Deadline Day A Year On, Nobody Signs But We Are Stronger
Sep 1st, 2009 by 'holic
As I sit down to write it is after seven in the evening, and unless there are any announcements that were forgotten there are a dozen players that joined new clubs in the Premiership on deadline day. This was the day the economic reality of the recession hit football in a big way.
Of course we don’t give a hoot that the other big four clubs were not buying today. For the more pessimistic Arsenal supporters the perceived weak areas of the squad were not filled, and we left Manchester City’s money in the bank.
You will not be surprised to hear that I am persuaded that was not for want of targets. Clubs either placed a higher valuation on the players we wanted to sign, or were unable to persuade others to release replacements. That’s exactly what happened last year with Alonso.
A comparison of the squad with the same day last year, however, tells the story that we are possibly better prepared for the season that is barely underway. I said at the start of the season that I would judge us on who we had on September the first, and that day has come.
At the back we have allowed Kolo Toure to leave and signed Thomas Vermaelen. The early signs are that was a good exchange. I was one of many who thought we needed another centre-back. Effectively we have one in the player I think most expected to leave in this window, Philippe Senderos, back from a year-long loan at Milan. It is hard to think of a better player who would have been prepared to move to us purely as back-up for the established pairing.
This time last year we were also an injury to Gael Clichy away from playing Mikael Silvestre at left-back. The emergence of Kieran Gibbs in the last year, and the return of Armand Traore from a season at Fratton Park, have considerably improved the options there.
“Ah, but ‘holic, I hear you say, even you have been clamouring for the defensive midfielder that didn’t arrive. Well I will hold my hands up to that one. I can’t argue it is surprising that we did not strengthen, particularly with Alex Song destined for the African Cup of Nations in the new year. Yet those words quickly gloss over the fact that Song has improved by leaps and bounds in the last year and shows signs of filling the gap that so many have identified in the side.
The midfield solution has been provided by Arsene changing the formation in the early weeks of the season. The options available to him this season are also set to be supplemented by Tomas Rosicky, missing in the treatment room last term, and apparently close to a return.
In the attacking areas there is no doubt we face a change in tactics to accommodate Andrei Arshavin. He has the benefit of having got four months under his belt at the end of last season. Numerically we have not gained one thanks to the sale of Emmanuel Adebayor, and the widely-reported failure to reach agreement with Bordeaux for Marouane Chamakh.
So you may not think we are strong enough, but please don’t try and argue we are not stronger than we were a year ago. A couple of good players have departed, but we have half a dozen very good additions to what we had then. Like all supporters I want to see some fresh blood in a couple of areas, but if they are not available, or not for sale at a price that we are prepared to pay, then that’s life I’m afraid. This isn’t a simulation where you can sign who you want, when you want.
I’m still convinced we have a squad that is capable of challenging on all fronts. I think the fact that we can argue we are stronger puts us at an advantage over Manchester United and Liverpool. For my money Chelsea will be the team to beat. Whether or not we do beat them will depend on a number of factors that we just can’t predict now. That is one of the great things about football.
Can we keep everybody fit? Can we continue with the current fluid formation or will a more disciplined approach be required? Will the good and bad refereeing decisions even each other out? Will someone shave the corners off Abou Diaby’s threepenny bit of a head? All these variables and more will play their part, and don’t forget, we can have another whole month of not buying anybody in January!
Oh, and while I am at it, UEFA, fair treatment for all offenders, or you can stick your two game suspension for Eduardo. Now you have opened that particular can of worms don’t be surprised when they are being flung at you from all sides.
63 Responses to “Deadline Day A Year On, Nobody Signs But We Are Stronger”
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yeah but alonso ended up being sold for close to 25mil
we could have bought him for 15mil, had him play for us, win a trophy then sell for 25mil
Thanks goonerholic, another excellent, measured, sans bile and moaning blog.
How goes your battle in keeping your little lads from the dark side after saturday’s result? And a g & t would be splendid thanks.
Cheers ‘holic. A good, sensible and thoughtout piece.
It’s us against them. Arsenal will be back to win a trophy. Keep the Faith.
Very good thorough article.
Another good one, ‘Holic and there’s no way I’ll take exception with your notion that we’re stronger now than we were last year at this time. I agree too that Chelsea appear to be the team to beat. Manure, without the tumbler and Tevez, look to be a substantially weaker proposition. Liverpool’s loss of Alonso and a weaker back four than Arsenal can boast will likely diminish their challenge.
Vermaelen looks like a sensational purchase. If he and Gallas can keep fit and maintain the promise of their partnership, we should lose substantially fewer goals than last year. The covering three centre backs look to be just that, good cover. The exception perhaps is JD20 who played some super stuff last season and may rotate with V and G?
I’ve often wondered why Djourou isn’t given an opportunity as DM. He looks good coming forward with the ball, tackles and distributes well. Song is going to be everything that AW has promised.
It won’t surprise you to hear that I still deeply regret Adebayor’s departure. We’ve lost a lot there. More than most will ever acknowledge (and for everyone’s sake, let’s not get Chelsea Bill started on that again. Please!).
Overall, do we have a superb squad? One of the most exciting and entertaining on the planet? You bet we do. The current season is going to be a good one. I hope to be in merry olde England for the Citeh and Wigan games with half a chance of making it to Liege. Can’t wait. Come on you Gunners!
we are a stronger team this year for arsenal its 1 st place but if we have a dumb biased man united supporting ref like mike dean as are ref for the rest of the season we will get second but thats unlikely
I will be trying to lobby every dive in the champions legue to uefa. We’ll see then. They have opened a very dangerous door, as everyone keeps saying.
– Why hasn’t Messi been punished yet for an off the ball incident (Headbutt) that the ref didn’t see in the Super Cup final against Shaktar?
