One Week to go...

Well reading around the blogging world yesterday and this morning it does seem that all Arsenal fans are likely to commit suicide or, at least, kick their cat* if we don't sign someone (or more) in the last week of the transfer window. You can understand the fear, we did after all lose at Fulham and play pretty badly. The question, as always after a defeat, is was the performance symptomatic of what's to come or just a bad at the office? The problem is that the answer to the question will only be known a few months into the season. However, it was notable that Arsene didn't give any excuses to the performance on Saturday (something he often does) and maybe there is a realisation that something is required.

Of course, there are numerous opinions on what we need but actually very few concrete recommendations of who we should buy. If, as many people suggest, we need a Flamini type player as well as a centre half then who are they and are they available. The oft quoted examples of Alonso and Barry are both good players but they would not necessarily provide the dynamism that Flamini did last year. Maybe, and I know that this could be sacreligious to say, we have to work with the youngsters, allow them to grow together, share the bad experiences and watch them blossom.

However, this approach has a downside, we won't challenge for titles and we may struggle to qualify for the Champions League. This will leave us, potentially, at risk of financial difficulties and may see players such as Cesc decide to leave (we know mercenaries such as Adebayor would be off like a shot) not to mention the loss of all the part time supporters. Unlike many fans I remember times when we didn't expect to challenge for titles/Europe and so have some experiences to draw on but football like life now seems so much more short term and I'm not sure many have the patience to cope with such a strategy.

It will be interesting to see the supporters' reactions if we are 10th in January, out of the Champions League and playing poor football. I'm not saying we will be as 2 games is not enough to judge the potential of the season (look at Manchester United last year. However, the blog comments seem to indicate a certain stage of panic already (not from all but by many) and it could get messy....

Anyway we'll talk about it after we have a stonking win over FC Twente on Wednesday night!