Anyway, forget my corporate bothers, how are you? Furious it seems. Well some people at least. We’re a few days in to pre season and we’ve signed precisely no one. Does this matter? Not really. Players aren’t moving yet. mot even the mega ones (unless you’re talking Andy Carroll). On that, Arsenal fans need to give up the campaign for Cavani and Falcao. Seriously. Give it up. Both are way out of our league even if we offered over the odds.

Lewandowski is only within our reach because he earns relatively nothing and has a year to go on his deal… so we can match the price and the wages. Let’s be honest though, even he is a long shot. I think the point was made yesterday that outside the elite strikers, there’s not a lot of choice. Most players will look like an expensive punt.

The star man is either going to be a failing striker like Mr Rooney… or it’ll be a player who ‘might’ make the jump. I think the key is making sure we don’t get put off by not signing a mega star. The team of 2004 wasn’t built on star men.., It was built on nearly people. Pires, Ljungberg and Thierry were only global monsters after an Arsenal education. Trouble is. Post 2004, we’ve missed out on players like that. Essien, Cech, Suarez… all have evaded the Arsedar.

At this moment in time, current players who might fit that bracket would be Benteke, Isco and Strootman. If you can’t get the 2nd tier superstars, you make a move for the tier below. The nearly theres. The Michu guys, the South American characters Athletico type teams dig out everytime they sell a mega star. City and Chelsea can’t and don’t buy everyone. There are always players you an nab…

Intent is king… do we have it? I hope so…

Talking of Benteke, interesting to read that he’s looking for a way out of Villa after one season. Now, I’m all for ambition, but I don’t like reading stuff like that. You should always give more than one season to a club. His comments reek of Nik Anelka. Greed is not a good look so early on. That said… Villa must be a drag. I think he’s a talent. 27 goals last year, 17 in Belgium the year before… involved in 49% of all Villa’s goals last season. Clearly a talent. Question is, can he do it next season? Well, generally, that’s a question you can ask of most players.

That’s all I have this morning. Have a great Friday… I think it’s the woman’s FA Cup final tomorrow? Hopefully some more silverware heading there way!

CEO’s Report – May 2013
Ivan Gazidis comments on various items of interest

Dear Shareholders,

Welcome to the exclusive quarterly update for shareholders. Today’s update is covering the period up to 23 May 2013.

Let me start by saying how pleased we are with how the season finished. It was a tense end to the campaign which ultimately saw us finish in the top four of the Premier League and thus qualifying for the UEFA Champions League for the 16th season running.

This is a remarkable achievement and one that should not be under-estimated in the landscape of the modern game. However, we are not satisfied with this. Our majority shareholder Mr Kroenke has made it clear that while it’s an achievement to make the Champions League, our ultimate objective is to win trophies. We all share that clear ambition and will be driving the Club forward to achieve it. With this in mind, Arsène and I have already been planning what we need to do to strengthen so we are better placed next season.

One thing is certain. The whole Club is in a strong position to build from here and we are looking forward to the future with confidence.

The topics covered in this update are as follows:

1. End of season supporters’ event
2. Pre-season schedule
3. 2013/2014 Barclays Premier League fixtures
4. Arsenal Foundation Ball 2013
5. 100 years in Islington
6. Summer Concerts at Emirates Stadium

1. End of season supporters’ event – Emirates Stadium – Monday 10 June

As you have already received by email, we are pleased to advise that an End of Season Supporters’ Event, hosted by myself and the executive team, is to be held at Emirates Stadium on Monday 10 June 2013 commencing at 7.00 pm. There will be a reception and light refreshments before a Q&A Session.

If you would like to attend, please email shareholders@arsenal.co.uk including the full name of shareholder, mobile number and email address by no later than midday on Tuesday, 28 May 2013, following which we will contact shareholders individually with a formal invitation and full details of the event.

Please note that due to the limited number of spaces available, all applicants must be shareholders. Each shareholder will be restricted to one application per shareholder.
Should we receive more applications than spaces that are available, a random ballot will be held on the afternoon of Tuesday 28 May 2013 and successful shareholders will be contacted thereafter.

2. Pre-season schedule

We have an exciting programme of matches in the build up to the new Premier League season. A key element will be our visit to Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan during the Arsenal Asia Tour 2013 in July.

The tour is increasingly important to us in terms of building our following around the world and gives us and our partners the opportunity to engage with our fans further afield and will provide a platform for further growth in the future.

The Asia tour is also important from a football perspective and this year we have built a full-scale training camp into the schedule when we travel to Japan.

The trip to Asia will be followed by the return of the Emirates Cup in which we host Napoli, Porto and Galatasaray on the weekend of Saturday 3 August and Sunday 4 August.

The first-team’s pre-season schedule will be completed with a pre-season friendly to be played on Saturday 10 August. The details of this match are yet to be finalised, but the fixture will be played in Europe, outside of the UK.

Please find below our up to date pre-season 2013/14 schedule for the first team. For further information regarding the Asia Tour 2013, please go to www.arsenal.com/asiatour2013.

Sunday 14 July
Indonesia XI v Arsenal
Kick off 8.30pm local time
Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Jakarta.

Wednesday 17 July
Vietnam XI v Arsenal
Kick off 7pm local time
My Dinh National Stadium, Hanoi.

Monday 22 July
Nagoya Grampus v Arsenal
Kick off 7.30pm local time
Toyota Stadium, Nagoya.

