…. 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.

The game wasn’t about points. It was about goal difference. Too many Arsenal fans wrapped their day around Mike Dean and a poor Wigan’s resilience. Well… more fool those people.

Just kidding. What a game. It was met by joy, followed by Mike Dean despair, followed by shrieks of despondency, followed by a hattrick of further pleasure. The game had it all for me, Wigan, of 19 game loss notoriety, was probably my favourite game of the season. It was one of the few where fans united. It was the first time all year I turned round and questioned the anti fan behind us some stick for singing ‘you’ve won more cups than us’ as we were winning. The irony? He said if we lost we could ‘kick out the nonces and move back to Highbury’… Singing anti-Arsenal songs during a game?

Anyway. The game was about the goal difference. Theo carved out our first chance when he crossed for Cazorla to head just wide. He was on fire from the start and he was one of the few who stood up and showed some mettle from the get go.

Our opening came from a shoddy piece of defensive work from Wigan. Cazorla placed a corner into the six yard box, everyone missed leaving Lukas a simple 5 yard header. Magic. A goal up nice and early.

We continued to press like our survival depended on it. We carved out plenty of possession and the boys we’re firing on all cylinders. Then things started to calm. It started to feel like we were going to settle for a 1-0. Wigan were clearly tired and I said to the guys around me, ‘a set price is the only way we’ll concede’… I headed to the bar to get my first round of the season, repeated myself to the guy standing next to me… bang. Maloney scored from an unjust freekick moments after Dean failed to award Santi one for a similar tustle. The freekick was pretty good. The wall failed and the keeper didn’t get across fast enough. He rarely does.

The boys rolled in at half time and we were all disgusted. The team was average, they’d taken their foot of the gas and they deserved the scoreline. How was this happening? I wasn’t having it though. This was a poor Wigan team playing a suicidal highline. There was no way they could hang on… I hoped. I even accidentally made a £1000 bet it wouldn’t be 4-1 (I thought I’d take a £1000 if it was 4-1).

2nd half started and we were on the back foot straight away. Koscielny was immense, but it was our keeper who made a telling save from Kone which was huge in terms of the overall result. The save was followed by an underrated turning point when Gibbs slipped in and poked the ball away from the same man 5 minutes later.

Would Arsenal collapse? Would we show that our mental spirit was below par when it mattered… again?

Well, no as it happened, we found our stride. Ramsey stopped falling over and making shoddy passes, Cazorla started to boss things like the world class wizard we know he is. He broke down the wing, slipped a ball into the dangerzone and watched Theo nip in front of two defenders and a keeper to put us ahead. The four guys I sit with went ballistic, so much man love you’d need a subscription to share it… Noting the guy behind us just clapped.

A one goal lead is never enough for Arsenal. Not for security of victory nor for taking third on goal difference. We needed more.

Our third came when Santi nodded a ball into the path of Lukas, he broke free of the offside trap and jinked the ball past the keeper.

The crowd were on fire at this point, to be fair, even when the chips were level, everyone was behind the boys. The rain was hammering down but the only dampened spirits were the Wigan fans who’d obviously missed their train on Saturday. Finally, we were going to see the back of Wigan. The final nail for the coffin was being angled under a giant hammer…  it came from captain ‘where are my studs’ Ramsey. He powered into the box (set free by Santi), headed towards goal at an angle, he gave the a cheeky look across box before switching it past the shocked Joel. What a goal! Who dies today? Who cares, as long as they die knowing it was for a good cause!

It was over for Wigan. Good riddance. Any team that concedes 71 goals needs a good season away from the league to have a think about that.

They still tried to batter their way to a goal, but it was over. Koscielny and Mertesacker had the back four on lockdown and held on.

For the first time in years, it was worth staying behind to salute the players efforts. 8 wins and 2 draws is a very good return over ten games and it’s all we could ask for given the obvious limitations of the set up and the lack of depth we have. The job is far from done and there are many twists yet to happen, but it’s all down to desire now. If we take the confidence from that game into the weekend, we’ll be more than a match for Newcastle.

