Morning all, hope you had a fine weekend. I’m looking forward to a busy Arsenal week. Based on no real knowledge or evidence I just have a feeling things could happen between now and the end of time Friday.
There’s been plenty of feedback regarding Dennis Bergkamp’s testimonal. Reaction to the new stadium has been fantastic, Bob Wilson talks about Dennis here and Ben from Red Action tells me that Dennis actually bought a round of drinks for fans in one of the bars. Bottles of Grolsch, no doubt. What a man.
A lot of people have commented on how rousing the reception for Patrick Vieira was and it’s rumoured that some of the squad were talking to him about coming back. Dennis himself thinks it would be ‘fantastic’, saying:
Dozens of people have said to me that Patrick should have another year here and I hope he shall. Maybe that’s not the right thing to say in football but everyone saw what he did in the World Cup and, if he could get to that level with Arsenal again, that would be fantastic.
Personally I’m not sure. Lots of players leave Arsenal to find the grass is not always greener on the other side but I don’t think it entered Vieira’s head that he’d win the Championship in Italy then end up at the bottom of Serie B for the coming season with a 30 point defecit. Is it a curse? Are any top players who leave the club doomed (Overmars, Petit, Anelka’s now in Turkey via Manchester City)? It would certainly give them pause for thought.
The fact is though that we need a midfielder because the idea of anything happening to Cesc or Gilberto or Flamini which lets Alex Song into the first team makes my poo curdle. With Diaby out until next year and Gilberto in need of some stiff competition then Vieira is an obvious candidate if the manager is looking to strengthen that area.
Then we have to weigh up his poor performances in the last 18 months which were a result of him not really wanting to be at the club. Now that he’s seen what life is like in the ‘outside world’ would his motivation to play like we saw him play in the World Cup and in a new stadium return? I think I’ll leave this one with Arsene but with Inter, AC Milan and now Barcelona all reportedly interested he’ll have to think fast.
For all the fun of Saturday’s game, and it was fantastic to see all the old players again, the single greatest moment in football history came when Edgar Davids went through. Gilles Grimandi was never going to let an ex-Sp*rs player score during DB’s testimonial and he took out the bespectacled cunny with a flying kick.
You can download the video by clicking on the image (cheers, Archie!).
Right, that’s about it. I’m just going to sharpen my pencils and make sure my blotting paper is blotty enough to cope with all the stuff I have to write about this week.
I reckon we’re going to sign at least 10 players. No joke.
