Big up Adebayor / Robin on money / Barca again!

Emmanuel Adebayor has gone and followed Cesc Fabregas by saying he aint quitting, thus leaving many a British newspaper / site a bit moody as they wont be able to fill their spaces with crap. That also goes for any Spanish newspapers/sites as apparently Arsenal’s sister club Barcelona made Adebayor their number one target. However The Togonator™ has pissed on their and anyone else’s parade who was after him as well as putting a smile on Gooners faces. The big fella said:

‘I came to Arsenal with a mission to succeed. ‘I’ve assured the gaffer Arsene Wenger I’ll stay because I believe in the team and I want to assure the fans my concentration is here. I have no reason to leave so I’ll stay to ensure that together we’ll win silverware.

‘Mathieu’s a good player but his departure doesn’t mean Arsenal is about to collapse. Our team is a deep well of talent.

‘I am confident we are capable of winning titles and we will return for next season hungrier to be successful.’

So nice one Ade you’ve put many a Gooner’s mind at rest with that statement. Even though Ade missed a shedload last season, he did score 30 goals, he’s still only 24 and can only get better right? It still amazes me after all the goals he scored and not just only against shit teams as some people suggest (he scored against the manc’s and against Liverpool in both the Premier League and Champions League games) that he still gets a lot of flak. Oh well, just no pleasing some people is there?But Ade – well done on coming out with your ‘I’m staying and going to be successful’ rant.

It’s been a couple of days now since his statement, but I didn’t bother write up anything on it but think I will now. What am I on about? Well Robin van Persie who is already raking in more dirty cash in a year than any of us will ever see in a lifetime says The Arsenal should pay more. Now I’m not sure if his comments were taken out of context:

“This group is unique. If a number of them leave it will be different.

“Arsenal have a policy in which they will not go over a specific amount of money when agreeing the salary of a player.

“They won’t pay enormous amounts of money. I think that they should go to a higher level of salary.”

For sake of argument lets say he was quoted correctly, all I would say to young Robin is, sod The Arsenal having to pay more – how about you play more! 

Apart from that good people not much to write about, we’re still waiting for the signing of Samir Nasri or anyone else for that matter. All I can think of is if Barcelona are wanting Alex Hleb is there a player there we could do a swap deal with? There’s got to be one or two, how about Carles Puyol he could do the job of defensive enforcer as he’s a big ugly strong brute.

So Gooners, let’s get on it and get this started – happy blogging, lets see what’s on your minds..

The New Zidane / Cesc & Hleb Speak

And so it is nearly over.. word around the web and even from the player himself (speaking on French radio) is that that Samir Nasri has signed for Arsenal. Well thank **** for that. Apparently he is already being given the tag of ‘The new Zidane’ which ex Liverpool muppet Bruno Cheyrou kindly gave back demanding a refund. For the sake of all us Gooners, I hope this tag doesn’t stick, because there is no worse hoodoo than to be given a ‘the next…’ tag. Rarely does a player ever ascend to the greatness of the player he is supposedly going to emulate. 

Which is why I think we need to work on a different form of ‘the next…’ tag line. Why are we always aiming the fortunes of our young players at the games greats. Why not aim a little lower to give them a fighting chance. So with that i’d like to introduce a few of our youngsters: 

- The exciting Carlos “The new Kaba Diawara’ Vela 

- In midfield we can look forward to seeing Jack ‘the next Stefan Malz’ Wilshire. 

- Young determined centre back, and captain of the reserve team, Harvard ‘hopefully better than the previous Gus Caesar’ Nordveit. 

So hopefully Samir Nasri will ignore the hype the press is whipping up, and not aim to become a balding overweight player who likes to headbutt Italian defenders. He would certainly win over the fans quicker if he instead aimed to be Samir ‘scored more goals than Alex Hleb and kicked Eboué up in the air at training’ Nasri… 

Other news

Well the saga that is Alex Hleb’s future continues to make news. This tale is getting more like a soap opera now, with a new twist here and there with a shit story line. With everyone believing it’s just a matter of which club Hleb will be off to, the Bell-end-Russian (supposed to resemble Belarussian. OK well it worked in rehearsal dagnamit!) has come out and said:

“I have read that I have said I want to leave, but I do not know who has written it. That is nonsense.

