Morning all.
On this day back in 1987, Viv Anderson made his 150th and final Arsenal appearance. He was good wasn’t he….
Another Saturday arrives and no football, well not for Arsenal. Two Monday night fixtures on the trot is boring, especially without a game in mid-week but that’s what happens at this stage of the season.
Anyway, it’s Swansea at home on Monday, we are in a good place and we need three points. They battered us at their place earlier in the season, not by goals but down our right hand side with Chambers having an absolute nightmare. Mind you, so did the manager when deciding not to either change things or bring on a player to help him..
That was back in November though, a time when we were dire full-stop. Now we look like a totally different side and certainly more organised at the back and in midfield.
Arsene Wenger:
We feel we have made progress in our consistency, our quality and our stability. That is what we want to continue and I believe it is important to finish as close as possible to Chelsea and come out of the season and think we are ready to challenge next season.
It is difficult to know how strong every team will be next year but you gain as well your confidence from what you have achieved the year before and how you have moved forward. That is why it is very important that we continue to be consistent until the end of the season.
Hard to disagree with any of what the manager has said really as we are more consistent, the league table tells us that and a few players who were costing us matches are either out of the side or have really upped their game but if we stand still this summer, nothing will have changed come the end of next season.
Utd have already started their transfer dealings with Memphis Depay agreeing to move there when the transfer window opens, the poison dwarf will certainly tweak his squad to make it stronger and of course there is City who really need to spend some money on their squad as a few of their players are ageing or considered not good enough.
Then there’s Brenda, Pochettino and Koeman – all will be busy this summer I’m sure.
Finishing the season in second or third place will really take a lot of pressure off at the start of next season as the manager and players won’t have to prepare early for a Champions League qualifier and without that, any players who Arsene Wenger wants to bring in, won’t be at all concerned about us winning that two legged tie before signing.
Then there’s the over inflated prices/wages clubs have to pay when they aren’t in the big competition as Utd proved last season with Di Maria and if you compare his input for them to that of Alexis, who was a lot cheaper, who got the better deal? Ok, that’s a silly question as there really is no comparison…
As Arsene Wenger has said, there’s been a lot of improvement but only 2/3 maybe even four new players will take us further as some of our current ones are either ageing, getting slower or are permanently injured. They won’t win us the Premier League imo, nor will they ensure we go further in the Champions League which would make a change.
There’s no room for sentiment in football and if Arsene Wenger wants us to improve, he’s got to be ruthless and change things around and if that means selling the players who he’s barely played when fit and the aged, then so be it. They might be nice chaps or have been loyal to Arsenal and all that kind of stuff but that won’t make Arsenal FC a better and stronger football club than it is right now….
And isn’t that what we all want?
Have a good Saturday guys….
Hahahah rico you make me laugh. We won’t get 2 players in the next window. I see just one player coming in and that’s it and it’s not Morgan! His name had been bandied around so much I doubt he’s ever coming. wenger won’t want to disrupt the dynamics of this team and I for one won’t blame him. The team is ebbing with class. Ozil ll only get better. See the way he was toying with the opposition since the turn of the year. Sanchez is a natural disaster. I fear for our opponents next season. Rambo oxcham OG santi et al ll have another year to understand each other better. The team that went unbeaten had continuity not an inFlux of new players.
Morning HH early one for me. Brianna kept me up all night. She has cough. Don’t know what to do. Have tired all the syrups the doctors prescribed to no avail. Gosh I need a :sad
Morning goonie and all..
What we need and what we get is very different goonie – I’d be ruthless and get rid of a few.
Diaby
Arteta
Szczesny
Campbell
Sanogo
Ryo
I’m sure there are more… lol
Then get 3 proper players..
Morning Rico and all,
Agree Rico, AW needs to get rid of those who are not good/contributing enough, but has AW really been a ruthless manager?
Morning bt
Good morning
Szczes? our keeper for the FA cup and we reach the final again with him
flamini? why not?
Diaby? ???our “clinical” must be active daily
Arteta? he is (was) the cap
Campbell? AW don’t like him but he is good
Sanogo? just played a few months for Arsenal, Failed bet?
Ryo? Needed for merchandising in Asia
Morning Bt.
