Written by George Sezer Monday, 04 April 2011 21:00

GunnerTalk Blog

By George Sezer

Before I reflect on the fall out of Arsenal’s latest failure, I’d like to thank Lindsay for writing her brilliant post match day blog Champions My arse which bailed me out from doing my usual match report blog. It also gave me a couple of days to calm down.

Weekend’s game proved once again that this Arsenal team is just not good enough to win the League. Kid ourselves not, the only reason we are still in contention is because of the freakiest of seasons the EPL is having.  At the same stage of the last season, we were 5 points better off, positioned in the 3^rd spot with no chance of winning the league tells its own story but not of a team that’s improving.

The most annoying part is; this team have the making of a great side with a couple or so tweaks and for the life of me I cannot understand why it has not been addressed. This team have been crying out for a decent goalkeeper for ages, it’s obvious to everyone that a big, burly, a leader of a centre half would do wonders for our infamous deficiency of dealing with high balls, crosses and set pieces and you don’t need to be a football professor to know that no team would try to go a whole season with only one established defensive midfielder.

I am sorry to say but the buck stops with the Manager. Before I go any further I’d just like to make it clear that I love Arsene Wenger and I do not want to see him leave. Does that mean he is immune to criticism? No, he’s been making mistakes and should rightly be criticised. Are his hands tied up by the board because of the new stadium? No way, as this July it will be 5 years since the Emirates Stadium opened; during these 5 years we have won nothing, sold lots of players for huge profits without properly replacing them, got a very lucrative sponsor from Emirates air, developed and sold most of Highbury, every game is a sellout, 5 years waiting list for season tickets at the most expensive rates in UK and probably in the world......I don't want to hear the same lame excuse over and over like a broken record that we are paying for the stadium and can't buy players.

Nobody is saying that he should break the bank and spend crazy money like Manchester City or Chelsea. Just don’t take us for fools and buy according to needs and means of the team:

 1. Buy an experienced top class GK (Buffon with Szczesny as his under study) and please get rid of Almunia.

2. Replace Squillaci with a proper ‘English Premier League type’ CB (Cahill, Samba, Jagialka, Hangeland...)

3. Get cover for Song (Khedira, Jagialka, Parker...)

4. Get rid of dead wood (Denilson, Diaby, Rosicky, Eboue) and REPLACE them with quality (Rodwell, Dembele, Affelay, Santon...).