I generally, like many of you, absolutely love football.
Arsenal a big part of my life. NEWS Now always on the go, refresh, refresh, refresh. It’s an obsession really from which we all suffer gladly.
Having said that - I cannot wait for this season to be over. I just want third bagged so we can all start planning and speculating about potential signings and formations and who we need to sell to allow us to have a more efficient wage spend.
Let’s go through some thoughts…..
Lukas Podolski
Finally in print confirmed to join Arsenal for next season – Proper player as they say.
Some of the clips on him as quite stunning actually. See Daily Mirror special.
My thoughts re based on what I see. Arsenal are a predominantly right sided team. Sagna into Theo to RvP is the most productive link for goals this season. When that ball does come across it’s out left side that will come under focus. How do we finish that cross ball. Are we balanced? Wigan worked us out and they won’t be alone next season. Moses played left and kept Sagna so busy defensively the link on the right was broken. Walcott disappeared. His game is not flexible enough to recover. We lose.
Podolski is a killer one touch finisher. Excellent decision maker in the last third and completely clear of mind in relation to scoring and hitting target quickly. He will give teams another side to worry about. Leave him alone on the left and he will score.
But is he really a left winger – I would say no, not anymore. I watched a recent game Koln v Munchengladbach where he played as a CF. He did not track back and did not look like doing so. However as soon as he got the ball he looked intelligent, dangerous and a real threat. He can definitely replace RvP on occasion - we have not had that luxury at present.
He has big game personality and presence. Watching the Manchester Derby it’s interesting come the crunch of the PL season who shone out.
Barry (England and ex Villa Skipper) Kompany (City & Belgium skipper) real leaders. I have no doubt in Podolski we have a leader in the making. It’s been a while since we signed a real top player who we all know. There was a level of that with Arteta and Arshavin but this guy could really be important to our new dynamic.
Career Insight below:
There is a buzz on twitter that a few more could follow. Vertonghen and Erikson from Ajax and M'Vila from Rennes. Every year I promise not to get sucked in but in the end – we are all suckers!
Unity
Again this year we have definitely seen a squad that is closer together. They seem bought into where we are going, the pattern of game and the clubs model. Not a peep on contracts, going coming from inside the club. Impressive work done by Arsene and more leaders at the club has helped.
The signing of Podolski is encouraging - we seem to back on track in relation to a player buying strategy that is well thought out. We are all watching with baited breath what is going to happen if Pat Rice leaves this summer.
Again the replacement will say a lot about our direction.
Options for number 2
Do we go young and upcoming manager someone who obviously will be Arsene’s successor - Martinez
Do we just promote from within – Banfield, Bould
Do we get an old hero back – Adams, Keown, Bergkamp
Do we refactor the backroom staff and bring in a number of coaches
I do sometimes get the feeling that we have grown hugely as a club but our people infrastructure has stayed the same. I feel that many supporters would like to see more than one voice coming out of the club. Arsenal are a sleeping giant. We used to laugh at CFC about no history. Well in the SKY TV/ Social Media age history can be developed very quickly. Global history can be developed and football can be marketed to a point where it barely existed before 1993 when the Premiership started.
We have to wake up and win – Arsenal will explode and be bigger than any of us can previously imagine.
To this point in the last week we have seen 2 teams in CFC and City – whose financial models I find disgusting, but they have one thing I am jealous of.
A chairman that is visible. A chairman that cheers his team. We all know Roman wants the CL and I sincerely hope that its Arsenal that are the first London club to win it. But he is there watching. He is there buying Cahill when it counts to give them the best chance to succeed.
A triumphant Kompany was being interviewed after the game last night and mentioned that Sheikh Mansour came into the dressing room beforehand to give his support whatever the result. Again we know they are financially doped but our board are invisible.
I want to see them, I want to know that Usmanov, minority shareholder that owns 30% of our club and is the 28th richest man in the world could actually be formally invited to maybe offer some direction or at least understand the direction.
I am not against Kronke but I just want to see Unity at that level. It does trickle down and my driver for saying this is one strategy, clear goals are key to any team’s success.Wenger's recent comments on Usmanov I find interesting. Why say that now?
We are heading to summer – 2 games and the relief if we win would be palpable. Just hurry up!
Clive P
Twitter #clivepafc
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