What does Adebayor's new contract really mean?

Well, on one level, it at least gives us a chance to look at this rather nauseating picture again.

Mmm. Badge.

I suppose it also signifies that Arsene, and the Arsenal hierarchy, are serious about wanting to keep him at the club, and that they're willing to improve his wages to achieve this. Whether he fully deserves this increase is now moot: he's achieved it. But questions still could be asked about whether he really does merit Henry level wages after some of the finishing and decision-making he showed on Saturday's game.

But to Adebayor himself, what does it really mean? The consolidation of a love affair with Arsenal that will last til his retirement? No, of course not. It means a bigger wage cheque and, hopefully, thoughts of other clubs being put out of his mind.

But for how long?

Henry signed a 'long-term deal' then left the next season. So did Cashley. So did Vieira.

Contracts in modern football guarantee, at a minimum, one, or, if there is good-will, maybe two
more years at their present club. After two years on any modern contract, things often get a little dicey. In Adebayor's case, I think the deal will pin him down til the end of this season, and perhaps the next one as well.

But if he has another good season this year, which, through a combination of his finishing ability and the plethora of chances we create for him in every game, I think he will, I don't think it'll stop him from leaving next summer if another top club come in with a firm bid and big wages.

Modern football is dominated by greed. Brian Glanville calls the Premier League the 'greed is good league' and players like Ade sum it up. The argument that they're just trying to earn as much as possible in a short career simply doesn't carry weight. The average salary in the UK, an affluent country, is about £23,000 a year. Now, Ade will be on, I reckon, about £70-80k a week after this bump. That's easily 3 times the average salary in the Uk, per week.

In one year as a Premiership footballer you will earn more money than an average UK resident earns in their lifetime. In 4-5 years, you will easily have more money than you need, if you decide not to squander it on birds, booze and bling.

That is the bottom line for me. Football has always had its superstars, but the Premier Leage has helped to create almost untouchable figures, players divorced from the fans who pay their wgaes and support the team.

Almost all the money that has been funelled into the new Premier League over the years has gone into player and corporate pockets. That's what contracts like Ade's mean. Not improving the general state of the English game, through improving local facilities or youth development plans, but into the pockets of a few hundred men. Remember that next time you see a dilapidated local pitch in your community that's part of an FA league. Contracts like Ade's, or Ronaldo's, show fans are just wallets to too many people involved in English football nowadays.

The contract ultimately means that fans will have to pay ever more money to support our team. Our new stadium produces record levels of revenue, yet instead of tickets being subsidised - as happens in the Bundesliga, for instance - fans pay more. Fans pay more to mean the club makes more to allow players like Ade to earn more. Something is wrong in all this.

Finally, it means the league become ever more uncompetitive. Only a handful of clubs can pay the wages necessary for stars, so don't be surprised when the same four teams finish in the top four. Isn't the Premier League wonderful.

So, for me, Ade is just another greedy footballer; and we're the chumps that pay him. But you can't blame him: he's just a product of his time.

Anyway, ranting aside, it means we have Ade, a decent goalscorer - given enough chances - for one more year. Here's hoping he earns the money as best he can by actually delivering us some trophies. and continues to act contrite.

Til later.

Empty seats, Gallas's rant, Ade's boos and goodbye to a true Gooner.

A few topics.

Firstly, the empty seats at the Grove. It's a mockery that the club continue to claim that these matches are 'sell-outs' when any idiot can look up and see that shedloads of the seats in the stadium remain empty. The problem is, as many have already stated, that these seats are sold seats that haven't been occupied. The majority are season ticket holders who, for one reason or another, haven't turned up. Given that we're still in August and a lot of people are still on their hols, fair enough. But as a plea to the future: if you're a season ticket holder and you can't attend a game find someone to take your ticket. If you have no friends, there is a ticket exchange on the Arsenal website where you can even sell your seat if you can't attend.

There are a lot of Arsenal fans for whom attending only one game a season is a big deal; don't take your seat for granted. Lord knows we could do a few more fans who actually seem excited to be there.

Secondly: Gallas. Or, more specifically, his rants. Yesterday, after Djourou cleared the ball off the line a spat broke out between him and Gallas which was only ended through the intervention of teammates. Clearly, Gallas doesn't like being shouted at; yet, surely, the captain should be a stabilising influence within the team. They should only be a hot-head when it comes to the other side. What makes Gallas a good captain - his passion, pride and desire - also seem to still make him a bit of a loose cannon. He has a lot to prove as captain this year, as he himself admitted in his programme notes yesterday.

Thirdly, Ade: to boo or not to boo. Not to boo, is quite clearly the answer. Ade's actions over the summer are clearly reprehensible, and, in many respects, a sad indictment of the lack of loyalty in modern football. But let's not get carried away. He's an Arsenal player; and what he did is hardly in the league of, say, Cashley. You don't boo Arsenal players in my book. Shout a bit of abuse if you want, but don't let it lead to concerted booing. It's horrible.

Finally, goodbye to Justin Hoyte. He never quite made the standard for us, and a move to Boro will mean he should be able to hold down a first team spot. But JH was a true gooner, the only player for a long time who grew up as an Arsenal fan and made it into the team. He always gave his best to the club, and never thought about anything but giving his all to a cause he genuinely cared about.

In an age where players only seem to care about the bottom line and their latest contract renewal, Justin was a breath of fresh air. I wish him all the best at Boro, and I think he will prove to be a fine player oop north.

til later.

Arsenal labour to the win, but win nonetheless.

Ah, football. So nice to have you back. Having not been able to see the entirety of the Twente match - not a bad thing from the sound of it - this was my season opener.

And didn't it open in a lovely fashion? Nice work by Clichy led to a precise pass by Denilson and a smooth finish from Nasri.

It was about a good a debut as you'll see from young Samir. He held the ball up well, made a number of penetrating passes, was strong when pushed about by the oppositon, and made his finish look easier than it was. Moreover, lord be praised, he actually showed a proclivity to take shots on goal. How much you can tell about anyone from one game is debatable, but he looked tidy, elegant, strong and dangerous. He looks more of a threat than Hleb, already. But then I suppose that isn't saying much. A bit of pace is perhaps his only notable failing.

The rest of the team, after Sammy's goal, took the usual Arsenal option - endless passing, squandered opportunity, and a domination of the game which always looked like it might be threatened by a breakaway Brummie goal.

So, in the end, we were hanging on; something which was faintly ridiculous given our overall superiority.

Yet, overall, I was impressed by the team today.

Eboue was, and I say this with a considerable degree of trepidation, good in central midfield. He can pass the ball sideways and backwards, so taking away the attacking responsibilities he usually has allowed to concentrate on some neat link work. His shooting was utterly abysmal though, so let's hope Arsene doesn't continue the experiment too much longer.

Denilson was neat and tidy, and possibly has a bit more too him than I thought. Djourou was good in the middle, and still looks like he has more potential than Senderos. The whole back four did ok, but still gifted the Brummies a few too many opportunities.

The two low-lights for me were Theo and Ade. Theo looked low on confidence and ideas. He didn't even seem to be relying on his usual pace to get by defenders and contributed very little to the team and result.

Ade also showed the worst aspects of his performance: poor finishing, an awful first touch, and poor decision-making. Still, the boos I did hear in the stadium were out of order, and I certainly won't stoop to that level.

The fans too: if you can't find someone to take your season ticket, use the ticket exchange. And why were people leaving early at 2.30 on a Saturday afternoon? A poor level of support, I must say.

So, it's good to start the season with a win and a clean-sheet. But whether we can kick on from this remains to be seen.

Attack is not always the best form of defence.

It was an interesting game yesterday, one that perhaps summed up everything that's good and bad about this current Arsenal line-up.

The good? Well, even Eboue showed that he does have some worth, when he whipped in a very decent cross that was headed home by Greedy. Bendtner and Greedy then actually linked up to see nicky cooly stroke home, before Greedy knocked in the winner. He does take his chances, eventually.

Yet, not withstanding the positive points we should take from such a remarkable comeback, always having to score an extra goal or two due to our defensive frailties is not a wise way to go.

And defensive frailties we have, in abundance.

The essential problem is size and organisation. Individually our back four are all very good players. Indeed, I would even suggest that we still have the best set of full-backs in the Prem with Clichy and Sagna.

It's the centre-backs and goalkeeper that are the problem: none have the aerial dominance necessary to clear certain forms of attack, and it seems to be chaos every time a ball is whipped into the box.

And if I were to play against Arsenal at the moment, I would merely throw lots of long and high-balls into the area. Our opponents score a lot of goals because we cannot clear these balls adequately. The first Ajax goal yesterday, for instance, was a great strike, but one that came from a long-ball into the box which Kolo unconvincingly cleared, while Gallas looked on rather aimlessly.

Gallas and Kolo are not a good partnership, and never have been. They both play the role of the smaller, more nimble centre-back who relies on pace to clear our lines. They need a tall, aerially dominant player next to them.

This weakness is compounded by Almunia. He's a pretty decent shop-stopper, but instils no confidence in me, or our defence, when high balls are played into the area. Indecision creates more indecision and goal-scoring opportunities for the opposition.

Now, what makes this all the more galling is that Arsene openly recognised the fact we needed a new CB at the end of last season. Yet nothing has happened. The two big lads we have who Arsene is probably relying on are Senderos and Djourou, neither of whom has consistently performed to a level which suggests they'll be the type of player we need.

