The Goon Blog

Ive said this before. We were as toothless as a 99 year old granny who has lost her dentures.

We need Andrei Arshavin, and after Diaby’s injury there really is no excuse now.

We started without Van Persie as a booking would have him out of the Tottenham game next week, a game i think we will lose. In defence we had the pertnership that Wenger has said does not work, IF IT DOES NOT WORK WHY PLAY THEM?

WHY SAY THAT WE DONT NEED A NEW DEFENDER?

Its plain to see we do.

Im a very very fustrated Arsenal fan because if we had offered Flamini a new contract that he would accept, this season could have been one of the easiest League wins under Wengers tenure.

What we lacked was creativity and without Van Persie you would find bricks more creative than this side, this isnt going to be the most fluent match report ive ever done because quite frankly im angry, fustrated and fed up.

Ive just heard Arsene Wenger say ‘we defended well’, we did not have anything of note to defend, if we had conceded in that game though im sure there would have been loud shouts for him to go, certain blogs might ask for that anyway.

Wenger has also said that we gave everything but its really not enough at all, we are lacking quality and we cant make excuses about injuries because every single team has to put up with them. Chelsea have had injuries, Liverpool have had injuries, Man Utd have had injuries, Aston Villa have had injuries. We are not alone in having them. We just need depth in strength.

We have not even won half our games this season. How does that feel?

We are five points behind Villa and we are starting to run out of time here, we are passing up opportunities to get back above them, quite literally.

I am so fed up.

Why was Adebayor kept on the field and Bendtner taken off, he was playing much better than Adebayor who missed two guilt edged chances.

This is a call out to Arsenal, seal that Arshavin deal. Do it for the fans, you CAN afford it, you can afford 80K a week for him and i can pretty much garuntee that he will offer more for that money than Adebayor at the moment.

Im pig sick of these results, sod the unbeaten run. I don’t care that we have kept it up, this team is not good enough Arsene.

At least one kid did us proud today.

Rant over.

Its going absolutely mental tonight, people texting Lachter, Sky Sports doing their bit to get us all excited then let us all down, commenter’s claiming they have had texts back from Lachter.

Its mad.

Ive tried texting him myself but the message did not deliver, maybe it was user error or a duff number i don’t know, but if you want to give it a bash head to the FIFA Agents List.

Gooner Talk have been up to date throughout the whole saga, passing Russian press information onto us and contacting Lachter himself and getting answers. My advice is if you are hunting for Arshavin information go there.

I did say that i would not keep going on about the deal a few days back but it just cant be helped, transfer deals have dragged on at times but this one is unique. Its utterly mental and to be honest, its not good for the game or player involved. Its probably like this because we go by the rules.

You know what, i am not even going to guess what will happen next.  I don’t want to use my brain power on even thinking about it because ive got a bastard cold, im nackered and quite frankly, i want to sleep and not wake up until Tuesday morning.

I was going to bring you a preview but i have not been able to research too deep into anything. West Ham are on a decent run, much like us and they have that Heskey mach II in Carlton Cole up front. And he has been banging them in recently, the net that is, not the stand like he usually does.

I remember when he used to be more of a threat to birds and UFO’s than the goalkeeper. I hope he has one of those days tomorrow, might get rid of some of those bloody Pigeons around London.

I’m unsure if Wenger will change much from Wendnesday, part of me thinks he will field the strongest team possible and rest players against Cardiff at home, one thing we cant afford is to underestimate one of these two teams.

In a way every game from now on, be it against Manchester Utd, Real Madrid, Roma or Blackburn Rovers, its a cup final. In a blink of an eye this season could be an utter disaster.

Then it still has the potential to be a good one, football is a funny sport isn’t it?

One thing we can put to bed is the Central Midfield area, Wenger has made it perfectly clear he is not looking to add there.

“I believe that we have the needed quality in the middle because [Abou] Diaby develops very well and I think that [Alex] Song develops well. I don’t believe that Denilson gets the credit that he deserves at the moment.

“At the back you can see the quality of players we have like [William] Gallas and Kolo [Toure] and [Johan] Djourou, they are in their national teams and to find better players is not easy.

“I agree that people always want better players but many clubs when they want better players come to see us so that means our players are good. For example Milan wanted [Philippe] Senderos, Senderos is 22 and Milan have scouts everywhere, so that’s why I believe we have the needed quality.

“Djourou is 21 and you think he will be better and we have to give him a chance.”

Bit of an essay there, cutting the jargon that red highlighted sentence is the most important.

This season is a true test of Gooners faith and Wenger is putting his faith in his youngsters. He has given this club and its supporters great times, we have achieved things that ten years ago would have been laughed at. Wenger deserves the time to try and do this his way with no interference. He will be, and is being criticized but we will have to trust him.

I do.

Right, my two cents on Arshavin. Sod it, why not speak what i think.

Wengers comments that have appeared this evening lead me to think that we will get him, i am being ever so cautiously optimistic.

“He’s a guy who can go past people in the final third, he can have the key, individually and collectively.

“He is an experienced player, 27, a good age and we are a very young side. We will not have Fabregas in the next six to eight weeks, we will not have Walcott in the next five weeks, Rosicky in the next eight weeks.

“You can see with the replay of the FA Cup we have the desire to do well in every competition and one more body could help us.”

He does not say those things about a player that isn’t his very often.

Monday maybe, i will put a penny bet on Arshavin arriving by 3pm Monday afternoon.

