Don’t Underestimate Arsenal’s Emerging Talent

February 6, 2016

I think I speak for most people when I say I was glad to see the back of Project Youth. As much as it helped us through the stadium move, it was also massively frustrating to watch young talent that never quite reached its potential. The likes of Vela, Szczesny, Bartley, Djourou, Miyaichi, Merida, JET, Afobe, Frimpong, Eastmond, Bendtner and countless others have come and gone without quite being the answer. Thankfully though, the financial restrictions on the club are now lifted and we can afford to buy ready made superstars like Özil, Sanchez and Cech. But where does this leave our youngsters?

It’s been a while since we had a wave of talent coming through, with Bellerin and Coquelin the only real success stories in the last 5 seasons, but it does look as though we may have another group ready to burst onto the scene. There was a lot of talk during the transfer window about us needing to improve our forward players and today I wanted to have a look at some future stars and see if anyone thinks they could be good enough to break into the first team squad in the summer and give our current crop a run for their money.

Chuba Akpom (age 20) on loan at Hull

Striker

Apps 19(9)

Goals 7

Whoscored rating 6.61

Born in Newham, Chuba came through Arsenal’s Hale End academy before making his debut along with Mesut Ozil in September 2013. He signed a new long-term contract with the club in 2015. An England youth international with a true goalscoring instinct, he scored a hat-trick against the Singapore Select XI during the pre-season Barclays Asia Trophy.

Jon Toral (age 21) on loan at Birmingham

Attacking Midfielder

Apps 19(7)

Goals 6

Whoscored 6.78

An expert dribbler who can play on either flank or in the No 10 role, Jon (full named Jon Miquel Toral Harper) was involved with the first-team squad for last year’s pre-season tour to New York, and also played in the friendly against Borehamwood.

Wellington Silva (age 23) on loan at Bolton

Winger

Apps 15(3)

Goals 2

Whoscored 6.91

Despite producing match-winning performances Wellington (full name Wellington Alves Da Silva) could not rescue Almeria from relegation, but his impressive individual performances were rewarded with a first call-up to Brazil’s under-21 side in November.

The tricky forward became very popular with the Spanish side’s fans for his inventiveness and ambition going forward.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles (age 18) on loan at Ipswich

Centre Midfield

Apps 21(5)

Goals 2

Whoscored 6.82

Immensely talented midfielder Ainsley was a key figure in Arsenal’s academy sides last season, and will spend this season on loan at Ipswich in the Championship.

Known for his tricky feet, sharpness and lung-busting runs, versatile Ainsley is nominally a midfielder, but can also play on either wing

Jeff Reine-Adelaide (age 18)

Winger/Attacking Midfielder

Possessing great pace and close ball control, the youngster has excelled in wide attacking midfield positions, but Arsene Wenger believes the teenager has all the attributes to become an all-round central midfielder.

Serge Gnabry (age 20)

Winger/Attacking Midfielder

The skilful winger did not feature for the Arsenal first team last term due to a knee injury, but made eight appearances for the under-21s, scoring three times.

Alex Iwobi (age 19)

Winger/Attacking Midfielder

With nine goals in the under-21s’ final nine games of the campaign, powerful forward Alex was the academy’s form player in the second half of last season.

Naturally a winger, the Lagos-born attacker – who is the nephew of former Bolton star Jay-Jay Okocha – was converted into a central striker and caught the eye with a hat-trick against Stoke City at Emirates Stadium.

As you can see we really do have an excellent crop of youngsters waiting in the wings. Personally, I believe these players have a better chance of making it than some of those that were used in Project Youth because they are being given the opportunity to learn their trade out on loan rather than having to play in front of 60,000 frustrated Arsenal fans every week.

It’s great to see new signings walk through the Arsenal door but I think there is nothing quite like seeing one of our own pulling on the red and white shirt. I reckon a few of these lads could be doing that on a regular basis next season, but what do you think?

