Friday 23 May 2008

ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK

We could not last the marathon last season and the main reason for that in my opinion was a lack of squad depth.

True, who could have foreseen the injuries that we encountered, we were damn right unlucky on that part, but when we have suffered with injuries, it's obvious that our squad gets stretched.

To the bare bones.

Now at the end of the season Le Boss stated his main aim was to keep the current squad together and add two or three players.

Well straight away that has failed.

Flamini has left and Hleb is desperate to leave. So already one down, maybe another to go.

So Le Boss needed two to three players, that is now three or four after the departure of Flamini.

If Hleb leaves, it makes the players needed to bring in a grand total of four to five.

Of the sudden it seems the progress that Arsenal made on Manchester United has taken a step back.

We needed more players, but are losing them.

Sure we have plenty of time to add to the squad, the summer is young and I hope that Le Boss shuts me up. I really do.

I love Wenger, but it seems that we took a step forward last season and straight away we are taking a step back.

When will Wengers vision ever be complete if we lose players every year?

We need continuity. We need to keep this squad together and add to it. Not take away from it.

I'm not saying we have or will become a bad team over night. Far from it.

And I hate to sound so pessimistic, but how can Le Bosses dream, and ours, become a reality if we have to be a work in progress all the time?

Because at the moment that what we are again. A work in progress.

I hope Wenger finds the answers, and I'm sure that he will.

Keep it Goonerish..........

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I share your concerns Wrighty.
I only hope that this team doesn't disband and that Wenger can keep it together whilst adding the two or three players he promised

lester said...

That's too pessimistic, even with FlaMoney leaving, we could still win next season with our current squad,
I'm sure whatever additions to the squad are made, they will be great ones, and no doubt some of us will be saying "who's that" at first.

Anonymous said...

I hope the 'two or three players' to come in does not include those who are leaving. We need to add to the squad and replace those who want out!

Anonymous said...

Say both Hleb and Flamini leave...so what. Flamini did well for us last year, but defensive midfielders are available that are of equal or greater quality, and we have Song waiting in the wings. As far as Hleb, this guy has scored 10 goals for us in three years playing both on the wing and as a support striker. Hleb's dribbling abilities are not in doubt, but I think if you replaced him with Nasri, Ben Arfa, Vela, Walcott, even me, we would get more goals from midfield.

Anonymous said...

I suggest you and all the other bloggers chill out for the summer. You are going to have a nervous breakdown at this rate. I don't think replacing Flamini and Hleb with all his goals is going to be that difficult.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you Wrighty7.
We needed more numbers and now have less than before!!

Anonymous said...

i'm sure that most of the people now saying oh my god we've lost Flamini and Hleb and we're going downhill are exactly the same people who were slagging Wenger off a year ago for keeping them

Anonymous said...

flamini and pleb were never influential and as far as i am concerned they can both f**k off to italy.they wont be missed. we had a great season,led the pack almost all the way. perhaps if flumux and pleb had been concentrating on the game instead of their wage packets we might have been in the champions league final with man ure!

so glad those chelsea w******s lost
on penalties. the dejection on terry and judas coles faces was a joy to behold!!

i trust wenger to bring in new talent but we still need an experienced international keeper
(poom!! fabianski!!) a quality 0defender to replace the waste of space sendimoff/senderos and a mid field hardman.

silly season has just begun so lets see what happens.i am confident that we will challenge again next season for all cups and do better.

up the arse!!
el gooner

Wrighty7 said...

Flamini was one of our best performers last season and so was Hleb.

Losing those two would be a blow. Yes replaceable, but how long will it take the replacements to adapt to the EPL?

Had we kept the squad and added to it, I've no doubt that we would win the league.

I just feel every season we release important players and it has to stop sometime.

Anonymous said...

hopefully their replacements wont take as long as they did to settle in!!

one good year out of three seasons is nowhere near good enough.

Goteborg said...

We are not short on numbers. Vela has come in after two years exp in La Ligua. If Rosicky and RVP can start fit we are already two up on last season.

AW will bring people in so chill, guys. We do not need a 'keeper but a central defender might help.

If he picks up another central MFer well, that's OK and Nasri, Ben Arfa or, preferably Villa would be good too.

We will be OK but we cannot compete financially with MU or Chelski and it's no good thinking we can. So Le Boss has to weave his magic again. Some of you are forgetting what he has achieved on a shoestring and that includes the new stadium.

Alan

Unknown said...

We are not short on numbers. Vela has come in after two years exp in La Ligua. If Rosicky and RVP can start fit we are already two up on last season.

AW will bring people in so chill, guys. We do not need a 'keeper but a central defender might help.

If he picks up another central MFer well, that's OK and Nasri, Ben Arfa or, preferably Villa would be good too.

