Arsenal by definition, have always represented the very best of British. We are diverse and multi-cultural, welcoming players and supporters from every corner of the world, whilst retaining a class that no amount of money can buy. Essentially, Arsenal are aristocrats through their assorted share-holders, many of them titled, and extremely wealthy.

Supporters too, particularly Brits, are very generous in spirit, willingly sacrificing their undying loyalty, and asking for little in return. Watching the Women’s Euro’s, after Germany had beaten Norway to claim their sixth successive Euro title, Guy Mowbray came out with a line that immediately reminded me of Arsenal – “Norway wanted it, Germany demanded it…” A strong aggressive powerful message of intent mixed with an arrogant confidence, the Germans are drilled to succeed. Arsenal are like Norway, they want it, but they don’t demand it. The most successful clubs demand a regular supply of silver-ware, and are quick to act if that supply dries up. Arsenal behave as if they don’t expect any silver-ware, but should any accidently turn up they can award themselves even bigger bonuses (not to say they don’t already, isn’t that so, Mr Gazidis?).

It’s nine years since Arsenal won the title, and despite making much noise between 2004 and now, they haven’t really had the stomach to go for it. It’s our sixteenth successive year of CL football, but we’ve only been to one final and two semi-finals, and as with the Premier League, we really are a long way from the quality needed to challenge, and a lot further away than we were in 2004.

The financial debate is pointless. We are forever turning up in the top four/five of Forbes and Deloittes richest global sports clubs, which can’t be a coincidence. Chelsea and Manchester City haven’t suddenly become bigger and wealthier than Arsenal, they are just prepared to invest whatever it takes to make their brand a winning one, which will in turn reap huge financial benefits from commercial and sponsorship revenues.

Arsenal are over-cautious with their short-term no risk approach, the philosophy is mirrored by the product on the field, everything at Arsenal is done with the hand-brake on. As if any proof of this were needed, Arsenal had more possession of the ball than any other side in the PL. Possession for possession sake. That isn’t a money issue, that’s flawed football. That’s having far too much of the ball and half the time not having a clue what to do with it having passed themselves into blind alleys and cul-de-sacs that lead nowhere.

We are in a place now where we go into every game against the top three hoping for divine intervention, but deep down fearing defeat.

Is that really who we’ve become?

Maybe it’s part of the French DNA, that in the final analysis, they don’t have the blood and guts for the battle. They’re philosophers rather than fighters, which is why they virtually laid out the red carpet for the Germans in WWII.

I stand by my conviction that Arsene Wenger has refused to test himself at the elite level. People like to cite his loyalty and love for Arsenal, but my guess is that had he moved to a big club and failed, his career would have been quite short. And who else would renumerate a manager as generously as Arsenal do for achieving the bare minimum?

Arsenal supporters are very generous in spirit, they are fiercely loyal and very forgiving in nature. We never demand trophies, NOR do we demand ridiculously expensive big-money signings, but we do expect our tactical frailties to be addressed and fixed, and I personally expect the level of quality in our players to be of the standard required to take the title to the wire, and seriously challenge in the CL, just as was promised seven years ago by our club’s hierarchy.

Arsene Wenger arrived fresh-faced from Japan, full of life, full of ideas to revolutionise Arsenal and English football. Wenger cleverly utilised the French market at a time when the French football was in the ascendancy, and building around Dennis Bergkamp he discovered the perfect mix. But just as French football declined so too have Arsenal. The last transfer that excited me a little was in January 2004, when Arsenal signed Jose Antonio Reyes, and even then only because the British Press – as always when these things happen – were a little too lavish in their appraisal of the Spaniard.

Since that time, in my opinion, Arsene Wenger’s judgement and use of the club’s resources has been poor, without any clear indication of improvement. How many times do we give the benefit of the doubt, hoping to see a dynamic change, something exciting happen, only to be left feeling deflated again? Arsene Wenger gave Arsenal fans back their belief, and he made us fall in love with football again, but that was a long time ago. And it doesn’t matter what the excuse or reason is, Arsene Wenger has nothing new or revolutionary to bring to the table, and his best days probably left along with David Dein. This isn’t an anti-Wenger campaign, this is a pro-Arsenal thing, and an honest opinion of where I think we’re at.

