Arsene Wenger – Page 9 – Bergkampesque

My Take on the Suarez Fiasco

August 7, 2013August 7, 2013TotalArsenal

By now you must all be aware of the saga regarding Liverpool, Arsenal and Luis Suarez, unless of course you live under a rock. I am not here to speculate on the likeliness of this transfer going through or even to analyse what he’d bring to the team. I am here to defend my beloved football club.

Arsenal and Wenger in particular have been receiving a lot of stick from the both the media and Liverpool as a whole with Brendan Rodgers even going as far as branding Arsene as ”classless”. First of all, let me examine what is considered wrong when pursuing a player, tapping up. For those who do not know, tapping up is when a club is chasing a player contracted to another club and makes it public either through the coach, players or any affiliate of that club. The most notorious culprits have always been the Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid.

In this case not only are Arsenal innocent of this, but it is Liverpool who publicized our bids despite the protests by Wenger. Let me remind you that Wenger hasn’t even referred to Suarez by name in any of his interviews so far. And then Brendan has the audacity to refer to him as classless. As far as the 40,000,001 pound bid is concerned, a team can bid whatever amount for a player. It is well within their rights simply because valuation of a player is almost purely a matter of opinion, unless there is a release clause in the contract. Which brings me to my next point.

I am of the opinion that everything Brendan and Liverpool are doing to paint Arsenal in a bad light are for the purpose of stopping this transfer. But the question here is this; who are the real villains in all this? Is it Arsenal, Liverpool or Suarez? In my opinion, the blame lies squarely on Liverpool and here’s why: The point of contention in all this is the presence (or lack thereof) the 40M pound clause that had been agreed upon between Liverpool and Suarez before he signed his deal. Suarez clarifies that before he signed the deal, he insisted on a clause that stated that if Liverpool do not qualify for the champions league in the 2012-13 season, they would allow him to go to a champions league team as long as that team offered above 40M. Liverpool are now insisting that that offer only obliges them to notify him of the bid.

What is clear here is that there was an agreement between the two that they’d sell him him for 40M to a champions league team if they didn’t qualify. I am actually pretty well versed in legal matters being that my father and brother are both lawyers, so I do know that the exact wording of a clause in any contract is vital. The idea here is that Liverpool agreed to these terms (be it verbally or in the clause) before Suarez signed it. This means that by reneging on it now, they broke the promise they made to Suarez. Like I said, the wording of the clause is vital BUT the fact remains that Suarez signed this contract knowing that these were the terms. Now on a legal standpoint it I can’t say much because I haven’t seen the clause. I also do not know how the law works there.

However, in Kenya, and as I am told in the USA, because Suarez signed the contract knowing that those were the terms, by refusing him this transfer Liverpool acted in bad faith. This means that Suarez could sue them and if he has evidence of the agreement (whether verbal or written) his contract with Liverpool would be nullified. On a moral standpoint, Liverpool conned Suarez into signing that contract if they knew they wouldn’t uphold their end of the bargain. The fact remains that all the conditions of the agreement have been met as LFC did not qualify for the CL, Arsenal are in the CL and Arsenal’s bid exceeds 40M pounds.

To conclude, it is easy to castigate Suarez based on his moral history but in this case I side with him completely, and not just because I am a Gooner. It is as if at your work place your boss promises you a pay rise if you meet a certain level of performance, and you work your socks off to achieve that. But when you do get there, he goes back on his word. If I was Suarez, I would have done the exact same thing. Even worse. And as for Liverpool, let Suarez go, or not, but they need to stop using Arsenal as a scapegoat for their misdeeds.

Written by: Marcus

Torture Window: Should Arsenal rethink their Transfer Policy?

July 21, 2013July 21, 2013TotalArsenal

Arsenal is one of the, if not the most, frustrating clubs to support when it comes to transfers. This is something that is not at all hinged on our financial position all the time, as is becoming clear during this transfer window.

Admittedly I do not know the nitty-gritty of how transfers work in terms of who plays what role or the actual process of a transfer (except the aspects that we are all familiar with), however, I do know a few things. The club has scouts who identify potential targets (a job that is mostly done by Wenger when a top player is in question). I also know that Wenger has complete control over who we sign and how much money is spent, with the exception of a scenario where it is a big money transfer in which case the board must sanction the release of these funds. Finally, I know that Dick Law heads the team that negotiates transfer fees and contracts once a player is identified and Wenger gives the go ahead to chase him.

That said, it is obvious that there is something that throws a spanner in the works in every transfer that has even the slightest complication. I recently read an article that suggested that the main reason why Arsenal transfers are so complicated is because Arsene Wenger is notoriously indecisive. I am inclined to believe them. When Arsenal were chasing Juan Mata, the transfer had reached a point where Arsenal and Valencia had agreed a fee of 17 million pounds, and all that was left was for the club to sit down with Mata and agree contractual logistics. However Wenger changed his mind and dilly-dallied allowing Chelsea to swoop.

