What we have learned so far, and why it is vital not to have a sense of humour

By Tony Attwood

So with two weeks to go, what do we know?  As usual I have no idea, but here’s some of my own thoughts from the last couple of days…

1: We have bought a centre forward and a central defender and both look fairly nifty.

2: Arshavin is playing like he plays football for fun, which is a joy to watch.

3: We have the equivalent of two new midfield signings in Wilshere and Frimpong.  According to the BBC the manager is telling Mr Cappuccino to make sure Frimpong plays for England, and announcing that Wilshere is ready for the England squad.

4: Almunia looked more than promising in the Celtic game

5: Wenger is looking to buy at least one more central defender

6: Djourou is back on track.

7: Nasri is, at 22 (I think) an astonishing player, a player who everyone ought to be raving over.  There are moments, when he is playing in the centre of the attacking midfield, that I start to wonder who this Cesc chap is and why we need him.  (Of course those around me then hit me on the head for a bit, and I remember, but just watch Nasri and what he is doing this season….)

8: JET is going to be the great player that we all expected, but maybe it is one more year before he takes entire teams apart again.

9: Sunu is stunningly amazing, and when Coquelin returns next year he should be more than a useful addition to the squad.

10: Vela might finally have arrived, and Lambert might actually be rehabilitated after his seeming fall from grace.  Simpson, I fear, will find he is not in the 25.

As for the rest of the world with bits more Arsenal in-between

11: Barca have the ability to mount the biggest disinformation service the world has ever seen.  Knowing they were in debt and unable to pay wages, they created the Cesc story to hide behind, and with the connivance of the world’s media, it succeeded.  There are actually people out in the great wide open who believe that there has been a transfer issue going on.

12: Man IOU now has no season ticket waiting list – and indeed anyone who wants to can walk in and buy a season ticket now.  Just like Arsenal at the start of the Graham era.

13: Liverpool are seemingly going to be sold to the Chinese who are going to pay off the banks.  Quite what they want with the club is anyone’s guess.  The last club to be bought by the Chinese was Birmingham City, although Notts County were probably owned by the Chinese for half an hour last season.

14: Some clubs (and the media, and lots of fans too) don’t quite understand the 25 rule.

15: UEFA was serious about the financial doping regulations, and clubs are starting to look at them with concern.  Portsmouth were kicked out of the Europa Cup and RCD Mallorca have been thrown out too, both under the current financial regulations.  Both were rather miffed.

16: Arry is moaning about fixtures, internationals, and anything else you can think of.  (Actually that is hardly news).

17. Putting humour in blogs is problematic.  Even when the story is about Arsenal’s match being called off because of vampires rising from an Austrian lake, or a complete interview with Cesc which ends with a statement about the journalistic basis of the story, sometimes the writing is not seen as humour.  Unless… could it be that the people who write in taking such nonsense seriously are contributing to the humour?  Maybe its me who doesn’t have a sense of humour any more.

18: The prediction by the Anti-Arsenal Arsenal sites that the season ticket waiting list at Arsenal has vanished, 80% of last season’s holders having given up their tickets and the club having hard times, is possibly wrong – judging by the way we sold out for a couple of friendlies at the weekend.

19: It’s a bloody good job we never signed Frank Ribery

20: The football team who invented the concept of Franchised Football was in fact Tottenham Hotspur.   Actually that’s a new story, but it will appear on the Woolwich Arsenal site in a day or so.  Meanwhile, if you like history, there is a developing story of why Tottenham have got so worked up about Arsenal over the years on the same site.

Any more?

Untold – the truth, the whole truth and a bunch of bananas

46 Replies to “What we have learned so far, and why it is vital not to have a sense of humour”

  1. Lambert=Lansbury?
    I would add a couple more points:-
    1. AW expects his two centre backs and the defensive midfielder to be virtually interchangeable. Expect the next signing to be someone like Vincent Kompany rather than a Sol Campbell type.
    2. W

  2. .4 – I for one never doubted him. The AAA propaganda against our keeper has been disgusting and I’ve watched otherwise sensible bloggers getting sucked into it.
    Morning Tony, great post. Two weeks to go, it’s getting exciting now.

  3. Lambert=Lansbury?
    I would add one more point:- AW expects his two centre backs and the defensive midfielder to be virtually interchangeable. Expect the next signing to be someone like Vincent Kompany rather than a Sol Campbell type. Another left footer would be even better.

