Can Wenger sign someone, please?

"I am not conservative. I am realistic. It is different. We spend only the money we get. We have nobody who comes out when you lose £250million and says 'Listen, I make you a cheque' and life goes on. We live in a realistic world."

- Arsene Wenger, who has a very conservative view of reality

It'd been said that one of the conditions of the stadium finance deal was that Wenger is obliged to spend 70% of all his transfer takings, on either transfer fees or wages. This means that Wenger is obliged to spend 70% of that £41m that we got from Man City. That's £28.7m, which in my opinion, is sufficient buy someone of quality.

The problem is that we've probably got less than £28.7m to spend. We've spent a lot of money improving the contracts of our squad. I disapprove of that. We have the 3rd highest wage bill in the Premier League, and we have a thin squad with inexperienced backups. What's the point of improving Diaby's contract when we don't have a replacement for Song? What's the point of extending Rosicky's contract when he's injured half the time? And what's the point of giving all our kids large contracts when we still need a defensive midfielder, a centre-back and a goalkeeper?

The issue of the moment is the impeding financial ruin of Liverpool and Man Utd. Liverpool's drowning in debt, and will probably go into meltdown if they don't qualify for the Champions League. Man Utd are hocked to the eyeballs in debt, and may need to sell their training grounds and their stadium to keep themselves solvent. The consensus seems to be that cheque-book managerialism doesn't pay in the long-run.

I disagree.

The reason Liverpool are failing as a business is that their owners borrowed to buy the club, and are using the club's income to pay off the debt. They don't have a stadium big enough to generate the revenue of an elite club. However, they have the player roster and wages of an elite club. They're being squeezed from both ends. They need a new stadium to increase their revenue, but the owners have spent all their borrowed money on players and wages. There's nothing left to fund the stadium.

The reason Man Utd are failing is because the Glazers' are leeches. Man Utd are a remarkably profitable club - it's just the club's profit is being used to pay off the Glazers' borrowings. No business saddled with £700m in bad debt is healthy. If it wasn't for the Glazers, Man Utd would be generating profit every year, instead of going into debt because of interest payments. The Glazers are just the blood out of Mad Utd.

So where does that leave us? We're in a good positio; we have a large debt but it's on long-term low interest rate. The debt's being used to pay off our stadium. And the banks have actually made it a condition that we must invest in the squad, through that 70% investment rule.

So why the hell are we resigning our players on over-the-top wages, signing stop-gap solutions like Sol Campbell, and fielding sub-standard players like Almunia? We've got the money. It's stipulated that we spend it. So why can't we spend on players who can make us stronger?

C'mon Wenger, buy us someone exciting.

Liverpool 4, Arshavin 4

He's a god, he's an Owl,

he's a man, he's Arshavin
You're one microscopic cog
in his catastrophic scheme
Designed and directed
by his red Arse team...

- a song for Arshavin that'll never take, mostly because it's not an 80s rock anthem. Sung to the tune of Red Right Hand by Nick Cave

)))

Arshavin scored to put us in the lead. Liverpool scored twice to lead after 60 minutes. Arshavin scored again, a ripping 30 yard effort, and Liverpool pegged us back. Arshavin scored once more, and Liverpool equalised at the death. If we keep playing Arshavin, we're in danger of being a one-man team.

But WHAT a one-man team we'd be...

The rest of the lads were patchy.

Silvestre was a liability and should be dropped, even if it means playing without a centre-half. Fabianksi made some great saves and some hilarious errors. I loved the bit early on where he just kept charging at the attackers; at one stage, I thought he'd follow the ball out of the penalty area and into the corner flag. Sagna crossed the ball across the penalty area and cost us the third goal. Gibbs cleared off the line for the second game in a row, was at fault for the third goal, but overall was okay. He's going to be a good player for us.

Song did well, and showed why he's not the butt of jokes at the Arsenal anymore. The boy does good when he wants to, and he wanted to do good today. After his form of recent weeks, you start to wonder if an experienced defensive midfielder is still necessary. Nasri and Cesc flitted in and out. Bendtner was anonymous. Denilson was absent.

But Arshavin plays like a dream, and at about 6:30am in the morning, with the sun coming up and Arshavin punched his left-footed shot through for goal, I thought I was dreaming. We haven't had a player like him since the Invincibles. He's deadly. He's tough. He's the Alec Guiness of football. He's the Arsenal we once were, and the Arsenal we still hope to become.

We're still shite, though. We let the led slip by twice in the last 20 minutes. It's unforgivable. In the last five minutes, when Liverpool threw everything at us, we couldn't get it out. We don't have a midfielder who can hold onto the ball and take the pressure off the defence. We can't defend set-pieces; actually, with our current back five, we can't defend at all. We're aching for Djouoru and Almunia to return. Up against Man Utd next week, I'm pretty worried. Thank God it's an away leg first up - a 4-4 tie at Old Trafford would actually be a GOOD result.

But this isn't a day for whining. This is a day for celebrating the wonder that is Arshavin.

He scores four goals a game and he's small enough to sit on your hand. What a marvel!

Back on the bandwagon

"Anfield is another game, another competition, a chance for Wenger to show us that he was right to rest Nasri, Song and Arshavin so that he could beat Liverpool and finish third. That's what he did. It was seriously bizarre, but that's what he did."

