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.

Oorah – it’s on people…Cesc joins injury list…St Michael Thomas t-shirt up for grabs..

Hello Gooner’s and good day to you all.

Well today starts the beginning of our 2008/09 season and it’s going to be an emotional roller coaster and an exciting one, no doubt. The long road towards getting some much needed silverware in The Grove’s trophy cabinet starts now and I’m not even going to recognise or give props to The Amsterdam Tournament Cup. As that great rapper MC Hammer, he of the baggy pants look once said we need ‘proper’ silverware this season. 

Our march to glory and a first ‘proper’ trophy since 2005 in that infamous F.A. Cup Final when we bashed Manchester USA from pillar to post and generally spanked the bejesus out of the them comes in the shape of FC Twente. FC Twente as we all know are bossed by none other than the ‘wally with the brolly’ Steve McClaren and he for one will be looking for an upset against a English club so he can ram all the taunts (deservedly at that) aimed at him by the British press back down their throats. I’m sure that would be motivation enough for him to get the British sports journo’s to actually write something positive about him. Anyway that’s his look out, our aim is to make sure that isn’t even close to being a reality – a bit like spurs being considered a Big Four Club™.

Which brings me nicely to Dutch Master in the making Robin van Persie who has labeled FC Twente the Dutch equivalent of ‘that’ team with an extreme deluded sense of grandeur and lets be honest they have the fans to match as they seem to think one Carling Cup victory puts god knows how many years of obscurity into the shade. Anyhow what with FC Twente being compared to spurs, if that wasn’t motivation enough for The Wenger Boys I’m really not sure what is. It’s not even a money thing. You can’t give someone a bonus for beating them, the mentality should be you just don’t want to lose against them, it shouldn’t even be a consideration. Such instances should see you ridiculed on a scale of Fat Ronaldo being caught in a hotel room with a bunch of transvestites and then banished to a far away place – like the Isle of Dogs or some other god forsaken place. 

Anyhoo Gooner’s I digress I’m supposed to be chatting football. So FC Twente the Dutch equivalent of spurs, I’ve got that covered. Not like our midfield where players are dropping like a fat man after a 5m sprint. Not only has ‘first pick’ Abou Diaby been put on the injury list, he is now joined with the sicknote waving shenanigans by WonderBoy™ TheCesc, Kolo Touré and Philippe Senderos. I think that groan can be heard all over North London. Well now we’ll see how much depth the squad has, I actually feel a bit responsible for The Cesc’s injury, no I wasn’t invited to join the boys at London Colney and buckled The Cesc with an ill timed challenge but I wrote a piece the other day and said we’ll be well up the shitter if The Cesc does get injured as we do need some experience and cohesion in midfield. What with messrs Gilberto, Hleb and Flamini all doing one there’s no consistency in the midfield, so hopefully the pre-season games will of had the new comers and second choice players getting an understanding with each other. Well cross you fingers, either that or any of the traveling fans I suggest you grab your boots because you’ll more than likely get a game if anyone else gets injured at this rate.

I shall finish on a positive note though Gooner’s. What with these injuries it gives the ‘second choice’ players a chance to stake a claim and do a ‘Mathieu Flamini’ and prove they have what it takes. Now is the time for the likes of Johan Djourou, Aaron Ramsey, Denilson and even Theo Walcott to step up to the plate. Well Gooner’s it’s going to be an emotional roller coaster ride tonight, enjoy the game which is being shown live on Setanta One, get behind the team and lets roar on The Arsenal to victory. As the motto goes Victory Concordia Crescit – C’mon Arsenal.

Wenger needs help… Michael Thomas tee-shirt up for grabs now…Kings dies

Hello Gooners, hope you enjoyed the weekend and the latest bit of silverware to The Arsenal collection in the shape of The Amsterdam Tournament Cup. Well this is going to be a quick write up but I hope to do a more measured one this week, regarding Arsene Wenger. I will tell you this much Gooners there’s a lot of concern on other Arsenal sites out there regarding our current situation of lack of quality, experienced, injury free midfielder’s and severe lack of addressing that matter. Mr Arseblog who is not being his usual funny self has done a real good piece on this and such is the lack of humour in the write up that I had to second guess if someone else wrote the piece or if he like me is very, very concerned with our team at the moment. I’m trying not to be too negative with our team especially before the season has even started. 

