Morning everyone. Got work in like twenty minutes so it may not be too long of a post today but I'm trying to get something together.
First off is David Villa, who says that Arsenal are the team he loves in the Premiership, and that he would fit into our style of play.
“I watch the Premier League a lot and the team I’m most attracted to is definitely Arsenal.He then goes on to say if he can't join Arsenal he'd love to play at Liverpool with Fernando Torres. Now that prospect is bloody scary, I'm sure you'd all agree, so maybe Arsene should just go ahead and sign him!
“Their brilliant one and two-touch football and the whole style of rapid counter-attack which dominates the top level of the Premier League now is the one which suits my game best of all.
“I think I’m made to succeed in England but of course it’s one thing saying it and quite another getting there and then doing it.
“The Valencia president always told me he wouldn’t sell me until summer 2008. If an offer comes in I’m hungry to test myself in England.”
Now of course everybody loves Villa and we all wish we would buy him but just because a player wants to come does not mean Arsene will shell out the money for him. Remember what happened with Ryan Babel? He declared his love for Arsenal for like two years but Arsene wouldn't pay as much for him and what do you know, he wen to Liverpool. I know this story gets everyone's hopes up, including mine, but I'm just saying it's not usually how Wenger works.
We've also been linked with Feyenoord player Jonathan De Guzman. He says that Arsenal and Barcelona are his dream clubs and if an offer came in he would not turn it down. I don't know much about De Guzman as I have never watched him play. All I know is he's good on Football Manager, which clearly means nothing.
For some reserve team news, Nacer Barazite and Armand Traore are both feeling good about their progress. This is good news as I expect both will have a role to play in the first team squad next season. Barazite is our top scorer in the reserves this year, and Traore has moved up to play left wing for the reserves lately, which is his natural position. Let's hope he can do well at it so we'll have some options out there for next season to go with Diaby and Vela.
Mad Jens is in the news, saying he doesn't hate Manuel Almunia. In fact he doesn't hate anyone at all according to him.
“I do not hate anybody in the world,” said Lehmann. “I saw Almunia’s comments and they made me laugh more than anything else. I was just disappointed that I could not have prevented the defeat at Manchester United.”
And that's all I have time for today. Keep the discussion going guys it's been great. Cheers!
4 comments:
Man it's hard not to get excited when you hear names like David Villa and Huntelaar thrown around...of course I remember last year when Henry left we heard lots of big names thrown around and we wound up with Eduardo...which was fine. But if you had a strike force of Adebayor, Van Persie and Villa...wow.
Here's my dumb question of the day. It starts with the assumption that we're going to lose some players this offseason...but the only ones at this point that seem definite to me are Jens and one of Flamini or Gilberto. Lets just say these are the only 2 that leave...is our squad currently big enough to compete in 4 major tournaments. I'm guessing we'd continue to treat the carling and fa cups as 2nd tier competitions and give our youngsters a chance to get valuable first team experience. But otherwise...is our squad big enough. Do you feel comfortable with the idea that we're one hamstring pull away from having to start Fabianski in a Champions League game with Vito Mannone on the bench? Do we have the players available to absorb extended absences from Rosicky and RVP again? I know it must seem like I'm second guessing Arsene...but it's not the case...I just really enjoy analyzing the squad and thinking about what could be in the offseason. Oh and who the ef is Clement Grenier???
I share your concerns about the size of the squad. Cesc for one looks absolutely dead tired and he mainly just played in the League and CL this season.
I'm not saying we go the Benitez route, but other teams look so much fresher than us right now. I'll be disappointed if we're facing the same issues again at this point next year.
Rosicky should not be counted on when Arsene assesses our depth for next season. Whatever we get out of him should just be a bonus. Eduardo probably has to be looked at that way as well, you never know with injuries like that.
Ok, to answer your question we're going to have to look at Wenger's history at Arsenal. He has never been the type to have a huge squad, and it has been successful for him. Players like Henry, Vieira, Adams, Ljungberg, etc...played in almost every game of the year if they were healthy. Our squad has never been that deep but I think that's how Wenger keeps people happy because they don't only get ten games in a season. The Carling Cup will always be the least of Wenger's priorities, and will always be for grooming younger players. The FA Cup is the same thing to a lesser extent. Some experienced players will play along with some reserves. The main focuses are the league and the Champion's League and as we have seen, even with a deep squad (Chelsea especially) winning the league and Champion's League are hard and that's what we went for this year. We tried to win both and had a lot of injuries and it just isn't probable that you can win both of those competitions in the same season. My point I guess, which I'm probably not very clear on through this ramble, is that most of the players aren't just too tired. Clichy never stops running, neither does Ade, Sagna, Flamini, etc. Maybe Cesc is tired. But he is only 20. He will learn to play more games as he gets older. I don't neccessarily think we need a squad as big as United's or Chelsea's, and we never will have one that big. Replacements for players that are sold will come from reserves being promoted and other young players being brought in. He may try to sign Ben Arfa or maybe even Villa if we're lucky, but I don't think we need a ton of singings. The whole purpose of having the reserve teams is so the players can develop and come in when they are ready. I look forward to seeing players like Traore and Barazite and Vela next year. It's just how Arsene works and I guess we have to deal with it. He's going to do what he thinks is the best for the team, and next year hopefully we'll be healthier, we'll have some players to look forward to seeing more of in the first team, and we'll have our one new player to add to what we have already.
I hope this comment made some sort of sense but it probably doesn't. So sorry for going on so long. Just remember that we never thought we'd win the league this year and look how well we did. We just need to build on that next year. Up the Gunners!
First let me say again that I am a big Arsene supporter...I know it seems like I second guess everything...but that's probably mostly do to the the dissappointmet of seeing what's happened to our title hopes over the last few months.
I see all your points about squad size and what not...replacing players with kids we've developed as opposed to just buying another ego. And I agree with that in principle. The problem is if you have that policy then you'll eventually have games where you're counting on people like Alex Song, Mark Randall, Eboue, Bendtner etc. in big situations...and to me that's a total crapshoot. It's so hard to tell how these youngsters will respond to being on the same pitch as a Ronaldo or Drogba in a big game. Lately Walcott has looked great...but earlier in the season he was very inconsistent...and that's the problem...you just don't know what you're going to get from some of these younger players game in and game out. The other problem is we compete against the likes of ManU, Chelsea and Liverpool...last year ManU wins the title...and in the offseason they ADD Tevez, Nani, Anderson, Hargreaves...and this year I'm sure they'll add more...last year we lose arguably our best player in Henry, say good bye to Luneberg, Baptista, Alliadiere (none of those 3 I was really upset about)...and only bring in Eduardo, Sagna...both of whom turn out to be excellent...but then you look at what happened during the season and Rosicky gets hurt again...RVP gets hurt again...and we're stuck with Eboue on the wing and you can argue in a way that after Eduardo goes down Bendtner ends up being the person we've replaced Henry with for a crucial part of the season.
Okay so that's a rant but you get my point...I love the way Arsene manages the squad...I just think the competition dictates we need increase the squad size a little...I'm not talking about going crazy this offseason...I'd like to add a striker, a wing player, and a central defender, possibly a keeper...and then from there if we lose silva and flamini then we add a holding midfield player...if we lose hleb we add another attacking midfielder. I think competition for starting spots can be a great thing...look at what it did for Flamini this year. And if you have problems beating out players on your own team for a starting position, how are you going to do on the pitch against the likes of Essien, Ronaldo, Berbatov, Rooney etc. Okay...the defense rests.
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