Friday 26 July
Urawa Reds v Arsenal
Kick off 7.30pm local time
Saitama City Stadium, Saitama.

Saturday 3 August
Emirates Cup
Arsenal v Napoli
Kick off 4.20pm
Emirates Stadium
(FC Porto v Galatasaray kick off at 2pm)

Sunday 4 August
Emirates Cup
Arsenal v Galatasaray
Kick off 4.20pm
Emirates Stadium
(Napoli v FC Porto kick off at 2pm)

Saturday 10 August
Pre-season friendly (details tbc)
(Match to be played in Europe, outside of UK)

Please note there are also planned fixtures for Arsenal XI sides, which will feature our younger players. Please find below an up-to-date schedule for Arsenal XI pre-season fixtures. All further updates and ticket information can be found on Arsenal.com:

Friday 12 July
Sutton United v Arsenal XI
Kick off 7.30pm
At Borough Sports Ground, Sutton United FC.

Saturday 20 July
Boreham Wood v Arsenal XI
Kick off 3pm
At Meadow Park, Boreham Wood FC.

Tuesday 30 July
Leyton Orient v Arsenal XI
Kick off 7.30pm
At Matchroom Stadium, Leyton Orient FC.

Saturday 3 August
Luton Town v Arsenal XI
Kick off 3pm
At Kenilworth Road Stadium, Luton Town FC.

3. 2013/2014 Barclays Premier League fixtures

For your planning for next season, the Barclays Premier League provisional fixture list for the 2013/2014 season will be announced on Wednesday 19 June.

We start our Barclays Premier League season on the weekend of 17 and 18 August.

Also, the two legs of UEFA Champions League Play Off are scheduled to be played on Tuesday/Wednesday 20/21 August and Tuesday/Wednesday 27/28 August.

The draw for the UEFA Champions League Play Off is on Friday 10 August.

4. Arsenal Foundation Ball raises over £320,000

On Wednesday 8 May, the Arsenal Foundation Ball raised more than £300,000 to help transform the lives of even more young people in the UK and overseas.

Hosted by popular comedian and Arsenal fan Matt Lucas, and attended by Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal first-team squad and a host of Club legends, the night was a spectacular combination of fundraising and entertainment. All money raised on the night will help The Arsenal Foundation support more education and sport projects both locally and globally, including those of the Club’s global charity partner, Save the Children.

The night got underway with Arsène welcoming assembled guests before introducing a video highlighting the work of The Arsenal Foundation over the past year and announcing four new ambassadors – Liam Brady, Martin Keown, Robert Pires and Bob Wilson. They will share their vast knowledge and presence as the Foundation looks to extend its work further and deeper in the future.

To celebrate Bob’s new role as an ambassador, the Club also announced a new three-year partnership with the Arsenal legend’s charity, Willow Foundation, which provides special days for seriously ill young adults.

To wrap up the evening, the Club launched an emergency appeal for Save the Children, which will enable children affected by the crisis in Syria to regain a sense of normality by providing temporary learning spaces to help them continue their education in a safe environment.

5. 100 Years in Islington

As many of you will be aware, 6 September 1913 marked the first official game played by the Club at Highbury, following the move to Islington.

We are planning a number of events and activities to mark this milestone and show our commitment to the Borough and our gratitude to the people of Islington for having us as neighbours for the last century. More information of our planned activities will be communicated on Arsenal.com in due course.

6. Summer Concerts at Emirates Stadium

We are all very excited to welcome two internationally acclaimed music acts to Emirates Stadium over the coming weeks, which further position our home as a premium concert venue.

Multi-award winning group, Muse, will play two nights this weekend on Saturday, 25 May and Sunday 26 May 2013 as part of their 2nd Law Tour, while the following weekend we welcome five times Grammy Award winning American rock band, Green Day on Saturday 1 June, who are playing their first London stadium show since 2010.

I am sure that both these events will be a great success and I am delighted that the stadium is continuing to attract such high-calibre acts to follow the likes of Coldplay and Bruce Springsteen who have played at Emirates Stadium in recent years.

Finally, thanks again for your tremendous support throughout the course of the season.

Yours faithfully,

Ivan Gazidis
Chief Executive

23 May 2013

23/05/13

When news dropped about Jovetic and the bid on Monday, I did fear the worst after stating we hadn’t registered an interest in Jovetic, I still ran with suspicions yesterday morning and they have, thus far, proved correct. The Fiorentina sporting director came out and bulldozed the notion that 1) we’d bid 2) we’d even registered a passing interest.

“The way I see it, this interest is non-existent,”

“I have not had any contact with them at all. I don’t think Arsene Wenger is interested in the boy.”

Then the hammer blow was dropped by his agent… that, if you followed this story online, was spotted at the airport and was speaking to Arsenal.

‘Stevan prefers to stay in Italy rather than move away,’

Ouch. Amazing how many people lead total fantasy lives online.

Anyway, am I boverred about our lack of interest? Not really. Sounds like he’s an incredible talent not particularly suited to our needs or our system. His goal return last season was average at best and for me, we need a goal scorer. I just struggled to believe we’d go from discussing Rooney and talking to Lewandowski’s people… to tabling a bid or €30m for Jovetic.

We don’t need a project… we need now talent that will turn on the goal tap from day 1. Sure, Jovetic might become a world beater, but I’m not sure that’s at Arsenal.

I could still be totally wrong in all of this. We might place a bid tomorrow… but right now, I’m quietly pleased our attention is going elsewhere.

