Summer Transfer Madness

The phrase 'cellar door' is often cited as the most beautiful combination of words in the English language. I disagree. Undoubtedly the sweetest sounding phrase that you'll hear this month is 'summer transfer window', a term which at once evokes feelings of anticipation, suspense, delight and despair. For Arsenal fans it's traditionally the anticipation and despair that dominate proceedings, the transfer kitty having been kept under lock and key somewhere in the bowels of the Emirates stadium; this year, we've been told, will be different though. If rumours are to be believed, Arsene Wenger is gaily skipping around Europe, throwing blank cheques at club chairmen and returning with a burlap sack filled with the continent's elite players.

Not true.

The reality is that we're about to have the kind of summer that a club like Manchester United would describe as "quiet", i.e. one major signing and a handful of insignificant players joining and leaving the club. The latter has already taken place to a certain degree; the club has released several players, a list which includes little Andrey Arshavin, bumbling centre back Sebastian Squirrelaci and sideways passer Denilson, who returns to Sao Paulo. Italian goalkeeper Vito Mannone has joined i fascisti dello rosso nero (beg pardon, Sunderland) for due millioni, while Francis Coquelin and Johan Djourou are both off on loan to Europe's new favourite league the Bundesliga.

Meanwhile Wenger has procured the talents of a promising youngster from the French leagues (how many times have we heard that one before?) - welcome Yayo Sanago, who joins us from Auxerre and plays up front. I look forward to seeing you loaned out three or four times over the next few seasons, before being sold to a German second tier team for peanuts. 

The big news this summer is of course that Argentine goal poacher Gonzalo Higuain could be on his way to the Emirates any day now. The transfer fee floated is in the region of £23 million, while his salary has been quoted as being anywhere between 100 and 150,000 a week. This, I'm reliably informed, is what's known in the business as a 'marquee signing'. Higuain is a proven goalscorer in one of Europe's top leagues; in the last 5 seasons he has 96 goals in 144 league games. He's a natural finisher, something that Arsenal sorely lacked last season, and his capture is also a statement of intent from a manager and board who, for the past few seasons, have shown all the transfer market munificence of a Dickensian workhouse owner. 

Other signings have been mooted - Fellaini has a buyout clause of somewhere around twenty million, but rumour has it that his wage demands are proving a stumbling block. The Belgian is a versatile player who can be deployed seemingly almost anywhere on the pitch - is he truly effective in any one place though? There's something of the jack of all trades, master of none about him which makes me wonder how well he'd fare longterm if deployed in a midfield holding role.

The more desperate sports hacks seem determined that Arsenal will sign one of the troublesome duo of Rooney and Suarez, despite all evidence to the contrary. Firstly let me say this: neither of those players will be at Arsenal next season. Secondly, does anyone even want them here? Luis 'could start a fight in an empty house' Suarez and Wayne 'Granny-botherer' Rooney are the kind of disruptive presences we could do without, and have wage demands far beyond Arsenal's means. Give credence to these rumours at your peril.

Higuain is expected to sign within the next few days, and will likely be joined by at least one more semi-high-profile signing; more to come then, from me and from the club, so plenty to look forward to.

So Southampton were the visitors to the Emirates last weekend; last season we didn't fare all that well against promoted sides, dropping points in three of the six fixtures, but the Saints went marching in, and marched straight back out again on the wrong end a 6-1 thumping. With that in mind, is it too soon to talk about this being our season, and how we look like legitimate title contenders again?

In a word, yes.

But that needn't detract from what was largely an accomplished display on Saturday. Southampton had failed to pick up a single point before coming to North London, although their schedule had included a visit from Manchester United as well as a trip to Manchester City, and they'd acquitted themselves well in each game, losing 3-2 both times. Top scorers in last season's Championship, and with Grant Holt mk2. (aka Rickie Lambert), I was expecting a fairly close affair.

The Southampton defenders had the unenviable task of facing a front three of Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gervinho and Podolski, while Cazorla pulled the strings from just behind the strikers. Making up the rest of the midfield were Arteta and Coquelin, the latter deputising for Diaby who picked up a knock on international duty. The defence was unchanged from the game at Anfield, while Szczesny returned after recovering from a bruised rib.