I know this for a fact, because months later (after he had signed for Chelsea) Mata was asked about the transfer to Arsenal and he said that he didn’t know what happened because as far as he was concerned, he was hours away from being a Gunner. He explained that once Valencia allowed him to talk to us, he waited by the phone for Arsene’s call to arrange contractual negotiations; a call that never came.

More or less the same thing happened with Yann M’vila where everything was agreed only for Arsene to change his mind citing disciplinary concerns. Given that Wenger is notoriously private about transfers, those are the only two examples I can give but I am sure they aren’t the only ones. This gives an indication that Wenger tends to over think every single detail to a point that it begins to work against us. Maybe it would be more beneficial if, at the beginning of a window, Arsene would give his wish-list and lets the club pursue them.

Another fault that we have during transfers is that apparently we can’t multitask. Let me explain. Right now we are chasing a striker, a DM, a keeper and a defender. We even have names of players that we would like to see fill those positions. However for the past 2 months we have been firmly fixated on bringing in a striker (Higuain and (or) Suarez to be precise) and for the time being, have put these other positions on the back burner.

Real Madrid have put us in this position by employing dirty tactics as they keep raising Higuain’s price but still, while we wait for that to pan out, we could have signed Wanyama and Cesar already. Wanyama told me personally that he waited for us to make a move until it reached a point where he wasn’t sure whether we were interested anymore, so he moved to Southampton instead.

Cesar is trying his best to hold off any transfer while he waits for us to make our minds up but that will only last for so long.

Think of it this way: yes, Real have really stalled our plans to bring in a striker but that shouldn’t affect other transfers. Southampton completed the Wanyama transfer in half a week. Given the current circumstances, it would take even less time to sign Cesar. It was reported that Fellaini is willing to join us and is waiting for us to open negotiations. Ideally, by now we should have most if not all other target transfers tied in a bow and then focus our efforts on the complicated ones, which is bringing in the strikers, not the other way round.

The more we wait the more of our targets get snapped up and derail our plans further leading to the famous last minute deals which more often than not backfire.

Maybe a change of tact is what we need, so as to eliminate these sleepless nights we Gooners spend monitoring transfer stories to see if Wenger will come good on his promises. Oh what it is to be a gooner!!!

Written by: Marcus

AR16 – An ode to a player who turned groans into cheers

July 20, 2013July 20, 2013TotalArsenal

Each time an article is written about Ramsey, the first few paragraphs ALWAYS touch on his horrifying injury… but I’m not here to tell you what we all already know… I’ll point out why I believe the young Welshman has A LOT to offer to our squad, and that he is, and can continue be, a core player in our squad, not only now but for years to come.

First, let me say that I’m a BIG fan of our young Welshman, and as such I feel compelled to defend him for as long as I can. This is a player whose trajectory was once well ahead of compatriot Gareth Bale (after all, he was appointed captain of Wales), and he looked to be a potential replacement for Cesc Fabregas at Arsenal. After overcoming his brutal mutilation there was no question he would require some time to recover some pace, and whilst his intrinsic quality was still very visible, some of the spark had gone.

As with Eduardo earlier, many feared we might have lost a player for good. We all know of his subsequent loan deals and his not so spectacular return to the Grove… a few good games marred by games where everyone wanted his head, and until the dying embers of last season, his contribution and place on the team had been seriously questioned.

Now to the REAL purpose of writing this post. What Rambo brings to our squad…

I won’t look past what we all witnessed last season, more so, the last few games of the previous campaign. It would be hard to argue that Ramsey’s burst of success seemed to perfectly coincide with the sides’ massive improvement and Wenger’s commitment to really go for Champions League football once again. Ramsey’s commitment to his box-to-box role throughout the latter months of the season was about as valuable as any other player’s contribution to the side. Taking nothing away from him, he did benefit MASSIVELY playing alongside our Lego haired Spaniard… Arteta is a feisty tackler and intelligent with his positioning, while he retains that ability to play reliable passes towards attacking players.

Knowing that he is tasked with shielding our back-4, Arteta rarely ventures forward and as a result, Ramsey greatly benefited from Arteta’s discipline. With Arteta acting as the defensive shield and with astute passing, Ramsey was afforded greater freedom playing more of a box-to-box role, helping out in midfield and storming forward into attack. Ramsey was essentially the player that connected everyone else. With Arteta sitting deep, Santi drifting inside from the left wing, Rozy hustling about in attack, and Theo and either Giroud or iPod providing incision and goal-scoring threat, Ramsey did a bit of everything. He passed, tackled, pressed and he was essentially the ‘glue’ in the team.