  4. agree with pretty much everything. Nasri is good but i’d like to see it over the length of the season, and yes JET might just take another year(or maybe 6 months).. I really really strongly agree about Ribery. He does some tricks but I’ve never seen him have a good 90 mins.

    Oh and did vampires really rise out of an austrian lake? Did the garlic supplies run out as well? Or are you just making that up?

  5. Something I don’t agree with is UEFA being serious about financial regulations. Kicking Portsmouth and Mallorca out is of no consequence to them. I’ll believe it when I see the likes of Man U, Liverpool, Roma, maybe Valencia etc being kicked out.

  6. Good piece Tony. Wilshire we knew about, Frimpong is a revelation. We have, as you say, JET and Coquelin and a few others to look forward too. It would settle my pre-season nerves however, if we have a new GK and central defender.
    Who is “Lambert”?

  7. Good to hear that Jack Lambert is making a comeback at the age of 108! I thought that he had died in 1940. Obviously I was mistaken.

  8. What we have NOT learnt is the art of shooting when in a position to do so when close to goal. This was irritatingly obvious against Celtic, particularly in the first half. Vermaelen, Wilshire and then Sagna showed the pretty passers what shooting is all about. I hope AW will show the video at training otherwise we will see a repetition of last season.

  9. I am not being pessimistic but here is what i’ve gotta say:

    We have not improved at all from the last season!!
    1) We signed Chamakh (probably one of the best signings of the year) to fill in the void of Ade-whore-bayor! God willing, Chamakh will also be an instant hit like Vermaelen. But we lost out on Eduardo prbbly cuz of the crappy 25-man rule

    2) Gallas, Senderos, Silvestre (Thank God!!) and Campbell all left as we all know…and we brought in Koscielny who has just one season of top-flight experience. As it appears he’ll prbbly partner Vermaelen at the back and the thought of it just freaks me out! Koscielny’s good display against AC Milan should not be over-hyped…italians dont play like the english teams! they are annoyingly slow! I have nothing against our new no. 6 but where is the much needed experience that would be bought in that Wenger stated at the end of the season. Where is the money which Ivan Gazidis declares at the end of every year…Wenger further re-affirmed that money is no excuse for this season..Then why the hell cant we bring in a TOP CLASS center back i.e Mertesacker or Subotic. The fact that we havent bought a centre-bact yet further disappoints me cuz if wenger buys a centre-back it would be an average player who can provide cover as he has said we are short only number-wise! I really hope Wenger proves me wrong and we splash out cash on some much needed experience so that we can assure ourselves that we can defend well from set-pieces cuz quiet frankly we still SUCK at them!

    3)According to Wenger…Pre-season has gone well and has shown positive signs!! So what? thats the case every season…our youngsters always shine in the pre-season and put up a good show till maximum February or March and thats it..injuries pile up..our concentration screws up..and Wenger gets more and more stubborn and sticks to not spending money! I personally was interested in seeing if we concede any goals in this preseason cuz we always score…and what happened…we conceded in the same stupid ways we do every season! Samaras yesterday almost won the emirates cup for celtic in just 20 mins when he was substituted in! Is our defense ready to counter DROGBA, ROONEY, TEVEZ, TORRES??

    4)To sum it up, compare ourselves to 3 teams…
    Man Utd and Chelsea: not active in transfer market this season and prbbly wont sell or buy till the start of the season! So what does that mean? Utd and Chelsea would still be pretty much the same team and as good a threat they were last season…and both Utd and Chelsea have the depth in both defense and attack to retain the first 2 positions.
    Man City: very active in transfer market..have bought in QUALITY players in this transfer window compared to the previous one i.e. Yaya Toure, David Silva, Boateng and prbbly Balotelli and Milner!
    Arsenal: extremely active in players going out, not so in players coming in! We’ve had 5 players leaving the club out of which 4 are center backs and one is a striker and what do we get in return..1 center back whose experience i highly doubt and expecting him to instantly deliver the way Vermaelen did is unfair…and one quality striker in the form of Chamakh! So 4 center backs and 1 striker go out and we get in 1 center back so far…how in the world can one say..that we are looking sharper then the last season…where is the depth at the back??? I really pray from the bottom of my heart that Wenger adds not just one but atleast 2 QUALITY players to the squad! Good luck Arsenal, lets hope Wenger’s stubbornness on his youth pays of and we atleast win Carling or the FA cup if not the Premier League!

