There is continued speculation over William Gallas' future as his contract expires on the 30th June. Arsene Wenger claims he is in talks over a new deal with the Frenchman, but as an outsider looking in, no progress seems to have been made. Arsene Wenger has a strict policy over players over 30 years of age, the same policy that has made us lose players such as Pires and Gilberto. William Gallas has played 142 games for Arsenal scoring 17 goals. This season William and Thomas Vermaelen have formed a decent pairing in defence, despite conceding 39 goals in the league this season. However I feel very comfortable with Gallas and Vermaelen sitting in the heart of our defence, and it should be a partnership that continues through to next season.
Since William Gallas came to the club as part of a swap deal with Chelsea for Ashley Cole in 2006, William has had a somewhat roller coaster ride at the club. However despite the tantrums and silly mistakes, William has been a very solid defender on the whole, and for the first half of this season proved to be in great form. Since losing the captaincy Gallas has stepped his game up this season, it looks like he has had a weight removed from his shoulders and he can just play football, which is what he loves to do. William is a player we need to keep around the club, he gives us great experience, a drive to win games and a winning mentality that at sometimes this season has been missing throughout the club.
If we were to lose William, we would be left very bare at centre back. Despite Johan Djourou coming back to fitness which is a great boost, we are still left with hardly any cover. Of course we have Sol Campbell, but even he is not 100% certain to be here next year. We have Silvestre and then Senderos, who is another one who's future at the club is far from clear, and then u start looking at the youngsters such as Kyle Bartley and Harvard Nordveit. Out of the names just mentioned, none of them hardly fill you with profound confidence to partner Thomas Vermaelen at the heart of a problem stricken defensive team. If Gallas were to go we would definitely have to go in to the market for a Centre Back. We have been linked with PSG captain Mamadou Sakho in the past, at just 20 years of age he is a great prospect, but do we really need another player who is set to blossom in a few years? What we would need is a starting centre back. Of course these players don't come cheap and aren't exactly easy to find. There has been continued speculation of bringing Brede Hangelaand to the club, which in my eyes would be an absolutely fantastic signing. Names such as Kamil Zayatte, Neven Subotic and Steven Jones have also been thrown in to the mix.
However before we put the cart before the horse, we mustn't get ahead of ourselves, I personally would love William to stay and I hope he does, he shows a lot of passion on the pitch, and clearly enjoys wearing the Arsenal shirt, but if he was to leave then we must sign someone to not only replace him but to form a partnership with Vermaelen in defence.
Thanks for reading, be sure to leave your feedback
Friday, 30 April 2010
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Wenger Looking To Sign Before World Cup
Personally, I think its great that Wenger has identified the need to strengthen, some may say a few years too late, but at least now Wenger understands that the squad we have is not good enough. In the 13 seasons Arsene Wenger has been at the club, we have witnessed some great players with the likes of Bergkamp, Henry, Pires, Vieira, Petit, Overmars, the list is endless. However if you look at the Arsenal line up this season, how many of these players would you regard as world class players. I would count Fabregas and Van Persie as probably the only two players that would get into any other team in the world. We have good players but other than the two mentioned, I don't think we have anyone else that is a truly outstanding talent.
In my last post I identified the areas that i felt we needed to strengthen. I said we need a keeper, an extra creative midfielder, as well as a defensive midfielder and a striker. I would also add a centre back to that list. The problem Wenger will face in trying to land world class players is that, no-one who is remotely good enough is available to sign. The bigger clubs in Europe are no fools, they understand that they must keep hold of their best players and will only sell them for an absolutely ridiculous price, that only maybe Real Madrid and Man City could afford. Why would a player playing for Bayern, Real, Barca, Inter or any other big team around Europe want to come to Arsenal. We don't pay as much and were not exactly winning trophies every season are we. Arsenal have lost their appeal to players. For example if we wanted to sign David Villa from Valencia, we would face stern competition from many clubs. We would not be able to cope with a bidding war because although funds are available, we cannot cope with the financial power of the competing clubs. We don't stand out of the crowd anymore either, players would much rather take the money and go sign for Man City, I mean who can blame them, Man City are definitely a team on the up.
