To sign or not to sign

Is this man worth a few million next summer? until he gets more time on the pitch then we wont know. Yes the man had a few Carling cup games and an odd game here and there but has he really had a chance to show what he can really do?

For me he is in the past he has been either hot or cold in matches one day I remeber him scoring four in a champions league match for liverpool the next failing to fire agaist a team at the bottem end of the table however the man that everyone seems to be talking about mikel arteta has played a massive amount of games latley and hardly had a great injury record at everton maybe the man needs a bit of a rest and who better to replace him than the stylish and classy Yossi Benayoun the Israeli international had scored an impressive 24 goals in 85 games for his country and recorded similar stats for long time club Liverpool were he impressed and made himself known as a top premiership footballer.

His trickery and class is what made arsene decide he is worth a loan spell and was the man who chelsea desided was as good as or better than joe cole and if you compare there most recent transfers you would have to say yossi has made the better move  he is a man that can pick an opening find the last pass and most importantly carm things down when things just start getting rough something Wilshire and Arteta do well and i believe this man could as well for many years to come however if he dosent get more playing time will he want a move to the arsenal? how much would his fee be these are all things that may be considered however hes worth it isnt he?

The Royal Gooner: Perfect Mertesacker or the brilliant Kozzer

The Royal Gooner: Perfect Mertesacker or the brilliant Kozzer: Its been many years since arsenal have had three good centre backs and i don't care what people say we now have three good centre backs but ...

Perfect Mertesacker or the brilliant Kozzer

Its been many years since arsenal have had three good centre backs and i don't care what people say we now have three good centre backs but which will play? there's only room for two. so lets explore the options we have Kozzer , Vermaelen and Mertesacker.we know Vermaelen is a first choice any day of the week but who partners him the big German or the quicker Kozzer.

Well it hasn't been the easiest ride for the one German that us English now like. some gunners were quick to jump on the big Germans back after Danny Graham jumped on his in the first game at Swansea. As some gunners are concerned by the Germans lack of pace which he does lack that is a fact , they also have started to question his fight will he go toe to toe with the likes of Chris samba John terry or peter crouch? leading some to call him BFG big friendly German.However six foot six eighty five German caps hes surely what we've been asking for? and so far he has  hardly let us down putting in solid performances in his last four or five games and seems to be leading this arsenal defence in its time of need. his leadership and experience on of the key reasons he should stay in the arsenal first team add his hight and the fact hes only going to get better surely hes the only choice to partner Vermaelen NO.

There is another one that has risen up shown character and slowly shown that he has what it takes to be as robin van persie said an "arsenal legend" and with his last two performances who would argue? first commanding in Marseille and then silencing stoke two very difficult games especially for the defence and make no mistake kozza was great in both although we saw signs of this last year just look at his game at barca  he must be the only man ever to have messi in his back pocket but his question marks however you carnt help but think if he was just a few inches higher then he would be the best centre back in the prem but without those inches you doubt him being able to deal with the likes of Drogba or crouch his concentration has also come in to question like in the performance at Blackburn this season some doubt he could do it over an entire season but lately you carnt aruge with the class hes shown so who should partner Vermaelen? I carnt decide il leave it up to the one man i trust.

 

The reason we dont need a new keeper

Now many of you will call me crazy i may lose the respect of a few gooners here but i honestly belive we dont need a new keeper why do you ask? over half the goals we let in this year where from corners and set pieces not goal keeping errors (unless Almunia was in goal) personally i think a few bigger players this season and were sorted on all fronts.But the main reason i dont believe we need a a new keeper is are young pole Wojciech Szczesny i belive if he were playing for athletico Madrid man united would have in fact signed him this summer to replace edwin van der sar yes that is how highly i rate the lad.

Last season the pole spent last season on loan at brentford and proved to be the hit of a vastly improving league one earning rave reviews while keeping 9 clean sheets in the process he impressed so much brentford wanted him back on loan for another season but Arsene had already seen enough and was ready to bring him back to challenge for the first team. The best way to sum up his time at brentford is a quote from the man himself " brentford wasnt good for me i was good for brentford" although while i support his confidence but i feel the loan worked well for both side with Szczesny getting valuable first team experience and brentford getting a top class goal keeper.

For such a young player he has so much confidence but then as proved when Lehman retured to the team he was still willing to learn. half way through the season he won himself the right to be called arsenal number 1 and hasn't looked back since puting in a string of impressive performances most noticeable for me against Newcastle (Carling cup) and the barcelona first leg He has a strong belief, and has the nerve to cope with the pressure.That’s a big part in the job of a goalkeeper.” these comments were made after that game i believe these words to be true so often we see keeper make mistakes on the big stage some of the top can still bottle it.But what unforunantly the only game that will stick in some gooners minds will be the carling cup final last minute gaffe against Birmingham were the pole and kosser had a certain miss under standing leave the ball to end up in the back of the net i urge all arsenal fans not to judge this fine young goalkeeper on one mistake but he could be the next big thing so please give the boy a chance.

Nic Bentner is he really that bad?

