Has Adebayor lost the plot?

If everyone thought Jens Lehmann had the copyright on being the number one mentalist at The Arsenal then they (me included) didn’t look far enough as it seems Emmanuel Adebayor wants that crown. What is going on with The Togonator? The big fella has truly gone and lost his freaking mind. I’m sure I don’t need to catalogue the events as I’m sure ever Gooner is familiar with Adebayor’s ‘no I’m staying’, ‘Actually might go’ and the killer line ‘I need to think about my retirement’. WTF? Adebayor is 24 FFS! Thinking about his retirement, you sure? Now with Adebayor you can’t even give him the benefit of the doubt and say it’s his agent making all the noises and trying to engineer his client (and himself) a pay rise, as it’s Adebayor doing all the talking. Now who know’s who Adebayor has been speaking to regarding his ’situation’. If it’s his agent(s) then they are just pandering to Manu’s ego. Don’t get me wrong but mate, you’re a good player but you’ve had one good season but there’s no way in hell you are worth the alleged £120K a week you were ‘demanding’. 

Adebayor’s latest sound bite and quite mind expanding quote is: 

“I have to prepare for my retirement as a player, too. Even if you’re not scoring fine goals and you have money, you can enjoy a happy retirement. The time for preparing for that moment is now.”

Mate you’re 24 and you’re on about £30K a week, on that you could retire and live like a god after five years, FFS! I have lost complete faith in Adebayor if he can really change his mind like the wind every two minutes. I know he is young, but so are Gael Clichy and Cesc Fabregas who told European giants Juventus, AS Roma, Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively to ‘do one, I am staying with The Arsenal’, so why is it so difficult for Adebayor? He already said in another interview that he wouldn’t be motivated by money as he doesn’t have that mentality having grown up in Togo, although to be fair Adebayor probably switched on that statement in the very next interview he gave. 

The bottom line for me is that Emmanuel Adebayor is under contract, (what’s one of them then?) and he only signed a new improved contract last summer, therefore mate show some loyalty and sit down and shut up. Adebayor seems to think because he has had one good season he should be paid the same sort of sky high wages Thierry Henry was on in his final season at The Arsenal. What someone hasn’t told Adebayor is that Thierry Henry scored goals by the bucketload season after season for about 8 seasons straight. And when he did have a good season he didn’t go to the coach’s office with his cap in his hand saying “This and and that team are after me, so pay me what I want or I am off”. 

Who the hell does Adebayor think he is? Like I said before someone has been chatting nonsense in the big fella’s ear, lets hope Arsène Wenger gets to speak to the fast talking Togonator real quick and chat sense to him. If anyone can make a player see some kind of sense or sense of ones self then my money would be on Wenger, who Adebayor has called a father figure before. This one could run and run, however Wenger needs to grow some balls and just tell the big fella “You are under contract, you have had one good season, you are under contract, you had a pay hike last season, you are under contract, you are going nowhere my boy!” Or something along those lines. 

However if AC Milan or Barcelona are willing to stump up £32m for Adebayor should we take the money and run? Is Adebayor really worth £32m? 

Surprise headline corner

Oh yes, here we go again the transfer link that wont go away. What with Emmanuel ‘I am thinking about my retirement’ Adebayor looking… well to retire, we can exclusively reveal Obafemi Martins is being lined up as his replacement. Now, I didn’t see that story coming, did you? 

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven will be revealed next week due to an influx of late line ups which effected the final vote. So hang to your hats and tune in for the big one. Thanks to everyone who have entered a team. 

Jens goes nuts

Mentalist keeper Jens Lehmann kept up his grumpy old man persona (what else) as he blames Germany’s loss in the final of Euro 2008 against Cesc Fabregas’ Spain on the referee. Not content with the fact that ‘Ze Germans’ were a bit crap, the afro sporting mentalist has had to have a dig at the ref partly to disguise the fact that ‘ze Germans’ were… really crap. Admittedly Jens was one of Germany’s better players on the night, so unlucky Jens but good to see you wont go away quietly, you David Hasselhoff looking, gangly, nut job. 

Silly season part 52

Oh and just to show you that we are well into silly season, try this one for size, apparently now CSKA Chelsea are chasing Emmanuel Adebayor. Well that would definitely be a club who could sort out some proper wages for Adebayor’s retirement fund!

Jump on the comments section and have your shout – see you in there! 

