Nonsensical Wenger comments

I read Arsene's comments on the close season this morning and one particular quote stood out for me. This is it:

“Then we had the fact that we could only complete the transfers very late. It was only possible then, and it was unbelievable how it happened finally."

The use of the word 'fact' is of particular importance. Personally I think Arsene is using the word 'fact' to describe that this is what happened, I don't think he means it wouldn't have been possible to get transfers done earlier if things had been done differently. However I am not sure whether Arsene would go back and do things differently if he had the chance to turn back the clock, by saying 'it was only possible then' he seems to imply that the club would not do things differently if they could go back and try again.

I think that as supporters and shareholders we need to push the club for answers as to why it was not possible to get some transfer deals done earlier, I cannot simply take it as 'fact' that nothing could not have been done earlier and better if the club had been more organised and dynamic in their transfer negotiations. This is a very serious issue to me that questions the very competence of our club's management to sort out player transfers.

I know the club made early bids for certain players including a certain Gary Cahill. I also know that we have several million pounds left over that was not spent come the end of the window. I am no unrealistic fool, the club could not have gone out and brought in several big 30 million pound signings having sold no one, however in my eyes there is no doubt we could have done some useful early business and brought in two or three players, the fact that we did not do this suggests some significant levels of incompetence exist in the club's strategy. The manager and the board are both implicated in this failure, precisely how the blame should be divided has not yet been defined.
The biggest concern for me is that you cannot learn from your mistakes unless you own up to them, acknowledge them and change your approach to prevent them repeating in the future. I have seen no evidence that anyone in the club thinks the club has done anything wrong, the manager's words appear to show that he thinks no mistakes were made and that everything was done perfectly. This shows a state of denial or a lack of honesty, and either of these are deeply concerning to supporters. I think there is something rotten present in our club's management structure and it needs sorting badly, the first step in this will be us as supporters pushing the club for answers on these so called 'facts'. Either we have a manager in denail, an incompetent board or a bit of both.

The obvious

Tomorrow we need three points, it would be nice if it was a convincing victory with a big scoreline, but franky I would be happy with any form of three points given our dire start to the season.

Swansea are a good capable side, they knock the ball around nicely and have a bit of pace up front. Their performances thus far show they will be no walkover.

Meanwhile we will be playing a defence that has never played together before and at least one or two other new signings, it may not all click instantaneously.

Szczesny will be in goal, the back 4 looks like being sagna-mertesacker-kos-gibbs as santos is not yet match fit. I am sure the midfield three will be arteta-ramsey and one of coquelin/frimpong, both have made excellent starts, although frimpong's rash naivety cost us against liverpool, coquelin was our best outfield played at Old Trafford.

The front three is where I think things get very interesting. Theo will be right of the forward line, RVP central, the left sided spot is where I would love to see the Ox selected. The other options are the Korean Park, who I would be quite happy with (i have since been told he awaits a work permit) or the lacklustre Arshavin, who I would rather not see start. Please gamble with the Ox Arsene! This would be my side

Szczesny
Sagna - Mertesacker - Kos - Gibbs
Ramsey - Frimpong - Arteta
Walcott - RVP - AOC

It's strange to say but tomorrow really feels like the start of our season, everyone needs to get behind the lads tomorrow. However I have no issue with people making it very clear that they are unhappy with certain management strategies the club have employed in recent years. Mistakes must be learnt from if progress is to be maximal.

Vermaelen's injury - a specialist update

There has been much in the media of late on Thomas Vermaelen's recent injury and subsequent surgery, I intend to explain exactly what is going on to clear up any misunderstanding they may be on the subject. The following is written by a specialist Orthopaedic doctor.

Firstly the Achilles tendon is the main tendon that attaches to the back of the heel bone (calcaneus) which bends the foot/ankle down to the ground, it is obviously of key importance in jumping and athletic activity. The plantaris muscle is a small muscle of unknown importance, it attaches at the back of the knee joint at the top end, and down on the heel bone at the bottom end.

The statements released by various parties explaining Vermaelen's surgery/injury last season and this season do not all add up in a consistent fashion. Firstly he was out for a prolonged period last year after having surgery to address the 'inflamed' plantaris tendon, from this it has to be assumed that he had a degree of Achilles tendinosis, meaning 'degeneration' of the tendon, a condition which is particularly tricky to treat and which obviously took Vermaelen some time to settle down.
This season, the other side has flared up after an incident in the Udinese game and obviously the same surgery has been performed. The following statement was released by Arsenal FC:

"Vermaelen has undergone a minor procedure to remove an inflamed plantaris tendon from his left ankle. This is the same treatment that he had on his right ankle in January this year and has nothing to do with his Achilles tendon."