To know how good a player really is, it’s only fair to compare him to the very best in the same position…using some reliable stats I stumbled upon, I compare Rambo to some of the best central players in the game (Javi Martinez, Lars Bender and Arturo Vidal) and 2 players currently linked to The Arsenal (Maxime Gonalons and Étienne Capoue):

Pass completion

Aaron Ramsey – 88.6%
Maxime Gonalons – 87.8%
Arturo Vidal – 87.4%
J. Martinez – 87.5%
Étienne Capoue – 80.7%
Lars Bender – 79.8%

Average passes made

Maxime Gonalons – 64.5
Étienne Capoue – 65.2
Arturo Vidal – 54.3
Aaron Ramsey – 52.1
Lars Bender – 45
J. Martinez – 41.2

Key passes

Arturo Vidal – 2
Aaron Ramsey – 1.2
Lars Bender – 1
Étienne Capoue – 0.8
Maxime Gonalons – 0.2
J. Martinez – 0.4

Tackling success

Aaron Ramsey – 91%
J. Martinez – 82%
Lars Bender – 82%
Maxime Gonalons – 80%
Étienne Capoue – 78%
Arturo Vidal – 70%

Interceptions

Maxime Gonalons – 3.1
Étienne Capoue – 2.6
Lars Bender – 2.5
J. Martinez – 2
Arturo Vidal – 1.4
Aaron Ramsey – 1.2

Assists

Arturo Vidal – 7
Lars Bender – 5
J. Martinez – 3
Étienne Capoue – 3
Aaron Ramsey – 2
Maxime Gonalons – 0
Looking at the above stats its clear to see how EXCELLENT Rambo was…yet some still dismiss him as a liability with only what can be regarded as ignorant criticism… take a look at those stats again…HE WAS THAT GOOD!!!!!

One criticism he often gets is that he misplaces a lot of passes but with Arteta doing the ‘safe passing’ he is tasked with playing intricate through balls in the final third, hence the misplaced passes, but in time his passing should improve.

Another thing I behold is his partnership with Jack… I think a real boon for Ramsey at the moment is the return of Jack who naturally creates space and movement around him. Ramsey compliments him very well and I think they are the long term central midfield pivot for Arsenal. There was a time when Ramsey and Wilshere looked almost identical on the pitch and now hopefully those days are returning. I recall how they ran the show during the manure match, where Rambo would go on to win the match for us, and most recently, the West Ham match last season where Rambo sat deep as Jack played the b2b role… I noticed how they took turns to attack and sit deep in turns and it was telepathic stuff… long may it continue!

One man who deserves credit is Arsene for not only sticking by him but being brave enough to play him out wide knowing all too well the impact it would have on his game. Wenger has said players with a future in the centre should experience playing on the wing because they have to play in half the space so they learn to use it better. Playing on the wing has not been a fail, it has done wonders for Ramsey’s career; he’s learned to use space better and quickened up his game, he takes less touches and he doesn’t get caught in possession anymore .

Wenger’s handling of Ramsey must be one of the best piece of man management I’ve ever seen; he kept faith in him and kept him in the team which has been great for Ramsey’s confidence, and playing him on the wing has hugely benefited his game. Credit to Rambo for keeping his head down and playing wherever he’s asked …” At the beginning of the season I was moving all over the pitch, playing left-wing, right-wing, right back. I was asked to do a job in many positions, which I’m happy to do for the team. If the manager wants me to play there, I’m not going to say no.”…If only Theo could take a leaf from Rambo’s book…

As the season drew to an end he began to win back support with grit, hard work and determination. Groans from the stands turned to cheers once again.

His all-action role caught the eye, and he was voted Arsenal’s player of the month for April. All credit to him for not allowing himself to drift away and credit to Arsenal for sticking by him. What delights me is that the boo-boys have silenced and realized that Rambo is as important as any other player in the squad. He may not thread a pass like Cesc did, or dribble like Wilshere does, but he has all the attributes to make a phenomenal link between the defensive side of midfield, and attack. His all-round ability and his all-round playing style lend him to this versatility and his physical style means he can succeed. He no longer lingers on the ball as much anymore either and his new found energy and assertive aggression are there for all to see. If he gives the ball away, he wants to win it back. He never hides. I hope he can keep up this level of improvement and finally put ALL the doubters to bed.

The one area he must improve upon is his goal scoring. He only scored two goals all season – in stoppage time against Olympiakos back in early October and the 4^th goal against Wigan. Though he did enjoy an encouraging season in central midfield, there’s an obvious area to improve upon for next season.

