Wenger talks transfers, departures and formations 24 June, 2009
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News.trackback
Hello from very sunny Bournemouth, I’ve been down the beach today and it seemed like 30 degrees down there. Beautiful – doesn’t make you miss the city much. However while I was on the beach today I thinking how I can’t wait to be back watching Arsenal again. I’ll be there when we play Barnet in just over 3 weeks time and then again at the Emirates cup.
Arsene Wenger’s been speaking ahead of the new season on quite a few things so lets just get into it. He says he doesn’t want to lose many players this summer after what happened last year. He said losing Flamini and Hleb was too much and we had to rebuild. He’s not concentrating too much on just keeping the side together though, he wants to improve it too:
“I want to add to the squad and I have identified one or two targets. But identifying players and buying them are two different things.
Ideally I would like to bring everybody in before we start back in pre-season training in July. I don’t want to leave it until the end of August.”
However he doesn’t think the side needs rebuilding:
“We are at a stage were we need to convince people that this team does a lot of things right. It does not need to be transformed.
We don’t need that many players really, a defender (which we’ve got) a central midfielder and possibly another forward player if Adebayor leaves; more on him in a bit.
Arsene has also been thinking about a possible formation change. Next season we will have a lot of talent going forward – Rosicky, Arshavin, Walcott and Nasrito choose from. The boss thinks we might be able to pull off a 4-3-3 quite effectively:
“Next season we will play the formation and system that most suits the players and the balance of the team. That means it’s not rigid. It can evolve throughout the season, depending on circumstances and personnel.
If you play with Theo Walcott for example, you are more tempted to go for three midfielders because Theo is more of a forward than a midfielder in a 4-4-2.”
So don’t be surprised to see us shape up a bit differently next season. If we did go to a 4-3-3 then I guess we wouldn’t really need to add a quality central midfielder but it would be good to have one when we resort to 4-4-2.
He sounds positive about making a couple of signings but has cooled it down a bit reminding us we don’t have loads of money. He says we can’t afford to splash around £100m but we don’t necessarily need to. He believes in this side so much and every year they are improving so there’s no point in signing a £30m player if the next season one of our original players would’ve improved to the same standard. I’m still looking forward to a signing or two but I know that we don’t need very many.
Wenger’s also been talking about Nicklas Bendtner:
“When Nicklas is really switched on and focused, he is a handful for any defense in the world. He has shown that in the second part of the season. People forget how young he is, but I am sure he has won many people over in the second half of the season.”
He really did come on a lot in the second half of last season. He had a shit time at the start of the campaign then something just clicked in his head. Now he’s liked by a lot of the fans for his attitude and the effort he’s started to put in. He’s scoring too and if he can continue to improve next season I’m sure he’ll be awarded more performances.
Especially if Emmanuel Adebayor makes way and there’s some fresh news on that. His agent says he’s had contact with a ‘very important team’ but nothing from Chelsea, Man United or Italy:
“As of today, I have not even got evidence to speak of presumed interest from Chelsea and Manchester United. It’s a given fact that Carlo Ancelotti likes the player seeing that last year he tried to sign him for Milan, although Chelsea have not contacted us.
We have not received any calls, not from Milan or Ancelotti. Another team has contacted us, but I cannot say anything, it’s a very important team.
There has not been any meeting with Milan for Adebayor and lately I have not received a call on their behalf.
This doesn’t mean Ade is for sale to resolve Arsenal’s economic problems. I spoke with Arsene Wenger this morning and he told me nothing of the kind.”
Yeah, we know he’s not being sold for the money – it’s because he’s useless. I wonder who this ‘very important team’ is though. It’s not going to be another English club, I think he’s saying Inter and AC Milan haven’t contacted so it could be a Spanish club. I’m still not sure whether Ade is staying or not but to be honest I don’t really care. If he says then as long as he bucks his ideas up then I’m happy, if he goes then meh, whatever.
