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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The final day.

May 24, 2009

Today’s game against Stoke should see some of our more fringe players get a bit of a run-out. The game isn’t being shown live in Japan as the TV here is focussing on the relegation battle, which is understandable as there is a hell of a lot at stake in those games.

 

Teams news, as of the time of writing, remains the same as discussed on yesterday’s post, so check that out if you’re interested.

 

In other news it is being reported that Andrey Arshavin is looking for a pay rise because of the new 50% tax rate in the UK. You would think that his agent might have mentioned to him before he signed his original deal that the tax for high earners in the UK was crazy high but there you go.

 

The club have also reportedly sent Rui Fonte back to Portugal as they felt he wasn’t really up to scratch. Shame he didn’t make it but I’m sure the education that he received while with us will stand him in good stead for his future.

 

Apparently Man Shitty are willing to pay £21m for Adebayor and if that is true and I was the boss, I would personally drive him to Eastlands in order to broker a deal as quickly as possible. That’s a lot of money for someone that has really only had ONE good season.

 

The Daily Mail links us with Ajax centre-half Thomas Vermaelen. Who knows if it’s true or not but one suspects that we’ll be linked with every central defender on the planet before the summer is out.

 

Patrice Evra is whinging about how Arsenal tried to kick him off the field in our league game against ManUre. Well, what do you expect to happen when you call the team a bunch of kids ahead of that tie? Fool.

 

So, from the end of today onwards it’s going to be lots and lots of endless speculation about who we will or won’t sign and who we will or won’t let go. Let the speculation begin.

 

Here’s to a good result today to end the season at home on a high.

 

Come on you REDS!!!!!!

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A chance to rebound.

May 10, 2009

Today sees us take on Chelsea at the Emirates in a game which gives us the perfect chance to rebound from the crushing disappointment of our exit from the Champions League. However, Chelsea will also be looking to do exactly the same and their exit from the competition must have been much more psychologically crushing than ours due to the manner of their exit.

 

The boss has said that he will stick with Gibbs for today’s game and i hope that he does because he is certainly a better prospect at left-back than Silvestre.

 

At the back we should therefore line up with Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Djourou and Gibbs. In midfield, I expect Song, Cesc and Nasri to play in the middle, with Song taking up the more defensive role thus leaving Cesc and Nasri more freedom to get forward. Walcott and possibly Van Persie may operate on the flanks, with Bendtner up front. Well, I hope that he starts with Bendtner up front as the young Dane will have a bit of a point to prove to the fans after his mid-week escapades. Though, it is more likely that Adebayor will start up front.

 

I think that Vela and Ramsey will get some playing time today, too. At this stage, I think it is important to give players like Ramsey, Vela and possibly Wilshere some proper first-team playing time ahead of next season.

 

Let’s hope that Arshavin can overcome his illness to play some part in today’s game.

 

In the Guardian today, Amy Lawrence talks about how Drogba is just the kind of player that Arsenal need. While he is a loathsome, diving cunt that I would hate to ever see wearing an Arsenal shirt, a player of similar stature and ability would be great for us. We need strikers that are willing to put themselves about and work hard for the team.

 

Despite Arséne’s comments on Friday that the players don’t know what is best for the team, Almunia has again come out and voiced his dissatisfaction with how we have done this year and that things need to change.

 

The young players are internationals and have been playing for Arsenal for a long time. They have played many games. They should have the experience now.

“Everybody is concerned by what happened against United. We need to be criticised. We need to do some self-analysis because Arsenal is a big club and we are not here to lose. Four years without a trophy is a long time. It’s too much for the fans – they deserve something more from us. Every time a team is in a bad situation you need someone to find a big solution.”

 

He went on to say:

“We played crazy from the start. We played more with the heart than the head. United didn’t do that. Can we compete with them next season? I don’t know. We’ll have to see what happens in the summer.”

 

He is right to say that this team need to be criticised, because they have been molly-coddled  a bit too much by the manager and they need to know that they have to start performing and delivering. They excuse of youth can not, and should not, be tolerated next season. This squad have been together for a few years now and the honeymoon period is now most certainly over. Time to deliver. It is a very big summer for the club in terms of transfer activity and maybe a look should also be taken at our coaching positions and maybe the assistant’s position, too. When I see Pat Rice sitting next to Arséne i just get images of Phil Neal sitting next to Graham Taylor in the infamous “Do I not like that!” documentary. He comes across very much as a ‘yes man’.