Like Arsene always says, a player really starts to come into his own at 23 so we can be sure to see a much improved player. He has the mentality, the fight and the ability and this Gooner will support him every step of the way.

Written by: Kenyan Gooner.

Special thanks to TA for encouraging me to write this post.

Suarez, Theo & Cazorla behind Giroud in a 4-2-3-1 formation?

July 10, 2013July 10, 2013TotalArsenal

I cannot believe Arsenal continue to be linked with Luis Suarez. Liverpool’s Uruguayan striker is a great footballer and would fit into Arsenal really well. He could play alone up-front, behind a big striker as our shadow striker or in a fluid-three in attack. Suarez has got drive and stamina, great first touch and he is a good passer of the ball, he has an eye for an assist and is very, very attack-minded. His goal scoring record is simply fantastic: he scored 81 goals in 110 Eredivisie games for Ajax and 38 in 77 PL games for Liverpool, with 23 in just 33 games during last season.

We could play him in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-1-3 formation, and no doubt it would make us stronger up-front. Arsenal could continue with Giroud as our ‘holding striker’ – the pivot – upfront and the likes of Santi, Theo and Cazorla could form an awesome, fluid and multi-facetted attacking force around him. With Gervinho, Pod and Ox, Arsenal have three more attackers with whom Suarez could form very effective attacking partnerships in the above mentioned formations.

Arsenal could look like this:

But we all know that Suarez, the person, can be described as somewhere between a complex and unstable character. His repeated racist abuse of Evra, for which he was rightly severely punished, and bites into footballers’ body parts tell us he struggles with controlling himself on the pitch.

It is not extremely likely Suarez will make racist remarks on or off the pitch again, as he will have learned his lesson now, even though I don’t think he has much, if any, regrets about what he did. The latter will unlikely fit well with the club’s strong focus on inclusion and equality, on and off the pitch and in the community.

Suarez’s bite into Ivanovic’s arm this season was not without precedent, as he did the same to Otman Bakkal of PSV Eindhoven (shoulder) at the end of 2010. Clearly, Suarez is a player who sometimes suffers from red mist in front of him, leading to almost inexplicable behaviour which gets him, and the club he plays for, into enormous trouble.

I am a big believer that people, and that includes relatively life-inexperienced footballers, can better themselves and move upwards and onwards. But do we want a player who has shown little or no regret for his racist remarks against Evra and who continuous to perform vile, unacceptable conducts against opposition players at our club?

Under the guidance of Wenger and Bould (and maybe Dennis at some point 😛 ), there is a chance that Suarez would settle down a bit and only let his footie do the talking. But it is a big risk to take. The Uruguayan would cost Arsenal at least £35m and that excludes the big wages we would have to pay.

There remains a decent chance that Suarez will behave very badly again, and one more incident could be the final straw for his football career in England, and possibly the rest of Europe. He could bite an opposing player again, or one of our own players or a supporter. He could intentionally break another player’s leg, or head-butt a player or fan. And what if he gets involved in racial abuse, on or off the pitch, again?

Our club’s image would be tarnished and we could be stuck with an untenable situation and an unsalable player, which would come at a huge cost – in more than one sense.

I really cannot see Wenger being seriously interested in Suarez. It took him a long time to get rid of troublesome, disruptive players like Adebayor, Bendtner (still not gone), Nasri etc, and he has clearly been recruiting a different type of player (professional, well-behaved, highly driven and focussed) in the last couple of years.

Let’s hope Arsenal’s recent bid(s) for the Uruguayan are part of a wider strategy aimed at getting another key transfer target.

I say this, though, with some regret, as we can all see he would add great quality to our attack. But sometimes, we need to ignore the belly and listen to our hearts and brains. Suarez does not fit our values and he would be a big liability for the club. Some might say it is worth the gamble, but I beg to differ.

Written by: TotalArsenal.

Arsenal best-11 players in 2013-14, if we had kept all Wenger Gems

July 9, 2013July 9, 2013TotalArsenal

The Torture Window has once again presented us with a few twists and turns. It looks like we will not get Higuain until RM have signed a marquee striker themselves this summer, and this could take a long time.

Los Blancos are still smarting from losing out on Neymar, and the Brazilian’s stellar performances during that made-up tournament last month, as well as Ronaldo’s comment that he wished Neymar had come to his current employer, will only have rubbed more salt into the wound.

They are under pressure from the fans to add new players to the squad, and there is little chance they will let Higuain go before they have contracted a top quality replacement. With Cavani almost certainly going to the Eifel Tower Oilers, they will struggle to find a player of the required calibre to help them beat Barcelona to the title next season. Their next target is likely to be a man with occasional cannibalistic tendencies, whom Arsenal happen to be interested in as well….or was that a smoke-screen? I certainly hope so…

It is all very tiring and who knows how it all will end this summer. Buying experienced, ready-to-go quality players from the top, and sub-top, European clubs is proving to be very hard.

