EPL 2008/2009

so finally the season is over.. goodbye to 2008/2009.. 4-1 win against stoke to end the campaign on a high.. we got no live telecast here in malaysia.. just got manure's game and newcastle's game over here.. our game not even replayed in TV! what a shame! 5 years ago we were the royalty of live telecast.. now we dont really deserve it.. to lose to some lesser teams in the opening half of the season is a disaster.. hence now we were 18 points adrift in 4th place..

in the last summer we lose hleb and flamini.. loan senderos to milan.. brought in nasri with expectation that rosicky would be playing on september/october.. so much we think that he was replacing hleb, but he end up in midfield alongside cesc.. i wonder what do we fans really know about certain player.. what do we know really about the team.. do we install FM in our pc, have a look at the stats, and then made some thinking, and then commented out lout about wenger decision to do these and those. we are the fans.. but certainly not an insiders.. our comments were all based on what we read and watched.. how good is that comment would be.. i wonder..

"Arsenal’s problem is that every year you get players who have a great season and immediately leave. Season but after season, players leave and the manager has to build a new team and buy new players. That is not easy."-Hleb

i remember wenger said our wage structure rivalled any big clubs'.. the highest paid player is adebayor on 80k a week. wenger's statement was confusing i think. if our highest paid player wage was so much behind other big club's top wager, did this mean that our fringe players' wages were so much ahead of other big clubs' fringe players? it's hard to think that eboue's wage is so much ahead of park ji sung's.. then the truth is our wage structure is not that great?? that's explain why players wanted to leave.. let's skip the issue of money grabber player.. the focus here is we seems to have a real restriction in term of financial muscle.. i dont know.. we let 2 players out, 3 including senderos.. is it because we are not good enough, or we are not financially good enough?? i cant help to think it is the later one..

with 5 early defeats, we went shopping in january. fans suggested an experienced DM, but wenger buy an experience forward in andrey arshavin. what a saviour he is.. or what a great buy from wenger.. which one you suppose?? i think we can be lightweight at the back if we are real heavyweight upfront. it would be you score 1, i score 2 mentality. seriously we lack someone who can run at defenders.. be menacing with dribbling.. henry had his fair share doing this, stretching defenders out wide, giving space to the likes of pires, ljungberg, bergkamp, wiltord, vieira etc to exploit. arshavin can dribble no doubt. he attracted 2 sometimes 3 defenders, to stop him, giving spaces to others. walcott cannot really do this, that's why i think wenger said his future is striker.

21 games unbeaten later, we were secured in 4th place. those 4 arshavin goals were really a bless. in a game that we only attack 4 times, we score 4 goals. and keep the momentum going to collect as much points as we could until may. the 1-4 lost against chelsea was flattering, as we controlled the game well. we pay the price for not clinical enough with every chance we have, chelsea scoring 4 with the incredible anelka strike spring in mind.

now the eyes will be on transfer window.. who will come in.. who will go out.. whoever they will be, i always want the best for this Arsenal, who dont compromise philosophy with dirty money.