Arsenal: team in trouble or team in need of fine tuning?

By Robert Norris

Wednesday the 14th April 2010 was the beginning of a week to forget for Arsenal Football Club and its supporters. To begin was away to fierce rivals Tottenham Hotspurs and then to follow what many football fans would think an easy away trip to the DW Stadium to face a struggling Wigan team. Arsene Wenger would expect 6 points, 4 points minimum. Unfortunately on Monday, the 19th of April 2010 Arsenal ended up with 0 points and would be considered to be out of the Premiership title race.

With key players missing such as Fabregas, Arsharvin and a few more, the Spurs game was always going to be tough. Arsenal had the incentive to catch Chelsea and move above Manchester United after their draw to Blackburn, but in the game at White Heart Lane, Arsenal were out classed, and show no determination to take steps towards Chelsea. Once again Arsenal were let back into the title race with Chelsea losing to Tottenham Hotspurs like Arsenal.

Wigan vs Arsenal now became a must win, if Arsenal wanted to win the Premiership and with the Gunners taking a 2-0 lead after 48 minutes you would think the game was over and how many more goals Arsenal would score. However because Wigan is a team fighting for relegation they would come back to win the game 3-2. The match showed how fight, bottle and many other characteristics Arsenal are missing and totally ended any small hopes that the Gunners might win their first trophy in 5 years.

From a football fan looking at Arsenal from a distance with no biased view, Arsenal could have big trouble ahead of them if they are not going to open the cheque book and buy some players in the summer.

The starting line up at the DW Stadium,

Fabianski, Sagna, Campbell, Silvestre, Clichy, Eastmond, Rosicky, Nasri, Diaby, Walcott, Bendtner

Just how many of them will be in the starting line up come the first game of the 10/11 campaign. In my opinion only 2 of the players listed should be beginning the new season in the starting line up, and they are Clichy and Nasri. To join them in the team will be Fabregas, Song, Arsharvin and Van Persie, but keeping hold of these 4 players in the summer will be a huge task for Arsene Wenger.

In every championship winning team there is a world class keeper. Arsenal keepers are not even top half Premiership class and the options open in the transfer market this summer for goal keepers are Hugo Lloris, Joe Harte and Igor Akinfeev just 3 world class keepers up for grabs this summer.

Defence is ageing and most players out of contract in the summer, such as Campbell, Silvestre, Gallas and Senderous. Real Madrid may come calling for Gael Clichy if he impresses at the World Cup and if Real's defence keeps letting them down. Sagna is being linked with a move away from Arsenal every week. I would get rid of at least 2 of the 4 players out of contract as Silvestre and Senderous are not of as good enough quality to be at a club like Arsenal. Gallas and Campbell are trickier decisions for Arsene, Campbell is a great professional to the club and game of football and his experience could be vital to the young players at Arsenal. Gallas has more quality than Campbell, but is the opposite to Campbell so he could be a distraction for the club. Depending on what quality centre back Arsene gets I would let Gallas leave as well because Campbell will be a better squad player. Left back Arsenal are best suited in the whole squad with Gael Clichy, Armand Traore and Kieran Gibbs and no summer addition will be needed there. Sagna, after a impressive first year with the Gunners, has found this season to be more of a struggle and if a right back option comes up on the market I feel Arsenal should follow it up.

A couple of options for Arsene Wenger to consider for the defense could be Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka and Steven Taylor. These players are both young and hungry and have Premiership experience. Going into the Premier League next season is a quota of 8 British players in a squad of 25 and currently Arsenal are falling short in this department, but Johan Djourou should be back after having a full season out injured and his return will be like the equivalent of a new signing for the club.

In Arsenal's midfield I don't see there will be that much of a change with the likes of Fabregas, Song, Nasri, Arsharvin and Diaby being the main starting midfield and the likes of Ramsey, Rosicky, Walcott and Denilson providing cover for them. I see no new major additions to the midfield unless there is a big name departure in the summer such as Fabregas. Depending on how highly he rates Song, the options for him to replace with is Yaya Toure, Moussa Sissoko, or Felipe Melo, but all those will cost over 10 million plus.