    P.S. I dont intend to offend any of my fellow gooner with my comments..its just my view on arsenal so far!

    ARSENAL FOR LIFE! GO GUNNERS!!

  10. great website, good article but slightly unbalanced in my opinion
    – almunia is a average keeper, not a title winning one. i didnt think for a second that hed mess up yesterday but in the big games (barca aside) he doesnt handle it. he doesnt save you 6-9 points like a world class keeper. also hes distribution is poor. when we are under pressure he needs to calm the game down. insted he throws the ball out and immediately we suffer. just watch.
    – we still dont think. 3-0 and we not controlling games, what title winning team cant keep a clean sheet, especially in a game we are dominating. can anyone, even a AKB, tell me they honestly think we will regularly keep it tight?
    -crossing from wide positions. been a problem for years. dont they teach clichy and sagna to cross?
    -wilshere and frimpong. they will both be fantastic in my opinion and id love frimpong to get more games than diay. but are they genuinely ready to be squad players for a club of our stature right now? arsene is not an agent nor is he the manager of the players he is the manager of Arsenal Football Club. whats best for arsenal is his prority. financial success is brilliant but we are not an auditing firm, we are a football club. lets be succesfull on the field, and third, im sorry, is not good enough for arsenal and if it is, then we should be reclassified as a mid table club.

    we have had these problems for years now and we have always papered over it for a few months untill it all comes falling down. has anything changed?

    Theres still time though and pre season optimism is still strong. and we have beaten celtic and drew with milan, while chelsea, liverpool and united have lost to much weaker oponents. agree with ur points, time will tell

  11. Even though we won the emirates cup, we are still not well set in the defence. We are still conceding goals. And i hope we get this right when the season starts.

    Also i agree with Shard. Portsmouth and mallorca aren’t important enough for UEFA. So they dispense them. The real challenge will come when the likes of Man U, Liverpool, etc come into picture. And i believe these big clubs will get away with it. They’ll find a way around this problem. That would really be a shame!!

  12. Hash makes valid points. Even Wenger agrees we need an extra CM. I wouldn’t have us buying Mertesacker for the sake of “speed”, though.

  13. arsene is really starting to piss me off. and im normally very patient and understanding. 2weeks left, no excuses.

  14. @Steww

    I don’t think it has anything to do with the AAA, because people have every right to doubt the qualities of Almunia. The guy is an average keeper and it’s kind of shameful that all the Premier League teams around us have better goalkeepers.

