I am so relieved that this horrible season is over, we were so lucky to get 3rd, but we did and we can enjoy yet another St. Totteringhams day. But now is the time to start preparing for next year. In my opinion we need to get the transfers done and dusted ASAP, certainly within the next 2 weeks. Just as important we have to get the defence sorted out, it was appalling yesterday, the players are good enough but the system is crazy, we never go up and down in a line but run around like a pub team with players totally out of position. Neither Gibbs or Santos are adequate defensively they just bomb forward leaving big left back shaped holes. The holding midfielder must do exactly that, Song often gets caught up field and there is not enough tackling back from forwards or midfielders. So come on Arsene get the wallet out and get Steve Bould organising the back four.
I think the organisation is the key - not necessarily players, though we do need a couple more. I think Gibbs and Santos are fine. I fully agree at being glad the season is over (it's been a struggle), and relieved we came 3rd.
Defensive organisation, dealing with set plays, staying focussed through to the whistle, cutting out tippy-tappy, working on fast more direct attacking play (no not route 1) - plenty to work on.
Not sure how the Euros will affect the transfer market. Those not figuring may be cheaper and may be abl;e to do deals quciker, but for those involved in the tournament we can expect delays, ostensibly so that the players are not distracted from the Euros, but also because a good tournament adds more value to the player. The point though is that withoput nw players we won't be able to challenge for the title nor the CL. We are too light weight for the cups. To challenge for the league, I think top quaility players are needed because that is what the competition has. Look at Liverpool, they spent big but not on quality, and ended up way, way off the pace. Everyone will have their cheque books out because of City and Chelsea, and also because of United's need to reshape their squad. Wenger said he could write a book on what happened last summer wrt transfers - he might have enough material for 2 or 3 sequels to that this summer. I don't think we will be able to get enough quality to compete.
I look at what Greece did in the European Championships and maintain that you don't need superstars to win. You need to be well organized, disciplined, have a bit of luck and if you have one or two superstars in your team they make everybody else look good. We need to have half a dozen players step up and provide a bit more depth and maybe get someone who can help win the midfield, perhaps Wilshere coming back may do it. I don't think we were far off. Our best 11 was very good, but they got tired and they started getting injured. They did a tremendous job for us, but if we are going to compete in all competitions we need to rotate a bit more. You can berate Song and Ramsey all you like, but they can't be expected to play 4 games in 12 days and be good every time. We shouldn't be attacking the players that were in the team, we should be beating up the Gervinhos, Coquelin's, Benayouns etc. that were not good enough to get picked, until after we ran Song and Ramsey and Rosicky into the ground. I thought Coquelin and Benny were not great yesterday, particularly defensively. If they want to stick around for next year they need to play better than that.