However even before a ball has been kicked in anger we find ourselves with Cesc Fabregas’ midfield partner elect Abou Diaby injured. Quel Surprise! Only last week Le Gaffer said that Abou Diaby was his first pick last season to replace Gilberto Da Silva when he was given extended leave after lifting the Copa America with Brazil. Anyway we all know the story, Mathieu Flamini not only stepped in but stepped up and the rest is history. So this season with Abou Diaby getting the nod, he goes and gets injured again. Can we really rely on this guy? He’s as injury prone as Robin van Persie and that takes some doing as RvP has bought the copyright. 

So that leaves Denilson to step in. I’m sure Denilson can do a job, I’m not knocking him but he’s too similar to The Cesc for my liking. Denilson is in no way shape or form a defensive midfielder who will sit back and break up attacks, he is no Gilberto or Flamini, unfortunately. Now we have a game against FC Twente in the third round qualifiers in the Uefa Champions League on Wednesday which I think many a Gooner is taking for granted. There’s no way on earth we can fail in that game, that would be unthinkable. However The Cesc will go into the game playing only one pre-season game. Now heaven forbid if Fabregas got injured we’d be absolutely fecked. Big style. And on the back of this we’ve got Arsene Wenger saying he hasn’t got time to sign anyone. WTF! 

Wenger has said previously that he gets up to 220 CV’s from players every week. And we all know when Wenger looks at players it’s very methodical and in-depth, even to the point the brand of toothpaste they use comes into play. So, you’re telling me out of all the players we’ve been linked with Wenger isn’t ‘close’ to signing anyone? I really don’t want to believe that I don’t want to get all bent out of shape thinking about it either as there’s still time to get someone. But I am concerned Gooners’ big time. Getting an experienced player to help the younger’s come through and I’m including Denilson and Diaby in that equation and not to hinder them that is what is needed is my opinion. Robin van Persie even echoed that thought when after the game against Ajax in The Amsterdam Tournament he said we needed an experienced midfield player.

However this piece is longer than I wanted it to be today as I said it was only a quickie, in the headline I said Wenger needs help. And Wenger needs it big time. He is only one man and can’t do everything himself. Old fake tan and orange impersonator David Dein and ‘was he pushed or did he jump’ ex Managing Director Keith Edelman have never been properly replaced. Edelman is another kettle of fish as that’s an ‘upstairs’ problem. However old Mr. Orange has never been replaced and what with all that wheeling and dealing, Le Gaffer can’t be expected to cover all bases. He’s going to spread himself too thinly. So Wenger needs help even he doesn’t want to accept it, he needs another ‘David Dein’ to do the deals so he can concentrate on what he’s good at. Wenger needs to delegate as he’s gambling with the clubs future success. Wenger should have a right-hand man he gives a scrap of paper to or have a list on his brand spanking Apple MacBook Pro and say ‘get me this player’. And he needs such a man now, because Wenger can’t and shouldn’t be expected to do everything himself. It will be detrimental to the club.

 

Girl in a shirt

Allgoonerdup is looking to give the Goonerbabe page a bit of a boost and we’re going for a ‘Girl in the Shirt’ approach. Do you have any pictures of your girl in the shirt or girls get yourself seen on the Goonerbabe wall and send in your own pictures. Lets get this party started right. Send your pictures in and tell us your name, favourite player, favourite all time player, favourite drink and if you have anything else to declare to babe@allgoonerdup.com

Kings dies…

Not Arsenal news Gooner’s and fear of sounding all ‘Myles Palmer’ but I need to give props to two greats who passed away this weekend . You may or may not of known about these two guys but American King of Comedy Bernie Mac and King of Cool music legend Isaac Hayes both took that long walk into the light this weekend. 

