The blog that would like to congratulate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on his call up to the England squad for Euro 2012….

Yes, folks it’s official. In a meteoric rise from League One to the Champions League in the space of months, the boy we all refer to as the Ox will be going to his first (of many) senior international tournaments this summer. As a result, he will miss out on being selected for Stuart Pearce’s Olympics squad. I say miss out, I’m sure he’s not too worried about it. Though I did hear that “Psycho” has torn a few walls down at FA HQ in light of this latest development. Lest we get too worried about our young tyro being surrounded by the dinosaurs of the England team that come from Chelsea, United, Liverpool et al, I should note that Theo Walcott is also in the squad, so he will at least have someone to talk to. And that Theo is a veteran of the Southampton-Arsenal-England route.

I suppose there may be some fear that Alex will be subjected to the experience that Walcott had in 2006. Theo was, you will remember, taken to the World Cup and sat on his arse, unused and derided by the senior players, until we were, inevitably, eliminated on penalties. I guess there’s a few differences here. I don’t know how ready the Ox is for international football, but his performances against both Milan and the game changing one against Manchester United suggest that he is not fazed by the big stage. Let’s face it, there’s a school of thought amongst most Arsenal fans that says Alex is already a better player than Theo. In my opinion, he has a few more strings to his bow and, unlike Theo in 2006, has already made an impact in his time with us. Not that England should be relying on an 18 year old to carry them through anyway.

In other news, well… there isn’t really any other news. I guess the only thing that will be concerning Arsenal fans this summer, aside from any interest we have in the Euros, is fresh signatures on contracts. And one signature in particular. I refer, of course, to club captain, Golden Boot winner, rescuer of small children and double Footballer of the Year, Robin van Persie. At this stage, nobody appears to know, with one year left on his contract what the Dutchman is going to do. But his wife has said that the family are happy in London, his dad has said that Robin should stay at Arsenal and the man himself seems happy enough in north London. It’s a world away, in my view, from the Fabregas situation we went through over the last couple of summers. Cesc had clearly had enough of us all, I don’t see that in Robin.

I know that he gave the ominous “whatever happens I love this club” quote on Sunday, but I don’t think the hottest property in world football at the moment, with a year left on his contract, is just going to commit himself to us without some assurances. Why should he? We all want assurances that Arsenal are actually going to try and compete this summer, rather than treading water. I suppose Robin might also want assurances that he is going to be paid according to his standing in the game. The only difference is that Robin, if he doesn’t get those assurances, will be free to go wherever he wants in a year’s time, whereas we are stuck with the Arsenal come hell or high water.

Suffice to say that I think we should give Robin whatever he wants- within reason, of course. And, as we don’t have to worry about the will we/won’t we qualify for the CL proper this summer, we shouldn’t fuck about when it comes to acquiring our transfer targets (I’m assuming we have some) this summer.

Yeah, we all know Robin could write his own check if he went to Manchester City, or possibly somewhere else, but then he’s just be another cog in a machine. Here, he is the main man and he has thrived on becoming that; 59 goals in the last season and a half- nearly half of his 132 total goals for the club-tells you so. At ths rate, Ian Wright’s 185 goals for Arsenal certainly looks like an acheivable target, and even Thierry’s 228 stands as a possible, if unlikely, target. I think you can see the argument I’m making here. At least, I hope you can, because it’s really very simple.

Why go elsewhere just to be another brick in the wall, when you can stay here and have your own wall, become the legend you deserve to be?

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