Arsenal have confirmed that Steve Morrow has been appointed as the club’s new Head of Youth Scouting and that a major re-development of the London Colney training facilities is planned.
Eager to build on the Gunners’ first trophy-winning season in nine-years, CEO Ivan Gazidis also revealed that Arsene Wenger and his team were gearing up to a busy summer in the transfer market and that expectations are high ahead of Andries Jonker taking over from Liam Brady as head of the Academy.
Writing in his Quarterly Report, Gazidis said: “We have already started working for next season and I am very positive about the future. We are very well placed. Many of our key players have committed their long-term careers to the Club which gives us squad stability on which to build effectively.
“Arsène is working hard on bringing greater depth to the squad during the summer and this will allow us to compete on multiple competitive fronts throughout the next campaign.
“In addition, we continue to develop our capability in many of our support areas, including our physical performance work and data analytics. Next year we plan to start work on a major re-development project at Colney.
“We also continue to make significant investment in youth development which remains a key part of our philosophy. I would like to thank Liam Brady once again for all his hard work over the past 17 years and I look forward to continuing to work with him in the future.
“Our new Head of the Youth Academy, Andries Jonker, joins us in July and we have appointed Steve Morrow as our Head of Youth Scouting as we look to develop our recruitment of young players. We have also made big strides during the course of the season in our approach to youth athletic development and important re-building works are finishing at Hale End.”
The reference to ‘physical performance work’ and ‘data analytics’ would appear to tally with something Arsene Wenger said at the tail end of the season about investigating the reason behind the club’s awful injury record.
Back in March, the boss spoke publicly of his frustration that so many key players were unavailable at a key moment of the season: “I am concerned that this happens.
“If you look at our overall injury list going into such a decisive part of the season, we have not Wilshere, not Walcott, not Özil, not Ramsey and we went to Bayern without [Kieran] Gibbs and [Nacho] Monreal. We are analysing very deeply why it happened and to see if there is a link between all these injuries.”
We can only hope the club pinpoint a reason ASAP because year after year the loss of major (and squad) players hampers are ability to compete on four fronts.
Just want to remind that we won the cup!
Correction, Arseblog News. Last line. our* ability
Grammar Nazi is that you? 😀
Nein, es ist nicht mir!
Schneller, schneller, Achtung!
O`Helga, kommst du mit mir?
You know who hasn’t won a cup this season? John Terry, and that other Manchester Club with the little boy, and Tottenham. Bitey Racist didn’t win one either! Guess it’s true what they say, misery loves company.
Any investigation into the relatively high incidence of long and medium-term injuries is ridiculously overdue.
How can it not have been recognized and undertaken sooner?
Just because arsene said it a few months ago, doesn’t mean, investigation wasn’t already underway.
And just because you say that “Arsene said it a few months ago, doesn’t mean, investigation wasn’t already underway”, don’t mean that it was.
And its Arsene not arsene – yeah?? (In reply to your second comment above)
Well aren’t you 2 competitors for Sherlock..
Technically it’s Arsène.
Sorry about that.
True, but it would have had to have started around 2003 to eliminate stupidity.
Agree that this is long overdue. You have to wonder what we do if they conclude that our injury record is due in part to an unusually large number of impact injuries during games. In effect saying that teams are kicking the shit out of our players either: as a natural consequence of our high possession levels, meaning they get tackled more often. And/or because of strategies designed to disrupt our play with physical challenges — often well beyond the limits set by the laws of the game. (Which never happens of course, because the Refs would stamp it out… Read more »
We need a Vinnie Jones/Roy Keane/Vieira type player who threaten to tear balls off and pay a visit to the family of any player getting to rough with our smaller technical players. “Hey! Get the f… Off Özil, or i will stab you in your fu*king eye!” We lack the sort of player that spread fear in the opposition. Atm our opponents can get away with anything since we have no enforcer. Flamini tries to be that guy, but he is quite small and not very intimidating. Like when tried to stop Wilfried Bony and he was just flipped in… Read more »
I have long believed this is a major reason. Maybe an ‘enforcer’ as you say, will make the opponent think twice about chipping away at our players but it seems a deeper problem to me. We suffer the most injuries, the most fouls, and had the highest total days of players missing due to injuries: 1,716 days in total in 2013/14. Our high possession playing style just doesn’t bode too well in the Premier League. This season has seen us sit back more and absorb more pressure, maybe we should just work on that alternate tactic, and use pace on… Read more »
Its not difficult to figure out why we have so many injuries. We run the first team into the ground by over playing as we don’t have enough depth for effective rotation.
