Greetings Gooners,


I am back from my summer hiatus, so whats been happening over the last 2 months?


Not much in the way of new signings, with only Thomas "Little Mozart" Rosicky arriving. We have said farewell to the Ice Man, Bobby Pires, and the Sol Campbell who was leaving us to play abroad, and ends up in Portsmouth. Ashley Cole could still be on his way out of the club, but at the moment, no bid has been accepted for him.


Events on the pitch so far have been mixed.


We have secured qualification for the Champions League, and now end up in a group along with CSKA Moscow, Hamburg, and FC Porto. We kick off the Champions' League campaign with a tricky trip to Hamburg on the 13th of September, followed by a premiership trip to Old Trafford to play Man Utd on the 17th.
Click here for the draw in full.


Talking of the Premiership, we are 2 games in, and so far have only picked up the one point. I did get back to see the Man City game, and though the result was a huge dissapointment, our passing and movement was good, but we lack sharpness in front of goal.

A fit Henry would have scored at least 1 of the chances that came his way on Saturday.


Next up is Middlesbrough at home, hopefully we get our season going the right way with that game.


Its good to be back.

Arsenal's main summer signing, Alexander Hleb, has spoken out about the rumours that he was looking to move back to Germany. Said Hleb:

I was amazed to read this morning’s headlines, I am very happy at Arsenal. I love playing Premier League football, this is an exciting opportunity for me and I am determined to do well here. The Arsenal fans are great and I love playing in their team.

.


Finally some good news on the cursed left back position with Gael Clichy hoping to return to full training next week. Speaking to Arsenal.com, he said:

I feel really good, I have been working with the fitness coach since last week. I hope that I can be back in the next week or maybe two weeks time. I am looking forward to playing again and helping the team.

I feel I could train full contact with the first team now but we want to be a little bit careful because it is the second time for me. There is no point getting injured again. So I’ll take it calm right now and hope that next week could be a good one for me.

Sol Campbell, was in contention to play against Bolton this weekend, but it seems an Ankle injury could now keep him out.

So it seems Sol popped over to Brussels on the Eurostar for a few days R&R and some Mules Mariniere. Now he is back in training at Arsenal, its going to be interesting to see what happens, but I find it hard to hard beleive that a few days in Belgium will cure his "issues".
Tony Cascarino gives his view on the situation in The Times, todayIts an excellent article. I have a lot of time for the big fella, and his autobiography 'Full Time: the Secret Life of Tony Cascarino' is probably still the best football book I've read.

If you haven't done so yet, go buy it, you won't regret it.

Dennis Bergkamp is in the last few months of his fantastic career at Arsenal and being a Dutchman, he is not afraid to speak his mind if he feels the need. Well he's certainly done that in a revealing interview with The Times


The Ice Man takes his football very seriously, a point that becomes more than apparent as he talks of his frustations with the season ... a feeling most Gooners share.


On the Thierry Henry situation
He offers a firm warning to the Arsenal board, saying:

"What would I do if I was Thierry? It's difficult for me to say because I am in a down position and he is playing every week,” Bergkamp said. “He can probably see the talent in the young players but it is just a question of how long he thinks he has left. He needs to see some signs

On the Sale of Patrick Vieira

Bergkamp's dogmatic, noting:

"When you hear he (Vieira) is going to be sold, you try to think of a team without him

and you have the confidence in the board and the coach that they have something in mind. You can't just let Patrick go without having someone coming in.
"But nothing happened and slowly you get into a new season and realise it will be a tough one.
"We didn't expect the dip to be this big. It is okay to take one step back if you are taking two forward, but it doesn't seem like that at the moment. Somehow we got into a transitional year and it wasn't necessary.

"People ask where you can find the new Vieira but we already had him. You can imagine how much more Abou Diaby would learn from playing alongside Vieira.

"In some positions the team is lightweight, it is just not strong enough. Maybe that will come in the future but at the moment it kills us".

I don't think he is saying anything that we don't all feel here but I'll bet it doesn't go down too well in the marble halls.


In Other News:

It seems Sol Campbell is back at training, so lets hope he gets himself sorted......and soon.

What on earth is going on in Sol Campbell's head? Is it big enough for him to think about hanging up his boots. I'm not sure what my take is on this. I remember he said after the death of his Father that he'd considered stopping playing. I can understand how he could think that way at a time like that, at the end of the day, football isn't that important.
But reading these reports that he is again thinking of quitting, well this time I don't get it at all. Bobby Pires says Sol has a "big worry"in his private life, though Wenger didn't seem to know about it, saying "I have not seen any special problem affecting him."


Again there are several reports coming out about what happened at half time against West Ham, some suggesting that Sol had asked to come off, but Wenger went on to say; "It was my decision to change him. There is no bad feeling between us. Does he have a future at Arsenal? Of course he does."


I would like to know what other Gooners think, as I'm at a loss. For me at the moment, I would probably have more sympathy if I knew more about the problem... of course it's none of my business what his personal problems are, but I would be more understanding if it didn't seem that one of our most senior players fucked of home because he was having a bad day at the office. Did you ever see Tony Adams doing that, even with all the shit he went through?


As it stands we have no defence to speak of, even pretty boy Martin Keown has signed up, and the one big player who should be the greatest help can't get his head straight.


I want Sol back as "the Rock" not the guy we saw in the first half of the game against West Ham. But for that to happen he has got to want it too, and even with all the supporting noises coming out of Highbury, I'm not so sure its going to happen. Everyone has difficult times, its how you deal with them that is the key, lets hope he comes back stronger.