Written by FatGingerGooner

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

There is no £200 million in the bank to spend on new players

February 5, 2016

This site is blessed with a healthy ‘return’ of accountants amongst its contributors … ‘return’ is the collective noun for accountants. As a genre, they don’t suffer fools lightly. Here are some pointed responses to the mythical £200m in the bank story that is being widely touted on the net.

The following comments are all from qualified accountants:

GoonerInExile

For the love of God can people stop talking about £200m sitting in the bank….it’s one number from a set of accounts….surely we all have more than one brain cell and understand that it’s not ours to spend today.

First I’ll put it in basic terms:

It’s pay day you receive your monthly wage, let’s say for arguments sake £2k.

This month you have to pay for your mortgage/rent, food, rates, clothes, fuel etc.

Do you have £2k to blow on a night out in London?

Hopefully the answer is no.

Now let’s get to the Arsenal figures:

Fixed Assets (Land, Buildings, Investments) £596m

Current Assets (Stock, Debtors and cash of £228m) £323m

Current Liabilities (Creditors, loans etc) £273m

Long Term Liabilities (Mortgages etc) £314m

Add first two deduct second two Net Assets are £330m

Now let’s understand something, Net current assets are £60m, so the most “cash” we had to spend was £60m, we have to generate profit to keep paying mortgage without reducing our cash more, in 2014/15 we would have lost £8m if it wasn’t for profit on player sales of £28m, if anyone failed to notice we didn’t sell anyone this season so that’s going to be more than likely. Loss in 2015/16 and out cash would have gone down by whatever that loss is.

So please stop regurgitating nonsense heard on media outlets with the sole objective of winding Arsenal fans up.

If the fans that want to believe we are so bad are correct can someone explain me this….how the f*** are we even 4th? Because everyone else is rubbing this year? Well that doesn’t really hold water does it?

We should have spent £x million on players as we haven’t got a squad capable of doing anything great, but the manager is also poor for not getting the most out of these average players?

Sorry you can’t have both, either manager bad and players get him out of jail, or players bad and managers system and tactics gets most out of them.

TerryManciniHairTransplant

Frustrating isn’t it GIE?

Funny that the ones who bang on about £200 million have little to no understanding of interpreting a balance sheet.

I know quite a few other chartered accountants who generally interpret the figures as you and I, they have no choice, it’s there in black and white

There is one colleague, an Arsenal season ticket holder who though agrees with the general premise feels we fail to take enough risks. Fair enough, I don’t agree but it’s his point of view but whilst having a beer with him the othe day I mentioned I know some people who think we have £200 to spend today, we both spilled our beer from laughing.

RA

A special well done to GIE, for trying I suspect without any hope, would help people to understand what is obvious to us, that a company’s working capital is just a snapshot in time and is continually changing.

As it happens, I got paid for some work I did for a friend and got his check yesterday and banked it, without giving away personal info, let’s say it was for £750.

So with £750 in the bank, or ‘cash’ as some like to see it, I am off down to buy a laptop today, so that I do not have to keep borrowing my buddy’s crap one.

Only….I’m not. Why? Because if I did that I would not be able to pay my share of the rent in two weeks time, and I also have to pay my share of the fuel costs here.

So this magical, mystery £60m, or whatever is the current flavour of the blogs, that Arsenal had at the end of May last year, did that include payment in advance for some season tickets in the current season, or does some of it have to go towards paying salaries, or our debts, or, or, or.

I fear we are not getting the message across Exile and I wish you luck with that. 😀

Ed: Do you wish to cross fiscal swords with these assessments or has the message finally come across?

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Posted by Rasp

Pressing Matters ……. Arsenal’s failure to cope

February 4, 2016

Many among us will have recognised that the teams we struggle against are those who operate a ‘high press’. By this we mean that they don’t wait for us to get into their half of the pitch before engaging us but look to regain possession as soon as the ball is lost by pressing as a team high up the pitch. They will often double or treble up on the player in possession of the ball.