No, he hasn’t and perhaps that’s what’s cost us in the past. He’s too ‘nice’ to players who really aren’t cutting it…
Add Podolski to my above list.. lol
JM, Ryo was a merchandising dream….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3073384/Jose-Mourinho-wins-Premier-League-Chelsea-without-one-manager-month-award-second-time.html
😛
Rico, i read last night that Flamini would be allowed to leave and Diaby would be sold to make room for, Morgan…
JM – Campbell is ok, but even when we had injury problems up front the poor kid didn’t even get a game. Just can’t see him being in AW’s plans. I could be very wrong though..
Ryo lol
Rico, i doubt the Dwarf will loose any sleep over that.
Hiya GOONIE!!!!
Morning all, who leaves I don’t know and I don’t know who will arrive but it would be nice to get another player in the class of Sanchez and Özil.
Both are out of contract aren’t they Bt?
Yep both players are out of contracts.
Morning All
Great Post – What do we need? Indeed
No need for Pete Chec. Our existing keepers are fine both are in progress. In fact the defence is in pretty good shape. Coq needs competition, right? If Wenger wants only world class – then lets get Mario Gotze. He has what we need in the final third and has scored the world cup winner at the highest level possible, surely he would see the majority of chances created go straight into onion basket, his stock is on the increase, he’s unsettled at Bayern and he wants to play in the prem;
Flamini, apparently signed for 3 years on August 29th 2013….or was it 2 years with an option for a third??
Diaby, is this summer..
Thanks AFC Wall.
Don’t think we’d get Cech anyway, the old dwarf has said he wants him to go abroad, although if the Chav board think differently he will go along with that..
I see we are linked to Begovic again…
BT yeah head is loads better now mate!
As said earlier we need players of Ozil & Sanchez’s class..
Joe – agree re the class of signing. Hard to believe Alexis only cost £35 million…
Bt – transfer market have Flamini as being out of contract this June, perhaps it was just a two year, with no third year option… lol
Or did the club have the option, Rico?……lol
Let’s hope so but they say no Bt…. lol
Im not convinced Szczesny is out of the future picture so why this interest in Begovic? Bound to have an adverse affect on our existing keepers. For the moment our defence is sorted – We could do with a world class young striker – one able to complement Sanchez, Giroud and / or Welbeck… Gotze has three bundes leagues and a WC winning goal to his cv – who can compare with him at 22 years old?
“Old Farm Derby” today…..
Morning all
Its only rumour, I doubt there’s any truth re Begovic..
Where have you seen that Gotze is unhappy at BM? His idle is apparently Pep so why would he want out so soon?
I like Goetze but would prefer Reus.
While Wenger is expected to add to his squad this summer, he will not rush to make any quick deals unless they are right for the club.
“What you want to do more than do it early is to do it right, put it right and make the right decisions,” he said. “Sometimes the opportunity comes up early. Last year we signed Alexis in the middle of the transfer window.
“You have to take the opportunities when they come up but that’s not only decided by your desire, sometimes it’s created by the club that sells the player as well.
“Alexis was available because they [Liverpool] bought Luis Suarez. They could only buy Suarez at the beginning of July, so you have to always be on alert and do the business, fix your target and do it as well as possible. You’re not the only one who can decide that.
“I don’t believe [there will be a lot of business in England] because the number of players who can strengthen the Premier League clubs is not massively important a number.
“It’s not like you go out there and you can just pick players and buy today. To strengthen a Premier League team you need top quality and that’s not easy.”
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says he needs up to five signings this summer, but Wenger is not planning such drastic business.
“You want me to beat him?! I don’t think it’s the numbers we need,” the Arsenal manager said. “We have a squad of top quality and if we can strengthen our squad then of course we’ll do it.
“Let’s finish the season well, focus on doing well together until the end and then see who can reinforce our squad.”
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150508/wenger-the-timing-of-transfer-business#XDcWVXdfJBbEzQ3D.99
Old farm Lee?