“I have also read that I wanted to move because Arsenal would win nothing, this too is nonsense.”

Well Alex if you were wondering who wrote or said you wanted to leave The Arsenal take one look at your agent who’s been chatting more than Don King on cocaine. Hleb continues wittering on about a load of stuff and nonsense but the main bit is his laughable not knowing who’s been chatting his business. Very strange that. So what’s the next installment in this caper, Hleb sold to Barcelona no doubt. 

Speaking of Barcelona they are once again conducting their transfer policy via the media by announcing they are after Emmanuel Adebayor. I just don’t why Barcelona just don’t be done with and change their name to Barcelona a la Arsenal FC, f*ck it would be a lot easier as they want to be us. 

Cesc ‘The Cesc™’ Fabregas has said he’s staying with The Arsenal. I’m not sure who’s benefit that was for as I personally as well as many Gooners who don’t believe everything TriballFootball, ClubCall or FansFC or even the Daily Mail online say wasn’t under any illusion that he was going to go. The media would just love there to be an exodus so I reckon The Cesc™ made the comments to stop any sillyness kicking off and letting us, the fans, know the coo.

Latest transfer shenanigans doing the rounds is that we’re after Wolves keeper Wayne Hennessey. First time I’ve seen that linkage but who knows it could be a goer. I know Manuel Almunia stepped up to the plate last season but I’m personally not convinced, I have know idea what this Hennessey fella is like, all I know is he’s a bit brute (6′ 4′) and he’s a Welsh international. Given that Le Gaffer Arsène Wenger OBE really fancies Almunia to do the job as was reflected in the Spanaird signing a contract extension before the season was out and heaping praise on Lukasz Fabianski it could be unlikely, i’ll guess we’ll see soon enough.

Other than that Gooners apparently we’re closing in Miguel Veloso who wont come cheap to fill in that void left by Mathuie Flamoney. However Young Gun Johan Djourou says he can do the job for Le Gaffer. It’s not the first time the player has come and out and said this, also he plays that role in the reserves and seems very adept at it too, but once again time will tell. 

So Gooners we’ve made a signing in Samir Nasri, how about getting that centre back Wenger was on about?

Win that ‘Let’s talk about Cesc baby’ t-shirt

OK folks to keep the boredom at bay and keep the ball rolling (excuse the pun) Allgoonerdup is running another win a t-shirt contest. And due to the avalanche of entries in the ‘Let’s talk about Cesc Baby!’ t-shirt entries I am putting that t-shirt back in the shop window. So in order to win this bit of clobber simply tell us, how old was Cesc Fabregas when he made his Arsenal debut?

Send your answers, name and postal address plus your choice of t-shirt, colour and size to:

iwannafreebie@allgoonerdup.com

Competition closes Monday 16 June.

Good luck Gooners.

Have a great day blogging good people, tell your mates about the comments section and lets get this party started right… jump on and enjoy

 

So what happens next/Allgoonerdup Awards/60 Second Round-up…

It’s going to be a bit of a quickie (oo-er missus) today folks, so without further ado lets get cracking. Before the season drew it’s last breath Le Gaffer Arsène Wenger OBE said we needed or more to the point he was looking for two or three new bodies, world class. big talents, whichever way you look at it we at the time only needed two/three enforcement’s. However that was before Mathieu Flamoney decided to take the money and run and eat all the Conchiglioni and Strozzapreti he could get his chops round. Well if you do the calculations that would mean another player would be needed to be added to the list, so that would make it three or four players The Arsenal would need. That is if Le Gaffer doesn’t scrimp and decides to promote from within rather than buy a ready-made replacement, your guess is as good as mines on that. Although the media have us linked from every defensive midfielder from Aberdeen to Zhenjiang Groupway FC.

So as well as that we now find ourselves having to fill another gap that is going to be left when Alex Hleb up sticks to ‘quiet and rural’ Barcelona from noisy, crowded and jumping London. There could be a bidding war on for Hleb. Barca apparently hold the aces for his services, however what with Inter who initially instigated his move away from The Arsenal with the temptation of Italiano ice cream in the mix, add to that Real Madrid and Juventus, it could prove to be a bumper pay day for The Arsenal. I think for once The Arsenal should grow some balls in the transfer market and get as much money for a player we don’t want to sell for as much as possible and show want-away players as well as clubs we aren’t a push over. How much Hleb contributed to The Arsenal cause over the years is open for debate and one most people have an opinion on. He was great at times and invisible at other times – one thing though, he was no Bobby Pires (bow down people). So what happens now? Arsène Wenger said he wanted to bring in two/three new players but two more will be gone (Flamoney’s gone and Hleb will be gone) so does he up the quota to four or five new players? What do you good people reckon? One that subject of getting players in what’s the story on the centre backs? We’re more in need of defensive quality than anything else? What’s happening there?