This statement is slightly economical with the truth in my opinion, it has everything to do with his Achilles tendon just as the same surgery did last season. In the scientific literature there is only a small amount of evidence relating to removing the plantaris tendon and it all links in with Achilles tendinosis. There is one large case series of re-operations involving removing the plantaris tendon in Achilles tendinosis and one far smaller series of cases involving removing the plantaris tendon in chronic Achilles tendinosis. The conclusions of these low quality studies state:

"The medial pain might be based on the involvement of the plantaris tendon in the process." and "The role of the plantaris tendon in midportion Achilles tendinosis needs to be further evaluated and should be kept in mind when treating this condition."

In conclusion Vermaelen's surgery is based on very little scientific evidence. Many experts would say that the surgery is of very dubious benefit, ie it is almost 'sham' surgery, a placebo treatment that only works because the patient is forced to rest for a decent period. Certainly no one could argue that there is any strong evidence to say that this surgery will definitely settle down his Achilles problems. It is worth remembering last season it took him many months to get back to full training, he experienced several setbacks after his plantaris surgery.

Achilles tendinosis is frequently a chronically painful condition, much like patella tendinosis (Owen Hargreaves has this), and there are few reliable treatments for them. Personally I am not quite sure why Arsenal are being slightly economical with the truth in this instance, it appears likely that they do not wish to scare supporters by revealing that Thomas Vermaelen's surgery may not be the long term definitive cure for his pain that they pretend it is. In reality we simply cannot reliably predict whether or not Thomas Vermaelen will recover fully, he may do, he may not. This is the truth about Thomas Vermalen's injury, it is not reassuring but it is the truth.

Interlull and expert take on our injuries

So the interlull goes on and we all wait for the Swansea game, the odd thing of interest has happened, UEFA have decided to pin the blame unfairly on Arsene, when it was in fact their inexperienced delegate at fault. No surprise there then, UEFA's kangaroo court nailing the innocent in a way that attempts to stifle anyone daring to challenge their almighty corrupt power.

Some of you may have seen my pieces from the weekend and earlier today. The common theme is the fact that our club is not being run in a professional or efficient manner. Transfers are being handled in rather inexplicably amateur fashion and this has cost us big time. Apparently Phil Jones was another of our near misses, we almost had him last January, we bid 8mill and Blackburn wanted just over ten, the rest as they say, is history.

Anyway something I am more expert on is things medical. LeGrove ran an interesting piece on our injury record today, certainly there is a bit of truth to this story, Raymond Verheijen is a fitness coach who has openly criticised Arsenal's training techniques. One thing I think people should be very aware of is that the coaching team are a very separate entity to the medical team. The coaching staff and managed will decide what our players do, while the medical team will pick up the pieces, although a bit of a simplification, it is fairly true.

I have to say though, looking back at all of our injuries and in particular the longer term injuries, very very few could even be argued to be related to overuse:

Vermaelen - achilles tendinosis - must be managed with sensible training but probably something he was inherently predisposed to getting

Djourou - osteochondral defect in knee - rare problem and extremely unlikely to be over use related

Ramsey - tibial fracture thanks to Ryan Shawcross

Diaby - ankle fracture thanks to Dan Smith and persisent ankle issues related to original injury

Gibbs - initial foot fracture after poor tackle and chronic issues since

Cesc - hamstring issues certainly lasted longer as he was rushed back quickly

Rosicky - chronic issues existed pre-Arsenal and actually sorted out by club

Van Persie - ankle surgery needed after ligament rupture caused by bad tackle

Walcott - shoulder surgery for recurrent dislocations

Eduardo - victim of shocking ankle fracture due to Taylor challenge and injuries continued after this

Overall the only players I would say who has been sidelined for injuries that have been related to overuse are Jack Wilshere and Cesc Fabregas. The latter of these was badly needed, so an educated risk was taken and this seems reasonable, even in retrospect. Jack certainly has been overplayed for one so young. The main thing we can act on is squad strength as this allows more player rotation and reduces the risk of burning out our top players. I feel that it is unwise to blame the coaching staff or the medical staff for our injury record, and the evidence above seems to back this up.

