Morning all and it’s Friday, at last.

News is somewhat scarce but we’ll muddle on and find something to talk about. We could start with the fact the club gave some futher insight into the appointments of Steve Bould and Neil Banfield. We know that the former is going to be Arsene’s assistant but Banfield thought he was just going to have a chat about the reserves when the boss called him into his office:

The manager invited me into his office, and with Steve Bould going up to be assistant manager I thought that he may have pulled me in to explain his decision. To me it was a logical move anyway, but I thought it was nice of him to explain it to me.

Then he told me he wanted me to become first-team coach, and you could have knocked me over. I was a bit gobsmacked to be honest, but after the initial surprise and sense of achievement inside, I was just delighted.

As for Bouldie, he’s obviously been brought up as a coach under Arsene Wenger’s methods but came through as a player under George Graham. Many of us will be hoping that he can bring something of that era to this Arsenal side as our defensive woes are fairly well categorised at this stage. He says of taking over from Pat Rice:

It is more than excitement, it is an absolute privilege and an honour. I know I have some big boots to fill with Pat having spent 44 years at the Club and that is going to be the hard part.

While we all still want to see the club get busy in the transfer market, I think some fresh voices at the training ground and in the dressing room could well have a real impact. I can’t say things were stale, and it’s obvious Pat was held in great affection by all of the players, but sometimes change like this can be good. We get some new ideas and new methods and although people will focus on what George Graham’s back four did, they could never have done what they did without a team in front of them that worked their socks off too.

So, for me, I’m really hoping that Bould can impart some of that onto this team because it’s not any coincidence that our best performances have come when we’re worked as a collective rather than 11 individuals. I’ve said it before but the Man City game at home this season is the blueprint, that’s the way we should play, that’s how everyone should work and it ought to be the rule rather than the exception.

The other interesting thing to note, as Tim Stillman points out in his latest column, is that for a team whose focus is on attacking football that pretty much all the coaching staff are former defenders. Arsene was a centre-half, Bould a centre-half replacing Pat Rice who was a full-back, Banfield a centre-half and Boro Primorac (who remains very much Arsene’s right hand man in the background) was also a centre-half. Maybe we need a former striker in there to tighten us up at the back. Dennis, can you fix our back four please? Thanks!

Anyway, it’s notable that the changes we’ve had to make at coaching level have been made fairly seamlessly. They’ve had plenty of time to sort it out, obviously, with Pat Rice’s intention to retire well known, so let’s hope they can replicate that when it comes to sorting out the playing side of the club this summer.

Meanwhile, former great Anders Limpar has given his pre Euro 2012 verdict on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott. He feels the latter can improve aspects of his game – which I think we’d all be in agreement with – and he seems genuinely excited about the future of the former, saying:

He has the potential to be even better than Theo! He’s very fast and what I like about him is the fact he’s very strong in his head. Nothing breaks his confidence. I think he’s going to be a great player.

It was clear the manager was cautious with The Ox last season, much to some people’s dismay, but if on the one hand we bemoan the fact Jack Wilshere was overplayed we can’t then criticise too much if we’ve learned from that when it comes to blooding another highly talented youngster. I think the boss probably got it just about right with him. For all the obvious potential and excitement he brings, he’s still got a lot to learn and last season will stand him in good stead ahead of the new one.

His trip to the Euros will open his eyes further and although the media will always ramp up expectation on English players ahead of a big tournament, the onus is on the senior players to perform. Oxlade-Chamberlain has got nothing to prove and can play without any of the pressure heaped on others.

Other than that there’s little else going on. There’s a story in the Mirror about a striker from Montpellier but it’s written by a journalist who blindly repeated a made-up story about Malcolm Glazer being dead so I’m not taking it too seriously.

Right then, onto this week’s Arsecast and it is the final ‘cast of this season. Joining me in a round-table discussion of the season as a whole are Goonerholic, the man from East Lower and Tim Clark from Arse2Mouse. All the usual bits on the agenda. Was the season a success? Best goals, best games, best players, most disappointing players, the RVP situation, where we are now, what we need to do and much more. It clocks it at over an hour so go make a coffee. And a sandwich. And possibly slow cook some pork.

You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too (this is a much better way to do it as you don’t experience the delays from iTunes). To download this week’s Arsecast directly – click here (43mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

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And that’s about that. The Arsecast will now take its annual break but should anything truly exciting happen during the summer we might dust off the microphones.

