The Perfect Pitch

The new season is upon us, and now it’s a good time to have a look at the long season ahead and see how we might do. Actually, this post doesn’t do this at all, since I can’t be bothered and there are much better analyses elsewhere.

Instead, I’ll keep this post relatively short and talk about various things that ought to be said before the season starts.

Signings. There will definitely be one more. Could we get another one. We probably need it (and probably another one to boot), but I don’t think we will get it. I think we need another right sided winger even if just to make sure Eboue doesn’t play there ever again. Although Vela, Nasri are all capable of playing in that position, but with Rosicky out for what seems like eternity, both might be needed on the left. Of course, a central midfield Flamini replacement is the most likely to come in, as I don’t think Diaby and Denilson (with Song, when he’s back from the Olympics) is strong enough, not if Diaby is always injured and we’re already resorting to 17 year old Aaron Ramsey to start games. Everyone says we need another defender, and that’s probably true in terms of the lack of a quality partnership in the center of defence. But I don’t think one will come, as it’s impossible to pick between dropping Gallas or Toure at the moment. So a CM signing it is then.

Surprises. I think Carlos Vela will surprise everyone this season. Not just because most of the season previews done by the NewsNow headling grabbing sites don’t even mention Vela as a new player joining our squad, just because his name didn’t come up when they did a search for “Arsenal transfers 08/09″. Despite having joined up years ago, this is the first time Vela will be playing in the red and white of Arsenal, so he’s a new signing. He certainly has impressed during pre-season, more so than any of our other new signings. But now is not the time to put too much pressure on the 19 year old – he will add something to our squad, but we shouldn’t blame him if he takes a bit of time to adjust. The other player that I think might surprise is Djourou. As long as he plays in his best position (IMO, anyway) of CB, then I think it’s a lot better than relying on Gilberto to play there like we did last season. Being tall, relatively quick and with good range of passing, Djourou has the attributes to make it as a top defender, but he will need experience.

Predictions. Don’t really want to do it as it will jinx the season one way or another. I think we’ll finish in the top 4 easily, despite what the media are saying (they said the same thing last season remember?). We have kept our team together Flamini apart, the kids have all got an extra season worth of experience, and we’ve strengthened in the attacking areas with Nasri and Vela. If Van Persie and Rosicky can come back to fitness and stay fit (heh), then that’s two extra players we didn’t have for most of last season.

Can’t wait for tomorrow. Proper football is back!

Just a short blog where we will play a little game. Go to Arsenal.com and look at where there used to be pictures of Adebayor (eg. mobile animation, new home/away kit launch pictures), and see if they’re still there. I think you’ll be hard pressed to find any pictures of Adebayor, as it seems the Arsenal.com staff have gone through the site and replace many pictures. What does this mean? Probably just a precaution, just like the Arsenal Shop not selling Adebayor shirts for fear of refunds, but something is definitely happening on this front.

Who will we replace Adebayor with? Roque Santa-Cruz, Huntelaar, Eto’o and even Sergio Aguero has been named, and the rumours surrounding our interest in Arshavin still isn’t going away despite Zenit asking for crazy money. What is certain at this point is that a replacement will be sought, but who it is remains a mystery.

It’s not been a great summer, has it? Flamini left before the season was even over. Hleb looks set to leave soon. Gilberto may be allowed to leave, and Adebayor … who knows what’s going on there.

There has been some movement in as well, but the names coming in are not exactly household names that will get everybody excited (although that’s not important if these players gets people excited on the pitch): Carlos Vela, Aaron Ramsey, Samir Nasri (any day now), and a couple of others.

So Hleb is going to Barcelona. Reports suggests we will get anywhere between €15m and €20m. That’s a great bit of business to be honest for someone that has only scored 10 goals for us in 3 season, despite playing at a second striker in many of those games. Hleb is a skillful player, but a wimp in front of goal (he pretty much admits this), and I just don’t think he is good enough for us anymore. Why Barcelona think he is good enough for them, I don’t know, but perhaps Spanish football will suit Hleb, particularly now the pressure is off as he won’t be first choice there either. Nasri will be Hleb’s replacement, and I think not only does Nasri have more potential, he will provide more immediate end product for us than Hleb … he can’t really provide any less, can he?