Blonde moment perhaps… lol
Interesting post Rico…
I think that Wenger will probably replace players that are moving on and our squad will stay roughly the same…
To me, Shad Forsyth is as important to Arsenals ambitions next season, as any new signing…
If he can continue to keep our squad as fit and as conditioned as he has shown this season, then Wenger is gonna have one hell of a fit and healthy squad to pick from for the whole 10 months of 2015/16…
Norwich v Ipswich, Rico
Lee I like Reus also …Wenger has tried repeated to bring in Gotze. Im convinced Wenger could help him improve his game and he’d be out of the shadow of Muller, Ribery, Lewendowski and Robben;
Did Liverpool sign Suarez?..lol
Interesting is ok Kev.. 😉
Well I hope a few move on then… lol
Shad is important, very important but I worry about not having Alexis, Ospina and Gabriel at the beginning of the season. I bet in our first month, we face one or two of the ‘top sides’.
AFC, either player would do for me!!!
Thanks Bt, ffs come Rico sharpen up!! 😉
Kev you’re 100% right about Shad and our injury woes! We’d definitely of been closer to the special needs one if we had fewer injuries this season.
Thanks Bt… Didn’t think of the Championship… lol
Ha ha Bt – whoever filled in (Liverpool) goofed…
Lee, I’ll get the sharpener out, I promise… 😉
Good job Shad didn’t have chance to work on Arteta, otherwise we may never have see Coquelin again…
Rico, i only know because i saw Mick McCarthy on earlier….lol
Hope Song gets stuck into Benteke today… lol
Yeah Lee, I agree, our defence was a mess for most of those opening weeks of the season..,,
You ok mate?
🙂 Bt, he wasn’t on Saturday Morning Kitchen so I missed it….
Wenger was soooo impressed with Goetze that he came away with Eilsfeld…..Monsieur tight arse !
Good Morning to The Lady of the House and all fellow Gooners in residence.
Yes! I think Arsenal can really challenge for the title next season. The team only needs 3 or 4 good players to replace those who are/should/will be leaving. We have true competition for nearly all positions with the exception of Le Coq at CDM and possibly Giroud at CF. Although Sanchez, Walcott (if he stays) or Welbeck and possibly Akpom or Sanogo, if either or both aren’t loaned out or sold, can deputize.
Chelsea need a few new players too. While Liverpool, ManUre and Abu Dhabi Citeh all need major overhauls; each have many regular players aging out, retiring, wanting a transfer or under-performing.
Liverpool will really miss Stevie G from an already under-performing midfield and Citeh may/will miss their own midfield general Kolo Toure.
The critical point for next season will be for Arsenal to get out of the blocks quickly for a good run of games and play consistently thereafter. Arsenal should have the most settled team in the top six. If we can replicate the last four to five months performances we will be away to the races. Meanwhile the opposition will be wrestling with bedding a number of players into key positions.
🙂 Micko and where is he now….
Morning Cg – I too think we can as long as we strengthen well in the summer. I think the second half of the season has proved a lot, not only by the players but by the manager too..
Rico – apologies for delayed response. This data is from Sept – altho Metro is anything but a reliable source…
http://metro.co.uk/2014/09/11/arsenal-in-for-mario-gotze-as-he-talks-up-transfer-away-from-bayern-munich-4865031/
then there’s this post from May 2015 suggesting all is not sound at Bayern for young Mario Gotze;
http://www.givemesport.com/573229-franz-beckenbauer-slams-childish-mario-gotze?autoplay=on
In any event im hoping for this standard of “improvement”.
Off on a tangent I know, but how the heck has John Terry, at his age, managed to play every minute in the PL this season?
Interesting how the commercial media and their pundits keep harping on about Arsenal needing a world class striker to win the BPL. While the likes of Vain Wooney who has played more and scored less is left alone. Can it be because Ollie is a foreigner and Vain is England’s ‘Great White Hope’?
As for ‘world class strikers’ ask Liverpool fans what they think of Balotelli, Manchester fans about Falcao and Spurs fans about Soldado.
I’ll keep Olivier, thank you very much.
Ah, the good old Metro Afc – as you say, hardly reliable so I’d take that Gotze unhappy story with a big chunk of salt…
Catch up later guys…
F1 qualifying time Rico 😉
Rico; 11.59
Interesting is good… 🙂
Gabriel, Ospina and Alexis will be missed, that is for sure…
But I guess that plenty of other EPL clubs will suffer as well…
I hope that Wenger doesn’t use it as an excuse, especially as he’s got plenty of time to plan for that situation…
Afternoon Rico and the House.