It will be interesting to find out who Wenger's targets actually are, and how he intends on luring them to the club. Wenger said he would like to sign them preferably before the World Cup starts, so maybe we should expect some activity within the next few months or so. The signing of Chamakh is almost a done deal, and from what I have seen of him, he should be a very decent acquisition. One thing I no however is that whoever Wenger wants to bring in, he is going to have to work extremely hard to bring them to the club.
In my last post I identified the areas that i felt we needed to strengthen. I said we need a keeper, an extra creative midfielder, as well as a defensive midfielder and a striker. I would also add a centre back to that list. The problem Wenger will face in trying to land world class players is that, no-one who is remotely good enough is available to sign. The bigger clubs in Europe are no fools, they understand that they must keep hold of their best players and will only sell them for an absolutely ridiculous price, that only maybe Real Madrid and Man City could afford. Why would a player playing for Bayern, Real, Barca, Inter or any other big team around Europe want to come to Arsenal. We don't pay as much and were not exactly winning trophies every season are we. Arsenal have lost their appeal to players. For example if we wanted to sign David Villa from Valencia, we would face stern competition from many clubs. We would not be able to cope with a bidding war because although funds are available, we cannot cope with the financial power of the competing clubs. We don't stand out of the crowd anymore either, players would much rather take the money and go sign for Man City, I mean who can blame them, Man City are definitely a team on the up.
It will be interesting to find out who Wenger's targets actually are, and how he intends on luring them to the club. Wenger said he would like to sign them preferably before the World Cup starts, so maybe we should expect some activity within the next few months or so. The signing of Chamakh is almost a done deal, and from what I have seen of him, he should be a very decent acquisition. One thing I no however is that whoever Wenger wants to bring in, he is going to have to work extremely hard to bring them to the club.
Friday, 23 April 2010
Maybe Next Year...Where have we heard this before?
Things were looking bright for the club heading into the final games of the season, with a quarter final against Barcelona to look forward to. How quickly things can change though. Before we could even blink an eye we are sitting third in the league 6 points behind Chelsea, with 3 games remaining and smashed out of the champions league by a rampant Barcelona. I hope these last few weeks have taught Arsene Wenger a few lessons, because I certainly have learnt a lot from them.
First of all I would like to look at the positives from this season. Lets face it, know one expected us to be in with a shout this season, but we were almost there. The form of players such as Alex Song, Cesc Fabregas and the signing of Thomas Vermaelan also shed light on a mixed season. We have shown lots of character throughout the season, scoring many last minute winners to gain vital points in title race. I suppose another good thing coming out of this season is realising that we are not good enough. I think Arsene Wenger has seen now that improvement must be made, or else we may find ourselves going on a downward spiral.
Its evident from this season the defence was not good enough. We have conceded 39 goals in the league this season so far, that is the 8th best record in the premier league, with teams such as Tottenham, Fulham and even Stoke having a better defensive record against us. There is a saying that 'offense sells tickets, defence wins championships'. I'm not just saying that the back four has been poor, because that wouldn't be true. In Clichy, Sagna, Gallas and Vermaelan, we have four of the best defenders in the world. However just because you have the best defenders doesn't mean to say you will have a great defence. Defending is a an art and takes the whole team to create a great defensive team. For example Man Utd, they have the best defensive record this season. The difference between United and Arsenal defensively is huge. The way Uniteds midfield close down, and intercept crucial passes is a joy to behold. Defence is not only just about stopping the attacking team, its about being disciplined and creating a brick wall. Arsenal instead of having a brick wall seem to have a bit of tape. Its not just against the big teams our defence has been found wanting, but even against some of the smaller teams, we have struggled to keep a clean sheet, and concede silly goals. We have kept 12 clean sheet this season compared to Man Utd's 17. Those 5 clean sheets could well be the reason why the title has been taken away from us.
