Forward options a necessity + Roll up for the Arsene Experience!
August 31, 2012
How are you feeling today?
Excited? Anxious? Tense nervous headache? Already brimming with righteous indignation at the inevitable disappointment that today is likely to hold?
If you’re anything like me you should have the theme from Countdown going round and round your head in a never ending loop and a pile of excuses lined up for why you failed to get any actual work done today. Welcome to transfer deadline day. The day when hope floats on the breeze… only to usually be smashed to smithereens by a low flying jet.
Any hopes that Arsene Wenger might give something away re potential signings in his pre-Liverpool press conference were dashed yesterday as he gave the most cookie-cutter of all his cookie-cutter performances. All the classics were wheeled out. There was a:
We have enough [players], that is for sure, but you always want to improve your squad and if we find a top, top, top player we will do it,
And a:
We are active but we do not just want to bring average players in. If we find a special player who can find us a plus we will do it, if not we will not do it.
And of course that old favourite:
We have already bought Cazorla, Podolski and Giroud of course. So you cannot say we have not bought, but when you listen to people you always have to buy more.
What is important as well is to believe in the players you have and we will get our long-term injuries back.
Gawd love him and I know we wouldn’t have him any other way but it’s getting to the stage where I wonder if it’s even necessary for Le Boss to turn up to his own pressers. I’m sure most of us know the stock responses well enough to step in once in a while and give him a day off. In fact it could be a good money spinning scheme for the club: ‘The Arsene Experience’. You pay a ten pound supplement off the back of your Emirates stadium tour and you get to host a press conference at the end of it.
Frustratingly it does sound like we’re being prepared for yet more transfer disappointment. It’s clear that we are aware of the need for signings but by the sounds of things for whatever reason we’ve not been able (thus far) to get in the players that we wanted. Unusually AW mentioned that we do have money to spend and that if we fail to do the business by the end of today we will try again in December. Looking at the squad, while things are not as dire as some would make out, it’s hard to argue that we don’t need reinforcements.
With news in that Nicklas Bendtner looks like he’s about to sign a loan move to Juventus and Marouane Chamakh and Park Chu-Young both discussing late moves elsewhere our forward options are looking sparse indeed. For those front three starting roles we have available Olivier Giroud, Lukas Podolski, Theo Walcott and Gervinho. Andrei Arshavin too if you want to include a player who we’ve been trying to get rid of for a year and who when he does play looks distinctly disinterested.
That’s not exactly great depth. Yes, you could argue for Santi Cazorla and AOC to be included as options out wide but then you’re weakening the midfield which has already taken a hit with Alex Song’s unexpected departure this month.
Arsene confirmed yesterday that Theo would be staying at the club although admitted that no agreement had been reached:
His situation is simple – he will stay with us and play for us.
Theo has one year to go [on his contract] and that is simple. We have to find an agreement with him on whether to extend the contract or not for a longer period. That is what we want to do.
As I said yesterday it’s an extremely risky strategy and that statement doesn’t fill me with any more confidence. AW went on to state his belief that Theo loves the club and is not obsessed with money. That may be true but as Ljungberg’s Cheekbones pointed out in the comments yesterday, you can be sure that his agent is fairly keen on it. And now that he holds all the cards I do worry where this one might end up.
The Champions League draw was made yesterday and we got ourselves a very winnable group I think. We’ll face Schalke, Montpellier and, as ever, Olympiakos. Certainly a lot better than it could have been when you consider that Man City face Real Madrid, Ajax and Borussia Dortmund and there can be no excuses if we don’t qualify and qualify well.
The even bigger news of course is that we’ve been drawn against Coventry City at home in the Milk Cup. Looking forward to seeing the kids strut their stuff in that one.
Right I need to go and get as much work done as I can before I get entirely sucked into a Sky Sports News vortex. Brace yourselves for disappointment. Anything else will be a bonus.
If You Liked This...
- Wenger reveals his limited transfer budget. But there are ways to free up some cash
- No new strikers as Wenger to give Theo his chance up front + West Brom preview
- Arsene and the Chatbots
- Robin’s secret plot + An impossible dilemma
- Wenger declares end of project youth and admits to rushed summer signings as Arsenal enter a new era
Comments
17 Responses to “Forward options a necessity + Roll up for the Arsene Experience!”
Leave a Reply
going to be a bit of a frustrating end to the day i feel. Yet again we will be going into a new season stating we are ONLY 2/3 players short of challenging but this time around it would of been true as we have a very good squad and if that was aided by 2/3 top players we could be doing something major this year but alas it doesnt look likely we will be making these signings
Going to a party tonight, taking my laptop with me…I’m cool.
Hmm.cnt wait 4 11pm.
Nothing happen… Arsen and the the board hasn’t ambition to any title period Koronke and Arsen out
World best striker finally leaving. What a shame
Great contribution Angry Gooner – have you got your own blog? #Giveusthelink.
does anyone realise that the clubs kroenke own are in a trophy drought?
I would bloody love ‘The Arsene Experience’!!!!