Bernie Mac some of you will know in the ‘Oceans’ film, 11, 12 and 13 but he was much bigger than that and if you like your comedy edgy and in your face than you would certainly know of Bernie Mac. He was a guy who would scare you into laughing. Have a pop onto YouTube and see what you’re going to miss. 

Also one of my musical hero’s Isaac Hayes passed away and he’s probably known by the younger bunch of Gooner’s out there for his role of ‘Chef’ in South Park, which he had the song “Chocolate Salty Balls”. The more musically tuned people will know him for his jazzy funky hits including the theme from 1970’s film Shaft, Hot Buttered Soul and Black Moses. 

So a big up and props to those two guys who like The Arsenal give me endless moments of pleasure. 

Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes – RIP

LAST WEEK TO JOIN: Score predictor Mini league – join up!

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Enter the code: FCCDA-XVB to join the Allgoonerdup.com mini league.

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LAST WEEK TO JOIN:: Join the Allgoonerdup Fantasy Premier League

You’ve got just over a week to join the fun. Over 80 Gooners so far have got their game on and have joined the Allgoonerdup Fantasy league.

There will be prize for the winner and it will have a 20th anniversary Championship winning feel to it, that or a keg load of beer for the lucky punter! Click the below link to get started.

 

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Sign up to it

Design your team

Join the league by entering this pin into the ‘Join league bit’ (League Pin 73628-19858)!

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The deadline is August the 16th!

I can almost smell it… Michael Thomas t-shirt up for grabs now…

We’re getting close kids! The Charity.. sorry… Community Shield is this weekend, featuring the Arsenal Retirement Home versus the Northern Scum. It’s a match that I rarely get excited about other than it being the flare that is sent up to warn of proper football coming shortly. So there is only a week of preparations to get through before we can see our lads in serious action again. 

First up in that preparation is The Amsterdam Tournament, which is working out as an ideal warm up for the match up against FC Twente, currently being mismanaged by Steve ‘Euro2008 Commentator’ McClaren. I think Arsene will be feeling pretty confident that Steve poses little threat in terms of tactical awareness, and the run out against Ajax is ideal.

Of course in the background there is plenty of stuff going on. The newspapers have taken to linking us with every centre midfielder in the known universe for one thing, and so far we look no closer to signing one – something that Arsene has publicly acknowledged. It is odd though – if we need a new midfielder, and I realise the transfer window is still open for a while yet, that we wouldn’t try to get someone in before the season started rather than during its first month. But Denilson has played well in the few run outs he has, and the lure of a first team place will hopefully push him to become the great player he has the potential to be. His challenger for that spot, Abou Diaby, needs to stop hanging out with Tomas Rosicky and RvP if he wants to claim the spot – he has been far too injury prone in recent months, or most of his Arsenal career if you want to be cynical, although Sunderland’s hatchet man Matt Smith had a hand in that. I still doubt whether he has it in him to last a whole campaign. And keeping with the script the gangly Vieira wannabe is injured once again, FFS! What is it with our players, the season hasn’t even started and we’ve got more casualties than a party thrown by Michael Barrymore. Scarily, Ebouseless got a run at centre midfield against ‘Ze Germans’, which I’m hoping was merely a plan to get him some fitness and not a test run for yet another position switch. 

Meanwhile Jack ‘Wonderkid of the week’ Wilshere is impressing everyone still – enough so that he has been given a first team squad position. I can’t imagine that he’ll see much of the Premier League, despite Arsene assertion that he wouldn’t be afraid to throw him in, but it is still wonderful to have such a hot prospect, an English one at that, coming through the ranks. I’m sure Gael Clichy is wondering what the hell is going on with him consistently being one of the oldest players on the pitch for us in the warm up games. 

And first up we get West Brom, who are fresh up from the Championship. They’ll be out for an upset so it’ll be a tougher game than it looks on paper but hopefully we’ll knock the confidence out of them early on and from there it will be a steady slide into oblivion. I’m particularly keen to see Samir Nasri take the field – if he can be more of a Pires than a Hleb then I think we’ll challenge for honours again this season. If not, we obviously need younger players! 

