The North Bank – “It’s got va-va-voom” (An Arsenal blog)

So, it’s finally all over in terms of the will-he, won’t-he, when-will-he go saga of Adebayor. We all knew he would leave the club this summer and it had threatened to put a cloud over our pre-season preparations. But, yesterday he signed for Man Shitty in a deal believed to be in the region of £22m-£25m, though we will never get confirmation of the exact, or indeed any, figure from the club itself. That can be a bit annoying at times, but I must admit that I do like the way the club keeps its cards close to its chest when it comes to transfer fees.

The boss himself had this to say on the matter and he had noticed a lingering resentment towards Adebayor over his pushing to get a move last summer. This must have also transmitted itself to the players in the squad and was certainly evident in Adebayor’s performances, and lack thereof, throughout last season. He had stopped giving a shit. I am just glad that he is gone to a club like Shitty and not a club with actual class and history like AC Milan.

Right, that’s that then. He’s gone and is now on the books of another club where I’m sure he will cause trouble in a season or two’s time.

On to footballing matters and the team got a run-out at Underhill yesterday in a 2-2 draw against Barnet. The result wasn’t at all important and it was just an exercise in building fitness in the players. Most notable of which was a run-out for the lost man of world football, Tomas Rosicky. Let’s hope that he doesn’t get any little niggling set-backs, though if he does we shouldn’t be too downhearted and these things generally happen after such a long layoff. Anyway, fingers crossed that he will not have any reaction and that he can keep building on his fitness and strength ahead of the new season.

I didn’t see the game so can’t really say much about it really, though I believe that some of the other bloggers were in attendance so check out Goonerholic and Gunnerblog for a more detailed summation of the game.

That’s about it for today. It’s nice to have the players back and it makes the start of the season proper seem all the closer. Roll on the new campaign!

Take it easy.

Apologies for not making many posts lately, the pressures of work, private work, distance MA study and new bars opening and offering discounted first-day beer have eaten up most of my time over the past few weeks. But, from tomorrow onwards things will get back to normal again, although the posts will be shorter as there is no more football for Arsenal, just endless transfer speculation.

Speaking of which, we are again being linked with Gareth Barry. Personally he isn’t someone that I would want to sign, but you get the feeling that there may be something in this story as he is someone that can slot in either in midfield or at the back if needed. So, in many ways he is the ideal kind of Wenger signing. Decent, somewhat versatile and at the right age for our squad. Fingers crossed it is just speculation though. The Daily Star has a headline indicating the player himself has said he wants to join us, yet fail to provide a single quote from anyone…

Another report see us linked with Wolfsburg midfielder, Christian Genter, who is apparently the ‘new Kaiser’. No idea about the accuracy of that link, but we can expect to linked with all and sundry between now and the end of the transfer window at the end of August.

Elsewhere, Cesc talks about Barca and Henry and about how an player would love to play in the current Barca team. No arguments there. they’re a quality team and the blew ManUre off the field on Wednesday night. So, for him to say that is, for me, no problem at all. Of course, there will inevitably be some lazy hacks in the tabloids trying to make this out to be a sign that he wants out. But, we all know it’s not. He will return to Barca someday, but not for a few years yet.

And that’s about that really. Not much going on. I wonder did Marvin Gaye write that song during the off-season all those years ago…

Take it easy.

Hello again. Not much going on this week first-team-wise. The youngsters won the FA Youth Cup last night with a 2-1 win over Liverpool, making it 6-2 on aggregate. It’s nice to get the victory and trophy on the day of the 20th anniversary of our famous victory at Anfield.

Hangeland has moved to distance himself a little from all of the speculation linking with him a move to the Emirates, but that is just to be expected as he will want to protect his interests should a move/bid not materialise. He doesn’t want to ‘do an Adebayor’ and make a right cunt out of himself by whoring himself around.

Elsewhere, Theo Walcott has said that we need to win dirty and there won’t be any disagreeing with that sentiment here. We need to make sure that we take the so-called lesser teams more seriously next season or else it will be another fruitless campaign.

