Well here we go again, it is now officially summertime as Real Madrid’s president Ramon Calderon tries to get his sweaty mitts on Cesc Fabregas, again. Fresh from saying he wouldn’t pursue the midfield general unless the player said he wanted to leave the club, the Real president is using that old Jedi mind trick by talking but not talking. Calderon reckons that Real will pay up to £35m to land the best young midfielder in the world. Calderon is being all cloak and daggers revealed “If we receive any indication from the player that he wants to leave Arsenal then we will negotiate without limits. But like in the subject of Cristiano Ronaldo, the decision is up to them. My policy is also to work on signings without getting into wars with clubs if they don’t want to sell the player.
“I would like to hear it personally from the player that he wants to leave before I make any move to respect Arsenal.”
Now is that supposed to be some kind of joke? He wont go for a player out of respect for The Arsenal, is this guy a bullshit artist or what? So what exactly does he think he’s doing now? Cesc has got another seven years to run on his contract, has always stated he is happy at the club and has never said he wants to leave. So Calderon, go and do one.
Rightly so Arsène Wenger is angry at the situation and stormed: “The rules are clear, if you are interested in a player then first you have to call us. Real Madrid come out and say they want that player. That is something I would never do.”
It’s not known whether Wenger will report them to Uefa or FIFA, but I doubt it. I think he really needs to stand his ground and do something about it for once rather than just taking all the time. We as fans have to put up with these shenanigans every season and quick frankly as well as it being frustrating it becomes boring. It’s always another year but guess the player to be tapped up. This year it’s Cesc Fabregas and also Alex Hleb who’s being tapped up by Inter. Next year? Who know’s, Manu Adebayor? Theo Walcott? Although we can all hope it’s Manu Eboué. But seriously can’t FIFA see for themselves what the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid are doing? The organisation is bloody toothless in my opinion, if it had balls there would be fines for these types of things and clubs would actually respect players under contract and not tap them up via the media. Of course the clubs would be able to afford these fines, but that’s another matter. Wenger needs to show these clubs he means business and show some balls. Obviously he’s words in the past or even now remotely touch a nerve with these clubs.
I’m not too concerned about this new tapping up story, even in the light of Fabregas’ midfield minder Flamini buggering off to AC Milan, I am 100% certain The Fab will stay, however that can’t be said of all players. Hleb on the other hand is a whole different story, the way the media are reporting it’s as if he’s signed for Inter already. Question is, has Wenger reported them to FIFA like he said he would? Answer, well we don’t know, to paraphrase Wenger himself – we didn’t see the incident.
That old chestnut: Here we go, if Arsène Wenger hadn’t had a history of winning trophies at The Arsenal he should be a very worried man as he’s been given a vote of confidence from The Arsenal board. old Etonian and old duffer ‘Sir’ Peter Hill-Wood is categorically behind Wenger and says he isn’t under any pressure to win a trophy next season, Don’t get me wrong I love what Wenger has done for the club, the trophies, the players, the football and the stadium, however to say a manager isn’t under pressure to bring home silverware is dangerous in my book. Of course Wenger is under pressure to win a trophy, we haven’t won a trophy for three seasons and don’t let the Amsterdam Cup and the Emirates Cup turn your head. We want trophies ‘Sir’ Peter…
Super Sagna: French right back and candidate for Arsenal Player of the Season Bacary Sagna is reportedly being offered a new improved deal. After his first season in English football and taking it by storm the likes of, surprise surprise, Real Madrid, Barcelona and AC Milan are tracking the star player…
If I was Wenger I would say straight out that if Madrid and Barca don’t fuck off and do things legally then he will report them to FIFA AND refuse to sell them any players in the forseeable future.
Or say sure you can tap up everyone you want but they aren’t leaving for under £50 mil each.
Arsenal shouldn’t feel forced to sell players even if they get unhappy like Diarra. They signed a contract and it is the club, not the player who holds the cards. I wish ALL teams would stop acting like each player is bigger than the club. I’m sick of hearing ‘if he wants to go we can’t stop him’. We sure can, it’s called not signing on the dotted line in agreement that he can go. Only those out of contract soon are in any position to act like they have much power.
Consider Fabregas for exmaple. This doesn’t apply to him because he’s actually a nice guy and is happy thank fuck!- but if he said he wants to leave his value will fall a lot. Letting him rot in the reserves would both piss off the player and the club who wants to buy him as he wouldn’t even get match practice. It’s an expensive but surely effective way of underlining who wears the trousers in the club.
Luckily Cesc’s a good lad :p
Not so sure we have any arguments on this one, Wenger has been accused himself of tapping up players, think Anelka, Flamini even than man in question Fabregas, he just does it early on when they are unknowns not when they are worth millions. Madrid, Barca and Milan always do this even year, I believe it is therefore of testing the water if a player is interested or not so they don’t look like mugs when they offer £40m and get told to F’off. Also I feel there is the intent to continually unsettle the player so the moment he considers a change of scene they are in their first. It is not just to Arsenal that they do it to and I am pretty sure they have been reported before and nothing was done so I see little point in us doing so now. Probably a better retaliation would be to tap up their players in return, fight fire with fire as they say.
Make you right in a way Ant1 in regards to we’ve been guilty of ‘tapping up’ players. I’m not sure if I’m being naive or trying to offload the blame but the players you’ve mentioned in particular Anelka and Fabregas hadn’t signed pro contracts – remember Wenger is a wily man and saw a loophole in the system and went for it much to displeasure of Barca and PSG. I’m not sure whether FIFA have acted on this, I wouldn’t be surprised as Blatter is pressing for teams to have more homegrown players. With Flamini I think he was out of contract and said he would sign and didn’t, case of deja vue there. End of the day all the teams got compensation for players who had potential.
But I would love The Arsenal to fight fire with fire like you say – but as we know The Arsenal have much more class than that, which is a pity in some instances.
But generally I reckon when this sort of thing happens Wenger should tell them to F*** right off. Still cant’ believe teams are allowed to get away with this sort of thing though, makes a mockery of the system really.
I agree, we have been guilty of the odd tapping. But I think that was under DD’s reign. Friar is too well educated to think of such a thing !
And reading in the press that a Chairman would like Cesc is hardly tapping. The Spanish and Itaian press talk even more bollocks than ours. Whi it might be remembered said we were signing Anelka/Defoe/Givens etc etc etc.
But now is the time we need to sign some top notch players, otherwise I fear an exodus in 2009. We will always bring through good youngsters, but let’s have someone who fires the imagination.
Easy Fab Phil,
Nice to see you have made the migration from The Forum.
The one thing with the Spanish and Italian press is that managers and presidents/chairman ALWAYS tap up players through the media. They have newspapers there solely for football and have to fill the pages. Can you image The Sun/Daily Mirror/ Daily Star all based on football? I dont read those papers by the way – but they’re full of shit at the best of times, could you imagine the stories all based on football?
I make you right that we do need some (1-3) big signings this summer to show some intent. I don’t think we’re too far away but as much as Cesc loves The Arsenal and I don’t see him going yet, he’s not going to hang around if we only sign the likes of Pedro Nevaheardaya and Miguel Que? (see what I did there? but seriously) lose key members to the team and lose out on trophies all the time and keep saying we’ll do better next year. It’s always next year, next year? Got to tell you boys – next year never happens.