Arsenal Finish Off Fernebahce

                                                                  Arsenal 2-0 Fernebahce                                                   Aggregate 5-0 

Well that was job very well done. I must be honest, I am sincerely disapointed by the overall performance of Fernebahce over the two legs of this tie. I am not however disapointed by our results. 5-0 aggregate? I would have never thought it after the defeat at home to Aston Villa.

Kudos to Aaron Ramsey who seems to love playing against Fernebahce. He is to them what Didier Drogba is to Arsenal. Long may that continue. I mean Ramsey scoring against them, not Drogba scoring against us.

Santi Cazorla was in the mood and it's too bad he didn't get a goal, but my word! That man has some sublime close control of a football. When he is in that form, he is difficult to dispossess of the ball. His passing and work rate is just exemplary.

Let me come back to Monsieur Ramsey. I am right to say that he has now found his scoring touch? whereas in the past he would panic and blast the ball anywhere but on target, he now seems more calm in front of goal. Hoping he stays fit, he might just score double figures this season. I am genuinely pleased for him.

The only negative is that Lucas Podolski, who also seemed in the mood, pulled his hamstring just coming out cold from the dressing room after half-time. Why do players have hamstrings in the back of their thighs? Why don't they use Nylon or elastic...? Anyway, that's him out for about 4 weeks I estimate.

Now to the part that really excites me or rather worries me: Arsenal are now a bona fide Champions League Club for this season... Does that now mean we will attract "top, top, top quality" players to the club before the end of the transfer window?

    

Fernebahce 0-3 Arsenal: Thank God!

Phew! am I glad we won comfortably in the end. Credit to Fernebahce, they were very poor indeed. I expected much more threat from them. We still had to dig out a result so credit to our boys for winning and not conceding a goal away from home.

3 nil lead going to the second leg at home? barring a serious footballing catastrophe, you have to fancy Arsenal being in the group stages of the Champions League proper now. This is where it gets interesting.

Now that Arsenal are virtually a bona fide Champions League team this season, will we now go and buy the type of player who otherwise would not come to Arsenal had we not qualified? Arsene Wenger said;

"... it starts now." According to Arsene Wenger, the buying window is now open for Arsenal. Make of that what you will. I choose to remain quietly hopeful. The links with Suarez have resurfaced although Wenger dismissed it as dead. Poker? I hope so. Else where we are linked with Karim Benzema and Angel Di Maria. I wont bother to link...

I am not happy that the season has started and we are now talking about starting to buy players in the last 12 days but... better late than never.

Much has been said about our failure to buy players early and bed them into the team. We face a tricky tie at Fulham at the weekend. If we fail to get a result out of that game, the chanting will be louder this time around.

Please Arsene Wenger, wake up from your slumber and strengthen our Arsenal!

COYG!

Do We Know Where We Are Going?

"Out of my huge respect for Mr. Wenger, the players and the fans I don`t want to go into any details, but unfortunately in this meeting it has again become clear to me that we in many aspects disagree on the way Arsenal FC should move forward.

I`ve thought long and hard about it, but I have decided not to extend my contract.

You guys, the fans, have of course the right to disagree with my view and decision and I will always respect your opinions.

I love the club and the fans, no matter what happens. I have grown up and became a man during my time with Arsenal FC."- Robin Van Persie, 2012.

When Robin Van Pussie said published this statement last year, the entire Arsenal world descended upon him and we (myself included) called  him a traitor, among many other names that I do not care to repeat. But looking at what is happening at Arsenal right now, can we really say that he is a traitor? Since leaving Arsenal, Robin Van Pussie has won the Barclays Premier League with Manchester United and the Community Shield at the start of the current season. What have Arsenal won in 8 years?

We have now gone and made a bid of about £10M for Yohan Cabaye from Newcastle United. Yes, that's Yohan Cabaye. Now, Cabaye is a decent midfielder and that's all I can say about him. Is he the super, super quality (Wenger!) type of signing that we keep being promised? I don't think so. And when did we decide we needed Cabaye at Arsenal? Did we plan to have him in our squad for this new season? If so, why did we not bid for him 90 days ago? Will we even manage to sign him or is this another Luis Suarez? Certain Alan Pardew is not amused at our timing. 

What was our plan, at the end of last season to bring in new players? Certainly Ivan Gazidis announced to the whole world that we can afford to pay the +£200K a week wages for quality players. Did we have targets to improve our squad for this new season? Who are they? Was Cabaye one of them? or are we reacting to the loss at the weekend?

Who else are we trying to buy? Are they top, top quality (Wenger!)? Or are we buying average players and hoping to win the League?