In fresh up in your face news, Arsenal are believed to be favourable to offers for Thomas Vermaelen. The Belgian isn’t just out of favour, it seems like he’s been castigated the the changing room of hell once shared by misfits such as Bischoff, Park and Carlos Vela. The brutality of the treatment is harsh, but that’s sport for you. The idea of him being shipped on for £5m seems a touch crazy. I think the fact united and Barca are interested tells you a story about the basic ingredients he posesses. I still don’t understand why he couldn’t take the step up to that ‘in your face’ midfielder we’re looking for. Arsene is the king of crazy position conversions. If you can try Nik B on the right wing… Surely moving TV into a holding role wouldn’t be too tough an ask?

We could always get Song back. He gets in your face, ask Piqué.

The pic that never gets old...

Back to strikers we could nab… I’ve ripped this content from ESPN. I’ve listed the top scorers for your perusal. Some interesting names there… and not a whole heap of choice. You can see why the market is so tight this summer.

La Liga

Sooooo… I’m thinking we probably won’t be able to land any of the top three strikers there. However, it’d be fairly straight forward to nab the other two if we choose. Are they good enough? I don’t know. Ask Giles…

Ligue One

This is an interesting line up. Zlatan has smashed it out the park chu young with 29 goals… by what about that Pierre chap? I’ve heard marvelous things. No wait. It’s Ligue one. Giroud scored 21 goals there last year. Can you believe Aliadiere stayed fit for longer than 15 minutes to score some goals?

Bundesliga

Is the man topping the chart good enough for a move over here? More importantly, would Bayern Munich tolerate such behaviour… you know, having first refusal on the whole league? Lewandowski is an Arsenal target and we’ve apparently held talks with his people. He wants Bayern. Will Dortmund give up another of their prized assets to their greatest rival? Probably… if you play the Bayern DNA card… you generally get what you want. Amazing that Bayern destroyed that league and their highest scorer only managed 15.

Eredivisie

Don’t get me started on this league. It’s such a ridiculous concept. It produces some of the best players on the planet… and some of the most expensive flops. Kezman and Alves… versus Nistelrooy and Robin. Bony physically is what we’re looking for… whether he is talent wise is a risky question.

Serie A

Errr… mostly no to all of them. I’d love Cavani, but give it up people. We’re not in his league anymore. I doubt even United would go for him.

Portuguese League

I know nothing about this league.

Premier League

I had to throw this one in. Lots of snobbery around Benteke. A young Belgian with 27 goals in 45 games for club and country is not a player to be sniffed at. If I were him, I’d boss it at Villa for another year, then move. He’s a big talent though. Michu is the same… can he replicate his form two seasons running? If they both can, they’ll be big money moves in 2 years. Outside those two, I don’t think there’s a chance for anyone.

So, take your pick people… we’ll take a look at South America tomorrow.

Morning people, so the season of summer madness has started. No sooner had I stated that Arsenal’s interest in Jovetic was low… rumours had surfaced on Twitter, via Italy, that the club had put in a €30m bid for him and his agent had been in London discussing a move.

If that’s the case , exciting times. I’d still be surprised for a number of reasons. The main one being that he’s not a striker in the truest sense of the word. He’s a forward or a false 9 to all those students of Zonal Marking. Maybe we have a development plan for him? The guy is clearly a million miles off anything we have up front, €30m Euros just seems a large sum to go straight in with when names like Rooney and Lewandowski had been discussed in the last few weeks. He scored 12 goals in 31 games last year… even with cash to burn, can you see our opening bid being the one Fiorentina have asked for? Most papers have us down at ‘baulking’ at the price tag.., Twitter has us with a bid accepted talking to agents in London. I simply love how many total nobodies online have a direct line into the power brokers of European footabll

‘Errr, Fali Ramadani, it’s me.’

‘Who?’

‘Gooner_7990 from Twitter. I’ve got 2300 followers.’

‘Oh f*ck… so sorry, let me break away from this Abramovich meeting… so what’s up?’

‘Don’t mess around Fali, just give me the confidential f*cking lowdown on what’s going on with Jovetic so I can reinforce my celebrity this summer’

‘No problem, how many followers did you say?’

I’m also suspicious as this is an Italian rumour and we know Juve are in the mix. We’ll see though. I don’t know enough about the man to have a concrete opinion. Intent seems to be there regardless. Which is important. If this goes ahead, we’d have smashed our transfer record before the window even opens… that’d be a great opener to the summer.

However, I can’t help but think The Hig sounds a more appealing option. Mainly because we can write headlines with a play on words like ‘The Stig’ (from Top Gear). That’s be grand. It’d almost make up for losing JET and Tom Cruise in one season. Or never being able to write ‘Chamakhtrick hero’ or missing out on Ben Arfa ‘King Arfa has arrived’.

Sanogo joined up officially yesterday, the young Frenchman put pen to paper on a £25k deal. He’s excited to join the party and said he wanted to emulate his hero Diaby.

“I am pleased to be following in the footsteps of Abou Diaby who came through from Auxerre. There are many teams interested in me, but Arsenal is my choice.”

Eh?

Someone clearly didn’t brief him on the French Arsenal heroes you’re supposed to mention. I mean come on, at least go with Bacary Sagna! Anyway, it’s all an irrelevance. He’s an educated punt and as a third choice, I’m not too fussed about his injury record or his lack of experience. If he’s poor, we’ll loan him out and his wages aren’t rich enough to merit an extended Almunia like stay. I hope we’ve scouted him beyond his goals this season.

