New Recruites? 'None'!

There are few football managers who never fail to surprise you. Take Benitez & his eccentric team-selection. Take Sven Goran & his audaciously picking Theo for WC ’06, or for that matter take Mourinho & his pre-match banter. And then there are some whom you can bet your lives on, that come what may, they won’t ever change. Arsene Wenger belongs to the latter few.

With the introduction of the so called ‘Transfer-Window’ at the start of the decade, everything pertaining to the way transfers were carried out in English football, took a flip. As soon as the season ended, managers wore their thinking hat to pluck out the best deal, agents went over-board to ensure their cadets bag the highest package & they in-turn the maximum brokerage, & even the players themselves gave their best to ensure possible suitors kept an interest. Although the winter transfer-window was never the one making the headlines, the trend of suddenly ‘coming-alive’ per say, was still to be found prevalent amongst players. But all this & more till Arsene arrived on the scene. With him around, transfers were never a routine. He never bought players for the sake of it, & to the astonishment of the faithful, didn’t buzz even when his Arsenal were found floundering, getting trashed by Chelsea & United, or constantly flattering to deceive in Europe et al. But then he is the Professor for nothing & as another winter window bids adieu, we @11G look forward to the reminder of the season with his sole recruit this time around. You guessed it, it’s NONE!!

Let’s dwell into the different catalogues a football team is made up of & try to analyze the impact of our new signing!

GK

This was perhaps the only area where no one expected Arsene to consolidate during January. Although options like Almunia, Fabianski & Manonne, should fright any top manager, Wenger chose to look otherwise. Whilst Almunia is not the keeper we saw in the CL Semi’s 1’st leg vs United, Fabianski has yet to down the demons of injury. Manonne, in his brief spell with the first team, did impress, but the angst of top flight got the better of him. After dismal show against United the other evening, Wenger should not hesitate once & duly pass the baton to Fabianski for the duel against Chelsea. Let’s hope he isn’t as bad as Almunia was. ‘None’ not good enough, We needed someone here.

Defence

Some of you might object to the post-heading with reference to the re-induction of Sol Campbell in our squad, but let’s not forget he was a free transfer. So literally speaking we never bought him! But his presence has added the much needed steel & experience in the ranks. Where Gallas & Vermaelen have been rock solid at the back, Clichy has been indifferent all season. Where Sagna has been the epitome of consistency that he is, back-up in the form of Silvestre & Djourou is pretty ordinary to say the least. Djourou btw is injured for the season. How I wish same were the case with Silves. Perhaps Arsene would have gone ahead & pressed the issue for Smalling! Again our best hope here is that both Gallas & Vermaelen remain fit for the remainder of the season, & most importantly Clichy regains his form from last season. Else mediocre players like Nani, will continue to make a mickey out of him. We do have the options of Gibbs & Traore at LB, but aren’t they even worse!? Eboue has been the preferred option in mid-field all season, but he is always available to fill-in for Sagna. No issues there.

Mid-Field

Now this is one area which has performed way beyond expectations this term. Song in particular has been a revelation & has reiterated the faith the gaffer had in him down the years. Not only has he taken to the defensive mid-field position like fish to water, but has also found a solution to the much-debated want for a new recruit. Diaby as well, has done well to plug in the gaps & when given a chance, has not been shy of popping up with a few goals. One failure here has been Denilson. Agreed injuries have been his nemesis for some time now, but haven’t we given him enough time already!? He can neither protect the back-4, nor bump in the final third. All he does is pass & that too backwards. One signing not many are impressed with till date.

On the attacking front, one name has stolen the march on others. Captain Cesc has been splendid thus far. Arguably the player of the season. If not that, then most certainly the play-maker of the season. 14 goals, 17 assists, need I say more!? The new 4-3-3 formation has allowed him the creative freedom he never found in the routine 4-4-2. He now plays without the fear of tracking back & hence is the genesis of almost half of Arsenal’s goals this season. Ramsey has impressed in the limited time given to him. Two peculiar cases just don’t refuse to give in. Rosicky & Nasri, ‘brothers in crutches’ anyone!? Both class players no doubt, but recurring spells of injury have limited their involvement to a bare minimum. Now that Wilshere is loaned away from the Emirates, one might wonder if we missed out signing another attacking mid-fielder. Only time will tell. Again ‘None’ should have been ‘Some’.

Attack

Just one name rings the bell up here. Robin van Persie. While he was around, he was unstoppable. 8 goals & similar amount of assists in under two months & we knew he was reaching the heights his talent deserved. And bam, on away duty with the Netherlands, off he went. Then was the turn of Bendtner to take some nursing & little Theo, well he has been on the crutches for some time now. So Wenger trusted to the wily Russian, Arshavin, to play up-front all alone, & asked the likes of Nasri & Rosicky to support him through the flanks. Highly technical, but a very light attacking force meant we would always struggle against the mean defences around. Defences who excel at intercepting the sleek one-touch passing that Arsenal are master components of.

Right from Balotelli, to Chamakh, to Cole, to Gignac, to Huntelaar, to Van Nistelrooy, to Dzeko, to even Villa, every, major name across Europe was rumoured to have interested Arsene, but he stuck with ‘None’. After the mauling at United, skeptics were out all guns blazing pin-pointing our inadequate attacking force, as the sole reason for the loss. They can’t be wrong after all. While Arshavin is best suited to run at defences with the ball at his feet, & not collect passes with his back against it, both Nasri & Rosicky, too, best work when they come from deep. With RvP out until April, Theo sorely out of touch, & Bendtner being himself, this is one area where I feel Wenger has just missed the bus. Instead of ‘None’, he should have opted of someone.

