I was quite bemused earlier on today when listening to my morning dose of sports news. To be honest, I don’t know what I expected considering that Arsenal was allegedly plunged into meltdown after the transfer deadline handed Almunia the Arsenal No.1 shirt by default.

“How stupid is Arséne Wenger? Can he not see that the fans want a decent keeper? Why does he not listen to the pundits?”, asked a comically exasperated Mr. Alan Brazil.

Even my cornflakes cringed on hearing Brazil demand that Wenger listen to the pundits.

You have to wonder though, whether the Samaritans were intentionally forwarding calls from so called Arsenal fans to Talk Shite radio. Someone has to have a word with the bosses at the Samaritans for gross dereliction of duty. These Arsenal fans are hurting and desperate – and they need proper counselling, they don’t need to be sent to a bunch of Anti-Arsenal retards who have perfected the art form of xenophobia.

For the record, my position is that the Arsenal coaching staff have the responsibility to ensure that we’re best equipped for the new campaign. Perhaps the mass hysteria misses the trick here in not identifying the issues that Arsenal has to address to defend better as a unit.

So far, I think they’ve done that job satisfactorily with the personnel changes made and the application of a more coherent defensive strategy. The misguided and and somewhat amplified perception that Almunia is the problem to Arsenal’s trophy drought is a red-herring of the highest order.

I’m amazed that the anti-Arsenal brigade and the punks in the media didn’t notice the 2 fingers Wenger stuck up right in their faces. Almunia was the match day captain every single time he was on the pitch, and deputized for Fabregas when the Spaniard had finished his shift at Ewood park. If there was ever an implicit vote of confidence, then what better way than doing something that obvious.

“But Wenger made a bid for Schwarzer. Doesn’t that show that he wanted to change things?”, I hear the heckling of the depressed and crazed fans with blood shot eyes holding the “Wenger Must Go!” placard on Holloway Road.

In between the chants of “Bring me the head of Arséne Wenger”, they summarily accuse the club of lacking ambition and failing to listen to pundits who clearly have the answer.

Yes, Wenger dipped his toe in the goal keeping transfer market, and many will accuse him of not trying hard enough.

What’s to say the Arsenal manager wasn’t lighting the mother of all bonfires under Manuel Almunia’s ass to make sure the Spaniard keeps on his toes? It’s worked so far, hasn’t it?

Wenger has an M.O that is impossible to ignore. He always signs essential players in the first week of July. These are the players who are identified as being critical to the season, changes that need to be made immediately. Koscielny, Nasri, Rosicky, Sagna, Chamakh et al, all came within a week of the transfer season opening.

If Wenger really wanted a new keeper, Arsenal would have got a new keeper. Schwarzer would have been nice to have around, but more importantly, Almunia was never on a transfer list. Fine, he might have left on his own volition, but Wenger never said he wants him out.

The best thing that has happened is that the transfer window has been nailed shut and boarded up. Enough of the Arsenal needs a new keeper madness.

It’s time to get behind Manuel Almunia and show him the love. There is no excuse in my view for not supporting him once he crosses that white line.

And by the way, I thought Almunia’s performance against Blackburn was stellar. If that had been Cech or Van Der Sar, everyone would be waxing lyrical about the performance and the reason why Chelsea and United are ‘Champions material’.

The rest of the team didn’t do badly for themselves either. So far, so good.
Related Articles:

• Arsenal: Room For Optimism And Concern In Equal Measure

It’s been a long time since the regular dosage at Stone Cold Arsenal Towers, and I trust all has been well. Like many, I still find myself in that strange place of being ecstatic about the fact that proper football is back, but being apprehensive about the sheer amount of media shit stirring being peddled about in the name of selling copy. When is that transfer window being bolted shut?

So the last couple of days while commuting to and from work I decided to do the unthinkable and find out what the usual suspects are up to in sports radio. Kills the down time in between and I thought that maybe they’d talk about you know – football.

Red nose seemed to have picked his moment by accusing old Mancini and his paymasters for Kamikaze spending. Part of me smiled sheepishly as I thought “you sad bastard, you’re just broke and can’t afford those wild player purchases you used to make”.

And it’s the truth. Manchester United are damn broke and it’s pointless suggesting that they’re still liquid and can service their debts. In the real world, any company that had debt ratios at the level of the Manure would be lined up along the wall and shot. Gone are the days when winning trophies guaranteed that you’ll actually make some money.