“I think second half we played with a little bit the handbrake. You could see that we dropped physically but when you come here you have to fight. Footballistically I was pleased with the overall performance.”
We’re in a weird place at the mo re: signings. Arsene would love to remind us, as fickle fans, that he has made over 5,000 substitutions and we forget that we have signed players of “super quality” already. But we clearly need to strengthen with excellence. Just one or two. An alternative up front really is a must. Rossi from relegated Villarreal?
It’s a shame it looks like we’re missing out on Van Der Wiel. He’s completely off M’Vila by the looks of it. Strange. Just feels so transitional. At least get the shape right now! Don’t want “our season begins Febuary 1st”…
Zinc u ruddy geek, that’s awesome.
Another deadline day push for Jovetic? Or did we only try the first time cos we thought we’d get a decent price whilst he was injured?
Perhaps he’s tried and failed with most of the obvious targets? I don’t know, but I’d rather wait and buy quality in January than panic buy an average player now.
Why were my comments deleted?
They were not derogatory, they were not violent, they were not sexist, racist or illegal.
Is this blog ran by Mussolini or something?!!!!
Haven’t deleted anything, Goonerstevedave. Haven’t seen any comments at all from you apart from this one in fact. Feel free to repost.
Oh, life gets really hard on the 31st. I would so like for it to be the 1st already, or actually the 3rd, and we won against ‘pool.
Love the Arsene Experience – don’t you think it would raise our revenue sky high? The media are always having digs at Arsene, it seems there’s a lot of people somewhere (the MOTD studio mayhaps?) who’d gladly pay to be able to flap those hands and make those quirky, half-true press conference statements.
But, of course, the fact is he’s mostly showing everyone how such operations are run. I really think most of his mishaps result from him being forced to play far stronger competitors on less than equal terms. Which is why it gets mighty hard to keep the players who get talked into moving with such ease.
Yes, we’re not likely to sign anyone – again. But it’s also true that this squad is only a player or two short of a full roster. I really don’t know what Wenger has in mind for the SO UNLIKELY scenario that both our strikers are off and Walcott actually leaves (or gets injured too). Is there some teenage prodigy at Arsenal we’ve all missed? Still, even if this is just another stage in a protracted transition, this time we look the part of a contender. Okay, so maybe we don’t look like winning the EPL, but 4th shouldn’t be such a struggle anymore. Is that bad? I think it’s quite nice, actually.
I said that once, twice or thrice before, and I’m definitely going to repeat it – regardless of the long term policy, we really only need someone who wouldn’t mind sitting half the games out on the bench and would be capable of playing both a CF and on the wings. I’m not worried because I know it’s hard to find such players. Even guys like Isco, though still u-21 material, would demand a lot of playing time, simply because they ARE competing (who wouldn’t want to do even better?). And yes, Wenger should be capable of accepting such challenges, but then again, you can’t keep everybody happy while not giving preference to anyone. And so on, and so on…
So, we’re on a hard road to renewal again, but I bet we’ll laugh at our nervousness and tense anticipation next May.
At Sep 1st, 00:01, I expect the doomers to all go “Arsenal are in relegation form” and “Wenger out.” For the time being, let’s try to enjoy other people’s frenzy. I hear Fulham nad QPR are fighting for the honour of being the 1st EPL team with over 40 1st team players. And then, of course, is Mr. Mancini, who, in a bid to outdo Sir Alex, has just invested in his own makeshift Patrice Evra (this one actually called Maicon). I’m glad to see everyone except my beloved team diving into the market for those “panic buys.”
I’m not so stupid to trust Arsene. But I do trust our players to deliver the goods when necessary. Even if Wilshere would have to start walking on water for a living.
I’ll be disappointed if we don’t bring in any other players during this window – I think it’s fair to say we could have done more looking at what some of the other teams are doing but it’s really not the end of the world, we’re in a better place than last year and our squad is looking decent – those potential additions could have changed that from decent to exceptional but if it doesn’t happen it doesn’t happen.
I know the crazies won’t take notice, but I’d at least like to point out that everyone complaining that Arsene waits (or waited last year) until the last minute for “panic buys” makes no sense, as many or maybe even most teams seem to still by wheeling and dealing today. Yet somehow people blame Wenger for this? If he does it he’s crazy and cheap and FRENCH AND ALSO STAN IS A BILLIONAIRE BUT RUNS ARSENAL LIKE A BUSINESS INSTEAD OF A REVERSE ATM NOOOOOOOOOO WENGER OUT OUUTTTTTT OUT!
But if Mancini does it?
Jeezo, doesnt look like anyone else is coming. In my opinion we needed cover at centre back, right back and a no nonsense, tough tackling midfielder. We still need to get rid of garbage like diaby, djourou, chamack and arshavin. Wenger is a fool if he thinks our squad is fine as it is. Oh i see we brought in a 17 year old goalie from lapland or some place. Wish our manager would spent more time scouting for the bloody first team. I seriously have major doubts about top 4 tbis season. Gave up on winning trophies the same time as everyone else at the club, many years ago now. Sickening….