Further up the pitch, we still need a defensive holding midfielder, although, if reports are to be believed, Arsene is close to doing something about this in the form of Swiss international Gokhan Inler.

My overall point is this: going into a season with the attitude that 'it doesn't matter how many goals you score, we'll score more', as Arsene practically said in his press conference yesterday, is extremely dangerous. Always having to score an extra couple of goals per game will eventually take its toll.

Poor defending cost us the title last year, and it will cost us again this year, at this rate. Please Arsene, sort it out.

Wilshere the talk of the tournament, but goals still seem to be a problem.

All in all, Arsenal outperformed both Juventus and Madrid in our two Emirates Cup matches. The difference in each game was merely a goal: Juve got a dodgy one in the first, and we got a pretty soft penalty in the second.

We played with pace and fluency, but still looked a little lost when we get to the box. At least twice in the game today, someone should have just flown in and smashed a shot on goal. As it was, we over elaborated and lost possession. You can't score if you don't shoot, I still don't think this message is fully being hammered home.

However, maybe it's just preseason rustiness at this point. Certainly we didn't seem afraid to shoot earlier in the week against Stuttgart, with Vela, Bendtner and Walcott all looking especially dangerous.

Today, Ade looked the most likely of our players to score in open play, narrowly rolling the ball past the post after a wonderful bit of skill took him past several Real players. His celebration on scoring the penalty - kissing the badge - was every bit as galling as his statement earlier in the week that he had never asked or thought about moving from Arsenal.

It insults the intelligence of most Arsenal fans for him to say that but, as things stand, we won't find a replacement for him easily, and he does still seem to be our most potent threat up-front. It may have to be a case of forgiven, but not forgotten.

But the talk of the tournament, if not the entire pre-season thusfar, has been young Jack Wilshere. Just 16, he's done enough in the last few games to bring himself into contention for the coming season. Indeed, it was telling today that those players we thought were going to be the next stars to come out of the academy - Randall, Lansbury, Bazarite, even Gibbs - were left on the bench, if they even made it there.

Wilshere simply looks a cut above the other youth prospects I've seen. He has no fear when given the ball, and actively puts himself into positions to get it. He has a strength that belies his shorter stature, and also the requisite technical ability and all-round skill to fit into a Wenger team. Most importantly, for me, is he looks like a player who can make things happen. He must be one of the first names on the Carling Cup squad list already, and I would not at all be surprised to see him involved in the first team, if only as sub this season.

Elsewhere, Diaby seems to flit between looking impressive and a liability and Denilson still seems a bit unsure of his role in midfield. It isn't beyond the realms of possiblity that Diaby starts the first game of the season next to Cesc in centre-mid, but I still think an experienced defensive midfielder is a necessary signing.

Oh, and a new goalkeeper.

However, the team really doesn't look too bad at the moment. One more decent signing and maybe we will surprise one or two people this year. Also, I have to say, the new home kit looks alright in the flesh, and the new away kit is excellent. I may have to buy two shirts in one year for the first time for a long time.

Next up is Amsterdam, and hopefully a few more clues to how the coming season might unfold.

The squad starts to take shape, but is still too shallow.

A long time since my last post, and not much has actually occurred.

Let's summarise events:

* Adebayor hasn't moved anywhere, despite skulking round the Nou Camp/ San Siro for the last month wearing a 'please, please, please buy me, i'm easy' shirt on. He definitely wants to leave, let's get that clear. Obviously he's correct that we should be paying him the same salary Henry was on when he left the club; he's clearly achieved as much as Thierry in his career at Arsenal so far...

* Alex Hleb has similarly not moved anywhere, but will surely be tucking his Bielorussian tail between his legs and scampering off to Barca in the next week, if reports in Spain are to be believed. Do I believe them? I'm not sure, but i think we'll at least recoup what we paid for him three years ago at some point during this summer.

* Gilbero will leave the club soon, moving to either Athens or Toffee land, depending on who you believe. Time for him to leave, I think, but is losing Flamini, Gilberto and Diarra in one season a bit too much? Do we have any defensive midfield players left in the squad? The thought of Diaby or Denilson being upgraded to the first XI would be a gamble, as would throwing in Ramsey from the off.

* Samir Nasri has, in the shock of the summer, arrived from Marseille. I have to say I'm actually quite excited about seeing him in action.

So, that's three in for the summer - Ramsey, Nasri and Vela - and one, officially, out - Flamini, with Hleb and Gilberto almost certain to leave, and Adebayor still 50/50.

Hleb and Adebayor's potential transfers leave a sour taste in the mouth, especially as money has been the overriding motivation in both players pursuit of a transfer.

Hleb, well, maybe 10 goals in three years tells us it's time to cash in. Nasri's record isn't that much better at the moment, but he's young, and he doesn't have the almost pathological fear of shooting that Hleb is seemingly afflicted by.

Adebayor - sod him. One good season and suddenly half the Arenal fan-base is terrified that we'll lose him. Well, he went missing for seven games last year at a crucial stage in the campaign. 6 of his much lauded 30 goals last year were against Derby. And the amount of chances created for him was almost obscene; he won't get 4-5 chances before scoring in Spain. He's a good player, and has the opportunity to kick on and become an even better one at Arsenal if he'd had some discipline this summer. But, his head has been turned by the first talk of money and I wouldn't be surprised if he was, justifiably, booed in the opening game of next season. He needs to leave, or win the fan base over all over again.

If he does leave, we will sign a replacement. And we still have Bendtner, who is a class player, if a bit of an arrogant sod. Ken Aguero's name was mentioned in a paper yesterday, who would be a fantastic signing, but I can't see it happening.

What worries me most about the exits is that they create players that need replacing, on top of those that we needed already this summer. We needed a new centre-back, but this plan has been scrapped, and Senderos will surely be given yet another chance next year. We also need an experienced, defensive midfield player, but I'm not sure whether that will occur. Veloso's name has been bandied around a bit, but who knows if he can hack the premiership.

Our squad was overly thin last season and it eventually cost us the title. We need more players in the squad than we had last year. If players like RvP and Rosicky suffer another injury-strewn season - remove and replace. Simple.

There's only a month before the start of the season, but an additional 2 weeks after that til the end of the transfer window. This has been a particularly painful one so far, but there is still ample time for additions yet. Let's hope they happen.

I'm not a betting man; but if I was...

I would definitely put a bit of money on Turkey. Just like Greece four years ago, they keep on pulling off the improbable results. They've only been ahead for two and a half minutes in the entire tournament, quite a feat if you think about it, yet have reached the semis, albeit one against the machine that is Germany. If only the English team had half their bottle, we might actually be in the tournament. Croatia badly, badly missed Eduardo up-front, with the hapless Olic missing a hatful of chances. And without wishing to engage in too much schaudenfreid, lets hope Modric's penalty was a sign of things to come...

Anyway, aside from that, another quiet week, all in all. I say quiet because when you filter out the crap, nothing really has happened until this afternoon when Gael Clichy signed a new deal. Truly excellent news, and while Gael had the odd slip-up last year - the Birmingham nightmare springs to mind - he's just about as good a left back as you'll find in the world at the moment. He certainly seems to be on an upward curve when compared to old Cashley.

Other non-news-news from this week:

The Samir Nasri transfer may have happened. I know this because several blogs have repored that: he boarded a plane to London/the Marseille chairman said so/the BBC said they 'understood' it had happened/ some guy my mate knows apparently saw Nasri in a McDonalds on the Hollloway Road wearing a 'I love Arsenal' over-sized cap. Until it's on arsenal.com, he hasn't signed, but even I am now hopeful that this saga may finally end next week. You just know he's going to be rubbish after all this.

Elsewhere, Barcelona have offered us a mighty pot of gold for Adebayor, apparently, and as Adebayor hasn't had 'I LOVE ARSENAL' tattooed to his forehead he may be on the move. Who knows/cares at this rate. If we're being offered anything over £20m for him, I say take it: he's had one good season in the Prem, and he's no where near as irreplaceable as people think, even if I would prefer him to stay.

Hleb is still here, despite trying to get his agent to flog him to half of Europe. Who knows, he might still be here next week, still telling us how much he hates busy old Lahndun.

No other real transfer news to report, so we'll probably announce the signing of someone next week, knowing us. If you've heard a rumour let me know so I can sell it to a tabloid.

One final thing. If you're tired of the plethora of non-stories at the moment, go to www.rockynewsnow.info. It's a site which takes NewsNow and filters out the rubbish. A very good idea, and Mean Lean over at Arsenal Vision takes the credit (I think). Check it out, and hopefully GoonerBoy is actually on there...

Til later.

We don't need David Villa, but is there anyone else we should pick up at the Euros?

David Villa has been one of the best strikers in Europe during the last few seasons, and after Valencia's disastrous season in La Liga he is very much on the market. In the shop-window or not, his performances so far at the Euros have caught the attention of a fair few prospective buyers.

Crucially, he seems to quite like us. I can't be bothered to look up the article, but he stated a few months ago how much he likes our style of play - as about 40,000 other players have stated recently - and that he would certainly not be opposed to plying his trade at the Emirates. Cesc also came out recently to say how much he'd like Villa to sign for us.

