August 11th we are down Adebayor and Toure and gained Vermaelen so our squad is a tad lighter than it was this time last year although our team may actually be better this time round

Happy lunchtime Gooners,

Well British Gooners at least, happy breakfast and dinner to others around the globe.

To be honest I do not have that much stuff to go through this afternoon, so I will try and get through what I have infront of me.

There seems to be much made of Wenger’s comments regarding being happy with his squad. I am sure suicide rates in North London have risen in the last couple of days and to be honest, it needn’t had.

The saying you should take what Wenger does seriously as apposed to what he says is quite true in regards to the media. I would not expect Wenger to come out and say “We are desperate for a couple of signings, I am not sleeping very well because of this and I will do all I can to spend as much as humanly possible.”

That I suspect would be a little foolish, but to state in public that he is happy with what he has and further signings are not that important would indicate that other clubs cannot take the piss out of us buy requesting Tottenham, Newcastle, Leeds United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Real Madrid irresponsible type price tags on players.

Prepare for another late night, newsnow, BBC feed transfer watch. Not that I indulge in all of that *ahem* no siree. I am usually casually thinking about the weather.

One player who is still being linked with us is that of Brede Hangeland the Fulham center back has stated that he is happy at Fulham and I still cannot see Arsenal breaking the bank (ok, perhaps more putting a dent in the bank door) for a 28/29 year old defender who has not played at the highest level.

Senderos………Chamakh…….. oh they drag on don’t they?! Sorry, I just cannot talk about it again. It gets a little boring and depressing. Can I go to sleep and someone just wake me up when the line ups are announced before the Everton game.

Anyone remember the last time we played Everton away on the first day of the season and we hammered them 4-1. I remember watching the highlights on MOTD over and over again like the sick obsessed Gooner that I own up to be.

Back to Wenger and our current squad. At the start of the season I said that I would be content if we kept all our players and didn’t invest in new players, obviously new players would be a massive bonus but I genuinely think we had enough if we ironed out certain issues such as complacency and god forbid fewer bodies on the treatment table.

But here on August 11th we are down Adebayor and Toure and gained Vermaelen so our squad is a tad lighter than it was this time last year although our team may actually be better this time round. I have adjusted my opinion somewhat at the moment, I still feel that we could well have the strongest first team in the Premier League but we know that we hardly ever witness this team string a long run of games together due to broken toenails, itchy buttocks and chapped lips as well as all other injuries that could be picked up by the average footballer. I have just written my answer without realising it, our squad currently does not function as an average squad does.

Our injury probability dice has two fewer sides than most teams in world football it seems so the dice is falling on the unlucky number far too often. Samir Nasri and Tomas Rosicky already down before a competitive ball has been kicked, we haven’t had to endure the rough and tumble of the Premier League as yet. The likes of Everton, Bolton, Blackburn, Stoke City will be sharpening their studs and looking forward to ‘stopping the Arsenal play football’

Certain areas in our squad are lacking in not quality but numbers. Our squad is already extended due to a majority of our players being able to play in multiple positions but when the injury list grows our mix and match teams start to look lopsided. I am signing up for the couple of experienced squad players membership.

One experienced player not heading to Arsenal is former captain Paddy Vieira. He has decided to stay at Inter Milan for the foreseeable future. This to me is not a ‘snub’ to us more of a rejection to them lot down the road. Harry Redknapp has publicly declared his love to bring the former great to the scummy part of town. I believe that if Arsene wanted Vieira back at our club then he would already be in London looking in the mirror at his new blue away shirt. The truth is that he was never coming back, he is past his best and injury prone. Wenger is a forward thinker and wouldn’t go back. I would have loved his presence in the dressing room and on the training ground (coaching role in the future perhaps?) but to watch him hobbling around the pitch and being a shadow of his former self would not do him any justice.

A spot kick high to his left is the last playing memory I want to be left with. Still love you Paddy, you are a legend.

Manuel Almunia has been pouring out his heart again to the media. He is an open soul is our Spanglish keeper.

Almunia said:

“When time passes and you don’t win anything it’s not easy for the boss,” Almunia told the Guardian. “You can see the face of the boss every day. It is calm and relaxed but I think, inside, he is suffering because he can’t give the people what they want. And the patience of people can run out.

“The boss is very experienced and puts a lot of effort into doing things differently – in not spending money and giving opportunities to young people. I hope, and I think, he will be rewarded one day.”

Ok, first off. I do not know how accurate these quotes are, always be on guard for some twisting and turning from our friends in the media. Secondly he might be spot on, he may just be speaking from the heart but my question is to Mr Almunia, why are you saying this in public?

I am not quite sure how this is supposed to help our manager or squad before the season starts. Almunia has had a few funky quotes in recent weeks about Toure, Cesc and now Arsene. I am sure he has meant well in each interview but it may well be time to start missing out on words such as suffering and patience running out.

It seems like Almunia is the last person you want to invite to dinner round with your wife or girlfriend just incase he starts telling her how great a cook your ex girlfriend was and how she looked great in her smaller dress.

I am sure he has just been taken out of context as all of our players do these days, so apologies if I am adding fuel to the fire.

Lets hope that Wenger can get lucky with his targets in the coming days/weeks (whenever the window closes)

For some reason I believe that Arsenal.com would not take any of our players words out of context and it is Almunia again who is talking about height in our team.

“At the beginning of last season, we had tall people and we still had problems,” said the keeper.

“It’s not a issue of having tall people, it’s a issue of attitude. How you face the ball and are focused on the game in every single moment.”

I would have to agree with that. Some players naturally are aggressive and know how to win the ball against an opponent, some players do not have that and I think that was the problem with Kolo Toure. Hopefully Vermaelen has that hunger to get to the ball first.

So, thats it for now, unless something else happens, then I have to go back and write about that which doesn’t matter to you because it has already been included or not so………..

Back tomorrow.

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