After that, we can start thinking about to summer and the possibilities it could hold.

The season is nearly over… and to be honest, I can’t fu*king wait.

P.S. There’s a big possibility we could end playing Chelsea in a 3rd place play off… I think if we win 2-1 and Chelsea draw 0-0… it could be on. Wouldn’t that be amusing!

The last home game of the season takes place tonight and there are millions of pounds at stake for both sides. If Wigan win, they open themselves up to the possibility of winning against Villa this Sunday and staying up. If Arsenal win, we’ll be three points away from securing a top four position.

Many fans have forgotten that two wins on the bounce could also secure us third place. Chelsea have made the Champions League, they have a Europa Cup final to play for, so they might not be entirely focused on beating an Everton side who have drawn at City, Liverpool and Arsenal away from home.

Wenger said something interesting in his press conference about Wigan…

‘Of course they get out in recent years every time – just – but when you play with that fire every year it can be dangerous’

Arsenal are the Wigan of the Champions League. We seem to intentionally go out to play with fire every season and near enough every year, we just about scrape it. This has to be the last summer we flirt with omission from the top 4. Our wage bill should dictate that we’re well away from the danger by now. Sure, so should Chelsea’s… but they’ve chopped and changed to get into a position where they can find a manager who can do that.

Mancini was sent packing from Manchester City yesterday after one disappointing season. Brutal, yes. He didn’t hit objectives and that’s how you pay at the top level. Now, I’m not saying I’d like to work to that model. I guess my worry with Mancini is that the players looked as though they’d stopped playing for him… and with that squad, you shouldn’t be chasing a cup final with Rodwell and Milner. Anyway, my point is, Arsenal have consistently failed to improve over the last 8 years. We’ve consistently failed to hold on to star players and ambition has been cited numerous times.

It’s time for Arsene to show he can move a squad into the elite. That starts with more than a win tonight. Wigan have lost 19 games this year. They’re a poor side with a terrible defence. Three points isn’t the objective tonight. Scoring 5 goals is. We can respect their cup win, but lets not respect them to the point we have the fear. We’ve had ten days preparation. We should destroy them this evening.

This is Wenger’s chance to show he can focus a team when the pressure is on… something we’ve consistently failed with… a problem that can’t rear it’s ugly head tonight. Because if it does, our season faces early closure (well, if Spurs don’t bottle it!).

With the summer approaching, we’ll also need to show early balls there as well. Lots of debate around the veracity of a Rooney move… he’d be an amazing buy, but not as amazing as a returning Cesc Fabregas. The papers are alive with stories around the Spaniard being the target of United. Now, it might not be worth anything, but I was told he would only consider a move back to Arsenal if he did decide to leave Barcelona this summer. I might be totally wrong, but there’s a small chance he might have Arsenal DNA. However, the very fact United are in for him should spur the board into action for the 26 year old assist machine. He has many years left in him… and come on… who wants to go and play for David Moyes?

I’d be hugely disappointed if we missed out on a player who made his name with us… and has stated that he still watches our games. Arsenal just need to present him with an ambitious project plan… and stump up some serious cash.

We need to take care of tonight first. I hope we don’t see Podolski in the middle, we should stick him out wide and bring Theo into the middle. He’s the perfect player to rip them a new one. He’s found form of late, so I see no reason as to why he can’t continue that. Pace against Cup final tired legs is a good place to be. I had a dream that Chamberlain impacted the game with 2 goals. I’m not sure that’s happening, but I hope if we see one of those turgid midfield performances, he’s given a go. I’m guessing the midfield three will be Rosicky, Arteta and Ramsey. How the front three will work out is a mystery… I’d look at Podolski, Cazorla and Theo… he might bring Gervinho into the fold though… who knows. As long as there are 11 motivated players on the pitch, I’m not really fussed how the line up looks.

I want this season to end on a high… I want the last home game of this horrible nine months to end with me staying on to applaud the players for showing some f*cking guts for once. It needs to be a big performance pushed by a big crowd reaction. I’m looking forward to it, catch you in the comments!