What is also frustrating is that Arsenal could have been in a very different position right now. If we had only been able to keep hold of our star players over the last seven years and had added on average a new £15m player every year, we would have had a very strong team right now.

Arsene could have focussed this summer in getting an experienced GK as back-up for our young and promising Pole between poles, and buy one or two players to add depth to the squad. Job done!

The 2013-2014 Arsenal Team could have looked like this:

A great mixture of self-developed youth players/Wenger-gems and newly bought, experienced players. The seven added experienced/quality players over the last seven years are Mertesacker, Sagna, Koscielny, Cazorla, Podolski, Arteta and TV, and if we had also kept Song, Clichy and Nasri, and we add the likes of Ramsey, Ox, TV, Rosicky etc, we would have had not just a very strong first team, but a more than decent bench as well.

We all know that the club were not in a position to hold on to most of our top players over the last seven years. However, going forward, we appear to be in a strong position to both keep hold of our top players and add quality every year. All we need is patience…

But there appears to be now a lack of time and patience to allow Wenger to build another top quality team bottom upwards and by adding a few typical Wenger gems; and I believe that even Arsene himself does not have the patience any more, and possibly time, to do so.

So, it is all about adding a number of players who will add quality to the wider squad and Arsene’s first choice eleven, in order for us to properly compete for silverware next season.

Of course I welcome this, but the above first eleven and wider squad show us what sort of team we could have had right now.

Written by: TotalArsenal.

Forget about Higuain, Fellaini or Cesar, Wenger’s biggest decision is which direction to take

July 3, 2013July 3, 2013TotalArsenal

“Alas,” said the mouse, “the whole world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into.”

“You only need to change your direction,” said the cat, and ate it up.

A Little Fable by Franz Kafka

Like any other Gooner out there, I am excited about the calibre of players we are being linked with at the moment; experienced, hit the ground running, quality players, is what our squad needs right now.

After years of economising and having to let go of the fruits of his hard labour, Arsene finds himself in an incredible lightness of being right now. Ferguson gone, new managers/transitional issues at Chelsea, Man City, Man United and Liverpool, no more need to let our best players go, AND a canon full of gold coins.

In the meantime, football seems to be evolving again. Barcelona’s advanced version of total football appears to have been ‘decoded’. First there was the super-basic ‘park the bus’ approach by the Chavs, which relied mainly on a mega-dosage of luck, and then there was the physical/athletic all-over-the-pitch-we’ll-hunt-you-down-and-not-allow-you-more-than-two-passes approach by the Bavarians. And we have seen a very similar deconstruction of Spain by the rampant Brazilians, just a few days ago. The double-DM pivot with multi-skilled midfielders seems to be the way forward now.

No doubt, though, Total Football will strike back again; but it might take a while.

Ten PL games before the end last season, Wenger and Bould made a conscious decision to go back to basics: more discipline in defence, a change of leadership and making our double-DM pivot prioritise on protecting the back four first and for all.

It did not exactly work a treat, but oh boy was it effective: Arsenal secured 26 out of 30 points from their last 10 PL games, and somehow managed to finish above the Spuddies once again.

It was not Wenger-ball, but industrious, blood, sweat and tears, we WILL survive sort of football; once we were ahead in those fixtures, most of us were just clock watching, hoping we would somehow hold on and take the three points. It was all aimed at finishing in the top-four and it was a great feat, given how low the team had fallen.

Arsene and Bould now have to decide what sort of football they want to play next season, and it will be really interesting to see which direction they’ll choose, as this will determine who will become/remain key players and who will be bought this summer (and not vice versa).

No doubt in my mind that Arsene and Bould will want to return to a (new) form of attractive, attacking Wengerball, with less emphasis on being solid defensively as our first priority.

However, it is unlikely that they will be happy to jeopardize all the good work that was done on being solid at the back during last season. And with Maureen back at the Chavs, a mean defence might be even more important than a highly productive, and competition outscoring, strike-force.

It is also Arsene’s last year under contract and although the club appears very keen to give him an extension, our French maestro might have doubts whether to sign-up to it. Also, Arsene might want to see real progress now, and next season will be absolutely crucial for him.

He needs to choose the right style and formation of football that will give Arsenal the best chance of gunning for silverware. He will have to decide who of his current squad are up for it and where and how they should play. He will need to add quality players who can hit the ground running and fit quickly into the team. He will need to keep the entire squad motivated, despite increased internal competition. He will need to give this team the belief they can win silverware this season and ensure there is plenty of leadership and hunger throughout the team.