 

 

 

Eurotrash / The joy of Cesc / Win a ‘I Love AFC’ t-shirt

Arshavin… what a great name. And not a bad player either. As many have pointed out, he seems like Hleb with a purpose. Still, I’m going to go against the grain a bit here and say I’d rather not have him. Don’t get me wrong, the lad looks great, and it would certainly p*ss Barcelona and Chelski off, but do we really need to drop another 10 – 15 million euros on a ‘creative attacker’ no matter how good he might be. Because I don’t really see Arshavin as a great tackler and that is the sort of player we’re desperately needing right now. With RvP suddenly playing again…. and Rosicky hopefully coming back as the Bionic Czech to add to the creativeness of Cesc (who outshone Arshavin comprehensively) and Samir ‘the new Glenn Helder’ Nasri it’s not like we’re desperately short of creative attackers. I know there were times last season where it looked like we lacked goals from various positions, but lets be realistic here, goal scoring is not currently a huge problem for us. 

And while we’re talking strikers, I can’t really not talk about the Adebayor situation. I should know better than to be trawling the web for news, but nothing bothers me more than seeing stories of us being linked with yet another striker with the claim that they are seen as Wenger’s choice of replacement for Adebayor. Benzema, Villa, Crouch, Santa Cruz. None of these players have outrageous haircuts and speak at a hundred miles an our like Ade, and why do I want to know about replacing a player we haven’t sold? It is clear to me that there is a lot of engineering going on behind the scenes from the horrible slimy agents of the supposed European footballing giants but so far I haven’t heard anything from Adebayor. The thing that I don’t understand, is why the British newspapers bother printing this stuff anyway? Surely it is in the interests of their own long term futures to have an interesting league full of the best players to write up stories about. If they encourage more speculation about the best players leaving (see also Cristiano Ronaldo/Real Madrid) then they’ll eventually be left trying to sell papers filled with stories about a second rate league. I’d like to see, just for once, the English papers trying to unsettle Barcelona and Real Madrid players. 

Meanwhile Eurovision2008 continued this week with Jens Lehmann getting a little bit too hyped up for his own good. Apparently he was prepared to die to make the final. Which, if that were to happen, would surely leave Joachim Low down a goalkeeper for the final. Certainly death in the semi would make it hard for the late Jens to go up and collect his medal should they go all the way and win the thing. While he was amped up, he also had a bit of a pop at Wenger (though when you read the actual quotes from Jens’ it doesn’t seem any worse than anything else he has said) that he was proving him wrong for letting him go now he had made a major final. What else can I say but I think i’m gonna miss Jens. That mad b*stard certainly keeps it entertaining. 

 

And what of Cesc’s performance last night? After all the hype around Arshavin and Ronaldo, the player coming into form and looking to be the difference in this tournament is none other than our own Spanish wonderkid. He completely overshadowed his opposite number in the Russian ranks in the game and based on the inflation rate on players values who perform well in this tournament, what price now for Cesc? Boy.. I can’t wait to see him threading those eye of the needle passes through to Crouchy next season.

The joy of Cesc

If anyone watched the Spanish demolish the Russian’s at Euro 2008 you would of seen The Cesc™ come off the bench (again) and play a blinder. Normally we’d be sweating as the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona would be hovering around like vultures when a player stands out on the radar like that. But unlike want away players such as Hleb and Adebayor (although we don’t honestly know what’s going on for sure as it’s just paper/site talk of rumours and unfounded stories) , I am not worried about other teams (i.e. Real and Barca) saying they want to sign Fabregas. At least Fabregas has come out and said he’s staying so that’s a start. Also add to that The Cesc™ gave Barcelona officials a bitch slap and a lesson in how to conduct yourself in the proper manner when he said:

“Barca should show us some respect.

“In recent weeks it has come out that Barca are in for at least seven Arsenal players and there’s no need for that.

“These things cause doubts in players’ minds and unsettle us. We do things differently, in secret. If the player wants to go, he’ll go anyway.”

You got to love this guy! So at least one thing Gooners we know one player who will come back from Euro 2008 with his reputation gone through the roof and his price tag hitting the ‘God-daamn’ price range wont have his head turned to join the likes of Barcelona or Real. Although I’m sure the Spanish papers such as El Pais, El Marca and El Mundo Deportivo will be reporting such fantasy stories as Real or Barcelona to offer (insert ludicrous figure) plus (add a number of players) to tempt Wenger to sell Fabregas, or hell they will probably say a deal has been done already or in the process a bit like the Hleb debacle. Any road up Wenger seriously needs to add quality to the squad and keep WonderBoy™ TheCesc happy because admittedly with Cesc on this sort of form we need to be challenging and winning titles because if we don’t I don’t think we’ll be able to keep hold of him. But for know lets rejoice in having arguably the best young midfielder in the world, I’m sure Messi would argue that fact by f*ck it.

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven will be revealed next week due to an influx of late line ups which effected the final vote. So hang to your hats and tune in for the big one. Thanks to everyone who have entered a team. 

