Do unto TW14 as you did TH14.

I was in the process of writing an article on Wenger's use of Theo Walcott when the news revealed that Capello had left Theo out of the world cup. Some say its good for him, he needs to reset and regain his game. I for one say, bull*****, his game has never left him, his deployment has been awful.
When Theo was shining at Southampton, he was known for speed and most importantly his impeccable timing of his runs. He was played as a striker and he blossomed.

Since his move to Arsenal, he has been used mostly as a winger, and in a super sub role. That is a mistake, just as it was for Thierry Henry's Juventus days as a winger. Worse still for Walcott, he has been deployed as a winger on a team that is awful in the air. Even further worse, as a winger, Theo plays on a team that even if he cut back the ball, his teammates are reluctant to take a shot. They prefer to walk the ball into the net against real men with mortgages to pay. The result is 18 goals and 20 assists for a Theo who scored in every other game for Southampton and 100 goals in a season for his secondary school.

Despite being played outside his element in the guise that he is learning defensive duties and buffing up physically, Theo has managed to show us on several occasions why he is so special. For one, he is not only an arsenal forward but when he is playing, he is an extra defender just by his presence. Teams have to respect him and usually hold a defender back to accommodate his threat. Ask Jermaine Jenas if you don't know what am talking about.

Secondly, the run against Liverpool twice, the run against Milan, against barcelona are only possible through special talent. Theo best moment was not recorded on video and happened while training with the England squad 1 year ago. The English players who witnessed it testify that Theo blazed through the entire defense in a fashion they had never seen before. David Beckham was present and the boyish grin on his face as he recounted Theo's move told me he saw something very very special.

With that said here is my plea to Wenger. Your plans for Theo should be as follows. Play 442 and have Theo play behind the main striker. The main striker should be able to hold the ball, that is, he cannot be Bendtner. Let Walcott roam around the line freely. Do not assign Walcott defensive duties because his very presence forces the opposing team to be defensive. Remember what you did for henry when you rescued him from the wing, remember? Do unto TW14 as you did TH14.

Kris Boyd

As another frustrated arsenal fan, I'm beginning to wonder if Wenger is gonna sign another player. The world cup is a few weeks away and so far nothing constructive has happened at Arsenal whilst other big clubs are making their moves. Sadly it looks like our inspirational captain cesc is on his way out and all i know is the money we get from him will most probably be used to renovate highbury square or the VIP lounges! To my point, its time to make a move wenger and Rangers striker Kris Boyd is avail on a free transfer, the all time Spl leading scorer. I think a bentner switch for boyd would make our attacking options more lethal than Lethal weapon 3! Since we have Chamahk now who's aerial prowess is good a camel footed bentner is unnecessary What you all think?

Why HE will never spend big(or prove me wrong this summer)

For a long time AW has been frugal in the market while maintaining a fringe position of staying in all competitions, imagine if one day he wakes up and breaks bank.
These are the repercussions :If he ends up winning a championship,he will be so dissapointed at winning it against his own frugal principals.

On the Other Hand I don't think he will ever give his detractors the satisfaction of,"see I told you you could win something if you actually spend."

Oh,and apparently some Italian and German Club opted to ignore and kick out other clubs to continue playing the UCL by themselves until one of them wins.

what's that swoosh sound coming out of North London

Where are my manners. My first blog should have started with me thanking waweru wa mwaura for allowing me to contribute to his site. I guess he was tired of my daily arsenal text rants every morning at 8 am and figured he would be spared them if he let me blog. Wrong... The only thing that will quiet me is if the Emirates delivers glory, and that quiet time will last only as long as it takes me to get over the subsequent hangover...not very long.

You can measure noise in primarily two units of measure; sound power if you use a reverbertory chamber or sound pressure if it is an anechoic chamber. If, let me correct myself, when Cesc's move to Barcelona is announced, the noise that will emanate from North London and the arsenal world over will be immeasurable in either units. We will need a new unit of measure to properly document the event. I propose a new unit of measure named an "arsene".

To allow relative measurement, we will need to estimate the amount of noise that would comprise of an 'arsene' before the cesc move occurs. Failure to do so risks us branding the total noise caused by Cesc's move to Barcelona one sound arsene, thereby guaranteeing any other such event being a fraction of an arsene. We all know its hard enough to count in whole numbers, we don't need fractions.

I am therefore going to suggest that we assign one sound arsene to the total amount of noise that resulted from Terry's slip and penalty miss that cost Chelsea a champions league trophy. That being said, this whole Cesc saga reminds me of presidential candidate Ross Perot's warning to America about ratifying NAFTA. He warned that if the US signed the deal, the accompanying swoosh sound will be the sound of jobs leaving the country. Boy was he right. So monsieur Wenger, when you do accept that check from Camp Nou for our beloved magician, the resulting 3 arsene sound heard will be the entire integrity of Arsenal heading for the hills. We will truly have become Arsenal Financial club, not Football club, just like they taught you in Economics class.