Secondly, a guest post is a guest post. I don’t specify that all opinions have to match with mine. Do I think Cazorla is better than Cesc? Not in a million years. Do I think foreign fans and Arsenal’s globalisation has diluted hardcore support.

Well, yes and no.

Cut aside naive view points about fandom. Cut aside that this isn’t a nationality issue, this is a commitment, support and love thing. Here is a stone cold fact you can’t argue with.

‘Not everyone’s support of Arsenal is the same’

Ouch. Did that touch a nerve? I bet it did. Some of you in Australia or India might be fuming right now. But you needn’t be. You’re some of the hardcore. You’ve taken your interest beyond the main site. You’re so hungry for Arsenal news, you’re going out of your way to read a site that was up until lately, was quite hard to find (no Arsenal in the site name).

There are different levels of commitment though and different levels of love for the club. This is where people can get tetchy, but this is the same for all fans, so wipe away the rage tears and bear with me.

My relationship with the club as a season ticket holder is different than someone who is not a season ticket holder. It’s accepted in England, that you’re pretty hardcore if you go to games. If you’re in a bar and someone asks you who you support… the question after is always ‘are you a season ticket holder?’… why? Because it’s a statement about your level of commitment. Now, you can pretend that’s not true… but you’d be lying to yourself. We all do it… except with United fans, when the general question is, ‘have you ever been?’.

The level up from that is away support. Now, I’m a season ticket holder, a blogger, an AST member, a podcaster and an Arsenal media whore… and I fully accept that fans who go to all the away games are more hardcore than me. That doesn’t offend me. It doesn’t upset me. It’s just a fact. Those boys and girls dedicate their life to the club with money and time to a level I could never match. Both types of fan still love the club, one group is just more committed.

This stretches out to the hardcore foreign supporters, like Chris Toronyi from the Arsenal America Podcast. He loves the club, he decks his boy out in the kit, he talks about Arsenal all day, he podcasts weekly about the games and he flies over here to catch games. That’s not diluted support, that’s adding to the hardcore. He’s as committed as he can be. He’s spreading the message of Arsenal globally and making big sacrifices along the way.

There are fans who can’t afford to do that that are hardcore because they get up at three in the morning on a Tuesday to catch the games. You have the guys in New York who meet up at supporter clubs. African fans are some of the craziest on the planet. Our blog has a huge Indian / Pakistani following. These guys are committed in a different way. It’s not better or worse, but it has to be recognised that it’s different.

I quite often get told people like to read my blog because I go to the games. In fact, when renewals come up and people talk about whether they’re doing it… quite often they say to me, ‘well, you have no choice’… and it’s true. I wouldn’t give up my season ticket regardless, but I think this site would lose an edge if I wasn’t there. However, there’s no difference between seeing on a stream versus seeing it live. But people rank it differently.

However, this is why I agree that social media and globalisation dilutes football fandom. Because simple, rational thought dictates it does. You can’t tell me all the Asian fans who attended our last tour share than same passion for the club as someone who watches every game be it on the box or in the ground. There are casual fans, hardcore foreign fans, casual UK fans… there’s a whole mix. One thing there is not is a standardised passion globally for Arsenal… and please, don’t think I’m saying the Asian tour didn’t fire up a raft of hardcore fans. If Arsenal Indonesia Twitter feed retweets something I write… it continues to spread for about 3 days after.

… and that’s my take on it. If you’re hardcore, it doesn’t matter where you’re from. That’s what you are. But lets not sugar coat that all Arsenal fans are hardcore, because they’re not and let’s accept that there are different levels of commitment, love and knowledge of the club. All fans are important though. If you can turn casual foreign fans into paid members, you might move them into more serious fans who buy merchandise. If we can convert causal teenage supporters into season ticket holders, you’ve got yourself a lifetime season ticket holder. The point is though, that you can be hardcore from anywhere in the world… just as you could be an armchair fan living on Gillespie Road.