Only a short visit between Drinks.
Last week very hectic, Monday B/H St Totts day 2 wins and my Birthday.
Massive hangover the following day and another birthday party Wed and another hangover Thurs.
The next few days allmost the same.
Some excellent debates this week Rico but you all seem to be forgetting
Isaac and Serge in the team for next season, I honestly think that if it was not for his injury that it would have been Isaac playing in place of the Cog,
This morning the U18 have lost 5-1 to Fulham and finish bottom of the league.
A very poor performance
Afternoon Rico and the House
I am in moderation Rico.
Interesting (that word again 😉 ) point that you make Rico, about Shad and Arteta and Coquelin…
The injuries to Arteta and Debuchy have been a blessing in disguise, as they allowed Le Coq and Bellerin the opportunities to get the games that have cemented their places in the team.
Of course it’s credit to Coq and Hector that they took those opportunities, but it also shows that in football, luck can play a huge part in a manager/teams/players fortune…
We need a defender (central or full, depends), a DM and a fast center forward.
Of the top 6 Chelsea have 5 , Arsenal 3 , Man City 6, Man Utd 6, Liverpool 2 , Spurs 4.
That is American players likely to go to the cup. However of Spurs 4 only Paulinho is a first team regular. Man Utd Falcao and Periera .
Potter it might be a good thing for Ospina it will keep he’s sharpness up and it shouldn’t effect him in regard to fatigue.
Thanks Potter….
So let’s not hear any moaning about our South Americans missing the start of the season…
Not excuses from Arsene!
Instead it should be an opportunity for others in our large, fit and healthy squad ( 😀 ) to stake a claim for a starting berth in the team….
Sunderland’s 2-0 win , makes our match against them even more interesting.
Booooo!! Boring boring Saturday night, here. Called off all plans to get some Arsenal and Me Time, instead, we don’t play until Monday. Pfffft.
Hello, all!
It also puts presure on Villa for the rest of the season if they don’t win today.
Hi agag I see there’s a typhoon heading in your direct according to the Irish news.
Spurs 2 down they seem to be doing their best not to make Europe this season.
Joe!! Howdy? I trust everything’s well with you. The weather here has been so weird. Super hot and humid one minute, and suddenly, a typhoon. Grrrr. What is worse, is that there is no Arsenal this weekend.
Agag I am fine thanks for asking hope everything’s going well for you as for no Arsenal I know it’s a killer not having our team to watch during the weekend.
Darn, Nico got Pole… 😉
Afternoon all..
See, I can be so daft sometimes, I forgot other clubs would suffer worse than us with the America Cup….
Oops Agag… 😉
Rico we are all that matters 🙂
Boo, Lady Rico!!
We are Joe, but if the others have more out than us, that’s good… Lol
Boo to you Agag…. Nice to see the tots losing, just need the Hammers to hammer Benteke lol
CG!!! You’re a man after my own heart, I’ll keep Giroud, too. Merci mille fois 😛
with those scores, Swansea can reach the Europe next season…
Afternoon Rico…
My son made three cup final ticket applications, and got one ticket…
Not Arsenals fault but the fault of those corrupt tossers at the FA…
According to him, the InterNet is full of cup final tickets on the Black Market…
No doubt sourced from The Football Family!!!
What a load of bollkcks from the FA…
So glad that I’ll be watching if on TV…
The FA can kiss my arse!
Afternoon Kev, that stinks. It really does….
Things are getting tight in the relegation battle as it stands Burnley are down
Burnley down
QPR next….
I hope the Hammers do us the favor re Benteke, rico. 😉
Boo, Kev!! Been a while Shopping Buddy!! Howdy?
Hello, JM. 🙂
One place to fight for then as I doubt Qpr will get anything tomorrow…
However, I think Palace might do us a big favour tonight…..
Hopefully in the next game Agag… Lol
Hope Villa don’t keep up their good form and today was a bit of a struggle by all accounts…
Hello Agag, how’s the new job, keeping you busy it seems?