In my opinion we must find a new keeper, Almunia has made some great saves this season, but i find it no coincidence that we have Almunia in goal and we concede far too many goals. I have been watching Hugo Lloris of Lyon, and he I believe would be a great signing. Also being linked with Joe Hart has bought a smile to my face, he is England's future number one, and i thoroughly believe that he has the ability to be a top keeper. Another name to throw into the mix is Igor Akinfeev of CSKA Moscow, highly regarded as one of the best young keepers in the world. Of course it would be harsh to just lay the blame on Almunia himself, but he certainly is a huge factor. Another factor is that we just cant defend as a team. There is a problem tactically with how we defend and I think that problem can be addressed on the training pitch rather than bringing in new personnel. Man Utd still defend better than us even with Vidic and Ferdinand out injured, and I'm pretty sure we have better defenders than Stoke and Fulham do. This in itself shows that you can have the best defenders in the world but if you don't defend as a team, then you are going to be in big trouble, and we have learnt this the hard way this season.
Alex Song, Cesc Fabregas and even Abou Diaby have been great this season, but even still i would like us to bring a new face in midfield. I think it has been unfair on Alex Song to play as many times as he has this season, its no wonder why he is now out injured for the games we really needed him to be fit for. I have been a long term fan of Yaya Toure. He could give us something different to what we have, and you don't just have to play either him or song, you can play them both. Against teams like Chelsea and Man Utd, I think it could actually help us playing two holding men, just to give us that extra strength in the midfield. He could be a few bricks in the wall i was talking about creating earlier on in the article. If we could secure the signing of Yaya Toure then I would be extremely happy.
Despite scoring 78 goals already this season, which is not bad at all, i still think in some games we have lacked a certain spark, especially without Van Persie. We need another striker, and after watching Chamakh, i feel he may give us something that we have been missing. However the issue doesn't just stem from the strikers. I feel sometimes that we run out of ideas in midfield and end up leaving all the creating down to fabregas. We still need another player that can create something out of the blue, we have to compensate for the fact that players like Nasri, Arshavin and Rosicky are going to have off games, we need someone who can come in and be effective from the off. I personally would like to see Gourcouff at the club. He is an Arsenal player through and through and i think he would thrive in the Premier league.
A lot of improvement must be made for next season, not only to win the title, but also to compete. Teams such as Tottenham, Man City and Villa are very close to penetrating the top four, as Liverpool have found out this season already. We must improve our personnel, our tactics, our mentality and we must start to create this winning attitude. I'm fed up of being satisfied with 'we were nearly there'. That attitude will never secure as a Premier League title. Personally I'm very offended that people don't expect Arsenal to challenge anymore, and 'nearly there' is seen as an accomplishment by the outside world. Arsenal Football Club should be winning trophies like they always have done, not bottling out of title races and throwing away opportunities to win trophies. We should be out to win every trophy we enter in for whether it be the Carling Cup of The Champions League. Until this attitude can be established in this Arsenal team then we will be going nowhere fast.
Be sure to leave your comments and feedback.
First of all I would like to look at the positives from this season. Lets face it, know one expected us to be in with a shout this season, but we were almost there. The form of players such as Alex Song, Cesc Fabregas and the signing of Thomas Vermaelan also shed light on a mixed season. We have shown lots of character throughout the season, scoring many last minute winners to gain vital points in title race. I suppose another good thing coming out of this season is realising that we are not good enough. I think Arsene Wenger has seen now that improvement must be made, or else we may find ourselves going on a downward spiral.
