So, England are out, after a Tuche disasterclass in the second half of last night’s defeat to Argentina. An Argentina side who, let’s be honest, are one of the most unlikeable you can imagine.

I think I speak for us all when I say:

Help us Mikel Merino, you are our only hope.

I had this in the game they played against Egypt. Even before a ball was kicked, the management asked why we want Egypt to win ahead of Argentina, to which I said “Messi aside, just look at the roll call of absolutely horrible footballers they have in their team. Emi Martinez, Lisandro Martinez, Romero, Simeone, Enzo Fernandez – they’re just snidey and horrible little SOBs”

And that sort of played out at the start. snidey fouls, falling to the floor, the worst kind of gamesmanship. Horrible team. I have no love for Spain, but they are most certainly, surely, going to be most neutrals hope for the final. Sorry Leo Messi, but you’re surrounded by dickheads.

England themselves kind of have themselves to blame too. After they scored it was proper retreat into your own box and the managers reaction – to literally go “ALL DEFENDERS ASSEMBLE” was the sbolute worst thing that he could have done.

But hey, it’s only England, so whilst I wanted them to win, I certainly didn’t lose sleep. In fact, as I as on my run this morning, I was reflecting on how I felt after England went out in late, dramatic fashion, and how we drew away to Wolves in February earlier this year. That night I was apoplectic with rage, I got about two hours sleep and I think it took me two days to recover. This situation I find myself in, I’m basically a bit ‘meh’ less than 24 hours after the event.

The only thing that has got me frustrated today, is the news that William Saliba is expected to be out for between four to five months. We’re at the end of July nearly. That means we aren’t seeing him until between November and December. Then he’ll need to get up to speed. So that’s January before we could get Big Bill back on the pitch. And THIS is why I f*cking hate international football. He’s had that problem, everyone has known about it, he’s never not going to want to play for France. but Deschamps and his bunch of twat coaches and medical staff were probably like “f*ck it, we’re all off after this tournament, let’s just use him until he breaks”. Wankers.

If you add to that the fact that Rice is clearly knackered, plus we saw no sign of Saka last night, which is a worry in itself. He’s clearly in a bit of pain too, because there’s no way Tuchel doesn’t use Saka if he’s not fit. I think we’re all just waiting for the inevitable from Mikel as he’s interviewed ahead of the first set of friendlies “Yeah, Bukayo will be out for a while we think. We need to manage his Achilles problem”.

Yes, it will mean an opportunity for others, and maybe Madueke can see this as a chance for a regular run of games at the beginning of the season, but we’ve got to see more from him than he’s delivered in this World Cup. Which hasn’t been much.

Who knows, maybe Max Dowman has the opportunity to knock on the door. Or maybe there’s a chance for Ethan to step up? I know Arteta seems reluctant to play him wide, but we’ve already seen he can do damage, so why not have him doing the role during pre-season, as you get to have a look at him and see if he can evolve his game. My reading on that situation was always that the club thought he was better centrally, but also that he’s not as switched on to play out wide. If you think about how Arteta likes his forwards to operate, they can effectively become auxiliary full-backs when we’re out of possession; dropping in to the defensive shape and helping the actual full-backs to either double up, or tuck in. Why can’t that sort of thinking be trained into somebody like Ethan?

There is going to need to be some work done for the start of the season though, because very quickly it’s going to feel like we’re going to go into this one without some of our best players. If you look at those first five games, it ain’t exactly easy, is it? After Coventry it is Villa away, Chelsea at home, Sunderland away and then Brighton away. That takes us to the first international break (FFS) and that is a really tricky run that could very easily see you drop points and already playing catch up if you want a proper title charge.

It also means that the need to strengthen the squad is even more acute. We can’t afford to be waiting around until 31st August. We’re now at the point where most players are not at the World Cup. So there needs to be some movement, and we need to see it now. The club are going to have to think about a centre half, I think. Sure, we have Mosquera, but if he breaks down? It hits home even more that we simply can’t afford to let Ben White go. He knows the club, he knows the way the manager wants to play, he looks fit and frankly, we are going to need him.

All of a sudden, the distration of the World Cup matches has now hit home how we need to be moving in the market. And quickly. We play Girona in just over two weeks. Yeah, it’s a friendly, but you need to give your new players a bedding in period. Arsenal need to move. And move now.

Vack tomorrow for some more thoughts.