We have just one player in the current available squad who instinctively plays in this way, Alexis Sanchez. How many times have we seen him chase ball across the pitch only for the opposition to frustrate him because the rest of our midfield is sitting back and enabling them to bring the ball forward virtually unchallenged. Welbeck is another player who works hard for the ball and Elneny also seems to be out of that mould – I can’t wait to see those two in the side.

I think it is fair to say that Arsene doesn’t generally favour the high press. Lately it seems that he has chosen to absorb the pressure for 70 minutes when playing against the HP sides, waiting for them to tire, and then to make his subs and become more adventurous. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. If our finishing is not up to scratch, the strategy fails.

Pep Guardiola is a master at coaching teams in the HP system. Barca were brilliant at it under his management and now he has recreated it at Bayern. It’s not so difficult when you have players of that quality – but in the EPL we now see it being employed by teams whose players are not of our standard – Southampton, Liverpool and the miscreants down the road (and no doubt man city next season). All of these teams will cause us problems.

There are two questions I would ask:

  1. Why don’t Arsenal play a high pressing game? Is it because we don’t have the players who can operate in that system – or simply that the manager doesn’t favour it?
  2. Why does our passing game fall apart when we are being pressed all over the pitch? Surely our coaching routines should enable us to deal with this.

Any ‘experts’ out there who can explain this to me?

Rasp

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Posted by Rasp

What went wrong? …….. Was it just one of those nights?

February 3, 2016

These are the thoughts of some AA regulars ……

Kelsey ……

If I continue in the way I am known to express myself I am apparently a doomer but others who can be far more critical than me don’t even get a response.

I actually thought apart from the now familiar juttering start that we were very unlucky to not win and there is no doubt that their keeper was on top form.

I don’t have the technical knowledge of others such as GIE and there is no doubting our stamina but I feel every game we play we are getting more and more predictable that I can see the next move before it happens and therefore if I can see it so every team we play will have a plan to stop us which in recent weeks has led to no wins in four vital matches whilst the other contenders march on despite dropping the odd point here and there.

We really either don’t have a different way of playing or AW will not alter things dramatically.You decide.

We will know in the next month if we are still in with a shout of the title or (dread to think) in a battle for forth yet again.

The margins in so many games are getting finer as the seasons roll on.

I don’t usually get involved in a discussion about refs but in the first half he showed a definite bias against us.

I am not going to critisize any one player only to say the Kos/Gabriel partnership is not as good as I thought it would be.

It now becomes very much a mental thing for all of the top 5 either to sustain winning or getting back to winning, and we all know which category we fall into.

GoonerB ……..

I have a feeling that many will not want to discuss anything Arsenal or AW related his morning. I think a lot will run for cover which I wish didn’t happen because to get the Yin and Yang going we need all the regular contributors from those more negative to those more positive.

I am somewhere in betwixt most views. On one hand I recognise that we had a more difficult run of fixtures recently (say compared to Spuds). As such the league title is still on and there is till reason to feel hopeful. Have a look at GIE’s input and predictions from late yesterday.

On the other hand I would say that we don’t take care of our own business well enough. I get that the ref was awful and agreed. This would have influenced the balance of the game to some degree. Not enough though for me that we shouldn’t have been able to overcome Southampton at home with the team put out and the players available to us. The referee thing has now also been used too much to explain away poor results.

I get their keeper had a blinder and that it was just one of those games. The problem is that every season we, more so it seems than any other team, seem to drop points against teams whose keeper has his best game of the season. Now I would look at why this happens so often and wonder if there is something about the way we attack that is slightly different that gives a keeper a better chance to put in these performances.

Unfortunately we just don’t seem to take care of our own business and look at our own failings and weaknesses. That needs to be done first before we start portraying ourselves as some unlucky put upon club.

Chas ……

I don’t understand how those who like to constructively criticise can recognise:

that the ref was bent
that Forster had a brilliant game
we created more than enough chances to win by 2 or 3

But still want to have a pop at management for:

lack of tactics
lack of signings
thinking Giroud is a striker ( 🙂 – amazingly it didn’t seem to be him that was culpable last night).