You’re having a laugh / The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven

Well if the latest reports are to be believed then once Emmanuel Adebayor goes to Barcelona / Inter Milano (deleted where applicable) The Arsenal are going to replace him with circus freak and ‘good touch for a tall man’, Liverpool playing Peter Crouch. Oh how I laughed! The papers/sites are full of it right now. I’ve seen some odd stories during the transfer frenzy of summer but Peter Crouch to The Arsenal is way up there. What next? Is Arsène Wenger going to go up to WesT Brom and try and get Cyril Regis out of retirement or maybe even go up to Liverpool cemetery and dig up old Dixie Dean’s bones up and put him up front. I can’t believe just how much horse shit stories are out there at the moment, it’s not even silly season, it’s horse shit season. 

The Peter Crouch to The Arsenal stories are coming from an agent (there’s a surprise) but the agent isn’t even the agent of Crouch or Adebayor, Vincenzo Morabito is the agent spouting off but for what he gains out of any of this is anyone’s guess. Morabito also reckons that Adebayor wants a shedload of cash to remain at The Arsenal, I know The Togonator has come out a couple of times now saying he intends to stay at The Arsenal, and I hope that’s still the case I just hope he was pissing himself as much as I was when I read he wanted £125,000 A WEEK! And that we were signing Peter Crouch, you just can’t write this stuff!

Other shocks today are that Robin van Persie is still healthy and not an injury in sight, remarkable seeing that he has played four games in a row. Let’s hope he can keep that up for The Arsenal next season. Hleb’s on/off/on/off was it on in the first place transfer is still…. well on going. He has actually kept himself really quiet recently, I’m, sure it must be time for him or even one of his eight representatives to throw some comments out there. Samir Nasri still hasn’t signed up, although Lyon have sold Hatem Ben Arfa to Olympic Marseille (Nasri’s club), meaning that deal should be imminent, well as much as it was last week.

That’s about it from me apart from I’m still going cold turkey on Caught Offside. I must admit, not that this web site is a vehicle to rinse out other sites but I’m surprised looking back at previous headlines and even looking at the headlines Caught Offside uses now that I was hooked on it for a while. I was like many people out there desperate for some news, a new angle. In this day and age of immediate news, we all need a fix, we all want immediate access and information but not much point in that when the stories are all bullshit is there? Web sites such as Caught Offside feeds on our curious nature and teases us into wanting to believe that the story they have is some sort of ‘exclusive’. But with headlines such as ‘Arsenal want ‘ideal’ £10m midfield magician: This would be a dream signing for Wenger!’ and ‘£20m Brazilian in talks with Chelsea and Arsenal?’ people obviously find them too tempting as those are just two stories in the top ten on NewsNow Arsenal feed. But as I’ve said before I wont be clicking on any link for Caught Offside again, a bit like a country field it is full of bullshit. 

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven will be revealed on Friday. So you still have time to get your own All Time Elevens in so you can’t bang on about Gus Caesar keeping the likes of Liam Brady or Patrick Vieira out the team. Get your vote on: alltimeeleven@allgoonerdup.com.

Jump on board the blog good people and get posting. We want to grow the blog, so if you got something to say, share it. The blog part is for all you out there, it’s your blog – so let’s all be a part of it… happy blogging good people – see you in the comments section.

We are Arsenal. 

 

Wenger likes the look of Arshavin / Romford Pele / I Love AFC Competition

But so do all the other top European clubs out there! It’s hardly an exclusive or ‘news’ in my opinion but given his performances, Andrei Arshavin has popped on many a new radar. Any road up The Daily Telegraph report that Wenger reckons Arshavin would suit The Arsenal. Really? Shock horror! We’ve known for a while that Wenger likes Arshavin, he has done since January when it was made public knowledge that Arshavin was being scouted by Wenger’s men. However I said last week when every paper/site was reporting we were after the Russian fella, that way back in January Wenger looked at the player but according to the manager we didn’t need any reinforcements at the time. I also said I hoped that the wily coach had struck up a deal with Zenit St. Petersburg to take Arshavin to The Arsenal in the summer seeing that he wasn’t needed in January. It doesn’t look like that has happened and my hope that Wenger had beaten other clubs to the punch has been blown out the water. 

Wenger’s not one to speak about other players who are contracted to a team (unlike some managers, presidents or clubs out there!) seems to be speaking quite freely about Arshavin, which I find odd. Anyway the reason I reckon my assumption or hope that Wenger had done a deal already has blown up in smoke is because the shrewd manager said:

“Arsenal have been named as a club he (Arshavin) might join, but this is something that happens with players all the time. I have never met him.

So not much hope of a deal being done there then as every big European club from Internazionale to Barcelona will want a piece of the Russian, well unless they want to play their other favourite game ‘Let’s buy every Arsenal player we can.’

Nice to see the Gunners Greatest Players actually going back to form and having proper Arsenal legends in their ranks and not that twat who got in at number 25. Check out number 19, it is none other than Romford Pele AKA Ray Parlour. I love Ray Parlour, he’s f*cking proper I met him a few years ago in a London restaurant along the Thames and he’s a great guy, really proper, he didn’t give it Charlie Big Potato’s, he was really sound. So well done Ray on getting that spot. 