Now, I have to breakfast then take Mrs Blogs to the airport for she is running the Edinburgh marathon on Sunday. Till tomorrow.

Morning all,

another week comes to an end as we push further forward into the “summer” and there are a few bits and pieces going on this morning.

Firstly, Jack Wilshere is off to Sweden to have a ‘minor procedure’ on his knee which the club say shouldn’t significantly delay his comeback next season. Of course it’s easy to be worried and to think the worst about this. And frankly, this morning, this is exactly what I’m inclined to do (the endless rain is getting me down), but hopefully it’s as minor as it sounds.

And, in fairness to Jack, when he said just the other day that he was hoping to make it back for the start of pre-season training, he must have been aware that this operation was scheduled. However, it does raise question marks, and legitimate ones, about his fitness and with Abou Diaby likely to be sailing the good ship Crippled Mary throughout the summer months it means that the manager will have to assess his midfield options very carefully this summer.

The name of that ship reminds me of this, one of the first things I ever did on Arseblog. I suspect Jack needs a  cripplectomy.

Meanwhile, Patrick Vieira has been talking about Robin van Persie, saying:

If Robin comes to leave, that means next year it may be Theo Walcott, then the next year is it going to be Wilshere? It is going to be difficult for Arsenal to keep the top players.

On the other side if they keep Robin they are going to send a positive message to all the clubs and to all the people around and I think it’s really important to keep him.

He goes onto say that Arsenal need to show van Persie they can win trophies etc etc, which is all stuff that we’ve been saying, to be fair, but then none of us are working for Man City, a club that have more than a passing interest in our captain and who will simply throw as much petro-cash at us and him as it takes. It’s also a bit rich coming from a man who flashed his bits at willing suitors almost every summer, but there you go.

He is right about the message though. Whatever about van Persie going abroad if he does leave, if we let another player go to the Middle Eastlands their jibes about us being their academy will have a horrible whiff of truth off them. Which is why I just can’t see him going there. I know for footballers it’s just a job at the end of the day, and maybe I’m crediting Robin with too much love for the club, but I hope he realises what it would mean if he was lured by their billions.

Anyway, we shall see what pans out. From what little emerged yesterday it seems that a speedy resolution to the situation is unlikely and we’re likely to face another media driven saga as the weeks progress. Not that I’m suggesting people bury their heads in the sand but they’re as likely to get accurate info from a passing worm than anywhere else.

And maybe the delay isn’t a bad thing. Maybe there’s a desire to wait and see if the club are going to show their ambition in the transfer market. Not simply to keep Robin van Persie, but to make the team and the squad better for the sake of Arsenal Football Club. Which is how it should be. There’s further discussion of the van Persie situation on this morning’s Arsecast so do have a listen.

In other news Lukasz Fabianski says he wants to leave the club, but is unsure if Arsene Wenger will let him go. He revealed to the Polish media that he’d had offers in January which the club understandably rebuffed, but as he looks set to miss out on playing in the Euros having been usurped by Wojciech Szczesny, it’s also understandable that he wants to go and play first team football somewhere else.

Clearly his Arsenal career hasn’t worked out as well as we’d hoped. On the training ground, by all accounts, he’s sensational but when it comes to the pressure of a match day he’s likely to drop a clanger and went through as disastrous a spell of form as I’ve ever seen a keeper have. To his credit he came through it and was performing pretty well until a shoulder injury (ironically caused by saving a Szczesny shot in a warm-up) gave his young compatriot his chance and he’s been unable to force his way back in since.

It does leave the manager with some thinking to do. If Fabianski leaves, it’ll be on top of the departure of Almunia and Vito Mannone has made it clear he wants to play first team football too. Damian Martinez is very highly thought of but lacks experience, so perhaps a Poomtactular signing this summer might fit the bill. We’ll see how that goes.

And finally, Arsene now has no worries about deploying his Coq in midfield.

Right then, onto this week’s Arsecast and I’m joined by Tim Stillman (whose latest column, a sum up of the season, you can read here) and Gareth Parker. On the agenda, the final day of the season, finishing third, Robin van Persie and The Ox going to the Euros, amongst other stuff. Internet Joe is in there and I’ll give you the winner of last week’s competition for a signed copy of So Paddy Got Up.

You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too (this is a much better way to do it as you don’t experience the delays from iTunes). To download this week’s Arsecast directly – click here (24mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

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And that’s really about that. We’ll be doing the final, round-table Arsecast of the season, at some point next week, but for now, it’s out into the rain.

Till tomorrow.

