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

Well, so much for the World Cup hiatus. I’d forgotten about the impending fixture list announcement and the unveiling of the new away jersey.

First looking at the fixture list and we have been handed  a tricky away trip to Anfield on the opening day of the season. This is generally a difficult tie and will be made even more so by the fact that it will be their new manager’s first league game in charge. Is it just me or, more often than not, do we meet a club that is playing their first league game under a new manager? It certainly feels like that to me.

Anyway, after that difficult opening day away trip we are home to Blackpool and then away to Blackburn, thereby giving us a chance to beat Big Fat Sam before he gets the sack.

Looking ahead to the games against the other teams in the top six, we are away to Chelsea on October 2nd and have them at home on St. Stephen’s Day (Boxing Day to those that live in England), the latter being a game that I am hoping to go to during my Christmas trip back to Ireland from Japan. Kevreano, you have been warned.

The games against ManUre are on December 11th (away) and April 30th (home), Man Shitty are October 23rd (away) and January 4th (home) and Spuds are November 20th (home) and February 26th (away). Some tasty fixtures and the period between November 20th and January 4th will probably be pretty decisive in terms of the outcome of our season and I hope that we can stay injury free heading into the Christmas period. Well, when I say injury-free, I mean by Arsenal’s standards. Hopefully any injuries we do pick up won’t be long-term and won’t be to our key players.

For the second season in a row we will finish with a game against Fulham, this time it will be at Craven Cottage. Our run-in is certainly pretty tricky (Liverpool (H), Bolton (A), ManUre (H), Stoke (A), Villa (H) and then the Fulham game) but, on the bright side, we thought this year’s run-in was a piece of piss and look how that turned out, so maybe having more difficult teams to face will mean that we are more focused for the run-in. Not that I’m saying I wouldn’t like an easier run-in, but it did us f*ck all good last season. For a full list of fixtures click here.

Earlier this week the new away kit was unveiled and I must say that I like it. It’s good that we will have a yellow jersey again next season. It would be better if it was yellow and blue, but the redcurrant looks alright. A mixture of our favoured yellow away shirt and a bit of redcurrant from the final season at Highbury. It’s certainly a million times better looking than the disgusting jersey that Barcelona will be wearing on their travels next season.

I’m not going to discuss any transfer speculation today as there really has been nothing worth reporting. It’s all a bit ‘as you were’ on the Cesc and Koscielny front, assuming there actually is a front to be discussing in either case.

The World Cup has been a bit low-key so far and I am hoping that now that we have entered the second group game phase, things will start to pick up. I’m looking forward to Argentina vs. South Korea tonight, not least because it kicks off at the much more civilized hour of 8:30pm. I’m not a fan of the games that kick off at 3:30am, what a load of c*ck.

Right, that’s all for this bonus hiatus from my summer blogging hiatus post. Take it easy.

The worst thing about having so many transfer rumours right after a season ends is that they invariably occur at the same time as Wenger takes his short end of season holiday, thus meaning that we don’t hear from him. That all changed yesterday when the boss came out fighting in what was an impassioned reiteration of the club’s, and his, burning desire to keep all of our most important players at the club.

"What is important is that Cesc has a great World Cup and that he comes back to Arsenal with a great desire to do well for the club. We want to keep our best players – that’s my huge determination – I built this team for years from 16 and 17 years of age with most of the players. We want to continue to work with them because we feel we are very close, and strengthen the team in a very strong way."

I think the key part of that statement is his saying how he has been building this team since they were teenagers. This is ‘project youth’ and if he were to lose Cesc from this team then that would be the biggest signal yet that project youth had failed, although without it we would never have been able to build the Emirates. It would hurt Wenger deeply to see this team break up before ever reaching what he believes to be its true potential.

He also commented on Joe Cole, but only on his ability as a player not on a possible move for him.

"I like him (Joe Cole) as a player because when he played against us he always did a lot of damage. He can create impact through his creative play. He can dribble, he can pass, he can score goals."

Given our squad’s tendency to pick up a lot more than its fair share of injuries, the addition of Joe Cole to the 25 man squad would certainly bolster our midfield. He would also bring a winning mentality with him and the experience of having been there and done it.

On potential defensive signings he had this to say:

"The basic improvements that have to be made is defensive and with spending the right money. The right money is not necessarily quantity because you never know how much people want for the players you want.  But what I mean by the right money is that we will not be scared to spend if needed."

I’m all in favour of spending our money in the right way, on the right player. As long as he is similar in stature and ability to Vermaelen, everything will be golden. If, on the other hand, we sign another Silvestre, I’d be a very unhappy camper. It may also be an indication that our likely additions will be more along the lines of a Koscielny rather than a Chiellini, price-wise. Wenger wanting to spend money carefully is something we have gotten used to since the heady days of blowing a fortune on Francis Jeffers. Lesson learned, methinks.

