Will he stay or will he go?

Not Henry, no, Thierry I’m afraid pales in significance to another whose future is in some doubt, that someone being Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. With his contract due to run out next summer, the man who’s the reason behind the amazing style of football we play, has confirmed he’ll see out next season, at the least. Of course, this is no great relief, I already knew that much. Wenger’s not one to up and leave when he has a contract and he said as much himself:

I have never broken a contract in my entire career and I will not break a contract now. So I can tell you categorically that I will be at the club next season.

And next summer I will sit down with the board and see.

Now this has caused a bit of a crisis among Arsenal fans as though he likes to leave it late, last time his deal was running out, he put pen to paper on a new one the season before. It’s the season before again and the way in which what Wenger’s said has been interpreted is that he won’t discuss terms on a new contract until next summer, which further puts his future at the club in doubt. I’m confident he’ll stay though and at the reason he’s leaving it so late is because he doesn’t know what situation the club will be in at the end of the season. I think he wants to see some progress from his young players and is still waiting to see of what will happen with the whole Kroenke thing. I don’t think he’s planning to leave though.

He’s begun grooming a new generation of Arsenal talent and I’m confident he’ll want to see that through. We might be a little off form of late in terms of competing for the title but the array of potential in the squad surely means once it all comes to fruition we’ll be one of the most feared teams in Europe. I think Wenger will want to see the current generation through before considering departing and even then when he does leave the club it’s likely to be because of retirement, old age having got the better of him.

I’m not worried yet, at least. Arsene always leaves it late, so there’s no great surprise there and I understand his reasons for doing do. I’m confident he’ll stay but if he doesn’t, I’m unsure of the consequences. I guess it would all depend on his replacement. It would certainly cast a great deal of uncertainly over a number of players in the team and could mean an end to Kolo Toure’s and Gael Clichy’s for under quarter of a million. It’s not a nice thought and so it’s one I won’t entertain any further, not until it happens at least and I’ll reiterate, I think that will be a while yet. The hope is that he’ll stay, and stay for as long as he can but the inevitable truth is that he won’t be around forever. I just hope he’s here as long as possible and his departure date is as far away as possible.

• Johan Djourou has hinted he could go out on loan following the interest of Birmingham so as to gain some experience but won’t make it a permanent stay if he does. I can’t see it happening unless we bring in another centre back as you need four. Of course, Gilberto can always play centre back if injuries were to arise. If someone comes in I reckon Djourou will go out on loan though.
• Padrew’s after Philippe Senderos. It’s true, he lacks concentration and is suspect defensively in some areas of his game but he’s a decent third/fourth choice and has potential. He also gives us height at the back and is a good header of the ball, something we lack at the back sometimes. Could go if Wenger wanted to bring someone else in (aka Micah Richards though that’s wishful thinking more than anything else) but I’m not sure he’d be too happy in the Championship, especially seeing as he could make the starting line up of a Premiership side fairly easily.
• For those who dislike Ashley Cole, you might find it funny that publishers ditched his plans to re-published an updated edition of his biography, ‘My Defense.’ Though it’s apparently shit it’s one I’ve wanted to read just to see how shit it is and out of interest. I wouldn’t dream of buying a copy though. Maybe I’d steal one, to cheat Cole out of the sale.
• Aliadiere is definitely a man off to Middlesbrough and the move will be completed when he returns from holiday. Not sure on the price, I was hoping for £3M, as he’s easily worth that but it would seem we let him go for a price more in the region of £1-£1.5M which would be a good bit of business for Boro.