Messi went on to provide for the only goal Barca scored. When he shouldn’t of been on the pitch.
– Why hasn’t Dario Srna been punished for diving in that very same game?
– Aiden McGeady, Didn’t hear a squeak from the SFA when he dived against Hibbs,
Well written ‘Holic. Let’s hope Arsene has some plan for when Song goes to the ACN. Worrying, but apart from that, I’m happy with what we have.
I am loving the way Song goes about his business without a flicker of emotion. Almost like it’s a chore that he’s just about bothered to carry out – which he has done expertly thus far. I have been a Song fan from the off, proud to say.
Song is the complete antithesis of Eboue (who I also love – bar the diving, even though it nearly won us the Champions League). Eboue’s Member’s Day performance this year will linger long in the memory.
And – where do all these mugs moaning over the fact we weren’t in for Kranjcar get off??? Talented player I grant you, but better than what we’ve got??? No way.
Glad this transfer deadline madness is over. Onwards and upwards.
for a start f**k uefa and all the others who jumped on the eduardo band wagon.justice celtic player sent off for diving rooney doing his usualSo how are uefa going to police their new anti cheat policy the only way they can is via the media i dont mean review every game covered by the media for themselves but by the media hysteria whipped up at the time,therefore the only team to be caught in this fashion in future will be Arsenal.Yes all the anti Arsenal w**kers will really create a major storm every time the smallest ibncident occurs,case in point eduardo if i remeber didnt even appeal for a penalty rooney as we all know went down clearly looking for rthe ref to oblidge falling well before he got to almunia.The big difference itv played the eduardo thing to death never ending comments and close up pictures of the man who tarnished football,the rooney incident nothing.So i say to one and all we the fans should police this for uefa for every drogba dive we spot whilst he plays in uefa games i for one will email the twats at uefa the same will go to all the other usual suspects england stars beware we know who you are.Iam sure uefa wil soon be regretting the action taken against eduardo and Arsenal
I am sad that we didnt get additional talents in the squad but thats AW and we have to live with that. We can only hope for the best as I support arsenal not the coach.
We are stronger off course and some players mature and some go back to the line up.
We play good football and we will win some games.
The only problem that always happened to us are the injuries, our team are fragile and our opponents knows that so now we dont add cover to any lines and we can only hopes that the injuries wont haunt us like the one we had during the untouchables season.
My only concern is why we wont spend a bit if this can give us better chance for trophies?
Sometimes I dont get how they do their math.
Goodluck gunners looking forward to a good season ahead for us.
John at 9:06
Just keep a digital list, complete with links to journalist’s match reports, which you can supplement with video. There is good video capture software out there and of course you tube.
Don’t forget Ashley Young against Rapid Vienna. Two dives, two penalties, or thereabouts.
Even sticking to UEFA competitions this will be a lot of work!
Send it to Arsene in May.
Look our first team might be good but our squad is thin. Don’t count on Rosiky playing even half a season. And Narsi too! And with Song leaving for the ACN.
So what has happened to the money from Man City. And the money we’re expected to generate from this season CL?
On paper we look stronger, but that does not factor in that our style of play requires the players to work harder, the lack of quality cover in key centre back, midfield and striker positions or the fact that we have far more long-term injuries than our opponents at present.
It also depends what our expectations are. If we want to compete with Chelsea, Man U, there is a gap in confidence, physical strength and experience between us and them which could have been partly addressed by one or 2 new players. We are also a totally known quantity, who plays in a predictable way. Neither United or Chelsea will lose any sleep about the prospect of playing us in any cup competition home or away.
On a good day you can include Liverpool.
When it comes to the others, Man City and Spurs now have stronger, better balanced squads than us and are improving at a far faster rate than we are. We will struggle to beat either, home or away.
The others we are more or less competitive with depending on injuries.
No need for despair, but also undue optimism would not be justified either.
The problem is our plague of injuries that never seem to end. Already we’ve suffered a loss because of injuries in Saturday’s game. Cesc, Djourou, Nasri, Rosicky, Walcott all out. And Arshavin’s injured now. He’s actually been nursing a knock for a few weeks.
That’s our biggest problem and we will not win any trophies until it’s sorted out. The reason I think it was necessary for AW to bring in at least one more player is precisely for this reason: injuries injuries injuries. Every eason gooners say “if they can all stay fit” but they never do. It never changes, why should we think it will this season?
BTW, re Senderos: during pre-season, AW tried him out as a DM and it worked well. Not saying that’s a longterm solution but I wonder if AW will experiment more with that.
We’re stronger? Well our bank account is certainly stronger, i guess that’s good.
I agree with most of your blog but you have failed to mention the goalkeeping problem, our No1 does not contest balls in the air and prefers to stand motionless as opposing forwards or our own defenders punish his indecision. Add to that the fact that our supposed no2 is crap and usually injured, then we get to Manone who is little more than a sunday league keeper.
I really wish Wenger had put a bid in for James because it is a big world cup year and he has everything to play for, not unlike Jens a few years ago before the last world cup who ended up being named the top keeper in Europe.
Look back in the record books and all great teams have a great keeper and we just do not have one and it will cost us points throughout the season.
We needed cover 4 song, not just bcos ov d african cup of nations but 4 injuries n most importantly resting. Song is not ready to play 40 games without rest…not at 21. Denilson wasnt convincing against lowly portsmouth and so, if song gets injurd n we face d bigger teams, i fancy arsene to tinker himself 2 slip. We askd 4 1 signing and dat waz vieira: available 2 cover 4 song in d smaller games, genuine xperiens, calming prescence, make d fans happy 4 d 1st tym in 4 barren yearz.
