Written by TL Gooner on Tuesday, 19 July 2011 14:03

Here is a list of what I think should be Arsenal's chronological checklist for this summer:

1. Tell Barcelona 'how it is'. We should just say to Barcelona, either: 'Look, you're disrupting our preparations for the new season with your constant disrespect and tapping up so just put it a bid or make it clear that you aren't going to put in another bid for Fabregas.' OR, just say 'Fabregas isn't for sale so stop tapping him up or else we're going to report you to FIFA and/or UEFA'.

That SHOULD put an end to it for this summer and there will be less pessimism and worry amongst players and supporters about whether he'll stay or go.

2. Sign Chris Samba. It shouldn't take a massive Man City type fee, maybe £15 million. This would be a record signing for Arsene Wenger but I think he'd be worth it. He has all the attributes and abilities that Arsenal lack/need more of. He is a leader, brave, good in the air and strong in the tackle. He is also very determined and will throw himself in front of a shot if he has to to stop the opposition scoring. He could help sort out our main weakness too, defending set pieces. He would be a defender strikers wouldn't feel confident about going into an aerial battle with and he would make teams less confident of scoring against Arsenal as teams would no longer look at us as a team weak at the back and easy to bully at the back, they would look at us and see a solid, strong centre defence in the shape of Samba and Vermaelen.

A dream partnership that would make us more solid at the back and harder to penetrate in the air. As one of my main worries about Arsenal is that teams will go into games against us full of confidence, hence performing better than they would against the likes of Man Utd. He is also a good communicator and will notch the occassional goal himself. In addition to this, he has got decent technique that would only improve under the guidance of Wenger and our coaching staff. I think it would be preferable we signed him sooner rather than later so he can get to know his new team- mates during pre- season and play with them a few times instead of making his debut with them in a competitive game. (Not that I wouldn't settle for buying him at 11.59pm on August 31st mind you- aslong as we sign him I'll be happy.)

3. Get Samir Nasri to sign a contract, hopefully the new singings would help convince him that Arsenal is the place to be and it shouldn't be too hard given he's supposedly 'committed to Arsenal' as Wenger said. (I'm still not too sure what to make of those comments as, if he was committed, wouldn't he have signed a new contract by now?)

4. Sell Nicklas Bendtner, Sebastien Squillaci and Manuel Almunia, as well as loaning out some youngsters such as JET, who will struggle to get games with van Persie, Chamakh, Gervinho and Vela about. Also Frimpong who I would like to see as backup for Song but with him being injured for so long, ne needs competitive games to improve and continue his development. Sending him out on loan to get regular first team football would be the smarter long- term thing to do with him in my opinion.

In conclusion, I don't think there needs to be drastic measures at Arsenal like some Paul Merson type characters probably think there do. But I think we need to sign a centre half if we are going to win the league next season, and Chris Samba would be my first choice.

By the way, my blog http://thelifeofanarsenalsupporter.blogspot.com is crying out for readers, so please visit it if you can.

Mean Lean's Response

I still find my mind chopping and changing between thinking Samba would be a good acquisition to thinking he would be out of place at Arsenal. I think this is because what he does have would be a plus to our squad. His power in the air, his strength at holding off players in the mould of Drogba, and he does seem like a leader but the difference between defending for Blackburn and for Arsenal are two very different things all together, not just the level of play but the system we play.

We have been talking about bringing in a central defender who thinks about defending first and foremost, a player who will throw himself at headers and lead from the back. Well that player sounds very much big Phil Senderos who became horribly exposed with slid passes down the side of him in our high line. He had the attributes that we lack in the team today against the cave men of the Premier League but in open play he was often caught out.

I may be wrong but that is the feeling I get in regards to Samba. If the £10m bid for Jagielka is true then I would understand that a little more as he is more mobile and comfortable in possession that Samba but I am not sure if he is any bigger than Thomas Vermaelen. Not that it is all about height.

The more this transfer window goes on, the more I think the club are preparing for life without Cesc and that is why we are keeping hold of Nasri, unless of course the player has decided to stay put to see out his contract. As we know, it is down to Barcelona to pay or delete our number from their mobile phone.