Once upon a time there was an Ox

On an planet far far away and obviously far detached from our current earthly reality, there once was a young and highly talented young fire-catcher called Arthur Ox-of-Chamberstone. On this imaginary planet fire-catching was big business, it attracted crowds from all around the solar system and the big fire-catching teams made big money. This meant that for the small number of youth fire-catchers that made it the rewards were potentially huge.

Young Arthur Ox fire caught for his local club, Southsoton, and had attracted a lot of attention because of his outstanding performances. He was speedy and had excellent technique for one so young. The big Premier League fire catching sides had taken not of young Arthur Ox and they were all moving in, the future seemed bright for the young man.

The first side to make a move were the big guns of Arandell, their coach Arlene Vender was particularly keen to snap the young Ox up before the other big clubs moved. The young Ox was naive in the ways of the world and was represented by his fire-catching agent, his agent agreed the terms of deal in the middle of the season and expected everything to be completed once the close season began. All appeared done and dusted.

Strangely Arandell didn't stick to their side of the deal, they reneged on the original terms that had been agreed in principle and tried to get Arthur Ox on the cheap. Obviously Southsoton and Arthur's agent were not impressed, they decided to go elsewhere to see if any of the other big Premier League clubs would agree to pay something in the ball park of the original deal that had been agreed.

They went up to meet with another manager, Sir Alchy Friedeggface of Melchester Rovers, who wined and dined them, then offered them a similar deal to that which had been originally agreed with Arandell. Luckily for Arandell and Arlene Vender, Arthur Ox's father wanted his son to fire-catch for Arandell, so he went back to them to see if they would match Melchester's offer. They did and off young Arthur Ox-of-Chamberstone went to Arandell, the rest is history or so I've been told.

Obviously this is just a mythical tale from an imaginary land, it bears no relation to any events that may have recently unfolded on planet earth. Still on this imaginary planet it appears that the case of Arthur Ox-of-Chamberstone was not a one off mistake, it appeared that Arandell fire-catching club were repeatedly making the same kind of errors in their attempts to bring in the best fire-catchers from far and wide. Arandell's transfer dealings did not appear to be the most professional or efficient, or so I've been told. The reasons for this are far from clear.

Wilshere scaremongering and post-Dein transfer failings

Firstly one cannot ignore the rather low quality story in the Mirror that confidently predicts Jack Wilshere is going to be out of action for three months. Interestingly other sources are already watering down the Mirror's dubious take on events by saying Wilshere 'could' be out for up to three months. When one looks into Steve Stammers' weak excuse for journalism it is clear he is disingenuously scaremongering as this three months is all on the condition 'if Wilshere breaks down again'. I suspect Wilshere will be back before December.

On the topic of our transfer dealings, a lot of people want to stick the knife into Arsene and a lot of people want to stick a knife into the board, I don't think any knife sticking is needed myself, but it is important that lessons are learnt so that we don't make the same mistakes again.

Firstly we are in a very dangerous position at the moment, the last minute deals were obviously massively needed but we are far from out of the woods yet. We have several big big players who have less than two years to run on their current deals, these players are RVP, Theo Walcott, Song and Vermaelen. Before we even think about the January transfer window we need to tie these men up to new long term deals, the thought of losing more top class players a la Nasri does not bear thinking about. The worrying thing about the Nasri departure was that a top class player not yet at his peak wanted out for footballing reasons, this has not happened to us before, I see Cesc as a very different scenario, he just wanted to go home.

Anyway it is obvious that there have been massive issues in the way in which Arsenal Football Club conducts transfer business since David Dein left. Whatever one thinks of David Dein, he was a football man as well as a business man and this was instrumental in the way the club successfully went about its business until he left. The system for buying players seemed to work well with Dein around; Arsene would tell Dein who he wanted, Dein would see what he could do and either the player would come, or they wouldn't. Dein had footballing nous, meaning that he didn't have to note down how much Arsene thought should be spent on each player, Dein used his common sense and did his best. In this way it appeared that Arsene was kept at a safe arms length from the financial side of things, this appears to have changed since Dein left.

Gazidis is a great business man, he has negotiated some terrific commercial deals for the club, but he does not seem to be a football man, meaning that he does not appear to have Dein's nous in the transfer department. This has led to a suspicion that Gazidis might well have had to lean more on Arsene for information, something that Dein would not have needed to do. Gazidis has probably allowed Arsene to have more input into the financial side of the club's transfer dealings, meaning that Gazidis may ask for specific guidance on the fees that should be paid and this may have resulted in some quite ridiculous transfer negotiations.