But do we really need him? On the one hand, it'd be foolish to say we don't need a player who's a proven goalscorer at every level - domestic, CL, international - and who is approaching the peak years of his career. I don't doubt that, if we did sign him, he'd probably knock in about 20 goals in his first season. Moreover, if we don't sign him, there's a strong chance he'll be playing for either Chel£ea or Liverpool next season. A partnership of Torres and Villa at Liverpool would be rather terrifying, while the Chavs seem certain to lose one, if not both, of Drogba and Shevchenko this summer. A partnership of Anelka and Villa could be equally formidable.

But watching Villa's goals so far this summer, something struck me.

We already have a player like him: Eduardo.

Whilst there are the worrying doubts about whether Dudu can ever return to the level of performance he began to hint at in the months before his terrible injury, Villa's goals, and finishing prowess, reminded me of Dudu's prowess in front of goal. While one could argue that Villa has a more complete overall game, I'm not sure that justifies splashing out £25m+ on him, especially if van 'balsawood legs' Persie can stay fit for more than 5 minutes next season.

The money would be better invested elsewhere, and a few players have caught my eye.

*van der Vaart. A superb midfield player, who perhaps plays a little too centrally to justify our purchase, but could be a great replacement for Hleb and the perma-injured Rosicky if we could successfully deploy him on the flanks. He has a great range of passing, always looks comfortable on the ball, and I bet we could pick him up on the cheap from Hamburg.

* Boruc. Ok, so Faianski might become as good as him in a few years, but Boruc looks the natural successor to Jens, both in terms of temperament and ability. Talking to someone who is a goalkeeper, we agreed that Almunia makes quite a few unnoticed errors during games - such as his inability to be decisive or dominate his area when high-balls are whipped in. This is opposed to Jens, who is a far more solid overall keeper, but who has made more noticeable errors recently due to age creeping on him.

* Toulalon. Impressed me during the friendly with England, and one of the few French players not to come out of the tournament looking completely inept. Worth a punt, and would seem a ready made replacement for Flamini.

* Podolski. Having a rotten time of it at Bayern, and might be available at a cut-price fee. Whether we could adapt him into a left-winger, as Wenger would inevitably try to do, would be interesting, but he certainly seems to know where the net is.

Any other suggestions? I would say Sneijder but he would easily cost around £30m by the time this tournament is over. That van Persie looked quite good as well, wonder who he plays for...

Ramsey signs; Nasri possibly signs; Lewin goes; Horrible kits released.

Yes, I'm back, after a prolonged absence. It's at times like these I doff my cap to Arseblogger for keeping up the blogging in the face of the putrid non-news that has been steadily emanating from the media outlets since the end of the season. I could not bring myself to write until, well, something happened.

If we were to believe all the crap coming out of the blogosphere this week - which is now where national newspaper journalists pick up around 90% of their information - Adebayor would have signed for AC Milan for £32 million, yes £32 million, Hleb would have gone to Barca in a part-exchange for Yaya Toure, and we would have also picked up Roque Santa Cruz with the spare change from the Hleb and Ade deals.

Hmm I say. Hmm.

If Ade really is demanding a £100k per week contract, then adios. But until anything is proved I think we should really regard the Milan story as a little silly. Hleb, on the other hand, is clearly becoming desperate for the final big money move of his career, but, problematically, scoring 11 goals in 3 seasons as an attacking midfielder has meant he doesn't have a line round the block to sign him up. After all the rubbish he's come out with recently, if he does stay he should be on the bench for the beginning of next season due to his lack of respect for the club. I backed Alex for a long time but he's been a coward on and off the pitch since at least January. As for Santa Cruz? Very good player, but has a bad injury record, and let's not forget that Benny McCarthy scored 29 goals for Blackburn the season before Cruz arrived.

Right, spleen vented.

In actual news, we announced our first signing of the season today. 17 year old Aaron Ramsey has jetted in from, er, Cardiff. I wonder if the Daily mail will hammer us for signing another non-English player?

Aaron is quite a versatile player, and local Welsh journalists have likened him to Bryan Robson: a kind of all-action, ball-winning and passing midfielder. He can play anywhere across the midfield, and also in defence (he was being played at right-back at times for Cardiff last year), but his preferred position is centre-mid. Back up for cesc or his new partner? Who knows. One thing's for certain: he can't be worse than Eboue, and at £5m he could well be a bargain.

Samir Nasri should also be joining, and according to the Young Guns blog has signed a pre-contract. Can someone tell me what a pre-contract is? Surely if you have enough time to sign a pre-contract, you can sign a contract? Why must things be so complicated. Samir looks a talent, and is probably earmarked as the replacement for Hleb, if Alex does skedaddle. There is talk of Athletico Madrid trying to hijack the deal - possibly as revenge for us nicking Rosicky off them at the eleventh hour a few seasons ago. Again, the jury will be out on him until he arrives, but he's done well enough to get into Raymond 'crazy' Domenech's French squad so he must have something to him.

So that's one/two signings, and Carlos Vela, who will also be arriving in the summer. Three midfield players with a combined age of 55.

I still think we need an experienced central-midfield ball-winner - possibly in the Yaya mould, although Toulalon has looked good for France as well. On top of that I would also say that buying a centre-back who's taller than 6' might also be an idea, especially if there are questions about Senderos's and Gallas's mental strength after last season. I like the look of Mertesacker - 6'6" German CB - who also says he likes the way we play.

Gary Lewin has left after decades of great service, and we should all thank him for what he's given to the club over the years. This season alone, he may well have saved Eduardo's career with his quick thinking. It will a difficult position to fill, but Colin Lewin, Gary's cousin who is already on the club's staff, is mooted to be his replacement.

Finally, the new kits are out. Both are awful. The away shirt - a horrible, garish 'tribute' to the 1989 Anfield victory shirt - looks like a training top. The home shirt looks like it got mixed up with Charlton's home kit. After the great home shirt we've had for the last two seasons, I suppose it was too much to hope that we'd have a nice shirt again.

So, to end the post, a short message to Nike:

RED SHIRT.
WHITE SLEEVES.

WHY IS THIS SO HARD YOU MORONS?
STOP MESSING WITH OUR KITS.

Til Later.

Flamini sums up much of what is wrong with modern football.

Well, there you have it. Have a look above and you will see an Arsenal player posing in another team's shirt before he has left the club, and, whatever he's done this year, this in itself should cause your respect in Matthieu to drop. Its a very disrespectful thing to do, and it says a lot about Matthieu's character.

This is a player who, in 2004, betrayed his home town club who had helped turn him into a professional footballer. After verbally agreeing to a long-term contract with Marseille, he signed for us instead, causing Marseille's manager to call the act a 'beautiful treason'.

After signing for us, Flam looked distinctly average in his first season, and only began to look anywhere near good enough when forced to fill in at full back during the second half of the 2005/6 season. Whilst he was part of a record breaking champions League defence, he was also part of an extremely creaky team that scraped to fourth place in the league.

In 2006/7, he refused to play at full-back, and told Wenger he would only play in centre-mid. Not only was this, again, disrespectful to Arsene, he was, fundamentally absolutely rubbish in midfield. If you don't believe me, thanks to Steve Bruce, it's become quite clear that we offered Flamini to Birmingham last summer and they weren't interested. Not believing Matthieu had a future at the club, Arsene signed Lassanna Diarra from Chavski at the end of August as Gilberto's long-term replacement.

Yet, amazingly, Matthieu suddenly emerged as one of the best central midfielders in the Prem, if not Europe, in the first few months of the last season, to the extent Diarra and Gilberto were both kept out of the team. At the same time, Arsene now offered him a new contract at a, not unreasonable, rate of £55k a week.

Just as at Marseille, we've seen articles published on the official website all season in which Matthieu has constantly claimed 'I want to stay', 'I hope I stay' etc. In the mean time, Diarra got bored waiting and, in an extraordinary move, was sold after only 4 months at the club - more on this, an incredible mistake, in the forthcoming season review.

Yet as the months ticked away, it became more and more clear that Matthieu would not stay. What was he waiting for? A pen to sign the deal with? The terms of the contract offered did not significantly change, so it was calculated procrastination on Matthieu's part, using the club as a shop window to further the interests of his own career, before whoring himself out to the highest bidder at the end of the season. He was well within his rights to do this, but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth, regardless of his performances this year.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that Matthieu has had a fantastic season, and was also great in the 2006 CL run. But in 4 years at the club, he's won one trophy, the 2005 FA Cup, and he was hardly integral to that success.

To me, Matthieu represents a lot of what has gone wrong in modern football, a symbol of player power spiralling out of control. He screwed over his home-town club to get himself a better contract with us, and, after promises, promises, promises, he's left us high and dry to earn another pay day in Milan. Matthieu, at the very least, is a mercenary who clearly cares far, far more about the money the club's pay him far more than the club itself. Whilst we can't expect players to care about the club as much as we do, some degree of gratitude and loyalty is painfully lacking here; a disconcerting emotional detachment between player and club and, ultimately, fan.

Matthieu was being offered £55k a week in the contract we offered him, and, undoubtedly, a hefty signing-on bonus on top of that. Footballers' wages have spiralled so far out of control that it's easy to forget that, with a wage at this level, Matthieu would have earned more in one year than the majority of the UK population will earn in their entire lifetime. Again, Matthieu isn't responsible for this situation, but, yet again, it's an example of how the influx of money into English football since the creation of the Premier League has been consistently and sickeningly misused. Players quibble over earning an extra £5 or 10,000 a week, whilst ticket prices continually increase and the FA argue over whether to bother building an academy which could actually produce a half decent national team.

