If a player’s heart and soul is not red and white, then he is of no use to Arsene. Which is fair enough, in my opinion. For the Club to move forward, everyone must be pulling in the same direction

Morning/afternoon/evening Gooners, from wherever you hail.

Squid Boy here filling in for Mean Lean, who was busy moving house today. Let’s hope it is a smooth transition and he settles into his new gaff quickly, much like our beloved Arsenal has.

The news these last few days has been dominated by our venerable manager turning 60. The value in which he is held was summed up by the BBC dedicated an entire hour-long radio programme to his impact on the Club and modern football in general. I am reliably informed that it was the Beeb’s biggest ratings winner last night, comfortably trumping Question Time with controversial BNP leader Nick Griffin. And rightfully so. Ahem.

I managed to listen to the show in its entirety and it featured insight from Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn, Bob Wilson and David Dein. The things that stood out for me however were the contributions of the two Frenchmen on the show.

Firstly, the quirky anecdotes provided by French journalist Xavier Rivoire showed a real human side to Monsieur Wenger – I particularly liked the story of how Le Boss was literally caught with his trousers down emerging from the loo at Highbury after being informed that the stadium had to be evacuated due to a pre-match bomb scare.

Secondly, a candid interview with Emmanuel Petit also struck a chord. Manu was quite forthright, especially when discussing his own departure from the Club in 2000. When asked whether he regretted his move to Barcelona, he said that within three months he was pining for North London. This is of course nothing new – ask Alex Hleb – but what was telling is that Manu felt Arsene could have shown a bit more desire to keep him at the Club. I think it says a lot about Arsene’s mentality and what he demands of his players. They have to be 100% committed to the project – if not, they are free to leave. We’ve seen it a number of times where big players leave the Club for so-called greener grass – Anelka, Petit, Overmars, Vieira, Cashley, Henry, Flamini, Hleb, and more recently Toure and Adebayor. Out of them all, I’d assume only Henry and Vieira were truly persuaded by Arsene to stay – but even they left a season after their most serious flirtations.

The conclusion? If a player’s heart and soul is not red and white, then he is of no use to Arsene. Which is fair enough, in my opinion. For the Club to move forward, everyone must be pulling in the same direction.

Thankfully, our gaffer has plenty of faith in what he is doing. I’ve not yet watched his speech at the AGM but have read about his deeply-entrenched belief that we will win a trophy this year. He has said similar things in previous years, admittedly, but the performances on the pitch are backing up his claims. And don’t forget that he sees the players day in, day out, so he is very well-placed to assess our chances. This season is shaping up to be the most open title race for years and whilst we have all the talent in the world, ultimately it will be our mentality that decides our fate. So for Arsene to speak so positively with such conviction early in the season can only serve to encourage the players and engender a stronger mindset.

Mercifully this season’s AGM was held at the start of the campaign, whereas last season’s came just after we had been knocked out of the Champions League and FA Cup semi-finals. As Borat would say: “happy times!” Aside from the usual features – Arsene’s insight, Gazidis continuing to impress and Peter Hill-Wood forgetting his lines – the biggest story to surface relates to the ownership situation. Majority shareholder Stan Kroenke was asked what his intentions were regarding his burgeoning stake in the Club and lived up to his Silent Stan moniker. Due to the scrutiny of the Takeover Panel (no doubt at the behest of Alisher Usmanov), not much can be divulged and all statements have to be ambiguous. So instead of opening his mouth and risking saying something that could be misconstrued, Kroenke kept shtum and let PHW do the talking on his behalf:

“I believe he is happy to be a long-term shareholder in our club. Really, it’s not for me to say what his intentions are. It is not something I can discuss publicly or privately. We have a takeover panel breathing down our necks and I have to be terribly careful with what I say.”

Indeed. I’ll make a brief prediction. I think Stan will breach the 29.9% threshold in the summer and make a recommended mandatory offer for the rest of the shares. The Board and some minority shareholders will accept it in respect of their holdings (anywhere between 20% and 25%) and Stan will own at least 50% of the Club’s shares. Why do I think this? Just a hunch. The two wildcards are of course Usmanov himself (25%) and Lady Nina (16%). Whether or not they sell up is anyone’s guess.

And now back to matters on the pitch. Don’t we have a game this weekend? Yes we do, and it is a huge one. For the likes of Man United and Liverpool, an away game at West Ham is hardly regarded as a big one. But for us, it surely is. Lest we forget that it is a London derby and West Ham have an annoying habit of playing well against us, regardless of form. I just hope the last minute equaliser against Alkmaar is not playing on the team’s mind – it shouldn’t.

Injury news sees Eduardo return to the squad and probably a place on the bench, while Rosicky and Bendtner are rated as 50:50 (meaning one of them will make it and one won’t). Fabianski made his return in the reserves on Tuesday night but given our current competitive goalkeeping situation I can’t see the the Pole displacing either Vito or Manuel on the bench. Samir Nasri also returned to action in the reserves but I presume Arsene will refrain from throwing him into the cauldron that is Upton Park after so long out. A more gentler, Carling Cup introduction next week makes sense.

And that’s yer lot.

I assume Mean Lean’s move will be complete by tomorrow so he should be back. Unless he’s busy with ramp-up events such as housewarming parties, Dennis Bergkamp testimonials and Members’ Days…

‘Til next time.

Squid Boy