I've been away from this page for months now, and I'd accordingly like to apologise to my thousands (?) of followers. Personal reasons and all that... but those are pretty much solved now, and it is my avowed intention to post a blog a minimum of once a week, and certainly after every Arsenal game, from now on. I'm sure that you can all hardly wait.
I thought I'd start with a summary of Arsenal's summer, and if you spot a theme... well, that's because it's really not been too dissimilar to Arsenal's last 10 or so summers. There's been one big addition to the squad..
... we we await more.
Here we are again, approaching the start of the new football season. Last Premier League season will never be forgotten for the totally unexpected success of Leicester City, for the shocking (and highly entertaining) fall from grace of Jose Mourinho - more on him later - at Chelsea, and from an Arsenal fans point of view for the highly amusing last-day embarrassment of Tottenham Hotspur, a team who just when everybody thought had finally stopped being 'Spursy' did the 'Spursiest' thing ever seen. Coming third in a two horse race is quite a feat!
But last season's emotional roller-coaster was a microcosm of what being an Arsenal fan has become. Manchester City underperformed. Chelsea vastly underperformed, the meltdown of Mourinho causing massive amusement to the entire football world - some Chelsea fans of my acquaintance included. Manchester United hardly made up any ground. The astute appointment of Klopp pointed Liverpool in the right direction, but from a lower starting point, Tottenham ultimately flattered to deceive (as usual). And yet... and yet... from out of nowhere, and completely merited by the way, Leicester City motored past everybody to run away with the title. It was inevitable, I suppose, that the team most likely to take advantage if the Big clubs slipped up ended up second in the table. Arsenal blew their chance, and who knows when they might have another opportunity that big?
Because the landscape in England has changed massively again over the past few months. Untold billions of pounds of television money have swelled the already obscene coffers of Premier League clubs, meaning that the likes of West Ham, Sunderland and Everton (following their change of ownership) have been spending fortunes. Chelsea and Manchester City have inevitably strengthened, Liverpool have splashed the best part of £100m, and Tottenham have also added to their squad. Suddenly, the list of Wenger's management rivals ready like a Who's Who of management talent: Mourinho, Guardiola, Conte, Klopp, Pulis... the only one really missing from the list is Allardyce!
Manchester United's appointment of Jose Mourinho has formed the most horrendous Axis of Evil witnessed since World War Two (OK, I'll accept that ISIS might be a bigger threat to World Peace, but only just) - plus they have added some formidable players to their squad...
And Arsenal? In the immortal words of Gary Barlow, 'Everything Changes But You'.
Arsenal will - alone amongst the possible title challengers - start the season with a poorer squad than 12 months ago. I can't knock the astute signing of Granit Xhaka, who looked top class at Euro '16 and appears sure to be suited to English football. But in typical style, Arsene Wenger has failed to address the other glaring issues with the squad.
Even before the injuries to Mertesacker and now Gabriel, they looked light in central defence (and lest we forget Koscielny is unlikely to be rushed back after his summer exertions). BFG is not getting any younger or quicker, and Gabriel is yet to convince, and due to the injuries to the latter two it looks like we'll possibly be starting with Chambers and Holding in central defence on Sunday; something which, despite their promise, doesn't fill me with much confidence. Get it done with Mustafi, Wenger. What on earth are you waiting for?
In central midfield there is now an embarrassment of riches - for all that Ramsey is probably not quite cherry ripe and Cazorla lacks battle hardening after his extremely long layoff (I am choosing not to discuss Jack Wilshere - the Darren Anderton of the decade - at this point).
In the wide positions and up front, things are somewhat of a muddle for the next week or three. Alexis needs a bit more time to get up to speed and Ozil won't be back for a week or two either. Nor will Giroud. Iwobi shows massive promise and Campbell is a useful squad man. And The Ox is coming back from yet another layoff, but is probably merely flattering to deceive once more. As for Theo?... well, it's impossible to have any faith in Theo any more, I'm afraid.
Now, it's possible that there is enough there to cover and deal with issues in the wide positions, but having decided that Xhaka was a better buy than Kante (a moot point, perhaps), and having failed (and I can't get over this) with a bid for Vardy, I'd be chucking the best part of £50m at Leicester City for Riyadh Mahrez if I was managing Arsenal. He's young, is certain to improve the squad, and will have a sell-on value, thereby ticking every box for the manager. Come on, Wenger, show some ambition!
And, of course, there is the matter of fire power. For all that he had a successful Euro '16, the tournament also showed up Giroud's shortcomings. And with due respect to Chuba Akpom he's the ONLY bona fide centre forward in the entire squad! Wenger has - along with all of us - known this for months - yet where are we on this issue today? I'll tell you where we are; clubs all over Europe are lining up to extort medium-sized fortunes from Arsenal for their prize centre forward, and there's only one place to point the finger of blame for that.
On top of all this, to hear Gazidis bleating about still being unable to compete with the richest clubs for players from the very top table is disingenuous and incredibly depressing. And, looking at the amount of money in Arsenal's coffers, patently not true. They could have afforded Pogba; they could have afforded Ibrahimovic. Do you know what; they could probably afford Cristiano Ronaldo! This is not good enough from Arsenal; the apparent lack of ambition and proactivity is soul-destroying to the fan base.
If Arsenal go a goal down on Sunday, I'm pretty sure that the chants of 'Spend some f*cking money' will start immediately. And I might even join in! We've got a tricky start to the season, it's more competitive than ever before, and nobody can quite work out what Wenger is waiting for.
As they say in Wenger's home country, 'Plus ca change'. It's like the world is merely passing him by, whilst he sits on a park bench eating a croissant and staring into space. I, for one, am totally fed up.
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