Aren’t you simply

a) reacting to the result and the fact we didn’t score or
b) simply carrying on seeing things with your own confirmation bias?

Cage rattling? 🙂

Can you add anything to the debate? ……..

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Posted by Rasp

Coquelin and Sanchez the Difference?

February 2, 2016

4-0. Were we terrible or did Southampton get lucky or perform above their norm? We find out tonight.

It was typical Arsenal; there we were riding along on a wave of confidence and good form, the standard of play was at it’s pacy, intricate best, there was talk of title favourites then Wham (the noise not the wavy-haired boys from Essex) we get hammered by a team who were completely out of form. This is why I love the Arsenal 😀

The only additions to our squad which was beaten in December are Coquelin and Sanchez – will they make a difference? One would like to think so.

images

St. Francis Returns

Sean Long played a huge role in their win thanks to some awful refereeing and some weak defending. Today we must be stronger especially as S’ton are likely to give Charlie Austin his first game and that fellow is a nuisance.

Wanyama always does well against us, perhaps because it is his dream to play for the Gunners. My hope is that Coquelin is back to his best and manages to win the vital midfield battle.

My Team:

Cech

Bellerin    BFG   Koscielny     Monreal

Ramsey    Coquelin    Sanchez

Ozil

Walcott   Giroud

Nothing controversial here though perhaps you would pick Campbell ahead of Walcott given Theo’s poor form of late. I cannot see Elneny getting more than 20 minutes, can you?

The bench is becoming very competitive. Ospina, Gabriel, Chambers, Gibbs, Arteta, Ox, Campbell. Iwobi deserves a place but who gives way?

S’ton are in a fine vein of form having won their last 3 games including beating MU at Old Trafford – a famous win. Can they continue this run? In my opinion … No. The above team is very nearly our first choice 11 (Welbeck?) and on paper should triumph.

I am saddened to read of Rosicky’s injury. Having lauded his return in my last PM he lasted 15 mins. Better than nothing and at least he got a heart warming reception from the fans. Something to remember in his retirement.

images

And what of the transfer window? Some are disappointed, in which case, I suggest they look at our recent transfer policy. Mr Wenger is clearly satisfied with his squad and well he might be – we have a terrific squad with players coming through the ranks, players on loan getting experience prior to their promotion the the first team squad and purchases where necessary (Elneny & Cech). There are concerns about right back should Bellerin get crocked but in Flamini, Gabriel and especially Chambers we have adequate cover.

Or did some of you believe we would spend €80m on a striker? 😀

Sanchez looked hungry on Saturday. The chances he and Ozil can create, not just for themselves but for others, should propel us to victory, but in this topsy-turvy season  I hesitate to make a prediction.  Even so, I fancy us for three points.

COYRRG

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Posted by Erik the Red

Elneny was brought in to replace Ramsey

February 1, 2016

Iwobi and new signing Elneny both impressed against Burnley with many crediting Iwobi with the Man of the Match performance. His composure, control and understanding of the game are way beyond his years. We should be careful not to burden him with too much expectation, but we can be excited about what is undoubtedly another midfield talent Arsene has produced.

The player I want to focus on today is Elneny. There has been much discussion of his intended role in the midfield, and the role he played in Saturday’s game.

It was assumed he was back-up/competition for Coquelin, but lo and behold, Arsene played them both. Surely Arsene would never put out a team with two holding midfielders … and he didn’t.

No, Elneny didn’t play HM, he covered every blade of grass and was the epitome of a box-to-box midfielder. If you look at M.E.s performances for Basel and read what Arsene has said of the player, it is clear that he has a lot more to his game than just breaking play up and keeping it simple.

So if Elneny wasn’t brought in as another ‘Coquelin’ then where does he fit into our midfield. Sadly Cazorla’s latest injury together with his advancing years means that he may never be a first choice midfielder for Arsenal again. Who knows whether Wilshere will ever be able to remain injury free long enough to establish himself as first choice in our midfield?