I really hope Arsenal pursue this Eduardo farce to the full extent possible and make as much noise as they can. If you are going to punish Eduardo, fine, but please be CONSISTENT and EVEN HANDED. I love the Arsenal attempt for UEFA to make clear how this policy will be put in place and how they will enforce it. I hope they are P*** themselves when they realise the situation they have put themselves in. They are going to have to deal with it or look fools.
I don’t disagree with you post in general but I have a few issues to raise. So we recieved £40m from the sale of Adebayor and Toure, where has it gone exactly. To not reinvest that amount of capital in a buisness would see you fired from any corporate position. Yet everyone on this message board seems to want to congratulate Arsenal on being stronger than last season. We have sold our senior centre forward and replaced him with who exactly. To not replace Adebayor is neglagence bordering on the criminal. Either something is seriously wrong with the clubs finances or Wenger has lost his way to a catstrophic degree. This is not a team built to challenge for the title. That frustrates me because it is there for the taking this season with united so diminished. You may argue that we have got some players back on loan etc but with £40 mil we could have gone out and bought some truely world class players Arshavin like. Why where we not in for Huntelaar why did we not go for Van de Vaart. Although we not be weaker numerically than the beginning of last season we could be a whole lot stronger than we are and someone will have to answer for that come the end of the season.
Stronger than last year, no. We had an excellent second half in the premiership last year. If you do not address the weaknesses in your team that have been evident for a number of years then you have not improved. Still need a keeper, centre half and holding midfielder. Too many of our players are of a type, good ball palyers but are small in every way physically. Given the type of players that we have and the style of football that we play then our susceptibility to injuries if far too high. Look already at the list of those injured and thte season has hardly started. Every year for the last four years we needed two good but hard players in every way.
If its a case that we don’t have the money fair enough. Just come out and say it and as fans we would accept that we have to stay within our limits. But please stop the same horse shit every year when it is alluded to that we are going to spend when what we actually do is to get rid of players that we don’t replace. You could start with Viera. Once he was sold we started to lose the spine of our team. We haven’t a hope of winning the premiership as we haven’t the power to do so.. Top five somewhere but not in the top two. A sad reality.
I dont know whats happened to Almunia but so far this season he has looked extremely poor. I dont remember him having a worse run of form ever at Arsenal. He needs to sort it out because poor keeping can easily cost a team the league title. Fabianski must be licking his lips but kicking himself that he is injured.
Even our bloody keepers get injured – what do they feed our players on?!
It is now 21.15 on Tuesday 1st September. Arsenal do not appear to have signed any new players. So where do we stand?
Arshavin is rumoured to have a groin muscle tear, Rosicky is injured (or not, certainly he thinks he is match fit!)Fabregas in injured, Walcott is injured, Rosicky is injured, vela is injured, Njourou is injured.
So with various injuries to key personnel, the international break hopefully may help us in this respect.
Robin van Persie who is a very important player appears to have shaken off his injury prone past and his next challenge is to try and succeed with the gunners new team formation. His goal scoring form is not great at the moment, I could be mistaken but I dont recall him scoring a goal in open play during preseason or in the current campaign (but has scored every penalty he has taken). This seems to be following a similar pattern to last season where he had a slow start, but once he got going he then scored plenty of goals.He has made some assists and once he scores a goal or two his confidence will certainly come back and then there will be no stopping him.
With no new signings apart from vermaelan,Arsene has worked wonders with his current crop. A new team formation, Song looking stronger than an ox, diaby slowly reaching his potential and the back 4 looking very solid, Arsenal look a much stronger team than last season.
There is that new belief in the squad, who are playing some outstanding football and although we did not get the result at old trafford, Man United were outplayed in their home ground which is not something we could do a season ago. (I wouldnt write Man U off just yet though, they started off very slowly last season too, but without Ronaldo, they are looking like a shadow of the team they were in the previous season).
Song especially has come of age, and at the tender age of 21, looks to become a future arsenal star.
In terms of reinforcements, these will come from the likes of Wilshere, Merida and Ramsey who although are very young and inexperienced, will certainly get their opportunity to play in the first team which is a mouth watering prospect.
Certainly, there does appear to be some belief throughout the squad including the reserves. This is evidenced by the start the reserves have had who just a few minutes ago thrashed the birmingham reserves by 4 goals to nil away from home. Whereas last season, the reserves form was abysmal, it does appear that the confidence is back. 2 wins from 2 matches so far.
Defensively, the whole team is pressing the ball, and we are now a team that is great both offensively and defensively. I believe Arsenal can mount a serious title challenge . The main obstacles are confidence. The talent is there in abundance.
The immediate challenge now lies in how Arsenal respond at man city. Certainly the team will be motivated to get their own back after a thrashing at the hands of man city last season. And after the painful first half to the previous season, Arsenal look like a rejuvenated outfit.
In summary, while there are no new signings on deadline day, we can all look at the season ahead with optimism and excitement.
The Wenger masterplan is coming along nicely, although it seems like UEFA, Mike Dean, the media on the whole are trying their hardest to put a spanner in the works.
Don’t disagree at all with those who argue we should have signed players. In fact I am arguing the club would have done so if the players they wanted were available, or available at a price we were prepared to meet.
For example there is no doubt with Adebayor gone we lack someone who can hold the ball up front. Chamakh was the obvious solution and Arsene admitted his interest. Clearly we could not agree a fee with Bordeaux, who have concluded they would be better off hanging on to him and potentially losing him on a free next summer. If they fail to progress beyond the group phase of the Champions League I wouldn’t be surprised if we did a deal in January.
Nice and sensible article. Honestly there are not that many good players out there to buy. Again there are many player in the pipeline , and they will come good in coming months.
