Perhaps some football tonight can take our minds off all the stuff like …erm… football. Er… it’s the return leg against Shteve McClaren’sh FC Twente and the good news is that Cesc Fabregas is fit.
The boss says he doesn’t know if he’s going to play him from the start or not but I think he will. I mean, what alternative does he have? We really don’t have any central midfielders and if Cesc is fit then giving him as much time as possible to build up his sharpness and match fitness is vital. The manager knows a big peformance is vital after the Fulham debacle, saying:
I know my squad is good, my team is good, our spirit is good. We are intelligent enough to know we did not play well, but we know as well we have the needed quality to respond. We were not good last Saturday and lost. It’s as simple as that. We completely understand the criticism. It hurts terribly to lose like we did.
There’s no question there’s enough quality in the squad to get a good result and a pull out a decent performance tonight but it doesn’t alter the fact there’s a lack of midfield quality in the squad. The manager won’t be panicked into buying though, saying.
I hate the idea that, whenever we have a bad game, the solution is to go out and buy. People still speak of the Invincibles but don’t forget that last year we lost only three games. We still have those players, so why should we not be capable of repeating that?
Here’s the thing though. We don’t have those players. We don’t have Gilberto, Hleb, Flamini, Senderos or Hoyte, who all played their part during last season. And if you lose three quality central midfield players over a period of 6 months then replacing them, or even one of them, is not panic buying. It’s common fucking sense.
It just seems that the more people suggest to Arsene that we need signings the more reluctant he is to do it. To be fair to him he hasn’t given up on the idea and says:
If I can find one more player before the transfer deadline, I will take him. But one more player will not make that much difference. If we don’t get him, we’re still strong enough to deal with all the competitions.
To be honest I’m amazed at that statement, I really am. Another injury to Cesc and our midfield is essentially decimated. To say we’re strong enough without a signing to cope with the league and the Champions League is just wrong, in my opinion. We weren’t strong enough to cope with Fulham. How are we possibly strong enough to cope with Europe’s elite? And here’s the thing. Nobody has ever said they want Wenger to go out and spend £20m or £30m on any player. We saw last season that you can bring in quality like Sagna and Eduardo at good prices, and those are the kind of signings people would have been more than happy with.
To me the most disheartening thing is that I really, honestly felt we were just a couple of players away from seriously improving the squad. Last year we were so good for so long and I thought a couple of canny additions to the squad would make all the difference. They’d give us that bit of depth and experience we missed at vital times last season and help us win trophies. But we’ve let so many players go and not replaced them that it seems like there’s more work than ever to do. One step forward, three steps back. It’s sad.
The midfield has absolutely no depth whatsoever. Go beyond Fabregas and it lacks depth and quality. It’s incredibly frustrating that the manager seems unwilling to acknowledge this. Now, perhaps he’s just trying to talk up the players he’s got available to him now. They probably do need a confidence boost after the Fulham result so that’s the little ray of hope I’m clinging to but let’s not forget the manager said something would ‘certainly‘ be done in terms of a signing before this game. Now we don’t necessarily need one.
Anyway, I’m reminded of a broken record and I’m sorry for going on about it but every day there’s something new and every day I find myself increasingly frustrated and anxious about the season ahead. I don’t want to criticise but ultimately the blog is about my opinion and at the moment I’m really worried about this team. Still, let’s try and focus on the game tonight. A good result and a good performance would definitely lift the clouds a little bit – a new player or two would bring the sun out though.
The manager also explained the decision to let Philippe Senderos go to AC Milan. He says he hasn’t decided whether or not it will be permanent or not but I don’t think we’ll see him in an Arsenal shirt again, which does make me a bit sad.
He’s also defended William Gallas saying we win as a team and lose as a team. Which is exactly what he said after Senderos made those errors against Liverpool last season. I sincerely hope he gave Gallas a proper chewing out for his crap defending against Fulham but you can’t help feel some players are given more leeway than others. Meanwhile Lee Dixon, a man who knows a thing or two about it, has bemoaned the captain’s lack of leadership. I do like Dixon as a pundit, he’s not the usual bland, halfwit ‘He’s hit it and it’s gone in’ ex-footballer. When he talks about things like this, and it’s not the first time he’s had his say about Gallas, I think it’s worth listening to.
Right, that’s really about enough. I’m honestly hoping we can get things back on track tonight because whatever criticisms we have at the moment the 11 players who go out in our shirt tonight deserve our support. Yes, even him :big fuck off smiley:
More tomorrow.