In six years time, we’ll be celebrating 100 years of unbroken football in the top flight (save for WWII), wouldn’t it be great going into that season knowing that we’re back as a genuine force! There are a lot of changes needed at Arsenal if that is to be so,

I only hope those charged with making that happen are brave and intelligent enough to make the right decisions for the club and it’s supporters.

Written by We are The Arsenal

We now have less than two weeks before the start of the Premier League season of 2013/14 and I find myself wondering about whether our squad has the necessary quality or depth.

This summer has been typical of other transfer transactions periods very quiet and with more rumoured than actual movements. Fortunately it looks like we are making more concerted efforts to move out the players, in both the 1st team and youth squad’s, that have not made the grade, hopefully this will free up funds for new acquisitions. Another thing to be pleased about is that all the players who have left this summer have been of our choice and we have not lost any of our key players.

So far the only addition to our squad has been Yaya Sonogo at 1.91m (or 6’4”) he will become a big physical presence in our attack, but will it be this season or later?.

It’s when I take a close look at the Arsenal.com 1st team squad who are currently the players we have to start the season with that I become concerned. Out of the listed squad of 29 players we only have18 recognised Premier League players who are fit and ready, we also have 2 untried players, 2 injured, 4 on the chopping block and 3 out on loan.

Therefore the 18 fit and ready players will, most likely, have to form our 1st team and our substitute’s bench, which is assuming we make no further acquisitions or suffer any more injuries. With time running out before the start of the season it will be a hammer blow to get any serious injuries and if we do make further acquisitions they will have little or no time to settle into the squad.

We have 5 games in the first 16 days of the new season starting with Aston Villa on August 17th and ending with Tottenham on September 1st and squeezed in there are our 2 vitally important Champions League qualifying games – not an easy start.

Without any more changes to our squad we are going to be heavily reliant on our Youth Academy to fill out our squad and allow the fit and able 1st team squad to be rotated and rested. From what little I’ve seen of the youth players we have quite a few with high potential but with little or no 1st team experience. Players like Miquel, Eisfield, Gnabry, Zelalem and Akpom are exceptional talents – but ready for the 1st team? I’m not at all sure.

Perhaps my biggest single concern is with our goalkeeping, we have 2 reacognized keepers in Szczesny and Fabinanski and if either of them gets an injury or suffers from a lack of form then who do we turn to? – in our youth team we have 3 keepers in Martinez, Vickers and Iliev but to my knowledge none of them have played in the 1st team.

I am seriously concerned about both the quality and depth of our squad and if we don’t make serious changes we may be looking at qualifying for the Chumps League and not the Champions League.

Ist Team Squad

1. Laurent Koscielny Center Back

2. Per Mertesacker Center Back

3. Kieran Gibb Defender

4. Carl Jenkinson Defender

5. Nacho Monreal Defender

6. Bacary Sagna Defender

7. Lukasz Fabianski Goal Keeper

8. Wojciech Szczesny Goal Keeper

9. Mikel Arteta Midfielder

10. Santi Cazorla Midfielder

11. Emanu Frimpong Midfielder

12. Aaron Ramsey Midfielder

13. Tomas Rosicky Midfielder

14. Jack Wilshere Midfielder

15. Olivier Giroud Striker

16. Oxlaide-Chamberlain Striker

17. Lukas Podolski Striker

18. Theo Walcott Striker

Untried in the EPL

Ryo Miyaichi Striker

Yaya Sango Striker

Injured

Thomas Vermaelen Center Back

Abou Diaby Midfielder

On the chopping block

Ju-Young Park Striker

Nicklas Bendtner Striker

Marouane Chamakh Striker

Gervinho Striker

Out on loan

Johan Djourou Center Back

Francis Coquelin Midfielder

Joel Campbell Striker

These are our youth and academy players as listed on Arsenal.com.

