I’m sure you’ve all heard about the news about Jamie Vardy.

The 29 year old Leicester striker is on Arsenal’s radar and apparently we have triggered his release clause (which is around the £20 million mark) and are currently in talks with Leicester about signing the in-form striker.

If the release clause is £20 million then you would expect Arsenal to have offered £20 million plus £1, knowing us!

All joking aside however, is this a good signing for Arsenal? If it’s true is would seem like an un-Arsene Wenger type signing, however you don’t know if it has been instigated from the powers from above, as they know Arsene isn’t one to splash the cash.

The reasons for signing Vardy:

• He scored 24 Premier League goals last season, 8 more that our top striker.
• He has something severely lacking in this Arsenal team – fight, hunger and a never-say-die attitude.
• His finishing is outstandingly clinical and as shown from his form for Leicester, he scored 24 goals in a team that at times, would only make a handful of chances.
• He is not a one trick pony – remember his outrageous goal against Liverpool?
• He is an intelligent forward that likes to run in behind with pace (something we have missed since the days of Thierry Henry).
• He’s not Olivier Giroud.

And the reasons against:

• If you chat shit, you will get banged.

So there you have it, although surprising if it came off – overall it would be a great signing for Arsenal.

Arsene Wenger is a man who divides Arsenal fans like no other set of supporters in the country. The majority of Manchester United fans despised Louis van Gaal, the majority of Chelsea fans idolised Jose Mourinho and most Everton fans wanted Roberto Martinez out at the end. So why does Arsene Wenger split the Arsenal faithful?

You have two sets of fans, the AKB and WOB. The Arsene Knows Brigade and Wenger Out Brigade. This division has been around for the last 5/6 seasons now and I’ll admit, I’ve been in both camps before.

Until last season, I was firmly in the AKB camp. Arsene Wenger is a genius, brought unparalleled success to the club, giving us The Invincibles and giving the fans some of the best football ever to grace a football pitch. Between 2001-2005 saw simply phenomenal football which we will probably never see again – dubbed “Wengerball”, it was pyrotechnic football which still gives me shivers down my spine. There was nothing like seeing Patrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Robert Pires et al singing from the same hymn sheet.

Added to this, he moved the club forward, had the vision to spearhead the move to Ashburton Grove and give us financial stability and the ability to compete with the biggest clubs not just in the country, but in Europe.

But unfortunately there is only so long you can defend a man who has clear flaws and is ridiculously stubborn.

There’s no doubt whatsoever that he has performed miracles for the club, but since 2014 we have never looked like winning the Premier League. Most will argue, quite rightly, that there is no divine right to win the league and until 2012 I’d say, finishing in the Top Four was a truly outstanding achievement. But since we’ve become financially stable and able to compete with the biggest clubs in the transfer market, the excuses are wearing a little thin.

After the back-to-back FA Cup wins, I was more than satisfied. We’ve had to endure a few baron seasons but this was now our time. Last season was supposed to be the one where we really competed for the Premier League title – but once again it didn’t happen and we bottled it before February.

Now you cannot blame the fans for feeling cheated or disappointed, even though we ended up finishing second in the table. Everything from Arsenal from the players and the coaching staff told us that everyone at the club believed they could do it.

We’re still making the same defensive mistakes (Arsene Wenger doesn’t believe in practicing defending) which ultimately cost us games. How many times have we had 70% possession, 20 shots on goal but end up losing or drawing to a side who have had 2 shots all game? After the 10,000th time of happening you just can’t blame bad luck.

Arsene still refuses to go out and splash big money on a world class striker, something every man and his dog knows Arsenal need to compete with the very best in the league and in Europe – but he never does it. He still prefers to sign relatively unknown players (Elneny, Xhaka, Gabriel, etc.) to prove to the world he can unearth a gem of Thierry Henry proportions.

Tactically Arsene isn’t up to date and is well behind pioneers such as Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho. Those two have their contrasting styles clearly but they are both winners.

Arsene has complete control of all affairs at Arsenal which is good in one way but also detrimental in another – surely he can’t be on the cusp of tactical knowledge if he has to deal with a million other things at the club?

He is a man who deserves every Arsenal fans respect, but it doesn’t mean he is the best manager for the club. His ideas are unfortunately out-dated and you can see by the protests at The Emirates that they fans who pay their hard earned money to watch Arsenal week in week out have had enough. The Top Four is a very good achievement, no doubt, but it’s not what the fans want.

For the last couple of seasons there has been talk about when will Arsene leave but for me, he deserves one last season to see what he can do.

1. Theo Walcott

Where does he fit in the side?

Apparently Theo doesn’t know his best position and neither does Arsene Wenger – which is a pretty big problem when you sit down and think about it.

Arsene Wenger doesn’t trust him out wide because he doesn’t help out defensively and for years now Theo has been touted as a future centre forward, but apparently Arsene doesn’t trust him there either. Which to me is strange because Walcott has done okay when he’s played up front and opened the scoring against Aston Villa in the FA Cup Final the season before last.

But I understand the concerns, and he’s probably not strong or intelligent enough to outfox the top teams in England and Europe.