Arsenal's forwards have been a let down this season and the lack of goals have cost them. Van Persie is a world class striker but with Van Persie comes almost guaranteed injuries. So with that in mind you need a couple more world class strikers to be with him. The other options for Arsenal are Bendtnar, Eduardo, and Vela. All 3 of these players have their different issues, with Bendtnar thinking he's a lot better than he actually is, Eduardo still lacks confidence after his injury and Vela has yet to be truly tested in the Premiership and if he has the ability to cope with it. Marouane Chamakh seems a guaranteed signing on a free from Bordeaux, but is untested in the Premiership and will need time to settle in. Another option is Bosinan forward Edin Dzeko and Inter Milan forward Mario Balotelli, but Dzeko will be tempted to Italian football with AC Milan unless they choose Berbatov instead and Balotelli is a walking disaster and something Wenger will stay away from no matter how talented a player he is.

Verdict: Predicting who Mr Wenger will buy in the transfer market is unpredictable with the reasons being that he has scouts all over the world and he can pick out a talented player from the unknown. Also nobody actually knows how much money is in the transfer kitty. Arsene says he has the money of Chelsea to spend but most people in football will tell you he has got no money down the stadium and would have to borrow money which Wenger does not want to do. So he uses the pretext that he has the money but will only buy the right player. I am in the end going with that Arsene Wenger will not spend big and will only bring in a few players to the team and none with a massive reputation.

My Arsenal's first XI for the start of season:

Lloris, Sagna, Vermaelen, Cahill, Clichy, Arsharvin, Nasri, Fabregas, Song, Van Persie, Charmakh

Subs: Almunia, Gibbs, Djourou, Ramsey, Walcott, Diaby, Bendtnar

Newcastle United's Future of Youth

By Robert Norris

At the start of this season many Newcastle United fans would have been fearing the worst and wondering what would happen to their and my club, but from the first game of the season at The Hawthorns when a determined United side battled back from 1-0 down to draw 1-1 times have changed. Man of the match that day was Tim Krul, a youngster drafted in at half time after Steve Harper's injury. From that game the new Newcastle United Football Club was born! Gone are the days off paying overpriced, over hyped ageing players.


Mike Ashley has always wanted to move away from those days under Freddy Sheppard of big spending for reasons he has never actually said, but most fans will say it is because he wants to sell the club for a profit, or what he has tried to communicate that he wants to run his football club like Arsenal FC.



At the current time Newcastle United are 1 point off being officially crowned champions of the Coca Cola Championship and only freaky results in the last 3 games will deny them the chance to finally put a trophy in the cabinet.


But why is this a turning point for Newcastle United. Well now we have players who are wanting to play for the club. Agents have also been told that Newcastle are not going to pay the wages they used to, so players offered to Newcastle and those who Newcastle go after will want to play for the club and in front of 50,000 fans a week at St James Park. There is also the new youth policy where Newcastle United will target those under 26 in the hope of finding the gems of the future such as Haris Vuckic, Tamas Kadar and Nile Ranger.

This season could also see Newcastle United Under 18's crowned FA Youth Cup 2010. This tournament has seen players such as David Beckham, Paul Gascoigne, Wayne Rooney ect. For a Championship club to get its youth team to the final of this prestigious tournament or even win it would be a great statement of intent of how Newcastle United are going to be in the coming years! Players to watch out for who are currently playing in this team and who have an excellent chance of making the grade in the first team of Newcastle United are Haris Vuckic, James Tavernier, Jeff Henderson, Brad Inman, Samuel Adjei, Phil Airey, Sammy Ameobi and Arron Spear. I can just wish the lads luck and hope thay bring home the trophy.

Newcastle United's season of promise and hope continues as Newcastle United's Under 15's lifted the English 2010 Nike Premier Cup, beating on route to winning the Cup teams of the likes of Manchester City, Aston Villa and Chelsea. The young geordies have now progressed to the World Final that is held in Manchester. This is comprised of just 20 teams that were whittled down from 9,000! Players that have taken part in the world final over the years are the likes of Messi, Tevez, Torres, Fabregas, Xavi, Robinho, ect. If only 1 of the Newcastle United Under 15's turns out to be as good as one of these players it would be a great tribute for Newcastle. We could even try and sign a future Messi from one of the other clubs involved in this tournament.

Verdict: Coca Cola Championship Winners, 2010 Nike Premier Cup Winners, FA Youth Cup Semi-finalists.... so far! People say to move forward you have to have 1 step back before you can have 2 steps forward, and for Newcastle United this could well just be that step back into the Championship to reasses what has gone wrong in the past and how to move forward. So from this season beginning with having a young keeper in his first match being named man of the match to the end of the season, Newcastle are looking to the future and with Chris Hughton in charge and Mike Ashley finally backing the club Newcastle can get back to a position they belong in the Premier League.