Apparently, Juventus are ‘days away’ from signing Gallas, news, I’m sure, that will have their fans clamouring to their nearest church praying for that not to happen.

Barcelona cunt presidential candidate, Marc Ingla, has said that signing Cesc would be like a dream and, let’s hope that for the next year at least, a dream is how it stays.

“Cesc is a marvel, as is (David) Villa. My only worry is paying over the odds, but I confess that my dream would be to unveil Cesc as president.

If he comes, I am convinced that Cesc will soon become the number one choice in his position. Anything between 25 and 35 million euros would seem suitable. Whatever the coaches decide will be fine by me, we won’t interfere in technical issues – that’s down to (coach) Pep (Guardiola) and (sporting director) Txiki (Begiristain)."

I do wonder if the prime quality required to be a president at that club is to be an utter shit-bucket. For him so say that Cesc is a ‘marvel’ and to then say that he is only worth the same as they paid for Chygrynsky last year is beyond insulting, both to Arsenal and, more importantly, to Cesc himself. To also be valued at less than the ludicrous deal that took Ibrahimovic from Inter just serves to rub salt into the wound. It seems clear that the reason that they are saying that they won’t pay above €30m for Cesc is, quite simply, because they don’t have the money. They are the guts of €500m in debt and blew the majority of what they had on Villa. Thems the breaks. They should change their famous stadium seat sign from ‘Mes Que Un Club’ to ‘Mes Que Un Ballbag.’

Right, that’s about that for today. The World Cup kicks off today and even though the kick-off times are rubbish in Japan, especially on a work-night, I will be hoping to catch as many games as possible. I’ll be able to watch all games from the Quarter Finals onwards as I will basically be on my summer holiday from work by the time they start, it’s the games before then that’ll be harder to see.

For those with an iPhone, open this link on your phone and it should put the World Cup game schedule, complete with localised kick-off times, into your iPhone’s calendar app. At least, it did for me, complete with JST kick-off times. A very handy and fast way to check out what games are on without having to access 3G or Wi-Fi.

Anyway, life is pretty good when all there is to complain about on a Friday afternoon is missing some World Cup games. Take it easy and enjoy the footy.

Bit of a slow news day. Expect it to get worse over the coming days as the commencement of the World Cup is upon us.

Robin Van Perise has been talking about how winning trophies isn’t everything in life. Not that he isn’t ambitious, but that basically he prefers the way Arsenal do business, run things and play football, as opposed to the likes of Real Madrid, for example. Here is what he said:

“I’ve always said that I want to win as many trophies as possible in my career, but not at any price. What I am trying to say is that I will work my socks off to get the maximum out of my career, but I won’t move to a club which does not play my style of football.

Dennis Bergkamp is, in my eyes, still ‘The Master’. The fact that he never won the Champions League, the European Championship or the World Cup does not take anything away from his greatness as a player.

Of course I love silverware in my football career. But sometimes you can’t rush from A to Z. Van der Vaart has said that, if Arsenal don’t sign him, I’ll have to join him in Madrid. But I don’t think that is for me. Real is a fantastic club but the speed of managers and players coming and going is frightening. It must give them neck ache, looking who is coming in and going out.

They have this philosophy: You did not win anything this year. There is the door and here is a couple of million to buy you off. Ready for the next purchase. I prefer the philosophy of Arsenal and Barcelona.”

It’s nice to see the huge reverence and respect that he still has for Bergkamp and you would have to imagine that if Dennis were to return to the club as a coach at some future point, then Robin would more than likely end his playing days with us. Elsewhere, he also said that he would like to score 30 goals and have 20 assists next season, join the club Robin. We’d all love to see that.

The weekend was a little bit strange for me as I found myself in grudging agreement with Andy Gray. I think I just got a little bit sick in my mouth as I wrote that. Not that I agree with everything he said, of course, but I think he made a fair point about the importance of Van Persie to our team.

The Telegraph are linking Barcelona with a bid for Clichy and if there were any truth in the rumour then it would be a fairly easy decision over which of Clichy or Fabregas to sell to them, especially with Gibbs developing nicely and given Clichy’s patchy form and sometimes poor decision making and concentration levels over the past season or two. However, you get the feeling that it is just more sh*t-mongering by Barcelona and yet another part of their ‘harass and torment Arsenal until they relent’ master plan.

The same newspaper is also citing The Sun, ever the bastion of truth and goodness, in it’s story linking us with another, improved, bid of £8m for Laurent Koscielny. Bit bored with this story, though a deadline of Thursday this week has apparently been set, so we don’t have long to wait, allegedly. Things must be bad though when your source for a story is The Sun.

Arshavin has said that he likes being at Arsenal but was a Barcelona fan when he was younger. Nothing too earth shattering in that. We can mull over who may or may not be leaving our midfield when/if we sign Joe Cole. It may well be that nobody will leave the attacking side of our team even if we do sign Cole. Anyway, that is speculation that will get plenty of time and discussion after England exit the World Cup.