So, in short, thanks for a few memories Matthieu, which are actually less than you might think, and ultimately, good riddance. You've used our club as a shop window for your own personal ambitions and ultimately I can't accept that. Maybe if you had been more honest with the club from an earlier date I would have had more sympathy for you. But, ultimately, you appear as a mediocre player who's just come good, who has then tried to squeeze as much money as possible out of the club's that have helped turn you into the player you are.

Never has football been a greedier game than it is at present. There is more money in the game than ever, yet instead of club's helping the local community, or coming up with reasonably priced ticket packages, we hear about playing games abroad and players being paid ever higher fortunes. There is a danger of clubs and players forgetting the fans who are the ultimate foundation for them both. Thus, whilst ticket prices will undoubtedly increase this year, at least it won't be because we were held to ransom by a mercenary, and for that I'm thankful.

Hleb and Flamini will both leave, wrecking Arsenal's summer transfer plans.

Both Alex Hleb and Matthieu Flamini are as good as gone. Hleb will definitely not play for the club again; Flamini may, but if his deal is not signed by next Wednesday, then why would Arsene pick him for the final two games of the season?

Flamini is set to join AC Milan, according to these reports emanating from Italy. Maybe I'm giving too much credence to the Italian media, but it would seem unlikely that these ideas are being plucked from thin air. Flamini has procrastinated all season, in a rather unseemly way, over signing his deal, and it would seem odd that at the eleventh hour that he'd turn round and sign the contract. He blew off his hometown club (Marseille) to join us, so I doubt he has any deeper loyalty to us.

It's hard to judge what type of loss Flamini is: he's been a revelation this season, but, to be frank, a bit rubbish before then. Nevertheless, our midfield was reliant this seaon on a player we won't have next year, and, on top of this, we've lost another player that we bought to take over from Gilberto - Diarra. I'll write more on the Diarra fiasco come the end of the season, but, for now, it is obvious that this was a massive mistake by Arsene and the club.

Hleb, will also go to Milan, according to Myles over on ANR, but to Inter, not AC. I very much doubt this deal has actually occurred, but given Arsene's rather panicky statements about Hleb on arsenal.com recently, the silence emanating from Alex himself, and the new FIFA rules which allow Hleb to buy himself out if his contract, I'd say a transfer out of the club is imminent. Who knows; maybe in Serie A he may score more than his colossal 4 goals this season, 2 of which came in August.

I've defended Hleb since he arrived at the club, but maybe it is best he moves on. At the very least he needs competition for his position, and perhaps a lecture from Arsene about how attacking midfielders are meant to score, not just create, goals. Even so, I would keep him as a squad player, instead of losing more experience from the squad.

Overall, while both players have done well for us this season, especially Flamini, neither are irreplaceable. However, if both were to leave, we would need to sign 2 replacements, plus the 2-3 players we actually need to push us on to trophies next year. We have Vela coming back, but would he really be a replacement for Hleb, or yet another player who needs 6mths-year to settle in? Gareth Barry has been mooted as a replacement for Flamini but he's a) 27 b) will cost a fortune as he's English and c) probably not quick enough to play for us. Krankjaer is a player who is far more interesting, but, again, I don't fancy our chances in brokering a deal that Arsene see's as good enough value.

In short, what I fear is a semi-meltdown in the club this summer. Our squad was too thin last summer to challenge for trophies, and if two key players both leave, who Arsene clearly wishes to keep, it means we not only have to add, we need to replace. And, I fear, only replacement, if that, will occur. If this is the case, no trophies will be forthcoming next year. We have the quality, but not quantity in the squad at the moment, and two major departures would make reconciling this situation even harder.

Moreover, the team Arsene has been 'building' will lose two of its vital foundations. That's the problem with building something; if you don't do it quickly enough, it can fall apart. Let's hope this isn't the case, but I'm worried.

Arsenal lack either maturity or bottle, as the season comes to an end.

So that's that. It's been a painful, drawn out end to the season, one that's seen us first draw, and then lose our way out of contention. When the rot started is unclear, but 2 wins since the home victory against Blackburn on 11 February tells its own story. That game was followed by the 4-0 drubbing at Old Trafford, and then by the nightmare which was the 2-2 draw at Birmingham. Whether we ever recovered from those games is questionable.

Anyway, the season review is something I'll write when we've played Sunderland; when things have formally drawn to a close. Yet, the game yesterday was, again, a microcosm of our season: we played some great football, dominated the game, took the lead, were unable to hold it, and fell to soft goals.

Because we were by no means outplayed by United yesterday. In the first half we repeatedly cut open their defence, and only lacklustre finishing by Adebayor stood between us and a first half lead.

Having said that, some superb saves by Jens Lehmann kept us in the match. Yet again, with almost no warning Jens has come back and pulled out a great performance in a massive match. Almunia has played well this year, but he has no authority in the box, and he doesn't consistently make the game-winning saves that Jens does. This may have been the his last game for the club, but I really think we could do better than promoting Almunia to the number 1 position.

Another player who performed well was Alex Song. The lad has come in for a lot of stick in his brief time at the club, but, a few slip ups aside, he look fairly assured on the ball and in the tackle which is saying a lot given this is his first league start this year(?). He certainly did better than Senderos on Tuesday.

As for the rest of the team:

Eboue showed, yet again, that not only is he not good enough to play for Arsenal, he's also a complete twat. Case in point: out team has the ball, break over the half-way line, Eboue goes down injured. Instead of continuing our attack we have to knock the ball out for Eboue's injury, which is, of course, non-existent. United then pull the Chavski trick of kicking the ball out at our corner flag to restart play. Not only, therefore, is he rubbish when he gets the ball, he endangers our goal-line when he doesn't have it. Sell. Now.

Hleb played well, but we had to play RvP out on the left-wing to accommodate him as a support-striker. If Hleb wants to play in the hole, his goalscoring record needs to improve; either he grows some balls and takes a few more shots, or we put him on the wing or on the bench.

RvP: completely wasted on the left; like he always is when he plays there.

Cesc was knackered, Gilberto put in a half-decent performance, Clichy was marvellous apart from his crossing, Gallas cost us the lead with a stupid hand-ball, and Kolo looks in decline. Bendtner and Theo both deserve more minutes on the pitch.

In all, the team either lacks maturity or bottle. To take the lead against the other top three teams in three separate games, and end up losing all three games hopefully only points to a lack of maturity in seeing these situations out. But Alex Hleb is 27; Gallas is 31; Kolo is 27; Gilberto is 31. Are these players really going to get more mature?

Perhaps the answer is a mixture of both. Players like Ade, Clichy, Fab are not mature enough, yet; others in the team are maybe just not tough enough.

We had the league in our hands this season but blew it. We're not a million miles away from success, but I can't see us winning trophies without a thicker squad, and one which does not rely on the likes of injury-prone Rosicky and RvP, or idiots like Eboue.

I wrote at the beginning of last season - not this one - that the team was 90% complete. We still seem to be at this state of affairs. United beat us professionally: by taking their chances, ones that we largely presented to them through an idiotic handball and a needless challenge on the edge of the area. Moreover, they were able to bring on the likes of Anderson and Tevez when the clock began to run down. United have efficiently rotated their squad this season; we haven't. Ours is on its last legs; theirs will push on to win the league, and perhaps the CL as well.

The remaining 10% we need may come from within the team, but I'm pretty sure it needs an injection of new blood to push us across the final ten yards. I'm hoping we'll see this situation remedied this summer. Whatever happens, let's not turn on Arsene; he deserves better than that. The media will certainly be out for his blood soon, and let's not buy into the rubbish that'll be in most papers over the summer.

So, four games left, and some players will hopefully use them to prove their worth, or otherwise.

In any case, the 2008/9 season starts today.

Theo overshadowed on a sickening night of despair.

What a night. One of the great nights of Champions League football; and yet again we're on the losing side during it.

In many ways the tie was the tale of two penalty decisions. Ours refused; theirs given. Whilst I don't want to add to the barrage of clichés about the Kop's supposed mystique - Clive Tyldsley practically had sex with it on ITV last night, it was sickening - their wails may have added to the reason the referee was so quick to award what was an extremely flimsy penalty. After doing exactly bugger all for the rest of the game, it was only fitting that Gerrard should whack it home. He's wasn't playing for England after all, so he could actually score last night.

And so, yet again, we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. And what a victory it would have been. If any piece of play I've seen this season has warranted a win it was Theo's run. To skip past four defenders, run the length of the pitch, and calmly stroke it back to Ade for a tap-in announces your ability in a big way. Yet for the second time this season, Theo will be overshadowed by a poor referee and sloppy defending.

What this boy has to do to get a start is beyond me. Eboue actually had one of his better games last night, but still, when in two positions where he could have created a goalscoring opportunity, he could not cross the ball. I'll say it again: o assists, 1 goal this season. What is his function in the team? Comedy relief for the opposition. Leave, now. Theo has assists in Milan and Anfield and should start the remainder of games for the season. If he doesn't, what does it say about Arsene's belief in his abilities? That he's only good to run at tired legs? Eboue is a disgrace to the team, in terms of his ability and his attitude; Theo, even when not playing well, is almost the exact opposite. Learn your lesson Arsene.

Last night was a microcosm of almost our entire season. We passed the ball round beautifully, and destroyed Liverpool in the opening 20-30 minutes, yet only came away with one goal. Then Flamini went off injured and the inadequacies of our squad came into focus. Gilberto is now like a demi-Flamini; he performs the same function with about half the speed, stamina and effectiveness. After that Liverpool were able to dominate the centre of the park.