Gilberto may be allowed to leave as well, with reports suggest he’s off to Greece. Good luck to him if he goes, because I think he’s another one that’s no longer good enough to warrant a starting place. And to be honest, he’s not a great sub either – he reminds me of Cygan coming on for Pires, nervous and an accident waiting to happen. We will miss his experience of course, and losing both Flamini and Gilberto in the same summer means we need to strengthen. If we spend our money well on a defensive minded central midfielder, then we would have done alright in this area. There is no way to know if Flamini would have performed as well had he stayed and gotten a new contract – how much of his excellent performances was down to him trying to earn a new contract? And we still have Diaby and Denilson, as well as the Song, who did excellently at the ACN. Oh, and Aaron Ramsey too.

Adebayor. What can you say about him that his agent, AC Milan, Barcelona, Peter Hill-Wood, Arsene Wenger and everyone else hasn’t already said? I still think we want to keep him, as you cannot sell so many players and challenge for silverware. We may sell and make a lot of money, and if we use the money wisely, we can build an even better squad with better individuals. But teams need time to gel, over a season or two at least, and so we go into transition again. However, if the money we can get for Adebayor is too good, then it may be hard to resist. And if we already have a replacement in mind, one that Arsene thinks can come straight into the team and get us goals, then perhaps we will sell. I’m bored by this so called saga already, so I don’t really cares what happens now.

As for the claim that we have no money and that’s why all these players are leaving, I think that’s a great exaggeration. Flamini left because we didn’t want to give him £30m over 4 years, which is what he is getting from AC Milan. He’s not worth that much, and no team in England, not even Chelsea, would give him this kind of money. Hleb is leaving because he’s not good enough for us anymore – Hleb knows it, we know it, but Barcelona don’t know it yet. It’s not about money at all. Despite what Wenger has been saying about wanting to keep Hleb, he very quickly started the transfer process for his replacement in Nasri. There is very little resistance for Hleb’s request to leave, let’s just leave it at that. And then there’s Adeabayor, who if the reports are correct, wants silly wages. So this one is related to money, but I don’t think anyone will pay the amount he wants from Arsenal (£120,000 p/w), not even Barcelona or AC Milan. And we shouldn’t pay him this much because he’s not worth that much … he’s neither a star player nor an essential one like Henry or Cesc, and he should not be on their level of salary. If we give Adebayor £120,000 per week (that’s more than most of the players at Chelsea), then there is a legitimate case for others like Van Persie or Clichy to demand more than £100,000, and then Arsenal’s wage bill will become the highest in the world. Even Eboue would be on £80,000!

So we have one player that left because he got the deal of the summer from AC Milan that’s way beyond his worth as a player. Another two that isn’t good enough for us anymore. And one that wants wages which no club in the world is willing to offer. It’s not about us having no money to pay these guys, it’s about us not wanting to pay crazy money for 3 players who were barely first team players a season ago. As for money, this paragraph from the Guardian describes our current situation pretty well:

The club borrowed £260m for the move at a fixed rate of 5.3%, which looks very good in the current financial climate, and their annual repayments of £13.78m are manageable. They have sold 91% of the units at the old Highbury and expect to make £300m upon completion of the development, and the new stadium has almost doubled match-day revenues. 

Despite what other media outlets are saying, we are not strapped for cash at all. We are making more than we ever have at Highbury, even after debt repayments, and the Highbury Square development as suggsted above will almost make enough money to pay off all the stadium debts. What has changed though is that players and their agents are much more greedy these days, an effect of the “Chelsea Revolution”. It’s unfortunate, but I’d rather we have players that wanted to play for us, then players who just want money. Any day of the week.

How can I not blog about a possible new signing for Arsenal? These don’t come around more than a couple of times every decade, and bloggers need to take advantage.

So it looks like we are well on our way to signing Welsh wonderkid (oh great, not another one!) Aaron “Rambo” Ramsey. I know absolutely nothing about the kid apart from his brief appearance in the FA Cup final, when I remarked to myself that he played a bit like Hleb. Famous last words.

