Well, well, well. You could say it was inevitable that Robin van Persie would not sign a new contract, however that would imply that the board tried as hard as they can to get him to renew his current deal, and I don’t believe that’s true.

What is true is that every time we look to be in a good position to win trophies the following season, we lose key players. I honestly don’t believe this would’ve happened during the David Dein era because he loved Arsenal, I’ve been quite complimentary of Gazidis in the past, however when it comes to renewing contracts for the top players, it appears that he simply isn’t doing well enough.

There are several parties you can blame, van Persie, his agent, the board or more specifically Gazidis, or you could blame Arsene Wenger. Ultimately it is the Dutchman’s decision as to how he wants to be remembered in years to come. Yes he’ll be remembered by Arsenal fans as a great player, but not a legend as he has only won one trophy during his eight year stint at the greatest club in the world and even that was only the F.A cup, if he leaves for a bigger club is he more likely to win trophies? Probably, yes. But by winning trophies with club like Manchester City or Real Madrid he will not be the stand out player, nor will he play every single game.

At Arsenal he is the captain, a hero, an role model, someone Junior Gunners all over the world look up to and want to play as in the playground. Its just sad it has to end this way as I think he stays then he will win trophies in the next five years as captain.

“As announced earlier this year I had a meeting with the Boss and Mr. Gazidis after the season. This was a meeting about the club’s future strategy and their policy. Financial terms or a contract have not been discussed, since that is not my priority at all.”

Looking at the statement taken from Robin’s website, it reinforces my point that Gazidis does not care enough about the club. Even if financial terms or a contract were not discussed seeing as ‘that’s not Robin’s priority’, surely they should have been in order to try and keep the player? We supposedly offered Robin somewhere in the region of £130,000 to £140,000 a week, however if this statement is to be taken seriously, then it appears that these rumours were false as well.

Why is it that Tottenham have been able to keep their best players? It really is something I find quite worrying. Do we settle for mediocrity by finishing 3rd or 4th every year? Or do we aim for the top by winning trophies. I’m not suggesting we sacrifice our league position as a Champions League team for the Carling Cup, that would be stupid. However if we are to keep our best players and ultimately be successful, then trophies are a necessity . Its what every player wants to be remembered by when they hang up their boots. As Herbert Chapman once said “I’m going to make this the greatest club in the world.” Arguably he did, whilst also breaking several transfer records. Spending large sums of money isn’t always the answer, it has been successful for Man City, but there have also been several sob stories.

The manner of RVP’s statement was full of arrogance and false pretence’s, something we don’t usually associate with the Dutchman as he’s always appeared loyal through quotes in papers or through his attitude on the pitch. A die-hard attitude complimented perfectly with an exuberance of grace and class. He is a great player. What isn’t great about him is that he thinks one season without injury means that he’s too big for the club. He’s not and I for one think he’s owes us at least another season like the one he’s just had. Of course that would mean he’d be allowed to leave on a free  and I wouldn’t feel comfortable keeping a player who’s contract expires at the end of the season.

We need to sell him as soon as possible whilst his value is still high or at least keep trying to renew his current deal as we still have to remember though that its still not a formality that Robin will leave this summer or even next summer, for all we know he could be ‘doing a Rooney’ by publicly stating his desire to leave the club, its something which would surprise me, but then again I’ve been surprised so many times by football. Despite this the statement on Arsenal.com does not reinforce this claim however this could be because they do not want to cause a confrontation and so they are staying neutral.

In the meantime the club need to look at a ‘world class’ replacement for van Persie and once done secure the long term future’s of Theo Walcott and Alex Song. I realise that I’m making this seem like something which is extremely simple, and its not. But I’m sure Gonzalo Higuain would be more than happy with a move to The Emirates if it meant that he would be the main man.

Arsenal need to deal with the matter as soon as possible, if he definitely want to leave then sell van Persie, replace him, and ‘hey presto’, everybody’s happy again.