Rico, we need Benteke to pick up another injury…
Super busy, Kev. 🙁
I see palace have done their usual bank up job with the pitch. 😉
Sure do Kev but to be honest, if we can’t beat them in the final then we get what we deserve….
Bang up job………
Darn it, Utd have scored…
When you see the kind of hand ball that gets manure a penalty and the handball that wasn’t given to us on Monday night.
Refs ha!
I’m not watching Joe, I take it it was a shocker..
It’s the softest penalty for a handball i’av seen this season I thought it hit the players shoulder rather than the arm and if it did hit the arm it was more shoulder.
So in answer to your question yes. 😉
Mike Riley insists that ManUre make the Top Four…
It’s now 1-1
Good!
And palace should have had a penalty
2-1 ushited
Double darn!
If I was a palace fan I’d be looking at the result of the match thinking that they lost it to corrupt refereeing. The non-penalty and a palace player shoved into their own goalkeeper so he couldn’t prevent the second goal.
🙂 Joe
Night guys, catch up tomorrow….
Big story going around suggesting Pep is heading to Man City….
Wouldn’t be surprised Rico, enjoy your night…
The way he has destroyed Munich hopely he could do the same to city 🙂
Arsenal U18s beaten 5-1 by Fulham and finish bottom of their group…..Jeez,, What a season…
Looks like we wont be getting the striker we were wishing for….i dont know when will wenger get it that we would not be champions with the cf’s we have.like really! how did he come realise that can play cf like henry?he sure knows how get fans stressed out:@;(
That theo can be a cf like henry
Morning Rico and all.
Morning adam, what your take on theo being cf?is there any chance of us signing a cf?
Morning Drake, Adam and all.
Drake, I shouldn’t worry too much about the Theo comments from Wenger, he’s probably just saying all the right things to get him to sign… 😉
Morning rico, i hope so because im tired of singing the same song every year…this is our best chance to end our 11 year wait, we can not afford to mess it up
I actually think TW could be a striker and a very good one, but not up front on his own. imo of course..
His problem is laziness and not always being ‘up’ for a game..
Morning Drake. I can’t see Theo as anything other than a quick winger myself. We know that Wenger doesn’t like wholesale changes and prefers evolution to revolution so I can see Theo staying. Obviously his game has limitations and he seldom goes past anyone any more but, if he wants to take his game onto a new level then why not? I think we need another mobile striker/finisher to play around Giroud and instead of him in some games.
Adam we know that theo will be a bench player like welback because they are not out and out strikers.this is favourism to giroud
Not sure Welbeck will be Drake as he’s a grafter, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens next season when Silva returns (if he stays) and both Gnabry and OC being fit.
So many options down our right…
New post up now.
Morning Rico, Adam, all,
Missed this quite interesting post yesterday. Good one, Rico.
When we talk of a fast, mobile finisher, I ask myself…what is Sanchez?
When we talk of a player that could benefit from Giroud’s hold-up play and excellent flick-ons, I ask who then is Walcott?
If Shad Forsyth is worth his money and it appears he truly is…then keeping Giroud, Welbeck, Sanchez, Walcott, Ox, Ramsey, fit throughout next season or at least 80% of the time all together is the most important transfer deal.
Like I believed last season, Wenger wouldn’t have signed Welbeck if Giroud hadn’t broken his leg at Everton. It will take another leg break by same striker within transfer window for Wenger to go for your ‘top top striker’. He trusts Ollie and I trust him too.
With Ozil, Carzola, Ramsey, Wilshere behind them, Arsenal’s attack is good enough for any title. What is required is just two beasts – one CB and a DM. Le Coq is good but he needs another to play/rotate with.
CB because I don’t really trust Per to lead us to EPL or CL trophies. DM because in big away matches we should think of defense first and play Coq and Shneiderlin(if we get him) together. Arteta should only play cup matches if we’re truly interested in bigger things. And I want Flamini gone…I shouldn’t have re-signed him in the first place.
I’ll keep Ospina as my number 1 … still keep Scz to battle for his lost spot with the South American..
Morning Tai, bring your comment onto the new post please…