Again, we conceded with essentially a team's first attempt on goal. Senderos, who was dismal last night after a series of decent performances, completely lost Hypia, yes Hypia, who then headed over Cesc's head, and who might have done better if he had stayed on the post. Our defence is the worst in top four, and it consistently shows. For all our attacking ability, we're having to score more goals than we need due to a poorly organised defence.

Two players were then critical for Liverpool, Babel and Torres, who could very easily be playing for Arsenal were we willing to spend to accumulate. Again, we were undone by a team with a stronger squad than us, albeit only marginally.

Finally, key decisions went against us, because we had not converted our early dominance into anything tangible.

So, in short Anfield was our season: good start, insufficient squad, poor defending, bad luck/decisions, possession with no end product, and, ultimately, heartbreak. To go from the joy I felt after Ade scored to, almost instantly, the penalty was too much. Much too much.

A win on Sunday could offer some hope for the season, but we have a knackered squad with dangerously low morale. I'd like to think we can pick ourselves up for the last 5 games of the season, but last night may have been the final straw for some of our over-played youngsters this year. I hope I'm proved wrong, but the season defining week has not gone too well thus far.

A season defining week approaches; will April be the cruellest month?

No blog for a while, and I apologise, but the rigours of having to give in essays totaling 16,000 by words next Friday have sidelined me somewhat...as has my decision to travel down to watch the boys play tomorrow. Hmm. May have misjudged the timing on this one.

It's been quite a week. Oop north (where it's grim) our bottle suddenly appeared in the middle of monsoon season, and the god's finally smiled on us when Cesc's corner flag effort was diverted in after bouncing off about 90 players.

Fast forward to Wednesday and we were robbed. I would say robbed by scousers, but that would be a) too easy and b) not entirely true, as we were actually duped by those apparently fun-loving hippies, the Dutch. Apparently, Kuyt and the ref are actually married or something, and there is was a four hundred year old grand conspiracy to deny us a penalty that was hatched at some point during the Dutch Revolt. Possibly; I'm sceptical. What can I say, I've got a university education.

Anyway, we should not just have won on Wednesday, we should have destroyed Liverpool, put the tie beyond them. To have 61% of the possession and come away with a draw is rather galling; but it's hardly a new state of affairs. Yes, we should have had a penalty, but maybe if Hleb had slightly more inclination to shoot - say 1 rather than 0% - the situation may never have had arose. And the Bentnder miss? Actually unbelievable. If you made a film called 'Nicklas Bendtner's and the great blunder', you'd be laughed out the cinema for the preposterousness of the script.

So, we enter a season defining week. It's come a bit later this year than last, when we lost a cup final and crashed out of two cups in the space of almost a week. Even if we blow it this time, at least we've made til almost mid-April. But then T.S. Eliot famously said that 'April is the cruelest month'. He also said that the world would end 'with a whimper' not with 'a bang', so maybe he was generally depressed. In any case, let's hope if he is right about April it relates to a different team than us.

If we beat Liverpool twice, and then United at OT, both trophies will again be within are grasp. It's a big ask but not impossible.

But improbable? Maybe. Any team that has the likes of Diaby and Eboue playing on the wing needs to have a look at the squad, or, more accurately, the rationale behind creating a paper-thin unit.

Our first XI, when not knackered, are as good as any team in Europe. But they are knackered. Clichy, who usually runs about like a maniac, was distinctly seen sauntering around by the end of the Liverpool game. He needs a week off from not just the physical but mental pressure of it all. Others need a breather: Cesc should not being playing every week at his age, even if he thinks he can. Ade needs both a little bit more competition from his place (which admittedly Eduardo was meant to partially provide) an able man to come in and knock one in for him whilst he has his feet up.

United can bring on Tevez, Hargreaves, Nani; Chelsea have Anelka, Belleti, Mikel waiting in the wings. They can mix up their squads when the finish line is in sight.

Because the season is a marathon. It doesn't matter if you play the best football in the world; you have to do it over 50-60 games a season.

Some of our players have injury problems which mean they should not be considered first XI players. If Mssrs Rosicky and RvP cannot play more than a third/half the games in a season, then its' time for a rethink, no matter what their ability.

And if Eboue is really the best option we have on the right wing, then we are really losing it. He has one assist, and 0 goals for the season. And he is a winger, an attacking midfield player. He dives, feigns injuries, acts like an idiot and there isn't even any end product after all of that. Leave. now.

So, these three games will tell us whether not only whether we can win anything this season, but more generally whether the squad as it currently stands is good enough to win anything in the future. We have the players; I just worry we don't have enough of them.

I hope I'm wrong; it would be a dream to win at both Anfield and OT in the same week. Let's hope it's more than just a dream, eh?

Arsenal run out of legs and the league disappears.

Four draws and a defeat mean that Arsenal will not win the league this season. In fact, that string of results means we probably won't even end up in 2nd place, save for point-dropping on the blue-side of London.

Where has it all gone wrong? Perhaps the better question to ask is, 'where did it all go right'? The answer, in short, is a fully-firing, fully-fit team and lots and lots of home-games at the beginning of the season. We flew out of the blocks at the beginning of this season with a fair few easy home games, but it's been a struggle since January, if not perhaps even mid-December. Injuries to players we should really expect to be injured, and a lack of goals from players we really shouldn't expect goals from have cost us.

We've over performed; but ultimately it's the squad wot wins it and ours isn't good enough. Our first XI can take on anyone, but it plays too many games, and certain players within it don't play often enough due to persistent injuries.

Exhibit A: the substitutions in today's game. Chavski bring on Anelka, Belleti and Mikel. The first two are proven players of quality, the latter a beefy lad who we'd have signed if we were willing to splash the cash..

We bring on: Diaby, Walcott, Bendtner. Diaby is a waste of space, a walking moron who will not make things happen. Walcott and Bendtner have potential, but are they the players you can really see winning you games in situations like this? Maybe in the future, but not at the moment.

Or the United subs. United bring on Tevez and Nani, and still have Hargreaves on the bench.

We have a squad that is too small and too young. Arsene possibly has a project, but when is it going to come to fruition? Is it really conceivable for us to beat Liverpool, then Chelsea, then United or Barca to win the CL? It might occur, but do we really have the players or the squad? I'm not sure.

We certainly don't seem to have the goals in the squad. Eboue does nothing but fall over and lose the ball; Hleb dribbles endlessly; Fabregas is knackered.

Up top, Adebayor erroneously thinks he's Thierry Henry when he should be keeping things simple, while RvP has an almost endless return from injury.

At the back, Senderos is unjustly dropped for a Toure who has been largely at fault for goals in the last two games, backed by a keeper who punches like he's Amir Khan in the box, when he should be catching the ball.

Maybe we're 90% there; maybe even 95%. But from where I'm standing, it looks like a third trophy-less season. We've been in decline since Arsene decided to throw the FA Cup at OT, and we've never recovered from that drubbing.

Our squad needs midfielders who have the bottle to take on players; to run at players and shoot and score. Alex Hleb would pass the ball even if he was one-on-one with the keeper and he seems to set the tone for the rest of the team.

Maybe the team will continue will continue to improve but I still think we're a few players short of a trophy. Hopefully Arsene will realise this in the summer, and not just rely on the latest batch of embryos. Get the cheque book out and spend Arsene, because we're in a comfort zone at the moment which we don't deserve to be in.

Four draws moves the title destiny out of our hands.

Well, how frustrating has all this been?

Since our 2-0 win against Blackburn back in early February, which even then was hardly a convincing performance, we haven't won in the league. Our 5 point lead has now morphed into an equality of points, with United almost certain to go three points clear on Wednesday night.

We're throwing it away, but in an almost excruciatingly painful manner. No one can beat us in the league, but we have reverted to our 2006 season form of looking absolutely toothless.

Take Cesc, for instance, against both Wigan and Boro he was slid in, one-on-one with the keeper, and hit the ball straight into the keeper's arms. Those two shots cost us four points. Would Ronaldo have been so lax in his finishing?

Hleb seems to have reverted back to his 'I will pass at all costs' form of the early season. Eboue has not scored for us in the league this season, and this is hardly surprising given that he hits the deck every time he's through on goal. If Wenger really thinks players like Eboue are good enough to play for the club then he's kidding us and himself. The occasional cross do not justify the sheer pain that is necessary to watch a performance from him, especially as Theo finally seems to be growing into a decent player.

At the back, why was Senderos dropped? He has been great at the back with Gallas, yet as soon as Toure returns, Sendy is on his way. Harsh, especially considering Toure's failure to cover Tuncay's run which led to the goal yesterday.

So, we have a mis-firing team and an April fixture list which has come from the deepest, darkest reaches of hell:

Chelsea A
Bolton A
Liverpool H
Liverpool H
Liverpool A
Man United A.

These games will decide our season. I'm still irrationally optimistic about the prospect of a trophy this season, but the team is currently showing how difficult it is to compete for the league and CL if you have a ridiculously thin squad that have two first teamers - Rosicky and RvP - who have never managed to play even 2/3rds of the games in a season in their career.

We are currently 1-2 players away from being comfortably top of the league. April will prove whether we have a squad capable of winning trophies; if we don't, construct a decent sized squad in the summer Arsene. Goalscoring wingers would be an obvious place to start.