Don’t need an investigation for that.
Fact of life: we won the F.A cup.
Hello fellow champions!!
Steve Morrow has a few cup medals of his own, including a European one I think, to help get youth prospects interested in The Arsenal.
He also got the broken shoulder courtesy of Mr Adams. A unique trophy I believe.
Unique? Adams broke everyone, I used to f***ing love it.
True, but most of the time he managed to avoid friendly fire…
We only built London Colney about 12 years ago and it has already been upgraded once and now we are doing it again. Lets hope the money spent is returned with players playing without injuries and being missing for months a t a time from now on.
To Lacku, yes I read that somewhere too, quite nice isn’t it.
bring Igor Akinfeev ! he is free of contract this summer
This video will surely convince anyone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23cns9RoghM
Maybe a club like ours should be scouting players directly and already be aware of someone like Akinfeev?
The video you need is of the goals that he lets in. Then you can judge how good/bad he is a bit more objectively.
He`s not available. http://pfc-cska.com/en/news/?id=7598
Since the Ivan G’s answer at the AGM last year, there is not much info available on this data analytics company we acquired for few millions last year. Does anyone has any insight into what is it and how it’s different from ProZone etc. Thanks
moderate my comments please!
There are no swear words in it
For a moment I thought Gazidis had grown half a mustache.
In other news, we won the cup.
http://www.sincearsenallastwonatrophy.co.uk/
These 2 are pretty entertaining:
http://www.haveyoueverseentottenhamwintheleague.com/
and
http://sincespurslastwonatrophy.co.uk/
The first of those is just about my favourite website of all time. I’m 53 years old, and no, I’ve never seen Tottenscum win the league.
Takes a lot of stick ol’ Ivan – some justified, some not. Get tired of hearing the club lies to us. Between the board + Wenger I think they’ve been pretty honest in what they can and cannot do, while still trying to be upbeat. They were clear we have cash to buy players, but also clear that, although they are prepared to pay more to top earners than before, that they still intend to abide by FFP regs. So it does present the very real possibility of being able to buy a £50mill player but if he asks for… Read more »
I wouldn’t call it a ‘panic buy’, but rather a lucky one. Never had the impression that it was planned, it just happened. It could’ve just as easily not happened and we probably wouldn’t be sitting here celebrating our first trophy. The point is, last summer we had three months to acquire players and we did it on deadline day. I’m not getting any vibes that this one is gonna be any different, mainly because we need so much more players than last year on account of the departures and filling in more positions with more quality players.
Excellently put sir, refreshing to see level headed-ness!
Whats wenger on about that transfer busines doesn’t start untill after the world cup
I haven’t seen any other big teams buy any player thus far, despite lots of speculation. Maybe after 30 years of football management Wenger has some understanding of the transfer market…
But I’ve played football manager since like 99. Transfermarket is easy, you bid for a player, and they accept! Can’t believe why we don’t go out and get Ronaldo.
He didn’t say it was impossible but he did say that in his experience it doesn’t really get going until after the world cup. In your experience would you say different?
Random question of the day. How do you get community shield tickets? I’m not a season ticket holder or anything but would like to go.
Actions speak louder than words.
Yeah, it’s a good feeling to be champions of that lovely FA Cup tournament that that c**t didn’t won, Terry, Van P**sy and that twat morinho.
Hahahahahah ooooh to be a gooooner! COYG.
I think this summer is pivotal. We would be silly not to build on fa cup victory. This club can win more trophies and has the financial clout to do that. However, it doesn’t help much if the players are brought last minute. I know ozil last minute acquisition was not entirely our fault but still we need to do our buisness early and try to bed in the new players during the pre season.
It’s upto yes now to make the most of summer.
The investigation hasn’t started yet because the investigators were injured….heh.
Gazidis is a sound bite in a fancy suit. I reckon he sticks his finger in to air to see which way the wind is blowing before he spouts this nonsense…. ‘Highly paid CEO confirms club is prepared for the future’ … Do me a favour!