 

Reports in the Daily Star link us, yet again, with Fulham’s Brede Hangeland who I think would be a decent signing for us and could definitely strengthen our defence, given his performances for Fulham this season.

 

It appears that some tosser Portsmouth fan spat into Theo’s water bottle during the game at Fratton Park. Filthy bastard. That’s just not on, by all means shout abuse at someone, but spitting INTO a drink is out of order. I’m sure that the media won’t say much about it but, if they do, I am sure that Mark Bright will say that he’d rather get an elbow in the face, a broken arm, rib and leg and dislocated shoulder rather than have someone spit in his drink. We can but hope…

 

Even Alisher Usmanov is sticking his big fat oar in by saying that we need to invest heavily in the squad to catch up with ManUre. While despising the big fat Uzbek, I do agree that we must invest in this squad, but it need not necessarily be heavy investment as long as we get the right quality.

 

Reports in papers suggest that Wenger has between twenty and forty million to spend this season, but I imagine that this figure has been plucked right out of each journalist’s over-imaginative ass.

 

Lee Dixon has a good article in today’s Times and he is spot on with everything that he says. I must admit I like Yaya Toure and was impressed with him when he played for Barcelona against Yokohama Marinos (not the best of teams, I must admit) in a friendly a year or two ago.

 

Non-Arsenal related news, it was great to see Stoke beat Hull yesterday and with West Brom winning it sets up the possibility of Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Hull being the teams to be relegated. How great would that be?! Fingers crossed it’ll be ‘howay (with) the lads’ to the Championship next season.

 

If you don’t already, check out these other Arsenal blogs, they’re very good and offer well-balanced opinions. Arseblog; Gunnerblog; Goonerholic; East Lower.

 

** UPDATE: hahahahaha. Thankfully our players just have belt and gravity issues.

 

** UPDATE 2: The domain name for the site has now changed to http://thenorthbankblog.com

 

That’s all for today. Take it easy.

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Time to start moving on…well, at least try to.

May 8, 2009

It’s nice to finally get to Friday, not just because that means the end of the working week, but also because it means that we can start to lay this week to rest and put it behind us. It has been a pretty tough few weeks for us Arsenal fans, what with going out of the FA Cup to Chelsea and then the Champions League to ManUre. But, we have to put all of that behind us now as there is nothing that can be done about it until the summer.

 

For those interested you can check out pictures of Bendtner making a tool of himself here.

 

Looking ahead to the game on Sunday, it seems like we don’t have any fresh injuries and the team will probably be the same as started against ManUre, though I would expect Arshavin to come back into the side in place of Van Persie whose chocolate groin may melt in the mid-May afternoon sun. There is a slight doubt over Arshavin as he has apparently been suffering a bit from flu, let’s hope he didn’t catch it from Carlos Vela and his visiting mates.

 

Clichy has been ruled out for the rest of the season as the boss isn’t prepared to take a gamble with his injury now that we have nothing left to play for but pride.

 

There is still a chance that we can get third place from Chelsea. The odds are against us, that’s for sure, but it can be done. If we beat them on Sunday, that would put us within three points of them with two games to go and given that Chelsea have an FA Cup final on the horizon there is the chance that they may rest some players in their three remaining league games. Let’s hope that they start by resting a few against us this Sunday, especially Didier Drogba as he always rips us a new ass when he comes up against us.

 

As today is Friday, that means there is a new podcast from Arseblogger. So, head on over there and check it out. It always a good listen, especially if you live abroad like me.

 

I don’t really want to mention any more about the squad and how it can be improved today as it is something which will rumble on and on until the obligatory deadline day when we will be yet to sign anyone and hoping Arsene pulls a on-the-stroke-of-midnight signing. Hopefully any such signing will come with an ‘s’ at the end because we certainly need more than one.

 

The club have just announced that Theo Walcott has just signed a new long-term deal which is great news for the club and is something which can help to raise the spirits of both the players and the fans.

 

As I sit here trying to remain positive and keep the faith in Arsene, the reality that we are just not up to scratch raises its ugly head to dampen my futile attempts at optimism. But, in times like these I remind myself of the times when us Arsenal fans used to have ‘boring, boring Arsenal’ sung at us and it was actually true. Granted it brought us some success along the way, but it wasn’t exactly pretty to watch. Now we are in a situation where we play nice football (and at times mesmerising football) but it is failing to deliver in what really matters, silverware. It’s not the style of our play that is to blame, it’s just the depth, quality and age/experience of our squad. Alan Hansen said in the 90’s that you ‘don’t win anything with kids’ and people have thrown that back in his face time and time again, but it totally applies to this Arsenal squad. When he said that, he was referring to a ManUre squad that had a handful of young players coming through whereas we have almost an entire squad of young players.