In some ways the whole thing seems surreal , when I saw the statement at first I didn’t want to believe that the man who had carried our hopes for the past season as captain, who had grown up supporting Arsenal, idolising players like Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry and ultimately playing alongside them would leave us in this fashion. Especially when he said last year “I know I can win trophies with other clubs, but I only want to do it with Arsenal.” The reaction after the statement was released was incredible, he had spent 8 years at the club building his relationship with the fans and in 5 minutes it was gone, possibly forever.

A excerpt of what Arsene said after Robin stated his desire to join the dark side:

“YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE! IT WAS SAID THAT YOU WOULD DESTROY THE SHEIKHS, NOT JOIN THEM. BRING ALANCE TO FOOTBALL, NOT LEAVE IT IN DARKNESS. YOU WERE MY LOVER ROBIN.”

Its a massive dilemma for Arsene and the board. If they sell Robin this summer then we will once again be labelled a ‘selling club’. Hypothetically speaking if we keep him for another season and let him go on a free after a season in which he scores ten goals then it will possibly be the worst piece of business from the club of all time.

I say sell the traitor. What say you?

Follow me on twitter @cookieelgooner

I’ve got a special guest for you today. His name is Fabian Odhiambo (@IlFabiano)  and he’s a very passionate Gooner from Kenya. Fabian wrote for Dave Seager’s (@goonerdave66) blog a few days ago: http://1nildown2oneup.net/passionate-kenyan-gooners-part-2-fabians-story-oh-to-be-a-gooner/ and after a recommendation from Dave, I was eager to snap him up. Unfortunately, I could only acquire a one day loan deal, but nevertheless it’s a great piece and I hope you enjoy it! Over to Fabian:

This lack of Premier League football is killing me already! Anyway with the 2012-13 fixtures having been released, it at least implies that the wait is close to coming to an end. Thank God. As we countdown to the new season, I’ve been pondering, wondering even, what it has in store for Arsenal. There’s the small matter of the trophy drought stretching to its 8^th year and this is a worrying trend, which has to be arrested with absolute finality this season. The question still remains, are we good enough to finally win something? Something here basically means the Barclays Premier League title, make no mistake about this. In a nutshell I sought to look into the tactics that we may employ during the season and their implications in our quest for redemption.

Last season we finished 3^rd in the league behind the two Manchester heavyweights, mainly by employing a fluid 4-3-3 formation. If we really want to win the league, should we stick to this? Maybe, but maybe not. I mean, it didn’t push us to the top, did it? Does it mean it is a bad system? No, that’s a bit preposterous. After all, it was the driving force behind Pep Guardiola’s successful 4 years at the Camp Nou, right? Given that our skipper and lead striker Robin van Persie was the top marksman in the division with a phenomenal 30 goals, I find it strange that it wasn’t enough to fire us to the top of the pile. Normally, a team whose striker bags such a superb return of goals usually goes on to become champion. It therefore means, somewhere somehow our tactics did not give us the productivity that we so needed. I don’t want to go into the details of what didn’t work as that’s a waste of time and in any case we’re moving forward, aren’t we?

‘Well err … I believe that errr … you Arsenal fans might want un trophee, non?’

Definitely what I’m trying to say is that Arsene Wenger has to change his tactics. It is imperative, no two ways about it. Change to what, then? Good question. Since the season ended I’ve been hearing and reading from various Arsenal blogs calls for us to revert to the traditional 4-4-2. The reasoning behind this is that after all, it brought us success in the past, thus tried and tested. That, I’m not refuting, but to be honest, I don’t think it is the way to go. For me, that’s regression and it won’t get us anywhere. If there’s something I credit Wenger for, it’s doing away with the 4-4-2. I always maintain that with the passage of time, football dynamics have changed too. The game has become more midfield-centered and thus the 4-4-2 system has lost its place in the game.

You could point out that it has continually worked for Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. Well, yes but not exactly. For starters, they failed to win the league last season. Ok, alright, that cannot be solely blamed on the system, but if you look at their disastrous showing in both European competitions, it shouldn’t be difficult to understand that the reason behind this was their midfield being utterly dominated. In a 4-4-2, emphasis is not on ball retention (as the midfield of two is outnumbered) but rather on use of width and speed to get the ball to the strikers to finish. At times it works, but against technically equipped sides, it is bound to fail as happened to United against City, Newcastle, Basel, Athletic Bilbao, etc.

