Alvarez To Replace Fabregas! Are You Having A Laugh?

The rumour that is gathering some pace around the internet is Ricky Alvarez joining Arsenal from the Argentine club Velez. Just for some formalities, he’s a creative midfielder who plays a similar role to Cesc Fabregas. I don’t know how good a player he is. And seeing videos on Youtube doesn’t help that. But still I can say he looks a decent player. And so does Denilson, Squillaci and others(at least on Youtube).

It’s obviously good that we are linked with him but the story running parallel to it is certainly not. It says we are buying him as a replacement for Cesc. Just to confirm, we are talking about The Cesc Fabregas. possible the best playmaker in Europe. With loads of experience at the age of just 23. I won’t hide that I love him and would never want him to go. But we all know he would. But not now. There’s also Nasri who’s not agreed a new contract as well. That means losing one would increase the chances of losing the other as well. Apparently, Nasri’s waiting for greater ambition from Arsenal in terms of players before signing an extension. And selling Cesc surely doesn’t help it.

Cesc's The Name....Well Not Really!

And now we travel to Argentina. Alvarez, if he signs, will play his first season in England and adapting to the English game is not easy. And even the best of players fail sometimes. The minimum requirement is time. It takes some time to adapt to the hostile environment. Then there’s also the weather, culture, food habits and all. Believe me, it’s no easy task. Selling Fabregas would mean Alvarez is thrown into the deep end. Some survive it(Koscielny) and some don’t(Chamakh).

Fabregas is also the captain of Arsenal and when he plays, it’s almost as if the most important cog of the Arsenal machine is put in place. And when he doesn’t, we do lack that special *Cesc* spark.

That’s it for today. Somewhat busy nowadays.

 

Walcott To Win Arsenal The Title

One major positive in an otherwise disappointing season has been the form of our own speedster, Theo Walcott. He always had shown his talent in bits and pieces(especially against Barcelona) but never looked likely to perform on a consistent basis. This made the fans give him the tag of a “Supersub”. But he proved it all wrong.

Its not that he had an outstanding season with no injury worries. But if I don’t say he’s had a decent statement won’t be justified. His hard-work on the training pitch is clearly visible and if it was not for our striker’s poor finishing(RvP may not read this!), he’d have got an awful number of assists this season. His finishing is amazing. In fact I remember Theo’s goals more than any other Arsenal player. The one against Blackburn was top-notch. Blackpool, Shaktar, Chelsea, Chelsea(brilliant!) and Fulham on the last day. These are the ones that just came even without remembering. There were some others too which I have  forgotten but his tally of 10-15 goals(I hate searching for exact stats!) is great given his injury woes which were less visible this term. But still more than most.

Yeah Theo! That’s The Way To Do It

Walcott is being rumored to shift to play more centrally next season. Yeah I know its just the fans wanting that. I also think the striker role would suit him better as we’ve seen how teams coming to the Emirates and just trying to defend have crowded the right flank making Walcott not-existent. Also given the possible signature of Gervinho who’s a right winger, Walcott’s change of position looks inevitable. And that’ll probably play the biggest role in Arsenal’s title ambition last year.And when he’s not played, we’ve lacked width,pace and ruthlessness. I know Walcott does put some crosses for the ones paying a 100 pounds to watch him do that for van Persie. But still his finishing has been better than our other strikers apart from RvP.

In other news, Barca President Sandro Rosell(due to the Cesc transfer saga I think I know the Barca board more than Arsenal’s!) has questioned Fabregas’ value and said Barca won’t pay over 35-40m pounds. Well I think Cesc’s worth that money. Not more. But that would be in a normal world. And we live in one where Caroll is worth 35m. So that just doubles Cesc’s valuation. Or probably even more.

England crashed out of the Under-21s and Pearce says they could’ve reached the finals. The World Cup problem is still there with England. I guess it’s down to the tough, strong and physical demands from a young player. No one looks at their skills. Oh wait! One club does. And is also criticized for doing that.There is something seriously wrong in there.

Till Then.

What is Wrong With Arsene?

As days go by(slowly!), Arsenal seem to be interested in every player on the damn planet but end up buying no one. Wait, a French boy or two are sure to arrive. But that’s really not the problem. The problem is finalizing agreed deals.