 

Win a ‘Cesc’ T-shirt competition

OK folks to keep the boredom at bay and keep the ball rolling (excuse the pun) Allgoonerdup is running another win a t-shirt contest. And due to the avalanche of entries in the ‘Let’s talk about Cesc Baby!’ t-shirt entries I am putting that t-shirt back in the shop window. So in order to win this bit of clobber simply tell us, how old was Cesc Fabregas when he made his Arsenal debut?

Send your answers, name and postal address plus your choice of t-shirt, colour and size to:

iwannafreebie@allgoonerdup.com

Competition closes Monday 16 June.

Good luck Gooners.

 

 

60 Second Round-up or joke corner..

Dos Santos to spurs: You got to laugh. Yup, you read that right. Apparently some quarters have got Barcelona youngster Gio Dos Santos going to those N17 chavs spurs. Question is, why? You would think our very own Mexican Carlos Vela would have a word with his countryman… Barca in for Ade: And yet again another Euro giant is tapping up our players via the media. How many more f*cking times? Once again Barcelona are trying to reap the awards of what seems to be their feeder club – our very own Arsenal FC! This time they are after Emmanuel Adebayor (yawn, f*cking yawn). I suppose it’s so they can add him to their line up of the other 26 strikers they have there. Tell you what, to save time just follow this and just copy and paste or delete Real Madrid/Barcelona/Inter/ AC Milan/BigFour Team™ spurs want Arsenal player, it will save a lot of time… we out… Oh and I will definitely will be bringing you the Allgoonerdup Awards next week – so watch out for that..

Apologies / The quieter the better…

 

Apologies

First of all good readers, apologies for lack of ‘material’ in the last few days I was having ‘issues’ with my computer, a bit like Emmaniuel Eboué, my computer kept ‘falling down’. Any road up cross fingers and all that, we’re back. But I must admit not a damn thing has happened as yet, there is speculation aplenty of course, Hleb – just where will he go? Nasri just when will he sign, Van Persie – just when wont he be injured? On the subject of Hleb it’s a question of when rather than if he’ll go. I can’t be bothered to write anyting to do with him as I can’t be arsed to fuel the fire. Nasri, same again, will he sign? Has he signed? Will spurs nick him from under our noses?! Well stranger things have happened, Robin van Persie staying fit for the whole season now that would be strange. Any road up dive in and get amongst the comments – lets build on this. 

The quieter the better… 

You know, I don’t really care who we sign, if we sign anybody. But damn it.. the least they could do is have a press conference and slag off Avram The Undertaker or something…. what is a columnist supposed to do?

Things have gone a little bit stale with the whole Sammy Davis Nasri thing. I’m sure he, or some other equally French bloke will eventually turn up to run our midfield.. they always do. What I’m more interested in this week is who we are up against… what the state of play is around the Premier League… our ‘peers’ so to speak. Because often, this is what dictates how the market is going to be and ultimately this is the same economy we sit in. 

So I think we can assume the lunatics at Stamford Bridge are going to do go with their usual subtle approach in the market. They have already signed their 71st right back in Jose Bosingwa – you can never have too much cover at right back I suppose? But with no manager currently filling the role of Roman’s b*tch there is going to be very little coming out of our blue neighbours for a little while at least. Sp*rs though are suffering from the equivalent of ‘little man syndrome’… desparate to spend loads of cash to prove they are a big boy too. Hillariously, nobody is interested in joining them. Samuel Eto’o'o’o'o’o in particular used them as a means of engineering a better deal and panicked somewhat when it seemed they were the only club interested in him. Imagine, one season lining up alongside Messi, Henry, Deco and Ronaldinho.. the next thing you are laying back a pass to Tom Huddlestone or trying to play a one two with Jermaine Jenas.