This got me thinking. Every well managed team has a production line of players coming through and strives for a quality back-up for every position.

Arsene likes Ramsey – a lot! I’m pretty sure that along with Ozil, Sanchez and Koscielny, Ramsey is always one of the first names on the team sheet. The best players need to be protected and rested on occasion, and are the ones that the big spending clubs try to pluck from our midst. There are rumours that Barcelona have shown an interest in Ramsey. From what I can see, Ramsey and Elneny have a lot in common. A superb engine, a good range of passing and an eye for goal.

So there you have it – my conclusion is that Elneny was brought in to bolster our midfield options in the short term, and to offer an alternative to Ramsey in the long term. What do you think?

Rasp

 

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Posted by Rasp

Arsenal 2 Burnley 1 — A Supporter’s View.

January 31, 2016

Thank you Burnley Football Club and all your supporters; we at Arsenal have not been having such a good time recently, results have not gone the way they could and should have for a club with aspirations of winning the league for the first time in thirteen years and so a win yesterday was vital to get us back on track. Thank you again for making that happen; you may just have been the stimulus that wins us at least one trophy.

If the team that Wenger chose to go out and play were a car I think it would be fair to say that Arsene put just enough petrol in the tank to get us to the fifth round; that’s to say that there was just enough quality in the selection to win the tie without wasting the precious energy of Özil, and importantly Ramsey who was looking very tired against Chelsea so this little break should see him back, fresh and raring to go on Tuesday. Not only that, Wenger got to play and we got to see our shiny new toy: Elneny, and what a perfectly respectable debut it was. The man is clearly happy on the ball. I would guess that in the first half the Egyptian had the ball more than any other player; well, except Sanchez, of course, he always has the ball more than any other player on the pitch.

It didn’t stop there, more presents were still under the tree and needed to be opened; we got the chance to welcome back Tomas Rosicky and what a fine reception he received when he came on with twenty minutes to go. But I have saved the biggest present until last: Alex Iwobi, if there was any doubt as to what he can do it was cleared up today, this young man went from strength to strength as the game went on. Buoyed by a fine first half he was obviously encouraged by Wenger during his half time team talk because the Nigerian came out and bossed the midfield in the second half until that is his young legs started to tire and was given a standing ovation as he walked off to make way for Arteta.

The game started as expected with Arsenal having the lion’s share of the ball, putting Burnley under constant pressure. The passing was slick and the commitment was tangible, a goal was on the cards although the scorer was not: Calum Chambers on duty for the rested Bellerin curled the ball with the outside of his boot past the Burnley keeper and into the top corner, a fine finish to what had been at least a twenty pass build up, Sanchez was instrumental throughout and it was his assist: rolling the ball deftly between the legs of a Burnley defender that enabled Chambers to get onto the score sheet.

Chambers goal

One nil to the Arsenal and the world was a wonderful place; we should have simply gone on and crushed Burnley but they had other ideas and equalised from a header while our central defenders had momentarily gone awol. This goal upped the tension and in fact turned a gentle stroll into a cup tie — a cup tie that we needed to win.

In every round of the FA cup there is a giant killing and we very nearly went from being way down the viewing list on Match of the Day to the opening game which you may have noticed happens with every giant killing: Burnley came mighty close to going ahead shortly after the start of the second half but this fright didn’t last long and help was on hand, in the form of Sanchez, our very own Whirling Dervish who put us ahead with a well placed shot, wide of the keeper from an excellent cut back by Oxlaide-Chamberlain. The Ox was better than he has been recently but all it showed me was that this is his level – Championship; he just isn’t improving anymore and others are waiting in the wings ready to take his place in the pecking order.