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven will be revealed on Friday. So you still have time to get your own All Time Elevens in so you can’t bang on about Gus Caesar keeping the likes of Liam Brady or Patrick Vieira out the team. Get your vote on: alltimeeleven@allgoonerdup.com.

I Love AFC Competition

Your competition this time should you choose to take it is to win a ‘I Love AFC’ inspired by the Milton Glaser ‘I Love NY’ slogan.

To win this t-shirt all you have to do is answer this question: What year was Arsenal football club formed?Yes it’s really that simple! 

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

iwannafreebie@allgoonerdup.com

Competition closes Friday 25 July.

Good luck Gooners.

Jump on the comments section and have your shout – see you in there! 

Jump on board the blog good people and get posting. We want to grow the blog, so if you got something to say, share it. The blog part is for all you out there, it’s your blog – so let’s all be a part of it… happy blogging good people – see you in the comments section.

We are Arsenal. 

 

 

 

Your numbers up, Nasri (Zzzz), and new t-shirt comp..

Many of you would of seen them by now as the new Arsenal squad numbers were announced yesterday but there were no real big surprises. The number 14 jersey is still in semi-retirement and in my opinion will be kept that way for a while yet, a bit like the number six jersey which was only snagged two seasons ago by Phillippe ‘Swiss Tony’ Senderos. The big give away is the number one, 21 and 24 jersey’s – which now belong to Manuel Almunia, Lukasz Fabianski and Soprano’s sounding Vito Mannone respectively . It’s clear Arsène Wenger has chosen his keepers for next season so why oh why sites/papers are linking us to The Toon’s Shay Given and (given half the chance) Fiorentina’s Sébastien Frey is beyond me. Wenger has said for ages that he ‘trusts’ his keepers and by dishing out those new squad numbers it makes it blatantly obvious that a new keeper is not ont on the cards. But don’t think that will stop sites/papers reporting on possible keeper targets. I know these stories have to start from somewhere but where on earth did anyone get he idea that we are after Shay Given, must be the same ’source’ who keep linking us to Obafemi Martins.

New signing and Manchester USA turning down Aaron ‘Rambo’ Ramsey grabs the newly vacated number 16 shirt which of course Mathieu Flamini gave up to play Uefa Cup football with AC Milan and Mexican star Carlos Vela gets the number 12 shirt. Surprisingly The WonderBoy™ Theo Walcott keeps the number 32 shirt, odd one that, I thought he would be given a ‘proper’ number, number 14 anyone? I suppose it’s just a matter of time before the number 13 shirt is on offer again should Alex Hleb do one? But who know’s? And for some reason someone sees fit for Emmanuel Eboué to keep the coveted number 27 shirt! Does anyone think Eboué will be the player next season to blow all his critics away? A bit like Alex Song or have a remarkable turn around season much like Flamini? Or is that just wishful thinking? Yeah, perhaps too much wishful thinking there. 

Obviously the numbers situation will change, there’s probably going to be some more coming in as well as a couple going out. And once all the dust has settled everyone can go out and buy the new Arsenal home kit which was designed by some lazy fashionista in celebration of Middlesbrough   old kit. Once I get a bit of time I shall be updating the players profiles so all the new numbers will be there as well, which is nice. 

So onto Samir Nasri who still hasn’t signed yet, not sure what the problem is there but obviously something is holding it up. Plenty of sites, including Nasri’s own one ‘confirmed’ he had completed the signing, only for his site to remove the comments later, oh the drama. Like I’ve said before, only when The Arsenal official site announce a signing do you know it’s complete. Admittedly the site isn’t the fastest to announce it but you can rest assured that when it does at least it’s correct. You can read on this or that web site that a ’source has confirmed’ or ‘my mates brothers uncle’s sister’s boyfriend works in reception and saw so and so being shown around’ – all a lot bollocks. So I know it sounds boring but until it appears on the official site then start believing. Although I must admit it can be a bit boring just waiting. 

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven will be revealed on Friday. So you still have time to get your own All Time Elevens in so you can’t bang on about Gus Caesar keeping the likes of Liam Brady or Patrick Vieira out the team. Get your vote on: alltimeeleven@allgoonerdup.com.

And the winner is..

The winner of the Cesc Fabregas inspired ‘Let’s talk about Cesc Baby’ t-shirt is Darren Brent (hopefully no relation to David) who resides in Surrey. Once again we got a shedload of answers and correct ones at that saying The Cesc’s made his debut for The Arsenal aged 16 years old, so well done Darren and thank you all for all your entries. 