And coming to the players we have, is the standard of coaching any good at all? From the evidence of Saturday, it appears that our coaching staff have run out of ideas. There appears to be serious sterility to our tactics. I have opined before that looking at the quality of players we have generally at Arsenal, a better coach would consistently get better results out of them.

"As a consequence of this policy, which is dressed up as prudent financial planning, it is down to our manager, and not the shareholders, to have to deal with the Club's tight finances, carry the burden of repaying the stadium debt by selling his best players and having to continue to find cheaper replacements. All of that, naturally, comes at the expense of performance on the pitch.

This policy is leading to the loss of our best players, often to our main competitors, and even causes the players themselves to question their future at the Club and the Club's ambitions. The situation with our captain and outstanding performer from last season Robin van Persie sums this up. Yet again we are faced with losing our true marquee player at the Club because we cannot assure him of the future direction and give confidence that we can win trophies. Where are the safeguards to ensure that this doesn't happen again and again in the future? As a top Club we should, at the very least, match if not beat the offers that other clubs make to try and lure our very best players away, and also provide a more compelling vision of the future. You can try and put a good face on a bad game for as long as you want, pontificating about the merits of this model, but it will not hide the obvious fact that it just does not allow our great manager to fully realize his managerial talent and deliver success for the fans who are paying the highest prices in the land. It appears that a place in the Champions League will be the pinnacle of our ambition again next season. Unfortunately, in the future we may see this ambition lowered further. It doesn't help to turn a blind eye to the reality of the situation and keep thinking of ourselves as being in the same league as Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester City and Barcelona. To have a fighting chance of success, which means winning trophies, we need to match them in every aspect, including, if not first and foremost, financial.”- Alisher Usmanov- Open Letter to theBoard of Arsenal

I have read Usmanov's open letter to the Board and with hindsight, I think that I, along with many other self-righteous Arsenal fans were too quick to dismiss Usmanov. I think that we were all afraid of change and bought into the enemity which Gazidis and co were selling us as coming from Red & White. Make no mistake, Stan Kroenke did not just invest in Arsenal because he loves the club. He did so because he stands to gain financially. So too Usmanov.

But what we failed to do as Arsenal fans was to influence change at the club. We could have demanded that Red & White, having almost 30% stake in the club be given a seat on the Board. The deficiencies that have been identified in our Board might just have been addressed. Perhaps Usmanov would have placed David Dein on the Board, which is what I think was the whole idea behind David Dein selling his shares to Usmanov.

Yet we called David Dein a traitor too. Here we are, 8 seasons later with no trophy at all and worse still sinking into mid-table mediocrity. But what are we doing about it? Nothing. Whenever Usmanov comes out to question the club's Board, we label him the devil. Yet the very things that Usmanov is saying are what our very own players who have left said of the club Board: Show us your ambition!

I am sorry, but I am fast coming to the sad conclusion that Arsenal has no clear strategy to compete at the very top. We are mediocre that is why our manager celebrates 4th position every year and says it is like winning a trophy. Is that the height of our ambition? Isn't there anybody at Arsenal that can hold Arsene to account for stagnating our club? We are seelling our best players to our rivals and buying shit players from them. Look at the player we sold to Manchester United  last year. And we bought Mikel Silvestre from them...

Our Board and Manager appear incompetent to me right at this stage. It is time we tried something new. Bring on Usmanov and see what he has to offer. As fans we can influence what the Directors and shareholders do. Regardless of the millions they put into buying shares, we hold the power to the value of those shares. It is time we start introspection and asking the tough questions: do we know where we are going?

Arsenal vs Aston Villa: Whatever Could Go Wrong Went Wrong

Arsenal 1-3 Aston Villa

Barclays Premier League

So, the new season has begun and Arsenal lost by 3 goal to 1 at home to Aston Villa. Kieran Gibbs got injured. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain got injured. Bacary Sagna got injured. Laurent Koscielny got a red card. What ever could go wrong on the opening day of the season did go wrong.

What now from the Manager and the club? As fans we have been crying for signings since... well I dont remember anymore. The window is still open yes, but it begs the question, what were we doing all close-season?

Are we now going to see some last minute panic buys to augment a squad which is already so thin? And even if we do get players in, will they really be "world-class" quality players? or are we getting more Parks and Chamakhs and Campbells? Why couldn't we get the players in before the season started? Will they be any cheaper now that the season has started and we are desperate to augment our squad? will they hit the ground running?