- Myles Palmer, Arsenal News Review

Myles Palmer made a good point today. 

He said that Wenger rested his form players (Arshavin, Nasri and Song) to keep them fresh for the game against Liverpool. He said that Wenger is prioritising gaining 3rd place in the league over winning the FA Cup. There's a certain logic to it. 4th place will land us a qualifying spot against possibly a very strong side (Bayern Munich, Ajax, Atletico Madrid, etc.). 3rd place will mean automatic qualification. 

I'd be sad if it was true, though. Football isn't supposed to be about sensible options. It's supposed to be about the vainglorious pursuit of everlasting fame and shiny trophies. If Wenger dropped an FA Cup semi-final to pursue something as dry as automatic CL qualification, it's really sad. I'd much rather believe that Wenger is prejudiced against short people. 

Still, maybe it's time to let it go. After the pessimism and woe of the FA Cup, it's time to get back on the bandwagon. We're up against Liverpool, and we're being written off.  The Merse doesn't give us a chance. He thinks we've nothing to play for and Liverpool will be desperate to win the Premier League. He's thinking a 3-1 win to Liverpool. 

I beg to differ. Arshavin, Nasri, Walcott, Fabregas and Song will be playing. No one's going to be rested for this game - we're going to play our strongest team possible. We've picked up a couple more injuries, but Gerrard's still out for Liverpool. Something tells me that we're going to win tomorrow morning. The Liverpool team better wear underwear during the match, because they're heading for a thorough de-pantsing....

C'mon the Arsenal. 

Chelsea 4, Liverpool 4

"chavs vs scums is really entertaining, I mean 8 goals so far over the two matches. lots of shitty goalkeeping we can thank for todays goals. hope pool can grab one more soon for a thrilling finish but I really dont want them to go through the cunts."

- Black John Wayne, from the gunnerblog forum

I woke up at 5:30 wanting to see the last half hour of the Villareal match. I turned on the computer and scratched around for a link, and there was none. I checked gunnerblog and no one was talking about match. And then it hit me - I had the wrong day.

Damn these Europeans and their complicated fixture making.

Watching the Chelsea-Liverpool tie at the moment. Liverpool were 2-0 up after the first half, now 2-2. Good as over, Chelsea versus Barcelona in the semi-final. I'm a bit apprehensive about this one. I want Chelsea to lose about as much as I want Barcelona to win. The one thing I don't want to see is A**Cole winning something. He's odious.

Scrap that. Lampard just scored. 3-2 to Chelsea. The whole Chelsea team is odious. I've got nothing against Lampard, but I hate his guts for some reason. I'm not sure why. And John Terry. Hate him even more than I hate Lampard.

It's an interesting match to watch. Liverpool started the half with the impossible almost tangible. And now they're stuffed. One blunder by Reina. One set-piece rocket by Alex. One tap-in by Lampard. And the best thing is that I've only a half-hearted interest in it, so no one gets hurt.

3-3 now. Lucas with a deflected shot. With ten minutes to play.

4-3 now. Kuyt header from dead-on. With eight minutes to play.

How excitement.

4-4, Lampard from the edge of the area, goal off both posts. It really is over. Meh. Good match, the kind of grinding, technical game that wish Liverpool and Chelsea could play all the time. Worth getting up for. Anyway, Chelsea vs Barcelona in the semis. Let's hope Barca do them good, because I couldn't stand Chelsea winning the Champions League.

4-0 to the Arsenal

Adebayor, Adebayor

Give him the ball, and he will score

- the Arsenal away fans at Ewood Park, Blackburn

I'm thinking I should write to Danny Fizsman and ask for a season ticket. You see, I've seen three Arsenal games for a combined score of 11-0. In those three games, we've been lucky, brilliant and brilliantly lucky, often in the same half. This can't be coincidence. 

I think I'm a lucky charm. 

It was a lucky performance by Arsenal this time around. 4-0 can be a misleading score. Blackburn were unlucky to go into the break 0-2 down. They broke through the centre of the park with alarming easy, and Santa Cruz was scarily efficient at receiving long balls. If it wasn't for poor finishing, we would've gone in 2-2. 

That said, we DID win 4-0. Which is a lovely, lovely result. So I can't complain much. Only about the necessity of a monster at centre-half and a tank in central midfield. I'm really impressed with the way Walcott fronted up after the England match - he made nice runs, rode the inevitable tackles, and always demanding the ball. And I was impressed with Song when he came on in the second half - he looks the part as our anchoring midfielder, and he'll be awesome for us in a couple of years. 

And Adebayor - it was a nice touch when, after his second goal, he looked at the Darwen Stand (the Arsenal stand) pointed at the crowd and beat his chest. Corny perhaps, and definitely pre-meditated, but it felt heart-felt. Here's a guy who acted like a tosser over the transfer window, and who wants to make amends - at least until Barca come sniffing after him again. 

It was the first time I saw Wilshire play, as well. When I saw him step off the bus, I got a huge shock - the kid looks like a kid. Then, I realised he was only sixteen. Hopefully he's still got a bit of growth left in him. Remarkably, he did okay; the game was over by the time he came on, but he didn't look out-of-place. 

I'm at the Liverpool Apple Store right now. I really should think about buying a MacBook - it's probably just an acute case of tech lust, but they are very, very pretty machines.