Anyway, laughing at Red nose wasn’t my point; my point was the sycophancy of the media pundits who don’t know when they need to stop kissing Fergusons ass.

Everyone knows that the transfer market this summer has been uneventful. Well, there’s Manchester City, but for the real world, they don’t seem to live on this planet. The fact that their owners have a mint attached to their office block in Abu Dhabi makes including them in a conversation about transfers an irrelevant discussion.

And so the pundits start waxing lyrical about the foresight of Ferguson in seeing the light when it comes to the challenges of the economic environment. Challenges that have led him to take a more realistic and prudent approach to developing a new team with a blend of geriatrics and youngsters.

The sycophantic punks can’t stop to pontificate how Sir Red nose is the best at building teams and that they’re heading the right way. They remind us of how he brought up the generation of Giggs, Beckham, the Neville brothers et al, and how he is already doing the same now.

Do these guys think we walked into this season straight from the cotton fields?

The fool is damn broke, and any financial rookie getting off the milk train at Manchester Piccadilly could have told you that Red nose is damn broke and can’t afford the spending lifestyle he’s been used to over the last decade.

The thing is this though. These punks have spent the best part of the last 6 or 7 years unashamedly bashing Wenger and Arsenal for being a pillar of strength and not succumbing to brazen ‘cheque book’ management. They have continued to bash Wenger for being a tight fisted egomaniac who had only one agenda of proving the world wrong.

They have continued over the years to ridicule Arsenal as being an unambitious club that doesn’t have the balls to spend money to compete with the so called big boys. They have continued to mock and ridicule the comprehensive and visionary youth development policy that will continue to stand the club in good stead for years to come.

And yet when clubs all around Arsenal start becoming basket cases; and when Chairmen and club owners around the leagues start tightening their belts because creditors don’t want to play anymore; when the so called big boys have collective debts that rival the GDP of some developing countries – the punks don’t even have the humility to acknowledge that all along, Arsenal and Wenger have been doing the right thing.

They don’t have the grace to accept that their stupidity in Arsenal bashing over the years and their lack of foresight in understanding and appreciating Arsenal’s vision and why the club chose to go that way – makes them look like fools.

Yeah, go ahead and kiss the arse of old Red nose; but don’t forget – the mighty Arsenal leads the way and others follow.

The ambitious youth development policy that these misguided and miseducated pundits have been trashing in the last few years is clearly been seen as the answer by the establishment up and down the land.

The emerging richness of players from within our youth ranks means that Arsenal don’t have to ‘buy’ the so called big name mercenaries in order to compete. Yes, the team will buy, but we will buy players on our own terms.

Part of the problem with football in this country is that people don’t want or people don’t know how to build things any more. They just want to buy them. If there’s a problem – “who are they buying?”. Come the summer and January transfer windows, “who are they buying?”.

Watch the Arsenal baffle the whole lot of them as they suffocate for air from within Red noses – you know where….
Related Articles:

• Media Sycophancy And What Football Must Learn From Arsenal

I must have missed the last few days while stuck in the reservation and away from the hyperbole of the ’silly’ season. Not that I care much about the amount of faecal matter that gets stirred in the name of inventing breaking news, but I wonder if I made a mistake of even bothering to switch on the sports news this morning.

The thing is this, the way rumours about Cesc Fabregas leaving Arsenal for Barcelona are being peddled, you would actually get the impression that it’s a full gone conclusion and that the removal trucks are waiting outside the Spaniard’s pad in leafy Hertfordshire ready to take whatever is going to Catalonia.

Arsenal Captain, Cesc Fabregas

The narrative is so predictable. Cesc answers a planted question in a charity event in Spain by saying if he ever left Arsenal, it would be for Barca. Cue the punks at Marca who provide their own version of the story for it is written that any editor who doesn’t peddle a Cesc story will be fired on the spot.

The usual suspects here from the Daily Wail to Sky Sports News pick up the story as fact and even suggest that Fabregas’s representatives flew into London to talk to Arsenal.

Which by the way baffles me a little because Fabregas’s agent, who happens to be David Dein’s son actually lives in London so begs the question as to why he would fly from City Airport to Heathrow just to liven up the story.