Roll on The Amsterdam Tournament enjoy it Gooner’s, the real curtain raiser for ‘proper football’! C’mon on The Arsenal.

By Paul Wright Allgoonerdup roving reporter.

For more on the main site click the link: Allgoonerdup.com

Lets get commenting Gooners…

Wenger boys get fans salivating… Is Benitez a mentalist.. New t-shirt competition..

Easy Gooner’s and good day to you all. 

First up, I wont bang on about The Arsenal’s performance in our one nil win over Real Madrid in yesterdays match up in The Emirates Cup. I’ve only been on the interweb less than an hour and read plenty of reports and opinions so there’s pretty much no need for me to repeat what’s all ready on offer and no I’m not being a lazy bastard! What I will say about the game in a very concise manner is that Jack Wilshere, frigging hell. Is he really only 16? He will be some player but we have to remember not to pile the pressure of expectations on his very young shoulders. Did you see how he rode the GBH assault charge from Garcia when the Spanish thug tried to do a open theatre amputation on the young lad? Jack roasted him and made a £24m rated defender look like a spurs player. 

Now Emmanuel Adebayor with his badge kissing shenanigans, WTF? It’s going to take more than scoring a penalty to win the fans over fella. Did anyone else throw up in their mouths a bit when he kissed the badge? It was interesting to see the reactions of the fans in the stand in front of him when he started doing all that crap. The fans aren’t silly Ade, you have much work to do and kissing off The Arsenal badge isn’t going to be the way forward to make the fans love you again. I said last week the only way for The Togonator™ to get the fans back on side is to works his nackers off, score a bag full of goals and perhaps get a dose of humbleness wont go amiss either. Lastly on our players, Denilson looks like he’s getting better, Diaby when he fancies it does like the business, although as we know he can get a bit sloppy, Sagna is the nuts, Robin van Persie we need to keep the sicknote waving Dutch Master fit as he’s vital and Theo Walcott looks like this season could be the one he blows up, he should glimpses of what we’re all hoping for. But I must admit as a team we looked proper. I know it’s only pre-season but I bet Real Madrid didn’t expect to come away with a loss against us. 

Lastly, many a report has The Arsenal linked to the hubcap nicking, shell suit wearing, giro getting Liverpool Scallies USA’s play maker Xabi Alonso. The Mail on Sunday that staple diet of all things that’s wrong with England even reckon a deal has been struck. Now everyone knows The Gunners needs an ‘experienced’ midfield man and Alonso would tick all the boxes including the one which says ‘Premier League experience’ which with our new look midfield will be very important. Now I wouldn’t mind either Gareth Barry or Alonso they would both fit the bill however Barry can play at the back as well, fitting in perfectly with Le Gaffer’s rhetoric jack of all trades of a player having about five jobs.

However what cracks me up with this proposed move for Xabi Alonso is that Raphael Benitez has priced him up at £18m. This guy is truly a mentalist. Benitez even as Stevie Wonder could see is going hell for leather in his pursuit of Barry and nothing it seems will stop him. What with having Argentine Javier Mascherano in midfield Alonso will be surplus to requirements. So you would think Benitez would put a realistic price on him, seeing that he wants to shift him. It’s been reported that ‘allegedly’ Le Gaffer has asked to lower the price of the wanted away player, so we’ll see what happens. Benitez who you would think would take the money and run said:

“Xabi is very good player and will not be easy to sell because his market value is really high (£18m). We are pleased because we don’t want Alonso to go unless we get a very good price.