There you go, knock yourself out with Arshavin-ness.

Til Tomorrow.

We have a couple of new features for you readers today.

• We have the new mail subscription feature so every time a new post is up you will receive it in your inbox. This could be handy for you people at work, college, university etc. Hopefully the swear word blockers won’t start blocking mails! You can find this just to your right hand side in the toolbar.

• There is also the facility to get every post on your mobile phone courtesy of Natajak. To subscribe to this NOW you can click [here], or click on the picture on the right hand side toolbar.

Im informed it is fantastic for regular blog readers so enjoy the new features!

We have also got a new, more ‘retro’ banner up and in my opinion it is far better than the old one. We would love to know what you think and what you like and hate about the site so please drop us a comment or mail me at goonblogger[removethis]@googlemail.com

Thanks and i will be back later with the latest news in the world of Arsenal.

Rui Fonte a highly rated young forward has moved to Crystal Palace on loan for the month of Febuary, this has just been confirmed on Arsenal.com.

The 18 year old is highly rated within the corridors of Ashburton Grove and is tipped for a big future.

I somehow doubt he will make regular appearances but the change of scenery and different training styles over at Palace will enable him to learn things he might not otherwise pick up at Arsenal and hopefully he can get a bit of time on the pitch too.

‘El Nino’ – as he is known, is described as a ’stylish and classy striker’ accoding to the Young Guns profile.

Good luck Rui.

The Andrei Arshavin saga looks set to continue up to the dying minutes of the transfer window as we have sealed a work permit for the Owl lookalike.

This news comes courtesy of SSN.

Now the work permit is in place we can keep Zenit dangling for a few days longer, turning up the pressure on them and after Hill-Wood has said ‘we won’t be the ones picking up the phone’, its down to Zenit by the looks of it.

Id say this is a positive sign, there is probably a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that we are unaware of so all news that gets leaked id take with a big pinch of salt as its usually from the Zenit end, and we know what they are like.

Lets hope that we get more news later.

Update: Wenger has denied we have got a work permit, or even applied for a work permit. For Jesus sake.

“No, and we have not applied for a work permit yet for Arshavin or anybody else.”

I think the lesson is do not ever trust Sky Sports anymore.

Sorry guys, bad news.

Robin Van Persie is the main gunner at Arsenal at the moment, but his contract is running agonisingly close to the wire. In my view, there is no better player in the world at the moment and there has not been for the past month.

Now to put on the rose tinted specs.

To sum up his contribution so far this year Arsenal have scored eight goals this month, Van Persie has five assists, and three goals. That remarkable stat does not do the Dutchman justice.

He is one of the worlds most naturally gifted footballers, up with the likes of Lionel Messi, Marco Van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp.

Only now can we see what he is really capable of, he has not had the chance to get six months of continuous football in the Arsenal shirt before and at 25 years of age he is coming of age, the Premier Leagues defences will vouch for that.

He has won us eleven points this month, without them we would be ten points off the bottom of the league. Imagine that. It really does not bare thinking about but that is what this season is like this year, we even have Aston Villa occupying fourth place at the moment. Thats how stupid this season is.

Pure World Class

His control is silky, his first touch is magical, his finishing when its needed and i mean really needed, is like a breath of fresh air. This is not the Robin Van Persie who had all the worlds talent at his feet but could not stand on them due to injury.

There has been endless talk about Arshavin but i really doubt we will get him, we could do with his creativity and it would make Robin’s job a lot easier and allow him to rest more because if we are going to win anything this season, Mr Robin will be the man doing it for us.

I find it staggering that his man alone is supporting a whole football club on what was – touch-wood – a previously injury prone and brittle back.

Mr Gazidis, Arsene Wenger, Peter Hill-Wood and the dusty Arsenal piggy bank; if you are reading this blog please please break whatever you need to get this man on a long term contract and a high wage because if anyone deserves it this season its not Wenger, its not Alex Song, its not Cesc Fabregas for all his class, its Mr Robin.

Its a plea that every Arsenal fan will probably me making and of we are not going to spend this month we have to secure the future of our best, and the world’s best talent.

Make a real signing now, forget Arshavin, Veloso, David Villa et al. We have Cesc Fabregas’s future under wraps, its time to secure Robin Van Persie’s.

Name many more players in the world capable of this

And moments like this

And for the poor quality of this gif, you can see for yourself how much of an amazing goal this is

Please please get this guy on a contract that will scare the poachers in Europe off. This footballer has the potential to be the best in the world for a while, and at the moment he is just that.

He is our true leader.

Thanks for reading.

Just a little titbit before Gooner14 comes up with the match report.

Zenit have said that a one off payment of 15 million is acceptable for Arshavin, who lets face it, we do need after a shocking performance at Everton.

This news comes courtesy of Sky Sports.

The main sticking point is the wages, some reports say that Arshavin wants a crazy 135K a week, which i am sure is utter bollocks.

Other reports say he is niggling for a 100K a week contract, the same he is on at Zenit.

Wengers comments on the saga after the game were;

“There is nothing new, because today I have been focussed on the game, and I did not pick up any phone calls so nothing has happened. It was 90 per cent that I will be able to give you more in the next two days. Remember in this job the other 10 per cent can be more important than the other 90 because people can change their mind quickly”

On another note, lets get Van Persie tied down to a very, very long contract with a buy out clause of 100,000,000 yeah? What a stunner he scored in an otherwise shit performance from the lads.

Right, Gooner14 up next with the report.

Talk to you soon.