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Definitely what I’m trying to say is that Arsene Wenger has to change his tactics. It is imperative, no two ways about it. Change to what, then? Good question.

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So what am I suggesting? Well, for now I can only describe the type of players we need and that will more or less give direction on the system best to employ. For a successful league campaign we’re desperately going to need an anchor-man in the midfield, ‘sitting’ just in front of the back four. I hear murmurs of ‘but there’s Alex Song’. Fair enough, we do have the Cameroonian maestro who designation in any case is defensive midfielder. Question is, judging from last season did he really perform the aforementioned role? Sadly, no. That’s not to imply that he didn’t perform for the club. On the contrary, he was one of our best players during the campaign. The problem with Song  is that he became too adventurous, assuming the role of playmaker at the expense of his main defensive duties as testified by his outrageously brilliant haul of 11 assists. It’s no surprise then that we shipped in something close to 50 goals, a disastrous number at any level.

So, what’s the remedy? We need someone who’s going to sort of reincarnate the ‘Makelele Role’. This is a player who will sit back, make simple passes, break the opponent’s play, tough-tackle (if need be), initiate our attacks and in essence be our ‘third’ center back. In the just ended season Song did not do all of these and you know, football is quite unforgiving. Opponents punish heavily for ignorance of such facets of the game. For a long time Arsenal has been linked with France star Yann M’Vila. I got a feeling that he would be perfect for the role, but it’s up to Wenger to be the judge of that. Either way, point is, we need someone to play such a role for us, the way Sergio Busquets does for Barca and Spain. Whether it’s Song, M’Vila, Biglia, Coquelin or whoever, let’s see.

“Yann, seriously mate, you won’t have to wait long now before you pull on that red, white and err blue jersey. So need to cry about it … I mean, you’ve got Spain in the quarters; you’ll be back home before you know it! .”

I’ve always maintained that Cesc Fabregas wasn’t replaced and that this was a big, big blunder on the management’s part. Prior to his departure, our game had been so much built around him to the extent that we always struggled to cope whenever he was out injured. Some argue that maybe him being the focal point of our attack and general play was harmful to our progress. Maybe, but with the type of football that Arsene advocates for, we are always going to need that creative midfielder. The one that can create chances out of nothing, that can find the tiniest of space to exploit and the one that can thread those defence-splitting passes for our forwards to latch on. Don’t mention Aaron Ramsey, he got his chance and proved a bit inadequate to deliver the goods on that front.

This role for me is of absolute importance and is imperative for success in the modern game. Wing play that we kind of resorted to cannot always be relied on to unlock defences and should be used to support the attack marshaled from the center. If I were Wenger, my number one transfer priority would be getting a playmaker. What about Jack Wilshere? He’s indeed the future of Arsenal, but after his long injury lay-off, the role shouldn’t be thrusted on to his shoulders just yet. In fact this coming season he should play a more back-up role to the main man, occasionally making cameos so as to accelerate his healing and bring him back to full fitness.

Jack Wilshere can make play, maybe he should be our playmaker?

Going forward, I think it is important Robin van Persie stays at the club. There are no questions about that. I envision him leading our line flanked by new signing Lukas Podolski and either of Walcott, Gervinho or Oxlade-Chamberlain depending on the game and circumstances. That brings my ideal formation to something close to 4-1-4-1 which to be precise can mutate to 4-1-2-2-1 which essentially can still shift to 4-2-3-1 depending with the need at the time. Then of course, it’s up to the manager and his staff to drill the players thoroughly and make it work, because trust me, it can bring us success. Just to be clear, in the 4-1-2-2-1, we have the back 4, the 1 anchor, the 2 after the anchor being the playmaker (or trequartista or number 10) and the other, a link between the defensive midfield and attack. Then the next 2 are the wide forwards who support the 1 lead striker. Complex? Well, success doesn’t come easy. Thanks for reading.

Well I hope you enjoyed that one guys. If you liked Fabian work then you can follow him on Twitter by clicking this: @ilfabiano.