Group A
Team v • d • e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
Gabon 2 2 0 0 5 1 +4 6
Togo 3 1 1 1 1 3 ?2 4
Morocco 3 0 2 1 1 2 ?1 2
Cameroon 2 0 1 1 0 1 ?1 1
I’m not so sure Song is going to play in the ACN
I buy into the idea that we are stronger, when you look at it:
1) Vermaelen > Toure
2) Senderos, Merida, Traore have come back from loan
3) Wilshere and Gibbs
4) Rosicky and Eduardo hardly kicked a ball last term
5) Formation will bring more out of Nasri and Arshavin, there is also better protection to the back four.
6) Morale has improved since Adebayor’s exit
7) A year on it would surely be impossible for this young group not to develop
Overall:
GK: No qualms
LB: Top draw, well stocked
RB: Top draw, no cover (slight concern)
CB: Looking good
DCM: Song is decent but there’s no other options
CM: Top draw (Cesc + Nasri), very well stocked
LF: Top draw (Arshavin), good cover from Vela
RF: Two decent options (Theo and Nicky B)
CF: Top draw (Eduardo), Van Persie
Sagna looks pretty indestructible so cover isn’t so much of a worry, I think most fans are disappointed by the lack of a defensive midfielder but maybe we can do something in January.
My prediction?
Chelsea
Arsenal
Man Utd
Man City
Liverpool
15pts will cover those 5.
8) Arshavin from the start
Also factor our rivals strength, Chelsea will set the pace with a manager from the off so I expect them to extract more from their squad. Man Utd are pitiful, lost two players who carried them for 3 years. They will be nowhere, Liverpool will miss Alonso and lack depth up front hard to see them repeating last season’s tally.
Chelsea are stronger
Man Utd miles weaker
Liverpool are weaker
We finished 18 pts off the pace last season, I’m betting it’ll be 10 or under this term but ultimately I suspect Chelsea will take it.
Very nice post Mr Holic sir. A good mix of realism and stoic Goonerism.
Not sure that as someone said “To not replace Adebayor is neglagence bordering on the criminal”. Maybe we’ll the leave criminal decisions charge to UEFA huh? The have a better track record than Arsene anyway.
@gazzap Erudite as ever, Almunia is not playing well right now, but has played a lot better. Hopefully just a bad patch, but surely if Fabianski can lick his lips and kick himself at the same time, and keep his tongue intact, we’d have seen it on YouTube by now? Just a thought.
So far as our injured players are concerned, isn’t it obvious? It’s part of Arsene’s cunning plan to prevent injuries during the Interlull. We just crock ’em before they can join their country! Simples.
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*wipes manly tear from eye*
i honestly think we have a good squad had we won the united game every1 would not have been talking like this okay i agree we do miss a CF with aerial height arsene wants chamakh and he rarely gets transfers wrong so i say a CF, and a CB would’ve been good but im ssure we will se 1 or 2 plaayers coming in january with cesc, rosicky back i just hope every1 comes back from international break in 1 piece and ready for the game at city as it will be a very tricky n hard game
One GT, thanks.
Agreeing with both ‘holic and Darren here, which leaves with just enough space and time to order one more GT before last call.
Ollie: In a recession, you really don’t think being financially prudent, especially when dealing with large figures of debt, is smart?
40m or so is the figure made from City, right? Well, that just about covers Arshavin, Vermaelan and some of the kids we have purchased (Edge, some Swiss kids). Remember we have to pay signing on fees and such as well. We also gave new contracts to many players and will possibly do so with Bendtner and Senderos soon.
If we don’t with Senderos (or Gallas or Silvestre) we will be in a situation of having to replace 3 centre backs next season. Havard Nordtveit will presumably take one of them spots but presuming we will be looking at Vermaelan-esque prices, then we need to have £20m ready. And that is just one position, what happens if we finally accept Rosicky can never play again or Cesc finally leaves for Catalonia? Sometimes money should sit in the bank for a while. We will definitely want to offer Chamakh a large signing on fee for having to wait a year.
If you look at the improvement made in the likes of Song and Bendtner from last season, you could say they went up in Premiership standards by what, 30%? And one would assume with the added experience of this year to see such rises again. But not only in last year’s newcomers (by which I mean those who became regular to first team action: Djourou, Song, Denilson, Walcott, Bendtner) but by those who are now only at the start of the rung like Song and co. were this time last year (Gibbs, Ramsey, Wilshere, Vela, Merida, Barazite, Coquelin). We are an ever improving side, an ever expanding side and not only years away from our peak, but seemingly enough in love with the club for the chance to peak with us, for given them the chance to play beautiful football in beautiful surrounds.
Could we do with more signings? Sure. No club is perfect until it can win all competitions without losing or even conceding and playing beautiful flowing football while it happens. However, just like the idea of perfection in football, new signings are to a certain extent a fallacy. Man City spent around a £100m last season to achieve 1 position higher than the season before. That is not to say they aren’t important if done right – we bought all but few of the invincibles – but if we cannot find the absolute perfect fit into our team then it is a risk to team unity. You could argue we are in the position we are currently in because we bought quality risks (such as Rosicky, Hleb, Cygan, Eboue, Adebayor, Reyes, Baptista, to name but few) instead of taking into account the importance of a single player and how he effects the team. Only once we had stabilised a system for these risks (I am not doubting quality here, just how they fit) could we then look at buying single players on the basis of how they could further improve within our system and fit seemlessly (Sagna, Nasri, Vermaelan, Arshavin) instead of gambling on injury risks so much (Silvestre and Bischoff look the last for a long time) or ‘grow’ players to fit into such a system (Wilshere looks like he will take the reigns of Arshavin we he reaches the Logan’s Run Wenger age.)
