Written by Su Lewis Sunday, 23 May 2010 11:23

GunnerTalk Blog

Gunnertalk about - SAVE OUR CESC!

By Su Lewis

Cesc probably leaving, what can I say?  I’m sick to my stomach thinking about it.  It’s my worst nightmare.  After the season we’ve just had I was hoping for some good news not something as devastating as this.

I know we’ve lost some great players over the years because they’ve been lured by some other club’s ‘dirty lucre’ and it never gets any easier.  But, somehow, this seems even worse than when we lost Henry, Pires, Petit, etc.

Cesc is our ‘baby’.  We’ve watched him grow into a man and become the wonderful skilful player that we knew he would be.  He’s our captain and has played and behaved like a captain should.  He even, rightly or wrongly, played when he was injured because he thought he was helping the team 

We need Cesc to stay and, I believe, Arsene should do everything he possibly can to keep him at Arsenal.  Maybe Arsene should remind him that the grass isn’t always greener, etc.   A lot of our greatest players have left to go to European clubs and have never reached their full potential.  Many of them ended up regretting leaving Arsenal because they either stayed on the bench at their new clubs, ended up in the reserves or just simply went backwards. 

Is Henry happy at Barca?  Whatever happened to Reyes?  Anelka went downhill for a long time until Chelski rescued him.  Was Viera happy at Juve?  As far as I can see the only player we recently lost to Europe who has been playing consistently and seems to be happy is my old hero Pires.   Before that I think you have to go back to Tony Woodcock at Cologne to find an Arsenal player that has been happy and successful abroad.

These players all think that they can do better elsewhere.  Their agents whisper in their ears (we all know why that is) and they get persuaded to sign on for some ridiculous signing-on fee.  Don’t they realise that in most cases they are only in that position because of the Arsenal set up:  The manager, the coaches, the other players.  Without Arsenal behind them most of them end up being just ordinary players and not the superstars they think they are.

Mind you, it’s not just the players that go abroad from Arsenal that would have been better off staying where they were.  Seems like the ever popular Adebeyor won’t be at City much longer.  Although I was glad to see the back of him it just goes to show that he made a big mistake – not unusual for him though!

Cesc needs to do a lot of thinking and, top of his list, should be the fact that he is still under contract and should at least see out his contract before looking to move.

I know Barca is his hometown team and he started his career there, which leaves the question, why did they let him leave in the first place?  Do they really need him or do they just want him to pad out their squad? 

I truly believe that if we can keep Cesc and buy just a few key players (goalie for one) season 2010/11 could, at last, be our year again.  Does Cesc really want to miss out on what will, hopefully, be our turn to start winning again?  Despite our injuries this term and despite having a smaller squad than most we so nearly missed out on the Premiership and the Champions League. 

With a fit Cesc, VanPersie, Arshavin, decent goalie, etc, we would be a force to be reckoned with.  Without Cesc we could still do it but it would be tough.  So come on Cesc, we’re loyal to you how about some loyalty back?