What I also find amusing is that media houses send a whole crew to the Emirates stadium at 6 o’clock in the morning to stand outside and report their hogg wash. For one, no one is at the stadium and you wonder what the deal is. Are they going to get more credibility by standing outside the stadium and using it as a prop or doesn’t it make more sense to just sit in the studio and peddle their story?

I’ve never really figured out why journalists insist on standing outside buildings even at 11.00 pm talking about a story that happened in that building over 8 hours prior to that.

In the building behind me today, we believe that a meeting took place and Cesc Fabregas’s agents who flew in from Spain have held talks with Arsenal. No one is here to comment, but we speculate that the talks are on-going.

This story is not likely to go away soon though, and for the very simple reason that there’s nothing to fill the air waves and news columns. I tell you, 24 hour news cycles are a bastard.

Arsenal fans around the world will be biting their nails on account of the media shit stirring going on in the name of credible news. At Stone Cold Arsenal Towers though, our view is that we should just relax and enjoy the summer for this is not a reason to blow a gasket for.

We have spent time on the phone this morning with our inside source at Highbury House. And this is not some friend of an uncle’s neighbour’s former school mates half brother who works as a janitor at Arsenal. It is actually our contact’s job to know and deal with these things.

Our contact has made us understand that Arsenal’s position is simple and clear.

1. Arsenal does not indulge in media speculation and will not enter a slinging match between the Spanish and English media and tabloids. The club is too classy for that.
2. Cesc Fabregas is on a long term contract and an employee of Arsenal FC and that’s not going to change because newspapers have columns to fill.
3. Arsenal are not interested in selling their best and most influential player in his prime. Speaking of which, transfermarkt.co.uk, a leading authority on player valuations places Cesc Fabregas as the 5th most valuable player in the world after Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo, Xavi Hernandez and Andreas Iniesta.
4. Barcelona will have to break the bank if ever there was a decision made to sell Cesc.

The impression I get is that no one really knows whether as reported, Cesc has asked for a transfer. For one, that will be professional suicide on his part, not only because it will antagonize the relationship he has with the manager and other Arsenal players; by asking for a transfer he will forfeit some serious benefits and short change himself.

The long and short of it is that it’s just another summer when Arsenal players become target practice. Arsenal are not interested in selling (though I would read that as “we won’t sell unless Barca are silly enough to unleash an eye-watering offer that is too good to turn down”).

Cesc will leave Arsenal at some point in his career, and the only known and verifiable fact is that his departure will be on Arsenal’s terms. The club is bigger than any one individual and it will not be rail-roaded into a transfer by the media or an impending Barcelona presidential election.

Until then, let’s enjoy the summer and go easy on self inducing heart attacks.

Much has been said about the new 25 man squad rule with all of its veiled attempts at protectionism. Pick any newspaper or read any football blog, and the big story over the last few days has been the squeezing of chuffers at the Premier league table to force a new squad system with the ’home grown’ bias.

So the Premier League chairmen had a gentleman’s agreement and shook hands on it. That’s what they say, but is it even legal?

British Airways executives and Virgin Atlantic bosses famously had dodgy telephone conversations to try and fix ticket prices that begun with ”This conversation didn’t take place….”, and it’s not surprising that they’re in the dock staring down the barrel of a long stretch as a guest of the state.

Richard Scudamore, the Premier league CEO is quick to point out that the benefit of such a system will help promote youth and increase the chances of ’home grown’ players (whatever that actually means) making it through the ranks. If ever there was a veiled attempt at protectionism…well

There’s a small matter of a European Law though, that prohibits restriction of trade and for all intents and purposes, is open to interpretation. All it takes is for a good lawyer to prove that this rule actually restricts the movement of players in some shape or form within the EU.

It’ll only take one player to get a raw deal when they’re shipped off to another club they don’t want to go to in order to accommodate over 21 year old players.

The truth is that if I tried in my company to implement employment restrictions on the number of men or women, the number of over and under 25s, the number of gay or straight people, the number of disabled people, the number of black or white people, the number of ugly or beautiful people, the number of fat or thin people, or the number of parents and non-parents; I’d actually be in remand waiting for a jail sentence for crimes against employment law.

My sense is that there’s too much money at stake in football for such a rule to go unchecked, and I suppose I have a bigger problem in the overarching message about protectionism that this rule breeds.