All fans are important if we’re to develop as a club and an inclusive approach to global fans is hugely important to that. That’s both the clubs approach, but the UK fan base as well. That works both ways. Being told you’re a bad supporter by someone who has only supported the club three minutes is just a offensive as being told your opinion isn’t important because you’re from Canada. What is apparent is social media and the web has given the club huge exposure which allows it to attract £35m shirt sponsorship deals. It’s win win for everyone. It’s a global community and no one fan group is responsible for some of the classless things that are said on Twitter… however, it is our job as fans to round on people who take disgusting comments to players too far… but that’s a social problem rather than a football specific one.

… so let’s not get started on that.

Anyway, that’s my take on it all…

Onto yesterday’s games. They didn’t go well for is. Spurs continued to wrack up points and pressure. Stoke went one up early on from some shoddy set piece defending. They managed to pull the game back after a Begovic communication cock up and an Adebayor tap in ten minutes from time.

That means Wigan tomorrow has even more importance. Most professional pundits are wondering where Wigan will get the energy from and I am too. The worry I have is ten days off might lead to a rusty performance. I also don’t like the way a Wigan win tees up the last game of the season. Sunderland play Spurs, Wigan play relegation battlers Villa. Hopefully we can just relegate them tomorrow with a great performance. The fans are going to play a huge part in the game… we certainly can’t afford to be rusty.

Good news is Newcastle are safe and Alan Pardew said he didn’t care what happened against us now, the green light for player slack off. Very professional.

In other news, an Ashley Williams hash up at the back for Swansea gave he credence to his Arsenal transfer a little bump up. Jokes aside he’s a very good defender, many saying he could be our Sol Campbell. That would be nice…

Wayne Rooney and his story took another twist yesterday. He put in a transfer request and asked to be dropped from the United team yesterday. What a sulky brat eh? Personal tastes aside… who wouldn’t want to play the last home game of the season… for a manager who gave you a career on his last game? All very sulky… still, if he wants out and he wants a new challenge, I wouldn’t say no. I think Arsenal feel the same.

Would they sell domestically? Would we match or better his wages? Maybe… watch this space. Arsenal are interested.

In other, slightly more curve ball transfer talk. 27 year old Falcao has agreed to join Monaco for £50m on a £157k pw take home pay packet. Incredible eh? I’d love to know how Monaco’s commercial revenues will handle FFP. Falcao is sure to enjoy the spicy atmosphere the 18000 capacity stadium throws up. Apparently Cavani might end up there… amazing that the Oligarchal business model has made its way to France (I know it’s not technically France) of all places.

Rights, that’s your lot. See you in the comments.

It isn’t really a surprise to me that Santi Cazorla is most fans Arsenal Player of the Year. He has had a fantastic start to his Gooner career and I think has shown no real need for a bed in period. His ability with both feet is really astounding, I don’t think we as Arsenal fans have had a player with the pure technical brilliance of Santi since possibly Dennis the Menace. The argument could be made for Cesc but I feel Santi edges it. However, I think it is important to acknowledge before the transfer window that we are playing our club asset in the wrong position.

Cazorla has played for Villareal to great effect out on the left and also featured often for Malaga in the same role, and since the last game in January he has mainly been used as a left forward in our front three. On paper a two footed skilful player with a hell of a longshot should be ideally suited to the fluid role of the AML that has developed in recent times.

The best performance from Santi came probably in the Reading game when he grabbed then excellent hatrick and barely put a foot wrong all game, while playing in the hole. These 3 goals are part of his 12 league goals of the season and 15 goals for the season.

Using the last 12 games as a comparison between his performances before the end January and since then shows his creativity and contribution has dropped significantly and is less effective than Podolski. Cazorla in his last 12 games has 3 goals and 2 assists from his 9 goals and 6 assists he had playing in the centre. Of course you have to take into account that he’s played 12/13 out wide and roughly 24 games in the centre. However his efficiency has clearly dropped since he moved out left and I think he crosses very, very rarely, which coincides with Giroud’s serious dip in goalscoring form. Podolski, no matter what you think of him as a centre forward, managed to score 5 goals and nab 5 assists in the 12 games he played out on the left before Wenger dropped him.

