Well folks this is it, the most important 20 days in Arsene Wengers Arsenal career. After what has been happening at the club gradually over the past 3 or 4 years and how this was accentuated by last season collapse we were promised a summer of great transfer activity and of “working on the issues in the team” Well has it happened? We seem to still have the stiffs here, we have signed one player for the first team and another two kids. In the pre season friendly we were still playing the same tactic and still getting undone by a poor line and the fact our central defenders have a turning circle larger than the QE2.
On top of this we have Clichy gone, and 95% sure than Fabregas and Nasri wil be gone by the end of the day. Many will feel its good business to get rid of Nasri, a terribly inconsistent player who has loked good ro maybe 35% of the time he has been here (And yet still had the nerve to ask for £100k a week wages) Clichy was a different story, many felt he had reached the end of the road here due to the lapses in concentration and overall poor displays of late, i could have taken this if he had been replaced but he hasn’t, we now have Keiran Gibbs who’s injury record makes Van Persie look more like the iron giant and has always looked out of his depth and Almond(sic) Traore, a player we haven’t seen for 2 seasons. Nasri’s replacement as it stands is a 18 year old Japanese kid who has never played a game for the club and a fat Russian who always looks like he can’t be bothered.
I feel many people will be gutted by the Fabregas transfer, some for the loss of a player of true world class ability, our captain and arguable best and most important players 2 days before the season starts, however more will feel we have been robbed if the amounts coming in are believed. £27mil plus £5mil in add on’s and £2mil from the player in waved clauses? £34mil for a world class, 23 year old player? Compare this to the Andy Carroll and Fernando Torres transfer and it seems we have had our pants pulled down I appreciate only one club wanted him and he wanted only one club, and that they have been being absolute cocks around the whole thing for that log its worn us down but he is a European and World cup winner and has 3 years left on his contract?.
And you know what? I don’t believe for one second that we are now going to go out and buy 3,4,5 quality players to reinforce the team and replace those who have left. And this returns me to the top, should Wenger not fulfil the PR bullshit and not bring in the players we desperately need then we are on trouble, as a club, as fans and as a team, remember next summer RVP and Walcott could well do what Clichy and Nasri have done this year . So should we fail in recruiting and then the team goes on to struggle and find results i can’t see a way Wenger can stay? The refusal to spend, the ever increasing number of kids we have to pin our hopes on and the fact the likes of Rosicky, Bendtner, Eboue etc are still here all add to this.
The only salvation I can see here is for him to buy and well we know how that normally goes...
Finally our starting line up for Toon away, the site of last year’s most ridiculous result. (With injuries)
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Sagna--------Kos-------------Squillachi----------Gibbs---
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--------------Rosicky-----------Ramsey----------------
--Walcott-----------------------------------Arshavin
----------------------Gervinho-------------------------