It’s a busy morning so let’s get straight into it.
Arsenal appointed a new CEO yesterday. Ivan Gazidis will take up his new role in January after spending 14 years with the MLS. I’m not sure too many of us know a great deal about him. Chairman PHW gave the standard welcome while Gazidis himself said:
I relish the prospect of working with the key stakeholders to further propel the Club forward. It is nearly 16 years since I left the UK but I’m very much looking forward to returning in January.
I like that. ‘Propel’ is a good word. We could use some propulsion at the moment, no doubt about it, and it’s about time we filled this role at the club. On tomorrow’s Arsecast I’ll be speaking to somebody who knows a bit more about Gazidis so tune in for that one.
Cesc Fabregas has been talking about his new role at the club and he’ll be checking with Arsenal captains of the past to help him do the job as well as he can. He says:
I still speak on the phone to Thierry and I will ask him about it. I’d love to talk with Patrick about the job as well because he has so much experience.
He also talks about being inspired by Tony Adams, which is no bad thing when it comes to captaining a football team. On a more general level though he has set out the objectives for the season, saying:
I want to lift a trophy. It’s true that we are 10 points behind, so our immediate target is to win at Chelsea. Sunday is a good opportunity to get some points back and a couple of weeks after we have Liverpool at home. It is not over yet and it is up to us to finish where we will finish. We will see, at the moment nothing is done and we will fight until the end.
And that’s the kind of spirit you want from your captain, that’s exactly the attitude we need. Sunday is huge, no question, but there’s plenty of time to talk about that. In the meantime something Cesc is going to have to deal with as captain is William Gallas and the continued fallout from his rant last week. The usually mild mannered Gael Clichy has accused the former captain of ‘shattering’ morale within the team. Gael says:
It has shattered something within the squad. It is something that should have remained between him and the boss even though there may be some truth in what William said. It is now down to the players and staff to glue the fragments back together and move on.
What William said was difficult, not only because he was the captain but because he is an experienced player.
It really is hard to see how Gallas has a long term future at the club, to be honest. At the moment the manager is being very pragmatic. He needs Gallas as a player because of injuries but if someone like Gael Clichy, who is usually a very positive person, has that to say about him then you can’t help thinking there are others in the squad for whom the resentment burns much brighter. Whatever way you look at it that’s not good and it’s a problem you have to solve as a manager.
Maybe it’s something that will repair itself with time but I suspect we’ll move him on in January if we can identify a decent replacement. There’s talk of Milan being interested, talk which Milan deny, but we know Italian clubs can tell a lie out of both sides of their mouth at the same time, especially when it comes to transfers. We’ll see what happens though.
Nicklas Bendtner, who rather tongue in cheek (I hope) claimed to have always dreamt of wearing pink boots, is being linked with a £5m move to Spartak Moscow. There’s a Danish connection there with Michael Laudrup the Spartak boss, but I’d be very surprised if it happened. Unless, of course, they give him that pair of diamond encrusted boots he so desires. Maybe we should get him a pair of ruby slippers and call him Dorothy.
Chairman PHW has given his backing to Arsene Wenger but this is not the usual dreaded ‘vote of confidence’. He says:
Of course he has my backing. What he has done for the club over the last 12 years has been fantastic. You do not lose faith in a man like him after three or four bad results. It is a ridiculous suggestion really.
That seems very reasonable when it’s put like that but there are still questions for the manager to answer. They may not be coming from board room level but the fans are asking them. I know there’s an increasing amount of frustration with some fans about the way things are going but I can only speak for myself when I say I’d love nothing more than to see AW turn it around and start winning trophies again for Arsenal.
Right, that’s about that. We should get some early team news today ahead of the trip to Stamford Bridge on Sunday so more on that tomorrow and in the Arsecast. In the meantime, have a good day.
