Djourou and Lehmann to provide much-needed good news?

There have been reports flying around for a few days that Jens Lehmann is in talks over a shock return to Arsenal. As yet, we haven't heard anything official from the club or from the man himself.

Then today the big news is that Johan Djourou could suddenly be available again later this month, having been ruled out for the rest of the season just a few days ago.

In my opinion, our season very much hangs on Djourou's fitness. He's been our best defender this season without Thomas Vermaelen, and as soon as I heard he wasn't going to play again I pretty much wrote off our chances of winning the league. Of course, if he can come back and play again this season, that changes a lot, and while I wouldn't say we're favourites, I believe we can do it.

If we're going to surrender the title any way, it's going to be through a defensive/goalkeeping error, and those have been few and far between while Djourou's been in the team this season. I don't know what it is about him, but he brings out the best in the somewhat hit-and-miss Laurent Koscielny, and even Squillaci and Fabianski have played better with him around. It would be nice if he could have this calming effect on Almunia.

And that brings me to the Lehmann situation. How bizarre is this? After bringing back Sol Campbell so successfuly last season, the boss does seem to be seeing the benefits of having experienced winners in the squad, even if only as backup. While I have my doubts about whether or not Lehmann could be fit enough to play in the Premier League now, I think his presence in the changing rooms and on the training ground would be immeasurable. Like Sol, he was an important member of the Invincibles, and won't take any rubbish from underperforming players.

It just makes me wonder, though, why did Wenger let them leave so early? Imagine what a few extra years of Campbell and Lehmann could have done for us. I've said before that when you look at Wenger's early teams, or Man Utd's team now, the benefit of having long-serving players in a team really establishes a culture at the club. Having winners like Adams and Keown around the place helped turn Vieira, Campbell, Píres and Henry into winners, and losing all of them so fast meant our new generation had no one to learn from.

A team without an old guard of some sort is like a tree without roots - unstable. There's nothing we can do now about the fact that Wenger cleared out the Invincibles so quickly, but it does look like he's learning and seeing the benefits that Man Utd's youngsters have from having Scholes, Neville and Giggs around. It seemed Lehmann had been set for some kind of coaching role at Arsenal before our goalkeeping injury crisis, so hopefully he'll be the first of many former players to return to the club in a coaching capacity. There's no doubt the backroom staff needs a bit of a shake up. Isn't Vieira retiring at the end of the season? Snap him up, Arsène!

Finally some reasons to be optimistic. Let's just hope the reports are true and I haven't massively jumped the gun.

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