I don’t subscribe to the notion that such a policy acts to ’save’ indigenous football as it provides the message that the foreign influence in the EPL thus far has inherently impeded local prospects. I said this as much in our ’How English Is the English Premier League’ series.

Local prospects have a bigger problem than the global nature of the EPL. It’s a much deeper rooted problem that is a nightmare for the English FA to deal with and is the reason why I submitted that England will never win the world cup until the establishment comes out of the stone age and change their paradigm and mindset about the game from top to bottom.

However you look at this though, Arsenal is more equipped than any other EPL club to cope with this protectionism rule. The work that the club has done over the last few years has ensured that we have the best crop of talented and experienced under 21s in the top flight who can readily supplement the 25 man squad.

My sense is that it will only be a matter of time before the ruling is challenged by someone who is pissed off by it, and it won’t just necessarily be a player who’s nose is left out of joint. I wouldn’t put it past a club decimated by injury and having few options to cope turning to the courts for recourse.

Either way, the situation makes the job of hacks that much more difficult. It’s amazing how every year, the silly season starts earlier as the media shit stirring goes into full effect. I have a theory that editors systematically bust the balls of sports writers (well, at least those with balls) to come up with any sensationalist nonsense about player transfers.

I get bemused when I hear the term ’linked to’ as in a player has been linked to Arsenal, or any other club for that matter. Who the hell links these players if it isn’t the same bunch of hacks who sit in Fleet street pubs all day concocting transfer rumours to fill news columns. Their fantasy transfer stories are usually based on video game experiences and have little to no bearing on the reality.

I particularly like the articles published as fact that don’t even have an author’s name and is tagged as ’by Football Correspondent’ or ’by Staff Team’. And they also quote an inside source as the origin of their hackery attempt at a story.

This 25 man ’home grown’ player rule will really rack their brains this time as speculating on transfers won’t be as straight forward as it’s always been. It’ll take a bit more thought and creativity.

I know for sure that in my line of work, if I constantly published the amount of faecal matter that we see in the tabloids promoted as fact, I’d be out of a job every time round. I do wonder whether these guys have a modicum of respectability when they look in the mirror after a day of concocting news they’ve peddled to the world as fact.

What most people don’t realise is that other journalists around the world take these stories as fact and rehash and republish them cementing the rumour and innuendo as credible news.

If you have the passion and fire for Arsenal, and you feel you want to share your thoughts, your passion and your emotions with the thousands who read this blog daily, visit our Write For Us page to find out more.

Is it a stroke of genius to re-sign the former Arsenal vice captain, or a pragmatic move by a froogle manager who needs a job done? We’ll only know that answer in May when honours and trophies are being divvied up.

Two things are not in question. Firstly, there is absolutely no way Wenger would contemplate signing a player who is not going to hack it in the most unforgiving league in the world. The fact that for the last 3 months Sol Campbell has been training day in day out with the Arsenal squad has given the staff at London Colney the opportunity to assess Sol’s fitness and performance, and clearly they think he’s up to the job.

Secondly, in a world cup year, it’s hard to find any defender or player worth their salt who will be willing to sit on the Arsenal bench hoping for a game if and when Gallas and Vermaelen are not available for any reason. Senderos was not allowed to leave following Djourou’s injury and until Djourou returns around March or April, Sendy and Sly have provided back-up cover. We have been very lucky that Gallas and Vermaelen have played every minute of every game in the league and we haven’t had to call on the backups. With Senderos openly expressing his wish to leave Arsenal for regular football elsewhere, we are extremely thin when it comes to cover in the central defence area.

If only for the above 2 reasons, I think Campbell’s return on a performance related pay contract for the rest of the season is a shrewd and pragmatic move. He can plug a hole if and when needed as Djourou makes his way back, and more importantly, his presence and experience in and around the dressing room is invaluable. And I doubt if he’ll mind warming the Arsenal bench.

My sense is that because he has been training with the lads for so long, he will have already built a great rapport and camaraderie with the boys, and his signing will seem like a natural progression. This will be Wenger’s first time to re-sign a player he has let go, and for me, it illustrates Wenger’s ability to be pragmatic and sensible when a few adjustments have to be made to help push the team forward. Vermaelen and Gallas are doing a fantastic job, but there will come a time when cover is needed for whatever reason, and Sol’s the man. I doubt if we can find a bench warming defender who can plug the gap for a period of 6 months. It also takes the pressure off Johan Djourou when he comes back and gives him the space to slowly integrate back into the team.