In news from French fan site Le Phoceen, Marseille are apparently interested in bringing Gervinho back to France along with Diaby  (I’ll believe that when I see it). That would be amazing. That’s two clubs interested in bringing Gervinho back. Maybe he’s like Diego Forlan… only magic in one country. Well, that’s what I’d be telling both French clubs. We picked him up for £8m, so if we can shift him on for anywhere near that price tag… we’ll have done extremely well. As for Diaby… give him to them. He’s a waste of time on our books for another year where he’d take £3m for doing precisely nothing bar put in about 6 promising games. It’s a shame he’s broken… but that’s sport and life… at least he’s been well compensated compared to others who can’t work because they’re broken.

Phil from Angry of Islington has put some clarification around the Gary Neville comments that dropped at the weekend. Eloquent Neville may be (eloquent compared to Shearer, not compared to a normal person), informed on the finances of Arsenal football club he ain’t… this blog is though, so if you’ve been confused by Neville read here.

Right, that’s all I’ve got for you this morning. Join me for more good time fun tomorrow. I might start reviewing the season? Not sure if that’s a bit boring thought. It was a sh*te season. It’d be like reviewing a Spurs highlights DVD.

Finally, check out this video of the Ox… pretty good fun.

…. and a good morning to everyone. Still buzzing from finishing above Spurs? I am. Not least because I will be £75 richer after some brutal debt collection missions today. Oh yeah, that cash is gonna be so sweet because I’m going to use it pull together a gaggle of buskers and ask them to sing Arsenal songs outside the office window.

Anyway, less about my cash, more about the things you care about. I went to the AST meet up last night which was great fun as usual. Matt Law and John Cross spoke about the club and revealed some interesting things. They’ve been briefed the same stuff as we have. Ivan Gazidis working hard to put that ball firmly in Arsene’s court this summer.

Something everyone has missed, including Gary Neville is that there’s been money swilling about for years that hasn’t been spent. Last summer we ended with a huge surplus. This summer we have the ability to plunder £100m into players without hacking into an expensive overdraft. The difference this year is our squad is bereft of top talent and our manager doesn’t have the upper hand in contract negotiations.

The silly season will most certainly be silly this summer. We’re talking to lots of players. Some names haven’t surfaced yet, but we’re talking about names that will universally excite. Arsenal have a different challenge this summer, namely, competition. As I’ve said for years, the general rule of thumb for an Arsenal transfer target is no one else can be interested. This summer, Chelsea, City and United could all be in the mixing pot for the names we’re looking at, which is why speed is king here.

I’m keeping my eye on two positions where I think we’ll invest heavily. That’s a Cesc type player… hopefully it’ll be Cesc. That’s a live rumour. Then there’s the striking position. Like I said yesterday, Jovetic isn’t someone that’s on the radar as far as I’m aware. I’m not even sure his style of play is what we’re looking for in our system. Rooney is a long shot based on the rumours but he’s being spoken about. Outside that, who is there? I have no idea. There are names like Higauin being spoken about… great finisher, very experienced, but his lack of pace worries me. There’s the classic name of Benzema. He always felt like an Arsenal player, I’m not sure he’s ever hit the heights at Madrid, but he certainly has all the attributes you need to make it at the highest level.

People keep talking about Falcao and Cavani online. Sure, we can afford them, but there’s simply no need to invest half your transfer budget in one player. Firstly, because you don’t know if they’ll adapt, secondly because there are players who can do close to the same job for half the price. We’re not going to be making £50m bids for players. There’s every chance we could invest big in the defence if the right name crops up.

Whatever happens, there will be a conscious effort this summer from the manager to bring in 3-4 big names. Gazidis has played a shrewd game… he’s built fan expectation for a reason. Number one, because he knows  at the moment, there’s managerial desire to take the team to the next level. 2) He knows that by building expectation, he’s backed the manager into a corner if he starts dithering on his plans. If Wenger comes out of this summer having not invested in the squad, the fans won’t forgive him.

It’s win / win for us.

It was highlighted last night that the reason we missed out on Mata was dithering… which allowed Chelsea a way in. Apparently, the press had been briefed on Nuri Sahin being a done deal… then Wenger pulled the plug last minute over doubts around his pace. I mean, dodged bullet, but it shows the level of fear he has around making decisions these days, something that happens with age I guess.

So, the long and short of it is this… we’ll be linked left, right and centre with players this summer because there has to be a plan A, B, C, D, E, F and G. There will be plenty of people claiming they know what’s going on behind the scenes, but they’d mostly be lying, I don’t think Arsenal know what’s going on. All I’m praying for is that we get our business done nice and early. I’m hoping we shift the deadwood on. It’ll be a shame to lose Vermaelen, but I’m not sure I’d be too despondent if we lost Podolski, any of the keepers or Gervinho. The journo’s seemed to be quite positive around the future of Sagna. He’d stay if we gave him a new deal. He’s a player we should look to secure.

It was interesting to hear John Cross say that the industry people he’d been following around chasing this Puma story were saying that the eventual deal really is off the scale. Apparently the ambition of the deal will be in the retail. United take a cut of the number of shirts sold, which is putting an element of the deal at risk. I think they make a further £16m on their £22m base. How much have Arsenal put at risk? Ivan said that the club are going for short term deals with brands as they see a positive future. Would he gamble on shirts? Who knows…

Anyway, onto what the AST have been busy with. They recruited two corporate governance specialists to  take a look at how the club are run at a board level. A pretty interesting document when you read through it. In short, there are 5 main concerns raised.