All in all, we have improved significantly within our own game but as much stands on the misfortunes of other teams, buckling under their own financial pressures. We have suffered – as much as cup finals and semi finals and beautiful football can be classed as suffering – to be convinced of a club in a state of continuel improvement no matter what happens in the financial or footballing world surrounding us.
a fkn awful post u idiot … christ this stuff is BS …. wake the fk up u idiot … i was going to bed but actually i will bother to challenge your utterly infertile thoughts
Clubs either placed a higher valuation on the players we wanted to sign, or were unable to persuade others to release replacements. That’s exactly what happened last year with Alonso.
– Indeed … by a value of something like 2mill in the cases of both Alonso AND Chamak. So – given that had we tied up Alonson he would not be going to RM this summer, how good would we have been last season? SAME CHIT NOW MOFO – we COULD have signed the obvious replacement for Adebayor in Chamak but for the extra cost of a couple of mill – hell it’s not like we don’t have the cash ffs … we should have signed BOTH for the sake of what? 4 mill or thereabouts? Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus its just plain simple isn’t it? pay the bit extra, get the players, win something ffs …. don’t pay the extra, stick with the *almost-but-not-quite-yet-and-maybe-never-good-enough* players we have and win FUCK ALL.
A comparison of the squad with the same day last year, however, tells the story that we are possibly better prepared for the season that is barely underway.
– Why? You make this claim but provide NO evidence as to why and not even the drink-sodden amateur speculation I would expect ….
At the back we have allowed Kolo Toure to leave and signed Thomas Vermaelen. The early signs are that was a good exchange.
– Yep
… Philippe Senderos, back from a year-long loan at Milan. It is hard to think of a better player who would have been prepared to move to us purely as back-up for the established pairing.
– talking out of your flabby ANUS … senderos is a fkn huge donkey not fit to wear the shirt, maaaaaaaaan how our standards and expectations have fallen. PS is an idiot who will cost us dearly (again) what amazes me is that AW didn’t release the cnt on a free. I can name plenty of players who could fill that role better than him – Wheater, Taylor, Huth, Ben Haim, Upson …. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
This time last year we were also an injury to Gael Clichy away from playing Mikael Silvestre at left-back. The emergence of Kieran Gibbs in the last year, and the return of Armand Traore from a season at Fratton Park, have considerably improved the options there.
Woooooo – we have cover at left back – very youthful but cover eh? how about right back? what we got there?
… (BTW – DONT FLATTER URSELF THAT EVERYONE WHO VISITS HERE LIKES WHAT YOU WRITE) with Alex Song destined for the African Cup of Nations in the new year. Yet those words quickly gloss (gloss over? …. ) over the fact that Song has improved by leaps and bounds in the last year and shows signs of filling the gap that so many have identified in the side.
– Bollox, he has improved but please don’t try and persuade me that when Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea and ManU are looking for their next holding midfielder they’ll be punting 25mill bids our way for Song … pfffffffffff! dream on sunshine, cloud cuckoo land mate … Song is *ok* but that’s all
The midfield solution has been provided by Arsene changing the formation in the early weeks of the season. The options available to him this season are also set to be supplemented by Tomas Rosicky, missing in the treatment room last term, and apparently close to a return.
_ Right we weren’t kicked out of the game by Manu then/ We’re goping to meet plenty more grunts than that bunch of morons this season – same team, same weaknesses, we’re lightweight, simple as …
In the attacking areas there is no doubt we face a change in tactics to accommodate Andrei Arshavin. He has the benefit of having got four months under his belt at the end of last season.
yes … that’ll make a HUGE difference …. how?
So you may not think we are strong enough, but please don’t try and argue we are not stronger than we were a year ago.
– CLOWN …. let’s see what BS you have to say next …
A couple of good players have departed,
– ok
but we have half a dozen very good additions to what we had then.
– ????????????????????? been on the whacky baccy? wtf are you on about you idiot?
I’m still convinced we have a squad that is capable of challenging on all fronts.
– wanker
I think the fact that we can argue we are stronger
– also deluded crap – NOBODY in our front line is taller than 5 foot and even worse none can head the ball
puts us at an advantage over Manchester United and Liverpool.
– Loooooooooooooooooool! ask a ManU fan how disadvantaged they feel after the last game ….
For my money Chelsea will be the team to beat. Whether or not we do beat them will depend on a number of factors that we just can’t predict now. That is one of the great things about football.
– pathetic
Can we keep everybody fit?
– no
Can we continue with the current fluid formation or will a more disciplined approach be required?
– yes
Will the good and bad refereeing decisions even each other out?
– no
Will someone shave the corners off Abou Diaby’s threepenny bit of a head?
– ne he’s a fkn donk, like you
All these variables and more will play their part, and don’t forget, we can have another whole month of not buying anybody in January!
– class
Oh, and while I am at it, UEFA, fair treatment for all offenders, or you can stick your two game suspension for Eduardo. Now you have opened that particular can of worms don’t be surprised when they are being flung at you from all sides.
– dullard
– overall you just don’t have a clue you useless muppet
why the hell is every1 moaning about how we didnt sign anymore players!!?? remember that this summer we got senderos, traore, rosicky and eduardo back from loan/injury thats 4 players! 5 including the unbeatable vermaelen! as we saw in the emirates cup, traore is a great sub for LB if clichy gets injured. Also senderos and djourou are good subs at CB and we dont need any subs for RB because we have Bacary ‘the beast’ Sagna who is awesome! Plus the in midfield we have fabregas, nasri, rosicky, diaby, song, arshavin, walcott and denilson which is a fantastic set of players in my opinion. so why doesnt evry1 stop worrying because from the way the premiership has started it looks like a 2 horse race between arsenal and chelsea.
Bergy:
The top three teams in those groups qualify for the Africa Nations Cup (with the top team going to the World Cup) – as such I think Cameroon are likely to qualify for the ACN, even if they miss out on going to South Africa next summer.
muppet,
calm down dear, and let the nice nurse give you that injection.
