New Season – New Arsenal?

Article by Lewis Borg-Cardona

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When not cavorting with scantily clad lovelies on Ipanema Beach, Arsene Wenger must have felt a little like Scrooge during his Rio World Cup sojourn. And no, for once I’m not talking about Le Prof’s legendary parsimony, because as we all know, Gooner Tiny Tim's will not starve this season; fed as they are on a generous helping of Chambers, Ospina, Debuchy, Sanchez and whatever other choice tidbits fall from the table of the Arsenal board’s largesse between now and the end of this transfer window.

No, I’m talking about the ghosts of Arsenal past, present and yet to come; all in Brazil to varying degrees.

As for the past, if ever the Arsenal boss needed evidence to demonstrate the necessity of changing his ways, then a World Cup rogues gallery of Alex Song, Gervinho, Ju Young Park, Philippe Senderos and Johan Djourou - not to mention the want away trio of Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie and Bacary Sagna - were all there to illustrate the pain of faded promise. As the spirit says in A Christmas Carol: “These are the shadows of things that have been. That they are what they are, do not blame me!”

For the present, step forward the much more deserving group of Santi Cazorla, Thomas Vermaelen, Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Olivier Giroud, and Laurent Koscielny; plus eventual World Cup winners Per Mertesacker, Lukas Podolski, and Mesut Ozil.

For the future, Joel Campbell (yet to play for Arsenal at the time), was the one certainty; while only the most positive of fans would have countenanced the capture - as I write - of David Ospina, Mathieu Debuchy and Alexis Sanchez.

Mind you, if you really want to judge how Arsenal will fare in the coming season, then far better to list those first team players who weren’t at the 2014 FIFA jamboree. For one reason or another the Arsenal absentees included Wojciech Szczesny, Nacho Monreal, Kieran Gibbs, Calum Chambers, Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini, Tomas Rosicky, Aaron Ramsey, Abou Diaby, Theo Walcott, and Yaya Sanogo – almost an entire XI of squad members raring to go (Theo excepted), with no World Cup hangover in sight.

Then there are also those who might yet feature from the youth ranks, especially off the back of pre-season games. Post Emirates Cup, step up Gedion Zelalem, Ignasi Miquel, Isaac Hayden, Chuba Akpom, and –most impressively – Hector Bellerin. In the light of his excellent performance in the Benfica match, I can’t be the only one who thinks Bellerin is the natural understudy to Debuchy for the right back berth; leaving Chambers as a second string centre back….or even defensive minded midfielder.

Meanwhile, new look Arsenal approach the FA Community Shield with perhaps their most influential newcomer already in place and ready to exert his influence. In new fitness guru Shad Forsythe the Gunners have yet another World Cup winner in their ranks, with the 40 year old American joining the club’s back room staff from his former position as head fitness coach for the German national team.

Tantalisingly, Arsene Wenger is happily adopting his trademark smirk and Gallic shrug when it comes to the possibility of even more signings in this transfer window – and this from the man who is on record as saying: “In our job, there is a technical risk when you buy more than three players, as you unbalance a bit the stability of your squad.”

The ghosts of Arsenal past, present and yet to come offer the manager another chance to redeem his team and transform it into a Premiership winning unit. As Dickens wrote at the conclusion of A Christmas Carol:: “Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset.”

Arsene Wenger – speedos to the fore - seems to be enjoying a new lease of life. Let’s just hope that translates itself to the Arsenal. As Tiny Tim would say: “God Bless Us, Every One!”

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