Simon Weiss, known on Twitter as @SimonAFC, is a student from Germany with a keen interest in all things Arsenal, tactics and coaching as well as the business of football. Simon is the Goonersphere German Bundesliga expert and will be writing on a variety of Arsenal matters as well as giving us the odd insight into the Bundesliga and German football in general.
Litmanen is a Dutch bilingual former journalism student and boyhood Arsenal fan. He enjoys writing about the beautiful game and is the Goonersphere Dutch Eredivisie expert and will be writing on a variety of Arsenal matters as well as giving us unique insight into Dutch and/or Eredivisie players.
It would be wisest to leave the dissecting of the season until after the final season but it's not unfair to say that this has been the worst season for football under Wenger. What made Arsenal Arsenal looks to be in short supply and once more we find ourselves embroiled in a battle for fourth.
Arsenal need a new holding midfielder. It's not exactly a new problem, yet injuries to Coquelin and Cazorla have raised emergency levels from 'We're fine' to 'Oh God Flamini is playing'. The bigger issue regarding the midfielder is the who, the when and the fee. After all, the big man failed to, either identify, or bring in said player for a couple of windows now. Why is that? Here are a couple of points why the hunt for *that* midfielder might be tougher than it would seem.
On this very day 17 years ago, Arsenal FC lined up at the Stade Félix Bollaert to face RC Lens in their opening game of the 1998-99 Champions League group stage.
Arsenal had been absent from Europe's premier competition for seven years and during the time it had been re-branded to the modern competition we all know and love. It was not a dream return with Ren equalising in the final minute to cancel out Marc Overmars' second half goal after the Gunners had dominated the game.