Someone mentioned above that Djourou could be considered at DM. I believe this is a strong possibility. He was a midfielder when he came to Arsenal and professed his prefence for the position.
As for Senderos – agree with Holic. We have a young, experienced, international centre half as back up to a very strong starting pair. Despite popular opinion I believe Sendy will improve – he usually looks very solid in the Champions League..
I always have to laugh when people talk like muppet with comments like ‘for the sake of what? 4 mill or thereabouts?’. Dealing with millions is nothing! Sure, the financial future of the club rests in the balance and we are seeing our rivals (Liverpool and Valencia being the most obvious) self destruct because they had this ‘ah, what’s another couple million’ attitude but hey, let’s join them! Man Utd have about 60 fucking million sat in the bank from the Ronaldo transfer fee (minus Valencia and Obertan) and can’t figure out a way to spend it wisely, for gods sake! So if we are stuck between 4 million sums here or there, things must be even harder!
The general public, by and large, is incredibly stupid and doesn’t want to think about how things work. Look at California. No politician was confident enough to make hard decisions so they had a referrendum on everything and while people answered yes on questions like ‘do you want improved schools or hospitals’ they answered no on ‘would you then like us to up your taxes to pay for what you just agreed to improve’. Only a person can go ‘bankrupt’ but it’s a term that could easily be applied to California. It’s easy enough to spend other people’s/club’s money or tell them what to do but quite frankly, unless you are senior ranking member of a football corporation, you have no idea about the genuine reality of how to run a top tier football club. None of us do.
It’s great and all to say ‘we need a DM and we need a striker and we need etc’ but carry on with the thought. We need a DM? Ok, how do we pay for him? Where do we find him? How do we convince the club we buy him from that we cannot afford to pay the inflated market fees that have risen due to Spurs and Man City and etc.? If we can’t convince them, do we still buy him at the inflated price? Can we afford to? Or do we look elsewhere? Say we buy for every position people think needs it (and quite frankly while we don’t have the top 11 players in the world, we always can and people will always suggest signings) – how do we pay for not only the DM but the striker, the goalie, the CB, the back up left back, the other winger? Sure, we still have a little left over from what Man City paid but that will gets us, what? hopefully one class player? And yet it wasn’t enough for Melo. Do we break into the money stored away for a rainy day when another recession hits in 15 years time and we might not get a full stadium and still need to pay our loans? Or the money currently being moved around because the housing market collapsed and we need to sort out Highbury Square? What’s more important, having Denilson or Coquelin fill in for Song and sorting out a £100m investment or buying a bunch of new players and letting the £100m investment die? What happens if we buy a bunch of players now and have no money to replace Gallas, Silvestre, Eboue and Senderos when their contracts expire next summer?
I let go a long time ago on wishing people would type in full sentences, good grammar and with reasonable spelling on the internet. But illiteracy should not stop you thinking about the wider picture. Things are not as easy as they are playing Football Manager at Arsenal. If you want to support a club that can ask ‘oh but what’s another X million?’ then support Man City and stop annoying us.
Hmm, Alex Song and Cameroon are last in their Cup of nations group. Cameroon play Gabon Next who are top of the group with maximum points. We’ll see how this one works out.
Link – http://www.cafonline.com/competition/african-cup-of-nations-angola_2010/groups
Cameroon are In group 1. Bottom, Only 2 games played though.
John, three go through. See Charlie at 7.13
A WARNING!!!
If Wenger doesn’t buy in January we will be on course for a derailment come new year.
As Wenger seems to have ignored but we all can’t stop thinking about, Song and Eboue, 2 of our 4 defensive midfield players, will depart for over a month in Jan-Feb.
This is our fixture list in this period
02/01 FA Cup R3
06/01 Carling Cup Semi 1
09/01 Everton @ Home
16/01 Bolton Away
20/01 Carling Cup Semi 2
23/01 FA Cup R4
27/01 Villa Away
30/01 Man U @ Home
06/02 Cheslea Away
09/02 Liverpool @ Home
Thats potentially 10 games in just over 5 weeks. And look at that run of games, Villa, Man U, Chelsea and L’pool!!! The toughest 2 weeks in our season and we’ll be doing it without Song.
If Diaby and/or Denlison gets an injury we will be screwed, most likely get beaten a few times, lose confidence and crash out of the title race!!!
Why oh why does Wenger tempt fate like this!???!! If he is thinking about playing Nasri there well look what happened at home against Chelsea and in the FA cup!!! NOT GOOD!!
I will write us off if he doesn;t buy a DM in JAn and he would have done well to have spent a bit of the Man City cash to get him in now so he doens;t need time to settle!!!
F*CK!!! If we don’t win a trophy this season and people point at the lack of depth in midfield I will go f*cking crazy!!!!!
WHY WHY WHY WHY?!?!?! WHY doesn’t he buy!?!?!?!?!?!
For god’s sake calm down, your overuse of punctuation marks makes you look like an idiot.
Also the Africa Nations Cup is a little earlier this year (Jan 10th-31st), if we’re really lucky Cameroon might go out before the semis and we’d get Song back for that rather horrible three game stretch. But if we don’t then we don’t and we deal with it, Chelsea will lose a fair few players around then too.
People assuming a team bottom of its qualifying group will make it to the ANC = waaaah? It seems very unlikely Song will be at the ANC.
But even so, what about Denilson? Coquelin and Frimpong are at the age now (18) that Denilson and Song were when given a chance in the first team, let’s see how they do in the Carling Cup.