Remember this is the same manger who thought Peter Crouch was worth £15m! What makes me laugh is the way Benitez tries to conduct the price, he was told by Aston Villa originally that Barry would cost £18m and he said ‘Nah, we’ll pay you £12m and throw in a player.’ Er, sorry mate, the player is under contract, it’s you that wants to buy him – so stomp up the cash fella and that was after he tried to make an illegal approach for Barry, some people, the nerve. He’s either trying to be very crafty or he has a big set of cojones on him. Same with Crouch, the beanpole striker who couldn’t get in the team. Crouch only got a run out when Liverpool played in the Makita Cup or pre-season friendlies, any ‘proper’ games and old Robot dancing boy was consigned to getting splinters up his jacksey. But as soon as it came to selling, Crouch was the best player in the world, Liverpool’s most important player, found the cure for cancer and his worth had rocketed to £15m. WTF? Anyway this is an Arsenal site so I shouldn’t be banging on about other teams, but Benitez is mental. But to draw a conclusion I would definitely take Alonso but seeing that Liverpool will need to sell in order to buy Barry you would think that Benitez would meet in the middle somewhere. Wenger has said he’s going to bring in one more – it might turn out it’s not even anyone we’ve thought of, fecking hell Le Gaffer might be lining up a move for Joey Barton!

Pre-season matches, saying hello to old friends, the captaincy and Wenger’s ‘odd’ comment..

Good day to you Gooner’s. 

There wasn’t a post yesterday, so apologies to all you Gooner’s who didn’t get your injection of Arsenal news, fun and frolics. Admittedly sod all happened yesterday and I was hard at it a bit like our kids who spanked that Burgerland Team FC 10-2 on Monday. I know we have to start somewhere when it comes to pre-season games. CSKA Chelsea do their grabbing all the money they can in their ‘Ching-ching’ Asia tour, the Manc’s go to the motherland and tour Africa and we get to play a bunch of McDonald’s burger flippers. It’s been said on many a Gooner site not to read too much into these games as for one it’s only the kids playing, two the result doesn’t mean diddly-squat, three it’s mainly to get match fitness and sharpness. But what cracks me up when watching the post match shenanigans is the amount of Gooner’s who phone in when picking the bones out the match and performance. For those of you lucky enough to have it Setanta have got Arsenal TV, which is getting better, slowly, but it’s getting better. I’m not sure how many times I’ve seen ‘that’ Thierry Henry goal against the scum when he ran from the half way line, I love watching the goal but jeez I don’t want to watch it every five minutes, surely you must have access to other footage people! Anyway I digress, on the panel on match days you have musician and bald plated former M People man Shovel and ex Arsenal player Stuart Robson who sounds more and more like Sir Trevor Brooking every day. Occasionally Arsenal leg-end Perry Groves makes an appearance. But anyway some fans are getting a bit too critical when it’s only the kids playing, so people lighten up. 

Now today should be a different matter as all the big guns are back in training and the game against Stuttgart should tell us more about our team. And the big question is who will partner Fabregas (should he play) in the middle of the park. The clever money is on Abou Diaby. However I watched an interview on Arsenal TV the other day with him and he was asked ‘Do you think you’re the player to play alongside Cesc in a central position?’ Diaby’s answer was interesting as he didn’t really put himself forward for the hard tackling, defensive, covering role and letting The Cesc do his thing. He said he likes to get forward and create things too and basically saying his style is just like The Cesc’s. Hmmm so, what happens now can’t have them both doing that can we? As we all know and it’s hardly a national secret our defence is a bit shoddy. We take leads and surrender them when put under pressure so the last thing we need right now is two central midfielders who like to get forward and create all the time. It could work if Diaby and The Cesc have the understanding the Spanish Wonderkid had with Flamini. But I think we’re in need of a defensive minded player, so I think we might see some mixing and matching there. My money for these pre-season games would be Alex Song but he’s buggered off to the Olympic games in Beijing so bang goes that idea. So that leaves Denilson really. Aaron Ramsey looks like he can do the lot, he can defend, create, spray balls around but he’s only 17 years old. And from there down the list  it’s only kids. So like I said that leaves Brazilian lad Denilson who the season before had a stormer but last season was blighted by injury and he didn’t really kick on. But that’s just for today’s game against Stuttgart. The bigger question is, will Wenger go and buy an experienced proven midfield grafter? I sincerely hope the answer to this question is a whole hearted resounding ‘Hell yeah’!  

