Dude came in highly recommended, and having just put on quite a show for Russia at the Euros, even paid his own bus ticket to reach London just in time to sign for us… the January 2009 transfer window slammed shut seconds later, almost maiming his right hand in the process! Some still insist he actually signed through the ventilators, thnx to some high power called David Dein. That half season, the fans adored him, courtesy of that four goal salvo at Liverpool- the only time ive known

Howday Gooners,

Now i know that after a scintillating mid-season many wouldn’t really want to talk ill of AW, & especially that unlike previous summers, he is actually trying to sign them established;- Podolski, Olivier Giroud & Yann M’villa all look suspiciously Red blooded, with white stripes which i presume are the white blood cells. The reason for our summer excitement is that three hot signings in a single season must have ”trophies” written across it but is it?

With a backline boasting the likes of Lukasz Fabiansky, Per Mertesacker, Santos & Yohan Djorou on the bench, a talent littered midfield that sees TR7, TH14, Ox, Gervinho, Wilshere, Mikel Arteta, Ramsey, Song, etc all competing for action time as well as a potential all action attack boasting RVP, Podolski & hopefully Giroud all looking for action, and with a manager as astute as they come, UEFA & the FA should really be mailin ’em trophies over right about now to beat the end-of season traffic. I don’t think my personal favorite Andrey Arshavin will be with us next season, so forgive the exclusion coz personally i have the feeling that even if he smuggled Russia single handedly into the guarded vaults of UEFA & nicked the Euros trophy- even on one leg, still Arsene won’t give him authority to run the Gunners’ midfield the way he does so seamlessly for Russia… and sorry Mean Lean but i forgot to add Abou Diaby & my keyboard doesn’t have the ‘backspace’ button by default>>>cough cough>>.

So with so much transfer action, i still have that feeling that like Arshavin and Chamack were treated, some of our marquee signings will still be sacrificed for youth or in Chamach’s case will fail to fit in AW’s systems- I’ll explain starting with the curious case of Arshavin;-

Dude came in highly recommended, and having just put on quite a show for Russia at the Euros, even paid his own bus ticket to reach London just in time to sign for us… the January 2009 transfer window slammed shut seconds later, almost maiming his right hand in the process! Some still insist he actually signed through the ventilators, thnx to some high power called David Dein. That half season, the fans adored him, courtesy of that four goal salvo at Liverpool- the only time ive known him to have played his preferred position as attacking midfielder. Really, he never disappointed when played there- not a game that i can remember- then came the changes; Cesc Fabregas, for very understandable reasons was returned to the role, and AA shunted wide, where he huffed and puffed his way to a loan return to Zenit.

Chamack’s case is a little more straight forward. He came, he saw, and he banged them in with alarming frequency while RVP was on his then customary date with the club physios but when he returned, the goal scoring Chamack was promptly pushed to the bench, also a logical thing to do- u don’t swap RVP with another dude with a thing for funny looking hair. To date, Chamack’s finest contribution has been smoking Shisha, and u really can’t blame the lad. He was relegated, not because he was poor, but because he wasn’t trusted- even though he did the job well enough. He lost all his confidence because of that one thing-mistrust and that’s my point.

Arsene is known as well for mistrust as for blind trust. When Fabregas left, it would have been logical for him to TRUST Andrey with that position, instead he chose the time to blood another talent in injury returnee Aron Ramsey- so like that we lost a great talent, who i believe- instead of Ramsey might have earned us a couple more points and we would have sailed that extra 12 points or so closer to the sun! The youngster could as well have got game time here & there- we do enough cup games a season for everyone to get a look in, in their preferred positions, even Chu Young Park!!

Likewise we lost Chamack’s aerial threat & all just because AW couldn’t trust him with a job, and opted to not rest RVP. Ok Chamack is one dimensional, can play only one position bla..bla..bla, but like above, RVP doesn’t have to play every cup game and testimonial. We got 38 PL games, a lot of CL games and all, u got two hot streaked strikers and u opt to kill off one for your favorite son? Even ‘Arry’s missus wouldn’t do that!

Now the bombshell, how does any of you excited Gooners feel about a possible trio of top drawer signings? Me? Am excited that they can win us those elusive trophies, but the question is will M’villa be ahead of err… what’s his name again… Emmanuel Frimpong in the pecking order?

You diss Chamack & Arshavin, but did they really fail us? Gervinho is being arraigned in some quarters as being a poor signing but it was his first season, and he was just as ordinary as Robert Pires in his first.

I believe in Arsene, bt the question is; if he can work with a couple of upstarts, really why can’t he do a freakin job when his team is littered with superstars? Is he an academy expert, suited for that job or wat?

Angry regards,

Don Oloo.

Mean Lean’s Response

‘supp Peter,

I really do hope that we have the words trophies written all over us. If we keep our best players and bring in Giroud and perhaps M’Vila to compliment what we have then I would guess that we would be potentially the strongest since 2007/08. The year that the final league table did lie because we were the best.