Of course, Arsene (and Bould) has already thought about all this and he will now focus on adding new players to his squad who fit with his vision/chosen style of football for next season. From who he will buy (and for which areas), we will know a bit more how we are likely to play next season, and how he will go about to make the last year of his current contract a winning one; maybe even a truly special one.

Maybe this time round, Arsene’s direction, and tactical, on-field choices will outsmart the cat. It is about time he did.

Written by: TotalArsenal.

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Five Sporting Incentives for Rooney to Join Arsenal Now

July 1, 2013July 1, 2013TotalArsenal

Unlike the links with Jovetic, which seem to have disappeared completely now, we continue to be linked with Wayne Rooney. Apparently the club have made an offer for Rooney somewhere in the region of £20m, but I am not sure how much truth there is in this.

There are many Gooners who do not want us to sign Rooney: they say that he is ‘past it now’, does not fit with Arsenal’s values, or would simply cost too much / be on too high wages compared to the rest. When I spoke a Spud mate of mine about the desperate-for-hair Englishman possibly joining Arsenal this summer, he laughed and said ‘I really hope you get him, I really do’.

I have always been a reluctant admirer of Rooney-the-footballer. I like his drive, his physical strength, his technical skills, his football intelligence and, most of all, his winner’s mentality. His diving and occasional indiscipline, although the latter is less of an issue now, go against him, and he also seems to be mainly motivated by earning as much money as possible.

If the latter is really still the case, I don’t want him at Arsenal.

But if he is looking for a new opportunity to leave something behind once more, and become once again a pivotal player in a new team that is going places, Arsenal would be a great team for him right now.

What would be key for me is: he needs to have an intrinsic desire to come to Arsenal and win things with us. I have no doubt that Arsene would be the best judge of this, and if he was to go for Rooney, I am sure the Englishman would join us with the right motivation.

I cannot see it happen myself, as his wage demands are hard to meet; not necessarily financially, but more in terms of wage discrepancy between him and the rest of the squad, and the potential impact on team morale. I also much prefer Fabregas to return to us, or Jovetic to join us this summer.

But let’s say, for the sake of debate, that Arsenal will sort this out somehow; the question is then, what could be the sporting incentives for Rooney to join us?

Rooney would become the pivot of the team, and most likely positioned in the ‘hole-position’. Whether he would work with Giroud, Podolski or Higuain up-front there is little doubt in my mind our attack would become far deadlier. With Theo and Cazorla (or Pod) on the wings he would be able to add another attacking dimension to our play, as he can redistribute the ball and assist as well as he can convert chances himself. Very few other top teams would be able to offer him such a guaranteed, pivotal role.
As per above, Rooney would really enjoy himself in this free role: he would be able to display his full range of skills and, once again, get the recognition he is craving for. If playing proper football in which he can express himself to the full is what he is really after, Arsenal are his best option right now.
The five time PL, and one time CL, winner would be a great mentor to the rest of the team, and especially to our young, British core: Gibbs, Ox, Jack, Rambo, Jenkinson and Theo would all benefit from his experience and guidance on and off the pitch. If Rooney would crave for such a responsibility/role, Arsenal is his team.
One of the additional benefits of the third point is Rooney will be able to be directly part of what is likely going to be the very core of the England national team going forward. In the next few big tournaments, England’s (attacking) core will likely be built around Jack, Ox, Theo and Rooney (with likely gradual bigger roles for Jenkinson and Gibbs as well). It would be of great benefit to Rooney if he can work and play with these players in the same team week in week out. If he really craves for international success with England then moving to Arsenal would be a shrewd thing to do.
The captaincy role is up for grabs at Arsenal. TV5 is very likely not to continue as our captain, and it remains to be seen whether Arteta will remain as central to our team as he was during the last two seasons. If Arsene, and I realise this is a big IF, is convinced Rooney would come to Arsenal with the right mentality/motivation then Rooney would be a good choice for captaining the team.

I have to say, a part of me still feels uncomfortable with the possibility of Rooney joining our beloved Arsenal, but if he would really want to come for the reasons mentioned above, and Arsene would sanction it, I could see it work out really well.

What do you say, fine fellow Gooners?

Written by: TotalArsenal.

Gazidis set out ambitious lines in June, but will he and Arsene deliver?

June 29, 2013June 29, 2013TotalArsenal

So June is almost over; without any doubt, the hardest month for those of us who are addicted to club football. Whilst still suffering from non-action cold turkey, we are straightaway bombarded with transfer gossip, both of players coming to us and some of our players wanting to leave.

The Terror/Torture Window officially opens on Monday 1^st July, and let’s hope we will move from being ‘close’ to signing players to actually reading ‘signature announcements’ on Arsenal.com anytime soon.

