Morning all and sundry, especially sundry. There doesn’t appear to be much news coming from the training camp as the lads prepare for their game against Phlegmgigli tomorrow. We did get some stories from Arsene on the official site.
In one he explains why he’s delayed the appointment of a new football director and will continue to work with Ken Friar at the moment. You can be sure that if the Grimster is being prepared for the role he’ll be watching and learning from Friar who is an experienced and shrewd negoitiator. Then perhaps he’ll take over when the summer rush, so to speak, is over.
In another he tells fans not to compare Eduardo to Thierry Henry, which is fair enough. I don’t think anyone was doing that anyway.
And in the last story he talks about the first year at the new stadium and provides all kinds of facts and figures which are, in some way, quite promising. He’s right when he talks about the team having mental strength and pointing to the number of times we came from behind to win/salvage a game. He’s right when he says we’re determined and don’t give up, using the 21 goals we scored in the last 15 minutes of game to prove that point. However, as mentally as we’re strong we have a mental weakness too. Conceding too many goals first, struggling against so-called ‘lesser’ teams when we can go toe to toe with the best ones and not making the most of our chances.
It sounds stupid to say it’s good that he’s aware of these problems because if we can see them then of course Arsene can see them. Personally I still think we need at least one more signing and it’s the wide areas that concern me. If we lose Freddie, as seems likely, and we lose Reyes (who is still wanted by Madrid but who want to fuck us around with the transfer fee. I mean, €24m for Robben and they’re trying to keep us under €10m. Fuck off) then we need at least one player to come in and replace them in the squad and, even better, as a first team player. Could Sagna be an option for the right hand side of midfield?
Either way I think the squad is a little too thin at the moment but there’s still time to put that right. It is interesting the way he keeps talking about the team and the responsibilities being shared around now that Thierry is gone.
Kolo Toure expects the boss to stay and he’s confident about the season ahead, saying:
We have all progressed mentally. We know what was wrong last season and have worked on it. We are focused and we know we can do something. We’ve played together for a long time. Each player has a big role and we’re confident. We have all progressed together and we know we’re going to make it.
Good stuff from him and that is the kind of attitude we need. That and a player called Robocop who can, quite literally, blast his way through defences when we concede the first goal of each game at home expect much closer to the 1st minute when we’ll have even more time to try and break down the 11 man defence.
The Mirror says both Carlos Vela and Fran Merida could go on loan to newly promoted Almeria in Spain next season.
Not much else to tell you so I think I’ll have some breakfast. Crunchy nut cornflakes this morning.