As ever, you can follow me @CookieElGooner

The top scorer of Ligue 1 last season, Olivier Giroud, will (barring another Juan Mata scenario) be an Arsenal player next season.

Several news outlets including some of the most reliable sources around Europe in L’Equipe, The Telegraph and the BBC have reiterated that the deal will be finalized in the coming days with the fee totaling around £12m.  It really is a bargain when you look at players like Torres being signed for ridiculous sums of money.

The reason for the low price is due to a minimum fee clause in Giroud’s contract which means his club Montpellier, have to accept an offer of £12m or more. I’m certainly not complaining. With Lukas Podolski’s arrival having been confirmed at the end of April; it appears that the blasé epidemic which was rampant in the Arsenal negotiating team last season, has been eradicated from the club’s ranks for one time only, not to win trophies, but to increase shirt sales for Arsenal plc (I’m joking).

‘And in the red corner, standing at 6 ft 3 and weighing in at 14 stone, the leading light in Montpellier’s Hollywood style title win of 2011/2012,  French Heavyweight champion ” The Charm Striker”, Olivvvvieeeeer Giroud!’ Read the full post »

When you think of European Championship winners, which teams spring to mind? The flamboyant and cultured French side who won Euro 2000? Or the stellar, fluid but equally adventurous Spanish side who won Euro 2008? Maybe if you cast your minds back to 2004 ; ignore the ‘insignificant’ stuff like the Iraq war, the fact that Tony Blair was a complete idiot or the errrrm … ‘The Invincibles’ (they sure weren’t insignificant) and you might remember a Greece side who, despite being second least favourites managed to win the Henri Delauney cup against all the odds by sitting back, soaking up the pressure, and then countering. Read the full post »

I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but I think its unlikely that van Persie will sign a new contract. Unless we’re guaranteed him signing a long term deal then we should be looking at other players before he’s ‘Robinned’ by the Sheikh’s of ‘Manspender’ City.

Well I’ve already failed what I set out to try and do in attempting a positive stance on this transfer debacle but its not particularly easy when the likely outcome is that we’ll lose our captain and best player for the second season in a row. Robin’s a player I’ve admired and looked up to since he first joined and unlike when Vieira, Henry, Fabregas etc. left there isn’t really a player this time who has been at the club for a while and has the talent to become the pinnacle of the side. Of course we have Wilshere, but as we saw with the extreme criticism of Aaron Ramsey despite trying his hardest in every game its a lot of pressure for a 20 year old to take on board, especially one who’s still not back from a long term injury.

Will this man be off in the summer?

So what do we do? In my opinion the only thing which is going to keep van Persie is trophies and world class players to play with; of course we’ve signed Podolski and that’s a very good start. The fact that many thought he was too high caliber and therefore didn’t fit the prototype of an Arsenal player proves the manager’s transfer policy is either reformed, or it means he has more funds to deal with and will now chase players who can make an impact straight away such as M’Vila and Kagawa. Of course these are dream signings and despite various reports from seemingly reliable ITK’s no one can be certain that they will join. Two strikers linked recently are Fernando Llorente of Europa League finalists Athletic Bilbao and Olivier Giroud of Ligue 1 winners, Montpellier. Llorente has supposedly signed for Arsenal for €25m and will announce this in a press conference tomorrow whilst Arsenal face competition from Bayern Munich and Fenerbache for Giroud if you’re one to believe The Metro.

Montpellier hotshot, Olivier Giroud could be on his way to Arsenal this summer.

Assuming these two are RVP replacements which one should we go for? Despite being of a similar age to Llorente, Giroud is far less experienced with 93 goals in 216 appearances in comparison with 113 goals in 296 appearances by Llorente. Both strikers have good goal records averaging around a goal every 2 games however it is important to consider the fact that Giroud spent the majority of his career in the lower leagues whilst Llorente has spent 8 years of his career in La Liga and has scored many goals in that time period. Therefore I think it would be a slight gamble going for Giroud, as we have seen with a few recent signings the French league is far inferior to the  Premier League or even La Liga and therefore Llorente would more likely be a player who could come in and probably need less time to adapt than someone like Giroud.

