Howdy, hope you all had a good weekend. This week sees the team head off to America where Theo Walcott is going to take over from Donald Trump as Republican candidate for the presidency after its revealed his hair is a wig made from stems cells of orphan puppy Labradors and this will be the step too far for the voting public. Not puppies!
Anyway, the US has always needed a president who can run really, really, really fast. And there is a great history of footballers being elected to the White House. Look back down the years and you can see former Arsenal man Jimmy Carter; Ronaldo Reagan; Barack O’Bamayang; Bill Clinton-Morrisson; Richard Dixon; Woodrow ‘Bob’ Wilson; Ulysses S Granthony Martial … ok, I’ll stop now.
It should be a good trip for the players and the fans out there, with games in San Jose and Los Angeles. Expect many Instagram posts from players with America related hashtags. If Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain doesn’t post one with the Hollywood sign in the background I’d be very surprised.
So, it’s another week of training as the preparations continue for the new season. With the manager so far away, you do wonder if that might affect things in the transfer market, but I’m confident that it will have impact whatsoever. I expect him to be able to do exactly the same nothing from there as he does when he’s back at home. I kid, I kid. Sort of. Nevertheless, I do wonder if Ivan and Dick will take up the slack while he’s away, ensuring that we remain ‘very active‘.
Speaking of transfers, some quotes have emerged from Per Mertesacker which seem to signal some desire for the club to get moving on that front. He said that finishing second last season was a touch fortunate:
The way last season went, we were quite lucky to finish second. We turned things around at the end but it was kind of a miracle we finished runners-up.
Very difficult to argue with that. And then he spoke about what lies ahead, particularly as other clubs have been spending on new players:
Of course, those big clubs will be stronger this time. That’s what I expect as they’ll start the season with a lot of new players. A lot of transfer business has already been done and it won’t be easy for us this time, especially with all the signings going to the other clubs.
So we also need to be stronger and I am looking forward to seeing how well we compete for the title with not a lot of signings and a lot of young players.
I can’t be the only one getting a touch of frustration from that. Is he really looking forward to a new season with ‘not a lot of signings’, or does it sound more like a man who is perhaps trying to apply a bit of pressure to ensure that the squad is as good as it can be? It wouldn’t be unprecedented either. The summer of 2013 saw player after player come out and talk about how signings were needed. Club captain Mikel Arteta said ‘I think it’s about time’ after stories emerged that we were ready to spend big.
Arteta was vocal again along with Olivier Giroud, Bacary Sagna, Wojciech Szczesny, Lukas Podolski and Jack Wilshere all publicly talking about the need for/benefit of new faces. Then we re-signed Mathieu Flamini on a free transfer before breaking our transfer record with a late, late deal for Mesut Ozil. I don’t think we’re quite at that stage yet, and I don’t think we’ll see that kind of concerted effort again, but for me there’s no doubt Mertesacker’s comments are borne out of a knowledge that the team needs more to compete for the season ahead. Let’s see what happens, I guess.
There’s nothing new in terms of transfer news. No Mahrez missive. No Lacazette latest. With the first game of the season drawing ever closer though, it’d be nice to see us go from ‘very active’ to ‘very very very very very very very active’ and actually turn those words into deeds. The manager is comparing it to poker, let’s hope it’s not the strip variety and we’re all left admiring the emperor’s new clothes. Or something.
Right, that’s just about that but don’t forget James and I will have an Arsecast Extra for you later on. If you have questions or topics for discussion, please send them to @gunnerblog and @arseblog with the hashtag #arsecastextra. And this is going to be an especially exciting edition, as we’ll have the great preserve tasting extravaganza as discussed on last week’s show.
I'm ready @arseblog. #arsecastextra pic.twitter.com/A7ESlhaWyM
— gunnerblog (@gunnerblog) July 24, 2016
Having never eaten marmalade (apparently), will James cope with the taste sensation? And which will be his favourite out of strawberry and raspberry? Never let it be said we don’t cover the big issues on this podcast. Join us for that mid-morning, and we’ll have all the other news over on Arseblog News throughout the day.
Catch you later.
