Given our new found riches the media are totally focussed upon whom we should buy, but let’s turn this around – who should we sell?

Bendtner, Sagna, Fabianski and Park are already condemned to play away from the Home of Football but if you had your way who else would join them? We have players who are very attractive to other teams – some who may be targets would be a painful loss, others less so.

What about Ramsey? This fellow is going to be a great and not just an Arsenal great. If you had unlimited resources who in the PL would you look at if you wanted a young midfielder? Henderson? You must be joking. Eriksen? Doesn’t deserve to tie Ramsey’s laces. Barkley? Not yet and doesn’t score enough. Now I can hear you say – we will never sell Ramsey, but Spurs fans thought that about Bale! 50+m euros may well make the Board listen.

Just joking – Aaron will stay at AFC until he needs a zimmer frame  to get onto the pitch. Same goes for Wilshire.

“What? I am going to Swansea with Lukasz?”

But what of our other midfielders, could any of them be targets for other clubs? Rosicky? Why not – he is quality. I know he has signed a new contract and that he is coming to the end of his career but  – OK, you are right – no-one will buy him. But what of Cazorla? Given the development of Wilshere and the wonder of Ozil do we really need our Spanish magician? Could he be sold to bring in extra money to buy a Cavani or a Falcao?

Horrible idea but given how many MF’s we have one may well be sold and no-one is buying Diaby!

Arteta or Flamini? Again few possible suitors. They are at AFC until their contracts run down or we can arrange a free transfer for Mathieu.

Except, Except ….. what if we sign Fabregas? Would anyone object to selling, let us say JW or Cazorla, or according to GIE, Arteta, to make way for Cesc? (disclaimer: GIE’s was not proposing selling MA!)

What about defenders? Sagna has gone, but is Monreal available? Is he the man to be a solid understudy to Gibbs and if not should he be sold? I like him but accept his limitations.

Vermaelen? Club captain and a quality player; I am sure Mr Wenger will be unwilling to sell such a superb backup CB but what about Thomas’s ambitions – I am sure he will want away in summer and there will be plenty of teams who would sign him.

And Koscielny will only enhance his reputation in Brazil and become a hot property – Barca are desperate for new CB’s. Kos would be a great signing and not crazy money. Merts? Too valuable to sell.

Upfront we have less to fear from raiders. Giroud is a fine player and could well return to France but where? Monaco have Falcao and PSG Cavani and Ibra – the other teams don’t have the money as OG will be at least double what we paid for him.

Ox? Theo? Ozil? Sanogo? Can’t see any of them leaving but what of Podolski? My hope is that we sign Drexler and if we do there is no place for Pod – fine player though he is. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Podolski leave in summer.

Of course, none of the above are likely to be sold, particularly as we have the finances to keep suitors at bay, but there are players who could and perhaps should leave the squad – especially as we will buy this summer.

Who do you think should empty his locker?

Written by Big Raddy

I, for one, was thrilled to hear the news yesterday that Arsène Wenger had, at last, signed his new contract. We have him for another three years and credit has to be given to the man for wanting to stay in a job that might have destroyed other men.

The stress that he’s been under this season has been etched on his face and he’s often looked really ill when things have gone wrong. I believe he loves this club deeply and if he didn’t think he could improve on this years position he would have walked away.

I’m not opposed to change but I think he still has a job to do and three years gives him time to do it.

We have some great young players in our squad that he knows are going to improve, if I were him I wouldn’t want someone else to get the credit for putting together a great team. You only have to look at Aaron Ramsey to see how Wenger’s faith in a player is rewarded.

I’m not ashamed to admit that my support for his management has wavered in the last three seasons. I have been confused by some of his decision making and have at times felt that he may have lost the dressing room but the scenes of the players hugging him after the cup final win and the crowd singing his name after the parade have banished those thoughts.

Although football is a simple game, it’s not an exact science and so unusual things can and do happen. We were on the cusp of a trophy in 2012 and had we won the Carling Cup we wouldn’t have to listen to 9 years without a trophy. We have a trophy now and hopefully the press will soon stop reminding us how long it took to win one 😉

What I do hope he can ensure doesn’t happen again is the regularity with which we collapsed under early goals. Those defeats hurt all of us although it has to be said we would have been champions if we’d not dropped a few points against lesser opposition. How funny would that have been to have won the title whilst losing those big games? If’s and but’s ………..

The World Cup will be a good distraction for not having any Arsenal for a few weeks but I for one can’t wait to get back to the Emirates and sing my teams name.

