Arsenal’s New Year’s Resolutions for 2009
Add comment January 2nd, 2009
In no particular order:
1. Find Cesc a partner. With the Spaniard out for the next four months, central midfield is a bare stage, ready to receive auditionees for the permanent position of playing alongside the skipper. Denilson has had a fair crack already, but seems to lack the defensive know-how neccessary. Hopefully this transfer window will see another pretender arrive to have a crack at replacing the much-missed Mathieu Flamini.
2. Keep Van Persie fit. So far, so good for Robin, who has played a fair few games and scored some very important goals – particularly against Chelsea and Liverpool. If he could last through the calendar year it might provide him with the platform he needs to fulfill his undoubted talent.
3. Integrate Ramsey and Wilshere. We have many talented youngsters at the club, but these two are a cut above. Now 18 and 17 respectively, one would expect them to begin to make an impact on the first-team. Whilst there is a need for older heads during our current ‘crisis’, the cream will always rise to the top, and one would expect 2009 to be a very big year for these two Young Guns.
4. Rehabilitate Eduardo. For my money, the end of 2009 is realistically when Eduardo could be said to fully rehabilitated. I doubt we’ll see him in the first-team for another month or so, and even then it’ll only be fleeting glimpses. For him to overcome the psychological barriers his injury will have caused will take time, but if he can do so then we’ll have an excellent player on our hands once more.
5. Get rid of Gallas. Yes, he’s a good player, but he’s a corrosive influence. Whether it’s now or ideally in the Summer with a suitable replacement coming in, he has to go.
5. Shore up the defence. Whether it’s a new centre-half or two, a new goalkeeper, or a different approach on the training ground, something needs to be down about our leaky defence. I would suggest that Resolutions 1 and 5 might represent the first steps down that particular path.
6. Improve the squad. We’ve been over this so many times, but like a tapeworm trapped inside Victoria Beckham, the squad is desperately thin. The transfer window is now ajar, so hopefully Arsene is working on this one as we speak.
7. Qualify for the Champions League. It’s not something we can guarantee, as we’re now reliant on Aston Villa slipping up. And yet it goes without saying that it remains absolutely vital.
8. Win the FA Cup. A little ambitious to think we can win anything at all this year, but then isn’t that the point of resolutions. This is the football equivalent of, “Go running every morning”. You know it’s unlikely to happen, but it’s a lovely thought nonetheless.
Some will be harder to keep than others, but they would all make 2009 an awful lot better than 2008.
