I am a South African Arsenal (14 years ) fan currently visiting the USA.  I’ve been here for 3 months and the only soccer I get to see of our team is online… after games!

I’m missing the excitement of the live games, especially since we’re ROCKING this season.  It would be nice to share the fun with fellow Arsenal fans.  Please let me know if any games are shown live in bars, clubs, etc., in and around North New Jersey.

HHHHeeeeeeeelllllpppppp   lol

[ed note: The following mailbag submission is solely the opinion of its' author, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Arsenal America board, or those of our membership as a whole. On a personal level, I think Dein can go to hell, but I digress.*]

I am a huge supporter of David Dein. Let’s not forget that it was Dein’s vision and not the custodians that brought Arsenal into the future. If it was left up to the so-called “custodians,” Arsenal would still be playing at Highbury and trying to find another Scottish manager. The truth of the matter is that the current custodians are benefiting from Dein’s work. Dein also did capitalize: he sold his shares over a hundred times from their original purchase price. He increased the valuation of Arsenal. Dein’s business acumen was spot on!

It was Dein’s vision to bring in Wenger, it was Dein’s vision as a general manager to support Wenger and isolate the Board from Wenger in order for Wenger to do his job without Board interference. Dein was a perfect buffer between the Board and Wenger. Look at what has happened at Chelsea when you examine the relationship between Kenyon, Mourinho and Abramovich. Daniel Levy has not done better when it comes to supporting Jol. Is this what we want? It was Dein who set up the new financing structure in order to make Emirates possible. It was Dein who saw the future and reached out to grab it.

We can praise Wenger for his on the pitch and development of the Arsenal football team. However, if you took Dein out of Arsenal in 1996, we might be in the same boat as Spurs.

I sympathize with Dein wanting to be chairman, off the pitch he is solely responsible for transforming and developing the Arsenal Club from a finance/business perspective. Football is a business. You have to remember, the current board without Dein would have run Arsenal like Daniel Levy has run Sp*rs…into the ground.

*The last sentence of the editor’s note was my personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect those held by the rest of the board and membership. – Mike K

If you pay attention, the players who fans feel are playing well are always the regular starters. Adebayor got his critics when he first came back from injury. Flamini failed to impress the first few games he played. As I said at that time, players need a run of game to get themselves into match sharpness. Both have been playing better and better as more matches they played as starters.

The best example of all is Gael Clichy. When he was the back up of Ashley Cole, playing an odd game here and there, I wasn’t entirely convinced by him. He got pace and skills, but looked having too much of a rough edge comparing to Cole. With a season’s starting role under him Clichy has gradually proved a lot of doubters wrong, and he has to be among one of the most improved players in this Arsenal side.

It’s always difficult for the “In and Out” squad players to impress, let alone making an impact. Not only physical sharpness wise, they will never be able to match the starters who have been playing regularly week in week out. Psychologically, they are under far bigger pressure than the starters as well.

Take van Persie, he had a very poor game against Spurs. But he’s a starter, he did not have to worry about getting dropped because one off game. Had it been Bendtner who started against Spurs and played poorly, on the back of his mind he would have realized that he might not have a chance to redeem himself the next match, as there would be no guarantee he would get to play at all.

So for the “In and Out” squad players like Walcott, Bendtner, Diaby, Senderos, Denilson, Song the likes, every time they get to play it’s like a trial game for them. Under the circumstance, it’s understandable they are less likely to impress. It is not a coincidence that a lot of criticism on this site are aiming towards these set of “In and Out” squad players.

I do believe, should opportunity arise and those “In and Out” players get a run of first team games, they will be able to show their worth. Afterall, like Wenger once said, not every player is able to get into this Arsenal side, even if he’s an England international. The manager and coaches have far more opportunities to access those players in training, obviously they will know the players far better than us. Bottom line is – if those players are good enough for the coaching staffs, they have to be good enough for us.