Indeed! Gazidis is a 45 RPM single playing the same old tune over and over again. As for the injuries investigation and physical performance work and data analytics, what a load of old sh!te. Ramsey got injured because ..um .. he got injured. Walcott got injured because ..um he got injured. It’s just the circumstances of not having a deep enough squad. Wenger didn’t trust certain players and so over played 1st 11 players. They got tired and got injured. A lot of people knock Giroud but he was over played and rather getting injured his form dropped. Players being… Read more »
You cannot deny that we have had bad luck with injuries. Normally if Ramsey was out no one would bat an eyelid because you’d just put Wilshere or Oxlade-Chamberlain in there. But Wilshere was stamped on in a friendly and got his foot broke, and Ox got done by a Villa player in the first game, then found he was the only one available and had to be overplayed so he got injured again. Neither of those are down to squad depth, that’s just Agger and Delph being psychos. And Walcott’s injury can’t be helped, it was a cruciate. Podolski’s… Read more »
Does that mean that you’d prefer him to say nothing ?
He’s just answering journalists and if they ask the question then he either answers or he doesn’t….
If you read the article it says ‘writing in his quarterly report’ so he’s not answering any journalist is he? Just spouting the same crap we get on a quarterly basis
OK, so in your opinion his quarterly report should say ‘ Sorry I’ve nothing to tell you that we haven’t already said in the press or isn’t stating the obvious, so thanks and have a nice day’!
Of course he’d then get loads of supporters saying ‘so why aren’t you planning for the future?’, if you are then you should have told us.
The club gets stupid aggro from supporters because it doesn’t blab about transfer targets (even though anyone with sense knows they shouldn’t say anything).
The guy can’t win.
hey guys…. im hearing some fans think we dont need CESC back…. i think we do need him… when wilshire and ramsey were out last season we all thought we were short in midfield and now we dont need him???? this guy is pure class.,, bring him home pls
arseblog.. are the rumours true that we could be about to rebuy the 102 assist legend?????
From my own perspective, I don’t think we need Cesc back. We have enough firepower in the CAM position. I love Cesc as a player but I don’t buy his excuse of going to Barca. If Wenger did not give him a chance, will he ever be who he is today? Coming back at this time when Arsenal is on the way up, Barca is on the way down, and he’s seen as surplus to his “boyhood club”. Even as a leader, it means u can leave Arsenal in the middle of battle and still get heroic welcome when the… Read more »
your still missing my point… i said when wilshire and ramsey were injured this season we really could have done with a cesc,, and dont forget we are arsenal so we will have plenty of injuries next season too,, like every season.. how many full seasons have jack and ramsey played in last 5 years,, 1 maybe??? this is why we need cesc so when injuries kick in again, we still have lots of quality (cesc) so we dont dip again next season like last… and cesc gave 100% to arsenal,, so what if he wanted his hometown club.. do… Read more »
As long as we also get someone to convert all of these assists! We keep buying these masters of assists and the WJ might end up with 147 goals next season!
We don’t ‘Need’ him but if he does become available then we must get him…
My wish list!!! KEEP: Sagna (pay him what he wants, convert him to centre back) OUT: Vermalen, Gibbs IN: Luke Shaw (in exchange for Gibbs + 25 million cash) at leftback, Draxler on the left wing to rotate w/ Poldi, and some striker to rotate w/ Giroud in the middle. To accommodate Draxler, Santi could switch to the right wing, rotating with Walcott. I know this all sounds crazy but it is inspired by an article written by Tim Stillman last month where he argues our ‘trophy drought’ coinciding with Robert Pires’ departure was no coincidence… and since 2005 Arsene… Read more »
you mad bro? what is it with gibbs out and 25 mil for luke shaw?
Kieran Gibbs is a home grown Gunner and I love the guy, but has he ever even once made an ‘inch-perfect’ pass to a teammate? It’s always 1/2 yard or 1 yard off-the-mark. By the time Poldi/Giroud/Santi controls the ball to shoot it’s too late. Ball deflects off opposition defender, ball falls kindly to opposition midfielder, opposition launches counter-attack and Gibbs is out-of-position. When we drew 2-2 at Southampton, Luke Shaw single-handedly offered the ‘thrust’ in their offence to launch one dangerous counter attack after another. He is England’s answer to Germany’s Philip Lahm. Considering Gibbs’ superior pace to Monreal,… Read more »
Gibbs never hitting a perfect pass? Went back to the goal compilation because I knew that was wrong. Ramsey’s at home against Fenerbace? Watch the assist. Sunderland at home. The ball from Gibbs to Özil wasn’t inch perfect, but how many fullbacks have that kind of vision at all? That was in the first 6 games this season, at which point I stopped (another hour watching all the goals would be fun. but….). Luke Shaw is potentially a great left back. He is also 18 and being hyped by the media because of one good season in a mid-table side… Read more »
Gibbs + £25 million? More like they give us Shaw + £25 million for Gibbs, then we’d consider it.
