Well, the boss had plenty to say yesterday ahead of tonight’s game against Dinamo Zagreb.
He more or less confirmed the story I ran with yesterday saying that we were negotiating with a couple of players. He said:
I try to find the right balance between the experienced players and the young players. We still have some experienced players out at the moment — Henry, Lehmann – but having said that I will still buy one — with experience. The target is one or two.
Last season that balance was not right and after losing the players we’ve lost this summer it’s still not right despite the experience the younger players received last season. For most of us it’s a relief to know that something is going on because it had been so quiet for so long.
The Guardian suggests a £13.5mdeal for Franck Ribery is on the way despite Wenger saying:
“If you look at the flanks we have [Tomas] Rosicky, who is not an average player, [Alexander] Hleb, [Jose Antonio] Reyes, [Theo] Walcott… also Ljungberg – where do I put a player like Ribery?”
You can only assume somebody is moving on as if we sign him instead of a central midfielder, where I really think we need a signing, it’ll be a very curious move.
The Ashley Cole situation is still not resolved and the boss wants that sorted out as quickly as possible, saying:
For me, the deadline has come to make a decision one way or another and I would see this week as the limit.
With William Gallas being presented with the number 3 shirt to great applause at Chelsea’s training day yesterday it leaves the Cole situation as uncertain as ever. In spite of everything it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that he could stay although The Sun suggests the boss thinks we’ll be better off without him. Anyway, we’ll know by the end of the week.
He also played down rumours about José Antonio Reyes going to Spain – although that was before Reyes posed for pictures in a Real Madrid shirt for Marca. He must have a brain the size of a pea. Do we wait for a denial on Arsenal.com saying “That wasn’t me in those pictures, honest!”? The Mirror says Real are determined to bring Reyes on board for £9m while reports in Spain are saying that Wenger has been so vocal about playing Reyes tonight in order to force Madrid’s hand on the matter.
Edit: I was up very early and I have a bazillion things to do today so I should point out the pic of Reyes was taken before we played them in the CL last season.
He also said he was surprised about Sol Campbell’s decision to go to Portsmouth. Arsenal cancelled his contract so he could go abroad and now they’re getting a player for free that we could have got at least a token fee for. Still, hats off to Harry Redknapp for convincing the ex-Arsenal behemoth that he was going to go play for Pompeii.
So lots going on, not least of which is tonight’s game against Dinamo Zagreb. The squad was named yesterday and of the opposition Wenger said:
Having seen Zagreb, I must say that it is a tricky tie. The first factor is that they are a good side. The second is that they are ahead of us physically. In a very intense game, 90 minutes will be difficult for us.
So our season kicks off tonight. I’m not sure if the game is on the TV or not, no doubt someone can let us know in the arses. Update: The game is on ITV1 (cheers, Tony and mfra). Let’s hope it’s a good beginning despite the players we’re missing.
Ahhh, real football is back again. Come on the Arsenal!