Lets just take the recent Gervinho deal for example. Why the hell is it taking so much time to be announced. Can’we just get it done and dusted and move on. Can’t we for once. Surely we’ve got other targets. The fact is, as long as the transfer window looks to be, it does move swiftly. For Arsenal fans, it doesn’t but for the board it does. It was the same last year. The Koscielny deal almost took around 75% of the summer. And when we moved to other targets(rememeber Schwarzer!), it was all too late and we ended up with Almunia. Not saying it matters now since the Wojo man has put in some decent performances.

But what if this happens again this summer. Now I know people around the internet suggest the deal would be complete by next week. But what’s the guarantee? And given our history, I doubt it would.

I know the frequency of the blog has decreased but that’s the way it is. I’m just waiting and searching(Google-ing) all over the net for some good news for us but it never does. Its always Arsenal are “reportedly” looking at or are “in talks” with a player. The consequences this year could be dramatic. What if Nasri decides to leave and Barca(finally) find some money for Cesc. What if they both leave? Where will that leave us? Now Wenger is too good to let something like that happen but hey even the best can suffer from the worst.

The Chamberlain deal is pretty much the same. Arsenal are “linked”(again!) with him since Jan but still no signs of  a reached agreement. Now even if I personally think 12m pounds is a bit too much for a youngster considering that Fabregas was just a year younger when he came here for peanuts! And we all know about the Samba deal.

We Welcome You With Open Arms!

Please give your thoughts in the comments section.They’d be really appreciated.Now as long as the deals are complete in the end, no one would mind.I’m a big Wenger fan but as far as I’m concerned, he really needs to be fast in the market(especially when some big fishes are also shopping).You know it’s like when a single piece is left in the supermarket and you have to rush to make sure you and no one else gets it. Everyone knows the frailties in the team and rectifying them sooner rather than later would go a long way in making the coming season one to remember(and not in the wrong way).

The Future of Arsenal

We have a Guest Post from Sanchal Dash, a through and through Arsenal fan. He says we have a lot of quality in our youth team and hence it shouldn’t be overlooked. Over to you Sanchal:

The Arsenal Academy has been associated with many talented individual who have graced the pitch at either The Highbury or The Emirates. The crème de la crème of the youth and reserves has never looked as strong as they look now. I have pinpointed my pick for possible stars of future in a gunner shirt, who could prove themselves at the highest level in English and world football just as their alumnus, i.e. Cesc, Wishere, Wojciech Szczesny to name a few.

Emanuel Frimpong:  Mostly plays in the same role as his compatriot Alex song, and has made 10 appearances for the reserve team in 2009-10 season and was fast tracked to the first team in the pre season tour of Austria in 2010-11 season before his progress was interrupted by a freaking knee cruciate injury during a training session, which kept him out for 9 months. This season he looks strong as ever and has the physique and skills to be one of the best defensive midfielder in the league.

Jay Emanuel Thomas: One of the most ridiculously talented player in Arsenal Reserves Team. His stats for the reserves league last season were 10 goals from 9 appearances. He has already made 5 appearances for the Arsenal first team but wasn’t provided much playing time hence was shipped on loan to championship where he excelled yet again. He has played at every role available on the pitch except that of Goalkeeping. He certainly has the physique to bully the defenders along with the skills. I would describe him as the English Version of Carlos Vela. He is just awesome and requires much more playing time and the amount of matches we are looking forward to along with the offloading of deadweights in the team we might just have a new star this season.

Henri Lansbury:  Already has played for Gunners 6 times and has scored a fantasy goal against the Spuds in Carling cup last season.Need I say more. He prefers to play in the central Midfield. He was shipped on loan to Norwich city where he had performed admirably to become one of the crowd favorite during his spell. I can see him making headlines at emirates after the likely departure of  Denilson as he can fit into that role easily and is better than Denilson already and can improve further if he is given ample playing time.

Conor Henderson: A ball playing Midfielder who can play in the left. Ha an amazing left foot. Has already made his debut for arsenal against Leyton Orient and was taking the free kicks and corners ahead of other experienced campaigners. He has the technical ability and can learn a lot from Arshavin and Nasri if he is given more chances.