The question will of course be raised as to whether Sol is past his ‘best before’ date. I think it’s fair to say that Sol has convinced the team at London Colney that he’s not past his best, and credit to him for showing this level of commitment. Of course he won’t be used in the most intense high paced games we have unless he has to come in, but even then, what he lacks in verve, his footballing intelligence will amply suffice. In a season where his experience, professionalism and leadership on and off the pitch will add significant value to this squad, Sol Campbell does have a place in the team for the rest of the season.

That seems to be the game being played up and down Fleet Street and on air waves. Some people actually make a living from speculating and rumour mongering when it comes to the transfer window. But let’s face it, for the most part, it’s all bull shit designed to sell papers and bring in the listeners so as to sell advertising.

I was bemused over the weekend when a particular sports radio show proclaimed that they had an ’expert’ in the studio who was clued up on the January transfer window. They were asking people to call in so that their ’expert’ could confirm or deny the transfer rumours for their club. I don’t know what was more tragic – the self proclamation of expertise in transfer rumour mongering, or the fact that the said expert worked for the News of the World.

It’s like a whole new industry designed to peddle hogwash has been unleashed on us, and right on cue, you find Arsenal supporters (in fairness, supporters of other clubs too), lining up to masticate over falsehoods that have been concocted by lazy journalists who have no clue about what cuts.

I laugh when I read stories like ”Player X has been linked to Arsenal”, or ”Player Y is the sort of player that Arsenal need for their midfield”

The question I’d like to ask is “who linked the player with Arsenal?”, If it isn’t a journalist sitting down his local pub on a Tuesday morning racking his brain on how to meet the copy deadline that evening?
”I know what! That kid is tall, he looks like an Adebayor, he’s African and can speak French – wouldn’t it be funny if we linked him to Arsenal”
And
There starts a story about how we’re going to sign the new Adebayor. What then follows is the trail of lazy uncorroborated copy and pasting that gives a non-story a life of its own.

Take the Patrick Vieira to Arsenal story over the summer. I know for a fact because I was listening on the radio on the way home, when Ian Wright, almost in exasperation that Wenger was not going to sign a so called world class defensive midfielder, plucked a thought from the air in the mould of ”What Arsenal really need is a ‘Vieira’ type player who will stamp their authority in the midfield”. Very few people at the time believed that Arsenal had the solutions within. Wright then innocuously suggested “wouldn’t it be nice if Arsenal does bring Vieira back for a season just to provide some leadership and presence within the dressing room and play a few difficult matches”.

Believe it or not, the next day there was an unconfirmed report in a tabloid that proclaimed that sources inside Arsenal suggest that Wenger is looking to re-sign Patrick Vieira to bolster his midfield. This was accompanied with the usual waffle of how Vieira is Mr Arsenal and how he will be a good fit for the inexperienced Arsenal midfield.

Sky Sports news, The gospel according to St. Murdoch included it in their news roundup session – where they essentially read all the sports tabloid headlines without regard to journalistic integrity and in effect giving some of the nonsense credibility.

The Vieira story then started feeding itself like a hungry beast with Italian newswires picking it up as fact because English tabloids had written about a romantic return for Vieira to Arsenal and Sky Sports News reported it. The English papers then quoted the Italian press as more proof of the credibility of the story and the Italian press further obliged by quoting the English press who quoted them in a vicious cycle that forces the story to have an uncontrollable life of its own.

The next thing you know, Wenger has to respond to a question about re-signing Vieira in one of his press conferences, and because Wenger doesn’t want to be blunt, he says he hasn’t thought about it, but just by mentioning it, the story then becomes ”Wenger is thinking about re-signing Vieira”.

It’s this thoughtless ’cheque book’ style of management that has landed many a club with unmanageable debts. Perhaps more teams should consider that solutions for some of their deficiencies so far lie within the club if they could get more of their players fit or playing better. Perhaps its a tactical change for some that will work, or maybe just players actually playing to their true form. It’s folly to think that buying reinforcements is the only solution. I believe it’s one of the solutions, but not the only one – but more importantly, the player being brought in has to be the right fit for the club.

