Arsene's vision

Salami and cheese ciabatta and Cadbury's Twirl eaten, it's time to get on with the important stuff. Like how Sol Campbell is having a medical ahead of a proposed move to Newcastle. Sol and Newcastle has been a rumour for so long, sort of like Sebastien Frey and Arsenal, that I guess it had to happen at some point. Although Sebastien Frey obviously isn't an Arsenal player, so perhaps that wasn't the best comparison. I'm sure you get my point.

The news that Arsenal are set to lose their second centre back of the summer, okay, third if you count Silvestre, 4th if you count Phil Senderos has sent a few Gooners into meltdown on Twitter. Had I spent my weekend at the Meltdown festival, that would make for a very neat segue, but I didn't; it was the Ben Jerry's Sundae on the Common (Clapham) and an excellent headlining set by Doves, preceeded by the wonderful Billy Bragg. Yes, that's where I've been for the last few days- not that I've spent three days on Clapham Common, I'm not a hobo. I have spent two days drinking on the South Bank though (hic).

Hmm, I seem to have digressed. And rambled. Sorry about that. Anyway, Sol, Gooners, Twitter and meltdown. Common sense says that surely news of Campbell's imminent departure only serves to confirm that there is a further centre back signing to be made- we just don't know who or when. However, it occurs to me that summer after summer, we spend our days waiting for Arsène to pull the proverbial rabbit out of a hat. Which he does quite often. But sometimes what is pulled out of the hat is less rabbit and more a mangy, maggoty little dog, that has been dead for the best part of a year. We called that dog Mickael Silvestre. Sometimes the hand that comes out of the hat is merely empty. I know Arsène Wenger is singular of mind and strong of purpose and he probably doesn't give a toss what I think about his recruitment decisions for the first team squad, but I think he ignores a growing groundswell of negativity at his peril. If he begins the season with the same goalkeepers as he had at the beginning of last, if he begins the new season with three centre backs for the first team, when it all goes wrong he will find his number of defenders diminished significantly.

None of which is to say that the situation won't improve before the start of the season or, more realistically, the close of the transfer window. Just that I'm losing faith that it will.

And against this backdrop, is it any wonder that Cesc would prefer to go somewhere he might stand a chance of winning things? Andres Iniesta gave voice to a softening of Barca's position over the weekend, saying how Cesc deserves to win something as Arsenal's club captain before joining Barca and winning things as a substitute. Okay, I made that last bit up but it does seem as though Arsenal's resolve not to sell Fabregas has surprised Barcelona who seem to be accepting now, publicly at least, that you can't buy what is not for sale.

The point I began the last paragraph making, before digressing again, is that if you look at our very good first team, you can see where it needs to be improved very clearly, you can see that it lacks strength in depth. Yet we seem to have a management team (board?) that would prefer to act as though this football club, the biggest team in the biggest city in the country would prefer to do things as a small club would. It's almost in inverse proportion to the dealings of that lot up the road- trying (and failing) to sign Fabiano, splashing the cash like nobody's business. Ok, we laugh at them and I'm not saying that we should be following Spurs' way of doing things, but you can't fault their ambition- only the failure to realise what they are- which is, of course, a small club in north London.

On the other hand, don't you look at us and think, my God, we have one of the most revered managers in world football, we play in a mostly sold out, magnificent looking enormodome every fortnight- so much the envy of our neighbours that they have a near identical version of their own designed for them, elements of our playing staff so talented Barcelona come to us for reinforcements every summer and yet we we're happy to scrimp along as if we're still some crappy little club stuck in Woolwich. We are not a crappy little club stuck in Woolwich, we're a stage or two further on from that these days. And I want to see us act accordingly. I want to see Gazidis and Wenger showing something to us they've shown to us time and time again that they have in the past. I want us to sign the players we need to sustain a title challenge beyond the end of February. I don't want to hear about how we haven't got the players to compete for the FA Cup and anyway it's not a really important trophy (Mr 4 time winner of the damn thing); gentlemen, I want to see some vision.

That is all.

User Comments

User Comments

• Got something to say?
• Read comments

Vs chelsea