And other previously cash flushed clubs are struggling to make headway for a host of reasons – Liverpool are busy have a nasty case of domestic abuse leaving Rafa Benitez with barely enough money to maintain his ludicrous facial hair; ManCiteh are too busy trying to emulate Leeds to spend any of the Baht they have beaten out of the Bangkok residents, and perennial overspenders the Geordies have Keggy Keegan probably trying to tap up David Ginola and Faustino Asprilla. 

So less silly spending means a market that is far better suited to the studied and planned approach Arsene takes with his transfers. With nobody spending 16 million on Darren Bent or 22 million on Little Sean Wright Phillips means less interference in the market. Any player we have scouted for a long time will not be subject to huge bids as soon as we show any interest, which seems to happen fairly often. But it only takes one team to trigger the crazy spending and you can always assume the big Spanish teams will be ready to throw millions at the drop of a hat

But of course a lot of this sumer shenanigans could be gotten rid of if UEFA had the balls to do something. Rumours about player transfers might sell a lot of papers but the emergence of the super wealthy football owner has changed the transfer market along with the chances many football clubs have of winning the league. It would certainly be in the best interests of all football supporters and the game itself if this scattergun approach to football transfers was reigned in. Ideally a transfer cap (or salary cap or both) would be introduced by UEFA. Imagine if all clubs in the top tiers of European football were held to the same spending. Players would then have to choose where they went more on matters of football (the quality of the coaches, the type of fans, the system the team plays, the location etc) than merely the money being waved at them. 

The likes of Wayne Bridge, Steven Sidwell, Paulo Ferreira (pretty much any 3rd choice yet Internationally capped player at Chelski) would be less inclined to sit on the bench if they were pegged to the same salary as their peers. Incentives would be allowed based upon final league table position or silverware won but that should be the only allowance to separate clubs. Poor Ashley Cole would be towing his car out of the trees on the side of the M1 as we speak. 

Sure their are a lot of flaws with this plan (corruption is one immediately obvious one) but would this be any worse than the current system where a club can buy players merely to keep said players for lining up in a rivals colours? And only once such a system was implemented would the true worth of a manager would be found out. And I know I’d be backing Mr Wenger all the way to the bank. 

By Paul Wright

 

 

Win a ‘Cesc’ T-shirt competition

 

 

OK folks to keep the boredom at bay and keep the ball rolling (excuse the pun) Allgoonerdup is running another win a t-shirt contest. And due to the avalanche of entries in the ‘Let’s talk about Cesc Baby!’ t-shirt entries I am putting that t-shirt back in the shop window. So in order to win this bit of clobber simply tell us, how old was Cesc Fabregas when he made his Arsenal debut?

 

Send your answers, name and postal address plus your choice of t-shirt, colour and size to:

iwannafreebie@allgoonerdup.com

Competition closes Monday 16 June.

Good luck Gooners.

 

Total Recall, quick round-up, win ‘Cesc’ t-shirt..

Nasri? Ben Arfa? Kompany? To be honest.. until they put on a shirt, this columnist couldn’t care less than Eboue on a pitch. To me, they’re just names, and as we already know, Arsene owns his own French Wonderkid development machine which churns out unheard of Le Wonderkids all the time.

More interesting to me is the youngsters who are finally going to start coming through. We have been developing a brilliant youth program under Liam Brady and Wenger’s guidance, poaching great talent from allcorners. So all those 15yr olds we were buying a few years ago that lacked the ‘wow’ factor when we signed them are now going to be nearly old enough to push the reserves.

Players of most interest are Carlos Vela (who sounds like a drug baron), who got his work permit today, Fran Merida (basically Cesc Jr), and the hugely promising Jack Wiltshire who at 16yrs old is already pushing for a spot on the bench of the first team. And then there is Nacer Barazite, which I thought was a mineral stone but turns out is a Dutch centre forward who has had a decent spell in the reserves.

All this clamour going on for us to sign a new player is mostly wasted energy as no doubt these players coming through will be able to do a good job and are already schooled in the Arsene style of play. The only immediate concern is a defensive midfielder to take on the departed Flamini’s role. If Nuthouse Senderos takes the offer Juventus have made, I don’t believe we

have anyone who could step up yet, so this would be the other area we could do with strengthening. 

The only thing I ask of Arsene, is to not make any more last minute signings. The only success we’ve had with that is Gallas, whilst Diarra and The Beast were dismal failures. 