  15. This is a first of a lengthy post.I think Barca is using this whole Cesc saga to put a blanket on what is really going on in their financial house.They are in a mess or best put to an end of a cycle and needs to start from the scratch.When your value don’t match up to your status then you are sure to wane. For the last 5 season they have won everything that is there to be won yet there match day revenue is staggering,their tv revenue has seen it all irrespective of the fact that the top four gets more in Spain as compare to the Epl (where it is almost even amongst the top 20),their commercial revenue perhaps could still grow depending on how much more it could be marketed (now lets see if they will not take off that unicef in front of their jersey or add a part sponsor).Even after having a weird idea to pay players twice a year(using their money to trade for a six months period) still cant balance the books.Now they have sold players out of panic to balance they wage demand and make it look like a smart business (those of you crying to lousy signing when we have young and up coming talents) .oh yes and use the money to bring in one or two players to show they have to spend.where as the banks are not ready to give them a cent,the politics of it all celebrates their chairmen to push for the broader Spanish politics.Now perhaps Cesc must have realize that the house he is running to is crumbling whilst the one he is running from is on solid rocks.Now Arsenal on the order hand has not won a thing for the last five seasons but they have not been a looker they have been active and building they have contested with the very best came close twice to have won the Epl and gotten to the last for in Europe thrice and making the final once.Not to mention the cup runs.They have not fallen out of the train to keep the money(top 4) and yet our match day revenue is what others jealous and could be asking for 80 seaters any time soon.Our tv revenue is up there with the best and waiting to sour eve more once we win it.Our commercial value is to me untapped as it is far too low for a club like ours but is fairly and rapidly growing (we lot more to make out of America and Asia even African).We tend to have a great number of young players coming through with peanuts for wages and have lengthy contracts to off load a great burden of our wage bill.Now winning could be everything when you have nothing to loose from a fan point of view but the health of the club is the responsibility of the board to run.And we know a healthy man is a wealthy man.Once your health is in check then the day to day maintenance of ones health is on each man and for a club that responsibility is on AW.That is why we all want him to sign whatever amount of player we deem fit to complete the squad before the season starts but again it is a decision that must be healthy for the club and i think it takes a man of big heart to resist so much criticism and bias to maintain his principles.Yes we are all right and he is wrong perhaps he is stubborn,egocentric called him what you like but he in my view is a man of principle,wit and courage and thats what true leaders are made of.i don’t know if his signing or non signings(window is yet to close though) is good judgment or not month of may will answer to that but I do know his principles are true with values and accommodates sacrifice and that is the bench make for sustainable development. We are seining Barca getting to the very top but finding it hard to maintain their position now must we rush to emulate them by signing whoever is available (Ibrahimovic for all that money and wages give me a break when Bojan,Pedro and Henry would have done the job just a thought).Cant we all see that the current economy is less luxury friendly.It is becoming obvious to me that AW will only sign a defender and give the gk situation at least till january because frankly speaking Schwzaar is no better than Almunia. AW knows nothing about nothing particularly gk well the anti wenger brigade has a lot to justify their criticism based on the last 5 season.But their petty hate has grown larger for them to cub even when they can sense that the club is going the right way but the taste for silverware has blind folded them to the fact that the trip from highbury to emirates has been successful and the success off the pitch has balanced the lack of success on it.Now the worse thing is they know the truth and can perceive success is inevitable but they must be the ones to push us through the finish line(judas is always present and knows the course is just but he must do what he must do).The greatest joy of it all is that whilst we thrive to win it all we do it with a bunch of young lads that have been given a life time opportunity at the biggest stage. I will prefer to see Eastmond and Frimpong understudy Song just as he did Gilberto and do so with commitment rather than have Melo who will come here to play for the camera.I believe we are there and AW will complete the holes we seem to have before the end of the month.It is at the precipice of success that failure looks inevitable and it is the picture of the past failure that the doom seekers or anti wengerites has as their precious evidence to justify their claim.But we that love to follow knows we are on the right track and we shall for ever be grateful to the man named Wenger for his passion,commitment,principle,foresight,innovations,panache,educative, beautiful and contemporary approach to the game in his time in charge.

  16. tony can you please let me know if lansbury was injured as i expected himt oplay in the friendlies.
    i liked look off our new signing though still to be really impressed with chamkh.
    wilshire was very good but still a bit nieve ,frimpong did excellent. koscieny looked very agile and look forward to him developing more at arsenal.
    walcot i think look lot better and could be a big plus this season, dispite other blogs slagging him of i thought he scared celtic and he also created two goals not bad i thought,also thought gibbs was brilliant,and don’t forget gibbs is a winger, too, jet could be a useful sub.and again i believe with better defenders in front off him,i thinkalimunia
    will do ok for us.
    i do so hope we buy the german pers something sorry i’m terrible with names, but i thimk you know who imean,
    he would be a monster in our defence.
    in general i think we did ok and got alot of promise this season. up the gunners

    g

  17. Almunia is actually a keeper that relishes the big games. I am more worried about his performances against mediocre opposition. I am confident if Almunia is in goal against the big boys. Barca, Manu in the CL anyone?

  18. What I have learned also is that the refs are still very much against Arsenal.
    Do you really think that if the Wilshere-Fortune collision would have happened the other way around in the other penalty area we would have got a penalty from Mariner???? Well I think we all know the answer: no, never in our lives. We would get a yellow card for diving.

    And another thing: no Cesc, no RVP, no Song, no Diaby, no Denilson and those are: our best striker and maybe the players who played most of the games in midfield last year and still we are looking very well.

  19. Tony just curious to know how much revenue one match generates at the Emirates? The crowds at the Emirates cup were really good so I’m wondering how much Arsenal benefited from that and if other teams that participated got a share of it and how much do you think they did. Thanks

  20. Neil that is the sort of question I can only guess at. I know that Arsenal’s match day revenue is said to be the highest of any club side in the world – mostly of course because our prices are higher. And yes certainly the other participating clubs would have got something out of it, but I have no idea how much.