 

The hardest thing to swallow is that Arsene trots out the same excuses when we lose; we lacked experience; we were naive etc. But, you have to lay all of the blame for that firmly at the door of the manager who is ultimately responsible for the make-up of that squad. He fought for the new stadium, he decided to go with the youth policy as that was the cost of moving to the new stadium, he insisted on having total control over everything that goes on at the club. It is now his job to figure out how to get us out of this mess.

 

There is always a high probability that us bloggers and fans overreact when writing and talking about the club and its direction so soon after such a crushing defeat, but I think we all agree on the fundamental issues affecting the team and there is nothing wrong with talking about those as long as we don’t get involved in Patsy Palmer style hyperbole.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I think Wenger is a great manager and has totally transformed the club but he has a lot of work to do before we are ready to seriously challenge on a consistent basis again. One can only hope that the strengthening of his position by Kroenke Tonk Stan and the appointment of Ivan Gazidis will see us have a more pro-active transfer policy and really start to move the club forward again as we have been in a steady decline ever since the season of the Invincibles.

 

One more thing I’d like to touch on, which came us in yesterday’s comments, is the fact that so many ‘fans’ left the stadium early. I honestly don’t see the point in leaving a game early, regardless of the way the game is going. What kind of a signal does that send to the team? Why are the players meant to give a monkeys about the club if the fans themselves fuck off home, or to the pub, long before the game ends. For me, that’s not being a real fan. A real fan stays there to support the team, they don’t turn their back on them. It’s akin to the booing of Eboue that went on earlier in the season. It just goes to show how fickle fans can be, if your team is doing well its easy to stay until the end but if things go a bit Pete Tong the toys get thrown out of the pram and some people bugger off. That’s not what being a football fan is all about, in my opinion. I imagine that opinion among fans will be divided on this issue and I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, but that’s just how I feel about the situation.

 

You are at the game, you have a seat that those of us that happen to work thousands of miles away from the stadium would give our right nut for and yet you walk out of the stadium early. That does my head in. I know it’s your money, your seat and you can do whatever you want to do with that. I just think it’s wrong and projects the wrong image of Arsenal fans. We should strove to be better than other teams, that means both fans and players alike. Someone who walks out of a game before the end has absolutely no right whatsoever to question the commitment of someone like Adebayor or Diaby as they themselves are not giving their all. That’s just my opinion.

 

Speaking of Adebayor there is a good article in The Mirror that sums him up nicely.

 

I wish that we were playing Chelsea tomorrow as we need to get a game under our belts as soon as possible to try and get our minds off the extreme disappointment and hurt that we are all feeling. The last few days have been long and hard. Everything has felt like a chore to do because there is a deep sense of what might have been combined with a realisation that we are not at the level that we think we should be.

 

Okay, I’m going to finish here because this is getting a bit too long.

 

Keep the faith. We are The Arsenal and we will rise again.

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Panic on the streets of London.

April 21, 2009

Now that we’ve had a bit of time to digest Saturday’s game, I think it’s time that the toys went back into the pram. There was a fair bit of ‘burn down the Emirates and hang the manager’ hysteria following the result, which was a bit over-the-top. Yes, it was a bad result. Yes, we played extremely poorly, without any real desire or commitment. But, neither of these can be solely blamed on the quality of the pitch or the team selection. The players that went out onto the pitch didn’t do the business, except for Walcott and Gibbs. End of story. Let’s hope that they have their game face on tonight because we will need a much more committed performance at Anfield against a strong Liverpool side.

 

A draw tonight would be a good result, considering the number of injuries we have, the disappointment of Saturday’s non-performance and also the fact that Villa could only draw at the weekend against West Ham. For the confidence of the team, I think it is important to get a positive result.

 

Team news ahead of the game sees Liverpool being without their captain, Gerrard. I expect us to start with Song in central midfield alongside Denilson and Cesc. I really hope Diaby doesn’t start. Out wide, the boss will have to choose between Nasri, Arshavin and Walcott. I have a feeling that he might go with the former two, to give Walcott a bit of a breather and bring him on as a sub. I can’t see the manager not starting Arshavin and if he starts out wide he will probably drift in centrally quite a lot to play just off Bendtner.

