Someone? Anyone? No signings, just loads of questions…

At the time of writing, there are just three, yes three days, count them, only three days to go in the transfer window. I am of course, not the manager of Arsenal and there is probably a good reason for that, but in my opinion we still need two players signed in those three days. This is on a par with how I tended to deal with University assignments. Now, Arsene Wenger is an educated man and he looks like the kind of guy who would get things done ahead of time – he just doesn’t seem like someone who doesn’t plan and ad lib’s his way through life. So this leaves me confused – why the hell is he leaving this so late? Is it for the adrenalin rush? Is he a performer who likes to keep his audience guessing? 

Last week, a few people took it upon themselves to criticise me for my low assessment of Emmanuel Eboué. For anyone who saw the Fulham game, it would be fair to say Eboué was the better performer of the two central midfielder’s. But that is somewhat of a moot point because Dr Stephen Hawking, wheelchair and all, would probably have been the standout in that midfield pairing alongside the nightmare that was Denilson. Now, i’m sure Eboué is 100 times the football than I, or many people will ever be, but to be heading into a top flight league game as one of the contenders for the league title with him in the midfield is a clear indication that not all is well at the club. I doubt there are many sides in the Premier League who would choose to start him at the heart of their team, and sadly the point I was trying to make last week has been laid bare for every Gooner to see after the debacle at Craven Cottage. 

There are certainly more questions than answers that have come out of the weekends match, a few of which have been answered with our 4 – 0 overnight thrashing of Twente in the Champions League qualifier. But I thought i’d use this weeks column to just throw some of these out there: 

- Which position does Arsene Wenger see Alex Song as playing? Last week he mentioned the names of Diaby, Denilson, Ramsey along with Song as contenders for the midfield, yet brought him on at Centre Back in place of Touré. In his 12 or so minutes he actually looked reasonably good, adding to his displays at the tail end of last season where he started to prove himself to the doubting fans (myself included). But with Denilson playing as poorly as I can remember an Arsenal player in recent history, why then did he not throw him on into the midfield alongside Eboué? 

- On that note, and as discussed on a few other blog’s this week, if Arsene isn’t prepared to throw on Ramsey or Wilshire when those on the pitch are struggling, just what is the point of having them on the bench? If he intends to give them a run only when we are 3 or 4 goals up, then it would seem to me that the squad is alarmingly light on numbers. 

- Just how well regarded is Djourou? Is Song now ahead of him in the pecking order? If after a loan spell and a few chances to push for a spot in the first team, he isn’t considered good enough to even be third choice, why are we holding on to him but letting Senderos move to Milan on loan? And why did we send Senderos on loan and replace him with an injured 31 year old who isn’t likely to be fit until mid-September? When we have a long injury list and a recent history of players failing to recover to schedule this seems a risky move. If Gallas or Touré were to injure themselves seriously, we would be left with Song or Djourou to start in the back line – neither of whom were considered candidates even for the bench until recently. 

- Will Van Persie and Adebayor gel as a front pairing? Until Bendtner came on late in the second half, it seemed like an awkward union up front. Meanwhile the promising pre-season form of Carlos Vela hasn’t been enough to get him any game time in the league. I’m not sure if he was injured or just not available to be selected but either way, with Eduardo out until later this year, to only have one player on the bench with any Premier League goals to their name (Bendtner) is a real worry. Alongside Ramsey and Wilshire was goalkeeper Fabianski, Kieran Gibbs and Johann Djourou. Yes we have injuries but why fill up the squad with players you don’t trust? Arsene only made two substitutions on the weekend, which is strange considering how poorly he felt they had played. Obviously despite the new seven man bench, we really only had a few players with any realistic chance of getting a game. 

Has Arsene been caught out with his transfer plans?. It seems Wenger was confident of signing Gokhan Inler, even to the point where he announced he was hoping to have someone in by Wednesday. Unfortunately that transfer didn’t go as planned, and with Steven Gerrard injuring himself, the chances of Liverpool releasing Xabi Alonso seems more unlikely than ever. Arsene had talked about how financially speaking it was better to wait until later in the window, but I wonder if our obvious need for a midfielder after the weekends performance, will actually drive up the price from any club who knows how desperate we have become. 

Still, perhaps all is not lost. I don’t believe it is a coincidence that as soon as Fabregas was fit to play, the team clicked and put 4 goals in. Certainly if we can keep Cesc fit, and with Rosicky to return, I don’t think we are in danger of dropping into mid-table mediocrity like some trigger happy Gooners have suggested. I wonder if it is legal to field Cesc covered in bubble wrap each week? 

By Paul Wright – Allgoonerdup roving report

‘Thomas – it’s up for grabs now’ – Where was you?

As part of this season and trying to tie in with all the 20th anniversary shenanigans of that famous last minute championship win, allgoonerdup.com is doing a ‘JFK where was you moment’. But obviously the moment we’re doing is – ‘Thomas – it’s up for grabs now’ moment. Every Gooner knows where they were when that goal went in and we’re going to publish your tails. The idea is do one Gooner’s piece a day, so get amongst it and send your emails in via the contacts page and mark the subject line ‘Thomas – it’s up for grabs moment’. I’ll be doing some sort of fancy graphic and that just to give the piece some ‘air play’. But get your emails in and hopefully we’ll get the ball rolling next week with your ‘Thomas – where was you moment’.