Burn Down the Emirates.... move back to Highbury, and bring back 'the Dein'

Arsene Wenger's imagination and ideas, and David Dein's reality clout to make them happen were the ideal partnership. After all it was Dein that brought him to Highbury from..... Yeah! that one.
Dein's contacts in the football world is not be underestimated, and that is where Gazidis is at major disadvantage. I reckon a lot of players that Arsene failed to get in the past years would have stood a better chance had Dein been on board. But we'll never know.

Dein had been the director of Arsenal from 1983 until he was forced off the board almost 3 years ago, ironically enough, it was mainly due to his dealings with Stan Kroenke, who he introduced to the club and helped broker the sale of 9.9% of the ITV shares in the club that the American thus purchased. When the club decided they wanted a new stadium, Dein adviced them that a sugar daddy was needed too. Someone with billions of dollars to invest in the club to keep them competitive throughout the transition phase. This is when he was quickly hurried off the round table.

If Wenger would just come out and say that the club does not have any money, and we will always, or atleast in the next six to ten years, be a selling club. I think a lot of fans would respect him more.

Arsene Wenger is over 60. I have proof

From the moment it became clear to me that Wenger's replacement for Henry was Adebayor, I smelt the coffee despite a full blown sinus infection while standing in a mortuary with no refrigeration. I held out calling foul and for the first months of that 2007 campaign, I like many arsenal fans worldwide was pouring champaign as Arsenal danced their way to the top of EPL. But Adebayor was steadily breaking the offside record and at the same time clearly being very wasteful in front of goal. I quickly realized my suspicions that Adebayor is no Henry and the quality of service at Arsenal was worthy of a more clinical finisher. With a chance to go 6 points clear the top of the league at St. Andrew's, the break and subsequent collapse materialize. Gallas the only one to notice the significance of the moment stages his memorable sit down and reflect at center pitch act. For Wenger, the moment passes him like spoilt french toast. Instead his post match interview starts with that dreaded word, the word that promises glory when the team has failed to secure it on the pitch. That word, "mathematically..." is uttered.
Worse still he chastises the captain's breakdown at St. Andrew's, the man who had only scored the equalizer against Man-u, the only goal against chelsea, that crucial goal before half time against Bolton, the go ahead at wigan, in other words the man who knew a little bit about crucial moments. Coffee please.
For the remainder of the campaign, Wenger insists that Arsenal had a chance to win the league when clearly it was all but over on February 13th at St. Andrew's. Arsenal go trophyless for the 3rd year in a row and enter a summer where we lose Hleb & Flamini and Adebayor announces his love affair for both AC Milan and Beyonce. In exchange Wenger signs Nasri, Ramsey, bischoff, no striker, and snatches Silvestre from the Man City medical table. Coffee please, classic roast, silly investment sighted.
Two summers in a row without re-investment in the team quickly shows in the 2008 campaign as arsenal earns 4 loses in the league before December 2008. By January transfer window, Arsene is the only man left in the arsenal world that does not see a need to sign a new player even with cesc injured. More shaky performances in January force Wenger's hand but he waits untill the midnight hour to force the Arsharvin move, a move only made possible after the little Russian pays back Zenit his bonus from his own pocket. Are you kidding me? Coffee, 85 degrees, no cream.
By now we have been seasoned to the 70th minute substitution every game regardless of the needs on the pitch. But wenger had more in stock and it all welled up at the FA semi final versus chelsea at wembley where wenger picked a team that did not feature Arsharvin. This was in the absence of Cesc and with Arshavin cuptied in Europe. Of course Drogba did his business, and fabianski gave us a preview of his soon to be 2009 form. In a meaningless midweek league game against Liverpool, Wenger fields the team that should have played the FA semi final. That game yields the famous yell, "Arshavinnnnnn...Four" , but we all know that Benayoun had the last say that evening in another coffee waiter, extra caffeine moment for me.
No trophy 4th season in a row, Wenger dives into summer pool and emerges with Vermaelen but as the window closes, we watch Kolo Toure and Adebayor exit with no replacement. RVP goes down and I am left feeling that if there was a credit swap product to hedge our losses in case of an RVP injury, I would buy it. Wenger on the other hand despite being the educated economist has no back up plan for RVP and has never had one for Cesc. Now I want my coffee to confuse more and more with redbull.
As I type, the maestro of the Gunner team, Gunner philosophy and flair is closer to abandoning his mentor to go back to his boyhood barcelona team. He is tired of the experiment, tired of wasting his threaded passes to misfiring players, tired of working for goals only to be nullified by a goal keeping crew that everyone but Wenger knows is not good enough. He watches Pedro, maxwell, bojan, messi win trophies while wenger is still holding the wrench and tweaking an engine that is out of any adjustable margin. Let's face it, Chamakh is coming to arsenal because its a free transfer and not because he is the talent worthy of Cesc's assists. How do I know Wenger is over 60? Cesc woke up, walked up to him, faced him and said please let me go. That's how I know.

