Djourou signs new contract and some Wenger quotes
Only a couple of snippets of Arsenal news for you today, and the first is an encouraging announcement from the club that defender Johna Djourou has inked a new contract.
The announcement on the official site is a little low on specifics and only states :
“Arsenal can today confirm that Swiss defender Johan Djourou has signed a new long-term contract with the Club.”
Not that contracts seem to mean a huge deal in football these days, but it is encouraging to see the promising young defender pledge his future to the club. Djourou has shown him self to be an excellent prospect, I would expect him to get quite a few games this year – Especially as the partnership between Gallas and Toure doesn’t exactly look rock-solid. Infact you could say that the Arsenal back-line might work better with Djourou in there in place of Toure.
Aside from the Djourou news, Wenger has had a little pop both at the big spenders and the doubters of the club :
“When you are not on the transfer market you are a little bit ignored at the start of the season because the attention is focused on the big signings, most of the time, big signings mean you are favourites.
We have gone a different way. We are trying to build a young side with a cohesive way to play the game with a culture of football we like.
We were close last year so there is no reason why we should not be in there again this season.
Today we had Denilson 20, Fabregas 21, Bendtner 20, Walcott 19, Song 20. When those players fight for the title one year you can hope they will be better the next year.
We are more robust than people think we are.”
I don’t for a second doubt the abilities of the players that Wenger has mentioned here, I think my only concern, probably everyone’s concern who was calling for a new midfielder before the deadline, was that of depth – sure we have an excellent squad but what happens if a couple of the players he mentioned get injured? It all comes back to the club’s aims to run as a profitable business and with the outside investor changing the game and turning clubs inside out with debt (I’m looking at you, Glazers), I’m going to lay off this point from now on I think as it has been said over and over – but I want to see the club win trophies.
However, It all looks good on the squad front so far; I still think it is imperative for Arsenal’s chances at the Premiership title that the Arsenal squad does not sustain any further injuries.
One more quote from Wenger for you, he spoke over the weekend about Arsenal’s team spirit :
“The pleasure for me watching is the same as for you, Collective sport is fantastic if people don’t transform it into an individual sport.
It becomes magic if the team play as a team. I’m not a golf fan, but I like to watch the Ryder Cup.
There’s something more that makes it beautiful to watch, because of the collective unit and collective spirit.
When a team respect that, they’re a joy to watch. This team have learned and improved from last year. We want to fight at the top.
We want to win the title and the Champions League. We have the quality, we are hungry, and we have a good spirit.
What I like about this team is that they have a good attitude and share the same vision and express themselves well. We want to win first of all, but if it’s possible we want to win with style.”
No arguments from me on this point, I am an Arsenal fan by birth but the team spirit is what makes me love the club, we’ve always had it and I think the team spirit within the current squad has really been flourishing this season. Bendtner and Denilson’s joyful celebrations of the goals at Bolton are a good example. It’s great to see and I hope it continues.
