As Will Smith famously sung or at least his backing group did:
Summer, summer, summertime,
Time to sit back and unwind
Sadly for us Gooners, relaxing will not be easy, Arsenal Football Club face the hardest, longest summer we've had under Arsène Wenger. I believe that this summer will decide our future over the next few seasons. We face a number of problems right now. Starting with the obvious, Thierry Henry; this guy is the best striker in the world and his indecision has been, in my opinion, a disruptive influence on our season. The young players, especially Fabregas and van Persie look to him for inspiration, and when he doesn't start you can see the difference he has on the players when he comes on, runs are made which wouldn't have happened with him on the bench. Tackles are a little bit harder, passes sharper and everyone is more responsive. It's as if he brings a breath of fresh air, something you expect from a young starlet not a well known super striker.
And there's no getting round it, Arsenal are not capable, from this season's experience, of winning enough games without Henry. He's become our pillar to rely on. So losing him is going to be massive. But clearly his future is not certain, and personally I think him and Cole are gone.
Now what do we do if he leaves? Pray to the Gods and sacrifice some first born children? Maybe. But let's not get too extreme, there is promise in our side as the Champion's League seems to have brought out, Fabregas is a looking like a world class player in the making, Hleb is looking like an astute buy and van Persie certainly has the technique to be great. But there are a lot of young players with talent, they're a dime a dozen it seems nowadays, it's less the talent we should look at but more the attitude.
Fabregas has a superb attitude, hard working and mature. He does get a little wound up as Tim Cahill found out, but perhaps at least he cares. Robin van Persie on the other hand has recently proven himself to be lacking in the attitude department. He clearly appreciates Arsène's guidance but he cannot keep his cool; and this latest racism investigation could be his last upset in Arsenal colours. As I stated earlier his technique is brilliant, but he needs to look up to Bergkamp. Yes Bergkamp didn't always keep his cool, but he always managed to keep out of the media's eye, other then when they're praising him anyway.
On a side note- Jose Antonio Reyes. A mystery player for me; he’s fast, agile, got a good touch and great passer, seemingly a perfect winger. But he clearly does not enjoy it there; he has to be a striker for me. His finishing is suspect at time, but on a run even the dodgiest of strikers can bang in goals. Look at the start of last season for reference.
Now to what we do in the summer. In fact on the outside Henry staying and going changes one thing, whether we need a new striker or not. But first, if Henry leaves, and he’ll go for about 10 million, we need-
A young goalkeeper- I have no idea who Wenger will go for
A new centreback- Curtis Davies and Kompany are being thrown around.
A fullback- This only applies if Cole leaves, again little clue about who.
A central midfielder- Mascherano would be nice, but not going to happen and perhaps he's not big enough. But let's say he is.
A winger- Pires is gone in my eyes, so who do we go for? Well there are plenty of talented wingers in the world, but only a few will have the strength of character and body to hack it in the premiership. But I think Simao would be an astute buy.
A striker- Torres and Kuijt are the most likely, along with Berbatov.
On the notion of Torres, I must point out that he might not have the consistency to be our saviour or replacement to Henry; although this might come with age.
Now I guess I’ll say my ideal starting XI for next season.
-----------------------Lehmann-----------------------
--Eboué-------Touré------ Kompany------Cole---
--Hleb------Mascherano---Fabregas-----Simao--
----------------Reyes-------Henry--------------------
Subs:
Pele?
Campbell
Lauren
van Persie
Adebayor
I know there are not many changes to the first XI, but our squad needs improving. We cannot rely on the same batch of players all season round.
Summer, summer, summertime,
Time to sit back and unwind
Sadly for us Gooners, relaxing will not be easy, Arsenal Football Club face the hardest, longest summer we've had under Arsène Wenger. I believe that this summer will decide our future over the next few seasons. We face a number of problems right now. Starting with the obvious, Thierry Henry; this guy is the best striker in the world and his indecision has been, in my opinion, a disruptive influence on our season. The young players, especially Fabregas and van Persie look to him for inspiration, and when he doesn't start you can see the difference he has on the players when he comes on, runs are made which wouldn't have happened with him on the bench. Tackles are a little bit harder, passes sharper and everyone is more responsive. It's as if he brings a breath of fresh air, something you expect from a young starlet not a well known super striker.
And there's no getting round it, Arsenal are not capable, from this season's experience, of winning enough games without Henry. He's become our pillar to rely on. So losing him is going to be massive. But clearly his future is not certain, and personally I think him and Cole are gone.
Now what do we do if he leaves? Pray to the Gods and sacrifice some first born children? Maybe. But let's not get too extreme, there is promise in our side as the Champion's League seems to have brought out, Fabregas is a looking like a world class player in the making, Hleb is looking like an astute buy and van Persie certainly has the technique to be great. But there are a lot of young players with talent, they're a dime a dozen it seems nowadays, it's less the talent we should look at but more the attitude.
Fabregas has a superb attitude, hard working and mature. He does get a little wound up as Tim Cahill found out, but perhaps at least he cares. Robin van Persie on the other hand has recently proven himself to be lacking in the attitude department. He clearly appreciates Arsène's guidance but he cannot keep his cool; and this latest racism investigation could be his last upset in Arsenal colours. As I stated earlier his technique is brilliant, but he needs to look up to Bergkamp. Yes Bergkamp didn't always keep his cool, but he always managed to keep out of the media's eye, other then when they're praising him anyway.
On a side note- Jose Antonio Reyes. A mystery player for me; he’s fast, agile, got a good touch and great passer, seemingly a perfect winger. But he clearly does not enjoy it there; he has to be a striker for me. His finishing is suspect at time, but on a run even the dodgiest of strikers can bang in goals. Look at the start of last season for reference.
Now to what we do in the summer. In fact on the outside Henry staying and going changes one thing, whether we need a new striker or not. But first, if Henry leaves, and he’ll go for about 10 million, we need-
A young goalkeeper- I have no idea who Wenger will go for
A new centreback- Curtis Davies and Kompany are being thrown around.
A fullback- This only applies if Cole leaves, again little clue about who.
A central midfielder- Mascherano would be nice, but not going to happen and perhaps he's not big enough. But let's say he is.
A winger- Pires is gone in my eyes, so who do we go for? Well there are plenty of talented wingers in the world, but only a few will have the strength of character and body to hack it in the premiership. But I think Simao would be an astute buy.
A striker- Torres and Kuijt are the most likely, along with Berbatov.
On the notion of Torres, I must point out that he might not have the consistency to be our saviour or replacement to Henry; although this might come with age.
Now I guess I’ll say my ideal starting XI for next season.
-----------------------Lehmann-----------------------
--Eboué-------Touré------ Kompany------Cole---
--Hleb------Mascherano---Fabregas-----Simao--
----------------Reyes-------Henry--------------------
Subs:
Pele?
Campbell
Lauren
van Persie
Adebayor
I know there are not many changes to the first XI, but our squad needs improving. We cannot rely on the same batch of players all season round.