Truth be told, we haven’t signed the kid yet. He has stated he wants to come to us, and we have agreed terms with Cardiff City, but if Manchester United came in with double the offer, perhaps that may change things. But one thing is for sure, and that is with everything being equal, Aaron perfers us over the Mancs, and that, in my book, makes him a very sensible lad. Anyway, this transfer is not done until we see pics of him holding an Arsenal shirt on Arsenal.com, several days after the rest of the world has reported on the signing.

The one thing about Arsenal is that they are extremely classy when it comes to, well, almost everything. We apparently flew and kid and his parents on a private jet to meet the boss in Switzerland. Manchester United had Gary Neville show him around or something. Private jet to Euro 2008 vs having to look at Gary Neville. I think we know why he chose us. Why didn’t the “Champions” get Ryan Giggs, Aaron’s childhood hero, to show him around? Maybe he was busying washing his hair (head, arm, chest, back, legs … that’s a lot of hair to wash!)

And “Sir” Alex couldn’t even bother to meet the kid in person, deciding to call him on the phone instead. A bad connection and a whiskey fueled drunken rant won’t have helped the issue.

So assuming we do sign Aaron, is he what we need? My first impressions, based on having seen Aaron play about 15 minutes of football (a YouTube search strangely failed to find any good videos … a worrying sign indeed), I can’t really say. He could be like Walcott and could need a season or two of training before he’s ready for the first team, or he could be like Rooney and be ready to play straight away in the top flight (but looking much less like Shrek). Either way, I think we still need to buy in the winger department, especially competition for Rosicky’s place, since from what I read, Ramsey prefers the right side. Perhaps Nasri will play on the left, and that would leave an open place for Ramsey on the right after Hleb leaves. Aaron may not be what we need exactly, but a signing is a signing and 5m is cheap enough to bet on future potential.

Welcome to Arsenal, Rambo.

(if he signs)

So everybody is leaving, if the media is to be believed. Edelman has already left, and so has Flamini and Mad Jens. Hleb will leave soon, and if media reports are to be believed, Adebayor is going too. Cesc, Van Persie, Gallas, Senderos are the other “favourites” to leave Emirates this summer.

Of course, it’s all bollocks. I think Hleb will leave, but that’s probably it in terms of players. We are not going to sell Adebayor, and Cesc is very near to signing a new contract (if he hadn’t signed it already). As much as fans want Gallas to leave, I don’t think Wenger will do that, not when experience is lacking in our squad. As for Senderos, unless we sign a new CB, expect him to stay too (and perhaps he might just have a great Euro to prove to us that he does have a future at the club). Clichy, Van Persie and a few others will sign contract extensions too, following my player of the season winner Bacary Sagna’s signing of an extension.

But a few non playing staff looks set to leave Arsenal this summer. Everyone knows about England creating a new full time physio position, and it’s pretty much decided that Gary Lewin will take that position, and hence, leave Arsenal. Colin Lewin might go with him too. There is also a full time team doctor position being created for England, but don’t know if they will raid Arsenal’s medical staff again to fill that role. We have created a new position on the medical team for Neal Reynolds, who will look after the injured players while the regular physio is away with the team … so he won’t be the one to replace Gary Lewin. You wonder, with some criticism coming from the media, blaming our medical team for our bad injury record, why, if the media is to be believed, would England be so interested in luring members of our medical team away?

There’s been a rumour that Pat Rice will leave, but it’s not true. Another one that may leave is Vic Akers, although with the ladies team’s number two already leaving for America, Vic might just stay around for a bit longer.

Of course, we might get a new CEO and CFO, plus the replacement for Gary Lewin, so it looks like a busy summer for the club. Hopefully, we will sign some new players too.

I just watched Sky/Nike’s “The Cesc Fabregas Show”. Oh. My. God. What a horrible piece of crap. It was embarassing for Arsenal fans to watch, embarassing for Cesc to participate in and just bad bad television. Some of the lowlights include Cesc’s mummy pretending to be a Sky Sports reporter, a pathetically unfunny Paul Kaye pretending to an American and pretending to be funny, a rigged competition between Cesc and some kid trying to turn pro and the less said about the hosts the better. Some of the slightly more interesting bits included meeting Cesc’s parents, Arsene Wenger (as always) and a slightly funny skit involving Cesc, Matt Lucas and Senderos. But basically it was one hour of sycophantic crap trying to portray Cesc as the greatest human being in living history, with unfunny bits in between the parts where you cringe and want to kill yourself. Whomever (or is that whoever) thought up the idea and talked Cesc into doing it should be shot to death repeatedly.

