Darker days for Arsenal?

Tuesday, 23/08/2011

by Richard Leighton, Shoot's Arsenal blogger

What an absolutely massive week in the life of Arsenal Football Club. We take on Udinese on Wednesday night in the second leg of our Champions League qualifier without a host of first team players including Samir Nasri.

For the record those unavailable are Nicklas Bendtner, Laurent Koscielny, Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Sebastien Squillaci, Henri Lansbury and Abou Diaby. Of course, Emmanuel Eboue, Denilson, Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri have all been let go too.

Granted some of these players are not usually starters but what it does mean is that our squad is stretched to its very limits right now and because of that it’s very difficult not to be concerned.

The reason the game in Italy is so big has nothing to do with money in my opinion. Clearly it would be very nice indeed to get the £25m reward just for being in the competition but Arsenal’s financial situation is such that if we missed out on that money, it would not be catastrophic.

I’m more concerned about the football side of things because the best players want Champions League football. How long before Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott look at the situation and realise that in order to have a chance of silverware they will have to move on?

Furthermore, with Cesc and Nasri leaving, what kind of message does that send out to prospective players? We already know Juan Mata chose Chelsea over us because he thinks they have more chance of trophies.

It’s a vicious circle that the board and the manager have to take a hold of before it’s too late and that is through squad reinvestment. Who knows, maybe the reason for a lack signings this summer is because players want to wait and see if we’ll be playing Champions League football.

We’re in serious danger of being left behind at a time when if you lose touch with the top it’s very hard to get back among that elite because the competition has never been better (or wealthier).  

It’s obviously too late for the Udinese game but whatever happens against them it is absolutely crucial that Wenger replaces those we have lost with players who can come in and are ready to do a job straight away.

We seem to be circling the drain right now but there is still time to rectify things. The resources are there to get what we need – we just have to hope the player will come.

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