Morning all, last night I dreamed that Google launched a thing called Google Cake, where you could download ready made sponge cakes but you had to do all the icing and filling and stuff yourself. It got messy.

Anyway, plenty to be going on with this morning as the club yesterday confirmed that Pat Rice would be leaving after 44 years. Arsene Wenger paid tribute to his right hand man, saying:

I am very grateful for his contribution to my period here. I would like him to forgive me for the bad moments I have given him as well! He has been a constant, loyal supporter and I’m just very grateful and privileged to have had him at my side for such a long time.

And there are some lovely tributes from some of the players and staff across the years here. I particularly like Tomas Rosicky’s:

Hi Pat, I am very sad to see you go. Every morning I will miss that 10 minutes before training starts when you come into the dressing room and shout at us!

Jokes aside though, Pat Rice was a presence at our club for 44 years. Those who dismissed him as a ‘yes man’ really hadn’t got a clue who they were talking about and clearly forgot that it was Pat Rice by Arsene’s side when we won doubles and went a season unbeaten. There didn’t seem to be any problem with him then and the way people have lashed out at times is an illustration of the thoughtlessness of some fans.

But Pat was a real Arsenal man, a gentleman and a man who represented us with honour. He knew what it was to be an Arsenal man and he passed that on to so many of those around him down the years. That kind of person is just so important to have at the club. Of course some players might not get it when he tells them what’s what, but you can’t win ‘em all. The best of luck to him and I hope he has a happy and long retirement.

Pat’s departure means the gap will be filled by Steve Bould. Arsene confirmed his promotion at his final press conference of the year yesterday and said it was something of a natural progression:

His qualities are that he has experience of the top-level game, he has managed here, he knows our football philosophy and therefore there will be a continuity. He has also chosen after his playing career to coach here at the Club and we always want to give an advantage to people who know how we work, how we want to coach.

It will be interesting to see how quickly Bouldie adapts to the new job. It’s high profile gig and a far cry from the youth team coaching/managing he’s been doing. Stepping up alongside Arsene will be so different but we know from his playing days that he’s a man of real character and if he brings some of the uncompromising nature of his defending to the assistant manager’s position then he should settle in pretty quickly.

He’ll have to adapt on the training ground too but I don’t see any issue there. He might be coming from the youth set-up but his pedigree as a player means he should command all due respect from the first team. Any one of them that has any doubts about him should read his CV, look at the tapes and realise that he was as fine a defender as we’ve had at this club. He was, perhaps, overshadowed by the aura that surrounded Tony Adams as captain, and wasn’t as ‘in your face’ as Keown, but he was a brilliant central defender and a massive part of that famous back four. Tough too, and hopefully he can add some of that to the way we defend next season.

As it was Arsene’s press conference yesterday there was a bit of team news ahead of West Brom on Sunday. The most significant piece of that is Theo Walcott faces a late fitness test on his hamstring and could play a part. I’d be surprised to see him start the game although if he’s fit, he’s fit and Gervinho has hardly been pulling up any trees since he’s been playing down the right hand side. And as hit and miss as Theo has been this season, we know he’s got a good connection with Robin van Persie on his day, which may just make the different. Let’s hope that if he is fit, he has one of his consistent patches.

And finally, before we get to the Arsecast, I’m left wondering about the true meaning of the word ‘exclusive’ after seeing this in today’s The Sun.

Somebody in there needs to consult a dictionary with their mayonnaise. You can read the full, properly translated interview with Laurent by Philippe Auclair on the official site.

Bonus reading: Tim Stillman’s latest column – Scott Tenorman Must Die (complete with non-breakfast friendly imagery in the first couple of paragraphs).

Right then, onto this week’s Arsecast and I’m joined by Tim Clark of Arse2Mouse and Andrew Allen of The Arsenal Collective to discuss the week that was. On the agenda, Norwich, our end of season troubles, transfers, Yann M’Vila, Pat Rice and more.

Also in the mix, Arshavin pops in, Internet Joe, Mick Bendtner (TGSTEL), plus your chance to win a signed copy of So Paddy Got Up.

You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too (this is a much better way to do it as you don’t experience the delays from iTunes). To download this week’s Arsecast directly – click here (30mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

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And that, my good old friends, is about that. We can spend the next two days previewing the game on Sunday, in the meantime have a nice Friday until it reaches Beer O’Clock.

Till tomorrow.

Morning all, a busy Friday ahead with our last home game of the season coming up tomorrow against Norwich and after a quiet week there’s a glut of stuff to get through this morning.

