« In Another World. | Main | It’s On Again! »
Le Prof Has Started Again!
By Toyin | August 4, 2009
Having won the largely uncompetitive Emirates Cup on home ground, Arsene Wenger declared that he’s committed to looking within his squad for a savior and not outside it. He made this remark when reporters asked him whether players are still coming in having signed only Thomas Vermeleen from Ajax and selling Adebayor and Kolo Toure (what was he thinking?) to Manchester City. He tried to sign Philippe Melo from Fiorentina and if that deal had gone through, a lot of pundits would have given Arsenal the thumbs up but the guy chose to play for another team in Serie A as Juventus were more bullish in their approach than the Gunners.
The English Premiership is notorious for the dominance of four teams aptly tagged the big 4. These teams have represented the country in the champions league for so long that it has become almost sacrosanct that they will always play in the competition season-in, season-out. Out of these four teams, Arsenal has been the consistently threatened to drop out of the class.
Firstly, it was their bitterest rivals, Tottenham Hotspurs that almost denied them the right to feature in Europe’s most prestigious competition. It took ‘food poisoning’ at Westham to guarantee the Gunners a place in the 2006/2007 competition. Then, Aston Villa gave them a run for their money last season only to collapse and implode at the critical stage of the league.
Even as it is, Arsenal are considerably light in squad depth compared to the three other big 4. This gap is glaring when a good look is taken at the league table for last season. Forget about the fact that they beat Manchester United and Chelsea during the season; the table as they say doesn’t lie!
More significant is the fact that a player who had come to the end of his productive spell at Manchester played regularly for Arsenal throughout last season. And nowhere was the difference more glaring than in the champions league semi final against the Red Devils. They comprehensively defeated Arsenal both home and away. It is only a novice that will not take cognizance of the fact that Arsenal had no answer to SAF’s team those two nights. It was a very poor performance from the London team and Patrice Evra rubbed it in when he declared that they played against men while still babes!
A new challenge (more aptly a threat) has emerged in the form of Manchester City. Backed with the deep pockets of the Sheiks, they have bought the most players aside from Real Madrid in the last one year particularly in the last two months. They have spent huge sum of money and they seem to be getting there at least on paper!
While Chelsea has not bought any ringing name so far, they have managed to keep the bulk of their team together and they showed a promising performance on their tour of the US. Having brought in Zhukov, it is save to bet that they will make two or three more purchases before the window closes this term.
Manchester United sold their talisman and world’s best footballer of the year Christiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid in a mind boggling transfer. They quickly brought in Antonio Valencia, Obertan and Micheal Owen to beef up the team. The former Liverpool marksman was very impressive in Asia and there’s renewed hope that his career could be resuscitated at Old Trafford.
If, and it is indeed a big if, Liverpool lose Xabi Alonso to Real, they will replace him; I am very sure of that! They are also likely to bring in another attacker to complement Torres. Babel seems not to be enjoying the confidence of the Spanish gaffer in charge of the Reds but this season could be a chance for him to really shine.
This takes me back to the man in charge at the Emirates. The song in the recent past is that the club is short of cash and may not be able to compete with contemporaries. What happens now that over 40 million pounds is in the kitty from profitable sales made so far? Is it not about time that Wenger at least replace some of the players that left the club in the last four years seeing that the undoubtedly talented but youthful players at his disposal crack easily under pressure?
Wenger should and must buy a quality defensive midfielder and a solid center half before the end of the window. This is even more critical than the purchase of another striker; except the Prof has defined a way to attack without defending!
Topics: Biz Football, Premiership, Success Pills, The Gaffer |
August 5th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I don’t understand the man at all. He just doesn’t seem to realise that other teams are moving ahead and even strenghtening themselves further.
Now that he has so much money, I hope he goes ahead to spend some on good replacements; a stitch in time saves nine!
August 5th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Whatever he does this year will determine his relevance into the future. Solving the DM problem should be a priority even more critical than getting a replacement for Adebayor.