My sense is that if there’s a player out there who can fit our style of play and hit the ground running by playing Wengerball, then our scouting system will find that player and Arsenal will buy such a player. I think it’s wrong to buy a player because of market pressure and to have to change your system of play to fit that new big money acquisition. For the long term health of the team, this is one case where the tail should never be allowed to wag the dog.

Also, I just thought I’d mention a new section of Stone Cold Arsenal, the Stone Cold Article Series. This new section provides a more straightforward way of accessing related articles that cover a similar theme or topic area. The article series can also be accessed from the main menu.

With the January transfer window in its element, journalists up and down fleet street and news editors on the air waves are racking up their brains concocting rumours and imaginary stories about players moving clubs. It says something about the 24 hour news media culture when any whiff of a story, regardless of how discredited it is, gets air time because papers need to be sold to pay wages and news cycles on air need to guarantee ratings to sell advertising.

Get used to Arsenal being linked with all manner of players from Emile Heskey to Mario Balotelli and Patrick Vieira to Pascal Cygan. Well, maybe not Cygan, but you get the picture. Wenger hasn’t really made it easy for the rumour mill as he’s openly stated that he’s in the market, but let’s face it – being in the market doesn’t mean he’s going to buy for the sake of buying. Arsenal has one of the most comprehensive scouting systems in the world – the kind capable of hiding in the forest to watch Thomas Vermaelen during training, or the kind capable of picking an opportune moment to approach Carlos Vela’s dad at a hotdog stand in an obscure North American football match. Arsenal doesn’t do brochures of the Michael Owen and Emmanuel Adebayor type, or YouTube 8 minute highlights. However, we can be confident that if there’s a player out there that can fit the Arsenal mould, our scouting system will find that player.

Of course we could pay over the odds and totally blow apart our wage structure to get some ’big name’ players in to stroke some egos. If Robinho, Dimitar Berbatov and Andriy Shevchenko are case studies in how not to spend ridiculous money on a player, then those who think big money equal success are in for a big disappointment. Arsenal don’t do big buck transfers, and brazen ’cheque book’ management is not Wenger’s M.O.

What is important though is building on the platform that has been developing during the last 4 years. Arsenal were well on track to great things 2 years ago until we lost Tomas Rosicky who limped off during a 4th round FA cup encounter against Newcastle; and Martin Taylor failed in his attempt to mutilate Eduardo’s ankle. This was followed in the next season with the loss of 75% of the midfield that had been so effective in the 2007-2008 season until that fateful January and February when we lost Rosicky and Eduardo respectively. If you also consider that Fabregas was out for at least 4 months in the 08-09 season, we effectively lost our entire first choice midfield after Rosicky’s injury, and Flamini and Hleb’s mercenary tactics to secure moves to ’greener pastures’.

Sometimes we under-estimate the impact of the decimation of our entire midfield core in this way. Add onto that the fact that during the business end of the 2008-09 season, we were literally operating without 75% of our preferred first choice defence with Clichy, Sagna and Gallas out with long term injuries. That’s why it’s remarkable that Arsenal went on a 21 game unbeaten run with our so called fringe players, and extended that positive run to become the most successful EPL side of the 2009 calendar year.

It would be a travesty to lose the camaraderie, team spirit and determination built during this period over the last 3 years because it has shown that Arsenal can survive through adversity. What is more important than the knee jerk reaction of jumping at the transfer window for reinforcements and a breath of fresh air, is to acknowledge the progress made internally. What better way of doing it than to ensure you give this squad the best ever chance of staying together for the foreseeable future. I would suggest that Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger have illustrated how much of a class act they are by ensuring that since May last year, 15 players from the current squad of 29 have had new long term contracts secured and they can focus on working for the team.

The footballing world is sometimes so pre-occupied with the glamour and romance of big name signings in transfer windows, that it’s easy to forget that the biggest asset you have is within. Our current crop of players have been together for the best part of 4 years and the progress they’ve made as a team is truly remarkable. As much as I would personally welcome any new addition to the squad who will add true value, I’m more encouraged by Arsenal’s determination to keep this magnificent squad together.

I am definitely not a supporter of buying for the sake of buying or to appease the establishment.

After weekends like the one just past, I sometimes reflect on how good a club Arsenal are. It’s so much easier to focus on critiquing what doesn’t work, but it sometimes is a good idea to step back and look at the environment in which the club has worked in.