1) The board is too old. An average age outside Gazidis of 72.6 years old. There’s also no managerial or playing experience from anyone. No succession plan

2) There are conflicts of interest. Only majority shareholders views are represented

3) Shareholder accountability. There’s no senior director available to bridge the gap between the club and the shareholders (small shareholders)

4) Power and accountability of the manager. Basically, there’s no disclosure of what he’s targeted with.

5) Strategy does not take into account the stakeholders in the business.

Basically, the conclusions of the document are to encourage more transparency from the club with the smaller shareholders. It’s asking for the club to come more in-line with FTSE100 best practice. This is a fair argument and the suggestions are interesting I’ll delve more into them when I’ve had a chance to properly digest the document.

From my perspective, the board are merely figure heads. I can’t imagine PHW having any sort of strategic input into the direction of the club. I can’t imagine anyone outside Ivan, Stan and his team deciding on important decisions. From what I understand, PHW is going to resign as chairman very soon due to health issue. He really has looked on deaths door the last few times I’ve seen him. That’ll leave an opening for someone to represent the club in that figure head position. I have no idea how that’ll work. Do we opt for someone like Bob Wilson to take up the role, or do we dig deeper. Whoever it is will have to have the club in their blood. The average age of a chairman in the UK is 63, Bob Wilson is 71. Do we want to opt for someone with more business experience? Someone with a more rational view of the manager? Or do we want someone who just dearly loves the club and everyone in it regardless of performance.

Brutal questions I know… but questions you have to ask when committing to someone in a role that really needs quite a bit of stability.

How about David Dein?

No. Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that. Forget I said it. It’d be fitting though. Wouldn’t it?

Anyway, I blasted you away with 4 million words yesterday. Suck up what I’ve penned today and we’ll talk more tomorrow.

Well here we are people, on the cusp of a new start for the manager, the board and of course, us, the fans. Yesterday was important on so many levels. By finishing fourth, the manager has removed any relic of an excuse that could be pushed our way come August 31st. New commercial deals are so close you can taste the cash, the bank balance is publicly brimming and we have the core of a very strong squad already with us.

The Newcastle game boasted none of the drama we’d expected / dreaded in a final day of the season show down. However, that didn’t stop the whole occasion becoming a 2 hour nightmare. I watched the two games dual screen in a pub which boasted a larger Spurs population.

We knew what the script looked like for Spurs, they’d have trouble breaking down a dogged Sunderland, then magic man Gareth Bale would muster up some ‘at the death’ magic. Which he played out line for line.

Our game was a little more tense. Newcastle didn’t really put up much of a fight. However, we struggled to make an impact for large parts of the game. Podolski spurned a very simple chance when through on goal when he fired his shot into the retiring Steve Harper. There was a fair bit of possession but no bite from us. Theo couldn’t handle the double team action that was going on his side of the wing and Lukas didn’t give is an outlet.

Our chance dropped in the second half, from a corner, Podolski I think got a touch, it looped over Koscielny’s shoulder, he followed it eagle eyed and turned it into the net. A great goal.

There was no last surge from Newcatle. Theo made it through on goal but toe poked the ball past the keeper but found himself denied by a stubborn post. The team played out the last ten minutes with a maturity I’ve not seen in years. They were calm, they slowed play down and they made the whole ordeal a little calmer.

The spirit of the side was summed up by Laurent Koscielny who had an absolutely superb game. He lost his way earlier in the year, but there’s no doubt now that he is our lead centre back (arguably he was at the end of the last summer). He dominated at the back, he came up with the vital goal and he led by example.

I said last summer that the best signing was Steve Bould. A year on, we’ve seen the reverse of last season. It was the defence that proved pivotal. We’ve not taken fourth. Because of one man and his goals, we’ve taken it because the manager allowed more focus on the back four (in the end) and Bould delivered a defence that conceded 37 goals. That made us the second best defence inside one season. That’s an impact people. With the right movements this summer, we’ll have the best defence in the league. We’ve made serious inroads without a proper keeper. Wenger also has to take some serious credit. He dropped his captain and never let him back in. He also dropped his keeper and only let him get a chance through injury. Both moves proved decisive in turning around our season.

Another change in the team no one has mentioned all season that has played a huge role in us becoming more solid as a unit has been the departure of Alex Song. He’s moved on and we’ve now fitted out the midfield with two players who are prepared to track back and take responsibility. How many cheap freekicks do we give away these days? How often is that gap in front of the back four left empty? Not often. We’re defending as a collective these days. I’ve said for years, you don’t need to have 4 world class defenders to have  a world class unit. Now, I’m not saying we’re a world class unit by a long shot, but we’ve made serious inroads this season and proof of concept is the 24% reduction in goals conceded. Players have been made accountable.

Up front, the goals were shared out and we matched what we achieved last season, however, it’s apparent we need to build in that area. We’re not clinical enough and we lack a player with the dominance to lead against world class teams. That position will be filled this summer and I think there’s a very high chance it’ll be filled with an important name. That’s unlikely to be Lewandowski as he’s rumoured to be close to Bayern and I’ve not heard anyone mention Jovetic… but they’re looking at someone outside Sanogo. Will it be Wayne Rooney? The club are interested, but you have to ask yourself a few serious questions here. Firstly, his attitude has been appalling at United this season, some seriously shameful rumours floating around about his behaviour. If Ferguson can’t control him, what hope does Wenger have? His physicality has pulled him through his mid-twenties… but what happens going forward? Does his lifestyle catch up with him now? Is that a £30m risk we can afford to take?