What this ‘proper’ pre-season match up now against Stuttgart as I’ve mentioned we’ll see the big guns reeled out for this one including Robin van Persie, pantomime villain in the making Manu Adebayor (boo hiss), Abou Diaby, William Gallas and The Cesc. We also get the chance to goodbye again or hello which ever way you look at it to ‘Ze German mentalist’ Jens Lehmann. It will be nice to see the original nutter play against us and all be it a friendly see if he gets up to his Darth Vader death grip shenanigans. 

I was going to run a piece this week on who should be The Arsenal captain after Billy Gallas’ less than impressive go at it last season. But I think that would be redundant a bit like Joey Barton’s PR and goodwill ambassador rep. I don’t think outside of Kolo Touré and The Cesc too many fans would want anyone else to be The Arsenal captain. However after Billy Gallas admitted making some ‘mistakes‘ – well that’s a polite way of putting it,  Le Gaffer has now come and said a piece on the matter with some odd comments but it basically translates to that Billy will be keeping the gig. Le Gaffer said rather confusingly: 

“I think he has done quite well last year, for the biggest part of the season, and a lot of responsibility has been given to him when it wasn’t right.”

Excuse me? ‘Wasn’t right? Wasn’t right? Now I know some people don’t question Wenger’s judgement and would follow him blindly and do that annoying ‘Wenger Knows’ routine. Don’t get me wrong I’m not slating the manager far from it, I would be the first to say historically next to ‘Sir’ Herbert Chapman Arsene Wenger has shaped the meaning and history of Arsenal. But sometimes you have to questions some things but to say Gallas was given responsibility when it wasn’t right, WTF? My answer to that is he’s the captain. Simple as. You have to stick to your decision, you made him captain, you can’t say ‘a lot of responsibility has been given to him when it wasn’t right”. I don’t buy that at all. One thing, Gallas is captain – he HAS to take responsibility, if he can’t do the job then do the honourable thing, no not fall on your sword, swallow it (no not the sword) and say you can’t do it. And two, Gallas is the second oldest player on the pitch (only keepers  ‘Ze German mentalist’ Jens Lehmann and Manuel Almunia are older) and he should be showing the younger players some experience. But that’s just me, what’s your take on Wenger’s comments, it would be interesting to hear other Gooner’s thoughts on this one. 

Other than that the fantasy league looks like it will be a rip roarer this season. I have counted up but there’s a shedload of punters up for giving it some ‘Big Charlie Potatoes’ and show fellow Gooner’s how it’s done and also show Le Gaffer how to blow £100m on players. It would be interesting to see Le Gaffer’s fantasy league team with so much money to burn, although I’ve got a feeling he could still get  15 players and still have change from £95m and still finish in the top four! Join the fun and see details below on how to join.

Click the below link to get started

http://fantasy.premierleague.com

Sign up to it
Design your team
Join the league by entering this pin into the ‘Join league bit’ (League Pin 73628-19858)!
(The league is called sonofallgooneredup)
Then you are away!
The deadline is August the 16th!

Score predictor Mini league

Allgoonerdup.com is also running a mini league for a score prediction game, again courtesy of the Premier League. There will of course be a prize for the winner. All you need to do is sign up, join the fun and follow the link below:

http://iknowthescore.premierleague.com/landing.htm

 

And enter the code: FCCDA-XVB to join the Allgoonerdup.com mini league.

A big slap on the back goes to Mr. Top Banana for sorting the mini league out – you’re a legend! 

That’s your lot today… see you in the comments

More questions than answers and other bits…

With the season only a month away, and our first pre-season game against Barnet this weekend, there are still a lot of questions that need answering. I of course, don’t have any of these answers, but boy I have the full panini sticker album of questions. So.. because I know your all so keen to finish this article and read something interesting, here they are: 

Is Abou Diaby going to be our new starting centre midfielder? Having been deployed primarily on the left wing since his serious ankle injury against Sunderland, are 4 weeks of pre-season enough for him to claim this role for the opening day fixture at West Brom? Certainly depth looks to be a problem at centre midfield now Gilberto has packed his bags for Greece, with only Denilson and Song looking the obvious choice for cover should Diaby be unavailable – however both have only limited first team experience. Nasri or Rosicky would be the likely cover for Fabregas should he be unavailable but that would similarly strain our coverage for the wings and probably be too much for Rosicky’s fragile frame anyhow. 