And they say satire is dead! I haven’t had such a laugh in ages.
Wait … that WAS satire, wasn’t it?
Mesut was signed and sealed last minute but it certainly doesn’t mean it was in discussions and planning stages for much longer…
Özil deal was agreed long before it was announced, we had to wait for the Bale deal to be completed.
Highly improbable in todays climate. For that to be true it would have to have been kept a secret which in itself is impossible. Ib fact given enough time his agent would have involved other clubs!
Gibbs out, Shaw in? Really??
If you had said Nacho out, Shaw in, I would still have thought you were crazy, just a little less so.
IG gets a lot of stick every year. Some fair and some unfair. I really like hearing all the corporate mumbo jumbo that is being spewed out now, but I’d like to see actions and then make an assessment of his words at the end of next season. I don’t want to act all Man City board-ish, but realistically, I’d like for us to qualify for group stages of champions league, use a substantial portion of our “war chest” and improve the playing staff, compete for the league title and give a good go in the cups (as long as… Read more »
To me we need three players (Striker, DM, and RB-assuming Sanga is gone). I have this feeling that the Boss will promote Damien Martinez and Bellerin and bring Campbell back. In my opinion, I will buy Alexis if the chance comes. He’s that Suarez-like player we need to complement Giroud. He is hardworking and has the speed and hunger. I will also go for a tall and strong DM, Javi Martinez will be my 1st choice if the chance comes. Imagine going to Stoke or Chelsea (thug teams) with this midfield (Ramsey, Diaby or Flamini and Martinez). With Ozil and… Read more »
Why not just go for Suarez again… a £50,000,002 bid this time may do the trick!
Yeah and they could sign shit like carrol for 35 million again!!
Lars Bender tore his thigh muscle – going to miss the World Cup.
He’s the ideal type of player that should be targeted…I like Arteta and his lego hair, but age catches up to everyone. I just don’t want to see any Khedira rumours!
We should sign him when he’s injured! A proper arsenal signing! Just joking he is actually a quality player
Interesting to see Steve Morrow’s name mentioned.
I thought of him in the celebrations at Wembley as I could see Wenger being dropped in a similar style by our jubilant players.
At least they would have dropped him AFTER the FA cup final.
I may be cynical but Arsene is off to do his World Cup punditry and talks about the transfer season not really kicking in until mid July and then ,lo and behold, Lord Harris and Ivan both come out and state how busy we are going to be in the transfer market to get our juices flowing.
Season ticket sales not really kicked in yet gentlemen?
Don’t you think they’re trying to work out prices and ‘packages’ now without AW?
Gazidis speaks…..zzzzzzzzzzzzz
same sound bites from him generally end of season, prior to jan transfer window and prior to agm. oh and also just before announcing a 5% increase in price of season ticket. he would be better served by keeping stum.
Silent Stan gets moaned about for staying quiet and IG gets moaned at for not staying silent…. They are in an awkward situation as they have certain obligations (some historical and some as the boss of a traded company etc) so they can’t be quiet all the time but they also have the press to deal with (if you say nothing to the press they make up even more lies). So the end result is ‘Say non-committal/non-contentious stuff or repeat anything with content to everyone’. If you don’t like it then don’t read it but they can’t do anything else.… Read more »
Reason the key players were unavailable at a key moment of the season: Accumulated fatigue. We’ve had our key players played until exhaustion, because of the serious lack depth in the senior squad. Just look at the injuries- Ramsey: Thigh (reoccurring), Ozil: Hamstring, Koscielny: Calf- only to name a few. Although not as devastating as Walcott’s current injury, these injuries are a serious threat when acquired during the season, as there is just not enough time for the muscle and tissue to heal properly. Take a look at Aguero (Hamstring, again)- he was rushed back, feeling physically fit enough to… Read more »
Right back, strong midfield anchor, backup center back, backup keeper, fast striker that can play across the front 3 as well.
That’s it; now go get it done and don’t use the World Cup as an excuse.
My preference would be that Sagna, Fabianski, and Verminator stay, but I doubt that’s going to happen now.
Oh, and I almost forget, we won the FA Cup!!!!! Woohoo!!!
bring on karim benzema! he must miss his pal ozil
Utter massive faith in our mighty glorious FA Cup winning Gunners.
Zero faith when Ivan or any suit starts talking about already working hard for next season.
The last day of the transfer window is already calling our name.
Let’s hope we can build on this Season, and it can be the start of a new chapter