It was evident from early on that the visitors defence would struggle to deal with the movement of the strikers, while tracking Cazorla seems increasingly like an exercise in futility. The Spaniard pops up practically everywhere on the pitch, and has a hand in almost anything positive that happens. I don't know what will happen if he gets injured - the word irreplaceable springs to mind - but in the eight years since he broke into the Villareal first team he's played at least 30 games in 6 of those eight seasons. Whatever his injury record is like, when fit he must be the first name on the team sheet every time. He knows where everyone else on the pitch is, and he can receive a pass and pick out a teammate thirty yards away in practically one movement. In case this hasn't been adequately conveyed, I'm very, very excited about this player.

Oddly enough Cazorla had little to do with any of the four first half goals. The first was an own goal after the Saint's keeper couldn't parry a Gibbs drive, the second a Podolski free kick, the third a nearpost strike from Gervinho after he was played in by Arteta, and the fourth another own goal from a Gibbs cross. Southampton pulled one back after a defensive blunder by Szczesny who flapped at a cross and left an open goal, but the game was wrapped up in the second half after a second goal from Gerv and one from ex-Southampton prodigy Walcott.

6-1 is obviously an excellent scoreline against any team in the top division, even if they are newly promoted. The visitors rarely threatened the Arsenal goal, and their high line proved their undoing as the offside trap was routinely breached. That said, this Southampton team has not hit its stride yet. They've got a couple of exciting new signings in Gaston Ramirez and Maya Yoshida, who, at the tender ages of 21 and 24 already have 32 caps between them for their respective nations of Uruguay and Japan. They both made their debuts at the Emirates as substitutes - Yoshida was thrown on during the first half after an injury, despite having had just one training session with his new team.

Southampton are struggling with the change in pace between the top two tiers, but they'll improve, and the fixture at Saint Mary's won't be the cakewalk that we witnessed on Saturday. Even though it was only lowly Southampton, there were a number of positives to take away from the game. No one knew quite what to make of the Podolski signing, myself included; would he flourish under the bright lights of the Emirates, or would he wither like he did at Bayern? Early indications suggest the former - his well taken free kick was the highlight of an excellent performance. The German completed every single one of some 35 passes that he attempted, and it was his strength and vision that set up the first goal of the afternoon. He looked uncomfortable with his back to goal in the first game of the season, but the striker already seems a more composed and technically capable player than he did 5 weeks ago.

Meanwhile Gervinho had what I reckon was his best game in an Arsenal shirt. Usually lacking a clear idea of what he's going to do next with the ball, the Ivorian seemed uncharacteristically composed, consistently beating fullbacks down the outside, drifting into the middle to assist with build up play and generally being useful all over the pitch. His 2 goals were simply icing on the cake. .

New boy Oliver Giroud came on with about a quarter of an hour to go - he failed to break his duck, but you'd be an idiot not to be patient, especially since the goals are coming from elsewhere right now. This description of Giroud is from French Football Weekly: With Giroud, France has a tall, powerful striker than can sit in the box, hold up play and provide opportunities for on-rushing players, especially Benzema. He has done this with great effect in his limited appearances for France, providing a real threat with his flick-ons and chest-downs (the latter of which is fast becoming his legendary skill). Although his Arsenal career has not quite got off to a flying start, it’s hard to see him struggling for goals and assists—he’s just pure class. Watch this space

Montpellier away tonight as the curtains open on a brand new Champions League. Three points would be nice, but we rarely get out of the group based on points won away from home. The more pressing matter is this weekend's fixture in the blue half of Manchester. The new-found defensive solidity will be sorely needed if we're to take anything away from that game, but I'm confident we can take at least a point.

Allez les rouges!

Transfer disco

Summer wouldn't summer without the various sporting networks churning out wall to wall garbage about who Arsenal are pursuing in the transfer market. In previous seasons, it didn't take a crystal ball to know that Wenger would keep a tight lid on transfer expenditure, so rumours stayed just that. However, this summer, our esteemed manager has seen fit to unleash his wealth upon Europe; welcome, Lukas Podolski, welcome, Oliver Giroud, welcome, Santi Cazorla. Pull up a chair, and let us regale you with tales about what a dreadful turd Samir Nasri is, or explain just why we hate Tottenham Hotspur quite as much as we do. The first two signings join us from the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 respectively, and will bolster a strike force that may be missing Van Persie next season (more on that in a bit), and which will probably be jettisoning some tall and expensive dead weight in the form of Bendtner and Chamakh.