New Competition

Your competition this time should you choose to take it is to win a ‘I Love AFC’ inspired by the Milton Glaser ‘I Love NY’ slogan.

To win this t-shirt all you have to do is answer this question: What year was Arsenal football club formed?Yes it’s really that simple!

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

iwannafreebie@allgoonerdup.com

Competition closes Friday 25 July

Good luck Gooners.

We are Arsenal. 

See you in the comments good people…

 

 

 

Adebayor, The Cesc and other stuff..

Seems the only stories doing the rounds right now are the Adebayor to Barcelona stories, not sure if it’s going to happen but it definitely wont be today as some quarters suggests, namely The Metro. But to be honest they are just being right lazy journo’s as they have nicked the story from Spanish toilet paper El Mundo Deportivo which is the equivalent to The Daily Sport. This story will run and run even if we don’t want it to. However, one thing we do know is that Wenger said his biggest challenge and hope this summer is to keep all his players. So unless the shrewd coach has changed his mind or has a trick up his sleeve don’t believe he will be willing to off Adebayor without a fight. Adebayor will definitely not be leaving The Arsenal today and signing for Barcelona that’s for sure. Unless his time in Togo doing his fundraising and football schools was just a rouse and all this time he’s actually been in Spain negotiating, looking at houses and completing a medical. Jeez, some people write utter bollocks. 

The Cesc Fabregas Show keeps on trucking this time it’s on the international stage. I watched the Spain vs Italy match last night and when The Cesc™ stepped up to take Spain’s fifth penalty I just thought ‘Don’t be the player to f*ck it up’. And the Wonderkid didn’t disappoint, he stuck it straight in. Cue The Cesc’s™ ‘goal face’, I love it when The Cesc™ shows that ‘goal face’ you can see just how much it means to him. I really don’t know why he is on the Spanish bench, but sod it, the less he plays for them the fresher he will be for us. 

I have stuck to my word and haven’t been clicking on Caught offside’s links on NewsNow. It hasn’t been that hard I must admit. It is as if a light has been flicked on and you just know whatever story is hiding behind Caught offside’s ‘Arsenal to bid for striker – this one is really, really good!’ is just a load of old tosh. That not clicking thing goes for Sportingo as well, that is another site which just has headlines for effect without actually telling you anything you didn’t know or read somewhere because the headline was a clandestine one.

On a completely different note fair play to Paul Ince who becomes the first English black manager of a Premier League outfit. So good luck to him, well apart from when Blackburn Rovers play us. 

The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven will be revealed this week. So you still have time to get your own opinions in so you can’t bang on about Gus Caesar keeping the likes of Liam Brady or Patrick Vieira out the team. Get your vote on: alltimeeleven@allgoonerdup.com.

Stability the key, Togonator speaks, Martins linked again (ZZZzzzzz), Clichy wanted, don’t get caught offside and All Time Eleven news.

There is no doubt about it, and Wenger has previously said it himself , stability is the key to a successful football team. Despite the hype surrounding transfers, if you manage to go into the season with a settled lineup the odds of success are on your side. Despite United’s big spending last season, only Carlos Tevez managed to truly shake up the established players. It is not much of a surprise then that they were able to win everything on offer.

Other blog’s (notably gunnerblog.com) have picked up on this fact, and it is something worth repeating that selling players from your starting lineup is rarely the best approach for challenging for silverware. Last season the players we did add to the squad certainly performed well, particularly Bacary ‘What’s that on your head??’ Sagna. However, injuries play their part in stability, and the injury prone Van Persie and Rosicky and adapting Eduardo and Bendtner certainly meant it was hard to predict who’d start on the pitch each week. 

Which is why it is crucial for Arsenal to try to limit the amount of changes this season. Bringing in new players is fine so long as they’re able to bide their time on the bench and be integrated slowly. Already though, our midfield is going to be vastly different to last season with Hleb likely to be and Flamini already missing. 

So it is quite disconcerting to hear today that AC Milan president Adriano Galliani Sambucca has confirmed their sole transfer target for the remainder of the summer to be one Emmanuel Adebayor. Up until now there had been background murmurs regarding the usual transfer vultures Barcelona and the odd bit in the Italian press about Adebayor being a Rossonieri target. But with Villa, Eto’o'o’o'o’o, Ronaldinho, Drogba and Berbatov amongst the strikers supposedly looking for a move it seemed unlikely that Manu would be chased with any seriousness. But like a shark that has supposedly gained a taste for human flesh, it seems Milan after pulling off a coup in grabbing Flamini on a free have gotten a taste for Arsenal players much in the way Barcelona has over the years. 

The numbers being thrown around are in the region of 25 million to 35 million, and although some in the press suggest we should snap their hands off to get that kind of money for a player who has only had one good season, I’d suggest the last thing we need to do after a promising development season is to do into the new campaign with much of the spine of our team replaced. 