Right then I’m off to enjoy a bit more sun. Thanks for reading.
well written, can see where your coming from and i agree, i would like us to sign this Melo or some one of his ilk, but as you say if he does play 4-3-3 then maybe another central midfielder wouldn’t be needed, we do have more young players coming through as i’m sure you know, the boss has some tough choices, when your at the top your there to be shot at and the fans want success now,
i see great things on the horizon. maybe this will be our year.
come on you Arsenal!!
I’ll bite first. Slow blog day.
RE: tactical formations. I read Mourinho speaking on tactical changes and while I take everything that man says with a grain of salt, I’ll share what he said: that tactical changes, especially in the middle of matches (something he had a lot of success with) depends on the ability of the players to follow through and make the changes work. They need the brains, experience, and especially confidence to stick to something new mid-match (rather than revert back or lose confidence in themselves or their teammates when things don’t seem yet to be working to produce that vital goal they are looking for).
Immediately I thought of AW’s comments, and the fact that until recently AW has always had a pretty set formation and his changes, too, are pretty standard – losing? Two extra strikers. Winning? Extra defender for winger.
This past season however has seen a lot of juggling, sometime successful, and sometimes not. A lot looked like experimentation, even clutching at straws. But it may pay dividends in a year or two. I will be very interested to see if our emerging young players (Van Persie, Denilson, Nasri, Walcott, Song, Bendtner, Vela, Ramsey, Eboue, Clichy, Sagna) etc. can develop tactically to the point that, say, Arshavin, Cesc, and Rosicky have. This is an exciting component to having a huge and already individually talented squad – in a few years we should also have the ability to do what chelsea currently does, and Liverpool, too, who clearly are a team that is finally getting experienced enough to roll with Benitez’s many adjustments. TBH I find Manure the least adept at this, but we’ll know more when they can no longer rely on Ronaldo to bail them out. Even when their tactics fail them completely they often manage to win.
As for AW having confidence in the team and that supports should too: The answers will be on the pitch come August. Put a good run together early and much good will come of it. Most importantly, one of these young players AW has so much faith in — Someone like Bendtner, or Diaby, or Nasri, or Walcott, or even Cesc, Clichy, Ade, Eduardo or Rosicky, has to really up their game this season for us to move up to the next level. I am already counting on Arshavin and RvP and Song. But we need another player or three to raise his game and be unplayable for stretches of the season. Then we are in with a chance at trophies.
Kick his un-Lion-ish ass out the door, I say.
I agree with the comments above by Shinola, I think some of these players do need to up their game, too many of Arsenal’s players are too affected by confidence. i think an important factor next year will be injuries. pls pls pls God no more long term injuries, to me it seems since Gary lewin left this new physio has caused our players to get easily injured and over the last few years I cant remember a time where we had everyone at disposal.
the art of defending the Adams, dixon, winterburn, keown, bould way needs to be reborn at the emirates or away at least, we have been too generous, especially to the minnows of the league, can our talent please be consistent in these games, how many 1-0 leads did we squander
I love Arsenal and I pray this is our year, I think man u are taking a backward step, chelsea ae going to have problems and liverpool i am not sure about
Buy sakho and upson, get melo or inler, definatley get hazard or hernanez and forget about dzeko, buy huntelaar.
i think this will be our year 09 / 10 EPL champ Arsenal…we cant wait for the new season can we?
Just to put an end to this bs discussion; without significant changes this team can’t lift a trophy, we’re just too weak right down the spine.