Make no mistake. today's result is a complete disaster, although it was not entirely unexpected. cries to augment the squad have been coming from all and sundry, including our own players. This result has put yet another nail in a coffin which has several nails too many already. Will Arsene Wenger change his ways? Does he genuinely believe that this squad is good enough to win the league? The players made a bright start but had the wind knocked out of their sails. we never really, over the space of 90 minutes, looked like a team that is miles ahead of Aston Villa in terms of quality. we struggled to assert ourselves really and that should tell you something about our quality and our balance.

Jack Wilshere is not a defensive midfielder. He had an awful game, getting caught on the ball too often for my liking. yes he was at times fouled but I'd prefer he moved the ball faster instead of getting caught and exposing us to counter attacks. He also risks getting himself injured by being caught too often on the ball.

Ramsey was his usual self. Busy and hardworking without really being outstanding. Tomas Rosicky was our best player on the day I thought. He looked the only player capable of making something happen. Giroud did ok, considering the quality of the midfield and lack of supply. Theo was anonymous. Until his injury before half time, I thought Oxlade-Chamberlain was also sharp on the left wing.

But after all is said and done, as a team, we were again found wanting. Forget the 7-0 scorelines in the far east. This is the real deal. This squad is nowhere near being title challengers. And this result has gone some way to reminding Mr. Arsene Wenger of a fact that is obvious to everybody except him. You can blame the referee if it makes you feel any better. I wont bother.

The chants of "you don't know what you are doing" and "spend some fucking money" have started.

I know Arsene Wenger does not give a fuck. Like comedian Chris Rock said of George W. Bush; Arsene wenger does not give a fuck too. we can chant all we want and hail abuse all we want: he just doesn't give a fuck. We could be hanging on a cliff about to fall to our collective death as a Arsenal fans and all we needed was a fuck to save us but Arsene Wenger just wouldn't give a fuck.

Next up is the Champions League playoff game against Fernabahce. I sincerely hope we don't lose this tie because if we fall out of the Champions League for this season, I dread to think what will become of the rest of our season.

After all the hard work of the end of season, we are right back to where we started. Zero. Shame really.

But have faith, the transfer window is not yet shut. I remain hopeful but I have started to get a bad feeling in my gut. I expect to start shitting my pants soon.

What PFA Chief Executive Said: The Suarez £40M Buyout Clause

"It's created a real problem and that's why we need to be mindful in the future of such clauses and if it is going to be a buy-out clause it says that, and there's no ambiguity and no misinterpretations because it's obviously the case that that has happened." Gordon Taylor, PFA Chief Executive.

Now, before you start pointing out that Arsenal are naive and that they were mistaken to think that £40M  + 1 would land Suarez, they actually were not. It is clear that the said clause in Luis Suarez's contract is ambiguous. Liverpool maintain that the clause only opens talks with possible buyers but they are not obliged to sell. This may well be, but they have clearly worded the contract clause such as to deceive Luis Suarez and his people into believing that this is the buyout point/amount.

It puts into light the kind of people Liverpool are really. They have not covered themselves in glory at all in this whole issue. And like somebody said to me, Liverpool may yet do a Manchester City- Tevez and punish Suarez by keeping him on the bench. Fine, they might win the war but they will lose the battle anyway. It has also exposed the fact that they knowingly put an ambiguous clause into their player's contract so that they could use it against him when this day came.

Now, I genuinely sympathise with Liverpool fans over this one. I know the pain of players coming out and openly questioning our club's ambition and generally making their position untenable at the club in order to force a move out. I don't like it AT ALL!! But this is the reality of football.

Arsenal do also have legal counsel; make no mistake. We also have very brilliant lawyers who can form a legal opinion that falls in our favour should it come to interpretation. Therefore, this Luis Suarez clause is a shit storm that will eventually come down to common sense and how much. 

What is the point in Liverpool holding on to Suarez if he doesn't want to stay at their club? What is the point of Insulting Arsenal, who have quite rightly, offered the £40M stated as the starting point for negotiations in the said contract? What wrong have Arsenal done by going £1 over £40M in order to open negotiations for the purchase of the player? Are Arsenal naive? Are Arsenal stupid? Are Arsenal without class? Are Arsenal without sound legal councel?

I did not want Arsenal to get involved in this kind of shit storm, but after watching it play out, I would really love for Arsenal to 'if FEASIBLE, buy Luis Suarez AMICABLY' from Liverpool (now who said those words?). That will really show Liverpool for the classless, deceitful, disrespectful and naive morons that their owner and Manager are.

I am really sorry for what this situation is doing to the Liverpool fans, whom I have massive respect for. But I have little respect for the conduct of their Manager & owner after the way they reacted to Arsenal's private bids for Luis Suarez. Had it not been for Liverpool, the world would have never known that Arsenal had made a bid for Luis Suarez.

So who is the classless bunch here? It sure isn't Arsenal.

COYG!!