Seldom or never does the word ‘close’ get abused more than during the Transfer Window. Whole armies of journalists and blog writers rely on it for producing endless articles that attract thousands of hits. However close Arsenal appear to be to signing a player, it is seldom or never close enough for comfort. Only a few weeks ago, we were ‘very close to signing Jovetic’…. I rest my case!

I wrote in the last post that the TW is not for the faint-hearted and there will be many more twists and turns. We could end up disappointed or ‘totally over the moon’, and I have no doubt that Gazidis and Wenger are feeling the pressure to deliver. Although Arsenal have, apparently, a war chest of £70m or more, it will still find it hard to compete with those who have limitless funds and don’t live by normal capitalist financial principles, or sporting morals.

The club will also need to demonstrate to their transfer targets real ambition to move things up now – that we are ready to win silverware again. It is one thing to convince the likes of Giroud, Mertesacker and Podolski to come to Arsenal, but once we start to target players already playing for top clubs the ‘sales pitch’ will have to change, especially if we don’t want to attract the typical mercenaries.

Looking back at June, we can pull a few conclusions:

The club has made it clear it has entered a new phase now: there will be significant funds available for player purchases from now on: apparently as much as £70m every season;
Despite the press trying their best to tell us some of our players want to leave Arsenal, our boys have remained loyal to the club and kept a low profile since the season has finished;
We are continuously linked with a different, better calibre of players – so called Super Quality – this summer;
The club is trying to make space in the squad, by letting go of those players who are deemed as ‘surplus to requirement’.

In more than one way, the month of June has been one of over-promise: bigger funds available, no core players will leave, and the targeting of big, established players; and all of this on the basis that we are now (financially) ready to compete for silverware again. This is a very good, but risky, thing to do.

What’s been interesting, is that Gazidis has done most if not all of the talking – of setting out the strategic lines of the club – and this includes announcing that Wenger is expected to sign a new contract any time soon.

Yet, Arsene has been very quiet recently. Of course, he is on holiday at the moment and will resume his duties for the club any time soon – with the first friendly in just over two weeks. But it will be interesting to see what Arsene has to say when he returns from his leave.

The problem with over-promising – something we are not used to from Arsenal in recent years – is that expectations will soar accordingly. Now, I reckon Gazidis is a clever man, who knows all about the risk of over-promising. So, it must be part of a well thought-out strategy to convince all stakeholders, including we the fans, as well as our transfer targets, that the club is ready to make the final step up now.

During the next month, we will see to a large extent whether Gazidis and Wenger can deliver on their promises. Let’s hope they will.

Written by: TotalArsenal.

All ingredients for success are here, just a certain Dutchman is missing

June 25, 2013June 26, 2013TotalArsenal

Arsenal's 'Russian Dolls of Evolution' — Arsenal’s ‘Russian Dolls of Evolution’

The 25^th of June 1988 – exactly 25 years ago – was a very special day for Dutch football. On that day, Holland won the European Championship in Germany by beating Russia by two goals to nil. Gullit had scored a goal worthy of a final, but the one that Van Basten scored was simply sublime, or I should say, other-worldly/ from a different planet. One that will be remembered forever, and not just in Holland.

I remember that day really well. Living in a medium sized town along the German border, we had already celebrated our semi-final victory over Germany, by driving our cars, bikes, motorbikes, scooters, etc along the local German border road. It was a brilliant sight: for a few kilometres, there was nothing but one thick, slow moving line of beeping, shouting, singing, Oranje supporters – all trying their hardest to let the Germans know that we had beaten them.

Many of us did not care that much about the final at that moment in time: overcoming the Germans on their own soil was far more important than winning the Euros back then. But on the day of the final, every Dutchman who cared at least a little bit about football was desperate to win, so we could finally lift a trophy.

After the (almost) golden years of the seventies, in which Holland reached the final of the World Cup twice in succession, the Dutch entered a seemingly eternal period of darkness, when they did not qualify for the 1982 and 1986 World Cup Finals.

But Holland stuck to its philosophy of how the game should be played, and finally it paid off. The master of Total Football, Rinus Michels, had a second stint at the national manager job, and Holland were lucky that a number of world class talents, such as Koeman, Van Breukelen, Rijkaard, Van Basten and Gullit all came to the fore around the same time. The rest is history.

Although Arsenal did not suffer a dark period as bad as the Dutch National Team did in the early to mid-eighties, it is fair to say that we have been going through challenging times since the completion of the new stadium.