Will Rosicky and Eduardo be fit for the start of the season? If Rosicky fails to be ready for the first game of the new season it would likely mean a debut at left midfield for either Samir Nasri or Aaron Ramsey. Typically Wenger has tended to avoid throwing new signings straight in from the start, particularly as he feels players need time to adapt to the Premier League (learning how to not get your ankle broken for example). Though Eduardo has obviously come along way in his recovery from his serious leg injury, he is unlikely to be available to start against West Brom. This would mean Emmanuel ‘Retirement Package’ Adebayor having to start up front despite question marks over his commitment to the club and the reception he will get from the fans is likely to be less than friendly. Is his head in the right place? Well, yes, it is still sitting underneath that extremely disappointing haircut, but whether he is completely behind the new campaign is questionable. The other options would be to throw Theo up front alongside balsa wood Van Persie, or starting with Bendtner, who had a strong first season off the bench. However if Adebayor is not able to start then there seems little point keeping last seasons top scorer on the bench where his value is only going to depreciate. 

On the right wing, I’m particularly keen to know who Wenger’s preferred option is. Does Hleb’s departure mean Theo going to be a regular starter, or will Nasri slot in on the right (assuming Rosicky is fit for the left)… and what does this mean for Emmanuel Eboué? Hopefully an extended spell as a bus driver.

Turning to our defence, despite Wenger claiming at the end of the season that he was interested in bring in a new defender who was strong in the air, the distractions of Flamini, Hleb and Adebayor means that has well and truly been shelved for now. So are we to assume Philippe Senderos has been rehabilitated or is he still a nutter? And what of Djourou? He looked average on loan to Birmingham and Wenger seems to no longer rate him. So does this mean Alex Song is our 4th choice Centre Back, as well as possibly being backup for the holding midfield role? The young lad surprised a lot of gooners and did reasonably well at the tail end of the season, and of course he has the hair style that I always consider a mark of potential (see the Valderama Theory) but any extended spell where Song could end up partnering Senderos in our back line scares the Danny Shittu’s out of me.

Of course the most positive news of the off season was Gael Clichy signing a new deal, and with Sagna also tied to a long term contract, we arguably have the two best fullbacks in the league at the moment. The depth at these positions is far more questionable. Gallas is certainly able to cover Clichy’s left back slot if needed, whilst Armand Traore looks far better on the wing than at left back at the moment. I doubt many Gooners would want to see him get any extended run in the league there if Clichy were to be unavailable. 

Right back certainly became a problem position for us once Sagna got injured. Despite his problems, Eboué remains a reasonable option as cover for right back, far more so than Justin Hoyte, who despite his wonderful loyalty to the club, doesn’t look to have the quality nor the potential needed to play for a title challenging side. Touré can also provide cover though he looked lost at times slung out wide right. 

On to the goalkeepers, with Mad Jens gone, will things be a little too comfortable for Manuel Almunia now? Fabianski and Mannone are by no means Premier League quality yet, let alone players you’d feel comfortable throwing into the mix in the Champions League should Almunia be injured. I would hope Wenger is looking seriously at the availability of top quality goalkeepers at the moment because we look extremely vulnerable in this position. If Almunia were to blind himself peroxiding his hair, and we had to face Chelski, United or someone like Barcelona in the Champions League, I’m not sure our defence would feel particularly confident with such an inexperienced goalkeeper in Fabianski behind them, despite his obvious potential. And of course Mannone is a completely unknown quantity playing at the top level. 

