Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

JW Diaries: A day in the sun

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My first four matches of the 2018/19 season have resulted in 4 wins with 24 goals scored and 2 goals conceded; a very satisfactory start under the new regime at our Club.

The first three matches were played at our academy ground, Hale End based just off the North Circular Road near Walthamstow. Whilst the was no sighting of our new Head of Academy Per Mertesacker, apparently in Germany on Club business, there as plenty of talk that he has certainly already influenced our schoolboys both on and off the pitch.

I was told that the talk which Per gave recently in the well-publicised event at the Emirates with all the academy players, parents and staff was every emotional. Per spoke about his own anxieties of being a footballer throughout his career and how he overcame them.

Per was very honest and open, giving the assembled audience an insight of his “limited, natural football ability” but was able to supplement his shortcomings with hard work, determination and a desire to succeed; he explained how he made the big time over some players, who had a higher football ability but lacked desire – truly inspirational stuff!

After my second match I drove over to Piebury Corner on Holloway Road to attend an Arsenal photographic exhibition held by the excellent OpAa people who are Gooner friends of mine. They hold this event every year making money for good causes. This time round it was even more special as one of the organisers mums had recently passed away. Over £2,000 was raised on the night for the Pulmonary Fibrosis Trust who looked after John Cs mum during her final days.

Following an academy match on Saturday morning, I made a quick dash to Meadow Park, Borehamwood, arriving with plenty of time before kick-off. After a quick pint and handing out tickets, I unusually got into the ground 45 minutes before the start, wanting to see who was playing for us and how we were warming up.

I’m sure many of you know, Meadow Park is the home ground for the Arsenal Women and U23 teams as well as many U18 cup ties being played there. Arsenal have an excellent relationship with Boreham Wood; we have helped to fund the West Stand, new flood lighting, dug outs as well supplying ground staff to ensure that the pitch is to a very high standard.

Once I managed to get the teamsheet, I was able to see as expected, it was an extremely strong line up and there was to be a completely different team in the second half. Whist I have seen Arsenal score as many as 16 goals in reserve and academy matches, it’s not often the first team score 8.

I know most will think ‘it’s only Boreham Wood’ but the way we went about the match was professional in the extreme. I have been to pre-season friendlies where we went through the motions and gave the impression that the players didn’t want to be there, which as well as being unprofessional, it also short changes those that pay good money and often travel long distance to attend.

Those days seem to be well and truly over, the sun was shining, we had second row seat facing the sun, there was plenty of red faces with my arms still stinging! I’m sure, every one of the 3,000 plus Arsenal fans in the 3,500 capacity crowd, went home happy.

As we know, Unai Emery is still finding his feet and although it was hard to predict the starting formation to be used once the real season starts, the team worked hard and we were worth the 8 goals scored. I was informed in the bar after the game that the ‘first half’ team went straight into one of the two coaches and were taken back to London Colney for further training!

This week will see me watching a few more academy matches as well as an unlikely but possible, short trip to Germany for a match. A lot of my week will be packing two suitcases for my trip to Singapore and a separate trip to Dublin/Stockholm, arriving back to Gatwick at 4pm on a Monday, then flying to Dublin at 8am on the Tuesday, hence the early packing! It’s hard work this pre-season malarkey, but someones got to do it!

Unfortunately, my extra day in Dublin means that I will be missing an U23 friendly against AFC Hornchurch on the Tuesday evening – c’est la vie!

JW

What is the state of Arsenal’s squad?

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The signings of Lucas Torreira and Mattéo Guendouzi were the 4th and 5th first team signings of the summer at Arsenal.

With less than a month to go until transfer deadline day (August 9th) and the beginning of the 2018/19 season, it is probably a good idea to take stock with just where Arsenal are at the moment.

Before any dissection of the squad, it is firstly important to remind ourselves of Premier League rules:

  1. A first team squad must contain no more than 25 players
  2. Of those 25, only 17 are allowed to be “non-homegrown”
  3. A “homegrown” player is anyone who has been registered three entire seasons, or 36 months, before his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21) with an English club
  4. Players born on or after 1 January 1997 are eligible over and above the limit of 25 players per squad.