Interestingly Wenger chose not to shore up the defence and see the game out by bringing on Monreal as he does nine times out of ten in these situations but instead he went for an attacking option and the pace of Walcott who had a golden chance to put the game completely out of reach but Theo fluffed his lines and Burnley almost equalised on the counter attack. The final whistle was blown, we are in the hat for the next round draw and all in all it was an entertaining game of football.

Quick player ratings:

Ospina: back to his best, made some excellent saves, if he is looking for a move he would have done his chances no harm at all with that solid performance. 7

Chambers: he is obviously never going to take Bellerin’s place in the starting line up, well certainly not at right back anyway but he exuded more confidence than I usually notice and a goal certainly helped that. 7

Easter: you can see that the legs are better than Mertescaker but the brain is still not quite there, nothing really wrong but still room for improvement. 6

Koscielny: commanding, possibly even more so that he was captain and had full responsibility for the back line. Not sure where he or PE were when Burnley equalised. 7

Gibbs: a very good performance by his standards, did all the simple things well, just when you can’t see him ever being the first choice LB he surprises. We are lucky to have such quality back up in the still young Englishman. 8

Coquelin: great to have him back, all started well but then he got a knock which looked bad enough that he was going to be forced off; he stayed on but his concentration had gone and he got sloppy. 5

Elneny: I really expected him to throw himself around alla Coquelin but no he was on his feet throughout the game. I was hoping to see if he could defend but I am left with less idea than before the match started. Good start though. 7

Iwobi: this is my Man of the Match, like Elneny I still have no idea which position he is best suited to but if he has aspirations of being a number 10 then he is going to have to be world class to make that position his own at THOF because the competition for that spot is fierce. Good luck young man. 8

Oxlaide-Chamberlain: Keep going Ox we all want you to succeed. I have spoken above about this player. 6

Giroud: I wonder if it is possible to start a game with a back heel, I mean from kick off, the Frenchman seems to like that way of passing so much that it crossed my mind that he could be the first player in history to start a game like that. Ollie was clearly not impressed with the opposition and as such seemed to be only working on 80% effort. 6

Sanchez: still holds the ball longer than he should but being one of only three world class players we have at the club I am just grateful that he is back. 8

Written by LB

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Posted by LB

Loving The Alien

January 30, 2016

There is a chance we may have an exciting team taking the field in red and white. The BBC are expecting Tommy Rosicky to get a kick!

I recall speaking to Kelsey about Tomas a few years ago and we both agreed his time as a PL player was over, yet here he is making a Lazarus-like resurrection (somewhat appropriate with Lent around the corner). I am delighted. Top bloke, top player and a man whom, if he lasts a few games, will add much to our run in.

There is another rumour … apparently someone purporting to be Danny Welbeck is in training and could be available for selection. Now this I cannot believe. I am easily led and extraordinarily gullible but this is a step too far.

And Coquelin!! The boss said 6 weeks and here is Le Coq back within AW’s 6 week time frame which as everyone knows is 3 months in human time. Do you think that AW lives in a different time dimension to us? He is a remarkable man and who knows, perhaps he is not of this earth? An alien. This may explain his eyesight problems, his lack of understanding the need for a 40 goal a season striker and his strange sense of time.

images-1

Mr. Wenger’s Father (and Mother)

Our opponents: I have written of Burnley in the past, of my affection for a proper old fashioned club, of Bob Lord, of claret and blue. Of Hovis adverts, coal mining and cotton. In my research about Burnley F.C  I discovered they had once been managed by a chap named Albert Pickles. Fair play to them.

Burnley are a decent team who will cause us problems but hopefully not too many. They sit a handy 3rd in the Championship and could easily face us in the PL next season. No mugs and in Sean Dyche have one of the best young managers around. We have won our last 5 FA Cup games against them with an aggregate score of 16-1.

Another exciting prospect for Gooners is the almost certain first appearance of Elneny, our first Egyptian player to play in the first team (Rami Shabaan had Egyptian parents and we had a chap called Fathy who played a couple of reserve games in 2004). I have a good feeling about this bloke.

