Morning to you. The sun is cheeping, the birds are shining and I may possibly have ze tiny leetle *boilk* after too much wine last night. But it’s summer. Who’s complaining?
We’ll start this morning with Arsene Wenger and he’s been talking about next season, our formation and the squad of players he’ll have at his disposal. About the way we’re going to play in the upcoming campaign, he says:
Next season we will play the formation and system that most suits the players and the balance of the team. That means it’s not rigid. It can evolve throughout the season, depending on circumstances and personnel. If you play with Theo Walcott for example, you are more tempted to go for three midfielders because Theo is more of a forward than a midfielder in a 4-4-2.
Interesting. Looking at the group of players we have currently and thinking realistically about where we’re going to bring in new players, I’ve suggested that Barcelona’s 4-3-3 could well be the most effective formation.
You have to accommodate Arshavin and he’s likely to be at his best in a more central role or certainly on the left or right of a main striker and not stuck out on the left hand side of midfield. He could do the number 10 behind one striker but I just think with the amount of attacking talent at his disposal Arsene will be considering something like this. Especially as it means he’d only really need to buy one top-class midfielder to glue it all together.
Someone to play the Yaya Toure role allows Fabregas, Nasri, Denilson, possibly Rosicky, even Diaby to function in the two midfield spots ahead of that player. Anyway, it’s just interesting that he’s talking about formation and for us to get the best out of the money we have that one makes sense to me.
What’s also positive is that he’s looking to follow up on the Vermaelen deal by getting new signings in as quickly as possible. He says:
Ideally I would like to bring everybody in before we start back in pre-season training in July. I don’t want to leave it until the end of August. I want to add to the squad and I have identified one or two targets. But identifying players and buying them are two different things.
I think we all know how complicated transfers can be but it’s good to hear him talk about doing things sooner rather than later this summer. On the group of players he has at the moment, he says:
We lost Hleb and Flamini last summer and we have had to rebuild. We don’t want to have to rebuild again so I want to keep all the players together for next season. I don’t want to lose anyone.
Fairly standard stuff. To be honest I think there are a couple of players he’d be prepared to lose and replace but he’s hardly going to come out and say that. Firstly it would start all kinds of speculation about who those players were and secondly when it came to selling it would weaken our position. I do expect a couple of departures as well as the arrivals.
One of those departures could well be Emmanuel Adebayor. I don’t think it would shock anyone. The question is who is going to buy him and who is going to pay him the kind of wages he thinks he deserves?
Rumours from Italy have linked him Roma should they be taken over by a new conglomerate but at the moment it’s hard to see where he’s going to end up.
It appears that Robin van Persie has agreed a new deal with the club. His current deal runs until 2011 anyway, so there was no big hurry, but after the most productive campaign since his arrival the club were obviously anxious to tie him down. My hope is that he can use last season as a platform to really kick on. He’s heading into his best years now, if he can stay injury free then I think he’s capable of a lot more.
Not much more going on than that, I’m afraid. Gotta laugh at Tevez not joining Liverpool because he has too much respect for United fans, then going to Man City. Money talks, eh?
Laters.
