Welcome to Arsenal (You'll Never Leave)....

Arsene Wenger says somewhere in the member’s area of the official Arsenal website about how everyone who has left Arsenal football club has lived to regret it.  Obviously he means it in the nicest possible way but looking at the more immediate and recent facts you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s more of a warning.

Robert Pires leaves Arsenal in June 2006 for Villareal and manages to break his leg ruling him out for a whole season, bad enough for any player but when you’re 32 and don’t have much playing time left it’s a slight pain in the buttocks.  Patrick Vieira left for Juventus and his house was gassed while he and his family were asleep leaving the burglars free to steal what they wanted, that is just terrifying.  Thierry Henry the poor bugger has been plagued by injury since he went to Spain and no matter how much the official Barca website chooses to gloss over it his first season at the club has been a massive disappointment.  Even the club’s president has come out and said that his transfer was a mistake and whoever decided to buy him should be punished.  Suddenly £16m doesn’t seem so bad after all. 

It’s not all people who I have sympathy for though, look at the results of the controversial Cole/Gallas transfer.  Gallas captaining the league leaders having scored six goals so far, Cole now not even a regular starter in a team who should think themselves lucky to be in the top four, hasn’t even come close to scoring (although contributed brilliantly to an own-goal last season).   The younger upstarts who believe their own hype at least manage mediocrity, Anelka has his pick of mid-table fodder, Bentley is doing great at Hughes’ over-rated new Blackburn side (wait for him to get a national call-up and then request a transfer to Chelsea, never to start a game again).  Of course there’s also Pennant who, erm, well you get the idea.   

It’s things like this that I wish players like Bendtner, Diarra and Diaby knew as well as I do.  I really rate these players and with us they could eventually become players of real quality, otherwise they’ll be the new Sidwells, Upsons, Larrsons.  Players that people “rate” but will probably never become anything special, never make a difference.  As Wenger pointed out in a recent interview no other big-club in the world gives young players a chance the way Arsenal do.  These kids need to see sense and fast, the curse of the Arse is an unforgiving phenomenon. 

Jens…  I’m saying this a friend… watch your back.