Morning Gooners, how we all doing, eh?

I’m on me travels again today, this time heading up to Northumberland to see The Management’s family for the weekend, which is good really because it coincides with this interminable international break, so I can be fully ‘present’ and not distracted for a solid four hours for the football, the build up to the football, as well as the post match ash up from the football.

So I’ve been immersing myself in a few videos on the official site, as well as looking at Raheem Sterling in training, seeing what it is we have very cheaply acquired. Of course all of the footage is going to be favourable; they’re hardly going to show pictures of him ballooning ball after ball over the bar in shooting drills, are they? But still, some of his footwork looks handy and hopefully his arrival in to a positive atmosphere at London Colney (I’m not calling it by that weird other name they call it by the way) can spark something in him that Chelsea didn’t see.

You do wonder just how much the environment can impact a player’s overall performance though, don’t you? I mean, we’ve heard stories of the ‘Banter Era’ Arsenal teams, what the dressing room was like, the leaks to the press, agent involvement, etc. Contrast that to now and the harmony and general vibe amongst the players feels totally different. Arteta arrived and immediately talked about changing the culture and the feeling amongst the players, the coaches, as well as the fans. Whatever people think about him (which from 99.9% of Arsenal fans I interact with), you cannot argue that he hasn’t delivered on his word on that front.

So Raheem Sterling goes from an environment which was a bloated squad, with players sitting in hallways on matchdays, with an owner who was like a spoilt rich kid in a toy store and an unlimited credit card, managers coming and going and then, at the end, suffering the ignominy of being told that despite the fact he’s been a great pro, despite the fact he’s played a fair bit during pre season, his number is being revoked and he’s not even allowed to train with his teammates. You can say what you like about the amount these people are played, about the fact they get to play football as a job, how they are privileged and all that jazz, but that kind of treatment nobody deserves. He basically got put on gardening leave, but a gardening leave that he didn’t want to go on. These guys are still human beings at the end of the day. And somebody who is still technically in his peak years as a professional.

And now he’s got a coach come in who he knows, he trusts, who has been credited with improving him, who has already a week before he signed him said positive things about him and who now he gets to work with for the next nine months. I’ve been in a situation at a work in which I had a line manager who I didn’t really get on with. I had moved across departments and she was asking me to do things that I wasn’t great at, I didn’t enjoy, that didn’t get the best from me. I didn’t last long and I started to look for jobs elsewhere. My company wasn’t getting the best from me and I just happened to talk to my old line manager. She told me that there was an opportunity coming up to lead the old team I’d been in before and so I asked her to transfer to my old team. We managed to make it work within a month. I was like a new man. I got my confidence back, I was more invested in the work I was doing for the company and, as a result, I was able to be more productive and deliver more value.

That’s what I’m hoping for from Raheem Sterling. I’ve already spoken this week about what I hope we get from Raheem Sterling given his output last season and having seen that his output isn’t too bad from last season, I’m wish-casting that we get even more of an uplift if he’s happy and in an environment that will get the best from him. Imagine being in his position two week’s ago, whereas now he’s joining a team with:

  • A manager he works well with
  • A place in the Champions League
  • A home ground atmosphere that has been rocking in the last two seasons
  • A team expected to fight at the top of the league
  • An environment in which positivity and a culture of winning and togetherness is key.

I bet he feels like he’s landed on his feet at The Arsenal. I certainly hope so. The conditions are there for him to thrive and we just have to hope he can do so over the next nine-or-so months. Go smash it Raheem, we’re all behind you.

There’s not really a lot else going on today so I think I’ll leave today’s rambling as it is and catch you wonderful humans tomorrow. Have yourselves a good one.

Ciao.