Realistically, if we were to keep hold of Adebayor, and only lose Hleb out of the remaining squad, Arsene may be about to limit his transfer business to one, possibly two signings. With Nasri all but confirmed and young Aaron Ramsey joining, Vela coming back from loan and Eduardo ahead of schedule, it may be that we really only require a hard working midfielder and possibly a reserve goalkeeper (if Vito Mannone doesn’t get the nod as third choice). 

Of course a lot of this depends on the thoughts of Wenger on Abou Diaby. Is he a winger? Is he a central player? And what of Gilberto Silva who, to most Gooners, looks to be slowing down to the point of standing still in the matches he featured in. 

But with Cesc constantly being linked to the big Spanish sides, and Van Persie suddenly attracting the attention of Inter, it is imperative we work to keep these players locked into contracts and happy about their future if we are to maintain that crucial stability. As for Adebayor, I propose that we look to the inventiveness of the Austrians, and we lock him away in a sealed room under the Grove until August. 

Other bits worth mentioning and a bit of a rant, join in. 

So the news doing the rounds is above mentioned AC Milan really, really wanting the big fella Adebayor and some quarters now reckons he wants out. Coming from Channel Four But again it’s that carefully worded ‘reports suggest’ The Togonator has ‘begged’ to go to AC Milan. Begged? Begged? You sure? Well not sure about you guys but I’m not going to get over excited by this, we’ve seen it before and I’m sure the resolve of every Gooner will be tested from now until the end of the summer. And come on boys and girls, it wouldn’t exactly be the first time this has happened, messrs Vieira and Henry have given us good grounding and I was going to use the ‘patience’ in these circumstances. The Togonator has reiterated on a number of occasions he doesn’t want to leave although he was quoted or misquoted about Barcelona being after him, I’m just waiting for his agent to stick his oar in. Either way I reckon Adebayor will be on for a pay rise after all the dust has settled to keep him happy and out of the clutches of these vultures and his agent will get his filthy lucre to boot. 

Also on the subject of other teams wanting players from everybody’s favourite feeder club is news that AS Roma and Juventus are after Gael Clichy. Dream on boys. Is it me or is this summer in particular, teams are being blatant about what players they want in the press? I remember it going on but f*ck me this summer the heat has really been turned up beyond anything I can remember. But I suppose previously it was just one player per summer, Vieira to Real for about ten summers straight and then the linkage of Thierry Henry to Barcelona for about eight years! The only thing I find odd and still waiting for is a big European team targeting Emmanuel Eboué, could happen. Nah I guess not, but I suppose if it did happen we know we are proper into the silly season. 

Over in the bullshit corner and one which has taken longer to appear than I thought is the Obafemi Martins to Arsenal stories. F*ck me, is Martins agent a Gooner or what? It seems every other month it’s not even a case of Martins wanting out of Newcastle United but The Arsenal having bids for the burly Nigerian turned down? You what? I have actually lost count how many times Martins has been linked to us. I think we should just buy him so no one can pen that story anymore, or maybe that is what his agent wants, a bit of the old Jedi Mind Trick. But I guess what with the stories appearing on TribalFootball and The Sun Online it must be true. 

Also over in the bullshit corner we have talk of Samuel Eto’o being spotted in London. Jeez, it’s like a pack of hungry wolves and a shark feeding frenzy such is the desperation of news out there. Next we’ll read that Kaka was spotted looking at local schools in Barnet and Messi was spotted in Herts looking at property. 

One thing I have learnt though, I will not ever go onto Caught offside again. They are bunch of f*ckers and just want to get hit counts and it’s blatant. It’s not exactly a big secret when a story goes out it will appear on all or most sites. However Caught offside use the well known tactic of ‘£15m player linker to Arsenal’, ‘Arsenal in for £18m rated midfielder,’ ‘Arsenal after £16m ‘new Pires’: Price is a bit steep!’, ‘Arsenal pair head for £43m exit: Wenger can re-invest the cash wisely’ and other gems. Can you spot the common link here? Well I’m sure you have. In all those headlines the player(s) in question isn’t named, which makes you want to click the link. Now I’m not a rocket scientist but the headlines entices you to click the link, it teases you, you taps into your inquisitive side and it bloody works. Not anymore though I tell you. I have had enough of their sweet, sweet come on’s and temptations I will click no more. Like a rehabbed Pete Doherty I am going cold turkey and getting clean, I will no more be addicted to clicking on Caught offside. But I think there’s more chance of me not clicking than jail bird Pete Doherty getting loaded on smack, that’s for sure as soon as my eyes gaze other a Caught offside story on NewsNow I will just ignore that tempting headline. 