I would like to see Theo given a start at CF today and OG on the bench. The big man needs a break and Theo is more likely to score and gain some confidence at home against C’ship opposition. The same can be said of The Ox who will surely be given Ramsey’s role again.

Another chap I would like to see rested is Koscielny. The man has become a masterful CB but like many could use a break, this would allow us to see our future CB pairing – GAbriel and Chambers. The more practice they have together the better the chances of them becoming a solid partnership.

Gibbs ahead of Monreal and Bellerin on the other flank thanks to our lack of a back-up LB. And Ospina in goal (if fit).

Sanchez, Walcott and Campbell up top with perhaps Ozil behind depending upon how his foot/leg has responded to treatment.

There is a chance we could win a hatrick of FA Cups. History making. Mr. Wenger deserves it. He could be the manager who went through a season unbetaen and one who won 3 on the trot.

Let it be so…

COYRRG

 

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Posted by Erik the Red

Are Arsenal in the Club?

January 29, 2016

As I understand it, based on what I have heard here and there, it would seem that preliminary talks have taken place with UEFA between representatives of some of the big money European clubs, including Manure and Juventus.

The clubs’ representatives have made it clear that they think there is a need to move on and capitalise on the promotion of top grade European football.

This really means they want to take the opportunity of better marketing of top European football worldwide, and incidentally making buckets of cash for their owners. There is, too, the lingering suspicion, although I understand it was not mentioned specifically, that the clubs want shot of Platini’s alleged election bribe to the smaller countries/ leagues, that they would be included in the group stages of the CL, if they voted for him to be UEFA president, because they are just seen by the clubs as pointless fodder who are bumped off by the bigger clubs in every tournament, and thus making those games very boring for TV audiences.

Let’s face it – the TV companies are probably behind this, or are in cahoots with the big clubs, as they want value for all the money they have poured into the CL – and when money talks – everyone jumps, especially UEFA and the clubs I suspect! 😀

Something like this plan was always going to happen, at sometime in the near future, and if it is not this one, it will be something along these lines eventually.

That means if the current Premier League-leaders, Leicester, somehow managed to win through in May, they would qualify for Europe, next season, but if they won the following year instead they would not qualify for Europe. Got it so far? 🙂

Milan, for example, another one of the clubs pushing for this change to qualifying, but who have sometimes been rubbish in the Italian league, and possibly may not qualify for the CL next season, and also Manure who are also currently rubbish in the Premier League, and seem unlikely to make next season’s Champions’ League would both become permanent members of the new European set up in 2018, if they get their way.

In addition, both the Chavs and ‘Pool may well be in the elite clubs’ group for 2018, too, even tho they are also unlikely to qualify for next season’s tournament, though this not a given.

Step forward the European Clubs Association, representing the big fish European clubs, including all of those other teams who would like to be guaranteed reserved Champions League places from 2018.

The ECA’s executive board, comprising plenty of bigwigs of the biggest clubs, including the Manure chief executive Woodward and [no, I cannot believe it] our very own Arsenal boss Ivan Gazidis, (I am sort of beginning to like this cunning plan a lot more) have made it clear to UEFA that they are deadly serious about making this change happen, and want it applied to the next Champions League TV deal which happens to start in 2018. Funny that!

In effect, cutting to the chase, the so-called ‘elite’ want their clubs to have reserved invitations to every CL club tournament in the future, Not that surprising I suppose. Hogs at feed?

Who are these elite teams? Well it has not yet been announced but it will rely a lot on the clubs that the TV wallahs think are the prettiest – well, perhaps they are more attractive to viewers might be a more concise way of putting it, whether they are qualified through their local league positions, or not.

It will make qualification for next season’s CL particularly stressful I suspect as that could make a big influence on whether a club is included if they are not a really ‘big’ club.

There will be huge money coming in next season for all the Premiership clubs with the new Sky and BT TV deals starting in 2017, and if some elite clubs get into the new CL set up in 2018, if it is agreed by all concerned, that money could easily be doubled.