Who do you think is ready to step up into the 1st team?

Youth/Academy

Hector Bellerin Defender

Daniel Boateng Defender

Tom Dallison Defender

Zachari Fagan Defender

Isaac Hayden Defender

Ignasi Miquel Defender

Ormonde-Ottewill Defender

Leander Sieman Defender

Arinse Uade Defender

Damian Martinez Goal Keeper

Josh Vickers Goal Keeper

Deyan Illev Goal Keeper

Chuks Aneke Midfielder

Thomas Eisfeld Midfielder

Serge Gnabry Midfielder

Anthony Jeffrey Midfielder

Glen Kamara Midfielder

Alfred Mugabo Midfielder

Kristoffer Olsson Midfielder

Jon Toral Midfielder

Jack Webb Midfielder

Nicholas Yennaris Midfielder

Gedion Zelalem Midfielder

Benik Afobe Striker

Chuba Akpom Striker

Zac Ansah Striker

Tarum Dawkins Striker

Alex Iwobi Striker

Austin Lipman Striker

Wellington -Silva Striker

Out on loan

Samuel Galindo Midfielder

I hope that I’m just being paranoid – but I fear not.

GunnerN5

I confidently predict that after another summer transfer silly season, Arsenal will not have signed any players categorized as world or top class. This would involve paying in excess of £35m and a weekly wage of £150k+.

You will deduce from this that I do not expect us to be signing Suarez and what follows is based on that premise. Even if you think Suarez will be an Arsenal player by the end of the window, the points I wish to make are relevant up to the present time. If I am wrong I will happily eat a large slice of humble pie

You could read back through the things Ivan Gazidis has said regarding our spending power and argue that his words have been misinterpreted. He’s said we have the money. He’s said what we ‘can’ do, but that is quite different to what we are prepared to do. Certainly IG and AW have both stated at different times that we ‘could’ buy players like Rooney or Suarez if we choose to.

Did we ever intend to spend the mythical £70m warchest?

I know what Mr Wenger would say, he’d say, if players of the right quality are available, we will try to buy them – and who can argue with that as a general statement?

I can sense indignant blogger’s fingers itching on their keyboards to type the following:

We cannot compete in the transfer market with clubs who have billionaire owners who throw money at their clubs – and I agree

We operate within a stable self-sustaining financial model and that is the best path for the club – and I agree

We have amazing young talent coming through and we don’t need any big signings – I only agree in part.

We do not know who or what part of the administration of Arsenal really decides how much we are prepared to spend. Kroenke says the Board run the club, others contend that Arsene Wenger controls just about everything and some (kelsey included), suspect Kroenke himself is happy to see his investment grow and has very little interest in the football side of the business.

You can make your own mind up about that one, but what concerns me is that a part, or maybe all of the administration have decided to send out a message that has misled supporters into an unrealistic expectation of the type of player we might be signing this summer –  and not for the first time.

I’m not talking about 98% of stories which are fabrication and exaggeration manufactured by the redtops and gutter media, I’m talking about the 2% which are direct quotes from senior members of staff.

The overall effect of this strategy is to create a divide between supporters, and Arsenal are pilloried by the media.

The game of bluff and counter bluff that surrounds transfer dealings is notorious. Most agents manipulate the media, players and clubs with the sole aim of feathering their own nests. Clubs are forced to join in the circus and deliver misinformation as part of the process of getting their man, or getting the best price for their wantaway player.

I accept all this, but Arsenal seem to take it a step too far.

Our reputation for procrastinating on deals, missing out on players for the sake of a couple of million, being unprepared to pay wages at the going rate etc. etc. may be fueled by the media – but who can deny it has an element of truth? Past events support those accusations.

We are perceived as a bit of a joke. We are the relatively wealthy club who says it has the money but actually never wants to spend it.