Win a new tee…

That’s right you can be the owner of this spanking brand new bit of kit ‘The Joy of Cesc’ from our Online Shop.

All you need to do is tell us, and keep those eyes peeled people because we’re changed the question, on what famous 1970′s book is the tee ‘The Joy of Cesc’ based on? Simple? Great – now get involved and let us know your your answer, name, address and t-shirt size via the contact form and mark it ‘T-shirt competition’. Lovely, job done. 

60 Second Round-up

Majority share holder Danny ‘Diamond Geezer’ Fitzman says we’ve got a shedload of cash if Le Gaffer wants to spend it. I’m not sure about the statement ‘if he WANTS to spend it’ Wenger needs to fecking spend it. I really don’t see us challenging for the title or Uefa Champions league trophy unless we add to the team. I’m not getting carried away with out win against FC Twente. Don’t get me wrong Gooner’s I’m not being all ‘bah humbug’ but the Dutch side are about on par with a League Two team, we wouldn’t exactly get excited about caning one of those teams now would we? I think it’s plain to see especially after the Fulham debacle we do need strengthening as when our first choice players are out we’re desperately thin on the ground.

Le Gaffer has promised us a lot in the past, even as last season was ending he promised to keep the team together. Now I’m not going to have a go at him there, Wenger hasn’t got control over players if they really want to leave, so that is completely out of his hands. But he can address what needs to be done, lets hope he does it. The money is there, go and spend it. It’s not as if it’s going to do us any good having money in the bank when we need ‘quality’ players on the pitch. Not sure about you Gooner’s though but I’m not holding my breath to see what players Le Gaffer will (or wont) bring in. I’m not sure why I’m not getting excited but Le Gaffer has promised a lot in the pass and hasn’t delivered. I hope that’s an old Jedi mind trick and Le Gaffer brings in a world class player!

 

We are Arsenal

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.

Who will fit the bill / Jens Lehmann / Summers here

So with the official news that Mathieu Flamini has upped sticks and moved to AC Milan, what’s next for The Arsenal? At one point we had more midfielder’s we could shake a stick at, now we seem to be a bit light. What with Lassana Diarra sold in January and Flamini going for a ‘Bosman’ I really do not see Brazilian play maker (?) Gilberto being allowed to leave.

So what have we lost with Flamini going? Let’s no kid ourselves he was a good player, but and it’s a big but it was only for ONE SEASON. He had in my opinion and I am not dumbing down his role at The Arsenal because he’s gone, I wish him well, but seriously he had one really good season, you can make that two if you include our run to the Champions League Final in 2006 when he played out of his skin in a role not known to him at left back. Last summer The Flamster was making noises about not playing in his preferred midfield role, Wenger sat him down and said something along the lines of ‘I believe you can do, fight for your place and prove me right’. I’m not sure many Gooners would believe the transformation of the Frenchman or would of been too despondent if he was sold or bought out his contract, which he was threatening at the time. At that time I’m not sure whether AC Milan would of known who Flamini was. But think back Gooners at the time what clubs were after Flamini? It wasn’t the Milan’s or Juventus’ of this world. Birmingham City, that who was after Flamini last summer, so you can see how his stock has risen drastically in a year. We’ll miss him, but not a great deal, we sold Vieira and survived, we sold Thierry Henry and arguably we’re better for it – so putting it into perspective I don’t think the absence of Flamini will be detrimental to The Arsenal. Like I said before I am not knocking Flamini or dumbing down what he has done for us this season but he was cog in a well worked machine – Wenger will find another such cog. 

But who will he bring in? I’ve got a feeling Wenger will recruit from within, every paper and site has us lined up with defensive midfielder’s from France to the Faroe Islands (OK maybe not the Faroe Islands) but you get my drift. I think Wenger has been taken by surprise that Flamini decided to go so but I think he knows who he wants to play that role. Will we Arsenal fans be disappointed that he doesn’t go out and buy a ‘Gattuso’ or a ‘Claude Makélélé’? Probably but I think the likes of Johan Djourou, Diaby, Denilson or even the born again Alex Song will be promoted to the defensive midfield spot. Only time will tell I guess but this summer will prove to be an interesting affair, hopefully. There’s many a permutation and will evoke a lot of opinions. We’re not too far off of having a great team, but those one or two super players Wenger was saying he wants to buy in the summer may or may not include a midfielder – we’ll see. whatever Wenger decides he does need to replace Flamini with a decent experienced squad member to swell our numbers again. 

Cheers Jens: A player most people knew was on his way out this summer,Jens Lehmann got a great send off in the 1-0 destruction of Everton over the weekend. Arsène Wenger has said he wanted to give young Pole Lukasz Fabianski a go in the remainder of the games but I think it was a great touch to give the mad German fella a 20 minute cameo in the last game at Ashburton Grove. Ze German mentalist had his fans and foes in equal measures, you don’t need me to tell you that, but whatever you thought of him – all I can say is a big thank you Jens.

Here we again: Arsenal kingpin Cesc Fabregas is already on the wanted list of Real Madrid, who’s president Ramon Calderon says he wants to make the newly crowned champions ‘more Spanish’. Great news that Gooners, oh well at least we can tell summers here

Ladies at the Double: The Arsenal Ladies have gone and done it again, another double. Yesterday The Arsenal Ladies spanked Leeds United (easy!) 4-1 in a one-sided FA Cup FInal. Well done girls, that makes it about 15 trophies in the last couple of years for Vic Akers all conquering team