Now the injury that he’s been playing through could explain his lack of sharpness and commitment but his effect out wide was still positive. If football was this simple you could predict that if Podolski had played the whole season out wide then he could of racked up about 15 goals in the league with 15 assists, brilliant stats. The combination between Giroud and Podolski in undeniable, Girouds first ever Arsenal goal came from a Podolski cross at West Ham if I remember rightly. The main point here is that there is a possibility that AW’s brilliant knack of refusing to play players in their natural positions could hinder the impact of a great player.

I think before we go into the transfer market we should establish that Santi will be playing in the CAM role next season and that we need a solution for the LF spot. It’s important we make sure that Jack’s role at the club is established as well because his performances and stats indicate he can’t play the CAM role very effectively, and with Rosicky getting older and more injury prone (is it possible?) then we have to make sure to strengthen the CAM spot or the LF spot dependent on the future role of Santi Cazorla.

With just Wigan and Newcastle left to play and the big summer spending spree supposedly on its way, the names of the potentials and the Football Manager favourites are being thrown around again.

Firstly, Stevan Jovetic is not as good as most of the people who speak about him seem to think. If you intend for him to lead the line as Arsenals complete forward then you are going to be distinctly disappointed. He does fit an Arsenal type player though, with sublime passing and is probably as quick, if not quicker, than Chamberlain or Gibbs. He scored 12 goals this year and it is important to realise that this is his fourth year in Serie A and that 12 goals in 29 games is less than 14 goals in 29 games he got in the 2011/12 season.

He is undoubtedly going to be a major talent in the future but to compete with the best in England and the UCL, we need a striker who can score goals now. Wayne Rooney to Arsenal is interesting because of the significance of buying a Manchester United player who isn’t Silvestre. It would certainly solve the problem of having no established CAM player when Santi is on the wing as Rooney plays best in the no. 10 role in my opinion, though I must admit I don’t watch much United. Why Rooney would come to Arsenal and anger fans that idolise him is a mystery so I don’t rest much weight on the idea.

In my opinion the important thing this summer is to make sure we land the high profile names, and if we miss out on one like Benteke to Spurs then we switch targets immediately and try out utmost to sign them. There is nothing more frustrating for me as a fan to watch us flounder and fail to land Juan Mata when the hint of blue competition came on the horizon. Hopefully we can secure our targets, whomever they may be, early on in the transfer market.

If we could do a Lukas Podolski and grab our targets before the deadline even opens then that’d make our pre-season a lot easier and more stable. Hopefully this year we can grab the experienced GK, CB cover, first choice DM, technical AM and clinical ST we all dream of.

Lastly just a comment about the fanbase at Arsenal and how it has changed so much recently. Probably a product of globalization and footballs massive worldwide support but more and more non-English Arsenal fans are commenting a lot on social media. This is diluting the resolute, die-hard, fan-for-life Gooner attitude that I associate us all with. This easy access to post opinions is giving very impatient, very angry people the chance to launch tirades against the club, the manager, the players and each other. I just want to remind everyone that we are The Arsenal. Arsene may have dragged this club under the water lately, he may have made some very questionable decisions over the last few years but he is still our most successful manager. He deserves respect just as much as he deserves criticism. To call him a c**t every single day on twitter does nothing productive for the club whatsoever, it makes you look like a child who got hold of his older brothers twitter account and posted it to piss him off.

The players, no matter how badly they play, do not deserve to have people tweeting them to “f***ing die”, a tweet I saw directed at Poldi by a gooner last week. As long as the lads show effort and wear their hearts on their sleeves then they deserve applause because if they are rubbish, it is only AW’s fault for playing them at a club above their talent.

Anyway this is my first guest post so thanks for giving this a read! If you’d like to say something just tweet me @TGesches. Let’s tear the FA Cup Winners a new one on Tuesday!