    I seem to remember in ancient times reading that in the FA Cup the home team gets 55% and the away team gets 45% – but that might be a false memory, or it might be changed now.

    But I would suspect that the club got £2m a day from the Emirates Cup.

  21. According to Jeorge Bird…

    “Craig Eastmond and Henri Lansbury both have minor injuries.”

    and that’s why they were not there.

  22. AK47, could you explain what your are pissed off about. We have two new signings who look really good, we have two youth players coming through who look sensational and ready for action, one of our biggest problems (who else can play like Song?) looks like being solved, and there is a month left in the transfer window. Clubs won’t jump to sell their prized assets just because Wenger wants the player. Indeed look at Barca – they are certainly finding that out.

  23. A repeat of the opening of last season will do me fine. 6-1 away on the starting day in the city of Liverpoodle.

    Just what the doctor ordered

  24. The BIG learn for me, was that we have lots of youngsters that are near to the first team, but are they near enough to win us the title? The answer i am afraid is NO. We can all kid ourselves that in Djourou, Frimpong, Wilshere, Nordveit, JET & Lansbury we have enough to compete, but the reality is that we need some more World Class players. In fact i think we only have 1 world class player and he no longer wants to play for us. We have some other exceptional players in RVP, Arshavin & Vermaelen that are pretty close and some other good players, Sagna, Clichy, Rosicky, Song & Nasri. However we need a couple more in the Fabregas bracket as well as a couple more in the RVP bracket. The real problems we have is that we do not have a goalkeeper that any of the top 10 teams would play in their first team and we have a lot of average or inexperienced players Almunia, Fabianski, Mannone, Sczcesney, Eboue, Gibbs, Traore, Nordveit, Koscielny, Djourou, Eastmond, Denilson, Diaby, Frimpong, Lansbury, Randall, Simpson, Wilshere, Ramsey, Walcott, Chamakh, Bendtner, Vela, Barazite, JET, Hoyte(in this last batch of 26 players there is only 8 full internationals and they play for Poland, Ivory Coast, Switzerland, France, England, Denmark & Mexico – hardly the top footballing nations!) If you took our top 9 players out of the equation, which injury & suspension could easily do we have left a very ordinary, inexperienced squad that will struggle against nearly every team in the premier league, not just the top teams.

  25. BC,

    give us the names of the world class players being sold by other teams and what they would actually cost the Arsenal. stop throwing out nonsense with out names to back it up. Also give us the names of world class players bought by Chelsea, Man. U and Liverpool in the last two years? You can’t spend what you don’t have, so we do the next best thing, groom your own world class players.

  26. bc: Are you really advocating that Arsenal throw out the baby with the bath-water? You seem to be saying that almost the whole team should be discarded. Do you really know anything about football? Have you ever played proper football for a proper team?

    What do you think this is? Football Manager 2010? Grow up! You read too much comic from the AAA.

  27. The lunatics are loose today here as well I see. Keep blogging Tony and those who don’t need a dictionary to understand the meaning of the word support will continue to enjoy and, yes, support you.

  28. Tony – glad you have put Big Jack Lambert back in the squad, his contribution was always underplayed, I thought, but what will the modern ‘keepers & refs make of him?

    I am interested to know what is the definition of a “world class” player – bc?

    Having watched almost all of the WC (God knows why!!) the only team to give any lasting entertainment was Germany & my guess is that they were a tournament side that would struggle in the PL. Ozil(?) is the new wonder boy but right now I wouldn’t swap him for Nasri or indeed young Jack.

    Spain were Barca without Messi & eventually bored teams into submission. Quality players, no doubt but there was no wow factor until Cesc came on.

    What I am trying to say is that for me there were no Pele/Maradona stand outs, just a lot of good to very good players amongst at least as many lower league quality triers.

    The AAA under-rate many of our players big time & I doubt that there are any miracle & doable purchases out there that are better than what we have. That is why we need another quality experienced CB to make up the numbers & fight for the his spot in the team.

  29. And to think we finished 3rd last season with those crap players and that it was only because of an even for Arsenal unprecedented injury crisis we lost it at the end.

  30. I thought Walcott had a better game yesterday than Wiltshire, I was suprised to learn that people have been slating him.