At something like 23 million for the pair, this has the potential to be an excellent piece of business from Wenger, assuming at least one of them can replicate their form from last season. The two strikers scored a combined 43 goals, and whilst neither has any experience of English football, both show signs of having enough versatility to thrive over here. Giroud is something of an unknown, insofar as Europe has only paid attention to him since he clinched the Ligue 1 title for Montpellier last season. French journalists praise his strength, vision, link up play and heading, which, alarmingly, makes him sound like Chamakh mk. 2, but his 25 goals last season were practically double anything Marouane managed in France, so there's hope yet.

Question marks do remain over Podolski, who has so far only thrived in low pressure situations, specifically at Koln. A handful of excellent seasons at his boyhood club bookend a phenomenally disappointing 4 years in the goldfish bowl at Bayern, where he withered under the spotlight and only managed to net 15 times. Arsenal fans are an unforgiving bunch, so Poldi will have to be thick skinned if he is to survive what will undoubtedly be a turbulent few months at the start of the season as he acclimatises to the hurly burly of premiership football. Nonetheless, with pace, skill and a sweet shot, he can play down the left or though the middle, and could be a useful asset indeed.

I'm hesitant to discuss Santi Cazorla as if he's already signed, sealed and delivered to the steps of Wenger's home; personal terms have been agreed, and Arsenal are confident that an offer of somewhere in the region of 16 million will force cash-strapped Malaga's hand, but let's not jinx it by examining his worth with too much scrutiny. Suffice it to say, esteemed guardian and Sports Illustrated journalist Sid Lowe chose the tiny winger (5 ft 6 if you were wondering) as his signing of the season for 2011-12, despite him costing 19 million euro. Fingers crossed everyone.

And so to the ballad of wantaway striker Robin Van Persie, which continues to drag on and on and on and on. I've said it before but it bears repeating; loyalty in football is greatly exaggerated: players owe little to clubs and even less to fans, but if there's one player in this league who has a debt of gratitude to his team, it's Van Persie and Arsenal. Where would the Dutch striker be now if we had, not unfairly given the circumstances, decided to cut ties two or three years ago when injuries threatened to relegate him to a footnote in Arsenal history? France? Turkey? Greece? Nightmare scenarios, all three, but how many top level teams would have taken a chance on an unproven striker with a leg made out of Faberge eggs? None, I'd wager. He would have become one of the better journeyman strikers of Europe's leagues, constantly threatening to fulfill his potential before being derailed by injuries. This is speculation, of course, but the fact remains that Arsenal stuck by their man - is one full season all we get in return?

The flip side of the coin is that this is the last chance from Van Persie to broker a move to a top European side with a chance of actually winning something. Next season might see him once again broken into a million tiny pieces, and no champions league teams with any sense would be bidding on a forward with phenomenally bad luck with injuries after he's hit the wrong side of 30. His last season at Arsenal might be his best ever, so it's now or never in terms of getting that dream move.

Will he go? I'm loathe to put a prediction in writing, because whichever side I choose will inevitably be the wrong one, and it hurts my heart to think about it. The important point to make is that whether he does or not, we've still got talent at the club, new and old; The Arsenal abides.

So the exam period rather got in the way of regular updates to the blog, but as the season and my exams have finished I thought I might pen a few thoughts on the year gone by and the year ahead.