Now I have to disagree with your points about Arshavin and Chamakh, I shall do my best to explain why I disagree, Firstly, I like both guys. In fact there are not many players who are registered to the club that I find myself disliking.

I have day dreamed about where Andrey Arshavin would be in his career if he had the role behind Robin van Persie. I’d imagine that he would have been more productive in central areas than on the left side of the attack. Would the team as a whole have improved if he was in that area? I cannot give you the answer but here is my issue.

Arsene Wenger has not made Andrey Arshavin play at right back with instructions not to cross the half way line. He was playing as a wide forward with licence to come inside and make things happen. Would that move completely rob a player of his talents? If it does then there is a huge problem.

I think of a young Lionel Messi at Barcelona, strutting his stuff wide right of a similar shape as our current system but he became so important to their play that their manager moved him inside to build the side around him. Messi’s performances forced that change.

Cesc Fabregas started as a central midfielder but Arsene pushed him further forward because his ability to unlock defences forced that change.

Andrey Arshavin’s career, his past and his future has always been about himself. Everyone and their dog know that he has the ability to make the difference at the highest level of the game. He has vision, a very good first touch, short back lift and explosive shooting. Technically he had/has it all but watch him play the game. He doesn’t work hard enough, he is not a fighter. In the modern game so many teams flood the midfield in order to take control of a match. You put Arshavin as a number 10 and your two central midfielders basically have to battle against three opponents.

Aaron Ramsey has been slaughtered this season by Arsenal fans which is such a shame given a) what he has been through with injury and b) his age. But one of the reasons why he has played as a number 10 is because of the insane amount of ground he covers and the amount of work he puts in. The same can be said of Tomas Rosicky, Look at how he presses from the front and races back to make last ditch tackles. If Arshavin did what Ramsey, Rosicky and Benayoun did off the ball then he would be one of if not the best player at Arsenal.

His body shape just about says everything you need to know. He has never had the physique of a Premier League footballer and that should have been the minimum requirement.

Arshavin was highly praised for his performance against the Czech’s in the Russians first game at this year’s Euro’s. Russian played on the break and Arshavin had plenty of time on the ball to lift his head and pick his passes. Watch the game back, he was strolling through the game and when Russia lost the ball he often stood and watched.

I don’t buy the argument that we should just ignore his lack of defensive responsibility and let him do what he is good at. Why not give Arshavin his own personal dressing room and special gold lunch plate because he is talented?

Everyone in the Arsenal squad should work as hard as everyone else. You will not find many people that would say that Robin van Persie wasn’t the best player for Arsenal last season yet he ran more statistically than any other Arsenal player in the squad. What is good enough for our captain should be good enough for the rest of the players.

Which brings me along nicely to Chamakh. During his first season I found myself asking the question ‘how do you fit Robin into the team?’
That is what I thought of Chamakh. He had showed us fight and determination from the front, he linked up the midfield and attack very well and although his lack of interest in shooting at goal was a little strange, his strike rate of roughly 1 in 3 was bloody good for a first season.

Robin van Persie came back and Arsene paired Chamakh and van Persie together in the Carling Cup against Wigan, it clearly did not work. Chamakh is not a spinner in between defenders and Chamakh is not a number 10.

Robin started scoring and didn’t stop. The two didn’t look able to play together and Chamakh was benched as he had lost some of his early sparkle. Robin has played pretty much ever since.

Chamakh looks like the type of player to need a run of games to gain some confidence and form, at what stage have we been able to rest a player who ‘scores when he wants’ just to give Chamakh a chance of matches?

Thierry Henry was never rested apart from the odd occasion. Ronaldo at Real and Messi at Barcelona are not rested often because these are world class players.

You could argue that at 4-0 up at Wigan we should be bringing on the likes of Chamakh or Park for van Persie but we find ourselves in a situation where every single game is a must win and for must win games you need your captain, top goalscorer and best player.

Imagine if Arsene rested van Persie for a game, brought in Chamakh and we failed to score. Imagine the uproar. Imagine if van Persie was rested or removed at Anfield last season. Song’s chip would have sailed straight out of play. Hello fourth, goodbye Champions League.

You make it sound as if the manager has no reason not to play Arshavin and Chamakh. He watches these players in training a number of times a week. He knows when a player is knocking on the door of the first team and he knows when players have lost something.

I am interested to see what happens to Oliver Giroud should we complete the transfer. While he is a different striker to Chamakh the situation looks the same. A central striker who isn’t suited to a wide position but is clearly behind Robin van Persie.

Perhaps he is more suited to making an impact from the bench and can hit the ground running when called upon to start games. Who knows, time will tell I guess.

One more thing before I disappear. If Abou Diaby ever manages to string 15 games together without injury would you come back and write another piece? 😉

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