But other than that, the show was alright.

As for signings, we haven’t signed anyone yet. Well we have signed some 17 year French kid (who would have guessed!), and I guess Carlos Vela counts as a signing too. The Vela “signing” may smack of “meh” from Arsenal fans, but really, if we hadn’t been linked with him for about 2 years and if we just signed him like any other player, I think there would have been a lot of excitement … it’s like the Walcott signing all over again, except this kid has a lot more first team experience. I for one am excited about any signings, even the 17 year old French kid.

To happen next week may be one more 20 year old (or 22 year old, depending on what you read) French guy, and another French guy who has a un-French sounding name and whose name is an anagram of “Ass Rim Rain”, and who will most likely replace Hleb. Perhaps there may even be a fourth French guy who currently plays for Lyon and has the very English name of Ben. Big Ben, that shall be his nickname if he ever comes to play for a London club, and I hope we’re that club.

But the point I wanted to make is that we shouldn’t analyse and be too critical of the players we’ve been linked to. For one, most of these links are tenuous, which is another word for “fake”. And second, just because we sign some 17 year old French kid that nobody has ever heard off, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good singing. Conversely, just because we sign some big name star doesn’t mean he will become the best player in the league next season. Nobody predicted the Eduardo signing, and nobody wanted the Sagna signing, yet these two were the best signings we’ve had in a while. All I’m saying is let’s give players a chance (and a chance for rumours to die) before we start criticizing this and that … it’s very annoying to see people argue in a forum thread about which of the two players we should sign, when in reality, we probably won’t sign any of them. It’s just ridiculous, and unfortunately, there’s still about 2 and a half months worth of it.

So until we sign Ass Rim Rain and he scores a hat-trick on his debut, I think we should leave judgement until then and be happy in the fact that we at least seem to be reinforcing, and hope that the signings we make will make us stronger for next season.

So the season is (all but) at an end. Sunderland away the only game left, with nothing to play for other than 3 more points (possibly bringing our total to 83 – 80, 81 or 83, all quite respectable, certainly more respectable than Sp*rs’s theoretical maximum of 49 points). Time to think about (the English) summer and months after months of rumours, frustration, people throwing tantrums at missing out on player X and us showing an interest in player Y. Fun times indeed.

So this blog will look at the possible action that might occur during the summer. Pure speculation mind you, but there’s fuck all to do at the moment, so bear with me. It will be interesting to see how wrong I was when next season begins, that’s for sure. So let’s get things started with …

Players that are/might be leaving
Flamini
Hleb
Lehmann
Gilberto

Well Flamini has left already. For more money. And I will resist the use of term “Flamoney” since I think he deserves a bit more respect than that (although not much more, considering the way he engineered this move and how his move to Arsenal was engineered). He can be replaced though, because other than tramendous amounts of energy, he offers nothing that you would be able to call “special”. Not the best tackler in the world, nor a scorer of great (or great number of) goals. And I think we are still missing something when he’s in midfield (more on that later).

Hleb is almost certainly gone. Can’t say I’m too impressed with his ice cream laden antics, delicious as it might have been. And I can’t say he will be missed … his 11 goals in 3 seasons and barely acceptable number of assists says it all. Replace him with any decent winger and we’ll have improved the squad. In fact, replace him with Walcott and we’ve already improved.

As for the two oldies. Lehmann is leaving Arsenal, if not football entirely. People will say we need someone better than Almunia in goal, but I think he is more than good enough … watch the home game against Chelsea or the one against Tottenham and tell me he’s a “crap” ‘keeper while keeping a straight face (there was certainly a crap ‘keeper in the Chelsea game, but it wasn’t Almunia). Fabianski will make a good understudy at the moment too. Gilberto is an interesting one. With so many experienced players leaving, I think keeping Gilberto will be a good thing. This is a different opinion than I had just a few months ago, but back then, I thought Flamini was staying. If Gilberto is willing to accept a lesser role in the team, as a backup player and mentor to the kids, then he should stay.

