Evolution revolution love

Written by Paul Williams on Thursday, July 9, 2009

One of the things, the side effects if you like, of Robin van Persie choosing to remain with Arsenal, rather than seeking to make his fortune elsewhere, is that Arsenal will have to pay out a shed load of money to him for the next five years. No, no, what I meant to say, of course, is that getting the Van Man to sign an extension which will see him give his best years to the club, is a statement of intent from the Arsenal hierarchy. It says, we are not content to to develop players into world beaters only to see them flogged off, albeit usually at a massive profit, we want to keep them so they can help us to become a bigger, better club.

This ties in with the words of Ivan Gazidis and, more importantly, with the actions of the club. Contract extensions already inked by the British quartet of Ramsey, Wilshere, Walcott and Gibbs might not represent the signatures that Arsenal fans wanted to see this summer, but as July progresses and pre season preparations begin in earnest, the atmosphere around the club seems a lot less turbulent than it has in summers past. A lot. We seem in good shape and I can't help feeling that this has undoubtedly been down to the influence of the CEO.

I do wish, however, that his influence extended into the corridors of power at ESPN and Sky. Because, due to ESPN, we will have to wait just a little longer for the start of our season, which will now begin against Everton at 5.15pm on the 15th of August. Our first three televised games are all away from home, with the Everton game being followed a fortnight later with a visit to Old Trafford. The trio is completed by Fulham on the 26th September, whilst our first home game scheduled is Blackburn Rovers the following weekend. The television companies aren't looking for Arsenal to slip up much, are they?

I mentioned yesterday that the manager would be hoping, as I suspect we all would, for a good contribution from Tomas Rosicky this season. The man himself says that, in terms of fitness, he's in better shape then when he came to Arsenal. He also repeats claims he made a while ago that, in both his and, Arsenal fitness coach, Tony Colbert's opinion, he was ready to play by the end of last season. Far from being irritated by this, I sense that perhaps Rosicky is just happy not to have been thrown immediately back to the coalface. I think I could learn to appreciate being handled like that.

User Comments

6

saintpeter faeji

Posted on 10 Jul, 2009 at 10:01 PM - Reply

ARSENAL is our darling team, we always want the club to win trophy(ies). ThNK God the injured players are back & the club is not keen on selling any player. We can wish more than for the best this coming season. Arsene we are desperate to this cleb in a winning ways.

5

Mans,kenya.

Posted on 10 Jul, 2009 at 09:57 PM - Reply

Can anyone explain why Arsenal of all team can't spend money to buy world class players like other clubs of their calibre? It is so absurd to hear tht the club lucks money to purchase world class players while they ignored to sign p'ple like Owen,Teves on a free transfer. It seems tht they like cheap labour tht's why they sign many kids who will accept anythng jst to make name under ths mighty shirt... I like Arsenal bt the board are forcing me to hate the very day i started supporting ths useless club.

4

Mr Bear

Posted on 10 Jul, 2009 at 07:54 PM - Reply

I believe that although it is best to have a settled core to your team, the modern day game is about squad rotation and your first team squad is a constantly evolving thing especially when you have so many young players as they will be putting pressure on the more established stars.

Anyway lets all just get behind our team and with a little bit of luck lets see just how good we are!

3

Mostapha

Posted on 10 Jul, 2009 at 12:50 PM - Reply

When we sell the players who have become stars you ccomplain about us being a selling club and when we tie them down you complain about their big contracts, what exactly do you want? I know you're not a big fan of van P and you prefer Bendtner (for some weird reason) but whether you like it or not Robin is a quality player, the best striker at the club and the reality nowadays is if you want to be the best you got to pay the best!

2

kino

Posted on 10 Jul, 2009 at 10:39 AM - Reply

fit-again rosicky would be massive for arsenal. Anyhow it's time to let ade go and possibly bring in higuain. He's not gonna play much anyway after benzema's arrival

1

adarsh

Posted on 10 Jul, 2009 at 06:39 AM - Reply

i think wenger will test the waters with rosicky during most of the pre season games and then try to get his first team formation right during the emirates cup

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