Overall, if we're using the excuse that we didn't expect to do well this year as justifying not being too upset with throwing the league away, then we've come to accept not winning trophies. That for me is potentially the most painful thing about all of this.

A sensational, historic win; but we haven't won anything yet.

What do these results have in common?

Inter Milan 1-5 Arsenal
Real Madrid 0-1 Arsenal
AC Milan 0-2 Arsenal

Firstly, and most obviously, they're incredible wins, victories that will go down in the annals of the club's history. No one (well no one who can really claim to be an Arsenal fan) will forget us destroying Inter, Henry waltzing round the Galactico defence, or Cesc Fabregas firing in a goal from all of 30 yards out in the San Siro.

But the first two games have a less upbeat connection which the final one also currently shares: they were all part of unsuccessful Champions League campaigns.

I don't want to be pessimistic, I just want to keep my, and perhaps a few others', feet on the ground, especially after the experience of 2006.

The 2006 CL campaign was one of the most uplifting and dramatic experiences I've had as an Arsenal fan. Beating Madrid, Juve and Villareal all seemed to point to it being our year. It wasn't, suffice to say, and seeing us beaten so cruelly in Paris has, to an extent, made me wary of celebrating too early.

The team's performance in Milan last night was sensational, and very much carried on in the vein of our utter dominance of the first leg. Aside from an opening bout of pressure, Milan were never in the game. Yet, despite our pressure, it wasn't until Cesc put us in the lead that any form of relief was really possible. Ade's goal, following a lovely assist from Theo, was the icing on an exquisite cake.

The only real negatives of the performance was Eboue's woefully inept return to the team. Abour Diaby was also poor, if not as bad as his titanically awful match on Saturday.

The rest of the team were superb. Particular mention must go to the midfield triumvirate of Hleb, Cesc and the Flamster, who bossed a Milan midfield of Gattuso, Pirlo and Kaka out of the game.

So, a great win, but we haven't won anything yet. I can't stand the thought that this campaign will be another heroic failure, and so I'm containing myself til May.

We have a great young side and they need trophies to show for it. Last night was a massive step forward on the road to that achievement, but there's still a long way to go yet.

Lay off Gallas: he's a great captain.

There's been a lot of rubbish spouted across the media, and also among some Arsenal groups, about William Gallas and his role in the events of last weekend. Even I, in my report of the game last week, criticised him for his antics at the end of the last game. Some, especially among the rags that make up the British tabloid media, have even suggested that Gallas might cost us the title.

But let's analyse matters.

In terms of the game, his actions are understandable, if not completely laudable. Seeing a team-mate mutilated, and a win, despite this, ripped from your grasp with a dubious last-minute penalty made me bloody mad, so I can only imagine what it must have been like for a player as pumped up as Gallas.

He wants to win, and he probably wanted to win even more than usual, given poor Dudu. Of all his actions, the only one that really upset me was when he walked to the other end of the pitch whilst the penalty was being taken. It wasn't a great show of faith in Almunia and it was bad defending; it gave the impression that there was no chance he'd save the penalty, so there was no point in waiting for any potential rebound.

Kicking the hoarding and crying on the pitch are understandable. I think everyone would rather he kicked a hoarding than kung-fu kicked a fan, Cantona-style.

But in general he's been a great captain. He's driven the team forward and scored massively important goals. He's organised pre-game team talks and the post-game huddle. The younger players clearly look up to him. The only player who didn't - Jens - is now not in the side, and when he returned he toed the line. Bendtner, if you believe some accounts, remains the only one who questions his authority.

He has a winning mentality and he leads; these are the two vital preconditions for being a captain.

Yes he has his faults, but which Arsenal captains of recent years haven't? Tony had his problems with booze that led to a jail term; Paddy openly flirted with other clubs almost every summer; Thierry, great player that he was, was an absolutely rubbish leader. Tony and Paddy were great captains despite their faults, at least.

I think it would be justifiable to say that Gallas's captaincy has contributed to the team's success this year, and that he is the best player at the club for the role. Far from hindering our progress this season, he's been vital to it.

So, if you haven't already, ignore the media and get behind Billy G.

Right, time to go to the Grove. I'm surprisingly confident about the match; I'm less confident I can keep down all I had to drink last night. Urghh.

Come on you reds!

More news on Eduardo's injury, and send your messages of support to him.

Good Morning (just) one and all.

What a thoroughly appalling weekend. Eduardo's injury, Clichy's mistake, United spanking Newcastle and then a Carling Cup Final in which it was almost impossible to decide who I wanted to lose more. I was somehow hoping that the game would be abandoned and no trophy awarded, but to no avail.

Anyway, let's move on.

The latest news on Eduardo's injury is somewhere between promising and worrying. Slavan Bilic (who seems a really top guy, I must say) had this to say about the injury:

'He will certainly return. It is not as bad as it looked, but it is not as light as it was presented when they said that only a fibula broke. That is not an injury that can not be healed, but the more serious problem is that Dudu has an open joint breakage. The doctor that operated on him is content with the way that he reconstructed the ligaments. An important factor in all of this is the psychological recovery. Many players have had fears after returning from serious injuries, but knowing Eduardo, and I know him very well, he is everything but a soft guy. He has gone through various hardships in his career, and I do not doubt that he will return.'

So, it doesn't appear it's a double compound fracture, only a single, but there is still a huge amount of soft tissue damage that may complicate matters. The mere fact the bone pierced through his skin massively increases the chance of infection. Whatever happens, the rehabilitation will be slow, and news is only going to trickle out about this.

Eduardo deserves to get better. He's not only a fantastic player, but, from every account I've read of his personality, he's a fantastic person. Slavan Bilic described him as 'like a son', such was his affection for him.

The only thing we as fans can do at the moment is send our messages of support to him, and the club have set up the following service to let us do this. Alternatively you can click here to mail him.

If you wish to contact him by more traditional means, I'm told messages should be forwarded to him if you write to:

Eduardo da Silva

c/o Arsenal FC, Highbury House, 75 Drayton Park, London, N5 1BU.

It also seems that I'm not the only one who has taken Dudu's injury as an additional incentive towards winning the league this year.

Til later.

Let's win the league for Eduardo, even if we couldn't win today.

First and foremost, my thoughts, and those of all the Arsenal supporting community are with Eduardo. In all my years of watching football, it's not only the worst injury I've seen an Arsenal player sustain, but one of the worst injuries I've seen any player suffer. This isn’t just a case of hoping that he’ll be back soon, but whether he’ll be back at all. I sincerely hope he is because he’s a great player and person, and doesn’t deserve to have his career ended by some shit-kicker like Martin Taylor. And as you can see above, his tackle was awful and intentional.

For those of you who want to see exactly how bad it is, there is a link here. I warn you, these photos are not for the faint hearted, but unless you see them (and the one above) it may not be possible to fully appreciate quite what a horrific injury this is, and also the clear intent to hurt Eduardo that Martin Taylor had:

Here

Some of you might think Arsene is overreacting in calling for a lifetime ban, but it's easy to see why Arsene is so upset. We’ve been subjected to a plurality of awful challenges this season, as too many teams still think that the way to deal with us is by kicking us. It was, as Arsene points out, only a matter of time before someone was hurt in this way. For McCleish to come out and say ‘he’s not usually this type of player’ is irrelevant; he was that type of player today and he might have ended a fellow professional’s career.

The rest of the game was largely overshadowed by the challenge, and our players barely kept it together for the rest of the first half. It was almost inevitable that Birmingham would score, and they did. Question marks could be asked over Almunia’s goalkeeping, and he was poor overall today.

But the safety of the dressing room obviously did the players the world of good, and they positively exploded in the opening minutes of the second half. Two great goals for Theo, who will have to step up for the rest of the season given the injuries to our forward line.

We should have comfortably finished the game off, and Adebayor and Hleb were particularly guilty of wasting chances. Did Ade see Bendtner in the two on one situation? Perhaps a little bit too greedy.

The price of wasting our mountain of chances was allowing Birmingham to always be within one kick of squaring the match. And, of course, they did. Clichy, who’s an excellent season, made an awful error, again trying to be over clever when a quick hoof of the ball would have sufficed.

Birmingham got a point they didn’t deserve, and Gallas very publicly sulked. While it’s nice to see that level of passion, it shouldn’t have happened in public. Not actions that were very becoming of a captain.

Overall then, a horrible game. Given the undoubted shock that many of the team were suffering, it’s good to get any points from the match, but to dominate the game in that way and not pick up all the points is a bit sickening.

But not as sickening as the challenge on Edu. So, if we needed any further incentive, let’s win the league for Eduardo. I want to see him on the podium in May as a symbol that you can’t kill real football, no matter how hard you kick your opponent.

The St Valentine's Day Massacre.

Ok, so it isn't actually St Valentine's day, but it's near enough to make a vaguely amusing headline.

What a dismal performance; what an affront to 9,000 Gooners who travelled up North.

Arsene appears to like thin squads, and these have their virtues. They build team coherency and self-belief among players. Yet for, at least, the third year in a row, we've been too thin at a crucial point in the season.

A case in point: Gilberto. Gilberto is gone; his head and body are no longer in the right state to play against top-level teams. Yet, we not only let a top-class replacement leave - Diarra - which was perhaps forgiveable given his desire to leave, we also don't sign a replacement. This leaves one less player of quality in the squad, and a player, in Gilberto, who was dominated by Darren Fletcher. Yes, Darren Fletcher.