I think the club are going to go all out now to make an impact in the transfer market. Expect to see a keeper, a centre back, a midfielder with bite, maybe a creative player and definitely a world class striker. The perfect storm has arrived. We have lots of cash in the bank, we have new commercials on the horizon, a manager wanting a new deal and all the clubs around us are going through managerial changes. This is our summer to shine and everything I’m getting from the club says that we’re going for it.

The major difficulty we’re going to have is that we’re not selling players a success machine. We’re selling them a project. A new type of project, but it’s not the finished article. If we want to land Cesc, we’ll have to convince him of our ambition by making an ambitious signing. It might be really tough, players might not fancy us… but I can guarantee you we’re already out there trying for players who are on a different planet to the types of players we’ve looked at in the past.

… but what about Spurs?

Well yesterday’s result was a baseball bat to the back of the legs if ever I’ve seen one. For me, it’s almost curtains for Spurs in regards to moving up a level in the eyes of world football. That was their one opportunity, which to be honest, if they’d have taken, would have killed them next year anyway.

Here’s why Spurs are unlikely to trouble us next season. Firstly, Arsenal won’t have a summer like they had last year. We won’t lose two key players this year. The only people moving will be the players who haven’t really done it this year (Vermaelen, Gervinho, Chamakh the deadwood if we can find them a home). We’ll have a settled squad in that sense. The base has been set.

There is no chance Arsenal won’t invest this summer either. We’ll never make that mistake moving forward. So we’ll not only have a settled squad by August 31st, we should have one that is buzzing with excitement for the first time in 10 or so years. That’s a major step change forward.

Thirdly, I’m guessing… and this is a guess. We’re unlikely to have a start as pathetic as tepid as last years.

Finally, it’s unlikely Bale will stay at Spurs and even if he does, will he have the season he’s had this year? Everything he’s touched has turned to gold this year. If you take his form out the equation, Spurs have quite an average squad. Think of how lucky their run in has been. They’ve been dominated by poor teams and been Baled out everytime. Not just that, the deflected goals, the inexplicable collapses… they’ve had a very lucky run in and they didn’t deserve top four in the end.

Then look at the revenue gap. We’ll be a full £100m better off than them by the end of next season. That’s an unbelievable power grip we’ll have on them. They’re trying to pull together this new stadium, but I haven’t read anything about a loan being secured? We picked up ours for what, 3%? They’ll have to pick theirs up for at least double. How will they fund it with the inflated wages of modern football and without consistent Champions League revenue? They won’t be able to… it’d be too much of a risk

*Not to mention the new Premier League wage rule will scupper any rapid growth plans they might have (only being able to add £4m to your wage bill each summer. Getting from £90m to £150m will take a while).

Arsenal’s long term planning has started to bear fruit after nearly a decade. How will Spurs manage a transition like that? It feels like an impossibility.

Now, credit where credit is due. Making top four from where we were has been a massive achievement. 12 wins out of 16 is absolutely massive. Wenger has pulled it out of the bag at the death again. However, those who think 4th place with our resource is worth crowing about are really missing the point of being a big club. Wenger has had cash to invest over the last four years and he’s failed to do so. He’s been treading water and survived. This season has to be the last time he does that. This was the closest in a while. What made this seasons escape all the more impressive is that we didn’t do it with the stars he’s done it with of seasons past. The clubs management won’t want to go through that again and I’m pretty sure Arsene won’t want to go through that again. It’s time to face up to facts. Big clubs sign big players. You can still do things the right way… but a simple look around Europe shows you that even clubs like Dortmund spend big if they need to.

The club won’t put us through that again. They know there’s a huge opportunity this summer. The United team you saw draw 5-5 with WBA is a sign of things to come under them. City, Bayern and Chelsea can’t buy all the players in Europe. Spain don’t have the money they used to… and you’d have to be brave as a foreigner to set up home in a country that’s on the verge of bankruptcy… we all saw what the EU sanctioned against the people of Cyprus… footballers and their wealth will be easy pickings for the Spanish Government should things get desperate.

Arsenal is about to get exciting people. I truly believe that. If they don’t, well, that’ll be because the manager doesn’t have a project he can sell to elite players, and that’s a story in itself. This has the foundations to be the best summer we’ve ever had, so lets be thankful to the players for busting a gut to make top four happen.

Before I leave this post, I just wanted to take time out to thank everyone who visits the site, posts a comment on the Facebook page and chats to me on Twitter. Writing for you all this season has been, in the main, an absolute pleasure. To have a comments section with such a rich variety of opinions that are made by so many people is quite a marvel when you consider most blogs barely register a single mention. I wouldn’t write everyday if it weren’t for the people that e-mail me at 11:00 to find out if I’m dead if I haven’t posted. I’m never dead people… just nursing a Peroni induced morning of hell.

Anyway, a massive, massive thanks for continuing to make Le Grove relevant amongst Arsenal fans… and, now, with the club. Long may it continue.

Here’s to a great summer of daily posts!

See you in the comments.

The day has been spiced up with the news Mike Ashley has put up around a million pounds in bonus is Newcastle win today, it’s not for the players, it’s for the backroom staff… which apparently has the Newcastle players totally motivated.