For the last 4 years, I can’t recall Arsenal ever having a full complement of players because a very good proportion have been frequent flyers into the treatment room at London Colney.

Tomas Rosicky and Eduardo have perhaps been the most recognizable absentees from the first team due to the nature of their recent long term injuries. Even so, they’re having a start stop sort of campaign as their bodies get used to the rigours of a 60 match league and cup campaign. The weekend match against Stoke City was more notable for the fact that Arsenal picked up 4 injuries to Gallas, Eboue, Traore and Rosicky – than the fact that the team got back to winning ways.

It’s eternally frustrating to constantly hear that our players are out injured – in fact, I’d go as far as saying that you always dread injury news after a game. Many have suggested that there must be a reason why Arsenal seem to have a disproportionate amount of injuries compared to other clubs. The fact that injuries also seem to cluster around the same area in the pitch – defenders in the latter stage of last season, 3 left backs this season, 3 out of our 4 recognized strikers, etc., doesn’t knock down the conspiracy theories.

Despite all the injury gremlins that hit us, it’s actually amazing that we remain competitive. Granted, being competitive if you factor in all the injuries over the seasons isn’t good enough for some supporters – but the fact that the team has constantly remained among the elite should not go unacknowledged.

Only recently, Liverpool capitulated because they had more players in their treatment room than on the pitch – and this was a factor constantly touted in the media as if in excuse for their poor performance. Arsenal on the other hand, would normally be expected to just get on with it and produce the expected levels of performance.

There is also the school of thought that perhaps our training and treatment regime is to blame – but it’s not that simplistic. The Belgian club Anderlecht recently fired their entire medical team because of the amount of injuries the team suffered. I wouldn’t go so far – in fact going so far is just outright crazy – but asking the question about how our medical team works to support the players is valid.

Others have pointed to our style of play as one of the reasons we incur injuries at such a frequent rate. The speed of our play, the way our players move, turn and accelerate, and the sheer tension they place on their bodies are pointed as a possible factor.

I’m sure someone more knowledgeable out there will have come up with some scientific explanation – but it doesn’t hide from the fact that injuries do significantly affect us. Should Wenger stock pile players? Maybe – but without a doubt, we have to depend on the players we have in the absence of any suitable reinforcements coming from outside.

Wenger has been cautious in managing expectations for this January’s transfer window – as he looks to go into the market for a relief striker to shore up our resources following Van Persie’s long term injury.

I would suggest that just because Wenger says he’s on the market, it doesn’t mean that he’ll actually find a suitable recruit. I’m one of those who don’t support the purchase of any player simply to appease fans or the media – it has to be the right player and if we don’t find one, I would happily support the decision not to buy. I do want the club to buy a player who will compliment the squad, regardless of their cost (within reason of course) – but I do not support buying so called big name players to pacify anybody.

I sincerely hope that players like Vela, Walcott and Bendtner would use this opportunity to give Wenger a reason not to go out into the market. I’ve always said it’s unreasonable to expect that they will hit the ground running – and they can only get their match sharpness by playing more games. Buying, especially when you don’t find the right sort of player (and even if you did, they may not be available and they may be too expensive) may not necessarily be the right answer.

Perhaps the experiment with our pint sized Russian leading the line will buy Wenger some time to get Bendy, Vela and Eduardo into the mix – while at the same time keeping the option to buy reinforcements open.

A question is always posed to the many Arsenal fans who bemoan our somewhat amplified and misguided crisis of a trophy drought. ’Would the Carling Cup do?”

My sense is that winning the Carling cup will still not be good enough for the ”We must win a trophy now or else we must bring in the sugar daddy with a transfer war chest” brigade – despite evidently closing the door on the argument that Arsenal hasn’t won a trophy since 2005. This is one of them cases that we can’t have our cake and eat it. Without a shadow of a doubt, Wenger has had numerous opportunities to field a full strength team that is capable of emphatically winning the Carling cup, yet time and time again, he has elected to use the league cup as a vehicle to blood Arsenal’s fringe players.

We will however have to get used to daily headlines about players that are on their way to Arsenal in January, especially after Wenger confirmed that Van Persie’s injury has forced him to go into the January market for a relief striker at least. I sometimes think that journalists are so pressured by their editors, you’d find a group of them in most pubs around Fleet Street huddling in a corner and inventing rumours about players linked with certain clubs. They qualify such diatribe with attributions like ’a source close to the club said’ or ’Arsenal (fill name of preferred club here) has long been linked to (fill name of player here)’. Linked by who if not themselves I ask.