Today we look at one of the most frustrating players to ever wear the arsenal shirt at some times is elegance on the balls something to behold other times he looks like a one legged donkey trying to break dance,this also reflects in his goal scoring i remember in one game against burnley he must have missed five sitters after Walcott was in sintalating form that day but yet in the next game he scores a hatrick in the champions league against porto that kind of form sums up is time with arsenal although he does boast an impressive start to goal ratio having scored 9 goals in only 14 starts this season however most of those goals will have come against lower league opposition.


Above is probable Nics best moment in an arsenal shirt when he came on a substitute against the arch enemy spuds and with his first touch rose magnificently to rise above everyone else to power a header into the back of the net.This coming just after Almunia saved Robbie Keans penalty to keep the score at 1 1 Nic then scored to make it 2 and normally this would make a player to be instantly classed as a legend yet to do this isn't enough for Bentner who has often been made a scapegoat if arsenal have failed to fire.It also dosent help bentner that we have moved into a 4 3 3 formation and with the form of van the man Bentner has often been played out on the right which to be fair he isnt bad at but he is by no means a natural winger.

But as Bentner struggles for recognision at club level the great Dane is very much liked back in his home land and is played in his rightfull position up front.He was also named danish young talent of the year in 2007 for his performances at club and international level the Dane rewarded there faith with 12 goal is 38 caps not a bad return considering he is still very young compared to most national strikers and lets remember with all respect to Denmark they are hardly a force is world football now Bentner has recently stated he wants to leave the club personalt id rather stay although it does appear to be the right time for him to leave with a return to his homeland a possible to destination.

Do Barcelona really have any class anymore?

No im not talking about the attitude of are players while wearing the badge that is a rant for another day but on today ad gender is these Barcelona players and staff for that matter thing they can get away with whatever they want over the past say three seasons i believe they have shown a lack of lass towards us and yes other teams.a example i here you say? how about us letting them use are training ground and facilities pretty classy after all they put us fans through yes? then as you see before you the image of carlos and rio ferdinands substitute making a mockery of the barca shirt steeling a photo of Cece fabregas for shame!!!   

first if there silent approach to Cece Fabregas sorry did i type silent this must be a mistake i carnt believe how many of there players have actually come out and been so stupid to say yes we are tapping up Fabregas i cannot see  why they haven't been charged by those corrupt old men in uefa? In fact i may have answered my own question and im sure a certain real Madrid manager would certainly agree with me.maybe there is a conspiracy that jose so proudly talks about i mean there is always debate if they are made to fight for a victory yes they are a great team that could probable win every game they play if they are all on top form but sometimes they do have a little help no? 


I next feel i should say something about there behavior on the pitch i think this can be best summed up by the quotes of robin van perise "They [Barca players] always go up to referees in an attempt to get an opponent booked."They are trying to screw colleagues! That really annoys me. now this quote has since be retracted by Robin van persie claiming he never did the interview personally i believe he should have said this because quite frankly this is true i think the best example of this is robin himself when he was sent of in the second leg of the last 16 what was it for again having a shot on goal? But how can this be isn't this the objective of football to score goals dosent this require shooting on goal? Yet the barca players certainly found somthing to moan about didnt they.


This wont be the first rant at Barcelona and it wont be the last but now Barcelona have sacked the tradition of not having a sponsor on there shirt and leaving that space for charity something many people always admired now the price to break tradition? 150million that should make the boys at unicef feel better aye?So there we have it no class on the pitch no class off it. 

In Arsene we trust

I have been mulling over for a while now what can my first post be will it be a moan at are season ticket prices? possible incoming transfers? a review of are season? no my first post will be to show my undieing support for Arsene wenger the job he does for this club is incredible who else could do what he does? except maybe fergie? we are a top club we need a top manager he does more than run about on a training pitch shouting orders he helps run the club never seen before and is recognized around the world as one of the best managers and one of the best business men in the country. i dont believe the funds are there for him because if they were i believe it would spend why wouldn't he?

Some question his policy in believing in as what we call "the kids" yet if he didn't we wouldn't have had most fans player of the season jack Wilshire we could have had to suffer from denilsion side ways passing throughout the season.even if some kids arnt good enough we always seem to sell them off for a pretty penny look at nicklas benter for example a product of are academy could go for around 12 million would anyone miss him? so thats 12 mill for a player no one wants we could have spent 20 million on santa cruz a few years ago and had him flop for us as he did for city?

 The expectations of us fans are massive if you look at clubs across Europe such as athletico madrid  Florentia and Villarreal they have finished on and off around the same positions as us in there respective leagues yet for them champions league football every season would not be considered the a success yet with us we demand more and why shouldn't we? we are arsenal FC by far the greatest team the world has ever seen but next time where have a moan at Mr Arsene remember what we demand and what he has to work with and how many other clubs would like his services i remember a few years ago real madrid were sniffing at his door all of a sudden us gooners start to appreciate him more do we really need this to happen again?

which leads me to who would take upon the job when he finally retires would jose take the job with are funds available? i doubt it and who else would us gooners turn to? i believe we have a ready made replacement in pat rice the legend of arsenal football club i believe he would take to the job like Avram grant to the championship he lives and breathes are club and deserves the chance to be are main man.