… yeah right. Footballers play for themselves. Not the tea lady. I very much doubt they care and I very much doubt this is anything other than a PR tactic to shift the focus away from the dopey comments Pardew made in the week. I was told by a third party that the Arsenal staff are on Champions League bonuses as well, so it doesn’t really make too much difference. I suspect our players and their pay… or futures are affected by our position today.

Giroud will find himself back in contention, but after the good form of Lukas and Theo during the week, you wonder if it’ll be bench time for him? Today is about goals and getting them early so we don’t have to panic for the whole game. I’ve no doubt we’ll go a goal or two down. It’s written in the stars. However, I am reasonably confident we can so the business today.

Newcastle aren’t a good side this year. Something has clearly gone wrong for Pardew so I have no reason to suspect he’ll be able to turn it on all guns blazing when tenth place is up for grabs. The only way we’re losing today is if the players let nerves take hold.

I’m hoping that doesn’t happen and that we take it to 12 wins in 16 games. A great home stretch run and just enough to allow Wenger his last chances at sorting the squad.

Team line ups will be the standard back four I’d imagine… consistency in that area there has seen us quite the force at the back over the last few games. Then in midfield, I’m expecting Jack, Rosicky and Rambo… followed by a front trio of Theo, Cazorla… and maybe Giroud. I can’t work out if I want a slightly rusty Giroud in the side for such a tight game?

Whatever the line up, we need to turn up the urgency levels early on. We need to press as a team and play the patient game if we have to. Newcastle have conceded 30 goals at home (we’ve conceded 37 in total, our best in about 7 years I think). Point is, we’re not trying to break a mid nineties Milan team down here… this isn’t far away from picking open a Wigan defence.

So, here we are… it’s time to talk Arsenal turkey until 1600. Then it’s an horrible two hours of roller-coaster football. Enjoy people!

Morning party people. How’s the head? Good? Ok, that’s excellent news. Shall we crack on?

Firstly, who saw the Barcelona fight pictures? Alex Song reaching in to slap Piqué. Seems like he’s having fun over there eh? What did I tell you about his attitude? I’d love to know what Piqué said to deserve the slap. Something we’ve all dreamed of. You do have to ask questions of Song though… who is he to behave like that? On an open top bus parade. What a twonk.

Lots of anger about the Sanogo deal yesterday. I can understand it. Dealing with a French under 21 with injury problems considering our record of late is a touch neglectful. Arsene Wenger first got his taste for injury prone players when he signed Marc Overmars in 97ish. The speed demon came to us at a knock down rate and he flourished. He was one of my favourites… still is. That’s goal at Old Trafford will live in my memory forever. The deal for Overmars was so good, we sold him to Barca with Petit for £25m. Two years later he was ruined.

That first taste of ‘injury prone player turned good’ is kind of like the person who makes a bet for the first time and win big. It’s all down hill after the initial big win. Sure there have been players that have worked out. Kanu came over from Inter and played a decent half season. Amaury Bischoff obviously worked out. One player I can maybe draw comparisons with is Gael Clichy. He was crocked all through his teens… but eventually came good. You could say the same about Theo.

Look, I’m not saying this guy is the answer to our striking issues. In fact, he certainly isn’t. But it’s about having a squad. If we have Giroud, Sanogo and something a bit world class… then that’s not a bad place to be. I don’t mind having an Anelka like punt as third choice. Well, an Adebayor like punt should I say… and lets be honest, we’ve missed a powerful pacey forward who can bully defences with work rate.

On the keeper front, the rumblings are firmly around Caesar, now, that means either we are interested in him. Or, his agents are really keen to move him over to us. Now, I like the Brazilian, who when on form, he’s easily up there with the best in the league. My only issue is some of his form has been shoddy at QPR, and height wise, he isn’t exactly dominant. It’s another risky punt when really, we need to make a sound long term move.

Begovic is my number one target, he’s the perfect physical specimen when it comes to being a keeper, he’s agile, a great shot stopper and he’s had the Stoke treatment with crosses. He’d be a step in the right direction. It’d be nice if Jens was his coach. Binning off the keeping coach might be a step too far for Wenger… despite his appalling record over the last 5 years.

So what about this playoff? I know it’s a long shot… but if there is a 3rd place playoff… shouldn’t there be a trophy? Seriously. There should be. It’s a one off game, with a prize. So there should be a trophy? People… the top four trophy is dead. 3rd place could actually be our first piece of silverware. Plus, we’d be the first name on it ever. Think about how mega that would be…

Tomorrow is on my mind, but we’ll talk about it later. Don’t listen to Wenger saying he’s not thinking about the summer either. The club have been working on players for weeks. Wenger is just keeping his warchest close to his… Errr… chest?

Have a good one…

Morning boys and girls. Today it feels like there’s less news than there was yesterday, so instead of making something up, I’m going to first throw up, then work with what I have.

The story that gripped me by the ‘what have I achieved’ part of my neck was the one about Josh Kroenke and his first dalliance into the media to talk about Arsenal and his love of football. He’s 31 years old. He’s going to run our club at some point. What is the world coming to folks?

Then guess what. I read that this article was two years old. So I thought, you know what, forget about it. He’s 33 now. He could definitely run Arsenal now.

Onto more current mutterings. The Mail are running the Wayne Rooney story again this morning. Serious talks internally have begun and they’re trying to thrash out how they can bank roll his move. I’m guessing the sums look a little like this.