Firstly the West Brom game, which needs little comment, other than to say thank god Ben Foster, who had played all 37 of the Baggies' previous league games, injured himself in the warm up. His replacement, Marton Fulop, was presumably thinking about where he would spend his summer holidays instead of what to do when you receive a back pass under pressure, so instead of hoofing long he dallied and allowed Yossi Benayoun to swoop in and score the opener. Despite facing a season in the Europa League, Arsenal were playing like a team with nothing on the line, so it was no surprise when West Brom grabbed two in quick succession, the first admittedly scored by a player in an offside position, but the second merely a consequence of lax defending. With Spurs leading at White Hart Lane, Arsenal were in fourth, and a goal for Newcastle at Goodison would have dumped them out of the top four altogether. Circumstances conspired to prevent that from happening; firstly André Santos hammered a shot in at the near post to make it 2-2 at the Hawthorns, while Everton took a commanding lead against Newcastle. When Fulop accidentally punched a corner straight to Laurent Koscielny four yards out the Gunners took the lead for the second time that afternoon, and this time they held on to guarantee Champions League football in 2012-13.

Spurs will join us on the condition that Chelsea lose in Munich this Saturday, whilst the two Manchester clubs  complete the quartet. Said Wenger: "If you look at the season as a whole we only lost two in the last 16 games, we had a fantastic run and finished with a respectable 70 points and qualified for the 15th year in a row for the Champions League and we are proud of that. Only three clubs in the whole of Europe have done that. It shows it's not as easy as it looks." He is right; the football landscape has been constantly shifting under his feet, and while Arsenal have not looked capable of sustaining a title challenge in recent years, the club has remained amongst the European elite without sacrificing financial stability. Pointing out Arsenal's fiscally prudent transfer policy as a measure of success feels a bit too much like an excuse, and the evidence of success  amongst the spendthrifts of the league, specifically trophies, is a lot more tangible. It also feels like Arsenal fans have been waiting for the payoff for more than a few years now: the board have promised on more than one occasion that funds will be made available to the manager, and it feels like this is the summer that Wenger will finally buck the trend of a lifetime and flash the cash.

The grand youth experiment has failed, even Arsene has admitted as much. Building a team around a core of raw, inexperienced talent was difficult enough when he tried it 5 years ago, and with teams like Manchester City just waiting to offer inflated wages to any player unsatisfied with a single trophyless season, a long term project like that simply isn't feasible anymore. That's not to say that investment in young players is not important, but it's plain to see that success will only come by meshing youth with experience. The first transfer of the summer was sealed some time ago now; Lukas Podolski will join Arsenal from Koln, where he managed a haul of 18 goals despite playing for a team destined for relegation (see this Guardian article for a description of Koln's disastrous season: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/may/07/koln-raphael-honigstein)

The question is, who else will follow him into the club? Moreover who else will leave, and what gaps need to be filled before the start of next season? The transfer rumour mill, normally abuzz with speculation about who Arsenal will pursue during the window has been remarkably quiet in the past few months. Constant chatter about Dortmund's Mario Goetze has dried up, although his team mate, striker Shinji Kagawa is supposedly a target. Wenger has allegedly also been eyeing up Rennes midfielder Yann M'vila for 17 million, although recent reports suggest that Arsenal's interest was being exaggerated by the player's agent to force Inter Milan's hand. American Clint Dempsey has also attracted attention after a breakout season that saw him score 23 goals, and there's little to suggest that he would not be a useful addition to a team which struggled to ease Van Persie's burden in front of goal this season.

The Dutchman's future is still a concern. Guaranteeing Champions League football next season will definitely improve the likelihood of him staying in North London, but his comments after the West Brom game suggested that the issue was far from decided. By all accounts officials at Arsenal are confident that he will stay, and according to the BBC, his wife has told reporters how happy the family are in London. Manchester City have an irritating knack for convincing players of the merits of a move to their city (something to do with the wonderful climate I suppose, I can't imagine what else they have to offer) so nothing is certain yet.

If Robin does elect to stay with us (and as I've said before, he owes us at least one more injury free season), then the truth of the matter is that this team is not a million miles off challenging the Manchester hegemony. Injuries to Jack Wilshere and almost all of our full backs were the difference between finishing closer to the team in fourth than the team in second. With a fully fit squad, we wouldn't necessarily have challenged for the title, but we would have celebrated St Totteringham's day a damn sight earlier than the 13th of May. Saying that a season without injuries would have pushed us closer to the summit is a bit like saying the addition of Messi would improve the quality of our finishing, but it's still true. A defence of Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen and Gibbs/Santos protecting Szczesny can only get better as they play more games together, while a midfield of Song, Wilshere and Arteta is amongst the best in the league. Moreover a front three selected from Gervinho, Van Persie, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Podolski would be lethal. Finally cover would be provided by the likes of Rosicky, Diaby and Ramsey in midfield, while Mertersacker, Djorou and Jenkinson would reinforce the defence. That's a genuinely good team with decent squad depth. Can it be improved upon? Definitely. Will it be? Maybe. We await Wenger's next move with baited breath.