In the mean time.. lets hope we sort ourselves out, keep the rest of the squad happy (maybe we could put the likes of Fabregas and Adebayor in cold storage?..or an induced coma… or just shoot their agents… controversial but surely it’s progress? and look forward to our ever younger team starting in August. 

By Paul Wright

 

 

 

Quick round-up: Well seems all the excitement of signing Samir Nasri has to put on ice as it’s far from a done deal. Nasri’sagent seems to be playing The Arsenal like a fiddle at the moment as it looks like he’s trying to push the price up and get other clubs involved in a bidding war. Olympic Marseille have accepted the bid, there’s no a problem with that, but Nasri’s agent Jean-Pierre Bernes said:

“No agreement has been finalised. It’s true we are looking into a bid by Arsenal that interests Nasri in sporting terms, but it’s also true that other offers have entered my office.”

These agents eh, who can you trust? So looks like it will be a bit more of a wait to get our first signing and hopefully we wont get stiffed into the bargain over Nasri’s deal, we’ll see. 

Good news is on the agenda today with the news that Carlos Vela our Mexican sensation was granted a work permit so at least that’s some ‘potential’ excitement heading our way for next season. Can’t wait to see this kid play but hopefully people wont put Vela under too much pressure and expect him to be some kind of super hero. Speaking of super hero’s, a new kit has surfaced which may or may not be our new home kit. Anyway I’m sure when (if) you put this on you believe you can score goals from 30 yards out, run 50 metres in six seconds flat and be the first name down on the team sheet, well that or you could just wear it to the park and do keepy uppy’s.

 

 

Win a ‘Cesc’ T-shirt competition: OK folks to keep the boredom at bay and keep the ball rolling (excuse the pun) Allgoonerdup is running another win a t-shirt contest. And due to the avalanche of entries in the ‘Let’s talk about Cesc Baby!’ t-shirt entries I am putting that t-shirt back in the shop window. So in order to win this bit of clobber simply tell us, how old was Cesc Fabregas when he made his Arsenal debut?

Send your answers, name and postal address plus your choice of t-shirt, colour and size to:

iwannafreebie@allgoonerdup.com

Competition closes Monday 16 June.

Good luck Gooners

 

You got to laugh: It couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke, so thanks must go out to not only John ‘why the hell are you taking a penalty’ Terry who completely f*cked it up for CSKA Chelsea in the Champions League final. But also a massive thanks must go to Nicklas Anelka for proving he’s still a secret Gooner – well done on missing Le Sulk. And the less said about C*ntley C*nt the better – oh how we laughed, absolutely priceless seeing his face at the end. ‘Ave it you twat.

 

Nasri signed up, Hleb still here, Defender to Juve?

Good day to you Gooners, hang on to your hats as today the rumour mill is going through the roof. Hot on the ‘transfer-o-metre’ and making it break and crack like some old gadget in a 1960′s James Bond film is that we have signed French sensation Samir Nasri. The well respected French newspaper L’Equipe reckon Nasri has signed up already. A couple of sites reckon he’ll be signed up tomorrow after completing a medical and signing personal terms. This signing looks like it could be a goer as even fans on Olympic Marseille’s fans forum are busy saying their goodbyes to the star player. If your French is up to scratch you could do worst than to see some of the messages. 

Speaking of goers, Alex Hleb is still at The Arsenal but for how long? His agent has been a bit quiet this week and there’s been no talk from Alex of how life in London is too hectic and he wants to return to the farm. Well the Belarussian will be perplexed to learn that the very rural Real Madrid are chasing after him. Will he swap the heady, busy streets of London for the countryside of Madrid? Does young Alex know where Madrid is? he probably thinks its some fishing village seeing that no one told him about London. 

I wouldn’t lose any sleep if Hleb were to leave, if he’s making all these noises about going we should just take the money and run. I think £20m should do the trick and with that dirty cash we could go out and buy another creative player, Hatem Ben Afra, Diego anyone? Although it has to be said if we do get Samir Nasri the clever money is on Ben Afra going to Olympic Marseille to replace Nasri, so bang goes that signing. 

