At the end of the season, Arsene Wenger said he would get his squad rebuilding done before the World Cup and Ivan Gazidis told the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust the club would analyse where they were short and would get on with resolving these problem areas.

So much for words. Not much has happened and in fact the situation has got worse in my eyes – leaving to one side the promise shown by some youngsters in a couple of pre-season jogs in Barnet and Austria, look at the state of our squad with just over two weeks before the season starts

• The manager says publicly that he has not got a no. 1 goal keeper; is there another club in the country where this is the case? I don’t think so. How long does it take for even a top quality keeper to build a relationship with his back four? More than two weeks I would say.

• Four centre backs have left, but only one has been brought in; our supposed first choice back-up (Djourou) limped out of the second game in Austria after less than half an hour – we need two more centre backs, not just one. I dread to think what will happen if TV5 is crocked over the weekend. Don’t be surprised if it happens.

• The Spanish farce over our star midfielder and captain continues without any definitive statement from the man himself; through his silence, Cesc is bringing the captaincy into disrepute.

• No defensive midfielder cover has been signed – are we really to believe that Eastmond or Frimpong can cover for Song if he is injured for more than the odd game or two?

• One striker has left, one striker has come in – so we are where we were last season, i.e. a striker down

• One of the 3 strikers still at the club (Nikki B) is also injured and will miss the start of the season, so we are two strikers down – and our most injury prone striker (RvP) has yet to return. I might feel better about this if I were convinced that JET or even Jay Simpson were to be given a fair crack of the whip as a striker, but I suspect one of the gnomes (Vela, Arshavin or Theo) will be more likely pushed up front if need be

A few weeks back a couple of my sources indicated that there would be serious action in terms of signings. Well so much for their informed knowledge. Or has Arsene really convinced himself that Flapiflopski, Nordveit, Bartley (when he recovers from his injury) and the other youngsters are good enough. I fear self-delusion is setting into the manager’s mindset before a ball is kicked in anger. Maybe all will resolved soon and the giant Mertesacker or the relatively diminutive Jagielka will sign, may be Flamini will be brought back and may be we will get a people experienced keeper. I want to believe we will see these problems sorted, but something tells me we won’t!