Chamakh £75k
Squillaci £60k
Denilson £55k
Andrey £90k

Boom. We’ve covered it boys.

I’m still not quite sure why we haven’t just released these players earlier. Why can’t we just give them free transfers? Surely it would make sense to take them off the books and give the squad a bit of a clean out? I mean, why not offer them severance pay? Seems silly to keep them on for 5 years at a time.

Still, just because we’re looking at big names, doesn’t mean the bargain basement of France has lost its appeal. Apparently we’re close to landing Auxerre front man Yaya Sanogo. He’s tall, he’s French-African and he’s banged in a few goals in Ligue 2. I’ve no idea about quality. Wenger loves taking players who have the raw ingredients… then moulding them. See Adebayor for a prime example of that in action.

As long as that isn’t our striking options done… then I can deal with it. Hopefully he’s fast.

Right, I have to leave this now… as I have a sh*t tonne of work on. More tomorrow.

See you in the comments.

A no news day! What? Is this a sign of things to come? This can’t be good. I’m looking forward to all the rubbish transfer blogs coming out of hibernation in time for the summer display advertising gold rush. Some of it has already started…

‘Arsenal agree ¥17,0000,,73fdh000 deal with Madrid’s class clown’

It’s so boring. Newsnow used to be my first port of call, now I just use the filtered newsfeed I get in the comments section here.

So what shall we talk about? Ok, how about the profit warning Puma put out the other day. The German kit maker who have already announced a a projected 23% dip in operating profit had to share further bad news on their performance. Still, like all good businesses, when the chips are down, you don’t shackle the marketing costs, you make an effort to bring in new revenue streams. Arsenal being a very, very big statement.

Talking of the kit, @LAGVILAVA7  has knocked up a very tasty iteration of what he thinks the strip should look like. He also pulled together the Le Grove Twitter backdrop. If you want to get yourself out there as a young designer, there’s no better way of doing it. The kit is probably a nicer version of something Puma haven’t even thought of.

Quite shambolic that Caught Offside have run the story and clipped the originator off the post. Bad internet practice…

Theo Walcott has spoken of the half time team talk that happened on Tuesday.

“We got a rocket, we’ll keep that in the dressing room. But it’s great that the manager has that passion and it got a bit more out of the players. We all knew how big it is, not just for the manager but the fans, the players and the club itself. It’s massive to be in the Champions League. The manager gave us a kick up the backside. I felt we did show some good play in the first half but we didn’t manage to take our chances. Thankfully we did in the second.”

Sometimes seeing the passion of the person in charge is enough to kick you into gear. Hunger is a top down thing. If you’re managing people and you take the foot off the gas, they do too… even if it’s not a conscious thing. Alex Ferguson never let that hunger disappear… which considering his age is a miracle. It’s nice to see Arsene can turn it on when it matters.

One person who won’t have mastered that art is Alan Pardew. People constantly reference how he’s signed a load of French duffers… and that many Arsenal fans were wrong to have called for them… but for me, they’re good players. It’s just they’re being badly managed. The players clearly have an issue with one season wonder Pardew… so for him to come out and say he wouldn’t care of they lost 4-0… well, it’s sports management suicide.

Anyway, back to Theo Walcott… the performance he put in the other night showed he has what it takes to be a fearsome player. Whether he was coming in from out wide or playing through the centre he played with aggression, purpose with a bucket load of confidence. You felt he was playing like he believed he was a £100k a week player. Yeah, sure, it was Wigan. But it was a high pressure game and he stood up and ensured he was counted. His stats read pretty well… 6 attempts, 4 on target with a goal to boot. His passing was a little off with 64%  accuracy off 14 attempts, but I guess a few of those would have come from failed crosses.

I think we can only look at his season as a success. He’s taken his game up a level. Does he have another level of performance within him? I’m not sure. He’s developed instinctive finishing. He hasn’t yet worked out how you play against top defences. When his pace is nullified… he has to work out what his game looks like. Players like Theirry Henry had a game for every occasion. He has to find that. Is he naturally gifted enough? Maybe not. Can he work his socks off to improve to those levels? Again…a  big maybe. It was fascinating reading the bio of Thierry Henry… he wasn’t a natural finisher in the mold of David Trezeguet. He had to work to become that good. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it. I’ve put my mind towards growing a Thierry Henry style beard… it’s fearsome. Though it has been noted I’m starting to look like a sex offender. No amount of mind magic is going to change that, so I trim could be in order.

I was reading through The Standard last night and I came across one of those smug articles journalists pen at the end of every season when Arsene makes it into the top four. ‘Arsene Wenger will be chuckling to himself after proving the doubters wrong once again’ type articles. It’s amazing how predictable some papers can be. If Wenger is chuckling to himself after a season like this, I’d be very surprised. Bumbling into the top four on the last game of the season is nothing to be smug about. It’s a serious issue if the objective of the year was to challenge for major honours. We’ve hit a serious stagnation point at the club… hopefully, after the uneasiness of this year, that will be recified. Wenger can chuckle to himself all he wants when we win the league next year by 15 points.

Anyway, rant over… I just can’t stand smug journalists picking holes in the concerns of fans who pay for their tickets.

The sun is out… enjoy the day and remember this… the football season is nearly over, which means you might actually have to pay attention to your family this summer.

… but there is the Confederations Cup… and so much beer undrunk.