The other big rumour doing the rounds is apparently Juventus are sniffing around Phillippe Senderos. Now wasn’t this the same story doing the rounds about two or three years ago? This time out unless it was a copy and paste by some lazy-arsed journo Juventus are willing to splash out £5m on the much maligned defender. I say £5m plus you have to take Emmanuel Eboué and you got yourself a deal, job done. 

And lastly you have to have a laugh at Mathieu Flamoney who reckons that his move to AC Milan wasn’t money motivated. Strange that, it reminds me a bit of the Shakespeare play Othello, with the infamous ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks.’ Why is Flamini constantly banging on about not doing it for the money even when he’s being asked ‘what’s your favourite band?’ Well only Flamoney can answer that question I guess folks. 

Win a ‘Cesc’ T-shirt competition: OK folks to keep the boredom at bay and keep the ball rolling (excuse the pun) Allgoonerdup is running another win a t-shirt contest. And due to the avalanche of entries in the ‘Let’s talk about Cesc Baby!’ t-shirt entries I am putting that t-shirt back in the shop window. So in order to win this bit of clobber simply tell us, how old was Cesc Fabregas when he made his Arsenal debut?

Send your answers, name and postal address plus your choice of t-shirt, colour and size to:

iwannafreebie@allgoonerdup.com

Nasri rumours gather pace, Swiss Tony reckons he’s staying, Kolo news and other bits

So what have we got for you readers today? Well the main story doing the rounds and gathering plenty of pace is the possible signing of 20 year old Samir Nasri. Being that the player is young and French you would of thought he was a definite shoe in for a spot at Ashburton Grove. But on scoring for Marseille in the final league game in Ligue 1 Nasri was quoted as saying: 

“It is very important because it is perhaps my last match at the Stade Velodrome.” 

Obviously cue frantic headlines, journo’s, websites going mental. So what do you Gooners reckon? Do you really think Nasri will be seen in the famous red and white of The Arsenal? So what’s with the Hatem Ben Afra stories? They seem to of died a death. I can’t see Wenger getting both Nasri and Ben Afra, it would be nice, but it wont happen. If Wenger decides to offload Hleb (on Arsenal terms not Hleb’s or his agent) then maybe it could be a goer as there will be money from the Hleb sale and another space to fill on the pitch. 

Le Gaffer has already said he wants to get two or three players, and that includes a big, ugly, dirty centre back and possibly a defensive midfielder to replace the departed not to be playing any Champions League football next season Mathieu Flamoney. However many a site reckon the deal for Samir Nasri is a done deal. But you guys know the drill by now, until it is on the official Arsenal site you can’t really believe anyone, I mean you wouldn’t believe we’ve signed Ben Afra if it appeared on TribalFootball would you? What is good though is that Wenger seems to be going for players that will excite next season. 

That said, will Wenger bring in a ready-made replacement for Flamini? We’ve been linked to Miguel Veloso of Sporting and Roma’s Alberto Aquilani, but is that just smoke an mirrors.

Wenger wants to get his deals done in the next couple of weeks, so at least we don’t have to go all summer linked with players and not knowing what will happen. I’m sure the players Le Gaffer has earmarked he’s working overtime to get them to sign up, oh well we can hope. I haven’t seen Alberto Aquilani or Miguel Veloso play in detail and I don’t believe watching YouTube videos to see if a player is ‘the shit’ as I’m sure even Emmanuel Eboué’s YouTube video makes him look like Pelé. 

Other news doing the rounds is we have Phillippe ‘Swiss Tony’ Senderos saying Wenger wants to keep him. I think that ship has passed with Senderos now. He hasn’t turned out to be the player we all hoped, by the way the big Swiss fella will be stripped of the ‘Swiss Tony’ nickname part as well, as he is nothing like Tony! We all know there is at least one mistake in Senderos in a game but I think all he can hope for is a bit part for The Arsenal. Even Alex Song was getting played ahead of the Swiss fella, that doesn’t bode well for someone wanting a first team start. Add to that the fact Wenger has earmarked a centre back to bring into the fray as well. I’m not sure about you readers but to me that spells the beginning of the end of Senderos.

Other bits to chat quickly about is once again we’ve been linked with £16million-rated Fiorentina goalkeeper Sebastien Frey and being that he is French and young, The Arsenal of course we are linked. We’ve been linked with Frey since he turned 16 and I think he’s about 28 now. I don’t see this happening, two reasons – 1, Not for £16m will The Arsenal buy a goalkeeper, hell no! 2. Almunia signed a contract extension only a couple of months ago and Wenger seems to have complete faith in him, thus transfer to The Arsenal = not bloody likely. 

