Well by all accounts the AGM was a fairly uneventful affair. Arsene got a big birthday book, made a nice speech, Stan Kroenke was there and refused to talk and we got some little known facts about Gunnersaurus.
Obviously a reflection of how things are at the club at the moment. On the pitch things are looking good, off the pitch things are looking good and there’s unlikely to be controversy or difficulty in those circumstances. There is more in depth stuff from the AGM on today’s Arsecast.
Arsene was in bullish form about his team, acknowleged that we hadn’t won a trophy in four years – “We know that!”, he said – but is convinced that will change this season. He said:
I believe that this year the team will do it. When I say that, it is not to please you, it is because I am really convinced of it. This season we are ready to go for it in the Premier League, the Champions League and of course both the cups as well.
Trophies are a long way away yet but we appear to be on the right track. At this stage of last season we had already lost to Fulham and Hull, Stoke, Villa and City were about to make November miserable and the 4-4 against Sp*rs was just around the corner. All the same we’ve only played 8 league games so it’s a bit premature to be talking silverware just yet.
The boss also spoke about the way the club is being run. Obviously we all know about our self-sustainable model, we’ve heard so much about it, but there’s a definite sense with the appointment of Ivan Gazidis and his subsequent strengthening of the administrative staff that the club is in good shape. Wenger said:
We are in the middle today of two different ways to see the development of the game. One is people with unlimited resources who do not care about balancing the budget and one, an attempt from the European Union to regulate that, control it, and get that out of the game.
I believe that will happen and fortunately we are on line with the modern development of the European game and that is why I believe to keep a club strong is essential.
It’s going to be an enormous challenge for anyone to change the way football is run, especially in regard to the ownership thing. Chelsea and Man City have taken it to a whole new level in recent years but aren’t their owners just doing exactly what Jack Walker did with Blackburn back in the 90s? He bankrolled the club with his own money, made signings that broke transfer records, and brought them success and the league title.
Of course Walker was a Blackburn fan all his life and he put his own money into the club he loved. There’s an obvious difference there between him and the Abramovich and Sheikh Yorbooty at Citeh but in terms of what they’re doing it’s exactly the same. You can be sure any attempts to make clubs live within their means will be seriously opposed because most of them don’t and won’t be able to. And that includes more than Chelsea and Man City. And the other danger is that if the moneybags owners are told they can only spend the income of the club, for example, it strikes me that it’s just as easy for them to walk away leaving the clubs with massive debts that would, probably, end up bankrupting/destroying them completely.
Much as I dislike certain teams it can’t be good for football if that is a possibility so it’s an area the EU are going to have to tread carefully in. Although the firesales could be nice. We’ll see what happens but at the moment Arsenal’s more sensible approach leaves us in good shape.
On a football level he was asked about the crop of goalkeepers at the club and he believes they have the required quality. Of course he couldn’t possibly give a different answer in such a public environment, and we know he wouldn’t do that anyway. He’s always fiercely protective of his players but you can’t help but think the goalkeeping situation is one that will not exactly trouble him but give him pause for thought between now and January.
The Almunia situation is strange. I don’t think you need to be a genius to realise there’s more to his absence than a chest infection and when Fabianski returns in the very near future it will be interesting to see what kind of pecking order emerges. One thing is certain – Almunia is clearly no longer the first choice keeper, a big turn-around from the beginning of the season. And with all due respect to Don Vito, who has performed admirably, can you expect to win major trophies with a rookie keeper? I’m still to be convinced by Fabianski and in general I can’t help but think this is an area in which spending some money could improve us. Whether than happens in January or the summer remains to be seen but if our ambitions for this season are to be realised then I think we need to sort this out sooner rather than later.
For whatever reason there’s an absolute ton of transfer speculation about the place this morning. Firstly The Mirror links us with Belgian whizzkid Eden Hazard and also suggests we’re looking at young French striker Sega Keita (I wonder do we have an eye on JVC Murphy). The Mail says we’re after Spanish wonderkid Antoine Griezmann who plays for Real Sociedad while The Sun claims a £20m interest in Inter’s Mario Balotelli as well as Ajax defender Gregory van der Wiel.
It’s only October as well. Imagine what it’s going to be like when the transfer window gets closer and then actually opens. Mayhem!
Some early team news ahead of the West Ham game on Sunday and it looks like Eduardo will return although Tomas Rosicky and Nicklas Bendtner remain 50-50. Nasri and Fabianski will most likely not be involved but the Carling Cup game against the Mugsmashers should see them work their way back to first team action. More on Sunday’s game in the next couple of days.
Right then, on to this week’s Arsecast. On the show I’m joined by Tim Payton from the AST to talk about the AGM while Amy Lawrence also has some AGM obervations as well as thoughts on matters football, including the goalkeeping situation.
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Right then, that’s about that. Have yourselves a good Friday, more tomorrow.