Working backwards, 4 of the above players listed on arsenal.com fall outside the need to be registered as they are under 21:

Konstantinos Mavropanos
Jeff Reine-Adélaïde
Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Matteo Guendouzi

This leaves 25 players spaced for senior players to be registered with the Premier League, of which no more than 17 can be non-homegrown:

  1. Bernd Leno
  2. Petr Cech
  3. David Ospina
  4. Stephan Lichtsteiner
  5. Shkodran Mustafi
  6. Laurent Koscielny
  7. Sokratis
  8. Nacho Monreal
  9. Sead Kolasinac
  10. Granit Xhaka
  11. Lucas Torreira
  12. Mohamed Elneny
  13. Mesut Ozil
  14. Henrikh Mkhitaryan
  15. Lucas Perez
  16. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
  17. Alexandre Lacazette

As it stands we have no non-homegrown squad slots left. This means if we wish to add any additional players, we have 3 options:

  1. Buy homegrown
  2. Buy Under-21
  3. Sell to buy

My bet would be number 3.

David Ospina (or Petr Cech) is likely to leave – there is no point having 3 senior goal keepers who are aged over 21 and none of which are homegrown. Shift one on and either have Emiliano Martinez or Matt Macey (both homegrown) as 3rd choice goal keeper.

If we bring in an attacking player, another option could be to move on Lucas Perez – although reports are that Unai Emery fancies him.

Moving on to the homegrown player’s, with us having 17 non-homegrown, it leaves us 8 slots left for registration:

  1. Emiliano Martinez
  2. Carl jenkinson
  3. Hector Bellerin
  4. Calum Chambers
  5. Rob Holding
  6. Aaron Ramsey
  7. Alex Iwobi
  8. Danny Welbeck
  9. Chuba Akpom

9 into 8 does not go. My prediction is that it the homegrown squad list will actually be reduced to 7 before the transfer window shuts. I do not see the point of us keeping hold of Carl Jenkinson and Chuba Akpom.

So how is the squad actually looking?

With players expected to depart, we will have a first team squad consisting of 27 players made up of:

  1. 16 non-homegrown players
  2. 7 homegrown players
  3. 4 players U21

This will leave us with 2 registration slots free to sign additional players; 1 of which has to be home grown.

My prediction is that we will add an attacking wide player to the squad. Ideally someone U21 but more likely someone non-homegrown.

In an ideal situation you want a couple of available slots in January just in case an injury crises hits.

There is plenty to be excited about over The Arsenal at the moment.

Keenos

Arsenal set to name new captain

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Over the summer, the club have been very open with pictures and videos from the training ground.

Whilst none of the training sessions are any different to the past – players kicking a ball, jogging a little bit, doing press ups – the openness has been a breath of fresh air.

The most recent video was of Matteo Guendouzi’s first training session.

It seems Unai Emery and his coaching staff have continued Arsene Wenger’s tradition of shaking hands with every player as they enter the training pitch. It was also good to see senior French speaking players like Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang taking their new 19-year-old team mate under their wing.

There was a very interesting snippet within the video that many people probably missed. Aaron Ramsey was leading the warm up – usually the task of the captain.

The first half of this blog was written prior to Arsenal playing Borehamwood on Saturday.

During that game, a strong Arsenal team ran out 8-0 winners.

Captaining he “second half XI” was Aaron Ramsey.

The Wales international is yet to commit to a new contract with Arsenal, but once he does, he looks to be the most suitable player to replace Per Mertesacker as club captain.

I have been blogging about how Ramsey should be the next Arsenal captain since 2013.

With Laurent Koscielny out until January – and no longer guaranteed a first team spot – Ramsey is the only player who ticks all the boxes.

The Wales international has recently spoken about the appointment of Unai Emery as Arsenal’s new boss.“Exciting times” was the exact term that he used. I fully expect him to sign the new deal and be given the armband.

As captain, you want a player to fit a criteria.

You want him to have been at the club for some time, to understand the ethos of the club. At 27 years old and having been at the club for 10 years, he is the most logical choice next season.

The player needs to command respect from his team mates, through both his ability to lead and his performances on the pitch.

Aaron Ramsey ticks quite a lot of boxes. He’s one of the longest-serving players in the first team. If there’s a structure, Aaron Ramsey could be that guy.

Ramsey became the youngest ever Wales captain at the age of 20 years 90 days back in 2011.

It will be good to have a captain who plays week in week out after it seemingly being forever since we had one.

Keenos