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

I was going to start off by saying that there was some lazy journalism going on today, but taking a look at the Mail, it is more a case of unintelligent journalism than lazy journalism. Today, they again say that Barcelona will launch a £30m bid for Cesc. Well, if they seriously think that Arsenal will sell their best player, who is on a long-term, protected contract for that fee, then they really are a bunch of fools. Regardless of whether Cesc wants to leave or not, it would be madness to sell for such a paltry fee, especially when you see Aston Villa turning down £20m for square-headed Milner.

Newcastle are targeting Jack Wilshere for a season long loan for next season. Whether it is Newcastle or Bolton that he moves to for the season, the most important thing is that he plays plenty of games and gets some more vital experience under his belt. If he went to Newcastle, he would get some good experience of regularly playing in front of a large crowd that places high expectations on their team.

One other player heading for the exit door, albeit on a permanent basis, is Fran Merida. I wonder is he regretting that decision a little given that Cesc is vying for a move away. Anyway, it’s a shame that he has decided to go and all we can do is wish him well for the future. He is 20yrs old and you can’t blame him for wanting to play regularly.

It was good to hear Wenger say yesterday that one of the reasons he signed Chamakh is that he ‘is the right age.’ Fingers crossed that the other players we sign this summer will be of a similar age, too. Cross every appendage that you can that those signings will be a keeper and a central defender.

Having Van Persie up front with one of Bendtner or Chamakh will leave us with a strong aerial presence whichever combination of the three we play with. That is a good thing, as long as we actually manage to get our crosses past the first man and into the box. It will also give the defending team something else to think about against us as the ball may not necessarily be played in to feet, as has been the tendency in the past. Some crossing training will be required in the summer, methinks. Having someone that is both big and strong up front will also help with holding up the ball to allow support from midfield to get forward. One thing I liked about Chamakh’s ATVO interview was that he said that he sees himself as being the team’s first line of defense as well as being a striker. Hopefully he will work hard for the team both offensively and defensively. That would be a nice change from the likes of Adebarndoor.

With the attacking side of the team sorted for the summer in terms of additions, we can now look forward to seeing what defensive adjustments and additions are made.

The Sunday newspaper websites don’t have a whole lot of transfer news regarding Arsenal. It’s nice to not be linked with Frey etc for at least ONE Sunday. There is an editorial in the Online Gooner that says that Wenger missed a UEFA lunch in Madrid yesterday as he was busy dealing with transfer business. The article speculates that it is probably the Tantric Cesc saga, but I prefer to think that it is more related to a new signing instead. Recently, Wenger said that things should be mostly wrapped up by the time training kicks off in July and, what with the World Cup taking up most of the next four or five weeks, it may be that he is trying to get another one or two in before the World Cup gets underway. Better to be optimistic than pessimistic.

That’s about that for today, it’s just gone midday here in Yokohama so there is a chance that more stories may appear over the coming hours as day breaks back in Europe. Enjoy what’s left of your weekend.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 12:10 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.