    Tony- I agree with you completely about Arsharvin, I think the fact that he is enjoying his football at the moment means that we are going to see alot more creativity from him. I have noticed that Nasri and him combine well and have made me a little bit forgetful too about Cesc, that Porto game springs to mind.

    Almunia is no David Seaman, Peter Schmeichel or Cech, but he is alright and was quite good yesterday. The gauntlet thrown down by Wenger should force him to be a better player and I wouldn’t be adverse to seeing different keepers in goal based on performances. It could end up being an iron sharpening iron scenario.

    Like I said before defensively we are still not right or ready and Wenger has since come out and said he is working on bringing in 1-2 players. Aside from that, there was so many positives to take from the weekend tournament and I don’t understand the pessimism. I do think that we have improved because like Walter@1.59pm mentioned we were missing 5 first team players, 6 if you add Ramsey and I think that I would be happy for any of the W/E squad (bar Randall) to be named against Liverpool.

    To the doom and gloomers:- Arsenal don’t buy ‘world class’ players and teams – we make them!

  31. Nasri is NOT 22. He’s much older, in fact.

    Lost a tenner because of this. Thank you. 🙂

  32. Dear Tony and Walter.

    I suggest you gentlemen have a good read at both Hash and milinho’s posts in response to this article.

    Whereas your positive approach to the situation at the club is admirable it is clearly not balanced or completely representative of the nature of the squad setup.

    I really think that if you can take a deeper or more balanced look at the nature of procedings you would write far more effective and thought provoking articles. This doesnt mean bash the manager, it means relating a complete story which highlights his strengths, weaknesses and philosphy which will give readers a far bigger picture of the man and his approach and most importantly allow the readers to make up their own minds.

    If you do not see logic in my thoughts I would suggest you rename this blog to the Untold Arsene Wenger, because Id then say that this is a case of clearly putting a single person above this great club.

  33. My thoughts on pre-season.

    Hats off to Hash and milinho. You guys paint a realistic picture of proceedings at the moment.

    Id like to start by saying that this is no ordinary season. We are under pressure to perform if we want to keep our best players, starting with Cesc Fabregas.

    Starting with transfers the club has dealt with, I believe we cannot feel comfortable when the amount of players going out exceeds those that come in, especially when the squad of last season was shown to be short in the final sprint of the season.

    Secondly, we cannot expect our young players to automatically step up and deliver massive performances. Looking at our midfield we have players behind Song + Fabregas and ahead of Wilshere and Frimpong who are not good enough, so dont you think its a bit unrealistic to expect the youngsters to automatically fill that void?

    Thirdly, our defensive organisation as a team is still not there. Wenger put our conceding of goals down to fatigue, which is a fair point BUT we should have least seen some sort of change in our defensive game as it was something major for us last season. This squad have been together for a month now yet nothing was different.

    Finally, the comments/hints/whatever you want to call it from Wenger are worrying indeed. His willingness to “audition” or to provide youngsters as viable backups to the most important positions in a first team sends shivers down my spine. There is no way you can experiment or persist blindly in areas such as goal keeper, center defence, center midfield and center forward. These are key positions where the team needs to be defensively and offensively PERFECT. A weak goalkeeper introduces a weak mindset and thus performing defence, a weak defence introduces a weak mindset and thus performing midfield. A weak midfield in England especially is not even a discussion (see Denilson in 08-09).

    All in all we have two weeks to go but we have seen no change since last year. We could very well set the league on fire like we did last year but be warned that we still have the same problems and probably a thinner squad (in terms of proven quality and experience). If things remain as they are now, our best hope of improving on our performance last year will be our luck with injuries COMBINED with how much the players have grown mentally and otherwise.

    God Bless the Arsenal. Ill be here for your always, and just like my own child, if you are not at your best.. I will tell you and encourage you.

