Are Arsenals' Reserves a Thing of the Past?

It's Friday morning, and with it comes the return of the weekend and the return of football. I am of course referring to my game of indoor football tonight, and not that other tournament that's taking place in South Africa. You can't beat indoor football on a hot and humid night to help you lose a few pounds and possibly induce a heart attack as well at my age.

The new first team kit was released yesterday and it seems to have been received very well in most quarters. I like it myself, but having heard that it will only be around for one season I'm not sure if I will be buying it. 

According to a few reports, there are a number of German clubs chasing the services of Rosicky, but the player himself says that he is focused on the pre-season schedule with Arsenal and nothing else. It has been suggested in quite a few places that Rosicky might be surplus to requirements this season, but I don't think we should sell a player of his skill and experience.

A couple of days ago I recommended the Young Guns blog as a great source of information on our younger players and again, it has a story that I haven't seen elsewhere. Apparently, Arsenal have decided to pull out of the F.A. Premier Reserve League for next season as things are revamped. It would seem that the youth team will remain, but with the new rule concerning a squad of 25 players for the first team and the need for a certain amount of them to be homegrown, the reserves team will only play friendly games next season.

It also means that we should see quite a lot of our younger players going out on loan again next season. I think there is more experience to be gained playing in the first team elsewhere rather than in our reserve team, and, in my opinion, that's also one of the reasons for the decision. I think that we will have to have clauses in the loan agreements that the players can be recalled at any time if we need them.

Towards the end of last season, the likes of Wilshere might have made an impression in the first team if he had been recalled from Bolton. We were very short of players at the time and the team was crying out for a player of his talent and commitment.

I forgot to mention earlier in the week that Cesc won the fans award for player of the season with almost 50 percent of the vote. Despite missing almost a third of the season injured, he still managed 19 goals in all competitions and was the joint top in the Premier league assist charts. Vermaelen came second, with Song third, and RVP fourth despite missing most of the season injured. I suppose the inclusion of RVP in fourth place goes to show that not enough of our players excelled last season.

After reading all the usual sources today, I can't come up with any new transfer targets, but a lot of the old ones are popping up again. There's still a chance that Joe Cole or Per Mertesacker might sign for us, and Laurent Koscielny should really have signed already and I'm sure he will very soon.

I would like Arsenal to sign Koscielny, Mertesacker, and Portugal's goalkeeper, Eduardo, to show that we mean business and we have real ambition for next season.

The World Cup resumes this afternoon with the game between The Netherlands and Brazil, and I'm hoping for a win for RVP and his Dutch teammates. I picked them as my team to support before the tournament started, and I'm hoping they will give us the performance that their talent suggests they are capable of today. I haven't been overly impressed by Brazil so far, but they do have a very strong defense with Lucio and Maicon in particular playing exceptionally well. I'm going out on a limb and predicting a 2-1 win for The Netherlands.

In the late game, it's Uruguay against Ghana, and I hope Ghana can give the African continent its first finalist, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Uruguay will win. 

If you have a fantasy team, don't forget to make your changes ahead of the games, as it's getting to the business end of the competition now.

Here's a look at a few goals from Malcolm MacDonald back in the day.

See you tomorrow.