Bring on the Summer 12 May, 2008
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News.trackback
We played out our last game of the season yesterday up at Sunderland, and depressingly, it’s all over now. We were 1-0 winners with Theo Walcott scoring inside half an hour. I didn’t watch the game, and I didn’t even manage to catch the highlights thanks to my Sky + fucking up. I have seen the goal though, Gilberto threaded it through to Theo from about the halfway line, Walcott took it under control well and slotted it nicely home.
It’s been really good to see Theo scoring this season, we signed him back in January 2006 I believe but his first league goal only came a few months ago against Birmingham. Theo’s just breaking into the team at the moment and for m, this season he’s been a great player. Why he hasn’t got more starts, is beyond me but Wenger says that next year he will be regarded as a member of the first team and he will be fighting for starting spots.
Theo has played a lot of his games on the wing, however this season he’s proved that he can do it up front too. Hopefully he continues to improve and makes a difference next year. Cue Wenger with the ‘he’ll almost be like a new signing’ line…
However, we hope to be making some actually real signings this season. Last summer we saw a few departures but the additions of Bacary Sagna and Eduardo Da Silva proved excellent signings by Wenger. This year I’ll be looking for similar efforts from the manager; then those two names were announced, I was please, however I had no idea who they were or how good they are. So this year, whoever we sign I’ll have faith in Arsene’s judgment that they’re the bollocks. Here’s what Wenger said about some possible summer signings:
“I know what I want and I am very confident. I hope to turn that around in the next two or three weeks. But the fans should be re-assured by what they see.
It would be better to buy someone who has played in England because they are less risky, but it costs more money if they are from the Premier League, so maybe I will try to do both.”
Promising words from Le Boss. I’m excited by the fact that we could have a new signing as early as two weeks but I’m more impressed that Arsene might actually spend a bit of cash and bring in an established Premiership player. Who has he got in mind? Niko Kranjcar? Gareth Barry? Probably both but it’s what he can afford to do. More on this in the week.
It’s set to be an exciting summer of comings and goings. Flamini, of course, we already know will be leaving, he’s signed a pre-contract but I guess technically he’s still our player for another month or so…yay. Gilberto Silva will decide on his future shortly. Lehmann is off, retiring or moving to another club, we don’t know yet. Hleb might be going to Inter, Wenger insists he’s staying, Hleb’s people are determined he’s going. I don’t really care to be honest.
Hopefully we keep the squad together but we’ve been promised a couple of signings and I can’t wait to see who Wenger brings in to boost the squad. I still believe that next year could be our season; I’m just depending on Wenger to make the right additions.
I’ll write up the season review in the week some time. Thanks for reading.
let’s hope he brings in players who have at least one year’s playing experience in the major Euro leagues.if he were to recruit players of immense promise/potentia without playing experience, I’m afraid AW/Arsenal will be chasing shadows again .
Dudu and Sagna where both relative unknowns and both big sucesses. In fact if neither of them had go injured we would IMO have won the league. If Wenger signs promising players and they do as well as them we’ll be fine. The now established media echo chamber story is we failed due to a weak squad. ManUres B team lost at home to Coventry ffs. What did us was obviously a few poor performances Brum (h) Wigan (a) Liverpool (h) but more importantly a series of shocking decsions. Brum away last minute NEVER a pen, Boro (h) we score a perfectly good goal disallowed for offside THE REF SAW THE TACKLE he knew it wasnt a pass he knew it was a god goal. Boro then went on to score an offside goal that was allowed, Chavski’s equaliser at the Bridge was also offside (although they at least arguably deserved something for their dominant ten mins after Sagna got injured). Watching the game at Prawnville it became clear we would not be allowed to win. Promising attacks where continually broken up by the refs whistle, often for FKs FOR us. Gallas handball was virtually identical to Rio’s one that was ignored v Wigan, if Hargreaves hadnt scored his FK they would simply have been awarded another one – they weren’t going to score from open play. When Manure did concede their single pen of the season there was nearly a players riot. I’m sure one of the reasons Hleb is considering his future is that he gets hacked down in the penalty area every other week. In the CL he was blatantly hauled down by Kuyt then Babel is gifted a pen when going nowhere. Everyones talking about how much teams need to spend on players to compete, I think Manure have just taken advice from Juve and backed up their spending on players with spending on refs
Why are so few talking about Dunne?
The guy is 28, great in the air, an established Premier League player with bags of experience and is really quality and he’d cost less than £3 million because he has only a year left on his contract!
I have faith in Wenger all the way but it would surely be a mistake to not sign a player of his calibre considering he’s SO cheap. Come on Arsene, get him before someone else does!
Yes £1m for dunne and City regard him as superb. not sure how he let 8 past him yesterday though. would Ferdinand or Carvalho let 8 past them in any team?
Ryan,
Dunne is too old for Wenger, he likes them young and dumb, you know that.
Ryan I’m very hot will you fan me with one hand and scratch my testilcles with your other hand?
Waaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzuuuuuuupppppppppp !!!!
Gaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaaappppppp!!!!
Oh I see he was sent off at the start. I never saw the highlights! well Dunne it is then. bring him him wenger.
Yes Richard Dunne would be a good addition or Micah Richards but i think Richards would be very expensive,maybe even Carlos Cullar from Rangers he has been in super form this year.Gareth Barry would be wonderful and I think Arsene might just surprise us with a real big money signing.
