Given his position on the pitch, age and footballing upbringing, it is difficult not to elicit comparisons with a certain Theo Walcott. The similarities are there. Having heard his first interview he seems to be softly spoken and lacking in the brash, brazen attitude that befalls many young footballers these days – a character trait shared by our Theo. The difference however seems to be that he is more natural a footballer than Theo, whose formative were less with a ball at his feet but more with sprinting spikes

Good morning/afternoon/evening my fellow Gooners all over the world. How are we all today? I hope you are basking in the warm glowing, warming glow that comes with…a new signing!

Yes indeed, for Messrs Wenger, Gazidis and Kroenke (more on the latter two in a bit) dusted off the red’n’white chequebook to sign Southampton youngster Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for the ubiquitous “undisclosed fee”. Reports say the fee is an initial £12 million with a further potential £3 million in add-ons assuming we win the Quintuple over the course of the next twelve-months. It’s a shoo-in, isn’t it?

I’m no expert on the kid, but it sounds like he is a versatile attacking midfielder who can play on either flank or in the middle. So if we stick to our 4-2-3-1 formation, he could play anywhere across the trio behind the frontman. The majority of his appearances for the Saints last season came on the right-wing, but it is always typical to blood youths out on the flanks as opposed to in the battlefield that is the centre of the park (unless your name is Jack Wilshere).

Given his position on the pitch, age and footballing upbringing, it is difficult not to elicit comparisons with a certain Theo Walcott. The similarities are there. Having heard his first interview he seems to be softly spoken and lacking in the brash, brazen attitude that befalls many young footballers these days – a character trait shared by our Theo. The difference however seems to be that he is more natural a footballer than Theo, whose formative were less with a ball at his feet but more with sprinting spikes on them. Either way, my main hope is that AOC has a more sheltered start to his career and isn’t thrust immediately into the limelight like Theo was.

AOC most certainly impressed for the Saints last campaign, bagging nine goals in 36 appearances – a ratio of one goal per every four games is not bad at all for someone who can’t even order a pint at the bar yet. Indeed, he was even voted into the League One Team of the Season.

I know the sceptics will say:

“oh but it’s only League One, if he’s joining us for £15 million then he should be in that team”

To which I say:

“well he can only perform against the opposition he faces, and the fact that he is in that team can only bode well for us”

On the note of sceptics, it seems that the Mirror canvassed the representative opinion of the ENTIRE fanbase and decreed that “Arsenal fans angry as Wenger buys another kid”.

Really?

Almost every single Gooner that I have come across on Twitter has viewed this signing as a positive move. Securing an exciting young talent that we have been scouting for months – ahead of reported interest from our rivals, too – can surely only be viewed as a good thing, right? Right?!

Wrong.

Because it seems that John Cross of the Mirror – a man who on Twitter is often labelled as “one of us” – believes the opposite. This claim is largely based on the assumption that signing AOC immediately rules us out from chasing a centre-back. Hmmm.

Whilst I will concede that Arsene is stubborn and mysterious in his ways (we cry for defensive reinforcements and he adds another attacking midfielder to our burgeoning roster), I am fairly certain that this acquisition will NOT detract from our hunt for a centre-back. In fact it makes me all the more confident that we will make additions to our squad, that the money is there.

In fact there is even a school of thought which believes that it is creatively we are lacking more than defensively, given how the goals dried up towards the back end of last season and how nil-nil draws at home to Sunderland and Blackburn killed our title challenge stone dead. But that’s another matter altogether.

On the subject of defenders, Ivan Gazidis held a Q&A session with the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association yesterday evening. The main snippets from what he said simply reinforce what I said above re: defensive, errr, reinforcements. Ivan intimated that Arsene has identified problems in our backline and that he himself had been working day and night to secure a signing (or two?) in that department. I am more confident than I have been all summer that a Jagielka or a Cahill is on their way to Colney.

More from Ivan last night over at the excellent Ashburton Grove. 

Continuing with matters off the pitch, head honcho and renowned loudmouth Stan Kroenke delivered a message to the aforementioned meeting last night too. Indeed, it was his first proclamation since he formally took control of the Club. He truly is the master of saying something but actually saying nothing at all. For the full text of what he said, again check it out at the Ashburton Grove website.

On the subject of Stan, you must do two things:

1) Check out his faux Twitter account here – http://twitter.com/#!/Silent_Stan_K – where he observes the old credo of “you say it best when you say nothing at all”

2) Listen to the man rap here courtesy of the maniacal genius that is Gilbert O’Silver

Back to more serious matters. Tomorrow’s friendly between England and Holland has been called off due to the looting, rioting and mindless violence going down in London. From an Arsenal viewpoint this has little effect on us given that our potential involvement in the match was zero with Gibbs, Wilshere, Walcott and v.Persie all missing through injury.

From a human point of view, I urge my fellow Londoners and those up and down the country to remain vigilant and stay away from trouble. Don’t wander the streets late at night and if you are, don’t try to act all heroic and confront any dangerous looking people. Keep your head down and get to your destination ASAP.

Stay safe folks.

Squid Boy (http://twitter.com/#!/TheSquidBoyLike)