Arsene Wenger is the one person who watches these players in training, he has a proven track record of developing players into world class players and I expect him to be able to do this again with our current crop of players. No manager could have seen that Van Persie

Good Monday to you all,

I don’t want to talk about the Liverpool matches just yet, I want to speak about something much more important right now.

I have been reading through several websites, forums, blogs etc and it seems quite clear that there is a massive split between Arsenal fans right now. There seems to be a Arsene Knows vs Arsene has lost it battle going on.

I am all for everyone has their own views and opinions on what is right and wrong with Arsenal football club but some of the things I have heard about our manager is quite simply crazy. To suggest that Arsene has lost it and should be sacked, I find mind boggling.

Has Arsene made mistakes? Of course he has, I am sure he has but having said that I am sure every manager in world football has made mistakes. Most have made more mistakes than our manager.

But we haven’t won anything for 3 years? That is correct, we haven’t. We have dismantled our last championship winning side and started over again because that team could not continue to win silverware for much longer as they were reaching the ages where performances levels drop.

Arsene was probably forced into his current project of bringing in the best young talent around the world and try to develop them from world class kids to world class men.

This has obviously worked in some cases. Clichy, Cesc, Van Persie (when fit) can be seen as world class or will surely go on to become world class. For others this hasn’t quite happened yet, if at all.

The Emirates project was the one big reason for Arsene taking his chosen route. In previous years, he would sign ready made players to replace departing players such as Henry for Anelka, Pires for Overmars etc
This time he wasn’t able to do this it would have cost to much to replace Bergkamp, Vieira, Pires, Lauren, Campbell, Edu and lastly Henry.

Arsene Wenger is the one person who watches these players in training, he has a proven track record of developing players into world class players and I expect him to be able to do this again with our current crop of players. No manager could have seen that Van Persie, Tomas Rosicky and Eduardo Da Silva would have missed such massive chunks of the season. Manchester United who are top of the league would have struggled with long term absentees from Rooney (Van Persie), Ronaldo (Rosicky), Tevez (Eduardo) obviously the Ronaldo/Rosicky comparison is a little extreme in terms of ability but Rosicky is our goalscoring winger and his absence has been massive.

Those of you who have complained about our lack of squad depth are correct because we are probably lacking quality in certain areas within the squad. But we do not know what players were available in January. We may have been in talks with certain players but it didn’t happen for whatever reason. Some fans think signing a player is as simple as it is in Football Manager. It isn’t. It is a long process that even if you are the only club interested can take alot of work for it to happen.

We know that we are missing a wide man who can take on the opposition as Ronaldo does for United and Arsene also knows this as he made a comment about missing Reyes. I still believe that Robinho would be wearing the red and white of Arsenal had Fabio Capello stayed in charge of Real Madrid. Arsene is not going to go and press the random winger generator on his pc and then sign them. We all know how his transfer policy works. He watches players for a length of time to learn the players character, abilities, temperament etc. Not all of these players are always available

There has been a massive improvement in quality from last season, we have proven that we can be involved in a title race. We have a solid foundation in the squad and it just needs evaluating and tweaking. As Squid Boy said recently, just because you support a team doesn’t mean that your club has a divined right to win the league. Manchester United went through a rebuilding process when they went 3 years without winning anything. Manchester United fans were calling for Ferguson’s head, saying that he was past it, he was losing it etc etc then bingo! He wins the league playing some wonderful attacking football. The difference was, Ferguson didn’t have to think about building a brand new state of the art stadium. He could go out and spend ALOT of money on players.

If Arsene Wenger was spending vast amounts of money and we had a squad full of old and past it players then yeah, I may be able to agree with some of you that Arsene is going in the wrong direction but I think it is the complete opposite. It is just a case of looking at the bigger picture.

I expect Arsene to spend in the summer. Diaby on the left, being forced into playing Adebayor on his own for spells, Rosicky and Van Persie continued injuries and Eduardo horrific injury along with the probable departures of Gilberto and perhaps Hoyte and a few other youngsters who probably won’t make it.

Ricardo Quaresma rumours have resurfaced. The people claim that Arsene could be set to swoop, as Porto could be forced to sell or some kind of tripe. He is a very exciting player, very technical and can beat players but I don’t know if he ticks the rest of the possible transfer to Arsenal Wenger sheet which would include workrate, team play, commitment, attitude etc

Arsene Wenger and Marco Van Basten have been discussing a possible link up with Ajax which would seem like a fantastic idea. Wenger has followed the Ajax route of developing young players and making them into stars. It could benefit both clubs. They could take Eboue and they could give us the new Dennis Bergkamp. Howz that for a swap?

Onto the game on Tuesday. It is going to be a difficult no matter how you look at it but at the end of the day, we are above them in the league because we are a better side than them. We have to start the game at full throttle, let go of that handbrake and leave it the hell alone because if we are to cautious then we will not score. It is a one off game where we need to outscore them, defend as a team, and attack as a team. Hleb and Adebayor will be restored to the line up and I assume that Walcott and Bendtner will make way.

Right that is it for today. Enjoy your Monday.