Jegbie's Journal - In Arsene we trust

Less than a week away from Arsenal’s annual pre-season friendly at Underhill and I am chomping at the bit for the season to start.

Walcott’s five-man beating run at Anfield in our loss to the Scousers; Fabregas’s fantastic Euro 2008 exploits; Carlos Vela (who made Sergio Ramos look like a mug when Osasuna played Real last season); a soon-to-be-fit Eduardo and a fit Van Persie are all food for thought.

I think most Gooners will accept that Hleb and Adebayor may have played their last games for the club and if they want to go then let them go.

The arrival of Nasri, who I believe will do for us what Ronaldo does for Man Utd in giving us moments of true individual genius, and Ramsey, may have been our only forays into the transfer market this summer - yet I think there are more to come.

I am hoping we sign Falcao, completely unheard of and would be a typical Wenger signing and I would like to see Arsharvin come although he is at the older end of Wenger’s range for players.

Bischoff I know little of but who had heard of the Flamster before he came to us?

More than anything I think us Gooners need a big signing to get us excited and to send a message out to other clubs that says we mean business.

Watching some of last seasons matches, how many times when Ade got the ball did we think he was gonna miss? Too many as far as I am concerned.

He missed a sitter at Anfield that would have won us the Champions League tie and in my opinion is way too erratic in front of goal to be making the demands he is making.

Six of his Premiership goals last season came against Derby, who were nicknames “the worst team in Premier League history”.

We have three of the best players in our starting 11 according to the 2008 Premier League team of the season results and the others will improve as well.

Who had heard of Sagna or Clichy before the professor bought them in? Who had heard of Denilson, Diaby and Traore? Remember the surprise when Ade and Diaby came in?

Arsene loves to surprise us, he needs to be trusted to make these young players (Nasri, Walcott, Vela) better as he did with Viera, Henry and Kolo.

If Eduardo or RVP had been playing in our title run in we would have won the title last season – how many people thought we’d do as well when they heard that Henry was leaving?

Arsenal is more than one player and no-one knows that better than Wenger. He is building a new team at the moment and I think he is close to getting it right.

Whatever happens, get behind our team and support them and remember how great it is to be a Gooner. We are admired all over the world and I for one love watching us play more than any other team.

I am not worried because I trust Arsene – he is punching above his weight assembling a team that no other manager could do on his budget. He is doing it because we are not a monopoly money club like Chelsea or a glory buying side like Man Utd.

Look how many British and foreign players are playing in clubs in the Premiership who started at Arsenal. We are attacked for not producing enough players…. Who have Man U produced in recent years? All their young players have been bought for huge sums of money (Anderson, Nani, Carrick, Hargreaves, Tevez) and were already established players when they came in to the team.

Reasons to be cheerful .. Ronaldo the slave (what a joke!) will hopefully bugger off to Real Madrid. Adebayor will be replaced. Ramsey will be our Stevie G. Nasir will light up Emirates with mesmerizing runs and outrageous strikes.

Oh yeah and be thankful you weren’t born a Spurs fan. We may have had a few lean seasons but they are the perennial underachievers and always worth laughing at.

Here’s looking forward to our next signing whoever it may be.

Comments

[dan]

too early in the transfer window for pollyannish bullsh##. we lost 3 big players and could lose another. it's wenger magic time in the transfer window or we win nothing again. xabi and zhirkov could put us at the top, but does wenger have something else up his sleaves? let's hope so, but remember replacing is not strenghening, and let's face it, we were not strong enough nor deep enough to challenge for honours last term.