Joe Fitzpatrick 
Arsenal away fans, thank you for giving us something to be proud of on Saturday, you, each and every one of you to a man. If I'm forgetting any ladies I'm sorry, thank you too for your fantastic support. All of you managed to turn that little 25,000 capacity West Brom ground into a miniature Highbury. Yes I do mean the old Highbury that we miss and love, not the sterile Ashburton Grove Enormodrome complete with the infamous prawn sandwich tier ring of silence known as club level.
You deserved so much better, you were the 12th man when we went 2-0 down and gave our better players the lift to score two late goals. Do not underestimate your positive influence on this game and you are all a credit to our club. Is this the real reason Arsenal have such a great away record? You kept on supporting our boys, singing loudly until the final whistle even though you know in your hearts some of them are not fit to wear the shirt.
The way in which at times in our 2-2 away draw you made it seem like Arsenal were really the home side makes me proud to call myself a Gooner. Towards the end you could almost feel the Gooner energy sucking the ball into the net. I've only been to one away match out of London this season and you guys have inspired me to start going a lot more. You did your utmost to ensure that you provided an inspirational atmosphere for some of those muppets in yellow and it breaks my heart to think about how short changed you were by the performance of some of our players.
Almunia should never play for us again, simple as that. Even a half fit Lehmann or the rookie youngsters we have cannot be nearly as awful as he so clearly is. I didn't think he would ever play for us again after the home game against West Brom, where I was unfortunate enough to witness one of the worst goalkeeping displays in recent memory. Saturday's mad dash and collision with the hapless Squillaci was the icing on the cake. He will see him go down as one of, if not the worst Arsenal goalkeeper in living memory. It's almost like he did it on purpose to get back at Wenger, isn't it?
"Embarrass me will you? Relegate me to third choice, then bring back that mad German who used to call me names? I'll show you, I'll show you all!"
If he was not so completely and utterly useless all the time I'd be wanting to check his family's Betfair and Paddypower accounts for suspicious activity. Maybe it was the fear of losing his last chance to secure a top flight move by losing his place in the shop window to 41-year-old emergency loan signing Jens Lehmann that turned him into what I can only describe as a developmentally disabled scarecrow made entirely of jelly. Maybe coming back against the team that he had his last shocker against got to him psychologically? Whatever the reasons it won't be good enough for me, as if he wasn't shot to pieces before this he certainly is now. If Wenger picks him again I will never defend Wenger again, ever.
Ignasi Miquel or Kyle Bartley would have been better choices at centre half than Squillaci who has had more than enough opportunities now to show what he can do. He really hasn't settled or improved since he arrived at the club at all.
If Wenger does not demand the funds from the board to sign a truly world class centre half this summer then we will not win anything next season. I doubt that he will, as I think he himself is the man most convinced by the board’s pleas of poverty. Some of you will disagree, but I believe that Arsene was told by the board to sell before he could buy any players.
Here's why I believe this is the case:
He sold Adebayor for £25 million, Toure for £14million and Eduardo for £6million (£45 million received), then our money men also (wrongly in my opinion) offloaded the experienced Gallas on a free because he was demanding £80,000 a week on a two year contract therefore saving our miserly board just over £8million on top of the £45 million in transfer fees already received meaning they banked £53million.
At the time chairman Peter Hill-Wood said in an interview - “His [Gallas’] demands are extravagant and I don’t think we are prepared to go along with it. He is a good player, but you have to draw the line somewhere."
"Draw the line somewhere?" how about you finally advise the board to spend some of the fans’ hard earned money you tight old git! Instead of just waiting to pay off the stadium debt so you can all sell the only football club in the world with no debt to the highest bidder!
We then bought over the same time period with the £53million:
Arshavin for £15m, Koscielny for £8m, Vermaelan for £10m, Squillaci for £4million and Chamakh on a free, so a grand total of £37million plus wages on top of that. If we could have kept some of those that we sold or let go, or at least paid more for some of the replacements we would be top of the league by now and I'm absolutely gutted when I think about how still having Gallas or even Toure right now would be a dream compared to Squillaci.
How much would all of us Gooners like to see a top international defender join us? Well, it won't happen unless we find a spare £20million or so from somewhere because this board will not spend any money until they've paid off that stadium. Tommy Vermaelan and Djourou are to be considered injury concerns as Djourou’s injury record speaks for itself and who knows what kind of complications will arise from Vermaelen’s lengthy lay off?
That leaves us with Koscielny. He polarises opinion like no other Arsenal centre half does because quite frankly he sometimes looks like a world beater and on other occasions looks every bit a player from the second tier in France. The player may very well one day be considered world class but we need at least four world class central defenders at a club like Arsenal right now to win trophies.
If Wenger can't get any money without selling players he should sell Denilson, Diaby, Bendtner, Squillaci, Almunia, Fabianski and Eboue - if he can find anyone stupid enough to buy them. If no one does buy them and the board still won't give him any of our hard earned money then he might have to bite the bullet to raise funds and sell Arshavin and Rosicky. They are both decent players but probably not what we need most right now, which is a top class goalkeeper and a top class central defender.
If things carry on down this route I can see Fabregas being offloaded for £50million and seeing only £40 million spent on new players if we are lucky with the board pocketing £10 million at a minimum.
No wonder it is then that our home support doesn't match the intensity of the wonderful away support. We are all sick and tired of seeing our club heading down the Ajax route and becoming known solely for bringing through young players who will then be sold for massive profits. I do not want to stand by and watch Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere roll off the production line and be sold for untold millions.
I think it's about time for Arsenal to start finding additional revenue from somewhere else such as merchandising or negotiating better deals for sponsorship rather than trying to forever make a profit from player trading.
A recent article on this website made the excellent point that we could recoup a lot of money in merchandising if we bought a superstar or two and would generate a huge hike in sponsorship revenue if said superstars resulted in us winning the Premiership or Champions League. I totally agree and think that with a little more considered risk in our transfer spending our greedy board could reap even more cash than they currently do, with thousands of happy Gooners spending even more money and raising our profile internationally. It's not only us fans who can see what they are doing.
Love him or loathe him, the always outspoken and never shy Andrey Arshavin said in a recent interview “Arsene needs to buy new players and expensive ones. All the talented and inexpensive players are already with us and the players who could really boost our power are all costly to bring in. I realise that if we buy a star, someone in the squad will be rejected but this is fair. It is the manager's job to decide such things.”