I think regardless of what happens to Cesc Fabregas, we will start the season with a very good team. How good depends on many factors such as which players are brought in and what they provide to the team. As well as that, I expect leaps forward from both Wilshere and Ramsey and that is quite exciting.

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Comments (19)

• 21-Jul-2011 16:20 | | Andy Mack
  

  Cahill at Samba money would work but not at 17m.
  As ML points out, Samba would not work in our system.
  I suspect AW has someone in mind. An international without PL experience. We'll see!

• 21-Jul-2011 16:29 | | Sean  - Kyle Bartley 4th choice Centre back
  

  I think the defence has been the main focus from all the fans but it's mainly from set pieces and having to field Squillaci that caused the defensive problems. Our record in open play was one of the best in the league and that was in large part down to Koscielny and Djourou add to the mix Vermaelen and that improves our set pieces by 10% which was the difference of goals conceded last season to 2009. In reality we're looking for a backup defender and someone who can cover Song ideally, Jagielka or Rodwell fit that description... but if we're looking at English talent why are we all looking forward to the prospect of Kyle Bartley getting his chance- 6ft3, Committed, puts his body on the line, can play DM, is commanding, has played in Europe... he's ready, we just have to have faith in him.

• 21-Jul-2011 16:33 | | R.H
  

  I think a left back is also needed. Gibbs is always injured and we don't know much about Traore. I would love to have Aly Cissokho or Baines!

• 21-Jul-2011 17:05 | | Nick TG  - good stuff
  

  I agree with most. i wld love to sign samba as he will add so much. e may not be d very first choice as that wld be Huth for me and second Subotic but hey i wld settle for samba about equal to cahill and both better than Jag or dann....i wld also like to c cover in dm espec since we loaned deno - we sld switch frimong for parker for a season loan - good for all parties....in ideal world also switch bendtner +vela for 1 better striker like Falcao,benzema or aguero

• 21-Jul-2011 17:14 | | Judith Le  - Signings
  

  I'm beginning to think that Wenger and the Board are having us on about spending and bringing in new players for the new season. All we hear about is this player & that player but it seems Wenger is afraid to open the purse & let the moths out because he's afraid to spend a few million on bringing decent players in. He offers derisory amounts for players but expects Barca to stump up a price that I personally think is way over the top as Fabregas has been consistently injured for several games over the past few seasons & has hardly done any work during the closed season, yet is unable to play in friendlies due to injuries, what going on holiday? Sell him. The same with Nasri get rid to a foreign club not Man C as he hardly endeared himself to the fans last season with his misses. We need players who can gel into the team before the start of the season not ones who will damage the team even further.

• 21-Jul-2011 22:51 | | Andy Mack
  

  I guess you must work for Wenger to know what we offer for players.
  Unfortunately we only hear the Bull that the newspapers say.
  Please tell us more

• 21-Jul-2011 23:37 | | john  - UP AWs ASS
  

  ML, you really are a loser, 1st Benzema was wrong type of player for Arsenal, and now Samba doesnt fit either. What is your problem? Because Your Deluded God doesnt want them, you dont either. Take your head out of the sand for FFS . We cant sell our deadwood because no wants them and they are all on 50 and 60k a week, yes ML 60k a week. Your beloved AW offered 2m less for jagielka than he did last year knowing damn well it will be refused. Kieran Gibbs is as injury prone as Diaby and will play only a handful of games. Arsenal, the manager and board are a shambles. Your as deluded as Your French Twat MLwith your suggestion that we are going to start the season with a very good team regardless of cesc. ML, you really are the shallowest "Arsenal Fan" ever to write anything about the Arsenal. Full of denial and deliberately ignoring the shambles we are in. I suggest you read judith le,s post above many times and finally waken up to what is happening .

• 22-Jul-2011 07:19 | | MeanLean
  

  *Yawn*
  
  John, you are simply showing yourself up here to be a xenophobic, ignorant fool who think's his shit smells like flowers. Judging by the content of your comment, it is obvious that a simple mind like your own cannot comprehend another opinion, but let us just try this for a second. Firstly if possible stop the shaking fists, ill tempered rants just because I do not have the same opinion as you.
  
  I did not say that Benzema would not be a good player for Arsenal, I simply put said that I wasn't totally sure how he would fit into our system and our team when Van Persie is playing so well. I am sure you would have noticed that if you read my post a little clearer without your Arsenal angry tears streaming down you face.
  
