As the new Premier League season is upon us, like many others I imagine I’m taking in as much Arsenal news as possible – logging onto Football News websites, seeing what the latest is on Twitter and looking through YouTube for Arsenal videos.
As well as being a fantastic compilation of About Diaby, it does raise a good question – what can he contribute to Arsenal?
For me, he is clearly a fantastic talent. Watching the video reminds you of just how good he can be, and Arsene Wenger clearly knows he is a player that is capable of controlling games and stamping his authority in any match.
We all hope and pray that About can stay injury free not just because he has the ability to give something special to the team, but also because he’s suffered so much over the last few seasons.
You’ve all probably seen this graphic from TalkSport already, but if you haven’t here it is:
He’s suffered so many injuries it’s unreal – and I have no doubt that the assault in 2006 is responsible for them.
Along with the Champions League Final in 2006 and the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United in 1999, the dangerous and quite frankly vicious, cowardly and pathetic “tackle” by Dan Smith is right up there with the saddest moments I’ve had as an Arsenal fan.
With many of the mainstream media outlets believing that Thomas Vermaelen was destined for a move to Manchester United to rejoin our previous captain Robin van Persie, we knew that Thomas would snub Old Trafford in favour for a move to the Camp Nou.
The main reasons for this decision were because of the style of football Barcelona play, which is not unlike Arsenal’s, and the exciting new project Luis Enrique is building at the Camp Nou. Also chatting with Cesc helped finalise his decision.
Throughout the summer (and indeed the last couple of years) there has been talk about Thomas Vermaelen leaving Arsenal. For the last two and a half seasons, he’s been second fiddle (or third fiddle, depending how you look at it) to Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker, who have been generally outstanding for us at the back.
Whether that’s down to their off the field relationship, careful planning by Arsene Wenger or luck, the fact is the club captain doesn’t look like regaining a first choice selection.
Which in a way is a shame because he doesn’t seem like a tosser like other players who have left have been. He has apparently (according to Arsene) been the consummate professional off the pitch but clearly not playing a bigger role is painful for him.
And when Arsene talks about players possibly leaving, you know it’s just a matter of time before they do go.
Speaking objectively though, it’s clear he does have frailties to his game which led to his place on the bench; he gets caught out of position a lot and seems to be too concerned about “stealing” the ball from opposing players but doesn’t have the pace to do so – and is something The Boss is much better at doing,
Added to the fact that we always sell our captains (does Arsene plan this?) means he’ll probably be off.
And Manchester United is his likely destination.
He’ll be reunited with his friend Robin van Persie and be part of Manchester United’s new revival under Louis van Gaal.
But will he actually improve United?
He didn’t play much of a part in Belgium’s World Cup, and has been short of first team football for a long time. Arsene doesn’t seem to have faith in him any more and seems to be willing to cash in (metaphorically, as he’s probably only going to command a fee of around £5 million).
United will be happy as they would have “prised another captain from Arsenal” and play it as a major coup over one of their major rivals.
If Vermaelen does join United, it will be strange to see him at Old Trafford but that’s just the way of the world these days – our players seem to leave for United, City or Chelsea.
In the end, if he goes to Manchester then I think most fans won’t be too bothered – he’s a squad player at Arsenal, would provide money which could be spent on other signings abc probably wouldn’t improve United in the manner people would believe.
Yesterday was a memorable day for Arsenal fans for many reasons. First we had the news that Alexis Sanchez was joining Arsenal for £35 million, and then we had the new Arsenal kit unveiling last night by Puma.
Say what you want about the drama and theatre surrounding the new kit launch, but I liked it. The video of Arsene Wenger introducing the “Arsenal kit trilogy” was cool and the new kits even have their own names.
Our home kit is called “Forever”, our away kit is called “Victorious” and our so called Cup kit is called “Future”. Obviously, Puma decided to use Arsenal’s 3 main Puma sponsored players the leading roles in the showpiece and the honour of showing off the new kit went to Mikel Arteta, Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla. The casting of Olivier Giroud as the “Future” was a bit strange as he’s not exactly young, but then again neither are Arteta, Cazorla and Tomas Rosicky who also wears Puma boots.
