Morning all,
welcome to a brand new week. There was some Arsenal action last night when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored against Brazil, a rather tasty finish too, as England drew 2-2 with the World Cup hosts. He’s a player who struggled through his second full season, he’s not the first and he won’t be the last, so it’ll be interesting to see how Arsene Wenger uses him for the new campaign.
The boss has always said he’s likely to end up as a central-midfielder and, on the final day of the season, when Mikel Arteta’s injury forced him off after half an hour, I guess we got a good indication that Arsene is ready to put his money where his mouth is in that regard. The Ox came on and slotted into central midfield so well that Arteta’s absence wasn’t as keenly felt as it might have been.
He’s definitely a player whose attacking instincts mean he’s going to be deployed further forward in the midfield, which means he’s going to have to compete with Wilshere (when fit), Cazorla and even Rosicky. There’s also some clamour for us to sign a midfielder who can provide some creativity, but I suspect any new arrival in this area will be one who can add some presence and physicality to proceedings.
I know people insist we missed Alex Song this season, but I don’t think that’s true at all. Arteta’s discipline, patrolling that area in front of the back four and not getting caught too far forward, meant that we weren’t cut open down the middle time and time again. That was a feature of our midfield when Song was being asked to do the defensive work, and for all our issues at times last season it was nice not to see that happening time and time again.
But, it’d be fair to say we lack a little something in there with regards size and strength, so if there’s a midfielder coming this summer I think that might be an area that the manager looks at. The agent of Victor Wanyama has been talking, and as we know much of what agents say at this time of the year can be taken with a great big pinch of salt. He says Arsenal are very interested in the Kenyan, suggesting that Arsene Wenger spoke to Celtic last month about him, but there are great big warning claxons going off.
I realise these quotes are in the Mail, but even if they’ve misquoted him badly, or the bloke hasn’t quite said what he wanted to say properly, this would be a worry:
The English Premier League is the really big one. It’s just a question of what level Victor goes to. Van Persie went to Arsenal then moved on later to Manchester United. Victor can do the same if he goes to Arsenal. And I believe that is what he wants. He wants to go to Arsenal.
Well, if he wants to go to Arsenal that’s one thing, but if he wants to go to Arsenal so he can then go to United, that’s another thing entirely. I suspect it’s probably a ham-fisted attempt by the agent to show that he’s an ambitious player, and we can’t necessarily taint the player because of something his agent said, but all the same, it’s the kind of chatter you don’t need. In this day and age, quotes live on and on. They don’t fade into the background, they become baggage.
As for the player in general, I’d be a touch underwhelmed, I think. I haven’t seen a great deal of him, and while he stood out in that game against Barcelona, I’d still be a touch unsure how quickly he could make the step up from the Irn Bru 3rd division (I kid, I kid) to real football. Some more well versed than I in Scottish football believe he’s a good player but perhaps not quite ready yet due to indiscipline.
Elsewhere, Spain’s final squad for the Pointless Money Spinning FIFA Shield has been announced and both Nacho Monreal and Santi Cazorla have been include. That means they could be in Pointless Money Spinning action until the end of June. When you consider Santi played in every single Premier League game for us last season, it’ll mean he’s probably going to be knackered on his return. Thanks, FIFA, for your Pointless Money Spinning ways.
Till tomorrow.