Miyachi: An excellent winger and already scored on his debut on loan for feyenoord. His excellent performances in dutch eredivise has already made him a crowd favorite and also made the dutch club to send a request for the extension of his loan. If sources are to be trusted then he might join the arsenal team in pre season. He is quick and has great control as well and can fill the void left on the pitch and can make excellent crosses for the likes of RVP and Chamakh.

Welington Silva: Another Winger on loan to Spanish club Levante and also played for Fluminense and scored 2 goals and 5assists in 19 appearances for them. His attitude has been questioned at times but not talent. So if Wenger manages to bring him back to Arsenal he could showcase his Brazilian flair which would augur well for the arsenal attack in coming years.

Chuks Aneke: A through and Through British talent, He has scored 9 goals in 21 appearances for the Arsenal Reserves last season. He is a intelligent midfielder and has contributed to the goal tallies of his fellow team amtes most notably Afobe. Afobe and Aneke have been responsible for the excellent performance of Arsenal Youth team in 2009-2010 season, when they won the league.

Benik Afobe: Another Englishman with an awesome eye for goal and grass burning pace. He has been most successful with linking play with aneke and has scored 4 goals in 9 appearances for Arsenal reserves last season. He was sent to Hudderfields Town on loan to further continue his improvement. He scored 3 goals in 8 appearances during his loan spell. At 17 years of age he still has miles to go but has shown the right attitude to move forward. Given opportunity in next two or three season we may have a 2o goals a season striker.

This is his first post so be a little easy on him.

A Re-Review Of The Footballing Spectacle

I’m referring to the Barca-Arsenal 2nd leg tie. Yeah the one with that audacious red card. Or should I say stupid.  They were showing it again today and I probably had nothing else to do so I watched it. Remember Nicky’s miss. I surely do. Also Cesc’s back heel. That’s some level of arse-ing things up. And Szczesny’s broken finger. Or whatever injury he suffered.

As I watched the first half(I tuned in at 20-odd minutes), I really did noticed something unusual. None of our always-try-to-outscore-the-opponent thing was there to see. But I’ve got to tell you, it was one organized performance. The central defence working in pairs, the full-backs being very well supported by our wingers. By far the most disciplined display by an Arsenal team. And it all worked perfectly up until that freakish moment. Yeah I’m referring to Cesc’s mistake. Remember it was the first half stoppage time. That mistake meant we went 1-0 down into the break.

But still the resilience shown by the players was terrific. People questioning Arsenal’s mental strength should really watch the game again.

And then came the all-too-annoying 2nd half. The own-goal, the sending off, Almunia’s brilliant show and Bendtner’s late late miss. But one thing that I felt while watching it today was the kind of resilience that is never associated with this Arsenal team. Even after going down to 10 men, we defended as a team and it all didn’t look much Arsenal-ish.

Whoa! Is Diaby Really That Funny,Cesc?

I’m not a critic and I don’t aspire to be one(Thank God!). But to all you Arsenal fans, I have one message for next season. DO NOT let the media fool you. We are much better than they showcase us to be. That Arsenal  are much tougher that we think. It’s just the irrelevant pressure from outside(the media and the fans) that sometimes bring the worst out of the players. Maybe, just maybe that’s the biggest lesson to be learnt on our part. Let’s just learn ours and let Wenger and his team learn theirs.You might be thinking why am I all of a sudden talking about the game. It’s not only because I watched it again( though it is one reason to a lesser extent) but also because of the fact that I think that was one of the better defensive displays from this team in some years that went unnoticed. A game for Arsenal to build upon. But sadly one where the media(again!) failed to recognize our mental strength. Well you can understand that provided at the same time,the 50m striker finally scored against the mighty Rob Green. And Shrek was playing so well having scored a decent enough goal against Man City(which in my eyes was a one-off moment). But no one realized what van Persie was doing for Arsenal FC. Scoring in literally every game. And no one realized how close we were to beating Barcelona  on their own game. In fact we were criticized for lacking bottle.

I’m not a critic and I don’t aspire to be one(Thank God!). But to all you Arsenal fans, I have one message for next season. DO NOT let the media fool you. We are much better than they showcase us to be. That Arsenal  are much tougher that we think. It’s just the irrelevant pressure from outside(the media and the fans) that sometimes bring the worst out of the players. Maybe, just maybe that’s the biggest lesson to be learnt on our part. Let’s just learn ours and let Wenger and his team learn theirs.