On a lighter note now that Portugal have been dumped out of Euro 2008 by a Germany inspired Jens Lehmann(!) it will be nice to see another big team this time in the guise of Manchester United try and hold onto one of their prized assets as Cristiano Ronaldo will reveal just what he will do. I know it’s not nice but buy f*ck me it makes a change and it’s a pleasant surprise that it can happen to another big club.

On a much lighter note a genuine Arsenal leg-end and World Cup Final goal scorer Manu Petit has been voted number 22 in The Gunners Greatest Players, which is nice. The Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven will be revealed next week. You still have time to get your own opinions in so you can’t bang on about Gus Caesar keeping the likes of Liam Brady or Patrick Vieira out the team. Get your vote on: alltimeeleven@allgoonerdup.com.

Apart from that next week the winner of the ‘Let’s talk about Cesc baby’ will be named and famed on Wednesday. That’s about it, apologies for the long arse post but I kind of just went off on one. 

Jump on the comments section and have your shout – see you in there! 

Some stuff you may already know but one you might not but will shock you..

So C*ntley C*nt gets voted in as number 25 greatest Arsenal player of all time, you sure? Who the f*ck voted for this little toe rag? If C*ntley C*nt isn’t the most despised Arsenal player of all time for his money grabbing, clandestine hotel meeting shenanigans I don’t know who is. Is there seriously another candidate to match this little f*cker’s actions and morals. I don’t anyone who likes this player, even non-Arsenal fans booed him for his money grabbing antics when he left, in fact even today many of my non-Arsenal mates thinks this little shit is the epitome of what’s bad in football, I hear even his wife speaks highly of him too! I think whoever voted for the money grabbing dwarf, pop tart marrying, unscrupulous, little shit should have their nuts placed in a spiked vice operated by ‘father beans and fine chianti’ loving Hannibal Lecter. OK but enough of that rant. 

The Alex Hleb saga is continuing.. ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz, you can add a groan in there too. one of Barcelona’s people have come out and said they are in talks, but didn’t we know this already? I just realised I just broke one of my golden rules – I wasn’t going to post anything about Hleb until it was confirmed he was sold, sorry about that. Anyway I’m sure he’ll be sold soon enough. I had a thought last night about Barcelona and how they conduct business and seem specifically targeting Arsenal players even though the players are under contract (like that means anything) and are more importantly are not for sale (like that means anything). Do you reckon as well that the Barcelona hierarchy are still pissed by the fact that we got hold of Cesc Fabregas for f*ck all and will do all they can to get under our skin and generally be as disruptive as possible? It seems the Catalan giants are on a one team mission to destroy The Arsenal and just take any player we have. Or am I just being really paranoid? 

Samir Nasri (OK another groan) is apparently going to have his medical today and finally sign up after the longest transfer deal in history! But if doesn’t happen today, then tomorrow, if not tomorrow then the day after and so on and so forth. You get the picture. 

One strange linkage for us at the moment is the Russian Andrei Arshavin who some papers The Daily Telegraph included are saying we’re lining up. Now sure about you good people, but anyone out there got deja vue or is it a case of gold fish type memory. Think back to January when Arsène Wenger was having a look at possible recruits, well Arshavin was one of those players. This in my opinion isn’t exactly breaking news. If anything I think (or would hope) Wenger put a deal in place way back in January with the Zenit St Petersburg player to join. Surely waiting this long and in particular during an international competition to snag a player who will possible go on to have a great competition would push his price tag through the roof. Wenger could of possible got him in January for say between £5-10m but remember Wenger also said he didn’t need new players in the January transfer window, so hopefully what with Wenger being a right shrewd so and so he put Arshavin ‘on ice’ and it’s a done deal already. Remember good people by the time the stories make the papers/sites these are normally done deals, but I guess we’ll see. 

Lastly, when I was coming to work today I nearly choked on my bacon sandwich when I read something about West Ham United player Craig Bellamy. No he wasn’t in the paper for whacking a team mate with a golf club or getting into an altercation with some fat lass in a Welsh night club, not even close. The story couldn’t be any further from that, the player most love to hate has actually put in £650,000 of his own cash to found a programme for kids in Sierra Leone. The programme is called The Craig Bellamy Foundation, the player has said he isn’t looking to make a profit or in it for personal gain but just wants to do some good. 

“I’m not looking for the next Didier Drogba, as long as the every child leaves ready with a good education. It will be my second home. I have no doubt about that.’ 

I must admit my opinion of Bellamy has changed, I don’t think I would say that in a million years. But fair play to Craig Bellamy for doing something like that, he recognises he is in a privileged position and wants to give back to those who don’t have it as good. So Craig Bellamy I salute you, who would of thought I would give Bellamy praise, your heart is obviously in the right place. Now I wonder if C*ntley C*nt would do that because he wanted an extra five grand a week?

Jump on the comments section and have your shout – see you in there! 

All quiet on the transfer front…?