We will be OK but we cannot compete financially with MU or Chelski and it's no good thinking we can. So Le Boss has to weave his magic again. Some of you are forgetting what he has achieved on a shoestring and that includes the new stadium.

Alan

Anonymous said...

wrighty7 your so right theses people miss the point I think your trying to make. Of course flam and hleb are replacable, the proplem is we always have to replace. Since wengers been here every summer the same, Why? yeh we have players other teams want, but so does everyone else.

Let me finish with this, dis flamini all you want, but no way in my opinion would we have finished were we did without his Outstanding display, now some say diaby can do this, yeh right!

Anonymous said...

agree with wrighty and previous anon.
Every year is the same, we make progress then sell someone.
its a never ending cycle and it must stop or Arsenal will nevr achieve what they COULD do if this squad with add ons could do.

Anonymous said...

top post wrighty. I agree that people are missing your point, your not being negative just saying wot some of us gunners feel right now.

Anonymous said...

top post wrighty. I agree that people are missing your point, your not being negative just saying wot some of us gunners feel right now.

Anonymous said...

For me, he has made a number of erros, firslty letting Diarra go, and not tying Flamini to a new contract during January. Playing Eboue as a right Midfielder, give me a break, playing toure at right Back.

for me Wenger lost the plot in the second half of this season. I know we suffered a lot with injuries, but the difference with us and the other "big" clubs, is that there squad is deep enough to handle the losses.

Anonymous said...

I agree about letting big players go.

And yes you can say all you want about hleb being crap for 3 seasons but now he is showing exactly what he can do... OK his goal tally is less than impressive but he can improve that.

We should be thinking imagine nasri along side fabregas and flammini or bringing him on to replace hleb.

Wenger is a legend and has made us a top 4 club there is 16 other premiership clubs outside the top 4 that wish they was in the same position as us.

But we want tropheys and letting our best players go all the time is a bloody joke... as much as it pains me to say we are a stepping stone for players to go to a bigger club.

We need to keep players like flammini and hleb because they already have a relationship with the other players... so not only are they great players they have a understanding with the other players which now the new ones coming in will need to develop.

Anonymous said...

Wenger is a great coach. Also many clubs lose players each season. arsenal were unlucky with injuries and finances. I believe we need a super centre back and just some confidence in the squad. we have the potential to be the greatest club in the world. At the end of last season, they said arsenal were done for, even totenham wanted to swap us in the top four. henry gone and Freddy, they thought we were done for. But something extraordinary happened, arsenal started to play in a way that i rarely see from clubs. This coesive ness, the almost perfect passing, and it took the epl and the world by storm. then injuries happend and i belive its a major factor. van persie is WORLD CLASS when he is fully fit. if he was not injured for so long and rosiscky, eduardo even diaby and sanga, were not injured for so long, i belive that we would have atleast one throphy this season. if we improve each year, then next year i believe we can win. we lost only 3 games in the epl i think and about 9 for the season i think.. THATS REMARKABLE!! if we bring back the unity and the free flowing game back to arsenal, then no club can stop us. wen arsenal plays how they should play, with the great passing, i believe we become a force that none can stop. So if chels n manu want to fork out lots of millions on players and arsen can spend half of that and still have a world class squad, then more power to him and more money for the club. I believe next season we will win at least 2 throphies. AT LEAST. just keep the flame burning and we will have great and IMMINENT success.

Anonymous said...

/\/\/\/\
I am sorry but you are deluded m8 Arsenal are a good side a very good side but we are not a great side

Because at the end of the day great sides win trophy's!

We are fast becoming a stepping ground for the bigger clubs if our players do not want to stay at arsenal then you must ask the question WHY?

And for me its because no matter how well we play and yes we outplayed utd and the chavs this season but no one will remember that the season when utd done the double we played better football.

I would never say sack wenger either jesus that would be a fundamental mistake because while we have debts because of the stadium its wenger's magic keeping the books as healthy as possible!

But we should not expect to win the league when you have man u, chelski, liverpool all fighting for this as well.

We can be proud that we have a manager that would never want to danger arsenal by spending out of his means... But man u have 800 million debts but are the most successful team in england and now champions of europe ?

Lets be honest we would take the debt of utd to have there success!

Anonymous said...

I would love to fuck Samir Nasri , Hartem Ben Arfa , Robinho , Veleso And Raul Abidol

Anonymous said...

I wish we didn't have to wait for Le Boss to shut you up wrighty7. We already have Vela and when the French transfer window opens on Monday we will have a BIG improvement on Hleb - Nasri. As you say yourself the summer is young, so just cool your boots. Whoever else comes in, we'll put up another stylish fight on several fronts next season. The only teams to finish above us last season were the two CL finalists so get real & look forward to the season ahead with OPTIMISM because Arsenal will be stronger. No point whining about potential transfers whilst we're still in May even if everybody else is doing the same...