So it’s not all doom and gloom. The core of our team will be staying. And by core, I include the four players that have been selected in the PFA’s “team of the season”, namely Clichy, Sagna, Cesc and Adebayor. Others include Kolo, Van Persie, Walcott and Rosicky (don’t think anybody would want him even if we wanted to sell).

Players that could go on loan
Traore
One of Denilson/Diaby/Song

I think it’s that time in his career that Traore needs regular play time. I also think that while our central midfield is still considered weak, especially defensively, we still have too many players there and they won’t all get the pitch time that they sorely seek (and need). Song is probably the most likely to go on loan (again), but all three players offer something different so they may all stay and fight it out.

Players that we should buy
Defensive Midfielder
Left Midfielder
Right Midfielder

Now comes the fun part. First of all, we will need to replace Flamini and Hleb. The latter, as mentioned earlier, is easy. The former a bit harder. Assuming Gilberto stays, then we will still need to re-inforce the squad. Make no mistakes about it … we had a good season with a good team, but we need to improve if we want to win something. Here’s what I think:

Defence: I’m not too keen on the Gallas/Kolo partnership, but at least our left and right flanks are well covered. The key to solving our defensive frailties may lie elsewhere though, since I don’t think the boss is willing to let either Gallas or Kolo go, nor give up on Senderos so quickly. And we still have Djourou, whose progress has stalled for the moment. So for this area, I’m going to say no change, which may be a bit controversial.

Central Midfield: To replace Flamini, we need someone that will free Cesc from defensive duties (not that he won’t help out), so Cesc can concentrate on providing great balls to our forward players. The problem with Flamini and our back line is the inability sometimes to deal with long balls and set pieces, which Wenger has identified as a major problem. Flamini is not the tallest, and when Gilberto played there, at least he could drop back and become the third CB, something Flamini wasn’t able to do effectively. The problem with Gilberto is that he isn’t capable of going forward, which puts too much pressure on Cesc. I don’t know who can fill in this role, but I’m sure Arsene already has someone in mind. Could it be Aston Villa’s Gareth Barry? Or maybe Michael Johnson from Man City? I have no idea. But we basically need is someone who can protect our back line, help out there on occasions and can provide a little bit going forward as well. A proper defensive midfielder. Fran Merida could be back from loan, and he might have a more prominent role in the first team next season.

Wingers: We certainly need someone to replace Hleb, ineffective as he might have been. I think Theo has been doing an excellent job there recently, but I don’t think it’s wise to expect Theo to play 40+ games there next season. A right sided winger who can compete with Walcott would be ideal. But I think our main problem is on the left, the position that Rosicky should have made his own but for his fragile body. A left sided winger is a must. Could Ben Arfa be the guy? Perhaps.

Strikers: I think we have plenty of bodies here, but do we have the quality? It’s hard to say. If Adebayor can keep on scoring. If Van Persie can stay fit. And if Bendtner and Walcott can continue to improve, then perhaps we don’t need anybody here. Remember that the highly rated Carlos Velas is also arriving back from loan, and I suspect he will be in a similar situation to Fran Merida and will be a dead cert for the Carling Cup squad, and perhaps with a few more first team appearances for good measure. So no changes here, but it’s taking a bit of a risk unless we get some goal-scoring midfielders to compensate.

So that’s what I think should happen. Not that many signings actually, just three. I’ve always maintained that our squad is big enough, but the numbers are concentrated in the wrong areas, and some areas lack quality. But it’s not something that will require half a team to be bought or replaced, and I think with a few key purchases, we will be up there fighting for the title next season again. By this time Monday, we will at most be 7 points away from the Champions. 7 points (or as little as 1 point, if both Man Utd and Chelsea lose and we win) compared to the 21 point difference in 06/07 and 24 points in 05/06 should be considered progress. Let’s build on this progress and win something next season!

Sorry for the long delay between posts. I had somehow gotten the idea that my posts might be jinxing Arsenal, and as any true Arsenal fan would do in the same situation, I stopped posting. But it turns out our season peaked and the crashed many months after I stopped posting, so it looks like it has nothing to do with me at all. I’m as surprised as you are!