Anyway, if somehow you’ve missed the video, you can see it here:
I’ve watched it a good few times now, just like a kid at Christmas.
My thoughts on the kit are that they are definitely different to the traditional Nike offerings we’ve had in the past. Nike, Adidas and Puma all follow the same kind of template for all of their football kits across the world and Puma have kept with their “muscle fit” or tight fitting template.
Initially, my concerns were that unless you’re a professional athlete or workout on a regular basis then the kit might look a bit strange, but apparently the replicas sold to the fans aren’t as cosy as the ones the Arsenal players will be wearing. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
The design of the kit itself I think looks good. It’s definitely more dynamic than previous kits and has an edge I feel. Whether that transmits to the pitch or not only time will tell. But initial feelings about it are good.
I, like thousands of other Arsenal fans I’d suspect, ordered the new kit online on the official Arsenal website. I must have purchased every shirt since the 1993 season (I’ve got a couple from 1989 and 1990) but 1993 was when I bought every home kit. Obviously I have a few away tops as well but you just can’t beat the red and white of Arsenal.
Obviously the name and number you have on the shirt is a big consideration – in previous seasons (starting from the most recent) I’ve had Podolski, Arteta, Van Persie, Fabregas (twice), Henry (a few times), Bergkamp, Reyes and Pires. So manly the attacking players.
But this season was a tough one. The only two really stand out names that I wanted were either Aaron Ramsey or Alexis Sanchez. If we didn’t sign Sanchez, then it would have been Ramsey all day long because he is by far the best player we have in the squad. But in the end, I gave in to the hysteria and went for Alexis 17.
I have no idea how long it will take to come from Arsenal Direct but I am going to try and go to the gym a few more times in the next couple of weeks so the shirt doesn’t look too bad!
So did you order the new kit? And which name did you go for?
As usual, Arsenal have publicly said the fee is undisclosed but reports are saying the fee is around the £35 million mark. This should pave the way for Luis Suarez to move to the Camp Nou, which is good news for Liverpool’s rivals. Say what you want about Suarez, but he is a world class player who would make any team better – and Liverpool will miss him dearly.
Maybe I’ve just had too many long and depressing summers with Arsenal to believe that a player like Alexis Sanchez would join us. I firmly believed that the Mesut Özil signing last summer was a flash in the pan – partly a last minute buy because of the late sale of Gareth Bale to the European Champions. Did I think Özil’s signing was a well-planned signing? Not in a million years.
But the Sanchez deal seems like a signing which has planned well and executed with minimum fuss – which after the Higuain saga last summer is a pleasant surprise.
What does Sanchez joining Arsenal mean?
Well it means we have someone other than Olivier Giroud to lead the line. Sanchez has scored 39 goals in 88 appearances for Barcelona which is a decent return when you consider for a number of those games he was a substitute. At Arsenal, you would assume that he will be one of the first names on the team sheet.
Even though he’s coming to Arsenal, I am still a bit surprised at his arrival. I would have put Sanchez down as an Arsene Wenger signing.
I’ll admit that I don’t know a huge amount about him, if I’m honest. The first time I really noticed him on the big stage was when he scored 4 goals in a 7-0 win against Palermo for Udinese. And I remember his chip for Barcelona against Real Madrid. For Chile in the World Cup I thought he played okay, but nothing spectacular. Obviously I hope he makes me look stupid (which isn’t hard) and hits the ground running next season.
He’s only 25 which is a fantastic age for a player like him. He’s played for Udinese and Barcelona, so he clearly has experience at the top top level.
He has a lot of pace and when you consider an Arsenal that has Mesut Özil feeding Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez, then that is mouth-watering.
Hopefully this signing is just the beginning of an exciting summer for Arsenal fans.