We're also left, beneath Sagna and Clichy, with two full backs who aren't up to it. Hoyte and Traore were completely outplayed by Nani and Ji-Sung Park today. Whilst Traore might improve, Hoyte probably won't, and these issues need to be resolved. The defence as a whole was abysmal; just as in the Spuds game there was no coherency and, apart from Gallas, no fight. Jens actually did well to keep the score down to four.

But what was most dispiriting today was the complete lack of fight and resolve we showed. The players seemed to be almost subconsciously saving themselves for the AC match, which is unacceptable. In football, you should win the game in front of you, not the next one in your head. If you're picked, you give it your all. United showed that desire today, and also showed that some of their second string is considerably better than ours. While I think we should beat them to the title, questions could be asked as to why Fergie seems to be able to construct larger squads than Arsene, and keeps them together.

We can say it was only the FA Cup, but it wasn't just the FA Cup the last couple of times we won it. The FA Cup has fallen way behind the league and Europe, largely due to the money involved, but it's a cup that a lot of fans care about. With Liverpool going out, a win today could have opened up the way to the final. Frankly, it's a missed opportunity.

Just to complete this tale of woe, a word on Eboue. Should he play for Arsenal again? He seemed to be improving before Christmas, and then he decides to challenge for the ball with his leg at a horizontal angle, 5 feet off the floor. What an idiot. And problematically, he doesn't appear to be learning from his mistakes. His was absent in the first half today as much as in the second. Perhaps Theo should get a run, for his confidence at least. He could surely do no worse.

So, and whatever way you look at it, it's another hammering in a game by one of our biggest rivals. We can say this games don't matter, but by putting in some abject performances, we're making them matter, perhaps ironically.

Here's hoping things improve by Wednesday.

Back on track, and the Ray of Hope Appeal

Having spent much of the last few days in Belgium, I've only seen highlights of our double-triumph over the barcodes.

It's nice to get back on track, and also good to see players like Cesc and Flamini scoring. The Flamster is, apparently, near to signing a new deal, so hopefully his long-term future is at the club. He and Adebayor have been revelations this season, and we both need them to stick around.

Anyway, the main reason for posting is this: The Ray of Hope Appeal. Ray Kennedy was an integral part of our 70-71 double winning side - scoring the winner at WHL to secure us the league. He went on to even greater success at Liverpool, and it's their fans who are running the campaign, which is fully explained below. In short, if you're in a rush, Ray has, and has had for some time, Parkinson's disease. It's an extremely nasty disease, and he has no real source of income. The campaign therefore seeks to raise as much money to help Ray out as possible.

***Ray Of Hope Appeal - Appeal Launch - Please Read***

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Over the last few months, the idea for a Ray Kennedy fund raising appeal has gathered momentum. It's taken a significant amount of time and effort to get everything lined up but we're now ready to hit the "go" button and launch the appeal properly. This post is by way of introduction to the campaign, explaining who we are, and outlining our aims and projects. This message is getting posted on a number of Liverpool and Arsenal message boards. Where possible, we would be grateful if the board moderators could make this a "sticky" at the top so that as many people read this as possible.

We are hoping both that Liverpool and Arsenal fans support the appeal - although it's Liverpool fans who have driven the appeal up to this point, we have had an extremely positive reception from Arsenal websites and Arsenal FC, both of whom are keen to be involved. This certainly isn't intended to be a partisan exercise, and is not generic to one group of fans or website or forum - this is about Ray and no-one else. Instead, we'd respectfully ask that you take the time to read this post and if you'd like to help, please do. Ten minutes of your time or 10 quid of your money for the man who scored the crucial goal at Munich in 81 or the title winner at White Hart Lane as part of a double season isn't too much to ask.

The appeal started out of a chance conversation between our very own Karl Coppack and Ray Kennedy's doctor just under two years ago. Ray is Karl's all-time favourite Red and it has always vexed Karl that there had been no update on Ray's condition since the publication of his autobiography 15-odd years previous. Karl emailed the good doctor just asking how Ray was, not really expecting a reply. He certainly didn't expect Ray to give him a call, but that's what happened. Over the next few months, Karl stayed in touch with Ray, and it transpired that Ray isn't keeping too well at all. We wish to respect Ray's privacy, and as a result don't want to give chapter and verse on his condition. Parkinsons Disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, characterised by muscle rigidity, tremor, and in extreme cases, a loss of physical movement. Doubly sad when it afflicts a once great athlete. We'll leave it there.

What are our targets? Well, simply as much money for Ray as we can raise within the next 12 months. Sorry to be blunt, but Ray needs financial help to get by. He has not had any significant income since his testimonial in 1991 and had to sell his valued medals in 1993. Your donations will help make Ray's day to day life as comfortable as possible, and will assist with his domestic, financial and medical needs. We have been granted permission by the Parkinson's disease society to fund raise under their banner (this is for, amongst other things, legal and financial purposes). This means that 10% of all monies raised will go to the PDS, with the balance being held on trust for Ray.

The strands of the appeal agreed to date are as follows:

- Paypal account set up for online donations – please pay all donations to rayofhopeappeal@hotmail.co.uk. Alternatively, please pay direct contributions to the Ray of Hope Appeal c/o HSBC account 21817299 sort-code 40-03-27. Paying direct or doing a bank transfer will avoid paypal commission. We will be maintaining an email circulation list to keep everyone updated on a quarterly basis as to the funds held.

- Ray of Hope Appeal launch night at Anfield after the Middlesbrough game on February 23rd, supported by Reclaim the Kop. This will take place in one of the suites in the Centenary Stand, and will include live music, ex-players, an auction and a raffle. This promises to be a great evening so please keep an eye on www.raotl.co.uk for details of how to purchase tickets in the next few weeks.

- Collecton buckets at Anfield pubs. The Hillsborough Justice Campaign have kindly offered to provide us with their closed collection buckets which will be distributed at pubs around the ground at a match in the next few months. If you see one of these buckets before the match, please have one less pint or don't buy the programme, and instead throw a few quid in.

- 92 ground car dash around the Emirates game in April. This does what it says on the tin. We are writing to every club in the football league requesting support for Ray, and will be touring each ground in the space of 5 days to hopefully collect donations and memorabilia which we can then auction off to help Ray in the following months and through to next Christmas. The intention is to support the tour with local newspaper coverage and sponsorship via the justgiving.com site. Again, more to follow over the next few months.

- Tales from the Travelling Kop. Being released to coincide with the official start of Liverpool's coronation as European Captial of Culture, Tales From The Travelling Kop is a compilation of supporters' experiences at Liverpool away games over the past four decades. Available from the Walton Breck Road website on Saturday 12th January 2008 with all proceeds from the sale of the book going to the Parkinson's Disease Society and the Ray of Hope Appeal, set up to help former Red Ray Kennedy who is battling Parkinson's. Tales From The Travelling Kop costs £18 and is a must for any Red. http://www.lulu.com/content/1350480

- Liverpool/Arsenal fanzine game on the day of the Emirates match in April.

- End of season fundraiser at the Olympia after the Man City game on the 2nd May. The intention is that this is to be purely a fans' night. Again, please keep an eye on the boards for details of how to purchase tickets in the next few months.

- The HJC shop are selling Ray shirts at just £12 a pop. It' be great to see some of these on match days to keep the Appeal noticeable. The money there would also go to a great cause.

Many thanks to everyone who has helped so far, especially the Liverpool New York Supporters Club (for their generous donation), Matt Richards (for designing the appeal logo), RTK, and the Parkinsons Disease Society and Hillsborough Justice Campaign for their support and assistance with the logistics of it all.

Finally – one housekeeping point – as we are fund raising under the Parkinsons Disease Society's banner, any events must be done with our endorsement. If people want to help in their own way (for example, a supporter's club organising something), then that is great – but please, please contact us and keep us in the loop before you start anything up or post anything in relation to the campaign elsewhere – everything needs to go through us centrally.

We welcome all comments, enquiries, suggestions and feedback to rayofhopeappeal@hotmail.co.uk.

Thank you

The Ray of Hope Appeal

Bite your lip, suck it up, and hold your head up high.

Have a hard look at that image. Can you remember when and where it occured? I can: it was when we won the league at White Hart lane. Just to summarise, when have Spuds ever won the league at our ground? Hmm. Never I think is the answer. And this is the first point to remember: '61, never again'. Spuds have not won the league since 1961. In fact, they have not won a major competition since their FA Cup win in 1991 ( is the Carling Cup even a major competition? That's my argument.). A little ammunition for you all to have at work tomorrow.

The game itself was a massacre, but not an entirely unpredicted one. The Spuds dominated us so much in the first leg that they could have run away with a similar scoreline in that game. Our defence appears to have floated away into the ether. It would be easy to blame Hoyte and Traore, but at least Hoyte showed he cared. Gallas, almost inexplicably, appeared to be the weaker link on several occasions, and this should be remembered before we lay into the young guns too much.

We were poor overall, but suffered from the stretching from the game due to the early goal. Normally on these occasions, an early Spurs goal is de rigeur. We often use it as the basis for our heroic comeback. Malheuresement, on this occasion, it merely opened the floodgates.

