Arsene Wenger has spoken very highly of former player Dragan Stojkovic, the current manager of Grampus Eight, a club that Wenger managed whilst in Japan. Apparently he has the same ideas and philosophy as Wenger. Grampus Eight have won their league in Japan this season but if he was to leave

Good afternoon Gooners,

The weather looks bright and cheerful outside today, I am quite in the football mood and it is a shame that we have to wait another day to watch our beloved Arsenal. Instead having to put up with fixtures such as Birmingham v Sunderland. Not that I am actually going to sit down and pour 90 minutes of my life down the drain. Now that I have said that, I am expecting a 4-5 thriller.. or not.

According to Mirror football Pat Rice is supposedly leaving Arsenal in the summer which would mean that Arsene Wenger will have to recruit a new number two to work alongside him.

If this is the case then it will be very sad for Arsenal. Not only has Pat Rice been a loyal number two under Arsene Wenger since 1996 but he was a fantastic right back for Arsenal and made over 400 appearances which included winning the double in 1971.

I get rather agitated when I hear the Pat Rice should go because he is a yes man comments from Arsenal supporters. Apologies if that is your view but making comments without any basis whatsoever is somewhat ridiculous.

As Arseblog Rightly pointed out in his blog today, nobody was saying that we should tie Rice to a concord and fly him as far away from the club as possible when we were winning the double or going the entire season unbeaten.

Just because our number two isn’t acting like legendary number two’s like Brian Horton and screaming at the players until he is red in the face doesn’t mean that he does not have a voice or does not have long in depth conversations with the manager about his own opinions.

The simple truth is that comments like those are fabricated because unless you have the ability to turn invisible and are able to sit in during their chats then myself and other supporters do not know what is being said at London Colny or on match day.

If Ricey does leave then it would be a very good chance to possibly see Arsene’s long term replacement. That is what I would have in mind if I were the board or indeed the Kroenk.

Wenger and the club have been working for a long time in restructuring the club, the youth system. Developing top teenagers to hopefully mature enough to supplement his first team. When Arsene does finally hang up his boot..glov..erm brain, then I do not imagine that random manager man will come in and change the whole set up of the club after so much work has been put in to get the club to where it is today. Wenger’s eventual successor will more than likely have to continue the path taken by the club and have some sort of experience in making younger players into world class players.

It would make sense at this stage of Arsene’s career that we had someone at the club watching and learning what was happening on a daily basis so that one day they could switch over limiting the impact of Arsene’s departure. A departure that I would not like to see happen for sometime of course.

While this sounds like a hunky dory plan, it may not be so straight forward to get in someone good enough for the long term job with years in the job who is willing to do ‘work experience’ until the job came available. Ex players like Patrick Vieira, Steve Bould etc are all very Arsenal and would have the right attitude but just because they are ex players, does not mean for one moment that they could cut it at the top end of management.

Personally the idea of appointing a player purely because of his name seems a little crazy to me. I love Dennis Bergkamp with a passion for example, what a player but he could come in and make John Barnes look like Bill Shankly. We just do not know if they could do the job or not.

Only those who speak and know these players closely will have any vague idea if they would be ready for such a huge jump.

Arsene Wenger has spoken very highly of former player Dragan Stojkovic, the current manager of Grampus Eight, a club that Wenger managed whilst in Japan. Apparently he has the same ideas and philosophy as Wenger. Grampus Eight have won their league in Japan this season but if he was to leave would he want to go from league winner to number two at Arsenal?

It is all pretty irrelevant really because my thinking may well be the opposite of how the club are thinking. A long term number two could be brought in and yet another manager could replace Wenger without having set foot in North London before.

Anyway, I shall stop before I tempt fate. Arsene Wenger leaving the club is the last thing that I would want and I would hazard the guess that it is the last thing the Arsenal board want but one day the change will have to be made because Arsene will not be in the hot seat forever. *sniff*

Wenger said in his press conference that Thomas Vermaelen has a good chance of playing again this season and that is wonderful news. I doubt that he will play a major part in the remaining games unless mass injuries rear their ugly head (again) but it would be great to see him play if we were comfortable in a second half of a few games.

Arsene Wenger has admitted that Van Persie and Abou Diaby did exchange words at half time against Blackpool and he welcomes his players showing passion.

It is a bit of a non story to be honest. I doubt a game goes by in every dressing room around the world at every level of football where words are not exchanged between players for not playing a pass instead of shooting, for giving the ball away in stupid areas, for not putting in 100% or for whacking the ball away after a free kick is given.

I defended Diaby for reacting to Barton’s challenge but his behaviour after conceding a free kick was silly to say the least. Yet I wouldn’t be surprised if Diaby questioned Van Persie about his reaction to situations in the past. Robin has often been a hot head in the past so it is easy to see why tempers could have reached boiling point at half time.

The most important thing is that the players can shake hands, hug or high five not too long after the incident.

Hopefully we shall see some of that fighting spirit from the very beginning tomorrow. I want to see our players coming out all guns blazing, any guns left in the dressing room would make me mightily upset.

Anyway, I am off to search for lunch.

Back tomorrow.