What can I say about this season. The less said the better. I know in my last post I said that we shouldn’t get carried away and that the season will have many twists and turns before it ends. Not the type to blow my own trumpet, but it looks like I was right. Who would have thought that with just over two months left to go after beating AC Milan at the San Sior, and 5 points on top of the league, that we would not only blow the lead, but also lose 9 additional points and end up in third spot and out of the Champions League … all within a month! That’s football for you, I guess. Or more precisely, that’s Arsenal football for you!

Anyway, the season is still not over and we could, however unlikely, still get second spot. It’s not impossible for Chelsea to draw or lose against Man Utd and then draw one of their remaining two games (the away game against Newcastle might be the one, since Newcastle are starting to play well again). I think the hardest part is actually us winning all our remaining three games, but if we can do it, then we have a chance at second. And second place is great considering where we are right now, and it does come with some tangible goodies such as automatic qualification and increased Champions League revenue for next season. Plus we would also finish above those blue nosed cunts, and that can only be a good thing.

As for what happens in the summer. Well, at the moment, it looks like it’s going to be a horrible one. Apart from not spending money again thanks for Arsene’s faith in the kids, it looks like we might lose a bunch of “experienced” players too. Lehmann and Gilberto are as good as gone I think, although if Gilberto wants to stay and play a more secondary role, then that’s good enough for me. Hleb looks to be on the way out too, and to be honest, I’m not too sad about it. It’s a shame to lose any player, but Hleb is not first team material and he’s been given several seasons to show us something, and he hasn’t really set the world on fire.

The most worrying is Flamini. I really hope he stays because Arsenal need more committed players like him, not less. If he does leave, then it’s probably not due entirely to money (I think we’ve offered £ 50,000, but Juventus has offered &poundl 10,000 more – not a huge difference in the grand scheme of things), and it will have something to do with taking advantage of current interests and moving to a club he’s supported as a kid (he’s half Italian, in case people didn’t know). I hope he stays and realises that it’s not always easy to go to a new club and to win over all the fans, particularly after coming from one big club to another – the expectations particularly from Italian fans, will be enormous. I get the feeling that he’s still a season away from proving that he’s an essential part of this team. Yes, he’s had a great season. And yes, he was great at left back a few seasons ago. But that’s still just one good season in his preferred position, and I would like to see another just to make sure he can put in the same kinds of performances consistently.

With half the team gone, the boss will have to do some shopping. Otherwise, we wil waste all the improvements we’ve made this season. If Hleb and Flamini stays, then I think we need three signings. A centre-back (Gallas/Kolo doesn’t work, and Senderos is not the answer), a winger (we don’t have any) and a striker (Eduardo, as much I wish he can come back, is not someone that we should rely on next season). I won’t do a FM style “who should we get” list, as I’m sure you’ve all heard the names being brandied about by various blogs, but if we want to challenge for the title next season all the way, and not just until March, then we need to learn from this season’s mistakes and re-enforce our squad.

The end is near!

The end of the year, that is, but not before a marathon December that will separate the challengers from the pretenders. But Arsenal come into this hectic period in a good position, although we could do with a few less injuries. We are currently top of the league by 4 clear points, having played all the “Big Four” sides except for Chelsea next week (pray for Cesc and Hleb to recover by then), and we’re through two of the three-in-a-row away games with 4 points out of 6, not too bad at all. And hopefully, we can grab that top spot in our Champions League group as well, and if not, never mind.

I don’t think any Arsenal fan, even one as optimistic as I am (I always think we will win everything at the start of every season), would have imagined our current position in the league, not in a season where Henry and Ljungberg have left, where boardroom shenanigans dominate the news and when at the start, even Wenger’s future at the club was uncertain. From that doomed position at the start of the season, everything seems to have turned around into this ultra-positive things, where everything has gone our way, driven by the player’s desires and the team’s unity. Even when the odds are against us, like having Hleb, Cesc, Van Persie, our three best players, out injured, we have battled on and got results. Hopefully, our injury situation will clear up as you can’t miss this amount of quality and not get caught forever, no matter how numerous in numbers our squad is (imagine Man Utd without Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez, or Chelsea without Drogba, Essien and Lampard). It’s not the quantity, it’s the quality.

We will certainly know more about our title chances by this time next months (although I think it’s still too early to call it either way, unless one side has a 10+ point advantage). If we can get all our players back, I think we can get through this period with positive results.

