So today was Members Day at the home of football, which happened to be my first time at such an occasion. Overall it was nice to be at leaving the Em's without the feeling of despair following a lacklustre performance for a change, though the weather did it's best to try and ruin it for the rather small crowd that did show up.
The activities themselves were of no real importance but it was just nice to be surrounded by supporters who were there to enjoy the day rather than bicker and starts arguments. After initially coming out to salute the crowd, Theo, Jack, Samir and Eboue went back down the tunnel, whilst the rest of the squad played some practice games, drills etc.
It was an interesting enough experience to see we do actually practice crossing the ball in training, we're just not very good at it. Seeing Sagna, Traore, Miyaichi, Jenkinson, Song and Arshavin attempt crosses was painful, most were over hit or didn't get off the ground. When it came to the playing pretty one-twos on the edge of the box though we looked world beaters, and the players looked a whole lot more interested.
One observation was how superior Bendtner was to Chamakh in all facets of their play today. Watching the Moroccan struggle to hit pea-rollers at our keepers was worrying, whilst Nicklas was banging them in from all angles. Obviously this was just training, but Chamakh looks so devoid of confidence he's like the Francis Jeffers of this team, players were teeing him up to score but his finishing was shocking. If we're letting one of them go, I'd keep Bendtner all day long, everything our African friend is so predictable, even Squillaci marked him out of the training games.
Positives from the training were Cesc looking surprisingly sharp, Ramsey and Rosicky linking up well, and Benik Afobe looking confident amongst the first team. I now expect him to feature heavily in our Carling Cup run before heading out on loan towards the end of the season.
Not being 'lucky' enough to get into the Q&A with the current players I popped along to hear what Martin Keown and Ray Parlour had to say. Most of what Ray said was sadly dull and predictable (same TALKshite stuff), Keown on the other hand had some interesting soundbites.
When one lady pleaded with him to come back and coach the defence he said he it was "highly unlikely" he would do that. Though he would love to work under Arsene Wenger, because he had played at Arsenal he would find it hard to be a coach for the club. Martin also said he fully expected Steve Bould to progress to that role as well as looking after the youth team, before finishing by saying that the fans shouldn't expect more than 4th place this year and maybe a cup win at best, due to the lack of clarity over the Cesc/Nasri situations. Keown said that not only should Arsene be trusted by his ultimate decision over these two players, but that the club should listen to the fans, he then put it to the crowd, asking what the club should do with Nasri, the majority of which shouted back "sell him". Hopefully the sensible thing is done then.....
So it seems it's not just the fans who are struggling to be optimistic at the moment, that said it was good to hear Keown & Parlour state that the fans who booed at the Em's cup, though understandable due to disappointments, are nothing but a hindrance to team moral. Nothing ground breaking, but nice to hear something other than the polar extremes of the media/social networking world that are currently flying about
Silent Stan was there pitch side during training and it's floating around twitter that there was a full board meeting today. The obvious things will hopefully be discussed and decisions made that can bring an end to the drawn out sagas that have bogged the club down for the last 2 months.
Not holding my breath though......
More next week after the Champions League draw tomorrow and Benfica on Saturday with some build up to the Newcastle game.
Till then, Up The Arsenal.
RC