Its evident from this season the defence was not good enough. We have conceded 39 goals in the league this season so far, that is the 8th best record in the premier league, with teams such as Tottenham, Fulham and even Stoke having a better defensive record against us. There is a saying that 'offense sells tickets, defence wins championships'. I'm not just saying that the back four has been poor, because that wouldn't be true. In Clichy, Sagna, Gallas and Vermaelan, we have four of the best defenders in the world. However just because you have the best defenders doesn't mean to say you will have a great defence. Defending is a an art and takes the whole team to create a great defensive team. For example Man Utd, they have the best defensive record this season. The difference between United and Arsenal defensively is huge. The way Uniteds midfield close down, and intercept crucial passes is a joy to behold. Defence is not only just about stopping the attacking team, its about being disciplined and creating a brick wall. Arsenal instead of having a brick wall seem to have a bit of tape. Its not just against the big teams our defence has been found wanting, but even against some of the smaller teams, we have struggled to keep a clean sheet, and concede silly goals. We have kept 12 clean sheet this season compared to Man Utd's 17. Those 5 clean sheets could well be the reason why the title has been taken away from us.
In my opinion we must find a new keeper, Almunia has made some great saves this season, but i find it no coincidence that we have Almunia in goal and we concede far too many goals. I have been watching Hugo Lloris of Lyon, and he I believe would be a great signing. Also being linked with Joe Hart has bought a smile to my face, he is England's future number one, and i thoroughly believe that he has the ability to be a top keeper. Another name to throw into the mix is Igor Akinfeev of CSKA Moscow, highly regarded as one of the best young keepers in the world. Of course it would be harsh to just lay the blame on Almunia himself, but he certainly is a huge factor. Another factor is that we just cant defend as a team. There is a problem tactically with how we defend and I think that problem can be addressed on the training pitch rather than bringing in new personnel. Man Utd still defend better than us even with Vidic and Ferdinand out injured, and I'm pretty sure we have better defenders than Stoke and Fulham do. This in itself shows that you can have the best defenders in the world but if you don't defend as a team, then you are going to be in big trouble, and we have learnt this the hard way this season.
Alex Song, Cesc Fabregas and even Abou Diaby have been great this season, but even still i would like us to bring a new face in midfield. I think it has been unfair on Alex Song to play as many times as he has this season, its no wonder why he is now out injured for the games we really needed him to be fit for. I have been a long term fan of Yaya Toure. He could give us something different to what we have, and you don't just have to play either him or song, you can play them both. Against teams like Chelsea and Man Utd, I think it could actually help us playing two holding men, just to give us that extra strength in the midfield. He could be a few bricks in the wall i was talking about creating earlier on in the article. If we could secure the signing of Yaya Toure then I would be extremely happy.
Despite scoring 78 goals already this season, which is not bad at all, i still think in some games we have lacked a certain spark, especially without Van Persie. We need another striker, and after watching Chamakh, i feel he may give us something that we have been missing. However the issue doesn't just stem from the strikers. I feel sometimes that we run out of ideas in midfield and end up leaving all the creating down to fabregas. We still need another player that can create something out of the blue, we have to compensate for the fact that players like Nasri, Arshavin and Rosicky are going to have off games, we need someone who can come in and be effective from the off. I personally would like to see Gourcouff at the club. He is an Arsenal player through and through and i think he would thrive in the Premier league.
A lot of improvement must be made for next season, not only to win the title, but also to compete. Teams such as Tottenham, Man City and Villa are very close to penetrating the top four, as Liverpool have found out this season already. We must improve our personnel, our tactics, our mentality and we must start to create this winning attitude. I'm fed up of being satisfied with 'we were nearly there'. That attitude will never secure as a Premier League title. Personally I'm very offended that people don't expect Arsenal to challenge anymore, and 'nearly there' is seen as an accomplishment by the outside world. Arsenal Football Club should be winning trophies like they always have done, not bottling out of title races and throwing away opportunities to win trophies. We should be out to win every trophy we enter in for whether it be the Carling Cup of The Champions League. Until this attitude can be established in this Arsenal team then we will be going nowhere fast.
Be sure to leave your comments and feedback.
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