Pls adebayor must leave. Now nobody wants him anymore. With that kind of attitude and a serious loss in form as we saw last season no one will want him or would you?
the major challenge is most of our players are light. physical built is crucial in today’s game. dats why our injury rate is so high. yes, we have arguably the best talented players, with speed and skill, but physique is a major let-down. Liverpool, manchester & chelsea have depth on this part. we also lack a play-maker. adebayo is not a play-maker and non of our current crop are! at least one will do us good. its true dat our team is young and maturing with age like wine, there are certain qualities we dont have which may need to gather from outside. lit-weight players are prone to long term injuries and this is a reality we have to live with at the moment
Fanuel, i ol heartedly agri wit u. In todays game physique matters alot. The gunners ack this at the moment
Hurry up and fuck off greedybayor you fucking cunt!!
r u ok winger? we wish the best in 2009-2010 for ARSENAL
yes plz wenger sell silvestre adn almunia and adebayor and buy chamkh,tasci,melo, and a goalie it will great for team keep toure ,gallas and eboue who can in as cb or lm,rm,winger,or dm and for you sell van , or even fabregas and good players best of luck to arsenal club and wenger and his tranfers
First off i dont want to see Ade in arsenal colours ever again,i absolutely cant stand him anymore his got his agent out there blabbering like a lunatic he needs to put a leash on him…both of em shud jus f*@k off.
Now this whole 4-3-3 formations is a really nice idea but you cant tell me we would be happy with having Ces,Rosicky and Arshavin or Nasrito in there with no dproper defensive back up?,the thing with that formation is we have to scarifice two of those attack minded players for a bolt like Song or the supposed new defensive mid guy,that way the two creative mid players are free to roam and do wat they do best.
I am expecting alot from Song this year and um hoping he doesnt let me down the thing is as much as I would like Wenger to bring in someone over the next fewdays or weeks in the back of my mind um starting to picture starting the season wiv thios same crop of players and if that the case then Song is goin to have a hell of a lot of responsibility coz iquite frankly i feel he is the most likely of midfielders to grab that defensive mid position I jus cant see Denii coping with it slthough his stats show otherwise but I would take a welcome surprise inthe form of Diaby….
Either way the excitement is really building up now really cant wait BTW is it too early or too absurd to ask for any Emirates Cup tickets going????would really like two for both days preferable…
I came on here some 12 months ago and got shouted down but dont say i didnt warn you,
Cesc feels the same as most of us fans, he’s pissed off with playing in an average side. What chances of us finishing in the top 4 next season? None.
Ronaldo left united because he’s won everything, Cesc has won nothing and wont until Wenger starts buying top drawer quality, thats why Cesc will be gone within the next year.
Wenger said this week that he is fed up with people calling him “tight” but the reason he wont spend big is because we have no money, that flies in the face of fizman who said we’ve got millions in the bank and if Arsene wanted 25 mil for a player he could have it, well one of them is lieing ! We have scrapped in to 4th place 2 out of the last 3 seasons and if anyone thinks this lot can do it again they are deluded. Im pissed off with having fourth rammed down my throat as some sort of success !!
Pack your bags Arsene and take cesc with you !!
Sky Sports news reported yesterday that Arsenal won more games without Fab than with him last season and reckon if Real Madrid put an inflated price on him Arsene would probably take it. I say Fabs head has been elsewhere for the past 2 seasons and we should cut him free. I cant remember the last exceptional game he played for Arsenal.
Apart from Arshavin we have no flair in the team and look very average. Peoples excitement about the new season is just boredom not optimism.
Well said bob
“i think this is our year” and “we are in with a chance of trophies” ?
Take off your blinkers, i admire everones optimism but come on, we are miles away from liverpool man utd and chelsea. man city are going to be our biggest rivals this year and thats realism.
lets have a proper debate, Arsenal are all over the place at the moment, cesc wants out as does adebeyor and toure ( its embarrassing when an arsenal player wants to go to city, money or no money they aint even in europe!). sivestre and eboue with diaby and denilson aint up to it nor is song, gallas is past it and nasri has been a disappiontment. Almunia is not world class. We’ve bullshitted our way through the last 5 years but this year its all going tits up. be honest with yourselves to save disappointment.
I Wondered how long it would take you Bob to make a return, with your same old shit….. yawn!!!!!