Ne confondez pas le prix avec la valeur de la chose, Monsieur Wenger

I’d like to make point that I hope is not lost on the board and manager. Players like Flamini, Hleb, Adebayor and even Fabregas might not have their heads turned so readily if the Club showed more commitment to achieving success. Part of this involves paying top players what they’re worth. We don’t want to see half the team on contracts in excess of £100,000-a-week, but you do need to pay key players close to what they would receive elsewhere otherwise you risk losing them. Another way for a club to announce its ambition is to sign top-draw players.

Many reasons have been given for Arsenal’s end of season capitulation: bad luck, injuries , inexperience, limited resources… The truth is, no single factor was to blame.The reason we failed to gain silverware this season was due to our inconsistency, you cannot say we dont have a talented squad because when our players do perform, they perform at a great standard, but its getting them to perform consistently which has been a key factor to us being trophy-less. There is cause for optimism. The team has sparkled enough to indicate the makings of something special, and, if the manager can strengthen with a few choice additions, a vintage year could be just around the corner.

What is absolutely essential, however, is that the manager keeps hold of his best players. To lose key men at a time when the team clearly needs strengthening would be absolutely criminal – suicidal when you think that our main rivals are likely to spend lavishly once more. The persistent news reports suggesting Fabregas may be off in the summer are thus extremely unsettling. Even if the manager can buy players with the potential to better than the ones he is losing, it is unlikely they will be able to adapt quickly enough to make next season a victorious one.

Almost FC....formerly Arsenal FC

So another season draws to an end, and barring a miracle it will again have yielded no trophies for arguably the most fluid and stylish team in the league. That's obviously disappointing for everyone involved with Arsenal: the players, the manager, the club, and us fans. But it's worth remembering the expectations most of us had back in August. No one doubted the promise of Wenger's young and talented squad. But likewise, many fans had doubts the team had the strength to conquer Europe and secure the league title. Most of us were prepared for another "transitional season" - another step towards long-term domination.

As we all know, there are three aspects to strength in football: the technical, the physical, and the psychological. On the technical side the players were undeniably strong. Wenger's talent for finding gifted footballers and developing them into world stars has never been in doubt, and most of his current crop had already shown their technical talents in the previous season or two. On the physical side the squad appeared a little light-weight compared to some teams, mainly because of a lack of height. But as we've seen in the past, they were still more than capable of competing with the more combative sides.
But psychologically many fans, myself included, had lingering doubts. We hoped the team's technical brilliance would give them the necessary momentum and carry them to glory. Sadly that hasn't happened. I'm sure Wenger expected Gallas, Silvestre, Almunia and Campbell later on in the season to guide the team through the tough times. But those individuals failed to deliver to the necessary degree, and it's that lack of stable and experienced leadership which has led to inconsistent displays, an erosion in morale, and frustration boiling over.

That's a contentious point, and some fans bristle at the thought of some of our young stars being described as unseasoned. They argue that age doesn't necessarily equate to maturity, and cite Fabregas as a prime example. I used to share that opinion in the age and experience debate, but our performances over the past few months have changed my mind. None of our current players have consistently organized and rallied the team like earlier Arsenal captains under Wenger's reign. Some, like Gallas and Fabregas have salvaged a few games with moments of individual grit and brilliance. But none have established themselves as an indisputable leader of the team.

Yes, we've had more than our fair share of challenges: horrible injuries, poor refereeing decisions, and cynical tactics from some opponents. But earlier Wenger teams always had a couple of veterans marshalling and guiding the rest of the players. Right now we're lacking in that department.

Let's look at our more seasoned players right now: Sagna, Clichy, Eboue, Song, Vermealen, Fabregas, Van Persie, Arshavin and Gallas. All of them are fantastic players, but right now none of them have the leadership abilities of Adams, Vierra or Henry at their peak. The first three will never get to that level: Gallas and Van Persie are too erratic and volatile, and Song and Arshavin are too quiet and passive. Vermealen and Fabregas will almost certainly become the leaders the team needs. But both require another year or two to fully find their voices.

Notice how I haven't included Nasri, Walcott, Diaby, Bendtner in the list of future Arsenal leaders? Well, that brings up a painful consequence of our recent lack of psychological strength. To find players like that Wenger needs to dive into the transfer market. While he's there I suspect he'll also be looking for cover in central defence, another area that has recently proven to be a vulnerability. The club certainly has the money and the scouting network to find suitable players, and with the appeal of playing for a top European side it shouldn't be too difficult to lure in some top players. Hopefully Wenger can also bring in at least one experienced leader who can provide some extra guidance.

Obviously, there are still plenty of reasons to be optimistic. With so much young talent in the ranks and a phenomenal coach providing expert guidance we'll see a continuation of great football and satisfying results. But we fans need to accept that next season will likely mark a continuation of the now famous "transitional period" at Arsenal, especially if we fail to acquire one or two strong veterans or key members of the current squad don't step up. But it's only a matter of time before things turn around at the Grove. The trophies will come, but we must be patient and have faith.