  I did the same about Chris Samba. I was writing his strong points as well as his weak points. Perhaps you are used to life as a Football manager king on your PC where buying a player is just about clicking a button and putting him into your team without any thought about systems, tactics and roles within a team. That is not my problem.
  
  "ML, you really are the shallowest "Arsenal Fan" - Hahahahahahahahahaha!! That is wonderful.
  
  I suppose you are the greatest supporter ever. I bet the club are so happy to have people like you who get kicks from insulting the club as often as possibly can.
  
  Listen John, I am not opposed to having an alternative view on the comments section, but I won't stand for mindless attacks and insults because you don't like my views. There are many Arsenal sites out there that think the Arsenal world is caving in, I am sure you would love to hear what they have to say. But if you want to contribute here then be civil or I will have to start blocking people.

• 22-Jul-2011 09:34 | | John
  

  You dont give your opinion ml, you spin AWs deluded and idiotic comments into a positive, you have steered clear of the self sustaining model you love . Why because your beloved Arsene will let nasri walk away and lose 20 million next year. Ticket prices went up which will only save 4m . Why have you avoided the deluded professor willing to lose over 20m. I will be as angry as i want ml and you can block all you want. If my passion for Arsenal is seen as anger by you, so be it. Get used to plenty of anger from the fans in the next few weeks you deluded fool when we bottle it and struggle to compete.

• 22-Jul-2011 10:29 | | MeanLean
  

  No John, you made a mistake there. I do actually give my own opinion, it is my view and not the view that the tabloids give you about Arsenal being in crisis.
  
  Arsene is letting Nasri walk away? Who said that is down to Wenger? Do you know anything about the talks between Nasri's agent and the club? Do you know what Nasri's intentions are? Do you know that Nasri hasn't said that he won't be leaving the club because he wants to go on a free when his contract is up?
  
  Your apparent 'passion' is clearly making it difficult for you to see rationale, John.
  
  The ticket prices is nothing to do with the manager in charge, it is nothing to do with the football we play.
  
  You are correct though, you can be as angry as you like. I just feel a bit sorry for you. Luckily for me, I enjoy what is right about the club, I enjoy watching the team on the weekends and debating it with fellow Gooners. Instead you live in a world where everything is upsetting and destroying. Everything is bad and you hate the manager and players because they are not Chris Samba. Each to their own, that is your view and why should I stop that. You want to cry about the season tickets every couple of days and bang on about the country that our manager happens to be from. Good luck with that.
  
  You cannot change what is happening to the club. Your passion will not magically make us win the league so I don't fancy following you down that road.
  
  Rightly or wrongly, I enjoy supporting the players we have, the manager we have and the football we produce. I get as mad, sad, frustrated as the next Gooner when we lose games we should win but luckily my eyes are not narrow enough to make me miss out on the quality we do often produce.
  
  This shitty club, with shit players and shit manager managed to beat Barcelona, Man United, Chelsea and Manchester City last season. While they lost to crap teams also, I find it hard to forget what we can do when we are good. That might be difficult for you to comprehend because positives do not exist to you John, unless you happen to be talking about Manchester United.
  
  If you are too passionate to debate in a reasonable way, I suggest taking a break away from Arsenal. Perhaps until Wenger has gone and a new manager comes in then perhaps he will buy Loric Cana, Gomes, Cattermole, Samba and all the players that you imagine will make Arsenal better than we are.
  
  And for the record, just because you say I am deluded, doesn't actually mean that I am. It is your opinion. I happen to think that I think much clearer than you and that you are extremely deluded. But hey, that is my opinion.
  
  Enjoy the anger mate. I am going to get on with supporting my team regardless of the up's and down's.

• 22-Jul-2011 12:37 | | TL Gooner  - Differing opinions
  

  John
  
  You are obviously a passionate Arsenal fan as i think all on this website are, and i admire that. But you don't need to use your passion against your fellow Gooners by insulting them just because they have a different opinion than you.
  
  I don't think you should question ML's support for Arsenal when you are irrationally slagging them off as much as you can, you sound to be like one of those people who boo's the team instead of cheering them on- and slagging them off in every department isn't good support. So I advise you look at our own support before questioning others.