And lastly a couple of sites have got our own King Kolo mouthing off about captain William Gallas’ captaincy and not being too happy about it. I wouldn’t read too much into that, Kolo Touré isn’t that type of player to mouth of in public, it’s amazing that the story has absolutely no quotes from the player, his agent or even the infamous ‘inside source’, I guess the paper/sites still have spaces to fill though. Let’s hope they are filled with players we have signed!

Just a rumour

So that familiar creaking sound is echoing around the Grove again and its not Gilberto Silva’s joints for once. No, June is hiding just around the corner and that means the mentalness that is the transfer window will be opening.

Of course this marks the start of the rumour mill season, a time when reasonable journalism goes out the window and fabrication and outright lies abound. Worst of all, it is a time when players agents get far more column inches than they deserve, as Alex Hleb’s has this week. 

I’m sure most of you will have read how the Hlebster is but a simple farm boy who misses the rolling green hills of..erm..Stuttgart.. and now pines for Milan. And of course his agent hasn’t been slow to let us all know that his client is wanted by so many ‘big’ clubs. I say good for him… he has played well this year but I think we need a bit more of a goal threat from out wide, and old Alex couldn’t hit the proverbial barn door – which is surprising given his love of rural scenes.

So with Flamini gone and Senderos rumoured to be heading to Udinese it looks like Arsene might be busy in the transfer market – though with Arsene you can never be too sure. Last season I was certain a winger or two were needed yet we brought in a right back and a striker.

Most blogs out there are busy compiling their suggestions, but this is of course futile because they don’t have a clue what Arsene is doing, and we all know the only website Mr Wenger reads is allgoonerdup.com.

So with that understood, on with what I think.

Obviously with Flamini gone we need a greasy hard tackling midfielder who has an engine that can go all day and is around 23 years old. English is too expensive and Arsene has a preference for his homeland. So the choice is obvious… a 1985 Renault R5 turbo. 

Last week in Arsene’s discussions with the Supporters Trust he stated that he was looking for a centre back who could deal with the ‘long ball’. Obviously this spells bad news for ‘Le Nuthouse’ Senderos. Ideally we’d be looking at a tall, imposing, Jaap Staam type player who will be a physical threat to opposing forwards. A few names have come up, Richard Dunne of ManCiteh, Vincent Kompany of Hamburg… but I think a Russian Bear could do a job here and i’m prepared for Arsenal to risk legal challenges if it means getting to see one match up with Didier Drogba.

Finally Le Gaffer talked of a ‘creative’ midfielder. I assume he is taking into consideration Hleb relocating to Patagonia FC and would bring in a wide creative player. Hatem Ben Arfa of Lyon and Samir Nasri of Marseille are possible candidates and both have been linked with us in previous seasons. But I suspect Arsene might look at his current resources. Sure his relocation of Eboue to right wing failed, but there may have been a method to his madness. I feel he just selected the wrong person. There was a far better right back option available to convert. Yes.. of course I’m talking about… Pat Rice.

So you can tell your friends you heard it here first.. and if i’m wrong, i’m legging it to the isolated landscape of the Australian outback to contemplate where it all went wrong… and play keepy uppy with Alex Hleb.

Clichy wants to be a leg-end, another star linked, Wenger defends Eboué and other bits doing the rounds…

Candidate for Arsenal Player of the Season, Gael ‘Force’ Clichy is close to signing a new deal with The Arsenal. Much to the dismay of the media and sites as they can’t keep up with their ‘Arsenal facing mass exodus’ shenanigans. Clichy who has made the left back spot his own after a ton a injuries and C*ntley C*nt taking the money and running to CSKA Chelsea. This is a massive boost to The Arsenal, although I was never in doubt that Clichy wasn’t going to stay at London’s finest. I met Clichy last year and it he seems a right good guy, very down to earth, loyal and grounded, can’t say that about many footballers. 

 

Unlike a certain Belorussian player, who will remain nameless, Alex Hleb, Gael “The Best left back in Europe™”Clichy has come out and say he wants to stay a Gunner.

“Everything’s going well because my intention is clear: I want to stay at Arsenal.