If we only need one DM extra and have two very exciting young ones (the names just mentioned) at an age where they are near to breaking into the first team squad, why not save the money for when we will be short elsewhere in the near future? Centre half is a position in which the experience and level-headedness of age is more essential, so Ayling and Bartley cannot be relied on when we have THREE centre halves be free of their contracts next season. Nordtveit may be bumped up the pecking order in the same way Djourou and Senderos were but we will need at least another 1 world class quality centre half to replace William Gallas next summer. So why waste the money now when we can have double to spend then?
Ok Smartarse Charlie, answer me this:
With a £20+million windfall from the summer why did Wenger not spend less than half of this on Def Mid cover?
Why, after 5 straight seasons of losing important players to injury at important times, does Wenger continue to start each season expecting NOT to get injuries?
With 2/3 defensive midfielders in our squad there’s no way you could say we are well equipped to fight on all fronts.
What if Denilson gets injured tomorrow? Song cannot play every game and Diaby is not disciplined enough to play the defensive role well enough.
Is it really worth the risk? Denilson WILL pick up 5 bookings and get a ban and he WILL need a rest at some point and Song is the only other player capable of playing in this position.
Maybe I’m wrong, maybe we’ll go through the whole season injury free! Maybe Cameroon will not make it past the first round of the ACN, maybe Denilson will not pick up a single yellow card from now till christmas.
But my point through all this remains the same, Is it worth the risk?
4 years without a trophy and Wenger is gambling once again. Refusing to play his chips! £20 million in the bank and he won’t pay £8 million for peace of mind. For cover in possibly the most important position on the football field.
And one more my super calm chum Charlie, If you heard Wenger’s post Man U interview he states we lack experience and this leads us to panic when we don’t need to. He is of course refering to a problem we’ve had for some time now, our inability to protect a lead and close out a game!
He says this on Saturday and come Tuesday we have bought no-one. So he has identified a flaw in our team, he has vocalised it and then he has done nothing.
Tell me Charlie, how do explain those?
Samuel – how often does this need to be explained? the top THREE teams in those groups of four qualify for the ACN. The top ONE team goes to the World Cup. As such, Cameroon are still lilkely to qualify for the ACN, I can’t see them finishing bottom of the group.
Gooner49 – I’m not telling you your opinion is 100% wrong (I disagree with it, but you’re entitled to it), I just think you could put it better without sounding like a baby who has just lost his rattle.
Charlie, well lets hope you’re right come the end of the season.
Right how? I don’t know as you haven’t sctually said anything other than “we deal with it”.
Wow! Thats Genius! Your insights are awe-inspiring!
(Edit ‘holic; Sorry mate. Gone too far with that. Let’s agree to disagree.)
I can’t claim to offer insight. I just think there is a good way to make criticisms, and it doesn’t involve having ??? and !!! and ?!! and phrases like WHY WHY WHY strewn all over the place.
Charlie,
You could ask the abusive one who was available. Which defensive midfielder moved clubs that a.) we would have wanted, b.) was available at ten million or less, and c.) wanted to come to us.
Once you’ve gone away and looked I think you will be forced to agree it was one hell of a short list…
With the scouting network Arsene has got don’t tell me he didn’t have a list of at least 5 names he was looking at in DM.
And knowing Wenger none of them would be worth more than about 7-8million.
We were linked to Lorik Cana, i’m not saying he was neccessarily good enough to play for Arsenal but as back up for when we needed a bit of bite in midfield he would have come in handy.
We look to have missed a trick with Lee Cattermole. Young English lad who never stops running and patrols the midfield well.
And those are two who we missed out on to a club who only just missed out on relegation!
Blaze Matuidi, a bit overpriced maybe but being young he wounldn’t have demanded 1st team football straight off the bat.
Gokhan Inler, we were linked to him a year ago but he opted to stay in Italy another year, we could have got him.
And those are just the players we heard about in the press. Wenger always has his eye on a handful of unknowns who might cost a couple of million.
You may disagree with my way of writing but you can’t deny we are seriously thin at right back and central midfield. Not to mention Central defense. Billy G and Tommy V are doing an amazing job at the minute but if we get hit with injuries we will be playing Djourou and Silvestre!
You guys can be as blase as you like at the moment but you must realise that Cesc is off come June if we are trophyless again.
Cesc leaves, the club are demoralised, people once again doubt our ability to compete with the top teams for the length of the season, fans are calling for Wenger to be sacked, all this and why?
This is a defining season in his management and he is gambling.
It’s not a question of being blase, it’s more of just looking ahead to the next game now. I genuinely don’t know what will happen this year but there’s little point in worrying about worst case scenarios for next summer at this point when we’re just a few games into the season.
And yes he might be gambling, but management is all about having to gamble sometimes. And the players you list, you give reasons for why they maybe weren’t an option, ‘not good enough’, ‘English’ (i.e. likely to be overpriced), ‘overpriced’ etc. Not to mention the fact we don’t know if they would have come anyway.
Don’t get me wrong, I am loving our start, we have out-played ever team so far and after our loss to Man U even some of our tabloid critics have got off our back.
I just have a niggling worry that Wenger has lost his ruthless streak. He seems to have mellowed and become too much of a father figure to the players.
5 years ago you would never have heard him talk of being worried about buying players in case he “kills” the younger ones! He was ruthless in his transfer activity and also during a match. He would sell anyone who consistently underperformed and he would sub a player who was having a bad game.
It was all about getting the win. Nowadays he seems more concerned with developing the players. And while that may be all well and good, its a waste of time if they bugger off to pastures new.
I hope to God he porves me wrong but there are things that make me worry Wenger is losing his deep desire to win. There was a time when his Arsenal team was the one who would bully weaker teams off the park. Our team was physically imposing, we were strong in the air and on the ground. Vieira, Adams, Keown, Parlour, Henry, Gilberto all 6ft plus and hard as nails.