Thank you Arsène.

Written by peachesgooner – still a Wengerite

I’ve been looking at our squad lists because in all the talk of transfers, what doesn’t seem to get much discussion, is how we aim to fill our squad of 25, and leave room for the youth to come through. Which of course is now essential with the homegrown rules in place. So before we look outside, let’s look within.

This was our squad list last season.

Arteta Amatriain, Mikel (No)
Bendtner, Nicklas (Yes)
Cazorla, Santiago (No)
Diaby, Vassiriki Abou (No)
Fabianski, Lukasz (No)
Flamini, Mathieu (No)
Gibbs, Kieran James Ricardo (Yes)
Giroud, Olivier (No)
Koscielny, Laurent (No)
Mertesacker, Per (No)
Monreal, Ignacio (No)
Ozil, Mesut (No)
Park, Chu Young (No)
Podolski, Lukas (No)
Ramsey, Aaron James (Yes)
Rosicky, Tomas (No)
Sagna, Bacary (No)
Szczesny, Wojciech Tomasz (Yes)
Vermaelen, Thomas (No)
Viviano, Emiliano (No)
Walcott, Theo James (Yes)

Ricardo Gibbs and Amatriain Arteta. Brilliant.

So that was a list of 21, with 5 Home-grown players. We also added Kallstrom in January. I think we will lose 6 of these players (Bendtner, Park, Fabianski, Sagna, Viviano and Kallstrom.) of which only Bendtner counts as home grown. That will leave us with a list of 16 and 4 home-grown players. Only Carl Jenkinson and Jack Wilshere from our current first team are required to be added to our list for 2014-15. Which would make it a list of 18, with 6 homegrown players. So we can add 5 more non-homegrown players this season.

So before any additions our squad will look like:

GK:  Szczesny*

RB:  Jenksinon*

LB: Gibbs*, Monreal

CB: Per, Kos, Verm

CM: Arteta, Diaby, Flamini, Ramsey*, Rosicky, Wilshere*

AM: Walcott*, Cazorla, Podolski, Ozil

ST: Giroud

Obviously we need to buy players in various positions to have a complete squad, and a squad that is good enough. However, we also need to consider bringing players through our youth ranks. Will they be incorporated into first team action? Indeed, some of them already are.

Now, my knowledge of the Arsenal Reserves and youth teams is fairly limited these days and I had to do some internet scouting to find out about most of them. Some names are familiar because they have been mentioned on and off in the media. Others are just wild punts. I may have left some talented players out, or got the positions wrong for some of the ones I did include. However, such as it is, this is the list I compiled of players we have coming through (or out on loan), along with the years in which they need to be registered.

GK: Damien Martinez (2014), Matt Macey (2016), Deyan Illiev (2017) Josh Vickers (2017)

RB:  Hector Bellerin (2017), Tafari Moore (2020)

LB: Brandon Ormonde-Ottewille (2017), Arinse Uade (2017)

CB: Johan Djourou, Ignasi Miquel (2014), Daniel Boateng ( 2014), Semi Ajayi (2015), Zach Fagan (2016), Isaac Hayden (2017), Julio Pleguezelo (2020)

CM: Francis Coquelin, Samuel Galindo (2014), Chuks Aneke (2015), Thomas Eisfeld (2015), Jon Toral (2017), Jack Jebb (2017), Kris Olsson (2017), Gedion Zelalem (2019), Dan Crowley (2020)

AM: Ryo Miyaichi (2014), Joel Campbell (2014), Wellington Silva (2015), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (2015), Serge Gnabry (2016), Zak Ansah (2016), Tarum Dawkins (2017), Alex Iwobi (2018)

ST: Yaya Sanogo (2015), Benik Afobe (2015), Chuba Akpom (2017), Austin Lipman (2017)

Although we certainly can’t plan to shape our squad to accommodate some players who may (or may not) need to be registered in the next 5 years, but seeing as some of them are talented, and the homegrown rules account for at least 8 of a squad of 25 players over the age of 21, we cannot be completely blind to their talent while going out to purchase a player.  For example, Zelalem. No one wants to hear the line about ‘killing’ Denilson again, but at the same time, here is a player who can count as an U-21 for the next 5 seasons, and yet he is on the fringes of the first team. Surely we must be aware of making space for him in the squad eventually. That of course includes looking at player contracts, planning the evolution of a squad with the right balance, depends on opportunities that open up in the future in the transfer market etc.