That’s about it really, I told you there wasn’t all that much going on. I was too busy to write a post yesterday and so have missed the 20th anniversary of the Anfield victory, but other bloggers did a good job summing things up so check out some of the links on the right of this page to check them out.

That’ll have to do for today. Time is at a premium for me until the end of the month, unfortunately. Take it easy.

So, a fourth successive trophy-less season has come to an end. It hasn’t all been doom and gloom, there have been some highlights thrown in along the way. The emergence of Gibbs, the improvement of Almunia and Song, reaching the semi-finals of both the Champions League and FA Cup. It’s always disappointing to not win something but today we can try to forget about those and remember the positives.

Yesterday’s game against Stoke was a good way for the team to end the season and the fans’ love-in with Arséne was great to see. We can’t let the minority of detractors try and force him out of the club. Who would replace him?

We started the game with Mannone in goal, Sagna, Toure, Song and Gibbs in defence, Diaby, Fabregas, Denilson, Walcott and Arshavin in midfield and Van Persie up front. The bench was Szczesny (whose name looks a bit like a Count Down conundrum) Vela, Ramsey, Silvestre, Djourou, Bendtner and Eboue.

According to the boss on Friday, Fabianski was fit to play so one must assume he had a reaction over the weekend. Van Persie showed that he is a big player for us with two well taken goals, one a very well hit penalty and the other a good chest down and volley on the turn. Our first goal came courtesy of a Fabregas ball into the six yard box, hit with pace, that James Beattie kindly diverted into his own goal. The second was Van Persie’s brilliantly struck penalty that gave the keeper absolutely no chance. Our third came from a Van Persie free-kick and Diaby rose to stick it away. It’s a shame that we didn’t put in a similar performance against them at their ground earlier in the season… What might have been.

So, a great result to finish the season with optimism, although there was nothing in particular at stake and it’s easier to play well when under no pressure, it was still a good result.

After the game the boss said that extending Van Persie’s and Bendtner’s contracts is a priority. Let’s hope that both sign on as there is still more to come from both, especially Bendtner. Despite the fact that Van Persie can be frustrating at times, he still notched his 20th goal of the season yesterday and could have had a hat-trick but for the crossbar from a well hit free-kick. Next season, Bendtner should benefit from the expected departure of Adebayor.

The result yesterday left us on 72 points for the season, coming from 20 wins and 12 draws. 12 draws isn’t really good enough and maybe if we had had Eduardo available some of those would have been converted into victories. Likewise, 6 defeats is not acceptable if you want to seriously challenge for the title, especially if you are going to draw so many games along with them.

The return of Eduardo and Rosicky (possibly) next season should give us more of a killer instinct in front of goal, though it is clear that we need to strengthen the defensive side of our game. Not just by signing players, we need to work on coaching the team to actually defend as a team. The midfield need to offer more protection to our defence if we are to challenge for anything next season. Arséne said he would be analysing what we need to challenge next year, let’s hope he decides better coaching and two or three defensively minded players.

Alex Song played again at centre-half yesterday and I wonder will it be a position in which he will figure more prominently next season? He has improved dramatically over the past five or six months and is unrecognisable from the player that lazily ambled around the pitch before Christmas.

The boss was also happy with the love-in that took place yesterday:

“It made me feel appreciated and even more regretful that we couldn’t give them what they wanted this season. But I am very respectful of the faith they have in me.It’s very warm and makes me even more determined to pay them back.”

Let’s hope the boss and the team pay us back with consistency and a trophy next season. We’ve got about two months until the start of proper pre-season games, that time will fly by, though at times it may feel like it’s going in slow-motion. No doubt Adebayor and Arshavin’s agent will keep us on our toes while there is no other news happening.

It’s been a long and hard season to be an Arsenal supporter both due to performances on the field and boardroom manoeuvres off the field. But, we’ve made it to the end and it’s time to put the season to bed and look forward to a summer of speculation and waiting to see who comes and goes. I’m both looking forward to it and dreading it.

Will there be any more movement by Kroenke Tonk Stan? Will Usmanov choke on some food?

Let all of the speculation begin. Take it easy.