“I would love to have a career here like Patrick Vieira or Thierry Henry, to stay many years at Arsenal and leave my mark on the club.”

So no danger that The Arsenal will be have to look for another quality left back any time soon. But you can be sure extension or not that the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan and Inter will be sniffing about. But we’re used to that though are we Gooners. 

What with Mathieu Flamoney doing one the media are still falling over themselves linking us with just about every defensive midfield player who can kick a ball (so that rules out spurs players then, boom boom!). The latest, although a player who was linked to The Arsenal even when Flamini was still an Arsenal player is Portugeezer Miguel Veloso who plies his trade for Sporting. I as well as many a Gooner am still not sure what Arsène Wenger intends to do with the defensive midfield role. Will he recruit from within? The likes of Denilson, Abou Diaby and a resurgent Alex Song have all been mentioned and lets not forget Gilberto could still be around next season. But how do you readers see it? Would you be happy with the ‘homegrown’ players stepping up or would you prefer a ready made replacement. How different this saga would of been if The Arsenal didn’t let that Lassana Diarra go after only four months. But there you go. 

So Veloso is another name added to the hat. A position not on Wenger’s radar is a striker (apparently) as he has confirmed Mexican loanee Carlos Vela will be used in the first team next season. The club have applied for Vela’s work permit which means if it’s successful he’ll at least get a run out in the Carling Cup. Wenger has already confirmed that he will use Vela as a fourth striker, so looks like we’ll be relaying on youth and inexperience again, I can hear the groans from here. It seems that no one actually knows how much money The Arsenal have got to spend this summer it’s anything from £25m – £75m? Who knows? Does Arsene? I’m not sure if we need to go and buy a striker but if you have someone like David Villa who has already issued a ‘come and get me’ plea then I would definitely get him. Could you imagine Villa in our team? Well I think that’s about all we’re going to be able to do – imagine. A striker who has been linked to us via the media is an Argentine forward who hasn’t as far as I know been compared to coked up dwarf and the leg-end that is Diego ‘Hand of God’ Maradonna. The former Birmingham City loanee Mauro Zárate is being priced at £20m. Not sure why the papers/sites thinks Wenger would spend that much on a player when he clearly has a bit of ‘Scottishness’ to him in the money department, 

Wenger having a laugh: Le Gaffer Arsène Wenger OBE has defended his decision to keep playing diving,cheating, no scoring Emmanuel Eboué at right wing. Just why Wenger keeps playing the bambi on ice player makes a many a Gooner scratch their heads. Anyway Wenger’s explanation will no doubt leave you scratching your head a bit more. I must admit that Wenger can explain as much as he wants, I’m not backing him on this one, Eboué is a joke. He’s good for a back up right back but lets himself down with all his shenanigans….. 

Silly season is upon us, Adebayor loves it

Much talk has been made of striker Emmanuel Adebayor’s comments regarding being flattered by interest coming from Barcelona, most of all by the Spanish press trying to shit stir. Well unlike a certain Alex Hleb, Adebayor has smashed the rumours that he is more than ‘flattered’ by the interest and would consider a move to Barca. The Togonator has stopped the Spanish printing press in thier tracks and thus probably stopped production for the next few weeks allowing them to have a longer siesta by stating: 

“I don’t know why people want to put words in my mouth. As I said on Friday, I love Arsenal and I will be here next season. I am off to Togo tomorrow but will return to Arsenal for pre-season training in July.” 

So there you go Gooners, end of story. I’m sure the Spanish press will no doubt find something else to make up and go with. Oh and as if by magic here we go look out for Puyol in swap deal with Cesc Fabregas. Put money on that one showing up.

Other news today we have that mouthy dwarf Lassana Diarra having a dig a Arsène Wenger saying if his man-management skills were better he would still be at the club, This guy just can’t keep his trap shut and obviously he’s spouting off as Portsmouth have reached the F.A. Cup Final so he probably thinks there’s some vindication leaving The Arsenal to join up with ‘stepping stone’ club Pompey. How the south coasters fans must of love him when he called his move a ‘stepping stone’ obviously Diarra needs to work on his PR. 

So that brings us nicely to the transfer rumours table, here’s who we’ve been linked with but it’s anyones guess who will be signed up. It could be someone not even on the radar – remember Eduardo last summer?