So for me the question is how many spots can be made available to our U21 players? (To add depth, not to compromise on quality) The ones I’d like to see get a chance would be, Martinez (3rd choice GK), one of Miquel (out of contract)/Ajayi/Hayden as 4th choice CB, one midfield spot for either Aneke or Eisfeld. And Joel Campbell to come in as well.

Ox (obviously), Gnabry and Sanogo are already members of the first team I think. Akpom and Zelalem seem very talented but I think they might need a loan first. For others like Ryo, Afobe, Wellington and Coquelin, sadly, I think the time has come and gone. What do you think?

P.S. This article was written before Arsenal released certain players. Aneke, Tarum Dawkins, and Zak Ansah among them.

Written by Shard

Before anyone says how a little terrier-like defensive midfielder could “do a job” for us, let me tell you a story which highlights perfectly that height matters.

As a child, my elder brother and I would be sent to the Highlands of Scotland to spend two miserable weeks of our Summer Holidays with Uncle Earnest.

Earnest now has a vicious Highland Terrier called Duncan. However, Duncan’s Grandfather on his paternal side was called Dougal, and this was the beast we encountered.

My Uncle thought it would be fun for him to watch (while being character building for us)  “Hunt the Children”. We were given a twenty minute head start, before the vicious little bastard was released. We knew this game was on the cards and were prepared. Being clever ten and twelve year olds, we made our way swiftly across a short open patch of moorland to a small copse, where we had prepared our hide. A cunning platform located three feet in the air among the branches of a rowan tree, with a pre-assembled armoury of chosen rocks. Dougal arrived. We hurled down said missiles from our lofty station, and killed the bastard stone dead.

Good you may well say. Mmm, ok, but not soon enough, as the bastard had already fathered a Son, Angus. We never did kill Angus, who in turn, went on to father the ghastly Duncan.

Still, a lesson to be learnt. Had Dougal been taller, he could have leapt like a salmon and eaten us. See, height matters.

Now, our new Defensive Midfielder at Arsenal. Six foot one inch is the minimum.

During this season, I remember reading on here how someone, in praising the undoubted work rate of Ollie G, also stated what a great headed clearance he had made from some opposition corner or other. My first thought was “I don’t want my Centre Forward anywhere near our own goalmouth”. I want him poised near the half way line ready for some blistering counter attack.

Now first up, Ollie is not the world’s finest header of the ball anyway, but surely a deaper lying Big ‘Un would serve us well. This way there would be no need for our French stud to have to be in that position, as he not covering for our height challenged midfielders?

This kind of brings me on to ask myself the question:

“Can there ever be a case where a Big ‘Un is not preferable to a Little ‘Un, and I mean in any position.”

Sure, there are the twinkle toed genius’ like Messi and Maradona, but a side has more power and versatility with the likes of a Zidane or a Ronaldo (Lady Boy version), as well as all the magic dust.

Thank goodness my Uncle Earnest was no tactical genius like me, otherwise he would have opted for a larger breed of hound, and think how much more fun would his Summers have been in watching the odd Nephew getting eaten. How he would have enjoyed that.

Written by MickyDidIt

I would not be writing this Post if we had lost.

Why?

Because in the crapstorm that would have inevitably followed, any complaints about the referee would have been written off as sour grapes.

But, basking in the still-warm afterglow of that most tortuous, thrilling and ultimately satisfying of Cup Final victories, I feel that Probert’s performance should not pass without detailed comment.

Frankly he was appalling.

The vast majority of his misjudgments went against The Arsenal, but Hull were also on the wrong end of a couple of decisions (not least the fact that the corner that led to our equaliser should actually have been a goal kick).

In the first half he allowed Hull’s clearly deliberate tactic of rotational fouling to go unpunished for far too long.

You didn’t have to be Einstein to work out that part of Steve Bruce’s pre-game instructions to his players would have been to “get in our faces” and disrupt the fluidity of our midfield work.

Rotational fouling (where players take it in turns to commit the fouls to reduce the likelihood of yellow cards) is a tactic straight out of the Alex Ferguson playbook and one with which Bruce is undoubtedly familiar.

These days referees are meant to be alert to the tactic and will normally issue a yellow after, say, the third deliberate little foul even if it is only the first offence for that particular player.

Probert allowed foul after foul to go by without producing a card. Although Arsenal started the game hesitantly, the referee’s refusal to deal with this illegal Hull tactic undoubtedly contributed to our slow start.

This is from the BBC’s Live Blog of the game:

9:06

Foul by Stephen Quinn (Hull City).