 

Van Persie (surprise, surprise) and Adebayor are set to miss out through injury, so I expect Bendtner to start up front on his own, although I am not sure he is yet up to the task of being the lone target man. I reckon Eduardo will be on the bench, given that he hasn’t played much football. Arshavin should be well rested for this one so I expect a good performance from him.In defence, there is the possibility of Sagna returning in place of Eboue. Otherwise we will line up with exactly the same in defence as we did at the weekend.

 

It’s a big game for the club, no doubt about that. We don’t want to lose two games on the bounce, not with a champions league semi-final just around the corner. There was tabloid talk that Arsene might like to lose the game against Liverpool in order to keep the pressure on ManUre ahead of the Champions League game, but I think we all know that that’s just a load of tabloid tat. That tactic would almost undoubtedly blow up in our own faces and is ridiculous to suggest. What we need right now is confidence, not a bit of extra pressure on ManUre. We should go there and kill ourselves to get a positive result. It’s what the fans want to see, not another performance filled with mediocrity. If we can get our confidence back, that will bode well for next week’s Champions League game much better than losing in order to keep pressure on ManUre. We need ManUre to be worrying about us, not Liverpool…

 

Looking ahead to the weekend and it seems that good news may be on the way in the form of a returning Almunia in goal. Let’s hope that will be the case. Fabianski has the potential to be a decent keeper, but he still has a lot of developing to do.

 

It’s just a short post today because things are hectic at work and I will be busy in the evening. So, here’s hoping to a good performance tonight. If we perform well, we should get a positive result. Though we’ll need to cross our collective Arsenal-supporting appendages to make it happen.

 

Come on you Reds.

 

**NOTE: This post was made before new team news was available, so apologies if any of it is a bit wide of the mark.

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Welcome to The North Bank! It’s a big weekend for The Arse…

March 21, 2009

Being a Gooner in Japan isn’t easy. Kick-off times generally clash with the last train home, thus making watching The Arse in the pub a bit difficult. Though we tend to get almost every Arsenal game shown live on cable/satellite, so I can’t really complain too much because the option is there to watch the game in the confines of my own apartment.

Anyway, looking forward to today’s game, it really is a game where we need to take all three points and make the most of Villa’s loss of form and our continued unbeaten run. It really is due to Villa’s recent collapse that we have regained fourth spot and not our own unbeaten run as, while we remain unbeaten, our form hasn’t exactly been setting the world on fire.

Team news indicates a probable return in goal for Almunia and Eduardo will also be involved in the squad, although he probably won’t start. So, I expect us to start with Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Gallas and Clichy at the back. The midfield line-up will depend on whether Wenger goes with a 4-4-2 or a 4-5-1. Should he go with 4-4-2, I’d expect to see Arshavin, Denilson, Song and Nasri start with Van Persie and Bendtner up front. Though Diaby may start in place of Song, but if you consider that Song seems to be The Golden Child, I think it is fairly certain that he’ll get the nod.

A 4-5-1, would probably see us line up with Arshavin wide right, Van Persie wide left, Denilson, Song and Nasri in the middle with Bendtner up front by himself.

Expect to see Eboue to make his obligatory appearance at some stage too. Though, to be fair, he has been doing better in the last few games he has appeared in.

The loss of Walcott to injury, again, is a massive blow for the team as he really does offer us something that no other player in our squad can. However, at this stage we can just cross all appendages that his injury isn’t as serious as we all fear it may be. If he is out for the five weeks, as hypothesised by Wenger at yesterday’s press conference, then it really is a big blow for our aspirations. However, with the return of Fabregas, Adebayor and, potentially, Rosicky these players may help to offset the loss of Theo.

Early Newcastle team news seems to suggest that Owen will be dropped in order for them to play a defensive 4-5-1 with Martins leading the line. This is a shame as they would have been less of a threat with Owen in the starting line-up. Hehehe.

Elsewhere, we’ll be hoping for Spuds to do us a favour by getting an unlikely result against a resurgent Chelsea. I suppose a draw in the Liverpool v Villa game would be the best result for us, assuming we win today, in order to put light between ourselves and Villa and while also gaining ground on third place. A result for Portsmouth against Everton would also be welcome as it would, if nothing else, sicken Moyes.

Oh, given that week that’s in it, it would be a gross dereliction of duty if I weren’t to say that I hope Wigan stuff Hull in tomorrow’s early kick-off. Phil Brown really is a despicable, lying piece of sh*t.

Anyway, there are still a few hours until kick-off which gives me plenty of time to go out and get some cans of beer in for the game.

Right then, that’s your lot for today. Come on you Reds!!!

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