Well unless you like rumours of course which everyone seems to be eating up in large proportions at the moment or just pushing it around the plate. Do you believe Emmanuel Adebayor will do the off? Well Wenger has already said that Ade isn’t for sale for money nor gold to AC Milan and with that ‘allegedly’ Barcelona put in a bid of £24m for The Togonator, what is it with this Basque club? They can’t take a hint can they, bloody muppet’s. Even though the big fella hit 30 goals last season, you would bite off the Catalan clubs hands for that and go out and snap up Arsenal loving David Villa who’s price tag will go through the roof by the time Euro2008 is over. Also with that you would keep The Cesc happy as he’s already said he would love his mate to be sporting the red and white of London’s finest. Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t want the big fella to do one but £24m for a player we bought only a couple of years ago for £7.5m is not a bad profit I think you’ll find. What I find strange is that the big clubs have been told Ade isn’t for sale but David Villa can leave Valencia for a cut price fee and AC Milan and Barca still want The Togonator. Well we’ll see soon enough whether cash or a pot of gold will entice Le Gaffer to sell the big fella.

What with every man and his dog being linked to The Arsenal one player who will be sporting the red and white of God’s own team is Samir Nasri who done a bit of a cameo appearance for a Thierry Henry lead Les Bleus who went home after losing to Italy in last nights match up. That will be one under the belt and a couple more to come I fancy, especially a defender. I’m not to sure if I believe the comments coming from some quarters that Wenger has said he isn’t looking for a defender. FFS, we know our defence is shit, so I’m sure Wenger can see it – surely he can’t claim not to see anything all the time. If The Arsenal defence had a job as a dog walking business it would go bust within a couple of weeks – as they cannot hold onto leads. There is still talk of The Arsenal snapping up Valencia defender Raúl Albiol, we’ll see what happens there soon enough I suppose. However Arsenal leg-end Kolo Touré has already stated he wants to be a Gunner for life, which in the light of players not committing is a great call and will make the fans love the big man even more. 

That’s about it my computer is playing up big style and it is painful typing this as my computer needs to think about showing a letter for about 10 seconds before putting the bugger in there. All that is left to say is the winner of the ‘Let’s talk about Cesc baby’ t-shirt will be announced next week when there will be another t-shirt competition to look forward to as well, oh you lucky people! 

You’ll fit in well…

There was finally some news this week with Arsenal winning the 3 way tussle for Aaron ‘The New Glenn Helder’ Ramsey. He isn’t the experienced player we badly need but he is obviously a talent for the future and if so many big clubs were willing to play tug-of-war to get him he must be something special. If we can hold on to this crop of youngsters coming through, the next few years promises to be rather good. Along with 17yr old Ramsey, Cesc is still only 21, Walcott 19,  Nicklas Bendtner 20, Clichy 22 and even Adebayor only 24. Add to that list Carlos Vela, Jack Wilshire, Robin Van Persie and Fran Merida and things look promising for this club. 

And it was Carlos Vela, who this week inducted himself into the Gooner hall of fame with his masterful welcoming of international team mate Giovanni Dos Santos, who has gone to Sp*rs. Speaking of Dos Santos arrival in North London from Barcelona, he said ‘[I hope] he gets the minutes he wasn’t given at Barcelona and that he shows what he can do. He is a very good player and lets hope he can then move on to a better team’.  Brilliant. If his skills fail him as a footballer, this lad deserves a chance as a press officer. 

But in what was a pretty good week all round, the Sp*rs baiting didn’t even stop there with one time Arsenal target, Samuel Eto’o'o’o'o declaring on Cameroon radio ‘T*ttenham, and I hope the English fans will forgive me, are a club in mid-table and I need more’.  It was like an international combination punch. Can somebody ask Kaka or Messi what they think of those muppets from down the road next?

Finally, for those following the Uefa EuroVision2008 in Switzerland and Austria, Cesc put in a fairly solid display after replacing Torres in the second half of Spain’s impressive win over the Russians. He snuck a goal from a diving header and played in the exceptional David Villa for his hattrick. After the game Cesc spoke of his wish of Villa linking up with him on a regular basis at Arsenal. Sadly, I’d imagine fans of every team in Europe were wishing similarly that Villa might sign for their team as well. All this has done is add plenty of zeros to the end of Villa’s potential transfer worth which, with us not really needing any more forwards anyway, pretty much rules it out. But Cesc has tried his best on our behalf at least. 

Bad news though for Senderos (who is probably all teary by now) and Johann Djourou after the Swiss were dumped out of their home tournament, whilst Captain Mohawk Gallas’ France limped badly through a draw with Romania and now will have to fight to make it out of the group stages. 

However, this suits me fine. The less time our players are using up their holiday break and putting their bodies on the line for another team the better. The sooner they get knocked out, the sooner they can join in the good work of slagging of Sp*rs.