Interested in Wenger’s thoughts on groups A, B and C at the World Cup? Group A. Group B. Group C.

I did read somewhere that Usmanov has apparently spent another £300,000 on shares in the club but can’t for the life of me find where I read that now. If true, it brings his stake to in or around 27%.

The official site would like your help in adding to their player database. So, if that sounds appealing to you head on over and submit some information for them to review and possibly add to the database.

See? I told you it was a quiet day. Have a good one.

**UPDATE: If the 7amKickOff theory holds true (theory link one and two), this has put to bed our interest in both Joe Cole and Laurent Koscielny.

Morning. Hope that you have some nice weather with you, wherever you are reading this. The summer weather is definitely kicking in here, which means that the wet season is also right around the corner. Balls.

Anyway, there isn’t an awful lot going on as we approach the opening of the World Cup. The Arsenal news has all but dried up and indeed would have dried up were it not for that bunch of ‘see you next Tuesdays’ in Barcelona. I have a feeling that it is going to be a long, long summer on the Cesc front, unfortunately.

So, not content with basically being told to sod off by the board the other day, Joan ‘El Bastardo’ Laporta has, yet again, made more comments along the lines of they won’t give up until Arsenal relent and sell Cesc to them. He also seems to be under the illusion that Barcelona are in talks with Arsenal regarding the proposed transfer. The latter belief clearly shows that he has the mental capacity of a cock fish.

I’m not sure how Arsenal could have made their position any clearer than in the statement released the other day. I guess it just goes to show that becoming a president has no relationship with the intelligence of the person. Though, after the Bush administration in America, I think that we knew that already. I’m pretty sure that if it was our club acting in such a manner, FIFA would hammer us, but when it is Barcelona not a single word emanates out of the governing body. It really is infuriating that they are allowed to so blatantly unsettle and tap up a player. It makes a mockery of FIFA and everything that they purport to stand for.

I just hope that Laporta has an encounter with Japan’s Tulio, much like in the manner that Drogba did yesterday, in a game which Ivory Coast didn’t shy away from putting in some meaty challenges themselves.

The Bordeaux president has said that he hasn’t received an offer from Arsenal for Gourcuff, which isn’t surprising as, unless we sell Cesc, our transfer kitty is going to be allocated towards the defensive side of things, I hope.

Fabio Capello has said that he didn’t pick Theo because he hasn’t played enough games because of injury. Well, Fabio, if yourself and Stewart ‘The Penalty King’ Pearce hadn’t thought it a good idea to make him play for the u21s last year, then he wouldn’t have ended up crocked for half the season and would, therefore, have played a part in plenty of Arsenal’s games. Basically, he has been punished for agreeing to play for the u21s. Now, I know that Theo’s performances were very hit and miss over the season, but he must be seriously regretting turning out for the u21s now. Anyway, Theo’s disappointment should work in our favour as we will have him fit, fresh and ready for the start of the season and he will have a point to prove, too. Here is Capello’s statement in full:

“It was a really hard decision for me. I know Theo Walcott was really important in the games we played in qualification. But after his operation on his shoulder he did not play a lot of games. He was not the same player we knew before the injury.

I hope that he will be fit and over injury and he will be back in the team for the other qualifiers (Euro 2012). It was hard for me, but we had to choose the best players for the squad.”

The Daily Star is reporting that Japan will make a move for Wenger in the new year as current manager, Okada, is set to step down after the World Cup. It’s a story that comes up every time that Japan are searching for a new manager but I can’t see Wenger walking away from the day to day life of club football just yet. Also, you have to consider  the fact that he is in the process of building a new team and he won’t want to walk away from that before the job is done and silverware delivered. He believes in the players he has and he will want to show everyone that he was right and that these players are, in fact, capable of winning some silverware.

Apparently, we have beaten Chelsea to the signing of a 16yr old, Dutch, attacking midfielder called Kyle Ebecilio, from Feyenoord. That is a much as I know about him. The deal should go through on July 1st. Enough kids, please. Time to sign real players that are fully developed and experienced.

Elsewhere, there are reports that we have been offered the chance to sign the young Israeli midfielder, Gai Assulin, from Barcelona as his contract is set to expire this summer. Even if we don’t really want him, we should sign him just to annoy Barcelona and have Laporta let another promising youngster slip through his fingers before he leaves his post as El Bastardo at the end of June.

That’s about that for today. I’ll hopefully be back again tomorrow if there is anything going on news-wise. However, once the World Cup gets underway, I won’t be making any posts unless something major happens.

Enjoy your weekend.

*** UPDATE: It seems that Joe Cole may not be signing for us after all which, if true, seems to pave the way for him to join ManUre. On the one hand I am disappointed but, on the bright side, the money we save on the signing on fee and wages can be used to invest in the defense.