Another week has begun with the shadow of the inter-lull still firmly hanging over us. Nothing over the past week has suggested Futbol to be any more than a tawdry replacement for Football. It gets worse when one has to make do with a Nigeria-Malawi match as Saturday Special.

Despite an abundance of (raw) talents in Africa, the overall quality of the game is still rather distasteful. From poor pitches to bad officiating and an apparent dearth of tactical, African football – like several other facets of African living – has a long way to go to meet up with international standards. De-politicization of football administrative posts would be a good start to the overhauling of what we have now, we can only fit trapezoidal pegs in round holes for so long.

Moving forward, this mid-week will see another round of World cup qualifiers and for the news-starved fans out there, it’d represent a chance to have something new to talk about. There is, of course, the obligatory fretting of, which player might get injured if nothing else. And in keeping up with our Big Brother role, we would probably be keeping an eye on these players to shoo away flying tackles which could get them shawcrossed. I kid.

Injuries are never good. We may be feeling more confident with our squad depth now with the late additions of from the transfer window but we sure wouldn’t want to push our luck on that. One player who’d have the focal lens placed on him, perhaps more than others as far as staying fit goes, is Olivier Giroud. As though, the weights of keeping his god-like features intact are not enough, he is having to shoulder the tag of being the only ‘real’ striker at the club. With Poldi injured, ParK Chu Young a bit rubbish, Sanogo and Walcott obviously needing to convince Wenger for starts, the sight of a limping Giroud will have many Gooners scrambling for the panic-button, given the lack of viable options available. This situation is a rather curious one. No, not because Arsene Wenger didn’t ‘sign somebody’ during the transfer window, but because there is a certain Nicklas Bendtner who, sadly, some fans wouldn’t want to see wear the Red and White shirt again.

I differ slightly on this; Bendter might have enstranged himself from the fans with his larger-than-life opinions of his ability, a seeming lack of effort, and somewhat uncouth remarks about the club, but so would Ibra if he played for us. You could argue that he hasn’t got the talents of Ibra, and that would render your earlier point on his attitude as moot. So, if it is not exactly his attitude but his lack of enough talent or both, then I’d gladly throw my heart in the ring and say Bendtner is not a bad player, if you wondered what my definition of ‘bad’ is, I’d say he is not any worse than, wait for it, Giroud.

Last season, often when I watch Giroud lumber around on the pitch, my mind often wander towards Bendtner and I wonder (no pun intended) what if he had gotten as much chance as Giroud? The tipping point in Arsene-Bendtner relationship, I believe, was the Carling Cup final against Birmingham where he was dropped for RvP after he had played brilliantly the entire competition, losing his place in the starting line-up and the winners medal may have proved too much to bear for a man whose diplomatic skills isn’t ‘top top quality’.

I am a big Arsene Wenger fan but some of his decisions leave me scratching my head, especially his preferred player choice. For instance, I love Jenkinson, mainly because he is a boyhood Arsenal fan, but so is Yennaris, opting to sign Jenkinson while Yennaris remains in the reserves baffles me, Afobe/Akpom and Sanogo case ditto. It would be unthinkable to suggest that anyone could claim Arsene Wenger doesn’t give youngsters from the club youth system enough chance but that is exactly how it seems to me. I’d even dare to say that Chamberlain, on the evidence of what we’ve seen so far, isn’t a £12m improvement on Sanchez Watt.

That said, I give Arsene Wenger the benefit of the doubt as he knows these players better than I do and is better-equipped to make these decisions. So, as I give the manager the benefit of the doubt, I’d expect the fans to do same when he decides to field Bendtner again if the need arises. Booing Bendtner wouldn’t only be classless on our part, it would also mean we don’t deserve the respect we expect these players to show to us and the club. Respect is a two-way street, mates.