So we’re stuck in a situation where Theo Walcott is on a massive contract at Arsenal but Arsene Wenger won’t put him in the starting line-up. As departures go, this one is pretty nailed on unless the boss is thinking of a formation overhaul (and we know how stubborn Arsene is now don’t we?).

We could still get decent money for him (anything around £20 million would be good business at this stage) and it would free up funds in our massive wage bill.

2. Mathieu Debuchy

A no-brainer, Debuchy has no interest in playing for Arsenal unless a place is handed to him on a plate. Unwilling to actually fight for his place like most professional footballers would, a player like him who has the completely wrong attitude is not worth having at the club.

3. David Ospina

He has been an excellent professional since joining the club in the summer of 2014, but you get the feeling he wants first team opportunities and for Arsenal a better reserve for Petr Cech would be Wojciech Szczesny.

The Pole is younger and would do well to learn from one of the best goalkeepers to have graced the Premier League. Petr Cech is getting on a little bit now and you get the feeling that Szczesny would be better placed to succeed him, when the time comes.

And if Szczesny gets his head sorted out that is.

4. Jack Wilshere

An undoubted talent, Jack Wilshere’s ability has been highlighted in the fact that he’s made England’s Euro 2016 squad despite playing only 3 games in the whole of last season for Arsenal.

On his day he is a match-winner, and his skill and technique are top drawer. But the problem is he’s always injured. If Arsenal could build a team around him we would be right up there in the title race but his injury record is shockingly bad and we can’t rely on him long term.

If Arsenal sold him he wouldn’t be short of takers and Manchester City would probably pay something crazy like £45 million to secure his signature.

5. Aaron Ramsey

For me it was a toss up between Ramsey and Oxlade-Chamberlain but for me Ramsey is the one that has to go. The Welshman was phenomenal two seasons ago but since then has nose-dived in spectacular fashion. His touch, vision and goal-scoring ability has just deserted him and he’s lost all confidence on the pitch. He used to boss games but he has struggled badly to find any trace of the form of two years ago.

It’s strange how he’s faltered so much since that magical season and in all honesty doesn’t really offer anything to the team when he plays. Defensively he is weak and tends to leave a free runner against our back four and as previously mentioned, his goal scoring and assist ability has just disappeared.

With the signings of Elneny and Xhaka to complement the talents of Santi Cazorla and Mesut Özil, it’s hard to see where Ramsey fits into this new Arsenal midfield.

And like Jack Wilshere, Ramsey would command a big transfer fee where Arsenal would be richly rewarded.

Over the past few days I have posted a couple of articles which I thought were pretty uncontroversial. But the number of (abusive) comments I received was quite surprising. From the predictable ones telling me I’m a Manchester United / Chelsea / Tottenham / Manchester City fan (delete as appropriate) to those just telling me I’m a massive cunt.

Am I a cunt? I didn’t think so but I digress.

The two topics I covered were where we would finish next season and how I thought our latest signing of Granit Xhana was underwhelming at best.

For the first topic, I argued that our level is to finish in the Top Four – hardly a revelation surely? If you evaluate the last decade objectively, it would be a completely fair and justified statement to say that we’re good enough to finish in the Top Four, but not good enough to win the Premier League.

So it was my argument and belief that because of Arsene Wenger’s stubbornness and unwillingness to change (again, another uncontroversial comment) that has seen us not progress to genuine title challengers, then his happiness to settle for a Top Four finish will see us fall out of the Top Four, considering the changes at all of our rivals this summer.

Again, it’s not controversial to say that Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool will all get much stronger next season after having such poor campaigns last season. They will all be hungry to improve, and achieve success, while Arsenal do the same old thing year after year – look to improve just enough to achieve a Top Four finish.

On the second topic of Granit Xhana, even the most hardcore Arsenal fan would surely admit that they had never heard of the guy?! Unless you happened to be a Arsenal fan from Switzerland?

There’s no doubt he is probably a decent player but is he world class? You hear Arsene Wenger say time and time again that he only brings in players who are of “top, top quality” and who can improve the squad. Otherwise purchasing average players hinders the progress of the current playing squad.

For the last 12 years now we haven’t looked like winning the Premier League and it’s because Arsene Wenger makes the same old mistakes – but for some reason most Arsenal fans just can’t see it!

He won’t bring in a world class striker, hiding behind the excuse that none are available and if they are, they come with inflated prices – and the fans buy this crap!

If no world class forwards were available then by that logic surely that would mean no team would be strong enough to win the league / Champions League? Exactly, that theory is farcical and I’m sure teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint Germain, etc. would disagree, and tell you that world class strikers are available for a price.

I’ve seen quite a lot of Arsenal Fan TV interviews and those fans, the fans that pay their hard earned money to watch Arsenal, seem to hit the nail on the head. They are the ones who go to the games, see Arsenal live week in week out and they are all unhappy at what is happening at Arsenal.

However, a lot of know-it-all fans and members of the Arsene Knows Brigade all seem to think Arsenal are on the right path. We are always 2/3 players away from winning the league so why don’t we do it?! And we always make the same stupid defensive mistakes and bottle it in the big games or bottle it at big moments in the season.

If you believe that Arsenal can win the league next season, you are seriously deluded.