But just like the Dutch, Arsenal stuck to their long-term philosophy of how to play football (and how to run the club properly), and there are strong signs now that Arsenal will enter a new period of success. Even Johan Cruijff has been singing the praises about how Arsenal football club is being managed, and that is saying something. Somebody ones said that Dutch society revolves around three ‘JCs’: Jesus Christ, John Calvin and Johan Cruijff, and there is more than a bit of truth in this! 😛

But, as 17 Highbury Terrace often likes to put it: all planets need to line up favourably for Arsenal in order to win silverware again; and in my view, this is starting to be the case now.

Gazidis believes Wenger will sign a new contract and the club is entering a number of new and improved commercial deals. There is a good group of players who have learned to work for each other and grind out results when needed, and who also have learned to spread responsibility throughout the team. There is a good mixture of early twenties promising talents and a group of quality, experienced, and hungry for success, mid to late twenties players. The club does no longer have to let players go to balance the books and has now enough funds to attract quality players, year on year. Early signs with regards to the club adding a few quality players to the team are more than promising.

So, almost all ingredients are here to make the next step to winning silverware in style again, and hopefully consistently so. But for me, things are not complete until Bergkamp returns to his real Home of Football. Dennis would be the perfect bridge between Arsene’s vision and the on-field execution of it. He would be the super-mentor who would enable the likes of Cazorla, Wilshere, Ox etc to get the very best out of themselves. Together with Bould, he would also be the best long term guarantee that Wenger’s vision and work will be carried on once he decides to leave.

The Iceman’s return might not happen this season, but it will happen rather sooner than later, of that I have no doubt. And I know I am not the only one who cannot wait till the day he does.

Written by: TotalArsenal.

The best of the Iceman in eight minutes:

Cesc, Jovetic coming or not, Koz, Sagna to go? The Joys of the Torture Window!

June 12, 2013July 31, 2013TotalArsenal

Cesc: one of the many will he /won't he this season! — Cesc: one of the many will he /won’t he this season!

To some extent I can understand why fellow Gooners can be so excited about the Transfer Window. It’s that Christmasesque excitement of anticipated presents: who will we get and how are they going to make us win silverware next season?

But as Gooners we should know better by now. Arsenal Transfer windows in recent years have been utter torture, with the exception perhaps of the ‘winter window’ when we somehow got Arshavin on the day after the last day. The year we lost Cesc and Nasri was dismal enough, but last season’s summer TW was another low point. It started so well with the well organised and timely arrivals of Pod and Giroud, and the late arrival of one of the best signings in recent years, Cazorla.

But then the traitor decided to burn his bridges on purpose so he could obey the little boy inside of him, and without much ado Songinho was sold to Barca’s chairman. Two inexperienced PL strikers in, the PL footballer and top scorer of the year out. One of the most versatile and promising defensive midfielders out, an attacking midfielder with no PL experience in.

Cazorla turned out to be an absolute gem, but with injuries to Diaby (no surprise there) and Wilshere (also not a big surprise given his recent health issues), we really missed Song this season, both defensively and in terms of producing assists from midfield. It is not hard to imagine how well we would have done if Van Judas had not deserted us, but enough said about the grey haired broody woman.

I loathe the Transfer Window. If it was up to me it would not last longer than five working days: get it done swiftly and we can all get on with our lives.

I tried to be philosophical about it, as in: it will be what it will be, and I cannot influence it, so best to forget about it all. But as a Blog Owner this is not going to be easy, as it is very hard not to get carried away with how Rooney, Cesc or Jovetic would be able to instantly transform our team. And it is just the same with the, equally popular among the fans, ‘angst articles’: the thought, for example, of the master of easy rides trying to entice our Wilshere or Koz away to Munich is very hard to suppress, once the eyes have glanced the NewsNow headline…. And losing our warrior RB, Mr Arsenal, to one of the new French Oilers, does also create sheer angst and anger.

How many times over the last few months have we read that Jovetic to Arsenal is a done deal? And what about Fellaini: Arsenal making an offer and the betting firms indicating they believe it is going to happen – after which………. Nothing happens.

And even if we sign a couple of quality players eventually, we could still see departures of first team players in the next few months. I know about the £70m to spend but old habits die hard at Arsenal, it seems.

What exactly is the fun of the transfer window?

I guess as a down to earth, Calvinist-DNA Dutchman, I am just too serious about it all. I can hear the likes of James Bond, Highbury Harmony, AFC, Gerry and HenryChan telling me to lighten up and join the seasonal fantasy football transfer merry-go-round….. The Wengabus is coming and everybody’s jumping….

Anyway, enough whinging – you must by now have noticed I am scraping the barrel for a post today! Let’s do some Transfer/Torture Window predictions. What do you think will happen this summer:

Who are we really going to buy?
Who will leave?
How much money will we spend (deduct incoming money from predicted departures)?
What will be the most we’ll spend on a single player this summer?
Will Arsene sign a new contract during the TW?

Written by: TotalArsenal. 😉