That all said, a look at our current squad size indicates that unless some players are loaned our or sold, very little is likely to change between now and the start of the season. I had a look back at our squads since 1999, and it seems Wenger favour’s a first team squad of 25 players – in fact in each season since 1999 his first team squad has been 25 (this doesn’t include the occasional run in a dead tie at the end of the season, or League Cup game). With Flamini, Gilberto, Hleb and Lehmann all gone, but Mannone, Vela, Nasri and Ramsey coming in, we are currently sitting at 25 players. But we surely need a centre midfielder, and the link this week to Garry Barry of Villa has certainly taken a lot of Gooners interest. He ticks all the boxes – has loads of Premier League experience meaning Wenger could throw him in to the starting XI for the West Brom game and know he’d be able to do a job, is versatile as he can cover left back and left midfield if needed, takes a good penalty and is a natural leader. We know Villa have an interest in Justin Hoyte, who, if the Eboué experiment is ended, would be surplus to requirements as a reserve right back. We also know Wenger has long been an admirer of Barry going back several years. The real question is whether or not the funds are there for a player who is up for sale for 18 million. So was the money spent on Nasri and Ramsey knowing we have to recoup it by selling Hleb and Gilberto (which totals around 17 – 19 million depending on who you believe) or is it now available to Wenger for further replacements? 

Whether it is or not, I think almost everyone would agree that right now, and despite what we all thought prior to the end of the season, some money needs to be spent to bring in someone to bolster our defensive midfield position. What amount of money is available will probably determine the quality, but I cannot imagine that we can go into the new season without strengthening this area. Some may be prepared to give Diaby time to prove himself, and Denilson time to mature, and point to Flamini’s sudden emergence last season before discounting them. However Flamini excelled at a time when there was strong competition for the job. Diarra was still on the books and Gilberto had come off his most successful season with us plus of course Diaby and Denilson in the mix as well. Flamini proved himself to Wenger, who equally knew he could fall back on two other strong players if needed. If both Diaby and Denilson fail to raise their game, there is currently no other option available to Wenger other than moving another player out of position (such as pushing Touré forward) and would be a huge gamble once the transfer window slams shut. 

One this is for sure though, there isn’t currently room or money available for an Arshavin this summer.

By Paul Wright

 

Other stuff

I’m in the process of nicking up the site and doing stuff ‘in the background’ a bit like the way I hope Wenger is doing transfers – without anyone knowing. There will be slight changes, cosmetic ones, you know that sort of malarkey. So apologies for the lack of activity yesterday Gooners, but don’t fret, the ‘newish’ look will be up either tomorrow or more than likely – on Monday. 

I would like to add some bits about the Hleb transfer. Well thank f*ck for that – he’s gone, It’s over. We don’t need to hear from that bleating twat about ‘noisy’ London life and such. One thing that did get me was when he got to Barcelona was that the Bell-End-Russian said it was ‘a dream’ – don’t get me wrong I’m sure it’s a dream to go to Barca, I’m not that short sighted but when Hleb said:

“I love this team”

That kind of stuck in my throat. There was no thank you to Arsène Wenger, his former team mates or even the fans who put up with him playing shit for three years and when he did finally come good (well goodish if you actually check Hleb’s stats) he can’t get away quick enough to live his tranquil life. Well all I can say is Hleb I hope you you love the bench as much as you love the team. Sour grapes? You betcha! 

Also on the subject of a Barcelona love-in, Zenit St. Petersburg’s play maker Andrei Arshavin is getting increasingly desperate especially after his agent basically did a ‘please, please, please come and get me’ plea for his client towards The Arsenal. Well it turns out Arshavin’s love for The Arsenal is so great he wants Barcelona to sign him. You can guess the next installment on this if The Arsenal don’t make a move for him and Barca don’t come a knocking Arshavin will no doubt say how much he loves spurs! 

Lastly, the video below was sent in to me by a reader. you may of seen it on another Arsenal website but in case you haven’t, have a butchers, it’s well worth your pocket money. So big up to Chris Jake’s to sending this to us. Good work Gooner.

That’s about my lot today, have yourself a great day Gooners – see you in the comments

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