The ridiculous rumours so far are that in January, we’ll be after Ruud Van Nistelrroy or Carlton Cole – (Note: Typically the so underwhelming big lump of a centre forward stereotype that has become a mainstay in English football). I guess you can’t hold it against the journalist for this sort of pressure – they also have kids to feed and a roof to put over their heads.

The Carling Cup side though, will have a lot to play for tonight as City are a good team who will provide stiff competition if only to unbruise their battered egos. Of course there’s the small matter of Money-bye-ego who will want another opportunity to prove to Wenger that shipping him out to a non-Beyonce type club was not a cool thing to do at all.

You always know when you’re nearing the end of the football season and the beginning of the stupid season when the media and other pundits have to resort to scraping the barrel with sensational headlines and non-stories to fill their news pages and air-time.

They haven’t disappointed this season as they’ve already started shit stirring about nonexistent transfers and personnel changes. It’s almost like there’s a culture that encourages shit stirring as a means of selling copy and increasing ratings. I personally blame the 24 hour news cycle which thinking of it, is a nightmare for any news editing program.

I mean – what do you actually fit into 24 hours of a day. Just take some time to watch Sky Sports News or Satanta News and you’ll get the gist of it. You pretty much get a feel for the news in 10 minutes and the rest is recycled renditions of the same news, sometimes bordering outright diatribe and shit stirring.

Talk Sport radio isn’t any better – they take stuff off other sections on the media and they continue to shit stir it….(is anyone noticing a trend here…)

Take the case of the rumours from Spain about Cesc Fabregas’ imminent transfer to Barca for £45 million.

It’s worth noting first of all that rumour mongering for transfers is part and parcel of Arsenal’s summer cycle – usually its rumours and innuendo about those leaving the Arsenal. This shit started even as far back as 1891 when Derby County tried to tap up two Arsenal players after we played them in the FA cup that season….That was like 108 years ago.

The only difference between now and 108 years ago is that 24 hour media cycles were non-existent back then. There was never any opportunity for the amount of shit stirring that goes on these days.

So the Barcelona President Joan Laporta wants to initiate Barca’s traditional saber rattling. There’s this weird phenomenon in Spain where the top dogs go out of their way to use transfer rumours and diatribe as a campaign strategy…and Real Madrid and Barca are the best at it.

It’s hard to take these folks seriously because any seasoned football observer will actually tell you what’s behind this nonsense.

However, this 24 hour media cycle madness and the sheer pressure to fill in the news cycles has forced journalists and pundits to scour around for any little spec of information, even if it’s a non-story, take it and run like mad with it.

It’s the stuff of sensationalism that they hope will sell papers. Take Robin Van Persie’s interview recently where he spoke of his desire to win trophies. Firstly, I’d be disappointed if Robin, or any other Arsenal player for that matter, wasn’t hungry for trophies. I’m still struggling to figure out how Robin’s interview in its entirety translates to “Van Persie demands that Arsenal win trophies or he leaves”.

Notwithstanding the fact that Robin (like all other players) actually has a responsibility to get Arsenal to win a trophy, this sort of shit stirring is what I’m referring to. Speculators in the financial sector such as hedge fund managers did a lot of shit stirring about stocks and shares so that they could short sell and make a profit…and look what’s happened to our economy.

The media are the official shit stirrers of the footballing world in their haste to fill in air time and the likely result is players unsettled and a lot of diatribe that is not worthy of being broadcast being put out in the public domain.

Coming back to Cesc – Wenger’s pre-match press conference yesterday was telling.

Arsene was asked whether the behaviour and actions of Laporta and the public tapping up of Fabregas by Barcelona disappointed him – his response was right up there with the “priceless” category of MasterCard.

Why would I be disappointed? If I was disappointed it means I would expect another behaviour … which I don’t.

At one point, Wenger refused to answer any more questions about Fabregas or his own contract situation – and true to form, the media weren’t going to give up.

Wenger: “I won’t answer any more questions about one player, only about the team”.
Next question from reporter: “So are you confident that Cesc will stay?”

Need I say more about the shit stirrers?