We’re not the only ones baffled about Rosicky

 

It seems that even Wenger does not know when Rosicky will be back.

Wenger said: “He is not making much progress. It looks like the tendon of his hamstring is healing slowly. He has been out now for seven weeks. It is difficult to say to you that he will play next week. In fact it is impossible to say when he will return. He has not practised and I don’t know what to say really. It is a frustration for me and him as well.

“He’s a very genuine guy who wants to play. If you tell him to come in tomorrow morning at 4am and leave at midnight so it will be better, he will do it. He has an absolutely genuine attitude and is 100 per cent committed but he’s just not ready.”

The injury situation with the Czech midfielder is ridiculous, I’ve got to say. I am afraid that he will never, ever, be able to become a solid first choice starter who you can guarantee at least 30 games from each season, and so with this problem there is only one solution, which is to buy another winger to go straight into the team.

This is a must if we are going to be able to challenge for the title next season, because at the moment we are not strong enough in wide areas to be able to cope as well as the other three big teams, and although I am not sure our recent bad run has anything to do with this problem, it is inevitable that a lack of freshness due to a lack of depth will cost us at least some points until its sorted.

 Rosicky is a quality player when fit, and so there is definitely no need to sell him, but if we can get in another wide man in the summer it will ease our worries about squad depth no end.  I know that perhaps we should be thinking about squad issues after the season is over, but I just think that with this latest amazing acceptance by Wenger of Rosicky’s injury problems just highlighted this clear problem.

Frimpong on target as England progress

The Arsenal contingent continued to impress as Frimpong, Arsenal’s Ghanian-born central midfielder joined Freeman in scoring his first international goals, after Freeman was on target on Wednesday against Japan.

Frimpong played the full game just 24 hours previously, but again stayed on the pitch for the full 90 minutes as he clinched the game late on in the match in the 71st minute in a tight contest against European giants Germany. There were also substitute appearances from Freeman and Byles, who along with Nicholas (who did not feature) will expect to get a start tomorrow against the USA while Frimpong will surely be rested after playing two full games within 24 hours of each other.

Thiago Neves being followed by Arsenal

A very nearly exclusive transfer story here (but unfortunately almost certainly untrue) as it seems that Arsenal are tracking Brazilian playmaker Thiago Neves of Fluminense, along with Milan, Bayer Leverkusen and in particular Werder Bremen, who want him as a potential replacement for their star player Diego, who has been linked with a huge number of sides about a possible summer move.

He has played for the Brazil U23’s previously and has scored an impressive 23 goals from 65 appearances for Fluminense. This rumour has come from Abola.pt, a source which I’m sure you, like me, have not heard of before, so the chances of it being true are of course fairly slim, although with Wenger you learn not to rule anything out. Below is a profile of the player anyway:

Name: Thiago Neves Augusto

Position: Attacking Midfielder (presumably)

Birthplace: Curitiba, Paraná

DOB: 27/02/85

Last Club: Vegalta Sendai (JAP)

Fluminense Statistics: 

Games: 65

Goals: 23

Source for this story:

 http://http://www.abola.pt/nnh/index.asp?op=ver¬icia=137682&tema=2