Or is The Lion King on its way to North London?

Both players fit the category of ‘target men’ however unlike Andy Carroll, Llorente and Giroud are excellent technically and certainly know where the goal is. Neither would a formation change be necessary, both teams play a variant of the 4-3-3 formation which would allow reduced adaptation time. The only problem with Llorente is price. Valued at around £22m, the Spaniard would cost a hefty fee for a player who is out of contract next summer. Giroud meanwhile is valued in the region of £9m-£10m and would be a much cheaper alternative. For this reason I think Giroud is a much more likely signing and although he might not be at Llorente’s level at the moment, the Frenchman would be a decent signing and can only improve at a top club like Arsenal. Despite this he is not good enough to be a direct replacement for van Persie and if the Dutchman were to leave then we should be looking at players of Robin’s level like Gonzalo Higuain despite playing almost half the time van Persie did, managed to score just 8 goals less as Real Madrid romped to the Spanish league title. See @goonerdave66 ‘s piece for more on striker alternatives.

Highlights from “The Charm Striker” Olivier Giroud’s very productive season:

Thought I’d chuck a bit of The Lion King in there as well, enjoy:

That’s all folks. See you next time! And oh yeah, follow me on Twitter @CookieElGooner

Disclamier: The transfer rumour’s in this piece are based on speculation from various sources and should not be interpreted as fact.

Hey guys, this is the first post on my new site “Victoria Concordia Bergkamp”.  Thought I would start with a little introduction, for those who don’t already know me (shame on you) I’m James Cook, better known to the Twitter world as @CookieElGooner. Anyway I used to write a blog for http://savagegooner.wordpress.com/, named after the great man, @SavageGooner (go follow him) however the site folded and since then I haven’t done as many pieces as I’d like to have done. Thanks to @goonerdave66 and @OPosts also for giving me opportunities to write for them. Launching my own site means that you can read my pieces more regularly, right here! So why “Victoria Concordia Bergkamp”? Well for those who don’t know, Victoria Concordia Crescit is the Arsenal motto which when translated to English means ‘Victory Through Harmony’. Why not replace ‘harmony’ with ‘Bergkamp’? He embodies class, everything good about the man Arsenal represents. So that’s why the site is named what it is.

This website will be more of a feature page with tactics, analysis and solutions rather than news however as it’s the first piece I will analyse and discuss the events which have occurred over the past week.

First things first there’s a big game on Sunday. Win it and we secure Champions League football, we go one step closer to secure the signing of Yann M’Vila ( something I will go into more detail later) and we are also more likely to secure the signing of a world-class player who has scored 37 goals this season and goes by the name of Robin van Persie. For me he’s important signing we can make this summer (with the exception of someone like Messi or Ronaldo of course); confirming the long-term future of our captain, our talisman, would send out a message to other teams that we mean business because quite frankly I don’t know where we’d be without the Premier League’s best player and highest scorer.

Onto West Brom, who are a mid table side with seemingly nothing to play for. However as we found out against a resilient Norwich last week and against an unattractive Stoke the week before, midtable teams will not rest on their laurels. If we drop points then we give Newcastle and Spurs the initiative, something which could be detrimental to our hopes of Champions League next season. Even 4th might not be good enough, with Chelsea the underdog who just won’t give up, facing the favourites, Bayern Munich in the final of the Champions League. Let’s hope they lose. Just because they’re English it doesn’t mean I want to see  that despicable ‘man’ John Terry lift that elusive Champions League trophy (shivers).

The Baggies are most likely to line up in a 442 formation this weekend. Arsenal meanwhile will most certainly play in a 4231 formation despite the calls from several bloggers this week to stick with the side and formation which turned the game on its head last Saturday, only to concede a badly defended goal shortly afterwards and leave Arsenal fans in a state of disarray. On a personal level I think now is not the time to toy with new tactics, that can wait until the summer. For now we need to put faith in the system which will see us end up on a higher points tally if we win than last season, despite the turmoil which was present near the start of this campaign. Read the full post »