I get furious when I hear supporters of other teams say “we can’t compete with the rich clubs like United, Chelsea and Arsenal” In terms of our balance of spending on players, we are near the bottom of the league table.

We have an excellent manager who has turned water into wine many times, but it would appear we have lost our advantage in the scouting network and it is possible that the reputation we have earned is now working against us and we’ve become a less desirable destination in the eyes of some players.

So why do we persist in feeding the media with the ammunition to ridicule us by posturing and pretending to be something we are not?

AW said when asked about Wayne Rooney  “We would not have a problem with the wages of Rooney” … that is just not true. Yes we could afford it, but he’s on £250k a week at present,  the administration would not sanction such a wage.

All I would ask is  that Arsenal stop trying to give the impression we are something we are not because events inevitably disprove this view and it simply makes us look a bit lame.

We have immense integrity as a club, so why damage that by pointless posturing in the transfer market?

Nothing will change in our approach to spending on players whilst the current administration is in control. Some new younger ‘footballing blood’ on the Board would be a good start, but it appears it is a closed shop for the old school.

We are the architects of our own reputation. The longer we persist with this ‘we could if we wanted to’ position, and subsequently fail to deliver, the more  disillusioned some supporters will become.

It is ironic that at a time when the squad seems more united than for many years, the chasm between supporters grows ever wider and for this the club has to accept some responsibility.

Written by Rasp

Arsene Wenger’s comments on Arsenal.com suggest that we may be heading for another one of those Transfer Window that Arsene could write a book about.

It is very unedifying to see us linked with so many players but not to have actually managed to sign one.

Gazidis was quoted at the end of last season that we would be looking to spend money, that the wage structure had to change, and that the club was ambitious to win trophies. He also went on to say that Arsene could effectively stay as long as he liked.

I have a problem with the quotes because I believe that if the club were that keen to spend money and change wage structure they would not allow Arsene to stay if it is him that is blocking the spending. This seems to be the general story when looking at blogs and the redtops.

I think Arsene is perhaps too loyal to his employers, if Mourinho was treated as Arsene has been treated by the board he would be negotiating his settlement within hours, Arsene has been covering the Boards backs for a number of years now and still they do not help him.

Early signs in the summer were good, a number of players were being released and sold on, this we believed to be about freeing wage bill for a big signing or two, however I fear it was more to do with freeing squad spaces due to EPL rules on homegrown/non homegrown etc.

Now Arsene comes out and is quoted as saying the following:

We are ready to do quick deals but all the transfers do not depend only on us, but we are prepared to wait. It looks unlikely before the Emirates Cup.

We still have a strong squad but we are there on the market to try to strengthen our team. With or without additions we can be title challengers next season.

When asked about Rodgers comments on Suarez he said the following

He must explain that, I don’t know. We are not close to signing Suarez or anybody else so there’s no reason why I should talk about it.

There is nothing to say. I have been away now for two or the weeks and it’s hard to see how things are advanced because everyone is on tour at the moment and it’s very difficult to get in touch with people.

I believe that everybody competes on a very high level. What has changed recently is that in Europe, countries like France have bought some very talented players who would two or three years ago all have come to England. That makes the chase for talent very difficult.

What we want is not a name but a good player. The name is less important. What is important is the quality of the player. We want as many top players as we can but we have to focus on the players and develop them as well.

In midfield you have plenty of candidates – there’s a big fight in midfield. Sagna has settled in well as a centre back. We have a strong squad. We are there on the market trying to strengthen our team.

It would appear from the above that Arsene is already starting to be a disbeliever when it comes to the Board helping him sign his targets. Maybe it also indicates that the whole Suarez thing is balderdash of the highest order, but with Liverpool being so open about the offers it is hard to ignore.

Whether Suarez is the right man for Arsenal or not is irrelevant at this point, what is relevant is that yet again Arsene in my view appears to have more content for his Transfer Window Opus, apparently it will be entitled, Arsene loves our club and the job too much to walk away, but sometimes for his own reputation’s sake I wish he would.

Written by Gooner in Exile