johnson has brain cells. So who should be the candidates that Wenger should be lining up, more to the point who are the players Wenger will be lining up? What’s your thoughts Gooners, jump on the comments page and see where all this will take us.