A fresh start.

July 19, 2009

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.

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Wish he’d just sling his hook.

July 17, 2009

So, here we are two days after my last post and Adebayor is still an Arsenal player. It’s well beyond a joke at this stage and he is quickly threatening to disrupt our pre-season preparations with all of his bullshit. I mean, there is no way that he can seriously expect us to believe that he is having a bit of a moral crisis over the size of his salary?

 

That just doesn’t wash with me and doesn’t jive with what he banged on about last summer when he talked about preparing for his retirement. Give me a break. He is in his mid-twenties and has the best years of his career ahead of him. So, there should be no thoughts about retirement. What he really should have said is “I am a greedy bastard and want every penny that I can get.” His advisors have also been filling his head full of pie in the sky ideas about how much he is worth. You can be sure that he thought that when Shitty bid for him, he thought that bigger teams like Milan would follow suit, but now that hasn’t happened he is realising that his bluff has been called and he looks like a fool. Therefore, the bogus stories about him worrying about his salary are emerging. What a crock of shit. We all know you are greedy, so please just take the money and bugger off.

 

I’ve no idea about the quality of his alleged replacement, Chamakh, but you have to wonder if it makes sense to sign a player that represents an African nation when there is an African Cup of nations for him to jet off to mid-season every few years.

 

Elsewhere, Gunnerblog has good highlights of an Arshavin interview here. I like the frankness and honesty of Arshavin a lot. He is a breath of fresh air when compared with Adebayor. Im in agreement with Gunnerblog in that we would be better served in re-investing the whole (or at least bulk) of the Adebayor fee in the central midfielder we need.

 

In other transfer news, Cheltenham youngster Jamie Edge looks set to sign for the club. The 15yr old can apparently play in either defence or midfield which makes him an ideal (and typical) signing by Arsene, though it will be a long time before he makes it into the first team, if ever, so no need to get too excited about that signing just yet.

 

Also set to allegedly sign for our academy is a young Montenegran striker, Veljko Batrović. Yet another one for the future.

 

Let’s hope that this weekend and next week will bring a midfield signing for the here and now. Tomorrow sees us take on Barnet and a first chance to maybe get a glimpse of some of the players which may feature in our starting eleven throughout the season, but expect it to be a predominantly young squad.

 

More on Sunday. Take it easy.

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Back to pre-season blogging after a summer break.

July 15, 2009

It’s been a while since I have written a post and to be honest not a whole lot has happened Arsenal-wise if you consider that it has been a good six weeks or so since the last post.

 

We did sign one player, Vermaelen, and it will be interesting to see how he adapts to the pace of the English game. One thing is for sure, he can only strengthen us in the centre of defence as his arrival should surely spell the end of Silvestre’s appearances in the starting eleven. Fingers crossed on that.

 

Signing him so early on in the window maybe gave us some slightly misplaced optimism that we’d do all of our business early doors. That would be in a perfect world and, as we all know, the transfer dealing of Arsenal don’t ever take place in a perfect world.

 

Speaking of transfers, it is looking more and more likely that Adebayor will be on the move to Man Shitty, who seem to be assembling a team of strikers. If we get the reported £25m for him then we should take it and laugh all the way to the bank with it. He is a player that has really only ever had one good season in his career. Last season he was woeful and to make things worse he was lazy. So, to get that amount of money for someone whose only track record is to eventually cause trouble is a great deal for Arsenal, should it go through. Ray Parlour has also given his backing to the sale of Adebayor.

 

**UPDATE: It now seems that Adebayor has passed his medical…sayonara. Good riddance.

 

Let’s hope that the manager reinvests the whole of whatever fee we receive back into the team and it would seem that Chamakh is the player that will replace Adebayor. Let’s hope that the remainder of whatever cash is available goes on a ball-winning midfield hard-ass. It would be crushing to go a second summer and not sign the holding midfielder that the whole world can see that we need. No need to worry too much yet, there are still about six and a half weeks to go until the close of the transfer window. So, we should be prepared to go right down to the wire in order to get the midfielder that we need.

 

This summer has seen the transfer market go completely crazy with regard to the transfer fees being paid and quoted. I mean, there is no way you can convince me that Ronaldo is worth £80m along with about £10m a year in salary. Crazy money, but that’s the world that Arsene has to cope with and try to come up with affordable targets that still improves our team.

 

Flamini, Diarra and Gilberto were never replaced and that must be the priority. I would be more than happy to see the entirety of the Adebayor fee dropped on that midfielder and no striker purchased. As it stands, we have Van Persie, Bendtner, Eduardo, Vela, Walcott and Arshavin that can play in the forward role. Albeit Arshavin and Van Persie play best just off the main striker. That leaves Bendtner, Walcott and Vela vying for the main striker role. Not all that bad, a bit young and inexperienced, but there is quality there and lots of room for growth and improvement. But, there are plenty of options there to go with a forward three. Not to mention that Rosicky, Nasri and Fabregas would be the creative force behind that attack. It’s not a bad position to be in at all.

 

Can’t really say too much about Melo or Chamakh as I don’t really know anything about them. Have never seen either kick a ball, so it’s hard to have any feelings about Melo’s will-he/won’t-he sign for Juventus saga. Chamakh seems very keen to come to us, but I seem to remember him saying a few months back that he had set his sights on a smaller premier league club like Spuds. So, again, it is hard to get too excited about him either.

 

Pre-season kicks-off at Barnet on the 18th and is being broadcast on ATVO. Kick-off is at 15:00, so that’s 23:00 JST. We can expect to see the squad for that game mostly consisting of youngsters, with a smattering of some more senior players.

 

It’s now July 15th and our first Premier League game away to Everton kicks-off on August 15th. Not long to go now! I have to say that despite the lack of anything happening in the world of Arsenal over the close season, the goings-on at Real have made the time pass that bit faster.

 

Finally, my thoughts are with John Hartson and his family at this time. Let’s hope that he can make a full recovery.

 

Right, that’ll do for the first post in an age. It’s low thirties here today and I’m sweating like a pig. So, some form of iced drink is called for.

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