Take Arteta for example, we bid 5mill initially, we then upped it to 10mill on deadline day, Everton wanted 11mill and we wouldn't go the extra million, it was only Arteta forcing through the deal that stopped this silly fiddling over one million from crashing the whole deal. Similar style things scuppered the Schwarzer deal last summer, the Cahill mincing was also far from clever. The Mata deal is rumoured to have fallen through because of relatively small change in terms of meeting a buy-out fee. Santi Cazorla was another target we missed out on because of what sounds like board dithering. This haggling over small amounts of money did not appear to happen when Dein was in charge.

So overall the problem with our purchasing of players appears to be a complex one, it seems to be a systematic issue and it cannot be ignored any longer. I don't blame Arsene or Gazidis, the problem comes from higher up in the club as someone should know enough about football to see that this system is not working and will never work. Gazidis needs to take responsibility for the financial side of deals and ensure Arsene is kept at arms length, if this is not possible then we need someone new with footballing nous to be our new David Dein, a director of football of sorts. This summer we should have driven some early deals through, this didn't happen for a variety of reasons but it appears that an absence of dynamic drive in the boardroom was critical in this.

I am concerned at what goes on in board meetings as this situation must have been obvious to them for a while, and they appear to have done nothing about it. The board need to sit down and sort out several crucial strategies at the club now, it simply cannot wait. We need to completely overhaul our wage structure, we need a higher top wage and we need to pay peripheral youngsters/squad players less. We need to change the way in which we go about buying players, we need to show more common sense in our transfer dealings, we cannot risk losing out on top targets because we are haggling over petty small change. We need to consider bringing some new dynamic board members in. All this will take time, I just hope the board have seen our mistakes and are ready to act. I haven't even started on the defensive coach yet.........

Arsenal Squad 2011: are we stronger or shambolic?

Goalkeepers: Szczesny, Fabianski, Mannone

Verdict: Top No1 and reasonable backup.

Fullbacks: Santos, Sagna, Gibbs, Jenkinson

Verdict: Santos needs to prove he can defend and if Gibbs can stay fit then looking strong at left back, Jenkinson is raw but can be a decent backup to Sagna.

Centre Backs: Vermaelen, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Djourou, Miguel, Squillaci (unfortunately)

Verdict: Vastly better than last season, the arrival of the experienced German international is a potentially good move but there doubts over his pace, Vermaelen can hopefully stay fit and if this is the case we should be more robust defensively.

Midfielders: Arteta, Wilshere, Ramsey, Rosicky, Benayoun, Song, Diaby, Frimpong, Coquelin

Verdict: Fantastic in terms of young talent and although it was never going to be possible to replace Cesc, Arteta is as good as we could have realistically got at this late stage. Overall we're looking pretty strong offensively, I just have slight concerns about the lack of any experienced backup for Song, but it should be noted that Arteta has played the holding role for Everton.

Wingers: Gervinho, Walcott, Arshavin, Miyaichi, Oxlade

Verdict: Gervinho appears to have the potential to more than replace the erratic Nasri, the youngsters add a bit of depth in wide areas. The form or lack of it from our small Russian has been a concern for some time, in my opinion he has to play more centrally and cannot cut it on the wing. Walcott needs to step up this season. Overall we have more pace and more width in the squad though.

Forwards: RVP, Park, Chamakh, Afobe

Verdict: Excellent to have RVP fit (for the moment) and Park promises to be a useful addition. I am deeply concerned with our ability to score goals beyond RVP though, Chamakh is looking dead on his feet and there is no other quality top notch striker to lead the line after RVP. I am amazed that we have let Bendtner go out on loan when is clearly our second best striker after RVP. Why not convince him to stay?

Overall I am much happier than I was a week ago. The defence is stronger, we have more pace and width in the squad, and we have no one who is not committed to the cause now that Cesc and Nasri have gone. I am most concerned with our striker situation, with Bendtner going we have very little quality backup to RVP, Chamakh looks drained of all confidence, a lot of pressure is going to be on the new South Korean Park and it is asking a lot of him in his first season.

However serious questions need to be asked as to why things were left so late in the day when so much of this business could have been done earlier in the day. Most seriously for me, our wage structure needs to be completely revamped, it overpays lesser squad members and is not competitive in terms of the top salaries. We absolutely must have a competitive wage structure. Players like Mata have slipped through the net because of our wage structure and this cannot be allowed to continue in future years. It is time to rethink, restructure or die. Come on you Gunners!