  34. Vincent Kompany could be a great signing Man city have to get rid of players, if he misses out on there 25 we can get him for under 10m cover for Song cover for centre back. Why does nobody think Djouruo is going to start when Wenger said he let Toure go so Djouruo could start last year?? he is supposed to be ahead of Vermaelen in the pecking order admittedly that may have changed last season but he will partner TV5 as first choice. The lack of investment by Celsea and Manu and lack of quality youngsters in their teams means they will not improve on last season. We are not finished in the transfer market any new signings will be defensive at least 1 new centre back will be bought and hopefully we can find a new no.1 we will be stronger than last season we had our worst ever season as regards injuries. The form of Nasri is very encouraging I think the boss will put Fabregas deeper in the midfield as a deep playmaker with Nasri as the CAM Arshavin and Rosicky/Chamakh as the inside wingers and RVP/Chamakh as CF
    Hopefully Bendtner can improve again this season he is a quality bigman with a great eye for goal if not the composure to finish the chances he gets his finishing did improve markedly last season and a similar improvment this season will see him hit 20 in the league depending on appearences. If Arshavin is fit and focused we will at last have our world class triumvrete firing on all cillinders and Nasri could make it a quartet this year. The general improvment of another season under their belt for all our under26 players will again improve the squad.
    In short even without adding a new keeper we can expect an improvment on last season but another centre back is vital as we are short on numbers

  35. I love the fact that Song, Fabregas, Diaby, Nasri etc the regulars on our team are 22,23,24,23, though they seem like the the most experienced players on the pitch. They all will all improve this season i know, and I think that especially Diaby who nearly all the AAA people call “shit” and “useless” will improve very much and can be important. He was one of the players in France who stood out despite the scandal. And no one though Song would be so important as he was last season. Who knows what hes up to this season

    Now lets look at chelsea. The four most important players are.

    Chelsea:

    Frank Lampard (31)

    Didier Drogba (32)

    John Terry (29)

    Nicolas Anelka (31)

    Arsenal:

    Cesc Fabregas (23)

    Alexandre Song (22)

    Van persie (26)

    Nasri (23)

    I will expect some huge spendings by chelsea the next couple of years. They cant live with two 35 year old strikers. They dont have talent either, just a guy called sturrbridge something.
    Our future is nearly secured.

  36. i watch the 09/10 season review today…

    where does this feeling that the lads dont shoot come from? we scored some cracking goals last year. even people like denilson and diaby who get so much flack!

    we scored amazing goals last year, despite having so many injuries.

    with the improvements of players like walcott, b52, rvp, vela, nasri et al. i think well see the gunners winning big alot this year.

    also we have some pretty, pretty good young defenders at the club. all the hype about frimpong is kinda funny because we have an entire team of players with that amount of talent!

    one more defender will be good till jan when we will have a better idea of how djourou has come back from unfortunate injuries.

    also hash i dont think that eduadro was sold cuz of the 25 man rule. im thinking more cuz he didnt have the guarantee of first team football…

  37. lol @ SA Gunner

    I do not understand why these type of “fans” come here, see the name of the website or the FRICKIN title of the post, and STILL post those type of comments.

    I thank thee Tony. I read your posts every day, at the end of each day. Lifts my Gooner spirit to the max, and completely offsets/nullifies the stupidity of the entire web in regards to our beloved club…

  38. Tony (and zeldaprimed).

    Ive read the banner, and what you are suggesting is that this is a blog for Arsene Wenger. That is fair as it is your prerogative.

    The issue is that you thus shape Arsenal (note Arsenal) news to benefit Wenger or to make him look like a bunch of roses. Here dear sir is where you fail in my opinion.

    In short, no man is bigger than this great club. Arsene Wenger has been a revolutionary for Arsenal Football Club, but it was Arsenal Football Club which provided him with the platform to show us why he is such a fantastic manager.

    Lets remember this Tony, always. We are The Arsenal, not The Arsene Wenger. We need to show love for The Arsenal.

  39. @zeldaprimed

    Your response would deserve a similar toned response imo.

    You better contact your folks and ask them to sue whatever school you went to mate, because they clearly didnt teach you how to read.

    See my quote below, and next time.. you wont be so lucky.

    “If you do not see logic in my thoughts I would suggest you rename this blog to the Untold Arsene Wenger, because Id then say that this is a case of clearly putting a single person above this great club.”

  40. @SA Gunner

    ?…lol…you stooped pretty low there buddy…sue my old school? nah…

    I simply lol-ed at you…haha…

    As for Arsenal being bigger than Wenger…no duh…I don’t ever remember saying that Wenger is bigger than Arsenal…Actually, I’ve been following this blog for like 2 months now, Tony has never uttered such Blasphemy…the thing is, Wenger is currently our manager…Supporting “The Arsenal” would logically mean supporting the Manager…no?

    (kind of late…lol…)

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