Jay,
Blow my balls softly
3. Ryan – 12 May, 2008
Why are so few talking about Dunne?
The guy is 28
Answered your own question, unfortunately.
I am a fellow WordPress blogger (and football fan), and every time I log on to my own blog I do so via the WordPress homepage.
It never ceases to amaze me how often Arsenal blogs are featured as Blog of the Hour on WordPress.
I could understand soccer blogs in general getting a lot of press, or I could understand if WordPress was reading my ISP as in the UK (or in North London!), but in fact I live in Quebec!
Nevertheless, I am happy about this, as it gives me a chance, as a poor lost British soul in the sea of North American sports (just watched the Montreal Canadiens get knocked out of the NHL Stanley Cup — hockey, of course…), to keep up on English football.
So, however you manage it, well done. And keep blogging!
David
http://adsensestrategiesadsense.wordpress.com
What were the Sky producers on yesterday.
I watched their extended highlights and was surprised to see Sagna in their starting lineup listed as playing leftback – it turned out to be Clichy.
And then to my amazement they announce that Bendtner had been substituted by Flamini who was not even on the bench (thank God) – in reality it was Traore. Not very professional TV eh?
By the way congratulations to Gael who is the only one of the first team squad to play in every PL game this season. He has made the memory of Cashley seem like a bad dream and I believe is a much better player than Cole now.
adsensestrategiesadsense,
Dude you dont have to thank me, I enjoy it.
But I suppose If you really, really wanted to show your appreciation you could…………um…………..i dont know……….um…………maybe…………Suck my balls?
Suck balls!!!!
http://www.stuffwhitedbagslike.wordpress.com
this may sound mental but i reckon abou diaby could replace flamini in the middle.
Diaby is in the same position that Mathieu was in last year. Probably leaving, not playing a lot, unhappy at the club.
He might just be ready
please god dont tell me that arsene is considering dunn(c)e, are we that strapped for cash that we need to employ the services of an overweight clumsey 2nd rate centre half? Anybody on here who thinks that wenger is at last going to spend big is as thick as dunne’s waistline, big fees mean big wages and it aint gonna happen. No wonder he wants to keep his targets secret, coz if spurs, newcasle or man city got wind then we couldnt match their wage offers.
………………………and if i have heard it once, i have heard it a dozen times, “next season we will win the premiership”,
Change the fucking record…………….and manager, and board come to that!!
Connedagen,
whats with all the angst?
Hearing the same old thing is frustrating but making wholesale changes wont get us anywhere. Wenger has to take the blame for what has turned out to be a disasterous season and it has been disasterous whatever we expected at the beginning of it. Wenger has insulted us fans with his team selections in both domestic cups, we deserve better, a league cup would be better than no cup. Why cant we hold on to our players (even when they are playing regularly) ?
Visit http://amazingscott.wordpress.com! Its run by a 13 year old 7th grader, so you might find it interesting!
I hope that he will hire experienced players of the premier league
tonces mi pez
oh, theo…..i love youuuuuuu
fake sous-chef?
For the masochistic among you, consider how slight the margins were this season.
P Team Pld W D L Pts GD
1 Arsenal 38 25 11 2 86 45
2 Chelsea 38 25 10 3 85 39
3 Man U 38 26 6 6 84 56
This is how the table should have looked. Not after major alterations in our season, but if we had kept our concentration for the last 35+ minutes of the game at Old Trafford where we played them off the park. Instead we conceeded two needless set-pieces. That’s how close it was.
I know hindsight is always 20/20, and some will argue that if we had won, the other results may not have panned out they way they did, but that argument would also work in our favour, considering the morale boost a win over Utd would have given the lads. THAT”S how CLOSE it was!
Keep the faith Gooners!!
KTBird, i am the real sous chef
Ben,
Are you for real?
Its all ifs and buts and pots n pans, the bottom line is we havent got the players and if arsene had just for once dare spend in the jan transfer window we may have had some depth for the run in. Wenger may be a great manager but he isnt a great and brave manager, one lucky fa cup win in four years is just unacceptable. Someone wrote on here that our season fell apart when eduardo got injured, our season fell apart when we got stuffed by spurs in the league cup, we never recovered mentally and then had to endure the fa cup debacle, only one person and his team selection can take the blame.
adebeyor having a go at walcott for not passing to him up at sunderland was a disgrace. It was adebeyors greedyness and selfish determination to set a record in scoring in consecative games that cost us a win a birmingham. He could have squared the ball to bendtner for a tap in but instead shot wide. Im still not convinced adebeyor is the answer for us up front. Wenger has mentioned buying a top drawer player with premiership experience, well he was raving about elano earlier in the season and he said that he admired his skill and workrate, i reckon he would fit in well at the emirates.
The sous chef is nearly ready to publish his own blog then?
Bring it on!
I’d say Gallas has alot to answer for, hardly captain marvel was he. You could imagine him talking to people like Flamni and Hleb and advising them to leave as well
Vote For Ade!
http://www.skysports.com/poll/results/0,19911,,00.html
Don’t let Ronaldo win!
Yes, yes do vote for Ade and do it now. His was a far better goal anyway.
What Redbird said
KTbird,
Silence KTbird, you’re hair is strawlike