Do we need more signings, I don't honestly know, but what we do need is the ability to finish off the chances we get. We learnt we had a number of weaknesses last season, and playing fantastic passing football without scoring at the end had to have been about the most consistent of them.

How does this relate to new signings. Well to state the bleedin' obvious, there are two ways to rectify the woeful finishing. One is for all the skillful players we have to start to score the chances we make. The other is to buy a proven goalscorer. I actually think that having done one with the signing of Eduardo, we could see the other happening as the players step up given confidence from him. Let's face it, whatever else Thierry was, being a great motivator wasn't high in his skill set. So if Eduardo shows the sort of drive and commitment he did at his former team, it will help remove the mental block I believe we had last season. If that happens we don't need other signings as badly as some have suggested. Without Thierry we are a different team in a lot of ways, some of which we won't be able to quantify until after the season starts. Mind you I'm kinda hoping Robin is going to come out of the blocks at full speed as well. If we get a good start to the season, we can achieve things, the squad may be a year older, but it's still very young and therefore susceptible to loss of confidence.

When oh when will Arsenal players realise that if they have nothing positive to say, they should say nothing. In public at least. Gallas may have valid concerns and they may be shared by many Gooners, but how the heck does he think it's going to help the Arsenal cause to say such things in public? Go talk to Arsene by all means, but for goodness' sake remember this is a team game and act like you actually have the overall good of the team in mind. For that matter it would help if Cesc was a tad more circumspect in what he has been saying. Everyone knows that Arsene is the man and many players signed because of him. We don't have to be reminded what might happen if Le Prof decides his life work is done (not that I think he will quite yet). What Arsene should do is tell the players in no uncertain terms that they don't get to say just whatever the heck they want publicly without personal consequences like fines. I don't take much notice of other teams, but I don't recall any other top clubs allowing complete freedom of speech and hang the consequences. Maybe I'm being picky, but I reckon it can't hurt to look like everyone is pulling in the same direction, especially if we are trying to make more signings.

I'm also sick and tired that Real seem to be able to tap other clubs players up with impunity, but hardly worth saying because no-one is going to do anything about it. It would be nice if Arsenal produced a tersely worded official retort telling them to **** off, but that's not the 'Arsenal way' so we probably won't. Which leads me to my last concern, who is in charge? Sure we know that Arsene dictates a whole bunch of things, but where is the off-pitch leadership the club needs at the moment. Short of a few ill-formed statements by Hill-Wood, we have heard very little from the club recently. You might well say there is nothing to report on, that may be true, but a half-decent PR department would be able to write a few statements that would at least suggest Arsenal have more of a strategy than just not selling shares for a year. I know, I've mentioned it before, but really, it's not exactly oozing with dynamism is it?

S'pose what I'm trying to say is we need someone who can stand up for the club when Real get annoying or we sell an icon, and give us something else to focus on. Obviously we couldn't expect someone nick-named 'Silent Stan' to do that, but we also seem to have a boardroom full of recluses who don't have much idea of what effective communication is either. Not sure which director is in charge of communication, but if we don't have a PR director, maybe we need one of them as much as a director of football. Now I can just hear the arguments, you can't reply to every single rumour on TribalFootball. But if we want to be a modern forward-looking club (business), we have to address the issue of communication by players and officials alike. If we want to build the brand and thereby increase income, we need a distinctive ethos. At the moment it's all a tad old school tie.

'Course it helps if we win some games this season as well.