PS - just a quick note about Pat Rice, faithful servant to the club for decades and a consistent presence on the touchline for as long as I've been a fan.You've earned your pension and then some - enjoy your retirement and hope to see you at the emirates soon.

6 from 6 turns into 7 from 7 - the adventure continues apace in North London as the gap widens between third and fourth. Whilst champions league rivals Spurs and Chelsea played out a dreary goalless draw in West London, Arsenal comfortably saw off a poor Aston Villa team to run out 3-0 winners in a game remarkable largely for the absence of one Robin Van Persie on the score sheet

Villa came to North London off the back of one win in their last six matches, but they still had the best record of any visiting team at the emirates, as well as having scored 2 goals in an FA cup fixture between the two teams in January (albeit in a match they lost 3-2), so nothing was certain. Wenger's team selection was nothing if not unsurprising: Van Persie would be accompanied up top by Walcott and Gervinho, whilst Arteta and Rosicky would play behind them. Song would shield a back four of Gibbs, Sagna, Vermaelen and Djourou, Koscielny unfortunately ruled out during the warm up. Alex Mcleish meanwhile chose Agbonlahor and Albrighton to flank Emile Heskey, the premier league's least competent striker, in a front three which someone in public relations might call 'quick, powerful and dynamic' but the rest of us would probably just call 'crap'.

Prior to Sunday the Villa defence had in fact conceded 4 goals fewer than Arsenal, but they'll face few sterner tests than they did on Saturday: the home team started brightly and it quickly became apparent that their movement and one touch passing were too much for the visitors to cope with. Arsenal's efforts were rewarded after just sixteen minutes; the rampaging Kieran Gibbs received a pass from Gervinho inside the box, and with the Villa defenders inexplicably failing to follow his run he had a clean sight of goal. His shot was turned into the net by the hapless Shay Given who one sensed knew his afternoon was only going to get worse. The lead was doubled nine minutes later after Walcott controlled an excellent through ball from the increasingly influential Alex Song and the winger slotted into the corner. Earlier in the season Arsenal seemed to make it their business to piss away leads in the most outrageous ways possible, but we seem to look more and more comfortable defending them these days, and at 2-0 the game seemed sewn up, even with 65 minutes still to play. A third was finally added in the dying moments of the third half when a Mikel Arteta free kick flew in from something like 30 yards out and few would argue that it was any more than Arsenal deserved.

Villa threatened just twice during the entire game; first at 0-0 when Marc Albrighton was allowed to run almost the length of the pitch following a clearance from a corner, but his shot fizzed just over, and again in the 69th minute when the returning André Santos gifted the ball to Andreas Weimann but his ball across the 6 yard box went untouched. The Arsenal defence deserve some credit for picking up a clean sheet in a campaign that has seen alarmingly few of them, but truth be told the game seemed more like an exercise in damage limitation for Mcleish's men than an opportunity to pick up points.

For once we needn't dwell on the negatives because there were none. Instead we can bask in the success of a team whose momentum continues to build when they need it most. The only cloud on the horizon are the absence of Laurent Koscielny although, according the most news sources the defender should be fit for next weekend, when we travel to Loftus Road to battle one of Wenger's nemeses in Mark Hughes and his scrappy band of relegation battlers, QPR. For the first time in a long time there are no players misfiring, no mystery injuries to worry about and with the return of André Santos we once again have cover at full back; moreover in Rosicky mk. 2 we practically have a whole new player in the midfield. The law of averages would suggest that we're due a stroke of bad luck, but maybe for once things will keep going right for us. If results go our way, in a fortnight's time we could be just 6 points off Man City. But that's getting a little ahead of ourselves...isn't it?