We’ve been talking all week about how important third place is and the manager is quite well aware of that, especially in light of results in midweek. Sp*rs and Newcastle won to keep the pressure and while Chelsea lost that brings a different kind of pressure, according to Arsene:

What we learned from Wednesday night is that Chelsea is in a very difficult position to get back into a Champions League position, other than through the final. Therefore third place becomes vital.

You want to win the last two games to make sure. We have one advantage – we have our future in our own hands.

It could happen this weekend if results go our way. A win against Norwich with both Newcastle (playing Man City) and Sp*rs (Aston Villa) failing to win would secure third for us. We can’t take that for granted though, and chances are we’re going to have to go the final day of the season and the trip to West Brom, which means making sure we get a result tomorrow.

In terms of the early team news there’s nothing radically different from the squad that made the trip to Stoke, only Abou Diaby misses out and, in news that will surprise absolutely nobody, he’ll also miss the West Brom game. More on that game and the way we might line-up in tomorrow’s blog.

Meanwhile, the boss says that Lukas Podolski has been signed to complement, and take the pressure off, Robin van Persie, rather than as a replacement. He says:

He can fit with Robin van Persie through the middle or on the sides. That is for sure. That was an important part of the decision making. How many times have we been accused this season of being too reliant on van Persie? He can score goals and provide, and he is the class that we want.

Interesting that he’d mention Podolski playing through the middle with Robin, perhaps a change of formation being mulled over? Maybe it’s just to have that option if we need it, we shall see next season no doubt. Meanwhile, the skipper himself was full of praise for the new arrival:

He is a great player and a great character to have around because he’s a winner. When we played against Cologne in pre-season you could see that he’s a winner.

Even though it was a friendly he was doing absolutely everything to win and we are very happy that he’s coming to Arsenal.

Whether Podolski’s signing has any influence on whether or not Robin stays remains to be seen. Perhaps he’s been asking the boss for somebody who can take some of the burden off him and Arsene has duly delivered. Perhaps this is the manager’s reaction to a season in which our wide players have, it would be fair to say, lacked consistency. We tend to be a bit lop-sided as a team as an attacking force, with most of what we do coming down the right hand side.

Podolski’s arrival would give us a real outlet on the left too – which is kind of a return to the way we used to be when Pires, Henry and Cole combined so well down that side of the pitch. Anyway, on paper it looks to be a signing which provides us with better balance as well as giving us somebody you’d feel more confident about scoring than Chamakh or Park do at this moment in time.

As for further signings it doesn’t seem as if anything is imminent, despite getting Podolski done before the season has even ended. Arsene says:

We wanted at least one target to be sorted out early.  Now we are in a position where the second part of our signings will be to take care of the players who are injured and to get them back for the start of next season.

I think of course about Jack Wilshere, and about Abou Diaby.

Somebody should keep a LANS count this summer. Again, Jack Wilshere’s return is not like a new signing, it is an existing player returning from injury. That’s all it is. It’s not like anything other than that. It is not like a tree, it is not like a monkey on a unicycle, it is not like a new signing. Yet the manager makes a good point about the size of the squad and it’s one that I think every Arsenal fan is aware of.

We can only name a 25 man squad and when you take into account the current set-up and all the loan players who will come back, we have far more than 25 players. So it’s nothing too alarming or worrying to hear that this is something we’re going to have to cope with when it comes to our transfer business. You would hope that at the season’s end Arsene will assess the squad, see who has contributed and who has not (for various reasons – injury, form, age, lack of talent), and make his decisions about who needs to find pastures new.

There’s an element of ruthlessness required, it has to be said. It sounds as if he’s not ready to give up on Abou Diaby but the harsh reality is that when we have a squad restricted in size it’s a massive gamble to count on him being fit enough to play on a regular basis. Could we more efficiently fill that space in the squad? Anyway, these are decisions the boss and his team will have to make and the more quickly and more decisively we act this summer the better shape we’ll be in come the start of next season.

Right then, that’s about that so finally onto this week’s Arsecast. I’m joined by Amy Lawrence to shoot the Arsenal related breeze and there’s usual load of guff and waffle in there too.

You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too (this is a much better way to do it as you don’t experience the delays from iTunes). To download this week’s Arsecast directly – click here (22mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

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Arsene’s pre-Norwich presser takes place later, so we’ll get more from him on Podolski and the race for third, coverage and stories on Arseblog News.

Till tomorrow.