Highbury House

Morning Gooners,

After the Sun reported yesterday that Demba Ba has refused a new contract offer from Newcastle, the same paper has suggested that Wenger is ready to offer £7.5 Million for him. No, that’s not him being tight for once, that’s the players ‘get out’ clause in his current contract.

The Daily Mail however, reckon Wenger is ready to make Huntelaar top of his list, with Henry, Zaha and Reina being the others..

However, just a couple of days have passed and normality returns, that is of course, the same old stuff from the manager. He’s played down all that is going on and despite being critical of our performance on Saturday, he’s now suggesting that our fortunes will soon change, again..

There is a problem there, of course, but what is important when you have a problem is to do something about it.

The second thing is to have the strength to do something about it. We have the strength and we will do something about it.

In England, the response is always to sort out your problems by buying players. It’s one way to do it and if we need it we’ll do it.

Wait for it!!!

But from 3 December to 1 of January [when the transfer window opens] we have 28 days and many big games. So what is important is immediately to do something about it.” 

Let’s not go overboard, we lost on Saturday and of course we not happy with that. But I’m confident that we have strong team, that we have a strong spirit in the side and that will come out.

We have rebuilt the team on two ways. Firstly, in bringing in new players. Secondly, in getting some players back from long-term injury. I feel there’s a lot of strength in our team and patience and keeping mental strength will turn it round in an easy way.

This club is in fantastic shape because we have a good team, we have a strong structure of the club that we have built over the years, we are in a strong financial situation and we are mentally strong.

I can understand that not everybody is pleased about that, but that’s a fact. And that’s why we have to continue to behave how we do.

So in other words, there is a bit of a problem on the pitch which he and the players are going to try and sort it out in the next 28 days. During that time, the injured players could come back and all will be ok. If that doesn’t work, he might bring in a new player or two.

Don’t bank on it though I’d say, he believes we have a good team and they are mentally strong.

So they might be, but they are also physically knackered and there is one reason for that and none of you need telling what that is.

Just moments after we secured our place in the knock-out stages of the Champions League, most of the players were talking about trying to win the group in Greece. Even Arsene Wenger said he would be taking a strong squad out to face Olympiacos but after our recent troubles, he’s had a change of heart it seems.

Here is the squad….

1 Wojciech Szczesny
5 Thomas Vermaelen
7 Tomas Rosicky
15 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
16 Aaron Ramsey
18 Sebastien Squillaci
22 Francis Coquelin
23 Andrey Arshavin
25 Carl Jenkinson
27 Gervinho
29 Marouane Chamakh
38 Martin Angha
39 Zak Ansah
48 Sead Hajrovic
53 Jernade Meade
55 Elton Monteiro
60 James Shea
67 Chuba Akpom

I wouldn’t have even bothered taking Vermaelen, I’d have taken Djourou and Miquel but it seems that Squillaci could get his first start, and hopefully his last start this season, unless of course Wenger goes with one of the rookie’s, Martin Angha or Elton Monteiro .

To be honest, I hope many of the younger players get a chance at some stage tonight, they’ll sure give everything they have in those young bodies of theirs.

They will play without fear too I suspect, maybe even with belief that this could be their time to get a chance very soon, maybe even Saturday if the walking wounded don’t recover.

They literally have nothing to lose do they, especially twenty year old Jernade Meade. With Andre Santos looking seriously out of favour and Kieren Gibbs seemingly fragile, this young guy could be on the verge of good things…..

Tonight could be chance for one or two, let’s hope they take it and let’s hope they enjoy it.

Let’s hope they win too……