Whenever we receive a thrashing, it's easy to throw the blame around. And certainly, questions need to be asked after this game. But of all the players on the field today, none, inherently, looked unfit to wear the shirt. Only Theo, Hoyte, Traore, Diaby and Denilson remain questionable, in the long-term. For the rest, it may just have been one of those days. Even Nicklas Bendtner, who appeared to take on William Gallas in the closing stages, is good enough to play for Arsenal. He merely had a poor game today. The test of character in football, as in life, is not whether you fail, but how you react to failure. I have high hopes for many of the boys on the field today. Don't give up on them yet.

Due to my current work situation, I watched the game in deepest Scotland today. I kept my head up high, and ignored the occasional, idiotic barbs from the Spud's fans.

Yet when the fifth goal went in, my head sunk between my knees. And it was then that a Arsenal fan sitting next to me, one with a broad cockney accent gave me the following advice:

'Hold your head up son; let them have their fun. We have class. We're the better club.'

Don't forget that. Every dog has its day. A nine year streak must eventually end.

But, ultimately, I'd rather be a Gooner.

Congratulations Lassana Diarra: you are an idiot.

It's hard to know what to make of this whole Diarra business in some ways. Maybe he has a point after all; maybe, regardless of the form of other players, Diarra should have swanned into the first XI. After all, promises were made to him when he signed for the club. I wonder what other promises were made? Free happy-meals after every game? As much time on his xbox as he likes? Bi-weekly trips to Euro Disney? Because I'm pretty sure Arsene would not make the promise to any signing that, regardless of how other players are doing, a new signing will get unlimited first team playing time. I should imagine that Arsene said he'd give him a fair chance, which he has.

So, really, the conclusion one has to draw is that Diarra is an idiot. Not willing to stay and prove himself at Chelsea, he's waited precisely three months to declare that we are not worthy of him. His imperator-esque abilities demand playing time, and he will not be fobbed off. (at least in his own mind.)

His avowed reason is that he's worried about his place in the French squad for the European championships; but given he's been in the French squad for some time now, even with limited playing time at us and Chelsea, it seems unlikely that Domenech is suddenly going to decide to drop him, is it? And even if he was not to make the squad for the next championships, he's only 22: he has ten years of international playing days in front of him. Surely it's better to establish himself at a top-four club first before looking to the international team?

And this is the crux of the matter. If he had stayed at Arsenal, he would have, in all likelihood, been first choice by the beginning of next season. Gilberto looks set to leave in the summer, Flamini is stalling over a contract, and Diaby and Denilson still look way off the pace. Even if Flamini does stay, Diarra could have given him a proper ride for the first team, if he'd been willing to stay and fight for his place.

But he isn't. And as Arseblogger has said, do we really want players who give up at the first sign of difficulty?

Moreover, in the interview with L'Equipe, Diarra is already talking about Pompey obviously not being the club he'll stay with for the rest of his career, and that he sees the team as a stepping stone to a bigger club. Again: what an idiot. Denigrate the club you've literally just signed for; a team which actually has quite a few central midfield options in Mendes, Diop, Utaka, Davis etc. Who's to say he won't soon be whining again for a move?

Arsene once said that the last stage in the development of a player was 'mental'. A player had to put the right 'mental roof' on top of his physical abilities to become a complete player. It seems that Diarra's roof, if he ever had one, was blown off a long time ago. Either that, or he's the victim of unscrupulous agents. But even agents, as the Ashley Cole affair shows, have to have a pretty arrogant client to achieve transfers of this type.

So, despite the fact he had a few decent games for us, don't lose any sleep over this one. We've made £3.5m, Arsene will buy a new central midfielder, or promote youngsters as he sees fit, and we've got rid of an idiot. All the best Lassana.

Arsenal scrape a draw; Diarra and Jens remain in limbo.

You have to start wondering what it’s going to take for the Spuds to beat us. The last few occasions we’ve played, they’ve had the chances and the momentum to win matches, yet they just can’t seem to go that extra step and actually get the result.

If I was one of their supporters, I’d be somehow between frustration and despair. It doesn’t help when their best player, Berbatov, does his best impression of s sulky Thierry Henry; moments of brilliance interspersed with a distinctly casual, couldn’t care less attitude, even if, of course, Thierry was better.

So we got away with it on Wednesday. Just as I was given a last minute reprieve due to the delayed kick off – don’t even start me on Transport ‘For’ London (they’re transport ‘for’ some fat cat's back pocket if they're transport for anything) – so Theo popped up at the last minute, scuffed his shot, and watched as the spuds actually hit the ball against him in order to make sure we got an equaliser.

The overall performance was poor. Djourou was abysmal, Senderos not much better, and their partnership was non-existent. Hoyte can’t be faulted for effort, but struggled at times, while Traore was not only put on his arse by lennon at least once, he also conjured up a gloriously inept freekick.

Theo made some nice runs, and at least showed the confidence to take on players, yet failed to release the ball early enough, as either a shot or pass, to be a real threat. Denilson was functionary without really answering the question about whether he can be a playmaking central-midfielder, while Gilberto defended well yet passed abysmally.

Diaby was infuriating. His persistent attempts to dribble past the entire Spuds team were almost entirely unsuccessful and led to us ceding possession in dangerous areas. For all that, he was still our best midfielder.

The only players to really cover themselves, individually, in any glory, were a generally solid Fabianski, a spiky and creative Bendtner, a livewire Eduardo, and Sagna, who surely earned himself our motm award with his running, tackling and all-round play.

Yet we still drew, and that’s the most important thing ultimately - going to the Lane, we still have a chance of getting a result. Whether the XI that went out on Wednesday are the one’s to pull it off remains to be seen. It would be disappointing to go out at this stage, especially to the spuds, as Arsene needs a trophy. The carling cup would be a nice hors d’oeuvre to greater things later in the season.

The major absentee from Wednesday’s match was Diarra, who seems to be getting sillier and sillier by the day. According to the latest reports, he dropped himself for the match, saying he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to play, given the speculation surrounding him.

Now, Diarra will go to Euro 2008, regardless of whether he’s first XI with us by that point. The only question is whether, in the future, he will develop into a first XI player, and to my mind he probably will. He looks a cut above Denilson and Diaby, and, with Gilberto potentially leaving in the summer, it could turn into a scrap between him and Flamini for the 2^nd central midfield spot. He could win, if he’s willing to work for it. If he’s not: cheerio.

Jens also now appears to be staying, after failing to agree personal terms with Dortmund. It’d be nice for him to stay, but I doubt whether he’ll accept being second string for the rest of the season. Arsene confirmed my earlier thoughts when he stated that he wouldn’t buy a new keeper if Jens leaves; Fabianski will become number two, with Mannone at three.

So, it’s on to Birmingham tomorrow. A game we should win, even if we only appear to have one fit centre-back at present…

A comfortable win at Burnley and the transfer window opens.

Firstly, a very happy new year to you all.

And a happy new year it has been so far for Arsenal, with two comfortable two-nil wins.

I did, somehow, make it the West Ham match, despite my exertions on New Years Eve, and was presented by a game that was over almost before it had begun. Eduardo continued to clinically finish almost every chance floated towards him by slotting home early in the game, and Adebayor wrapped things up with a finish from an extremely tight angle. After that, we played out the rest of the seventy minutes with an almost zen-like calm. West Ham looked like they'd been out the night before as well, given the soporific nature of their effort.

Today's game was a little closer, with Burnley certainly having their chances. Yet Eduardo took his first real chance wonderfully and we were, really, pretty comfortable after that. The sending off ending any form of contest, and Bendtner put the icing on the cake with a cool finish from a lovely Eduardo pass.

The way Eduardo has stood up and started hitting form in the last few weeks has been wonderful. It does take at least three months for foreign players to find their feet in the PL, but I think we're now starting to see the player that Arsene was excited about. With RvP seemingly out indefinitely, it's essential we have a clinical goalscorer to bolster the campaign we're making on four different fronts at the moment.

For a club that's top of the league, it's unsurprising that we haven't really been linked with anyone. It seems that we may have signed another child prodigy - Luke Freeman from Gillingham - and also that Bulgarian triallist Dimitriov may get a contract. If we are to make a signing, it probably will come from nowhere. Arsene and Arsenal operate way under the radar when it comes to the transfer market - remember the signing of Eduardo? - so I'm not holding my breath. The players we have are good enough to win any of the four competitions we're currently in; if they have the stamina. We have the ability; whether we have the legs to maintain a challenge on four fronts may be the issue.

In fact, somewhat surprisingly, the real speculation surrounding the club at the moment regards players who may be trying to leave.

Jens, who has reportedly turned down a contract offer from Dortmund, may or may not have played his last game for the club. It doesn't appear that Arsene will stand in the way if he wants to leave, and with the European Championships coming up, he needs first team matches. I would be surprised if he does stay past the end of January, even if it pains me to say it.

Lassana Diarra has also not quite cottoned onto the concept of having to earn a first team place before you are picked in said team. Arsene doesn't keep unhappy players, so if the right bid comes in he could well be off. As Arseblogger pointed out, if he's this quick to give up off the field, is he really going to have his back to the wall when the going gets tough on the field? He should stay and learn, but if he's hell bent on a move, let him go. Newcastle, Everton and, the Spuds have all signalled interest.

So a good start to the year, even if a difficult January without Kolo and Eboue awaits. The game on Wednesday will be the Spuds biggest of the season, and this could be the moment they upset us. I say may; if they can't beat our youth team with a 2-0 lead, or after we've gifted them a penalty, you have to wonder when the next time they'll beat us will be...