Well, not knowing how to start your blog post is one of the worst things that can happen to you in the morning. It’s a terrible feeling. You sit there, stare at the screen and move fingers from one key to another without actually pressing anything and wait for a moment of sudden genius that would make you say: “of course!”. Yep, that’s how it actually happens. Or not.
Never mind all that crap, onto Football and it’s not really been the busiest day in terms of transfers. There was the surprise news of Samir Nasri leaving for Manchester City last night. The fee is reported to be around £25m, which is great business from our side. We clearly have a player who is unhappy and is in the final year of his contract, yet we still get a pretty good sum for him. That of course means we lose one of our best players, and from a football point of view I think we will miss Nasri. He is a tremendous player, one I would have liked to see staying and signing a new contract, but it wasn’t to be.
Arsenal offered him £90,000 a week and that was not acceptable for the Frenchman. I think we could have given him a bit more. I don’t know if it was going to convince him to stay, but a club with Arsenal’s revenue and financial position surely must be able to give its best players bigger salaries. Yes, we can’t go anywhere near the £200,000 he’ll be getting at City, but we could still try a little harder if you ask me. He’s going to Eastlands for twice the money that he is would get at Arsenal. You could understand him, it is how football works today, unfortunately.
Anyway, the deal is expected to be completed soon, so that gives us another £25m in the bank. Combined with the £36m we received for Cesc, this is a pretty good basis for some decent business until the end of August. I think the money will be reinvested. I think it is time for Arsene to splash the cash and he says he’s not scared to do it. Let’s hope he finds the right players. Bob Wilson gave a very interesting interview to BBC on Tuesday evening and I’m guessing it was recorded after the Udinese game. I won’t comment on it, just go and give it a listen. It’s worth it.
I think there has been a shift in Wenger’s policy. I don’t remember to have seen so many players leave the club for one summer. Wenger isn’t stupid and the fact that fringe players like Denilson, Bendtner, Eboue and Carlos Vela are being shipped out is a clear enough indication of the boss’ intentions. These guys have received a lot of stick recently, some of which was really unfair in my opinion, but at the end of the day they simply weren’t good enough. I’ll examine Arsene’s transfer business in another post later in the season when everything’s done and dusted and we know who came in in and who went out, but it is interesting. Denilson went out on loan, Bendtner is most likely to be sold, Eboue was transferred to Galatasaray, Carlos Vela will play for Real Sociedad this season, Cesc to Barcelona and Clichy and Nasri to City. This is a major overhaul.
All that remains for us Arsenal fans is to wait and see what other plans the Boss has and it is about time to get behind the team! The season has started and booing and chanting about spending money won’t help. The team needs its fans and we have to give all our support. It’s not all doom and gloom. The team is one year older. I know it’s one of those clichés being repeated every summer but it is true. Feel free to argue with me, but I strongly believe the team’s togetherness has been strengthened tremendously during the summer. All the speculations about Cesc and Nasri, all the departures and the negativity surrounding the club can only make the ones staying more determined to prove everyone wrong.
We have found a real leader in Wojciech Szczesny who looks to be turning into the commanding and assuring goalkeeper we all wanted. Thomas Vermaelen is the hub of our defense and overall we seem much more solid when these two are playing. Laurent Koscielny had a good first season at center half and seems to excel when he has Vermaelen around him, while Johan Djourou surprised everyone with his good run of form last year. The only weak link in there is Squillaci, I really struggle to understand what he’s doing at the club. Overall our back five seems much more stable to me than last year, though it could certainly do with some reinforcements.
The left back position is a concern though, with both Kieran Gibbs and Armand Traore injured. We know Gibbs is a bit of a risk, considering his record on the sidelines, but Traore just fails to convince me. Anyway, I guess we should trust Arsene on this, he’s shown in the past that he’s good at replacing left backs. I know Cesc and Nasri leaving is weakening our midfield significantly, but I’m confident that the board and the boss won’t leave things like that. Emmanuel Frimpong’s emergence means that Alex Song must be right at the top of his game all the time, while Jack Wilshere has already shown what a quality player he is, now it’s time for Aaron Ramsey step in. He is capable of doing it. I would prefer to see the Tomas Rosicky who played against Newcastle, rather than the one we saw on Tuesday, but whatever you may say about him, the Czech is a good player. We also have Abou Diaby in there, who seems to have been forgotten with all his injuries. If he can stay fit he gives us another decent option in the middle.
In other news, Alex Song is suspended for three matches following the stamp on Joey Barton, and he will miss the games against Liverpool, Manchester United and Swansea. That could well mean that Emmanuel Frimpong is going to be thrown right in the deep, starting on Saturday. We’ll see how he copes with that.
So that’s about it for today, I will be back on Saturday with the preview of the Liverpool game. Just remember – we all support the same team and we must always stick together. In good times and bad.