Now we are all about little guys and pretty football. Wenger has yet to find the balance that Barcalona struck so beautifully last season. Big stong guys at the back and small, quick, technical guys going forward.
Charlie: My bad, I thought it was the top 2. Still within reason he will still be here though.
TAO: How is having Sagna, Eboue and Djourou mean we are thin at right back? Also, Cattermole and Cana are abusive players with none of the technical skill required at our level, Matuidi was in a team that got relegated so he must be good at stopping attacks (!) and Inler has never impressed upon viewings. Ok I only saw Udinese a handful of times last season, and most of them against stronger opposition but still. The trick we missed was making Diarra fall on love with the club but bygones be bygones.
There is no proof Cesc is off and I personally feel he won’t until Xavi is looking at slowing down so he has a guaranteed place at Barcelona. Club captains don’t just up and leave because of a lack of success, they continue trying to push for it. And if he wasn’t a player to act in such a manner I’m not sure I’d want him here in similar circumstances to Adebayor – he may have had the talent but commitment is everything. Arsenal made him a star and from the way he has started the season, it seems like he’s added a professionalism to pay the club back.
Samuel – I can’t see it. Cameroon are currently one point away from the third-placed team and have a game in hand. I can definitely see them missing out on a second successive World Cup at this rate but I can’t see them finishing behind Gabon, Morocco AND Togo. I’ll keep my fingers crossed they suffer a complete collapse in form though (and that Adebayor puts a few past them when they play Togo)!
“5 years ago you would never have heard him talk of being worried about buying players in case he “kills” the younger ones! He was ruthless in his transfer activity and also during a match. He would sell anyone who consistently underperformed and he would sub a player who was having a bad game.”
4 years ago he did this with Vieira/Cesc but OK. I don’t think the ruthlessness has gone, I think we the fans have a different perspective of patience and team building than him. In the modern game our approach is very much a new and individual ideal – to not buy a team but to create one, something that hasn’t been done at the highest levels since, what, the 80s? But in doing so he had to be ruthless. Many a manager would have kept hold of Freddy, Paddy, Gilberto, Lauren etc. (and look at United, what does Neville provide other than a drain of wages? etc.) instead of discarding them for chances for our current players.
And the thing is, it’s great to say he would drop or sell any who have bad games but then we were dealing with players in their prime. If you read that Martin Samuel interview with Wenger you will see him talk about whether knowing a player is good enough mentally by how they assess their mistakes after a game and try to improve on them. Certainly from how Adebayor talked about why he was so useless in the CL semi final you can tell that he still has no time for players who are not trying to find themselves a way to the top at a consistent level. But to sell players of immense potential just because they have a bad run of form is very different, they are still working towards improving their game even if they have to spend time trying to see what works in the professional game.
Look at Bendtner, he himself admitted to the form of a Sunday league player last season. But you could always tell he was committed, trying to work on areas of his game that needed improving and thinking about how to up his game, not just in an individual but on a team level and how it works against each specific opponent. His form has mightily improved and you can see that if he keeps this progression up he can reach the top. Adebayor was the opposite, he had the talent but was too lazy and not self aware enough to figure out his game against each specific opponent. Bendtner stayed, Adebayor didn’t. The one who left was the 30 goal striker but the manager needed to be both smart and ruthless.
Something tells me I type too much.
Samuel: No kidding about Diarra and what about Palacios?
Do you realise at one point we had Gilberto, Flamini, Diarra & Palacios at the same time! Thats got to be one of Wengers biggest f*ck-ups. Although i blame Flamini for lying to Wengers face all through his last season. No way Wenger lets Diarra go in Jan if he thinks Flamini will be off in June!!
As for Palacios, he was evidently surplus to our requirements when we had him on trial, but Wenger tips off Steve Bruce who then makes a mint on him 2 years later and now he is one of Spurs best players!!
How cruel are the fates!!!!
When Palacios was on trial wasn’t he playing a RM similar to Eboue though? And Wenger decided Eboue was better? I believe Bruce converted Palacios full time to that role. Damn shame we didn’t though, I come from a family of Spuds and am never let to forget what a fine player he turned out to be.
I am with you man. I was hoping for a Central Defender but we can not blame Wenger. Let’s just hope Senderos can be persuaded to give his best when necessary.
The ‘sit down you paedophile’ chant is being sold – and broadcast – by not only amazon but itunes too (plus other websites).
Can I suggest anyone who finds this offensive and shops from amazon/itunes contacts both these companies and asks them to withdraw it or you will buy things elsewhere.
itunes – ring 0845 600 1683 (lo cost)
amazon – ring 0800 4961081 (free)
The offending seller is one Fat Willy. Yes really.
By the way we need to be non-hypocritical, gooners. Let’s stamp out that ‘yiddos’ chant about Spurs too – racist crap
Here’s to a great season in meantime – Arshavin is going to light up the league!
Blimey, that was heavy. You’ve sparked some emotions there ‘holic.
I just popped in for a sambuca & vimto.
Cheers 🙂
Have a read of this open letter to Mike Dean – it’s top class.
http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/?p=1253&cpage=1#comments
The squad ought to be big enough, and with enough quality IF we don`t have our usual glut of injuries, BUT already the news is that Djourou has had a knee op and may be missing for 6 months, thus the folly of not adding at least another centre-back is exposed. This may be the reason Senderos didn`t leave this summer. Could it be that even AW has his doubts about Silvestre?
On another theme, I was searching for the Sun`s article on Jabba, and found it eventually thanks to Arseblogger. Under the headline that Usmanov was moving ever closer to full control of Arsenal, and even now plunging the club into renewed crisis; it appears that the only justification for this hype is the regurgitated b*****ks about Lady Nina wanting to sell (which we knew 3 months ago) and Jabba having approached her. Over to you Stan.