But let’s not get carried away whatever the outcome, because even after this period, there’s still plenty of games left in the season to turn things around if things didn’t go our way (or for a good thing to turn bad). The team that will win the title is the team that has the most points come May, that’s the only conclusion we can draw right now or in a month’s time.

An update to my last blog, it appears that Alan Gardner at The Guardian has written something similar about the ex-Arsenal brigade which is well worth reading. Last weekend’s results really highlighted what our ex-Arsenal players are capable of in the top division, with goals from Bentley and Stokes proving decisive for their new teams, not to mention a certain Larsson with a certain 92nd minute goal against a certain rival of ours. You’ve got to laugh sometimes …

All of this anti-foreigner (and hence, anti-Arsenal) rubbish spewing from the mouths of people like Ferguson, Mourinho and Gerrard is slightly more than a bit annoying. The former two are really in it just as an attempt to rile up Sir Wenger, but Gerrard, who plays for a club full of foreign players, was just talking rubbish (I imagine they must be thrilled that their captain thinks everything that is wrong with England is their fault).

England have a team full of big profile players that few other national teams can match, yet they do not perform as well as say, Greece or Croatia. Is it because the England players do not have the right attitude? Perhaps it’s because McClaren is a shit manager who doesn’t really know what is the best formation and lineup to use? Or maybe it’s because while all other national teams are eager and willing to promote youth players to the senior team, England overly relies on “star” players like Lampard and Gerrard even though everybody knows they don’t work well together? The England U-21 recently got to the semi-finals of the U-21 Euro competition, finally losing on penalties 13-12 to the eventual winners Holland, and they have some good players (or at least players willing to put in a bit of effort, unlike those of the senior team and the one U-21 player that refused to go citing tiredness). Why not give them a try? But no, it’s all those nasty foreigner’s fault, because when the English league had no foreigners, England won everything, right?

The young players, while spirited, might also not be as technically proficient as their European counterparts. In a recent interview with the U-17 boys, when asked “How do England play compared to Arsenal?”, Rhys Murphy answered:

Arsenal have their own style, which we are used to, it’s the way we are taught here and I think it’s different to every other club. In a way that works against us when we join up with England, because we are used to playing the Arsenal way.

But getting away from the “Why is England rubbish” debate, somehow that all of this is Arsenal’s fault is not only wrong, but exactly the opposite of reality. In reality, Arsenal provides the top division and the England national teams with more than its fair share of players. Of course, not all of them are still playing for Arsenal, but they are still playing at the highest level of football and are ready for England if needed. Did you know that for the recent U-17 World Cup, no club provided more players for the England squad than Arsenal? And did you know that the U-21 squad, there are no Chelsea players, only one Manchester United player, and only one Liverpool player who they don’t even want anymore (Scott Carson). There are, however, two current Arsenal players in the squad (although Hoyte might be too old now, so there is only Walcott plus maybe Mark Randall when he steps up to the U-21s after just turning 18).

And it’s not just English players, there are players of all countries who have either gone through the Arsenal youth system (not necessarily academy), or have been part of the first team. Below is a list of some current ex-Arsenal players in the Premiership that have all been part of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal in some way (asterisk indicates a graduate from the Arsenal academy system):

Played in Arsenal Youth Teams:
Ashley Cole (England, Chelsea)*
Jermaine Pennant (England, Liverpool)
Steven Sidwell (England, Chelsea)*
Fabrice Muamba (England, Birmingham)*
Sebastian Larsson (Sweden, Birmingham)
James Harper (England, Reading)*
David Bentley (England, Blackburn)*
Anthony Stokes (Ireland, Sunderland)*
Stuart Taylor (England, Aston Villa)*
Matthew Upson (England, West Ham)

Played in Arsenal First Team Only:
Kanu (Nigeria, Portsmouth)
Freddie Ljungberg (Sweden, West Ham)
Sol Campbell (England, Portsmouth)
Lauren (Cameroon, Portsmouth)
Richard Wright (England, West Ham)
Luis Boa Morte (Portugal, West Ham)
Moritz Volz (Germany, Fulham)

And the list above isn’t even a complete one, since there are many more players and many more who are in the Championship or outside of England.