It seems that in any event there has been an agreement in principle among the usual suspects that these elite clubs will be included on a permanent basis – however, it remains to be seen who makes the cut as ‘attractive’ to the TV viewers, and also that to ease opposition to the plan, certain other league qualifiers will be added to this group of definite starters.

Perhaps the way to smooth this deal through is to expand the size of the competition, perhaps by formalising a pre-league of other clubs who would fight it out, for qualification, as they do now, during the preseason, but the TV movers and shakers probably won’t want this.

Clubs like Everton, Spurs, and Leicester who may not make the cut as guaranteed ‘elite’ members, will be understandably peed off, and perhaps this is a move away from the corinthian spirit of football.

Corinthian my ass! – high standards and doing the right thing have already been consigned to the dustbin of football’s past, I am afraid.

The alleged backroom chat between some of the top clubs does give this supposedly secret plan some credence, and as I have often said before, when money comes calling, all the money hungry club owners bat their eyelashes, put on their best dresses, apply their lipstick and will kiss the asses of whoever offers them the most!

C’est la vie.

Written by RA

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Grow up! … Arsenal Don’t Need To Sign Any More Players …

January 28, 2016

With the end of the transfer window looming and many supporters calling for Arsene to reinforce the squad with new additions, I thought I’d look at the age range of Arsenal’s current EPL squad including some on loan. Obviously age isn’t the prime criterion when assessing a player, but it is the significant indicator in terms of longevity and therefore team development.

When Arsene was asked recently about the signing of Elneny, he praised his attributes and added in characteristic fashion that he was 23 and that 23 to 30 was an ‘interesting’ age for a footballer. We all know what he meant by this.  For all but one position, 23-30 would be considered the peak years of a player’s career. The exception is the keeper, where experience is crucial and the toll on the body is less, meaning that they can remain at the top of their game into their late thirties … and guess what ….. we’ve got one of those!

In the past, it was the case that centre backs could still be at their peak into their early thirties, but I would argue that the pace and physical demands of the modern game mean this is seldom the case nowadays. Hopefully Koscielny will prove to be the exception to that rule, sadly it is becoming apparent that Mertesacker is not.

I don’t expect us to sign another ‘first team ready’ player before the deadline on Monday, and maybe the stats below will convince you that we don’t need to.

The area marked in yellow in the chart below represents the age group of those who are considered to be in their peak years (Bellerin is the exception to that rule) . The names in red are unlikely to be with us next season, and those in green are currently out on loan but a good prospect for the future.

I have divided the midfielders into 3 categories just so the pedants among you can tell me I’m wrong 🙂

X7

In an ideal world, the first choice players in every position would be in their peak years – in fact it would be perfect if the second choice option was also in the 23-30 zone.

But that’s not how it works, the top players are in the zone and the back up is either younger hoping to break into the team, or older and with lower expectation. This theory is backed up by the fact that both Ospina and Debuchy are in their peak years, neither are first choice and both want to leave – and who can blame them?

By my estimation, 8 out of 10 of our first choice outfield players are at their peak in terms of age. That’s pretty good and I suspect compares favourably with the other top EPL sides.

So which areas should we be looking to reinforce in the summer?

Martinez is currently gaining experience on loan at Wolves and may be the man to take over from Cech in a few years. We  have a wealth of talented young attacking midfielders waiting for their chance to make an impact on the first eleven. Unluckily for them, most of the current incumbents are at the perfect age.

Arguably centre back and striker are the two areas where we could be vulnerable. With Mertesacker coming to the end of his career, and only Chambers as back-up I can see procuring another CB as a priority. As far as strikers are concerned, we will only be able to assess that situation once we have seen Welbeck stay injury free and get a run of games. If he can replicate the form he showed before he was injured then Arsene may well believe we don’t need another striker. Personally, I’d be happy to blow £50-60m if the right striker became available in the summer.

Your challenge for today ……. convince me we need to buy another player this January!

Rasp

 

 

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