So there we are. Another window went out of the door, & here we are knocked out of the so-called ‘Mickey Mouse’ Cup, humbled at Stoke in the FA Cup, 3^rd in the League, with Chelsea 6 adrift, & the CL knock-outs soon to begin. We can remain pessimists & continue to rant & rile at why Arsene is wrong at having not signed anyone, continue to sulk as we approach the business end of the season, or instead we can all back our Professor, trust him, his ideals, his genius, which has brought so far. We are no more the ‘1 Nil to the Arsenal’ we were during the early nineties. We are no more the ‘long-ball’ experts we once were, we are no more the ‘bulky & boozy’ squad we were once infamous for. ‘We are now the Arsenal’ who play the most attractive football in Europe. ‘We are the Arsenal’ who have a sound financial set-up & despite having raised the magnificent Emirates, are still not heading towards bankruptcy, like most of our rivals are. And above all, ‘We are now the Arsenal’ which has a team capable enough to decorate our dust-laden trophy cabinet with multitudes of silverware in time to come.

So stop sulking, start supporting the gaffer. Up the Arsenal everyone & never forget:

“In Arsene We Trust. Forever & Ever.”

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What's Your Offer?

No surprises for the Gooners. We had a usual transfer window. A lot of players were linked with Arsenal (just like every other season) in this transfer window. And Wenger signed just 1. A dear friend of mine propagated this theory:

“Every outgoing transfer rumour of Arsenal turns out to be true and every incoming transfer rumour of Arsenal remains a rumour.”

A 11Gunners analysis of the ‘Window’ which opens the doors of success..We Gooners had a wish list for this transfer and it looked something like this:

Wish list: A Commanding Defender, an Authoritative Midfielder and another Forward.

Arsene Wenger finally ended his search for a Centre-Back with real presence when he signed Thomas Vermaelen to replace Kolo Toure. He is a steal @ £10 million we paid for him. It is not that Kolo Toure was not up to the task but he had stayed @ Arsenal for far too long. A change was due. And the kind of money that we got for him is commendable. Vermaelen has looked solid and he has struck a partnership of sorts with Gallas in no time at all.

Other notable departure from Arsenal has been of a certain African who bought himself a shoe, a notch bigger than his size. He considered himself the ‘Next’ Henry and was always looking for more money. For him money was not a means to end but it was the end itself. He was creating nuisance in the locker room and wasn’t consistent enough be in Henry’s bracket by any means. Actually its foolish on our part to even compare him TH14. His departure was always on the cards and and it was evident from his ‘BOOTYLICIOUS’ Milan fantasy. We received around £25 millions for him and trust me we got double of the his actual worth.

Defensively we are quiet well placed. We have a superb pair in Veramalean and Gallas. In case of injury we have able raplacements in players like Mikel Silvestre, Djourou and Sendeoros as back up. Silvestre has lot of experience in top flight football and he can surely make an impact. Senderos has just come back from Milan, an academy for defensive players. I bet that he is a changed player now, having spent time with defensive greats like Maldini, Nesta et al. Even Song can fill in, in case of a crisis. We have gems in Sagna-Eboue & Clichy-Gibbs as full-backs. They are very capable defensively as well on the flanks and the fact that we have an able replacement waiting, gives us that extra insurance.

Offensively we are as good as anyone on this planet. We have centre forwards like Van Persie, Eduardo to lead the charge and in case of injury, players like Bendtner and Vela can take charge with ease. They are better than 90% of forwards in Premiership and are still 2nd choice forwards. It speaks volumes about the quality of our squad.

We don’t need to worry about our offensive midfielders. We have the best playmaker in  Premiership in the form of Fabregas. The Spanish maestro has shown his class to the world. A special mention is due to the 3rd best (1st being Vodka & 2nd being Kournikova, the joke continues) thing that has come out of Russia. Arshavin is a special player. Period. After the departure of Ronaldo, Arshavin is the one who will fill the void that the Portuguese left in Premiership. Rosicky is back and he is not called ‘The Little Mozart’ for no reason. Walcott has shown his mettle to everyone. He has captured the imagination of whole of England. Samir Nasri is another gem and all of them can walk into any midfield on this planet. In Diaby and Song, we have players who can do the dirty work in mid field, if given a chance. We have youngsters like Ramsay & Wilshere who are waiting in the wings to take charge in case of an injury. All in all midfield looks secure even without any new face.

In fact Rosicky and Eduardo are no less than a new signing, given the time they have spent on physio’s table. We have extended the contracts of Bendtner, Denilson & Van Persie. This is more important than a new signing as it is important to continue with the same  nucleus of a team for a considerable amount of time for sustained success.

The only area of concern is defensive midfield. If Song and Denilson get injured or if they don’t step up, then we might feel the pinch. And on top of that Song will leave for African Cup Of Nations in January for a month. He got rid of two Africans in form of Toure and Adebayor and the African Cup Of Nations did a play a part in the whole equation. We might still get out of this soup if Wenger decide to bring someone in January window. Otherwise the Frenchman was typically prudent and early performances seem to have justified his faith in his current crop of players. They may yet regret not making a signing in the Patrick Vieira mould, or indeed the man himself.

Lets hope for the best and leave the rest on God. And seems God has heard us already. The ‘Blues’ have been banned from any new signings for 2 consecutive transfer windows to come. ‘United’ should be the next to get a tap-in from Fifa if sources are to be believed. Amen!

The power shift in London’s footbosphere is eminent now. We shall be the ‘TOP GUNNS’ very very soon. Keep gunning..

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The Comeback Mozart!

As Good As A New Signing!