11:02

Foul by Liam Rosenior (Hull City).

14:29

Foul by Ahmed Elmohamady (Hull City).

14:41

Foul by David Meyler (Hull City).

15:30

Foul by Alex Bruce (Hull City).

17:57

Foul by Alex Bruce (Hull City).

23:19

Foul by Liam Rosenior (Hull City).

27:02

Foul by Jake Livermore (Hull City).

29:47

Foul by Tom Huddlestone (Hull City).

42:33

Foul by Matty Fryatt (Hull City).

Ten fouls in a little over half an hour, by seven different players: a textbook example of Rotational Fouling in action.

The fact that Probert did not produce a yellow card for a Hull player until well into the second half (Tom Hundredstone was booked on the hour mark) is simply terrible officiating.

I have already mentioned that we should not have been awarded the corner that led to our second goal (the ball went straight out off Sanogo’s heel) and it’s no surprise that that’s the one aspect of Probert’s performance the media have focused on. But it’s also worth noting that Hull’s second goal came from a free kick that was not a free kick (it should have been a throw-in to Hull).

Then we come to the penalties. Or, rather, the non-penalties, since they were not given.

Here’s what I remember from watching live:

A Hull defender saving a possible goal inside his own six yard box with his hands: the ball deflected onto his hands from quite close by – but it should have been a penalty because his hands were not in a “natural” position – they were raised above his head in the manner of a goalkeeper.

Giroud being dragged to the ground by Hundredstone, whose trailing arm was around the Frenchman’s throat.

Santi Cazorla skinning Davies in the Hull area then getting tripped.

Santi being bundled over in the area with an elbow in the back moments before the ball had reached him (I make this latter point because there could have been an argument – still flimsy – that, had he been in possession of the ball, it was a legitimate attempt at a tackle. But without the ball – a clear and blatant foul).

I may even have missed one, but the four penalty shouts above were all, to me, clear penalties.

You never expect to get all your legitimate penalty shouts (especially if you’re an Arsenal fan) but to get zero out of four? Very, very odd.

Which brings us back to Probert.

Is it possible that he had it in for Arsenal? Well, if this were an episode of CSI, you wouldn’t have to look far for a motive. In 2009 he was the fourth official at Old Trafford when Arsene Wenger was sent to sit among the United supporters for the heinous crime of kicking a water bottle.

When the League Managers Association subsequently apologised to Le Boss, its chief executive Richard Bevan said

“Probert totally failed to manage the situation and created a needless pressure point taking the focus away from the pitch in a big event with only a minute to go.“

No-one likes to be publicly criticized – and for those who are it is often easier not to focus on their own failings and, instead, to project the blame onto the true victim (in this case, Arsene).

Could Probert have a grudge against Arsene Wenger? Possibly.

But perhaps a more realistic explanation was given by Shard in the comments here on AA:

“I didn’t think he was necessarily out to screw us. But this is where the media coverage makes a difference. He knows he’ll get a much easier ride in the media (and hence with his bosses) if it’s Arsenal he screws over rather than Hull. Hence his reluctance to give a penalty even when they were quite obvious.

“Because just in case it shouldn’t have been a penalty, he would be slaughtered. As it is the media are focusing on a wrongly awarded corner to Arsenal from which we scored and the penalties are forgotten. Can you imagine the uproar if any similar penalty incidents went against Hull? It doesn’t excuse his abysmal performance, but perhaps it explains it.”

Perhaps it does indeed.

I have written before about how Arsenal regularly gets poor treatment from referees partly because of the media-inspired campaign against Wenger and aginst the whole culture of our club.

Add to that the layer of the “romance of the Cup” with “plucky underdogs” taking on big, bad Arsenal and you can get a sense of why Probert may have made the decisions he did.

It’s reminiscent of the way Phil Dowd, in the game at Newcastle where we were 4-0 up at half time and ended up drawing 4-4, got totally wrapped up in the “’Toon comeback” to the extent that he stopped being an impartial officiator and became part of the process of making the fairytale come true.

Probert may have crossed the same line without even consciously being aware of it.

It doesn’t excuse his performance (I hope he re-watches it several times and pauses to consider just how awful it was) but it might just explain it.

I’m sorry if this comes off as a negative Post – I’m not feeling in the tiniest bit negative: I am truly very happy.

But I have no doubt that we triumphed in the Cup Final despite Probert – and that’s quite a damning indictment of a supposedly professional referee in the English game’s biggest occasion of the year.

RockyLives