• 22-Jul-2011 14:12 | | Mr H
  

  Dear John,
  
  Grow up. The way you approach criticism is severely flawed. There is no need to attack a person on a personal level when in fact you are attempting merely to attack the views held by the aforementioned person.
  
  Fans and supporters are allowed different views. That is what makes the internet so great, that we can see those views voiced, without media censorship of such views. The true model of freedom of speech.
  
  However, realise what we are arguing about. We ALL want Arsenal to succeed, it is merely a question of how. To call a persons opinions deluded is perfectly acceptable, but please don't attack the person for having them.
  
  As ML said in his most recent post, if you don't like the views held by a blog where 'vision' is a pre-requisite, then by all means go and join the circle jerk of other blogs that essentially want Usmanov in, Wenger out and Arsenal to be Man City. Also, read a book about the history of the club you claim to be so passionate about. You will realise that it has also been about learn, build , grow and never buy buy buy.

• 22-Jul-2011 14:40 | | Okeke  - Wats wrong with u guyz?
  

  John and Lean. Wats up with u guyz? am an Arsenal fan, what does being a fan entail? being loyal, being happy to see players of the club we love kick about the ball we love to make a goal. And thats where the joy comes 4rm the GOALS! Dont beat urself up bout tactics n signings n shit. Leave that to the manager and club owners! do u think they dont want to succeed and win things, the player and coaches alike. Ofcos who wouldnt want to have a successful career. I think as a fan u have to focus on the positive things than u can derive joy from as Mean Lean does, cos thats why u are a fan in the first place! to derive joy! john if u fill heart with continous hate for the Club as its fan, u are really makin fun of the term FAN! PEACE!!

• 22-Jul-2011 15:07 | | manuel  - everybody chill
  

  No one can claim to know the inner working of arsenal club, all your paranoia are derived from what you read in the papers, which is junk i dont think you guys are helping arsenal as a club by contributing to the shit that the tabloid write about arsenal. the season hasnt started yet already some of you are beating yourself up, ML is already contrubuting to the club by being positive and supporting them. how would you feel if your boss is always putting you down will you grow as a person at work
  NO. so pls lets show our support

• 22-Jul-2011 15:25 | | John
  

  Good advice. However i dont support Arsene as he is destroying our club, and will be delighted when he is gone. Im still waiting for ml to give his opinion on the deluded pofessors decision to risk losing over 20m on nasri leaving next year. So much for self sustaining model. By the way, i support Arsenal fc , not Arsene fc, and criticism is justified imho. Good luck.

• 22-Jul-2011 19:10 | | Andy Mack  - Nasri lost next year?
  

  John, The Nasri situation is quite complex. If AW sells SN now, what happens if Barca finally come up with a serious offer for Cesc. Cesc will give us 100% until he feels that AW is being unfair to him. He knows that a player doesn't get a second chance with Barca if he declines going there this summer but he definitely want to go to his childhood club sometime. It's different when the club stops him going because Barca are offering peanut. So ig Barca do find the money then do we want to be without Cesc and SN. On top of that, SN wants to win as much as he wants the money, so without Cesc on the books we could pay SN more without completely mullering the wage structure plus we could have a really soog 4/5 months and convince SN to sign a contract. On top of this, we have no idea where the 20m figure comes from apart from the newspapers who 99.9% of the time talk b0llocks.

• 22-Jul-2011 19:12 | | Andy Mack
  

  should be 'really good 4/5'

• 23-Jul-2011 10:57 | | Anonymous
  

  please fgs not another gooner asking for samba ...whats wrong with you people

• 25-Jul-2011 12:41 | | jgunz  - new cb Samba 10 -14mil, also new back up keeper??
  

  I would like to agree with the purpossed signing of samba.
  He is strong in the air, powerful in the tackle and puts his body on the line...also 6"4.
  He is one of the main bully boys in the pl who scares attackers with his robust challenges, and also scares opposition defences when he comes forward for set peices, this is some thing that arsenal have missed since tony adams..and at 10-14 million would tidy our known weakness at set peices.
  
  also hope we can get a experienced 30+ year old back up keeper for a cheap price from one of the championship teams, some one who can do the basics and fill in if our keepers has a wobbly time.

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